After watching Big Ben, Ye Chao took Tang Yan to the British Museum again.

The British Museum, also known as the British Museum, located in Russell Square on the north side of New Oxford Street in London, England, was founded in 1753 and officially opened to the public on January 15, 1759.

The museum has a collection of many cultural relics and treasures from all over the world, as well as the manuscripts of many great scientists, and the richness and variety of the collection are rare in museums all over the world. The National Museum of England has a collection of more than 8 million pieces. Due to space constraints, there are still a large number of collections that cannot be exhibited publicly.

The National Museum of England is the oldest and largest comprehensive museum in the world, located in London, England.

It houses many cultural relics and book treasures from all over the world, and the richness and variety of the collection are rare in museums around the world. The collection was mainly looted during the wars waged by England in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Major affected countries include Greece, Egypt and China. Located in the heart of London, the National Museum is a spectacular Roman column-style building. The collection of cultural relics and library materials here is famous in the world.

Founded in 1753 and officially opened six years later, the National Museum of England has a collection of many cultural relics and treasures from all over the world, and the richness and variety of the collection are rare in museums around the world.

The National Museum of England has a collection of more than 6 million pieces. Due to its opening, it was originally mainly a collection of books, but later it also included historical relics and ancient works of art from various countries, many of which are the only surviving rare books.

From the 18th century to the middle of the 19th century, the British Empire expanded to the world, plundering the culture of various countries, and a large number of precious cultural relics arrived in London.

The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities is the largest of them, with more than 70,000 pieces of various artifacts of ancient Egypt, representing the high civilization of ancient Egypt. A large number of cultural relics in the Museum of Greek and Roman Antiquities and the Museum of Oriental Antiquities reflect the splendid culture of ancient Greece, Rome and ancient China.

In 1753, the collector Hans? After the death of Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753), according to his will, he donated all the 71,000 pieces of his personal collection and a large number of plant specimens, books and manuscripts to the state.

After the opening of the museum, a large number of valuable collections were acquired through various activities of the British in various places, and the early British National Museum tended to collect natural history specimens, but there were also a large number of artifacts and books, so it attracted a large number of visitors.

In 1824, the museum built a new pavilion north of the Montague building, which was completed in the 1840s, and the old Montague building was demolished shortly after. Soon after the completion of the new building, a circular reading room was built in the courtyard that was open to the public.

Due to space constraints, in 1880 the National Museum of England separated natural history specimens from archaeological artefacts, and the National Museum of England specialized in collecting archaeological artefacts. In 1900, the museum was re-divided again, separating books, manuscripts and other contents to form the new National Library of England.

Founded in 1753, the National Museum of England was the world's first national public museum.

It is free and open to all "inquisitive people".

The establishment of the National Museum of England originated from Hans? Sir Hans Sloane, 16

The National Museum of History 60 years – 1753), he was an internist, naturalist and collector.

Sloan collected more than 71,000 objects during his lifetime, and he hoped they would remain intact after his death. For the good of the country, he bequeathed all his collection to King George II, in return £20,000 to his heirs.

The state accepted his giveaway. On June 7, 1753, an Act of Parliament approved the establishment of the National Museum of England.

At the time of its founding, the museum's collection consisted mostly of books, manuscripts, natural specimens of certain artifacts (including coins, coats of arms, engravings, and drawings), and ethnographies of cultural studies. In 1757, King George II donated the collection of the Old Royal Library to the British monarch.

The National Museum of England officially opened its doors to the public on 15 January 1759. It was originally built in Montagu House, a 17th-century building in Bloomsbury, which housed the current museum. Admission is free for all "inquisitive and inquisitive".

With the exception of the two world wars, the museum has always been open to the public and has gradually extended its opening hours. The number of visitors has increased from 5,000 per year to 6 million today.

In the early 19th century, the museum already had a number of well-known collections, including the Rosetta Stone (1802), Tonley's collection of classical sculptures (1805), and Parthenon sculptures (1816).

In 1823, George IV donated his father's library (King's Library) as a gift to the state, prompting the construction of what is now being built by Robert ? A quadrangular building designed by Sir Robert Smirke (1780–1867).

In 1857, the quadrangular building and the Rotunda Reading Room were built.

In order to provide more space for the museum's growing collection, in the eighties of the 19th century, the natural history collection was moved to a new building in South Kensington, which became the Natural History Museum.

