Laiwu Museum

Laiwu Museum

Laiwu Museum in Jinan City, Shandong Province, according to information from the National Cultural Heritage Administration as of September 2020, currently houses 12,101 items/sets of collections, including 340 pieces/sets of precious cultural relics. It has held 340 exhibitions, conducted 98 educational activities, and welcomed 113,400 visitors.

The Laiwu Museum covers a construction area of 9,600 square meters and houses a collection of over 12,000 items. These include various types such as stone tools, jade artifacts, pottery, porcelain, bronze ware, currency, calligraphy and paintings, books, and more. Among them, there are 340 pieces of precious cultural relics, with several distinctive collections: the Dragon and Phoenix Comb from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods — the top ends of the comb beam are carved in relief with a phoenix on each side, with a dragon in the middle inside the head section, hence the name Dragon and Phoenix Comb. Below the beam is a waisted section, and under that are the comb teeth, which are detached from the waist section and consist of two separate pieces. The beam is green in color while the teeth are milky white. The Ivory Carved Vase is an ivory craftwork engraved with buildings, corridors, pavilions, towers, bridges, mountains, and trees. The relief-carved arhats are each holding objects such as ruyi scepters, walking sticks, scrolls, bells, and brooms; some are riding beasts. Carved using the relief technique, the figures are lifelike and exquisitely crafted. The Han Dynasty Three-Zhu Coin Mould was the first of its kind discovered since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, providing new physical evidence for studying the monetary reform initiated by Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty after his succession, which first implemented the “weight matching inscribed value” three-zhu coins. Mr. Zhu Huo’s essay “On the Three-Zhu Coins” specifically discusses this three-zhu coin mould unearthed in Laiwu.

In December 2020, it was included in the fourth batch of National Second-Class Museums.

Further Reading:

· China's National Third-Class Museums