What did Taiyuan people look like thousands of years ago? The walls of this museum are full of mystery

Popular Science Times reporter Han Rong and intern Feng Haoqin

Turn the murals into dances and they come alive! On May 18, International Museum Day, the Taiyuan Northern Qi Mural Museum in central Shanxi Province will stage dances inspired by the murals, including "Mirror-holding Terracotta Warriors" and "Flying Dance", inviting the audience to enjoy the feast of dance.

Since its opening in December 2023, the Taiyuan Northern Qi Mural Museum has remained popular and has frequently attracted many tourists to visit and check in.

As the first thematic museum in the country built on the original site of a mural tomb, the Taiyuan Northern Qi Mural Museum takes the Northern Qi murals as its main line, telling the history and glory of Jinyang (the ancient name of Taiyuan) in cultural exchange and ethnic integration from the Northern Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties more than 1,400 years ago.

Build a museum on the original site of the tomb

Although Jinyang was the secondary capital of the Northern Qi Dynasty, it had frequent trade exchanges, and different nationalities and cultures exchanged and gathered here, leaving behind precious cultural relics and artistic treasures for the world, and the splendid mural art is one of them.

The Northern Qi Mural Museum was built on the original site of the tomb of Xu Xianxiu, a high-ranking official of the Northern Qi Dynasty. Other Northern Dynasties murals unearthed in Shanxi, such as the murals in the tomb of Lou Rui in Taiyuan, the tomb of Jiuyuangang in Xinzhou, and the tomb of Shuiquanliang in Shuozhou, are all displayed here.

In the museum's ruins hall, the tomb passage, through the cave, the skylight, the corridor and the tomb chamber are covered with paintings, which are extremely wonderful. Among them, the murals in the tomb passage depict a chariot and horse guard. The murals in the tomb chamber are "Banquet" on the north wall, "Tomb Owner's Journey" on the west wall and "Tomb Owner's Wife's Journey" on the east wall. They are magnificent and can be called a masterpiece of Northern Dynasty tomb mural art. These murals reflect the intersection and integration of different ethnic cultures in Jinyang area at that time.

"The murals in Xu Xianxiu's tomb of the Northern Qi Dynasty use paintings to bring the tomb owner's banquets, travels, beliefs, etc. during his lifetime into the underground world. It is a microcosm of the historical culture and social life of that era." The tour guide of the Taiyuan Northern Qi Mural Museum explained the content of the murals to the audience.

"Although the Northern Qi Dynasty only existed for 28 years, it left behind splendid mural art. The existing Northern Qi tomb murals in Shanxi are second to none in the country, especially the tomb of Xu Xianxiu." Wang Jiang, director of the Taiyuan Northern Qi Mural Museum, introduced that the tomb of Xu Xianxiu was unearthed in October 2002. It preserves more than 300 square meters of murals from the Northern Qi Dynasty. The large area, high level and well-preserved state of the murals are rare both at home and abroad.

Let tourists experience "traveling in the painting"

With the help of digital technology, visitors can not only quietly watch the murals through the glass, but also interact with the characters in the murals, "walk into" the tomb, and experience "wandering in the painting".

In the interactive experience area, visitors stand next to the burial mound, put on 4K resolution VR glasses, and a "tomb roaming" begins. As the perspective continues to change, visitors can even walk in front of the cultural relics, pick up the cultural relics in the display cabinet like "grabbing dolls", and observe the details of the cultural relics up close.

"Here I can truly feel like I'm wandering in a painting. VR glasses and interactive experience equipment make up for our regret of not being able to visit the tomb," said tourist Zhang Yuan.

In addition, visitors can experience more surprises. By plucking the strings on the electronic screen, visitors can play a song with the musicians on the projection wall. The museum has also added digital technologies such as 3D, AR, and VR to make the cultural relics "alive" and tangible.

"As a highly professional and slightly niche museum, we have been exploring how to revitalize and utilize it so that more people can come into contact with and understand the cultural relics, become interested in them, and draw nourishment from them." Wang Jiang introduced that the Northern Qi Mural Museum also proposed the concept of "Metaverse Museum", which only requires a handbag-sized device to bring the entire museum's cultural information to anywhere, and start a "cloud tour" anytime, anywhere.

"Our venue is not large. Through the integration of multimedia, text and cultural relics, we hope that visitors who come to the Northern Qi Mural Museum will feel immersed, interactive and involved," said Wang Jiang.

The murals in the tombs of the Northern Qi Dynasty vividly present the life scenes in Jinyang area thousands of years ago, and witness the cultural integration of different ethnic groups. Today, people use digital technology to take a romantic "time and space journey" with the people of Jinyang.