The Assyrian collection became the basis for understanding cuneiform, an ancient script in the ancient Middle East. Similarly, the Rosetta Stone led to the interpretation of Egyptian hieroglyphs, a symbolic script.

Augustus? Wollaston? Sir Augustus ollaston Franks (1826–1897) was a leading figure of this period, and he was appointed to the museum in 1851 as the first person to manage British and medieval historical materials.

Franks expanded his collection into new areas, collecting not only British and medieval antiquities, but also prehistory, ethnography and archaeology in Europe and beyond Europe, as well as Asian art and other artifacts.

During the 19th century, the number of visitors increased dramatically. Especially on public holidays, the museum attracts a large audience of all ages and all social classes.

As academic research continues, managers increase the museum's appeal by offering lectures, improving the presentation of exhibits, and labeling collections with popular introductions.

The 20th century saw a massive development in the field of public service. In 1903 the first concise guide to the museum was published, and in 1911 the first docent was appointed.

In the 70s of the 20th century, people actively planned to renovate the museum and set up an educational service publishing company. Other public buildings were constructed in a series of projects, including the Duveen Gallery, which houses the sculptures of the Temple of Parthenon (1939/62).

In 1973, the museum's library became part of a new institution, the National Library of England. The new institution remained in the museum until 1997, when books were relocated from Bloomsbury to a new building in St Pancras.

The Queen Elizabeth II Atrium, built on the site of the original library, is an extension of the museum that has been open since 1997.

It covers two acres and is the largest covered plaza in Europe. At the center of the large atrium is a reconstructed reading room, with a number of newly built art galleries and an educational center around and below the large atrium

In 2003, the museum celebrated its 250th anniversary. The oldest King's Library was rebuilt and a new permanent exhibition, Enlightenment: Exploring the World of the 18th Century, was launched.

Expansion continues

At the beginning of the 21st century, the museum continued to expand its public buildings, opening four new permanent pavilions in 2008 and 2009, including the Chinese Pottery Pavilion and Percival? Percival David (Room 95).

The museum is now working on its next major architectural project, the Orld Conservation and Exhibitions Centre, which will include a new temporary exhibition space.

The collection originally came from King George II's physician and ancient player Hans? Sir Sloane's collection of more than 80,000 artifacts and specimens.

In 1823, King George IX donated his father's extensive book collection. For more than 200 years since its opening, the museum has continued to collect artifacts from Britain and ancient countries such as Egypt, Babylon, Greece, Rome, India, and China.

Ancient Egyptian art is the most prestigious collection of the National Museum. The most striking feature of the National Museum of England is the Gallery of Oriental Art. The museum has more than 100,000 cultural relics from China, Japan, India and other Southeast Asian countries.

Among them, the Chinese showroom occupies several halls, with exhibits ranging from bronzes from the Shang and Zhou dynasties, to porcelain from the Tang and Song dynasties, and gold and jade products from the Ming and Qing dynasties. There are more than 20,000 rare treasures from China alone, most of which are priceless.

Such as the painting and embroidery of various dynasties in China, the unearthed cultural relics of various periods, the calligraphy and painting of the Tang and Song dynasties, the porcelain of the Ming and Qing dynasties, etc., among which the most precious ones are the "Female History Atlas", the three-color statue of the Song Arhat, the Dunhuang scriptures and the famous paintings of the Song and Ming dynasties.

The bronze statue of the Shang Dynasty is two conjoined sheep, carrying a round tube in the middle, the shape is very beautiful and exquisite.

There is also a porcelain wine pot of the Song Dynasty, the base and the responsibility are surrounded by a lotus flower, and a lion sits on the lid of the pot, which is a rare treasure. The two large stone lions at the back entrance of the museum were also transported from China.

From 1798 to 1801, Napoleon went to Egypt and brought with him more than 100 scientists and archaeologists who studied Egyptian culture. In 1799, in a small village called Rosetta in the Nile Delta, soldiers inadvertently dug up a black broken monument 1.14 meters high and 0.73 meters wide while building fortifications.

The words on the stele are clearly visible, and they are three words carved in different characters.

The archaeologists who accompanied the army concluded that the stele was unusual and was ready to be transported back to France for study. But before the French could make a move, Napoleon's army was defeated by the British.

