我盯着那张故宫博物院开放当天神武门的老照片看了又看。神武门，在紫禁城北端，现在是游客的出口。几次“进宫”开会，汽车直接从神武门驶入，避开参观的人群。
一百年前，是这样的啊。
宫楼建筑依然，现在“故宫博物院”的牌匾文字从右向左写，是郭沫若所书。一百年前，“故宫博物院”的牌匾文字从左向右，是清室善后委员会委员长，故宫博物院董事兼理事李煜瀛（石曾）的手笔，而且大门前交叉着北洋政府的五色国旗。
1925年10月10日下午两点，李煜瀛等人在乾清宫外宣布故宫博物院向大众公开展示文物。根据《民国日报》报道，首日涌入了两万多人；第二天高达三万多人，即使清宫占地辽阔 ，还是拥挤不堪！
我笑了，现在北京故宫每天限制迎接四万游客，大展期间排队三小时（有朋友说他排了六个小时），观看每件文物不超过三分钟，和百年前相比，只能说，文物的魅力历久弥新吧。
为了准备《千年宋韵.世纪故宫》的分享会，读了一些历史资料，才发现自己以前对于故宫博物院有一些误解，网上讯息时见讹传，或许读者们也和我一样不明就里，一起瞧瞧你能不能猜对。
1. 故宫博物院是中国第一个国家级的博物馆吗？
错。近代中国人自办的第一个博物馆是1905年张謇在南通成立的南通博物苑，属于地方私人性质。1914年，在故宫成立“古物陈列所”，收藏和展示来自沈阳故宫和承德避暑山庄的文物，是中国第一个国家级的博物馆。那时，末代皇帝溥仪和婉容皇后享受《清室优待条件》，还住在保和殿以北的后廷，直到1924年11月5日被冯玉祥驱逐出宫。古物陈列所在1948年并入故宫博物院。
2. 台北故宫的文物全部来自原北平故宫博物院吗？
错。1965年在台北士林成立的台北故宫博物院，正式名称是“国立故宫博物院”。其组织法第 1 条是：“为整理、保管、展出原国立北平故宫博物院及国立中央博物院筹备处所藏之歷代古文物及艺术品，并加强对中国古代文物艺术品之征集、研究、阐扬，以扩大社教功能。”除了北京故宫的文物，还包括“国立中央博物院筹备处”的文物，这“国立中央博物院筹备处”是什么单位？
我想起去年在四川李庄，临闭馆前央求门口的警卫让我们进去瞧一眼，那个“张家祠堂”外挂的是“原国立中央博物院李庄旧址”，咦~不是“中央研究院”啊？听过王叔珉老师多次回忆抗战时期避难暂居李庄的艰苦生活，到宜宾开会，特地前往距离不远的李庄。带着“朝圣”的心情，观览过梁思成、林徽因的“营造学社”，到了张家祠堂，警卫关上一半的门，挥手示意我们离开。
同行的老师改用四川话，指着我对他说：“这位老师的老师，以前就是在这里的！”
匆匆放行，我才晓得，国立中央博物院筹备处是1933年在南京成立，1949年被整并。抗战期间文物迁移，不但有古物陈列所、故宫博物院 ，还有中央博物院的藏品。在台北故宫的文物编号还可以看到“古”、“故”、“中”开头的纪录，显示来源，中央博物院的藏品里最著名的，就是现存铭文最多的毛公鼎。此外，苏轼的《黄州寒食帖》是“购“字开头，显示是购买来的。
3. 北京故宫大部分的藏品都运到台湾了，大陆所剩无几？
错。2025年的统计纪录，北京故宫的藏品有195万件（套），数量远远超过台北故宫的69万件。只不过要在600年历史的宫殿中采用现代的科技方式展示，既要保护文物，又要照顾观众的体验，并且不能破环古建筑，的确是很大的挑战。
十年前在武英殿展出过北宋张择端《清明上河图》，今年改在午门，就在故宫入口处，大家可以不用再“故宫跑”啦。百年大庆，北京、台北、嘉义，豪华的视觉盛宴。
2025年10月11日,新加坡《联合早报》“上善若水”专栏
**Three Misunderstandings About the Palace Museum**
*by I Lo-fen*
I stared again and again at that old photograph of the Shenwu Gate on the day the Palace Museum first opened. Shenwu Gate, at the northern end of the Forbidden City, now serves as the exit for visitors. When I’ve attended meetings “in the palace,” cars entered directly through this gate, bypassing the crowds.
A hundred years ago, it was like this.
The palace buildings remain the same, but today the plaque reading “The Palace Museum” is written from right to left in calligraphy by Guo Moruo. A century ago, however, the words ran from left to right—handwritten by Li Yuying (also known as Shizeng), chairman of the Qing Household Aftermath Committee and a board member and director of the Palace Museum. In front of the gate fluttered the five-colored flag of the Beiyang Government.
