For centuries, traditional Chinese ink-wash painters and Western artists have been working in parallel. It's difficult to decide which art form is truly superior, but it can be said that compared with the sophistication of Western oil paintings, Chinese ink brushworks do seem to be more simple and straightforward.

"Collection of Ancient Chinese Painting and Calligraphy from the Palace Museum and the Shanghai Museum" unveils a group of ancient Chinese masterpieces to the public, some of them for the first time.

"We are grateful that the Palace Museum has been so generous as to send 62 of their most precious works to this show," says Chen Xiejun, director at the Shanghai Museum, where the exhibition is being held.

For the 80 years since its founding, the Palace Museum has spared no effort in the protection and acquisition of its painting and calligraphy collection.

Before its establishment, Pu Yi, the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) moved more than 1,000 pieces of the most precious Chinese painting and calligraphy works out of the royal collection on behalf of his younger brother Pu Jie.

Starting in 1933, an enormous number of the treasures began to be moved from the palace to the south and a lot of them were shipped to Taiwan before Liberation in 1949. The 5,526 works of painting and calligraphy span from the Tang (618-907 AD) to the Song (960-1279), Yuan (1271-1368), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing dynasties.

The Palace Museum boasts a collection of more than 140,000 pieces of Chinese painting and calligraphy, including inscription rubbings, mural paintings, lithographic prints, glass paintings and models of the epistolary art.

"The number of pieces from the palace ranks top among all our previous exhibitions," says Li Wenru, deputy director at the Palace Museum. "It's because we wanted more people to be able to appreciate them. They're the essence of Chinese culture."

Without a doubt, the star exhibit of the whole show is an original official cursive script handscroll written by Lu Ji (261-303 AD), the earliest Chinese work of calligraphy in existence today.

"This artwork has never before traveled outside the Forbidden City — it is too valuable," Chen says.

According to the organizing staffs, even the opening of this 20-centimeter-long scroll took them hours as they unrolled the scroll millimeter by millimeter.

"We have to take every step cautiously when handling these national treasures," says Chen. "Just imagine — it is almost a miracle that the ink has stayed on the paper."

However, its late former owner Zhang Boju (1897-1982) was also a legendary figure in Chinese history. Zhang was considered to be an expert in poetry, folk drama, a connoisseur of traditional ink-wash painting and calligraphy.

In the 1930s, Zhang first encountered the rare Lu Ji calligraphy in a local exhibition. Zhang was afraid some Western collector would purchase it and take it outside China, so he bought it with all the money he had.

Although his family was in a poor way financially because of China's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45), Zhang never sold his collection and he donated the Lu Ji calligraphy to the Palace Museum in 1950.

"He was a noble collector whose name is indelibly linked to this masterpiece," Chen says.

The work will be in Shanghai for only one week of public display before it is taken back to the Palace Museum.

"We will let it 'have a rest' for three years in our warehouse to extend its longevity," Li says.

Perhaps to some foreigners, works of Chinese calligraphy are hard to understand. But each curving brushstroke can be appreciated as an artistic creation.

And the ancient paintings have a distant yet elegant aura. For example, "Chatting with a Friend in the Thatched Cottage" by scholar artist He Quan of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) features a harmonious scene where people enjoy their simple life surrounded with mountains and rivers.

In order to protect this selection of national treasures, the lighting in the Shanghai Museum will be soft and dim and some of the works are behind bamboo curtains.

"This exhibition will be a good start for future cooperating between the Palace Museum and the Shanghai Museum," Chen says. "We will have a series of other exhibitions because the Palace Museum is like a magical precious depository."

In 2003, some precious items also on loan from the Palace Museum attracted long queues of art lovers who waited for hours in chilly winds outside the Shanghai Museum.

"We expect to see similar scenes for this exhibition," Li says, "and indeed these masterpieces are worth queuing for hours to see."

Date: through February 6, 9am-5pm

Address: 100 People's Ave

Admission: 20 yuan

Tel: 6372-3500