Nanjing Museum

The Nanjing Museum is a provincial public museum in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province in the People's Republic of China. Owned by the Jiangsu Provincial People's Government and operated by the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, it ranks among the largest museums in China with a site area of 70,000 square metres and a permanent collection exceeding 400,000 items. Its holdings of Ming and Qing imperial porcelain are among the most extensive in the world, establishing the museum as a destination of international significance for Chinese art and archaeology.

The museum's origins trace to 1933, when it was established as the preparatory department of the National Central Museum during the Guomindang regime. Located in the Half Hill Garden of Zhongshan Gate, it occupied 12.9 hectares. Cai Yuanpei served as the first preparatory president of the council, envisioning three major halls named Humanity, Craft, and Nature, though political instability in the 1930s permitted only the completion of the Humanity Hall. The historian Fu Sinian and the anthropologist-archaeologist Li Ji later served as preparatory presidents, while the archaeologist and museologist Zeng Zhaoyu became the first female president and a founder of the institution. During the Japanese invasion, portions of the collection were evacuated to Southwest China and subsequently transferred to the National Palace Museum in Taipei following the Kuomintang's defeat in the Chinese Civil War. The institution was renamed the Nanjing Museum in March 1950. Major expansions followed in 1999 and from 2009 to 2013.

The collection encompasses ancient bronzes, pottery, jade objects, ink painting, and silk art, with particular concentration on imperial porcelain of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Historical Exhibition Hall presents the full span of Jiangsu's history from prehistoric times through the Qing dynasty, including Neolithic pottery and tools, Shang and Zhou bronze vessels, Han lacquerware, jade burial suits, and Tang sancai ceramics. The Art Exhibition Hall traces the development of Chinese painting, calligraphy, sculpture, jade, bronze, and ceramics across periods. The Republic of China Hall documents the era from 1912 to 1949, when Nanjing served as national capital, through documents, photographs, clothing, and everyday objects. The Intangible Cultural Heritage Hall preserves traditional crafts and performing arts of Jiangsu, notably Nanjing Cloud Brocade and paper-cutting. The Digital Hall employs multimedia and interactive technology to interpret history and culture, while the Special Exhibition Hall accommodates temporary exhibitions on specific themes or new discoveries.

Among the museum's most celebrated objects is the brick painting Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove and Rong Qiqi, discovered in 1960 and dating from the Southern Dynasties period. This work exemplifies the museum's strength in early Chinese pictorial art. The Ming and Qing imperial porcelain collection, repeatedly cited as among the largest globally, constitutes the museum's signature holding.

The main building was designed by the architect Liang Sicheng in the 1930s as a synthesis of Chinese and Western architectural vocabularies. The front portion employs a traditional structure with a golden tiled roof, while the rear section takes the form of a Western-style flat-roof structure. An art hall added in the 1990s to the west of the main building references Chinese architecture of the first half of the twentieth century. The museum's location lies directly northeast of the Minggugong palace complex.

The museum is located in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China, with an official website at www.njmuseum.com providing information in both Chinese and English. The institution offers 70,000 square metres of exhibition space. Visitor numbers reached over 3.67 million in 2018, placing it among the twenty most visited museums worldwide.