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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2011  with  funding  from 

Solomon  R.  Guggenheim  Museum  Library  and  Archives 


http://www.archive.org/details/china5000yearsin00lees 


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CHINA 


^         5,000  YEARS 


INNOVATION    AND   TRANSFORMATION    IN    THE    ARTS 


SELECTED    BY    SHERMAN    LEE 


GUGGENHEIM        MUSEUM 


*5f 


front  cover: 
Rearing  dragon 
Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
cat.  no.  59 

back  cover: 

Shang  Xi 

The  Xuande  Emperor  on  an  Outing 

Ming  dynasty  (136S-1644) 

cat.  no.  190  (detail) 

frontispiece: 

Qi  Gong 

Exhibition  of  5,000  Years  of  Chinese  Art  and  Culture 

1997 

previous  two  pages: 

Mythical  beast 

Eastern  Zhou,  Spring  and  Autumn  period  (770-476  bce) 

cat.  no.  46 


©  1998  The  Solomon  R.  Guggenheim  Foundation,  New  York,  and 
Arc  Exhibitions  China,  Beijing.  All  rights  reserved. 

Guggenheim  Museum  Publications 

1071  Fifth  Avenue 

New  York,  New  York    10128 

Hardcover  editions  distributed  by 

Harry  N.  Abrams,  Inc. 

100  Fifth  Avenue 

New  York,  New  York  10011 

ISBN  0-S109-6908-4  (hardcover) 
ISBN  0-89207-202-4  (softcover) 


Design  hyTsang  Seymour  Design,  Inc.,  New  York 
Printed  in  Italy  by  Manogros 


CHINA:  5,000  YEARS 
Curated  by  Sherman  Lee 

Solomon  R.  Guggenheim  Museum 
February  6— June  3,  1998 

Guggenheim  Museum  Bilbao 
Summer  1998 


China:  5,000  Years  has  been  organized  by  the 
Guggenheim  Museum  in  collaboration  with  the 
Ministry  of  Culture  of  the  People's  Republic  of  China 
and  the  National  Administration  for  Cultural 
Heritage  of  the  People's  Republic  of  China, 
China  International  Exhibition  Agency  and 
Art  Exhibitions  China. 

Major  sponsors  of  this  exhibition  are 


©  Lufthansa 


NOKIA 


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Significant  additional  support  has  been  provided  by 

The  Starr  Foundation 

The  W.L.S.  Spencer  Foundation 

and 

Mori  Building  Company  Limited 

This  exhibition  has  also  been  made  possible  in  part 
by  a  major  grant  from  the  National  Endowment  for 
the  Humanities,  expanding  America  s  understanding  of 
who  we  were,  who  we  are,  and  who  we  will  be. 


This  catalogue  is  supported  by  a  grant  from  The  Li-Ching 
Cultural  and  Educational  Foundation. 


HOWARD      ROG  ERS     GENERAL    EDITOR 

Naomi    Richard    consulting  editor 
Sylvia    Moss    editor 


CHINA 

5,000  YEARS 


INTRODUCTIONS 
20       Zhang  Wenbin 
23       Thomas  Krens 
30       Sherman  Lee 

CULTURAL    HISTORY 
36       Patricia  Ebrey 

Some  Elements  in  the  Intellectual  and 

Religious  Context  of  Chinese  Art 
49       Yu  Weichao 

Five  Thousand  Years  of  Chinese 

Culture 

JADE 
55       Elizabeth  Childs-Johnson 

Jade  as  Material  and  Epoch 

BRONZE 
69       Ma  Chengyuan 

Ritual  Bronzes — Epitome  of  Ancient 

Chinese  Civilization 
75       Jenny  So 

Innovation  in  Ancient  Chinese 

Metalwork 

LACQUER 
89       Michael  Knight 

So  Fine  a  Luster: 
Chinese  Lacquerwares 

TEXTILES 
98       Zhao  Feng 

Art  of  Silk  and  Art  on  Silk  in  China 


GRAVE    GOODS 
103     Wu  Hung 

Realities  of  Life  after  Death: 
Constructing  a  Posthumous  World  in 
Funerary  Art 

CERAMICS 
114     Wang  Qingzheng 

The  Development  of  Chinese 

Ceramics:  A  Brief  Survey 
122     Regina  Krahl 

Ceramics  in  China:  Making  Treasures 

from  Earth 

SCULPTURE 
132     Su  Bai 

Origins  and  Trends  in  the  Depiction  of 

Human  Figures  in  China  of  the  Fifth 

and  Sixth  Centuries 
144     Helmut  Brinker 

Transfiguring  Divinities:  Buddhist 

Sculpture  in  China 

CALLIGRAPHY 
159     Peter  Sturman 

Calligraphy 
171      Liu  Jiu'an 

Calligraphy  and  Painting — The  Essence 

of  a  Civilization 

PAINTING 
174    James  Cahill 

Chinese  Painting:  Innovation  After 
"Progress"  Ends 


193 


CATALOGUE 


SPONSOR'S    STATEMENT 


Of  all  cultures  that  have  existed  for  thousands  of  years,  China's  is  one  of  the  oldest.  Since  the  travels  of 
Marco  Polo,  it  has  intrigued  the  Western  imagination  and  has  had  an  immense  influence  on  European  art 
and  culture.  This  fascination  with  China  has  thrived  right  up  until  the  present  day,  and  a  journey  to  "the 
Middle  Kingdom"  remains  an  extraordinarily  rich  and  captivating  experience.  Since  the  earliest  contacts 
between  China  and  the  West,  transportation  technology  has  made  considerable  contributions  to  cultural 
interchange,  first  through  maritime  trade  and  later,  on  a  more  extensive  scale,  through  air  traffic  as  well. 
Lufthansa,  which  has  participated  in  the  realization  of  this  exhibition,  undertook  its  first  test  flights  to 
China  during  the  1920s,  and  in  1927  and  1928,  the  famous  Asian  expert  Sven  Hedin  explored  the  Gobi 
desert  and  its  climate  with  Lufthansa's  assistance. 

These  initial  adventures  developed  into  commerical  flights,  when,  in  1930,  Lufthansa  and  the  Chinese 
Ministry  of  Transport  signed  an  agreement  for  the  operation  of  a  European- Asian  air-mail  company, 
Eurasia. The  company  flew  its  Shanghai-Nanjing-Beijing-Manshuli  route  once  a  week,  and,  although  this 
scheme  soon  had  to  be  given  up,  its  pioneering  flights  represented  a  further  step  in  China's  relationship 
with  Europe  and  the  rest  of  the  world. 

Today,  air  connections  to  China  are  both  comfortable  and  plentiful.  As  in  the  early  days  of  aviation, 
however,  Lufthansa's  commitment  in  China  is  greater  than  the  transportation  of  passengers  and  cargo. 
Together  with  Air  China,  Lufthansa  operates  a  maintenance  center  for  Chinese  aviation,  cooperates  in  the 
training  of  aviation  personnel,  and  runs  air-catering  kitchens. 

China:  5,oooYears  is  an  expression  of  the  ties  between  the  West  and  China  as  it  reemerges  as  an  economic 
and  political  superpower.  We  are  pleased  to  offer  our  support  for  this  exhibition  as  a  Global  Partner  of  the 
Solomon  R.  Guggenheim  Foundation,  with  the  conviction  that  works  of  art  build  the  longest-lasting 
bridges  to  mutual  understanding. 


Frederick  W.  Reid 

President  and  Chief  Operating  Officer 

Lufthansa  German  Airlines 

0  Lufthansa 


SPONSOR'S    STATEMENT 


As  we  begin  our  association  with  the  Guggenheim  Museum,  Nokia  is  especially  pleased  to  play  a  role  in 
bringing  this  rich  story  of  five  thousand  years  of  Chinese  art  and  culture  to  people  of  the  Western  world. 
In  our  contemporary  global  society,  where  the  written  and  spoken  word  may  disjoin,  art  unifies.  It  projects 
the  essence  of  a  people,  their  values,  and  their  inspiration. 

For  Nokia,  art  embodies  the  principles  of  openness,  creativity,  and  lasting  value  to  which  we  as  an  institu- 
tion are  committed.  For  that  reason,  we  are  proud  not  only  to  sponsor  China:  5,000  Years  but  also  to  support 
the  Finnish  Museum  for  Modern  Arts  in  Helsinki  and  the  Chinese  Year  of  Fine  Arts  199S  in  Beijing.  The 
thinking  that  underlies  these  sponsorships  is  reflected  in  our  products,  which  are  designed  for  aesthetic 
appeal  as  well  as  technological  achievement. 

Because  of  this,  our  association  with  the  Guggenheim  is  a  natural  step  in  the  continuing  evolution  ot 
Nokia's  corporate  culture.  We  share  a  common  vision  of  connecting  people  and  enriching  lives  through 
technology,  art,  and  design.  From  its  original  location  in  New  York  to  the  new  museum  in  Bilbao,  the 
Guggenheim  is  synonymous  with  the  development  and  preservation  of  art,  and  thus  with  furthering 
knowledge  and  social  achievement. 

China:  5, 000  Years  is  the  culmination  of  the  efforts  of  a  distinguished  international  team  of  experts.  As  the 
largest  exhibition  of  such  art  ever  to  be  seen  outside  China,  it  presents  an  extremely  broad  and  unprece- 
dented view  of  Chinese  cultural  development  in  which  we  all  can  find  inspiration.  We  hope  that  you  enjoy 
the  exhibition  and  the  great  wealth  it  offers. 


Jorma  Ollila 

President  and  Chief  Executive  Officer 

NOKIA 


SPONSOR'S    STATEMENT 


On  behalf  of  the  thousands  of  Ford  Motor  Company  employees  around  the  world,  I  am  pleased  to  salute 
all  of  those  involved  in  presenting  China:  5,000  Years.  Their  unique  collaboration  offers  the  people  of  the 
United  States  and  Spain  this  extraordinary  exhibition,  which  demonstrates  the  full  scope  of  Chinese  artistic 
development  over  the  last  five  thousand  years. 

Our  thanks  go  to  the  Guggenheim  Museum;  Qian  Qichen,Vice  Premier  and  Foreign  Minister  of  the 
People's  Republic  of  China;  Li  Daoyu,  Ambassador  of  the  People's  Republic  of  China  to  the  United 
States;  the  Ministry  of  Culture  of  the  People's  Republic  of  China;  the  National  Administration  for 
Cultural  Heritage  of  the  People's  Republic  of  China;  China  International  Exhibition  Agency;  and  Art 
Exhibitions  China  for  organizing  this  major  cultural  exchange  between  the  United  States  and  the  People's 
Republic  of  China. 

We  at  Ford  Motor  Company  believe  deeply  in  shared  understanding  between  nations,  and  especially  in 
strengthening  the  relationship  between  the  governments,  businesses,  and  people  of  the  United  States  and 
China.  We  are  particularly  pleased  to  serve  as  a  partner  in  bringing  the  rich  cultural  heritage  of  China  to 
the  people  of  the  United  States  and  Spain,  and  look  forward  to  introducing  the  people  of  China  to 
American  art  when  the  exchange  exhibition  America:  300  Years  is  presented  in  Beijing  and  Shanghai  in  late 
1998  and  1999. 


Alex  Trotman 

Chairman  and  Chief  Executive  Officer 


<X^jtJg/i>Aizm/M 


SPONSOR'S    STATEMENT 


China:  },oooYears  offers  Americans  the  opportunity  to  appreciate  the  beauty  created  over  five  millennia  by 
one  of  the  world's  oldest  civilizations.  From  early  Neolithic  jade  carvings  to  twentieth-century  pieces,  the 
exhibition  allows  the  world  its  first  view  of  many  magnificent  works. 

The  Coca-Cola  Company  commends  the  Guggenheim  Museum  for  bringing  an  extraordinary  collection 
of  Chinese  artistic  treasures  to  the  United  States,  and  for  its  leadership  in  fostering  mutual  understanding 
between  cultures.  We  welcome  the  opportunity  to  demonstrate  our  commitment  to  education  through 
the  arts,  from  the  global  exchange  of  ideas  and  information  to  the  promotion  of  human  understanding 
and  diversity. 

As  a  partner  of  the  Guggenheim  Museum,  we  are  pleased  to  help  spotlight  China  s  rich  cultural  heritage, 
and  to  encourage  a  deeper  understanding  of  the  profound  achievements  of  generations  ot  Chinese  artists. 


M.  Douglas  Ivester 

Chairman  of  the  Board  and  Chief  Executive  Officer 


ffic  (M&& "<  (sc-mpaa/f 


HONORARY    CHAIR 


HONORARY    COMMITTEE 


FIRST    LADY    HILLARY    RODHAM    CLINTON 


GUGGENHEIM    MUSEUM 


Mrs.  Caroline  Leonetti  Ahmanson 
Professor  and  Mrs.  A.  Doak  Barnett 

Senator  Joseph  R.  Biden,Jr. 

Ambassador  Julia  Chung  Bloch 

Dr.  James  Cahill 

Dr.  and  Mrs.  David  C.  Chang 

Jeannette  Chang 

Dr.  Kwang-chih  Chang 

Joan  Chen 

Jerome  A.  and  Joan  Lebold  Cohen 

Douglas  Dillon 

Joseph  Duffey 

Robert  H.  Ellsworth 

Dr.  Wen  and  Constance  T.  Fong 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Victor  Fung 

Leslie  H.  Gelb 

Maurice  R.  Greenberg 

Robert  A.  Hefner  III 

David  D.  Ho,  M.D. 

Mr.Waikam  and  Dr.Waiching  Ho 

The  Honorable  Richard  Holbrooke 
Eric  Hotung 

Sir  Joseph  E.  Hotung 

Ambassador  Arthur  Hummel 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  David  Henry  Hwang 


Vice  Chairman,  National  Committee  on  United  States-China  Relations 
Professor  of  Chinese  Studies,  School  of  International  Studies, 

Johns  Hopkins  University 
Ranking  Minority  Member,  United  States  Senate  Committee  on 

Foreign  Relations 
President,  United  States/Japan  Foundation 

Professor  Emeritus,  History  of  Art,  University  of  California,  Berkeley 
President,  Polytechnic  University 

Vice  President  and  Publisher,  Harper's  Bazaar  Magazine 
Professor,  Department  of  Anthropology,  Harvard  University 
Actress 

Paul  Weiss  Rif  kind  Wharton  and  Garrison 
Former  United  States  Secretary  ot  the  Treasury;  Former  President  and 

Chairman  of  the  Board,  The  Metropolitan  Museum  ot  Art 
Director,  United  States  Information  Agency 
Dealer  in  Chinese  Art 
Consultative  Chairman,  Douglas  Dillon;  Curator  of  Chinese  Painting  and 

Calligraphy,  The  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 
Chairman,  Li  and  Fung  Ltd. 
President,  Council  on  Foreign  Relations 
Chairman,  American  International  Group 
Chairman,  GHK  Companies 
Director,  Aaron  Diamond  AIDS  Research  Center 
Former  Curator,  Cleveland  Museum  of  Art,  and  Former  Curator, 

Nelson-Atkins  Museum  of  Art 
Vice  Chairman,  Credit  Suisse  First  Boston 
Hotung  Institute  for  International  Studies; 

Chairman,  Hotung  Group,  Hong  Kong 
Trustee,  British  Museum 

Former  Ambassador  of  the  United  States  to  the  People's  Republic  of  China 
Playwright 


10 


Dr.  Simon  X.Jiang 

Robert  A.  Kapp 

Dr.  David  N.  Keightley 

Alice  King 

Dr.  Henry  A.  Kissinger 

Geraldine  S.  Kunstadter 

David  M.  Lampton 

Mon  LingYu  Landegger 

Dr.  John  D.  Langlois 

Dr.  Sherman  Lee 

Dr.  Chu-tsing  andYao-wen  Li 

Ambassador  Li  Daoyu 

Mee  Seen  Loong 

H.  Christopher  Luce 

Henry  Luce  III 

Cargill  MacMillan 

Ambassador  Donald  F.  McHenry 

Clare  Tweedy  McMorris 

Robert  S.  McNamara 

Minoru  Mori 

Reverend  Leo  O'Donovan,  S.J. 

Ronald  O.  Perelman 

The  Honorable  Nicholas  Piatt 

The  Honorable  and  Mrs.  Leon  Polsky 

Philip  J.  Purcell 

The  Honorable  Ambassador  Qiu  Shengyun 

Frederick  W.  Reid 

Ambassador  John  Ritch 

David  Rockefeller 

Courtney  Sale  Ross 

Mrs.  Arthur  M.  Sackler 

Mortimer  D.  Sackler,  M.D. 

Ambassador  James  R.  Sasser 

The  Honorable  James  R.  Schlesinger 

General  Brent  Scowcroft 

Patrick  T  Siewert 

John  F.  Smith,  Jr. 

David  Tang 

Chang-Lin  Tien 

Alex  Trotman 

The  Honorable  Cyrus  R.Vance 

John  S.  Wadsworth.Jr. 

C.C.Wang 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wan-go  H.  C.Weng 

Anne  Wexler 

Andrew  Whist 

Torrey  L.  Whitman 

Gary  L.Wilson 

The  Honorable  Leonard  Woodcock 

Dr.  John  Young 


Deputy  Chief,  United  Nations  Pension  Fund  Investments 

President,  United  States-China  Business  Council 

Department  of  History,  University  of  California,  Berkeley 

Alisan  Fine  Arts  Limited 

Former  United  States  Secretary  of  State 

Chair,  Albert  Kunstadter  Family  Foundation 

President,  National  Committee  on  United  States— China  Relations 

Vice  President,  Sotheby's  International  Real  Estate 

Managing  Director,  J.  P.  Morgan  and  Company,  Incorporated 

Director  (retired),  Cleveland  Museum  of  Art 

J.  H.  Murphy  Professor  Emeritus,  University  of  Kansas 

Ambassador  of  the  People's  Republic  of  China  to  the  United  States 

Fine  Arts  Consultant  Specializing  in  Chinese  Antiquities 

Director,  Henry  Luce  Foundation 

Chairman  and  CEO,  Henry  Luce  Foundation 

Board  of  Directors,  Cargill  Inc. 

Distinguished  Professor  in  the  Practice  of  Diplomacy,  Georgetown  University 

Chairman  of  the  Board,  The  China  Institute 

Former  United  States  Secretary  of  Defense 

President,  Mori  Building  Company  Limited 

President,  Georgetown  University 

Chairman  and  CEO,  MacAndrews  &  Forbes 

President,  The  Asia  Society 

Board  of  Directors,  The  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art 

Chairman  and  CEO,  Morgan  Stanley,  Dean  Witter,  Discover  &  Co. 

Consul  General  of  the  Peoples  Republic  of  China  in  New  York 

President  and  COO,  Lufthansa  German  Airlines 

Ambassador  of  the  United  States  to  Austria 

Chairman  Emeritus,  Chase  Manhattan  Bank 

Collector 

Board  of  Directors,  The  Arthur  M.  Sackler  Gallery 

Collector 

Ambassador  of  the  United  States  to  the  People's  Republic  of  China 

Lehman  Brothers 

The  Forum  for  International  Policy 

Chairman  and  President,  Greater  China  Region.  Eastman  Kodak 

President  and  CEO,  General  Motors 

President,  Shanghai  Tang 

Chancellor,  University  of  California.  Berkeley 

Chairman,  President,  and  CEO,  Ford  Motor  Company 

Former  United  States  Secretary  of  State 

Morgan  Stanley  Asia  Ltd. 

Painter;  collector 

Author;  colli  Ctor 

I  )epartment  of  Commerce 

Senior  Vice  President,  Philip  Morris  Companies  Inc. 

President.  China  Institute  of  America 

Chairman.  Northwest  Airline-. 

Former  Ambassador  of  the  United  States  to  the  People's  Republic  of  China 

Executive  Director,  Committee  ol  I*1" 


HONORARY    COMMITTEE 

PEOPLE'S    REPUBLIC    OF    CHINA 


Liu  Zhongde 
Li  Yuanchao 
Zhang  Wenbin 
Ma  Zishu 
Qi  Gong 


Sun  Weixue 

Lei  Congyun 
Hao  Zhan 
Yu  Weichao 
Ma  Chengyuan 
Tan  Bin 
Su  Bai 
Ren  Jiyu 
Wang  Wenqing 
Yang  Huancheng 
Ma  Jiayu 

Xu  Huping 

JiaYang 

Li  Kunsheng 

Shu  Zhimei 

Xia  Lu 

Wang  Mianhou 

Xiong  Chuanxin 

Zhang  Lizhu 

Ji  Genzhang 

Bao  XianJun 

MaiYinghao 

Zhang  Qingjie 
Wang  Limei 

Meng  Xianmin 
Zheng  Guangrong 
Yang  Yang 
Yin  Jia 

Zhang  Jianxin 
Qian  Wei 


Minister,  Ministry  of  Culture  of  P.R.C. 

Vice-Minister,  Ministry  of  Culture  of  P.R.C. 

Director  General,  National  Administration  for  Cultural  Heritage,  P.R.C. 

Vice-Director,  National  Administration  for  Cultural  Heritage,  P.R.C. 

Member,  Standing  Committee  of  the  Chinese  People's  Political 

Conference  of  P.R.C;  Director,  State  Committee  for  Identifying 

Cultural  Relics 
Director,  Bureau  for  External  Cultural  Relations, 

Ministry  of  Culture  of  P.R.C. 
Director,  Art  Exhibitions  China 
Director,  China  International  Exhibition  Agency 
Director,  National  Museum  of  Chinese  History,  Beijing 
Director,  Shanghai  Museum 
Deputy  Director,  Palace  Museum,  Beijing 
Professor,  Beijing  University 
Director,  Beijing  Library 

Director,  Shaanxi  Provincial  Bureau  of  Cultural  Relics 
Director,  Henan  Provincial  Museum,  Zhengzhou 
Director,  Sichuan  Provincial  Institute  of  Archaeology  and  Cultural  Relics, 

Chengdu 
Director,  Nanjing  Museum,  Jiangsu  Province 

Deputy  Director,  Bureau  ot  Culture  ot  Tibetan  Autonomous  Region 
Director,  Yunnan  Provincial  Museum,  Kunming 
Director,  Hubei  Provincial  Museum,  Wuhan 
Director,  Shanxi  Provincial  Museum,  Taiyuan 
Director,  Liaoning  Provincial  Museum,  Shenyang 
Director,  Hunan  Provincial  Museum,  Changsha 
Director,  Hebei  Provincial  Bureau  of  Cultural  Relics 
Director,  Jiangsu  Provincial  Bureau  of  Culture 
Director,  Zhejiang  Provincial  Bureau  of  Cultural  Relics 
Honorary  Director,  Museum  of  the  Tomb  of  the  Nanyue  King  of  the 

Western  Han  Dynasty,  Guangdong  Province 
Director,  Shanxi  Provincial  Institute  of  Archaeology,  Taiyuan 
Director,  Foreign  Affairs  Office,  National  Administration  for  Cultural 

Heritage,  P.R.C. 
Department  Director,  National  Administration  for  Cultural  Heritage,  P.R.C. 
Department  Director,  National  Administration  for  Cultural  Heritage,  P.R.C. 
Deputy  Director,  Art  Exhibitions  China 
Director,  Exhibition  Department,  Art  Exhibitions  China 
Director,  External  Affairs  Department,  Art  Exhibitions  China 
Assistant  Research  Fellow,  Exhibition  Department,  Art  Exhibitions  China 


ADVISORY    COMMITTEE 


GUGGENHEIM    MUSEUM 


Sherman  Lee 
Helmut  Brinker 
James  Cahill 

Elizabeth  Childs-Johnson 
Patricia  Ebrey 
Michael  Knight 
Regina  Krahl 

Jenny  So 

Peter  Sturman 

Wu  Hung 

Zhao  Feng 


Director  (retired),  Cleveland  Museum  of  Art 

Professor,  University  of  Zurich 

Professor  Emeritus,  History  of  Art,  University  of  California,  Berkeley 

Visiting  Scholar,  New  York  University 

Professor,  Department  of  History,  University  of  Washington 

Curator  of  Chinese  Art,  Asian  Art  Museum  of  San  Francisco 

Independent  Scholar,  Affiliated  with  the  Royal  Museums  of  Art  and  History, 

Brussels 
Curator  of  Ancient  Chinese  Art,  Freer  Gallery  of  Art  and  Arthur  M.  Sackler 

Gallery,  Smithsonian  Institution,  Washington,  D.C. 
Associate  Professor,  Department  of  the  History  of  Art  and  Architecture, 

University  of  California,  Santa  Barbara 
Harrie  A.Vanderstappen  Distinguished  Service  Professor  in  Chinese  Art 

History,  University  of  Chicago 
Professor,  China  National  Silk  Museum,  Hangzhou 


ADVISORY    COMMITTEE 


PEOPLE'S    REPUBLIC    OF    CHINA 


Su  Bai 
Qi  Gong 


Huang  Jinglue 

Xu  Pingfang 

Yu  Weichao 
Ma  Chengyuan 
Zhang  Zhongpei 
Wang  Qingzheng 
Liu  Jiu'an 


Professor,  Beijing  University 

Member,  Standing  Committee  of  the  Chinese  People's  Political 

Conference  of  P.R.C.;  Director,  State  Committee  for  Identifying 

Cultural  Relics 
Head,  Expert  Committee  of  the  National  Administration  for  Cultural 

Heritage,  P.K.C 
Researcher,  Former  Director,  China  Social  Science  of  Archaeology 

Institute,  Beijing 
Director,  National  Museum  of  Chinese  History,  Beijing 
Director,  Shanghai  Museum 
Researcher,  Palace  Museum,  Beijing 
Deputy  Director,  Shanghai  Museum 
Researcher,  Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


13 


EXHIBITION    PROJECT    TEAM 

GUGGENHEIM    MUSEUM 


Jane  DeBevoise,  Manon  Slome,  Xiaormng  Zhang, 

Emily  Wei,  Nicole  Lin,  Shihong  Aldin, 

Mary  Jane  Clark,  Tracy  Power,  Adegboyega  Adefope 

Exhibition  Design  Consultant: 
Arata  Isozaki 


EXHIBITION    PROJECT    TEAM 

PEOPLE'S    REPUBLIC    OF    CHINA 


National  Administration  for  Cultural  Heritage: 
Wang  Limei,  Meng  Xianmin,  Zheng  Guangrong 

Art  Exhibitions  China: 

Yang  Yang,  Yin  Jia,  Zhang  Jianxin,  QianWei, 

Chen  Shujie 


LENDERS    TO    THE    EXHIBITION 


National  Museum  of  Chinese  History,  Beijing 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

Liaoning  Provincial  Museum,  Shenyang 

Tianjin  Municipal  History  Museum 

Hebei  Provincial  Museum,  Shijiazhuang 

Hebei  Provincial  Institute  of  Cultural  Relics,  Shijiazhuang 

Henan  Provincial  Museum,  Zhengzhou 

Henan  Provincial  Institute  of  Archaeology  and  Cultural  Relics,  Zhengzhou 

Zhengzhou  Municipal  Museum,  Henan  Province 

Guanlin  Museum  of  Stone  Sculpture,  Luoyang,  Henan  Province 

Luoyang  Cultural  Relics  Work  Team,  Henan  Province 

Luoyang  Municipal  Museum,  Henan  Province 

Nanyang  Municipal  Museum,  Henan  Province 

Hubei  Provincial  Museum,  Wuhan 

Hunan  Provincial  Museum,  Changsha 

Administrative  Office  for  Cultural  Relics,  Anxiang  County,  Hunan  Province 

Museum  of  the  Tomb  of  the  Nanyue  King  of  the  Western  Han  Dynasty,  Guangdong  Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Museum,  Taiyuan 

Shanxi  Provincial  Institute  of  Archaeology,  Taiyuan 

Museum  of  Terra-cotta  Warriors  and  Horses  of  Qin  Shihuangdi,  Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province 

Shaanxi  History  Museum,  Xi'an 

Forest  of  Steles  Museum,  Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province 

Institute  for  the  Protection  of  Cultural  Relics  and  Archaeology,  Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province 

Famen  Temple  Museum,  Shaanxi  Province 

Baoji  Municipal  Museum,  Shaanxi  Province 

Zhouyuan  Museum,  Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province 

Sichuan  Provincial  Museum,  Chengdu 

Sichuan  Provincial  Institute  of  Archaeology  and  Cultural  Relics,  Chengdu 

Administrative  Office  for  Cultural  Relics,  Xindu  County,  Sichuan  Province 

Yunnan  Provincial  Museum,  Kunming 

Administrative  Office  of  Norbu  Linka,  Lhasa,  Autonomous  Region  of  Tibet 

Shanghai  Museum 

Nanjing  Museum,  Jiangsu  Province 

Suzhou  Municipal  Museum,  Jiangsu  Province 

Zhen jiang  Municipal  Museum,  Jiangsu  Province 

Yangzhou  Municipal  Museum,  Jiangsu  Province 

Zhejiang  Provincial  Museum,  Hangzhou 

Zhejiang  Provincial  Institute  of  Cultural  Relics  and  Archaeology,  Hangzhou 

Administrative  Office  for  Cultural  Relics,  Wenling,  Zhejiang  Province 


15 


NOTES    TO    READERS 


Romanization.  Chinese  is  here  transcribed  according  to  the  pinyin  system  of  romanization  adopted  by 
the  People's  Republic  of  China  and  now  in  general  use.  Sanskrit  names  and  terms  are  transcribed  using 
full  upper  diacriticals  but  no  lower  diacriticals.  Parenthetic  C:  and  S:  stand  for  "Chinese"  and  "Sanskrit," 
respectively. 

Names.  All  Chinese  names  are  cited  in  traditional  Asian  fashion,  surname  followed  by  given  name. 

Dates.  Following  custom,  Chinese  emperors  from  antiquity  to  the  beginning  of  the  Ming  dynasty  are 
referred  to  by  the  name  of  their  dynasty  followed  by  their  posthumous  names  (e.g.,  Song  Huizong,  whose 
personal  name  was  Zhao  Ji).  Again  following  custom,  emperors  of  the  Ming  and  Qing  dynasties  are 
referred  to  by  the  auspicious  name  chosen  by  themselves  for  each  of  their  reigns  (e.g.,  the  Xuande 
["Far-Reaching  Virtue"]  emperor).  Note  that  the  reign-era  (iiianliao)  never  exactly  corresponded  to  the 
dates  of  the  reign  itself,  usually  being  proclaimed  some  months  after  the  enthronement  and  continuing  in 
use  until  the  successor,  some  time  after  his  enthronement,  proclaimed  a  new  reign-era. 

Ceramics.  Chinese  place-names  changed  frequently,  usually  reflecting  political  changes.  Most  ceramics  are 
conventionally  called  by  the  ancient  names  of  the  states,  counties,  or  towns  in  or  near  which  the  principal 
kilns  were  located  (Cizhou  ware.Yue  ware),  or  by  the  site  names  of  the  first  characteristic  finds  (Yangshao 
ware).  Names  of  other  wares  refer  to  their  glaze  color  (e.g.,  qingbai,  "bluish  white,"  or  sancai,  "three- 
colored").  Note  that  the  gray-green,  blue-green,  or  olive-green  wares  formerly  differentiated  as  Northern 
and  Southern  Celadons,  Ru  ware,  and  Guan  ware  are  here  all  termed  "green-glazed  ware,"  as  an  indication 
that  they  are  all  branches  of  a  single  stylistic  and  technological  "family." 


16 


ntroduction 


Zhang  Wenbin 

Director  General, 

National  Administration  for 

China:  5,oooYears,  an  exhibition  nearly  cultural  Heritage,  Beijing 

four  years  in  preparation,  is  a  major  event 

in  Sino-American  cultural  exchanges,  one 

that  will  undoubtedly  further  mutual 

understanding  between  our  two 

governments  and  friendship  between  our 

two  peoples.  On  this  occasion,  both  as 

Director  General  of  the  National 

Administration  for  Cultural  Heritage  and 


in  my  personal  capacity,  I  am  delighted  to  offer 
warm  and  heartfelt  congratulations  for  the 
exhibitions  opening  at  the  world-renowned 
Solomon  R.  Guggenheim  Museum,  and  to 
anticipate  its  resounding  success. 

The  exhibition  China:  5,000  Years  is  aptly  named, 
for  the  more  than  two  hundred  Chinese  cultural 
treasures  here  assembled  range  from  extraordinary 
and  inspired  creations  of  our  prehistoric  forebears 
to  objects  of  luxury  and  paintings  dating  from  the 
reigns  of  the  Yongzheng  (r.  1723-1735)  and 
Qianlong  (r.  1736-1795)  emperors  of  the  Qing 
dynasty.  Thirty-nine  different  cultural  institutions 
throughout  China  have  made  these  treasures 
available.  Among  the  exhibits  are  a  jade  pig-dragon 
of  the  Hongshan  culture  in  Liaoning  Province 
(cat.  2),  the  extraordinary  four-ram  bronze  zun  of 
Shang  date  from  Hunan  Province  (cat.  23),  and  a 
mwe-glazed  octagonal  bottle  from  the  Famen 
Temple  in  Shaanxi  Province  (cat.  125),  as  well  as 
stone  carvings  from  a  Song  dynasty  temple  site  in 
Shaanxi  Province  (cat.  177),  and  Song,  Yuan,  Ming, 
and  Qing  dynasty  paintings  from  the  collections  of 
the  Shanghai  Museum  and  the  Palace  Museum  in 
Beijing.  Some  of  these  national  treasures  of  long- 
standing fame  are  being  exhibited  abroad  for  the 
first  time.  I  may  therefore  say  without  exaggeration 
that,  for  quality,  size,  comprehensiveness,  and 
diversity  of  sources,  China:  5,oooYears  sets  new 
standards  for  overseas  exhibitions  of  Chinese 
cultural  relics.  This  is  truly  a  magnificent  show,  and 
those  who  see  it  will  have  reason  to  rejoice. 

As  Chinese  and  American  experts  agreed,  this 
exhibition  at  the  Guggenheim  Museum  will  focus 
on  the  magnificent  advances  in  the  civilization  of 
the  Chinese  people  over  five  millennia,  as  reflected 
in  culture  and  art.  I  strongly  agree  with  this  well- 
conceived  approach,  and  fully  support  its 
implementation.  Although  the  appearance  and 
development  of  every  art  form  are  subject  to  the 
constraints  of  natural,  social,  and  historical 
conditions,  art,  which  expresses  as  well  as  nourishes 
the  essence  of  the  human  spirit,  often  epitomizes 
the  starting  and  end-points  of  human  development. 
It  transcends  the  limitations  of  era,  country,  and 
ethnicity,  brings  together  all  the  dignity  and  pride 
of  the  human  race,  and  demonstrates  that  most 
precious  wisdom  and  capacity  inherently  possessed 
by  people.  Hence,  works  of  art  can  reflect  the 
continuity  and  variation  of  a  cultural  tradition,  the 
internal  meaning  and  outward  manifestations  of  an 
era,  and  the  internal  character  and  spiritual  qualities 
of  a  people.  They  do  so  in  the  profoundest  and 
most  diverse  ways,  from  a  wealth  of  perspectives, 
and  through  the  freshest  and  liveliest  forms.  For  this 
reason,  works  of  art  can  also  easily  overcome  the 
constraints  of  time  and  space  to  communicate 
knowledge  and  friendship  between  people  of 


different  ethnicities  and  cultural  traditions,  and  111 
so  doing  to  build  bridges  of  understanding  and 
trust.  Although  the  various  artistic  treasures 
displayed  in  China:  5,000  Years  are  but  a  tiny  portion 
of  China's  ancient  artistic  heritage,  they  are  among 
the  most  representative  and  most  expressive 
specimens.  My  respected  teacher,  Professor  Su  Bai 
of  Beijing  University,  and  others  have  prepared 
excellent  detailed  comments  and  analyses.  I  am 
therefore  fully  confident  that  through  an 
appreciation  of  these  remarkable  works  of  art, 
viewers  will  gain  a  clear  and  deep,  albeit  not 
comprehensive,  impression  of  the  Chinese  people 
over  five  millennia,  and  of  the  breadth  and  depth  of 
their  history  and  culture. 

Among  the  world's  great  civilizations,  that  of  China 
is  unique  in  its  continuity.  The  Mesopotamians  or 
the  Mayans  have  no  modern  heirs,  but  modern 
Chinese  culture  has  demonstrably  descended  in  an 
unbroken  line  from  its  ancient  roots.  Chinese 
culture  is  also  remarkable  in  the  degree  to  which 
cultural  differences,  born  of  time  and  vast  distance, 
interpenetrated  and  catalyzed  the  development  of  a 
coherent  and  enduring  Chinese  culture.  Like  a 
mighty  and  luxuriant  tree,  China  stands  tall  in  the 
forest  of  the  world's  peoples,  surviving  and  thriving 
through  five  thousand  years  of  winds  and  rains,  a 
remarkable  history  that  may  not  be  well  known  in 
the  West. 

In  this  exhibition  one  can  see  about  thirty  bronzes 
from  the  Xia,  Shang,  and  Zhou  periods  (21st- 
5th  c.  BCE).They  come  from  the  nine  provinces  of 
Hebei,  Henan,  Shanxi,  Shaanxi,  Hubei,  Hunan, 
Zhejiang,  Sichuan,  and  Yunnan.  The  sites  where 
they  were  unearthed  span  a  distance  roughly  equal 
to  that  between  the  east  and  west  coasts  of  the 
United  States  and  a  period  of  roughly  fifteen 
hundred  years.  In  design,  ornamentation,  stylization, 
and  casting  techniques  these  bronzes  display 


dissimilarities  ranging  in  degree  from  variations  to 
pronounced  differences.  The  resulting  richness 
and  diversity  was  occasioned  not  only  by  passage 
of  time  and  change  of  dynasties  but  also  by 
differences  in  region  and  ethnicity.  This  richness 
and  diversity  testifies  to  continuous  progress  in 
social  productivity,  social  structure,  and  social 
consciousness  in  Bronze  Age  China.  Diversity  of 
form  and  technique,  however,  was  subsumed  in  a 
commonality  of  function:  the  bronzes  of  this  period 
all  served  as  utensils  for  rituals  and  ceremonials 
(such  as  sacrifices  and  banquets)  and  as  symbols  of 
the  social  status  of  their  users. 

So  too  with  other  types  of  artworks  from  other 
periods  of  Chinese  history;  interpenetration  and 
continuity  became  a  basic  phenomenon  of  Chinese 
cultural  development.  Such  cultural  intermingling 
and  merging  demonstrate  the  influence  and 


INTRODUCTION 


18 


absorptive  power  of  the  orthodox  culture,  which 
was  primarily  that  of  the  majority  Han  people 
(as  well  as  of  their  predecessors,  the  Huaxia  people). 
It  reflects  the  stability  of  that  culture,  as  well  as  the 
harmonious  coexistence  of  cultural  diversity  and 
uniformity,  which  is  its  essential  quality.  To  the 
best  of  my  knowledge,  this  may  be  a  mode  of 
cultural  progression  unique  to  China.  It  germinated 
in  prehistoric  China,  took  shape  in  the  pre-Qin 
period,  and  was  continually  reinforced  in  dynastic 
China.  History  has  already  shown  that  China's  vast 
and  wondrous  soil  affords  a  great  stage  for  her 
many  nationalities  to  exercise  their  native  bents 
and  abilities. 

A  people  must  have  a  source  of  spiritual  strength. 
The  great  wellspring  of  spiritual  strength  and 
survival  for  the  Chinese  people  over  several 
millennia  has  been  their  sense  of  dignity,  love, 
confidence,  and  respect  for  themselves;  their  love  of 
country  and  struggle  tor  unity;  their  perseverance, 
self-renewal,  and  ability  to  carry  on  against  all 
adversity.  It  was  precisely  the  tremendous  creativity 
unleashed  by  this  spirit  that  has  enabled  the 
Chinese  people  to  flourish  at  an  early  period  of 
human  history,  to  maintain  their  place,  unceasing 
and  uninterrupted,  among  the  peoples  of  the 
world,  and  in  so  doing  to  make  an  indelible 
contribution  to  human  culture.  A  full  recognition 
of  this  characteristic  of  Chinese  culture  will  help 
deepen  our  understanding  of  its  perseverance  and 
also  reinforce  our  confidence  in  its  future. 

The  treasures  displayed  in  Cliina:  5,000  Years  have 
existed  for  thousands  of  years  and  will  continue  to 
exist  for  uncounted  years  more,  providing  strong 
evidence  of  China's  enormous  potential.  A 
dependable  foundation  for  the  full  realization  of 
this  great  potential,  5,000  years  of  cumulative 
cultural  achievements  augur  well  for  China's  swift 
ascent  in  the  twenty-first  century. 

May  lggy,  Honglou  Simian,  Beijing 


INTRODUCTION 


19 


Introduction  and 
Acknowledgments 


China:  5, 000  Years  explores  innovation 
and  transformation  in  Chinese  art  over  a 
period  of  five  millennia,  from  neolithic 
jades  of  the  third  millennium  bce 
through  the  modern  era.  While  the  very 
length  of  this  continuous  cultural 
tradition  may  suggest  a  profound 
conservatism,  China  has  in  fact  produced 
daring,  transgressive,  and  stylistically 


Thomas  Krens 

Director,  The  Solomon  R. 
Guggenheim  Foundation 


and  technologically  innovative  art  for  a  longer  peri- 
od of  time,  and  at  a  higher  level  of  sophistication, 
than  any  other  civilization  in  history.  This  exhibi- 
tion, which  is  designed  to  confirm  that  assertion, 
results  from  the  timely  convergence  of  two  distinct 
factors:  a  wealth  of  newly  excavated  objects  and 
artifacts  of  stunning  beauty  and  significance,  and  an 
increased  appreciation  in  China  of  cultural  achieve- 
ments of  the  twentieth  century.  As  a  consequence, 
the  juxtaposition  of  modern  Chinese  art  with  its 
traditional  counterpart  in  an  exhibition  mounted 
by  a  major  Western  museum  has  been  made  possi- 
ble for  the  first  time  ever. 

The  major  exhibitions  of  art  from  Taiwan  that  have 
been  staged  in  recent  years  have  encouraged  a  pop- 
ular perception  that  works  of  comparable  quality 
do  not  exist  today  in  China.  It  is  important  to 
stress,  first  of  all,  that  significant  portions  of  the  for- 
mer imperial  collection  never  left  China  but 
remained  in  Beijing  and  elsewhere;  the  Palace 
Museum  in  Beijing,  for  example,  still  holds  some 
ten  thousand  premodern  paintings  and  pieces  of 
calligraphy.  Second,  major  collections  remained  in 
private  hands,  and  many  of  these  works  subsequent- 
ly entered  public  collections  in  Shanghai  (where 
approximately  six  thousand  scrolls  are  located), 
Nanjing  (about  fifteen  hundred  scrolls),  and  other 
large  and  small  museums  throughout  the  country. 
Finally,  large-scale  artworks,  such  as  stone  sculpture, 
which  could  not  be  readily  removed,  remained  in 
numerous  religious  and  secular  contexts. 

It  has  been  noted  that  China's  cultural  legacy, 
unlike  that  of  Greece  or  Rome,  was  preserved 
beneath  rather  than  on  the  surface  of  the  ground, 
due  to  the  long-standing  practice  of  burying  art- 
works with  the  deceased. The  clandestine  opening 
of  tombs  began  as  early  as  the  time  of  Confucius,  in 
the  fifth  century  bce,  and  bronzes  and  jades  so 
gathered  formed  part  of  the  imperial  collection  in 
later  centuries.  But  formal  archaeological  excava- 
tions were  virtually  unknown  in  ('lima  before  the 
present  century,  and  were  not  conducted  continu- 


ously and  systematically  until  after  the  founding  of 
the  People's  Republic  of  China.  During  the  nearly 
five  decades  since  then,  the  pace  of  discovery  has 
quickened  from  a  trickle  to  a  deluge  of  new  finds,  a 
logical  outcome  of  the  surging  economic  develop- 
ment that  required  the  digging  of  foundations  for 
new  factories,  houses,  office  buildings,  roads,  air- 
ports, and  power  facilities.  China  has  now  become 
the  scene  of  more  archaeological  activity  than  any- 
where else  in  the  world,  and  the  discoveries  have 
added  immensely  to  our  existing  knowledge  in 
some  areas,  while  opening  entirely  new  chapters  in 
others.  The  discovery,  conservation,  and  analysis  of 
these  objects  and  artifacts  will,  of  course,  continue, 
and  a  definitive  cultural  history  remains  to  be  writ- 
ten. But  China: 5,oooYears,  which  draws  heavily  on 
these  new  resources  and  discusses  them  in  a  schol- 
arly context  within  this  exhibition  catalogue,  has 
become  an  active  participant  in  that  process. 

The  traditional  section  of  China:  5,oooYears  draws 
its  material  from  the  cultural  treasures  held  in 
museums  throughout  the  People's  Republic  of 
China,  as  well  as  the  discoveries  that  haw  come  to 
light  in  the  last  fifty  years,  to  present  an  expanded 
vision  of  Chinese  culture.  Professor  Sherman  Lee  is 
the  chief  architect  of  this  enterprise.  1  lis  lifetime 
commitment  to  the  art  of  China,  his  extraordinary 
professional  career — which  included  twenty-six 
years  as  Director  of  the  Cleveland  Museum  of  Ait. 
where  he  built  one  of  the  great  collections  oi 
Chinese  antiquities — and  his  reputation  .is 
America's  leading  scholar  oi  Chinese  culture  have 
given  him  a  singular  platform  from  which  to  for- 
mulate an  exquisite  sensitivity  toward  and  under- 
standing of  Chinese  art  history.  Professoi  1  ee's 
insights, which  are  reflected  in  his  selection  >'t 
objects  for  this  exhibition,  include  the  dynamic 
relationships  that  existed  between  the  earl)  Chinese 
and  the  spiritual,  natural,  and  cosmological  worlds 
in  which  the)  lived,  lie  also  emphasizes  an  aggres- 
sively innovative  and  transformative  impulse — 
rather  than  a  reliance  on  tradition — as  the  enduring 
achievemeni  of  Chinese  art,  and  he  gives  an 


INTRODUCTION    AND    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 


21 


unprecedented  primacy  to  three-dimensional  work, 
particularly  to  Buddhist  sculpture. 

These,  then,  are  the  great  formative  themes  of 
China:  5,000  Years,  which  emerged  as  a  result  of 
Professor  Lee's  numerous  trips  to  China  over  the 
past  four  years.  During  these  visits,  he  traveled 
throughout  the  country  to  provincial  museums  and 
archaeological  excavations,  as  well  as  to  the  great 
collections  in  Beijing  and  Shanghai.  He  searched 
through  warehouses  of  recently  excavated  material 
and  considered  well-known  objects  currently  on 
display.  The  selection  of  objects  he  made  for  this 
exhibition  reflects  his  personal  vision,  and  it  has  a 
freshness  and  a  breathtaking  elegance  that  will 
make  scholars  and  laymen  alike  feel  that  they  are 
seeing  Chinese  art  for  the  first  time.  Professor  Lee's 
vision  has  been  supported  by  an  impressive  array  of 
international  scholars,  who  have  provided  assistance 
and  consultation  on  every  aspect  of  the  project, 
including  Helmut  Brinker,  James  Cahill,  Regina 
Krahl,  Howard  Rogers,  and  Jenny  So,  who  rendered 
continuous  support  and  advice  on  all  aspects  of  the 
exhibition  as  it  was  being  planned  and  on  the 
structure  and  rhythm  of  the  installation  at  the 
Guggenheim  Museum.  On  the  Chinese  side,  Zhang 
Wenbin,  Director  General  of  the  National 
Administration  for  Cultural  Heritage,  and  Wang 
Limei,  Director  of  the  Foreign  Affairs  Office  of  the 
National  Administration  for  Cultural  Heritage, 
structured  the  lengthy  discussions  and  negotiations 
with  the  various  museums  and  archaeological  exca- 
vations that  have  lent  objects  to  the  exhibition. 
They  also  provided  invaluable  advice,  as  did  the 
directors  of  the  Palace  Museum  in  Beijing  and  the 
Shanghai  Museum,  Yang  Xin,  Ma  Chengyuan,  and 
Wang  Qingzheng,  who  not  only  made  their  collec- 
tions available,  but  often  suggested  improvements  to 
the  checklist  that  went  beyond  our  expectations.  In 
short,  the  traditional  section  of  China:  5,oooYears  is 
a  visionary  and  collaborative  enterprise  of  unprece- 
dented proportion  between  Chinese,  American,  and 
international  scholars. 

The  modern  section  of  China:  5,000  Years  has  no 
less  an  engaging  history.  As  China  has  modernized 
and  gradually  become  more  accessible  to  the 
Western  world  during  the  past  150  years,  so  too  has 
its  visual  culture,  but  the  country's  most  recent  cul- 
tural production  has  been  largely  ignored  by  a 
Western  sensibility  dominated  almost  exclusively  by 
a  Modernist  Western  canon.  The  turbulent  political 
and  social  context  in  which  twentieth-century 
Chinese  art  has  developed,  however,  is  no  reason  to 
separate  it  from  the  larger  history  of  Chinese  art 
from  which  it  derives  much  of  its  inspiration,  or 
from  the  Western  traditions  that  it  also  reflects.  Its 
particular  fascination  will  not  be  found  in  the 
degree  to  which  it  participated  in  the  development 
of  a  Euro-American  Modernism,  but  rather  in  the 


struggle  that  is  reflected  in  its  attempt  to  bridge  tra- 
ditional Chinese  attitudes  with  the  inevitable  con- 
sequences of  contemporary  politics  and  expanding 
contact  with  the  West. 

The  late  nineteenth  to  early  twentieth  centuries 
brought  a  certain  cultural  cross-fertilization 
between  China  and  Europe.  Just  as  European  artists 
were  influenced  by  Asian  block-printing  tech- 
niques, perspectival  flatness,  and  decorative  tenden- 
cies, for  example,  Chinese  artists  were  drawn  to 
Western  approaches,  methodologies,  and  tech- 
niques, such  as  Impressionism,  abstraction,  realistic 
portraiture,  and  oil  painting.  The  late  nineteenth 
century  in  China  saw  innovations  within  the  tradi- 
tional context,  which  developed  under  the  patron- 
age of  Shanghai's  new  economic  elite.  Highlights 
included  elaborate  works  with  bird  and  flower 
themes,  and  paintings  based  on  fantastic  narratives, 
which  appealed  to  a  new  class  of  collectors  in  this 
vibrant  industrial  port  city.  Chinese  art  of  the  early 
part  of  the  twentieth  century  reflected  the  growing 
cosmopolitan  attitude  of  Chinese  artists,  many  of 
whom  studied  abroad.  The  1920s  saw  a  re- 
emergence  of  the  woodcut  as  a  powerful  artistic 
medium,  as  art  became  swept  up  in  the  social  and 
political  upheavals  that  were  coursing  through 
China.  The  inherently  stark  contrast  and  imminent 
reproducibility  of  woodcuts  made  this  a  natural 
medium  for  communicating  the  horrific  realities  of 
the  Japanese  invasion,  and  the  numerous  prints 
reflecting  the  horrors  of  war  from  this  period  recall 
the  graphic  work  of  Francisco  de  Goya  in  their 
shocking  impact.  Postwar  communism  brought  a 
socialist-realist  format  that  produced  some  of  the 
most  outstanding  examples  of  realist  painting  ever 
seen.  Although  Chinese  socialist  realism  was  not 
considered  by  most  Western  critics,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  painterly  technique  flourished  in  the 
Chinese  academy  at  a  level  of  extraordinary  sophis- 
tication, and  this  laid  the  foundation  for  a  rejuvena- 
tion of  Chinese  art  during  the  past  two  decades 
through  a  blending  of  traditional,  academic,  and 
international  influences.  In  short,  the  art  of  China 
in  the  twentieth  century  tells  a  compelling  story, 
which  demands  to  be  considered  in  the  context  of 
the  long  train  of  Chinese  art  history,  and  in  the 
context  of  an  emerging  global  sensibility. 

The  Guggenheim  has  been  again  fortunate  in 
attracting  a  first-rate  team  of  scholars  to  organize 
this  narrative  of  modern  Chinese  art,  under  the 
leadership  and  direction  of  Professor  Julia  Andrews 
of  The  Ohio  State  University,  one  of  the  world's 
leading  scholars  of  twentieth-century  Chinese  art. 
Professor  Andrews  has  been  ably  assisted  in  her 
selection  by  contributions  from  Kuiyi  Shen, 
Presidential  Fellow,  The  Ohio  State  University; 
Jonathan  Spence,  Sterling  Professor  of  History, 
Yale  University;  Shan  Guolin,  Chief  Curator  of 


INTRODUCTION    AND    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 


22 


Painting  and  Calligraphy,  Shanghai  Museum; 
Christina  Chu,  Curator,  Xubaizhai,  The  Hong 
Kong  Museum  of  Art;  Xue  Yongnian,  Professor 
of  Art  History,  Central  Academy  of  Fine  Arts, 
Beijing;  May-ching  Kao,  Professor  of  Fine  Arts 
and  Director,  Art  Museum,  The  Chinese 
University  of  Hong  Kong;  and  Joan  Lebold 
Cohen,  critic  and  author. 

While  one  great  achievement  of  China: 5,oooYears 
is  to  place  the  traditional  and  the  modern  into 
adjacent  contexts,  they  remain  two  distinct 
stories — one  a  reexamination  of  classical,  dynastic 
Chinese  art  in  terms  of  its  innovative  and 
transgressive  tendencies;  the  other  an  account  of 
modern  Chinese  art  as  a  reflection  of  political 
history  and  in  terms  of  its  attempt  to  sustain  both 
classical  and  Western  cultural  vocabularies.  Together 
they  make  a  third  story:  five  thousand  years  of  con- 
tinuous cultural  history  in  China  that  continues  to 
the  present  day. 

The  sheer  scope  of  such  an  exhibition  enterprise  is, 
of  course,  ambitious,  and  it  carries  with  it  many 
challenges  and  contradictions.  In  its  very  title, 
China:  5,000  Years  poses  many  questions:  Can  any 
single  exhibition  legitimately  explore  five 
thousand  years  of  any  culture,  let  alone  one  as  rich 
as  this?  Does  it  make  sense  to  link  twentieth- 
century  Chinese  culture  with  forty-nine  centuries 
of  "traditional"  culture?  Is  the  Guggenheim 
Museum — with  its  collections  and  expertise  firmly 
rooted  in  twentieth-century  Western  art — a  legiti- 
mate organizer  of  such  an  event?  How  does  the 
narrative  thread  of  this  exhibition  relate  to  the  his- 
tory of  Chinese  art  as  it  is  understood  through  the 
weight  of  scholarship  on  Chinese  history  and  art  to 
date,  and  through  the  Chinese  objects  exhibited 
and  studied  in  museums  in  Taiwan,  Europe,  and 
America?  The  answers  to  these  questions  will 
inevitably  be  found  in  the  exhibition  itself.  The 
importance  of  China:  5,000  Years  will  be  a  function 
of  its  ability  to  present  a  fresh,  incredibly  rich,  and 
provocative  new  chapter  to  the  study  of  the  cultural 
history  of  China. 

The  story  of  the  genesis  and  development  of 
China:  $,oooYcars  as  an  exhibition  project  is  itself  an 
extraordinary  tale.  That  it  is  organized  by,  and 
shown  in,  the  Guggenheim  Museums  in  New  York 
derives  from  a  specific  sequence  of  conditions  and 
circumstances  favorable  to  such  an  enterprise,  and 
from  the  participation  and  commitment  of  a 
diverse  and  impressive  group  of  individuals  who  are 
committed  to  China  and  to  fostering  international 
understanding  through  cultural  communication. 
The  initial  impulse  for  the  project — its  primary 
motivation — derives  from  the  simple  fact  that 
China  is  a  country  of  deep  traditions,  extraordinary 
achievement,  startling  paradoxes,  and  enormous 


potential.  At  the  close  of  the  twentieth  century. 
China  is  inhabited  by  1.22  billion  people,  the 
largest  population  on  earth;  it  occupies  the  fourth 
largest  land  mass  of  any  country,  and  is  the 
projected  superpower  of  the  twenty-first  century. 
China  is  also  in  the  midst  of  historic  transitions — 
from  a  rural/agrarian-  to  an  urban/manufacturmg- 
based  society,  and  from  a  communist  command 
economy  to  a  capitalist  market-based  one.  Its  sheer 
size,  potential,  and  history  make  it  a  force  to  be 
reckoned  with. Yet  it  is  also  a  country  whose  char- 
acter, culture,  and  traditions  are  still  very  much 
unfamiliar  in  the  West. 

On  both  a  political  and  an  economic  level,  China's 
future  demands  a  special  relationship  with  the 
United  States.  The  two  countries  are  locked  in  an 
embrace  that  is  everywhere  in  evidence.  China 
sends  17  percent  of  its  exports  to  the  United 
States,  and  now  holds  over  $130  billion  in  foreign- 
currency  reserves  in  the  form  of  U.S.  Treasury 
bonds;  American  companies  have  more  than 
$20  billion  invested  in  China;  an  estimated 
fifty  thousand  Chinese  study  at  American  colleges 
and  universities,  constituting  the  single  largest  body 
of  foreign  students  in  the  United  States;  more  than 
half  a  million  American  tourists  visited  China  in 
1996;  and  fifteen  million  Americans  are  of  Chinese 
ancestry.  His  Excellency  Jiang  Zemin,  President  of 
the  People's  Republic  of  China,  visited  the  United 
States  last  October,  and  the  Honorable  Bill  Clinton, 
President  of  the  United  States,  is  planning  a  state 
visit  to  China  later  this  year.  The  growing  need  for 
China  and  the  United  States  to  accommodate  one 
another  has  created  a  simultaneous  demand  for 
cultural  engagement,  and  this  was  the  major  pre- 
condition for  the  motivation,  the  will,  and  the 
opportunities  on  both  sides  required  to  conceive 
of  and  organize  this  exhibition. 

On  a  more  local  level,  another  major  precondition 
for  the  exhibition  was  the  nature  of  the  evolving 
direction  and  focus  of  the  Guggenheim  Museum 
itself.  During  the  past  ten  years,  the  Guggenheim 
has  experienced  a  significant  transformation. With 
the  renovation  of  its  original  Frank  1  loyd  Wright 
building,  the  construction  of  a  new  addition,  and 
the  establishment  of  the  Guggenheim  Museum 
S0H0  in  1992,  the  Guggenheim  Foundation  broad 
ened  its  physical  and  programming  base  and  estab 
lished  a  strong  position  in  New  York  City,  or 
the  greatest  cultural  capitals  111  the  world.  This  local 
expansion  was  supplemented  In  continued 
improvements  and  a  modest  expansion  .it  the  Pegg) 
Guggenheim  Collection  in  Venice,  and  In  the  dra- 
matic completion  and  opening  of  the  Guggenheim 
Museum  Bilbao,  a  building  designed  by  Frank 
Gehry  that  mam  critics  are  saying  will  take  its 
place  alongside  the  Frank  I  loyd  Wright  designed 
Gueeenheim  in  New  York  as  one  ol  the  two 


INTRODUCTION    AND    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 


23 


greatest  buildings  of  the  twentieth  century.  The 
Bilbao  opening  was  followed  two  weeks  later  by 
the  opening  of  Deutsche  Guggenheim  Berlin. 

The  Guggenheim  is  becoming  a  truly  international 
museum  not  only  in  terms  of  buildings  and  loca- 
tions, but  also  through  an  equally  intense  commit- 
ment to  expanding  its  programming,  reflected  both 
in  the  growth  of  its  permanent  collection  and  in 
the  breadth  and  depth  of  its  special  exhibitions. 
The  original  mission  of  the  museum  was  to  collect, 
preserve,  and  present  the  art  of  the  Modern  and 
contemporary  periods.  Nine  superlative  curators 
from  three  countries  have  dramatically  expanded 
the  scope  of  programming,  with  major 
monographic  exhibitions  devoted  to,  among 
others,  Ellsworth  Kelly,  Roy  Lichtenstein,  Claes 
Oldenburg,  and  Robert  Rauschenberg;  important 
historical  exhibitions  such  as  Tlie  Great  Utopia: 
The  Russian  and  Soviet  Avant-Garde,  igi5-igj2,  The 
Italian  Metamorphosis,  ig43~ig68,  Picasso  and  the  Age 
of  Iron,  and  Africa:The  Art  of  a  Continent;  and 
smaller,  focused  exhibitions  such  as  Max  Beckmann 
in  Exile,  Visions  of  Paris:  Robert  Delaunay's  Series,  and 
Rrose  is  a  Rrose  is  a  Rrose:  Gender  Performance  in 
Photography.  In  the  process  of  developing  these 
projects,  the  Guggenheim  has  become  a  major  pro- 
ducer of  exhibitions.  A  measure  of  its  success  is 
reflected  in  the  fact  that,  during  the  past  five  years, 
Guggenheim-organized  exhibitions  have  been  pre- 
sented in  more  than  eighty  museums  around  the 
world,  from  Bilbao  to  Shanghai,  from  Los  Angeles 
to  Munich,  and  from  Singapore  to  Vienna. 

A  fundamental  shift  in  attitude  has  complemented 
this  extraordinary  programmatic  growth.  The 
Guggenheim  recognizes  that  culture  in  the  twenti- 
eth and  twenty-first  centuries  cannot  be  treated  as  a 
Western-oriented,  Euro-American  hegemony. 
Museums  in  particular  cannot  maintain  a  high 
regard  for  classical  and  antique  cultures  from 
around  the  world  while  remaining  skeptical  about 
the  contemporary  art  of  non-Western  traditions. 
That  a  new  postmodern,  multifaceted,  multilingual 
contemporary  global  culture  is  emerging  in  an 
increasingly  interconnected  and  Internet-linked 
world  is  a  fact  that  cannot  be  ignored.  Africa,  Asia, 
and  South  America  all  sustain  vibrant  contempo- 
rary cultures  that  a  global  museum  must  engage. 
The  Guggenheim's  aspirations  as  an  international 
museum  are  viable  only  to  the  degree  that  a  broad- 
based  international  program  comes  into  place.  The 
museum  buildings — for  all  their  architectural  bril- 
liance and  geographic  diversity — are  only  a  point  of 
departure. 

The  Guggenheim's  interest  in  non- Western  cultures 
was  heralded  by  Japanese  Art  After  ig4}:  Scream 
Against  the  Sky,  an  exhibition  organized  in  con- 
junction with  the  Yokohama  Museum  of  Art  and 


presented  to  critical  acclaim  at  the  Guggenheim 
Museum  SoHo  in  1994.  For  American  audiences, 
the  material  was  fresh  and  sophisticated,  related  to 
European  attitudes  but  not  derivative.  The  art 
reflected  Japanese  culture  and  traditions,  in  a  vocab- 
ulary that  was  simultaneously  recognizable  and 
original.  Various  commentaries  on  the  exhibition 
noted  the  "Japaneseness"  of  the  material,  and 
pointed  out  that  this  was  an  art  that  had  been 
consistently  ignored  or  overlooked  by  Western 
museums.  For  the  Guggenheim,  the  project  was 
exhilarating.  The  task  was  to  understand  the 
narrative  of  postwar  Japanese  art  not  only  as  a 
reflection  of  its  immediate  sociohistorical  context, 
but  also  in  relation  to  the  some  three  thousand 
years  of  cultural  history  that  preceded  it. 

By  late  1994,  the  stars  were  almost  in  alignment  for 
China:  5, 000  Years  to  become  a  reality.  The  skeletal 
framework  of  the  global  Guggenheim — and  the 
exhibition-organizing  engine — were  largely  in 
place.  The  concept  of  a  far-reaching  exhibition  pro- 
gram that  included,  every  few  years,  an  exhibition 
challenging  the  conventional  direction  of  the 
Guggenheim  while  taking  advantage  of  its  scholarly 
criteria  and  organizational  capacities  was  approved 
by  the  Board  of  Trustees.  All  that  remained  was  to 
connect  the  source  of  the  vision  for  China:  3,000 
Years  with  the  curatorial  expertise  to  bring  it  to  life. 
That  connection  was  provided  by  Sherman  Lee. 
More  than  twenty-five  years  ago,  in  1969,  as  an 
undergraduate  economics  and  political-science 
major  at  Williams  College,  I  took  my  first  art- 
history  course — on  Chinese  landscape  painting — 
with  Professor  Lee. When  the  opportunity  for  an 
exhibition  of  Chinese  art  at  the  Guggenheim  arose, 
there  was  never  any  doubt  in  my  mind  that 
Professor  Lee  was  the  only  person  to  provide  the 
bold  and  unique  vision  to  select  it.  Happily,  several 
weeks  after  I  presented  the  general  thesis  of  an 
exhibition  of  five  millennia  of  Chinese  art  drawn 
exclusively  from  material  in  China  to  him, 
Professor  Lee  agreed  to  head  the  curatorial  team 
for  the  traditional  section. 

The  next  step  was  to  secure  the  participation  and 
cooperation  of  the  Chinese.  In  the  autumn  of 
1994,  the  Honorable  Gianni  De  Michelis,  former 
Foreign  Minister  of  Italy  and  Guggenheim  trustee, 
helped  arrange  a  meeting  with  the  Honorable 
Qian  Qichen,Vice  Premier  and  Foreign  Minister 
of  the  People's  Republic  of  China.  Our  mission 
was  simple:  to  seek  an  unprecedented  collaboration 
with  the  Chinese  government  by  presenting  the 
objectives  of  China:  3, 000  Years  with  reference  to  its 
political  significance  in  the  context  of  developing 
Sino- American  relations.  As  a  result  of  that 
meeting  the  following  January,  the  Guggenheim 
was  put  in  contact  with  representatives  of  the 
Ministry  of  Culture,  National  Administration 


INTRODUCTION    AND    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 


for  Cultural  Heritage,  China  International 
Exhibition  Agency,  and  Art  Exhibitions  China  to 
begin  planning. 

To  implement  this  striking  and  ambitious  vision, 
Sherman  Lee,  with  the  able  support  of  Howard 
Rogers,  assembled  an  outstanding  team  of  advisors 
who  not  only  wrote  essays  for  this  catalogue,  but 
also  provided  consultation  on  every  aspect  of  the 
exhibition,  from  issues  of  conservation  to  the 
installation  plan  and  educational  materials.  This 
team  includes  the  top  specialists  in  their  areas  of 
expertise:  Helmut  Brinker,  Professor,  University  of 
Zurich;  James  Cahill,  Professor  Emeritus,  History  of 
Art,  University  of  California,  Berkeley;  Elizabeth 
Childs-Johnson,  Visiting  Scholar,  New  York 
University;  Patricia  Ebrey,  Professor,  Department  of 
History,  University  ot  Washington;  Michael  Knight, 
Curator  of  Chinese  Art,  Asian  Art  Museum  of  San 
Francisco;  Regina  Krahl,  independent  scholar, 
affiliated  with  the  Royal  Museums  of  Art  and 
History,  Brussels;  Jenny  So,  Curator  of  Ancient 
Chinese  Art,  Freer  Gallery  of  Art  and  Arthur  M. 
Sackler  Gallery,  Smithsonian  Institution, 
Washington,  D.C.;  Peter  Sturman,  Associate 
Professor,  Department  of  the  History  of  Art  and 
Architecture,  University  of  California,  Santa 
Barbara;  Wu  Hung,  Harrie  A.Vanderstappen 
Distinguished  Service  Professor  in  Chinese  Art 
History,  University  of  Chicago;  and  Zhao  Feng, 
Professor,  China  National  Silk  Museum,  Hangzhou. 

In  addition,  the  National  Administration  for 
Cultural  Heritage  of  the  People's  Republic  of 
China,  our  partner  in  the  organization  of  the 
traditional  section  of  China:  5,000  Years,  provided 
scholarly  assistance  at  all  levels  of  the  planning  and 
development  of  the  exhibition.  Zhang  Wenbin 
assembled  an  impressive  team  of  support  for  the 
project,  including  the  following  prominent  scholars 
and  high-level  museum  professionals  who 
contributed  essays  to  this  catalogue:  Su  Bai, 
Professor,  Beijing  University; Yu  Weichao,  Director 
of  the  National  Museum  of  Chinese  History, 
Beijing;  Ma  Chengyuan,  Director  of  the  Shanghai 
Museum;  Wang  Qingzheng,  Deputy  Director  of  the 
Shanghai  Museum;  and  Liu  Jiu'an,  Researcher, 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing.  Yang  Yang,  Yin  Jia,  Zhang 
Jianxin,  Qian  Wei,  and  Chen  Shujie  of  Art 
Exhibitions  China;  Lu  Chenglong  and  Xu  Qixi.in 
of  the  Palace  Museum;  Wang  Changqi  and 
Gao  Man  of  the  Institute  for  the  Protection  of 
Cultural  Relics  and  Archaeology,  Xi'an;  Li  Xuefang 
of  the  Forest  of  Steles  Museum,  Xi'an;  and  Han 
Jianwu  of  the  Shaan.xi  History  Museum,  Xi'an.  also 
provided  important  scholarly  contributions  and 
research  for  this  exhibition.  June  Mei  skillfully 
translated  these  essays. 

There  are  always  many,  many  important  people  to 


thank  for  helping  put  together  an  exhibition  of  this 
complexity  and  scope.  First  of  all,  the  task  of 
assembling  such  a  broad  range  of  material  from  a 
wide  range  of  sources  demanded  a  unique 
organizational  structure  and  support  at  the  highest 
level.  Our  most  sincere  gratitude  is  extended  to 
President  Jiang  Zemin;  the  Honorable  Li  Peng, 
Premier  of  the  Peoples  Republic  of  China;  Vice 
Premier  and  Foreign  Minister  Qian  Qichen;  and 
the  Honorable  Liu  Zhongde,  Minister  of  Culture 
of  the  People's  Republic  of  China,  without  whose 
support  this  project  would  never  have  been 
realized.  The  Foreign  Ministry-  supported  this 
exhibition  through  the  good  offices  of  the 
Honorable  Li  Daoyu,  Ambassador  of  the  People's 
Republic  of  China  to  the  United  States,  who 
provided  advice  and  consultation  at  important 
stages  of  the  project.  We  would  like  to  extend  our 
most  sincere  thanks  and  gratitude  to  the  Honorable 
Qiu  Shengyun,  Consul  General  of  the  People's 
Republic  of  China  in  New  York.  The  complex  task 
of  organizing  the  specifics  of  the  exhibition — in 
particular,  arranging  loans  from  the  many  lending 
institutions — fell  to  the  Ministry  of  Culture  of  the 
People's  Republic  of  China  and,  for  the  traditional 
section,  the  National  Administration  for  Cultural 
Heritage.  At  the  Ministry  of  Culture,  I  would  like 
to  extend  my  personal  thanks  to  Li  Yuanchao, 
Vice-Minister  of  Culture,  and  Ding  Wei,  Deputy 
Director  of  the  General  Bureau  of  External 
Cultural  Relations,  who  were  steadfast  in  their 
support  for  the  project  and  instrumental  in 
providing  direction  and  focus.  With  particular 
respect  and  friendship,  we  would  like  to  single  out 
Zhang  Wenbin  and  Wang  Limei  at  the  National 
Administration  for  Cultural  Heritage,  without 
whose  professional  and  steadfast  leadership,  this 
complicated  and  far-reaching  exhibition  would 
never  have  come  to  fruition.  This  exhibition  would 
also  not  be  possible  without  the  support  ot 
Lei  Congyun,  Director  of  Art  Exhibitions  China, 
and  Yang  Yang,  Deputy  Director  of  Art 
Exhibitions  China,  who  oversaw  all  the  logistical 
and  organizational  details,  in  addition  to  research 
responsibilities.  We  are  also  indebted  to  the  team 
of  specialists  who  accompanied  the  artworks  from 
China  for  their  installation  in  New  York;  Shan 
Guolin  of  the  Shanghai  Museum:  Feng  Xiaoqi  ot 
the  Palace  Museum.  Beijing:  and  Chen  Shujie  ot 
Art  Exhibitions  China.  Our  very  special  thanks  go 
to  Hu  Chui, photographer  at  the  Palace  Museum, 
who  spent  many  days  and  even  months  traveling 
around  China,  applying  Ins  art  10  the  task  ol 
photographing  the  objects  in  the  exhibition. 
The  beautiful  plates  in  this  catalogue  are  testimony 
to  his  uncompromising  eye  for  quality  and  detail. 
We  will  provide  our  extended  thanks  to  the  team 
at  the  China  I1ner11.111011.il  I  \lubition  Agency  in 
our  catalogue  dedicated  to  the  modern  section  of 
the  exhibition,  but  1  would  like  to  take  this 


INTRODUCTION    AND    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 


25 


opportunity  to  express  my  particular  gratitude  to 
Hao  Zhan,  Director,  and  Wan  Jiyuan,  Li  Li,  and 
You  Shu. 

I  would  also  like  to  express  my  gratitude  to  Gianni 
De  Michelis  for  his  inspiration  and  generosity,  and 
for  nurturing  this  project  at  its  inception  and 
remaining  a  strong  supporter  and  advisor.  Ji 
Chaozhu  and  Simon  Jiang  also  must  be  thanked  for 
their  support. 

One  of  the  astonishing  aspects  of  this  exhibition  is 
the  large  number  of  lenders  from  all  over  China 
who  recognized  its  historic  importance  and 
contributed  to  its  success  by  allowing  precious 
works  from  their  collections  to  travel  to  the 
exhibition  venues.  A  separate  page  is  devoted  to  a 
list  of  our  lenders — thirty-nine  in  total  in  the 
traditional  section  of  China:  3,000  Years — but  I 
would  like  to  take  this  opportunity  to  offer  them 
our  deepest  gratitude  for  their  enormous  generosity 
and  cooperation,  without  which  this  exhibition 
would  not  have  been  possible. 

In  the  United  States,  there  were  also  a  large 
number  of  people  without  whom  we  would  not 
have  been  able  to  bring  this  exhibition  to  fruition. 
It  has  been  a  privilege  and  an  honor  to  work  with 
Sherman  Lee  on  this  project.  A  deep  debt  of 
gratitude  is  owed  to  him,  and  also  to  his  wife, 
Ruth,  who  accompanied  Professor  Lee  on  his  many 
visits  to  China  in  preparation  tor  this  exhibition. 
I  would  also  like  to  thank  Howard  Rogers,  who 
served  as  consulting  curator  and  as  general  editor  of 
this  catalogue.  Having  worked  closely  with 
Professor  Lee  over  a  period  of  many  years,  he  has  a 
deep  appreciation  and  sensitive  understanding  of 
Professor  Lee's  vision.  His  own  formidable  grasp  of 
all  aspects  of  Chinese  art  is  the  result  of  more  than 
thirty  years  of  involvement  in  the  field,  including 
eighteen  years  as  a  professor  of  Chinese  art  history 
at  Sophia  University, Tokyo.  Howard  Rogers's  wife, 
Mary  Ann,  herself  an  expert  in  Chinese  art,  was 
also  ever  generous  in  her  support.  David 
Sensabaugh,  Ann  Wardwell,  Pat  Berger,  and  Jan 
Berris  also  provided  important  advice. 

At  the  Guggenheim,  Jane  DeBevoise,  Director  of 
the  China  Exhibition  Project,  assisted  by  Manon 
Slome,  Project  Assistant  Curator,  oversaw  all  aspects 
of  the  exhibition  planning,  coordination,  and 
execution,  from  checklist  and  loan  negotiation  to 
installation  planning  and  design,  as  well  as  catalogue 
development  and  execution.  With  considerable 
managerial  expertise,  indefatigable  energy,  true  team 
leadership,  and  impressive  facility  with  the  Chinese 
language,  Jane  DeBevoise  ably  moved  each  stage  of 
the  project  toward  completion.  Manon  Slome 
coordinated  the  myriad  details  of  the  exhibition 
planning  and  design  with  intelligence  and 


determination,  and,  together  with  Xiaoming 
Zhang,  who  impressively  managed  the 
English/Chinese  dual-language  database,  and 
Emily  Wei  and  Nicole  Lin,  who  provided  key 
research  and  organizational  support,  formed  the 
hub  of  the  exhibition,  holding  together  the 
project's  many  varied  spokes.  Our  thanks  are  due 
also  to  Frances  Yuan,  Eileen  Hsu,  and  Andrew 
Leung,  who  provided  research  for  the  didactic 
material,  and  to  our  interns  Patty  Chang,  Shihong 
Aldin,  Jackie  Chien,  Simon  Murphy,  and  Katherine 
Cheng  for  their  tireless  efforts  and  their  valuable 
contribution  to  the  complicated  administration  of 
this  multifaceted  project.  Suzanne  Quigley,  Head 
Registrar  for  Collections  and  Exhibitions;  Mary 
Jane  Clark,  Project  Registrar;  and  Joan  Hendricks, 
Associate  Registrar,  professionally  handled  the 
logistics  of  the  international  transportation  of  the 
objects.  A  highly  skilled  staft  of  conservators, 
including  Project  Conservator  Tracy  Power  of  the 
Asian  Art  Museum  of  San  Francisco;  Gillian 
McMillan,  Senior  Conservator  (Collections); 
Carol  Stringari,  Senior  Conservator  (Exhibitions); 
Eleanora  Nagy,  Assistant  Conservator;  and  Ellen 
Pratt,  Project  Conservator,  oversaw  the  care  and 
condition  of  the  precious  objects  in  the  exhibition 
at  every  stage  of  the  project.  The  exhibition  design 
is  the  work  of  Arata  Isozaki  and  Adegboyega 
Adetope.  The  Art  Services  and  Preparations 
department  lent  their  considerable  expertise  to  the 
installation  of  the  exhibition.  In  particular,  I  wish  to 
thank  Karen  Meyerhoft,  Director  of  Exhibition  and 
Collection  Management  and  Design;  Scott  Wixon, 
Manager  of  Art  Services  and  Preparations;  Peter 
Read,  Manager  of  Exhibition  Fabrication  and 
Design;  Jocelyn  Brayshaw,  Acting  Chief  Preparator; 
Liz  Jaff,  Assistant  Paper  Preparator;  Joseph  Adams, 
Senior  Museum  Technician;  Richard  Gombar. 
Museum  Technician;  Mary  Ann  Hoag,  Lighting 
Designer;  and  Jocelyn  Groom,  Exhibition  Design 
Coordinator.  David  Horak  also  provided  invaluable 
assistance  with  the  installation.  Len  Steinbach, 
Director  of  Information  Technology,  provided 
constant  support  for  the  many  sophisticated 
technical  requirements  of  a  dual-language  database. 
I  would  also  like  to  thank  Marilyn  Goodman, 
Director  of  Education,  and  Diane  Maas,  Education 
Program  Manager,  who  developed  an  outstanding 
education  program;  Rosemarie  Garipoli,  Deputy 
Director  for  External  Affairs,  and  George  McNeely, 
Director  of  Institutional  Development;  Ruth  Taylor, 
Director  of  Budget  and  Planning;  and  Jay  A. 
Levenson,  former  Deputy  Director  for  Program 
Administration,  who  steered  the  project  at  its  early 
stages.  Patrick  Seymour  of  Tsang  Seymour  Design, 
together  with  Marcia  Fardella,  Graphic  Designer, 
Susan  Lee,  Assistant  Graphic  Designer,  and  Jessica 
Ludwig  at  the  Guggenheim,  produced  the 
exhibition's  many  graphic-design  elements  with 
sensitivity  and  expertise. 


