Xinyu City Museum

Xinyu City Museum

Xinyu City Museum is located at No. 61 Xianlai Middle Avenue, Yushui District, Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province. Established in 1983 when Xinyu was designated as a provincial-level city, it was formed through the merger of the Luofang Conference Memorial Hall and the former Xinyu County Historical Relics Exhibition Room. It is a prefecture-level comprehensive museum and a National Third-Class Museum. The Xinyu City Museum is a deputy division-level comprehensive cultural and museum research institution, under the jurisdiction of the Xinyu Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Film, Television, News, and Publishing, with a construction area of 3,952 square meters.

As of June 2018, Xinyu City Museum has a collection of over 30,000 cultural relics, with 8,846 catalogued artifacts, including 10 first-class relics, 37 second-class relics, and 383 third-class relics. Among them are various artifacts unearthed from the Shinianshan Site, as well as precious ceramics, bronzes, and antique calligraphy and paintings from different eras. The museum also preserves more than 200 modern masterpieces, represented by works of Fu Baoshi, a renowned modern Chinese painting master.

Major Cultural Relics

Bronze Weight Made in Xinyuzhou:

Yuan Dynasty, bronze, National First-Class Relic.

The object has a hexahedral form, larger at the top and smaller at the bottom, with a flat bottom that is slightly concave inward. It features a square round hole handle, is entirely blackish-brown with slight green rust, and has inscriptions on both sides: one side reads "Made in Xinyuzhou" and the other "Yuan Yi Kou," both in regular script and raised characters. There are mold casting ridges on the sides. This bronze weight bears inscriptions of the prefecture name, era, and serial number, with an intact form and standardized shape, making it extremely rare.

Cloud-Patterned Dark-Flower Pleated Satin Skirt:

Unearthed from a Ming Dynasty tomb in Shuibei Town. Ming Dynasty. Made of satin, National Second-Class Relic.

The skirt is made of satin with a lining and waistband of gauze, featuring dark-patterned cloud motifs woven using jacquard techniques—mainly large miscellaneous and four-cloud-head patterns, gracefully extending. The color is light yellow, complementing the eggplant-purple base of the skirt, giving it an elegant and luxurious appearance. Dimensions: 86 cm long, 56.5 cm wide, 103 cm bust circumference.

"Pine and Snow Painting":

Artist: Fu Baoshi, Year: 1936. Paper, hanging scroll.

The painting depicts simple houses, sparse trees, a standing figure, and misty distant mountains. The technique used is Fu Baoshi’s early “Baoshi cun” brushwork, with minimal coloring. Upper left corner inscription: “Aspiration stands firm like green pine and residual snow, February of the Bingsi year, Baoshi.” Sealed with a white-character stamp “Baoshi Painting Class.” Dimensions: 68 cm tall, 45 cm wide.

Gilded Chrysanthemum-Patterned Silver Plate:

Yuan Dynasty, silver, National First-Class Relic.

The plate is silvery-white in color with gilding, circular, with a shallow body and sloping walls, a flat slightly concave bottom, and a flared rim shaped like chrysanthemum petals. The body is hammered with 48 recessed petal patterns corresponding to the rim. A high-relief chrysanthemum is embossed at the center of the base, with a pair of engraved butterflies wearing ribbons. The entire piece is molded and hammered into shape.

"Vegetable Painting":

Artist: Fu Baoshi, Year: 1936. Paper, hanging scroll, National Second-Class Relic.

The painting depicts Chinese cabbage, radish, water chestnut, and a plain vegetable basket. Aside from the light red radish and slightly light brown water chestnut, it is primarily an ink-wash painting. Upper right corner inscription: “Sweet fragrance lingers subtly; even imperial kitchen tastes can’t compare. When I live idle another day, I’ll sing of rural life, often reading old farmers’ books. Early spring of the Bingsi year, capturing the spirit of Futa’s painting and quoting a verse by Ye Ren, Baoshi.” Sealed with a white-character stamp “Baoshi.”

Ji Zhou Kiln ingot-shaped painted porcelain pillow:

Song Dynasty, ceramic, National First-Class Relic.

The object is ingot-shaped, with a neat form—both ends nearly square, uniformly indented toward the center, and the four sides of the pillow are gently curved. It is hollow, with a milky-white glaze base painted with brownish (slightly yellowish) chrysanthemums and other floral patterns. Each square end features a single chrysanthemum, and there is a 0.8 cm vent hole at the center of one end. One side of the pillow is decorated with diamond grids filled with individual chrysanthemums, while the other shows “工”-shaped decorative patterns (i.e., ancient brocade designs). The remaining two sides each have a similarly shaped chrysanthemum. The layout is symmetrical, and the brushwork is smooth. Southern Song Dynasty, 23 cm long, 11.3 cm wide, 8 cm bust circumference. It is one of the representative products of the Jiangxi Ji Zhou Kiln and has been selected for inclusion in the large-format album "Chinese Ceramics," published in Chinese, Japanese, and English.

Silver Ingot:

Yuan Dynasty, silver — National First-Class Relic.

Blackish-gray, circular with an arched upward curl, one side plain, the other side cast with nipple-like bumps (produced using a wooden mold). The silver ingot was used for loose silver currency. Diameter: 7.1 cm, thickness: 0.2 cm, weight: 145 grams. Such silver ingots are very rare.

Xinyu City Museum is a National Youth Education Base, a Jiangxi Provincial Patriotic Education Base, a Jiangxi Provincial National Defense Education Base, and a Jiangxi Provincial Social Science Popularization Education Base.

Xinyu City Museum is located at No. 61 Xianlai Middle Avenue, Yushui District, Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province.

Further Reading:

·China's National Third-Class Museum