Travel Notes | A museum in Datong that is easily underestimated

After arriving in Datong, we first went to the museum. The museum is in Yudong New District, not far from the city government. The government is in the middle, with a large square in front, and public buildings such as cultural and sports venues on both sides. This is also a popular model now. Among the series of public buildings in Datong City, I like the style of the art museum the most. As for the museum, I can only say that it is quite satisfactory.

Historically, the most glorious period of Datong was when it was the capital of the Northern Wei Dynasty. In the museum, the cultural relics from this period are the most representative. The excavation of large tombs of high-ranking officials and nobles is usually a great guarantee for local museum collections. For Datong, this role was played by Sima Jinlong, King Langya Kang of the Northern Wei Dynasty, and his wife.

Sima Jinlong's family is a royal family of the Western Jin Dynasty who surrendered to the Northern Wei Dynasty. Jin Long's father was named Langya King, and Jin Long succeeded his father. The joint tomb of Sima Jinlong and his wife Ji Chen was discovered by local farmers while digging a well in 1965 and was excavated in 1966. The tomb was robbed in the early days, but more than 450 artifacts were still unearthed.

This is Sima Jinlong's epitaph: "In the eighth year of Taihe's reign, on the 11th day of the 11th month of the Jiazi period, on the 16th day of the lunar month, Yiyou, he died in Xiaojingli, Feixiang, Wen County, Hanoi County. "Yuzhen Sikong, Jizhou Governor Sima Langya Kang Wang Sima Jinlong's inscription", this character was changed from Li to regular script, which is quite good.

The most famous thing in the tomb is probably this set of lacquer paintings on wooden boards. A total of five pieces were unearthed, of which three pieces were taken away by Bo Na of Shanxi Province and two pieces were retained by the Datong City Museum. This set of lacquer paintings, from color, brushwork to calligraphy, are all excellent.

Four additional stone pillar foundations were unearthed from the tomb, two of which are stored in Shanxi Museum and two in Datong Museum. The column base on display is surrounded by four dragons with powerful figures, connected end to end. There are bas-reliefs on the four sides of the base with entwining lotuses and figures on the corners.

Sima Jinlong's sarcophagus is now in Bo, Shanxi Province, but the stone bed carrying the sarcophagus remains in Datong. This stone bed is very beautifully carved.

There are also more than 200 pottery figurines in the tomb, including figurines of guides and cavalrymen, figurines of equestrian ceremonial guards, figurines of armored riders, attendants, armored infantry figurines, walking ceremonial figurines, etc., forming a complete army.

Some other sculptures, pottery figurines, etc. are also very beautiful, with relatively rough and powerful shapes.

There is also a blue glass bottle.

The exhibition layout is also good and of a high standard.

 

In addition to Sima Jinlong's tomb, many good things were also unearthed from Song Shaozu's tomb. Song Shaozu was also a noble of the Northern Wei Dynasty. He once served as the governor of Youzhou and was granted the title of Duke of Dunhuang. The most precious thing in his tomb is a beautifully made stone coffin, which is also kept in the Shanxi Provincial Museum and has been visited before.

A group of pottery figurines were also unearthed from the tomb. The style is slightly different from that of Sima Jinlong's tomb, closer to Hu Feng, and the layout is not so rigorous. The same thing is, it's also pretty good-looking.

There are also some other things that cannot be mentioned one by one, such as this tomb beast with a human face and a beast body. I have never seen a similar style before.

And this particularly embarrassing pottery figurine.

The shape of the horse is also good. What is tilted up is the saddle, which looks like a pair of wings.

After looking at the cultural relics from the Northern Wei Dynasty, it’s the turn of the Sui, Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties.

Basically it is the style of Liao Dynasty painting.

Children visiting.

Another impressive group is the "Haihui Heritage" themed exhibition, which displays the original Buddha statues in the Haihui Hall. Haihui Hall was originally a building of Huayan Temple, built in Liao Dynasty. Liang Sicheng recorded in "History of Chinese Architecture": "Haihui Hall is on the left side before Bojiajiazang. It is five rooms wide and four rooms deep. It is single-story and hangs on the top of the mountain. , its construction period should be at the same time as Jiao Zang... Its beam frame is quite simple, which is what the "Eight Rafters House" calls "four columns for the front and rear of the house with eight rafters". In 1950, the hall was demolished by a primary school that was being used as a building.

Due to time constraints, we did not have time to take a closer look at the rest, such as the dinosaur exhibition or other special exhibitions.