INTRODUCTION    AND    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 


26 


This  catalogue,  published  by  the  Guggenheim's 
Publications  Department  under  the  direction  of 
Anthony  Calnek,  Director  of  Publications,  and 
designed  by  Patrick  Seymour,  has  in  itself  been  an 
impressive  project.  Coordinated  by  Howard  Rogers, 
with  the  perceptive  and  sensitive  editorial  support 
of  Naomi  Richard  and  Sylvia  Moss,  the  catalogue 
reflects  an  extensive  international  collaboration 
between  some  of  the  most  distinguished  scholars 
in  the  field  and  will  hopefully  be  a  valuable 
reference  for  years  to  come.  We  are  particularly 
impressed  that  great  scholars  from  both  China  and 
the  West  embraced  this  historic  occasion  to  develop 
their  ideas  and  communicate  their  scholarship.  We 
firmly  believe  that  the  diversity  of  material  and 
commentary  is  one  of  the  great  strengths  of  this 
project  as  a  whole,  and  we  have  made  no  attempt 
to  bring  into  conformity  the  opinions  expressed  by 
the  authors.  The  production  of  this  catalogue  was 
handled  with  great  skill  by  Elizabeth  Levy, 
Managing  Editor/Manager  of  Foreign  Editions,  and 
Melissa  Secondino,  Production  Assistant.  Along 
with  related  exhibition  materials,  it  was  also  made 
possible  with  the  assistance  of  Edward  Weisberger, 
Editor;  Jennifer  Knox  White,  Associate  Editor; 
Carol  Fitzgerald,  Assistant  Editor;  and  Domenick 
Ammirati,  Editorial  Assistant,  as  well  as  Keith 
Mayerson  and  Nicole  Columbus. 

An  exhibition  of  this  scale  could  never  take  place 
without  the  generous  support  of  our  sponsors. 
First,  I  would  like  to  thank  Lufthansa  for  the 
ongoing  commitment  and  leadership  support  it  has 
shown  to  the  Guggenheim  as  a  Global  Partner. 
In  particular,  I  would  like  to  thank  Frederick  W. 
Reid,  Lufthansa  German  Airlines's  President  and 
Chief  Operating  Officer,  and  Josef  Grendel. 
Lufthansa's  Vice  President  Corporate 
Communications,  for  their  enlightened  generosity. 
We  are  also  very  fortunate  to  have  had  the 
opportunity  to  work  with  Nokia.  Their 
international  vision  and  their  skill  at  connecting 
people  and  cultures  are  deeply  impressive.  For  their 
support,  I  am  particularly  indebted  to  Jorma  Ollila. 
President  and  Chief  Executive  Officer;  Lauri 
Kivinen,  Senior  Vice  President  Corporate 
Communications;  Jim  Bowman, Vice  President 
Corporate  Communications,  Nokia  Americas;  and 
Micaela  Tucker-Kinney,  Manager.  Corporate 
Communications,  Nokia  Americas.  We  are  also 
most  grateful  to  Alex Trotman,  Chairman  and  Chiel 
Executive  Officer  of  Ford  Motor  Company,  lor  his 
leadership  and  commitment  to  this  project.  At 
Ford,  we  also  wish  to  thank  Wayne  M.  Booker, Vice 
Chairman;  Peter  J.  Pestillo,  Executive  Vice 
President,  Corporate  Relations;  Gary  L.  Nielsen, 
Vice  President,  Ford  Motor  Company  Fund;  and 
Mabel  H.  Cabot,  Director,  Corporate 
Programming,  for  their  creativity  and  their 
dedication  to  tins  landmark  exhibition.  Finally,  we 


would  like  to  thank  M.  Douglas  Ivester.  Chairman 
of  the  Board  and  Chief  Executive  Officer  of 
The  Coca-Cola  Company,  for  his  leadership  in 
supporting  this  important  project.  The  collaboration 
of  Douglas  N.  Daft,  President,  Middle  and  Far  East 
Group  at  The  Coca-Cola  Company,  was  also  vital 
to  its  realization. 

Significant  additional  support  for  this  exhibition 
was  provided  at  an  early  stage  by  The  Starr 
Foundation  and  The  W.  L.  S.  Spencer  Foundation. 
Their  generous  help  allowed  us  to  move  the  project 
forward  during  the  critical  processes  of  research  and 
development.  Mori  Building  Company  Limited  has 
also  assisted  substantially  in  the  realization  of  the 
exhibition.  I  would  like  to  thank  Minoru  Mori, 
President,  for  his  inspired  support.  The  exhibition 
has  also  been  made  possible  in  part  by  a  major 
grant  from  the  National  Endowment  of  the 
Humanities,  who  provided  us  with  important  earlv 
endorsement  and  encouragement.  The  generous 
support  ofThe  Li-Cheng  Cultural  and  Educational 
Foundation  has  assisted  in  the  publication  of  the 
two-volume  catalogue  accompanying  the 
exhibition. 

As  I  complete  these  remarks  in  a  Tokyo  hotel 
room,  I  look  at  the  scroll  of  calligraphy  that  hangs 
in  the  tokunoma  alcove  ot  my  room.  A  Japanese 
friend  tells  me  that  it  was  created  by  a  nineteenth- 
century  Japanese  artist  whose  style  was  based  on 
that  of  a  seventeenth-century  calligrapher  named 
Dong  Qichang,  whose  work  is  included  in  China: 
5,  ooo  Years.  The  text,  "Peach  Blossom  Spring."  by 
the  fourth-century  Chinese  poet  Tao  Yuanniing. 
speaks  of  the  peace  and  contentment  that  become 
possible  on  removal  from  the  temporal  world,  just 
as  the  author  himself  achieved  lasting  renown  by 
giving  up  secular  ambition  in  order  to  cultivate  his 
soul.  My  friend  then  comments  that  the  writing 
itself  seems  lacking  the  confidence  expressed  In   the 
verbal  content,  winch  leads  to  this  final  observa- 
tion: the  boundaries  between  Easl  and  West, 
between  past  and  present,  are  truly  falling.  Artists 
and  poets  today  are  no  different  from  their  prede- 
cessors in  their  willingness  to  appropriate  or  reject 
what  they  need — from  their  own  history,  from  then 
contemporary  context,  from  outside  influences — to 
formulate  a  response  to  their  dilemma.  China:  5,000 
Years  will  appeal  to  experts  and  scholars.  But  by  far 
the  Ingest  number  of  people  to  see  the  exhibition 
will  be  those  with  only  a  limited  understanding  ot' 
the  culture  of  this  extraordinary  country,  ["hey  are 
lice  to  approach  this  art  from  their  own  pels;- 
rives,  to  hung  themselves  into  the  encounter  and 
challenge  their  preconceptions.  The  process  will 
challenge  them  to  learn  and  grow,  and  the  two 

countries  will  move  a  little  closer  as  a  result.  It  is  in 

this  potential  thai  <  hina:  $,oooYcars  finds  us  ulti- 
mate jusrjfii  arion. 


INTRODUCTION    AND    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 


Chronology 


NEOLITHIC    PERIOD   CA.    7000-CA.    2000   BCE 
YANGSHAO    CULTURE  (north  central  China) 
HONGSHAN    CULTURE  (northeastern  China) 
LIANGZHU   CULTURE  (southeastern  China) 
LONGSHAN   CULTURE   (eastern  China) 


(CA.  5000-CA.  3OOO  BCE} 
{CA.  3600-CA.  2000  BCE} 
{CA.  360O-CA.  2000  BCE} 
(CA.  3000-CA.  1700  BCE} 


EARLY   DYNASTIC   CHINA 
XI A   PERIOD  (protohistoric) 
SHANG   PERIOD 

ZHOU   PERIOD 

Western  Zhou 
Eastern  Zhou 


Spring  and  Autumn  period 
Warring  States  period 


DYNASTIC   CHINA 

QIN  DYNASTY 

HAN  DYNASTY 
Western  Han 

Xin  (Wang  Mang  usurpation) 
Eastern  Han 


{CA.  2I00-CA.  1600  BCE} 

{CA.  l600-CA.  1100  BCE} 

{CA.  IIOO-256  BCE} 
CA.  IIOO-77I  BCE 
770-256  BCE 
770-476  BCE 
475—221   BCE 


{221-207  bce} 

{206  BCE-220  CE} 


206  BCE-8  CE 

9-23 
25—220 


PERIOD  OF  DISUNITY 

Three  Kingdoms 

220-280 

Wei 

220-265 

Shu  Han 

221-263 

Wu 

222—280 

Western  Jm 

265-316 

Southern 

dynasties  (Six 

Dynasties) 

Wu  (southernmost  qfTIiree  K 

ngdoms) 

222-280 

Eastern  Jin 

317-420 

Liu  Song 

420-479 

Southern  Qi 

479-502 

Liang 

502-557 

Chen 

557-589 

Northern 

dynasties 

Sixteen  Kingdoms 

304-439 

Northern  Wei 

386-534 

Eastern  Wei 

534-550 

Western  Wei 

535-557 

Northern  Qi 

550-577 

Northern  Zhoi 

1 

557-58i 

*Sui 

581-589 

120-589} 


28 


SUI   DYNASTY  {589-618} 

TANG   DYNASTY  {618-907} 

FIVE   DYNASTIES  {907-960} 

LIAO   DYNASTY  {916-1125} 

SONG   DYNASTY  {960-1279} 

Northern  Song  960—1127 

Southern  Song  1127-1279 

JIN   DYNASTY  {1115-1234} 

YUAN   DYNASTY  {1279-1368} 

MING   DYNASTY  {1368-1644} 

Hongwu  136S-1398 

Jianwen  1399-1402 

Yongle  1403-1424 

Hongxi  1425 

Xuande  1426-1435 

Zhengtong  1436-1449 

Jingtai  1450-1456 

Tianshun  1457— 1464 

Chenghua  1465-1487 

Hongzhi  1488-1505 

Zhengde  1506-1521 

Jiajing  1522-1566 

Longqing  1567-1572 

Wanli  1573-1620 

Taichang  1620 

Tianqi  1621-1627 

Chongzhen  1628-1644 

QING   DYNASTY  11044-1911; 

Shunzhi  1644-1661 

Kangxi  1662-1722 

Yongzheng  1723—1735 

Qianlong  1736—1795 

Jiaqing  1796-1820 

Daoguang  [82:    [850 

Xianfeng  [851-186] 

Tongzhi  [862-1874 

Gangxu  [875    [90J 

Xuantong  1909-19I] 

:'Note:Sui  dynasty  declared  in  581;  unified  the  realm  by  conquesl  in  589. 


29 


Introduction 


Vast  generalities  of  time  and  space  are 
unavoidable  when  discussing  traditional 
Chinese  art,  for  only  with  their  aid 
do  the  main  achievements  of  that  long- 
lived  culture  become  clearly  apparent. 
This  easier  access  comes  at  a  cost, 


however,  since  significant  regional 


diversity  is  obscured  and  homogenized 
into  an  undifferentiated  whole,  and 


Sherman  Lee 

Director  (retired), 
Cleveland  Museum  of  Art 


30 


varying  periods  of  creativity  and  stagnation  are 
averaged  into  a  neat  and  continuous  timeline,  all  of 
which  contributes  to  the  popular  image  of  China 
as  a  monolithic  country,  fixed  in  its  boundaries  and 
evolving  only  slowly  over  time. 

This  exhibition  seeks  to  deconstruct  that  invariant 
image,  to  demonstrate  artistic  diversity  rather  than 
unity  and  to  identify  periods  of  heightened  activity 
and  creativity  in  the  arts.  These  pieces,  which  will 
delight  their  audience  by  aesthetic  merit,  were 
carefully  chosen  to  emphasize  the  themes  of 
innovation  and  transformation:  the  conceptual 
innovations  that  led  artists  to  shift  focus  from  the 
supernatural  to  the  human  world,  then  to  the 
natural  world,  and  thereafter  to  adopt  elements 
from  all  these  worlds  as  vehicles  of  self-expression; 
and  the  technological  inventions  and  discoveries 
that  occurred  as  artists  sought  the  most  appropriate 
medium  in  which  to  give  form  to  their 
conceptions. 

I. 

Early  Chinese  art  manifests  in  form  and  decoration 
a  fascinating  world  of  imaginary  beasts,  demons, 
chimeras,  and  grotesques.  These  may  have 
originated  in  real  creatures,  whose  forms  were  then 
abstracted,  commingled,  and  otherwise  transformed 
into  complex  animal  images.  These  images  are  not 
merely  decorative;  the  major  elements  must  have 
embodied  meanings,  whether  as  totems,  clan 
insignia,  or  other  consequential  signifiers.This  early, 
animistic  art  is  essentially  static;  the  designs 
covering  the  bronze  ritual  vessels  imply  no 
potential  for  movement. 

By  the  end  of  the  Zhou  dynasty  several  striking 
innovations  are  apparent,  foremost  among  them  the 
appearance  of  the  human  world  and  of  potential 
movement.  Recognizable  animals  are  placed  in 
comparatively  realistic  environments.  The  animals 
and  landscape  are  still  not  interconnected  as  a 
scene,  but  the  animals  now  appear  capable  ot  switt 
and  light  movement  while  wind  is  suggested  in  the 
mountains — what  had  been  bound  and  static  before 
is  freed.  On  lacquers  and  incised  bronze  tubes  of 
the  late  Zhou-Han  period  even  the  mountain 
peaks,  cliffs,  foliage,  and  "cloud  patterns"  pulsate 
with  life.  We  see  here  the  first  signs  of  an  interest  in 
representing  real  landscape  in  the  arts. 

The  Qin-Han  era,  however,  is  predominantly  the 
world  of  humankind.  Beginning  with  the  lite-size 
and  startlingly  lifelike  Qin  military  figures,  human 
scale  and  a  human  point  of  view  come  to  dominate 
much  subsequent  art.  Given  the  epochal 
importance  of  this  shift,  it  seems  appropriate  that 
the  English  name  "China"  derives  from  the  name 
of  the  first  of  the  imperial  dynasties,  the  Qin.  And 
just  as  the  frontiers  of  the  empire  .ire  gradually 


extended,  and  border  regions  pacified,  so  too  is 
nature  tamed  and  contained  in  urban  hunting 
parks,  which  figure  significantly  in  the  poetry  of 
the  period  as  well  as  in  the  art.  Animals  continue  to 
be  important  but  now  within  a  context  defined  bv 
purely  human  concerns. 

Among  these  human  concerns  are  ideas  about 
religion,  expressed  in  Buddhist  and  Daoist  thought 
and  imagery  that  comes  to  dominate  art  in  the  Six 
Dynasties-Tang  era.  As  the  foreign  styles  associated 
with  Buddhism  are  gradually  assimilated  and 
Sinihed,  the  human  figure  continues  to  dominate 
its  pictorial  environment.  The  fantastical  creatures 
of  the  past  survive  as  decorative  forms  rather  than 
as  embodiments  of  awesome  powers.  At  the  same 
time  a  growing  interest  in  landscape  for  its  own 
sake  becomes  apparent  alongside  the  dominant 
figural  tradition. 

The  landscape  art  created  by  the  Chinese  during 
the  late  Tang-Five  Dynasties-Song  period  is  one  of 
the  great  glories  of  human  achievement.  Its 
technical  evolution  can  be  traced  from  the  linearitv 
of  early  incised,  inlaid,  and  painted  designs  to  the 
more  complex  spatial  representations  of  the  later 
Tang  era;  conceptually  it  is  the  final  stage  and 
beneficiary  of  the  supernatural-  and  human- 
centered  worlds  described  above.  In  this  aesthetic 
culmination,  which  occurred  in  China  centuries 
earlier  than  elsewhere  in  the  world,  natural  forces 
which  had  earlier  been  describable  only  as 
delimited  and  isolated  forms,  are  fully  encompassed 
by  the  human  mind  and  described  in  integrated 
landscapes  that  are  monumental  in  scale  and 
freighted  with  symbolic  meanings. 

II. 

Another  way  of  approaching  the  art  and  culture  of 
early  China  is  by  considering  the  continuous  series 
of  technical  innovations  occurring  in  the  various 
mediums  used  by  early  artists.  It  was  William 
Willetts,  in  his  Chinese  Art  of  [958,  who  first 
brought  to  bear  the  findings  of  Joseph  Needham's 
Science  and  Civilization  in  China  in  his  brilliant  stud) 
of  Chinese  art.  Willetts 's  focus  on  technology 
created  .1  particularly  useful  framework  for  the 
study  of  such  "decorative"  or  "useful"  or  "minor" 
arts  as  jades,  bronzes,  lacquers,  textiles,  and  ceramics 
,is  well  as  sculpture  and  painting. 

Worked  jades  fust  appear  in  the  Liangzhu  and 
I  [ongshan  Neolithic  cultures,  demonstrating  at  that 
early  period  already  advanced  techniques  for 
shaping  this  most  recalcitrant  material.  I  he  lorms 
and  designs  of  the  earliest  jades — the  pig-dragons 
and  in.isks — doubtless  held  potent  meanings  foi 
theii  contemporaries,  notwithstanding  our  inability 
to  interpret  them.  Eventually  these  formal  and 
hieratic  patterns  give  wa)  10  ever  more  intricate 


designs,  and  many  centuries  later  jade  working 
became  and  remained  a  purely  decorative  art. 

Bronze  casting,  which  begins  during  the  Xia  and 
Shang  dynasties  and  flourishes  into  the  Han, 
follows  a  similar  sequence,  in  which  great  early 
invention  and  ingenuity  in  support  of  meaningful 
iconography  are  gradually  superseded  by  technical 
mediocrity  and  decorative  repetition.  The  use  of 
ceramic  piece-molds,  which  permit  shape  and 
surface  decoration  to  be  created  simultaneously,  is 
the  distinguishing  feature  of  Chinese  bronze 
technology,  and  had  reached  a  stage  of  enormous 
complexity  and  brilliant  virtuosity  by  the  Anyang 
phase  of  the  Shang  dynasty.  The  vessels  cast  in  these 
piece-molds  testify  to  the  early  Chinese  interest  in 
and  aptitude  for  representing  a  world  of  imaginary 
and  transmogrified  creatures,  demons,  and 
grotesques.  Many  of  the  early  Zhou  dynasty  bronze 
vessels  bear  inscriptions  that  constitute  important 
historical  documents,  and  by  the  end  of  the  Zhou 
these  same  forms  were  embellished  with  the 
precious  metals  and  gemstones  that  enhanced  their 
new  function  as  visual  markers  of  social  and 
economic  status. 

Lacquer  as  a  protective  and  decorative  coating  is  in 
origin  Chinese  and  is  known  to  have  been  used 
very  early  on,  although  the  first  extensive  remains 
date  from  the  Warring  States  era  of  the  late  Zhou 
dynasty.  Painted  and  incised  lacquer  designs  of  that 
period  relate  stylistically  to  contemporaneous 
textile  and  bronze  designs.  In  later  centuries 
lacquer-working  techniques  became  more 
complex;  forms  and  designs  were  molded  using  a 
variety  of  techniques,  then  carved  and/or  inlaid 
with  various  precious  materials. These  manifold 
techniques  as  well  as  cultivation  of  the  lac  tree  itself 
spread  to  Korea,  Japan,  and  Okinawa,  and  those 
cultures  continue  to  benefit  from  this  Chinese 
innovation. 

Silk  manufacture  too  was  an  early  Chinese 
invention,  one  that  had  an  even  more  complex 
development  and  greater  impact  on  the  larger 
world,  spreading  to  the  West  during  Hellenistic  and 
early  Christian  times.  Paper  and  printing,  appearing 
in  this  exhibition  in  the  form  of  early  paintings  and 
block-printed  books,  are  even  more  famous 
examples  of  Chinese  inventions  that  were 
instrumental  in  shaping  Asian  and  European 
culture. 

Sculptures  is  represented  in  the  exhibition  in  clay, 
metal,  and  stone.  The  first  of  these  mediums 
comprises  mainly  tomb  figurines,  which  manifest 
simultaneous  concern  with  this  life  and  with  the 
afterlife.  Proper  burials  not  only  served  the  afterlife 
needs  of  the  deceased  but  testified  to  the  moral 
virtues,  social  responsibility,  and  pecuniary 


substance  of  their  living  relations.  Upper-class 
tombs  were  abundantly  furnished  with  realistic 
effigies  of  all  the  familiar  objects,  animals,  and 
humans  that  constituted  the  material  world — 
perhaps  idealized — of  the  living.  These  lively  and 
closely  observed  tomb  figurines,  created  to 
accompany  and  serve  the  dead,  represent  the  broad 
and  complex  world  of  the  living  and  are  material 
evidence  of  society  over  a  significant  period  ol 
time.  The  burial  furniture  and  figurines  manifest 
artistic  creativity,  but  at  the  same  time  their  vast 
numbers  attest  to  virtual  mass  production,  with 
great  technical  skill  and  high  standards  of  quality. 
The  alert  and  natural  figures  of  animals  and  humans 
provide  us  with  a  visual  image  of  their  world  far 
more  vivid  than  the  descriptions  by  historians  of 
the  day. 

The  coming  of  Buddhism  to  China  in  the  mid-first 
century  CE  and  its  enthusiastic  acceptance  in  the 
succeeding  centuries  brought  with  it  a  great  figural 
style  of  image  making  as  it  had  developed  in  India 
and  had  been  transformed  as  it  moved  eastward. 
The  Chinese  adapted  it  rapidly  and  creatively  in  all 
three  mediums,  especially  in  the  north;  works 
produced  in  this  development  are  remarkably 
varied  in  nature,  with  strong  provincial  styles  being 
created  during  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries  in 
Shanxi,  Shaanxi,  Shandong, Yunnan,  and  Sichuan. 
By  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century,  in  the  Sui 
and  early  Tang  dynasty,  a  national  Chinese  style  was 
emerging.  Ultimately  this  became  a  truly 
international  style,  prevalent  throughout  East  Asia. 

In  general,  the  Chinese  intellectual  and  cultural 
elite  placed  little  aesthetic  value  on  the  sculptor's 
art,  especially  that  in  stone.  But  the  protean  artisan 
image-makers  have  left  a  large  body  of  work  that 
begins  in  the  early  Six  Dynasties  with  images 
imbued  with  great  energy  and  movement  and 
develops  by  the  Tang  dynasty  into  figures  ot 
worldly  and  splendid  elegance.  The  sensuous  and 
rounded  volumes  of  Tang  sculptures  correspond  to 
the  fashions  of  female  court  beauties  as  revealed  in 
the  early  scroll  paintings,  seen  in  this  exhibition  in 
photographic  reproductions  of  contemporaneous 
wall  murals.  This  is  the  first  exhibition  from  China 
to  feature  stone  Buddhist  sculptures  in  significant 
numbers. 

Among  Chinese  contributions  to  world  culture,  it 
is  perhaps  porcelain  that  was  most  devoutly 
admired  and  fervently  sought  after  in  the  West.  The 
course  of  development  ot  Chinese  ceramics,  from 
the  early  high-fired  stonewares  through  various 
types  of  later  white-  and  green-glazed  wares  to  the 
pinnacle  represented  by  porcelain,  is  well 
represented  in  this  exhibition.  The  selection  was 
based  on  the  quality  ot  individual  pieces  as  well  as 
on  features  that  would  reveal  the  intrieuine 


INTRODUCTION 


development  of  various  types  of  body  and  glaze 
and  styles  of  decoration,  each  reflecting  the 
technology  and  the  ethos  of  its  time  and  its 
particular  patrons. 

An  almost  equally  long-lived  and  practical  art  is 
calligraphy,  which  in  China  had  a  double  nature.  Its 
practical  uses  are  readily  apparent  in  the  West.  But 
in  China  calligraphy  was  not  simply  a  tool  for 
recording;  it  was  the  premier  art,  the  badge  of 
rulers  and  officials,  landowners  and  literati.  In 
China,  unlike  the  Near  Eastern  and  European 
empires  and  kingdoms,  writing — calligraphy — was  a 
key  or  pass  to  greatness  and  station.  The  proper 
manipulation  of  ink  with  brush  was  the  most 
respected  of  accomplishments,  held  to  reveal  the 
moral  character  of  the  writer.  Calligraphy  was  also 
a  fully  aesthetic  practice,  one  with  its  own  tradition, 
discipline,  and  criteria  of  excellence,  evolved  during 
four  thousand  years  of  continuous  development. 
Even  without  access  to  the  literary  meanings, 
philosophical  assumptions  and  implications,  and 
long  stylistic  history,  we  in  the  West  may  still  sense 
the  kinesthetic  accomplishment  of  the  brush 
moving  across  paper  or  silk. 

The  use  of  brush  and  ink  defined  the  literati  class. 
It  underlay  both  calligraphy  and  painting,  the  twin 
insignia  of  the  civil  and  civilized  life  as  distinct 
from  its  correlative  opposite,  the  military  or 
physical  life.  It  is  noteworthy  too  that,  in  a  society 
that  generally  prized  group  solidarity  over  solitary 
genius,  individualism  in  art,  the  creation  of  an 
individual  style,  came  to  be  held  the  highest,  most 
admirable  achievement.  The  paintings  in  this 
exhibition  thus  manifest  a  wide  range  of  individual 
styles  and  approaches;  they  also  fall  naturally  into 
two  groups,  the  earlier  presenting  a  more 
descriptive,  objective  view  of  nature,  the  later,  from 
the  fourteenth  century  onward,  a  more  expressive, 
subjective  approach.  From  the  tenth  to  the 
thirteenth  century  artists  investigated  a  wide  range 
of  phenomena  in  the  macrocosm  of  nature.  Most  it 
not  all  of  these  phenomena  were  understood  as 
embodiments  of  qualities  that  existed  in  the 
microcosm  of  the  human  world — such  things  as 
mountains,  water,  bamboo,  blossoming  plums, 
chrysanthemums,  and  orchids  functioned  as 
emblems  for  qualities  associated  with  the  ideal 
scholar-gentleman — but  reality,  although  pervaded 
with  moral  and  metaphysical  and  auspicious 
meanings,  was  still  granted  an  objective  existence 
outside  the  mind  that  sought  to  apprehend  it  and 
that  endowed  it  with  those  meanings. 


the  past,  painters  created  new  pictorial  structures 
united  by  innovative  grammars.  At  its  best,  this 
intensely  art-historical  later  painting  drew  ever- 
renewing  vitality  from  the  singular  vision  of  each 
of  its  practitioners.  But  as  printed  books  in  the 
exhibition  demonstrate,  complex  styles  could  be 
analyzed,  broken  down  into  their  constituent  parts; 
these  in  turn  were  often  made  the  hill  substance  of 
later  paintings.  Such  a  concentration  on  details  and 
on  technical  features  like  brushwork  ultimately  had 
an  adverse  affect  on  the  pictorial  tradition.  A  similar 
emphasis  on  technology  rather  than  creativity- 
overtook  later  Qing  dynasty  jades,  lacquers, 
porcelains,  and  textiles,  and  this  tendency 
constitutes  one  of  the  greatest  challenges 
bequeathed  by  late  dynastic  artists  to  their 
twentieth-century  successors. 

The  reader  will  by  now  be  aware  that  this  is  an 
exhibition  which  stresses  the  art  of  an  ancient 
culture  with  particular  relation  to  innovation  and 
creativity.  It  is  not  meant  to  emphasize  the 
historical,  sociological,  ethnographical,  or  literary 
aspects  of  Chinese  culture.  But  so  compelling  are 
the  achievements  ot  these  artists  and  artisans  that 
their  creations  illumine  the  civilization  in  which 
they  were  produced — its  material  options  and 
constraints,  its  social  obligations  and  expectations, 
its  moral  compulsions  and  freedoms,  its  aesthetic 
preferences  and  boundaries.  These  works  appear 
before  us  as  tangible  witnesses  to  China's  cultural 
history. 


During  the  Yuan  and  later  dynasties  artists  tended 
to  move  away  from  direct  engagement  with  outer 
reality — even  that  defined  in  idealistic  terms — and 
to  create  more  subjective  works.  Often  using  a 
stylistic  and  technical  syllabary  derived  fiom  art  oi 


INTRODUCTION 


33 


1/  w 


i£j»>« 


"•"•ft*'"*-*  ': 


>t 


Some  Elements  in  the 
Intellectual  and 
Religious  Context  of 
Chinese  Art 


As  with  the  art  of  any  other  great 


civilization,  that  of  China  has  been 


intimately  linked  to  ideas  generally 
classified  under  the  rubric  religion  and 
philosophy — ideas  about  life  and  death, 
human  nature  and  human  society,  the 
natural  world  of  mountains  and  streams, 
plants  and  animals,  and  the  invisible 
world  of  gods,  ghosts,  spirits,  and  demons. 


Patricia  Ebrey 

Professor,  Department  of  History, 
University  of  Washington 


36 


Some  of  the  most  important  of  these  ideas 
appeared  early  and  persisted  for  centuries;  most 
were  altered  in  major  ways  over  time;  some  died 
out  or  were  supplanted;  others  coexisted  with 
opposing  but  equally  entrenched  ideas. 

The  relationship  between  art  and  these  diverse 
ideas  is  just  as  complex.  Religious  and  philosophical 
traditions  provided  the  occasions  for  creating  many 
objects  later  treasured  as  art.  The  finest  examples  of 
jade,  bronze,  silk,  and  ceramics  were  frequently 
made  to  be  used  in  religious  rituals.  These  traditions 
also  provided  a  significant  share  of  the  imagery  of 
Chinese  art:  phoenixes,  dragons,  cicadas,  birds,  and 
other  creatures  of  cosmological  significance  are 
common  decorative  motifs;  sages,  filial  sons, 
Buddhas,  bodhisattvas,  immortals,  demons,  and  gods 
are  frequent  subjects  of  figure  painting  and 
sculpture.  Chinese  discourses  on  aesthetics,  personal 
refinement,  and  the  value  of  the  past  all  influenced 
which  objects  would  be  treasured  and  preserved. 
Placing  higher  value  on  a  sample  ot  handwriting 
than  on  a  finely  crafted  chair,  for  instance,  owes 
much  to  Confucian  and  Daoist  ideas  about  self- 
cultivation.  But  certainly  it  is  not  always  the  case 
that  the  ideas  are  prior  and  the  art  an  expression  or 
reflection  of  them;  meanings  can  be  created  and 
conveyed  through  objects  independently  of  words 
and  texts.  Sometimes  it  is  the  textual  version  that  is 
the  reflection  or  rationalization  of  meanings  created 
by  the  deployment  or  decoration  of  objects.  For 
example,  most  Chinese  explanations  of  the  meaning 
of  objects  buried  with  the  dead  probably  should  be 
interpreted  as  after-the-fact  rationalizations  or 
speculations. 

It  is  common  practice  for  art  historians  to  relate  the 
objects  they  study  to  elements  in  Chinese 
intellectual  and  religious  culture.  In  this  volume,  for 
instance,  Elizabeth  Childs-Johnson  relates  the 
decoration  of  early  jades  and  bronzes  to  shamanism, 
Wu  Hung  relates  Warring  States  and  Han  tomb 
furnishings  to  ideas  about  post-mortem  existence, 
and  Helmut  Brinker  places  Buddhist  sculpture  in 


the  context  of  Buddhist  teachings.  In  this  chapter  I 
shall  take  a  broader  view  and  try  to  relate  the  larger 
contours  of  the  history  of  Chinese  art  to  the  larger 
contours  of  Chinese  religious  and  intellectual 
history.  I  will  do  this  by  examining  four  complexes 
of  ideas  that  have  particular  bearing  on  Chinese 
art — ideas  about  rulers,  mountains,  writing,  and 
icons.  I  selected  these  four  not  because  they  make  a 
nice  Chinese-sounding  set  of  "The  Four  Sacred 
Things,"  but  because  they  let  me  get  at  some  key 
tensions  and  contradictions  in  the  layered  traditions 
of  Chinese  religious  and  intellectual  thought.  Other 
ideas,  ones  associated  for  instance  with  the  sage, 
vital  force,  the  cosmos,  paradise,  flowers,  fate, 
emotions,  and  so  on,  could  have  been  added  or 
substituted.  But  the  four  discussed  here  are  diverse 
enough  to  show  something  of  the  dynamics  of  a 
cultural  framework  in  which  inconsistent,  even 
contradictory,  ideas  interacted  in  fruitful  ways.  '  In 
ordinary  social  life,  the  coexistence  of  ideas  in  some 
way  opposed  to  each  other  gives  people  room  to 
think  for  themselves  and  to  maneuver  against 
others  for  personal  advantage;  in  the  sphere  of  art  it 
gives  artists  and  patrons  the  freedom  to  pick  and 
choose  elements  that  suit  their  moods  or  purposes 
as  well  as  to  refashion  them  into  something  new. 
When  their  work  is  most  creative,  it  provokes  the 
rethinking  of  basic  notions,  thus  altering  the 
intellectual  traditions  from  which  they  drew. 
Although  we  may  feel  strongly  the  urge  to  look  for 
key  principles  that  bring  clarity  to  the  apparent 
untidiness  of  Chinese  culture,  in  my  view  we 
actually  gain  a  deeper  understanding  it  we  resist 
that  urge  and  strive  instead  to  comprehend  a 
dynamic  situation  in  which  opposing  ideas, 
practices,  and  symbols  run  up  against  each  other 
and  people  feel  strongly  the  truth  or  beauty  ot 
ideas  and  things  not  entirely  consistent  with  each 
other. 

THE    RULER 

Chinese  ideas  about  kingship  cannot  be  ignored  by 
the  student  of  Chinese  art.  Much  of  Chinese  art 
was  either  made  for  kingly  use  or  influenced  by 


THE    INTELLECTUAL    AND    RELIGIOUS    CONTEXT    OF    CHINESE    ART 


37 


standards  of  taste  set  at  court.  In  this  exhibition  the 
exquisite  objects  from  the  tombs  of  the  royal 
consort  Fu  Hao,  the  marquis  ofYi,  the  king  of 
Zhongshan,  and  the  First  Emperor  of  Qin  are  the 
most  obvious  examples  of  this.  Even  art  not  from 
royal  tombs  owes  much  to  the  technical  advances 
made  by  artists  and  artisans  in  the  employ  of  rulers 
who  demanded  objects  of  the  highest  possible 
quality  and  who  could  provide  the  material 
resources  required.  That  rulers  had  resources  at  their 
disposal  is  probably  best  explained  in  terms  of 
political  and  economic  history.  But  the  way  they 
chose  to  use  those  resources  has  much  to  do  with 
conceptions  of  kingship. 

The  notion  that  properly  there  is  only  one  supreme 
ruler  goes  very  far  back  in  Chinese  history.  In  the 
late  Shang  known  from  the  excavations  at  Anyang 
(ca.  1200— I  too  bce),  the  king  referred  to  himself  as 
'"The  One  Man"  or  "The  Unique  One,"  and  seems 
to  have  operated  on  the  assumption  that  he  could 
command  the  obedience  of  everyone  in  the  realm. 
Above  him,  however,  were  powerful  spirits, 
especially  his  own  ancestors.  He  was  the 
intermediary  between  humankind  and  these 
celestial  powers,  whom  he  served  through  sacrifices 
of  animals  and  even  human  beings.  In  the  most 
important  cults  the  king  acted  as  the  head  priest, 
making  the  sacrifices  and  pronouncing  the  prayers. 
He  expended  much  of  the  wealth  at  his  disposal  on 
the  performance  of  these  rites,  and  the 
concentration  of  material  resources  in  his  hands  was 
justified  on  the  basis  of  his  priestly  powers.  That  is, 
he  was  the  one  best  able  to  communicate  with  his 
powerful  ancestors  through  divination  and 
influence  them  through  sacrifices,  and  these 
ancestors  were  the  best  able  to  communicate  with 
the  high  god  Di,  and  so  for  the  welfare  of  the 
entire  society  it  was  essential  that  he  have  the 
material  resources  to  perform  the  rites  in  the  most 
efficacious  possible  manner. 

Sacrifices  to  ancestors  and  other  divinities  remained 
central  to  kingship  into  the  Zhou  period 
(ca.  1100-256  bce),  but  the  most  important  divinity 
of  the  early  Zhou  was  Heaven.  Heaven,  perhaps 
originating  in  a  sky  divinity,  had  by  this  time  come 
to  be  conceived  as  something  like  the  sacred  moral 
power  of  the  cosmos.  Just  as  there  was  only  one 
Heaven,  there  could  be  only  one  true  universal 
king,  the  "Son  of  Heaven,"  uniquely  qualified  and 
obliged  to  offer  sacrifices  to  Heaven.  The  early 
classic  Shujing  ("Book  of  Documents")  portrays 
Heaven  as  taking  a  direct  interest  in  the 
performance  of  the  king.  If  he  neglected  his  sacred 
duties  and  acted  tyrannically,  Heaven  would  display 
its  disfavor  by  sending  down  ominous  portents  and 
natural  disasters.  If  the  king  failed  to  heed  such 
warnings,  political  and  social  disorder  would  ensue, 
signaling  that  Heaven  had  withdrawn  its  mandate. 


Thus,  the  Shujing  portrays  the  final  Shang  ruler  as 
a  dissolute,  sadistic  king  who  had  lost  Heaven's 
favor  and  the  Zhou  conquerors  as  just  and  noble 
warriors  who  had  gained  it.  Kingly  tendencies 
toward  ostentation  were  judged  harshly.  The  charges 
against  the  last  king  of  the  Shang  included  spending 
too  much  on  his  personal  enjoyment,  taking 
resources  from  the  people  to  build  "palaces,  towers, 
pavilions,  embankments,  ponds,  and  all  other 
extravagances";2  kings  were  not,  however,  criticized 
for  commissioning  lavishly  decorated  bronze  vessels 
for  use  in  sacrifices  or  for  burial  in  graves,  since 
that  was  done  for  the  ancestors. 

To  the  contrary,  bronze  sacrificial  vessels  remained 
an  important  symbol  of  lordship.  Many  early  Zhou 
vessels  bear  inscriptions  showing  they  were 
presented  by  the  king  to  a  lord  to  accompany  the 
granting  of  a  fief.  A  myth  grew  up  about  the 
"nine  tripods"  created  by  the  founders  of  the  Xia 
dynasty.  These  tripods  symbolically  united  the 
realm,  as  they  were  made  of  metal  from  the  various 
regions  and  decorated  with  images  of  animals 
from  all  over.  They  also  were  attuned  to  Heaven. 
When  the  ruler's  virtue  was  commendable  and 
brilliant,  the  tripods  would  be  heavy  though  small, 
but  when  the  ruler  lacked  virtue,  they  would  be 
light  even  though  large.  When  the  Xia  dynasty 
ended,  it  was  believed,  the  tripods  passed  like  royal 
regalia  to  the  Shang  rulers,  then  centuries  later  to 
the  Zhou  rulers.3 

Conceptions  of  the  ruler  as  the  pivotal  figure  in  the 
cosmos  may  well  draw  from  very  ancient  ideas  of 
shaman-priests  who  intercede  with  celestial  powers, 
but  by  mid-Zhou  times  they  were  evolving  in  a 
text-centered  tradition,  fashioned  by  literate  court 
specialists  to  suit  the  needs  of  rulers,  nobles,  and  the 
ruling  class  more  generally.  From  the  eighth 
century  on  the  Zhou  kings  progressively  lost  actual 
power  and  regional  lords  grew  stronger,  but  these 
new  circumstances  did  not  lead  to  a  new 
cosmology  that  eliminated  the  need  for  a  universal 
king.  Rather  it  led  to  a  profusion  of  ideas  on  how 
best  to  recover  or  recreate  a  central  monarchical 
institution  capable  of  bringing  unity  to  a  politically 
divided  world. 

To  Confucius  (traditional  dates  551—479  bce),  the 
solution  lay  in  getting  rulers  to  act  like  true  kings. 
He  held  up  as  examples  Yao  and  Shun,  the  sage- 
kings  of  antiquity,  as  well  as  the  more  recent 
founders  of  the  Zhou  dynasty,  King  Wen  and  King 
Wu.  These  true  kings  were  antitheses  of  the  selfish, 
aggressive,  heavy-handed,  vainglorious  rulers  of  the 
states  of  his  day.  The  true  king  would  honor  the 
ancient  ways  and  rule  through  ritual  (//)  and  moral 
force  (rfe).  He  would  not  overburden  his  people  to 
satisfy  his  own  greedy  desires  for  ostentatious 
display  or  incessant  conquest.  "If  a  ruler  himself  is 


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38 


upright,  all  will  go  well  even  though  he  does  not 
issue  orders.  But  if  he  himself  is  not  upright,  even 
though  he  gives  orders,  they  will  not  be  obeyed" 
(Analects,  13.6). "Were  a  true  king  to  appear,  within 
a  generation  goodness  would  prevail"  (Analects, 
13.12). 

The  true  king  would  rule  through  ritual,  but 
Confucius  did  not  conceive  of  him  as  a  priest-king. 
Nor  did  Confucius  ever  imply  that  the  gods  or 
ancestors  would  cause  harm  to  those  who  failed  to 
perform  the  sacrifices  to  them  properly;  he  himself 
is  said  to  have  performed  sacrifices  "as  though"  the 
spirits  were  present.  Later  followers  like  Xunzi 
(ca.  310-ca.  220  bce)  explicitly  denied  any  link 
between  the  performance  of  rites  and  the  action  of 
spirits  or  gods.  Xunzi  argued  that  Heaven  is 
impartial  and  human  affairs  result  from  human 
efforts.  Praying  to  Heaven  or  to  gods  does  not  get 
them  to  intervene. 

Both  Confucius'  and  Xunzi's  love  of  ritual  was 
based  at  least  in  part  on  aesthetic  attraction:  they 
responded  to  the  beauty  of  well-choreographed 
ceremonies  combining  instrumental  music,  song, 
and  dance.  But  their  intellectual  argument, 
addressed  to  rulers,  concerned  the  nearly  magical 
way  in  which  ritual  can  create  social  and  political 
harmony.  Confucius  told  his  disciple  Yan  Hui  that 
"the  whole  world  would  respond  to  the  true 
goodness  of  one  who  could  for  one  day  restrain 
himself  and  return  to  ritual"  (Analects,  12. 1).  Ritual, 
to  Confucius,  was  not  restricted  to  dealings  with 
ancestors  or  deities:  it  was  also  an  aspect  of  the  way 
the  ruler  dealt  with  his  subjects.  "Lead  the  people 
by  means  of  government  policies  and  regulate  them 
through  punishments,  and  they  will  be  evasive  and 
have  no  sense  of  shame.  Lead  them  by  means  of 
virtue  and  regulate  them  through  rituals  and  they 
will  have  a  sense  of  shame  and  moreover  have 
standards"  (Analects,  2.3). 

Xunzi  went  much  further  than  Confucius  in 
emphasizing  the  connection  between  ritual  and 
distinctions  of  rank.  The  funerals  of  rulers  had  to  be 
on  a  scale  corresponding  to  their  rank  in  every 
detail — the  numbers  of  inner  and  outer  coffins,  the 
quality  and  quantity  of  burial  clothes  and  food 
offerings,  the  length  of  the  interval  between  death 
and  burial.  In  ancestral  rites,  the  highest  ruler, 
presiding  over  the  entire  realm,  had  to  offer 
numerous  types  of  food  and  wine  to  seven 
generations  of  ancestors,  but  a  ruler  of  a  single  state 
should  make  fewer  offerings  to  only  five 
generations,  and  so  on.  Rulers  must  perform  these 
rituals  correctly,  not  because  they  need  the  aid  or 
fear  the  wrath  of  the  dead,  but  in  order  to 
demonstrate  their  filial  gratitude  and  respect  for 
tradition,  and  to  show  that  they  accept  their  place 
in  the  political  hierarchy. 


Confucius  and  his  followers  elevated  the  ruler  by 
placing  him  firmly  at  the  top  of  a  moral  hierarchy 
in  which  all — rulers  and  subjects,  nobles  and 
commoners,  parents  and  children — wholeheartedly 
devote  themselves  to  fulfilling  the  parts  assigned  to 
them;  in  this  ideal  world  superiors  and  inferiors 
look  after  each  other  and  everything  gets  done 
without  conflict  or  the  use  of  force.  This  view  of 
the  ruler  exalts  him  but  also  burdens  him,  for  when 
the  world  is  not  in  perfect  harmony  the  fault  is 
mostly  his.  Mencius  (ca.  370— ca.  300  bce)  once  told 
a  king  that  if  a  ruler  were  to  appear  who  was  not 
inclined  toward  killing  people,  "The  people  would 
flow  toward  him  the  way  water  flows  down.  No 
one  would  be  able  to  stop  them"  (1A.6).  On 
another  occasion  he  told  a  king  that  if  he  treated 
his  people  well  by  reducing  taxes  and  lightening 
punishments,  they  would  be  so  eager  to  fight  for 
him  that  even  if  armed  only  with  sharpened  sticks 
they  could  defeat  the  well-equipped  soldiers  of  the 
powerful  states  of  Qin  and  Chu,  which  had  been 
encroaching  on  the  king's  territory. 

As  texts  recording  the  teachings  of  Confucius  and 
his  followers  began  to  circulate  in  the  late  Zhou, 
they  helped  freeze  the  Confucian  position  and  also 
invited  counter-arguments.  A  few  thinkers — 
generally  ones  labeled  Daoist — went  further  than 
the  Confucians  in  urging  rulers  to  do  less.  The 
Laozi  said,  "The  sage  manages  affairs  by  doing 
nothing  and  spreads  the  teachings  that  are  not  put 
in  words." The  more  a  ruler  does,  the  worse  the 
result:  the  more  laws  and  regulations,  the  more 
thieves  and  robbers.  The  sage  ruler  "ensures  that  the 
people  know  nothing  and  desire  nothing."4 

More  common  than  calls  for  nonaction,  however, 
were  calls  for  action.  Mozi  (ca.  490-ca.  403  bce) 
proposed  strengthening  the  ability  of  rulers  to 
command  obedience.  He  argued  that  unless  one 
man  was  elevated  above  all  others,  there  would  be 
no  final  authority  and  everyone  would  have  Ins 
own  opinion,  making  any  sort  of  cooperation  or 
social  organization  impossible. The  solution  was  for 
everyone  to  agree  with  those  above — including  the 
ruler,  who  must  conform  to  Heaven:  "What  the 
superior  thinks  right,  all  shall  think  right."The  text 
attributed  to  Guanzi  (traditional  dates  683-642  BCE) 
agreed  that  the  peace  and  stability  of  the  state 
depend  on  elevating  the  ruler.  But  Guanzi  drew 
attention  to  the  need  for  coercion.  What  secured 
the  ruler's  control  was  his  power  "to  grant  life,  to 
kill,  to  enrich,  to  impoverish,  to  ennoble,  to  debase" 
Even  if  the  ruler's  personal  conduct  was  not 
superior,  given  these  powers,  all  would  accept  his 
leadership  and  "not  dare  to  indulge  111  opinions 
about  the  quality  of  his  conduct." 

Ihe  leading  Legalist  thinkers  would  largely  have 
agreed  with  these  sentiments.  In  the  book  ascribed 


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39 


to  him,  Lord  Shang  (ShangYang,  or  Gongsun  Yang; 
d.  338  bce)  urged  the  ruler  not  to  hesitate  to 
institute  changes  in  his  efforts  to  strengthen  his 
state.  The  founders  of  the  Xia,  Shang,  and  Zhou 
had  not  been  afraid  to  make  changes,  because  "wise 
people  create  laws  while  ignorant  ones  are 
controlled  by  them;  the  worthy  alter  the  rites  while 
the  unworthy  are  held  fast  by  them."  Law  to  him 
was  the  sovereigns  will,  carefully  codified  and 
impartially  applied. 

Han  Feizi  (d.  233  bce),  author  of  the  fullest 
exposition  of  Legalist  thought,  argued  that  the 
Confucian  notion  of  ruling  through  virtue  rather 
than  force  was  based  on  a  faulty  analogy  with  the 
family.  "A  mother  loves  her  son  twice  as  much  as  a 
father  does,  but  a  fathers  orders  are  ten  times  more 
effective  than  a  mother's."  Moreover,  the  common 
people  have  about  as  much  understanding  of  what 
is  good  for  them  as  infants  who  scream  when  their 
loving  mothers  lance  their  boils.  The  ruler  who 
taxes  the  people  to  fill  granaries  against  times  of 
famine  or  war  should  ignore  their  protests  the  way 
the  mother  ignores  the  baby's  wails.  Rulers  should 
even  be  wary  of  the  advice  of  their  top  ministers. 
Given  subordinates'  propensities  to  pursue  then- 
own  selfish  interests,  the  ruler  cannot  afford  to  be 
candid  or  warm  toward  any  of  them.  Rather  he 
should  keep  them  in  awed  ignorance  of  his 
intentions  and  control  them  by  manipulating 
competition  among  them.  "When  the  ruler  trusts 
someone,  he  falls  under  that  person's  control."'' 

By  Han  Feizi's  time  ideas  about  the  ruler  were  also 
colored  by  myths  about  the  Yellow  Emperor 
(Huangdi),  first  of  the  sage-kings  of  high  antiquity. 
Han  Feizi  at  one  point  referred  to  the  Yellow 
Emperor  summoning  the  ghosts  and  spirits  to  the 
top  of  Mount  Tai,  travelling  there  on  a  chariot 
pulled  by  dragons,  with  tigers  and  wolves  leading 
the  way,  ghosts  and  spirits  following,  lizards  and 
snakes  below,  a  phoenix  above.  In  the  version  of  the 
myth  current  in  Han  Feizi's  day,  the  Yellow 
Emperor  was  notable  above  all  for  his  military 
might.  He  had  overcome  the  Divine  Husbandman 
(Shennong),  who  had  introduced  farming  but  shied 
away  from  the  use  of  arms.  By  teaching  the  bears, 
leopards,  and  tigers  to  fight  for  him,  the  Yellow 
Emperor  had  been  able  to  conquer  all  those  who 
opposed  him.  In  addition,  the  Yellow  Emperor  had 
associations  with  rain  and  with  dragons;  some  texts 
say  he  had  the  face  of  a  dragon  and  that  dragons 
appeared  when  he  received  Heaven's  mandate.7  The 
later  chapters  of  the  Daoist  text  Zhuangzi  present 
the  Yellow  Emperor  sometimes  as  an  arrogant 
conqueror,  dangerous  in  the  excess  of  his  zeal  for 
bringing  order  to  the  world,  sometimes  as  a 
devoted  disciple  of  the  master  Zhuangzi,  listening 
to  teachings  on  longevity.  Often  he  was  identified 
with  the  Daoist  Sage,  a  being  of  immense  powers, 


physically  and  mentally  free,  able  to  wander  freely 
to  the  four  corners  of  the  universe  and  to  live  in 
perfect  unity  with  everything  in  the  cosmos.8 

During  the  fourth  and  third  centuries,  as  the 
smaller  states  (such  as  Zhongshan,  prominent  in  the 
exhibition)  were  eliminated  by  their  larger 
neighbors,  the  competition  between  the  surviving 
states  became  even  more  intense.  The  state  of  Qin 
systematically  eliminated  the  hereditary  lords  of  the 
states  it  conquered,  a  policy  that  led  to 
unprecedented  concentration  of  resources  in  the 
hands  of  a  single  ruler,  the  king  of  Qin.  Legalist 
ideology  insists  on  rationality  and  efficiency  as  the 
means  to  achieve  and  exercise  authority;  there  is  no 
implication  in  the  writings  of  Lord  Shang  or  Han 
Feizi  that  the  ruler  would  be  wise  to  spend  freely 
on  luxuries  in  order  to  impress  his  subjects  with  his 
power.  But  Legalist  ideology  does  not  explicitly 
urge  austerity  on  the  ruler,  or  indeed  set  limits  of 
any  sort  on  his  actions,  and  the  man  to  oversee  the 
unification  of  China  by  Legalist  means,  the  First 
Emperor  of  Qin  (Qin  Shihuangdi,  r.  246—210  bce) 
(see  cats.  88-92)  did  not  set  many  limits  on  himself. 
Drawing  together  the  resources  of  All-Under- 
Heaven  made  possible  enormous  construction 
projects.  Although  he  already  had  several  hundred 
palaces  and  scenic  towers,  in  212  the  emperor 
conscripted  seven  hundred  thousand  subjects  to 
build  his  tomb  and  a  huge  new  palace  complex, 
large  enough  to  seat  ten  thousand  people.  Many  of 
his  palaces  were  connected  by  elevated  walkways 
and  walled  roads  so  that  the  emperor  could  move 
between  them  undetected. 

Although  he  was  rigorous  in  enforcing  such 
Legalist  policies  as  strict  rewards  and  punishments, 
the  First  Emperor  of  Qin  was  personally  open  to 
non-Legalist  ideas  as  well,  including  the  more 
grandiose  conceptions  of  rulership  conveyed  by  the 
myth  of  the  Yellow  Emperor  and  cosmological 
schemes  that  proved  to  him  that  the  Qin  ruled 
through  the  power  ofWater  and  thus  was  destined 
to  succeed  the  Zhou,  which  had  ruled  through 
Fire.  This  cosmological  strain  of  thought  drew  on 
very  old  ideas  about  the  production  of  the  myriad 
things  through  the  workings  of  Yin  and  Yang.  Yang, 
identified  with  the  sun,  Heaven,  light,  the  male,  the 
assertive,  and  the  changing,  contrasts  with  Yin, 
identified  with  the  moon,  earth,  darkness,  female, 
dampness,  receptivity,  and  continuity.  The 
movement  from  Yin  to  Yang  and  back  again 
corresponds  to  such  phenomena  as  the  daily 
changes  in  the  position  of  the  sun  and  moon  and 
the  yearly  succession  of  the  seasons.  The  theory  of 
the  Five  Phases  (earth,  wood,  metal,  fire,  water)  is  a 
much  more  complex  system,  which  divides  and 
classifies  the  cosmos  in  both  time  and  space  on  the 
basis  of  equivalencies,  resonances,  and  influences 
connecting  cosmic  principles,  astral  events,  and 


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40 


earthly  phenomena,  especially  government.  These 
theories  provided  the  basis  for  medicine,  divination, 
and  the  interpretation  of  dreams  and  portents. 
Moreover,  because  they  required  searching  for  both 
anomalies  and  regularities  in  the  skies,  the  weather, 
flora,  and  fauna,  they  fostered  advances  in 
astronomical  and  calendrical  calculation  and  in 
natural  history. 


ancient  times.9  In  their  place  he  relied  on  men  who 
were  experts  in  the  lore  of  the  Yellow  Emperor,  the 
god  Great  Unity,  and  routes  to  immortality.  In  later 
periods  as  well,  Confucian  scholars  tended  to 
advocate  austere  textually-based  "ancient"  rituals 
while  experts  in  the  occult  or  later  Daoist  priests 
choreographed  elaborate  ritual  pageants  more 
satisfying  to  many  emperors. 


The  collapse  of  the  Qin  within  a  few  years  of  the 
death  of  the  First  Emperor  led  to  the  discrediting 
of  Legalism  but  not  of  other  ideas  on  which  Qin 
had  drawn,  such  as  the  Five  Phases  cosmology  or 
the  myth  of  the  Yellow  Emperor,  all  of  which  in 
Han  times  were  drawn  together  into  an  ideological 
justification  of  imperial  rule.  Dong  Zhongshu 
(ca.  179— ca.  104  bce)  wrote  at  length  on  the 
interconnections  among  Heaven,  earth,  and 
humanity.  Among  human  beings,  the  ruler  was 
unique  in  his  capacity  to  link  the  three.  Moreover, 
using  terms  that  echo  Daoist  and  Legalist 
conceptions,  Dong  described  him  as  ruling  through 
nonaction — abstaining  from  administration — to 
maintain  his  exalted  status.  The  Record  oj  Ritual, 
dating  from  the  early  Han,  draws  on  earlier  texts 
like  the  Liishi  clumqiu  to  depict  the  ideal  ruler  as 
one  who  coordinates  the  activities  of  his  state  with 
the  forces  of  nature,  analyzed  in  terms  ofYin  and 
Yang  and  the  Five  Phases.  His  movements  had  to 
be  in  tune  with  ritually  demarked  times  and  places. 
In  the  first  month  of  the  year,  for  instance,  the  Son 
of  Heaven  lives  in  the  apartments  on  the  left  side  of 
the  Green  Bright  Hall,  rides  in  a  chariot  with 
green  pennants  drawn  by  dark  green  dragon  horses, 
wears  green  robes  and  pendants  of  green  jade.  Also 
in  that  month  no  trees  may  be  cut  down  and  no 
people  may  be  summoned  for  any  service,  nor  may 
arms  be  taken  up. 

Although  Confucian  scholars  claimed  to  be  experts 
in  the  traditional  texts  on  ritual,  they  were  not  the 
only  ones  designing  the  rituals  that  would  keep  the 
ruler  in  harmony  with  the  Five  Phases.  Rituals 
designed  on  the  basis  of  ancient  texts  by  Confucian 
scholars  who  held  secular  views  of  ritual  were 
always  in  danger  of  becoming  mere  social 
ceremonies,  useful  for  creating  and  confirming 
social  distinctions,  but  unable  to  touch  people  in 
powerful  ways.  As  a  consequence,  Confucian 
scholars  were  not  able  to  monopolize  the  design  of 
court  rituals,  and  many  rulers  were  receptive  to 
men  who  claimed  alternative  ways  to  tap  into 
cosmic  powers.  In  110  bce,  when  Emperor  Wu  of 
the  Han  dynasty  journeyed  to  Mount  Tai  to 
perform  thefeng  and  shan  sacrifices,  he  dismissed 
the  Confucian  scholars  because  they  "insisted  on 
confining  themselves  to  what  was  written  in  the 
Odes  and  Documents  and  other  old  books"  and 
objected  to  sacrificial  vessels  the  emperor  had  made 
because  they  were  not  the  same  as  the  ones  used  in 


To  sum  up,  throughout  the  imperial  period,  the 
production  of  luxury  goods  to  be  used  in  imperial 
palaces,  temples,  and  tombs  took  place  in  a  cultural 
context  in  which  rulers  were  given  all  sorts  of 
advice.  They  were  told  to  demonstrate  their  rank  in 
everything  they  did  but  not  to  burden  the  people 
through  excessive  extraction;  they  were  told  to 
model  themselves  on  sage-kings  whose  attributes 
ranged  from  the  mild  and  temperate  Yao  to  the  all- 
conquering  Yellow  Emperor;  they  were  likened  to 
gods  but  also  told  to  perform  highly  scripted  roles 
that  left  them  little  in  the  way  of  personal 
discretion.  Art  produced  for  the  court  would  have 
resonated  with  these  ideas  in  various  ways. 
Moreover,  art  produced  for  other  sites  often  was 
shaped  by  these  discourses  indirectly.  In  later 
centuries  Buddhist  and  Daoist  temples  were  often 
modeled  on  palaces,  and  their  deities  on  kings  and 
queens.  Thus,  ways  ot  decorating  temples  and 
depicting  deities  participated  in  the  discourse  on 
rulership.  Art  that  was  distinctly  nonimpenal  also,  of 
course,  drew  from  this  discourse.  Scholars  who 
identified  with  the  Confucian  critique  of  imperial 
extravagance  had  to  choose  a  more  austere  style  for 
their  own  homes  and  gardens. 

MOUNTAINS 

Depictions  of  mountains  were  very  common  in 
Chinese  art  from  the  late  Warring  States  period  on, 
and  there  are  many  examples  in  the  exhibition 
(cats.  50,  51  [reverse],  153,  186,  189,  192-95,  200, 
204—9,  212). I0  Mountains  share  some  of  the  aura  of 
kings.  Kings  sacrifice  to  mountains.  The  sage-king 
Shun,  the  Book  of  Documents  reports,  regularly 
sacrificed  to  the  mountains  from  afar,  and  once 
every  five  years  made  a  journey  to  each  region  of 
the  empire,  making  burnt  offerings  to  Heaven  at 
the  sacred  mountains  Tai  in  the  east,  Heng  in  the 
south,  Hua  in  the  west,  Heng  in  the  north,  and 
Songgao  in  the  center.  Mountains  were  also  like 
rulers,  rich  in  Ymg  power,  lowering  above  the 
ordinary,  linking  the  lowly  to  the  heavens.  The 
death  of  .1  ruler  was  euphemistically  called  the 
collapse  of  a  mountain.  "Great  and  lofty  1--  the 
mountain/ With  its  might  reaching  10  I  leaven," 
read  the  first  two  lines  in  a  poem  in  the  Classii  el 
Poetry  (poem  259). 

Many  ideas  about  mountains  undoubtedly  derived 
from  folk  traditions  about  particular  local 
mountains  and  the  deities  or  ere. nines  thai 


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inhabited  them.  Han  Feizi  recorded  the  story  of 
King  Zhao  (r.  306-251  bce)  of  the  state  of  Qin 
who  climbed  to  the  top  of  Mount  Hua  and  left  an 
inscription  there  saying,  "King  Zhao  once  played  a 
game  of  bo  with  a  heavenly  deity  here."  Mountains 
were  also  wild  places  where  fantastic  and  dangerous 
creatures  lived.  The  late  Zhou  and  Han  Shanhai  jing 
("Classic  of  Mountains  and  Seas")  describes 
mountains  inhabited  by  animals  like  the  human- 
devouring  zhuhai,  with  horns  like  a  bull,  human 
eyes,  and  hog's  ears.  The  deities  residing  in  the 
mountains  are  also  often  hybrid,  combining  human, 
bird,  snake,  sheep,  or  dragon  parts. 

In  late  Zhou  local  cults  of  immortality  were 
gaining  strength  and  spreading,  and  in  these  cults 
immortals  were  often  associated  with  mountains. 
Magicians  advised  the  First  Emperor  of  Qin  that 
immortals  dwelled  in  exquisite  palaces  of  gold  and 
silver  in  the  mountains  of  an  island  in  the  Eastern 
Sea,  and  he  sent  out  teams  of  young  people  to 
search  for  them.  In  Han  times  Emperor  Wu  was 
told  that  the  Yellow  Emperor  had  attained 
immortality  by  visiting  these  islands.  The 
Huainanzi,  a  Daoist-tinged  compilation  sponsored 
by  a  Han  prince  during  the  mid-second  century 
bce,  describes  the  magic  realm  of  the  Kunlun 
Mountains  in  the  far  west,  where  immortality  could 
be  attained.  Sometimes  this  mythical  mountain  was 
associated  with  the  cult  of  a  goddess  called  the 
Queen  Mother  of  the  West  (Xiwangmu).  In  her 
paradise  trees  of  deathlessness  grew  and  rivers  of 
deathlessness  flowed.  Mythical  birds  and  beasts  kept 
her  company,  including  the  three-legged  crow, 
dancing  toad,  nine-tailed  fox,  and  elixir-producing 
rabbit. 

Mountains  also  have  a  special  significance  in  the 
"science"  of  earth  forms,  or  geomancy,  which  dates 
back  at  least  to  Han  times  and  flourished  in 
subsequent  centuries. The  earth  is  viewed  as  an 
organism  with  energy  flowing  through  its  veins, 
much  the  way  blood  flows  through  the  body. 
Mountains  are  full  of  such  energy  in  their  "dragon 
veins,"  and  studying  the  configuration  of  a 
mountain  or  mountain  range  to  determine  where 
these  channels  of  energy  are  located  makes  it 
possible  for  one  skilled  in  geomancy  to  site  a  house 
or  grave  to  best  advantage. 

By  the  end  of  the  Six  Dynasties  (220—589)  the 
earlier  image  of  the  mountain  as  a  wild  realm  of 
fearsome  powers  coexisted  with  a  more  benign 
image  of  the  mountain  as  the  favored  dwelling 
place  of  immortals,  who  lived  in  palatial  luxury  in 
brightly  painted  halls  set  among  gardens  and 
populated  by  elegantly  dressed  "jade  maidens."  The 
connection  between  rulers  and  mountains  survives, 
but  in  a  tamer,  more  civilized  form  that  emphasizes 
material  comfort  and  leisure  rather  than  awesome 


power.  In  time  private  gardens,  and  probably  also 
imperial  gardens,  came  to  be  designed  as 
embodiments  of  the  paradises  of  the  immortals  in 
the  remote  mountains. 

In  the  late  Han  individual  seekers  after  immortality 
started  to  visit  mountains  to  search  for  herbs,  to 
receive  divine  revelations,  or  to  acquire  magical 
powers.  Ge  Hong  (ca.  280— ca.  343)  proposed  that 
those  seeking  immortality  should  go  to  mountains, 
where  they  could  pursue  their  quest  without 
distraction.  But  he  urged  them  to  choose  "big 
mountains"  ruled  by  gods,  rather  than  little 
mountains  infested  by  demons  or  minor  spirits  of 
trees  or  stones."  The  tradition  of  seeking  insight  in 
mountains  would  continue  through  the  rest  of 
Chinese  history,  simultaneously  promoting  and 
being  reinforced  by  the  practice  of  establishing 
Buddhist  and  Daoist  monasteries  in  remote 
mountain  locations.  In  the  Shangqing  (also  called 
Maoshan)  school  of  Daoism  of  the  fourth  century 
and  later,  adepts  could  also  visit  mountains  without 
leaving  home  by  visualizing  their  visits  to  the 
abodes  of  the  immortals.  Because  of  the  assumed 
correspondences  between  the  macrocosm  and  the 
microcosm,  the  exploration  of  a  mountain  or  even 
a  single  rock  could  lead  to  an  understanding  of  the 
entire  cosmos. 

The  holy  aura  of  mountains  also  attracted 
"mountain  men,"  men  who  wished  to  withdraw 
from  society  even  if  they  were  not  seeking 
immortality  or  salvation.  Confucian  scholars 
disgusted  by  the  corruption  of  the  government  or 
lamenting  the  fall  of  the  dynasty  they  had  served 
could  retreat  to  the  mountains  to  avoid  further 
political  entanglement.  Others  could  retreat  there 
to  seek  spiritual  freedom  and  escape  from  social 
obligations.  These  hermits  and  recluses  were 
generally  conceived  as  men  of  wisdom  and 
conviction,  uninterested  in  material  things,  content 
to  eat  and  dress  roughly  and  live  in  caves  or  huts. 
They  are  thus  almost  exact  opposites  of  the 
immortals  dwelling  in  diaphanous  robes  in  palatial 
luxury. 

Mountains  and  rulers  were  frequently  likened  to 
each  other.  The  image  of  the  mountain  enhanced 
the  image  of  the  ruler  by  stressing  his  imposing 
majesty,  connections  to  Heaven,  and  links  to  the 
realms  of  the  immortals.  At  the  same  time, 
mountains  had  an  anti-monarchical  side,  from  their 
association  with  recluses  who  refused  to  have 
anything  to  do  with  the  ruler  and  the  world  of 
government  with  its  hierarchies  and  rules. 

WRITING 

In  China,  writing  has  been  imbued  with  religious 
and  philosophical  significance  from  early  times. '- 
The  divinatory  texts  that  have  survived  from  Shang 


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42 


times  record  statements  addressed  to  ancestors  or 
spirits.  The  earliest  transmitted  texts  from  the  Zhou 
period  came  to  be  considered  the  holy  texts  of  the 
Confucian  tradition,  classics  to  be  read  with 
reverence  or,  better  yet,  memorized.  Even  though 
these  texts  did  not  convey  the  words  of  gods,  they 
contained  the  teachings  of  the  sages.  In  later 
centuries,  after  the  use  of  paper  became  common, 
paper  with  writing  on  it  was  considered  sacred,  and 
well  into  the  twentieth  century  old  men  would 
collect  and  burn  scrap  paper,  that  being  the  way  to 
dispose  of  it  with  proper  respect.  Writing  was  also, 
of  course,  considered  an  art — to  many,  calligraphy 
was  the  highest  of  all  the  arts. 

The  power  of  written  texts  can  be  fully  tapped 
only  by  those  learned  in  the  written  traditions,  able 
to  interpret  the  preserved  texts  and  add  to  the 
repertoire  by  writing  books  themselves.  Because  the 
Chinese  language  was  written  in  a  logographic 
script — one  graph  for  each  word — reading  and 
writing  were  skills  that  took  many  years  to  master, 
and  from  Shang  times  on  those  who  had  mastered 
the  thousands  of  symbols  used  to  make  records 
were  technical  experts  in  demand  at  court.  In 
Confucius'  day  learned  men  served  at  court  as 
advisers,  teachers,  strategists,  and  clerks. They  knew 
the  rules  for  rituals  and  ceremonies,  such  as 
sacrifices  to  ancestors  and  reception  of  envoys;  they 
knew  about  the  Heavens  and  could  advise  on 
setting  the  calendar;  they  kept  records  and  advised 
on  precedents.  But  they  depended  on  rulers  for 
employment,  and  as  states  were  destroyed,  these 
learned  men  frequently  found  themselves  in  the 
uncomfortable  position  of  having  to  locate  a  new 
lord  in  need  of  their  services. 

Confucius  urged  his  followers  to  master  the  literary 
traditions  of  their  day,  and  the  Analects  reported  that 
Confucius  often  discoursed  on  "poetry,  history,  and 
the  performance  of  ceremonies"  (7. 17).  Yet  he  did 
not  want  men  of  education  to  think  of  themselves 
as  narrow  experts,  but  rather  as  persons  whose 
moral  sensibilities  had  been  cultivated  by  studying 
the  words  of  the  sages.  Their  aim  should  be  to 
become  "gentlemen,"  men  of  integrity  and  honor 
who  deserved  to  be  respected  as  much  for  their 
moral  cultivation  as  for  their  mastery  of  tradition. 
The  true  gentleman,  in  Confucius  s  vision,  is  not 
moved  by  profit  like  the  petty  man,  but  rather 
aspires  to  things  lofty.  He  concentrates  on 
improving  himself  and  is  indifferent  to  recognition 
or  reward.  "The  gentleman  feels  bad  when  his 
capabilities  fall  short  of  the  task.  He  does  not  feel 
bad  when  people  fail  to  recognize  him"  (15. 18).  If 
he  can  retain  his  self-respect  even  though  no  ruler 
employs  him,  he  is  not  dependent  on  the  ruler,  and 
can  develop  ideas  and  take  stands  independent  of 
the  ruler. 


The  Confucian  claim  to  the  moral  autonomy  of 
the  educated  came  to  have  much  greater  historical 
significance  after  men  trained  in  Confucian  texts 
gained  a  hold  on  government  posts,  giving  them 
some  degree  of  social  and  political  independence  as 
well.  During  the  course  of  the  Han,  it  became 
widely  accepted  that  officials  should  be  men 
trained  in  the  Confucian  classics  and  respected  for 
their  character.  Ambitious  young  men  sought  out 
teachers  with  whom  to  study  the  classics,  for 
learning  could  lead  to  power  and  prestige.  All  over 
the  country  teachers  attracted  large  numbers  of 
students  and  disciples,  and  the  enrollment  at  the 
imperial  academy  increased  from  a  few  dozen 
students  to  more  than  thirty  thousand  in  the  mid- 
second  century  ce. 

Confucian  officials,  trained  to  view  their  obligation 
to  the  ruler  in  moral  terms,  made  forthright  critics 
of  imperial  policies.  During  the  Han  many 
Confucian  scholars  and  officials  opposed  activist 
policies  such  as  government  monopolies, 
questioning  their  morality  and  their  effect  on 
people's  livelihoods.  Scholars  regularly  objected  to 
imperial  extravagance,  urging  emperors  to  reduce 
their  spending  on  palace  ladies,  entertainment, 
hunting  parks,  stables,  and  rituals.  Thus,  the 
coupling  of  Confucianism  and  the  Chinese 
bureaucracy  created  a  sort  of  balance  of  power 
between  the  emperor  and  the  Confucian-educated 
officials  who  staffed  the  government  but  did  not 
consider  themselves  mere  servants  of  the  emperor. 
Because  the  court  set  the  standards  that  the  literati 
had  to  fulfill  to  gain  entry  into  officialdom,  it 
circumscribed  their  autonomy,  their  capacity  to  set 
their  own  standards,  but  it  never  eliminated  it.  By 
the  end  of  the  Han  those  with  Confucian 
educations  had  become  self-conscious  of  their 
common  identity.  In  the  succeeding  centuries  the 
strength  and  coherence  of  this  elite  of  educated 
gentlemen  proved  as  important  as  political 
centralization  or  economic  integration  as  a  basis  tor 
the  unity  of  Chinese  civilization. 

The  impact  of  these  developments  on  Chinese 
culture  was  profound.  The  importance  placed  on 
texts  and  learning  fostered  some  of  China's  most 
renowned  advances,  such  as  the  invention  of  paper 
in  the  Han  period  and  printing  in  the  Ting  period. 
The  obligation  of  the  gentleman  to  devote  himself 
both  to  learning  the  tradition  and  to  refining  and 
cultivating  his  own  character  legitimated  artistic 
activities  of  many  sorts,  above  all.  perhaps,  poetry- 
writing  and  calligraphy,  but  also  painting  and 
connoisseurship  of  ancient  objects.  A  highly  self- 
referential  style  111  painting  and  calligraphy,  one  thai 
required  firm  grounding  in  what  had  come  before, 
accorded  well  not  only  with  the  Confucian 
commitment  to  learning  but  also  with  the  literati 
approach  to  other  intellectual  pursuits,  such  .is 


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43 


making  extensive  use  of  allusions  in  poetry  and 
writing  commentaries  on  the  classics. 

Although  it  is  common  to  associate  learning  in 
China  with  the  Confucian  literati,  Confucian- 
trained  scholars  were  never  the  only  significant 
group  of  learned  men  who  owed  their  standing  to 
mastery  of  a  body  of  texts.  In  Han  times  the 
astrologers,  diviners,  and  experts  in  unseen  forces 
transmitted  their  knowledge  both  orally  and 
through  texts.  Buddhism  had  entered  China  as  a 
religion  with  a  vast  body  of  scriptures,  and  monks 
gained  standing,  both  within  the  Buddhist 
community  and  outside  it,  by  mastering  a  body  of 
texts  and  adding  to  the  understanding  of  them 
through  writing  commentaries.  In  the  fourth  and 
fifth  centuries  religious  Daoism  acquired  a  large 
body  of  revealed  texts,  and  although  these  texts 
were  not  publicly  distributed  the  way  the 
Confucian  classics  or  Buddhist  sutras  were,  priestly 
powers  were  closely  tied  to  knowledge  of  them. 
Words,  including  written  prayers  and  charms  and 
oral  incantations  and  hymns,  were  as  much  a  part  of 
Daoist  rituals  as  the  odor  of  incense,  the  sounds  of 
flutes  and  drums,  and  the  colors  of  robes  and 
banners. 

But  the  story  does  not  end  there.  The  supremacy  of 
the  written  word  and  of  those  learned  in  the 
written  word  did  not  go  unchallenged  in  China.  To 
the  contrary,  from  very  early  times  important 
philosophical  and  religious  thinkers  disputed  the 
priority  given  words,  texts,  the  educated,  and  the 
kind  ot  knowledge  that  gets  created  and  promoted 
through  words  and  texts.  They  pointed  to  the  limits 
ot  language  and  to  forms  of  knowing  that  could 
not  be  communicated  through  language.  To  put  this 
another  way,  some  thinkers  have  always  resisted  the 
way  writing  fixes,  limits,  and  binds  meanings,  and 
have  tried  to  preserve  or  recover  the  reality  that 
exists  prior  to  or  beyond  writing.  These  sets  of 
ideas  have  been  as  powerful  in  Chinese  art  as  the 
pro-text  ideas,  perhaps  particularly  because  visual 
symbols  are  not  words. 

The  earliest  formulation  of  this  challenge  to  words 
is  found  in  the  early  Daoist  classics.  "The  Way  that 
can  be  told  is  not  the  invariant  Way"  is  the  opening 
line  of  the  Laozi.  Words  and  writing  are  assertive 
and  thus  destructive.  It  would  be  better,  the  Laozi 
asserts,  if  people  knew  less,  if  they  gave  up  tools  and 
abandoned  writing.  They  would  be  satisfied  with 
their  own  lives  and  not  envy  their  neighbors. 
Zhuangzi  argued  that  the  labeling  of  experience 
with  words  and  its  division  into  distinct  categories 
was  a  falsification  from  the  start,  since  reality  could 
never  be  conveyed  in  this  way.  Zhuangzi  placed  the 
knowledge  of  the  craftsman  above  the  knowledge 
found  in  books.  In  one  parable  he  had  a 
wheelwright  audaciously  tell  a  duke  that  books 


were  useless  since  all  they  contained  were  the  dregs 
of  men  long  gone.  When  the  duke  demanded 
either  an  explanation  or  his  life,  the  wheelwright 
replied: 

I  see  things  in  terms  of  my  own  work.  When  I 
chisel  at  a  wheel,  if  I  go  slowly,  the  chisel  slides 
and  does  not  stay  put;  if  I  hurry,  it  jams  and 
doesn't  move  properly.  When  it  is  neither  too 
slow  nor  too  fast,  I  can  feel  it  in  my  hand  and 
respond  to  it  from  my  heart.  My  mouth  cannot 
describe  it  in  words,  but  there  is  something 
there.  I  cannot  teach  it  to  my  son,  and  my  son 
cannot  learn  it  from  me.  So  I  have  gone  on  for 
seventy  years,  growing  old  chiseling  wheels.  The 
men  of  old  died  in  possession  of  what  they 
could  not  transmit.  So  it  follows  that  what  you 
are  reading  are  their  dregs.13 

Truly  skilled  craftsmen  do  not  analyze  or  reason  or 
even  keep  in  mind  the  rules  they  once  learned; 
they  respond  to  situations  spontaneously. 

