Tengzhou Museum 滕州博物馆

About Tengzhou Museum

Tengzhou Museum (滕州博物馆) is the comprehensive local museum of Tengzhou (滕州), Shandong, housed in a Han-and-Tang-style building on the northeast side of Longquan Square (龙泉广场), on the west bank of the Jing River (荆河).

The museum grew out of a relics display room opened in the Teng County (滕县) cultural centre in 1956; a county museum followed in 1958. It moved into the restored Wang family ancestral hall (王家祠堂) in 1986 and into a mock-classical tower on Xueyuan Road (学院路) in 1995. The present building, one floor below ground and five above with 20,487 m² of floor space, opened in 2020. People's Daily's photo service describes it as a national first-grade museum and as the county-level museum with the largest bronze holdings in China.

The People's Daily Overseas Edition counts more than 52,000 items or sets, 56 of them national first-grade relics, and names Beixin culture (北辛文化) finds, Shang and Zhou bronzes and jade as the strengths of the collection. The Beixin culture takes its name from a site at Guanqiao (官桥) in the former Teng County, found in 1964 and dated to roughly 7,500 to 6,100 years ago.

The main history display runs in five parts, from "Dawn of Civilisation" (文明曙光) to "Glorious Years" (峥嵘岁月), tracing the area from the early Neolithic to the War of Liberation (解放战争). Its "Three States and Five Towns" (三国五邑) section covers the ancient states of Teng (滕), Xue (薛) and Ni (郳). Xue was founded in the Xia period and lasted about 1,700 years until Qi conquered it in the middle of the Warring States period; Tian Wen (田文), Lord Mengchang (孟尝君), later inherited the Xue lands. Four themed halls are given to bronzes (赫赫青铜), mirrors (镜鉴古今), pottery and porcelain (陶风瓷韵) and jade (玉蕴华章).

What to look for

• Marquis of Teng Ding (滕侯鼎), a Western Zhou lidded ritual cauldron 27 cm tall, with a six-character inscription naming the Marquis of Teng cast inside both lid and body; a villager dug it up in 1982 and took it to a scrap-purchase station, whose staff recognised it
• Buqi Gui (不其簋), a bronze vessel found in 1980 with a 151-character inscription on fighting the Xianyun (猃狁); its matching lid is in the National Museum of China
• A Dawenkou culture (大汶口文化) jade ornament incised with a human face, from the Gangshang site (岗上遗址), described by the People's Daily Overseas Edition as the earliest of its kind yet found
• A Beixin culture pottery tripod with lid (陶盖鼎), a cooking vessel with three conical feet
• Finds from Qianzhangda (前掌大), a late Shang to early Zhou cemetery of the Xue nobility, including bronze vessels and a stone rhinoceros
• A copper mural in the second-floor hall showing nine scenes from local history
• A Western Zhou jade pendant carved with kui dragons (夔龙纹玉佩)

Location & getting there

Getting to Tengzhou Museum

• Search for 滕州博物馆 with 枣庄市 and 滕州市.