Wuyuan Museum

Wuyuan Museum

The Wuyuan County Museum was founded in 1953. It is a national key museum and a patriotic education base in Jiangxi Province, serving as an important window reflecting the history of Wuyuan. Wuyuan boasts a deep cultural foundation and is renowned as a land of culture. The local people have traditionally valued aesthetics and scholarship, giving birth to a vibrant folk culture that shines as a unique gem among various regional cultures. Since the mid-Ming Dynasty, there has been a fervent trend of antique collecting across the Jiangnan region, and some residents of Wuyuan spared no expense to acquire large collections of antiques and calligraphy paintings. These treasures have been preserved through the ages, forming the foundation of today’s Wuyuan County Museum.

The old museum was located on Ruxue Mountain, west of Ziyang Town in Wuyuan County. It was a three-story building with ethnic-style traditional architecture. The top floor featured a palatial structure with white walls, yellow imitation ancient tiles, and upturned eaves, covering an exhibition area of over 1,000 square meters. The exhibits were originally divided into sections such as the “Exhibition of Fine Artifacts,” “Exhibition of Ancient Wuyuan Architecture,” and “History of Inkstones.” In May 2007, it was relocated from Ruxue Mountain to its current site on Wen Gong North Road, Ziyang Town, Wuyuan County. The new main building is a modern Huizhou-style structure with strong local characteristics. The museum complex spans over 50,000 square meters, with an exhibition area of more than 6,000 square meters. The display halls now feature six thematic exhibition areas: “Millennial Wuyuan,” “Tea Country’s Exquisite Artifacts,” “Treasures of Craftsmanship,” “Pearls of Inkstone Kingdom,” “Ming and Qing Calligraphy and Paintings,” and “Contemporary Art.” These collectively reflect the historical features and cultural stories of ancient Huizhou, to which Wuyuan once belonged. The museum receives tens of thousands of visitors annually, and with the growing popularity of Wuyuan’s cultural and eco-tourism, visitor numbers have continued to rise in recent years.

The museum houses an extremely rich collection of cultural relics, including over 10,000 national treasure-level and first-, second-, and third-tier artifacts dating from the Shang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. These encompass stoneware, bronzeware, ceramics, copper and ironware, jade, lacquerware, gold and silverware, bone, bamboo, and wood carvings, Huizhou ink, inkstones, seals, calligraphy, paintings, embroidery, and more. Among them are nearly 1,000 artifacts rated at the third tier or above and 40–50 first-tier national relics. Highlights include famous inkstones from the Tang and Song Dynasties, dated porcelain from the Song Dynasties, Ming and Qing calligraphy and paintings, and crafts from the Ming and Qing periods.

Notable items in the collection include a pottery weight from the first year of the Yuanxing era of the Eastern Han Dynasty, famous ceramics and inkstones from the Song Dynasties, a gilt engraved bronze candlestick from the Ming Dynasty, a kingfisher-feather-inlaid screen, intricately carved jade belts with python patterns, Liu Shiru’s “Ink Plum Blossom Painting” from the Ming Dynasty, Lü Ji’s “Wild Geese by the Reeds” painting, and Jian Jiang’s “Yellow Mountain Painting” from the Qing Dynasty. There are also representative works by famous calligraphers and painters such as Zhu Zhishan, Wen Zhengming, Dong Qichang, and Feng Menglong from the Ming Dynasty, and Zheng Banqiao from the Qing Dynasty. Additionally, hundreds of other relics such as a Han Dynasty bronze basin, a Ming Dynasty jade-carved turtle ornament, a Ming Dynasty rhinoceros horn cup with pine patterns, and a Qing Dynasty cat’s eye gem are also extremely valuable. Among these, the kingfisher-feather-inlaid screen is a large ivory carving screen adorned with precious bird feathers; the gilt engraved bronze candlestick from the Ming Dynasty (also called the Hundred Flowers Golden Lotus Torch) weighs 90 kilograms, stands 2 meters tall, and features exquisite craftsmanship and elegant design, with its decorations comprising 100 blooming peonies, hibiscuses, and chrysanthemums. The Song Dynasty pottery inkstone used by Zhu Xi is the only one of its kind known to exist. A large jadeite painting weighing 300 grams is also a rare treasure.