Whereas  Confucians,  who  saw  truth  in  books, 
recognized  an  obligation  to  bring  this  truth  to  the 
attention  of  the  ruler,  Zhuangzi,  who  did  not  see 
truth  in  books,  felt  no  need  to  serve  in 
government.  He  told  of  receiving  an  envoy  from 
the  king  of  Chu,  bearing  an  offer  to  give  him 
charge  of  the  entire  realm.  In  response  he  asked  the 
envoy  whether  a  tortoise  that  had  been  held  sacred 
for  three  thousand  years  would  prefer  to  be  dead 
with  its  bones  venerated  or  alive  with  its  tail 
dragging  in  the  mud.  On  getting  the  expected 
response,  he  told  the  envoy  to  go  away;  he  wished 
to  drag  his  tail  in  the  mud. 

Although  the  social  standing  of  the  educated  in 
China  owes  much  to  Confucian  ideas  of  the  worth 
of  written  traditions  and  men  educated  in  them,  it 
would  be  a  mistake  to  infer  that  the  educated  elite 
always  thought  exclusively  in  pro-text  terms.  In 
particular,  Daoist  ideas  that  questioned  the  role  of 
words  and  texts  appealed  deeply  to  many  educated 
men.  These  ideas  also  colored  the  development  of 
Buddhism  in  China.  The  most  Simfied  school  of 
Buddhism,  the  Chan  school  (known  as  Zen  in 
Japan),  rejected  the  authority  of  the  sutras  and 
claimed  the  superiority  of  mind-to-mind 
transmission  of  Buddhist  truth  through  a  series  of 
patriarchs,  the  most  important  of  whom  were  the 
First  Patriarch  Bodhidharma,  an  Indian  monk  who 
came  to  China  in  the  early  sixth  century,  and  the 
Sixth  Patriarch  Huineng,  a  Chinese  monk  who 
died  in  the  early  eighth  century.  The  illiteracy  of 
Huineng  at  the  time  of  his  enlightenment  was 
taken  as  proof  of  the  Chan  claim  that 
enlightenment  could  be  achieved  suddenly  through 
insight  into  one's  own  true  nature,  even  by  people 
who  knew  nothing  of  textual  traditions.  Chan 


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masters  tried  to  get  their  followers  to  free  their 
minds  from  the  traps  of  discursive  thought  by 
taking  language  to  the  limits.  They  would  assign 
them  baffling  anecdotes  or  questions  to  ponder  and 
respond  to  their  efforts  with  cryptic  utterances, 
shouts,  or  even  blows. 

Tension  between  the  world  of  the  book  and  the 
world  that  cannot  be  contained  by  the  book  cut 
across  many  different  traditions.  In  China,  as 
elsewhere,  people  felt  a  strong  urge  to  impose  order 
on  experience  by  specifying,  categorizing, 
evaluating,  and  judging  via  words  and  their 
inscription  in  texts,  but  their  attempts  could  never 
totally  succeed  because  of  all  that  could  not  be 
contained  by  texts,  the  disrupting  forces  and 
uncontrollable  potency  of  rulers,  mountains, 
divinities,  oral  revelations,  dreams,  emotions,  and  so 
on.  The  Confucian  literati  normally  took  their 
stand  on  the  side  of  texts  and  order,  but  the 
distinction  here  goes  beyond  simple  divisions  of 
literati  versus  rulers,  or  Confucians  versus  Buddhists 
and  Daoists.  Buddhists,  Daoists,  and  rulers  all  drew 
on  texts  and  their  ordering  potential,  and 
Confucian  scholars  to  varying  degrees  drew  on  the 
magical  power  of  rituals  and  the  visual  and 
emotional  power  of  images,  not  to  mention 
retreating  to  mountains  or  practicing  meditative 
techniques  that  could  lead  to  insights  without  use 
of  books. 

The  art  of  calligraphy,  paradoxically  perhaps,  drew 
from  both  the  reverence  for  writing  and  the  deep 
belief  in  powers  and  forces  that  cannot  be  fully 
conveyed  in  words.  Examples  of  writing  were 
thought  to  reflect  the  writer's  character  and 
feelings,  not  just  the  thoughts  he  was  trying  to 
convey.  The  strength,  balance,  and  flow  ot  the 
strokes  were  believed  to  convey  the  calligrapher's 
moral  and  psychological  make-up  as  well  as  his 
momentary  emotions.  The  flow  of  energy  within 
the  person  was  found  manifest  in  the  movement  of 
his  hand  and  brush  and  the  resulting  traces  of  ink. 

ICONS 

The  ideas  discussed  so  far  are  indigenous  ideas, 
developed  in  the  huge  subcontinent  we  loosely 
label  China.  But  some  key  elements  in  Chinese 
religious  traditions  entered  from  outside, 
particularly  as  part  of  or  in  the  company  of 
Buddhism,  and  these  elements  also  provided  part  of 
the  context  of  Chinese  art. 

Representations  of  human  beings  appear 
occasionally  in  early  Chinese  art.  Some  Neolithic 
pots  have  human  faces  depicted  on  them  (cat.  114), 
as  do  a  few  Shang-period  bronzes;  some  late  Zhou 
bronzes  are  decorated  with  small  images  of  human 
beings  engaged  in  warfare,  hunting,  rituals,  or 
agriculture;  sometimes  the  base  of  a  lamp  or  tray 


was  made  in  the  form  of  a  human  servant  (cat.  47). 
From  the  Han  period  there  are  many  portrayals  of 
human  figures  on  the  walls  of  temples  or  tombs; 
some  of  these  appear  to  be  generic  figures,  others 
are  labeled  as  specific  figures  from  history  or 
mythology  (cats.  103,  104). 

There  is  little  evidence,  however,  that  these 
depictions  of  human  beings  were  idols  or  icons, 
made  to  represent  gods  or  spirits  during  sacrifices 
or  other  rituals.  Pre-Buddhist  Chinese  shrines  were 
not  centered  on  statues  or  paintings  of  deities. 
Chinese  sacrificial  ceremonies  could  be  performed 
either  in  the  open,  with  a  temporary  altar,  or  in 
temples,  but  in  either  case  objects  other  than 
paintings  or  statues  were  used  to  represent  the 
spirits  or  gods. The  central  object  for  the  she 
sacrifices  to  the  earth,  for  instance,  was  a  small 
earthen  mound;  for  sacrifices  to  ancestral  spirits,  a 
tablet  inscribed  with  the  name  of  the  dead  was 
sufficient. 

With  the  introduction  of  Buddhism,  however,  the 
use  of  images  to  depict  divinities  and  spirits 
expanded  radically  (see  essays  by  Helmut  Brinker 
and  Su  Bai  in  this  volume).  Buddhists  used  images 
both  to  teach  Buddhist  doctrine  and  to  provide  a 
focus  for  devotional  activities.  Within  a  few 
centuries  of  the  introduction  of  Buddhism,  not 
only  did  the  altars  in  Buddhist  temples  house 
images  of  Buddhas  and  bodhisattvas,  but  Daoist  and 
folk  temples  held  images  of  their  gods,  and  ancestral 
temples  also  often  came  to  contain  images  of  the 
ancestors. 

The  reverencing  of  icons  was  not  a  practice  that 
the  historical  Buddha  Sakyamuni  taught  his 
disciples  in  India.  But  by  the  time  Buddhism 
arrived  in  China  as  a  religion  of  foreign  merchants 
and  missionaries,  the  use  of  icons  was  well 
established.  The  Scripture  on  the  Production  of  Budtllui 
Images  (Ztiofo  xingxiangjing),  one  of  the  earliest 
sutras  translated  into  Chinese,  records  the 
conversation  between  the  Buddha  and  King 
Udayana  concerning  the  rewards  received  in  later 
lives  by  those  who  produce  images  ot  the 
Buddha. u  Even  the  most  eminent  monks  taught 
followers  devotional  practices  centered  on  images. 
The  learned  monk  and  translator  Daoan  (312    (85 
would  set  up  a  holy  image  and  light  incense 
whenever  he  gave  a  lecture.  The  equally  eminent 
monk  Huiyuan  (334-417)  in  402  assembled  .1  group 
of  monks  and  lay  people  in  front  of  .111  image  ot 
the  Pure  Land,  the  Western  Paradise  of  the  Buddha 
Amitabha.  With  such  prompting,  the  production  ol 
Buddhist  images  expanded  gready.  IK   S-a. 
according  to  one  observer,  there  were  over  .1 
thousand  Buddhist  statues  in  the  city  ofl  uoyang. 
Each  year,  on  die  seventh  da)  of  the  fourth  month, 
all  these  were  brought  to  the  [ingming  Temple. 


THE    INTEUECTUAt    AND    RELIGIOUS    CONTEXT    OF    CHINESE    ART 


45 


where  the  emperor  would  come  in  person  to 
scatter  flowers  on  them  as  part  of  the  Great 
Blessing  ceremony. 

Both  Confucians  and  Daoists  denounced  many 
Buddhist  ideas  and  practices  as  immoral  or  unsuited 
to  China.  For  instance,  they  portrayed  the  great 
sums  spent  on  construction  of  temples,  statues,  and 
ceremonies  as  a  drain  on  the  economy  that 
impoverished  the  people  and  thus  indirectly  the 
state.  At  the  same  time,  they  borrowed  extensively 
from  the  repertoire  of  ideas  and  practices  that 
Buddhists  had  introduced  into  China,  including  the 
use  of  images  on  altars.  Probably  the  adoption  of 
icons  should  be  attributed  to  their  visual 
effectiveness.  Icons  work  differently  from  words  and 
texts,  because  images  of  the  human  form  are  potent 
in  arousing  emotions.  Moreover,  the  meanings  they 
can  convey  are  not  fixed,  but  mediated  by  the 
response  of  the  viewer — different  people  can  give 
an  image  different  meanings  at  different  times — an 
attribute  that  makes  images  good  objects  for 
meditation. 

Although  most  of  the  icons  that  survive  from  Tang 
and  Song  times  are  of  Buddhist  divinities,  not  local 
or  Daoist  gods,  ancestors,  or  Confucian  sages,  there 
is  abundant  textual  evidence  that  by  Tang  and  Song 
times  temples  of  all  sorts  represented  their  central 
objects  of  worship  with  images.  These  statues  and 
paintings  must  have  constituted  a  large  share  of  the 
art  that  the  average  person  had  occasion  to  see. 
Temples  to  Confucius  and  to  Confucian  sages  and 
teachers  regularly  had  statues  in  them.  The  imperial 
ancestral  cult  was  expanded  to  accommodate  halls 
with  statues  of  emperors.  And  Buddhist  monasteries 
added  halls  with  images  of  their  former  abbots, 
treating  them  as  ancestors.15 

DIVERSITY    AND    CREATIVITY:   THE    CASE 
OF   THE    SONG    DYNASTY 
I  have  already  suggested  some  of  the  ways  the 
diverse  ideas  sketched  here  were  linked  to  the 
equally  diverse  objects  we  now  view  as  China's  art 
treasures.  The  best  way  to  extend  my  analysis  of  the 
ways  creativity  played  out  in  a  cultural  context  that 
encompassed  the  coexistence  of  numerous 
unintegrated  ideas  is  to  look  at  the  conjunction  of 
such  ideas  in  a  single  time  period.  The  Song 
dynasty  (960—1279)  offers  a  good  case. 

The  Song  was  without  doubt  a  time  when  new 
ideas  and  practices  appeared  in  profusion.  Science 
and  technology  were  making  rapid  progress,  with 
advances  in  abstract  disciplines  like  mathematics 
and  in  such  practical  matters  as  the  technology  of 
iron  and  steel,  ceramics,  ballistics,  and  textiles.  New 
gods  appeared,  and  existing  cults  spread.  In 
Buddhism, Tiantai  teachings  underwent  a  revival.  In 
Daoism,  Celestial  Heart  and  Thunder  Rates 


teachings  gained  prominence.  Among  Confucians, 
polymaths  like  Shen  Gua  (1031-1095)  contributed 
to  everything  from  mathematics  to  geography, 
archaeology,  music,  printing,  medicine,  divination, 
military  strategy,  and  agricultural  technology.  Other 
Confucian  scholars  like  Cheng  Yi  (1033— 1107)  were 
drawn  to  metaphysical  speculation  about  the  nature 
and  workings  of  the  cosmos.16 

Certain  trends  and  issues  crosscut  many  traditions. 
For  instance,  concern  both  with  texts  and  with 
what  cannot  be  conveyed  in  texts  enlivened 
intellectual  life  in  many  circles.  Many  highly 
educated  Confucian  scholars  were  attracted  to 
forms  of  spirituality  that  did  not  rely  on  texts, 
including  meditation  and  visionary  experiences, 
and  they  were  ready  to  make  use  of  Buddhist  and 
Daoist  traditions  toward  these  ends.'7  At  a  less 
elevated  level,  many  literati  were  captivated  by  cases 
of  spirit-writing,  in  which  spirits  created  texts  by 
possessing  objects  or  people.  Zhu  Xi  (1130— 1200), 
the  towering  figure  in  Confucianism,  took  a  strong 
line  against  Buddhist  and  Daoist  practices, 
advocating  the  "investigation  of  things"  through 
careful  reading  of  the  Four  Books  and  the  classics 
more  generally;  he  also,  however,  advocated  "quiet 
sitting,"  a  form  of  meditation.  In  a  comparable  way, 
Chan  Buddhism,  notwithstanding  its  emphasis  on 
transmission  outside  texts,  was  expanded  to 
accommodate  highly  literate  Chan  monks  who 
excelled  in  poetry  and  other  literary  arts.  The 
impact  of  this  lively  interest  both  in  words  and  in 
what  goes  beyond  words  is  evident  in  Chan 
painting,  which  seems  to  extend  the  idea  of 
communicating  through  nondiscursive  means  to 
painting  that  is  suggestive  much  more  than 
descriptive. 

I  would  also  argue  that  the  fundamental  conflict 
between  the  claims  of  rulers  and  of  the  educated  to 
moral  authority  helped  rather  than  hindered  artistic 
creativity.  The  Song  was  a  time  when  the  moral 
autonomy  of  those  with  Confucian  educations  was 
strongly  reasserted  and  became  a  matter  of  political 
struggle  between  the  court  and  the  Confucian 
literati.  The  size  of  the  educated  class  grew  so  large 
in  Song  times  that  there  was  always  a  large  supply 
of  highly  educated  men  who  could  not  find 
employment  in  government  service,  but  this  did 
not  make  them  more  subservient  to  the  court.  To 
the  contrary,  literati  residing  in  their  home 
communities  found  a  variety  of  ways  to  assert  their 
moral  autonomy.  For  instance,  they  frequently 
erected  shrines  to  honor  scholar-heroes  of  the  past 
who  had  been  persecuted  or  unfairly  neglected. 
Leading  literati  like  Su  Shi  (1037— 1101),  who  took 
an  interest  in  painting,  calligraphy,  and  poetry 
writing,  helped  validate  aesthetic  and  scholarly 
pursuits  in  and  of  themselves,  even  if  they  did  not 
lead  to  serving  the  ruler.  Others,  like  Cheng  Yi  and 


THE    INTELLECTUAL    AND    RELIGIOUS    CONTEXT    OF    CHINESE    ART 


46 


Zhu  Xi,  rejected  the  scholar-aesthete  model  on  the 
grounds  that  cultural  activity  should  convey  moral 
principles,  not  just  entertain  or  express  personal 
feelings.  But  they  too  strongly  asserted  the  moral 
autonomy  of  the  learned  by  insisting  that  the  goal 
of  learning  was  attaining  sagehood,  not  office. 

Art  comes  into  this  story  because  both  the  court 
and  literati  circles  used  art  to  bolster  their  own 
authority  and  legitimacy,  and  the  resulting 
competition,  collaboration,  appropriation,  and 
specialization  seems  only  to  have  promoted 
creativity.  ,s  The  tremendous  flourishing  of 
landscape  painting  and  caDigraphy  in  Song  times 
should  not  be  seen  simply  as  automatic  outgrowths 
of  the  long-established  cultural  value  placed  on 
mountains  and  writing,  but  rather  as  the  product  of 
the  conjunction  of  many  elements,  including  the 
competition  and  collaboration  between  the  court 
and  circles  of  literati  ambivalent  about  their 
relationship  to  the  court. 

The  creation  of  a  canon  of  masterpieces  that  set  the 
standards  in  calligraphy  involved  an  interplay  of 
imperial  sponsorship  and  literati  connoisseurship.  In 
992  the  court  had  ordered  the  printing  of  a  book 
of  rubbings  that  reproduced  copies  of  famous 
pieces  of  calligraphy,  especially  early  ones  by  Wang 
Xizhi  (307?-365?)  and  Wang  Xianzhi  (344-386). 
But  comparing  these  pieces  and  determining  their 
relative  quality  was  largely  the  work  of  private 
scholars  such  as  Mi  Fu  (1052-1107/8). "J 


specialization  in  landscapes  may  owe  something  to 
his  understandings  of  Daoist  ideas  about  the 
correspondences  of  the  microcosm  and  macrocosm: 
a  single  depiction  of  a  mountain  and  a  river  can 
represent  the  entire  cosmos. 

The  emperor  who  took  the  greatest  interest  in  art, 
Huizong  (r.  1100-1126),  did  not  care  for  Guo  Xi's 
paintings  and  had  them  put  in  storage.  Moreover, 
he  did  not  share  Su  Shi's  rejection  of  technique.  In 
his  paintings  he  took  considerable  pains  to  convey 
the  outer  form  of  objects,  and  he  trained  court 
artists  to  observe  nature  with  minute  attention. 
Some  of  this  difference  in  artistic  taste  may  relate  to 
Huizong's  ambivalence  toward  the  Confucian 
scholars  of  his  day.  Intellectually,  Huizong  was 
attracted  to  subjects  like  music,  poetry,  calligraphy, 
and  medicine,  interests  many  literati  like  Su  Shi  and 
Shen  Gua  shared.  As  a  prince,  he  had  shared  a 
passion  for  art  collecting  with  his  uncle,  the  painter 
Wang  Shen  (see  cat.  1S4),  who  in  turn  was  on  good 
terms  with  Su  Shi.  As  emperor,  he  invited  Su  Shi's 
friend,  the  renowned  painter  and  calligrapher  Mi 
Fu  and  later  his  son  MiYouren  (d.  1165)  to  come  to 
court  as  curators/professors. Yet  politics  estranged 
Huizong  from  the  circle  of  Su  Shi,  since  for  most 
of  his  reign  he  excluded  from  his  court  those 
involved  with  the  opposition  to  Wang  Anshi,  who 
had  been  prime  minister  during  the  reign  of  his 
father,  Shenzong  (r.  1067-1085).  Even  the  books 
written  by  the  leaders  of  the  opposition,  such  as  Su 
Shi,  were  banned  and  could  not  be  reprinted. 


Court  and  literati  taste  often  diverged,  of  course.  Su 
Shi,  who  enjoyed  social  occasions  at  which 
educated  men  would  compose  poems,  paint 
pictures,  or  inspect  antiques,  offered  a  theoretical 
justification  for  the  superiority  of  "scholar's 
painting"  over  professional  painting.  He  valued 
spontaneous  creation  over  laborious  technique, 
asserted  the  moral  superiority  of  creating  a  work 
without  thought  of  financial  reward,  and  viewed 
painting  as  a  form  of  self-expression  much  like 
poetry.  Capturing  the  outward  form  of  an  object 
was  not  nearly  as  valuable  as  conveying  its  inner 
principle.20 

Some  of  the  monuments  of  landscape  painting 
were  created  at  court  for  imperial  patrons,  but 
court  painters  viewed  themselves  not  as  artisans 
but  as  scholar-officials,  with  all  the  moral 
independence  claimed  for  that  status.  Guo  Xi 
(ca.  1061-ca.  1090),  for  instance,  was  a  learned  man 
who  wrote  on  the  theory  of  painting  and 
participated  in  literati  circles,  and  in  his  writings  he 
took  a  romantic  view  of  art  as  self-expression.  Yet 
his  employment  at  court  would  have  required  him 
to  work  on  projects  not  entirely  of  his  own 
choosing. To  complicate  matters  further.  Guo  Xi  is 
also  known  to  have  been  a  Daoist  devotee,  and  his 


Huizong  took  a  strong  interest  in  Daoism,  which 
can  be  seen  in  such  paintings  as  the  one  he  made 
to  commemorate  the  appearance  of  white  cranes 
over  the  main  gate  of  the  palace  during  a  festival  in 
1112.  Such  a  painting  certainly  glorified  Huizong,  as 
the  appearance  of  the  cranes  was  interpreted  as  a 
portent  that  cosmic  powers  approved  of  his  rule. 
But  the  painting  itself  was  probably  seen  only  by  a 
relatively  small  number  of  people  in  the  palace. 
Much  more  important  for  impressing  the  general 
population  with  the  grandeur  of  his  rule  would 
have  been  his  many  construction  projects.  Over  the 
course  of  his  reign  he  had  main'  temples,  palaces, 
government  buildings,  and  gardens  constructed, 
often  on  grand  scale. To  Huizong.  however,  the 
religious  impulse  behind  these  projects  may  have 
been  stronger  than  the  desire  to  impress  Ins 
subjects. Through  his  gardens,  in  particular,  he 
attempted  to  recreate  the  cosmos,  with  .ill  ol  its 
myriad  plants  and  animals,  mountains  and  waters. 

Although  Confucian  scholars  might  condemn  the 
grandiosity  ofl  [uizong's  construction  projects,  it 
was  much  more  difficult  for  them  to  decry  Ins 
attempts  to  collect  and  catalogue  cultural  treasures. 
Huizong  had  .1  passion  for  antiques,  especially 
Shang-  and  Zhou  period  bronze  vessels  and 


THE    INTELLECTUAL    AND    RELIGIOUS    CONTEXT    OF    CHINESE    ART 


47 


musical  instruments,  which  he  had  collected  and 
had  scholars  catalogue  for  him.  His  catalogue  of 
calligraphy  gave  pride  of  place  to  the  same 
calligraphers  esteemed  for  centuries  by  the  literati. 


After  Huizong  and  his  son  Qinzong  had  been 
captured  by  the  Jurchens  and  a  new  Song  court 
established  at  Hangzhou  (in  113  8),  the  new 
emperor,  Gaozong  (r.  1127-1162),  made  concerted 
efforts  to  gain  the  support  of  the  literati.  He 
directed  his  court  artists  to  produce  works  on 
historical  or  classical  subjects  that  served  to 
associate  his  court  with  China's  cultural  heritage.22 
Gaozong  himself  was  a  highly  accomplished 
calligrapher  and  often  made  gifts  of  pieces  of  his 
calligraphy  to  favored  officials.  He  brought  Mi 
Youren  back  to  court  and  had  him  serve  as  the 
curator  of  the  palace  painting  collection  and  court 
painter.  Art,  thus,  had  become  a  site  for  earning  the 
support  and  respect  of  the  literati. 

There  is  a  strong  tendency  in  Chinese  thought  to 
rank  unity  or  oneness  above  disunity,  to  assume  the 
superiority  of  consensus  over  disagreement,  of 
uniformity  over  diversity.  We  need  to  understand 
this  frame  of  mind,  but  we  do  not  need  to 
subscribe  to  it.  Even  if  Huizong  and  Zhu  Xi  would 
have  each  agreed  that  the  world  would  be  a  better 
place  if  all  thought  as  he  did,  much  of  the  vitality 
and  creativity  in  Chinese  culture  derives  from  the 
fact  that  such  unification  of  thought  was  beyond 
the  capacity  of  either  of  them. 


NOTES 

1.  The  existence  of  opposed 
tendencies  in  Chinese  thought 
has  long  been  recognized.  See 
the  classic  article  by  Benjamin 
Schwartz,  "Some  Polarities  in 
Chinese  Thought,"  in 
Confucianism  in  Action,  ed. 
David  S.  Nivison  and  Arthur  E 
Wright  {Stanford:  Stanford 
University  Press,  1959).  Here, 
because  my  focus  is  on 
connections  to  art,  I  have 
selected  a  rather  different  set  of 
ideas  than  Schwartz  did. 
Moreover,  I  do  not  see  a  larger 
system  that  comprehends  all  of 
the  polarities,  but  a  much 
messier  situation  in  which 
inconsistencies  and  even 
incoherence  are  not  only 
possible  but  an  accepted  part  of 
the  way  things  are. 

2.  See  James  Legge,  trans.,  Tlie 
Chinese  Classics  IILJlie  Shoo 
King  (Hong  Kong:  University 
of  Hong  Kong  Press,  i960; 
reprint  of  Oxford  University 
Press  ed.),  pp.  283-85. 


3.  See  K.C.  Chang,  Art,  Myth, 
and  Ritual:  Tlie  Path  to  Political 
Authority  in  Ancient  China 
(Cambridge:  Harvard 
University  Press,  1983), 

pp-  95-97;  Wu  Hung, 
Monumentality  in  Early  Chinese 
Art  and  Architecture  (Stanford: 
Stanford  University  Press, 
1995),  pp.  4-12. 

4.  See  A.C.  Graham,  Disputers 
of  the  Tao  (La  Salle,  111.:  Open 
Court,  19S9),  pp- 232-34. 

5.  On  Mozi's  and  Guanzi's 
political  thought,  see  Kung- 
chuan  Hsiao,  A  History  of 
Chinese  Political  Thought,  trans. 
F.W.  Mote  (Princeton: 
Princeton  University  Press, 
1979),  pp.  235-43,322-26. 

6.  Translation  from  Patricia 
Buckley  Ebrey,  ed.,  Chinese 
Civilization: A  Sourcebook,  2nd 
ed.  (New  York:  Free  Press, 
1993),  pp.  33-37. 

7.  See  Mark  Edward  Lewis, 
Sanctioned  Violence  in  Early 
China  (Albany:  State  University 
of  New  York  Press,  1990), 

pp.  174-212. 

8.  See  Isabelle  Robinet, 
Daoism:  Growth  of  a  Religion, 
trans.  Phyllis  Brooks  (Stanford: 

Stanford  University  Press, 
1997),  pp-  30-32,46- 

9.  Burton  Watson,  trans.,  The 

Records  of  the  Grand  Historian  of 
China  (New  York:  Columbia 
University  Press,  I96i),p.  57. 

10.  On  Chinese  ideas  about 
the  sacred  powers  of  mountains 

and  their  expression  in  Chinese 
art,  see  Kiyohiko  Munakata, 
Sacred  Mountains  in  Chinese  Art 
(Urbana:  University  of  Illinois 
Press,  1990);  Lothar 
Ledderhose,"The  Earthly 
Paradise:  Religious  Elements  in 
Chinese  Landscape  Art,"  in 
Theories  of  the  Arts  in  China,  ed. 
Susan  Bush  and  Christian 
Murck  (Princeton:  Princeton 
University  Press,  1983),  pp. 
165-83;  and  John  Hay,  Kernels 
of  Energy,  Bones  of  Earth  :Tlie 
Rock  in  Chinese  Art  (New  York: 
China  House  Gallery,  1985). 

11.  Robinet,  p.  95. 

12.  On  this  topic,  see  also  K.C. 
Chang,  Art,  Myth,  and  Ritual, 
pp.  81-94;  Derk  Bodde,  Chinese 
Thought,  Society,  and  Science:  Tlie 


Intellectual  and  Social  Background 
of  Science  and  Technology  in  Pre- 
Modern  China  (Honolulu: 
University  of  Hawaii  Press, 
1991),  PP-  26-31. 

13.  Translation  from  Ebrey,  ed., 
Chinese  Civilization:  A 
Sourcebook,  p.  31. 

14.  See  Robert  H.  Sharf,  "The 
Scripture  on  the  Production  of 
Buddha  Images,"  in  Religions  of 
China  in  Practice,  ed.  Donald  S. 
Lopez,  Jr.  (Princeton:  Princeton 
University  Press,  1996),  pp. 
261-67. 

15.  See  Patricia  Ebrey,  "Portrait 
Sculptures  in  Imperial 
Ancestral  Rites  in  Song 
China"  T'oung  Pao  83  (1997), 
pp.  42—92,  andT  Griffith  Foulk 
and  Robert  H.  Sharf, "On  the 
Ritual  Use  of  Ch'an 
Portraiture  in  Medieval 
China,"  Cahiers  d' Extreme- Asie 
7  (1993-94),  PP-  149-219- 

16.  For  an  overview  ot  the 

religious  and  philosophical 
situation  in  Song  times,  see 
Peter  N.  Gregory  and  Patricia 
Buckley  Ebrey,  "The  Religious 
and  Historical  Landscape,"  in 
Religion  and  Society  in  T'ang  and 
Sung  China,  ed.  Ebrey  and 
Gregory  (Honolulu:  University 
of  Hawaii  Press,  1993), 
pp.  1-44. 

17.  For  a  good  example,  see 
Robert  M.  Gimello,  "Chang 
Shang-ying  on  Wu-t'ai  Shan," 
in  Pilgrims  and  Sacred  Sites  in 
China,  ed.  Susan  Naquin  and 
Chiin-fangYii  (Berkeley: 
University  of  California  Press, 
1992),  pp.  89-149- 

18.  For  recent  overviews  of 
Song  court  art,  see  Craig 
Clunas,  Art  in  China  (Oxford: 
Oxford  University  Press,  1997), 
pp.  53-63,  and  Wen  C.  Fong, 
Beyond  Representation:  Chinese 
Painting  and  Calligraphy  S,h—14th 
Century  (New  York: 
Metropolitan  Museum  ot  Art, 
1992),  pp.  173-245- 

19.  See  Lothar  Ledderose,  Mi 
Fu  and  the  Classical  Tradition  of 
Chinese  Calligraphy  (Princeton: 
Princeton  University  Press, 
1979)  and  Peter  Charles 
Sturman,  Mi  Fu:  Style  and  the 
Art  of  Calligraphy  in  Northern 
Song  China  (New  Haven: Yale 
University  Press,  1997). 


20.  See  Susan  Bush  and  Hsio- 
yen  Shih,  Early  Chinese  Texts  on 
Painting  (Cambridge:  Harvard 
Yenching  Institute,  1985), 

pp.  196-234,  passim. 

21.  See  James  M.  Hargett, 
"Huizongs  Magic 
Marchmount:The  Genyue 
Pleasure  Park  of  Kaifeng," 
Monument  Serica  38  (1988-89), 
pp.  1-48. 

22.  See  Julia  K.  Murray,  Ma 
Hezhi  and  the  Illustration  of  the 
Book  of  Odes  (New  York: 
Cambridge  University  Press, 
1993)- 


THE    INTELLECTUAL    AND    RELIGIOUS    CONTEXT    OF    CHINESE    ART 


Five  Thousand  Years 
of  Chinese  Culture 


Recent  years  have  seen  a  growing 
attempt  to  understand  the  Chinese  artistic 


tradition— like  the  world's  other  artistic 


traditions— by  relating  it  to  its  cultural 
context.  In  so  short  an  essay,  however,  on<^ 
can  only  sketch  the  outline  of  a 
conceptual  framework  for  this  topic,  which 
spans  the  entire  Eurasian  land  mass  over 


more  than  four  millennia. 


Yu  Weichao 

Director,  National  Museum  of 
Chinese  History 


I. 

At  least  since  the  seventh  century  CE,  three  major 
artistic  traditions  have  coexisted  in  the  world:  the 
East  Asian  tradition  centered  in  China,  the  Western 
tradition  centered  in  Europe  (and,  after  the 
eighteenth  century,  in  the  United  States),  and  the 
Islamic  tradition.  All  three  have  long  historical 
roots,  and  these  roots  are  neither  unitary  nor  linear. 
Their  later  evolutions  have  been  shaped  primarily 
by  the  evolutions  of  their  vastly  different  cultural 
systems— the  East  Asian  based  on  Confucianism,  the 
Western  on  the  commingling  of  Classical  thought 
and  Christianity,  and  the  Islamic  on  the  teachings 
of  Islam. 

The  definition  of  "culture"  here  is  that  used  in 
contemporary  anthropological  research,  namely, 
"Culture  consists  of  patterns,  explicit  and  implicit, 
of  and  for  behavior  acquired  and  transmitted  by 
symbols,  constituting  the  distinctive  achievement  of 
human  groups,  including  their  embodiment  in 
artefacts.  .  .  .  Culture  systems  may,  on  the  one  hand, 
be  considered  as  products  of  action,  on  the  other  as 
conditioning  elements  of  further  action."1  In  short, 
"culture"  consists  of  those  predominant  concepts 
that  determine  the  rules  of  behavior  of  members  of 
society  and  form  the  "cultural  phenomena"  of  their 
groupings.  From  this  perspective,  it  is  the  "culture" 
of  any  country  or  people  that  truly  gives  shape  to 
its  artistic  expression. 


based  on  religious  concepts— Christianity  and  Islam. 
Only  in  China  and  East  Asia  did  a  secular  ethos  and 
system  of  secularly  derived  moral  values- 
Confucianism— come  to  constitute  the  foundation 
of  society.  This  created  a  distinct  aesthetic,  which,  in 
conjunction  with  differences  in  the  conditions  of 
life,  gave  rise  to  an  artistic  tradition  different  from 
the  other  two  both  in  content  and  in  forms  of 
expression. 

At  a  time  when  Christianity  and  Islam  were  widely 
accepted  in  Europe  and  the  Middle  East,  Buddhism 
had  an  enormous  following  in  China.  Why,  then, 
did  Buddhist  concepts  not  become  a  major  basis  of 
Chinese  culture  (although  they  did  dominate 
certain  cultures,  such  as  the  Tibetan)?  The  answer 
must  be  that,  for  a  fairly  lengthy  period, 
Christianity  and  Islam  were  state  religions  in 
Europe  and  the  Middle  East;  government  and 
religion  were  integrated.  In  China,  on  the  other 
hand,  although  the  embrace  of  Throne  and  creed 
was  sometimes  close,  it  was  always  limited  in  time, 
space,  and  degree.  Additionally,  Buddhism  was  never 
supreme  in  the  culture  of  the  Han  ethnic  majority, 
even  during  its  apogee,  from  the  Northern  and 
Southern  Dynasties  era  through  the  Sui  and  Tang. 
Furthermore,  Chinese  Buddhism  absorbed  many 
Confucian  moral  and  ethical  concepts.  In  other 
words,  among  the  three  major  cultures,  the  Chinese 
was  by  far  the  most  secular. 


Because  for  a  long  historical  period  artists  were 
considered  mere  craftsmen,  their  works  expressed 
not  the  maker's  subjective  aspirations  but  the 
collective  or  individual  values  of  society's  dominant 
groups,  whence  came  their  patrons.  Subsequently 
there  emerged  some  artists  who  did  not  depend  on 
patronage  for  their  livelihood,  and  whose  works 
therefore  could  express  their  own  interests  and 
perceptions.  Because  these  were  generally  members 
of  the  upper  classes,  however,  their  works  too 
mostly  reflect  the  consciousness  of  the  social  elites 
to  which  they  belonged.  Not  until  the  modern  era 
have  art  works  come  increasingly  to  express  the 
individual  characters  of  their  makers,  and  to  show  a 
concomitant  proliferation  of  styles.  Within  every 
artistic  tradition,  this  pattern  in  the  history  of  art 
has  caused  the  works  of  different  periods  to  be 
strongly  stamped  with  hallmarks  of  their  eras. 

Societies  everywhere  follow  essentially  similar 
processes  of  historical  development,  but  at  disparate 
paces  and  with  disparate  cultural  content.  This 
underlying  similitude  of  developmental  paths 
produces  considerable  similarities  among  the  art 
works  of  different  countries  and  peoples  at  the 
same  stage  of  social  development;  at  the  same  time, 
the  overlying  disparities  in  cultural  characteristics 
make  for  entirely  different  artistic  traditions.  Among 
the  three  major  world  artistic  traditions,  two  were 


It  was  in  the  Middle  East  that  cultural  systems 
coalescing  government  with  religion  originated 
some  five  thousand  years  ago.  In  ancient  Egypt,  for 
instance,  the  Pharaoh  was  also  the  monarch,  uniting 
in  his  person  state  and  creed.  In  Europe,  by 
contrast,  almost  till  the  end  of  the  Classical  age, 
state  and  religion  were  mutually  supportive  but 
structurally  and  functionally  separate  institutions. 
Not  till  the  fourth  century  CE  did  Rome  adopt 
Christianity  as  the  official  religion,  a  policy  soon 
followed  by  Rome's  successor  kingdoms  in  Europe 
and  continued  (although  not  unchallenged)  into  the 
era  of  the  modern  nation-states.  In  this  regard,  the 
Classical  civilization  of  Europe,  including  its  Cretan 
and  Mycenean  precursors,  must  be  considered  an 
interlude  between  the  cultures  of  Mesopotamia  and 
ancient  Egypt  and  that  of  medieval  Europe.  As  for 
Islam,  it  has  since  its  beginning  been  accepted  as  a 
state  religion  in  the  Middle  East. 

The  formation  of  the  Chinese  cultural  tradition 
proceeded  along  different  lines.  Since  its  beginnings 
during  the  Xia,  Shang,  and  Zhou  eras,  government 
and  religion  were  separate,  except  under  King  Xin 
of  the  late  Shang,  who  at  one  point  assumed  the 
power  to  offer  sacrifices.  The  separation  of 
government  and  religion  simultaneously  reflected 
and  promoted  a  strong  sense  of  secularism  in  the 
Chinese  cultural  tradition,  but  this  secularism  did 


FIVE   THOUSAND    YEARS    OF    CHINESE    CULTURE 


not  become  pronounced  until  the  reign  of 
Emperor  Wu  of  the  Western  Han  (r.  141-87  BCE), 
when  Confucianism  was  established  as  the 
orthodox  state  ideology. 

II. 

China's  land  area  is  very  extensive,  and  a  complex 
regionalism  characterized  the  primitive  cultures  of 
the  Neolithic  era.  Over  time,  of  course,  the  various 
cultures  changed  and  influenced  each  other,  thus 
narrowing  the  differences  between  them.  But  even 
after  entering  the  age  of  civilization,  regional 
disparities  continued  to  exist  because  of  variations 
in  the  natural  environment  and  in  cultural  origins. 
In  this  essay  Chinese  culture  is  taken  to  mean  only 
the  mainstream  culture.2 

Approximately  five  thousand  years  ago,  from  the 
Liao  River  in  the  northeast  through  the  central  and 
lower  Yellow  River  basin  and  southward  to  the 
central  and  lower  Yangzi  River  basin,  civilization 
began  to  dawn.  About  four  thousand  years  ago  the 
three  early  dynasties,  Xia,  Shang,  and  Zhou, 
emerged  successively  in  the  central  Yellow  River 
basin,  and  China  entered  the  age  of  civilization. 
What  is  generally  known  as  Chinese  culture 
originated  during  this  period,  defined  and 
reinforced,  from  this  time  forward,  by  the  traits 
listed  below. 

First,  the  polity  that  emerged  was  multiethnic, 
centered  around  the  Huaxia  people  (later  called  the 
Han  people)  and  associated  with  other  somewhat 
closely  related  peoples.  Even  when  one  particular 
ethnic  group  seized  political  control  from  another, 
the  state  always  remained  multiethnic.  In  fact,  its 
specific  structure  became  ever  more  tight  knit.  A 
multiethnic  state  in  which  the  Han  people  formed 
the  majority  group  emerged  during  Qin  and  Han. 

Second,  government  took  the  form  of  an  autocracy, 
centered  around  the  ruler  as  Son  of  Heaven. 
Heaven,  however,  was  not  a  personalized  deity,  nor 
were  the  emperors  god-kings  or  even  priest-kings. 
Rather,  Heaven  represented  an  idea  of  willed 
cosmic  order  and  propriety  which  the  emperor 
was  expected,  by  means  of  moral  example, 
prescribed  ceremonial,  and  efFective  governance, 
to  reify  on  earth. 

Third,  a  basically  uniform  writing  system  was 
adopted,  which  promoted  cultural  interchange  and 
consensus  among  regions  and  peoples. 

Fourth,  hierarchical  systems  of  rites  were 
established,  to  set  norms  for  the  conduct  of  the 
different  social  classes.  Of  the  systems  created 
during  the  three  early  dynasties,  that  begun  during 
the  Zhou  was  the  most  comprehensive.  Since  11  was 
originally  created  to  stabilize  the  Zhou  class  system. 


the  period-specific  aspects  of  these  rites  disappeared 
with  the  demise  of  the  Zhou,  but  the  rites 
themselves  did  not  disappear.  They  continued  to 
influence  social  behavior  in  subsequent  dynasties, 
and  became  a  part  of  a  longstanding  tradition  of 
ritual  conduct  for  individuals  as  well  as  the  state. 

A  fundamental  component  of  culture  is  beliefs.  The 
exact  beliefs  prevalent  during  the  three  early 
dynasties  are  still  unclear  but  are  thought  to  have 
been  forms  of  shamanism,  meaning  in  large  part  the 
superstitious  worship  of  heaven  and  earth,  with 
shamans  as  intermediaries  between  humankind  and 
the  supernatural.3  From  the  late  Neolithic  Liangzhu 
culture  of  the  Yangzi  delta  (ca.  3600-ca.  2000  BCE) 
through  the  Shang  and  Zhou  periods,  precious  jade 
objects  were  used  as  offerings  to  heaven  and 
earth — jade  bi  disks  to  heaven  and  jade  cong  tubes 
to  earth.  The  mysterious  and  mesmerizing  patterns 
on  ritual  bronzes  of  the  Shang  and  Zhou  would 
seem  to  make  them  instruments  of  shamanism,  so 
that  Professor  Zhang  Guangzhi  (K.C.  Chang)  has 
used  the  term  "shamanistic  culture"  to  explain 
them.4  Shamanism,  a  pre-religious  structure  of 
magical  beliefs,  was  common  to  most  early  cultures. 
But  the  use  of  jades  for  sacrifices  to  heaven  and 
earth,  and  the  use  of  ritual  bronzes  in  the  worship 
of  ancestors  and  mountain  and  river  gods,  was 
unique  to  the  magical  beliefs  of  China  during  the 
three  early  dynasties.  Like  the  Zhou  rituals,  at  least 
some  of  these  practices  survived  into  the  Ming  and 
Qing  dynasties  as  ceremonials  protective  of  state 
and  society  and  as  evidence  of  Heaven-pleasing 
righteousness  in  the  practitioners. 

The  (to  us)  mysterious  images  on  ritual  bronzes  of 
the  three  early  dynasties  could  not  have  been  cast 
solely  for  the  purpose  of  evoking  awe.  According  to 
the  entry  for  "the  third  year  of  Duke  Xuan"  in  the 
Zuo  zhuan  (a  historical  narrative  of  the  early 
Eastern  Zhou  period,  probably  compiled  toward 
the  end  of  Eastern  Zhou), "There  was  virtue  in  the 
time  of  the  Xia,  so  the  Nine  Provinces  submitted 
to  the  Xia,  and  offered  bronzes  which  they  made  in 
tribute. Those  living  afar  also  offered  drawings 
depicting  local  spirits  and  demons.  Then  the  Xia 
cast  a  large  ding  on  which  were  portrayed  all  the 
spirits  and  demons,  so  that  the  people  might  know 
of  them.  Thus,  when  they  travelled  to  the 
mountains,  rivers,  and  forests  around  the  land, 
they  would  not  be  molested  by  the  main  spirits 
and  demons. To  handle  affairs  from  all  over  in 
this  manner  was  to  act  according  to  the  mandate 
of  Heaven."5 

I  Hiring  the  three  early  dynasties  people  were  just 
beginning  to  emerge  from  .1  state  of  barbarism. 
They  attributed  all  good  and  ill  to  supernatural 
forces  that  were  amenable  to  prayer  and 
propitiation,  hence  the  popularity  of  shamanism. 


FIVE    THOUSAND    YEARS    OF    CHINESE    CULTURE 


51 


Given  this  cultural  background,  it  was  natural  that 
images  of  various  spirits  and  deities  became  the 
principal  subject  of  the  arts  of  the  three  dynasties.6 

III. 

By  the  Han  dynasty,  and  particularly  after  the  reign 
of  Emperior  Wu,  the  magical  cosmos  of  the  three 
early  dynasties  had  changed  into  a  secular  cosmos 
conceived  in  strongly  Confucian  terms. 

During  the  three  early  dynasties  the  primary 
objects  of  worship  were  heaven  and  earth, 
mountains,  rivers,  and  ancestors.  Similarly,  moral 
precepts  stressed  the  duties  of  venerating  heaven 
and  earth,  worshiping  all  the  spirits,7  and  honoring 
one's  ancestors.  Magical  beliefs  and  social  morality 
were  basically  one. 

During  the  Eastern  Zhou,  and  particularly  after  the 
late  Spring  and  Autumn  period,  the  teachings  of 
Confucian  and  other  secularly  inclined 
philosophers  flourished,  gradually  coming  to 
dominate  the  ideological  sector;  at  the  same  time, 
secular  works  of  art  began  to  increase. 

Confucius,  from  whom  the  Confucian  school  of 
thought  is  considered  to  take  its  origin, 
propounded  a  coherent  system  of  social  ethics  and 
morality.  During  the  reign  of  Emperor  Wu  of  the 
Western  Han,  other  schools  of  socio-political 
thought  were  proscribed  and  Confucianism  alone 
reigned  supreme.  Thenceforth,  although  individual 
rulers  might  espouse  or  even  promote  Buddhism  or 
Daoism,  Confucian  ideas  held  sway  over  China  for 
some  two  thousand  years.  Also  during  the  reign  of 
Emperor  Wu  the  philosopher  and  political  adviser 
Dong  Zhongshu  (ca.  174-ca.  104  BCE)  distilled 
Confucian  teachings  on  ethics  and  morality  into 
the  formula  "three  human  relationships  and  five 
constant  virtues"  {sangcmg  wuchang),9  which 
remained  normative  throughout  the  next  two 
millennia.  Dong  also  proposed  that  "Heaven  and 
man  are  one,"  a  theory  of  "resonance  (or  mutual 
interaction)  between  heaven  and  man,"  which 
linked  the  shamanistic  worship  of  Heaven  with 
secular  ethics  and  morality.  In  other  words,  Heaven 
is  possessed  of  supreme  power  and  beneficent  will, 
humans  are  possessed  of  the  potential  for  virtuous 
or  evil  actions;  the  "oneness"  or  "resonance"  or 
mutual  interactivity  of  Heaven  and  humankind 
posits  that  human  actions  affect  Heavens  will, 
which  in  turn  affects  all  mundane  events,  including 
human  fortunes. 

In  the  ancient  world  the  theory  of  "Heaven  and 
man  are  one"  was  unique  to  Chinese  culture,9  and 
from  the  reign  of  Emperor  Wu  it  dominated  Han 
philosophy.  The  theory  generated  a  vast  body  of 
omen  lore:  the  appearance  of  rare  animals  or  plants 
or  meteorological  phenomena,  or  the  discovery  of 


ancient  treasures  were  regarded  as  symbols  of 
Heaven  s  approbation  and  humans'  resulting  good 
fortune.  The  devotees  of  religious  Daoism,  which 
began  to  take  shape  during  late  Western  Han,  aimed 
at  transcending  all  bodily  constraints,  including 
aging,  death,  and  their  earthbound  condition. This 
begot  an  obsession  with  the  occult,  including 
alchemy,  numerology,  divination,  and  quasi-magical 
dietary-respiratory-gymnastic  regimens — all 
intended  to  permit  adepts  to  attain  corporeal 
immortality.  At  about  the  same  time  Buddhism  also 
arrived  and  was  accepted  in  China,  conflated  to  a 
certain  extent  with  early  religious  Daoism. 

A  common  subject  of  Han  art  was  the  coexistence 
and  congruence  of  secular  activities  and  the 
heavenly  world.  This  was  most  intensely  and 
completely  manifested  in  the  pictorial  programs 
that  covered  the  walls  of  Eastern  Han  tombs.  These 
included  pictures  of  the  heavenly  world  and 
astronomical  phenomena,  as  well  as  many 
immortals  and  divinities;  drawings  of  auspicious 
symbols  that  represented  the  idea  of  "resonance 
between  Heaven  and  man";  and  depictions  of  the 
everyday  life  of  the  deceased.  Since  the  simple 
burials  of  the  poor  have  not  survived,  what  we  see 
are  the  concerns  and  the  appurtenances  of  the 
upper  classes:  mansions,  banquets  and 
entertainments,  carriage  processions  and  outriders, 
along  with  the  farming,  animal  husbandly  and 
handicrafts  that  supported  the  estate.10  Most 
strikingly,  abundant  images  of  everyday  life  have 
joined  the  spirits,  deities,  and  shamans  who  form 
the  principal  subjects  of  surviving  pre-Han  art. 

Reflecting  the  enlarging  secularism  of  the  Han 
world-view,  Han  tomb  furnishings — pottery 
models,  stone  sculptures,  murals,  as  well  as 
possessions  cherished  in  life — reflect  less  of  a  sense 
of  mystery  and  more  of  a  simple  secular  feeling 
than  pre-Han  tomb  accoutrements.  Even  art  works 
with  religious  themes  had  a  strong  humanistic  tone. 
This  was  an  extremely  important  change  in  the 
course  of  Chinese  art;  for  a  very  long  time 
hereafter  many  purely  religious  works  of  art  sought 
to  stir  the  feelings  of  believers  and  art  lovers  alike 
through  their  expression  of  humanity. 

IV. 

Throughout  human  history  certain  universal  social 
processes  have  promoted  the  spread  of  religious 
beliefs  in  medieval  eras.  Beginning  about  the  end  of 
the  third  century,  in  the  period  of  disunion 
following  the  fall  of  the  Han  dynasty,  religious 
belief  became  widespread,  permeating  Chinese 
culture.  In  China,  from  the  Northern  and  Southern 
Dynasties  period  through  the  Sui  and  Tang, 
Buddhism  reached  its  apogee.  Society  was  still 
governed,  however,  according  to  Confucian  ethical 
and  moral  precepts.  Moreover,  the  ardent  Buddhism 


FIVE    THOUSAND    YEARS    OF    CHINESE    CULTURE 


52 


of  these  centuries  was  many  times  punctuated  by 
government-sponsored  anti-Buddhist  campaigns, 
motivated  by  political  necessity  or  by  a  given  rulers 
pro-Daoist  leanings  in  the  perennial  competition 
between  Buddhism  and  Daoism.  Clearly,  despite  its 
popularity,  Buddhism  remained  ideologically 
subordinate. 

Furthermore,  during  the  late  Han  and  Three 
Kingdoms  periods,  as  Buddhism  began  to  flourish, 
it  did  so  in  part  by  acculturation,  that  is,  by  taking 
on,  in  part,  the  teachings  of  Confucius  and 
Mencius.  For  example,  the  Shijiamuni  lihuo,  the  first 
Buddhist  text  written  (and  not  just  cited)  in  China, 
proposes  the  essential  "unity  of  the  three  creeds"- 
Buddhism,  Daoism,  and  Confucianism."  In  the 
third  and  fourth  centuries  certain  Buddhist 
metaphysical  doctrines  (xuantan  yili)  were  held  to 
be  related  to  contemporary  neo-Daoist 
metaphysical  teachings  (xtiaii  xue),  which  were 
themselves  tinged  with  Confucian  theories. 
Cultural  influences  did  not  flow  in  one  direction 
only.  Based  on  the  theory  that  every  human  mind 
contains  and  can  discover  within  itself  the  Buddha- 
mind,  the  Chan  Buddhist  patriarch  Huineng 
(638-713)  propounded  the  doctrine  ofsudden 
enlightenment"  (dunwu).  In  later  centuries,  long 
after  the  heyday  of  Buddhism,  this  concept  of 
sudden,  unmediated  perception  or  realization 
became  a  key  element  of  Chinese  philosophy  and 
aesthetic  theory.  Its  influence  on  the  intellectual  life 
of  China  was  profound,  pervasive,  and  lasting,  but  it 
exerted  that  influence  not  as  a  precept  of  Buddhist 
faith  but  as  an  element  of  secular  Neo- 
Confucianism.'-This  Sinification  ot  Buddhist 
precepts  was  another  manifestation  of  the 
predominance  of  Confucian  thought  in  Chinese 
society  even  when  Buddhism  was  at  its  peak. 

Where  social  thinking  consists  mainly  of  religious 
doctrines,  all  aspects  of  social  culture  will  be 
permeated  by  religious  overtones;  where  Confucian 
ethics  and  morality  form  the  content  of  social 
thought,  secularity  will  predominate.  Chinese 
culture  from  the  period  of  disunity  through  the  Sui 
and  Tang  was  clearly  of  the  second  type. 

Buddhist  sculpture  and  painting  of  this  era, 
adorning  temples  and  cave-temples,  was  indeed 
highly  sophisticated,  but  no  more  so  than  art  works 
of  secular  content.  Noted  artists  of  the  time,  such  as 
Gu  Kaizhi  (ca.  344-ca.  406)  of  the  Eastern  Jin, 
portrayed  religious  and  mundane  subjects  alike. 
New  artistic  heights  were  achieved  both  by  the 
Buddhist  volumetric  sculptures  ofYungang  and 
Longmen  in  the  north,  which  show  influence  from 
Gandharan  and  Guptan  art,  and  by  the  Six 
Dynasties  tomb  carvings  near  Nanjing  in  the  south, 
which  continued  the  Eastern  Han  tradition  oi  relief 
carving,  mostly  non-Buddhist  in  content,  on  the 


interior  walls  of  tombs.  Murals  in  later  aristocratic 
tombs — like  that  of  Lou  Rui  (531-570)  of 
Northern  Qi;  or  of  Princess  Yongtai  and  the  princes 
Yide  and  Zhanghuai  of  Tang,  all  buried  in  706 — 
reflect  metropolitan  style  and  court  standards  of 
workmanship  and  are  secular  in  content.  As  one 
would  expect,  the  contemporaneous  murals  in  the 
Buddhist  cave-temples  at  Dunhuang,  in  far  western 
Gansu,  show  a  great  mixture  of  stylistic  influences 
and  a  more  provincial  level  of  workmanship. 

When  court  sculptors  were  set  to  work  to  produce 
Buddhist  sculptures  for  the  ruling  houses,  the  results 
equaled  any  contemporaneous  secular  works.  Court 
sculptors  of  the  Northern  Wei  imbued  the  colossal 
Buddha  atYungang  with  solemn  dignity  and  the 
reliefs  in  the  Binyang  Cave  at  Longmen  with 
devout  majesty.  Court  sculptors  of  the  Tang  empress 
Wu  Zetian  (r.  684-704),  a  wily  ruler  and  passionate 
Buddhist,  imbued  the  colossal  Buddha  and  eight 
attendant  divinities  at  the  Fengxian  Temple  of 
Longmen  with  benevolence,  gentleness,  earnestness, 
and  power.  All  these  figures  embody  Chinese 
sculpture  at  the  top  of  its  bent,  and  reflect  the 
cultural  efflorescence  of  the  capitals  to  which  they 
were  adjacent.  They  combine  sublimity  with  a 
worldly  magnificence  that  attests  to  the  secular 
coloration  acquired  by  Chinese  Buddhism. 
Arguably,  the  finest  Chinese  Buddhist  sculptures  of 
this  period  were  also  the  finest  art  works  of  their 
time  anywhere  in  the  world. 

Mainstream  ideas,  the  cultural  basis  of  both 
religious  and  secular  art,  evolved  gradually  during 
the  Southern  Dynasties,  Sui,  and  Tang  from  the 
intermingling  of  Buddhism  and  Confucianism  to 
the  integration  of  Buddhism,  Daoism,  and 
Confucianism.  This  trend  continued  until  after  the 
Northern  Song,  when  a  renewed  and  enriched 
Confucianism  achieved  the  social  and  political 
importance  held  by  its  precursor  during  the  Han, 
and  Buddhist  art  went  into  a  rapid  decline. 

V. 

Song  Neo-Confucianism,  and  us  continuations 
during  the  Ming  and  Qing.  was  by  no  means  .1 
monolithic  set  of  teachings.  The  philosophers 
assembled  under  this  rubric  ranged  considerably  in 
their  opinions  and  disputed  then  differences 
vehemently.  But  the  common  core  "l  Nieo- 
Confucianism  was  .1  primary  concern  with 
problems  of  ethics  and  epistemolog)  and  .1  wholt) 
secular  approach  to  both  these  sets  of  questions. 
Vastly  oversimplifying,  we  might  saj  that  Neo- 
Confucians  sought  to  understand  the  metaphysical 
essence  of  the  universe  (the  Dao)  and  to  bung  the 
human  mind  heart  (.vm,  which  of  itself  "has  no 
substance;  it  takes  its  reactions  to  the  rights  and 
wrongs  of  everything  in  I  leaven  and  earth  for  us 
substance"13)  into  harmony  with  it. 


FIVE   THOUSAND    YEARS    OF    CHINESE    CUtTURE 


53 


The  literati,  as  the  culture -bearing  elite  of  later 
dynastic  China  were  called,  scorned  sculpture  as 
mere  artisanry  but  valued  the  kinds  of  paintings 
that  they  considered  metaphors  of  the  Dao 
(primarily  landscapes)  or  of  the  enlightened, 
cultivated  xin  (paintings  of  various  subjects, 
primarily  in  ink  monochrome,  that  were  expressive 
in  intent  and  amateur  in  rendition).  Of  course, 
during  the  millennium  from  the  founding  of  the 
Song  to  the  overthrow  of  the  Qing,  the  styles  (and 
to  some  extent  the  subjects)  of  literati-approved 
painting  evolved  greatly,  but  without  losing  touch 
with  their  secular,  Neo-Confucian  origins. 

Only  in  the  recent  past,  with  the  introduction  of 
Western  knowledge  and  fundamental  changes  in 
the  political  system  and  economic  structure  of 
society,  Chinese  culture  has  received  massive  shocks 
and  Chinese  art  has  been  in  constant  turmoil.  Of 
course,  there  are  close  links  between  political 
systems,  economic  structures,  and  cultures,  but 
cultural  traditions  also  have  a  degree  of  autonomy. 
New  culture  and  new  art,  which  reflect  new 
yearnings,  must  evolve  out  of  the  foundation  of  the 
original  cultural  traditions.  Contemporary 
intellectuals  must  not  forsake  the  search  for  a  new 
culture  and  a  new  direction  for  art.  In  order  for  us 
to  correctly  assess  China  s  traditonal  culture  and 
develop  contemporary  Chinese  culture  and  arts, 
and  in  order  for  modern  Chinese  to  understand 
their  own  values,  it  is  necessary  to  review  the 
course  of  Chinas  culture  over  the  last  five  thousand 
years,  to  think  about  the  traditions  existing  within 
this  course,  and  to  understand  the  foundations  of 
China's  culture  and  its  arts.  The  above  ruminations 
are  part  of  such  a  quest.  As  to  their  validity,  I  await 
the  comments  of  my  readers. 

Translated,  from  the  Chinese,  by  June  Mei. 


4.  Zhang  Guangzhi,  Six  Lectures 

on  Archaeology  (Wenwu 
Publishing  House,  1986), 

pp.  47-5  2- 

5.  Part  1  of  the  Jiaosizhi  in  the 
Han  shu  addresses  the  subject 

of  supernatural  beings  and 
defines  the  term  wu  as 
referring  to  spirits  and  demons. 

6.Yu  Weichao,  "Changes  in 
WorldViews  as  Seen  in 
Archaeological  Art  Materials 
from  the  Pre-Qin,  Qui,  and 
Han  Eras,"  in  Collected  Essays 
Celebrating  Su  Bingqi's  Fifty  Years 
in  Archaeology  (Beijing:  Wenwu 
Publishing  House,  1989), 
pp-  H3-I5- 

7.  During  Western  Han,  all 
tamous  mountains  and  rivers 
were  considered  to  be  or  to 
house  numinous  spirits.  Hence, 
part  1  of  the  Jiaosizhi  in  the 
Han  shu  says, "[During  the 
Western  Zhou,]  the  Son  of 
Heaven  made  sacrifices  to  all 
the  famous  mountains  and 
rivers  in  the  land,  and  to 
mollify  all  the  spirits,  but  there 
are  no  written  records  of  the 
rituals.'1 

8. The  three  relationships — all 
hierarchical  but  also 
encompassing  mutual 
responsibility — are  sovereign- 
subject,  tather-son,  husband- 
wife;  the  five  virtues  are 
human  kindness,  righteousness, 
propriety,  knowledge,  sincerity; 
together,  sangang  wuchang  might 
be  understood  as  "the  whole 
duty  of  humankind" 
(Definition  supplied  by 
Stephen  Allee,  Freer/Sackler 
Galleries,  Smithsonian 
Institution.) 


12.  Chinese  Buddhist 
Association,  ed.,  Chinese 
Buddhism,  vol.  I,  articles  on 
"Buddhism  of  the  Northern 
and  Southern  Dynasties,"  and 
"The  Chan  Sect"  (Shanghai: 
Oriental  Publishing  Center), 
pp.  29-30,  319-25. 

13.  Ckuanxilu,  part  2,  of 
Complete  Works  of  Wang 
Wencheng,  Sibu  Congkan 
edition,  vol.  3,  p.  31a. 


NOTES 

i.  A.L.  Kroeber  and  C. 
Kluckhohn,  "Culture:  A 
Critical  Review  of  Concepts 
and  Definitions,"  Harvard 
University,  Papers  of  the  Peabody 
Museum  of  American  Archaeology 
and  Ethnology,  47:1  (1952), 
p.  181. 

2."Su  Bingqi  on  the  China 
Dream  of  Archaeology," 

Mingbao  yuekan,  1997:7. 

3.  Mircea  Eliade,  Shamanism — 
Archaic  Techniques  of  Ecstasy, 
trans.  Willard  R.Trask 
(Princeton:  Princeton 
University  Press,  1972). 


9.  Qian  Mu,"The 

Contribution  That  Traditional 
Chinese  Culture  Can  Make  to 
the  Future  of  the  Human 
Race,"  in  Chinese  Culture  Past, 
Present,  and  Future  —  Essays 
Celebrating  Eighty  Years  of  the 
Zhonghua  Shuju  (Zhonghua 
shuju,  1992). 

10.  Xin  Lixiang,  Studies  of  Han 
Dynasty  Painted  Stones  (Tokyo: 
Doshisha,  1996). 

11.  Ren  Jiyu,  ed.,  History  of 

Chinese  Buddhism  (Chinese 
Academy  of  Social  Sciences 
Publishing  House,  1981),  vol.  1, 
chaps.  3-5. 


FIVE    THOUSAND    YEARS    OF    CHINESE    CULTURE 


54 


Jade  as  Material 
and  Epoch 


Elizabeth  Childs-Johnson 

Visiting  Scholar,   New  York  University 


Jade,  "the  fairest  of  stones,"  is  described 
in  the  revered  and  earliest  of  Chinese 
dictionaries  as  embodying  five  virtues: 
"Benevolence  is  typified  by  its  luster  that 
is  bright  and  warm;  integrity  by  its 
translucency;  wisdom  by  its  sonorous  ring 
when  struck;  courage  by  its  hardness; 
and  steadfastness  by  its  durability."1  As  far 
back  as  the  late  Neolithic  period,  this 


55 


obdurate  stone,  known  as  nephrite  jade,  could  be 
worked  into  what  are  for  Chinese  tradition 
technical  masterpieces  of  ritual  and  aesthetic 
function.  Yu  jade  was,  in  fact,  the  preeminent 
medium  of  the  late  Neolithic  period,  exploited 
earlier  than  bronze  as  a  political  and  religious 
power  symbol  which  may  now  be  associated  with 
China's  earliest  civilization.2  Late  Neolithic 
prehistoric  cultures — Hongshan,  Liangzhu,  and 
Longshan — have  been  identified  archaeologically  as 
three  successive  jade- working  cultures  of  circa 
3600-2000  bce,  predating  the  historic  Xia,  Shang, 
and  Zhou  periods.  Each  culture  boasts  a  major  jade 
art  that  is  idiosyncratic  yet  telling  in  the  formation 
of  later  Chinese  values  and  cultural  expression. 

In  this  exhibition,  jades  are  drawn  not  only  from 
the  jade-working  cultures  of  Neolithic  date,  but 
also  from  other  periods  of  great  innovation  such  as 
the  Western  and  Eastern  Zhou,  when  jade  was  first 
used  for  head  and  body  covers  in  burial  and  for 
elaborate  pectorals  hanging  down  the  front  of 
aristocratic  robes,  and  from  later  periods,  Han 
through  Tang,  when  jade  was  worked  into  a  variety 
of  exquisite  ornamental  forms. 

JADE    AS     MATERIAL 

Nephrite,  like  jadeite,  is  considered  "true  jade"  by 
specialists  today.  Unlike  the  emerald  green  and 
harder  jadeite,  nephrite  varies  in  color  from 
translucent  white  to  various  shades  of  green  and 
brown  and  is  the  only  jade  that  was  used  during 
the  Neolithic  and  early  dynastic  periods. 

Based  on  a  recent  identification,  nephrite  can  now 
be  documented  as  originating  in  Neolithic  China. 
A  specimen  taken  from  an  outcropping  of  rock  at 
Zhaomeiling  in  Liyang,  Jiangsu  Province,  has  been 
confirmed  as  having  mineral  qualities  similar  to 
Liangzhu-period  nephrite.3  It  is  likely  that  local 
deposits  of  nephrite  were  found  elsewhere  in  the 
lower  reaches  of  theYangzi  River.  The  nephrite 
found  in  tombs  of  the  far  northeast  (Hongshan 
culture)  is  also  thought  to  have  been  mined  locally. 

Mineralogically,  nephrite  is  a  rock  composed  of 
densely  intergrown,  randomly  oriented,  interfelted 
fibers  of  the  minerals  tremolite  and  actinolite.  These 
minerals  are  calcium-magnesium-iron  silicates, 
Caz  (Mg,Fe2+)5  Sis  O22  (OH) 2,  and  belong  to  the 
amphibole  mineral  group.4  The  difference  between 
actinolite  and  tremolite  is  in  the  quantity  of 
magnesium  and  iron.  In  actinolite,  iron  appears  in 
greater  quantities,  10  to  50  percent;  in  tremolite, 
iron  occupies  under  10  percent  of  the  total.  Iron 
content  affects  the  color  of  nephrite  by  darkening 
it,  creating  gray  to  green  hues.  In  its  purest  form, 
the  nephrite  is  translucent  white  (see,  for  example, 
cats.  17,  20). 


Minerals  sometimes  mistaken  for  jade — referred  to 
as  "false  jades"  or  as  "pseudo-jades" — include  agate, 
bowenite,  fluorite,  talc,  and  serpentine.  The  major 
scientific  means  of  distinguishing  tremolites  and 
actinolites  from  other  minerals  is  by  their  specific 
gravity.  Nephrites  have  a  higher  specific  gravity  and 
greater  hardness  than  pseudo-  and  false  jade 
minerals.5 

Jade  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  stones  to  fashion: 
on  Mohs's  scale  of  hardness  for  minerals  (ranking 
from  1  to  10)  jade  measures  6—6.5;  thus,  it  requires 
a  harder  stone  such  as  quartzite  (7-7.5)  or  diamond 
(10)  to  abrade  or  "carve"  it.  Several  scholars  have 
theorized  about  how  early  jade — the  translucent 
nephrite  as  opposed  to  emerald  green  jadeite — 
was  worked  in  ancient  China.6  Each  has  described 
a  technique  that  involves  various  stages  of  working 
with  abrasives,  from  initially  slicing  off  a  chunk  or 
slab  of  jade  from  a  rock  outcropping  to  boring  holes 
and  modeling  linear  motifs  and  openwork  designs 
on  the  final  jade  piece.  It  is  likely  that  a  straight- 
edged  hand  or  gut-string  saw  was  the  tool  used  to 
cut,  slice,  and  pare  the  jade  into  a  workable  form. 

Other  tools  involved  probably  included  the  awl  and 
tubular  drill,  which  may  have  been  of  bamboo. 
Since  a  flint  (suishi)  awl  has  been  excavated  from  a 
Liangzhu  tomb,  it  is  possible  that  this  was  the  type 
of  tool  used  to  carve  the  minute  detail  decorating 
cong  (prismatic  tubes)  and  related  ornaments.7 
Other  specialists  have  argued  that  shark  teeth 
excavated  from  Liangzhu  tombs  were  used  or  that 
only  a  tool  with  a  diamond  point  was  sufficiently 
hard  to  carve  such  refined  detail.8  That  the 
Liangzhu  craftsmen  working  jade  used  a  bamboo  or 
comparable  drill  with  quartzite  as  an  abrasive  to 
make  holes  in  ritual  jades  such  as  bi  (disks)  and  cong 
(prismatic  tubes)  is  convincing,  since  the  remaining 
elliptical  marks,  particularly  marked  in  the  centers 
of  cong,  identify  that  type  of  tool.  These  holes  are 
created  from  two  sides  by  a  bamboo  drill  whose 
point  loses  sharpness  and  thus  width  at  the  very 
center  so  that  a  ridge  is  formed.  Quartzite  crystals 
have  been  found  on  the  surface  of  many  Liangzhu 
and  Hongshan  jades,  thus  confirming  that  quartzite 
was  the  abrasive  used  with  water  when  working  the 
surface.  On  Neolithic  jades,  abraded  decorative 
motifs  often  appear  chipped;  on  later  jades,  metal- 
tipped  tools  were  used  so  that  these  decorative 
motifs  appear  as  clean,  crisp  lines. 

In  recent  experiments  on  jades  at  the  Freer  and 
Arthur  M.  Sackler  galleries  in  Washington,  D.C., 
Wen  Guang  and  Janet  Douglas  have  shown  that 
certain  jades  of  dark  green  and  brown  color,  dating 
to  the  Longshan  and  successive  cultures  and 
deriving  from  north  and  northwest  China,  are 
mineralogically  iron-  and  manganese-rich 
nephrites.9  These  jades  possess  small  amounts  of 


JADE    AS    MATERIAL    AND    EPOCH 


56 


manganese  oxide  that  can  be  measured  by  X-ray 
fluorescence  and  related  tools  that  measure  mineral 
composition  and  the  microstructure  of  minerals.10 
The  dagger-ax  (ge;  cat.  n)  from  the  Shaanxi 
Provincial  Museum  falls  into  this  category  of 
manganese  oxide— rich  nephrite.  Wen  Guang  has 
explained  that  the  dark  green  and  brown  to  almost 
black  coloration  of  tall  cong  (see,  for  example,  cat.  5) 
appears  to  derive  from  jades  that  have  been 
collected  over  time.  This  phenomenon  may  be 
attributable  to  panmo,  the  repeated  handling  of  jade 
that  causes  discoloration  over  time,  especially 
through  oxidation  of  the  iron  content.  The  so- 
called  chicken-bone  white  (jigubai)  or  chalky 
white  surface  patches,  particularly  common  on 
Liangzhu  jades  (see  cat.  3)  but  also  on  others 
(cats.  2,  12),  appears  to  be  caused  primarily  by 
heating  to  a  temperature  above  9000  C  rather  than 
by  alteration  during  a  long  burial."  The  jade 
mineral  does  not  decompose,  but  its  density 
decreases  and  its  microstructure  becomes  looser  so 
that  the  jade  may  become  brittle  and  less 
translucent. 


§-shs   b,    g 


z- 

v 


Jade  as  a  precious  stone  has  an  eminent  history  in 
China  and  for  this  reason  is  intimately  linked  with 
the  beginnings  of  Chinese  ritual  and  Chinese 
civilization.  As  one  archaeologist  has  pointed  out, 
all  characters,  or  graphs,  written  with  the  jade 
graph  yu  are  associated  with  spiritual  power  or 
beauty.'2  For  example,  the  word  bao  ("precious") 
incorporates  the  jade  graph.  So  does  the  word  gtti 
(a  kind  of  jasper  stone  or  an  adjective  meaning 
"extraordinary"  or  "admirable"). 


Fig.  l.Jade  types  of  the  Hongshan  culture:A.  Hooked 
cloud;  B.  Horse-hoof  shape;  C.  Dragon;  D.  Pig-dragon; 
E.  Disk;  F  Cat-headed  bird;  G.  Cicada;  H.  Fish; 
I.  Turtle; J.  Double  dragon-head  arcli;  K.  Three-ring 
ornament  with  pig-head  protomes;  L.Ax  ;  M.  Three-hole 
flat  ornament;  N.  Bead;  O.  Bracelet;  P.  Pencil-shaped 
stick;  Q.  Bauble;  R.  Animal  face  with  tusk-like 
extensions;  S.  Animal-face  handle;  T.  Hook-shaped 
handle.  Neolithic  period,  Hongshau  culture  (ca.  3600- 
ca.  2000  bce). 


Jade's  sacrosanct  position  in  the  history  of  Chinese 
tradition  is  probably  best  told  not  through  later 
anecdotal  descriptions,  but  rather  through  excavated 
finds  and  the  earliest  literary  reference  to  ritual  (//) 
in  Shang  period  bone  inscriptions.'3  The  character 
//'  incorporates  the  jade  graph  yu,  suggesting  by  its 
inclusion  that  jade  was  the  earliest  material  as  art  to 
be  used  in  religious  worship.  The  function  of  jade 
as  a  preservative  and  symbol  of  immortality  is  also 
well  known  through  Han  alchemical  practice  and 
the  life-preserving  quality  that  is  signified  in  the 
burial  jade  body  suits  of  the  Warring  States  and 
Han  periods. 

JADE    AS    RITUAL    IMPLEMENT    AND    INSIGNIA 

The  working  of  jade  is  well  illustrated  by  numerous 
finds  from  the  three  successive  late  Neolithic 
cultures, that  occupied  coastal  northern  through 
southern  China,  from  Liaoning  down  as  far  as 
Fujian.  As  Willetts  once  noted,  Yuan  Kang  in  The 
Lost  Records  of  Yue  (Yue  jueslni),  a  Warring  States 
text,  wrote  that  after  the  Stone  (Neolithic)  and 
before  the  Bronze  and  Iron  ages,  man  used  jade  for 
weapons;  this  "Jade  Age"  was  a  period 
contemporary  with  the  legendary  Five  Emperors 


and  prior  to  the  historic  Xia.'4  Archaeological 
evidence  documents  this  reference:  jade  was  the 
primary  medium  exploited  by  the  elite  to 
symbolize  their  power  to  rule.  Whether  or  not  we 
use  the  label  "Jade  Age,"  the  use  of  jade  over  an 
approximate  sixteen-hundred-year  period  (ca.  3600- 
2400  bce)  may  be  traced  largely  to  coastal  pari'-  of 
China,  an  area  of  great  cultural  innovation  at  this 
time.15  Elite  tribal  groups  forming  what 
anthropologists  now  describe  as  China's  earliest 
city-states  are  associated  with  these  jade-working 
cultures — the  Liangzhu  in  China's  southeastern 
provinces  of  Zhejiang  andjiangsu  and  in  Shanghai; 
and  slightly  later  Shandong  Longshan  cultures  ol 
northeast  China;  but  also  possibly  by  the  slightly 
earlier  1  -longshan,  ol  far  northeast  China, primarily, 
1  iaoning  and  Inner  Mongolia  provinces. 

Jade  types  from  I  longshan  tombs  (see  tig   [)  are 
sinking  in  their  seemingly  non-Chinese  taste  for 
sculpturally  sensuous  form. Two  jades  in  this 
exhibition —  an  ornament  111  the  form  >>t  hooked 
clouds  with  profile  bird    cat.  1)  and  an  ornament  in 
the  form  of  a  curling  so-called  pig-dragon  {zlmloiig; 


IADE    AS    MATERIAL    AND    EPOCH 


57 


cat.  2) — are  quintessentially  Hongshan  Chinese. 
Both  works  are  directly  tied  to  fertility-cult 
interests.16  Small  jade  figures  as  well  as  clay  figures 
of  various  sizes  representing  nude  females  with 
large  hips  and  buttocks  have  been  found  on 
outdoor  stone-lined  altars,  in  the  Goddess  Temple 
foundation,  and  within  aristocratic  cist  tombs  at 
Niuheliang;  their  discovery  suggests  the  presence  of 
a  cult  centered  on  a  form  of  mother  goddess.  The 
only  items  seen  in  tombs  of  the  elite  are  jades, 
however.  Most  are  pierced  with  holes  for 
suspension  or  attachment  to  cloth,  suggesting  a 
function  similar  to  that  of  an  amulet  worn  by  a 
specialized  religious,  ruling  elite. 

Most  of  the  excavated  Hongshan  burials  with  jades 
derive  from  select  areas,  as  at  Niuheliang,  which  on 
the  basis  of  present  evidence  was  once  a  center  for 
religious  worship.  The  hooked  cloud  shape  ot  jade 
(see,  for  example,  cat.  i)  has  been  found  on  the 
chest  area  of  several  corpses  in  the  elite  cemetery  at 
Niuheliang,  suggesting  that  this  type  of  ornament 
decorated  the  chest  as  a  pectoral.  The  shape,  with 
hooks  at  four  corners  framing  a  bird's  head  in 
profile,  represents  the  prototype  of  the  age-old  bone 
and  bronze  script  symbol  for  cloud  with  emerging 
bird  or  dragon  head,17  evidently  a  reference  to  the 
heavenly  bird  in  later  Chinese  myth. 

