JOURNEY To The West is the title of one of the four great classics of Chinese literature. Published in the 1590s during the Ming Dynasty, it tells the story of a Chinese monk who is sent by his emperor to travel the silk road west to India to bring back some Buddhist books of wisdom.

Along the way, he meets a number of demonic disciples – including the Monkey King, Sun Wukong, and Pig, Zhu Bajie.

York Art Gallery has reversed the direction of this journey for the title of its latest exhibition, which becomes Journey To The East.

By implication, it invites visitors to make their own journey of exploration, to discover the mysteries of the ancient civilisation that lies at the eastern rim of the world.

And what a civilisation it is. As my wife, who is Chinese, never tires of reminding me, Chinese written history dates back the best part of 4,000 years, to ancient divination records inscribed on the bones or shells of animals – the so-called oracle bones of the Shang Dynasty. York Art Gallery has one of these bones, though sadly the characters inscribed on it are much more recent additions.

Any civilisation with a written history stretching back, unbroken, over almost 4,000 years is guaranteed to be rich. And China’s is certainly that. There is great art and great literature, a wealth of superstition and ritual (despite the many temples, the Chinese have never been particularly religious in the Western sense of the word) and a history of inventiveness and ingenuity.

The Chinese, for example, invented printing, the compass, gunpowder and even, as this exhibition makes clear, the collapsible umbrella. It may have been invented as early as 400 BC, says Helen Walsh, York Art Gallery’s assistant curator of decorative art, who has helped put this exhibition together.

As anyone who has heard the phrase Ming vase will know, Chinese pottery and porcelain was also hugely influential – it had a profound impact on the everyday objects we use in our homes today. And as if all that weren’t enough, the Chinese also pioneered the use of silk.

Journey To The East – essentially a travelling British Museum exhibition that has arrived in York and been supplemented by some of the York Museums Trust’s own material – attempts to give a flavour of this 4,000-odd years of history, and of the impact China has had on the rest of the world.

It is organised around five themes – language and writing, plays and performance, festivals, technology, and food and drink – and contains more than 100 items all told.

There are some fascinating objects on display here – a Ming dynasty (1368-1644) statue of Zhu Bajie, the pig demon from Journey To The West; a Han dynasty (206BC to 220AD) figurine, probably from a tomb, showing two figures playing liubo, an ancient Chinese board game; that forged oracle bone; and a couple of beautiful traditional Chinese musical instruments – a ruan, or Chinese guitar, and an erhu, or Chinese violin.

There is a stunning Qing dynasty paper fan, dating from roughly Victorian times, the faces of the characters depicted on it made of painted ivory, and their clothes from silk appliqué. Also on show is a bronze food container, probably used to hold a burial offering, from a Zhou dynasty (1046-256BC) tomb, some beautiful Chinese papercuts, and some Qing dynasty (1616-1911) shadow puppets.

“We’ve even created a puppet theatre for people to have a go,” says Helen, demonstrating. Children will love it.

Alongside the artefacts, staff at the gallery have injected a contemporary note. The Chinese community in York is small, but it is one of the longest-established in the country, Helen says.

The museum has worked closely with Chinese people living locally to find out about their lives. There are photographs of them around the walls, a series of books which diary their daily lives, even a red tablecloth used at a local Chinese restaurant during a wedding celebration, inscribed with the names of guests in both English and Chinese characters.

There are plenty of hands-on activities for children, too. Youngsters can try their hand at using chopsticks, and even play Chinese chess – as well as having a go with those shadow puppets.

An exhibition like this can only give a glimpse of China’s thousands of years of history and culture, Helen admits. “But I hope people can gain at least a bit more of an understanding of China, and the impact that it has had on the rest of the world. And then maybe they’ll want to go away and learn a bit more themselves.”

l The Journey To The East exhibition runs at York Art Gallery until September.

Admission free.