Treaty of Nanjing

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National Palace Museum

Taipei · Founded 1925

Nearly 700,000 pieces of Chinese imperial art, including the jadeite cabbage carved from a single flawed stone. The collection was founded in Beijing in 1925 and re-established in Taipei in 1965, with a southern branch since 2015.

2.4M
Visitors a year: 1925
Founded

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What to see

Treaty of Nanjing
The Treaty of Nanjing was the peace treaty which ended the First Opium War (1839 to 1842) between Great Britain and the Qing dynasty of China on 29 August 1842. It was the second of what the Chinese later termed the unequal treaties, after the rejected 1841 Convention of Chuenpi, signed by British Superintendent of trade in China, Charles Elliot, and Qing Imperial Commissioner, Qishan, which the treaty was largely based on.

Jadeite Cabbage
The Jadeite Cabbage or Jadeite Cabbage with Insects is a piece of jadeite carved into the shape of a napa cabbage head, and with a locust and katydid camouflaged in the leaves. It is part of the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan.

Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains
Huang Gongwang · 1348
Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains is one of the few surviving works by Chinese painter Huang Gongwang (1269 to 1354) and is considered to be among his greatest works. Painted between 1348 and 1350, the painting was burnt into two pieces in 1650.

One Hundred Horses
Giuseppe Castiglione · 1728
One Hundred Horses is a 7.76 meters wide Qing dynasty silk and ink painting by Giuseppe Castiglione, known in China by his adopted name Lang Shining (郎世寧). It was painted in 1728 for the Yongzheng emperor.

Meat-shaped Stone
The Meat-Shaped Stone is a piece of jasper carved into the shape of a piece of Dongpo pork, a Chinese way of cooking pork belly. After the retreat of the government of the Republic of China to Taiwan, it is in the collection of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, Taiwan.

Mao Gong ding
The Mao Gong ding is a bronze tripod ding vessel from the Western Zhou dynasty (c. 1045, c.

The collections

Metalwork

Among the collections of bronzes, Zong Zhou Zhong (Bell of Zhou), commissioned by King Li of Zhou, is the most important musical instrument cast under his royal decree.

Ceramics

With 21 pieces out of fewer than a hundred surviving, the museum has the world's largest collection of Ru ware, one of the rarest Chinese ceramics, made exclusively for the court and one of the Five Great Kilns of the Song dynasty (960 to 1279), along with Ding porcelain, Jun ware, Guan and Ge; the museum has major collections of all of these.

Carvings

One of the most popular pieces of jade carvings in the museum is the Jadeite Cabbage, a piece of jadeite carved into the shape of a cabbage head, and with a large and a small grasshopper camouflaged in the leaves.

Painting and calligraphy

The paintings in the National Palace Museum date from the Tang dynasty (618 to 907) to the modern era.

Rare books and documents

Rare books in the National Palace Museum range from the Song (960 to 1279) and Yuan (1271 to 1368) dynasties to the Ming (1368 to 1644) and Qing (1644 to 1912) dynasties, amounting to over 200,000 volumes.