The  pig-dragon  (cat.  2)  also  suggests  a  potent 
symbol  in  its  emphatic  disposition  which  begins  in 
a  boar-like  head  flaunting  tusks  and  beady  eyes  and 
ends  in  a  short  thick  body  curl.  This  fetal  posture 
emphasizing  birth  and  nascent  power  is  imitated  in 
the  shape  of  the  pictograph  for  qiu,  the  earliest 
form  for  writing  dragon  in  Chinese  script. lS  In  all 
later  Chinese  history,  dragons  bring  rain  and 
beneficence.  During  the  Neolithic  period  the 
Chinese  domesticated  the  boar.  As  symbols  of 
wealth,  boar  (or  pig)  skulls  are  commonly  found  in 
elite  tombs.19  That  the  image  of  dragon  with  boar 
tusks  and  other  fertility  deities  presided  as  symbols 
of  control  in  this  northern  Hongshan  culture  is  also 
made  clear  by  the  remains  of  dragon  and  fertility 
goddess  sculptures,  which  decorated  the  wall  of 
what,  at  Niuheliang,  excavators  describe  as  a 
mother  goddess  temple.  In  addition  to  their 
association  with  fertility,  the  pig-dragon  jades  are 
remarkable  for  their  sensitive  and  painstaking 
modeling:  they  appear  as  though  they  were 
sculpted,  wet  clay  rather  than  flat  and  linear, 
calligraphically  defined  jades  that  are  traditionally 
associated  with  Chinese  aesthetics. 

The  Liangzhu  culture,  of  overlapping  and  slightly 
later  date,  reflects  a  more  advanced  social  stage  in 
the  new  and  more  complex  layout  of  religio- 
administrative  centers,  as  well  as  an  increased 
complexity  of  jade  types  and  their  functions.  In 
burials,  jade  not  only  decorates  the  dress  of  elite 


Fig,  2.  Jade  types  of  the  Liangzhu  culture:  A.  Disk  (bi^); 
B.  Short  and  tall  prismatic  tubes  (cong,);  C.Ax  head 
and  reconstructed  ax  with  parts;  D.  End  attachments  to 
the  staff  of  an  ax;  E.  Arrow  and  spear  heads;  F.Three- 
pronged  headdress  ornament;  G.  Trapezoid-shaped 
headdress  ornament  of  a  talisman;  H.  Lower  body/shoe 
ornament;  I.  D-shaped  headdress  ornament; J.  Arc-shaped 
ornaments  (huangj;  K.  Spindle  whorl;  L.  Belt  buckle; 
M.  Staff  knob;  N.  Bird,  fish,  cicada,  tortoise,  and  frog 
ornaments;  O.  Necklace  ornament;  P.  Slit  earrings; 
Q.  Ornament;  R.  Plain  and  decorated  bracelets.  Neolithic 
period,  Liangzhu  culture  (ca.  3600— ca.  2000  BCE). 


leaders,  but  now  appears  worked  into  shapes  of 
ritual  implements  and  weapons  (fig.  2).20  Liangzhu 
jade  owners  wielded  power  over  more  sophisticated 
and  complex  religious  rites  and  political  and 
military  matters  as  well. 

The  new  appearance  of  specific  ritual  implements 
such  as  cong  and  hi,  and  of  broad  axes  (yue)  in  large 
numbers  complements  the  more  complex  scenario 
of  ritual  and  socio-political  administration  that 
anthropologists  currently  describe  as  characterizing 
China's  earliest  city-state.  They  propose  that  the 
Liangzhu  culture  encompassed  a  time  span  of 
roughly  3600/3300-2000  bce  and  that  it  included 
four  major  phases.21  Fully  mature  jade  types 
representing  Liangzhu  periods  III— IV  of  circa  3000- 
2400  bce  are  represented  in  the  exhibition  by  three 
cong  (cats.  3,  4,  5). 


JADE    AS    MATERIAL    AND    EPOCH 


58 


The  cong  is  the  most  idiosyncratic  of  all  jades.  It 
may  be  defined  by  its  shape:  a  tube  that  is  prismatic 
on  the  outside  and  circular  and  open  from  top  to 
bottom  inside.  The  Neolithic  jade  cong  is  decorated 
with  animal  and/or  semihuman  masks  on  the 
prismatically  shaped  corners  of  its  outer  square.  In 
later  ritual  texts  the  cong  is  also  defined  as  a  symbol 
of  the  earth. 

Liangzhu  jades  derive  almost  entirely  from  burials, 
evidently  of  a  ruling,  religious  elite.  These  differ 
from  Hongshan  burials  not  only  in  their  larger  and 
more  complex  jade  assemblage,  but  in  their  design; 
they  were  part  of  a  man-made  earthen  mound  with 
raised  outdoor  altar  (figs.  3-4).  Apparently,  such 
raised  earthen  mounds  with  jade-filled  burials 
functioned  initially  as  outdoor  ritual  altars  and 
subsequently  as  burial  grounds  called  jitan  mudi 
("joint  sacrificial  and  burial  centers")  and  were 
locally  described  as  tuzhu  jinzita  ("earth- 
constructed  pyramids").22 


Fig.  3.  Mound  remains  of  the  earthen  outdoor  altar  at 
Yaoslian ,Yuhang  county,  Zhcjiang  Province.  Neolithic 
period,  Liangzhu  culture  (ca.  3600-ca.  2000  bce). 


Recently,  it  has  been  proposed  that  Sidun,  in 
Jiangsu  Province,  and  possibly  twenty  other  related 
burial-ground  mounds  were  part  of  larger  city- 
states  that  were  cosmologically  designed  in  the 
form  of  the  cong,  the  ritual  jade  implement 
(figs.  2B,  4A:2,  5).23  At  present,  however,  only 
Sidun,  Zhaolingshan,  and  Mojiaoshan  appear  to 
possess  adequate  features  that  qualify  them  as 
candidates  for  this  ideal  plan  (fig.  4A).24The 
proposed  plan  encompasses  a  central  earthen  altar 
and  four  axially  located  burial  grounds  as  well  as 
many  residences  and  defensive  moats:  the  Sidun 
mound  complex  measures  900,000  square  meters  in 
area,  and  the  mound  proper  is  over  100  meters 
wide  and  over  20  meters  high.25  This  design 
conjures  up  the  look  of  today's  surviving  Angkor 
Wat  in  Cambodia, Tikal  in  Guatemala,  and  the 
religious  structure  called  "Bright  Hall"  (mingtang) 
with  circular  moat  (piyong)  mentioned  in  later 
Chinese  ritual  texts.2''  In  any  case,  what  emerges  in 
the  archaeological  data  is  a  new  and  extremely 
sophisticated  phase  of  settlement:  a  city-state  with 
spiritual  center,  outlying  towns,  a  defensive  system, 
and  competitive  arts  serving  both  religious  and 
political  needs.  This  archaeological  evidence  of  the 
Liangzhu  culture  defines  the  heart  of  the  so-called 
Jade  Age,  not  only  in  the  sophisticated  architectural 
design  of  a  spiritual  center  but  because  over  90 
percent  of  the  ruling  elite's  burial  goods  were  jades. 

For  protohistoric  Chinese  the  cong  was  evidently 
more  than  a  talisman;  it  appears  to  have  been  a 
mechanism  of  ritual  and  spiritual  control. 
Positioned  in  four  directions,  it  symbolized  the 
power  to  petition  or  exorcize  spiritual  and  demonic 
forces  in  a  universe  that  was  conceived  as 
prismatically  square.  It  is  no  accident  that  the 
shamanic  jangxiang,  or  u'tt,  the  major  exorcizer  of 


sm 


— L^JJ — 

IV  III 


fol 


I  CEMETERY  1 

II  CEMETERY  2 

III  CEMETERY  3 

IV  CEMETERY  4 


El 


tl^ 


BURIAL  CENTER 


CLAN  BURIAL  AREA 


SACRIFICIAL  ALTAR 


HUMAN  AND  ANIMAL 
SACRIFICIAL  AREA 


□ 


AREA  EXCAVATED 


Fig.  4.  Reconstruction  of  i.  \:n  outdoor  altar  at  Sidun, 
Jiangsu  Province,  with  (A:z)  drawing  of  jade  cong.  and 
(B)  outdoor  altar  at  Zhaolingshan,  Jiangsu  Province. 
Neolithic  period,  Liangzhu  culture  (ca.  3600-ca.  zooo 


JADE    AS    MATERIAL    AND    EPOCH 


59 


demonic  influences  in  Han  dynasty  religious 
practice,  had  vision  in  four  directions.  The  character 
for  wu  ("shaman") — although  not  known  textually 
until  Eastern  Zhou  times — is  related  in  origin  to 
the  Shang  character  (ox  fang  ("direction").-7  As  is 
evident,  one  of  the  variations  for  fang  in  Shang 
bone  inscriptions  is  like  the  Greek  cross,  the  same 
shape  as  the  cong.  And  it  may  also  be  no  accident 
that  in  the  ancient  myth  of  China  s  origins  the 
eight  cosmic  pillars  that  upheld  the  universe  when 
the  mythic  Pan  Gu  created  the  world  were  axially 
oriented.28 

The  other  popular  ritual  implement,  the  circular  hi, 
is  also  probably  significant  in  its  association  with  the 
heavens,  the  circular  vault  or  dome  mentioned  later 
in  Huainanzi  and  the  Chnci  ("Songs  of  the  South"):9 
The  few  representations  of  birds  and  clouds  that 
decorate  hi  (fig.  6)  are  in  keeping  with  what  must 
be  a  symbol  of  skyward  power  in  which  clouds  and 
birds  are  associated  in  all  later  Chinese  lore. 

The  cong  (cat.  3)  that  comes  from  the  largest  tomb, 
No.  12,  at  Fanshan,  in  Zhejiang  Province,  is  a 
marvel  of  craftsmanship.  Twenty-four  tiny 
representations  of  simple  and  complex  mask  types 
decorate  all  the  flat  surfaces  of  this  vessel's  exterior, 
straddling  all  corners  and  intervening  passages  (fig. 
5 A). Two  alternating  image  types — the  semihuman 
mask  with  horizontally  striated  headdress  and  the 


;             .-_--.                 — 

-= — 

O 

0 

!   CD 

@^ 

~^§5 

§9 

O       /       O 

i  e® 

(32P§>5) 

<s3 

<°>  <£> 


o 


Fig.  3.  Shape  and  decor  of  time  exhibited  jade  prismatic  tubes 
(cong): A.  Cong  (cat.  3)  from  tomb  No.  12,  Fanshan, 
Zhejiang  Province;  B.  Cong  (cat.  4)  from  Fuquanshan  tomb 
No.  g,  Qingpn  county,  Shanghai;  C.  Cong  (cat.  3)  from  tomb 
No.  3,11'ujin  county,  Jiangsu  Province.  Neolithic  period, 
Liangzhu  culture  (ca.  3600-ca.  2000  BCE). 


Fig.  6A.  T\ie  bird  and  cloud  motif  on  a  jade  disk  (hi) 
from  the  Freer  Gallery  of  Art,  Smithsonian  Institution, 
Washington,  D.C.  (17.348).  Neolithic  period,  Liangzhu 
culture  (ca.  3600— ca.  2000  BCE). 


Fig.  SB.fade  disk  (bij.  Neolithic  period,  Liangzhu 
culture  (ca.  3600-ca.  2000  BCE).  Freer  Gallery  of  Art, 
Smithsonian  Institution,  Washington,  DC.  (17.348). 


JADE    AS    MATERIAL    AND    EPOCH 


60 


o 

1 

A 

; 

i    — > 
i 

| 

A        (JP 

I 

/-"• 

» 1 /Ml  °  °  c  11° 

a 

1/                   i 

Fig.  7.  Evolution  of  the  (A)  jade  blade  (zhang,)  and 
(B)  knife  (dao)  from  agricultural  tools.  Neolithic  period 
(ca.  7000-ca.  2000  BCE). 


schematic  interpretation  of  the  mask  aligning  the 
four  corners  of  this  tall  cong  is  the  semihuman 
mask,  simplified  to  an  abstract  design  of  eye, 
mouth,  and  headdress. 

Jade  usage  takes  a  new  turn  during  the  last  phase 
of  the  Neolithic  and  first  phase  of  China's  ancient 
historical  period,  which  begins  with  the  Xia 
(ca.  2100-ca.  1600  BCE).The  new  jade  types  that 
appear  during  the  Longshan  and  Xia  (Erlitou 
culture)  periods — the  last  flowering  of  the  "Jade 
Age" — include  the  blade  {zhang)  and  the  knife 
(dao) .  Usually  plain  in  decor,  they  function  as 
insignia.  Both  the  blade  and  the  knife  are  based  on 
agricultural  tool  types.32  The  blade,  which  is 
swordlike  in  shape  and  flares  out  at  one  end, 
originates  in  the  hoe  and  is  known  mostly  in  bone 
or  ivory  as  early  as  5000  bce  at  Hemudu,  in 
Zhejiang  Province  (fig.  7A).33  The  knife  derives 
from  the  harvesting  knife  (fig.  7f3).The  recarved 
jade  knife  (dao;  cat.  6)  from  the  Shanghai  Museum 
may  be  attributed  to  the  Shandong  Longshan 
Neolithic.  Representational  imagery  still  decorates 
the  front  of  the  jade  knife. 


animal  mask  with  layered  eyelids  and  nasal  ridge — 
decorate  each  prismatic  surface.  These  semihuman 
and  animal-mask  images  are  also  represented  more 
complexly  on  the  interstices.  The  latter,  more 
elaborate  version  portrays  the  semihuman  with 
feathered  headdress,  trapezoidal  face,  and  winged 
arms  embracing  the  animal  mask,  which  has  tusks 
and  framing  limbs  ending  in  claws  (fig.  5).  Both 
Mou  Yongkang  and  Wu  Ruzuo  have  identified 
these  masked  deities  as  sun  gods.30  When  depicted 
as  two  different  images,  they  should  be  interpreted 
as  a  sun  god  and  his  vehicle,  the  embodiment  of 
animal  power.  Working  these  minuscule  motifs  must 
have  required  great  delicacy  and  painstaking  labor 
in  digging  and  working  away  the  surface  with  a 
tiny  flint  or  diamond  awl.  Although  it  has  altered  in 
color  to  a  chalky  white,  the  cong  retains  its  brilliant 
luster,  which  through  burnishing  seems  to  have 
intentionally  captured  the  rays  of  the  sun. This  cong 
has  been  nicknamed  the  "king  of  cong,"  after  the 
vessel's  large  size  and  superbly  worked  imagery.3' 

The  cong  from  tomb  Number  9  at  Fuquanshan, 
near  Shanghai,  is  marked  by  a  translucent  gleaming 
yellow-brown  to  green  color  (cat.  4).  Miniature 
masks  and  flanking  birds  fill  four  sides  of  this  cong, 
which  is  more  circular  than  square  (fig.  >B).  liody 
parts,  only  one  millimeter  wide,  of  both  the  masked 
images  and  birds  are  filled  with  tiny  whorling  cloud 
scrolls.  On  the  cong  from  tomb  Number  3  at  Sidun, 
Jiangsu  Province  (cat.  5;  fig.  sC)  thirteen  levels  of 
mask  images  represent  a  standard  variation  of  the 
tall  cong  type  that  is  tempting  to  associate  with  the 
stacked  arrangement  of  repeated  images  on  a  native 
American  totem  pole  of  the  Northwest. The  more 


The  blades  (zhang;  cats.  7,  8)  reflect  two  styles.  The 
first  is  a  classic  Xia  blade  (zhang;  cat.  7),  seen  in 
excavated  examples  from  Erlitou  (fig.  SA).The 
handle  is  typically  rendered  with  a  delicate,  dentiled 
outline  and  paper-thin  relief  strips  running  from 
top  to  bottom  on  the  front  side  only.  This 
geometrically  textured  area  contrasts  with  the 
blade,  which  flares  out  and  is  slightly  concave.  The 
blade  (cat.  8)  from  Sanxingdui,  Guanghan,  in 
Sichuan  Province,  is  a  manneristically  distorted 
regional  version  of  the  classic  Xia  type.  For 
example,  the  blade's  mouth  does  not  flare;  it  comes 
to  a  point  like  a  dagger-ax  that  then  is  bifurcated. 
Comparable  blades  excavated  from  the  same  two 
hoards  at  Sanxingdui  are  equally  eccentric  (fig.  SB). 
They  either  violate  classical  form  through  the 
addition  of  an  extraneous,  small  profile  bird  placed 
at  the  bifurcated  mouth  or  destroy  the  beauty  of 
the  paper-thin  strips  through  harsh,  repetitive 
incised  lines  across  the  handle.  The  latter  examples 
represent  the  end  of  a  classical  Longshan  and 
Erlitou  period  tradition  of  working  jade  blade 
insignia. 

It  is  apparent  that  at  this  point  111  time  more 
sophisticated  tools,  probably  metal  tools  in  the  form 
of  disks  and  drills  (the  modern  lathe  called  the 
chatou), were  used  with  abrasives  10  carve  the 
insignia  and  their  decor. The  appearance  of 
multiple,  small  lengthwise  scratches  on  .1  jade's 
surface  indicates  burnishing  with  metal  ripped 
tools. 

During  the  Shang  period  tea.  [600-ca.  1100  bi  i  |, 
certain  jades —  particularly,  weapon-,  in  the  form  of 


JADE    AS    MATERIAL    AND    EPOCH 


61 


Fig.  8.  Representative  jade  blades  (zhang,)  from 
(A)  Erlitou  and  (B)  Sanxingdui.  Xia/Shang  periods 
(ca.  iSoo-ca.  1500  BCE). 


dagger-axes  (ge)  or  broad  axes  (yue) — continue  to 
reflect  the  Xia  taste  for  large-scale  insignia.  Jade 
types  that  eventually  replace  the  insignia  are  the  flat 
or  round  small  figurines,  designed  more  for 
decorative  than  ritual  purposes.  The  small  animal 
and  human  figures  popular  during  the  Shang  are 
represented  in  the  exhibition  by  four  pieces 
excavated  intact  from  the  celebrated  tomb 
belonging  to  the  Shang  queen  popularly  referred  to 
as  Fu  Hao,34  but  correctly  identified  by  the  name 
Fu  Zi.35  Three  of  the  jades  represent  variations  of 
the  bird  motif- — one  naturalistic  version  from  the 
side  (cat.  10(3]),  another  with  headdress  and 
human-like  legs  tucked  in  profile  (cat.  10(4]),  and  a 
third  bird  with  ram's  horns  (cat.  io[l]).  A  fourth 
small  jade  (cat.  io[2])  of  light  translucent  green 
represents  a  human  whose  hands  rest  on  his  knees 
in  servile  attitude.  All  four  jades  have  holes  for 
attachment  and  were  probably  worn  suspended  as 
charms  or  decorative  baubles.  In  the  excavation 
report,  jade  figurines  from  this  rich  tomb  amounted 
to  over  three  hundred  out  of  a  total  of  six  to  seven 
hundred  jades. 3° 

JADE    AS    LIFE    PRESERVATIVE    AND    ORNAMENT 

The  Western  Zhou  period  (ca.  1100-771  bce)  is 
represented  here  by  two  jade  works.  A  jade  dagger- 
ax  (ge\  cat.  11)  from  Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province,  is  a 
Western  Zhou  version  of  this  weapon  made 
popular  during  the  Shang  period.  The  Zhou  date  is 


apparent  in  the  grooving  and  downward  point  of 
the  blade's  tip,  as  found  on  dagger-axes  ofWestern 
Zhou  date  excavated  from  Sanmenxia,  Henan 
Province,  andTianma,  Shanxi  Province.37  The  major 
artistic  innovation  in  the  jade  medium  during  the 
Western  Zhou  period  is  seen  in  the  rich  assemblage 
of  jade  pieces  creating  a  burial  mask  (cat.  12;  fig.  10) 
and  extended  chest  and  body  pectoral  with 
additional,  flanking  jade  insignia  ot  dagger-axes  and 
hi  (fig.  10),  excavated  at  Sanmenxia  in  1990. 3S  This 
earliest  of  jade  face  masks,  dating  to  the  ninth 
century  bce,  clearly  anticipates  the  creation  of  a 
complete  jade  body  suit  by  the  Western  Han  period 
(206  bce-8  ce)  in  provinces  as  far  afield  as  Hebei, 
Shandong,  Guangdong,  Jiangsu,  and  Hubei.39 

Sanmenxia  has  long  been  known  as  a  Western 
Zhou  cemetery  site  of  the  Guo  state — an 
enhefment  that  was  probably  of  very  early  Western 
Zhou  date.40  In  the  1950s  over  two  hundred  tombs 
were  excavated  at  this  site,  and  in  the  last  fifteen 
years  new  finds,  including  tomb  Number  2001,  to 
which  the  jade  mask  (cat.  12;  fig.  10)  belongs,  were 
reported.  This  burial  find  is  of  high  interest  for 
what  it  says  about  Western  Zhou  burial  rites  and 
ritual  reform,  which  required  sets  of  vessels  and 
jades  that  by  their  number  and  quality  were 
designed  to  signify  status.  For  example,  tomb 
Number  2001  included  not  only  bronze  sets  of  gni 
(grain),  ding  (meat),  and  li  (steamer)  vessels  (six  to 
eight  per  set  of  identical  form  but  different  size), 
but  sets  of  chimes  and  bells,  as  well  as  other  unusual 
art  works  such  as  an  unprecedently  early  belt  with 
gold  decorative  attachments  and  an  iron  sword  with 
jade  fitting. 


JADE    AS    MATERIAL    AND    EPOCH 


62 


This  rich  tomb  also  documents  that  there  was  a 
specified  manner  of  decorating  the  corpse  with 
jade. The  burial  mask  (cat.  12),  for  example,  is 
composed  of  fourteen  jade  pieces,  and  the  pectoral 
running  from  the  corpse's  neck  to  its  knees  is 
composed  of  seven  huang  (arc-shaped)  jades  that 
are  interconnected  with  agate  and  faience  beads 
(fig.  10).  Flanking  the  corpse  were  two  jade  dagger- 
ax-like  blades  at  chest  level,  two  pair  of  bi,  and  two 
handle  attachments  at  foot  level.  Additional  stone 
cowries  (hari)  were  placed  in  the  corpse's  mouth, 
and  round  post-shaped  jades  (wo)  were  placed  in 
the  corpse's  hand.  Two  further  sets  of  eight  small 
jade  inlays  were  found  on  the  feet. The  excavators 
explain  that  these  jades  lay  on  top  of  what  appear 
to  have  been  over  ten  layers  of  red  and  yellow 
decorated  silk  cloth.4'  The  jade  face  mask  was  sewn 
to  a  silk  cover,  while  the  pectoral  ot jades  formed  a 
necklace  that  lay  on  the  corpse's  chest.  The  practice 
of  decorating  a  corpse  with  jade  necklaces  may  be 
traced  back  to  the  Liangzhu  period,  when  multiple 
strands  of  jade  beads  were  commonly  placed  on 
both  male  and  female  corpses. 

The  fourteen  jades  of  the  Sanmenxia  burial  mask 
(cat.  12)  mark  pairs  of  eyebrows,  eyes,  temples,  ears, 
and  cheeks  and  individually  mark  the  forehead, 
nose,  mouth,  and  neck.  This  type  of  jade  face  mask 
with  elaborate  jade  pectoral  and  mouth  and  hand 
plugs  may  be  compared  with  various  others 
identified  recently  not  only  elsewhere  in  Henan, 
but  also  in  Shaanxi,  Shanxi,  and  Hebei,  dating  to 
the  Western  Zhou  and  later  Eastern  Zhou 
periods.4'  The  latter  burials  derive  from  cemeteries 
identifying  Zhou  enfiefments  belonging  to  the 
ancient  states  ofjin  (Qucun,Tianma,  Shaanxi), Ying 
(Pingdingshan,  Henan),  Guo  (Fengxi,  Xi'an, 
Shaanxi),  Jing  (Zhangjiapo,  Shaanxi), Yu  (Baoji, 
Xi'an,  Shaanxi)  andYan  (Liulihe,  Fangshan,  Hebei). 
Evidently,  the  practice  of  burying  the  elite  with 
jade  face  masks  and  pectorals  was  standardized  at 
this  point  in  Western  Zhou  history. 

In  addition,  jade  was  used  to  plug  the  orifices  of 
the  corpse.  These  jade  investments  protected  the 
corpse  from  disintegrating  while  allowing  the  spirit 
(him)  to  continue  living,  as  described  in  various 
texts  of  Eastern  Zhou  and  Han  date.4'  In  the  Yi  Li 
("Ceremonial  Rites"),  there  is  reference  to  the 
mingmu  (the  spirit  mask  that  covers  the  head),  with 
the  commentary  that  the  invoker  of  the  spirit  wore 
this  jade  covering  at  funerals  in  order  to  summon 
up  the  departed  spirit  which  relatives  and  friends 
sought  to  keep  from  drifting  fir  away.44  After  the 
invocation  rite,  the  jade  face  mask  would  then  be 
buried  with  the  corpse.  (In  archaeological  literature, 
this  face  mask  is  commonly  described  as  a  "sewn 
jade  face  guard"  [zhuiyu  mianzhao].)  The  interest  in 
invoking  the  spirit  is  well  known  as  the  objective  ot 
the  shaman  that  inspired  the  poem  "Summons  ot 


<] 
4  &. 


^AViVflS,j 


«  <&YL<S  d 


o 
< 

t> 


U  tf  v  ty 


m  ^ 


rn? 


Q      fcS> 


D    O 
d?       & 


■^7 


Sg7 


o  flQfl  c 


^s 


Fig.  g.  Jade  face  masks  from  the  Spying  and  Autumn 
period:  From  tomb  Nos.  g2—gj,Jin  cemetery,  Qucun, 
Tianma,  Shanxi  Province;  From  tomb  No.  651,  Shaogou, 
Luoyang,  Henan  Province;  From  tomb  Nos.  637,  1316, 
1723,  2717,  22og,  at  Zhongzhoulu,  Luoyang,  Henan 
Province.  Eastern  Zhou,  Spring  and  Autumn  period 
(770-476  BCE). 


the  Soul"  in  the  Chuci  ("Songs  of  the  South"). 
Thus,  the  purpose  of  these  jade  masks  is  not  only 
aesthetic  but  profoundly  religious. 

The  rich  and  decorative  sway  of  jade  that  peaked 
as  a  revived  art  during  the  Eastern  Zhou  (770- 
256  bce)  is  amply  illustrated  by  its  widespread  use 
in  pectoral  and  girdle  ornament  decorating  the 
robes  of  the  literati.  The  exhibited  jades 
(cats.  13—16)  representing  small  plaques,  dragon 
pendants,  disks,  and  rings  tall  into  this  category  ol 
decorative  object.  Competitiveness  in  the  arts  was 
at  a  premium  during  the  Waning  States  period 
This  was  the  time  of  "The  Hundred  Schools." 
when  roving  philosophers  plied  their  trade  in 
trying  to  win  the  support  of  an  overlord.  Confucius 
allegedly  worked  the  literati  crowd  ol' 1  u  in 
Shandong.  By  the  seventh  century  BC1 .  the  central 
Zhou  state  was  reduced  to  puppet  status  and  was  at 


JADE    AS    MATERIAL    AND    EPOCH 


63 


Fig.  10.  Jade  mask  and  pectoral  from  tomb  No.  2001, 
Shangcunling,  Sanmeuxia,  Henan  Province.  Western 
Zhou  period  (ca.  1100-771  BCE). 


the  mercy  of  the  most  powerful  states  of  the  day, 
known  then  as  the  Five  Hegemonies  (Wu  Ba). 

By  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century  bce, 
internecine  warfare  was  intensive.  China  was 
divided  into  seven  powerful  states,  and  there  were 
numerous  smaller  ones  that  came  and  went,  such  as 
Peng  in  southern  Henan  at  Xujialmg,  which  was 
consumed  by  Chu.We  read  in  poems  from  the 
Chuci  ("Songs  of  the  South")  about  various  types 
of  art  whose  specialty  belonged  to  one  of  the 
competitive  states.  For  example,  the  state  of  Qui 
was  esteemed  for  its  basketware,  Qi  for  its  silk 
cords,  Zheng  for  its  silk  banners,  and  Jin  apparently 
for  its  finely  made  belt  buckles  (xibi)  that  "glittered 
like  bright  suns."45  Although  Jin  is  credited  with 
creating  exquisite  belt  buckles — presumably  of 
jade — the  artistic  domain  of  jade  was  not  limited  to 
this  northwestern  state.  Jade  girdles  and  pectorals 


Fig.  11.  Jade  ornamental  plaque  from  tomb  No.  1  at 
Xiasi,  Xichuan,  Henan  Province.  Eastern  Zhou,  Spring 
and  Autumn  period  (770—476  bce). 


C2 


Fig.  12.  Variations  of  Eastern  Zhou  and  Han  jade 
pectoral  and  girdle  ornaments:  A.  Decorative  painted 
wooden  figurines  from  Chu  tombs  at  Xiuyang,  Henan 
Province,  and  Jiangling,  Hubei  Province;  B.  From  tomb 
No.  58,groupYi,  Lit  state,  Shandong  Province;  C:i—J. 
From  burials  accompanying  the  tomb  of  the  King  of 
Nanyuc,  Guangdong  Province.  Eastern  Zhou— Western 
Han  periods  (770  BCE—S  CE). 


JADE    AS    MATERIAL    AND    EPOCH 


64 


Fig.  13 .  Jade  pectoral  of  Concubine  A  (right) 
from  tomb  of  the  King  of  Nanyue,  Guangzhou, 
Guangdong  Province.  Western  Han  dynasty  (206  BCE- 
8  CE).The  Museum  of  the  Western  Han  Tomb  of  the 
Nanyue  King,  Guangzhou. 


were  ubiquitous  in  China  throughout  the  Western 
and  Eastern  Zhou  periods;  they  represent  what  one 
wore  while  alive  and  apparently  took  along  into  the 
next  world.  There  is,  however,  some  question  about 
which  jade  necklaces  were  worn  in  life  and  which 
appear  to  have  been  made  for  burial.  The  jades 
initially  used  to  create  jade  face  masks  from  the 
late  Western  Zhou  as  represented  by  the  jade  face 
mask  (cat.  12),  and  eventually  body  covers, 
apparently  were  often  created  out  of  reused  or 
lesser  quality  jade. 4<i 

An  early  example  of  one  these  decorative  Eastern 
Zhou  pectoral  jades  is  the  small  plaque  (cat.  [3; 
fig.  11)  excavated  in  1987  from  Xiasi,  Xichuan 
county,  in  Henan  Province.  This  jade  (only 
7.1  centimeters  high)  apparently  came  from  tomb 
Number  1,  which  belonged  to  the  wife  of  the  Chu 
Prince  Shuzhi  Sun  Peng,  chief  minister  of  Chu 
from  55 1  to  54S  Bcr..17  There  is  no  archaeological 
data  that  may  be  used  to  describe  the  piece's 
function,  however.  Since  the  plaque  has  two  holes 


for  suspension  or  attachment,  it  appears  to  have 
decorated  a  pectoral  or  girdle  rather  than  a  belt 
buckle.  Although  small,  its  shape  and  decoration  are 
representative  of  the  Eastern  Zhou  interest  in  richly 
textured  surfaces  and  in  the  revival  of  Shang 
imagery  that  appears  in  all  mediums  of  this  period. 
An  Eastern  Zhou  interpretation  of  the  Shang 
animal  mask  is  seen  in  the  round  eyes  and  body 
extensions  in  the  form  of  C-curls  which  vary  in 
textural  effects  from  feathers,  granulation,  hooks 
with  volutes,  and  scales,  to  claws. 

A  pair  of  dragon  {long)  pendants  (cat.  14)  from 
Pingliangtai,  Huaiyangshi,  Henan  Province,  of 
Warring  States  date  is  another  ubiquitous  form  in 
Eastern  Zhou  art.48  In  fact,  during  this  phase  of 
artistic  activity,  the  dragon  is  the  most  popular 
ornament;  and  the  most  popular  design  at  this  time 
is  the  dragon  type  from  Pingliangtai,  with  its  head 
thrown  back,  its  body  in  S-shape,  and  its  claws 
rendered  as  curls.  This  pair  of  dragon  pendants  may 
also  be  joined  to  form  the  heraldic  centralized 
motif  of  a  pectoral.  During  this  phase,  the  sensuous 
effect  of  the  sinuous  dragon  body  is  enhanced  by 
raised  curls. 

The  Warring  States  jade  ring  (huan)  with  S-pattern 
(cat.  15)  from  Xujialing  in  Xichuan  county,  Hubei 
Province,  and  the  Han  bi  with  grain  pattern 
(cat.  16)  from  Zhouzhi  county,  Shaanxi  Province, 
are  also  probably  pendant  parts  of  pectorals  that 
were  worn  by  aristocrats  when  they  were  alive  (see 
figs.  12,  13). The  green  jade  bi  is  covered  with  the 
so-called  grain  pattern,  the  small-scale  nodules  that 
rise  symmetrically  out  of  tightly  coiled  C-hooks,  a 
motif  that  appeared  on  late  Zhou  bronze  vessels 
(see,  for  example,  cat.  44).  Shapes  of  sacred  ritual 
design  of  Neolithic  origin,  such  as  the  bi,  were 
revived  along  with  the  animal  mask  as  another 
popular  ornament  enriching  Western  and  Eastern 
Han  period  art.  The  most  elaborate  designs, 
texturally  varied  concoctions,  and  elegantly 
inventive  assemblages  hung  down  the  front  ot  both 
male  and  female  aristocrats. Variations  ot  girdles  and 
pectorals,  clanging  and  swaying,  glittering  and 
ringing  signified  dignity  and  rank — a  sonorous  and 
well-dressed  elite. 

Jade  continued  to  grow  as  an  art  from  Han  to  Tang 
times.  In  contrast  to  the  Shang  versions  of  small 
animal  carvings,  those  from  the  I  Ian  and  later 
periods  tend  to  be  more  naturalistic. The  winged 
horse  (cat.  17)  and  so-called  bixic  (a  winged  lion 
with  horns,  cat.  iN)  illustrate  the  new  naturalism, 
seen  in  images  ofboth  mythical  and  non-mythical 
animals  of  Han  date  (2or<  m  1-220  ce).  Although 
stereotyped  through  such  conventions  as  the  arched 
neck  and  suspended  tail  to  signify  liveliness  and 
movement,  these  animal  shapes  of  hardstone  jade 
begin  to  turn  and  twist  111  space. 


JADE    AS    MATERIAt    AND    EPOCH 


65 


Fig.  i4A.Jadc  belt  decorated  with  Persian  tribute  bearers, 
from  cache  at  Hejia  village,  Xi 'an,  Shaanxi  Province. 
Tang  dynasty  (6i8-go7).  Shaanxi  Provincial  Museum, 
XV  an. 


The  climax  of  the  Eastern  Zhou  and  Han  periods 
is  represented  by  a  white  jade  vessel  (zun;  cat.  19) 
belonging  to  Liu  Hong,  Duke  of  Xuancheng  and 
Commander  Guarding  the  South,  from 
Huangshantou,  Anxiang  county,  Hunan  Province.49 
Dating  to  the  Western  Jin  (265-316),  this  vessel  is  a 
remarkable  jade  facsimile  of  a  bronze  original  (see, 
for  example,  cat.  51),  a  popular  type  in  Han  times. 
The  immortal  mountain  theme  is  signified  by 
animal  heads  emerging  from  cloud  motifs  and  by 
immortals,winged  humans,  seated  or  running  pell- 
mell  alongside  dragons  and  other  supernatural 
creatures,  including  the  Goddess  of  the  West  herself, 
wearing  the  distinctive  mortarboard-style  headdress. 
It  has  its  source  in  the  Daoist  cult  of  immortality 
symbolizing  the  mountain  Kunlun,  which  was  the 
domain  of  the  Goddess  of  the  West  (Xiwangmu) 
(see  cats.  19,  49,  50,  51). This  scene  in  relief 
complements  the  Hongshan  Neolithic  sculpted 
ornament.  Both  are  emblematic:  the  Hongshan  jade 
(cat.  1)  represents  a  bird  amid  clouds,  most  likely 
signifying  the  skyward  realm  of  heaven;  and  the 
relief  on  the  Western  Jin  vessel  (cat.  19)  represents 
the  heavenly  abode  of  Mount  Kunlun,  where 
immortality  was  granted  by  an  empowered  goddess. 

Jade  continued  to  be  valued  for  its  immortal  power 
and  beauty  during  the  Tang  dynasty  (618-907).  The 
translucent  Xinjiang  white  jade  belt  excavated  from 
a  cache  at  the  village  of  Hejia,  in  Xi'an,  Shaanxi 
Province  (cat.  20;  fig.  14B)  is  one  superb  example. 
Discovered  in  1970,  this  cache  has  become  famous 
for  its  gold  and  silver  vessels,  amounting  to  about 
270  out  of  some  1000  objects,  which  are 
unprecedented  for  their  variety,  workmanship,  and 
quality  of  preservation.50  The  royal  hoard  has  been 
identified  as  belonging  to  a  prince  of  Bin,  whose 
mansion  in  ancient  Chang' an  (present-day  Xi'an) 
was  consumed  by  flames  in  the  mid-eighth  century 
during  the  rebellion  of  general  An  Lushan.  Like  the 


Fig.  l^B.Jade  belt  plaques  from  cache  at  Hejia  village, 
Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province:  1.  (top)  lion  plaque  (detail, 
cat.  20)  and  2.  (bottom)  Persian  tribute-bearer  plaque. 
Tang  dynasty  (618— goy). 


decor  of  so  many  of  the  solid  silver  and  gold  vessels 
of  this  hoard,  the  major  decorative  motifs  of  the 
belt  represent  Central  Asian  and  Persian  subjects. 
The  belt  is  composed  of  sixteen  pieces:  fourteen 
that  are  square  and  two  that  are  D-shaped.  On  the 
back  of  each  piece  are  loops  where  the  piece  was 
sewn  to  a  leather  backing.  Each  jade  piece  was 
worked  into  a  relief  image  of  a  lion:  poses  vary 
from  standing,  sitting,  sniffing,  to  pawing  the  air — 
all  different  and  all  indicative  of  a  very  lively  animal 
(fig.  i4B:l).This  motif  is  one  of  three  that  appear 
to  be  popular  on  jade  belts  of  eighth-century  Tang 
date.  The  other  themes  are  also  exotic,  featuring 
Persians  playing  musical  instruments  or  Persians 
bringing  tribute  offerings  (figs.  14A,  B:2).The  lion 
is  also  well  known  as  foreign  to  Tang  and  earlier 
China,  and  is  probably  of  Central  Asian  origin.5' 

The  art  of  working  jade  is  special  to  China.  The 
fact  that  this  hardstone,  nephrite,  could  be  worked 
at  all  as  early  as  the  Neolithic  period  is  indicative  of 
the  singular  reverence  the  Chinese  have  paid  to  the 


JADE    AS    MATERIAL    AND    EPOCH 


66 


stone.  Over  time  nephrite  was  abraded  into  almost 
any  shape — from  a  prismatic  tube  to  a  relief 
representing  the  paradise  landscape  of  a  goddess — 
reflecting  the  sophisticated  level  to  which  this  art 
could  be  perfected.  It  is  understandable,  then,  that 
the  Chinese  identified  jade  philosophically  with  the 
celestial  sphere,  immutable  and  indestructible,  the 
material  embodying  the  vital  energy  of  nature. 


SOURCES    FOR    FIGURES 

Fig.  i .  After  Elizabeth  Childs- 
Johnson,  "Jades  of  the  Hongshan 
Culture,"  hits  Asiatiques  36 
(1991), Jig.  i,  p.  83. 

Fig.  2.  After  Elizabeth  Childs- 
Johuson,  unpublished  paper. 

Fig.  3.  After  Liangzhu  wenhua 
yuqi  (Beijing:  Wenwtt  chnbanshc, 
1989),  pi.  1. 

Fig.  4.  After  Zhongguo  wenwu 
bao  (December 31,  1995),  fig.  i, 
p.  3;  and  Xu  Huping,  ed. , 
Dongfang  wenming  zhiguang 
[Nanjing:  Nanjing  bowuyuan, 

wtf,M  iz> p-  w- 

Fig.  3.  After  Wenwu,  no.  2 
(1988),  figs.  19-20,  p.  12;  Gems  of 
the  Liangzhu  Culture:  From 
the  Shanghai  Museum 
Exhibition  (Hongkong:  Urban 
Council,  1992),  no.  89,  p.  224; 
Wenwu,  no.  2  (1984),  fig.  9, 
p.  119. 

Fig.  6A.  After  Deng  Shaping, 
Gugong  xueshu  jikan  10  (1992), 
figs.  1-2. 

Fig.  7.  After  Elizabeth  Childs- 
Johnson,  "'Symbolic Jades  oj  the 
Erlitou  Period" Archives  of 
Asian  Art  48  (1995),  fig.  2,  p.  66. 

Fig.  8.  After  Elizabeth  Childs- 
Johnson,  "Symbolic  Jades  of  the 
Erlitou  Period" Archives  of 
Asian  Art  48  (1993),  fig.  23,  p.  85; 
fig.  1,  p.  65. 

Fig.  9.  After  Huaxia  kaogu,  no,  3 
(1992),  Jig  2:3-4,  P-  W, 
Zhongguo  yuqi  quanji,  vol.  2 
(Shijiazhuang:  Hebei  meishii 
chubattshe,  1003).  pi.  296. 

Fig.  10.  After  Wenwu,  no.  1 
(i994),fig$.  18,  38—39;  Wenwu, 


no.  7  0995),  figs.  10-11,  17-19,  49; 
Wenwu,  no.  8  (1994),  figs.  3,  7; 
Zhongguo  yuqi  quanji,  vol.  3 
(Shijiazhuang:  Hebei  meishu 
chubanshe,  1993},  figs.  1,  7-9, 
11-17. 

Fig.  11.  After  Xichuan  Xiasi 
Chunqiu  chumu  (Beijing: 
Wenwu  chubanshe,  1991), 
fig.  82:1,  p.  100. 

Fig.  12.  After  Zhongguo  yuqi 
quanji,  vol  3  (Shijiazhuang: 
Hebei  meishu  chubanshe,  1993), 
figs.  23,  23-27;  Jades  from  the 
Tomb  of  the  King  of  Nanyue 
(Hongkong:  Woods  Publishing, 
i99i)>  figs-  8,  10,  pp.  28,  30. 

Fig.  13.  After  Jades  from  the 
Tomb  of  the  King  of  Nanyue 
(Hongkong:  Woods  Publishing, 
1991),  pi.  133. 

Fig.  14 A.  After  Zhongguo 
meishu  quanji,  vol.  9 
(Shijiazhuang:  Hebei  meishu 
chubanshe,  1993),  pi.  219, 
pp.  120—21. 

Fig.  14B.  After  Zhongguo 
meishu  quanji,  vol.  9 
(Shijiazhuang:  Hebei  meishu 
chubanshe,  1993),  fig.  223,  p.  79. 


NOTES 

i.  Sfutowen  jiezi  gulin,  ed.  Ding 
Fubao  (Shanghai:Yixue  shuju, 
1930);  see  also  the  translation 
in  S.  Howard  Hansford,  Chinese 
Jade  Carving  (London: 
Humphries,  1950),  p.  31,  cited 
in  William  Willetts,  Chinese  Art, 
vol.  1  (New  York:  George 
Braziller,  1958),  pp.  53-62. 

2.  Elizabeth  Childs-Johnson, 
"The  'Jade  Age'  and 
Incipient  CivilizatiomThe 
Archaeological  and  Artistic 
Evidence  for  Jade  as  a  Power 
Symbol  during  the  Late 
Neolithic  of  ca.  3600- 

2000  BCE"  (paper  presented  at 
"Stones  from  Heaven,"  Ancient 
Chinese  Jade  Symposium,  Los 
Angeles  County  Museum  of 
Natural  History,  24  March 
1996);  and  Elizabeth  Childs- 
Johnson,  Ritual  and  Power:  Jades 
of  Ancient  China  (New  York: 
China  Institute,  1988). 

3.  Wen  Guangandjing 
Zhiehun."A  Geoarchaeologic.il 
Study  of  Chinese  Archaic 
Jade."  iSrh  Percival  David 
Foundation  Colloquy  on  Art  and 
Archaeology  in  Asia — Chinese 
Jades  (London:  University  ol 
London.  [995),  pp.  H6-18. 


4.  Most  of  this  text  on  the 
technical  and  nuneralogical 
properties  of  jade  is  from  Wen 
andjing,  "A  Geoarchaeological 
Study"  p.  3. 

5.  See  ibid.,  p.  3;  and  Wen 
Guang,"Bian  yu" 
("Distinguishing  Jade"), 
Wenwu,  no.  7  (1992),  pp.  75—80. 

6.WuTanghai,  Renshi  guyu 
("Understanding  Ancient 
Jade")  (Taibei:  Zhonghua 
minguo  ziran  wenhua  xuehui, 
1994);  Hayashi  Minao, 
"Liangzhu  wenhua  yuqi 
wenshi  de  diaoke  jishu"  ("The 
Art  of  Working  Liangzhu  Jade 
Decor"),  in  Xu  Huping,  ed., 
Dongfang  wenming  zhiguang — 
Liangzhu  wenhua  faxian  60- 
zhounian  jinian  wenji  ("The 
Light  of  Oriental 
Civilization — Collected  Essays 
in  Commemoration  of  the 
60th  Anniversary  of  the 
Discovery  of  Liangzhu 
Culture")  (Nanjing:  Nanjing 
bowuyuan,  1996), 
pp.  338-47;  Zhang  Minghua, 
"Liangzhu  guyu  cong  lun" 
("Discussion  of  the  Ancient 
Jade  Cong  of  Liangzhu"), 
Dongnan  wenhua,  no.  2  (1992), 
pp.  112—19;  and  S.  Howard 
Hansford,  Chinese  Carved  Jade 
(London:  Faber  and  Faber, 
1968). 

7.  Wang  Zunguo,  "Liangzhu 
wenhua  'Yu  jian  cang'  shuluo" 
("Analysis  of  the  'Jade  Shroud* 
of  the  Liangzhu  Culture"), 
Wenwu,  no.  2  (1984),  p.  33. 

8.  For  the  argument  that  shark 
teeth  were  used,  see  Zhang 
Minghua,  "Liangzhu  guyu  de 
kewen  gongju  sin  shemma" 
("What  Are  the  Tools  Used  to 
Work  Early  Jade  of  the 
Liangzhu  Culture?"),  Zhongguo 
wenwu  bao  (6  December,  1990), 
p.  1;  Zhang  Minghua, 
"Liangzhu  guyu  eonglun" 
("Discussion  of  Liangzhu 
Jade"),  Dongnan  wenhua,  no.  1 
('993).  PP-  112-14;  and  for  the 
argument  on  the  diamond 
point,  sec  I  [ayashi  Minao, 
"Liangzhu  wenhua  yuqi," 

p.  338. 

■  J  fane!  I  >ouglas,  persona] 
communication  with  the 

author,  7  December.  [996. 

10. The  mmer.il  composition 
and  microstructure  ofjade  can 
also  be  measured  b)  F  LIR 
(Fouriers  transform  infrared 
absorption  spectrometry)  and 
i>\  SI  M    scanning  .■'. 
mi<  ros<  op} 


11. Wen  Guang  andjing 
Zhichun,  "Mineralogical 
Inquiries  into  Chinese 
Neolithic  Jade,"  Tlie  Journal  of 
Chinese  Jade  1  (1996);  and 
Hansford,  Chinese  Carved  Jade, 
P-39- 

12.  Zhejiang  sheng  wenwu 
kaogu  yanjiu  suo  et  al.,  ed., 
Liangzhu  wenhua  yuqi  ("Jades  of 
the  Liangzhu  Culture") 
(Beijing:  Wenwu  chubanshe, 
1990),  p.  11. 

13.  For  two  examples  of  the 
bone  graph  //  ("rite/ritual"), 
see  Li  Xizoding,Jiaguwenzijishi 
("Explanation  and 
Commentary  on  Oracle  Bone 
Graphs"),  vol.  I  (Nangang: 
Zhongyang  yanjiu  yuan  lishi 
yuyan  suo  zhuankan  50),  p.  49. 

14.  Willetts,  Chinese  Art,  p.  90; 
Yuan  Kang,  Yue  jue  situ,  ed. 
Qian  Peiming,  vol.  13  (Beijing: 
Zhonghua  chubanshe,  1985), 
p.  5S;  or  Yue  jue  shu,  Sibu 
congkan  ed.,  vol.  62,  p.  93b. 

15.  See  Childs-Johnson. "The 
Jade  Age,"*  pp.  1-3. 

16.  Elizabeth  Childs-Johnson, 
"Jades  of  the  Hongshan 
Culture,  the  Dragon  and 
Fertility  Cult  Worship"  Arts 
Asiatiques  56  (1991).  pp.  S2-95. 

17.  See.  for  example,  the  bone 
graph  for  "cloud"  (yim)  in  Li, 
Jiaguwenzi,  vol.  1 1 ,  p.  3459. 

18.  Childs-Johnson,  "Jades  of 
the  Hongshan  Culture,"  p.  95. 

19.  See,  for  example.  Dawenkou 
(Beijing:  Wenwu  chubanshe. 
1974),  figs.  6,  8. 

20.  For  the  division  ot 

I  iangzhu  jades  into  categories 
of  weapons,  costume 
ornament,  and  implements  for 
ritual  use,  see  Childs-Johnson, 
Ritual  and  PoiveT,  pp.  [9—22;  and 
Zhejiang  wenwu  ehu,  ed.. 
Liangzhu  guyu  ("Ancient  Jade 
o(  Liangzhu'1)  (Hang 
Zhejiang  wenwu  chubanshe. 
1996),  pp.  to" 

ii.  Bian  Fcngshi,"!  iangzhu 
wenhua  de  tenqi  yu  ntand.u" 
("The  Periodization  and 
Chronology  of  die  Liangzhu 
Culture"),  Zitongyuaii  wenwu, 

57;  and 
Song  Jian.  "Lun  Liangzhu 
wenming  de  xing&huai 
guocheng"  ("Concerning  the 

irion  of  the  City-State  of 
die  Liar 

(paper  presented  at  Liangzhu 
wenhua  guoji  taolunliui 


JADE    AS    MATERIAL    AND    EPOCH 


67 


[International  conference  on 
Lianzhu  culture], Yuhang, 
Zhejiang,  1—4  November 
1996).  For  an  English  summary 
of  Song's  paper,  see  Elizabeth 
Childs-Johnson,  "The 
International  Symposium  on 
Liangzhu  Culture,"  Early  China 
News  9  (1996),  p.  28. 

22.  As  used  by  Li  Wenming  and 
Wu  Rongqing,  "Zhongguo 
wuqiannianqian  de  'tuzhu 
jinzita' — -Jiangsu  Kunshanshi 
Zhaolingshan  yizhi  ji  qi  chutu 
wenwu"  ("The  Five- 
Thousand- Year-Old  Earthen 
Pyramid  of  China — The 
Remains  and  Relics  Unearthed 
at  Zhaolingshan,  Kunshanshi, 
Jiangsu"),  Longyu  wenwu  yishu 
(1993)  17,  pp.  24-32. 

23.  Che  Guangjin,"Yu  cong 
yu  Sidun  yizhi"  ("The 
Remains  of  Sidun  and  the  Jade 
Cong"),  Zhongguo  wenwu  bao 
(31  December  1995),  p.  3; 
reprinted  in  Xu,  ed.,  Dongfang 
wanning,  pp.  371-73. 

24.  Ji  Jianfang,  in  "Liangzhu 
wenhua  mucang  yanjiu" 
("Research  on  Burials  of  the 
Liangzhu  Culture"),  in  Xu,  ed., 
Dongfang  wenming,  fig.  12, 

p.  191,  proposes  a  slightly 
different  design  which  he 
describes  as  a  patriarchal  clan 
cemetery  mound  at 
Zhaolingshan  (see  fig.  4B  in 
this  essay).  Zhang  Zhiheng, 
"Liangzhu  wenhua  juluo  qun 
de  tezheng"  ("Special 
Characteristics  of  Settlement 
Groups  of  Liangzhu  Culture"), 
Zhongguo  wenwu  bao  (7  April 
1996),  p.  3,  reviews  evidence 
for  a  similar  structure  at 
Mojiaoshan,  although  this  site 
also  possesses  significant 
remains  of  columned 
foundations. 

25.  Che,  "Yu  cong  yu  Sidun 
yizhi,"  p.  3. 

26.  For  an  example  of  the  ideal 
structure  of  the  nnngtang  and 
piyong  based  on  the  square  and 
circle,  see  Nelson  Wu  (Wu 
Nosun),  Chinese  and  Indian 
Architecture  (New  York:  George 
Braziller,  1963),  pp.  40-41,  pis. 
129-30;  and  Nancy  Steinhardt, 
Traditional  Chinese  Architecture 
(New  York:  China  Institute, 
1984),  pp.  70-77,  pis.  3-1-3-4 

27.  FanYuzhou,"Yinxu  buci 
zhong  de  'wu'  yu  'wu  di'" 


('"Wu'  and  'wu  di'  in  Yinxu 
Inscriptions"),  Nanfang  wenwu, 
no.  2  (1994),  PP-  H5-I9- 

28.  See,  for  example,  a 
reference  to  this  myth  in  the 

Huainanzi,  in  John  Major, 
Heaven  and  Earth  in  Early  Han 
Thought:  Chapters  Three,  Four, 
and  Five  of  the  Huainanzi 
(Albany:  State  University  ot 
New  York  Press,  1993),  p.  49; 
and  in  David  Hawkes,  Ch'tt 
Tz'u:  Tlie  Songs  of  the  South 
(Oxford:  Clarendon  Press, 
1959).  P- 47- 

29.  Major,  Heaven  and  Earth, 
PP-  38-39- 

30.  Mou  Yongkang,  "Dongfang 

shiqian  shiqi  taiyang  chongbai 
de  kaogu  xue  guancha" 
("Archaeological  Investigation 
of  Sun  Worship  in  the  East 
During  the  Neolithic"), 
Gugong  xucshu  jikau  12  (1995), 
p.  4;  Mou  Yongkang,  "Liangzhu 
yuqi  shang  shen  chongbai  de 
tansuo"  ("Discussion  of  Deity 
Worship  ot  Liangzhu  Jades"), 
Qtngzhu  Su  Bingqi  kaogu 
wuslnwu  nian  lunwenji 
("Collected  Essays  Celebrating 
Fifty-five  Years  of  Su  Bing's 
Archaeological  Research") 
(Beijing:  Wenwu  chubanshe, 
1989),  p.  186;  and  Wu  Ruzuo, 
"Luolun  Changjiang,  Huanghe 
Hang  Huyu  shiqian  shiqi  de 
taiyangshen  congbai" 
("Discussion  of  Sun  God 
Worship  Along  the  Two  River 
Valleys  ot  the  Yellow  River 
During  the  Neolithic"), 
Huaxia  kaogu,  no.  2  (1996), 
pp.  75-85. 

31.  Zhejiang  sheng  wenwu, 
ed.,  Liangzhu  wenhua  yuqi, 
p.  184. 

32.  Elizabeth  Childs-Johnson, 
"Symbolic  Jades  of  the  Erlitou 
Period:  A  Xia  Royal  Tradition," 
Archives  of  Asian  Art  48  (1995), 
pp.  64-90. 

33.  See,  for  example,  Lin 
Huadong,  Hemudu  wenhua 
chutan  ("Preliminary  Discussion 
of  the  Hemudu  Culture") 
(Hangzhou:  Zhejiang  renmin 
chubanshe,  1992),  pp.  159-66, 
and  fig.  6—3,  p.  161,  pi.  4,  top. 

34.  For  example,  see  Chang 
Ping-ch'uan,  "A  Brief 
Description  of  the  Fu  Hao 
Oracle  Bone  Inscriptions,"  in 
K.  C.  Chang,  ed..  Studies  of 


Shang  Archaeology  (New  Haven: 
Yale  University  Press,  19S6), 
pp.  121-40. 

35.  For  example,  see  Chang 
Cheng-lang,  "A  Brief 
Discussion  of  FuTzu,"in 
Chang,  ed..  Studies  of  Shang 
Archaeology,  pp.  103-20. 

36.  Yinxu  Fu  Hao  mu  ("The 
Burial  of  Fu  Hao  atYinxu) 
(Beijing:  Wenwu  chubanshe, 
1980),  pp.  114-15.  For  an 
English  translation  of  the 
original  site  report,  see 
Elizabeth  Childs-Johnson, 
Excavation  of  Tomb  No.  5  at 
Yinxu,  Anyang,  Chinese 
Sociology  and  Anthropology 
Series,  vol.  15,  no.  3  (Armonk, 
N.Y.:  M.  E.  Sharpe,  1983),  p.  83. 

37.  Kaogu  yanjiu  suo,  ed., 

Shatigcunliug  Guoguo  mudi 
("The  Cemetery  of  the  Guo 
State  at  Shangcunling") 
(Beiiing:  Kexue  chubanshe, 
1959),  pi.  21:8—10. 

38.  For  the  site  report  on  this 
tomb,  see  Kaogu  yanjiu  suo, 
ed.,"Sanmenxia  Shangcunling 
Guoguo  mudi  M2001  fajue 
lianbao"  ("A  Brief  Excavation 
Report  ot  Tomb  No.  2001  at 
the  Cemetery  of  the  Guo  State 
at  Shangcunling,  Sanmenxia"), 
Huaxia  kaogu,  no.  3  (1992), 

pp.  104-13. 

39.  For  a  very  recent  discovery 
of  an  early  Western  Han  jade 
burial  suit,  see  the  report  on 
the  burial  of  Liu  He  at  the 
Han  imperial  burial  center 
near  Xuzhou,  Jiangsu  Province, 
in  Zhongguo  wenwu  bao 

(20  October  1996),  p.  1. 

40.  See  Kaogu  yanjiu  suo,  ed., 
Shangcunling  Guoguo  mudi, 
pp.  48-54,  and  pp.  S3-85 
(English  summary). 

41.  According  to  the  site 
report,  numerous  other  jades 
such  as  bi,gui,ge,  cong,  handle- 
shaped  pieces,  tigers,  deer, 
dogs,  ox  heads,  horse  heads, 
birds,  turtles,  and  fish  lay  on 
top  of  the  coffin  cover;  Kaogu 
yanjiu  suo,  ed.,  "Sanmenxia 
Shangcunling  Guoguo,"  p.  1.05. 

42. This  is  identified  in  part  by 
Zhang  Changshou,  "Xi  Zhou 
de  cangyu — 1983— 1986  man 
Fengxi  fajue  ciliao  zhi  ba" 
("Burial  Jades  of  the  Western 
Zhou — Excavated  Material  at 


Fengxi,  from  1983  to  1989"), 
Wenwu,  no.  9  (1993),  pp.  55—59. 
For  other  examples,  see  jade 
masks  illustrated  in  Luoyang 
Zhongzhoulu,  (Beijing:  Kexue 
chubanshe,  1959);  see  also 
Kaogu  yanjiu  suo,  ed., 
"Tianma — Qucun  yizhi 
Beizhao  Jinhou  mudi  disanzi 
yu  disizi  fajue"  (The  Third  and 
Fourth  Excavations  of  the 
Cemetery  of  the  Marquis  ot 
Jin  at  Tianmu — Qucun 
Remains"),  Wenwu,  no.  8 
(1994),  pp.  4-33.  For  the 
recently  excavated  jade  face 
mask  ofWestern  Han  date 
from  Changqingxian, 
Shandong,  see  Zhongguo 
wenwubao  (10  October  1996), 
p.  1. 

43.J.J.  M.  de  Groot,  The 
Religious  System  of  China 
(reprint, Taibei:  Chengwen, 
1969),  chap.  3,  pp.  269-74. 

44.  Yili  ("The  Classic  of 
Rites"),  Sibu  congkan  ed., 

Vol.  12. 

45.  Hawkes,  Ch'tt  Tz'u, 

pp.  105-9. 

46.  Jade  trom  other,  earlier 
contexts  was  often  reused  to 
make  face  masks — for  example, 
for  those  buried  in  the  Jin  state 
cemetery  at  Beizhao,  Tianma- 
Qucun,  Shanxi  Province;  see 
Wenwu,  no.  1  (1994),  p.  27. 
"Pseudo-jade"  was  used  to 
create  burial  suits  for  some 
occupants  ot  the  Nanyue 
tombs  (tomb  No.  2);  see  Wen 
Guang  "Xi  Han  Nanyue 
wangmu  yuqi  di  zhi  kaogu  xue 
yanjiu"  ("Geological  and 
Archaeological  Research  on 
Jades  from  the  Royal  Tomb  of 
the  King  of  Nanyue"),  Gugong 
xuexujikan  11,  no.  1  (1993), 
pp.  9—30;  and  Wen  Guang,  "Yu 
yu  min  guyu"  ("True  and 
Pseudo-Jade"),  Gugong  wenwu 
yuekan  11,  no.  4  (1993), 

pp.  T26-37. 

47.  See  Henan  sheng  wenwu 
yanjiu  suo,  ed.,  Xichuan  Xiasi 
Chunqiti  Chumu  ("The  Chu 
Tombs  of  the  Spring  and 
Autumn  Period  at  Xiasi, 
Xichuan")  (Beijing:  Wenwu 
chubanshe,  1991),  p.  98,  and 
fig.  82:1,  p.  100.  For  the 
identification  of  the  female 
belonging  to  tomb  No.  1  trom 
which  the  jade  derives,  see 

p.  324;  for  the  jade,  see  also 
Zhongguo  meishu  quanji,  9:  Yuqi 


("The  Complete  Arts  of 
China,  9:Jade")  (Shijiazhuang: 
Hebei  meishu  chubanshe, 
1993),  pi.  108,  and  p.  40.  This 
jade  is  probably  unfinished 
since  there  is  a  lack  of 
corresponding  detail  on  one  of 
the  upper  sides;  one  side  of  the 
piece  lacks  the  corresponding 
filler  detail  of  the  claw  and 
scale  motifs.  This  piece  may  be 
compared  with  one  similar  in 
size  and  shape  from  the 
Cunguoji  burial  at  Lianjiaxian, 
Shandong;  ibid.,  pi.  103. 

48.  Representative  examples  of 

this  popular  jade  dragon  type 
are  illustrated  in  Zhongguo  yuqi 
quanji  3:  Clutnqiu  Zhanguo 
("The  Complete  Set  of 
Chinese  Jade  3:  Spring  and 
Autumn  and  Warring  States 
Periods")  (Shijiazhuang:  Hebei 
meishu  chubanshe,  1993), 
pis.  36-40,  132-33,  209,  213-15. 

49.  For  the  site  report  on 

Huangshantou,  Anxiang, 
Hunan  Province,  see  "Hunan 
Anxiang  Xi  Jin  Liuhong  Mu" 
("The  Tomb  of  Liuhong  ot  the 
Western  Jin  at  Anxiang, 
Hunan")  Wenwu,  no.  11  (1993), 
pp.  1-12. 

50.  For  the  site  report  on 

Hejiacun,  Xi'an,  Shaanxi 
Province,  see  "Xi'an  Nanjiao 
Hejiacun  faxianTangdai 
jiaocang  wenwu"  ("The 
Cultural  Relics  from  the 
Cache  of  the  Tang  Dynasty 
Discovered  at  Hejiacun, 
Nanjiao,  Xi'an"),  Wenwu,  no.  1 
{1972),  pp.  30-42. 

51.  For  an  explanation  of  the 
origin  of  the  lion  in  China,  see 
Laurence  Sickman  and 
Alexander  Soper,  The  Art  and 
Architecture  of  China,  (reprint, 
Harmondsworth:  Penguin 
Books,  1984),  pp.  61-62. 


JADE    AS    MATERIAL    AND    EPOCH 


68 


Ritual  Bronzes 


Epitome  of  Ancient 
Chinese  Civilization 


All  the  major  civilizations  of  the  ancient 
world  passed  through  a  developmental 
phase  that  we  call  the  Bronze  Age.  In 
ancient  China  bronze  vessels  were 
essential  symbols  of  monarchic  rule  and 
of  aristocratic  status,  and  this  special 
significance  brought  about  the 
exceptional  development  of  Chinese 
bronze  workmanship. The  magnificence 


Ma  Chengyuan 

Director,  The  Shanghai  Museum 


69 


of  China's  bronzes  is  unmatched  by  those  of  any 
other  Bronze  Age  civilization. 

BRONZES    OF    THE    XIA    DYNASTY 
(2IST-I6TH    CENTURIES    BCE) 

The  first  hereditary  monarchy  in  Chinese  history, 
known  as  the  Xia  dynasty,  was  also  the  beginning 
of  the  age  of  Chinese  culture.  Historical  records, 
which  note  that  bronze  casting  was  already  quite 
highly  developed  by  the  time  of  the  Xia,  are  borne 
out  by  the  archaeological  evidence  of  the  Erlitou 
culture. The  Erlitou  site  atYanshi,  Henan  Province, 
which  predates  the  Erligang  site  of  the  Shang  at 
Zhengzhou,  was  discovered  during  the  1950s. 
Found  in  the  third  level  of  the  tumulus  at  Erlitou 
were  a  tomb  and  bronze  vessels,  weapons,  and  jades 
that  had  been  buried  with  the  deceased.1  The 
bronzes  of  the  Erlitou  culture  atYanshi  comprised 
primarily  jue,  but  also  jia,  he,  and  cooking  vessels.  In 
shape,  these  vessels  were  exceedingly  similar  to 
pottery  vessels  of  the  same  period  or  earlier.  The 
bronze  jue  from  the  Shanghai  Museum  (cat.  21) 
closely  resembles  the  pottery  jue  found  at  the 
Erlitou  site,  and  is  obviously  primitive  in  its  casting 
and  design.  Xia  bronzes  also  include  some  relatively 
finely  worked  pieces. 

Some  of  the  more  distinctive  Xia  bronzes  are 
turquoise-inlaid  ornamental  plaques  of  unknown 
use.  But  apart  from  these  and  a  very  few  vessels  that 
bear  simple  geometric  decorations,  the  vast 
majority  of  Xia  bronzes  are  plain  and  undecorated. 
In  this,  they  differ  greatly  from  the  Shang  Erligang 
period  bronzes  from  Zhengzhou,  which  are 
generally  decorated  with  zoomorphic  patterns.  One 
of  the  items  unearthed  at  Erlitou  is  a  round  bronze 
ornament  decorated  with  an  inlaid  turquoise  cross 
within  concentric  circles,  a  decoration  unique  to 
the  Erlitou  culture.  A  bronze  ax  (yue)  with  similar 
inlaid  turquoise  crosses  in  a  circle  is  in  the 
collection  of  the  Shanghai  Museum,  and  its  date 
can  be  ascertained  through  a  comparison  with  the 
objects  from  Erlitou. This  yue,  which  is  very  large 
and  heavy,  is  the  most  magnificent  of  extant  Xia 
bronzes;  it  was  not  a  functional  weapon  but  a 
symbol  of  military  authority.  From  it,  we  may 
anticipate  the  discovery  of  similarly  large  and 
impressive  Xia  bronzes.  Functional  bronze  weapons 
found  at  the  Erlitou  site  include  dagger-axes  (ge) 
and  battle-axes  (iji).The  Xia  bronzes  discovered  to 
date  were  cast  in  the  latter  part  of  the  Xia  dynasty. 

Palace  foundations  and  groups  of  tombs  have  been 
found  at  sites  of  the  Erlitou  type  located  along  the 
Yellow  River  in  Henan  Province;  similar  culture 
sites  are  also  located  north  of  the  Yellow  River  in 
southern  Shanxi.The  remains  of  a  rather  large  early 
Shang  city,  which  is  later  than  the  Erlitou  site,  has 
been  discovered  east  of  Yanshi.  According  to 
historical  records,  this  region  became  part  of  the 


Xia  domains  after  the  dynasty  was  founded.  Ot 
course,  the  picture  of  Xia  bronzes  is  far  from 
complete.  Much  more  archaeological  excavation  of 
Xia  cultural  sites  remains  to  be  done. 

SHANG    DYNASTY    BRONZES 

(16TH-IITH    CENTURIES    BCE) 

The  development  of  Shang  bronzes  can  be  divided 

into  early,  middle,  and  late  periods. 

Early  Shang  bronzes,  from  the  beginning  of  the 
Erligang  period,  have  been  found  mainly  at 
Zhengzhou,  Henan  Province,  and  date 
approximately  to  the  sixteenth  century  BCE.  New 
vessel  shapes  such  as  the  gong,  zun,  and  li  appeared 
during  this  period.  The  strong  primitive  inclination 
to  imitate  pottery,  which  is  found  in  Xia  bronzes,  is 
absent  in  those  of  Erligang.  Among  bronzes  ot  this 
period  zoomorphic  masks  (taotie)  are  the  most 
commonly  seen  decorative  motif,  and  animal  forms 
were  used  extensively  as  well. 

Mid-Shang  saw  further  variations  in  the  types  of 
bronzes.  Shapes  were  gradually  perfected. 
Decoration  expanded  to  cover  much  of  the  surfaces 
of  the  vessels,  and  also  greatly  increased  in  both  the 
line  density  and  complexity  of  composition. 
Further  development  produced  decorative  patterns 
rendered  in  strong  relief,  and  bronzes  began  to  be 
ornamented  with  animal  heads  done  in  high  relief. 
Casting  technology  extended  to  the  casting  of  large 
vessels,  as  revealed  by  the  number  of  large  zim  and 
other  vessels  discovered.  A  large  square  ding,  a  meter 
tall,  has  also  been  unearthed  at  the  site  of  the  Shang 
city  in  Zhengzhou.  Bronzes  of  the  middle  period 
include  the  dragon-and-tiger  suif  discovered  at 
Funan,  Anhui  Province;  a  jar  with  movable  loop 
handles'  found  with  a  group  of  bronzes  at 
Zhengzhou,  Henan  Province;  and  bronzes  from 
some  of  the  sumptuous  Shang  tombs  at  Panlong 
city  in  Huangpi  county,  Hubei  Province.4  All  of 
these  vessels  are  markedly  more  mature  than  the 
early  Shang  bronzes  of  the  Erligang  period  at 
Zhengzhou.  At  the  same  time  they  differ  noticeably 
from  the  late  Shang  bronzes,  marking  the  period 
from  the  fifteenth  through  the  fourteenth,  or 
perhaps  into  the  thirteenth,  century  BCE  as  one 
of  transition. 

The  late  Shang  was  the  greatest  period  in  the 
development  of  Chinese  bronzes,  showing  the 
largest  variety  of  shapes  and  decorative  schema,  and 
the  bronzes  from  the  "Yin  ruins"  at  Anyang,  Henan 
Province,  offer  the  most  representative  and 
complete  view  of  the  period.  Along  with  the 
increase  in  types  of  objects  there  developed  set 
rules  governing  the  proper  combinations  of  vessels, 
and  the  shapes  of  pieces  reached  a  fully  mature 
stage.  New  to  this  period  were  vessels  in  the  shape 
of  birds  and  animals.  In  these  vessels  artistry  and 


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70 


practicality  were  superbly  integrated,  as  exemplified 
by  the  Fuhaoxia  zun  in  this  exhibition  (cat.  24). 

It  is  noteworthy  that  the  bronzes  with  the  most 
distinctive  animal  designs  are  often  found  far  from 
Anyang,  in  peripheral  areas  of  the  Shang  domain. 
For  instance,  the  pig  zun  and  elephant  zun  in  this 
exhibition  (cats.  27,  25)  were  unearthed  in  Hunan. 
Moreover,  Shang  bronzes  from  places  other  than 
Anyang,  particularly  those  from  Hunan  and  Jiangxi 
provinces,  which  lie  south  of  theYangzi  River,  do 
not  merely  differ  in  their  form  from  those  at 
Anyang  but  are  often  conspicuously  more  ornate. 
This  kind  and  degree  of  difference  merits  our 
attention.  Why  were  these  most  lavish  Shang 
bronzes  not  unearthed  in  the  area  that  was  the 
political  and  economic  center  of  the  Shang  dynasty, 
but  rather  in  places  so  distant  as  to  be  regarded  as 
barren  wilderness  in  that  era?  Their  exquisite 
craftsmanship  indicates  that  these  pieces  could  not 
have  been  cast  in  such  places,  and  the  names  of 
individuals  and  clans  cast  on  some  of  the  bronzes 
show  that  they  were  possessions  of  some  of  the 
great  clans  of  central  China.  Archaeological  data 
gathered  during  their  excavation  shows  that — 
unlike  the  bronzes  found  at  Anyang — the  vast 
majority  of  them  were  not  burial  furnishings,  nor 
are  there  any  signs  that  they  were  ever  used  in  sets 
for  rituals.  They  were  generally  buried  at  various 
sites  atop  mountains  or  along  the  banks  of  rivers.  It 
is  highly  possible  that  these  choice  samples  of 
Shang  bronzes  were  specially  imported  into  the 
peripheral  regions,  where  they  were  regarded  as 
expressions  of  respect  and  admiration  for  Shang 
culture.  In  1963  an  animal  mask  you  was  unearthed 
in  Ningxiang,  Hunan  Province.  Inside  this  vessel 
were  over  a  thousand  solid  and  tubular  jade  beads.' 
This  exhibition  features  the  Ge  you,  from  a  royal 
tomb  in  Ningxiang,  Hunan  Province,  which  also 
contained  over  three  hundred  jade  beads,  jade 
pieces,  and  tubular  jade  beads  (cat.  26).  An  animal 
mask  pou  found  in  Hunan  contained  over  two 
hundred  small  bronze  ax  heads.  From  this,  we  can 
see  that  in  this  outlying  region  Shang  bronzes  were 
preserved  as  a  form  of  wealth.  Perhaps  future 
archaeological  discoveries  will  elucidate  the 
formation  and  nature  of  this  cultural  phenomenon. 

The  most  common  decorative  motif  found  on  late 
Shang  bronzes  is  the  zoomorphic  mask  formerly 
known  as  the  taotie  pattern. This  was  generally 
executed  in  clearly  layered  relief  against  a  dense  and 
fine-lined  intaglio  spiral  pattern.  In  particular,  the 
eyes  of  the  mask  were  made  large  and  prominent, 
enhancing  the  mysterious,  solemn,  and  intimidating 
aspect  of  the  image.  On  late  Shang  bronzes  small 
birds  or  small  dragons  often  flank  the  mask,  with 
bird  patterns  the  more  frequent.  This  type  of  design 
composition  has  ancient  historical  origins.  Late 
Neolithic  jade  cons  from  the  Liangzhu  culture. 


which  existed  in  what  is  now  Jiangsu,  Zhejiang, 
and  Shanghai,  were  often  carved  with  images  of 
deities  represented  by  their  two  eyes.  Often,  a  bird 
in  flight  was  placed  on  each  side  of  the  deity,  with 
the  birds'  heads  turned  away  from  the  central 
image.0  The  heads  of  the  birds  accompanying  the 
zoomorphic  masks  on  late  Shang  bronzes  are  the 
same  as  those  on  the  Liangzhu  culture  jades, 
indicating  that  this  type  of  decoration  was  an 
adoption  and  continuation  of  the  traditions  of 
Liangzhu  culture.  Oracle  bone  inscriptions  describe 
the  phoenix  as  the  Wind  God  and  also  the  envoy  of 
the  Celestial  Emperor,7  entrusted  with  the  mission 
of  relaying  information  between  Heaven  and 
humans.  An  animal  mask  flanked  by  bird  patterns 
may  have  been  an  image  of  deity.  The  decorative 
motifs  on  Shang  bronzes  always  invoke  the  Celestial 
Emperor  and  various  spirits;  they  were  not  merely 
more  or  less  stylized  animals.  Rather,  they  expressed 
a  strong  religious  desire  for  communion  between 
Heaven  and  humans  and  for  blessings  from  the 
Celestial  Emperor  and  various  spirits.  The  birds 
flanking  the  zoomorphic  masks  may  represent  the 
phoenix  as  emissary  in  these  transactions.  The  great 
flourishing  of  decorative  art  on  Shang  bronzes 
manifests  religious  aspiration. 

The  casting  of  Shang  bronzes  was  done  in  pottery 
section  molds.  Specially  prepared  clay  was  made 
into  the  number  of  external  and  internal  mold 
sections  required  by  a  particular  shape.  Patterns  and 
inscriptions  were  carved  or  incised  into  the 
external  mold  sections.  After  being  thoroughly 
dried  and  fired,  the  mold  sections  were  fitted 
together  and  reinforced  to  form  a  complete  mold, 
which  was  fitted  with  a  cover  containing  a  pouring 
hole  for  the  bronze  to  enter  and  one  or  more  holes 
through  which  air  bubbles  would  be  expelled. 
Molten  bronze  was  poured  between  the  inner  and 
outer  molds.  After  the  bronze  had  cooled,  the  mold 
was  broken  and  the  bronze  removed  and  given  .1 
final  finishing  and  polishing.  Shang  workmanship  in 
the  making  of  pottery  molds  was  extremely  hue. 
and  set  the  highest  standards  in  the  ancient  world 
for  the  casting  of  bronze  pieces  in  pottery  molds. 
Pottery  molds  were  used  exclusively  to  cast  bron;  es 
through  the  Eastern  Zhou,  after  which  additional 
methods  were  introduced. 