At 2 p.m. on October 10, 1925, Li Yuying and others announced outside the Hall of Heavenly Purity (Qianqing Palace) that the Palace Museum would officially open to the public. According to *The Republican Daily News*, over twenty thousand people flooded in on the first day, and more than thirty thousand on the second—so many that even the vast Forbidden City was overcrowded!
I laughed. Today, the Beijing Palace Museum limits daily visitors to forty thousand. During blockbuster exhibitions, people may queue for three hours (a friend told me he once waited six), and can view each artifact for no more than three minutes. Compared with a century ago, one can only say: the allure of cultural relics truly endures through time.
While preparing for my *A Millennium of Song Elegance, A Century of the Palace Museum* sharing session, I read through some historical materials and realized that I had misunderstood several things about the Palace Museum. Some online information is inaccurate—perhaps you’ve had the same misconceptions too. Let’s see if you can guess correctly.
1. Is the Palace Museum China’s first national museum?
**No.** The first museum established by Chinese people in modern times was the Nantong Museum, founded in 1905 by Zhang Jian—it was a local, privately run institution.
In 1914, the *Antiquities Exhibition Office* (古物陈列所) was set up in the Forbidden City to house and display artifacts from the Shenyang Imperial Palace and the Chengde Mountain Resort. That was China’s first *national-level* museum.
At that time, the last emperor, Puyi, and Empress Wanrong were still enjoying the privileges of the “Articles of Favorable Treatment of the Qing Imperial Family” and living in the rear court north of the Hall of Preserving Harmony (Baohe Hall), until Feng Yuxiang expelled them from the palace on November 5, 1924. The Antiquities Exhibition Office was merged into the Palace Museum in 1948.
2. Did all the artifacts in the Taipei Palace Museum come from the original Beijing Palace Museum?
**No.** The *National Palace Museum* in Taipei, established in Shilin in 1965, states in Article 1 of its organizational charter:
“The museum shall collect, preserve, and exhibit ancient artifacts and artworks originally belonging to the National Peiping Palace Museum and the Preparatory Office of the National Central Museum, while strengthening research, interpretation, and education on Chinese antiquities.”
So, in addition to the Palace Museum’s collection, it also includes items from the *Preparatory Office of the National Central Museum*.
What was that institution?
I remembered last year in Lizhuang, Sichuan, begging a security guard at closing time to let us take a quick look inside. On the old “Zhang Family Ancestral Hall” hung a sign: “Former Site of the National Central Museum, Lizhuang.” It wasn’t “Academia Sinica”!
I had heard Professor Wang Shumin’s many recollections of the hardship of living in Lizhuang during the war years. When I attended a conference in nearby Yibin, I made a special trip there. I visited the *Society for the Study of Chinese Architecture* founded by Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin. At the Zhang Family Hall, the guard half-closed the door, signaling us to leave.
My colleague switched to Sichuan dialect and pointed at me:
“This teacher’s teacher used to work right here!”
We were let in briefly. Only then did I learn that the *Preparatory Office of the National Central Museum* was established in Nanjing in 1933 and merged in 1949. During the wartime evacuation, not only the Antiquities Exhibition Office and the Palace Museum collections were relocated, but also those of the Central Museum.
In the Taipei Palace Museum’s catalog numbers, you can still see prefixes like “古” (Gu), “故” (Gu), and “中” (Zhong), indicating their sources. The most famous item from the Central Museum collection is the *Mao Gong Ding*, the bronze vessel with the longest known inscription. Meanwhile, Su Shi’s *Cold Food Observance Manuscript* (*Huangzhou Hanshi Tie*) bears the prefix “购” (purchase), meaning it was later acquired.
3. Were most of Beijing’s Palace Museum artifacts shipped to Taiwan, leaving little behind?
**No.** As of 2025, the Beijing Palace Museum holds **1.95 million items (sets)**—far more than the 690,000 housed in Taipei.
However, installing modern exhibition technology within six-hundred-year-old palaces is a formidable challenge: the museum must protect the relics, enhance visitor experience, and avoid damaging the ancient architecture.
Ten years ago, the Northern Song masterpiece *Along the River During the Qingming Festival* by Zhang Zeduan was exhibited in the Hall of Martial Valor (Wuying Hall). This year, it’s being shown at the Meridian Gate (Wu Men), right at the entrance—no more running across the Palace to find it!
For its centennial celebration, Beijing, Taipei, and Chiayi have all presented magnificent visual feasts.
Lianhe Zaobao (Singapore)“Shang Shan Ruo Shui” Column
October 11, 2025
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