Leizhou City Museum

　　Leizhou City Museum is situated in Sanyuan Pagoda Park in Leizhou City, a nationally designated historical and cultural city. It was founded in February 1983. The new building was completed and opened to the public in July 1986. The museum is a two-story antique-style structure with glazed tile roofing, covering an area of over 1,000 square meters (the original building covered 850 square meters, and in 1999, a 600-square-meter “Zhenzhu Building” was added for collections, bringing the total floor space to 1,450 square meters). It is a comprehensive local museum. The museum consists of one introductory hall, seven exhibition rooms, as well as offices, duty rooms, and cultural relics storage areas. The site is located by the Sanyuan Qixiu Pagoda from the Ming Dynasty, surrounded by pavilions, corridors, lush greenery, and fragrant flowers all year round, offering a serene environment. The six Chinese characters on the museum’s signboard — “Leizhou City Museum” — were inscribed by Hu Sheng, then President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The museum houses a rich and diverse collection of cultural relics, including about 3,000 items such as ceramics, gold and silverware, jade artifacts, stone carvings, ancient calligraphy and paintings, coins, revolutionary relics, and animal fossils. After evaluation by renowned experts from across the country and the province, there are 16 first-grade relics, 101 second-grade, and 428 third-grade. Among these, relics unearthed from local ancient tombs, ruins, and kiln sites are particularly distinctive to the region. Over 400 stone tools from the Neolithic Age, such as stone axes, adzes, rings, pounders, and net sinkers, were collected from seven hillside sites in the city, including Mouling and Yingdianbei, along with numerous pottery shards. These findings indicate that as far back as four to five thousand years ago, ancestors were already living and working in the Leizhou region. Among the stone tools is a large symmetrical and finely polished shovel blade, comparable to the one displayed in the “Exhibition of Essence of Chinese Cultural Relics.”

　　Archaeological surveys have revealed that Leizhou had ancient kiln sites as early as the Tang Dynasty, with over 50 such sites during the Song and Yuan periods. Many villages were even named after kilns, such as Wanyang (where “kiln” and “yang” are homophones in the Leizhou dialect), Jiuyang, and Houyang, indicating a thriving production scene. Products from folk kilns were often excavated from ancient tombs. The museum has collected over 70 pieces of unearthed relics, including celadon jars, porcelain pillows, and porcelain coffins. The colored porcelain jars and pillows feature elegant shapes and lustrous glazes. Their decorative borders include string patterns, scrollwork, and coin motifs. Framed panels depict floral sprays of lotus and chrysanthemum, birds, human figures, and auspicious phrases or poems. The designs are multi-layered, well-composed, with smooth lines, reminiscent of ink-wash paintings, and rich in local flavor, bearing characteristics of the Cizhou Kiln style from northern China during the Song Dynasty. The technique known as “Jie Cai,” or “revealed color painting,” is an underglaze monochrome painting method first used on ceramics, pioneering the fusion of ceramic art and painting and laying the foundation for later blue-and-white and polychrome porcelains. This technique earned high praise from Mr. Feng Xianming, a renowned ceramic expert at the Palace Museum, during his lifetime. Senior experts from the provincial museum, such as Song Liangbi and Zeng Guangyi, also published articles introducing these works. Four pieces are housed and exhibited in the Guangdong Provincial Museum, 18 were displayed in the “Guangdong Relics Exhibition from the Five Dynasties to the Qing Dynasty” at the Hong Kong Chinese University Museum, and three are included in the Chinese Ceramics Catalogue · Guangdong Volume. These celadon pieces with underglaze painting are important physical materials for studying the history of Guangdong’s colored ceramics and the spread of the Cizhou Kiln style throughout China. Other notable pottery in the collection includes 29 carved bricks from a Yuan Dynasty tomb, which were published in the national journal Archaeological Collection, reflecting burial customs in southern China. A blue-and-white plate featuring the precious date fruit motif from the Ming Dynasty was once exhibited in Hong Kong. The collection also includes scattered relics such as 4,000-year-old painted pottery from the Neolithic Age, Han Dynasty pottery jars, and many exquisite blue-and-white porcelain pieces from the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

　　The metalware collection includes a bronze sword from the Warring States period, an inscribed bronze mirror from a Song Dynasty tomb with a recorded date, a dated bronze weight from the Yuan Dynasty, a Qing Dynasty cannon inscribed with the name of Emperor Kangxi, and an iron bell engraved with the name of Emperor Qianlong.

　　The museum’s collection of ancient Chinese calligraphy and paintings includes works by notable figures from Leizhou’s Qing Dynasty, such as Chen ? (a Qing governor of Fujian), Chen Changqi (a Hanlin compiler), Li Jinxi (a Hanlin bachelor), Cai Chong (a Jinshi degree holder), Chen Qiaosen (a Juren degree holder), Wu Yingxing (an official in the Ministry of War), and Liang Chengjiu (a selected scholar), as well as their manuscripts and writings. Folk artists such as Chen Henian and Lin Huai are also represented. These works reflect the cultural and artistic achievements of Leizhou’s celebrities during the Qing Dynasty. Among them, the calligraphy and paintings of Chen Qiaosen, a Juren from the Xianfeng era, are particularly outstanding. Chen Qiaosen was highly learned, excelled in literature and painting, and was especially skilled in painting crabs and reeds, earning him the title of “Guangdong’s Talented Scholar.” In his later years, he presided over the Leiyang Academy for 30 years. The museum houses over 20 of his artworks.

