Journey to Northern Shanxi II

Introducing one and a half museums, one is Mayi Museum and the other half is Shuozhou Museum.

Mayi Museum is located on the west side of Chongfu Square, Shuocheng District, Shuozhou City. It is a local comprehensive museum and a national third-level museum.

Mayi is a historical term, probably in the Shuozhou area. During the Qin Dynasty, Meng Tian drove the Xiongnu to the north outside Yanmen Pass and raised horses around the city. Mayi County was established here and was under the jurisdiction of Yanmen County. This has always been the place where farming civilization and grassland civilization collided. The Western Han Dynasty often fought against the Xiongnu in Mayi. At that time, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty also launched the famous "Mayi Strategy". The Han army prepared a trap to lure the Xiongnu deep into Mayi. They were almost successful, but the news was leaked. The military officials Shanyu still ran away.

Zhang Liao, the famous military general in Shuozhou, was introduced in "Three Kingdoms" and "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" as "Yanmen Mayi people", that is, from Mayi County, Yanmen County.

Now Mayi is a small village east of Shuozhou. The ancient city of Mayi near Shuozhou has the famous Mayi Han Tombs, where many soldiers of the Han Dynasty who died in the war are buried here. I didn't have time at the time, so I didn't go see it.

Mayi Museum *** has seven exhibition halls: Preface Hall, Statue Hall, Calligraphy and Painting Hall, Ceramics Hall, Bronze Hall, Stone Carving Hall, and Miscellaneous Hall. Just by listening to the names, you can tell what is on display in these halls, and the content is introduced in more detail. Mayi is named after raising horses, so the logo of the Mayi Museum is a horse.

The managers of this museum are police officers. It’s very strange. It seems that because they have to perform maintenance on Chongfu Square every day, and then take care of this place by the way, the museum here is closed on Mondays when it rains or snows. , the museum is not closed on Mondays under normal weather conditions.

Photography is not allowed in this museum. There is no administrator in the exhibition hall, but there is surveillance. For this reason, I complained to a policeman at their door for a while, trying to get some accommodation. I said that many large museums, such as the National Museum of China, and your Shanxi Museum, do not completely prohibit photography. What is prohibited will be specifically stated. Many texts, exhibition boards and reproductions are not cultural relics, so there is no reason not to allow them to be photographed. They said this was a regulation from above and they didn’t understand it.

I started looking at the prologue hall and saw that it was full of exhibition boards. I tried to take pictures, but no one seemed to care. In the second statue hall, there is a special display board behind each Buddha statue with photos and text introductions. It is really amazing and I can't help but take pictures again. Halfway through filming in this hall, no one was looking after me, but I was a little nervous. Suddenly the radio shouted: Don’t take pictures. I was so scared that I quickly put away my phone. But then I saw a statue of Shuiyue Guanyin, which looked very leisurely. I couldn't help but take out my mobile phone again, but the radio shouted again: That young man, don't take pictures. Okay, I can’t take any more pictures. I’ve already been targeted. It would be too embarrassing to be called out for the third time.

Pressing my phone, I watched the next few halls. When I went out, I said to the uncle with embarrassment: I took a few pictures, but the radio called out, so I was embarrassed to take them. The uncle said: You don’t take too many pictures. It seems he knows it all. I continued to brainwash them: this rule is too rigid. Many people who take pictures will use photos and information to promote the museum and local culture, attracting more people. This is a good thing. Isn’t the purpose of the museum is to promote culture? I suggested that he mention this matter the next time he has a meeting at work. The uncle said that he didn’t understand these either, and the rules in small places were not as good as those in big places. I still hope that if there is a chance in the future, this rule can be changed.

I feel that my brain’s memory is very limited, so I always think that taking pictures is a good way to help me remember. There should be a proper balance between promoting culture through cultural relics and protecting cultural relics by banning photography. Overdoing it is actually not good.

There is a replica of the wild goose lantern inside. The wild goose lantern is a relatively famous lamp in the Western Han Dynasty. It sucks the burning smoke into the belly of the lamp, which is both beautiful and elegant. It has been unearthed in more than one place. One was unearthed in Shuozhou. The one in the Mayi Museum is a replica, but the original is in the National Museum. It feels like all the real things are in the National Expo. I almost couldn't resist taking a picture of this replica. The symbol of Shuozhou City Museum is the wild goose lantern. There is a large wild goose and fish lantern sculpture in the Ancient City Wall Park next to Chongfu Square.

I went to Shuozhou City Museum twice and was rejected both times. The first time it was closed on Monday. The second time was when I was about to leave. It was past noon, but it turned out that people had a break from 12 to 3 pm, the exhibition hall was closed, and they went home from get off work to rest. The most suitable time for viewing the exhibition is that the doors are closed, the doors open again at three o'clock, tickets are stopped at three-thirty, and the get off work closes at five o'clock. This is a bad experience, and it feels wrong.

This museum is a modern style building with two main exhibition halls, one is the ancient civilization exhibition hall and the other is the industrial exhibition hall. There are many coal mines here, so there should be a lot of content about coal mines. Others are temporary exhibitions. Because we only entered the door, there was no exhibition hall, so it could only be regarded as a half introduction.