Sichuan Museum Brings Ming Silver Ingots to Classrooms

    2026-10-29 14:43:43 by Queenie Tan

    Share:

    On the afternoon of October 27, in a classroom at the Dongpo District Special Education School in Meishan City, textbooks were absent from the desks, replaced instead by aluminum foil, molds, and tool kits. At the podium, two replica silver ingots and several mineral specimens were neatly arranged, signaling the start of a unique lesson.

    The "Flying Museum" program of the Jiangkou Sunken Silver Museum visited the Special Education School in Dongpo District, Meishan City

    "How many processes does it take to transform an ordinary silver ore into the gleaming ingot in your hand?" asked Liu Huiyang, a study tour instructor from the Jiangkou Sunken Silver Museum, holding up a replica silver ingot as the eyes of dozens of students followed his gestures. This marked the first time the museum's "Flying Museum" program had entered a campus to deliver educational services, with the day's theme being "The Story of Currency". Liu began his lecture with shell money from the Shang Dynasty and spade and knife coins from the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, traversing through Qin Banliang coins, Wuzhu coins, Kaiyuan Tongbao coins, and Song Dynasty Jiaozi paper money, before finally focusing on the Ming Dynasty official silver ingots recovered from the Jiangkou Sunken Silver Site.

    "The inscriptions on the silver ingots were not carved arbitrarily." Liu guided the students to lean in and examine the text on the ingot surfaces, revealing the hidden information regarding origins, tax types, and craftsmen. The students passed the specimens around, touching the edges or bowing their heads to decipher the characters, before using aluminum foil and molds to complete a simple "casting" experience. One student remarked after the class that creating a personalized handcraft gave them a great sense of achievement.

    The "Flying Museum" program of the Jiangkou Sunken Silver Museum visited the Special Education School in Dongpo District, Meishan City

    The "Flying Museum" is a newly launched social education brand of the Jiangkou Sunken Silver Museum. Liu Juan, head of the Publicity Department, explained that "flying" signifies breaking the confines of display cases to bring tangible, deconstructible knowledge courses directly to schools, communities, and enterprises. "While artifacts behind glass bear 'Do Not Touch' signs, in our classrooms they can be held in hand," she noted, adding that the mobile classroom is the first product in this series, with more content to be developed based on different scenarios in the future.

    The "Flying Museum" program of the Jiangkou Sunken Silver Museum visited Qitong Primary School in Dongpo District, Meishan City

    This event marked the third session of the mobile classroom. Over the previous two days, the course had been delivered at Qitong Primary School in Dongpo District and Meishan Guancheng Experimental School, covering topics ranging from the entire silver ingot casting process to the history of currency. These three sessions covered both regular and special education schools, utilizing identical teaching aids and interactive methods while adjusting content for different grade levels, enabling all students to physically connect with history.

    Liu Juan pointed out that the inscriptions on the Ming Dynasty official silver ingots recovered from the Jiangkou site record rich information, reflecting the fiscal systems, taxation structures, and daily lives of ordinary people during the Ming Dynasty. Currently, the museum is building a content framework centered on late Ming finance, silver circulation, local taxation, private commerce, and gold and silver craftsmanship, providing a sustainable and iterable foundation for public dissemination.

    The "Flying Museum" of the Jiangkou Sunken Silver Museum visited Qitong Primary School in Dongpo District, Meishan City

    The "Flying Museum" of the Jiangkou Sunken Silver Museum visited Meishan Guancheng Experimental School

    The "Flying Museum" program of the Jiangkou Sunken Silver Museum visited Meishan Guancheng Experimental School

    At the special education school, students remained eager for more even as the class concluded. Liu Juan revealed that the museum will soon launch a new study tour course titled "Ming Dynasty Agricultural History Through the Lens of 'Tiangong Kaiwu'". Based on the "Naili" chapter of "Tiangong Kaiwu" (The Exploitation of the Works of Nature), the course will reconstruct Ming Dynasty farming processes, narrate the introduction of American crops such as corn and sweet potatoes, and integrate the Twenty-Four Solar Terms to help students appreciate the ancient wisdom of farming in harmony with the seasons.

    "Whether through mobile classrooms entering campuses or immersive agricultural study tours within the museum, we hope to enable more young people to understand that weighty Ming Dynasty memory resting beneath the river," Liu said.

    【本篇文字部分内容由 AI 辅助写作,特此声明。Please note: the text in this article was created with the help of AI.】