Hu Flask with Standing Bird and Flower of Eight Petals

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The Hu Flask with Standing Bird and Flower of Eight Petals is part of a pair of objects with the same form. It is 63.6 cm high and weighs 12.3 kg, with a capacity of approximately 20,250 ml. It was unearthed in 1935 by the IHP from tomb no. 1 in Shanbiao Town, Henan, and found inside "the Chien Basin with Copper-inlaid Battle Scenes" at the time of excavation. Of the items excavated from the burial site, the Hu Flask and Chien Basin are the most elaborately cast and decorated set of Eastern Zhou bronze vessels.

The design of the Hu Flask is ingenious: the lid is made of two separate pieces, an openwork-styled bird and latticework lotus petals, the bird of which can be removed from the top of the lid with the wings also being removable. It was designated as a “national treasure” by the Ministry of Culture of Taiwan (R.O.C.) in 2009.

The year 1928 saw the establishment of the Institute of History and Philology (IHP) in Guangzhou, China. In the winter of 1948, the IHP relocated to Taiwan, and in 1954, settled in its current location in Nangang. The IHP is a multidisciplinary research institute with research areas covering history, archaeology, anthropology, and philology. The IHP’s achievements are highly valued in both domestic and international academic circles.

The IHP has a collection of more than 140,000 artifacts. These include more than 120,000 archaeological artifacts excavated and collected when the Institute was in China; more than 10,000 Han dynasty wooden slips from Edsen-gol; and more than 1,000 Chinese ethnographic artifacts. In addition, there is also the archives of the Grand Secretariat that has approximately 310,000 archival documents from the Ming and Qing dynasties.

In 1986, the Museum of the Institute of History and Philology was completed to showcase the collection of the IHP. One of the missions of the Museum is to transcend how traditional exhibition formats display their artifacts or fine works, as well as attaching importance to related research efforts and results. The content of the Museum’s exhibitions includes artifacts excavated from tombs of the Shang and Zhou dynasties as well as the Warring States period, Han dynasty wooden slips from Edsen-gol, rare texts, materials contained in the archives of the Grand Secretariat, artifacts from ethnic groups of Southwest China, ink rubbings, and Taiwanese archaeological data and findings. Through the presentation of these artifacts and various educational activities, the IHP shares its latest findings with the broader public.