　　The collection also features works by non-local artists, including paintings and calligraphy by Ruan Yuan (Viceroy of Liangguang during the Qing Dynasty), Yang Shoujing (a master calligrapher from Hubei), He Shaoji (a famous calligrapher from Hunan known for his Hanlin background), Wang Yuanqi (one of the “Four Wangs” of the Qing painting circle from Jiangsu), Shangguan Zhou (a renowned Qing painter), Chen Yingzao (a famous painter from Guilin), Wu Fengzao (a Jinshi degree holder), Lin Shaotang (the top imperial scholar from western Guangdong), and Peng Yuxun (a military minister of the Qing Dynasty). Among them, the calligraphy of Yang Shoujing from Yidu, Hubei, is the most treasured. Yang Shoujing, a Jinshi degree holder from the Tongzhi era, was described in the Dictionary of Artists as skilled in research and connoisseurship, highly reputed for his work on epigraphy, and exceptionally talented in all four major script styles. He was close friends with Chen Qiaosen. Upon receiving the news of Chen’s death, Yang was deeply saddened and resolved to honor his friend. He personally wrote 100 couplets, distributing them to Chen’s acquaintances, and donated all proceeds from their sale to Chen’s funeral. As a result, a significant number of authentic Yang Shoujing calligraphic works are preserved in Leizhou. At Chen Qiaosen’s deathbed request, Yang also composed his epitaph and a memorial couplet (these valuable stone engravings are preserved in the museum). Additionally, the museum holds imperial edicts from the Jiaqing and Xianfeng eras of the Qing Dynasty, as well as an imperial calligraphy plaque gifted by Emperor Kangxi to Chen ?, titled “Poetry Plaque.” This plaque is an extremely rare and precious cultural relic.

　　The stone carving collection includes a stone portrait of Confucius and his disciples from the Southern Song Dynasty’s Shaoxing era, a “Kui” character stele from the Ming Dynasty’s Wanli era that resembles both a character and a painting, demonstrating high artistic value (ancient people believed the Kui star governed literary fortune and held it in high esteem). There is also a stele from the Leiyang Academy of the Qing Dynasty, the epitaph and matching stone couplet for Chen Qiaosen written and inscribed by Yang Shoujing, and a Ming Dynasty stone plaque from the Hongwu era featuring the two large characters “Zhong He” (meaning harmony), once mounted above the west gate of Leizhou City.

　　The ancient coin collection includes locally unearthed Han Dynasty coins such as “Wu Lin” and “Da Quan Wu Shi,” Tang Dynasty coins like “Qian Yuan Tong Bao” and “Kai Yuan Tong Bao,” as well as numerous later coins, Ming and Qing Tong Bao. Particularly precious is the unearthed Ming Dynasty silver ingot (sycee). The museum also holds a rare handed-down cultural relic: a large copper coin known as “Da Qing Zhen Ku, Xianfeng Tong Bao,” with a diameter of…

　　14 centimeters,

　　an inner hole edge length of

　　2.5 centimeters, and weighing

　　2.1 jin (approximately 1.05 kg), making it a truly rare “king of coins” in China. This coin perfectly matches the illustration and specifications of the “Da Qing Zhen Ku” large coin in coin catalogues. The dictionary describes: The Da Qing Zhen Ku coin was allegedly stolen from the imperial treasury in the early Republic of China by an eunuch. Of the five such coins, three were purchased by the British at high prices, leaving only two remaining in China — truly priceless treasures among Qing coins.

　　The permanent exhibition features an introductory hall and five fixed thematic exhibition rooms: Historical Relics, Ancient Calligraphy and Paintings, Ethnic and Folk Customs, Natural History, and Revolutionary Struggle History. The rear Zhenzhu (Treasure) Room serves as a space for temporary exhibitions. The introductory hall displays a map of Leizhou, a chronological table of Leizhou’s history, and a three-dimensional model showing the distribution of cultural relics across the city, giving visitors a preliminary overview of Leizhou’s past.　

　　The Historical Relics Room showcases locally excavated artifacts from the Neolithic Age through the Ming and Qing Dynasties, accompanied by photographs, illustrations, texts, and a three-dimensional model of Leizhou’s ancient city walls, reflecting the development of the region’s political, economic, cultural, and artistic history.

　　The Ancient Calligraphy and Painting Room rotates displays of artworks by Qing-era local celebrities and foreign artists. The Ethnic and Folk Customs Room exhibits artifacts representing local ethnic traditions and folk culture. County records indicate that during the Tang Dynasty, Leizhou was home to various ethnic groups, including Han, Miao, Yao, Lǐ (Li), and Donglao. On display is a bronze drum of the Beiliu type, a representative artifact of the Li and Lao peoples. Stone dogs represent the totem of the Yao people. A large model of “climbing a knife mountain” reflects the ancient customs of Shanggan Village in Leizhou. Fortune-telling tools are masks used in local rituals to drive away evil spirits. Models depicting male and female villagers singing duets reflect the popular local folk song tradition of “Lei Ge,” where singers improvise lyrics and respond to each other fluently. Other displays include wood carvings and stone sculptures showcasing local craftsmanship, as well as ancient clothing, jewelry, daily utensils, farming tools, martial arts training stones, and weapons. A particularly eye-catching item is a massive 74-kilogram broadsword.