Ritual Utensils, Musical Instruments, and Costumes of the Kong (Confucius) Family Mansion, a special exhibition jointly launched by the China National Silk Museum and Confucius Museum, opened in the former’s venue. The exhibition will run till May 26. 

Confucianism, an important part of China’s traditional ritual culture, advocates humanity and believes it the soul of rituals and music. Rituals and music are embodiment of humanity, it believes. Confucius’ beliefs and ideas have affected Chinese people to date. Costumes and ritual utensils reflect China’s profound traditional ritual culture. Those collected in the Confucius Family Mansion are particularly representative and of historical values. 

The exhibition displays close to 100 ritual utensils or musical instruments throughout history and costumes and official gowns back to the Ming and Qing dynasties and the Republic of China period. They are all the family’s collections. Of them, ten items fall into the class-A category, and another five, class-B. The square cauldron with Kuilong dragon patterns made during the reign of Xianzong Emperor in the Ming Dynasty, and official gowns in the Ming Dynasty are on display for the first time in Zhejiang.  

On the opening night, the China National Silk Museum held a special event named “the Night of Rituals and Music.” Chu Hongxuan, head of the collection department of the Confucius Museum, gave a lecture on the five cloisonne sacrificial utensils with beast-face veins from the Qing dynasty. Chu’s presentation offers a peek into the history and characteristics of the sacrificial utensils. Xiaoshao Band of the Confucius Museum performed classic Confucianist musical pieces with remade ancient Chinese musical instruments including bell, chime stone, zither, and ancient Chinese flute.