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The concept of “curio box” can be perceived as the combination of assorted items, and thus this exhibition presents such sets accomplished by Qianlong emperor of the Qing dynasty. The deed of gathering objects into the assembled unit was not exclusive to the emperors, but considering the collections of the National Palace Museum majorly came from the Qing palace, which suggests that all artefacts are imprinted with trace of connoisseurship by generations of emperors. Meanwhile, the Archive of the Imperial Workshops gives the indication that most of the reassembling and formation of curio boxes were achieved during the Qianlong reign(1736-1795). Therefore, the exhibition concentrates on exploring how Qianlong emperor took the existed arrangements of collection as his foundation, and further elevated the storage and display into the even more organized order with his creativity.

The appreciation is a lifestyle, a fashion, an art, and a culture; it is a shared language of tea connoisseurs. The originated in China, and methods of tea making have undergone centuries of change, as have the equipment and the manner in which the tea has been enjoyed.

This exhibition comprises five sections: “The Joy of Birth,” “The Wisdom of the Buddha,” “The Compassion of the Bodhisattva,” “Transmission and Transformation of the Buddhist Striptures,” and “The Mystery of Esoteric Buddhism.” Each section presents exhibits side by side in chronological fashion in order to show the similarities and differences in Buddhist art, so that the viewer can appreciate the beauty of Buddhist artworks from different regions during the same period and can see the depth of its philosophical foundations.