The Da Yuanxiang Museum is located within the Tianfu Bowl Factory in Bishan District, Chongqing. It is a Chinese folk museum built on the foundation of nearly 200 years of rural industrial heritage and a vast collection of ancient architectural components. It is also the largest museum of Bashu ancient architectural components in China. Its collections are capable of restoring hundreds of Bashu ancient residences and courtyards, earning it the nickname ‘Chongqing’s Ancestral Home’ Museum.
The museum is the result of over 20 years of private collection by Mr. Liu Jian. There are tens of thousands of items in the collection, sufficient to reassemble hundreds of ancient residences. Currently, there are seven exhibition halls: Door Gods and Plaques Hall, Stone Sculpture Art Hall, Buddha and Taoist Sculptures Hall, Fine Architectural Components Hall, Indoor Furniture Wood Carving Hall, Ancestral Halls and Family Inscriptions Hall, and Ancestral Tablets Hall. Additionally, there are over 20,000 Han Dynasty bricks, Cultural Revolution propaganda paintings, porcelain and badges from the Cultural Revolution period, as well as celebrity calligraphy and paintings, micro-sculptures, and other contemporary art masterpieces.
Each piece of wood carving here can attest to the ingenious design and profound meaning of the carving patterns, which include auspicious patterns as well as mythological stories such as ‘Abundant Happiness and Prosperity’, ‘Bumper Harvests’, ‘Dragon and Phoenix Bring Good Fortune’, ‘Peace and Good Luck’, ‘Longevity and Health’. Artistically, the museum showcases not only round carving, relief carving, and pierced carving but also the bold and grand folk carving techniques. These special structures and techniques of ancient architecture conceal the architectural implications, cultural arts, traditional thoughts, and national spirit associated with them. They allow us to see how the hardworking and wise ancestors of Ba and Shu inherited the experience of their ancestors in building residences and integrated new knowledge and technology brought by immigrants from other provinces, creating new residential crafts and styles in the same land. They are diverse, coming from thousands of families, quietly narrating the joys and sorrows, rises and falls of each family.
The wood pieces collected here are mostly made of cypress, ranging from courtyard gates and wall windows to hanging flower gates, ear gates, and partition windows. The exquisite carving art embodies both wealth and elegance, reflecting the cultural connotations of local doors and windows. Through every door and window decoration, we seem to be able to see the owner of the courtyard as an official, merchant, or scholar, and their distinct aesthetic tastes, status, and wealth symbols.
Opening hours are year-round from 09:00 to 16:00. Preferential policies include free admission for children under 1.2 meters in height (not including), free admission for seniors aged 65 and above with a senior citizen card or ID, and free admission for the disabled with a disability certificate. Additional note: Children who enter for free must be accompanied by an adult.
