Before we go in, take a look at the building itself, because it is the first exhibit. The base is square and the top is round. That comes from an old Chinese idea about the shape of the world: heaven is round and the earth is square. Look again and you will see something more specific. The round top with two handles rising from it is the shape of a tripod1 cooking vessel, a ding, which is the most important form in Chinese bronze2.
进去之前，先看一眼这幢楼本身，因为它就是第一件展品。底座是方的，顶是圆的。这取自中国人对天地形状的老说法，天圆地方。再看一眼，还能看出更具体的东西。圆顶上翻出两只耳朵，那是一只鼎的形状，鼎是中国青铜器里最要紧的器形。
The museum was founded in 1952 and moved into this building in 1996. It holds about a million objects, and four categories are considered world class: bronze, ceramics3, painting and calligraphy4, and seals5. We will not try to see everything. In two hours you can do two galleries properly, or you can walk past every gallery in the building and remember nothing. My advice is to start with the bronze gallery on the ground floor.
博物馆 1952 年成立，1996 年搬进这幢楼。馆藏约百万件，其中四类公认是世界一流的，青铜器、陶瓷、书画和玺印。我们不打算全看。两个小时能把两个馆看透，也能把每个馆都走一遍然后什么都不记得。我的建议是从一楼的青铜馆开始。
In that gallery there is one object I want you to find. It is called the Da Ke Ding, a large ritual vessel cast in the middle of the Western Zhou period, about two thousand eight hundred years ago. Inside the wall of the vessel there is a long inscription6, and that text is why it matters. Bronzes of this rank were not tableware. They were records, and the words cast into them are among the earliest Chinese documents we still have.
那个馆里有一件东西，我希望你们找到它。它叫大克鼎，是西周中期铸造的大型礼器，距今约两千八百年。器壁内侧有一篇长铭文，它的分量正在这篇文字上。这个等级的青铜器不是餐具，是档案，铸在上面的字属于我们今天还能读到的最早的中国文献。
The Da Ke Ding also has a family behind it. It was kept by the Pan family of Suzhou for generations. During the war they buried it under the floor of their own house to keep it out of Japanese hands, and in 1951 Pan Dayu donated7 it to the state. She asked for nothing in return. If you want more, the museum opened a second, much larger building in Pudong in 2024. Admission to both is free, but you need to book online. We meet back at this entrance in two hours. Please keep your voice down inside, and no flash photography.
大克鼎背后还有一家人。它在苏州潘家传了几代。战争年代，潘家把它埋在自家地板底下，不让它落到日本人手里，1951 年潘达于把它捐给了国家，什么都没要。想看得更多的话，博物馆 2024 年在浦东开了第二座，比这里大得多。两馆都免费，但要网上预约。两小时后我们在这个门口集合。馆内请压低声音，不要用闪光灯。