The carved red lacquer box made for the Yongle emperor is one of the star objects in the current BP exhibition Ming: 50 years that changed China at the British Museum 18 September 2014 – 5 January 2015
At some point around AD 600-700, a legend started spreading about a princess who snuck mulberry tree seeds and silkworm eggs into the Buddhist kingdom of Khotan (present-day northwest China). Sericulture, the ancient Chinese technique of silk farming, had
What age did people marry in the British past? Famous examples suggest that people married at very young ages in the European past. Shakespeare’s Juliet was ‘not [yet] fourteen’ and Romeo probably not much older. Lady Margaret Beaufort, the
Find out the many strange experiences and encounters legendary adventurer Marco Polo uncovered during his Eurasian travels. Marco Polo (1254-1324) was a Venetian merchant, most well-known for his book The Travels, penned while he was a prisoner, after almost
The British Museum is to receive what is believed to be the highest-value gift ever received by a UK museum with the acquisition of £1bn worth of Chinese ceramics. Trustees of the Sir Percival David Foundation, which owns the
Eighty years before Vasco da Gama’s arrival in West India, a formidable Chinese navy ruled the China Sea and Indian Ocean, from Southeast Asia to the Persian Gulf and East Africa. Between the period from 1405 to 1433, China’s
Up the River During Qingming is a masterpiece of genre painting, with many replications done over the centuries. This version, completed in 1736, the first year of the Qianlong Emperor’s reign, was the collaborative effort of five Qing court
The Qing dynasty (1644–1911) was founded by a northeast Asian people who called themselves Manchus. Their history, language, culture, and identity was distinct from the Chinese population, whom they conquered in 1644 when China was weakened by internal rebellions.
1. Chinoiserie was once the most coveted fashion of the aristocracy During the 17th and 18th centuries, Europeans became fascinated with Asian cultures and traditions. They loved to imitate or evoke Asian motifs in Western art, architecture, landscaping, furniture,
