The Cyrus Tang Hall of China
Exhibition Highlights
The Cyrus Tang Hall of China is organized around five galleries introducing visitors to 5,000 years of Chinese culture and history. Using both chronological and thematic groupings, the galleries illustrate key components that span China’s deep history. The exhibition concludes with the “East Garden,” a contemplative and relaxing space inspired by classic Chinese gardens.
While strolling through the exhibition, visitors will notice three overarching messages that weave together the myriad stories told in all five galleries:
There is no one China.
Instead, China is composed of a diverse array of landscapes, ethnicities, social statuses, and lived experiences that cut across both space and time.
Constant change and strong continuity define the history of Chinese culture.
Aspects of Chinese culture persist and thrive even as political powers rise and fall, helping to create one of the world’s longest enduring civilizations.
Each object in the exhibition has multiple stories to tell.
For example, who made the object? Where was it made? And why? How does it reflect regional differences, social distinctions, or the influence of trade and the exchange of ideas? Touchscreen interactive labels, incorporated throughout the exhibition, allow for the exploration of many stories associated with each object.
Below are some highlights from each gallery that visitors will discover on their walk through China.
Entrance to the Cyrus Tang Hall of China
Two stone lions greet visitors at the entrance to the exhibition. The male lion rests his paw upon a decorated ball, representing power, while the female lion nurtures a cub under her left paw. Traditionally, the Chinese believed lions to possess attributes of protection and strength, so statues of lions often stood guard outside of imperial buildings, temples, and homes of the wealthy and powerful.
Diverse Landscapes, Diverse Ways of Life
The exhibition begins with an introduction to China’s rich variety of landscapes and the rise of China’s earliest societies. The emphasis here is: “There is no one China.” Over 10,000 years ago, people established diverse ways of life across this vast land. From the north (cool and dry) to the south (warm and humid), groups of people found creative ways to transform the world in which they lived.
Landscape Cyclorama and Topographical Map
In this immersive, 360-degree display, visitors can view a variety of landscapes depicting China 10,000 years ago. Featured are stunning views of the Yellow River Valley, the Taklamakan Desert, the Tibetan Plateau, and the Yangtze River Valley.
Neolithic Dioramas
Miniature dioramas bring to life three of China’s Neolithic societies—the Yangshao (pictured above), Hemudu, and Longshan—from different regions of China. During China’s Neolithic period (about 10,000–1900 BC), communities began to settle in villages, cultivate plants, and raise animals; but specific ways of life varied from region to region.
Jade Objects
Sophisticated jade carvings, like this bi [bee] disk (left) and cong [tsong] tube (right), probably indicate the elite status of their original owners. Excavated from Liangzhu sites (about 3300–2200 BC), valuable objects similar to these connect settled life during the Neolithic period with the emergence of new social structures.
Ritual and Power, War and Unification
The exhibition continues with a look at China’s early states and dynasties during the Bronze Age (beginning around 2000 BC), when China's diverse states engaged each other in warfare and trade. Eventually, the Qin Dynasty achieved unification, promoting standardized measurements and infrastructure improvements laying the foundations for later dynasties. Many cultural characteristics that we might recognize today as distinctly “Chinese”—such as Confucianism and the character-based writing system—emerged during China’s Bronze Age.
Bronze Vessels
Elites of the early Chinese states treasured bronze objects as status symbols. They revered their ancestors—and reinforced their own power as leaders—by conducting rituals using bronze vessels (such as this wine jar). Shared or common ceremonies became a way of unifying China’s diverse communities.
Animated Map of China’s Dynasties
Throughout Chinese history, leaders strived for unity, but often found it difficult to maintain. This animated map, morphing from one dynasty to the next, displays periods of political unification and fragmentation in China over the past 3,500 years.
Shifting Power, Enduring Traditions
In dynastic China, warfare and political collapse alternated with periods of stability and expansion. Yet even in times of conflict, certain practices, traditions, and ideals endured. This gallery explores change and continuity in the political structures and social codes that supported China’s leaders from the Han Dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) through the Qing Dynasty (ending in 1911).
A Scholar’s Tools
A huge bureaucracy of well-educated officials helped govern the millions of people who populated imperial China’s many provinces. More than record keepers, these administrative officials trained as poets, painters, and calligraphers, and their exquisite “tools of the trade”—including ink stones (like the one to the right), brushes, and brush holders—represented their high status as cultured scholars in service to the emperor.
Qingming Scroll
What did everyday life look like in China 500 years ago? The 27-foot-long scroll painting, Along the River during the Qingming Festival, depicts an idealized vision of Chinese society in the late Ming Dynasty. The Field Museum’s painting is a 17th-century version of the famous original, a 12th century masterpiece that was copied and reinterpreted over many centuries. A digital version of the painting enables visitors to virtually “scroll” through the entire continuous scene and learn about the variety of people depicted in the painting.
Beliefs and Practices, Symbols and Stories
For millennia, different religions and philosophies have existed side-by-side in China. Most notably, Buddhism and Daoism influenced each other, often blending different spiritual traditions and combining “high religion” with local folk beliefs. This gallery explores varied regional practices as well as symbols and shared stories expressed in family rituals and performance.
Bodhisattva
When Buddhism came to China, monks brought not only belief in the Buddha, but also a host of bodhisattvas—enlightened beings who remain on Earth to help humanity and attend to the Buddha. This rare piece, depicting a seated bodhisattva, is made of porcelain and dates to the Yuan period (AD 1279–1368),when the Mongols ruled China.
Puppet Theater Media Experience
Loved by millions of people in China, shadow puppet plays tell stories that have endured in popularity over centuries. The Puppet Theater media experience introduces visitors to Journey to the West, a well-known Chinese epic. The story follows the adventures of a Buddhist monk, Xuanzang, who travels to India in search of sacred texts to bring back to China. Along the way, he’s aided by the magical and mischievous Monkey King.
Crossing Boundaries, Building Networks
Since ancient times, China has traded goods and exchanged ideas with other countries despite changing political boundaries and the rise and fall of dynasties. During expansive periods, maritime trade routes and the Silk Road (a series of overland routes that linked China with the Middle East) brought Chinese goods, people, ideas, and innovations to the world—and conversely, brought the world’s goods, peoples, ideas, and innovations to China.
The Java Sea Shipwreck
During the 12th and 13th centuries, many merchant vessels sailed the waters of East and Southeast Asia, reaching as far as the eastern coast of Africa. Unfortunately, not all reached their destinations. As its name suggests, the Java Sea Shipwreck sank off the coast of Indonesia. The Field Museum’s collections include more than 7,500 objects from the wreck—most made in China. Items selected from the ship’s cargo serve to illustrate that goods, people, and ideas from China and elsewhere were highly mobile over 800 years ago.
Qingbai Ewer
Much of the pottery excavated from the Java Sea Shipwreck included inexpensive, mass-produced bowls. But some of the recovered ceramics such as this Qingbai [CHING-bai] ewer, or pitcher,are of much higher quality. Possibly manufactured at the famous kilns in Jingdezhen, China, this gourd-shaped ewer incorporates fine details like the dragon handle.
East Garden
The exhibition ends with a contemplative space where visitors can relax after viewing the exhibition. Inspired by Chinese rock gardens, the “East Garden” has a contemporary feel with strong connections to nature and classic Chinese aesthetics. Eight spirit stones provide the main focus for the gallery. With their distinctive shapes, textures, and colors, these stones have long been admired in China as essential features in garden design. The East Garden also includes a subtle soundscape, benches for seating, and windows that face east bringing in natural light and providing views toward Lake Michigan.