WESTERN    ZHOU    BRONZI  S 
(IITH    CENTURY-771    BCE) 

Early  Western  Zhou  (ea.  [050-ca.  975)  bn 
making  was  to  a  large  extent  a  continuation  ot  late 
Shang  practices.  1  ate  Shang  and  earl)  Western 
Zhou  are  often  considered  as  .1  single  and 
supreme  period  in  the  evolution  of  Chinese  bronze 
making.  Withal,  the  Zhou  people  differed 
significantly  from  the  Shang  people  in  their 
political  organization,  religion,  and  cultural 
>  on<  epts,  differences  concretely  manifested  as  time 


RITUAL    BRONZES 


EPITOME    OF    ANCIENT    CHINESE    CIVILIZATION 


71 


went  on  by  a  great  diminution  in  the  absolute 
numbers  and  types  of  wine  vessels  and  a 
corresponding  increase  in  bronze  vessels  for  food. 
The  establishment  of  rites  that  stressed  food  rather 
than  drink  led  directly  to  considerable  development 
of  such  existing  types  of  bronze  food  vessels  as  the 
ding,  the  yan,  and  the  gui.  The  large  round  ding  of 
the  Western  Zhou  greatly  outnumbered  those  of 
the  Shang;  the  yan  was  used  more  extensively  than 
during  the  Shang;  square-based  gui,  such  as  the  Li 
gui  and  Da  Feng  gui  from  the  time  of  King  Wu, 
were  entirely  new  to  this  era.  The  Zhou  attached 
great  importance  to  ancestor  worship,  in  strong 
contrast  to  the  Shang  worship  of  gods  and  spirits. 
Religious  connotations  are  less  apparent  in 
bronze  decorations  of  the  Western  Zhou.  Apart 
from  zoomorphic  masks,  the  most  gorgeously 
executed  bronze  motif  of  the  Western  Zhou, 
particularly  during  the  time  of  kings  Kang  and 
Zhao  (perhaps  early  ioth  c),  was  the  phoenix 
pattern.  Phoenix  patterns,  beautifully  accomplished 
in  limitless  variety,  became  a  feature  of  this  period, 
imparting  an  aura  of  wealth  and  luxury  to  the 
bronzes.  Their  vogue,  however,  was  brief;  beginning 
in  middle  Western  Zhou,  such  sumptuous  phoenix 
patterns  were  seldom  to  be  found  on  bronzes. 
But,  like  the  last  burst  of  twilight,  they  brought  the 
peak  period  of  Chinese  bronze  making  to  a 
magnificent  close. 

Early  Western  Zhou  bronzes  show  another 
important  change  from  Shang:  the  appearance  of 
long  inscriptions  inside  the  vessels.  Many  of  these 
inscriptions  recorded  major  events  of  the  time, 
events  often  not  mentioned  in  surviving  historical 
texts.  For  instance,  the  inscription  on  the  He  zun 
featured  in  this  exhibition  (cat.  32)  records  and 
precisely  dates  the  building  of  the  Western  Zhou 
capital,  Chengzhou  (in  the  area  around  present-day 
Luoyang,  Henan  Province)  by  King  Cheng, 
successor  of  the  Zhou  conqueror:  "It  was  at  the 
time  when  the  king  began  the  building  of  Cheng- 
zhou. .  .  .This  happened  in  [King  Cheng's]  fifth 
year."8  These  inscriptions  are  our  most  direct  and 
most  reliable  historical  sources  for  the  study  of 
ancient  Chinese  history. 

From  the  reign  of  King  Mu  of  the  Western  Zhou, 
the  types,  shapes,  and  decorations  of  the  bronzes 
changed  significantly  reflecting  new  customs  and 
uses.  Bronze  wine  vessels,  including  the  jia,  gong, 
zun,  and  you,  essentially  faded  from  use,  and 
although  some  new  shapes  such  as  the  ling  appeared 
to  take  their  place,  the  proportion  of  wine  vessels 
was  much  smaller  than  before.  Beginning  in  the 
middle  period  (ca.  975-875)  of  the  Western  Zhou, 
many  new  types  of  food  vessels  such  as  the  fu  and 
shu  appeared,  and  older  types  of  food  vessels  such  as 
the  dou  and  pu  were  used  more  extensively  than 
before.  New  variants  of  some  commonly  used 


vessels  like  the  gui  emerged.  Zoomorphic  masks,  for 
centuries  the  chief  decorative  motif  of  bronzes, 
gradually  changed  in  appearance.  Major  parts  of  the 
mask,  such  as  the  relatively  well-formed  ears, 
eyebrows,  mouth,  fangs,  and  claws,  were  simplified 
or  sometimes  omitted  altogether.  The  eyes,  which 
had  been  the  paramount  feature,  lost  their  former 
power,  sometimes  being  reduced  to  two  small, 
socket-less  circles,  and  at  other  times  only  faintly 
suggested  by  a  stylized  outline.  These  changes 
drained  the  masks  of  their  former  solemnity, 
ferocity,  and  mystery. 

The  middle  period  of  the  Western  Zhou  also  saw  a 
noticeable  reduction  in  the  use  of  dragon  and  bird 
patterns  for  bronze  decoration  and,  as  with  the 
zoomorphic  masks,  modifications  in  the  design  of 
these  traditional  motifs.  These  modifications 
transformed  the  dragons  and  birds  into  what  were 
formerly  known  as  "curved  zigzag  patterns" — what 
we  now  call  "modified  animal  patterns," 
"intertwined  animal  eye  patterns,"  "coiled  animal 
body  patterns,"  etcetera.  These  patterns  were 
generally  composed  as  continuous  bidirectional 
horizontal  bands  of  decoration  around  the  bronzes, 
imparting  a  sense  of  simplicity  and  sprightliness. 
The  most  distinctive  pattern  of  this  period  was  the 
wave  pattern  (formerly  known  as  the  "curved  band 
pattern"),  whose  regular,  rhythmic  undulations 
create  a  powerful  sense  of  motion. 

Bronzes  of  the  late  Western  Zhou  period  (ca.  875— 
771)  show  basic  continuity  with  those  of  the  middle 
period.  An  ever-greater  proportion  of  the  food 
vessels  consists  of  fu  and  slm.At  the  same  time  both 
the  prescribed  uses  and  the  appearance  of  common 
food  vessels  such  as  the  ding  and  gui  became 
increasingly  formulaic.  Of  two  principal  ding 
variants,  one  was  flat-bottomed  with  a  relatively 
shallow  belly,  the  other  round-bottomed  and  deep- 
bellied.  The  principal  form  of  gui  had  a  contracted 
mouth  with  cover,  swelling  belly,  two  symmetrically 
placed  animal-shaped  lug  handles  spanning  the 
belly,  and  three  evenly  spaced  zoomorphs  serving  as 
feet  under  a  ring  base.  The  decorative  combinations 
were  also  more  fixed:  for  example,  a  flat-bottomed, 
shallow  ding  would  generally  have  a  modified 
animal  pattern  around  the  lip  and  a  wave  pattern 
around  the  belly,  whereas  a  ding  with  deep  belly  and 
rounded  bottom  was  usually  more  simply 
decorated,  sometimes  with  only  a  few  parallel  lines 
under  the  lip,  sometimes  with  an  overlapping  fish- 
scale  pattern  in  a  band  around  the  lip.  This  trend 
toward  formulanzation  suggests  a  certain  stagnation 
in  bronze  making  at  this  time;  nevertheless,  some 
items  produced  for  royal  use  were  still  very  well 
made.  During  the  late  Western  Zhou  the  greatest 
innovation  in  bronze  decoration  was  the  interlaced 
dragon  pattern.  This  consisted  of  a  central  dragon 
flanked  on  both  sides  by  several  subsidiary  dragons. 


RITUAL    BRONZES    —    EPITOME    OF    ANCIENT    CHINESE    CIVILIZATION 


The  dragon  bodies  were  interlaced,  that  is,  not 
merely  overlapped  but  passed  under-and-over  one 
another,  creating  a  sense  of  undulant  motion  that 
was  further  developed  during  Eastern  Zhou.  Late 
Western  Zhou  dragon  interlace  generally  appears 
on  square  hu. The  famous  Song  hu,  and  the  Jin  Hon 
hu  recently  unearthed  from  the  tomb  of  the 
Marquis  of  Jin  in  Quwo,  Shanxi  Province,  both 
bear  this  type  of  pattern. 

EASTERN    ZHOU    BRONZES:  THE    SPRING 
AND    AUTUMN    AND   WARRING    STATES 
PERIODS    (770-221    BCE) 

Aristocratic  tombs  of  the  early  Spring  and  Autumn 
era  have  revealed  very  few  bronzes  that  were 
relatively  well  crafted.  The  Zhou  kings  had  lost  the 
western  part  of  their  domain  and  relocated  their 
court  to  their  eastern  capital  near  present-day 
Luoyang.  In  the  smaller  states  that  made  up  the 
Zhou  realm,  bronze  making  was  rather  crude.  In 
the  larger  states,  however,  signs  of  progress  were 
already  appearing. 

By  the  mid-Spring  and  Autumn  era  Zhou  kingly 
authority  had  declined  and  the  various  fiefdoms 
were  expanding  their  power  and  their  borders  and 
beginning  to  come  into  collision.  But  as  the 
authority  of  the  Zhou  ruling  house  dwindled  and 
the  political  and  military  struggles  between  the 
states  intensified,  ideas  and  political  institutions 
evolved  apace.  Unsettled  times  stimulated  major 
advances  in  the  forces  of  social  production, 
begetting  countless  new  forms  of  workmanship. 
The  earlier  forging  of  iron  weapons  and 
implements  led  to  mastery  of  the  art  of  casting 
iron.  Bronzes  became  an  indispensable  symbol  of 
power,  status,  and  legitimacy  for  the  new  elites  in 
the  aristocratic  states,  spurring  bronze  making  to  an 
unprecedented  period  of  innovation  and 
development.  To  meet  rapidly  escalating  military 
needs,  the  casting  of  bronze  weapons  was  also 
carried  to  new  heights.  Even  some  small  states 
possessed  significant  quantities  of  bronzes,  and  with 
the  breakdown  of  centralized  patronage  along  with 
centralized  authority,  regional  traits  of  bronzes  of 
this  period  became  quite  distinct. 

New  vessels  appeared,  and  old  types  were  rendered 
with  fresh  shapes  and  unusual  designs,  which  made 
for  an  entirely  new  look.  Included  in  this 
exhibition  is  the  square  lotus-and-crane  hu  (cat.  45) 
found  in  Xinzheng,  Henan  Province,  in  1923. 
Openwork  petals  rise  from  the  lid,  on  which  stands 
a  crane  raising  its  wings  as  if  about  to  fly.  Lug 
handles  on  two  sides  of  the  hu  take  the  form  of 
crested  dragons  looking  backward,  and  winged 
dragons  mark  the  four  corners  of  the  square  belly. 
Iwo  powerful  slinking  animals  support  the  vessel, 
which  is  decorated  overall  with  an  interlaced 
double-bodied  dragon  pattern.  The  effect  is  opulent 


and  dazzling:  the  stolid  and  heavy  bronze  style  that 
had  prevailed  since  the  late  Western  Zhou  has  here 
been  wholly  replaced  by  the  innovative  spirit  first 
apparent  in  the  mid-Spring  and  Autumn  era. 

Regional  characteristics  of  bronzes  of  the  late 
Spring  and  Autumn  era  are  best  exemplified  by 
works  from  the  kingdoms  of  Qin  in  the  west,  Jin  in 
the  north,  Qi  in  the  east,  and  Chu  in  the  south.  In 
the  1920s  a  group  of  unusually  designed  and 
exquisitely  decorated  Jin  bronzes  were  unearthed  at 
Liyu  village  in  Hunyuan.  Shanxi  Province.  These, 
together  with  the  bronzes  recently  found  in  tomb 
number  251  at  Jinsheng  village  inTaiyuan,  can  be 
considered  representative  of  Jin  style  bronzes 
(cats.  43,  44),9  whereas  those  from  the  Chu  tomb  at 
Xiasi,  Xiquan  county,  in  Henan  Province  are  typical 
of  the  Chu  style.10    In  both  shape  and  decoration 
the  recently  discovered  he  of  King  Fuchai  of  Wu  is 
an  example  of  how  features  of  the  Jin  and  Chu 
bronzes  were  absorbed  and  integrated  elsewhere." 

Improvements  in  casting  techniques  using  pottery 
section  molds,  the  spread  of  the  complementary 
processes  of  casting-on  and  precasting,  and  the 
considerable  maturing  of  the  lost-wax  casting 
technique  all  reflect  significant  advances  in  the 
bronze  technology  of  this  period.  A  major 
revolution  in  the  art  of  bronze  making  during  the 
Spring  and  Autumn  and  Warring  States  periods  was 
the  use  of  stamps  to  create  the  surface  designs  in 
the  molds.  Besides  increasing  the  number  of 
bronzes  that  could  be  produced,  it  also  assured  the 
uniform  quality  of  the  decorative  patterns  on  the 
pieces. This  advanced  technique  is  seen  most 
frequently  among  the  extant  bronzes  ot  the  Jin 
state.  Excavation  of  the  site  of  the  Jin  bronze 
workshop  at  Houma  in  Shanxi  Province  has  fully 
revealed  the  advanced  bronze  casting  technology  of 
the  time.'-  Advances  such  as  the  use  of  stamps  in 
mold-making  changed  the  nature  ot  creating 
surface  decoration:  only  the  maker  ot  the  stamp 
required  artistry:  the  workers  who  impressed  the 
design  from  the  stamp  onto  the  mold  needed  only 
simple  technical  skill.  Subsequently  new  arts  ot 
surface  decorating  appeared,  using  inlaid  gold, 
silver,  and  copper  to  create  a  varicolored  surface. 
The  gold,  silver,  and  copper  would  be  hammered 
into  sheets  or  threads,  and  the  threads  might  be 
coiled  into  tight  spirals,  then  inlaid  into  the  grooves 
cast  in  the  bronze  to  receive  them.  (. In  some 
bronzes,  copper,  gold,  silver,  and  turquoise  were 
inlaid  in  combination  to  form  a  sumptuous, 
brocade-like  design. 

It  was  during  the  late  Spring  and  Autumn  period 
that  human  activity  began  to  be  used  .is  .1 
decorative  motif.  .1  clear  manifestation  of  the 
unprecedentedly  strong  social  humanism  ot  the 
tune.  Subjects  like  battles,  hunting,  banquets,  rituals, 


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73 


musical  performances,  and  mulberry-leaf  picking 
might  be  depicted  in  inlaid  copper  or  chiseled  into 
the  surfaces  of  bronzes.  Inlay  and  incising  were  also 
used  to  portray  fantastic  creatures  such  as  human- 
headed  animals  or  bird-headed  humans. 

On  bronzes  of  the  Spring  and  Autumn  and  Warring 
States  periods  the  most  popular  decorative  motifs 
were  variations  of  dragon  patterns — an  abrupt 
change  from  the  ubiquitous  zoomorphic  masks  of 
Shang  and  Western  Zhou,  which  doubtless  signals  a 
change  in  society's  beliefs.  The  dragons  might  be 
interlaced,  or  coiled,  or  stylized  into  a  dragon-like 
pattern.  However  the  dragons  were  rendered,  they 
commonly  encircle  the  vessels  in  continuous 
designs,  in  strong  contrast  to  the  separate  units 
characteristic  of  earlier  bronze  decor.  Elaborate  and 
delicately  linear  detail  characterizes  these  dragons. 
Late  variants  of  the  dragon  patterns  omitted  the 
heads,  leaving  only  the  interlaced  bodies.  The 
impulse  toward  variation  and  increasingly  fine 
detail  eventually  turned  bronze  decorations  into 
geometric  designs.  That  was  the  final  stage  of 
bronze  decoration,  succeeded  by  the  appearance  of 
large  quantities  of  plain,  undecorated  bronzes  alter 
the  mid- Warring  States  period. 

BRONZES    OF   THE    QIN    AND    HAN    PERIODS 
(221    BCE-220    CE) 

The  vast  majority  of  bronzes  of  the  Qin  and  Han 
periods  were  practical  vessels  without  ritual 
significance,  objects  of  daily  use,  often  with 
inscriptions  indicating  their  weight  or  capacity. 
Most  vessels  had  little  or  no  decoration.  Some 
bronzes,  however,  from  aristocratic  and  royal  tombs 
of  the  Western  Han,  display  exquisite 
workmanship. "  In  particular,  the  surface  decorative 
techniques  of  gilding,  gold-and-silver  inlay,  and 
painting  had  reached  very  high  standards. 
Implements  for  daily  use,  cast  in  human  or  animal 
forms,  became  notable  achievements  of  Han  bronze 
making.  These  include  the  Changxin  Palace  lamp, 
as  well  as  the  lamp  in  the  shape  of  a  goose  holding 
a  fish  (cat.  53). 

Han  period  bronzes  made  by  peoples  living  around 
the  periphery  of  the  empire  are  markedly  different 
from  those  of  central  China.  The  most  notable  ones 
come  from  the  bronze  culture  of  the  Yi  people  in 
the  western  parts  of  Yunnan.  Since  the  1950s  a  large 
number  of  bronze  artifacts  have  been  recovered 
from  an  ancient  tomb  at  Shizhaishan,Jinning, 
Yunnan.  Among  them  is  a  gold  seal  marked  "Seal  of 
the  King  of  Dian,"  which  confirms  the  ethnic 
origin  of  the  bronze  culture  at  this  site.14 
Shizhaishan  bronzes  show  very  advanced  use  of 
lost-wax  casting,   gold-and-silver  inlay,  gilding,  and 
inlaid  gemstones.  Both  linear  and  fully  modeled 
depictions  of  people,  animals,  structures,  etcetera, 
richly  varied  and  lifelike,  adorn  these  bronzes.  They 


are  composed  in  scenes  of  sacrificial  offerings, 
music  and  dance,  production,  trade,  war,  and 
hunting,  offering  a  vivid  picture  of  Dian  society  of 
the  time.  During  this  same  period  the  Xiongnu  of 
the  northern  grasslands,  the  Donghu  tribe  of  the 
Xianbei  people  in  the  northeast,  and  theYue  in  the 
south  were  also  creating  bronze  cultures,  each  with 
its  own  style.  Together,  they  complete  the  current 
picture  of  developments  in  ancient  Chinese  bronze 
making. 

Translated, from  the  Chinese,  by  June  Mei. 


NOTES 

1.  Erlitou  work  team  of  the 
Institute  of  Archaeology, 
Chinese  Academy  of  Sciences, 
"Brief  Report  on  the 
Excavations  of  Sections  3  and 
8  of  the  Erlitou  Site  atYanshi, 
Henan,"  Kaogu,  1975:5. 

2.  Gejieping,  "Bronzes  of  the 
Shang  Era  Found  at  Funan, 
Anhui  Province,"  Wenwu, 
1959:1. 

3.  Henan  Provincial  Institute  of 
Cultural  Artifacts  and  the 
Zhengzhou  Municipal 
Museum,  "Newly  Discovered 
Buried  Shang  Dynasty  Bronzes 
from  Zhengzhou"  Wenwu, 
1983:3- 

4.  Hubei  Provincial  Museum. 
"Erligang  Period  Shang 
Bronzes  from  Panlong  City," 
Wenwu,  1976:2. 

5.  Gao  Zhixi, "Shang  Bronzes 
and  Sites  Discovered  at 
Huangcai,  Ningxiang,  Hunan," 
Kaogu,  1963:12. 

6.  Shanghai  Municipal 
Commission  for  the 
Preservation  of  Cultural 
Artifacts,  "Tombs  of  the 
Liangzhu  Culture  at 
Fuquanshan,  Shanghai," 
Wenwu,  1984:2. 

7.  An  oracle  bone  inscription 
reads,  "The  Emperor  sent  the 
Phoenix."  See  Guo  Moruo, 
Pud  tongzuan,  p.  398. 

8.  Ma  Chengyuan,  "A  Tentative 
Interpretation  of  the  He  Zun 
Inscription,"  Wenwu,  1976:1. 

9.  Shanxi  Provincial  Institute  of 
Archaeology  and  Taiyuan 
Municipal  Commission  for  the 
Preservation  of  Cultural 
Artifacts,  "Brief  Report  on  the 
Excavation  of  a  Large  Spring 
and  Autumn  Era  Tomb  (no. 
251)  and  Horse-and-Chanot 
Pit  at  Jmsheng  Village, 
Taiyuan,"  Wenwu,  1989:9. 


10.  Henan  Provincial  Institute 
of  Cultural  Artifacts,  et  al.,  "A 
Chu  Tomb  of  the  Spring  and 
Autumn  Era  at  Xiasi,  Xiquan" 
(Wenwu  Publishing  House, 
1991). 

11.  Chen  Peifen,"King  Fuchai 
of  Wu,"  Bulletin  of  the  Shanghai 
Museum,  no.  7. 

12.  Shanxi  Provincial  Institute 
of  Cultural  Artifacts,  The 
Bronze  Casting  Site  at  Houma 
(Wenwu  Publishing  House, 
1993)- 

13.  Report  on  the  Excavation  of  a 
Han  Tomb  at  Maucheng  (Wenwu 
Publishing  House,  1980). 

14. Yunnan  Provincial  Museum, 
Report  on  the  Excavation  of  a 
Group  of  Ancient  Tombs  at 
Shizhaishan,  Jinning,  Yunnan 
(Wenwu  Publishing  House, 
1959)- 


RITUAL    BRONZES    —    EPITOME    OF    ANCIENT    CHINESE    CIVILIZATION 


74 


Innovation  in  Ancient 
Chinese  Metalwork 


ERLITOU  PERIOD 
By  the  early  second  millennium  bce 
ancient  China's  artists  and  craftsmen 
had  already  been  creating  ceramics  and 
working  jades  for  over  two  thousand 
years.  Their  mastery  of  these  two  materi- 
als is  evident  in  the  outstanding 
workmanship,  elegant  shapes,  and  sophis- 


ticated designs  that  characterize  the 


Jenny  So 


Curator  of  Ancient  Chinese  Art, 
Freer  Gallery  of  Art  and  Arthur  M. 
Sackler  Gallery,  Smithsonian  Institution, 
Washington,  D.C. 


75 


LIAONING 


INNER  MONGOLIA 
AUTONOMOUS  REGION 


•  Site       O  City 


Map  l.  Map  of  China  showing  major  ancient  and  modern  cities  and  sites. 


Map  2.  Map  of  China  in  the  Tang  dynasty  showing  Eurasia  and  the  Silk  Road. 


INNOVATION    IN    ANCIENT    CHINESE    METALWORK 


best  of  early  Chinese  ceramics  and  jades.  But  the 
supremacy  of  these  two  mediums  was  soon  to  be 
challenged  by  a  new  material  that  would  eventually 
dominate  China's  artistic  scene  for  the  next 
thousand  years:  cast  bronze,  an  alloy  mainly  of 
copper,  with  smaller  amounts  of  tin  and/or  lead. 
Cast-bronze  objects  became  symbols  of  the  power 
of  the  ruling  elite,  replacing  the  ritual  jades  of  the 
preceding  Neolithic  era  as  ceremonial  regalia  in 
political  and  religious  rites. 

Set  next  to  the  refined  ceramics  and  jades  of  the 
time,  early  attempts  at  bronze  casting  in  China, 
such  as  the  wine  cup  (jue;  cat.  21)  made  circa 
1700-circa  1600  bce,  appear  unusually  crude  and 
almost  devoid  of  artistic  merit.  But  the  jue's  modest 
appearance  and  undecorated  surface  should  not 
diminish  its  significance  in  the  history  of  this  new 
technology.  The  vessel  has  the  unusual  distinction  of 
being  one  of  the  earliest  bronze  vessels  made  in 
ancient  China,  as  it  closely  resembles  similar  wine 
cups  from  Erlitou,Yanshi,  Henan  Province,  where 
burials  generally  dated  to  the  second  quarter  of  the 
second  millennium  bce  have  yielded  some  of  the 
earliest  cast  bronze  objects  (see  Map  i).1 


Fig.  1.  Ceramic  wine  cup  (jue).  Early  second  millennium 
BCE.  Erlitou,  Zhengzhou,  Henan  Province. 


Metallurgical  analysis  ot  the  Erlitou  wine  cups 
shows  that  they  were  cast  from  a  deliberate  alloy  of 
copper  and  tin,  poured  in  a  molten  state  into  a 
mold  made  up  of  four  or  more  fitted  sections.  The 
alloy  and  casting  (instead  of  cold-working) 
technology  evident  on  these  vessels,  as  well  as  the 
mold-assembly  methods,  were  major  innovations  in 
material  use  and  manufacturing  technique  for 
China  of  the  early  second  millennium  bce.  But 
these  first  bronzes  were  also  firmly  linked  to 
China's  older,  established  ceramic  industry.  The 
eccentric  shape  of  the  wine  cup,  certainly  not  easily 
cast  in  bronze,  was  based  on  cups  commonly  made 
in  pottery  during  the  early  second  millennium  bce 
(fig.  l).The  potter's  experience  in  maintaining  high 
kiln  temperatures  must  have  contributed  to  the 
bronze  maker's  ability  to  smelt,  refine,  and  mix  his 
ores  for  casting.  Excavations  at  Erlitou  habitation 
sites  also  yielded  fragments  of  clay  casting  molds, 
further  demonstrating  that  the  early  bronze  casters 
worked  closely  with  potters  of  the  time.2 

ZHENGZHOU    PERIOD 

The  unassuming  beginning  exemplified  by  the 
small  drinking  cup  (cat.  21)  does  not  prepare  us  for 
the  bronze  caster's  astonishing  progress  in  the 
following  centuries.  By  1500-1400  BCE  the 
undecorated  early  vessels  had  given  way  to  vessels 
with  surfaces  enhanced  by  varied  scrolled  designs 
(cat.  22).  Bronze  makers  must  have  been  quick  to 
realize  (lie  decorative  potential  offered  by  a  casting 
technique  that  utilized  section  molds  (fig.  1):  it  gave 
access  to  the  interior  surface  of  the  mold,  allowing 
designs  to  be  executed  with  relative  ease  in  the  soli 


clay.3  It  is  possible  to  incise  designs  into  the  hard 
surface  of  cold  bronze,  but  such  a  technique  could 
not  have  created  the  flowing  rhythm  ot  the  many 
scroll  designs  on  the  early  bronzes.  The  raised  linear 
designs  on  the  fang  ding  (cat.  22)  embody  the 
decorative  possibilities  of  section-mold  casting 
technique  at  their  simplest:  lines  incised  on  the 
interiors  of  mold  sections  become  raised  lines 
(thread  relief)  on  the  cast  vessel.  Continuous 
refinement  of  this  unique  advantage  offered  by 
section  molds  enabled  the  bronze  workers  to  create 
vessels  with  ever  more  ornate  surfaces  from  circa 
1300  to  circa  1 100  bce  (cats.  23-26). 4 

More  amazing,  perhaps,  than  the  advance  in 
decorative  technique  is  the  existence,  as  early  as  the 
mid-second  millennium  bce,  of  foundries  that 
could  handle  such  monumental  castings  as  the  fang 
ding  (cat.  22).  Nor  was  this  rectangular  cauldron, 
which  weighs  about  40  kilograms  and  is  S2 
centimeters  high,  entirely  unique  in  its  time:  it  was 
found,  in  a  shallow  pit  at  Qian  village,  Pinglu 
county,  Shanxi  Province,  with  two  round  ding 
vessels,  each  about  70  centimeters  high.3  Farther 
east,  in  the  vicinity  of  Zhengzhou.  Henan  Province, 
believed  to  be  the  site  of  one  of  the  earliest  capitals 
of  the  Shang  dynasty.''  three  separate  discoveries 
have  unearthed  eight  other  square  or  rectangular 
cauldrons,  closely  comparable  to  the  present 
example  in  size  and  decoration,  together  with 
additional  large  round  ding  vessels.'  I  he  largest  ol 
these  fang  ding  is  100  centimeters  high  and  weighs 
S2.4  kilograms. 


INNOVATION    IN    ANCIENT    CHINESE    METALWORK 


77 


Differences  in  alloy  composition  and  mold  assembly 
among  these  fang  ding  suggest  that  the  bronze 
casters  were  still  learning  and  experimenting, 
especially  with  large  castings.  Scientific  analyses  of 
two  of  the  Zhengzhou  vessels  show  a  fairly 
consistent  range  in  the  percentage  of  copper  in  the 
alloy,  but  wide  fluctuations  in  the  percentage  of 
lead,  which  contributes  to  the  viscosity — hence, 
ease  in  pouring — of  the  alloy.8  Casting  seams  left 
on  the  vessels  also  suggest  that  different  mold 
assemblies  and  casting  procedures  were  used  to 
make  vessels  of  the  same  shape  and  decoration.  On 
one  Zhengzhou  vessel,  as  in  the  Pinglu  example 
(cat.  22),  the  four  central  sections  of  each  side,  the 
legs,  and  the  flat  bottom  appear  to  have  been 
precast.  These  were  inserted  into  the  molds  for  the 
four  corner  sections,  and  then  the  rest  of  the  vessel 
was  poured  around  the  precast  parts.  Large  areas  of 
metal  overflow  on  the  four  faces  of  the  Pinglu 
vessel  where  these  joints  occur  testify  to  problems 
in  the  casting.  On  several  of  the  Zhengzhou  vessels, 
one  single  mold  section  was  used  for  each  of  the 
four  sides,  producing  a  more  polished  casting  less 
marked  by  casting  seams  (compare  the 
reconstruction  in  fig.  2). 

ANYANG    PERIOD 

Sometime  around  1300  bce  the  Shang  kings 
relocated  their  capital  to  the  vicinity  of  present-day 
Anyang  in  northern  Henan  Province.  The  two 
centuries  or  so  between  the  manufacture  of  the  fang 
ding  (cat.  22)  and  the  bronzes  associated  with  the 
court  at  Anyang  (cats.  23—26),  saw  huge  strides  in 
the  bronze  caster's  craft.  By  about  1200  bce  not 
only  were  China's  bronze  casters  able  to  create 
dense,  multilayered  decoration  on  a  vessel's  surface, 
they  were  also  able  to  produce  vessels  with 
complex  shapes  that  must  have  challenged  the 
ingenuity  of  the  section-mold  makers  of  the  time. 
Whereas  decorating  the  bronze  surface  allowed 
bronze  casters  to  develop  two-dimensional  designs, 
the  inherent  three-dimensional  form  of  the  vessels 
presented  opportunities  to  create  sculpturally.  For 
example,  a  fairly  ordinary  abstract  shape — a  four- 
sided  vessel  (cat.  23) — became,  with  the  addition  of 
a  ram  at  each  of  the  vessel's  four  corners,  an 
inspired  organic  form  that  still  fulfilled  its  function 
as  a  container.  The  rams'  heads  emerge  as  fully 
three-dimensional  sculptures,  while  their  chests  and 
front  legs  appear  111  relief,  rendered  with  astonishing 
realism  amid  a  dense  sea  of  spiral  and  scroll 
patterns.  The  shallow  well  of  the  large  basin  (cat. 
29)  becomes  a  viable  pool  for  the  coiled  dragon 
whose  three-dimensional  head  rises  most 
convincingly  from  its  two-dimensional  snakelike 
body.  These  vessels  are  made  more  remarkable  by 
their  unusual  size — the  basin  is  the  largest  example 
of  its  kind — and  by  the  likelihood  that  they  were 
made  not  in  the  capital  region  of  Anyang  but  in 
workshops  in  the  remote  southern  and  southeastern 


Fig.  2.  Reconstruction  of  section-mold  assembly  for  casting. 


fringes  of  the  Shang  domain,  along  the  Yangzi 
River  basin.9 

Conceptually  different  from  vessels  incorporating 
animal  forms  are  two  creations  (cats.  27,  25)  that  are 
wholly  sculptural.  An  accidental  find  in  Hunan 
Province,  south  of  the  Yangzi  River,  the  boar  (cat. 
27)  is  exceptional  not  just  for  its  size  but  for  its 
realism;  its  cloven  hoofs,  boarish  snout,  and  tusks 
are  all  carefully  observed  and  convincingly 
depicted.  Even  the  fine  scale-pattern  and  the  large 
spiraling  motifs  on  its  haunches  evoke  the  animal's 
hide  and  musculature.  Unlike  most  bronzes  of  the 
time,  the  boar  is  not  a  container,  and  we  can  only 
surmise  its  function.  Cylindrical  channels  running 
crosswise  through  the  boar's  front  and  back 
haunches  suggest  that  it  might  have  been  carried, 
by  means  of  poles  inserted  through  the  channels, 
perhaps  at  ceremonial  processions.10  If  so,  the 
choice  of  animal  would  have  been  related  to  the 
religious  or  ritual  requirements  of  the  local 
(southern)  patrons  for  whom  it  was  made.  The 
elephant  (cat.  25),  one  of  only  two  known  (the 
other  is  in  the  Freer  Gallery  of  Art,  Smithsonian 
Institution),  served  a  better-attested  function  as  a 
wine  or  water  container."  Though  a  vessel,  it  too  is 
animal-shaped;  its  elaborate  surface  motifs,  however, 
are  utterly  nondescriptive  of  elephants.  The  small 
hare-like  creature  perched  on  top  of  the  elephant's 
trunk  serves  no  function  but  presents  an 
incongruous — therefore  witty — juxtaposition. 


INNOVATION    IN    ANCIENT    CHINESE    METALWORK 


78 


Two  oddly  shaped  vessels  (cats.  28,  24)  are 
anomalous  both  as  vessels  and  as  animals.  Neither 
accurately  represents  a  real  animal  or  can  be  linked 
to  a  specific  shape  in  the  standard  vessel  repertoire. 
The  silhouette  of  catalogue  28  suggests  a  snake  or  a 
crocodile;  in  fact,  both  snakes  and  crocodiles  appear 
as  decorative  motifs  on  its  surface.  It  is  likely  that 
the  creators  of  this  vessel,  excavated  in  the  brackish 
semidesert  region  of  northern  Shared  Province,  in 
the  middle  reaches  of  the  Yellow  River  basin,  were 
actually  familiar  with  these  creatures.  '2  The  bird- 
shaped  vessel  (cat.  24)  is  one  of  a  pair  recovered 
from  the  late  thirteenth-century  bce  tomb  of  the 
Shang  royal  consort  Fu  Hao  at  Anyang,  Henan 
Province.'3  It  is  not  based  on  any  recognizable  bird, 
although  its  large  hooked  beak  suggests  that  of  a 
parrot.  The  ambiguity  of  its  shape  carries  over  onto 
its  decoration,  where  visual  puns  and  double 
meanings  tease  the  eye  and  the  imagination.  Two 
dragons  diving  onto  the  bird's  forehead  double  as 
horns;  the  large  spirals  of  its  wings  are  also  coiled 
serpents;  an  owl,  with  distinctive  eyes  and  beak, 
appears  as  part  of  the  tail  feathers.  The  small  three- 
dimensional  figures  of  a  bird  and  dragon,  which 
also  serve  as  handles  for  the  lid  on  the  back  of  its 
head,  seem  to  peer  playfully  between  the  horns. 

Bronze  casting  expanded  greatly  in  geographical 
range,  in  productivity,  and  in  creativity  during  the 
last  centuries  of  the  second  millennium  bce,  as 
demonstrated  both  by  the  artifacts  themselves  and 
by  their  archaeological  locations.  The  magnificent 
four-ram  zun  (cat.  23)  and  the  bronze  boar  (cat.  27) 
were  found  south  of  theYangzi  River  in  Hunan 
Province;  so  were  the  elephant-shaped  vessel  (cat. 
25)  and  the  bail-handled  covered  container  (you; 
cat.  26). u The  large  basin  (cat.  29)  came  from  the 
lower  Yangzi  River  basin  in  southeastern  China,  the 
serpentine  vessel  (cat.  28)  from  a  site  just  south  of 
the  Great  Wall  in  northwestern  China.  In  the 
quality  of  their  workmanship  some  of  these  vessels 
are  virtually  indistinguishable  from  the  best 
products  of  the  capital  region  of  Anyang.  Some,  like 
the  elephant  or  the  you,  may  have  come  from  the 
area  of  Anyang;  others  may  have  been  made  by 
regional  workshops  according  to  local  tastes  or 
ritual  needs  (cats.  27-29). 

Other  artifacts  from  theYangzi  River  valley,  like  the 
drum  (gu;  cat.  34)  which  was  a  chance  find  in 
Chongyang  county,  Hubei  Province,  further  attest 
to  locally  distinctive  bronze-casting  traditions  in  the 
peripheral  regions.  It  is  one  of  only  two  bronze 
drums  known,  both  distinctly  southern  in  style. 
Bronze  drums  may  have  played  a  special  part  in  the 
rites  and  rituals  of  the  south.1'  No  bronze  drums 
have  yet  been  recovered  along  the  Yellow  River 
basin,  although  drums  made  from  humbler 
materials  such  as  earthenware  and  wood  were  in 
use  there. '"The  loose  design  of  spirals  on  the 


present  drum  suggests  a  relatively  early  date  of 
manufacture  (ca.  1500-1300  bce);  if  correct,  this 
means  that  local  bronze-casting  workshops  were  in 
operation  in  the  south  at  about  the  same  time  as 
their  northern  counterparts  in  the  Shang  heartland 
along  the  Yellow  River  basin. 

Dramatic  evidence  of  the  geographical  extent  of 
southern  bronze  casting  and  the  skills  of  the  casters 
has  been  afforded  by  recent  discovery  of  two 
sacrificial  pits,  containing  bronzes  dated  to  the  late 
second  millennium  bce,  at  Sanxingdui,  Guanghan 
county,  Sichuan  Province  in  southwestern  China.'7 
The  Sanxingdui  pits  and  Fu  Hao's  tomb  at  Anyang 
are  closely  contemporary  but  about  eight  hundred 
miles  apart,  and  the  bronzes  from  the  two  sites 
differ  strikingly  in  type,  form,  and  size  (fig.  3). The 
impressive  bronze  mask  (cat.  30),  the  largest  of  three 
recovered  at  Guanghan,  has  no  parallel  elsewhere  in 
China.  Its  function  and  context  of  use  are  unclear, 
its  form  and  size  unprecedented,  and  the  meaning 
of  its  extraordinary  projecting  pupils  is  a  mystery. 
That  they  had  special  meaning  for  the  society  that 
created  them  is  evident  from  the  extra  effort 
required  to  produce  them.  Projecting  a  startling 
distance  from  the  face,  the  pupils  appear  to  have 
been  precast,  then  inserted  into  the  mold  for  the 
rest  of  the  face,  which  was  cast  around  them  in  a 
second  pour  of  metal.  In  the  use  of  precast 
elements,  as  well  as  in  its  monumental  size,  this 
casting  is  reminiscent  of  similarly  ambitious 
products  of  northern  workshops,  such  as  the  large 
fang  ding  (cat.  22)  discussed  above.  The  rectangular 
slot  at  the  center  of  the  forehead  may  have  held  an 
extension,  perhaps  resembling  the  long  scrolled 
projection  fitted  on  one  of  the  other  two  masks.'8 
Clearly  the  people  who  commissioned  the  bizarre 
bronzes  at  Guanghan  and  buried  them  together 
with  a  rich  assortment  of  bronze,  jade,  and  ivory 
objects  in  two  large  pits  (not  tombs)  were  masters 
of  a  bronze-casting  technology  closely  comparable 
to  that  of  their  counterparts  farther  north  in  the 
Yellow  River  basin.  Although  the  bronze  casters  of 
the  lower  Yellow  River  basin  may  have  been  the 
first  to  explore,  develop,  and  eventually  achieve 
high  standards  in  bronze  casting,  it  was  the  distant 
workshops  that  seem  to  have  tested  the  limits  of 
the  technology  by  attempting  eccentric  shapes, 
unorthodox  decoration,  and  gigantic  castings. 

WESTERN     ZHOU     PERIOD 

It  was  precisely  one  of  these  distant  centers  ot 
power,  one  located  in  the  middle  and  upper Yellov 
River  basin,  that  eventually  overcame  the  Shang 
kings  at  Anyang  about  1 100  bce.  The  conquerors, 
whose  homeland  spanned  present-da)  Gansu  and 
Shaanxi  provinces,  established  the  Zhou  dynasty, 
locating  its  capital  in  the  easternmost  pari  of  their 
realm,  near  present-day  Xi'an."'  Not  only  did  the 
Zhou  adopt  Shang  rituals  and  customs  and 


INNOVATION    IN    ANCIENT    CHINESE    METAIWORK 


79 


bovine  horns  on  the  lid;  coiled  serpents  on  the 
shoulders;  beasts  with  large  coiled  bodies  below;  and 
realistic  recumbent  buffalo  on  the  foot;  all  rendered 
in  varying  relief  against  a  fine  spiral  ground. 

Similar  features  can  also  be  seen  within  the  Zhou 
realm,  on  bronzes  excavated  near  Baoji  county, 
Shaanxi  Province,  datable  to  the  first  hundred  or 
more  years  of  Zhou  rule  (ca.  noo-ca.  950  bce). 
Comparable  energy  and  power  are  exuded  by  the 
massive  hooked  flanges  and  bold  taotie  with 
outward-spiralmg  horns  on  the  vessel  tor  liquids 
(zun;  cat.  32),"  the  intimidating  bovine  horns  on 
the  base  of  the  food  container  (gui;  cat.  35),2-1  and 
the  exuberant  arrays  of  real  and  imaginary  creatures 
on  both  the  gui  and  the  rectangular  gong  (cat.  36). 24 
Zhou  bronze  casters  exploited  the  hooked  flanges 
on  the  zun  (cat.  32)  for  maximum  effect  by 
deliberately  extending  them  beyond  the  rim — the 
overhangs  were  separately  cast  and  attached  to  the 
existing  flanges  by  additional  pours  of  metal.  The 
massiveness  of  this  vessel  is  not  purely  visual: 
unusually  heavy  for  a  vessel  of  its  size,  it  weighs 
14.78  kilograms.  The  same  complexity  of 
manufacture  characterizes  the  above-mentioned  gui 
and  gong:  on  the  gui,  intricate  mold  assembly  for  the 
projecting  bovine  horns,  precast,  multianimal 
handles,  and  a  small  bell  attached  to  the  underside 
of  its  base;  on  the  gong,  the  three-dimensional, 
down-curving  horns  of  the  creature  that  forms  the 
lid.  The  new  aesthetic  requirements  of  early  Zhou 
patrons  continued  to  push  bronze  casters  to  the 
limits  of  their  skills,  and  with  surpassing  results. 


Fig-3-  Bronze  standing  figure.  Late  second  millennium 
BCE.  Sanxingdui,  Guanghan,  Sichuan  Province. 


continue  to  require  the  bronze  casters'  services, 
their  patronage  infused  new  life  into  a  tradition  by 
then  over  five  hundred  years  old.  The  Zhou 
brought  with  them  a  liberating  flamboyance  most 
certainly  influenced  by  the  eccentric  creations  from 
the  south,  southwest,  and  southeast.20  Vessels  in  this 
exhibition  dating  from  the  early  part  of  Zhou  rule 
(ca.  1100— ca.  1000  bce)  illustrate  some  of  these 
distinctive  Zhou  features  (cats.  31,  32,  35,  41). 

The  container  for  liquids  (lei;  cat.  31),  found  far 
from  the  Zhou  realm  in  a  cache  in  Zhuwajie,  Peng 
county,  Sichuan  Province,  is  an  outstanding  example 
of  Zhou's  invigorating  effect  on  bronze  design.21 
Vessels  of  equally  imposing  size  were  made  by  the 
Shang  casters,  but  the  bold  elephant-trunk  handles 
and  the  ferociously  hooked  flanges  running  from  lid 
to  foot  create  a  bristling  silhouette  that  is  assertively 
difierent  from  the  monumental  lei  vessels  of  the 
Shang.  Its  surface  decoration  augments  this  effect 
with  a  host  of  new  motifs:  taotie  (semiabstract 
zoomorphic  motifs)  with  almost  freestanding 


Besides  introducing  new  aesthetics  and  motifs,  the 
Zhou  conquest  also  appears  to  have  brought  a 
change  in  ritual  practices  that  presented  a  different 
set  ot  problems  to  the  Zhou  bronze  caster.2'  The 
gong  (cat.  36),  dating  from  the  early  tenth  century 
bce,  formed  a  set  with  two  other  vessels,  each 
different  in  shape  but  identical  in  design  and 
bearing  the  same  forty-character  inscription 
inside.2'' The  rectangular  container  (fang  yi;  cat.  41) 
from  the  late  tenth  century  BCE  is  also  part  of  a  set 
of  three  vessels  different  in  shape  but  identical  in 
surface  decoration  and  inscription.27  Zhou  nobles, 
prompted  perhaps  by  religious  customs  or  ritual 
requirements  at  court,  seem  to  have  been  the  first 
group  to  require  sets  of  vessels  with  matching 
designs,  shapes,  or  dedicatory  inscriptions.  By  the 
early  ninth  century  bce,  when  the  large  container 
tor  liquid  (hu;  cat.  39)  and  its  mate  were  made,  large 
sets  of  bronze  vessels,  often  carrying  matching 
dedicatory  inscriptions  and  comprising  a  narrow 
range  of  shapes  and  designs,  had  become  the 
norm.2S  This  development,  which  required  that  the 
bronze  caster  produce  virtual  duplicates  (often  in 
decoration  and  sometimes  in  shape),  presented  new 
demands  on  an  industry  that,  up  to  then,  had  only 
been  making  one-of-a-kind  bronzes. 


INNOVATION    IN    ANCIENT    CHINESE    METALWORK 


The  increase  in  sets  of  vessels  with  long  inscriptions 
associating  them  to  certain  noble  families  or  clans  is 
symptomatic  of  a  political  development  during  the 
ninth  and  eighth  centuries  bce:  the  declining  power 
of  the  Zhou  kings  and  the  increasing  autonomy  of 
the  nobles  in  their  respective  domains  surrounding 
the  Zhou  court.  To  appear  appropriately  equipped 
with  the  trappings  of  authority,  ambitious  dukes 
and  princes  began  commissioning  sets  of  bronze 
vessels  to  display  as  symbols  of  power  at  important 
rituals  and  state  occasions. The  spouted  pitcher  (he; 
cat.  38)  and  the  food  container  (gui;  cat.  39) 
unearthed  at  the  city  of  Pingdingshan,  central 
Henan  Province,  signify  this  new  demand.29  Both 
vessels  carry  inscriptions  linking  them  with  the 
small  state  of  Ying,  which  fell  to  rivals  sometime  in 
the  fifth  century  BCE.  The  wealth  of  bronzes 
associated  with  the  Ying  state  at  this  site  has  been 
matched  by  the  rich  finds  associated  with  various 
other  principalities,  attesting  to  an  overall  sharp  rise 
in  demand.  The  bronze-casting  industry  had  to 
improve  production  methods,  not  simply  to  make 
duplicate  vessels  but  also  to  increase  output  as 
required  by  its  expanding  clientele.30 

EASTERN    ZHOU    PERIOD 
In  770  bce  the  Zhou  kings  lost  their  western 
capital  at  Xi'an  to  marauding  nomads  and  fled  to 
their  eastern  capital  near  present-day  Luoyang, 
Henan  Province.  Their  shrunken  power  accelerated 
the  fracturing  of  the  realm  into  powerful 
aristocratic  states,  with  concomitant  explosive  rise 
in  the  demand  on  the  bronze  industry.  This  political 
decentralization  must  have  been  responsible  in  part 
for  the  radical  changes  that  took  place  in  workshop 
organization  and  production  methods  of  the 
bronze-casting  industry  by  the  seventh  and  sixth 
centuries  bce.  A  large  sixth-fifth-century  bronze 
foundry  site,  under  excavation  at  the  city  of 
Houma,  southern  Shanxi  Province,  since  the  1950s, 
has  yielded  workshop  debris  that  hints  at 
techniques  capable  of  meeting  all  requirements — 
sets  of  ritual  vessels  matching  in  shape  and/or 
decoration,  vastly  increased  scale  of  production, 
foreign  exotica,  and  everyday  needs — without 
sacrificing  the  high-level  workmanship  that  court 
and  noble  patrons  had  come  to  expect.31 

Foundry  debris  at  Houma  suggested  a  production 
process  organized  according  to  specialization  and 
division  of  labor.  The  multistep  processes  of 
shaping,  decorating,  and  assembling  the  clay  molds, 
as  well  as  the  manufacture  of  different  types  of 
bronzes  (both  ritual  and  utilitarian),  probably  took 
place  in  separate  areas  of  the  workshop  compound, 
with  different  groups  of  workers  contributing 
specific  skills  toward  the  final  product.  Most 
compelling  of  all  the  finds  at  Houma  were  the 
thousands  ot  pieces  of  decorated  clay  foundry 
debris,  suggesting  the  wavs  in  which  surface 


Fig.  4.  Clay  model  of  decorative  design  for  casting.  Late 
6th— early  5th  century  BCE.  Niucun,  Houma,  Shanxi 
Province. 


decoration  and  appendages  such  as  handles,  lids,  and 
other  decorative  accents  were  made.  It  seems  that 
some  kind  of  master  pattern  system  was  used,  so 
that  the  same  decor  units  could  be  variously 
combined  into  vessels  of  diverse  shapes,  sizes,  and 
designs.  A  complex  multistep  decor  replication 
process  required  taking  repeated  clay  negatives  from 
a  single  positive  model,  which  served  as  a  master 
unit  (fig.  4).  This  process  made  possible  identical 
repeated  patterns  on  a  vessel  (fig.  4),  or  identical 
handles,  legs,  or  decorative  appendages  on  a  single 
vessel.  For  sets  of  bronzes  in  graduated  sizes,  a  series 
of  similarly  graduated  master  units  could  produce 
appropriately  sized  but  otherwise  identical  handles 
or  accents  (fig.  5). 32  With  a  wide  variety  of  master 
patterns  at  the  workshop's  disposal,  the  decor 
possibilities  were  virtually  unlimited. 

The  four-sided  vessel  (Jang  hu;  cat.  43)  was  likely  a 
product  of  the  Houma  workshops.  It  forms  a  set 
with  three  other  identical  vessels,  recovered  from 
the  rich  tomb  of  a  noble  of  the  Jin  state  at  [insheng 
village,  outside  Taiyuan,  the  capital  of  Shanxi 
Province  (see  also  cat.  44). 33  As  a  measure  of  the 
bronze  caster's  facility  in  replicating  vessel  shapes 
and  decoration  in  a  variety  of  sizes  and  designs,  the 
tomb  that  yielded  these  four  hn  also  contained 
matching  sets,  but  in  graduated  sizes,  of  seven  and 
six  tripod  vessels  (ding);  a  set  of  eight  matching 
stemmed  and  covered  food  containers  (don);  four 
basins  (jian);  and  two  sets  of  bells  (bo),  five  in  one 
set  and  fourteen  in  the  other  (fig.  6).  Detailed 
studies  of  a  hn  in  the  Freer  Gallery  oi  Art. 
Smithsonian  Institution,  demonstrated  that  the 
continuously  interlacing  dragon  and  twisted-rope 
designs  on  such  vessels  were  actually  replicated 
from  just  four  or  five  master  pattern  units,  each 
repeated  as  necessary  to  compose  .1  given  register  of 
decoration  (tig.  7)."  Similarly  repeated  pattern  units 
form  the  designs  on  the  interior  and  exterior  ol  the 
rectangular  basin  (pan;  cat.  4SI. The  first-rate 
workmanship  possible  on  bronzes  decorated  by 


INNOVATION    IN    ANCIENT    CHINESE    METALWORK 


81 


Fig.  5.  Drawing  of clay  mollis  in  graduated  sizes  for 
casting  bosses  on  bronze  bells  of  graduated  sizes. 
Late  6th- early  5th  century  BCE.  Niucun,  Houma, 
Shanxi  Province.  (Drawings  by  Li  Xiating  [Shanxi 
Institute  of  Archaeology]). 


such  a  process  of  replication  is  illustrated  by  the 
Freer  hu  and  the  Palace  Museum  basin.  The  densely 
multilayered  and  interlacing  designs  that  typify  this 
production  method  may  have  been  developed  in 
conjunction  with  it,  the  better  to  camouflage  the 
joins  between  pattern  units,  as  well  as  the  minor 
adjustments  for  fit  that  may  become  necessary  as 
the  units  are  repeated  on  vessels  of  different 
curvatures,  circumferences,  and  shapes. 

The  sixth-  and  fifth-century  bce  workshops  that 
produced  these  bronzes  had  progressed  well  beyond 
the  twelfth-  and  eleventh-century  Shang  foundries 
that  made  individual  bronzes,  each  from  its  own  set 
of  hand-carved  clay  molds.  A  section-mold  maker 
at  an  Anyang  foundry  would  probably  have  had  to 
have  a  fair  idea  ot  the  shape,  size,  and  decoration  of 
his  finished  vessel.  A  model  or  mold  maker  at  the 
Houma  foundry  would  probably  have  been  familiar 
with  only  that  element  of  the  vessel  for  which  he 
was  responsible — a  lid  or  a  handle  or  a  foot  or  a 
unit  ot  decoration — but  not  with  the  completed 
object.  In  the  late  sixth-  to  early  fifth-century 
bronze  foundry  at  Houma  one  can  see  perhaps  the 
source  of  the  streamlined  division  of  labor  and 
mass-production  techniques  associated  with  the 
renowned  Ming  and  Qing  dynasty  porcelain 
workshops  operating  at  Jmgdezhen,Jiangxi 
Province,  nearly  two  thousand  years  later  (see  essays 
by  Wang  Qingzheng  and  Regina  Krahl  in  this 
volume). 


Fig.  6.  Drawing  of  sets  of  bronze  vessels  (4  hu,  6  and  7 
ding,  8  dou,  4  jian,  5  and  14  bo)  from  finshengcun , 
Taiyuan,  Shanxi  Province.  Late  6th— early  $th  century 
BCE.  (Drawings  by  Li  Xiating  [Shanxi  Institute  of 
Archaeology]). 


Cultural  diversity  and  increased  contact  among  the 
divers  cultures,  along  with  social  and  political 
mobility,  proved  to  be  major  invigorating  forces  for 
the  bronze  industry  through  the  end  of  the  first 
millennium  bce.  Sculptural  bronzes  and  animal 
appendages  on  bronze  vessels  continued  to  be 
major  provincial  features  (cats.  33,  37,  38,  55-58). 
The  spouted  vessel  (he;  cat.  38),35  from  a  tenth- 
century  bce  context  in  the  city  of  Pingdingshan, 
central  Henan  Province,  quaintly  borrowed  the 


duck-shaped  spout  characteristic  of  ceramic  he 
vessels  from  the  southeastern  coastal  provinces  of 
Jiangsu  and  Zhejiang,  while  retaining  the  more 
traditional  Zhou  shape,  handle,  and  legs  (fig.  8). 
The  endearingly  awkward  elephant-shaped  vessel 
(cat.  37)  from  Rujiazhuang,  Baoji  county,  Shaanxi 
Province,  is  a  tenth-century  bce  local  descendant  of 
the  boar-  and  elephant-shaped  bronzes  of  a  few 
centuries  earlier  (cats.  27,  25). 3<1  On  the 


INNOVATION    IN    ANCIENT    CHINESE    METALWORK 


82 


Fig.  7.  Container  for  liquids  fhuj.  Early  5th  century  BCE. 
Bronze.  Freer  Gallery  of  Art,  Smithsonian  Institution, 
Washington,  D.C.  (57.22). 


Fig.8.  Covered  spouted  server  (he).  11th—  10th  century 
BCE.  Bronze.  Freer  Gallery  of  Art,  Smithsonian 
Institution,  Washington,  D.C.  (33.2). 


Rujiazhuang  elephant  the  elaborate  surface 
decoration  of  the  earlier  vessels  has  dwindled  to  a 
large  spiral  above  each  leg,  no  doubt  intended  to 
suggest  rippling  musculature  but  appearing 
essentially  ornamental.  The  animal's  head,  however, 
is  rendered  with  considerable  realism. 

The  bronze  bell  (bo;  cat.  33)  represents  a  group  of 
bells  with  similar  decoration  that  date  from  the  late 
tenth  century  bce  and  are  now  in  various  Chinese 
and  Western  collections.37  Like  bronze  drums  (cat. 
34),  bronze  bells  are  closely  identified  with  the 
Yangzi  River  basin,  having  a  continuous  history  of 
use  and  production  there  since  the  late  second 
millennium  bce.3*  By  the  tenth  century  BCE, 
however,  they  had  penetrated  the  Zhou  court, 
where  sets  of  large  bronze  bells  began  to  appear  as 
important  components  of  ritual  regalia.  Despite  the 
integration  of  the  bells  into  mainstream  Zhou 
tradition,  many  of  their  southern  characteristics 
persisted,  particularly  the  use  of  animal  decoration, 
such  as  the  four  tigers  climbing  down  the  sides  of 
the  bell,  or  the  bird  at  the  top  of  the  flange  in  the 
center. 

Other  peripheral  regions  also  contributed  to 
metropolitan  bronze  designs,  as  exemplified  in  an 
unusual  lopsided  vessel  (cat.  44).  Part  of  the  large 
group  ot  bronzes  unearthed  from  the  same  fin 
noble's  tomb  that  contained  catalogue  43,  this  flask 
with  asymmetrical  profile  and  bird-shaped  lid 


illustrates  the  ancient  Jin  state's  contact  with 
nomadic  peoples  living  in  the  area  north  of  today's 
Great  Wall. v'  Its  peculiar  shape  was  probably 
inspired  by  the  animal-skin  flasks  carried  by  hunters 
and  herders  who  lived  along  ancient  China's 
northern  and  western  borders,  an  antecedent  more 
clearly  illustrated  by  a  plain  bronze  example 
recovered  in  northern  Hebei  Province  (fig.  9).40  Its 
surface  decoration,  however,  was  drawn  from  the 
standard  late  sixth-century  bce  Chinese  decorative 
repertoire,  and  its  workmanship  is  typical  of  Jin 
state  bronzes.  Such  bronze  vessels  were  probably 
made  in  Jin  or  similar  workshops  as  exotica  for 
their  noble  patrons,  and  occasionally  to  be 
presented  as  gifts  to  leaders  of  northern  tribes. 

One  of  these  northern  tribes,  known  in  Chinese 
historical  texts  as  the  Di,  actually  settled  south  of 
the  Great  Wall  in  the  fourth  century  bce.  founding 
the  small  and  short-lived  state  of  Zhongshan  just 
south  of  Beijing.  The  multiarmed  lamp  in  the  shape 
of  a  tree  (cat.  54),  together  with  a  rich  assortment 
of  bronzes  that  reflect  the  tribe's  northern  heritage, 
came  from  the  tomb  of  a  Zhongshan  king  who 
died  at  the  end  of  the  fourth  century  bce.41  In  this 
lamp  eight  monkeys,  perceptively — even 
affectionately —  portrayed,  scamper  about  and  hang 
from  the  tree  branches,  as  two  bare-chested  fellows 
below  appear  to  be  cajoling  the  monkevs,  rc.uh  to 
catch  whatever  may  be  flung  to  them. Two 
centuries  later  the  elaborate  fittings  on  the 


INNOVATION    IN    ANCIENT    CHINESE    METALWORK 


83 


Fig.  g.  Flask.  6th  century  BCE.  Lijiazhuang,  Xingtang 
county,  Hebei  Province. 


canopied  carriages  of  Western  Han  princes  reveal 
the  continuing  Chinese  fascination  with  these 
border  tribes:  a  mounted  hunter  executing  a 
Parthian  shot  at  a  leaping  tiger  behind  him,  and 
topknotted  foreigners  riding  elephants  and  camels 
(cat.  49;  see  also  cat.  51). 42  This  exotic  iconography 
is  further  enhanced  by  lavish  inlays  of  gold,  silver, 
and  turquoise,  colors  that  might  have  approximated 
the  brightly  appliqued  felts  and  other  fabrics  worn 
by  the  northern  peoples.43 

The  bronze  casters  of  south  China,  whose 
repertoire  of  masks,  drums,  and  bells,  and 
preference  for  sculptural  ornament  on  vessels, 
contrast  so  strikingly  with  the  bronze  conventions 
of  the  heartland,  attained  new  heights  during  the 
late  first  millennium  bce.  Three  exceptional  bronzes 
(cats.  45,  46,  52)  can  be  associated  with  the  state  of 
Chu,  the  most  powerful  ruling  house  to  emerge 
south  of  theYangzi  River  in  the  second  half  of  the 
millennium.  Chu  s  exoticism  differs  from  that  of 
the  north,  featuring  intricate  baroque  forms  and 
fantastic,  serpentine  imagery.4"1  The  sinuous 
creatures  with  elaborate  horns  that  support  the 
large,  early  sixth-century  bce  vessel  (cat.  45)  are 
close  relatives  of  the  pair  of  slightly  later,  malachite- 
encrusted  beasts,  one  of  which  is  represented  here 
(cat.  46)  .4S  The  rhythms  generated  by  the  sinuous 
body,  animated  pose,  lolling  tongue,  and  spiraling 
horns  of  the  fabulous  animal  amplify  the  more 
subtle  rhythms  produced  by  the  interlaced  pattern 
and  sculptural  appendages  on  the  earlier  vessel 
(cat.  45).  A  kneeling  humanoid,  biting  one  snake  as 


he  grips  two  more  in  his  hands  (cat.  52),  is  one  of 
two  such  corner  fittings  that  supported  a  lacquer 
screen  found  in  a  tomb  at  Guangzhou,  Guangdong 
Province,  just  north  of  Hong  Kong.  This  fabulous 
creature  demonstrates  Chu's  far-reaching 
geographical  and  temporal  influence  on  the  bronze 
maker's  art. 

Successful  production  of  these  intertwining  and 
curvilinear  forms  posed  a  new  challenge  to  bronze 
casters  trained  in  section-mold  casting  techniques. 
Although  the  main  body  of  the  hu  vessel  and  of  the 
fabulous  inlaid  beast  were  still  cast  using  mold 
sections,  like  nryriad  bronzes  before  them,  the 
gyrating,  spiraling  horns  of  the  appended  creatures 
on  the  hu  were  made  with  a  little-used  technique: 
lost-wax  casting.  Compared  with  the  millennium- 
old  section-mold  casting  technique,  lost-wax 
casting  is  an  easier  way  to  cast  complex  three- 
dimensional  shapes  and  decorations.  The  technique 
starts  with  a  wax  model  of  the  shape  to  be  made; 
because  wax  is  soft  and  pliable,  this  shape  can  be  as 
intricate  as  desired  (fig.  10).  After  the  model  is 
encased  in  clay,  the  whole  assembly  is  heated  so 
that  the  wax  melts  away  through  vents  left  for  this 
purpose,  leaving  a  cavity  inside  that  exactly 
duplicates  the  model.  Molten  bronze  is  then  poured 
into  this  cavity.  When  the  bronze  has  cooled,  the 
clay  mold  is  broken  open  to  reveal  the  final  product 
in  cast  bronze.  This  technique  appeared  in  China 
sometime  during  the  sixth  century  bce,  used 
primarily  to  cast  complex  decorative  appendages  on 
Chu  bronzes  (like  the  horns  on  cats.  45  and  46);  it 
may  have  been  prompted  by  the  special  demands  of 
Chu  aesthetics.46 

WESTERN    HAN    PERIOD 

By  the  late  second  century  bce,  when  the  screen 
support  (cat.  52)  was  made,  lost-wax  casting  was 
widely  used  in  both  metropolitan  and  regional 
workshops  to  produce  large,  intricately  shaped  or 
sculptural  bronzes  (cats.  50,  53,  55— 58). The 
exquisite  gold-inlaid  incense  burner  (cat.  50) 
belonging  to  the  Western  Han  prince  Liu  Sheng  is 
a  handsome  product  of  metropolitan  workshops.47 
The  frank  realism  and  exotic  imagery  of  the 
bronzes  from  the  Dian  kingdom  in  Yunnan 
Province,  in  southwestern  China,  illustrate  the 
foreign  heritage  of  its  people  and  the  huge 
distances  that  separated  them,  culturally  and 
artistically  as  well  as  geographically,  from  the  Han 
court  (cats.  55— 58). 48  The  Dian  peoples  wore  fitted 
trousers  and  short  tunics  typical  of  horse-riding 
tribes  of  Central  Asia  and  seemed  to  delight  in 
animated  (perhaps  even  rowdy)  dancing  (cat.  56). 49 
Bulls  appear  to  have  held  a  significant  place  in  Dian 
ritual  and  sacrifice  (cat.  57);  and  the  brutality  of  war 
was  apparently  acknowledged,  perhaps  even  gloried 
in  (cat.  55). These  Dian  bronzes  were  all  made  with 
the  lost-wax  casting  technique.  In  subsequent 


INNOVATION    IN    ANCIENT    CHINESE    METALWORK 


Fig.  w.  Reconstruction  of  mold  assembly  for  lost-wax 
casting. 


centuries  systematic  refinement  of  this  latest 
technical  innovation  allowed  bronze  casters  to 
produce  the  myriad  Buddhist  and  secular  gilt 
bronzes  of  the  Tang  dynasty  (cats.  160,  169)  as  well 
as  such  spectacular  creations  as  flying  dragons 
(cat.  59). 

Lost-wax  casting  constituted  a  major  technical 
innovation  of  the  first  millennium  bce,  but  by  no 
means  the  only  one.  Continued  intermingling  of 
new  ideas  from  different  parts  of  China  stimulated  a 
variety  of  new  decorative  techniques.  One  of  these 
was  the  use  of  color.  Whereas  the  decoration  of 
bronze  surfaces  had  previously  been 
monochromatic,  accomplished  solely  with 
patterning,  the  bronzes  might  now  be  inlaid  with 
gold,  silver,  and  semiprecious  stones  (cats.  46,  49, 
50),  gilded  with  mercury  amalgam  (cats.  51,  52,  56), 
or  simply  painted  with  pigments,  among  other 
devices  (cat.  53). These  colorfully  decorated  bronzes 
kept  the  industry  healthy  and  productive  well  into 
the  first  centuries  ce,  despite  rising  competition 
from  the  lustrous  jades,  colorful  lacquers,  and 
embroidered  silks  that  had  begun  to  capture  the 
hearts  and  budgets  of  wealthy  elite  patrons.50 

Local  and  peripheral  traditions  were  not  the  sole 
sources  of  challenge  and  inspiration  for  bronze 
casters  of  the  first  millennium  bce.  Deliberate 
archaism  resurrected  orthodox  Shang  and  Zhou 
styles.  Although  the  four-sided  wine  vessel  (  fang  hit; 
cat.  43)  dates  from  the  early  fifth  century  bce,  its 
shape,  paneled  design,  and  petaled  crown  represent 
deliberate  echoes  of  a  vessel  type  popular  during 
the  ninth  and  eighth  centuries  bce.''1  Echoes  of  past 
traditions  continued  to  figure  in  bronze  designs  of 
the  late  first  millennium  bce,  contributing  to  their 
already  complex  artistic  character  and  meaning.53 

A  third  driving  force  behind  the  creativity  of  the 
first  millennium  bce:  had  little  connection  either 


with  the  somber  rituals  of  the  Shang  and  Zhou 
courts,  with  longstanding  artistic  traditions,  or  with 
particular  local  customs.  The  miniature  carriage,  a 
box  on  wheels  (cat.  42)  dating  from  the  eighth 
century  bce,  is  an  early  hint  of  this  new  force.53 
This  remarkable  object  is  ingeniously  designed  with 
fifteen  moving  parts:  six  turning  wheels;  four 
hinged  openings  (on  top  and  at  one  end);  a  sliding 
door  bolt;  and  four  pivoting  birds.  The  one-legged 
doorkeeper  might  have  been  chosen  specifically  for 
his  handicap,  for  he  could  not  easily  make  off  with 
the  treasures  he  is  guarding.  The  carriage's  clever 
design,  movable  parts,  and  miniature  size  all  suggest 
that  this  was  a  toy.  Perhaps  it  and  other  miniatures 
found  in  the  same  context  were  indeed  toys,  the 
idle  elite's  playthings  or  collectibles — perhaps  even 
containers  for  precious  memorabilia. 

Demand  for  similar  utilitarian  or  luxurious  secular 
items  flourished  by  the  end  of  the  first  millennium 
bce  (cats.  49,  51,  52,  56). The  crowning 
achievements  in  this  category  must  be  the  bronze 
lamps  made  in  the  last  centuries  bce  (cats.  53,  54). 
Never  meant  as  funerary  paraphernalia  or  as  ritual 
implements,  bronze  lamps  were  strictly  functional 
furnishings  in  affluent  households.  Some,  like  the 
multiarmed  lamp  (cat.  54),  performed  their  function 
simply  by  supplying  effective  lighting  through  a 
delightful  shape;  others,  like  the  lamp  in  the  shape 
of  a  goose  (cat.  53),  are  dazzlingly  ingenious,  even 
ecologically  minded  designs.  As  the  wick  burns 
inside  the  cylinder  on  the  goose's  back,  the  vertical 
panels  that  form  the  cylinder  may  be  slid  back  and 
forth  so  as  to  throw  the  light  anywhere  within  360 
degrees. The  smoke  from  the  burning  oil  rises  up 
into  the  fish-shaped  cover  and  thence  to  the  neck 
of  the  goose;  from  there  it  descends  into  the  goose's 
hollow  body,  which  has  been  filled  with  water  to 
absorb  the  smoke.  This  keeps  the  room  free  ol  smoke 
and  smell/'  Man  dynasty  householders  were  clearly 
as  mindful  of  the  air  they  breathed  as  we  are  today. 

TANG    PERIOD 

Even  surpassing  the  extravagant  luxury  goods  of  the 

Han  court  were  those  made  for  the  ruling  class  of 


INNOVATION    IN    ANCIENT    CHINESE    METALWORK 


85 


the  Tang  dynasty  (618-907).  Both  the  Han  and  Tang 
courts  shared  the  blessings  of  a  stable,  unified  realm 
whose  expansive  territory  reached  far  into  Central 
Asia,  bringing  trade  and  tribute  from  the 
westernmost  end  of  the  Silk  Road  to  the  Tang 
capital  (see  Map  2).  The  Tang  court  was  grand, 
cosmopolitan,  and  sophisticated,  and  the  luxury 
goods  of  the  Tang  ruling  elite  reflected  these 
qualities.  Exotic  goods,  peoples,  and  customs 
poured  into  the  capital  at  Chang' an  (modern 
Xi'an),  endowing  Tang  society  with  a  rich 
multiculturalism  unsurpassed  before  or  since.55 
Bronze,  the  preeminent  luxury  material  of  the 
previous  two  thousand  years,  was  no  longer  the 
choicest  substance,  even  at  times  being  used  for 
funerary  goods  like  its  more  common  ceramic 
counterparts.  Gilt  bronze  continued,  however,  to 
hold  a  special  place  in  Buddhist  contexts  (cats.  160, 
169),  and  the  magnificent  gilt-bronze  dragon 
(cat.  59)  is  exceptional  in  any  context. s6  This 
dragon,  which  is  over  34  centimeters  long,  has  an 
awesome  presence;  with  its  hind  legs  and  tail  flung 
high  in  the  air  and  its  front  legs  held  taut,  it  seems 
as  if  it  had  just  touched  down.  The  function  of  this 
remarkable  object  remains  a  mystery,  since  the 
circumstances  of  its  discovery  provide  no  clue  to  its 
use  or  context.  As  an  emblem  of  the  power  of  the 
Tang  empire,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  this  flying 
dragon  is  unmatched. 

Instead  ot  bronze,  the  preeminent  status  metals 
throughout  the  Tang  period  were  gold  and  silver 
(cats.  60— 65).  Among  the  peoples  of  ancient  Central 
and  West  Asia  glittering  precious  metals  had  long 
held  pride  of  place,  and  their  prestige  at  the  Tang 
court  was  a  direct  result  of  prolonged  contact  with 
these  peoples  along  the  Silk  Road.57  Two  caches 
recovered  in  recent  years  in  Xi'an  illustrate  the  best 
of  this  new  medium  in  Tang  times.  The  treasures 
sealed  in  the  foundation  of  the  Famen  Temple 
pagoda  in  874  reveal  the  exalted  status  of  gold  and 
silver  in  religious  and  imperial  rituals  (cats.  64,  65). 5S 
The  rich  assortment  of  tea  utensils  from  the  trove 
illustrate  that  tea  drinking  and  its  associated  rituals 
and  ceremonies  had  noble  connotations  in  Tang 
imperial,  literati,  and  Buddhist  circles  (fig.  n). The 
rarified  custom  of  storing  processed  tea  in  the  form 
of  hardened  cakes  is  revealed  by  the  openwork 
basket  (cat.  64)  used  to  keep  the  cakes  dry  until 
they  were  ground  for  brewing.  Among  the  tea 
utensils,  articles  like  the  salt  caddy  (cat.  65)  confirm 
practices  previously  known  only  from  texts,  such  as 
adding  salt  and  spices  to  tea  to  reduce  its  bitterness. 

The  three  gilded  silver  plates  (cats.  60—62)  were 
part  of  a  cache  of  270  gold  and  silver  objects, 
foreign  coins,  and  jades  (cat.  20)  stuffed  into  two 
large  pottery  urns  and  buried  at  Hejia  village,  south 
of  Xi'an,  perhaps  by  a  noble  family  fleeing  the  Tang 
capital  to  escape  the  rebel  An  Lushan  in  755. 59  The 


Fig.  11.  Group  of  gilded  silver  tea  utensils  and  Buddhist 
ritual  objects,  gth  century  CB.  Famen  Temple,  Xi'an, 
Shaanxi  Province. 


animals  highlighted  inside  these  plates  came  from  a 
variety  of  cultural  backgrounds:  the  fabulous, 
single-horned  winged  horse  (cat.  60)  recalls  the 
similar  creature  of  West  Asian  myths;  the  bear  (cat. 
61)  belongs  to  the  northern  forests;  and  the  foxes 
(cat.  62)  may  have  been  inspired  by  Chinese  folk 
tales.  These  repousse  motifs  and  hammered  shapes 
came  to  China  with  foreign  silversmiths  and  their 
wares,  but  they  left  a  lasting  influence  on  China's 
native  lacquer  and  ceramic  industries.  Their  metallic 
shapes  and  relief  decoration  were  adopted  on 
Tang  and  Song  lacquers  and  glazed  ceramics 
(cats.  133,  138). 

During  the  two  thousand  years  from  the  creation 
ot  the  first  crudely  made  cast-bronze  vessels  of  the 
early  second  millennium  bce  to  the  exquisite 
bronze  and  silver  objects  of  the  Tang  dynasty, 
China's  metalworkers  invented,  developed,  and 
perfected  the  casting  of  bronzes  using  section 
molds,  exploited  as  necessary  new  casting  (lost-wax) 
and  decorative  techniques  (inlaying,  gilding),  and 
eventually  also  acquired  and  mastered  the  foreign 
techniques  of  cold-working  silver  and  gold.  A 
multitude  of  forces — political,  cultural,  social,  and 
religious — contributed  to  these  changes  and 
developments  over  time.  The  cornucopia  of 
beautiful  objects  they  produced  remains  as  evidence 
of  their  remarkable  achievements. 


INNOVATION    IN    ANCIENT    CHINESE    METALWORK 


86 


SOURCES    FOR    FIGURES 

Fig.  i.  After  Cream  of  the 
Pottery  from  Erlitou  (Beijing: 
Social  Sciences  Press,  1995), 
no.  161. 

Fig.  2.  After  WTIiomas  Chase, 
Ancient  Chinese  Bronze  Art: 
Casting  the  Precious  Vessel 
(New  York:  China  House  Gallery, 
*9to)>M  l  ■ 

Fig. 3.  After  Zhongguo  wenwu 
jinghua  (Beijing:  Wenwu 
chubanshe,  1990),  no.  30, 

Fig.  4.  After  Houma  zhutong 
yizhi  (Beijing:  Wenwu 
chubanshe,  1993), pi.  153:3- 

Fig.  9.  After  Hebei  sheng  chutu 
wenwu  xuanji  (Beijing:  Wenwu 
chubanshe,  1980),  no.  159. 

Fig.  10.  After  Henry  Hodges, 
Artifacts  (London:  1976),  p.  72, 
fig.  10. 

Fig,  11.  After  Xi' an:  Legacies  of 
Ancient  Chinese  Civilization 
(Beijing:  Morning  Glory  Press, 
1992),  p.  176. 


NOTES 

1.  Kaogu.no.  5  (1975),  pi.  9, 

p.  2;  and  Henan  sheng  wenwu 
yanjiusuo,  ed.,  Henan  kaogu 
sislunian  (1952-1992) 
(Zhengzhou:  Henan  renmin 
chubanshe,  1994),  p.  176.  For 
calibrated  carbon- 14  dates 
ranging  between  1900  and 
1500  bce  obtained  from  wood 
remains  at  the  site,  see  Kaogu, 
no.  10  (1983),  pp.  923-28;  and 
Institute  of  Archaeology,  ed., 
Radiocarbon  Dates  in  Chinese 
Archaeology  (1965-1991) 
(Beijing: Wenwu  chubanshe, 
J99I). 

2.  Henan  sheng  wenwu,  Henan 
kaogu  sishinian,  p.  174. 

3.  Much  of  the  discussion  here 
and  in  subsequent  sections 
regarding  the  relationship 
between  early  bronze  casting 
and  the  pottery  industry  is 
treated  in  greater  detail  in 
Robert  Bagley,  Shang  Ritual 
Bronzes  in  the  Arthur  M.  Sackler 
Collection  Ancient  Chinese 
Bronzes  from  the  Arthur  M. 
Sacklcr  Collections,  vol.  1 
(Washington,  D.C.  and 
Cambridge,  Mass.:  Arthur  M. 
Sacklcr  Foundation  and  Arthur 
M.  Sacklcr  Museum,  Harvard 


University  Press,  1987);  and 
Robert  Bagley,  "Shang  Ritual 
Bronzes:  Casting  Technique 
and  Vessel  Design,"  Archives  of 
Asian  Art  43  (1990),  pp.  6-20. 

4.  A  detailed  periodization,  based 
on  increasing  ornateness  of 
surface  decoration,  was  first 
proposed  by  Max  Loehr  in"The 
Bronze  Styles  of  the  Anyang 
Period,"  Archives  of  the  Chinese 
Art  Society  of  America  7  (1953), 
pp.  42-53;  it  was  further 
developed  by  Bagley  in  Shang 
Ritual  Bronzes  in  the  Sackler 
Collections,  sees.  1.3— 1.8,  i.ro, 
2.1-2.5. 

5.  Wenwu  jikan,  no.  1  (1992), 
pp.  18-19. 

6.  Henan  sheng  wenwu 
yanjiusuo,  ed.,  Zhengzhou  Shang 
kaogu  xin  faxian  yu  yanjiu 
(1985-1992)  (Zhengzhou: 
Zhongzhou  guji  chubanshe, 
!993);  discussions  regarding  the 
historical  significance  of  the 
site  are  summarized  in  Henan 
sheng  wenwu,  Henan  kaogu 
sishininan,  pp.  201—4. 

