Pingquan City Museum

Pingquan City Museum

Pingquan City Museum serves as a science education base and a patriotic education base.

Pingquan City Museum is a comprehensive national third-grade museum and the most distinctive building in Hebei Province. It is located within Zezhou Garden, a national "AAA" scenic area and one of Hebei Province's "Top Ten Parks" in Pingquan City, Hebei Province. It was officially established in March 1981, the new museum was completed and relocated to its current site in October 2009, and it officially opened to the public free of charge in January 2010. With a total construction area of 9,000 square meters, it is divided into two parts: the Jiuri Pavilion and the Su Song Stele Forest. Pingquan City Museum is now recognized as a "National Science Education Base," "Hebei Province Science Education Base," "Hebei Province Young Pioneers Practice Education Base," "Hebei Province Social Science Popularization Base," municipal-level "Patriotic Education Base," "Social Science Popularization Education Base," "Socialist Core Values Cultivation Base," and a "Tourism Standardization Demonstration Unit."

Collections

The museum houses 1,452 sets of cultural relics (actual quantity: 18,548 items), including 13 first-grade relics, 45 second-grade relics, and 352 third-grade relics/sets. The city has a total of 691 immovable cultural heritage sites in the field, including 4 national key cultural relics protection units, 11 provincial-level cultural relics protection units, and 321 municipal-level cultural relics protection units. Experts from national, provincial, and municipal cultural relics institutions have praised it as "In southern Hebei there is Dingzhou (known for fine Ding porcelain), and in northern Hebei there is Pingquan (renowned for exquisite Liao and Jin relics)."

Exhibitions

Relying on its rich collection of cultural relics, the museum has designed four basic exhibitions: "The History and Culture of Pingquan – The Charming Pingquan, the Pearl of Northern Hebei," "Special Exhibition of Liao Dynasty Relics from Pingquan – Khitan Charm," "Su Song’s Mission to the Liao Dynasty," and "Chinese Fungus Culture Expo." In addition to reception duties, the museum plans and launches multiple temporary exhibitions and diverse social education activities each year based on its functions and positioning. It has now become an important window for promoting the Khitan culture of our city.

Khitan Charm Exhibition

Liao Sancai (Liao Tri-color Pottery)

Liao Sancai refers to low-temperature colored glazed pottery produced during the Liao Dynasty. Influenced by Tang Sancai (Tang Tri-color Pottery), the Liao Dynasty also produced similar items. Liao Sancai typically uses yellow, green, and brown glazes. Items such as square dishes, crabapple-shaped long platters, chicken-head ewers, and cylindrical bottles reflect the style of the Khitan people. Among them, the tri-colored glazed pottery fired at the Gongwa Kiln in Chifeng features fine and soft clay bodies with a light red hue and bright, glossy glazes. Decoration techniques include stamping and incising, with stamped patterns used on plates and dishes, and incised designs on carved vessels. Apart from differences in clay, the main distinctions from Tang Sancai are the absence of blue in Liao Sancai, non-blended glaze application, and minimal glaze flow.

The Khitan People

The Khitan people were an ancient nomadic ethnic group residing in what is now Mongolia and northeastern China. They practiced a semi-agricultural, semi-pastoral lifestyle. Their language belonged to the Mongolic branch of the Altaic language family but was influenced by the Tungusic language family. The customs of the Khitan people differed from those of the Han Chinese. The Khitans shaved their hair, typically wore long robes with left lapels, round collars, and narrow sleeves, tucking their trouser legs into their boots. Their dwellings were felt tents, and the emperor’s tent was called a "Nabo." Only the imperial clan and the clan of the empresses among the Khitans during the Liao Dynasty had surnames; other Khitans outside these clans did not. Most Khitans later assimilated into other northern Chinese ethnic groups, such as the Jurchens and Mongols, while some evolved into today’s Daur people and a group in Yunnan known as the "Benzu." As the Golden Horde dominated Europe from the 13th to the 15th century, and since the Mongols referred to northern China as "Khitan," the term later became a general reference to China.

Pingquan Liao Culture Special Exhibition

Khitan culture is a grassland innovation culture rooted in the Khitan homeland but also integrating elements of Central Plains Han culture and other northern minority cultures. It is said that "a generation of customs began with the Liao and Jin," and it also had influence in the West.

The Charming Pingquan – Pearl of Northern Hebei Exhibition

Pingquan County is located at the junction of Hebei, Liaoning, and Inner Mongolia. This section showcases content including: a sand table of Pingquan’s topography, the landscape of the main peak of Mayushan Mountain, a geographical location map of Pingquan County, a list of national, provincial, and county-level cultural relics protection units, and an overview of the historical administrative evolution of Pingquan County.

Su Song’s Mission to the Liao Dynasty Exhibition

The "Su Song Stele Forest" was built to commemorate Su Song, a scientist, statesman, and diplomat of the Northern Song Dynasty. The entire structure was designed according to Liao Dynasty architectural methods.

Chinese Fungus Culture Expo

The Chinese Fungus Culture exhibition is a specialized museum that comprehensively showcases the fungus culture of Pingquan County. With a construction area of over 4,000 square meters spread across two floors, the first floor contains three exhibition areas and the second floor also has three areas. It is a provincial-level science education base in Hebei. The lobby displays the museum’s treasure, made from Qingtian stone in its natural colors. The Resources Hall exhibits fungus specimens and models from around the world. The Science Hall introduces the nutritional value, medicinal value, and information about poisonous fungi and toxins. The History Hall mainly covers the research, cultivation, and industrial development of the fungus industry from ancient times to the modern era. The Folklore Hall focuses on the customs and religious connections related to fungi in southern Zhejiang. The Culture and Art Hall showcases fungi from a literary perspective. The Pingquan Hall presents the start, growth, and prosperity of Pingquan County’s edible fungus industry.

Address: Zezhou Garden, Fuyou Road, Pingquan City, Hebei Province

Contact Number: 0314-6063168

Further Reading:

· National Third-Grade Museum of China