In August 1986, a national cultural relics appraisal conference was held in Wuyuan. Experts from the National Cultural Relics Appraisal Committee specially came to Wuyuan to evaluate the museum’s collection, highly praising it as the “Best County-Level Museum in China.” The renowned scholar and cultural relics expert Mr. Wang Shixiang composed a couplet specifically to commend Wuyuan Museum: “Among scholars in Jiangxi and Anhui, many hail from Xingshui; may all district and county museums follow the example of Wuyuan.”

Wuyuan Museum is located on Wen Gong North Road, Ziyang Town, Wuyuan County. It is a national key museum and a patriotic education base in Jiangxi Province. According to records, the museum was first planned in 1953. At that time, when the then-County Party Secretary Hong Haitao left office, he personally handed over ten cultural relics collected during the land reform to the county’s Department of Culture and Education. This marked the humble beginning of the museum and signaled the launch of Wuyuan’s cultural relics work. During the Spring Festival of 1955, a cultural relics exhibition was held at the county cultural center, officially establishing the relics display room. In 1968, due to the Cultural Revolution, the museum was merged and its staff sent to rural areas. In 1972, a cultural relics exhibition hall was established. In 1978, the county museum was formally founded. In 1984, the museum building on Ruxue Road was completed. It opened to the public in September 1986, coinciding with the “Cultural Relics Grading Standards Review Conference” of the National Cultural Relics Appraisal Committee being held in Wuyuan. The rich collection attracted great interest from attending leaders and experts. In 2005, to meet the needs of Wuyuan’s development and the advancement of the cultural relics and museum sector, construction of a new museum and the overall relocation project began in August under the care of central and local government leaders.

Wuyuan Museum, located on Wen Gong North Road, Ziyang Town, Wuyuan County—the most beautiful countryside in China—is a national key museum and a patriotic education base in Jiangxi Province. It is a comprehensive museum directly under the Wuyuan County People’s Government and serves as an important window reflecting the history of Wuyuan. It is reported that the museum was first planned in 1953. In August 2005, to adapt to Wuyuan’s development and the growth of the cultural relics and museum industry, the county invested 39.8 million yuan to begin the construction of a new museum and the overall relocation project. After nearly two years of effort, the new museum became operational.

The new museum building features a modern Huizhou-style structure with strong local characteristics. The museum complex covers over 50,000 square meters, with a building area of over 10,000 square meters and an exhibition area of more than 6,000 square meters. The collection is abundant, including over 10,000 artifacts such as bronzeware, ceramics, inkstones, calligraphy and paintings, and handicrafts, among which over 1,000 are graded relics. The current exhibition halls consist of six thematic areas: “Millennial Wuyuan,” “Tea Country’s Exquisite Artifacts,” “Treasures of Craftsmanship,” “Pearls of Inkstone Kingdom,” “Ming and Qing Calligraphy and Paintings,” and “Contemporary Art.”

Recommended visiting time: 1 hour

Admission: Free, but ID registration is required

Opening hours: 8:00–11:30, 14:30–17:30; closed on Mondays

Location: Wen Gong North Road, Ziyang Town, Wuyuan County, Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province (north side of the Tourist Distribution Center)

Ziyang Town: Ziyang Town is the seat of Wuyuan County government and a historic town with a thousand years of heritage. Formerly known as Xian Gao, it was later named after Zhu Xi, the revered sage, using his alias “Ziyang.” The town covers an administrative area of 291.4 square kilometers, with 25,000 mu of arable land (including 23,000 mu of paddy fields and 2,000 mu of dry land), 18,000 mu of tea plantations, 315,000 mu of forested land, and a forest coverage rate of 80%. It governs 15 village committees and four neighborhood committees, with a total population of 36,791, including 30,244 agricultural residents and 6,547 non-agricultural residents. As the center of Wuyuan County... [More details about Ziyang Town++]

Further reading:

· National Second-Class Museum of China

Wuyuan Jiangwan Scenic Area

Dawu Mountain Wolong Valley

Huangling Village

Wangkou

Likeng

Wuyuan Cultural and Eco-Tourism Area

Changxi Village

Taoxi Village

Qinghua Rainbow Bridge

Dawu Mountain

Yantian Ancient Camphor Folk Garden

Jiangling Terraced Fields

Likeng

Wuyuan Wulong Mountain

Wuyuan Moon Bay

Qinghua Town

Guankeng Village

Qingyuan Village