The British Museum大英博物馆（中国宗教艺术收藏）

Type

Museums

Location

United Kingdom · England · London · Great Russell Street, London; Department of Asia

Coordinates

51.5194, -0.1269 Map ↗

First built

7 June 1753 · One of the world's earliest public national museums; the Chinese collection is managed by the Department of Asia

Overview

The British Museum was founded on 7 June 1753, one of the world's earliest public national museums; its Department of Asia oversees an extensive collection of Chinese artifacts, encompassing bronzes, ceramics, paintings, sculpture, and manuscripts. For Daoist studies, the museum's importance derives chiefly from the manuscripts and silk paintings that Aurel Stein obtained from the Library Cave at Dunhuang — this material includes a great quantity of Daoist scriptural manuscripts and religious imagery, and constitutes irreplaceable primary material for studying the textual forms and religious practice of Tang and Five Dynasties Daoism; it is today divided between the British Museum and the British Library. The museum also holds Chinese religious paintings and images from across the ages. One point must be clarified: the painting attributed to Gu Kaizhi, the Nüshi zhen tu (Admonitions of the Court Instructress), is a famous holding of the museum, but its subject belongs to Confucian moral admonition, not Daoism, and should not be mistaken for a Daoist artifact. No clear public record exists of a specific inventory of the museum's Daoist holdings (such as Ming-dynasty water-and-land ritual paintings); verification should be sought through the museum's own collection database.

Highlights

• Aurel Stein's Dunhuang manuscripts and silk paintings
• The Department of Asia's collection of Chinese artifacts
• Founded in 1753
• The Nüshi zhen tu is not a Daoist artifact