In accordance with the war agreement, France unconditionally handed over all the antiquities excavated in Egypt. Eventually, the Rosetta Stone was collected by the British National Museum. To this day, the inscription on the stele still reads "Trophies of the British Army".

The National Museum's Room 33 is a permanent gallery dedicated to Chinese antiquities, one of only a few national galleries in the museum, along with Egypt, Greece, Rome and India.

The museum's collection of Chinese cultural relics encompasses the entire category of Chinese art, in a word, ancient stoneware, Shang and Zhou bronzes, Wei and Jin stone Buddhist scriptures, Tang and Song dynasty paintings and calligraphy, Ming and Qing dynasty porcelain, and other national treasures that mark the pinnacle of various cultures in Chinese history can be seen here.

However, this is only one of the 23,000 rare Chinese treasures in the National Museum's collection, with the other nine-tenths being housed in 10 rooms that are not met by the average visitor unless specifically permitted.

Certain collections, such as the Tang Dynasty facsimile of Gu Kaizhi's Female Historian in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, are only available to special specialists. "The Female Historian" is the earliest surviving Chinese silk painting, one of the earliest works of Chinese professional painters that can still be seen, has a milestone significance in the history of Chinese art, and has always been a treasure collected by the court of all dynasties.

There are only two copies left in the world, one of which is copied by the Song people, which was collected by the Palace Museum in Beijing.

The other is this facsimile from the National Museum. It was originally collected by the Qing Palace, and it was the desk favorite of Emperor Qianlong, hidden in the Old Summer Palace. In 1860, when the British and French forces invaded Beijing, British Captain Ji Yong stole it from the Old Summer Palace and took it abroad.

In 1903, it was collected by the National Museum of England and became the most important oriental cultural relics in the museum, and it is not an exaggeration to call it "the treasure of the museum".

The facsimile is stored in the Stein Secret Room in the museum, and it is reported that Xie Chengshui, director of the Art Research Office of the Dunhuang Studies Research Center of Nanjing Normal University, had seen the facsimile by chance in 2002, when there was only a record of two Japanese people coming to copy it in the 20s of the last century.

Other masterpieces include the ancestor of the "Northern Sect" and the Tang Dynasty painter Li Sixun's "Green Landscape", the representative of the Jiangnan School of the Five Dynasties Ju Ran's "Dense Forest Stacked Mountains", the Northern Song Dynasty one of the three great masters of landscape painting Fan Kuan's "Visiting Friends with the Qin", the famous Northern Song Dynasty painter Li Gonglin's "Huayan Disguised Picture", and the "Ink Bamboo Picture" by Su Shi, one of the eight masters of the Tang and Song dynasties.

In addition, there are Shang Dynasty bronze double sheep statue, Western Zhou Dynasty Kanghou bronze Gui, Xinghou Gui, Han Dynasty jade carving dragon, Tang Dynasty topaz sitting dog, etc.

There are dozens of square meters of Dunhuang murals on the central wall of the China Hall, although its cut marks are still visible, but it is difficult to hide its long-term freshness and the grace and luxury of the three "rich and fat" Bodhisattvas.

The National Museum of the United Kingdom has a collection of tens of thousands of national treasures of Dunhuang paintings and scriptures, but apart from this mural, other collections are difficult to find in the Chinese Hall.

Between 1856 and 1932, a number of so-called "Western explorers" made more than 60 expeditions to northwest China under the guise of scientific expeditions, each time plundering a large number of documents and artifacts.

Among them, in particular, in 1907, the Hungarian Stein and the Frenchman Birch looted the most cultural relics in the Dunhuang Scripture Cave.

The British Library also contains more than 60,000 precious Chinese documents and ancient books, including the earliest version of the Chinese Paramita Sutra, the 45 volumes of the Yongle Canon, oracle bone tablets, bamboo slips, carved ancient books, Dunhuang scriptures and maps.

During the tour of the British Museum, Tang Yan asked Ye Chao with some curiosity, "Do you want to help China get those cultural relics...... Shun back? ”

"I'm not interested, I can't keep my cultural relics well, even if I go back once, there will be a second and a third time. China has been in turmoil for nearly two hundred years, and if these cultural relics were still in China, I don't know how much they would have been destroyed at that time......"

During the more than 100 years of turmoil in China, a lot of good things were really destroyed......

Therefore, Ye Chao will not take anything away......