7.  Of  these  eight  fang  ding, 
two  are  published  in  Wenwu, 
no.  6  (1975),  pp.  64-68,  the 
larger  of  which  is  also 
illustrated  and  discussed  in  Wen 
Fong,  ed..  The  Great  Bronze  Age 
of  China  (New  York: 
Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art, 
1980),  no.  11;  two  more, 
identical  in  size  and  recovered 
in  1982,  are  published  in 
Wenwu,  no.  3  (1983),  pp.  49-59; 
and  the  remaining  four  (83,  75, 
64,  and  59  cm.  high, 
respectively),  found  in  1996,  are 
published  in  Zhongguo 
wenwubao,2i  April  1996. All, 
including  the  present  example 
(cat.  22),  were  discovered  in 
caches,  not  burials. 

8.  One  vessel  showed  only  0.1 
percent  lead,  while  another 
contained  17  percent  lead;  see 
Wenwu,  no.  3  (1983),  p.  59. 

9.  For  cat.  29,  see  Zhongguo 
wenwu  jinghua  (Beijing:  Wenwu 
chubanshe,  1993),  no.  70;  for 
cat.  23,  a  chance  find  in  1938  at 
Yueshangpu,  Ningxiang  county, 
Hunan  Province,  see  Kaogu, 
no.  12  (1963),  p.  648.  For  a 
detailed  discussion,  including 
arguments  for  its  likely  local 
manufacture,  see  Fong.  ed.. 
Great  Bronze  Age,  no.  20, 

chap.  3. 


10.  Hunan  kaogu  jikan,  no.  1 
(1982),  pp.  19-20. 

11.  For  cat.  25,  see  Wenwu,  no.  7 
(1976),  pp.  49-50;  both 
examples  are  discussed  in  Fong, 
ed..  Great  Bronze  Age,  no.  24. 

12.  Wenwu,  no.  7  (i960),  pp. 
50-52;  the  find  is  also  discussed 
in  connection  with  Fong,  ed.. 
Great  Bronze  Age,  no.  21. 

13. The  excavation  is  reported 
in  full  in  Yinxu  Fu  Hao  mu 
(Beijing:  Wenwu  chubanshe, 
1980);  this  vessel,  the  tomb,  and 
some  of  the  other  bronzes  are 
also  discussed  in  detail  in  Fong, 
ed..  Great  Bronze  Age, 
pp.  177-81,  nos.  28-33;  and  in 
Jessica  Rawson,  ed..  Mysteries  of 
Ancient  China  (London:  British 
Museum  Press,  1996),  pp. 
90—105. 

14.  Wenwu,  no.  I  (1972), 

pp.  6—7;  also  discussed  in  Fong, 
ed..  Great  Bronze  Age,  no.  25. 

15.  Wemvu,  no.  4  (1978),  p.  94; 
also  in  Fong,  ed..  Great  Bronze 
Age,  no.  18. The  other,  in  the 
Sen'oku  Hakkokan,  Kyoto,  is 
discussed  in  Fong,  ed.,  Great 
Bronze  Age,  no.  18. 

16.  For  earthenware  drums,  see 
Rawson,  ed..  Mysteries  of 
Ancient  China,  no.  8;  for 
evidence  of  wooden  drums,  see 
Kaogu,  no.  1  {1983),  pi.  6:5, 

PP-  37~39-  A  pictographic 
inscription  on  a  fang  lei  from 
Luoyang,  Henan  Province, 
shows  two  hands,  each  holding 
up  a  club  to  a  drum  on  a 
stand:  see  Luoyang  Cultural 
Relics  Team,  ed.,  Luoyang  chutu 
wenwu  jisui  (Beijing:  Zhaohua 
chubanshe,  1990),  no.  3, 
indicating  that  the  type,  in 
bronze  or  another  material,  was 
certainly  not  unknown  along 
the  Yellow  River  basin. 

17.  See  Robert  Bagley, "A 
Shang  City  in  Sichuan 
Province."  Orientations 
(November  1990),  pp.  52-67. 
Selected  bronzes  from  the 
Guanghan  cache  are  also 
discussed  m  Rawson,  ed., 
Mysteries  of  Ancient  China, 

nos.  22-32.  A  general  discussion 
of  southern  bronzes  is  111 
Robert  Bagley,  "C  Ihangjiang 
Bronzes  and  Shang 
Archaeology,"  Proa edings, 
International  Colloquium  on 
Chinese  Art  History,  to.01. 


Antiquities,  Pt.  1  (Taipei: 
National  Palace  Museum, 
1992),  pp.  209-55. 

18.  Rawson,  ed..  Mysteries  of 
Ancient  China,  no.  25. 

19.  Fong,  ed..  Great  Bronze  Age, 

chap.  5. 

20.  Jessica  Rawson,  Western 
Zhou  Ritual  Bronzes  from  the 
Arthur  M.  Sackler  Collections, 
Ancient  Chinese  Bronzes  from 
the  Arthur  M.  Sackler 
Collections,  vols.  I1A,  IIB  (New 
York  and  Cambridge:  Arthur 
M.  Sackler  Foundation  and 
Arthur  M.  Sackler  Museum, 
Harvard  University,  1990),  sect. 
2-3- 

2r. This  lei  was  found  with 
three  other  similar  vessels  and 
fifteen  bronze  weapons  inside  a 
large  pottery  urn  without  signs 
of  an  accompanying  burial:  see 
Kaogu,  no.  6  (1981),  pp.  496-99; 
also  published  in  Zhongguo 
wenwu  jinghua  (Beijing:  Wenwu 
chubanshe,  1990).  no.  47.  An 
earlier  cache,  likewise  with  no 
signs  of  accompanying  burial, 
found  in  1959,  contained  five 
similar  lei,  two  other  bronze 
vessels,  and  thirteen  weapons; 
see  Wenwu,  no.  n  (1961), 
pp.  2S-31. 

22.  Found  in  1963  in  Baoji 
county,  Shaanxi  Province; 
Wenwu,  no.  1  (1966),  p.  4; 
Wenwu,  no.  1  (1976),  pp.  60,  66, 
93;  see  also  Fong,  ed..  Great 
Bronze  Age,  no.  42. 

23.  A  detailed  report  of  the 
tomb  that  yielded  this  vessel  is 
in  Lu  Liancheng  and  Hu 
Zhisheng,  Baoji  Yu  Guo  mudi, 

2  vols.  (Beijing:  Wenwu 
chubanshe,  1988);  see  also 
Zhongguo  wenwu  jinghua 
(Beijing:  Wenwu  chubanshe. 
1993).  no.  74- 

24.Thc,\yNlv'  is  part  of  a  cache 
of  103  bronzes  discovered  in 
1976  .it  Zhuangbai,  Fufeng 
county,  Sh.uiiM  Province.  Sec 
Wenwu,  no.  ;  1 1978),  pp.  1-24. 
42;  see  also  Fong.  ed     1 
Bronze  Age,  no.  45. 

25.  For  .1  discussion  of  the 
"ritual  revolution"  during  the 
Zhou  period,  sec  Raw  sou, 
Western  Zhou  Ritual  Bronzes, 
chip  4;  and  Jessica  Rawson  and 
i  G  Bunker,  Ancient 

Chinese  ati.l  i  >>.. 


(Hong  Kong:  The  Oriental 
Society  of  Hong  Kong,  1990), 
PP-  32-38. 

26.  The  other  two  vessels  in  the 
set — a  zun  and  a  fang  yi — are 
illustrated  in  Shaanxi  chutu 
Shang  Zhou  qingtongqi:  2 
(Beijing:  Wenwu  chubanshe, 
1980),  nos.  15-16. 

27.  This  set  and  three  additional 
bronzes  formed  part  of  a  cache 
discovered  at  Qijiacun,  Fufeng 
county,  Shaanxi  Province,  in 
1964;  see  Shaanxi  chutu  Shang, 
nos.  120—25. 

28. The  pair  is  published  in 
Shaanxi  chutu  Shang,  nos. 
31-32.  Part  of  a  cache  of  103 
bronzes  unearthed  in  1976  at 
Zhuangbai,  Fufeng  county, 
Shaanxi  Province,  the  name 
"Xing"  mentioned  in  the 
inscription  of  this  hu  also 
occurs  on  32  other  bronzes 
from  the  hoard;  see  Wenwu, 
no.  3  (1978),  pp.  1-24; 
and  Shaanxi  chutu  Shang. 
nos.  27-43. 

29. The  finds  at  Pingdingshan. 
made  over  a  period  in  the  late 
1980s,  have  yet  to  be 
systematically  published.  For 
the  he,  see  Zttongguo  wenwu 
jinghua,  no.  49;  for  the  gui,  see 
Zhongguo  wenwu  jinghua,  no.  79; 
both  are  also  published  in  the 
brief  report  on  the  excavations 
in  Zhongguo  wenwubao, 
1  September  1996. 

30.  For  examples  of  bronzes 
associated  with  various  states. 
see  Rawson,  Western  Zhou 
Ritual  Bronzes,  chap.  4;  Jenny  F. 
So,  Eastern  Zhou  Ritual  Bronze* 
from  the  Arthur  M.  Sacklcr 
Collections,  Ancient  Chinese 
Bronzes  from  the  Arthur  M 
Sackler  Collections. 
(New  York  and  Washington, 
D.<      \i thin  M  Sackler 
Foundation  and  Arthur  M. 
Sackler  Gallery,  Smithsonian 
Institution.  1995  ,  chaps.  -  -3; 
and  Ja\  \u."  ["he  Cemetery  of 
the  Western  Zhou  Lords  of 
Jin,"  Artibtts  Asiae  $6,  nos.  3  4 
pp.  193-231. 

So,  Eastern  Zhou  Ritual 
for  an 

account  of  the  site  and  its 
excavation  nearly  forty  years 
ago;  also  1  1  Xuting  and  Liang 
ng,  l'h,  .Iff  of  the  Houma 
■;■  (bilingual),  with 
introduction  and  English  text 


INNOVATION    IN    ANCIENT    CHINESE    METALWORK 


87 


by  Jay  Xu,  ed.  Robert  Bagley 
(Princeton:  Princeton 
University  Press,  1996). 

32.  More  detailed  discussions 
of  these  new  foundry 
techniques  are  in  So,  Eastern 
Zhou  Ritual  Bronzes,  chap.  4.2; 
and  Robert  Bagley, 
"Replication  Techniques  in 
Eastern  Chou  Bronze  Casting," 
in  Steven  Lubar  and  W.  David 
Kingery,  eds.,  History  from 
Tilings:  Essays  on  Material 
Culture  (Washington,  D.C.  and 
London:  Smithsonian 
Institution,  1993),  pp.  234-41. 

33.  Wenwu,  no.  9  (1989), 

cpl.  2:1;  see  also  no.  213. 1;  So, 
Eastern  Zhou  Ritual  Bronzes, 
chap.  4.2  and  app.  i:4G  for  a 
detailed  discussion  of  the 
tomb. 

34.  See  Barbara  W.  Keyser, 
"Decor  Replication  in  Two 
Late  Chou  Bronze  Chien,"  Ars 
Orientalis  n  (1979),  pp.  127-62; 
and  Robert  Bagley,  "What  the 
Bronzes  from  Hunyuan  TelJ  Us 
about  the  Foundry  at  Houma" 
Orientations  (July  1995), 

pp.  20-36. 

35.  Zhongguo  wenwu  jinghua, 
no.  49;  for  a  similar  type  from 
Jiangsu  Province,  see  Wenwu, 
no.  5  (1984),  pi.:  left. 

^6.  Lu  Liancheng  and  Hu 
Zhisheng,  Baoji  Yu  Guo  mudi,  2 
vols.  (Beijing:  Wenwu 
chubanshe,  1988),  cpl.  18;  the 
same  tomb  also  yielded  two 
bird-shaped  vessels  (ibid., 
cpl.  19). 

37.  Wenum,  no.  5  (1966),  p.  70; 
similar  bells  in  the  Shanghai 
Museum,  the  Sen'oku 
Hakkokan,  Kyoto,  and  the 
Arthur  M.  Sackler  Gallery, 
Smithsonian  Institution,  are 
discussed  in  Fong,  ed.,  Great 
Bronze  Age,  no.  58;  Rawson, 
Western  Zhou  Ritual  Bronzes, 
no.  129;  and  Lothar  von 
Falkenhausen  and  Thomas  D 
Rossing,  "Acoustical  and 
Musical  Studies  on  the  Sackler 
Bells,"  in  So,  Eastern  Zhou 
Ritual  Bronzes,  p.  440. 

38.  For  Shang  dynasty 
prototypes,  see  Bagley,  Shang 
Ritual  Bronzes  in  the  Sackler 
Collections,  no.  104;  also  Lothar 
von  Falkenhausen,  Suspended 
Musk:  Chime-bells  in  the  Culture 
of  Bronze  Age  China  (Berkeley 
and  Los  Angeles:  University  of 
California  Press,  1993);  and 
Falkenhausen  and  Rossing, 
"Acoustical  and  Musical 
Studies." 

39.  Wenwu,  no.  9  (19S9),  pi.  2:2. 

40.  For  a  detailed  discussion  of 


the  type,  see  So,  Eastern  Zhou 
Ritual  Bronzes,  nos.  39-40;  and 
Jenny  F.  So  and  Emma  C. 
Bunker,  Traders  and  Raiders  on 
Chinas  Northern  Frontier 
(Washington,  D.C.  and  Seattle: 
Arthur  M.  Sackler  Gallery, 
Smithsonian  Institution  and 
University  ofWashington 
Press,  1995),  no.  20,  chap.  3. 

41.  So,  Eastern  Zhou  Ritual 
Bronzes,  chap.  6.2,  app.  i:6D. 

42.  For  cat.  28,  see  Wu  Hung, 
"A  Sampan  Shan  Chariot 
Ornament  and  the  Xiangrui 
Design  in  Western  Han  Art " 
Archives  of  Asian  Art  37  (1984), 
pp.  38-59- 

43. This  is  discussed  in  Emma 
C.  Bunker,  "Sources  of  Foreign 
Elements  in  the  Culture  of 
Eastern  Zhou,"  in  George 
Kuwayama,  ed..  The  Great 
Bronze  Age  of  China:  A 
Symposium  (Los  Angeles:  Los 
Angeles  County  Museum  of 
Art,  1983). 

44.  This  is  discussed  in  greater 
detail  in  Jenny  F.  So,  "Hu 
Vessels  from  Xinzheng:  Toward 
a  Definition  of  Chu  Style,"  in 
Kuwayama,  Symposium, 

pp.  64-71. 

45.  For  cat.  6,  see  Fong,  ed., 
Great  Bronze  Age,  no.  67;  So, 
Eastern  Zhou  Ritual  Bronzes, 
chap.  3.2,  app.  i:3D;  for  cat.  11, 
see  Zhongguo  wenwu  jinghua, 
no.  83,  where  the  pair  is 
shown;  and  Rawson,  ed., 
Mysteries  of  Ancient  China, 

no.  61. 

46.  For  a  discussion  of  lost-wax 

casting,  see  Bagley,  Shang  Ritual 
Bronzes  in  the  Sackler  Collections, 
chap.  2.6;  and  So,  Eastern  Zhou 
Ritual  Bronzes,  pp.  35,  53—54. 

47.  Fong,  ed.,  Great  Bronze  Age, 
no.  95. 

48.  Fong,  ed.,  Great  Bronze  Age, 
no.  97;  the  find  is  reported  in 
Yunnan  finning  Shizhaishan 
gumuqunfajue  baogao,  2  vols. 
(Beijing:  Wenwu  chubanshe, 
1959)- 

49.  So  and  Bunker,  Traders  and 
Raiders,  pp.  23,  34-35;  also 
nos.  1,  3,  11. 

50.  For  these  later  trends  and 
developments,  see  So,  Eastern 
Zhou  Ritual  Bronzes,  chaps.  3.2, 
4—6;  and  Fong,  ed.,  Great 
Bronze  Age,  chaps.  8—9. 

51.  For  a  prototype,  see  an 
example  in  the  Asian  Art 
Museum  of  San  Francisco: 
Rene-Yvon  Lefebvre 
d'Argence,  Bronze  Vessels  of 
Ancient  China  in  the  Avery 


Brundage  Collection  (San 
Francisco:  Asian  Art  Museum, 
1977),  pi.  43:  top  left. 

52.  For  examples  of  such 
"archaisms,"  see  So,  Eastern 
Zhou  Ritual  Bronzes,  nos.  1,  5, 
62,  80;  Jenny  F.  So,  "The  Many 
Faces  of  the  Past  in  Eastern 
Zhou  Bronzes"  (paper 
presented  at  the  "Mysteries  of 
Ancient  China"  conference, 
British  Museum,  London,  6-8 
December  1996);  and  Li  and 
Liang,  Art  of  the  Houma 
Foundr)',  pp.  13—14  (English 
summary  on  p.  83). 

53.  Shaanxi  chutu  Sluing,  no.  52; 
and  Sanjin  kaogu,  no.  1  (1994), 
PP-  r39-53.pl- 7- 

54.  For  cat.  9,  see  Zhongguo 
kaogu  wenwu  zhi  mei  (6): 
Zhanguo  Xianyu  lingmu  qizhen, 
Hebci  Pingshau  Zhongshan 
guowang  mu  (Beijing:  Wenwu 
chubanshe,  1994},  cpl.  56  and 
drawings  on  pp.  156—57  for  a 
wide  range  of  examples;  one  of 
these  is  discussed  in  Fong,  ed., 
Great  Bronze  Age,  no.  94. 

55.  For  a  study  of  exotics  in 
Tang  society,  see  Edward  H. 
Schafer,  The  Golden  Peaches  of 
Samarkand:  A  Study  of  Tang 
Exotics  (Berkeley  and  Los 
Angeles:  University  of 
California  Press,  1963). 

56.  Wenbo,  no.  5  (1987), 

PP-  79— 80,  pi.  4:  top.  This  is  one 
of  two  identical  dragons 
recovered  in  a  chance  find  in 
the  southern  suburb  of  XTan. 
Its  mate  is  damaged  beyond 
repair. 

57.  For  discussions  of  gold  and 
silver  as  foreign  materials  in 
ancient  China,  see  Emma  C. 
Bunker,  "Gold  in  the  Ancient 
Chinese  World:  A  Cultural 
Puzzle,"  Artibus  Asiae  53, 

nos.  1/2  (1993),  pp.  27-50;  and 
Emma  C.  Bunker,  "The 
Enigmatic  Role  of  Silver  in 
China,"  Orientations 
(November  1994),  pp.  73-74. 

58.  Reported  in  Kaogu  yu 
wenwu,  no.  2  (1988),  pp.  94-106; 
and  Wenwu,  no.  10  (1988), 

pp.  1-43. 

59.  See  Wenwu,  no.  1  (1972), 
pp.  30-42;  and  Kaogu,  no.  6 

(1980),  pp.  536-41. 


INNOVATION    IN    ANCIENT    CHINESE    METALWORK 


^1 


So  Fine  a  Luster: 


Chinese  Lacquerwares 


The  objects  grouped  together  as  lacquers 
{qiqi)  share  the  common  feature  of  being 
coated  with  a  durable  substance  derived 
from  the  sap  of  the  tree  rims  verniciflua,  a 
native  of  China.  The  Chinese  have  lon«; 
valued  the  durability  of  this  material  and 
admired  its  inherent  beauty.  Its  sumptu- 
ous surfaces  and  broad  range  of  applica- 
tions have  made  it  a  favorite  of  members 


Michael  Knight 

Curator  of  Chinese  Art,  Asian  Art 
Museum  of  San  Francisco 


89 


of  the  court,  the  aristocracy,  religious  groups,  and 
wealthy  merchants.  Lacquers  have  also  served  as 
valued  objects  of  trade.  And  yet  lacquer,  for  all  its 
lustrousness  and  durability,  has  never  been  translated 
into  symbol,  a  curious  omission  in  China,  where  so 
many  other  materials  have  acquired  symbolic 
connotations. 

In  the  writings  of  the  scholar-gentry,  many  forms 
of  lacquer  were  associated  with  excessive  wealth 
and  extravagance,  with  the  women's  quarters,  and 
with  the  imperial  court;  therefore  only  select  types 
of  the  medium  are  found  in  objects  made  for  the 
scholar  class.1  The  primary  exception  is  furniture. 
For  most  furniture,  a  single  coat  or  a  few  thin  coats 
were  applied  to  protect  a  softwood  core.  Only  the 
most  expensive  pieces  of  lacquered  furniture,  such 
as  the  examples  from  the  imperial  workshops,  were 
covered  with  multiple  layers  and  decorated  in 
techniques  discussed  below.-  This  attitude  has  also 
affected  the  study  of  the  material,  which,  until 
recent  decades,  has  been  viewed  primarily  as  a 
minor  decorative  art.  For  certain  periods  in 
Chinese  history,  however,  and  for  the  social  classes 
who  patronized  it,  lacquer  was  a  medium  of  great 
value  and  significance. 

Lacquer  production  is  a  long  process,  beginning 
with  gathering  the  sap  of  the  lacquer  tree  by 
making  small  slits  in  the  bark  and  collecting  the 
secretion.  The  raw  sap  is  a  thick,  creamy  substance 
filled  with  impurities;  initial  steps  in  preparing  the 
material  include  filtering  through  cloth  of  varying 
fineness  until  the  desired  purity  is  achieved  and 
allowing  excess  water  to  evaporate.  Once  purified, 
the  clear,  viscous,  amber  liquid  is  ready  to  be 
applied  to  a  core.  These  cores  have  traditionally 
been  wood  or  fabric,  but  sometimes  are  made  from 
other  materials  such  as  leather,  ceramic,  or  even 
bronze.3 

Raw  lacquer  contains  very  high  concentrations  of 
urushiol.4  Under  the  right  conditions,  including 
high  humidity  and  temperatures  between  60  and  85 
degrees  Fahrenheit,  urushiol  undergoes  a  chemical 
change  and  forms  a  natural  polymer  having  many 
of  the  properties  of  modern  plastics:  it  is 
impervious  to  water  and  to  many  chemicals,  and 
stable  throughout  a  range  of  temperatures; 
depending  on  the  material  used  for  the  core,  the 
lacquered  object  can  also  be  extremely  lightweight. 

In  its  raw  state  urushiol  is  very  caustic,  therefore 
only  a  limited  number  of  stable  pigments  can  be 
used  to  color  it.  The  most  common  colors  for 
lacquer  are  red,  black,  brown,  and  yellow.  Certain  of 
these  colors,  such  as  red,  had  their  own  significance 
in  Chinese  culture,  and  considerable  effort  was 
expended  in  mining  and  refining  them. 


Cinnabar,  the  pigment  used  to  color  red  lacquer,  is 
a  crystalline  form  of  mercuric  sulfide.  Deposits  of 
this  mineral  are  found  in  many  parts  of  China,  and 
its  ubiquity  along  with  its  stability  makes  it  an  ideal 
pigment  for  use  in  lacquer.  Red  was  also  an 
auspicious  color  for  the  Chinese,  and  cinnabar  was 
sprinkled  in  tombs  as  early  as  the  Neolithic  period 
(ca.  7000— ca.  2000  bce).  Cinnabar  was  also  thought 
to  have  magical  powers  and  was  one  of  the  main 
ingredients  in  "elixirs  of  immortality"  concocted 
during  the  Qin  and  Han  dynasties  (221  bce— 220 
Ce).  Once  suspended  in  the  matrix  of  the  lacquer 
polymer,  this  substance  becomes  a  stable  pigment. 

During  much  of  the  Bronze  Age  in  China  cinnabar 
red  lacquer  was  applied  to  the  interiors  of  wood 
coffins  and  vessels,  a  further  indication  of  its  special 
significance. 

Carbon  was  the  primary  pigment  for  black  in  early 
lacquers;  because  it  is  not  entirely  stable  in  urushiol, 
it  often  yielded  a  dull  and  brownish  hue.  The  desire 
for  a  pure  and  glossy  black  surface  led  later  lacquer 
artists  to  employ  pickled  iron,  often  mixed  with 
arsenic.  Yellow  was  accomplished  through  the  use  of 
orpiment.  Brown,  in  a  range  of  tones,  is  the  natural 
color  of  lacquered  wood;  other  more  opaque 
browns  can  be  obtained  through  the  addition  of 
carbon. 

To  enlarge  the  available  palette,  methods  were 
developed  to  add  pigments  to  the  surface  of 
lacquer.  Among  these  was  suspending  pigments  in 
oils  from  the  tong  tree  and  painting  them  onto  the 
lacquered  surface.  Inlays  of  sheets  of  precious 
metals,  shells,  mother-of-pearl,  colored  stones,  glass, 
and  a  broad  range  of  other  materials  as  well  as  the 
suspension  of  powdered  metals  in  lacquer  were  also 
important  decorative  techniques. 

There  are  five  principal  applications  for  lacquer:  as 
a  protective  coating;  as  a  paint  to  apply  two- 
dimensional  decoration;  as  an  adhesive;  as  a  resin 
that,  in  combination  with  other  mediums,  creates  a 
product  of  superior  strength  and  durability;  and  as  a 
medium  for  carving.  These  applications  are  not 
mutually  exclusive,  and  it  is  common  to  find  two 
or  more  present  in  any  given  object. 

The  earliest  use  of  lacquer  must  have  been  as  a 
protective  coating,  and  this  remained  one  of  its 
primary  functions.  Thick  and  viscous,  lacquer  is 
difficult  to  paint  with.  Nevertheless,  Chinese 
lacquer  artisans  achieved  remarkable  results,  and 
some  of  the  earliest  surviving  evidence  of  Chinese 
attempts  at  painting  are  in  this  medium. 

Use  as  an  adhesive  was  another  early  and  enduring 
application  of  lacquer.  Because  it  is  sticky  when 
wet,  adheres  to  most  materials,  and  cures  to  create  a 


SO    FINE    A    LUSTER:    CHINESE    LACQUERWARES 


90 


durable  bond,  lacquer  is  ideal  for  this  purpose.  By 
exploiting  these  qualities,  artisans  working  in 
lacquer  are  able  to  inlay  or  adhere  a  range  of 
materials  to  surfaces,  thus  vastly  expanding  the 
decorative  potential  of  their  medium. 

Like  modern  fiberglass  resin,  wet  lacquer  is 
absorbed  by  wood  and  fabrics;  when  it  has  cured,  it 
creates  a  material  that  is  much  stronger  than  either 
of  the  two  substances  separately.  Fabric  can  be 
soaked  in  lacquer  and  molded,  creating  a  vessel  or 
sculpture  that  will  retain  the  molded  shape.  Applied 
to  a  wood  core,  lacquer  will  form  a  lightweight, 
strong,  and,  if  desired,  elaborately  shaped  vessel  or 
object  of  considerable  strength  and  durability. 

A  sophisticated  understanding  of  the  medium  was 
required  before  carved  lacquers  could  be  created.  In 
order  to  undergo  the  chemical  change  required  for 
curing,  lacquer  must  be  applied  in  very  thin  coats. 
The  thick  coverings  necessary  for  carving  are 
achieved  by  applying  multiple  coats.  The  most 
complex  carved  lacquers  might  have  a  thin  wood 
core  reinforced  with  a  layer  of  lacquer-impregnated 
cloth;  over  that,  base  coats  created  by  adding 
combinations  of  ash,  rice  paste,  wood  powder,  or 
fine  clay  to  lacquer;  and  multiple  finish  coats  of 
refined  lacquer.  Each  coat  has  special  qualities  of 
sealing,  filling,  leveling,  and  finishing,  and  must  be 
applied  in  the  proper  conditions  and  in  proper 
sequence.  Since  each  coat  must  cure  and  be 
mechanically  smoothed  before  another  is  added,  the 
thickest  applications  can  require  as  much  as  a  year 
from  the  initial  coat  to  the  final  finish.5 

EARLY    CHINA    (CA.    3000    BCE-220    CE) 

In  the  past,  much  of  the  study  of  early  Chinese  art 
has  been  focused  on  the  nonperishable  materials  of 
bronze,  jade,  and  ceramics.  In  part  this  was  due  to 
the  interest  of  Chinese  antiquarians,  who  were 
most  interested  in  those  materials  mentioned  in 
their  Classics — bronzes  (particularly  those  with 
inscriptions)  and  jades.  Early  Western  studies  of 
bronzes  and  jades  followed  similar  lines,  with  a 
greater  emphasis  on  surface  decoration  and  form. 
Their  advanced  technologies  and  intrinsic  beauty 
have  long  made  Chinese  ceramics  a  focus  of 
Western  scholarship.  Rarely  did  objects  of 
lacquered  wood  or  other  perishable  substances 
survive  to  enter  a  museum  or  a  private  collection 
and  allow  a  glance  into  their  early  development. 

During  the  past  few  decades,  however,  archaeology 
has  provided  a  more  complete  record  of  these 
perishable  materials.  Lacquered  objects  have  been 
found  in  considerable  numbers  in  tombs  dating  as 
early  as  3000  BCE  and  have  provided  indications  of 
some  of  the  developments  in  use  and  style  in  a 
medium  employed  primarily  as  a  paint.  Combined 
with  a  number  of  textiles  dating  between  the  late 


fourth  and  early  second  century  bce,  these  lacquers 
have  provided  a  far  broader  understanding  of 
artistic  endeavors  in  two-dimensional  mediums 
during  this  period  of  China's  history. 

In  early  China  lacquer  trees,  and  therefore  the 
production  centers  of  lacquers,  were  most  common 
along  the  Changjiang  (Yangzi  River)  from  Sichuan 
to  Zhejiang  provinces.  Unlike  bronze  foundries  and 
ceramic  kilns,  which  required  substantial  industrial 
equipment  and  left  many  traces  where  they  were 
set  up,  lacquer  required  only  areas  for  refining  the 
raw  material  and  brushes  and  other  perishable  tools 
for  its  application.  No  sites  of  early  lacquer 
production  have  been  located. 

A  cup  excavated  in  1978  from  a  site  of  the 
Neolithic  Weizhi  culture  atYuyaohe,  Zhejiang 
Province,  is  the  earliest  known  Chinese  lacquered 
vessel.6  Made  of  a  wood  core  coated  with  red 
lacquer,  it  dates  between  5000  and  3000  bce. The 
application  of  colored  lacquer  to  a  wooden  base 
attests  to  an  advanced  technique;  it  is  likely  that 
lacquer  had  been  in  use  for  some  time  before  this 
cup  was  created.  The  remains  of  early  Bronze  Age 
lacquers  found  in  Shang  dynasty  sites  in  Anyang, 
Henan  Province,  and  elsewhere  indicate  that 
lacquer  technology  advanced  rapidly  during  this 
period.  Most  Shang  dynasty  lacquers  have  a  red 
ground  with  designs  of  taotie  (abstract  zoomorphic 
masks),  leiwen  ("thunder  patterns,"  which  take  the 
form  of  squared  spirals),  and  other  motifs  derived 
from  bronze  decor  of  the  time. 

The  use  of  lacquer  as  an  adhesive  was  also  known 
during  the  Shang  dynasty,  as  attested  by  surviving 
objects  inlaid  with  the  shell  of  fresh-water  clams, 
turquoise,  ivory,  and  sheets  of  gold  foil.  Western 
Zhou  (ca.  1 100— 771  bce)  lacquers  from  north  China 
show  that  lacquer  continued  to  be  used  extensively 
as  an  adhesive  during  this  period  as  well.7 

Two  major  artistic  developments  from  the  sixth  to 
the  third  century  bce  were  the  creation  of  a 
painterly  style  and  ot  a  representational  art;  lacquers 
are  among  the  major  surviving  examples  of  both. 
Lacquered  vessels  with  smooth,  curved  surfaces 
devoid  of  relief  or  other  three-dimensional 
patterns,  and  large  lacquered  wood  objects  with  Hat 
surfaces,  such  as  tomb  chambers  and  coffins,  relied 
exclusively  upon  contrasts  in  lacquer  colors  tor 
decoration. 

The  majority  of  surviving  lacquers  dating  from  the 
Spring  and  Autumn  (770-476  bce)  and  Warring 
Si. lies  (475-221  BCE)  periods  come  from  what  was 
then  the  kingdom  of  Chu.  1  OCated  along  the 
central  Changjiang  basin.  Chu  enjoyed  .1  favorable 
climate,  advanced  agricultural  techniques,  an 
abundance  of  natural  resources,  and  .1  network  of 


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91 


commerce  and  trade.  It  was  a  wealthy  state,  and  this 
wealth  supported  a  flourishing  of  arts  and  crafts  in  a 
pronounced  regional  style.  Happily,  the  realm  of 
Chu  coincided  with  the  area  of  distribution  of  rhus 
vemkifiua,  making  it  possible  for  the  artists  of  Chu 
to  paint  in  lacquer.  The  flexibility  of  painting  (as 
compared,  say,  to  casting  in  bronze)  gave  the  artists 
of  Chu  greater  freedom  to  express  the  unique 
nature  of  their  culture;  many  of  their  lacquerwares 
are  powerful  and  evocative,  others  approach  the 
bizarre. 

Changsha  in  Hunan  Province  has  long  been 
associated  with  early  lacquers.  From  at  least  the 
ninth  century  bce  to  the  time  of  the  fall  of  the 
state  in  221  bce,  Changsha  was  an  important  Chu 
city.  It  was  located  at  the  very  southern  reaches  of 
the  state's  territory,  far  from  the  capitals  along  the 
banks  of  the  Changjiang.  Excavated  materials  and 
contemporary  texts  confirm  its  importance  to  Chu 
as  a  center  of  trade  with  regions  even  farther  south. 
Many  of  the  Chu  tombs  found  there  belong  to 
members  of  the  lower  aristocracy  and  perhaps  even 
of  the  merchant  class. 

Changsha  remained  an  influential  political  center  in 
southern  China  during  the  Western  Han  dynasty 
(206  bce-8  ce)  and  served  as  the  capital  for  a  state 
that,  while  under  Han  rule,  retained  a  great  deal  of 
autonomy  and  local  leadership.  In  1972  a  series  of 
tombs  belonging  to  the  ruling  family  of  the  state 
centered  at  Changsha  was  excavated  at  the  suburb 
of  Mawangdui.The  arts  found  in  them  reveal  a 
continuity  with  earlier  Chu  materials  combined 
with  an  awareness  of  Han  philosophical  and 
religious  practices. 

The  Han  period  residents  of  Changsha  used 
lacquer  in  a  very  wide  variety  of  forms.  The  vast 
majority,  if  not  all,  of  these  objects  have  wood 
cores.  By  far  the  largest  existing  pieces  are  three 
lacquered  coffins  (fig.  1)  that  formed  a  nested  set. 
Their  very  scale,  together  with  the  descriptions 
found  in  contemporary  or  slightly  earlier  texts  such 
as  the  Churi  ("Songs  of  the  South"),  hint  at  the 
extensive  use  of  lacquer  in  architecture  as  well.8 

Only  a  small  number  of  bronze  vessels  in  traditional 
shapes  were  found  in  the  Mawangdui  tombs;  rather, 
sets  of  these  vessels  were  created  in  lacquer  (cat. 
66). 9  This  clearly  reflects  changing  attitudes  toward 
these  two  materials  and  the  rising  status  of  lacquer. 
Early  Western  Han  writings  indicate  that  a  lacquer 
vessel  might  cost  ten  times  as  much  as  a  comparable 
piece  in  bronze. 

Also  found  in  the  tombs  at  Mawangdui  were 
lacquer  boxes  in  great  variety,  including  picnic  sets 
(cat.  67),  toiletries  boxes  (cat.  68),  and  document 
boxes,  among  others.  Nested  containers  (cat.  67) 


■  AY. ■.*■  .*:'    ,'■>  i:  >  K~. 


Fig.  1.  Set  of  lacquered  wood  coffins  from  Mawangdui 
tomb  No.  1 . 


and  matched  sets  of  vessels  were  enormously 
popular,  and  great  precision  was  required  to  create 
outer  boxes  that  would  exactly  fit  their  contents. 

During  the  Western  Han  dynasty  the  Chinese  lived 
at  floor  level:  all  seated  activities  customarily  took 
place  on  platforms  or  on  mat-covered  platforms; 
large-scale  raised  chairs  and  tables  and  other 
furniture  of  corresponding  scale  were  not  yet  in 
vogue.  The  impact  of  this  custom  on  the 
preparation  and  presentation  of  food  is  quite 
apparent  in  the  lacquers  found  in  the  Mawangdui 
tombs.  Food  for  the  deceased  had  been  laid  out  in 
a  variety  ot  dishes  (fig.  2)  assembled  on  large  trays 
(cats.  69,  70). The  large  rectangular  tray  (cat.  70) 
could  well  have  served  as  a  small  portable  table. 
Low  screens  found  in  the  Mawangdui  tombs  (fig.  3) 
are  the  ideal  height  to  have  deflected  drafts  and 
preserved  privacy  for  the  floor-sitting  occupants  of 
Han  interiors. 

Swirling  abstract  patterns  compose  most  of  the 
designs  on  the  lacquers  from  the  Mawangdui 
tombs.  The  sources  for  these  designs  can  be  found 
in  the  curvilinear  designs  on  lacquers  and  inlaid 
bronzes  of  the  late  Warring  States  period.  By  the 
Western  Han  dynasty,  however,  these  patterns  had 
come  to  resemble  clouds  and  served  religious  as 
well  as  decorative  purposes.  On  the  surface  of  one 
of  the  coffins  from  Mawangdui  tomb  Number  1 
(fig.  4),  these  clouds  are  occupied  by  a  multitude  of 
strange  and  wonderful  beasts.  Beliefs  in  paradises 
inhabited  by  immortals  became  increasingly 
widespread  during  the  early  Western  Han.  The 
Chuci  ("Songs  of  the  South"),  a  collection  largely  of 
late  Warring  States  date,  describes  these  paradises; 
many  of  them  exist  in  the  sky  among  just  such 
clouds  and  are  occupied  by  just  such  fantastic 
creatures  as  are  depicted  on  this  coffin.10 

Magical  clouds  were  also  thought  to  be  omens  of 
good  fortune  and,  as  such,  played  an  important  role 


SO    FINE    A    LUSTER:    CHINESE    LACQUERWARES 


92 


in  xiangrui,  a  constellation  of  beliefs  that  was  well 
developed  by  the  Western  Han.  In  simple  terms,  the 
Han  Chinese  believed  that,  by  surrounding  oneself 
with  auspicious  omens  and  designs,  one  could 
attract  good  fortune  and,  perhaps  more  important, 
ward  off  bad  fortune.  Thus  cloud  patterns  are 
common  on  eating  utensils,  burial  goods,  textiles, 
and  any  number  of  other  objects  of  the  time. 

Most  of  the  lacquers  at  Mawangdui  were  decorated 
in  the  traditional  palette  of  red  and  black,  using 
relatively  few  coats  of  lacquer.  Some  of  the  more 
finely  finished  works  (cats.  66,  69,  70)  are  decorated 
with  alternating  bands  of  solid  red  and  patterned 
black,  with  cloud  patterns  appearing  in  red  on  the 
black  bands.  The  narrow  borders  also  hold  abstract 
patterns  executed  in  red  on  black,  but  these  tend  to 
be  simple  and  rather  broadly  conceived,  clearly 
distinguishable  from  the  cloud  patterns  that  serve  as 
the  main  decor  in  the  black  bands. 

Among  the  exceptions  to  the  red-and-black  color 
scheme  are  one  of  the  coffins  (fig.  4)  and  a  small 
number  of  boxes  (cat.  68).  These  share  a  black 
lacquer  ground  on  which  raised  lines  of  lacquer 
outline  multicolored  cloud  patterns.  The  palette  of 
the  clouds  includes  ochers,  reds,  gray-greens,  and 
yellows. 

Also  found  in  limited  numbers  at  Mawangdui  are 
boxes  and  other  objects  with  decoration  created  by 
incising  (zhuihua),  a  relatively  new  technique;  the 
earliest  excavated  examples  known  to  date  come 
from  the  Warring  States  period.  The  decoration  was 
created  by  scratching  the  surface  of  the  outermost 
lacquer  layer  with  a  sharp  burin.  Although  the 
incisions  are  not  deep  enough  to  reveal  underlying 
layers,  they  create  very  fine,  crisp,  linear  patterns. 
Zhuihua  might  be  seen  as  the  beginnings  of  the 
carved  lacquer  tradition,  which  reached  full 
maturity  over  a  millennium  later.  Most  of  the 
designs  on  this  group  of  lacquers  consist  of  xiangrui 
patterns  and  depictions  of  immortal  paradises  or 
hunting  scenes.  The  covered  box  (cat.  71)  is  a 
typical  example.  In  many  cases  the  incised 
decoration  is  found  on  the  inside  surfaces  of  the 
piece,  while  the  exterior  is  decorated  in  more 
traditional  techniques. 

Inscriptions  on  lacquers  of  the  third  and  second 
century  bce  include  makers'  names,  numbers,  and 
other  information  from  which  we  may  deduce  that 
many  lacquers  of  this  period  were  produced  near 
Chengdu  in  Sichuan  Province.  Similar  inscribed 
lacquers  as  well  as  records  in  historical  documents 
confirm  the  contemporaneous  production  of 
lacquers  in  Shandong,  Henan,  Guangdong,  and 
Guangxj  provinces."  These  areas  continued  to  be 
important  centers  of  lacquer  production  for  most  of 
China's  history. 


Fig.  2.  Lacquered  wood  tray,  vessels,  and  utensils  from 
Mawangdui  tomb  No.  1 . 


Fig.  3.  Lacquered  wood  screen  from  Mawangdui  tomb 

No.  1. 


THE    LATE    TANG    TO    SONG     DYNASTY 
(OTH    CENTURY-I279) 

Very  few  lacquers  dating  from  the  Eastern  Han 
dynasty  (25-220  ce)  to  the  end  of  the  Tang  dynasty 
(618-907)  have  survived  in  China.  Only  indirect 
evidence  from  materials  found  in  Japan  and  from 
scattered  Chinese  border  sites  indicates  that  lacquer 
technology  continued  to  develop  and  that  new 
processes  were  introduced  for  the  production  of 
luxury  goods,  vessels,  and  furniture.  During  this 
period  various  sects  of  Buddhism  became 
important  institutional  patrons  for  the  lacquer  arts; 
their  demands  for  lightweight  sculpture,  implements 
for  worship,  and  specialized  storage  containers 
contributed  to  such  innovations  as  dry-lacquer 
(tuolai)  sculpture. 

Ting  power  extended  far  into  Central  Asia,  and  the 
Tang  hereditary  elite,  from  the  north  of  China,  had 
both  blood  and  political  ties  to  the  cultures  of  that 
region,  foreign  luxury  goods,  .ill  the  more  desirable 
for  being  exotic,  provided  still  competition  for 
native  luxuries  such  .is  lacquerwares.The  artisans 
working  in  lacquer  responded  with  .1  wide  range  ol 


SO    FINE    A    LUSTER:    CHINESE    L  AC  Q  U  E  Ft  WAR  E  S 


93 


Fig.  4.  Lacquered  wood  coffin  from  Mawangdui  tomb 

No.  1. 


new  effects:  cutwork  designs  of  precious  metal  leaf 
or  foil  might  be  applied  to  the  surface  of  the 
lacquerware,  covered  with  several  layers  of  lacquer, 
then  the  whole  rubbed  just  till  the  gleaming  metal 
emerged  flush  with  the  surrounding  lacquer,  a 
technique  called  pingtuo;  or  patterns  might  be  created 
in  the  lacquerware  by  inlaying  thin  sheets  of  mother- 
of-pearl  or  other  iridescent  shells.  Both  these 
techniques  are  found  on  mirror  backs,  mirror  cases, 
musical  instruments,  and  a  variety  of  other  objects. 

During  the  middle  and  late  Tang  dynasty  a  series  of 
events  occurred  that  profoundly  affected  lacquer 
production  and  attitudes  toward  it  and  a  variety  of 
other  materials. The  An  Lushan  rebellion  of  755 
vastly  diminished  the  political  and  economic  power 
of  the  Tang  hereditary  elite.  During  the  remainder 
of  the  Tang  dynasty  other  societal  groups  emerged 
as  the  principal  arbiters  of  taste.  They  often  showed 
a  preference  for  native  materials,  including  lacquer 
in  more  traditional  forms. 

As  the  political  fortunes  of  the  Tang  ruling  clans 
declined,  China's  borders  contracted  and  the 
Central  Asian  trade  routes  were  interrupted  by 
foreign  conquest.  This  encouraged  the  resurgence 
of  native  traditions  in  the  arts,  which  continued 
through  the  Five  Dynasties  period  (907-960)  and 
on  into  the  Song  dynasty  (960-1279).  An  increased 
emphasis  on  the  tenets  of  Confucianism,  a  rise  in 
Daoism  and  certain  forms  of  Buddhism,  and  the 
development  of  strong  regional  patronage  for  a 


variety  of  arts  marked  this  long  period  of  time. 

During  this  period  tea  became  a  national  obsession. 
The  need  for  vessels  and  implements  to  prepare, 
present,  and  drink  this  beverage,  along  with  those 
for  the  foods  that  came  to  be  associated  with  it,  also 
had  a  broad-ranging  impact  on  such  mediums  as 
ceramics  and  lacquers. 

The  artistic  movements  brought  about  by  these 
changes  in  attitude  and  patronage  were  fully 
realized  during  the  Song  dynasty.  Influenced  by 
Confucian  principles  and  inspired  by  conscious 
archaism,  the  people  of  the  Song  took  renewed 
interest  in  the  arts  and  philosophies  of  the  Han 
dynasty  and  earlier.  Cut  off  by  hostile  neighbors 
from  the  foreign  influences  that  had  been  so  strong 
during  the  earlier  centuries  of  the  Tang  dynasty, 
Song  dynasty  artists  innovated  within  traditional 
Chinese  mediums.  Among  these  was  lacquer. 

Song  dynasty  innovations  in  lacquer  included 
making  lighter  and  stronger  cores,  rendering  details 
of  the  decoration  in  relief  by  means  of  a  moldable 
paste  made  by  adding  materials  such  as  fine  clay  or 
ash  to  liquid  lacquer,  and  applying  sufficient 
numbers  of  layers  to  allow  deep  carving  in  the 
lacquer.  Many  of  the  pieces  created  during  this 
period  were  elegant  utilitarian  vessels  and  domestic 
furniture.  Others  were  specially  designed  to  serve  in 
Buddhist  ritual  practices. 

The  lacquer  cup  stand  (fig.  5)  illustrates  many  of 
these  patronage  and  artistic  issues.  Designed  for  the 
display  or  presentation  of  a  cup,  it  is  a  prime 
example  of  the  group  of  objects  that  were  created 


SO    FINE    A    LUSTER:    CHINESE    L  A  C  Q  U  E  R  W  A  R  E  S 


for  the  service  of  tea.  Its  pleasing  shape  and 
decoration  in  subtle  shades  of  brownish  red  lacquer 
are  typical  of  the  ceramics  and  other  wares  that 
were  designed  for  tea  enthusiasts. 

Among  other  motives,  the  need  for  elegant, 
portable,  yet  sturdy  implements  for  serving  tea  and 
displaying  tea  wares  inspired  considerable 
experimentation  with  new  core  forms  during  the 
Song  dynasty.  X-rays  of  a  six-petaled  dish  in  the 
Los  Angeles  County  Museum  of  Art,  a  pair  of  five- 
lobed  dishes  on  loan  to  the  Asian  Art  Museum  of 
San  Francisco,  and  a  five-lobed  dish  in  the  Freer 
Gallery  of  Art  reveal  that  their  cores  consist  of 
single  or  multiple  pieces  of  wood  for  the  center,  to 
which  woven  wood  sides  are  joined.  This  allowed 
enough  thickness  in  the  sides  to  carve  decoration 
and  made  a  light  yet  strong  object.12  In  basic  body 
type  and  thickness  the  cup  stand  (fig.  5)  is  similar  to 
this  group. 

Because  they  have  long  been  removed  from  their 
original  context,  the  use  and  patrons  for  this  type 
of  lacquer  are  subject  to  conjecture.  In  shape  the 
cup  stand  in  figure  5  relates  to  ceramics  such  as 
Ding  ware,  which  was  made  for  the  imperial  court 
during  the  Northern  Song.  Chan  Buddhism 
influenced  many  of  the  arts  of  the  Song  dynasty, 
and  lacquer  was  no  exception.  It  is  likely  that  this 
piece  was  created  for  the  Chan-influenced  tea 
ceremony  that  became  prevalent  in  China  during 
the  Song  dynasty,  perhaps  to  hold  a  small  tea  bowl. 
The  costly  materials  establish  that  the  patrons  were 
among  the  wealthy  elite  of  the  time. 

Lacquered  wood  also  proved  to  be  the  perfect 
medium  for  creating  elaborate  and  decorative 
storage  boxes  for  sutras  and  other  Buddhist 
paraphernalia.  A  vertical  box  (cat.  72)  and  a  sutra 
container  in  the  form  of  nested  boxes  (cat.  73),  all 
quite  large,  have  been  found  at  the  site  of  the 
Huiguang  Pagoda,  built  in  1043  at  Ruian,  Zhejiang 
Province.  They  have  been  identified  as  products  of 
Wenzhou  in  the  same  province,  one  of  the  most 
famous  centers  for  lacquer  production  during  the 
Song  dynasty. The  vertical  box  (cat.  72),  identified  as 
a  reliquary,  is  decorated  on  all  four  sides  with 
Buddhist  scenes.  The  pair  of  nested  boxes  (cat.  73), 
also  ornate,  held  Buddhist  scriptures.  Although  all 
three  are  relatively  simple  shapes,  they  represent 
some  new  departures  in  decoration  and  decorative 
technique. 

The  overall  base  color  of  both  the  reliquary  and  the 
outer  sutra  box  is  light  brown,  with  a  band  of  red 
on  the  top  section  of  the  reliquary.  Applied  to  the 
surface  of  both  are  extensive  areas  of  floral 
decoration,  auspicious  animals,  and  Buddhist  figures 
created  from  raised  areas  of  molded  or  embossed 
lacquer.  Portions  of  the  molded  floral  designs  were 


Fig.  5 .  Lacquered  wood  cup  stand.  Northern  Song 
dynasty  (960-1127).  H.  6.5  cm,  cup  diam.  8.4  cm, 
saucer  diam.  14.2  cm.  Unearthed  at  Hanyang,  Shilipu, 
Wuhan  county,  Hubei  Province.  Hubei  Provincial 
Museum,  Wuhan. 


originally  highlighted  by  applications  of  gold  dust 
suspended  in  lacquer.  In  addition,  seed  pearls  were 
inlaid  into  the  lacquer  to  emphasize  certain  aspects 
of  the  design.  The  beginnings  of  the  raised  lacquer 
technique  can  be  seen  in  the  box  from  Mawangdui 
(cat.  68).  We  also  know  from  materials  preserved  in 
the  Shdso-in,  in  Japan,  that  both  relief  and  inlaid 
designs  were  popular  during  the  Tang  dynasty.1-'  On 
the  Northern  Song  reliquary  and  sutra  boxes  these 
techniques  are  used  in  a  very  sophisticated  manner 
to  frame  the  areas  of  pictorial  design  and  to  create 
major  decorative  motifs  in  relief. 

On  each  vertical  side  of  the  reliquary  floral  scrolls 
frame  a  scene  of  Guanym,  the  Buddhist  deity  of 
mercy  and  attendant  to  Amitabha  Buddha.  These 
scenes  are  painted  in  lacquer  pigmented  with 
powdered  gold.  On  the  outer  sutra  box  are  images 
of  Buddhist  deities  seated  on  lotus  blossoms  and  a 
series  of  auspicious  animals  and  birds,  all  in  molded 
lacquer.  The  inner  sutra  box  is  elaborately  decorated 
with  scrolling  floral  designs  painted  in  gold  lacquer. 

THE     YUAN     AND     MING     DYNASTIES 
(1279-1644) 

Profound  changes  occurred  during  the  brief 
Mongol-ruled  Yuan  dynasty  (1279-1368)  that  had  a 
deep  impact  on  Chinese  society  and  the  art'-. 
Forced  from  their  traditional  role  m  the  Confucian 
bureaucracy,  many  of  the  educated  elite  turned  to 
the  arts  as  .1  vocation  and  refuge.  Patronage  patterns 
also  changed  dramatically  during  this  period. 
Although  Chan  and  other  forms  of  Buddhism 
remained  strong  supporters  of  the  arts,  the  Yuan 


SO    FINE    A    LUSTER:    CHINESE    LACQUERWARES 


95 


court  did  not  patronize  the  arts  in  the  same  fashion 
as  had  the  Song.  Instead,  the  wealthy  landed  gentry, 
particularly  those  in  the  south,  became  the  primary 
patrons  of  a  broad  range  of  artistic  activities. 

Many  of  the  better-known  literati  artists  became 
long-term  house  guests  of  these  wealthy  gentry, 
offering  paintings  in  return  for  hospitality.  The 
gentry  also  supported  such  endeavors  as  the 
immensely  popular  plays  and  novels  of  the  time. 
Not  surprisingly,  the  larger-than-life  heroes  and 
villains  of  these  works,  whether  fictional  or 
semihistorical,  were  the  subject  of  many  of  the  art 
objects  commissioned  by  the  wealthy.  Some  appear 
as  topics  of  lacquer  decoration. 

Several  lacquer  techniques  initiated  during  the 
Song  dynasty  were  fully  developed  during  the  Yuan 
dynasty.  Following  Song  precedents,  the  cores  of 
many  Yuan  dynasty  plates  were  made  in  several 
sections,  out  of  very  thin  wood.  In  Yuan  examples, 
the  pieces  that  made  up  the  well  of  the  plate  were 
laid  with  their  grain  perpendicular  to  the  grain  of 
the  pieces  making  up  the  cavetto  and  rim.  '4  This 
technique  strengthened  the  very  thin,  lightweight 
core  so  that  it  did  not  check  or  shrink  as  easily  as 
the  thicker,  single-piece  cores  of  the  Warring  States 
period  and  Han  dynasty.  These  complex  cores  were 
susceptible  to  warpage,  however,  a  problem  found 
in  many  of  the  large  plates  of  the  Yuan  dynasty. 

Carved  lacquer  (diaoqi)  was  one  of  the  more 
impressive  developments  in  the  medium  during  the 
late  Song  and  on  into  the  Yuan  and  Ming  dynasties. 
Although  a  complex  and  time-consuming  process, 
this  technique  offered  a  broader  range  of  visual 
effects  than  the  molded  and  applied  lacquer 
decoration  seen  in  the  Buddhist  reliquary  and  sutra 
boxes  discussed  above  (cats.  72,  73).  By  the  end  of 
the  Yuan  dynasty  carving  in  lacquer  had  almost 
entirely  replaced  molded  and  applied  decoration. 

One  of  the  most  complex  of  the  core  types 
described  above,  cloaked  to  a  considerable  depth  by 
multiple  coats  of  lacquer,  would  be  employed  as  the 
blank  for  a  piece  of  carved  lacquer.  In  most  cases, 
the  first  several  finish  coats  would  be  followed  by 
two  or  three  coats  of  a  contrasting  color  of  lacquer, 
which  would  serve  as  a  depth  guide  for  the  carver, 
preventing  him  from  carving  through  the  finish 
coats  into  the  core  itself. 

<travagant  amount  of  time  and  energy  was 
required  before  the  blank  was  even  ready  for 

ving.  The  finest  carved  lacquers  of  the  Ming  and 
Jing  could  have  as  many  as  two  hundred  coats  of 
lacquer,  each  requiring  a  day  or  more  to  cure  and 
to  be  buffed  before  another  could  be  applied.15  The 
cost  in  human  terms  for  carved  lacquer  must  also 
have  been  very  high.  Breathing  the  dust  created 


while  carving  through  layers  of  cinnabar  red 
(mercuric  sulfide)  and  orpiment  (arsenic)  must  have 
devastated  the  artisans'  health.  But  we  know  very 
little  about  the  personal  lives  or  working  conditions 
of  the  artisan  class. 

Many  of  the  carved  lacquers  of  the  Yuan  dynasty 
are  large  platters  or  plates.  Many  of  these,  like  many 
of  the  Yuan  dynasty  blue-and- white  porcelains, 
were  too  large  for  traditional  Chinese  use; 
furthermore,  deeply  carved  designs  rendered  them 
less  than  ideal  for  any  practical  purpose.  Most  of 
them  must  have  been  meant  for  display.  The  large 
porcelains  were  often  made  for  foreign  markets,  and 
this  may  also  have  been  true  for  the  lacquers. 
Flowers-and-birds  or  overall  abstract  cloud-like 
designs  were  the  usual  motifs.  In  general,  these 
pieces  are  dark  brown  or  black,  although  examples 
also  exist  in  red. 

Figural  scenes  are  relatively  rare  on  the  carved 
lacquers  of  the  Yuan  dynasty.  The  covered  box 
(cat.  74)  is  a  superb  example  of  this  type.  Even  rarer 
are  dated  examples,  and  this  one  bears  a  date 
corresponding  to  1351.16  Almost  no  other  dated 
Yuan  dynasty  lacquers  have  survived.  The  scene  on 
this  box,  like  those  on  many  of  the  underglaze 
decorated  porcelains  of  the  period,  is  drawn  from  a 
contemporary  novel  or  play.  Patrons  of  such 
lacquers  must  have  included  the  wealthy  gentry,  the 
same  people  who  would  have  sponsored  the  novels 
and  plays  and  purchased  the  porcelains  and  other 
objects  decorated  with  scenes  from  them.  Not  only 
are  the  designs  different  from  those  on  the  lacquers 
intended  for  the  tea  ceremony  or  for  Buddhist  uses, 
but  the  color  of  figural  lacquers  is  almost  always 
cinnabar  red  rather  than  black  or  brown. 

The  popularity  of  deeply  carved  lacquer  continued 
in  the  Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644).  Beginning  with 
the  reign  of  the  Yongle  emperor  (1403— 1424),  boxes 
and  other  objects  in  deeply  carved  cinnabar  lacquer 
began  to  be  produced  under  imperial  patronage. 
The  covered  box  illustrated  here  (cat.  75) 
exemplifies  fifteenth-century  developments  in 
carved  lacquers  either  made  at  imperial  workshops 
in  the  capital  or  commissioned  by  the  court.  Such 
lacquers  served  both  as  utilitarian  items  in  the  court 
and  as  luxury  gifts  bestowed  by  the  emperor  or  his 
emissaries  on  special  occasions. 

The  subject  of  the  scene  on  this  box  is  similar  to 
that  on  the  Yuan  dynasty  box  discussed  above 
(cat.  74).  It  has  a  strong  narrative  content,  with  a 
main  figure  standing  on  an  open  terrace.  His 
servant  stands  directly  behind  him,  while  another 
scholar  busies  himself  in  an  open  building.  Pictorial 
space  on  this  Ming  box  is  more  developed  than  on 
the  Yuan  dynasty  piece:  the  number  of  elements  has 
increased  considerably,  and  their  relationships  are 


SO    FINE    A    LUSTER:    CHINESE    LACQUERWARES 


96 


more  rational.  Other  developments  are  the 
extensive  use  of  diaper  patterns  as  background  or  to 
indicate  sky  or  water  and  the  replacement  of  the 
abstract  patterns  on  the  sides  of  the  Yuan  box  with 
various  auspicious  flowers.  On  a  majority  of 
fifteenth-century  covered  boxes  the  sides  are 
similarly  decorated. 

By  the  Ming  dynasty  the  mil  range  of  decorative 
techniques  was  employed  in  the  creation  of 
lacquers:  painted  lacquer,  lacquer  overpainted  with 
other  materials;  carved  lacquer  (diaoqi);  "engraved 
gold'1  (qiangjin),  a  design  consisting  of  incised 
outlines  inlaid  with  gold  dust  over  wet  lacquer; 
incised  and  in-filled  lacquer  (tianqi  or  diaotian),  a 
further  development  of  qiangjin,  in  which  the  area 
within  the  gold-filled  outline  was  painted  with  a 
contrasting-colored  lacquer;  and  inlaid  lacquer. 
Throughout  the  Ming  dynasty  the  number  of 
imperial  commissions  for  lacquer  varied  with 
fluctuations  in  taste,  economic  conditions,  and 
doubtless  other  factors.  The  reign  of  the  Jiajing 
emperor  (1522-1566)  was  a  period  of  high 
production  for  all  court-related  arts,  including 
lacquer.  Dynastic  power  was  in  decline  during  the 
reign  of  this  emperor,  who  abdicated  almost  all  his 
authority  to  court  eunuchs.  The  Jiajing  emperor's 
fascination  with  Daoism  distracted  him  further 
from  affairs  of  state,  but  was  a  major  influence  on 
the  arts  commissioned  by  his  court.  This  emperor 
spent  great  amounts  of  shrinking  imperial  funds  on 
art.  Production  at  imperially  supervised  factories 
and  workshops  was  high,  but  quality  often  was  not. 

A  final  burst  of  imperially  commissioned  artistic 
activity  marked  the  reign  of  the  Wanli  emperor 
(1573— 1620).  Like  the  Jiajing  emperor,  the  Wanli 
emperor  ignored  the  need  to  strengthen  a 
government  that  had  been  weakened  by  decades  of 
corruption  and  poor  leadership  and  instead 
squandered  time  and  resources  on  artistic 
production.  By  the  final  years  of  his  reign  the  Ming 
court  no  longer  had  the  financial  resources  to 
commission  works  of  art  in  great  numbers  or  of 
superior  quality.  By  that  time,  however,  other 
segments  of  the  population  had  become  significant 
patrons  of  the  lacquer  arts,  chiefly  members  of  the 
wealthy  merchant  class.  Their  particular  social 
station  and  tastes  created  demands  for  a  variety  of 
lacquer  types,  often  tending  toward  the  highly 
ornate.  Many  of  the  spectacular  examples  of 
mother-of-pearl  inlaid  lacquers  of  the  late  Ming 
and  early  Qing  were  intended  for  them. 

THE    QING    DYNASTY    (1644-1911) 
Under  the  Manchu  rule  of  the  Qing  dynasty, 
imperial  support  for  the  lacquer  arts  resumed 
during  the  reign  of  the  Kangxi  emperor 
(1662-1722)  and  reached  a  peak  during  the  reign  of 
the  Qianlong  emperor  (1736-1795)-  Examples  in 


the  full  range  of  techniques  and  of  the  highest 
quality  were  produced  during  this  period.  As  with 
many  court-supported  arts,  production  of  lacquer 
declined  during  the  nineteenth  century.  Lacquer 
production  for  the  merchant  class  and  for  a 
growing  export  market  continued,  and  was  the 
main  source  of  support  for  the  medium  into  the 
twentieth  century. 


SOURCES  FOR  FIGURES 

Fig.  1 .  After  Changsha 
Mawangdui  yihao  Hanmu 
("Him  tomb  No.  l  at  Mawangdui, 
Changsha")  (Beijing:  Wenwu 
chubanshe,  1973),  vol.  2,  pi.  26. 

Fig.  2.  After  Changsha 
Mawangdui  yihao  Hanmu 
("Han  tomb  No.  1  at  Mawangdui, 
Changsha")  (Beijing:  Wenwu 
chubanshe,  1973),  vol.  2,  pi.  160. 

Fig.  3.  After  Changsha 
Mawangdui  yihao  Hanmu 
("Han  tomb  No.  1  at  Mawangdui, 
Changsha  ")  (Beijing:  Wenwu 
chubanshe,  1973),  vol.  2,  pi.  192. 

Fig.  4.  After  Changsha 
Mawangdui  yihao  Hanmu 
("Han  tomb  No.  1  at  Mawangdui, 
Changsha")  (Beijing:  Wenwu 
chubanshe,  1973),  vol.  2,  pi  27. 

Fig.  5.  After  Elizabeth  Childs- 
Johnson,  "Jades  of  the  Hongshan 
Culture,"  Arts  Asiariques  36. 

NOTES 

1.  The  main  criterion  for  the 
scholar's  appreciation  ot  lacquer 
was  antiquity.  See  Craig 
Clunas,  Superfluous  Tilings: 
Materia!  Culture  and  Social  Status 
in  Early  Modem  China 
(Cambridge:  Polity  Press.  1991), 
pp.  11,  136-37. 

2.  The  most  expensive  piece  of 
furniture  in  the  inventory  of 
the  material  confiscated  from 
the  late  Ming  official Yan  Song 
was  a  lacquered  bed.  Clunas, 
Superfluous  Tilings,  p.  [31. 

3.  Lacquered  leather  was  used 
for  armor  throughout  much  of 
1  asi  \m.i.  Although  the  two 
materials  are  noi  entirely  suited 
for  use  together,  lacquer  has 
been  used  to  dc<  orate  bronze 
sculpture  and  ritual  objects 
from  (he  Bronze  Age  to  recent 
tunes. 

4.  Uruslnol  is  the  material  in 
the  Huts  rami!)  (whi<  h  includes 
sumac  .\nd  poison  ivy)  that 
causes  dermatitis,  Special  care  is 
required  in  handling  this 


material  in  all  stages  prior  to 
curing. 

5.  The  complexity  of  these 
applications  are  well  described 
by  Shogyo  Ohba  in  "The 
Kyushitsu  Technique 
Demonstrated  on  a  Natsume," 
in  N.S.  Bromelle  and  Perry 
Smith,  eds.,  Urushi:  Proceedings 
of  the  Urushi  Study  Group,  10—27 
June,  1987,  Tokyo  (Marina  Del 
Rey:The  Getty'  Conservation 
Institute,  1988),  pp.  91-94. 

5.  Wenwu,  no.  4  (1982),  p.  70. 

6.  Kaogu,  no.  5  (1984), 
pp.  405-17- 

7.  David  Hawkes,  trans.,  Hie 
Songs  of  the  South:  An  Anthology 
of  Ancient  Chinese  Poems  by 

Q11  Yuan  and  Other  Poets 
(Harmondsworth:  Penguin 
Books,  1985). 

8.  For  a  full  description  of  the 
materials  in  tomb  Number  1  at 
Mawangdui,  see  Changsha 
Mawangdui  yihao  Hanmu 
(Beijing:  Wenwu  chubanshe, 
1973)- 

9.  Hawkes,  77ic  Songs  of  the 
South. 

10.  Wang  Shixiang,  Zhongguo 
gudai  qiqi  (Beijing:  We nwu 
chubanshe,  1987),  pp.  12-13. 

11.  Billie  Milam  and  Helene 
Gillette,  "X-Ray  Radiography 
in  the  Study  ot  Oriental 
Lacquerware  Substructures,"  in 
Brommelle  and  Smith,  eds.. 
Urushi,  pp.  199—226. 

12.  For  examples,  see  Shoso-in 
Bureau  of  the  Imperial 
Household  (Konaicho  zohan 
Shoso-in  Jimusho  hen),  eds.. 
Treasures  of  the  Sfioso-in,  vol.  1 
(Shoso-in  Homotsu  I).  North  I 
[Kitakura  D  (Japan:  Mainichi 
Shinbun,  1974),  p\y  4°-43- 

4s-4-.-4-.S1.  !3S-3<;. 

13.  For  X-rays  of  this  type  of 
core,  sec  Milam  and  Gillette. 
"X-Ray  Radiography,"  pp. 


14.  Sir  Harry  Garner.  Chinese 
Lacquci  (London  and  Boston: 
Faber  and  Fabci 

tv  Wang.  Zliongguo gudai  qiqi, 

pi.  4^.  p.  206, 


SO    FINE    A    LUSTER:    CHINESE    LACQUERWARES 


97 


Art  of  Silk  and 

Art  on  Silk  in  China 


Zhao  Feng 


Sericulture  and  silk  production  are 
Chinese  inventions  whose  profound 
impact  on  culture  and  civilization  extend- 
ed far  beyond  China's  borders.  To  most 
people,  silk,  however  attractive,  is  merely 
the  stuff  of  household  draperies  and 
clothing;  they  give  no  thought  to  the 


crucial  functions  of  silk  in  Chinese  art. 


But  silk  art,  as  an  independent  genre, 


Professor,  China  National  Silk  Museum, 
Hangzhou 


from  its  origin  was  closely  related  to  the  other 
traditional  arts  of  China.  The  interrelationship  is  at 
least  threefold:  the  processes  of  sericulture  and  silk 
production  have  been  illustrated  throughout 
Chinese  history  in  other  art  objects;  the  designs 
developed  for  patterned  silks  have  influenced  and 
been  influenced  by  other  mediums  in  Chinese  art; 
and  silk,  used  as  a  ground  for  painting  and 
calligraphy,  interacts  materially  with  the  brush  to 
affect  the  appearance  of  the  created  work  of  art. 

The  life  cycle  of  the  silkworm  is  extraordinary. 
Bombyx  mori  begins  as  the  minute  egg  of  a  small 
moth,  from  which  emerges  a  tiny  larva,  or 
caterpillar.  This  is  the  silkworm,  which  by  voracious 
feeding  on  mulberry  leaves  grows  from  about  one 
millimeter  to  about  seven  centimeters;  its  ceaseless 
feeding  is  interrupted  by  four  day-long  dormancies, 
after  each  of  which  it  molts,  then  continues  eating. 
After  some  forty  days,  each  worm  is  placed  into  an 
individual  compartment,  where  it  spins  the  cocoon 
within  which  it  metamorphoses  into  a  chrysalis,  or 
pupa,  and  finally  into  a  new  moth.  To  emerge,  the 
moth  secretes  an  enzyme  that  softens  and  breaks 
the  fibers  or  the  cocoon.  To  preserve  most  of  the 
cocoon  intact  for  silk  reeling,  the  pupa  is  killed 
before  its  final  metamorphosis  into  a  moth. 

From  the  number  of  very  early  renderings  of 
silkworms  and  their  life  cycle,  we  may  speculate 
that  such  a  sequence  of  metamorphoses,  with  its 
alternations  between  stillness  and  motion,  reminded 
the  early  Chinese  vividly  of  the  human  life  cycle, 
perhaps  with  the  motionless  chrysalis  within  the 
cocoon  representing  death  and  the  emerging  moth 
seen  as  an  allegory  of  rebirth. 

Whatever  the  ancient  interpretation,  archaeologists 
have  discovered  many  representations  of  caterpillar, 
chrysalis,  and  moth  in  many  Neolithic  sites  in 
north  and  south  China.  A  carved  ivory  from 
I  [emudu,  Zhejiang  Province  (sooo-4000  bce), 
shows  four  pairs  of  silkworm  patterns;  a  black 
pottery  shard  from  Meiyan.Jiangsu  Province 


(ca.  3000—2500  bce)  is  carved  with  a  silkworm 
pattern;  and  Xihuang  village  in  Shanxi  and 
Nanyangzhuang  in  Hebei  have  both  revealed 
chrysalis-shaped  ceramics.  A  stone  carving  from  a 
Hongshan  site  (ca.  3600-ca.  2000  bce)  at  Houwa, 
Liaoning  Province,  has  a  pair  of  small  wings  on  the 
form  of  a  chrysalis:  we  are  being  shown  the 
metamorphosis  of  chrysalis  into  mature  moth. 
Numerous  Liangzhu  culture  (ca.  3600— ca.  2000 
bce)  sites  in  southern  China  have  disclosed  similar 
carvings  in  jade.  By  their  sheer  numbers,  these 
survivals  suggest  the  lively  importance  of  the 
silkworm  to  Neolithic  Chinese.  The  most 
important  find  is  the  small  half  cocoon  from 
Xiying  village,  Shanxi  (ca.  3500-ca.  3000  bce);  it  is 
reasonable  to  assume  that  the  cocoon  had  been  cut 
open  in  order  to  observe  the  final  metamorphosis 
and  emergence  of  the  moth — a  form  of  augury 
that  we  might  term  seriomancy. 

Images  of  the  fusang  tree  appear  frequently  in 
ancient  art.  Most  texts  explain  the  fusang  tree  as  a 
giant  mulberry  tree  that  connects  earth  with 
Heaven,  or  as  the  Tree  of  the  Sun.  In  Chinese 
legend  there  were  once  ten  suns,  one  of  which, 
carried  by  thejingwu  bird,  traverses  the  sky  from 
east  to  west  every  day,  then  rests  on  the  fusang  tree 
all  night.  Therefore  mulberry  groves,  the  true 
habitats  of  the  Jusang  tree  on  earth,  were  places 
from  which  people  could  ascend  to  Heaven  to 
communicate  with  the  gods,  and  thus  places 
of  prayer. 

The  fusang  pattern  probably  appeared  on  Neolithic 
art  objects,  but  the  fust  verifiable  image  is  the 
bronze  Jusang  tree  excavated  from  .1  Shang  ritual 
site  at  Sanxingdui.  Sichuan  (ca.  1600-ea.  1100  Ben). 
A  lacquer  box  with  a  design  of  i  Jusang  tree. 
unearthed  from  a  tomb  of  the  Warring  States 
period  U~s   n\  bce)  in  Hubei  Province, shows  the 
archer  Yi  shooting  at  thejingwu  bird. The  modi' 
derives  from  .1  legend  in  which  all  ten  suns 
appeared  together  in  the  sk\  one  day,  threatening  to 
incinerate  the  earth;  the  heroYi  saved  the  world  by 


ART   OF    SILK    AND    ART    ON    SILK    IN    CHINA 


99 


shooting  nine  of  them  out  of  the  sky.  On  objects 
dating  from  the  Warring  States  period  through  the 
Han  dynasty  (206  BCE-220  CE),fusang  trees  appear 
more  frequently  than  before.  We  find  it,  albeit  very 
small  and  much  changed  in  shape,  on  the  silk  gauze 
embroidered  with  dragons  and  phoenixes  found  in 
the  Chu  state  tomb  at  Mashan,Jiangling  county, 
Hubei  Province.  On  the  famous  silk  painted  banner 
from  Mawangdui  tomb  Number  1  (ca.  168  bce),  at 
Changsha,  Hunan  Province,  we  also  find  afusang 
tree  with  nine  small  suns  and  one  large  one.  Relief 
carvings  in  stone  tombs,  especially,  showfusang 
trees,  sometimes  with  jingwu  birds,  sometimes  with 
a  horse  tethered  to  the  trunk,  sometimes  with  a 
leaf-gathering  basket  or  even  with  female  leaf 
pickers.  In  that  last  depiction  it  very  closely 
resembles  a  mulberry  tree. 

Contemporary  with  Han  stone  reliefs  bearing 
fusaiig  designs  are  a  number  of  reliefs  illustrating  silk 
production.  According  to  archaeological  reports,  at 
least  seventeen  such  reliefs  exist,  nine  from 
Shandong,  six  from  Jiangsu,  one  from  Anhui,  and 
one  from  Sichuan,  including  a  stone  relief  depicting 
silk  production  now  on  display  at  the  National 
Museum  of  Chinese  History  in  Beijing. 

Sericulture  and  silk  production  became  increasingly 
prominent  art  motifs  in  the  Song  (960—1279), 
reflecting  the  great  importance  of  sericulture  in  the 
economy  of  that  time.  The  best-known  example  is 
perhaps  the  Gengzhitu  ("Pictures  ofTilling  and 
Weaving")  of  1145,  text  and  pictures  by  Lou  Shou, 
administrator  of  Yuhang  county  near  Hangzhou, 
then  capital  of  the  Southern  Song  (1127— 1279).  In 
part  two  of  this  work  twenty-four  illustrations 
depict  and  describe  the  whole  process  of  sericulture 
and  silk  weaving:  hatching;  gathering  newly 
hatched  larvae;  silkworm  feeding  and  raising;  first, 
second,  and  third  moltings;  arrangement  of  feeding 
trays;  gathering  mulberry  leaves;  last  molting; 
picking  mature  silkworms;  cocooning;  warming  the 
cocoons;  gathering  the  cocoons;  selecting  the 
cocoons;  storing  the  cocoons;  reeling  the  silk;  silk 
moths  laying  eggs;  making  offerings  to  the  gods  of 
sericulture;  winding;  warping;  wefting;  patterning; 
cloth  cutting.  The  earliest  known  version  of  Pictures 
of  Sericulture  and  Weaving,  in  the  Heilongjiang 
Provincial  Museum,  bears  an  inscription  attributed 
to  Empress  Wu  (ca.  1127—1162).  A  later  version, 
attributed  to  Chen  Qi  of  the  Yuan  dynasty 
(1279— 1368),  now  in  the  Freer  Gallery  of  Art  in 
Washington,  was  widely  influential.  But  the  most 
frequently  reproduced  version  is  that  of  the  court 
painter  Jiao  Bingzhen  (act.  ca.  1680— 1720),  whose 
illustrations  accompany  didactic  verses  attributed  to 
the  Kangxi  emperor  (r.  i662-i722).Jiao's 
illustrations  contain  Western  stylistic  elements, 
learned  from  the  Western  missionaries  with  whom 
he  had  contact  at  the  imperial  court.  Close  copies 


of  Jiao's  illustrations  appeared  throughout  the  Qmg 
period  (1644— 1911),  in  the  most  various  mediums — 
wood  carvings,  stone  reliefs,  painted  porcelains, 
molded  ink  sticks,  and  woodblock-printed  book 
illustrations.  Furthermore,  the  Pictures  of  Cotton 
Production  by  Fang  Guanchen  (ca.  1765)  and  the 
twelve  pictures  of  sericulture  done  in  relief  carving 
on  stone  in  the  Guangyuan  Temple  in  Sichuan 
Province  are  undoubtedly  derived  from  the  earlier 
works  by  Lou  Shou  and  Jiao  Bingzhen. 

FOREGROUND  AND  BACKGROUND  DESIGNS  ON 
BRONZES,  JADES,  AND  OTHER  MEDIUMS 

A  major  evolutionary  change  is  apparent  in  the 
decoration  of  early  Chinese  art,  especially  jades  and 
bronzes.  In  the  Neolithic  and  the  earlier  Bronze 
Age  the  zoomorphic  patterns  on  jades  and  bronzes 
were  simply  rendered  against  relatively  plain 
backgrounds.  Increasing  complexity  became  the 
rule  during  the  middle  and  later  Bronze  Age,  with 
the  principal  zoomorphic  motifs  set  against 
geometric  background  figures  such  as  S  or  T  shapes 
or  squared  spirals.  What  inspired  this  change?  The 
creation  of  design,  of  course,  was  the  main  reason. 
Silks  featuring  animal  motifs  embroidered  on  a 
damask  ground  woven  with  small  geometric  figures 
were  the  prototypes  tor  the  later  bronze  art. 

