"Yü-ting-ning Hall" was the name of the studio of Mr. Chin Hsiao-yi (style name Hsin-po), former director of the National Palace Museum. Born in 1921 in Heng-shan County, Hunan Province, he passed away in Taipei on January 5, 2007. In childhood, Chin Hsiao-yi was personally instructed by his father, receiving a solid and broad education. Untiring in his studies and achieving considerable literary skills, people at the time called him "the number one literary great". Chin Hsiao-yi went on to graduate from the Department of Law at Shanghai Law School, and starting from the age of 24 began assisting central government leaders, serving for many years in the central committee of the Kuomintang Party. In January of 1983, he accepted an appointment as Director of the National Palace Museum, and he retired with honor in May of 2000, managing Museum affairs for eighteen years. Afterwards, he accepted a post as honorary president of the Quanta Culture & Education Foundation, continuing to make contributions to the arts in Taiwan.
During the period when Chin Hsiao-yi was director of the National Palace Museum, he promoted a greater understanding of culture, feeling that antiquity and the present should be linked together. He also believed in an international outlook, for only by expanding one's vision could one turn a new page in culture. During those eighteen years, he handled the expansion of the Museum, ensuring that the collection objects had the latest available environmental facilities for exhibition and means for conservation. He oversaw construction of traditional-style gardens, beautifying the Museum grounds and providing visitors with an ideal place for art and leisure. He furthermore was actively involved in the Museum's acquisition of new objects, filling lacunae in the original Ch'ing court collection. The display of objects from the middle and late Neolithic period down to the modern era presented eight millennia of Chinese culture in an unbroken chain, thereby making breakthroughs in the original Museum formulation as a repository of court treasures. He oversaw the complete inventory of the Museum holdings and the establishment of a unified classification and accession number system, bringing further order and security to the collection. In addition, Director Chin was a fervent believer in the benefits of publishing, presiding over series of panoramic views on Chinese art and culture from five thousand years that allow readers to glimpse the glorious cultural achievements of China unfettered by constraints of time or space. He also helped arrange the "Hundred Treasures" traveling exhibition to various cultural institutions in central and southern Taiwan, allowing people there to experience masterpieces from the collection without having to visit Taipei. Keeping up with international trends, he promoted integrated and diversified exhibitions. His first endeavor was to establish a special exhibition entitled "The Relationship Between Chinese and World Cultures", showing the course of cultural developments over five thousand years. Likewise, he ensured that the National Palace Museum kept in contact with other museums and audiences around the world, facilitating the display of Museum objects in the United States and France. He also encouraged exchange with other museums around the world, helping to bring Western art for exhibit at the Museum and demonstrating the beauty and glorious achievements of Chinese and Western art at the same venue. Not oblivious to developments across the Taiwan Strait or in the private sector, either, he inaugurated Museum exhibits of archaeological works from Mainland China and of art in private collections. And finally, with computer technology becoming one of the most important trends in the world, Chin Hsiao-yi initiated the computerized automation and digitization of the collection, research, and administrative management at the National Palace Museum.
In his spare time from official duties, Chin Hsiao-yi enjoyed composing poetry and doing calligraphy, developing a keen interest in collecting objects of the scholar's studio and works of jade, stone, bamboo, wood, bone, and horn. Each time he handled an artwork or sang of its praise, it helped to form his unique style and taste in art. He developed an elegant and upright form of calligraphy that became known as the "Chin Style," using it to write poems and inscriptions of praise, not only representing his love of art but also adding new life to the ancient works. In 1997, Chin Hsiao-yi donated a substantial collection of objects made of ivory, bone, bamboo, and wood that he had amassed over the years. This group of 237 objects (composed of 296 individual pieces) was donated to the National Palace Museum in the name of his studio, "Yü-ting-ning Hall". In addition, he also donated 42 sets of rare Ming and Ch'ing dynasty books consisting of 2,230 volumes as well as a draft composed by the late Ming martyr Yang Lien on the 24 crimes of the eunuch Wei Chung-hsien and a work in pastels by one of the early modern Taiwanese painters, Yang San-lang. Chin Hsiao-yi's continuous donations to the Museum allow these works to be shared with the rest of the world, demonstrating his dedication to the preservation and display of precious artworks, a quality that has been praised by many.
With the hundredth day of the passing of Chin Hsiao-yi, the National Palace Museum would like to take this opportunity to display some of the works he generously donated as well as examples of calligraphy borrowed from his family. By witnessing the model achievements of Chin Hsiao-yi, this exhibition serves as a token of the gratitude and respect on the part of colleagues, and it is hoped that people in general will come away with a greater understanding of his contributions to the National Palace Museum and the arts in Taiwan.