From  fragments  of  mats  unearthed  from  Neolithic 
sites  at  Hemudu,  Banpo,  Qianshanyang,  and 
Caoxishan,  we  know  that  patterns  made  from 
woven  bamboo  and  braided  £c-hemp  threads  were 
being  executed  long  before  patterns  woven  on  the 
loom.  Some  traces  of  the  earliest  woven  patterns  on 
silk  can  be  seen  in  the  form  of  "ghost"  impressions 
left  by  cloth  or  mats  that  were  used  to  wrap 
jade  and  bronze  objects  of  the  Shang  dynasty 
(ca.  1600-ca.  1100  bce).  Although  the  cloth  or  mat 
wrapping  have  long  since  disintegrated,  the  patterns 
that  remain  include  a  lozenge  pattern  from  silk 
tabby  on  a  bronze  ax  excavated  at  Anyang  and  now 
in  the  Museum  of  Far  Eastern  Antiquities, 
Stockholm,  noted  by  Vivi  Sylwan;  the  S-shaped 
pattern  from  silk  tabby  on  a  jade  knife  now  in  the 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing,  which  was  noted  by  Chen 
Juanjuan,  and  an  S-shaped  damask  pattern  on  a 
bronze  ritual  vessel  found  at  Anyang.  Some  carved 
jades  and  stone  sculptures  also  manifest  textile 
patterns,  including  T-shaped  diaper  patterns. 
Furthermore,  we  also  find  traces  of  silk  embroidery 
on  some  of  the  woven  figured  silks  in  which  the 
excavated  bronzes  have  been  found  wrapped; 
although  the  complete  pattern  of  most  of  these  has 
been  lost,  the  embroidered  patterns  on  the 
fragments  seem  to  be  large-scale  mythical  animals 
on  a  damask  ground  with  small  geometric  figures. 
Some  jade  figures  from  Shang  sites  show 
background  patterns  similar  to  those  found  on 
bronzes  of  the  same  period.  Patterned  silks  of  that 
time  have  two  "layers"  of  design,  the  woven  ground 


ART    OF    SILK    AND    ART    ON    SILK    IN    CHINA 


100 


pattern  and  over  it  the  embroidered  principal  motif. 
This  style  is  consistent  with  ritual  usage  in  all  the 
arts  of  the  time,  because  the  small  geometric  figures 
suggest  clouds,  which  would  facilitate 
communication  between  the  officiant  at  the 
ceremony  and  the  gods. 

Silks  with  similar  embroidered  foreground  and 
woven  background  patterns  were  made  into  the 
Han  dynasty.  The  potpourri  bag  (cat.  76)  from 
Mawangdui  tomb  Number  1  in  Hunan  Province 
contains  examples  of  both  types:  a  looped  warp- 
faced  compound  tabby  and  an  embroidered 
complex  gauze.  In  one  section  of  the  potpourri  we 
find  a  polychrome  compound  tabby,  known  as  jin, 
with  large  woven  geometric  patterns  forming  the 
background  and  various  smaller  looped  patterns 
forming  the  foreground.  Another  section  of  the 
potpourri  is  made  of  patterned  gauze  with 
embroidered  cloud  designs.  Catalogue  77  is  another 
example  of  silk  gauze  with  woven  lozenge  patterns. 

Similar  silks  may  have  been  made  as  early  as  the 
Shang  dynasty.  We  know  that  the  style  persisted  in 
later  periods  in  a  variant  known  as  "brocade 
windows,"  a  principal  motif  framed  by  a  circle  or 
roundel  against  a  geometric  or  similarly  figured 
woven  ground.  Such  designs  were  also  widely  used 
in  architecture,  as  is  evident  from  architectural  texts 
of  the  Song  and  from  stamped  bricks  and  carved 
wood  of  the  Ming  and  Qing  dynasties. 

STAMPED  DESIGNS,  SILK  PRINTING,  AND  BLOCK 
PRINTING 

Paper,  printing,  gunpowder,  and  the  compass  are 
four  Chinese  inventions  that  greatly  influenced  the 
course  of  world  civilization  and  the  development  of 
the  various  cultures.  Joseph  Needham  has  listed 
twenty-six  great  inventions  of  Chinese  science  and 
technology,  one  for  each  letter  of  the  alphabet, 
including  the  horizontal  treadle  loom  and  pattern 
loom,  silk  reeling,  the  spinning  and  doubling  wheel, 
paper  making,  and  printing.  Everyone  recognizes 
the  importance  of  paper  and  printing,  but  few 
people  are  aware  of  the  significance  of  silk  in  the 
invention  of  paper  making  and  printing. 

It  is  generally  thought  that  printing  originated  in 
the  use  of  stamps.  Many  stamps  were  in  use  in  the 
Qin  (221-207  BCE)  and  Han  dynasties,  but  most  of 
them  were  employed  as  seals  to  make  impressions 
on  clay  rather  than  as  printing  devices  to  make  ink 
graphs  on  silk  or  paper.  The  first  trace  of  a  stamped 
graph  on  a  textile  is  found  on  a  piece  of  warp-faced 
compound  silk  tabby  from  a  Warring  States  period 
tomb  near  Changsha,  Hunan  Province.  The  graph 
seems  to  be  a  mark  of  the  weaver  or  the  owner  of 
the  bolt  of  silk.  Later  finds  include  two  famous 
printed  silks  from  Mawangdui  tomb  Number  1.  one 
in  fine  tabby,  printed  111  three  colors  (two  of  them 


appear  to  be  gold  and  silver),  and  a  thin  tabby 
printed  with  a  floral  pattern  in  six  colors.  On  both, 
painting  was  added  to  enhance  the  design.  The 
printing  blocks  can  be  identified  as  small  bronze 
stamps,  usually  paired,  of  which  examples  about 
four  and  six  centimeters  wide  were  found  in  the 
tomb  of  the  king  of  Nanyue  in  Guangzhou.  Such 
stamped  designs  on  silk  were  the  prototypes  for 
block  printing  on  paper. 

Over  time,  the  stamps  became  bigger,  evolving  into 
printing  blocks  to  be  used  on  silk  or  on  paper;  both 
types  of  printing  developed  contemporaneously  in 
China.  Some  examples  are  three  pieces  of  stamp- 
resist  dyed  silk  bearing  a  portrait  of  Sakyamuni 
Buddha  and  a  number  of  printed  Buddhist 
scriptures,  discovered  in  the  underground  treasury 
of  the  wooden  pagoda  inYingxian,  Shanxi.  Apart 
from  tie  dying,  the  Chinese  generally  created 
designs  on  fabric  by  means  of  printing  blocks  and 
the  closely  related  stencil  technique.  For  block 
printing,  the  pigment  was  spread  on  the  relief 
portions  of  the  carved  block,  and  then  the  block 
was  applied  to  the  silk.  In  block-brush  printing,  the 
piece  of  silk  was  laid  on  the  block  and  rubbed  with 
a  stone  to  receive  an  impression  of  the  design  on 
the  block;  this  blind  impression  was  then  colored 
with  a  pigment-laden  brush.  Stencil  printing,  often 
used  in  north  China  to  make  New  Year's  pictures, 
creates  the  design  by  applying  colors  to  the  cloth 
through  the  holes  in  a  stencil.  All  of  these  later 
techniques  were  derived  from  elementary  stamped 
designs  on  silk. 

SILK  TAPESTRY,  EMBROIDERY,  AND  CHINESE  PAINTING 

Silk,  both  woven  and  spun,  was  once  the  principal 
material  for  Chinese  calligraphy  and  painting. 
Woven  silk  is  usually  unscoured  tabby;  many 
Chinese  documents  and  paintings  were  written  or 
drawn  on  this  type  of  silk.  Spun  silk,  sometimes 
known  as  cocoon  paper,  is  formed  directly  by  the 
silkworm  spinning  a  flat  sheet  instead  of  a  cocoon. 
Spun  silk  was  used  as  a  painting  ground  or  even  for 
clothes  in  south  China.  The  renowned  calligrapher 
Wang  Xizhi's  celebrated  Lanting  xu  ("Preface  to  the 
Orchid  Pavilion")  of  353  was  written  using  three 
treasures  of  the  calligrapher:  an  ivory  brush  pot.  a 
mousehair  brush,  and  cocoon  paper,  a  splendid 
medium  still  used  by  modern-day  painters  and 
calligraphers.  Once  invented,  paper  replaced  silk  to 
a  considerable  extent  for  painting.  But  in  Chinese 
the  character  for  "paper."  :hi.  refers  to  a  kind  ot 
paper-like  silk,  a  sheet  of  short,  scoured  silk  fibers 
By  using  vegetable  fiber  instead  of  silkworm  fiber 
to  make  such  a  thin  sheet,  the  Chinese  invented 
true  paper. 

During  the  Song  dynasty,  and  especially  the  reign  of 
Emperor  Huizong  (r.  U00-II26),  the  arts  ,>t 
painting  and  calligraphy  were  greatly  in  favor  at 


ART   OF    SILK   AND   ART    ON    SILK    IN    CHINA 


101 


court.  And  due  to  the  emperor's  interest  and  favor, 
silks  were  exquisitely  woven  and  embroidered  to 
mimic  contemporaneous  paintings,  especially 
flower-and-bird  paintings.  Silk  art  tapestry  (kesi ) 
developed  at  that  time  to  answer  the  demand  for 
fabric  designs  as  naturalistic  in  style  as  the  works  of 
favorite  painters.  The  resulting  woven  paintings 
were  regarded  not  as  patterned  fabrics  but  as  works 
of  art. 

Silk  tapestry  is  a  kind  of  tabby,  whose  distinguishing 
technical  feature  is  the  use  of  discontinuous  weft 
threads  instead  of  weft  threads  that  run  the  whole 
width  of  the  fabric,  as  they  do  in  ordinary  woven 
silks.  In  kesi,  the  weft  is  introduced  only  at  the 
point  where  its  particular  color  is  required  in  the 
design,  which  allows  the  weaver  enormous  freedom 
in  the  shape  of  the  design  elements. 

Zhuang  Chou,  a  scholar  of  Northern  Song,  pointed 
out  this  feature  in  his  book  Jilei  pian:" At  Dingzhou 
they  weave  kesi.  But  they  do  not  employ  big  looms, 
and  they  use  natural-colored  silk.  They  string  the 
warps  on  wood  and  thorns.  As  desired,  they  make 
figures  of  flowers,  plants,  birds  and  animals,  using 
small  spools.  When  they  weave  the  wefts,  they  first 
reserve  their  places  [for  spools  of  each  color],  then 
they  take  variously  colored  silk  threads  and 
interlace  them  into  the  warps.  Along  the  weft 
direction,  [the  individual  masses  of  color]  combine 
to  form  a  finished  pattern,  as  if  they  were  not 
connected.  When  the  completed  kesi  is  held  up  to 
the  light,  [due  to  the  slits  between  adjoining  colors] 
it  gives  the  appearance  of  engraving;  hence  the 
Chinese  name  kesi,  meaning  'carved  silk.'  A 
woman's  robe  of  kesi  takes  a  whole  year  to 
complete;  but  although  they  execute  'a  hundred- 
flowers'  or  other  motifs  on  it,  it  is  still  possible  to 
make  them  all  different,  because  in  working  with 
the  small  spools,  the  weft  threads  do  not  pass  all  the 
way  across  the  fabric." 


exemplified  by  the  album  leaf  of  Camellias  by  the 
famous  weaver  Zhu  Kerou  (cat.  82),  or  the 
anonymous  Garden  Rocks  with  High  Mallow  and 
Begonia,  after  a  painting  by  Cm  Bai  (act. 
ca.  1060-1085)  (cat.  83),  and  many  others  of  the 
flower-and-bird  genre.  During  the  Yuan  dynasty  kesi 
and  embroidery  also  served  to  make  Buddhist 
icons,  such  as  the  King  of  Blight  Wisdom  Budong 
(cat.  85),  the  Heavenly  King  of  the  West  (cat.  84),  and 
Sdkyanwni  Buddha  (cat.  86). 

In  southern  China,  the  principal  area  of  sericulture 
and  silk  production  during  the  Ming  and  Qing 
dynasties,  kesi  and  silk  embroidery  continued  to  be 
heavily  influenced  by  literati  painting,  which 
flourished  in  the  Jiangnan  region,  heart  of  the 
Ming  dynasty  textile  industry.  Women  of 
aristocratic  households,  most  famously  the  women 
of  the  Gu  family  of  Shanghai  and  Ni  Renji  in 
Zhejiang,  became  expert  at  mimicking  paintings  in 
many  varieties  of  embroidery,  usually  with  finishing 
touches  added  with  brush  and  pigments.  This 
practice  of  enhancing  kesi  or  embroidery  with  paint 
was  prevalent  during  the  Ming  and  Qing  dynasties, 
as  seen  in  the  Qmg  dynasty  kesi  tapestry  of  Li  Bai's 
"Evening  in  the  Peach  and  Plum  Garden"  (cat.  87). 

In  summary,  silk,  in  addition  to  all  its  "practical" 
uses,  has  served  as  a  ground  for  painting  and 
calligraphy,  as  a  medium  in  which  paintings  were 
superbly  imitated  in  weaving  or  needlework,  and  as 
an  inspiration  for  the  invention  of  paper. 


Examples  of  wool  tapestry  are  known  from  as  early 
as  the  second  century  bce  in  western  China;  silk 
tapestry  (kesi )  dating  from  the  late  Tang  period 
(618-907)  has  been  found  in  eastern  Central  Asia 
and  Mongolia.  During  the  Song  dynasty  the 
techniques  of  kesi  were  adopted  in  China  proper  to 
ornament  objects  of  daily  use:  a  shoe  "upper"  with 
a  phoenix  pattern  and  a  coverlet  with  a  dragon 
design  (cat.  81)  were  unearthed  in  a  Liao  dynasty 
(916-1125)  tomb,  and  robes  and  other  garments  are 
mentioned  in  written  records  of  the  period.  Kesi 
was  also  used  as  mountings  of  important  paintings, 
some  of  which  have  survived.  Silk  embroidery 
might  also  be  used  for  the  same  purposes  as  kesi. 
Increasingly,  however,  from  the  Song  on,  kesi  and 
embroidery  were  devoted  to  making  copies  of 
paintings,  meticulously  exact  in  every  detail  of 
composition,  form,  and  color.  Such  works  are 


ART    OF    SILK    AND   ART    ON    SILK    IN    CHINA 


102 


Realities  of  Life  after 
Death:  Constructing  a 
Posthumous  World  in 
Funerary  Art 


"Realities  of  life  after  death,"  from  the 


perspective  of  art  history,  means  represen- 
tations of  life  inside  a  tomb.  In  China  the 
emergence  of  such  representations  coin- 
cided with  a  powerful  artistic  movement 


that  reinvented  Chinese  art:  during  the 


Eastern  Zhou  period  (770-256  bce), 
sacrificial  bronzes — the  privileged  form 
of  traditional  ritual  art  of  the  Xia,  Shang, 


Wu   Hung 


Harrie  A.  Vanderstappen  Distinguished 
Service  Professor  in  Chinese  Art  History, 
University  of  Chicago 


103 


Fig.  l.  Diagram  of  tomb  No.  7,  Niiqiapo,  Changzi, 
Shanxi  Province.  Eastern  Zhou  period. 


Fig.  2.  Unfired  day  tomb  figurines.  Warring  States  period. 
Niilangslian ,  Zhangqiu,  Shandong  Province. 


and  Zhou  dynasties — gradually  declined,  and  the 
center  of  ancestral  worship  shifted  from  the  lineage 
temple  to  the  family  graveyard,  generating  new 
rites  and  ritual  paraphernalia.  Increasingly,  tombs 
were  furnished  not  only  with  sacrificed  humans 
and  animals  and  articles  taken  direcdy  from  the 
world  of  the  living,  but  also  with  replicas  and 
representations  made  specifically  for  burial. The 
variety  of  forms  manufactured  for  the  afterlife  were 


known  collectively  as  "spirit  articles"  (mingqi). 
Among  these  forms  were  grave  figurines  (muyong), 
which  increasingly  became  a  regular  component  of 
tomb  furnishings  during  the  middle  and  late 
Eastern  Zhou  period,  from  the  sixth  to  third 
century  bce.1 

This  was  a  change  with  profound  implications  for 
art:  the  human  bodies  staffing  the  tomb  were  no 


REALITIES    OF    LIFE    AFTER    DEATH 


longer  provided  by  nature  but  had  to  be  created, 
instead,  through  artistic  observation  and 
production.  From  this  time  on,  the  artifacts 
contained  in  a  tomb  comprised  not  only  things — 
vessels  and  other  kinds  of  grave  goods — but  also 
figures  or  characters  essential  for  imagining  and 
constructing  a  posthumous  world. 

Four  kinds  of  archaeological  evidence  allow  us  to 
hypothesize  that  grave  figurines  were  first  used  as 
substitutes  for  the  human  sacrifices  found  in  earlier 
and  contemporary  tombs.  First,  figurines  were  often 
placed  next  to  or  around  the  deceased,  an 
arrangement  following  the  burial  pattern  of  human 
sacrifices.  Second,  we  know  that  figurines  and 
human  sacrifices  were  used  in  combination  to 
furnish  tombs:  for  example,  Niujiapo  tomb 
Number  7,  in  Changzi,  Shanxi  Province,  contained 
three  human  victims  along  the  east  and  south  walls 
and  four  figurines  near  the  west  and  north  walls 
(fig.  1). Together,  these  seven  "figures"  surrounded 
and  protected  the  dead  person  in  the  middle.2 
Third,  figurines  were  sometimes  identified  by 
inscriptions  as  "dead  servants"  {wangtong  or 
mingtong)  who  would  serve  their  master  in  the 
underworld.3  And  fourth,  the  increasing  popularity 


Fig.  3.  Wooden  tomb  figurine.  Warring  States  period. 
Tomb  No.  2,  Baoshan,  Hubei  Province. 


Fig.  4.  ( Underground  army  o/Qin  Shihuangdi.  Qin 
dynasty.  Lishan  necropolis,  Untong  Xian,  Shaanxi 
Province. 


REALITIES    OF    LIFE    AFTER    DEATH 


105 


Fig.  5.  Scale  drawings  of  a  Warring  States  figurine  from 
Zhangqiu,  Shandong  Province  (right),  and  a  warrior 
figure  from  the  Lishan  necropolis  of  Qin  Shihtiangdi. 


of  tomb  figurines  was  concurrent  with  the  decline 
and  final  extinction  of  human  sacrifices. 

Archaeology  also  enables  us  to  develop  this 
"substitution"  theory  further.  It  is  possible  that 
figurines  substituted  for  some  but  not  all  kinds  of 
human  sacrifices.  Scholars  have  distinguished  two 
main  types  of  human  victims  in  early  China: 
"companions  in  death"  (renxun)  and  "human 
offerings"  (rensheng).*  "Companions  in  death" 
included  relatives,  consorts,  subordinates,  guards, 
and  servants,  who  followed  the  deceased  to  the 
afterlife.  "Human  offerings,"  on  the  other  hand, 
were  considered  a  particular  kind  of  "sacrificial 
animal"  (sheng)  and  always  suffered  a  violent  death. 


Fig.  6.  Clay  tomb  figurines.  Ca.  141  BCE.  Yangling, 
necropolis  of  Emperor  Jing  of  the  Western  Han  dynasty, 
Xianyang,  Shaanxi  Province. 


Most  early  figurines  represented  guardians,  servants, 
and  entertainers;  and  they  clearly  stood  for  human 
companions,  not  sacrificial  offerings.5  Moreover,  it 
seems  that  during  this  transitional  period,  the  burial 
of  a  prestigious  nobleman  could  still  have 
demanded  real  human  victims,  "whereas  for  the 
burial  of  a  lower-ranking  person  figurines  were 
sometimes  used  instead.  In  a  fifth-century  bce 
tomb  at  Langjiazhuang,  in  Shandong  Province,  for 
example,  the  deceased  was  accompanied  by 
seventeen  female  "companions  in  death"6  All  these 
women  had  individual  graves  and  personal 
belongings.  Two  were  accompanied  by  their  own 
human  victims,  and  six  of  the  women  by  pottery 
figurines.  A  similar  arrangement  was  found  in 
another  Qi-state  tomb,  excavated  recently  at 
Zhangqiu  and  dating  from  the  mid-Warring  States 
period.7  Here  the  main  burial  was  surrounded  by 
five  smaller  grave  pits  of  young  women;  of  these,  pit 
Number  1  contained  a  group  of  thirty-eight 
pottery  figurines  (fig.  2). 

Warring  States  (475—221  bce)  figurines  are  of  two 
principal  types,  one  generally  found  in  the  north 
and  the  other  in  the  south.  All  figurines  from  the 
Chu  region  in  the  south  are  made  of  wood, 
whereas  most  examples  from  the  northern  states  are 
of  clay.  The  differences  between  the  northern  and 


REALITIES    OF    LIFE    AFTER    DEATH 


106 


S&$B&tiB£ 


Fig.  7.  Diagram  of  tomb  No.  1,  Mawangdui,  Changslia, 
Hunan  Province.  After  16S  BCE. 


[■•■l^-i'1'1'  j«  ^f''^-^m^,t^ji:^prit\  Kg— . 


F(g,  S,  Decoration  on  front  panel  of  second  coffin  (from 
the  outside),  tomb  No.  1,  Mawangdui,  Changslia,  Hunan 
Province.  After  168  BCE. 


southern  figurines,  however,  go  far  beyond  their 
materials  to  include  their  manner  of  representation 
and  grouping. 


Fig.  9.  Decoration  on  front  and  left  panel  oj  third  coffin 
(from  the  outside),  tomb  No.  1,  Mawangdui,  Changslia, 
Hunan  Province.  After  16S  BCE. 


tombs  such  figurines  were  usually  not  clustered 
together  in  a  group,  apart  from  other  tomb 
contents.  Instead,  one  or  more  figurines  were 
installed  with  each  type  ot  tomb  furnishing — some 
with  horses  and  chariots,  others  with  kitchenwares, 
yet  others  with  writing  equipment — in  separate 
chambers  of  the  tomb.  In  this  way,  the  figurines 
resemble  individual  puppets  in  a  series  of  stage  sets 
that  represent  the  various  sections  of  a  household. 

Northern  figurines,  on  the  other  hand,  were  often 
grouped  together  in  an  extensive  representation  of 
a  single  social  setting.  For  example,  in  the  Zhangqiu 
tomb,  arranged  in  a  single  tableau,  were  thirty-eight 
clay  sculptures:  twenty-six  human  figures  (including 
dancers,  musicians,  and  audience  members);  five 
musical  instruments;  and  eight  birds  (fig.  2). The 
role  of  such  a  "set"  as  a  self-contained  tableau  is 
reinforced  by  its  miniature  form.  Almost  all 
northern  figurines  of  the  Warring  States  period  are 
hand-modeled  from  soft  clay;  their  size — they  arc 
often  merely  seven  to  ten  centimeters  tall — allowed 
only  rudimentary  representation  ot  faces  and 
costumes.8 


Most  Chu  figurines  have  brightly  painted  clothes 
and  facial  features,  and  some  of  the  figurines  attest 
to  an  intense  effort  to  mimic  live  human  beings. 
Two  extraordinary  specimens  from  Baoshan  tomb 
Number  2,  for  example,  are  each  more  than  a 
meter  tall  (fig.  3). Their  ears,  arms,  hands,  and  feet 
were  carved  separately  and  then  attached.  Their 
mustaches  and  braids  were  made  of  real  hair,  and 
silk  robes  originally  covered  their  bodies.  In  Chu 


We  wonder  why  such  tiny  figures  were  given  wide 
currency  in  funerary  art. The  answer  must  be  found 
in  the  specific  artistic  goals  of  the  miniature.  It  has 
been  suggested  that  miniature  representations  most 
consciously  create  an  interior  space  and  time  111  a 
fictional  world.  Unlike  realism,  which  attempts  to 
map  art  upon  life,  the  metaphoric  world  ot  the 
immature  skews  the  temporal  and  spatial  relations 
of  the  everyday  world.  Buried  in  a  tomb,  "the 


REALITIES    OF    LIFE    AFTER    DEATH 


107 


miniature,"  in  Susan  Stewart's  words,  "finds  its  'use 
value'  transformed  into  the  infinite  time  of 
reverie."9  The  tiny  Warring  States  figurines  thus  not 
only  "substituted"  for  human  beings  but  also 
extended  life  in  perpetuity. 

These  early  figurines  provided  antecedents  for  the 
famous  terra-cotta  army  of  Qin  Shihuangdi,  the 
First  Emperor  of  Qin  (cats.  88-92;  fig.  4).  Ladislav 
Kesner  has  argued  that  these  Qin  dynasty  figures, 
instead  of  replicating  real  Qin  soldiers  or  abstract 
figurative  types,  have  "the  goal  of  creating  a  reality 
of  a  different  order,  a  self-conscious 
representation."10  This  goal,  as  well  as  the  figures' 
clay  substance  and  decorative  method,  reveals  their 
debt  to  the  northern  tradition  of  pre-Qin  figurines. 
But  instead  of  forming  a  miniature  universe,  the 
project  signified  the  First  Emperor's  desire  for  the 
gigantic.  Here  the  concept  of  the  gigantic  can  be 
understood  in  two  senses:  it  refers  to  the  scale  ot  a 
Qin  figure  compared  with   a  Warring  States  clay 
figurine  (fig.  5);  and  it  also  refers  to  the  scale  of  the 
army  relative  to  a  human  observer.  A  visitor  to  the 
site  is  surrounded  by  the  army,  engulted  by  it, 
encompassed  within  its  shadow  (fig.  4)." 

Miniature  figurines  regained  their  popularity 
during  the  early  Han  period  (206  BCE-220  ce).12 
Like  the  northern  miniatures  of  the  Warring  States 
period,  these  construct  a  fictional  interior  space,  but 
the  Han  figurines  demonstrate  a  stronger  effort  to 
mimic  life  forms  and  an  intense  interest  in  the 
human  body.  The  naked  figures  from  the 
mausoleums  of  Emperor  Jing  (r.  156— 141  bce)  and 
other  Han  royalty  show  sensitively  observed  and 
modeled  torsos  and  faces  (fig.  6).  Although  these 
clay  sculptures  basically  followed  the  northern 
tradition,  they  also  integrated  features  of  southern 
figurines:  their  naked  bodies  were  originally 
clothed,  and  their  wooden  arms,  which  have 
completely  decomposed,  could  have  been 
manipulated  into  various  positions.  Typical  southern 
figurines  of  the  second  century  bce,  still  made  of 
wood,  are  exemplified  by  those  from  the  famous 
Mawangdui  tomb  Number  1 ,  whose  discovery  in 
1972  near  Changsha,  in  Hunan  Province,  was  one 
of  the  most  spectacular  archaeological  finds  in 
Chinese  history.13  The  tomb's  undisturbed  condition 
further  enables  us  to  explore  the  belief  in  the 
afterlife,  an  ideological  system  that  must  have 
underlain  the  structure  and  furnishing  of  this 
burial.'4 

The  Mawangdui  tomb  belonged  to  an  aristocrat, 
Lady  Dai,  who  died  shortly  after  168  bce:  it  yielded 
more  than  a  thousand  objects,  figurines,  clothes, 
and  documents  in  perfect  condition;  even  the 
woman's  corpse  had  miraculously  survived.'5 
Following  the  typical  structure  of  a  "vertical  pit" 
grave,  the  tomb  consisted  of  a  cluster  of  wooden 


Fig.  10.  Painted  silk  banner  from  tomb  No.  1, 
Mawangdui,  Changsha,  Hunan  Province. 
After  168  bce. 


structures  constructed  at  the  bottom  of  a  deep 
shaft.  The  outer  wooden  encasement  (guo)  was 
divided  into  five  rectangular  compartments,  or 
chambers  (fig.  7). The  middle  chamber,  called  gucm, 
contained  the  woman's  body  inside  nested  painted 
coffins.  Numerous  household  articles  and  food 
were  stored  in  the  four  surrounding  compartments, 
identifying  these  chambers  as  a  replica  of  the 
deceased's  former  residence. 

Most  of  the  wooden  figurines  were  found  within 
the  four  peripheral  chambers  of  the  guo.  Some  ot 
them,  including  a  group  of  five  musicians  (cat.  94), 
were  in  the  northern  chamber,  which  imitated  the 
"retiring  hall"  (qin)  in  a  traditional  household.  Silk 
curtains  were  hung  on  its  four  walls  and  a  bamboo 
mat  covered  its  floor.  Eating  and  drinking  vessels 
and  a  low  table  were  displayed  in  the  middle.  The 
western  section  of  the  qin  was  equipped  with 
bedroom  articles  and  furniture,  including  cosmetic 
boxes,  an  embroidered  pillow,  incense  containers, 
and  a  painted  screen;  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  qin, 
clothed  figurines  represented  Lady  Dai's  personal 


REALITIES    OF    LIFE    AFTER    DEATH 


108 


^SS&SHgjS 


S^^S^^^S 


Fig.  u.  Cross  sections  of  tomb  No.  1,  Shaogou,  Luoyang, 
Henan  Province.  Late  Western  Han  dynasty. 


Fig.  12.  Drawing  of  heavenly  realm,  ceiling  mural  and 
detail  from  tomb  of  Bo  Qianqiu,  Luoyang,  Henan 
Province.  Late  Western  Han  dynasty. 


attendants,  as  well  as  dancers  and  musicians.  Quite 
different  figurines  were  found  in  the  guo's  eastern 
and  southern  chambers.  Images  in  this  second 
group,  exemplified  by  a  male  figure  in  the 
exhibition  (cat.  95),  represent  the  household's 
servants.  These  rigidly  shaped  standing  figures  were 
not  arranged  to  form  a  large  tableau;  they  were 
packed  tightly  in  multiple  layers  along  with  cases  of 
household  articles  and  food  in  the  chambers.  The 
servant  figurines  thus  symbolized  a  particular  kind 
of  household  property,  whereas  the  dancers  and 
musicians  placed  in  the  qin  helped  compose  a  self- 
contained  representation  of  social  life  and  space 
inside  the  tomb. 

In  the  Mawangdui  tomb  the  guo  forms  the 
outermost  of  three  encasements.  Within  the  guo,  the 
central  compartment  is  made  up  of  a  nest  of  three 
outer  coffins  (fig.  7);  these  enclose  the  innermost 
compartment,  which  is  the  coffin  containing  the 
woman's  body.  A  painted  silk  banner  overlies  this 
innermost  coffin.  All  three  outer  coffins  are 
lacquered  differently,  signifying  their  different  ritual 
symbolism  and  forming  a  coherent  pictorial 
program. The  outermost  coffin,  solid  black, 
separates  the  dead  from  the  living  (as  well  as  from 
the  four  outer  compartments  of  the  guo,  which 
imitate  the  world  of  the  living).  The  second,  also 
black,  is  decorated  on  all  four  sides  with  human, 
semihuman,  and  animal  figures  amid  swirling  cloud 
patterns  symbolizing  qi  ("universal  energy");  the 
deceased  woman  appears  on  the  lower  edge  of  the 
front  panel,  half  entered  into  this  mysterious  world 
inhabited  by  strange  beasts  and  spirits  (fig.  8). The 


innermost  of  the  three  outer  coffins,  lacquered  a 
shining  red,  is  painted  with  a  divine  mountain 
centered  on  the  front  panel  and  on  one  side, 
flanked  by  auspicious  animals  and  a  heavenly  being 
(fig.  9).  Inside  this  third  coffin  is  the  "inner  unit" 
of  the  burial,  which  preserved  the  woman's  body 
both  physically  and  symbolically:  while  the  corpse 
was  carefully  wrapped  in  layers  of  cloth  and  tightly- 
sealed  in  the  innermost  coffin,  the  likeness  of  the 
dead  was  preserved  on  the  painted  silk  banner 
(fig.  10). 

What  we  find  in  the  Mawangdui  tomb,  therefore,  is 
a  profound  impulse  to  synthesize  divergent  beliefs 
and  desires  into  a  single  mortuary  setting  and  hence 
into  a  single  reality  after  death.  Instead  of 
establishing  logical  connections  between  these 
beliefs,  however,  this  synthesis  was  accomplished  by 
multiplying  the  layers  of  nested  boxes  inside  the 
tomb.  The  result  is  an  essentially  "polycentric" 
tomb,  in  which  are  represented  four  different  realms 
of  the  dead:  the  Universe  (as  shown  in  the  silk 
banner),  the  underworld  (as  shown  on  the 
patterned  black  coffin),  the  immortal  paradise  (as 
shown  on  the  patterned  red  coffin),  and  the 
underground  household  (as  symbolized  by  the  four 
peripheral  chambers  and  their  contents). The 
relationship  between  these  realms  is  by  no  means 
clear.  It  seems  (hat  in  their  eagerness  to  express 
their  filial  piety  and  to  please  the  dead,  the  tomb 
builders  provided  all  the  answers  they  knew  to 
questions  about  tiie  afterlife, 

But  this  polycentrism  is  exactly  what  makes  ancient 


REALITIES    OF    LIFE    AFTER    DEATH 


109 


Chinese  funerary  art  intriguing.  Although  the 
Chinese  ancestral  cult  never  produced  a  systematic 
theological  interpretation  of  the  afterlife,  tomb 
decoration  during  the  four  hundred  years  from  the 
second  century  bce  to  the  second  century  ce 
became  increasingly  systematic:  by  unifying  the 
multiple  layers  of  the  Mawangdui  tomb  into  a 
single  pictorial  program,  tomb  designers  were  able 
to  give  the  afterlife  a  more  coherent,  though  not 
necessarily  standardized,  image.  Such  effort  was 
greatly  advanced  by  the  emerging  fashion  for  tomb 
murals,  which  implies  a  crucial  change  in  mortuary 
structure:  "horizontal  burials,"  which  flourished  in 
the  first  century  bce,  more  faithfully  imitated  an 
actual  dwelling  (fig.  n).  Built  of  large  and  small 
bricks,  a  tomb  of  this  type  often  had  a  main 
chamber,  with  a  gate  separating  it  from  the  outside, 
and  a  number  of  side  chambers  for  storing  coffins 
and  funerary  goods.  Murals  painted  in  prescribed 
locations  transformed  the  tomb  into  a  symbolic 
structure  and  ritual  space. 

One  of  the  earliest  known  examples  of  painted 
burials,  the  Western  Han  (206  bce-8  ce)  tomb  of 
Bo  Qianqiu  near  Luoyang,  Henan  Province,  has 
been  dated  to  the  mid-first  century  bce.16  The 
demon-queller  Fangxiang  and  accompanying  White 
Tiger  and  Blue  Dragon  are  portrayed  on  the  back 
wall;  the  opposite  wall  bears  the  image  of  a  huge 
bird  with  a  human  head,  possibly  an  auspicious 
symbol  or  an  immortal,  above  a  magic  mountain. 
The  painting  on  the  central  beam  of  the  ceiling  is 
the  most  complex.  Two  groups  of  images  frame  this 
horizontal  composition:  the  male  deity  Fuxi  with 
the  sun,  and  the  female  deity  Niiwa  with  the  moon 
(fig.  12);  together,  they  symbolize  the  opposite  yet 
complementary  universal  forces  of  yang  (the  male 
principle)  and  yin  (the  female  principle).  Heavenly 
beasts,  birds,  and  immortals  fill  this  cosmic 
structure.  Most  interestingly,  a  scene  close  to  the 
yang  group  at  the  far  right  illustrates  the  journey  of 
the  deceased  couple  to  the  lands  of  immortality:  the 
wife  rides  on  a  three-headed  phoenix  and  the 
husband  on  a  snake-like  creature;  they  are  traveling 
to  the  abode  of  the  Queen  Mother  of  the  West 
(Xiwangmu),  a  goddess  in  Han  popular  religion 
who  is  shown  here  seated  on  wave -like  clouds. 

The  themes  and  images  of  these  murals  are  not 
unfamiliar:  paintings  in  the  Mawangdui  tombs 
expressed  the  same  desire  for  underground 
protection,  immortality,  and  divine  blessing.  But 
instead  of  being  associated  with  individual  objects, 
as  in  the  earlier  burials,  in  the  Bo  Qianqiu  tomb 
these  themes  and  images  were  reorganized  into  an 
architectural  space:  the  ceiling  provided  a  logical 
location  for  images  of  celestial  bodies  and  the 
heavenly  journey;  the  murals  on  the  front  and  back 
walls  complemented  each  other  with  their 
respective  subjects  of  divine  blessing  and  demon 


"'■isg:' 


Fig.  13.  "Three  Gentlemen  Killed  by  Two  Peaches," 
mural  from  tomb  No.  1,  Shaogou,  Luoyang,  Henan 
Province.  Late  Western  Han  dynasty. 


<a<-  >"*vc>^^^xi»ss: 


^^i^^^^^^^^tssszasSras^;?*^?1".  ■*££ 


Fig.  14.  Funerary  procession  over  a  river.  Relief  carving, 
west  wall  of  main  chamber  of  tomb  at  Cangshan, 
Shandong  Province.  Mid-second  century  CE. 


£$fiks:~Mfr$ 


Fig.  25.  Funerary  procession  to  the  inn.  Relief  carving, 
east  wall  of  main  chamber  of  tomb  at  Cangshan, 
Shandong  Province.  Mid-second  century  CE. 


quelling.  Thus,  the  significance  of  these  wall 
paintings  lay  not  only  in  the  pictures  themselves, 
but  also  in  their  transformation  ot  the  tomb's 
architecture  into  a  coherent  symbolic  universe  for 
the  dead. 

A  nearby  tomb  at  Shaogou  (tomb  No.  61;  fig.  11) 
was  built  at  about  the  same  time,  but  its  wall 
paintings  signified  another  trend  in  tomb 
decoration:  the  illustration  of  traditional  stories  and 
morality  tales.17  For  example,  at  Shaogou  one 
composition  on  the  inner  side  of  the  partition  lintel 
depicts  the  story  of  "Three  Gentlemen  Killed  by 
Two  Peaches,"  exemplifying  the  ethic  of  loyalty  and 
mutual  friendship  (fig.  13).  A  second  composition 
depicts  the  visit  of  Confucius  and  Laozi  to  the 
child  prodigy  Xiang  Tuo,  encouraging  Confucian 


REALITIES    OF    LIFE    AFTER    DEATH 


110 


m 


SVBS&g^&t&t&Seii  yig$?%S 


-rtf-s***-  .-s£u"*: 


Kg.  17.  Entertainment  in  the  afterlife.  Relief  carving, 
inside  jace  of  facade-lintel  of  tomb  at  Cangshan, 
Shandong  Province.  Mid-second  century  CE. 


Fig.  16.  Banquet  in  the  afterlife.  Relief  carving,  niche  in 
east  wall  of  main  chamber  of  tomb  at  Cangshan, 
Shandong  Province.  Mid-second  century  CE. 


Fig.  18.  Driving  outdoors  in  the  afterlife.  Relief  carving, 
outside  face  of  facade-lintel  of  tomb  at  Cangshan, 
Shandong  Province.  Mid-second  century  CE. 


learning. These  and  other  such  images  entered  the 
stock  of  funerary  painting  themes,  persisting 
through  Eastern  Han.  The  world  of  the  dead  was 
therefore  continually  enriched.  At  the  same  time 
that  new  pictorial  motifs  were  invented  and 
integrated  into  tomb  decoration,  new  art  mediums 
were  employed;  burials  embellished  with  stone  bas- 
reliefs  or  pictorial  tiles  became  fashionable  in  the 
first  and  second  century  CE  (cats.  103— 04).  An 
Eastern  Han  tomb  often  combined  two- 
dimensional  pictorial  images  with  sculptured  spirit 
articles — often  vivid  miniature  representations  of 
servants,  dancers,  storytellers,  musicians,  buildings, 
wells,  pigpens,  livestock,  and  household  furnishings 
and  equipment  of  all  kinds  (cats.  96—102). 

Scholars  have  tried  to  explore  the  symbolic 
"program"  constituted  by  the  various  forms  of 
funerary  art  found  in  a  tomb.  A  long  inscription 
excavated  recently  in  an  Eastern  Han  tomb  of  the 
mid-second  century  CE  in  Cangshan,  Shandong 
Province,  describes  the  pictorial  carving  inside  the 
tomb  in  a  coherent  narrative.'8  The  writer  begins 
his  description  with  the  rear  chamber,  which  held 
the  physical  remains  of  the  dead  person.  The  images 
carved  in  this  chamber  are  all  mythical:  directional 
animals  and  heavenly  beasts  transform  the  solid 
stone  room  into  a  microcosm,  while  intertwining 
dragons  guard  the  entrance  of  the  burial  chamber 
to  keep  the  corpse  safe. The  front  chamber  is 
decorated  with  two  horizontal  reliefs  on  the  lintels. 
The  first  relief,  on  the  west  wall  (tig.  14).  shows  a 
chariot  procession  of  local  officials  crossing  a  bridge- 
over  a  river  that  symbolizes  death;  below  them,  the 


wives  of  the  deceased  are  taking  a  boat  across  the 
river,  since  female  (yin)  had  to  be  separated  from 
male  (yang)  and  water  embodies  the  yin  principle. 

The  funerary  procession  continues  on  the  east  wall, 
its  members  limited  now  to  the  close  family  of  the 
deceased.  The  wives  get  into  special  carriages  for 
women  and  escort  the  hearse  outside  the  city 
(fig.  15).  Arriving  at  an  inn,  they  are  greeted  by  an 
official.  With  its  half-open  door,  this  inn  symbolizes 
the  tomb:  entering  it  symbolizes  the  burial  of  the 
deceased  and  the  beginning  of  his  underworld  life. 
This  is  why,  in  the  next  scene,  the  deceased  is  no 
longer  represented  by  a  hearse  but  appears  in 
human  form  as  the  honored  guest  at  an  elaborate 
banquet.  This  "portrait,"  engraved  in  a  special  niche, 
announces  his  rebirth:  having  regained  his  human 
desires,  he  is  now  living  in  his  underground  home. 
The  scenes  that  follow  represent  the  fulfillment  of 
all  his  desires  in  the  afterlife.  He  is  accompanied  by 
the  fairies  called  Jade  Maidens  (fig.  16);  he  is 
entertained  by  musicians  and  dancers  (fig.  17);  and 
he  takes  a  grand  outdoor  tour  (fig.  iS). These  last 
two  scenes,  engraved  respectively  on  the  inside  and 
outside  faces  of  the  tomb's  facade-lintel,  represent 
the  two  major  diversions  that  the  tomb  occupant 
would  forever  enjoy. 

The  Cangshan  tomb  inscription  provides  a  specific 
vision  of  the  reality  of  life  after  death,  focusing  on 
the  soul's  transformation  and  underground  pleasure; 
pictures  in  some  other  Eastern  Han  tombs 
emphasize  the  social  status  and  moral  worth  of  the 
deceased.  Each  pictorial  program  reflects  the  beliefs 


REALITIES    OF    LIFE    AFTER    DEATH 


and  tastes  of  the  patrons  who  commissioned  it.  But 
generally  speaking,  these  different  tomb  designs 
were  all  variations  of  a  homogeneous  funerary  art 
tradition  in  ancient  China;  and  the  three  major 
categories  of  images  found  in  the  tombs 
correspond  to  the  three  major  conceptual  elements 
for  constructing  the  afterlife. 

The  first  element  is  a  cosmological  model:  pictures 
of  heavenly  bodies  and  clouds,  often  appearing  on 
the  ceiling,  transform  the  underground  chamber 
into  a  miniature  universe.  A  posthumous  paradise  is 
the  second  element:  various  symbols  of  immortality 
in  a  tomb  reflect  the  desire  to  transport  the 
deceased  to  an  eternal  land  after  death.  The  final 
element  is  an  idealized  secular  world.  The  world  of 
the  dead  person  is  depicted  as  an  extension  and 
idealization  of  his  former  life:  death  would  permit 
him  to  enjoy  all  that  he  had  most  valued  during  his 
lifetime.  The  deceased  (or  his  posthumous  soul) 
would  live  in  elaborate  halls  served  by  numerous 
attendants  and  feast  on  delicacies  while  delighting 
in  colorful  entertainments.  In  death,  too,  an  ideal 
society  would  be  realized,  a  society  regulated  by  the 
highest  social  and  moral  values  of  Confucian 
teachings.  The  elaborate  banquet  scenes,  carriage 
processions,  and  Confucian  morality  tales  illustrated 
in  funerary  art  enact  such  earthly  desires. 

First  established  in  Han  funerary  art,  these  three 
elements — the  cosmological  model,  the 
posthumous  paradise,  and  the  idealized  secular 
world — continued  to  inspire  tomb  designers  and 
builders  of  later  ages  to  create  new  architectural, 
sculptural,  and  pictorial  forms  such  as  those  so 
vividly  exemplified  by  the  Tang  funerary  horses 
(cat.  106)  and  Yuan  tomb  tiles  (cat.  112)  in  this 
exhibition. 


SOURCES    FOR    FIGURES 

Fig.  1.  After  Kaogu  xuebao, 
'984-4,  fig-  2- 

Fig.  2.  After  Wenwu,  19933, 
pi.  2. 

Fig.  3.  After  Hubei  Provincial 
Jingsha  Railroad  A  rchaeologkal 
Team,  Baoshan  Chu  mu 
(Beijing:  Wenwu  chubanshe, 
1992),  p.  169. 

Fig.  4.  After  Zhongguo  Kaogu 
wenwu  zhimei,  vol.  7  (Beijing: 

Wenwu  chubanshe,  1994),  pi.  11. 

Fig.  6.  After  Archaeological  Team  of 
Han  Mausoleums  of  Archaeological 
Institute  of  Shaanxi  Province, 


Zhongguo  HanYangling 
caiyong  (Xi'an:  Shaanxi  liiyou 
chubanshe,  1992),  p.  50. 

Fig.  7.  After  Hunan  Provincial 
Museum  and  Archaeological 
Institute,  CASS,  Changsha 
Mawangdui  yihao  Hanmu 
(Beijing:  Wenwu  chubanshe, 
W3)>fig  36- 

Fig.  S.  After  Hunan  Provincial 
Museum  and  Archaeological 
Institute,  CASS,  Changsha 
Mawangdui  yihao  Hanmu 
(Beijing:  Wenwu  chubanshe,  1971), 
fig  18  • 

Fig.  9.  After  Hunan  Provincial 
Museum  and  Archaeological 
Institute,  CASS,  Changsha 
Mawangdui  yihao  Hanmu 
(Beijing:  Wenwu  chubanshe,  1973), 
figs.  23,  25. 

Fig.  10.  After  Hunan  Provincial 
Museum  and  Archaeological 
Institute,  CASS,  Changsha 
Mawangdui  yihao  Hanmu 
(Beijing:  Wenwu  chubanshe,  1973), 
fig  38. 

Fig.  11.  After  Kaogu  xuebao, 
1964.2,  p.  110. 

Fig.  12.  After  Wenwu,  1977.6,  pp. 
10-11. 

Fig.  13.  After  Kaogu  xuebao, 

1962.2,  pi  1. 

Fig.  14.  After  Wu  Hung, 
Monumentality  in  Early 
Chinese  Art  and  Architecture 
(Stanford:  Stanford  University 
Press,  1995). fig  4-49- 

Fig.  15.  After  Wu  Hung, 
Monumentality  in  Early 
Chinese  Art  and  Architecture 
(Stanford:  Stanford  University 
Press,  1995),  fig  4  >o 

Fig.  16.  After  Wu  Hung, 
Monumentality  in  Early 
Chinese  Art  and  Architecture 
(Stanford:  Stanford  University 
Press,  I99S), fig  4-5i- 

Fig.  17.  After  Wu  Hung, 
Monumentality  in  Early 
Chinese  Art  and  Architecture 
(Stanford:  Stanford  University 
Press,  1995J, fig.  4.53. 

Fig.  18.  After  Wu  Hung, 
Monumentality  in  Early 
Chinese  Art  and  Architecture 
(Stanford:  Stanford  University 
Press,  199s),  fig  4-5^. 


NOTES 

1.  Among  the  84  tombs 
discovered  at  Deshan  in 
Changde,  Hunan  Province, 
none  dating  from  the  early 
Warring  States  and  only  2 
dating  from  the  middle 
Warring  States  period 
contained  figurines  (7  in  all). 
By  contrast,  5  tombs  of  the  late 
Warring  States  period 
contained  a  total  of  23 
figurines.  See  Kaogu,  no.  9 
(1963),  pp.  461-73. 

2.  Kaogu  xuebao,  no.  4  {1984), 
pp.  504-7- 

l.fiangling  Wangshan  Shazhong 
chunut  ("Chu  Tombs  at 
Wangshan  and  Shazhong  in 
Jiangling")  (Beijing:  Wenwu 
chubanshe,  1996),  p.  278. 
Similar  inscriptions  have  also 
been  found  in  Chu  tombs  at 
Xinyang  and  in  Mawangdui 
tomb  No.  3  of  the  Western 
Han. 

4.  See  Huang  Zhanyue, 
Zhongguo  gudai  dc  rensheng  he 
renxun  ("Human  offerings  and 
companions  in  death  in  ancient 
China")  (Beijing:  Wenwu 
chubanshe,  1990), 

pp.  1-12. 

5.  Not  all  early  figurines 
represent  "companions  in 
death."  The  features  of  a  small 
number  of  examples  implied 
specific  ritual  or  magical 
functions.  Changtaiguan  tomb 
No.  i,  for  example,  contained  a 
room  at  the  rear  center  directly 
behind  the  coffin  chamber,  in 
which  a  long-tongued  "tomb 
guardian  beast"  (zhenmushou)  is 
surrounded  by  four  human- 
shaped  figurines  at  the  four 
corners.  Unlike  other  figurines 
in  the  tomb,  the  four  figures 
have  no  robes  and  their  bodies 
are  crudely  carved.  Most 
intnguingly,  one  of  them  has  a 
bamboo  needle  piercing  the 
chest.  It  is  possible  that  these 
are  human  sacrifices  dedicated 
to  a  deity  represented  by  the 
statue  in  the  center.  See 
Xinyang  Chu  mu  ("Tombs  of 
the  State  ot  Chu  at  Xinyang") 
(Beijing:  Wenwu  chubanshe, 
1986),  pp.  18-20. 

6.  In  addition  to  these  17 
"companions  in  death,"  9  other 

human  victims  in  the  tomb, 
both  men  and  women,  had 
suffered  violent  deaths,  either 
decapitation  or  live  burial. 


These  were  clearly  "human 

offerings "  Kaogu  xuebao,  no.  1 
(T977)- 

7.  Wenwu,  no.  3  (1993),  pp.  1-7. 
Li  Rixun,  "Shandong 
Zhangqiu  Nulangshan 
Zhanguo  damu  yueqi 
zongkao"  ("A  Systematic 
Examination  of  the  Musical 
Instruments  in  a  Large  Warring 
States  Tomb  at  Nulangshan  in 
Zhangqiu,  Shandong 
Province"),  Zhongguo  wenwu 
shijie  ("The  World  of  Chinese 
Art"),  no.  127  (March  1996), 
pp,  86-107. 

8.  In  addition  to  examples  from 
Qi  tombs,  figurines  of  similar 
sizes  have  also  been  found  at 
Fenshuilmg  in  Shanxi  and  at 
Huixian  and  Luoyang  in 
Henan.  See  Kaogu  xuebao,  no.  1 
(1957),  P-  n6;  Huixian  fajue 
baogao  ("A  Report  of 
Archaeological  Excavations  at 
Huixian")  (Beijing:  Kexue 
chubanshe,  1956),  p.  45;  Kaogu, 
no.  12  (1959),  p.  656;  Kaogu, 

no.  7  (i960),  p.  71;  and  Kaogu, 
no.  10  (1962),  p.  516. 

9.  Susan  Stewart,  On  Longing: 

Narratives  of  the  Miniature,  the 
Gigantic,  the  Souvenir,  the 
Collection  (Durham:  Duke 
University  Press,  1993),  p.  65. 

ro.  Ladislav  Kesner,  "Likeness 
of  No  One:  (Re)presentmg  the 
First  Emperor's  Army,"  Art 
Bulletin  77,  no.  1  (March  1995), 
p.  126. 

11.  Again  citing  Stewart, 
"Whereas  the  miniature 
represents  closure,  inferiority, 
[and]  the  domestic  .  .  .  the 
gigantic  represents  infinity, 
exteriority,  [and]  the  public.  . ." 
(On  Longing,  p.  70).  It  is  in  this 
sense  that  we  can  link  the 
army  with  the  concept  of 
monumentality  and  the  First 
Emperor's  political  ambitions. 
See  Wu  Hung,  Monumentality 
in  Early  Chinese  Art  and 
Architecture  (Stanford:  Stanford 
University  Press,  1995), 

pp.  115-17- 

12.  From  20  to  50  centimeters 

tall,  early  Han  figurines  are 
much  larger  than  pre-Qin 
northern  figurines.  I  call  them 
"miniatures"  partly  because 
they  reflect  the  effort  to  reduce 
the  scale  of  funerary  sculptures. 
The  memory  of  creating 
hundreds  of  life-size  Qin 


REALITIES    OF    LIFE    AFTER    DEATH 


112 


warriors  must  have  been  quite 
vivid  in  the  Chang'an  area 
during  the  early  second 
century  bce,  so  that  this  "re- 
miniaturization"  must  have 
been  a  conscious  effort. 

13.  The  most  complete  report 
of  this  excavation  is  the  Hunan 
Provincial  Museum  and 
Archaeological  Institute,  CASS, 
Changsha  Mawangdui  yihao 
Hanmu  ("The  Mawangdui 
Tomb  No.  1  in  Changsha"),  2 
vols.  (Beijing:  Wenwu 
chubanshe,  1973).  For  an 
English  summary,  see  David 
Buck,  "The  Han  Dynasty 
Tomb  at  Mawangdui,"  World 
Archaeology  7,  no.  1  (1975), 

pp.  30-45. 

14.  For  a  detailed  discussion  of 
the  architectural  structure  of 
the  Mawangdui  tomb  and  its 
ritual  function  and  symbolism, 
see  Wu  Hung,  "Art  in  Ritual 
Context:  Rethinking 
Mawangdui,"  Early  China  17 
(1992),  pp.  rn-44. 


Bo  Qianqiu'sTomb  of  the 
Former  Han  in  Luoyang"), 
Wenwu,  no.  6  (1977),  pp.  17—22. 

17.  The  tomb's  excavation  is 
reported  in  Kaogu  xuebao,  no.  2 
(1964),  pp.  107-25.  General 
introductions  to  the  tomb 
include  Jonathan  Chaves,  "A 
Han  Painted  Tomb  at 
Luoyang,"  Artibus  Asiae  30 
(1968),  pp.  5-27;  and  Jan 
Fontein  and  Wu  Tung,  Han  and 
Tang  Murals  (Boston:  Museum 
of  Fine  Arts,  1976),  p.  22. 

18.  For  a  detailed  discussion  of 
this  inscription  and  the 
carvings,  see  Wu  Hung, 
"Beyond  the  Great  Boundary: 
Funerary  Narrative  in  Early 
Chinese  Art,"  in  John  Hay,  ed.. 
Boundaries  in  China  (London: 
Reaktion  Books,  1994), 

pp.  81-104. 


15.  According  to  archaeological 
evidence,  Mawangdui  tomb 
No.  1  was  constructed  after 
Mawangdui  tomb  No.  3,  which 
belonged  to  Lady  Dai's  son 

(d.  168  bce).  See  Hunan 
Provincial  Museum  and 
Archaeological  Institute,  CASS, 
"Mawangdui  ersanhao  Han- 
mu fajue  de  zhuyao  shouhuo" 
("The  Mam  Achievements 
from  the  Excavation  of 
Mawangdui  Tomb  Nos.  2 
and  3"),  Kaogu,  no.  1  (1975), 
p.  47.  Li  Cang,  Lady  Dai's 
husband,  died  in  186  BCE. 

16.  Paintings  have  been  found 
on  the  walls  of  a  second- 
century  bce  tomb  in 
Guangzhou,  which  belonged 
to  a  king  of  Southern  Yue.  But 
these  include  only  decorative 
patterns,  thus  differing  from 
the  pictorial  compositions  in 
first-century  bce  tombs  near 
Luoyang.  The  excavation  of  the 
Ho  Qianqiu  tomb  is  reported 
in  Wenwu,  no.  6  (1977), 

pp.  1-12.  Discussions  of  the 
tomb  murals  include  Chen 
Shaofeng  and 'Gong  Dazhong, 
"Luoyang  Xi  Han  Bo  Qianqiu 
11111  bihua  yishu"  ("The  Murals 
in  the  Western  Han  Tomb  of 
Bo  Qianqiu  in  Luoyang"), 
Wenwu,  no.  6  (1977),  pp.  13-16; 
and  Sun  Zuoyuu, "Luoyang 
Qian  Han  Bo  Qianqiu  mil 
bihua  kaoshi"  ("An 
Interpretation  of  the  Murals  in 


REALITIES    OF    LIFE    AFTER    DEATH 


113 


The  Development 
of  Chinese  Ceramics 
A  Brief  Survey 


Wang  Qingzheng 

Deputy  Director, 

The  Shanghai  Museum 


Pottery  is  common  to  the  entire  human 
race,  but  porcelain  was  a  Chinese 
invention. 

Although  pottery  making  might  have 
been  unknown  during  the  early 
Neolithic  era,  the  mature  Neolithic  era 
was  everywhere  characterized  by  the 
appearance  of  pottery.  The  date  when 
pottery  first  appeared  in  China  remains  to 


be  determined,  but  it  is  certain  that  it  was  already 
widely  produced  some  six  to  seven  thousand 
years  ago. 

The  successful  firing  of  pottery  signified  the  ability 
of  humans  to  transmute  natural  substances  for  their 
own  advantage.  In  studying  the  techniques  of 
pottery  making  during  the  Neolithic  period,  we 
need  to  examine  the  choice  of  clays,  the  practice  of 
washing  the  clay,  the  mixture  of  materials,  the 
evolution  of  vessel  shapes,  firing  temperatures,  and 
the  relation  between  firing  conditions  and  color  of 
the  fired  vessel. 

On  pottery  produced  by  theYangshao  culture  of 
the  Yellow  River  basin,  the  decorative  impulse 
found  expression  primarily  in  painted  designs, 
whereas  in  theYangzi  basin,  during  both  the 
Hemudu  culture  and  the  slightly  later  Majiabang 
through  Liangzhu  cultures,  incised  decorations  were 
prominent.  Whether  the  origins  of  the  incised 
decorations  of  the  Longshan  culture  can  be  traced 
to  southern  influences  is  a  question  worth 
pondering.  A  typology  of  the  incised  decorations 
on  Neolithic  pottery  reveals  clearly  that  these  were 
the  origins  of  the  later  bronze  decoration  (figs.  I,  2). 

The  appearance  of  white  pottery  marks  a  technical 
advance,  the  discovery  of  the  potential  of  kaolin 
clay,  which  by  virtue  of  its  extremely  high  AhO.i 
content  fires  to  a  white  body.  But  since  the 
technology  of  the  time  did  not  allow  firing 
temperatures  high  enough  to  sinter  the  kaolin,  these 
vessels,  though  white-bodied,  are  nevertheless 
"pottery."  White  pottery  has  been  found  in  both 
Yangshao  and  Majiayao  culture  sites.  The  Shang 
dynasty  double-eared  white  jar  in  this  exhibition 
(cat.  117)  was  decorated  with  patterns  taken  from 
the  bronze  repertory;  it  was  made  solely  for 
aristocratic  appreciation.  This  type  of  white  pottery 
comes  mainly  from  the  Shang  ruins  at  Anyang  in 
Henan  Province,  and  it  exemplifies  the  great  skill  in 
pottery  carving  achieved  during  the  last  phase  of 
the  Shang  period. 


Fig.  1.  Pottery  shard  with  incised  design.  Longshan 
culture  (2400-2000  bce).  Shanghai  Museum. 

Fig.  2.  Pottery  shard  with  incised  design.  Liangzhu 
culture  (ca.  3600-ca.  2000  BCE).  Unearthed  at  Tinglin 
site,Jinshan,  Shanghai.  Shanghai  Museum. 


Some  three  thousand  years  ago,  during  the  late 
Shang  dynasty,  a  type  of  green-glazed  ware,  different 
from  pottery,  appeared.  Known  as  "protoporcelain," 
it  was  made  from  clay  with  an  iron  content  under 
3  percent,  glazed,  and  then  fired  at  approximately 
I200°C.  (By  contrast,  the  clay  used  in  pottery  had 
an  iron  content  over  3  percent,  the  early  pottery 
was  all  unglazed,  and  it  was  usually  fired  at 
temperatures  under  iooo^C.)  Probably  [200°C  was 
the  highest  temperature  achievable  anywhere  .11  thai 
time  (not  just  in  China):  even  bronze  casting — the 
defining  technology  of  the  Shang — only  required 
temperatures  under  [ioo°C.  Protoporcelain  was 
highly  regarded  from  the  late  Shang  dynasty,  some 
three  thousand  years  ago.  through  the  Warring 
States  era,  which  ended  in  the  late  third  century 
bce.  Its  characteristic  thin  greenish  glazes  had  iron 
oxides  as  their  colorant.  The  green-glazed  :nn 
(cat.  11. S")  in  this  exhibition  is  a  typical  piece  of 
Shang  protoporcelain. 


THE    DEVELOPMENT    OF    CHINESE    CERAMICS 


115 


Protoporcelain  has  been  found  only  in  certain 
regions  and  appears  to  have  been  used  only  by 
upper  classes.  It  did  not  take  the  place  of  pottery; 
everyday  utensils  and  tomb  furniture  were  still 
made  mainly  of  pottery. 

The  Han  pottery  sculptures  in  this  exhibition 
amply  illustrate  the  widespread  popularity  of 
pottery  burial  objects.  These  lifelike  pottery  figures 
demonstrate  the  superb  artistry  of  Han  pottery 
sculpting,  and  at  the  same  time  they  illuminate,  in 
differing  degrees,  various  social  phenomena.  For 
example,  most  earlier  scholarship  conjectured  that 
China's  oral  literature  owed  its  burgeoning  mainly 
to  the  practice  of  reciting  and  singing  Buddhist 
texts  during  the  Tang  and  Five  Dynasties.  But  the 
reciting/singing  pottery  figures  exhibited  here 
(cats.  96,  97)  show  that  the  tradition  of  oral 
literature  was  already  strong  during  the  Han. 

The  high-temperature  glaze  applied  to  the 
protoporcelains  mentioned  above  was  fired  at 
I200°C.  High-temperature  glazes  were  first  used  in 
China,  but  low-temperature  pottery  glazes,  fired  at 
roughly  700— 900°C,  were  in  use  even  earlier  in  the 
Middle  East.  Low-temperature  lead  glazes  were 
probably  not  used  in  China  before  the  fourth 
century  BCE,  and  they  were  not  in  widespread  use 
until  the  Han  dynasty.  Lead-glazed  pottery  burial 
objects  were  very  popular  during  the  Han,  with  a 
limited  palette  of  colors  created  by  the  addition  of 
different  colorants  to  the  glazes.  The  principal 
colors  used  in  the  Han  were  rust  browns  (some 
with  a  reddish  tint)  with  iron  as  the  colorant,  and  a 
green  for  which  copper  was  the  colorant.  The 
reddish-glazed  pottery  dog  (cat.  101)  in  this 
exhibition  is  lifelike  and  appealing,  and  the  green- 
glazed  waterside  pavilion  (cat.  100)  affords  a  vivid 
example  of  Han  architecture. 

Mature  porcelain  appeared  initially  in  the  mid- 
Eastern  Han,  and  continued  to  be  made  during  the 
Three  Kingdoms,  with  early  green-glazed  ware 
reaching  its  apogee  during  the  Western  Jin.  The  best 
wares  of  this  era  had  glazes  of  a  consistent  greenish 
gray  or  a  slightly  yellowish  green,  with  a  rather 
lustrous  surface.  Beauty  of  shape  and  ornamentation 
was  prized  in  vessels.  Animal  forms  were  widely 
used,  and  vessels  of  all  types  were  decorated  with 
stamped,  incised,  or  applied  patterns.  Openwork 
and  modeling  were  also  very  highly  developed. 

Green  glazes  were  developed  much  later  in 
northern  China  than  in  the  south.  To  date,  not  a 
single  kiln  making  green-glazed  porcelain  during 
the  Western  Jin  period  has  been  found  north  of  the 
Yangzi  River.  It  is  believed  that  green-glazed 
porcelains  gradually  appeared  north  of  the  Yellow 
River  around  the  sixth  century  CE.The  Northern 
Qi  incised  jar  with  six  lugs  and  the  chicken-headed 


Fig.  3.  Wliite-glazed  box,  inscribed  with  character  ying. 
Tang  dynasty  (618— goy).  Xing  ware;  h.  7.2  cm,  diam.  at 
mouth  JJ5. 7  cm.  Shanghai  Museum. 


ewer  with  dragon  handle  (cats.  121,  122)  have  the 
exuberant  forms  unique  to  the  north,  and  are 
typical  of  green-glazed  porcelain  produced  in 
the  north. 

Tang  polychrome-glazed  pottery  ware  developed 
out  of  Han  lead-glazed  pottery.  The  more  extensive 
Tang  palette  comprised  primarily  green  (from 
copper  oxide),  blue  (cobalt  oxide),  and  a  range  of 
ferruginous  hues  from  cream  through  yellow  and 
amber  to  dark  brown  (ferric  oxide);  it  also  included 
a  near-black,  purple,  and  white.  The  famous  Tang 
three-color  (sancai)  wares  were  generally  decorated 
with  overlapping  splashes  of  different-colored 
glazes,  which  were  allowed  to  flow  together  in  the 
kiln.  This  created  a  richly  mottled,  harmonious, 
resplendent  effect.  At  the  same  time,  various 
techniques  such  as  molding,  incising,  applique,  and 
hand  modeling  were  used  to  create  decoration. 
Yellow-and-green  as  well  as  blue  lead-glazed  pieces 
were  found  in  the  tomb  of  Zheng  Rentai  (664  CE) 
at  Liquan  county  in  Shaanxi  Province,  proving  that 
polychromes  were  being  manufactured  by  the  early 
Tang,  and  they  were  produced  on  an  even  greater 
scale  by  the  reign  of  Empress  Wu  (r.  684— 704).  The 
polychrome  braying  camel  with  monster-mask 
saddle  (cat.  107)  is  a  representative  work  of  this 
period. 

In  the  history  of  Chinese  porcelain  making  potters 
of  the  Tang  dynasty  accomplished  the  transition 
from  the  production  of  green-glazed  wares  alone  to 
an  equally  significant  production  of  white  porcelain 
as  well;  they  also  advanced  the  development  of 
black,  brown,  multicolored,  and  painted  porcelains. 


THE    DEVELOPMENT    OF    CHINESE    CERAMICS 


The  Tang  expression  "green-glazed  ware  in  the 
south  and  white-glazed  ware  in  the  north"  refers  to 
the  regional  predominance  of  these  two  types: 
white  porcelain,  as  typified  by  the  Xing  ware  of 
Neiqiu  in  Hebei  Province,  and  green-glazed  ware, 
as  typified  by  theYue  ware  of  eastern  Zhejiang. 
Among  northern  white  porcelains,  Ding  ware  from 
Quyang  in  Hebei  Province  later  displaced  Xing 
ware  (fig.  3). 

This  exhibition  includes  a  variety  of  green-glazed 
wares,  among  them  mise  (or  bise)  ware,  denoting  a 
hue  once  "reserved"  to  the  use  of  local  rulers  in 
Zhejiang  Province. Two  such  pieces,  discovered  in 
1987  in  the  underground  chamber  of  the  Famen 
Temple  in  Fufeng  county,  and  an  octagonal  bottle 
from  the  collection  of  the  Palace  Museum  in 
Beijing  (cats.  123-25),  are  representative  of  Yue 
ware  of  the  Tang  dynasty. ' 

Although  green-glazed  ware  has  a  long  history  in 
China,  prior  to  the  Tang  dynasty  porcelains  were 
merely  utilitarian,  not  objets  d'art  for  the  elite.  It 
was  not  until  the  successful  firing  of  mise  Yue  ware 
during  the  Tang  that  such  ceramics  began  to  be 
admired  by  the  gentry.  For  the  last  millennium, 
however,  scholars  have  failed  to  agree  on  the 
identity  of  mise  Yue  ware,  on  the  actual  dates  of  its 
production,  and  on  the  location  of  the  kilns.  In 
1995,  an  international  symposium  on  mweYue  ware 
was  held  in  Shanghai.  Participants  discussed  the 
porcelains  found  in  1987  in  the  underground  palace 
of  the  Famen  Temple  pagoda,  the  efforts  in  recent 
years  to  locate  and  classify  theYue  ware  kilns  in 
Zhejiang,  and  both  Yue  wares  and  presumably  mise 
Yue  wares  from  various  sites.2  A  rough  consensus 
was  reached.  Regarding  the  definition  of  the  term 
mise:  the  most  common  glaze  color  of  Tang  dynasty 
Yue  ware  is  a  yellowish  green,  like  mugwort;  the 
Yue  wares  found  at  the  Famen  Temple  site, 
however,  are  a  much  different  and  rarer  hue  of 
green. Therefore  we  may  assume,  provisionally,  that 
mise  refers  specifically  to  the  hue  of  these  Famen 
Temple  green-glazed  wares. 

Two  pieces  of  white  porcelain,  marked  with  the 
character  guan,  were  unearthed  in  1985  at 
Huoshaobi  in  Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province  (cats.  126, 
127). They  are  probably  late  Tang  Ding  ware.  Many 
pieces  of  white  porcelain  unearthed  in  recent  years 
trom  late  Tang,  Five  Dynasties,  and  Northern  Song 
sites  have  been  marked  with  the  character  guan,  and 
the  majority  of  these  are  Ding  ware.  The  same 
character  also  appears  on  Yaozhou  ware  and  Yue 
ware  (fig.  4). This  guan  cannot  denote  the  fabled 
Guan  ware,  because  many  superb  pieces  of  Ding, 
Yue,  and  Yaozhou  ware  are  not  marked  guan; 
moreover,  not  .ill  the  pieces  so  marked  are 
outstanding.  During  the  Tang  dynasty  a 
"Yinguanshu"  Office  served  the  court.'  One  of  its 


Fig.  4.  Celadon  jar  with  two  lugs,  inscribed  with  charactei 
guan.  Five  Dynasties  (907—960). Yue  u>are;h.  28.6  an, 
diam.  >it  mouth  p.j  an.  I  'nearthed  in  1970 from  .1  Five 
Dynasties  tomb  in  Banqiao,  Un'an,  Zhejiang  Province. 
Zhejiang  Provincial  Museum. 


THE    DEVELOPMENT    OF    CHINESE    CERAMICS 


117 


functions  was  to  supply  the  imperial  court  with 
pottery  utensils,  as  well  as  to  provide  burial  objects 
for  the  court  to  bestow  on  deceased  officials  at 
their  funerals.  Burial  objects  could  be  made  of 
wood  as  well  as  pottery.  Many  of  the  pieces  of 
white  porcelain  marked  with  the  word  guan  have 
been  unearthed  from  the  tombs  of  high  officials 
and  aristocrats.  Hence  Ding  pieces  inscribed  guan 
might  very  well  have  been  ordered  from  the  Ding 
kilns  by  theYinguanshu  to  serve  as  burial  objects. 
Reinforcing  this  hypothesis,  we  know  that  during 
the  Tang,  Five  Dynasties,  and  Northern  Song  many 
pieces  of  porcelain  were  marked  with  the  name  of 
the  agency  that  had  ordered  them. 

Although  the  Five  Dynasties  lasted  altogether  only 
fifty  brief  years,  they  have  an  important  place  in  the 
history  of  ceramics.  During  these  years  Ding  ware, 


Fig.  5.  Five-footed  brush  washer.  Southern  Song  dynasty 
(1127— 1279).  Ge  ware;  h.  9.2  cm,  diam.  at  mouth  S.8  cm. 
Shanghai  Museum. 

Fig.  6.  Footed  brush  washer.  Northern  Song  dynasty 
(960— 1127).  Jun  ware;  h.  9  cm,  diam.  at  mouth  24.3  cm. 
Shanghai  Museum. 


in  the  north,  developed  toward  its  apex  in  the 
Northern  Song.  In  the  south, Yue  ware  reached  its 
peak.  In  the  northwest,  potters  of  the  Yaozhou  kilns 
in  Shaanxi,  building  on  the  successes  of  Yue  ware, 
worked  toward  the  creation  of  a  truer  green  glaze; 
these  Five  Dynasties  potters  accomplished  the 
transition  from  the  varied  green  glazes  of  the  Tang 
to  the  more  uniform  blue-green  of  the  Northern 
Song.  It  was  also  during  the  Five  Dynasties  that  the 


THE    DEVELOPMENT    OF    CHINESE    CERAMICS 


production  of  white-  and  green-glazed  porcelains 
at  Jingdezhen  in  Jiangxi  laid  the  foundation  for 
major  development  ofYingqing  ("shadow  blue" 
glaze,  also  called  Qingbai)  during  the  Northern 
Song. 

In  the  history  of  Chinese  ceramics  many  wares 
reached  their  florescence  during  the  Song  dynasty, 
whose  so-called  "five  great  wares"  were  Ru,  Guan, 
Ge,  Ding,  and  Jun. 

There  surely  must  be  some  significance  in  the  fact 
that  of  these  five  wares,  the  organizers  of  this 
exhibition  chose  to  display  only  Ru,  Guan,  and 
Ding  wares,  and  not  Ge  or  Jun  wares.  In  fact,  the 
site  and  period  of  production  of  Ge  ware  remain 
major  topics  for  exploration  in  the  history  of 
Chinese  ceramics.  Although  an  international 
symposium  on  Ge  ware  was  held  in  Shanghai  in 
October  1992,4  no  answers  were  to  be  had  (fig.  5). 
As  for  Jun  ware  (fig.  6),  it  exists  in  some  quantity  in 
the  United  States  and  Europe. The  Art  Institute  of 
Chicago,  in  particular,  owns  a  collection  of 
Northern  Song  Jun  ware  unequaled  in  China 
except  in  the  Beijing  Palace  Museum  and  the 
Taibei  Palace  Museum.  In  the  first  half  of  the 
twentieth  century  some  European  and  American 
collectors  and  scholars  had  regarded  these 
specimens  ot  Northern  Song  Jun  ware  as  Yuan  or 
Ming  products.  But  excavation  of  the  site  of  the 
Northern  Song  kilns  at  Diaotai  in  Yu  county, 
I  lenan  Province,5  completely  verified  the  existence 
of  Northern  Song  Jun  ware. 

For  the  past  thousand  years  Ru  ware  has  been 


Fig.  7.  Brush  washer.  Northern  Song  dynasty  (960—1127). 
Ru  ware;  h.  2.9  an,  diatn.  at  mouth  iy.1  cm,  diam.  at 
base  9.1  cm.  Shanghai  Museum. 


renowned  for  its  ash-colored  body,  its  sky  blue 
glaze  with  fine  crackling,  and  for  being  wholly 
glazed  and  fired  on  tiny  sesame  seed-shaped  spurs 
(fig.  7).  Of  all  the  great  Chinese  porcelain  wares, 
Ru  ware  has  survived  in  the  smallest  numbers  and 
is  perhaps  the  most  prized.  For  a  long  time,  the 
location  of  the  Ru  kilns  could  not  be  confirmed, 
but  in  the  winter  of  19S6  two  studies  made  by  staff 
from  the  Shanghai  Museum  verified  the  site  ot  the 
Northern  Song  Ru  kilns  at  Qingliangsi  in  Baofeng 
county,  Henan  Province.''  The  kilns  were  then 
excavated  by  archaeologists  from  Henan  Province. 
Ru  ware  was  produced  only  for  an  extremely  brief 
time,  and  in  very  limited  quantities.  Some  pieces 
found  at  the  kiln  site  lack  the  above-mentioned 
defining  characteristics;  these  clearly  are  not 
Ru  ware. 

Song  dynasty  Guan  ware  is  ,m  even  more 
controversial  subject  in  the  history  of  Chinese 
ceramics.  Historical  documents  indicate  that  there 
were  three  types  of  Guan  ware,  one  made  in  the 
Northern  Song  capita]  of  Bianliang  (present-day 
Kaifeng,  in  Henan  Province),  one  .11  the  Xiuneisi 
("Palace  Works  Bureau'")  of  the  Southern  Song 
capital  at  Hangzhou,  and  one  at  the  Jiaotanxia  kilns 
of  Southern  Song  Hangzhou. To  date,  only  the 
Jiaotanxia  site,  at  Wuguishan  in  Hangzhou 
Municipality,  /heji.ing  Province,  has  been  verified. 
1  'he  Northern  Song  Guan  kilns  and  those  of  the 


THE    DEVELOPMENT    OF    CHINESE    CERAMICS 


119 


Southern  Song  Xiuneisi  have  yet  to  be  confirmed, 
and  among  existing  pieces  there  is  no  way  to 
distinguish  those  made  at  the  Northern  Song  Guan 
kilns  from  those  made  at  the  Southern  Song 
Xiuneisi.  Some  scholars  of  Chinese  ceramics  have 
recently  questioned  whether  the  Northern  Song 
and  Xiuneisi  Guan  kilns  in  fact  even  existed.7  In 
1997  an  ancient  kiln  site  was  discovered  at 
Fenghuangshan  in  Hangzhou  Municipality, 
Zhejiang  Province,  but  further  scientific  excavation 
is  needed  before  it  can  be  determined  if  this  is 
indeed  the  Xiuneisi  kiln. 

However  exquisite  and  acclaimed,  the  "five  great 
wares"  of  Ru,  Guan,  Ge,  Ding,  and  Jun  do  not 
encompass  the  total  achievement  of  Chinese 
ceramics  during  the  Northern  and  Southern  Song, 
Liao,  and  Jin  dynasties.  Yaozhou  wares  of  the  north 
and  Longquan  wares  of  the  south,  both  green- 
glazed,  were  enormously  significant  both  in  the 
quantity  produced  for  use  by  society  and  in  the 
quality  of  individual  pieces. 

Only  in  the  past  few  decades  has  Yaozhou  ware 
achieved  wide  recognition.  Prior  to  the  1950s  little 
was  known  about  ancient  green-glazed  wares  from 
northern  China,  and  except  for  Ru  ware  and  Jun 
ware,  all  pieces  produced  during  the  Northern 
Song  and  Jin  dynasties  were  called  northern 
Longquan  or  northern  Chuzhou  ware.  Since  1984 
large-scale  scientific  excavations  of  the  Yaozhou 
kilns  have  fully  revealed  their  nature.  Although  the 
Yaozhou  kilns  of  the  Northern  Song  also  produced 
white-glazed,  black-glazed,  and  brown-glazed 
porcelain,  green-glazed  porcelains  were,  of  course, 
their  principal  output.  These  were  decorated  by 
carving,  incising,  molding,  appliqueing,  and 
modeling,  and  the  powerfully  carved  pieces  are 
particularly  noteworthy. 

Longquan  wares  of  the  Song  were  of  two  types — 
thick-bodied  with  thin  glaze,  and  thin-bodied  with 
thick  glaze.  The  first  had  a  slightly  yellow-hued 
green  glaze,  highly  transparent,  and  sometimes 
carved  or  incised  designs;  the  other  was  the  world- 
famous  powder-green  or  "plum'-green  (meizi) 
Longquan  ware.  The  thick-bodied,  thin-glazed 
Longquan  with  relatively  rough  carving  or  incising 
was  made  mostly  from  the  mid-to-late  Northern 
Song  until  the  early  Southern  Song,  whereas  the 
thin-bodied,  thick-glazed  powder-green  celadon 
was  popular  during  the  late  twelfth  and  early 
thirteenth  centuries. The  peak  period  for  powder- 
green  and  metei-green  celadons  was  the  thirteenth 
century.  The  jar  with  everted  mouth  and  molded 
bowstring  pattern  in  this  exhibition  is  a  classic 
example  of  powder-green  Longquan  ware  (cat.  134). 

Cizhou  ware  derives  its  name  from  what  is  now  Ci 
county  in  Hebei  Province  (formerly  a  part  of 


Cizhou),  and  kilns  that  made  typical  Cizhou  ware 
have  been  located  at  Guantai  township  andYezi 
village  in  Ci  county.  In  fact,  a  network  of  many 
kilns,  from  Henan  westward  into  Shanxi  and 
eastward  into  Shandong,  were  producing  similar 
wares.  Mostly  they  made  white  and  black 
stonewares,  but  also  polychrome-  and  green-glazed 
pieces,  and  during  the  Jin  dynasty  they  even  created 
underglaze  painted  porcelains.  Most  of  their  output 
was  sold  to  the  mass  market.  Cizhou  ware  was 
decorated  in  a  variety  of  ways,  most  often  with 
underglaze  black  or  brown  designs  painted  on  a 
white  slip-covered  ground.  More  laboriously, 
designs  might  be  carved  or  incised  through  the 
white  slip  to  the  buff-colored  body  fabric,  then 
clear-glazed — another  way  of  creating  two-tone 
decoration.  Sometimes  an  allover  pattern  of  small 
circles,  called  pearl-dotting  or  ring-matting,  would 
be  stamped  on  the  ground.  Green-painted  and 
polychromed  Cizhou  pieces  have  also  been  found. 

During  the  Ming  and  Qing  dynasties  Jingdezhen 
was  the  Chinese  porcelain  capital,  supplying  vast 
orders  to  the  imperial  court,  the  domestic  market, 
and  an  avid  foreign  trade.  (It  should  be 
remembered  that  the  technique  of  making 
porcelain  was  unknown  in  the  West  until  the 
eighteenth  century.)  Long  known  for  its  many 
superb  wares,  the  most  immediate  and 
consequential  cause  of  its  ascendancy  was  the 
development  there  in  the  mid-fourteenth  century 
of  underglaze  blue  and  underglaze  red  porcelain. 
Blue-and-white,  red-and-white,  and  all  the 
polychrome  variants  descended  from  these,  swept 
the  public  taste,  ousting  monochrome  green-glazed 
ware  from  its  millennia-long  supremacy. 

Porcelain  manufacture  in  Jingdezhen  entered  its 
peak  period  during  theYongle  and  Xuande  eras  of 
the  Ming  dynasty  in  the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth 
century. 

During  the  preceding  Yuan  dynasty  Jingdezhen  was 
already  producing  blue-and-white  porcelains  and 
selling  them  by  the  batch  to  other  East  Asian 
countries  and  in  the  Middle  East,  but  they  were 
relatively  insignificant  in  the  domestic  market.  In 
records  from  the  late  Yuan  and  early  Ming,  there  is 
no  endorsement  of  blue-and-white,  nor  did  the 
gentry  consider  blue-and-white  to  be  aesthetically 
important.  Beginning  in  the  Yongle  era,  however, 
blue-and-white  began  to  make  its  way  into  the 
palaces  and  houses  of  the  social  elite.  Relative  to 
the  Yuan  dynasty,  there  was  major  progress  in  the 
production  of  both  body  and  glaze.  Potters  in  the 
imperial  kilns  during  theYongle  and  Xuande 
periods  perfected  blue-and-white  wares  beyond 
anything  seen  during  the  Yuan  dynasty,  achieving  a 
finely  textured  and  pure  white  body,  bright  and 
lustrous  glaze,  and  rich,  well-controlled  blue  color. 


THE    DEVELOPMENT    OF    CHINESE    CERAMICS 


Zheng  He's  seven  expeditions  to  the  southwest 
further  promoted  trade  links  with  central  and  west 
Asia,  and  brought  back  cobalt  ore  for  "Somali" 
blue.  This  imported  blue  colorant  had  a  high  iron 
and  low  manganese  content.  The  low  manganese 
content  reduced  the  grayish  tint  in  the  blue,  and 
with  proper  firing  it  could  produce  a  sapphire  blue 
color.  At  the  same  time,  due  to  the  high  iron 
content,  black  iron  flecks  often  appeared  in  the 
blue,  and  these  naturally  occurring  black  iron  flecks 
yielded  an  interesting  contrast  with  the  rich  blue 
color.  The  three  Yongle  and  Xuande  blue-and- 
white  pieces  in  this  exhibition  (cats.  142-44)  are 
excellent  examples  of  well-made  blue-and-white 
works  of  this  period. 

Although  blue-and-white  dominated  production, 
the  Yongle  and  Xuande  eras  also  saw  the 
manufacture  of  a  small  number  of  extraordinary 
monochrome-glazed  pieces,  including  red,  brown, 
jade  green,  shadow  blue,  yellow,  yellow-green,  blue, 
Ge-type,  Ru-type,  and  low-temperature  green 
glazes. 

From  the  late  1430s  through  the  early  1460s, 
political  turmoil  in  the  Ming  court  caused 
porcelain  production  at  the  official  (i.e.,  court- 
controlled)  kilns  in  Jingdezhen  to  decline.  Orders 
from  the  court  revived  with  the  start  of  the 
Chenghua  era  in  1465.  Doucai  porcelains  of  the 
Chenghua  era,  whose  decoration  combines  blue 
painting  under  a  clear  glaze  with  polychrome 
enamels  over  the  glaze,  are  works  unmatched  before 
or  since.  The  Doucai  vase  with  the  floral  pattern  in 
this  exhibition  (cat.  146),  though  of  the  Yongzheng 
period,  exemplifies  the  delicacy  and  soft, 
harmonious  palette  of  Doucai  designs. 


NOTES 

1 .  Archaeology  team  of  the 
Famen  Temple,  Shaanxi 
Province.  "Brief  Report  on  the 
Excavation  of  a  Tang  Dynasty 
Underground  Palace  at  the 
Famen  Temple  Pagoda  in 
Fufeng,"  Wenunt,  1988:10. 

2.  Wang  Qingzheng,  Ytte  Ware 
Mise  Porcelain  (Shanghai  Classics 
Publishing  House,  1996). 

3.  Li  Linfu  et  al.,  comp.,  Tang 
liudian,  vol.  23 . 

4.  Shelagh  Vainker,  "Ge  Ware 
Conference  Report — 
Symposium  on  Ge  Ware, 
Shanghai  Museum,  October 
1992,"  Oriental  Arc,  Summer 
1993- 

5.  Zhao  Qingyun,  "Excavation 
of  a  Kiln  Site  at  Diaotai.Yu 
County,  Henan  Province," 
Wenuni,  1975:6. 

6.  Wang  Qingzheng,  Fan 
Donqing,  and  Zhou  Lili,  The 
Discovery  of  Ru  Kilns  (The 
Woods  Publishing  Company, 
1991). 

7.  Wang  Qingzheng,  "Some 
Issues  in  the  Study  of  Song 
Dynasty  Guan  Wire,"  Essays 
Celebrating  the  30th  Anniversary 
of  the  Minqin  Jingshe  (Liangmu 
Publishing  House,  1995),  p.  124. 


Under  Qing  patronage  Jingdezhen  continued  to 
thrive  and  its  output  to  increase.  The  Ming 
repertoire  continued  in  production,  with  the 
favored  blue-and-white  underglaze  porcelains 
refined  to  a  somewhat  chilly  perfection.  Unflagging 
demand  at  home  and  abroad  spurred  technical 
innovation,  producing  a  range  of  exquisitely  subtle 
monochromes  for  the  court  and,  to  a  very  different 
taste,  a  huge  variety  of  polychrome-enameled 
vessels  (cat.  145)  and  figures  of  breathtaking 
virtuosity.  The  pieces  111  this  show  include  choice 
items  that  embody  five  thousand  years  of  Chinese 
history,  and  may  leave  viewers  who  are  partial  to 
Ming  and  Qing  porcelains  hungry  for  more. 
Perhaps  this  will  provide  the  Guggenheim  Museum 
with  reason  to  organize  a  future  exhibition  of  Ming 
and  Qing  treasures. 


Translated,  from  the  Chinese,  by  June  Mci. 


THE    DEVELOPMENT    OF    CHINESE    CERAMICS 


121 


Ceramics  in  China 
Making  Treasures 
from  Earth 


Earth  is  one  of  the  most 
ubiquitous  materials,  and  thus,  in 
most  cultures,  one  of  the  earliest 
from  which  vessels  were  made. 
Usually  in  plentiful  supply,  it 
tends  to  be  versatile,  easy  to  handle, 
and  therefore  very  practical. 
It  was  used  in  most  Neolithic 
cultures  as  it  still  is  today. 


Regina  Krahl 

Independent  Scholar, 

Affiliated  with  the  Royal  Museums 

of  Art  and  History,  Brussels 


122 


China  is  particularly  rich  in  resources  of  earth,  clay, 
and  rock  from  which  ceramics  can  be  made. 
Chinese  ceramics  vary  immensely  in  quality  but 
basically  divide  into  two  types:  low-fired 
earthenware  (also  called  "pottery")  and  high-fired 
stoneware  and  porcelain.  Simple,  rough  earthenware 
clay  can  be  baked  at  low  temperatures  (up  to  about 
iooo°  C)  to  a  modest,  fairly  soft,  porous  brown  or 
gray  pottery.  High-quality  porcelain  stone,  when 
fired  at  high  temperatures  (to  about  1200°  C),  turns 
into  hard,  dense,  and  usually  gray  stoneware;  refined 
and  upgraded  and  fired  at  even  higher  temperatures 
(to  about  1350°  C),  it  becomes  a  vitrified, 
translucent,  hard,  and  dense  glass-like  white 
matter — which  we  call  porcelain. 


Fig.  1.  Bottle.  Sui  dynasty  (581-618).  High-fired  white 
stoneware  with  translucent  glaze;  h.  21  cm.  Hebci  area. 
Meiyintang  collection. 


The  fame  of  Chinese  ceramics  is  built  on  these 
latter  high-fired  wares.  Porcelain  stone,  or  china 
stone,  the  raw  material  from  which  stoneware  is 
made,  is  abundant  in  many  areas  of  China,  north 
and  south.  Very  high  quality  porcelain  stone  can  be 
used  more  or  less  as  it  is  mined,  without  requiring 
any  additions  or  much  preparation.  Stonewares  have 
been  made  in  China  since  the  Shang  dynasty 
(ca.  1600-ca.  1100  bce),  and  predate  their  Western 
counterparts  by  over  two  and  a  half  millennia. 


called  porcelain  are  some  sixth-century  white  wares 
from  the  Northern  Qi  (550-77)  or  Sui  (5S1-618) 
period  (fig.  1).  Between  that  period  and  the 
thirteenth  century  (Yuan  dynasty;  1279— 1368),  a 
great  variety  of  more  or  less  "porcelaneous" 
stonewares  was  made  throughout  China,  until  in 
the  second  half  of  the  Yuan  dynasty  the  continuous 
production  ot  nothing  but  porcelains  began  at  the 
kilns  of Jingdezhen  and  China's  stoneware  tradition 
came  to  an  end.' 


The  origin  of  porcelain  is  more  difficult  to  specify, 
for  it  was  not  an  invention  but  an  evolution  from 
stoneware,  an  advance  along  the  continuum  of 
high-fired  wares.  Where  one  ends  and  the  other 
begins  is  a  subjective  decision.  Distinguishing 
characteristics  are  body  composition  and  firing 
temperature.  Since  these  cannot  easily  be 
determined  for  ancient  items,  more  superficial 
features  have  to  be  taken  into  account,  such  as  the 
translucency  and  the  whiteness  of  the  body  and  the 
clarity  of  its  sound  when  struck.  The  Chinese 
themselves  do  not  distinguish  at  all  between  the 
two  high-fired  materials — stoneware  and 
porcelain — and  use  the  same  name  (ci)  for  both,  as 
distinguished  from  low-fired  earthenwares  {tito). 


The  earliest  nieces  that 


id  by 


inv  rcckomii! 


b( 


EAKTHENWAIIE    IN    THE    NEOLITHIC    PERIOD 

Only  in  prehistoric  times  was  earthenware  an 
important  material  in  China.  The  most  practical 
and  versatile  material  available  for  vessels, 
earthenware  served  essential  functions  in  many 
aspects  of  daily  life.  It  was  used  throughout  the  vasl 
area  that  we  call  China,  which,  between  the  sixth 
and  the  second  millennium  net.  was  inhabited  by 
many  independent  and  distinctive  cultures.  The 
ceramics  produced  during  the  Neolithic  period 
(ca.  7000-ca.  2000  bci  )  .ue  as  varied  and  complex 
as  the  cultures  themselves,  but  they  do  not  vary 
greatly  in  material  and  workmanship.  I  he  red  or 
yellow  pottery  is  often  burnished  and  most 
frequently  painted  with  abstract  geometric  designs 
111  brownish  black,  tones  ot  red.  ami  while 
(cat.  [13);  more  rarely  it  bears  anthropomorphic, 


CERAMICS    IN    CHINA:    MAKING    TREASURES    FROM    EARTH 


123 


zoomorphic,  or  other  images,  like  the  human  heads 
and  fish  on  a  basin  from  Banpo  near  Xi'an,  Shaanxi 
Province  (cat.  114).  Most  of  this  pottery  was  probably 
made  for  practical  use,  although  the  more  unusually 
painted  pieces  may  have  had  a  ritual  function. 

More  remarkable  than  the  Neolithic  potters'  efforts 
at  painting  are  their  ways  of  forming  the  clay. 
Vessels  in  sculpted  three-dimensional  forms  are  very 
rare,  but  occur  in  many  different  cultures.  They 
include  human,  animal,  and  bird  figures  (cats.  115, 
116),  whose  primary  purpose  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  utilitarian. 

Utility  was  certainly  not  a  major  concern  of  the 
Longshan  potters  in  the  region  of  Shandong 
Province  who  made  some  of  the  most  beautiful 
Neolithic  vessels.  Their  tall  black  goblets  in  daring 
shapes,  turned  on  the  potter's  wheel,  shaved  to 
eggshell  thinness,  burnished,  and  pierced  with  lace- 
like openwork  patterns  (fig.  2),  seem  to  have  been 
designed  to  overcome  the  solid,  weighty  quality  of 
the  material.  This  imaginative  and  accomplished 
handling  of  earthenware  clay  was  never  achieved 
again  in  later  periods. Yet  even  these  most  advanced 
Neolithic  pots  are  technically  nowhere  near  as 
remarkable  as  contemporaneous  jades. 


EARTHENWARE    SINCE    THE    BRONZE 
AGE 

From  the  middle  of  the  second  millennium  bce, 
earthenware  was  little  used  for  quality  crafts.  It  still 
had  many  other  functions;  all  of  them,  however, 
were  low  in  prestige.  It  was  used  at  the  building 
site,  the  foundry,  and  the  tomb,  for  structural  parts, 
models,  molds,  and  replicas.  Potters  made 
earthenware  roof  tiles,  wall  tiles  (cats.  103,  104), 
water  pipes,  bricks,  and  other  structural  parts;  the 
wall  tiles  and  bricks  were  mainly  for  underground 
structures,  because  Chinese  buildings  were  held  up 
by  wooden  pillars  rather  than  supporting  walls. 

During  the  Shang  (ca.  1600— ca.  1100  bce)  and 
Zhou  (ca.  1100—256  bce)  dynasties,  China's  Bronze 
Age,  earthenware  had  the  important  but  naturally 
unglamorous  function  of  supplying  models  and 
molds  for  bronze  casting.  Bronze  Age  potters  thus 
left  an  imprint  on  the  crafts  of  their  time,  but  their 
actual  works  were  not  meant  to  be  preserved  and 
have  survived  in  only  a  very  fragmentary  state.2 


Fig.  2.  Goblet  with  eggshell  walls  and  openwork  stem. 
Neolithic  period,  Jrd  millennium  BCE.  Burnished  black 
earthenware;  h.  26.$  cm.  Unearthed  at  Donghaiyu, 
Rizhao,  Shandong  Province.  Shandong  Provincial 
Museum. 


represent  an  important  step  in  the  development  of 
Chinese  ceramics. 

From  the  Warring  States  period  (475-221  bce)  until 
the  High  Tang  period  (713—779)  earthenware  was  in 
demand  as  an  inexpensive,  versatile,  and  attractive 
material  for  making  replicas  that  played  a  vital  role 
in  funerary  practices:  figures  of  men  and  beasts 
(cats.  88-92,  96-97,  99-101,  105-7,  109).  models  of 
structures  (cats.  100,  102),  and  copies  of  objects  of 
daily  life.  These  replicas  were  painted  or  glazed  or 
both.  The  figures  substituted  for  the  living  beings 
that  previously  had  been  sacrificed  for  important 
burials;  the  copies  considerably  reduced  the  costs  of 
funerals  by  replacing  more  valuable  goods. 


An  exception  is  the  white  pottery  jar  from  Anyang, 
in  Henan  Province  (cat.  117) — a  rare  instance  of  a 
bronze  vessel,  presumably  shaped  after  a  pottery 
model,  being  in  turn  copied  in  clay.3  Beautiful  but 
impractical,  it  is  made  of  white  earthenware  of  finer 
quality  and  brighter  color  than  that  used  for  model 
making,  yet  is  similarly  soft,  porous,  and  brittle.  Not 
surprisingly,  such  pieces  do  not  seem  to  have  been 
made  in  any  quantity,  nor  for  long,  and  they  do  not 


The  most  remarkable  aspect  of  this  tomb  pottery  is 
the  sculptural  quality  of  some  of  the  figures.  Since 
burial  goods  were  status  symbols  for  both  the 
deceased  and  the  survivors,  they  became  more  and 
more  ambitious  over  time.  This  trend  reached  its 
zenith  in  the  High  Tang  period;  grave  figures  of 
that  time  can  be  strikingly  naturalistic  and  lively 
(cats.  105—7)  or  else  highly  imaginative  and 
elaborate  in  their  modeling  (cats,  no— 11). 4 They 


CERAMICS    IN    CHINA.    MAKING    TREASURES    FROM    EARTH 


represent  virtually  the  only  type  of  secular  sculpture 
ever  made  in  China. 

Funerary  pottery  inspired  little  innovation  in 
ceramic  technology.  Glazes  were  used  on  Chinese 
earthenwares  beginning  only  in  the  Han  dynasty 
(206  BCE-220  ce),  almost  a  thousand  years  after 
they  had  appeared  on  Chinese  stonewares.  The 
glazes  have  a  wider  range  of  bright  colors  than  the 
early  stonewares,  beginning  with  a  leaf  green 
(cat.  100)  and  a  reddish  brown  (cat.  101)  in  the  Han 
dynasty,  followed  by  a  blackish  brown  in  the 
Northern  Wei  (386-534),  various  tones  of  yellow 
and  amber  from  the  Northern  Qi  on,  and 
eventually  blue  and  turquoise  in  the  Tang.5 

Because  funerary  ceramics  were  generally  made  of 
soft  and  porous  clays  and  either  cold-painted  with 
unstable  pigments  or  covered  with  poisonous  lead 
glazes,  they  were  decorative  but  of  very  limited  use 
to  the  living.  This  made  them  even  more  desirable 
for  burials,  as  they  held  no  attraction  for  tomb 
robbers. 

STONEWARE    FROM    THE    SHANG 
DYNASTY    TO    THE    SIX     DYNASTIES 
PERIOD 

In  the  production  of  these  various  earthenwares 
since  the  Neolithic  period,  China  was  no  more 
advanced  than  most  other  countries.  The  important 
and  unique  development  of  Chinese  ceramics 
toward  the  production  of  porcelain  took  a  separate 
route.  Its  origins  can  be  traced  back  to  the  Bronze 
Age,  when  stonewares  began  to  be  produced 
simultaneously  with  earthenwares,  but  at  different 
kiln  centers  and  for  different  purposes. 

The  Shang  dynasty  gray-green  jar  in  the  exhibition 
(cat.  118)  may  have  been  considered  less  attractive 
than  its  white  earthenware  contemporary  (cat.  117), 
but  technically  it  is  far  more  sophisticated.  It  has  a 
stoneware  body  and  a  natural  glaze  derived  from 
wood  ash.  Fired  at  a  high  temperature  (over 
12000  C),  its  body  became  hard  and  completely 
dense  and  wood  ash  on  its  surface  turned  liquid, 
forming  a  glaze  over  part  of  the  vessel. 

Since  its  properties  are  very  similar  to  those  of 
porcelain,  even  though  it  is  neither  white  nor 
translucent,  this  type  of  ware  is  referred  to  as 
protoporcelain.  It  was  by  far  the  most  advanced  and 
practical  ceramic  ware  of  its  period.  Yet  compared 
with  contemporary  bronzes,  whose  complex  forms 
and  intricate  designs  seem  to  have  absorbed  .ill 
artistic  efforts  of  the  time,  it  looks  very  modest 
indeed. Whether  the  porcelain  stone  that  forms  the 
body  materia]  was  used  in  a  pure  state  or  enhanced 
by  admixtures  of  kaolin  (china  clay)  and  other 
Substances,  it  always  remained  gray  and  rather 
co. use. The  glaze  might  have  been  accidental. 


occurring  when  floating  particles  of  ash  in  the 
wood-fired  kiln  landed  on  the  vessel  surface,  or 
deliberate,  achieved  by  dusting  ash  onto  the  vessel 
before  firing.  Whatever  the  process,  the  glaze  was 
never  smooth  or  even. 

Vessels  of  glazed  stoneware  were  made  throughout 
the  Bronze  Age  (ca.  2100  bce— 220  ce)  without 
major  changes.  Whereas  in  the  Eastern  Zhou 
period  bronze  vessels  became  more  and  more 
flamboyant  in  shape  and  design,  their  surfaces  often 
enhanced  by  dramatic  inlay  in  silver,  gold, 
malachite,  and  other  materials,  and  lacquerware 
provided  an  elegant  alternative  in  the  form  of  far 
more  delicate  vessels  with  intricate  polychrome 
painted  designs,  the  finest  ceramics  were  still 
rather  dull. 

After  the  Han  dynasty  fell,  the  empire  fractured 
into  a  number  of  independent  kingdoms.  The 
kingdoms  most  important  for  the  continuation  of 
indigenous  Chinese  culture  were  all  located  in  the 
southeast  and  all  had  their  capitals  in  Nanjing.  The 
manufacture  of  stonewares  burgeoned  in  the  south. 
Among  the  earliest  ceramic  centers  to  become 
famous  by  name  are  theYue  kilns  of  Zhejiang 
Province,  not  far  from  Nanjing.  They  were  the 
earliest  kilns  to  make  stonewares  with  glazes  that 
were  applied  in  a  liquid  state  and  therefore  evenly 
covered  the  whole  vessel  (cats.  119,  120).  In  color 
these  liquid  glazes,  whose  yellowish  olive  tone  was 
derived  from  oxidized  iron,  are  similar  to  ash  glazes; 
but  they  tend  to  be  brighter  and  more  intense  since 
the  contents  of  a  liquid  glaze  can  more  easily  be 
manipulated  than  those  of  wood  ash.Yue  ware  was 
made  in  much  greater  quantities  than  earlier 
stonewares,  both  tor  daily  use  and  tor  burial.'' 

During  this  multistate  period  China  was  more 
receptive  than  ever  before  to  foreign  goods  and 
ideas.  Probably  the  most  significant  influence  came 
from  Western  Asia  with  the  introduction  of 
Buddhism. The  southern  kingdom  ofWu  (220-80), 
in  whose  domain  theYue  kilns  were  situated,  was 
one  of  the  first  to  embrace  the  new  religion. Yue 
wares  therefore  show  some  of  the  earliest  Chinese 
representations  of  the  Buddha  (cat.  120).7 

As  Buddhism  spread  throughout  China  it  brought 
with  it  such  foreign  motifs  as  lotus  flowers, 
palmettes,  and  applied  decorations  suggestive  ol 
encrusted  jewels  and  strings  of  pearls.  These  motifs 
began  to  appear  on  the  green-glazed  stonewares 
from  north  oftheYangzi  River  ic.it.  [22). Although 
these  ceramics  with  their  exotic  ornamentation  and 
shapes  seem  to  embody  the  taste  of  their  time  and 
to  represent  precious  artifacts  in  winch  the  period 
was  otherwise  poor,  the  most  elaborate  pieces  were 
destined  for  burial;  only  the  simpler  ones  were 
intended  lor  use.s 


CERAMICS    IN    CHINA:    MAKING    TREASURES    FROM    EARTH 


125 


STONEWARE    DURING    THE    SUI    AND 
TANG    DYNASTIES 
Although  Buddhism  remained  enormously 
influential  until  the  end  of  the  High  Tang  period, 
ceramics  did  not  reflect  its  influence  for  long.  In 
the  early  Tang  dynasty  and  during  the  two  brief 
periods  that  led  up  to  it  artistically,  the  Northern 
Qi  (550-577)  and  the  Sui  (581-618),  Chinese 
potters  again  became  more  inward-looking.  At  the 
Yue  kilns  in  the  south,  which  continued  to  make 
green-glazed  stonewares,  and  at  the  Xing  and  other 
kilns  in  Hebei  and  Henan  provinces  in  the  north, 
which  began  to  make  white  stonewares,  quality 
quickly  improved.  By  the  second  half  of  the  Tang, 
potters  were  creating  ceramics  with  most  desirable 
features:  a  clear  and  clean  color,  a  glossy  sheen,  a 
smooth  tactile  surface,  and  an  even,  flawless 
appearance.  The  sheer  beauty  of  such  material  made 
ornament  superfluous. 

Yue  and  Xing  wares  were  more  than  merely 
practical;  they  were  perhaps  the  first  Chinese 
ceramics  to  be  celebrated  for  their  beauty.  In  the 
Chajing  ("Classic  ofTea"),  an  eighth-century  text, 
bowls  ofYue  (cats.  123—25)  and  of  Xing  ware 
(cats.  126,  127)9  are  recommended  for  tea 
drinking — then  an  activity  of  almost  ritual 
intricacy — and  are  compared,  respectively,  to  jade 
and  silver,  two  of  the  most  highly  prized  materials 
of  the  time.10  Although  the  delicate  green  glaze  of 
Yue  ware  can  evoke  the  beauty  and  tactile  quality 
of  jade  and  the  brilliant  clear  glaze  over  a  white 
body  of  Xing  ware  can  be  reminiscent  ot  silver, 
these  ceramics  were  neither  conceived  nor  regarded 
as  substitutes  for  such  elevated  substances  but  rather 
as  their  equivalents. These  early  literary  references 
signal  the  dawn  of  connoisseurship  in  Chinese 
ceramics. 

In  the  early  Tang  dynasty.  Buddhism  had  gripped 
not  only  the  population  at  large  but  also  the 
imperial  household.  Buddhist  temples  regularly 
received  valuable  offerings  and  thus  became 
veritable  treasure  houses.  One  of  the  foremost 
temples  of  the  time  was  the  Famen  Temple,  not  far 
from  the  Tang  capital  ot  Chang'an  (present-day 
Xi'an);  it  held  one  of  the  most  sacred  relics,  a  finger 
bone  of  the  Buddha.  In  the  mid-Tang  period  this 
relic  was  repeatedly  borne  in  procession  with  great 
ceremony  from  the  temple  to  the  palace,  and  then 
returned  with  lavish  donations  from  the  court.  The 
last  donations  might  have  been  added  in  874,  when 
the  relic  was  sealed  in  a  repository  (see  essay  by 
Helmut  Brinker  in  this  volume). 

When  this  repository  was  discovered  in  1987  under 
the  Famen  Temple  pagoda,  the  Buddha  bone  was 
round  to  be  preserved  among  the  most  precious 
objects  of  gold  and  silver,  the  rarest  pieces  of  rock 
crystal  and  glass,  over  seven  thousand  pieces  of 


silk — and  fourteen  green-glazed  Yue  ware  vessels 
(cats.  124,  125).  With  their  very  pale  bodies,  highly 
glossy  light-green  glazes,  and  surfaces  as  tactile  as  a 
well-polished  gem,  they  are  exceptional  indeed, 
unmatched  in  quality  by  any  other  pieces  surviving 
from  that  time,  even  if  closely  related  (cat.  123)."  In 
the  repository's  inventory,  they  were  listed  as  mise 
("secret  color")  ware,  a  term  well  known  from  late 
Tang  poetry,  which  tells  us  that  mise  ware  was  made 
at  the  Yue  kilns.12 

The  fact  that  these  green-glazed  stonewares, 
produced  far  away  in  the  south,  should  be  included 
in  one  of  the  richest  repositories,  among  the  most 
exquisite  and  expensive  gifts  from  the  imperial 
court,  clearly  documents  their  elevated  status.  When 
the  Tang  empire  began  to  break  up  into  smaller 
kingdoms,  not  long  after  the  Yue  wares  at  the 
Famen  Temple  site  were  made,  the  kings  of  Wu- 
Yue,  in  whose  domain  the  kilns  were  situated, 
reserved  Yue  ware  for  their  own  use. 

White  wares  from  the  Ding  or  Xing  kilns  may  have 
played  a  similar  role  at  another  court.  Some  of 
them  are  inscribed  on  the  base  with  the  character 
guan  ("official")  (cats.  126,  127)  or  with  similar 
identifications.  The  significance  of  this  inscription 
cannot  yet  be  explained  with  any  confidence,  since 
such  pieces  have  been  discovered  in  Tang,  Five 
Dynasties  (907-960),  Liao  (916-1125),  and 
Northern  Song  (960—1127)  contexts.13  One  can 
therefore  only  speculate  about  what  special  status 
ceramics  singled  out  in  this  way  might  have  had. 
The  only  other  Tang  stonewares  besides  clear-  and 
green-glazed  ones  were  those  with  black  glazes, 
often  with  light  blue  splashes,  but  for  those  no 
elevated  status  can  be  claimed.'4 

STONEWARE    DURING    THE    SONG 
DYNASTY 

Stylistically,  these  undecorated  monochrome  wares 
of  the  Tang  are  completely  indigenous  Chinese 
products.  They  initiated  a  taste  in  ceramics  that 
found  its  fullest  expression  only  during  the  Song 
dynasty  (960—1279).  Both  aesthetically  and 
technically,  the  Song  dynasty  represents  a  high 
point  of  Chinese  culture  and  particularly  of 
Chinese  ceramics.  It  was  a  time  when  exquisite 
materials  and  sophisticated  workmanship  were 
combined  with  a  calculated  simplicity  in  form  and 
design. 

In  contrast  to  the  few  workshops  making  fine 
ceramics  in  the  Tang,  dozens  of  kiln  centers  had 
mastered  the  basic  principles  by  the  early  Song. 
Kilns  that  during  the  Tang  had  made  only  basic 
utensils  which  were  not  known  by  the  kiln  names, 
refined  their  body  and  glaze  materials  and 
improved  potting  and  firing  techniques  to  such  a 
degree  that  by  the  tenth  century  they  were  able  to 


CERAMICS    IN    CHINA:    MAKING    TREASURES    FROM    EARTH 


126 


produce  beautiful  and  flawless  wares.  Technological 
mastery  gave  free  rein  to  creativity  and  allowed  the 
potters  to  concentrate  on  detail  and  subtle 
variation.  The  most  important  ceramic  wares  ot  the 
Song  all  developed  from  the  three  basic  types  of 
stoneware  made  in  the  Tang:  those  with  green, 
clear,  and  black  glazes. 

Song  shapes  are  almost  invariably  simple,  functional, 
and  well  proportioned.  Song  vessels  tend  to  be 
monochrome-glazed  in  subtle,  rarely  seen  shades 
rather  than  bright  primary  colors.  Often  they  are 
wholly  undecorated,  or  have  surfaces  modestly 
enlivened  by  the  faint  tonal  gradations  created  by 
incised  or  carved  designs,  or  by  the  random 
patterns  formed  by  a  crackle,  the  decorative  crazing 
of  the  glaze  that  can  occur  during  the  cooling 
process  after  firing. 


Henan  Province  (cat.  132),  close  to  the  capital  at 
Kaifeng.  They  were  made  for  the  court  for  only 
some  twenty  years  in  the  last  two  decades  of  the 
eleventh  and  first  years  of  the  twelfth  century.  Only 
some  sixty  examples  have  survived  today,  but 
collectors  have  lamented  their  rarity  for  centuries. 
Most  Ru  wares  are  accessories  for  the  scholar's 
desk,  such  as  brush  washers  (low  bowls  for  cleaning 
the  writing  or  painting  brush). They  are  extremely 
simple,  evenly  and  thinly  potted,  and  almost 
invariably  undecorated.  Ru  wares  are  fully  glazed 
(including  foot  and  base),  having  been  placed  in  the 
kiln  on  supports  that  left  only  minute  so-called 
sesame-seed  marks  on  the  glaze.  The  ware  is 
celebrated  above  all  for  its  tactile  glaze  in  varying 
evocative  shades  of  bluish  and  grayish  green,  usually 
with  a  crackle.  The  comparison  with  well-polished, 
well-colored,  slightly  veined  jade  is  inevitable. 


The  most  admired  features  of  Song  ceramics  look 
as  if  they  had  come  about  naturally,  without  all  the 
effort  and  precision  work  that  they  in  fact  require. 
Only  an  intimate  familiarity  with  the  properties  of 
all  raw  materials  and  a  thorough  understanding  of 
their  reactions  during  the  firing  cycle  enabled 
potters  to  manipulate  them  as  they  wished. 

The  appeal  of  perfected  simplicity  achieved 
through  exquisite  craftsmanship  is  very  subtle 
indeed.  Ceramic  masterpieces  of  the  Song  were  not 
made  for  ostentatious  display,  but  for  handling  by 
connoisseurs  in  an  intimate,  private  setting.  It  was 
in  the  literati  circles  of  the  Song  that  ceramics  were 
first  appreciated  as  works  of  art,  that  they  were 
deemed  worth  collecting,  whether  antique  or  new, 
and  worth  handing  down  trom  one  generation  to 
the  next. 

Although  the  preference  for  artifacts  made  of  clay 
over  precious  metals  or  stones  probably  emanated 
from  the  literati  circles  of  the  Song,  where 
understatement  was  a  celebrated  virtue,  the 
imperial  court  manifested  a  similar  taste.  Of  course, 
not  all  the  vast  and  varied  Song  wares  were 
officially  appreciated,  but  some  were  made 
exclusively  for  the  court.  No  comparable 
production  of  goods  worked  from  gold  or  silver,  or 
from  jade  or  other  stones  exists  for  this  period. 

Through  their  absolute  mastery  of  the  technical 
process  and  their  acute  sense  of  aesthetic  principles 
the  potters,  none  of  whom  is  known  by  name,  were 
able  to  manipulate  their  medium  so  sensitively  and 
intelligently  that  they  turned  one  of  the  most  basic 
raw  materials — earth — into  one  of  the  most 
precious  commodities. 

By  tar  the  rarest  and  most  desirable  Chinese 
ceramics  of  all  times  were  and  are  the  green-glazed 
stonewares  from  the  Ru  kilns  in  Baofene  county. 


When  the  northern  capital  was  captured  by  the  Jin 
invaders  and  the  Song  fled  south  in  1127,  they  set 
up  kilns  at  their  new  capital  in  present-day 
Hangzhou  to  make  an  "official"  (guan)  ware 
(cat.  133)  modeled  on  Ru.  Using  the  different  raw 
materials  of  the  south,  the  potters  came  up  with  a 
ware  that  appeals  for  the  same  reasons  but  looks 
different,  having  a  thicker,  clearer  glaze  and  a  more 
pronounced  crackle.  Guan  and  Ru  wares  represent 
the  epitome  of  Chinese  ceramics — the 
transformation  of  earth  as  a  medium  into  a 
substance  deemed  more  beautiful  and  more 
precious  than  the  most  valuable  materials. 

Since  these  two  wares  could  not  easily  be  obtained 
except  by  the  imperial  palace,  their  beauty  was 
emulated  by  other  kilns.  "Celadon,"  as  green-glazed 
stonewares  are  usually  called  in  the  West,  was  in  fact 
in  seemingly  limitless  supply. IS  The  Yaozhou  kilns  in 
Shaanxi  Province  in  the  north  were  stylistically  less 
immediately  dependent  on  Ru;  their  wares  bear 
swiftly  incised,  carved,  or  combed  designs  (cat.  130). 
But  the  Longquan  kilns  in  Zhejiang  Province  in 
the  south  clearly  aimed  at  imitating  Guan  (cat.  134). 
Some  Longquan  celadons  do  this  so  successfully 
that  they  were,  and  sometimes  still  are.  mistaken  for 
Guan  ware."' 

Among  the  white  wares  are  two  remarkable  types 
of  similar  quality  and  style:  both  have  .1  finely 
potted  white  body;  clear,  translucent  glaze:  and 
accomplished,  swiftly  carved  designs.  Ding  ware 
(cat.  131  and  its  predecessors,  cats.  [28,  [29),  from 
Hebei  Province  in  the  north,  has  a  characteristic 
ivory-tinged  glaze  and  was  used  at  the  court.  But 
the  so-called  qingbai  ("bluish  white'")  ware,  whu  li 
has  a  blue-tinged  clear  glaze  (cat.  135)  and  came 
from  fingdezhen  injiangxi  Province  in  the  south, 
was  never  highly  appreciated,  h  was  the Jingdezhen 
kilns,  however,  that  were  lo  establish  a  virtual 
monopoly  on  Chinese  ceramics  with  their 


CERAMICS    IN    CHINA:    MAKING    TREASURES    FROM    EARTH 


127 


production  of  blue-and-white  porcelain  from  the 
Yuan  dynasty  on. 

During  the  Song  dynasty  the  black-glazed,  blue- 
splashed  stonewares  of  the  Tang  developed  in  two 
directions:  light  blue-glazed  wares,  sometimes  with 
purple  suffusions,  made  by  the  Jun  kilns  of  Henan 
Province  (fig.  3),'7  which  belong  to  the  wares 
acclaimed  at  court,  and  black-glazed  wares  from 
kilns  all  over  China,18  which  achieved  no  such 
eminence. 

All  these  wares,  which  emanated  from  the  traditions 
of  Tang  green-,  white-,  and  black-glazed  wares, 
embody  the  Song  ideals  of  highly  refined  materials, 
exquisite  workmanship,  an  unerring  sense  of 
proportion,  and  a  judicious  use  of  subtle  decorative 
devices  that  contribute  to  the  overall  effect  without 
compromising  the  general  impression  ot  simplicity. 

The  great  exception  to  that  aesthetic  among  Song 
dynasty  ceramics  are  the  wares  from  the  Cizhou 
and  related  kilns  of  north  China  (cats.  136-38). 
They  followed  a  different  tradition,  in  which  the 
potters  were  less  concerned  with  the  refinement  of 
their  materials  than  with  producing  striking 
decorations  of  calligraphic  or  painterly  quality. 
Cizhou-type  wares,  which  became  particularly 
popular  during  the  foreign-ruled  fin  and  Yuan 
periods,  can  be  seen  as  foreshadowing  a  new 
direction  in  Chinese  ceramics. 

PORCELAINS    SINCE    THE    YUAN 
DYNASTY 

For  some  time  the  Jingdezhen  kilns  of  Jiangxi 
Province  had  been  able  to  create  a  clean,  white,  and 
translucent  porcelain.  Perhaps  the  most  valuable 
aspect  of  this  material  is  that  it  is  totally  neutral.  A 
pristine  ground  such  as  this  provides  an  ideal 
surface  for  painted  decoration.  The  introduction  of 
fine  cobalt  from  the  Middle  East  and  experiments 
with  copper  in  China  suddenly  introduced  two 
striking  pigments,  a  bright  blue  and  a  deep  red,  for 
painting  with  a  brush  on  the  dried  but  still  unfired 
and  unglazed  porcelain  body,  very  much  like 
painting  in  ink  on  paper  or  silk.  Sealed  with  glaze 
and  fired  at  high  temperatures,  the  colors  are 
permanent.  With  this  innovation,  the  stylistic 
concept  of  fine  ceramics  underwent  a  fundamental 
change. 

The  Yuan  dynasty  (1279-1368)  therefore  forms 
something  like  a  watershed  in  the  history  of 
Chinese  ceramics.  The  underglaze  painting  of 
cobalt  and  other  pigments  on  porcelain  represents 
the  last  great  evolutionary  step,  after  which  no 
further  dramatic  innovations  took  place.19  The 
development  of  Chinese  ceramics  during  the  last 
six  hundred  years  could  therefore  be  seen  as  a  long 
sequence  of  variations  on  a  single  theme. 


Fig.  3.  Basin.  Jin  dynasty;  12th  c.  Bine-glazed  stoneware 
with  purple  suffusions.  Jnn  kilns,  Henan  Province,  diam. 
32.4  cm.  Meiyintang  collection. 


In  this  respect,  Chinese  ceramics  differ  little  from 
Chinese  painting,  and  what  James  Cahill  (q.v.)  has 
stressed  about  later  Chinese  painting  is  equally  true 
for  later  Chinese  ceramics:  the  groundbreaking 
discoveries,  both  technical  and  conceptual,  took 
place  so  remarkably  early  in  China  that  all  later 
craftsmen  had  to  battle  against  a  "near- 
overpowering  weight  of  the  past"  to  maintain  their 
originality.  Cahill's  admiration  for  the  "stratagems" 
the  painters  of  the  Ming  and  Qing  period  devised 
"for  escaping  repetition  and  stagnation"  could 
equally  be  extended  to  the  potters  of  the  period, 
even  though  their  ways  of  working  were  in  no  way 
comparable.  In  fact,  the  phases  in  which  Chinese 
ceramics  had  the  greatest  impact  on  ceramics 
worldwide  were  yet  to  come. 

From  the  early  fourteenth  century  the  most 
important  aspect  of  a  ceramic  vessel  was  its 
decoration.  A  most  spectacular  early  example  of  this 
emphasis  is  the  covered  jar  (cat.  139)  unearthed 
from  a  Yuan  dynasty  hoard  at  Baoding,  Hebei 
Province:  this  jar  combines  painting  in  underglaze 
cobalt  blue  and  underglaze  copper  red  with  applied 
openwork  and  pearl  beading.  A  tour  de  force  such 
as  this  vessel  did  not  find  immediate  favor  with 
Chinese  connoisseurs,  whose  taste  was  much  more 
restrained.  Early  blue-and-white  and  related 
porcelains  were  largely  exported  to  the  Middle  East 
and  Southeast  Asia  and  were  used,  to  a  lesser 


CERAMICS    IN    CHINA:    MAKING    TREASURES    FROM    EARTH 


Fig.  4.  "Chicken"  cup.  Ming  dynasty,  Chenghua  mark 
and  period  (1465-1487).  Porcelain  with  Doncai 
decoration, Jingdezhen  kilns;  diam.  8.2  an. 


degree,  by  the  ruling  Mongols.  But  since  no  other 
kiln  could  equal  the  striking  visual  appeal  of  these 
porcelains,  Jingdezhen  soon  eclipsed  all  other 
kiln  centers. 

At  first,  however,  the  native  Chinese  Ming  court, 
still  influenced  by  Song  aesthetics,  preferred  the 
more  sober  monochrome  porcelains  from 
Jingdezhen  (cats.  140,  141).  Blue-and-white  found 
favor  only  gradually.  The  large  and  impressive  blue- 
and-white  porcelains  made  during  theYongle 
period  (1403-1424)  (cats.  142,  143)  still  went  mainly 
abroad.  Small,  delicately  potted  and  painted  pieces 
such  as  the  stem  bowl  from  the  Xuande  reign 
(1426-1435)  (cat.  144)  may  have  been  among  the 
first  blue-and-white  porcelains  to  appeal  at  the 
Chinese  court,  about  one  hundred  years  after  the 
ware  was  first  made. 

Once  the  court  had  "discovered"  blue-and-white 
porcelain,  it  instantly  monopolized  the  entire 
output  of  the  Jingdezhen  kilns.  At  the  same  time, 
virtually  everything  made  for  the  imperial 
household  was  inscribed  with  a  reign  mark — that 
is,  the  auspiciously  worded  designation  of  the 
current  emperor's  reign  period. To  begin  with,  the 
reign  mark  truly  indicated  ,1  ware  made  exclusively 
for  court  use;  in  later  periods  such  marks  were  also 
inscribed  on  nonimperial  porcelains  and  earlier 
reign  marks  were  copied  on  later  pieces.  The  palace 
required  large  numbers  of  identical  objects. 
Stringent  quality  controls  assured  that  shapes  and 
patterns  were  precise  and  materials  absolutely 


*3    'J 


Fig.  5.  Vase  with  design  of  golden  pheasants  and 
calligraphy.  Qing  dynasty.  Qianlong  mark  and  period 
(1736-1795).  Porcelain  from  Jingdezhen  kilns,  enamel 
painting  by  imperial  workshops  in  Forbidden  ( ~ny. 
Beijing;  h.  20. J  cm.  Private  collection. 


flawless.  Uniformity  was  more  appreciated  than 
individuality. 

Although  the  porcelains  of  the  Ming  and  Qing 
(1644-iyn)  are  rarely  unique,  their  painted 
decoration  remained  spirited.  I'.imting  111  overglaze 


CERAMICS    IN    CHINA:    MAKING    TREASURES    FROM    EARTH 


129 


enamel  colors,  applied  on  the  glazed,  fired  porcelain 
which  is  then  refired,  was  perfected  in  the 
Chenghua  period  (1465-1487).  Enamel  colors  such 
as  red,  green,  yellow,  aubergine,  and  turquoise  were 
used  first  in  the  doucai  ("matched"  or  "clashing" 
colors)  technique,  in  which  those  overglaze  colors 
were  combined  with  underglaze  blue  outlines  and 
sometimes  washes.  Later,  enamels  were  used  in 
varying  wucai  ("five-color")  combinations,  for 
which  underglaze  blue  outlines  were  considered 
unnecessary.  The  doucai  "chicken  cups"  of  the 
Chenghua  period,  with  their  charmingly  painted 
scenes  of  chickens  and  chicks  (fig.  4),  were  and 
still  are  deemed  the  most  desirable  of  all  Ming 
porcelains.  Both  doucai  and  wucai  continued  to 
be  popular  throughout  the  Qing  dynasty 
(cats.  145,  146). 

Porcelain  painting  that  approached  the  quality  of 
traditional  ink  painting  was  an  achievement  of  the 
Qing  dynasty.  It  can  be  credited  to  a  man  named 
TangYing,  who  supervised  the  imperial  porcelain 
production  in  theYongzheng  (1723— 1735)  and  early 
Qianlong  (1736— 1795)  periods,  when  it  reached  its 
greatest  heights.  It  required  not  only  more  highly 
trained  artists  but  also  a  much  larger  palette  of 
suitable  pigments  to  achieve  a  flexible  range  of 
colors  and  shades. 

Imperial  workshops  had  been  set  up  within  the 
palace  precincts  in  the  Forbidden  City  under  the 
Kangxi  emperor  (1662-1722),  for  painting  enamels 
on  copper,  porcelain,  and  glass.  For  this  purpose  the 
most  accomplished  porcelain  painters  were  sent 
from  Jingdezhen  to  Beijing  together  with  ready- 
made  plain  white  porcelains  suitable  for  enameling. 
In  addition,  some  of  the  Jesuits  residing  at  the 
court,  valued  for  their  knowledge  of  Western 
science  and  technology,  were  assigned  to  these 
workshops  from  time  to  time,  to  their  great 
chagrin.  Among  these  artists  it  was  Giuseppe 
Castiglione  (1698-1766),  known  to  the  Chinese  as 
Lang  Shining,  who  greatly  influenced  the 
decorative  arts  through  his  naturalistic  painting 
style,  with  its  sharply  defined  contrasts  between 
light  and  shade  and  emphasis  on  three- 
dimensionality  and  perspective. 

At  about  the  same  time,  the  palette  of  enamel 
colors  was  enlarged  by  the  introduction  of  two  new 
pigments  developed  in  Europe,  whose  use  on 
porcelain  was  rapidly  perfected  in  China:  a  rose 
pink  and,  more  important,  an  opaque  white  enamel 
which,  mixed  with  other  colors,  could  create  whole 
new  ranges  of  opaque  pastel  shades. 

The  flower-and-bird  or  landscape  scenes  from  the 
palace  workshops  are  academic  but  exquisite  little 
paintings. To  emphasize  their  close  connection  with 


painting,  they  are  generally  accompanied  by  a 
poetic  colophon  written  in  black  in  a  calligraphic 
hand,  followed  by  (painted)  "seals"  (fig.  5). The 
subtly  nuanced  color  and  the  microscopic  precision 
with  which  minute  details  are  rendered  make  this 
the  most  sophisticated  porcelain  painting  ever 
achieved. 


SOURCES    FOR    FIGURES 
Fig.  1.  Copyright  Azimuth 
Editions. 

Fig.  2.  After  Zhongguo  meishu 
Quanji,  Vol.  I,  Arts  and  Crafts 
Edition  (Shanghai:  People's  Arts 
Publishing  Company,  igSS). 

Fig.  3.  Copyright  Sotheby's. 

Fig.  4.  Copyright  Sotheby's. 

Fig.  5.  Copyright  Sotheby's. 

NOTES 

1.  For  the  purpose  of  this 
exhibition,  the  term 
"porcelain"  has  been  used  very 
conservatively — that  is,  only  for 
wares  from  the  Yuan  dynasty  or 
later,  even  though  some  earlier 
pieces  may  also  seem  to  qualify 
for  that  designation. 

2.  Fragments  of  pottery  molds 
have  been  discovered  at  many 
Shang  and  Zhou  dynasty  sites, 
particularly  at  the  Eastern 
Zhou  bronze  foundry  at 
Houma,  Shanxi  Province;  see 
Institute  of  Archaeology  of 
Shanxi  Province,  ed..  Art  of  the 
Houma  Foundry  (Princeton: 
Princeton  University  Press, 
1996);  and  Robert  Bagley 
"Debris  from  the  Houma 
Foundry,"  Orientations  (October 
1996),  pp.  50-58. 

3.  Compare  a  very  similar 
Shang  dynasty  bronze  jar  {you), 
complete  with  cover  and  swing 
handle,  excavated  from  a  hoard 
in  Zhengzhou,  Henan 
Province,  published  in  Quanguo 
chutu  wenwu  zhenpin  xuan 

{A  Selection  of  the  Treasure  of 
Archaeological  Finds  of  the 
Peoples'  Republic  of  China) 
(Beijing:  Wenwu  chubanshe, 
•987).  pi-  166. 

4.  For  a  good  selection  of  fine 
tomb  hgures  excavated  in 
China,  see  Zhongguo  wenwu 
jinghua  daquan:  Taoci  juan 
{"Complete  Series  on  the 


Finest  Cultural  Relics  of 
China:  Ceramics  Volume") 
(Taipei:  Shangwu  ymshuguan, 
1993).  PP-  76-163. 

5.  For  an  early  example  of  a 
blackish  brown  glaze,  see  the 
figure  of  a  horse  from  a 
Northern  Wei  tomb  dated  to 
4S4,  in  Zhongguo  meishu  quanji; 
Gongyi  meishu  bian  1;  Taoci 
("Complete  Series  on  Chinese 
Art;  Crafts  Section  i: 
Ceramics"),  vol.  1  (Shanghai: 
Shanghai  renmin  meishu 
chubanshe,  1988),  pi.  238;  for  a 
pale  yellow  and  an  amber 
glaze,  see  a  covered  bottle  and 
a  pilgrim  flask  from  two 
Northern  Qi  tombs,  the  latter 
dated  to  575,  ibid.,  pis.  236,  237. 
One  of  the  most  impressive 
blue-glazed  pieces  is  a  large  jar 
and  cover  from  the  Anthony  de 
Rothschild  collection  at  Ascott 
House,  Buckinghamshire;  see 
Margaret  Medley,  T'ang  Pottery 
and  Porcelain  (London:  Faber, 
1981),  cpl.  B;  and  for  a  rare 
example  ot  a  Tang  turquoise 
glaze,  see  the  figure  of  an  earth 
spirit  in  The  Tsui  Museum  of 
Art:  Chinese  Ceramics  I,  Neolithic 
to  Liao  (Hong  Kong:  The  Tsui 
Museum  of  Art,  1993),  pi.  121. 

6.  In  addition  to  functional 
containers,  Yue  wares  of  the  Six 
Dynasties  include  unmistakable 
funerary  wares  such  as  plates 
with  permanently  affixed  cups 
and  spoons,  and  burial  figures. 

7.  For  Yue  wares  with  Buddha 
figures  predating  the  Western 
Jin  bowl  in  the  exhibition 
(cat.  120),  see  Fojiao  chuchuan 
iianfang  zhi  hi  ("The  Southern 
Route  of  the  Dissemination  of 
the  Buddhist  Faith")  {Beijing: 
Wenwu  chubanshe,  1993), 
passim. 

8.  A  series  of  the  most  lavishly 
embellished  funerary  vases  of 
the  Northern  Qi  dynasty  is 
illustrated  mYutaka  Mino  and 
Kathenne  R.Tsiang,  Ice  and 
Green  Clouds:  Traditions  of 
Chinese  Celadon  (Indianapolis: 
Indiana  University  Press,  1986), 
no.  38. 

9.  The  white  wares  of  the  Xing 
and  the  Ding  kilns,  both  in 
Hebei  Province,  are  extremely 
difficult  to  distinguish. 
Generally  speaking,  the  Xing 
kiln  centers  were  more 
advanced  during  the  Tang  and 
Five  Dynasties  periods,  but  by 
the  Northern  Song  period 
were  outshone  by  the  Ding 


CERAMICS    IN    CHINA:    MAKING    TREASURES    FROM    EARTH 


kilns  and  eventually  eclipsed. 
Individual  pieces  are  not  always 
easy  to  attribute,  however. 
White  wares  inscribed  with  the 
character  guan  ("official")  are 
generally  associated  with  the 
Ding  kilns,  but  are  not 
exclusive  to  them. 

10.  For  a  translation  of  Lu  Yu's 
Chajing  ("Classic  of  Tea"),  see 
Francis  Ross  Carpenter,  The 
Classic  of  Tea  by  Lu  Yii  (Boston 
and  Toronto:  Little,  Brown, 
1974),  where  this  discussion 
appears  on  pp.  90-93- 

11.  The  two  octagonal  bottles 
(cats.  123,  125),  which 
superficially  look  very  similar, 
are  in  fact  very  different.  The 
bottle  from  Famen  Temple 
(cat.  125)  shows  a  much  whiter 
clay  and  glossier  glaze  and  has 
more  elegant  proportions  than 
the  one  in  the  Palace  Museum, 
Beijing,  whose  history  is  not 
recorded  (cat.  123). The  Famen 
Temple  Yue  wares  are  of 
unmatched  quality  and  at 
present  seem  to  be  the  only 
ones  to  qualify  for  the 
distinction  of  being  called  mise 
ware.  The  Palace  Museum 
bottle  represents  what  used  to 
be  considered  fine  Yue  ware  of 
the  period.  Fragments  of  such 
bottles  have  been  found  at 
Shanglinhu,  the  main  Yue  kiln 
site,  and  one  such  piece  comes 
from  a  burial  datable  to  871; 
see  Ho  Chuimei,  ed.,  Netv 
Light  on  Chinese  Yue  and 
Longquan  Wares,  Centre  of 
Asian  Studies  Occasional 
Papers  and  Monographs, 

no,  no  (Hong  Kong: The 
University  of  Hong  Kong, 
[994).  P-  34i.  pi-  iG.The  two 
types  therefore  appear  to  be 
contemporary  products  of  the 
same  kilns;  why  they  should  be 
so  different  cannot  yet  be 
explained. 

12.  For  discussions  on  mise 
(formerly  called  bise)  ware,  see 
S.W.  Bushell,  Description  of 
Chinese  Pottery  and  Porcelain, 
living  a  Translation  of  the  T'ao 
Shuo  (Oxford,  1910),  pp.  37, 
131;  and  Sir  Percival  David, 
"Some  Notes  on  Pi-seYao," 
Eastern  Art  1  (January  1929), 
PP-  137-43- 

13.  White  wares  inscribed  with 
the  character  guan  have  come 
to  light  in  many  tombs  and 
pagoda  foundations  in 


Zhejiang,  Beijing,  Liaoning, 
and  Hebei,  some  of  which  are 
datable  to  the  years  895—900, 
958,  959,  977,  and  1031, 
respectively:  see  Wenwu,  no.  12 
(1979),  pp.  18-23;  and  Wenunt, 
no.  12  (1975),  p.  41. 

14.  For  a  representative 
selection  ofTang  black  wares 
from  kilns  in  Henan  Province, 
with  and  without  light  blue 
glaze  splashes,  see  Regina 
Krahl,  Chinese  Ceramics  from  the 
Meiyintang  Collection,  vol.  1 
(London;  Azimuth  Editions, 
1994),  pp.  126— 35. The  only 
other  important  Tang 
stoneware  kilns  not  represented 
here  are  those  of  Changsha  in 
Hunan  Province,  which  made 
green  wares,  partly  with 
designs  painted  under  the 
glaze;  see  Timothy  See- Yin 
Lam,  Tang  Ceramics:  Changsha 
Kilns  (Hong  Kong:  Lammett 
Arts,  1990). 

15.  "Celadon"  is  a  Western 
collectors  term  that  refers  to 
green-glazed  stonewares, 
usually  those  from  the  Song 
dynasty  on.  The  origin  of  the 
term  is  not  absolutely  clear.  It 
may  derive  either  from  Saladin, 
a  twelfth-century  sultan  of 
Syria  and  Egypt,  where  the 
ware  was  popular,  or  from  a 
seventeenth-century  play  by 
Honore  d'Urfe.The  play,  in 
which  a  young  shepherd 
named  Celadon  appears  dressed 
in  pale  green,  was  fashionable 
in  nineteenth-century  France, 
as  was  the  ware. 

16.  Several  of  the  most 
exquisite  Longquan  copies  of 
Guan  ware  presented  as 
tributes  to  the  court  during  the 
first  Qing  reigns  were  included 
in  the  National  Palace 
Museum  exhibition  Song 
guanyao  tezhan  (Special 
Exhibition  of  Song  Dynasty  Kuan 
Ware)  (Taipei:  National  Palace 
Museum,  1989);  three  of 
them — cats.  33,  84,  "0 — were 
identified  as  such  byTs'ai 
Ho-pi  in  the  catalogue,  p.  31. 

17. Two  types  ofjun  ware  can 
be  distinguished  whose  dating 
and  thus  importance  for  the 
court  is  still  much  debated;  .1 
group  of  vessels  of  simple 
rounded  forms  characteristic  ot 
the  Song  and  Jm  dynasties, 
with  even-toned  blue  glazes 
with  or  without  distinct  purpk- 


splashes;  and  a  group  of 
flowerpots  and  vases  in  a  range 
of  sizes  (marked  from  1  to  10), 
made  in  complicated  bronze 
shapes  characteristic  of  the 
Yuan  and  Ming  dynasties,  with 
shaded  blue  and  purple  glazes. 
An  attribution  to  the  Northern 
Song  is  undisputed  for  the 
former;  on  the  basis  of 
controversial  archaeological 
evidence  some  scholars  also 
attribute  the  latter  to  that 
period.  For  examples  of  the 
two  types,  see  Zhao  Qingyun, 
Henan  taoci  shi  ("History  of 
Henan  Ceramics")  (Beijing: 
Zijincheng  chubanshe,  1993), 
pi.  18  and  cpl.  11,  nos.  42,  43, 
45  for  the  former,  and  pi.  19 
and  cpl.  11,  no.  44  for  the  latter. 

18.  For  a  representative 
selection  of  Song  black  wares, 
see  the  exhibition  catalogue  by 
Robert  D.  Mowry,  Hare's  Fur, 
Tortoiseshell,  and  Partridge 
Leathers:  Chinese  Brown-  and 
Black-Glazed  Ceramics,  400—1400 
(Cambridge,  Mass.:  Harvard 
University  Art  Museums, 
1996). 

19.  Isolated  experiments  with 
underglaze  painting  in  cobalt 
blue  on  white  stonewares  that 
could  be  called  porcelains  had 
already  been  made  in  the  Tang 
dynasty.  The  beginnings  of 
blue-and-white  porcelain  are 
therefore  by  some  scholars 
associated  with  the  Tang.  But 
these  Tang  wares  appear  to  be 
totally  unconnected  with  the 
continuous  production  of  blue- 
and-white  porcelain  at 
Jingdezhen  injiangxi  Province, 
which  can  be  traced  back  no 
earlier  than  the  first  quarter  of 
the  fourteenth  century. 


CERAMICS    IN    CHINA:    MAKING    TREASURES    FROM    EARTH 


131 


Origins  and  Trends  in  the 
Depiction  of  Human  Figures 
in  China  of  the  Fifth  and 
Sixth  Centuries 


Su  Bai 

Professor,  Beijing  University 


In  the  sculpture  and  painting  of  central 
and  northern  China  two  successive 
changes  occurred  in  the  fifth  and  sixth 
centuries  that  were  particularly  evident 
in  the  depiction  of  human  figures.  These 
two  changes  were  directly  related  to  a 
deliberate  attempt  on  the  part  of  the 
non-Han  ruling  classes  in  central  and 
northern  China  to  adopt  Han  culture 


Fig.  l.  Buddha  Amitabha.  Dated  to  420.  Rock  carving. 
Bingling  Temple,  Cave  i6g:6,  Liujiaxia  city,  Gansu 
Province. 


Fig.  2.  Buddha  Amitabha.  Ca.  420.  Cave  painting. 
Bingling  Temple,  Cave  i6g:i2,  Liujiaxia  city,  Gansu 
Province. 


and  copy  the  native  institutions  of  southern 
China.  Hence,  the  origins  of  these  changes  must 
be  traced  back  to  the  southern  dynasties  of  Eastern 
Jin  (317-420),  Liu  Song  (420-479),  and  Liang 
(502-557). 

I. 

In  April  1963  a  work  team  from  the  Gansu 
Provincial  Bureau  of  Relics  discovered  a  grotto 
containing  a  sculpture  of  Buddha  Amitabha 
(numbered  169:6  in  the  archaeologists'  report)  in 
Cave  169  of  the  Bingling  Temple  inYongjing 
(present-day  Liujiaxia  city,  about  fifty  miles 
southwest  of  Lanzhou)  (fig.  i).This  bore  an 
inscription  dated  to  the  year  420,  making  it  the 
earliest  known  cave  sculpture  in  China  with  an 
explicit  date. The  grotto  contains  a  configuration 
consisting  of  a  Buddha  sitting  in  meditation  and 
attendant  bodhisattvas;  to  the  lower  left  of  the 
grotto  is  a  group  of  murals  of  similar  date  and 
subject  matter  (169:12;  fig.  2).  Both  groups  of 
Buddha  images  are  characterized  by  broad 
shoulders,  large  torsos,  and  a  sense  of  geometric 
solidity  and  weightiness.The  same  features  recur  in 
Tanyao's  Caves  16-20  at  Yungang  in  Datong,  Sh.iuxi 
Province. These  were  carved  at  the  urging  of 
Tanyao,  overseer  of  monks  under  the  Northern  Wei 
dynasty,  in  460.  Among  these  images,  the  large 
seated  Buddha  in  Cave  20  is  the  most  typical 
(fig.  3).  In  1949  a  Buddha  seated  cross-legged  in 
meditation  was  unearthed  in  Xingping  county, 
Shaanxi  Province,  which  dates  from  471  (cat.  147). 


Fig.  3.  Seated  Buddha.  Dated  to  460.  Rock  carving. 
Cave  20,  Yungang,  Shauxi  Province. 


Although  it  retains  vestiges  of  the  features 
mentioned  above,  it  also  shows  changes  in  the 
direction  of  simpler  and  stronger  lines.  This 
transformation  may  have  occurred  during  the 
period  when  the  dowager  empress  Peng,  widow 
of  Emperor  Wencheng.  exerted  great  influence 
at  court. 

II. 

According  to  the  History  of  the  Northern  Dynasties. 
in  47(1  the  dowager  empress  I  eng  "s.it  in  Court  and 
held  all  power."'  During  her  ascendancy  the 


ORIGINS    AND    TRENDS    IN    THE    DEPICTION    OF    HUMAN    FIGURES 


133 


..-■  ■.-*:-v  :-■ 


-"■CxI^-  -.  ■  s 


Fig.  4.  Buddha  Sakydmuni  (below);  Buddhas  Sakyaniuni 
and  Prabhutaratna  (above).  Rock  carvings.  Cave  11, 
Yungang,  Shanxi  Province. 


Northern  Wei  policy  of  adopting  Han  culture 
intensified,  and  was  reflected  in  Buddhist  sculpture: 
the  previously  common  garment  that  draped  both 
shoulders  or  bared  the  right  shoulder  was  no  longer 
Sakyamuni's  attire;  rather,  he  was  portrayed  wearing 
the  Confucian  scholar's  loose  gown  and  wide  sash. 
The  face  and  torso  also  were  transformed 
increasingly  from  square  and  powerful  to  thin  and 
elongated.  The  earliest  dated  example  of  this  new 
type  of  Buddha  statue  is  found  on  the  upper  east 
side  outside  Cave  11  atYungang  (No.  11:14,  which 
is  numbered  lid  by  Mizuno  Seiichi  and  Nagahiro 
Toshio  in  ThcYungang  Caves).  An  inscription  dated 
to  489  is  carved  below  the  grotto.  Thereafter, 
elaborate  flowing  drapery  and  elongated  faces  and 
figures  became  the  vogue  and  spread  throughout 
the  Northern  Wei  domains  (fig.  4).TheYungang 
cave  sculptures  from  489  to  524  are  the  most 
representative  of  this  style.  In  493  the  capital  was 
moved  from  Datong  in  Shanxi  Province,  near  the 
Yungang  caves,  to  Luoyang  in  Henan  Province.  The 
various  sculptures  from  the  Guyang  Cave  at 
Longmen  near  Luoyang  similarly  display  the 
characteristics  of  this  era.  During  the  late  Qing 
dynasty  a  carved  stone  panel  donated  by  one  Liu 
Gen,  dated  to  524,  was  unearthed  in  Dongyipu, 
Luoyang  (cat.  152).  Some  of  the  figures  in  the 
middle  of  the  tablet  exquisitely  exemplify  the 
slender,  linearly  rendered  figures  of  relatively  late 
date.  Buddhist  icons  were  not  the  only  images  in 
this  style:  good  examples  of  the  same  style  are 


Fig.  5.  Biographies  of  Virtuous  Women.  Dated  to 
484.  Painted  lacquer  screen.  Tomb  oj  Sima  Jinlong  and  his 
wife,  Shijiazhai  village,  Datong,  Shanxi  Province. 


found  among  the  figures  of  worshipers  in  the 
above-mentioned  Yungang  and  Longmen  caves,  as 
well  as  among  the  earthen  burial  figures  and  the 
paintings  and  stone  carvings  in  Northern  Wei 
tombs  of  the  Luoyang  years.  Among  these  secular 
figures,  the  earliest  known  examples  from  the  north 
are  the  persons  painted  on  a  lacquer  screen  found 
in  the  tomb  of  Sima  Jinlong  and  his  wife.  The 
screen,  discovered  in  the  village  of  Shijiazhai  in 
Datong,  dates  from  474—484  (fig.  5).1  There  is  some 
speculation  that  this  screen  may  have  been 
imported  from  southern  China  at  about  that  time. 

The  scholar's  loose  robe  and  sash,  elegant 
physiognomy,  and  purity  of  image  characterize 
human  figures  of  the  Eastern  Jin  and  Liu  Song  eras. 
In  847  Zhang  Yanyuan  of  the  Tang  dynasty 
(61S— 907)  compiled  the  Lidai  mingh.ua  ji  ("Record 
of  Famous  Painters  of  Successive  Dynasties").2  In  it, 
the  Jin  and  Liu  Song  dynasties  are  referred  to  as  the 
Era  of  Middle  Antiquity,  and  in  volume  2  of  this 
work  the  painters  of  the  Era  of  Middle  Antiquity 
are  thus  critiqued: 


ORIGINS    AND    TRENDS    IN    THE    DEPICTION    OF    HUMAN    FIGURES 


Those  of  Middle  Antiquity  who  can  compare 
with  those  of  High  Antiquity  are  Gu  and  Lu. 

Gu  Kaizhi  (ca.  344-ca.  406)  and  Lu  Tanwei 
(ca.  440-ca.  500)  are  cited  as  representative  painters 
of  Middle  Antiquity.  In  volume  6  Zhang  Yanyuan 
explicitly  endorses  the  high  assessment  of  Lu 
Tanwei  by  Zhang  Huaiguan'  during  the  Kaiyuan 
years  of  the  Tang  dynasty  (713—741): 

Lu  infuses  his  soul  marvelously  into  his  work. 
He  combines  motion  with  spirit,  and  his  brush 
strokes  are  powerful  as  if  chiseled  with  a  knife. 
The  elegant  bones  of  his  figures  seem  almost 
alive;  they  leave  one  in  awe,  as  if  in  the  presence 
of  a  god,  yet  though  the  image  is  wondrous  it  is 
conceived  in  nothing  more  than  ink.  In 
painting  figures  .  .  .  Lu  gets  the  bones  right, 
while  Gu  [Kaizhi]  gets  the  spirit.  .  .  .Yanyuan 
considers  this  an  appropriate  assessment. 

From  this  we  know  that  representative  painters  of 
the  Jin  and  Liu  Song  dynasties  strove  for  an  artistic 
style  that  stressed  "spirit,"  or  a  sense  of  life,  and 
"bones,"  or  refined  physiognomy.  The  human 
figures  in  the  extant  Song  copies  of  Gu  Kaizhi's 
Admonitions  to  the  Court  Ladies  (fig.  6)  and  Goddess 
of  the  Luo  River*  do  indeed  emphasize  "spirit  and 
bone."  Other  figures  with  elegant  physiognomy  are 
the  Pure  Land  (school  of  Buddhism)  stone  carvings 
of  425,  which  were  found  at  the  Wanfo  Temple  site 
in  Chengdu,  Sichuan  Province,  and  the  two  extant 
gilded  bronze  seated  Buddhas  of  437  (fig.  7)  and 
45 1.  These  typical  stylizations  are  similarly  found  in 
depictions  of  people  from  contemporary  tombs  of 
the  Six  Dynasties  in  the  lower  Yangzi  BJver  basin, 
such  as  images  of  the  Seven  Sages  of  the  Bamboo 
Grove  and  Rong  Qiqi,  painted  on  bricks  embedded 
in  the  walls  of  a  tomb  beneath  the  north  face  of 
Mt.  Gong  in  Xishanqiao,  Nanjing.  These,  as  well  as 
earthern  figures  of  men  and  women  from  this 
tomb,  probably  date  from  the  Liu  Song  dynasty,  and 
their  style  is  markedly  refined  and  attenuated  (fig. 
8).s  Such  figures  were  particularly  in  vogue  during 
the  Liu  Song  and  Southern  Qi  dynasties.  Hence 
the  contemporary  writer  Xie  He  of  Wu,  in  his 
Giihuti  pinlu  ("Classification  of  Ancient  Painters"), 
ranks  Lu  Tanwei  first  among  painters: 

He  goes  to  the  limits  of  understanding  and 
nature,  and  there  are  no  words  to  describe  his 
achievements;  he  encompasses  the  past  and 
bears  the  seeds  of  the  future,  yet  stands  out 
among  both  past  and  present;  he  cannot  be 
praised  by  mere  effusiveness,  yet  (his  work)  is  of 
the  greatest  value.  There  is  nothing  to  say 
except  that  he  is  the  best  of  the  best,  but  the 
most  I  can  do  is  place  him  in  the  first  rank.'1 

Slender  images  were  even  more  popular  in  the 


fill  ~    rf 


Fig.  6.  Gu  Kaizhi  (ca.  344-ca.  406).  Admonitions  to 
the  Court  Ladies  (last  section).  Song  dynasty  copy. 
Handscroll,  ink  and  color  on  silk.  British  Museum. 


Fig.  7.  Seated  Buddha.  Dated  to  437.  Gill  bronze.  Wanjo 
Temple  site,  Chengdu,  Sichuan  Province. 


central  Yangzi  River  basin  during  the  period  of  the 
Liang  dynasty.  For  instance,  the  images  in  the  wall 
paintings  and  the  earthen  tomb  figures  from  the 
brick  tomb  in  Xuezhuang  village  of  I  )eng  county, 
I  lenan  Province,  which  is  on  the  west  bank  of  the 
Tuan  tributary  of  the  Flan  River,  are  primarily  of 
the  slender  type  (fig.  9).'  Hut  some  of  the  pottery 
tomb  figures  from  a  slightly  later  painted  brick 


ORIGINS    AND    TRENDS    IN    THE    DEPICTION    OF    HUMAN    FIGURES 


135 


iiBM§^i^Mi^M?te 


Fig.  8.  Seven  Sages  of  the  Bamboo  Grove  and  Rong 
Qiqi.  Six  Dynasties  (222- 5Sg).  Tomb  mural  of  painted 
bricks.  Mt.  Gong,  Xislianqiao,  Nanjing,  Jiangsu  Province. 


tomb  in  Jiajiachong  in  Xiangfan,  Hubei  Province, 
are  markedly  fuller  (fig.  10). The  amplitude  ot  the 
earthen  figures  from  that  tomb  is  especially 
noticeable.8 

III. 

Xiao  Yan  (r.  502—549),  who  founded  the  Liang 
dynasty,  adapted  many  institutions  of  the  Southern 
Qi  dynasty,9  and  "for  fifty  years  the  south  was 
uneventful."10  A  change  in  fashion  at  the  southern 
courts  was  reflected  in  artistic  styles,  namely,  the 
popularity  of  Zhang  Sengyou's  (act.  ca.  500— ca.  550) 
school  of  painting.  Zhang  Yanyuan  praised  Zhang 
Sengyou's  paintings  of  people  as  "marvelous"  and 
"wonderful,"  and  he  noted  that  "the  Zhangs,  father 
and  sons  [Sengyou's  sons  Shanguo  and  Rutong]  are 


Fig.  9.  Figures.  Liang  dynasty  (502—557).  Stamped  brick 
with  traces  of  pigment.  Xuezhang  village,  Deng  county, 
Henan  Province. 

Fig.  10.  Figure  of  a  civil  official.  Liang  dynasty 
(502—557).  Pottery.  Painted  brick  tomb,  Jiajiachong, 
Xiangfan,  Hubei  Province. 


in  the  ultimate  rank"  (vol.  9,  Lidai  mingh.ua  ji).  He 
also  cites  this  comment  from  the  Duoyisliu 
("Enumeration  of  the  Myriad  Arts")  of  Gao 
Zongshi  (649-683)"  and  from  Li  Sizhen  (d.  696), 
who  compiled  Paintings:11 

Gu  and  Lu  are  now  gone,  and  in  terms  of  being 
the  best,  only  Sengyou  can  claim  to  be  a 
worthy  successor.  Scholars  of  today  look  up  to 
him  as  they  would  to  the  Duke  of  Zhou  and 
Confucius.  .  .  .Also,  the  attire  of  people  drawn 
by  Gu  and  Lu  is  incomparable,  to  the  point 
where  you  notice  little  else.  As  for  the 
marvelous  sense  of  bones  in  Zhang,  he  has 
studied  everything,  so  he  is  not  only  adept  in 
the  Six  Methods,  he  is  actually  marvelous  in 
every  way.  He  has  infinite  variety,  and  an 
abundance  of  forms,  which  are  seen  by  his  eye 
and  shaped  in  his  palm;  his  hand  responds  to 
every  thought  in  his  mind,  till  you  sense  that 
here  is  a  sage  sent  by  heaven  who  can  create  as 


ORIGINS    AND    TRENDS    IN    THE    DEPICTION    OF    HUMAN    FIGURES 


Fig.  11.  Buddha  Amitabha  and  Buddha  Maitreya.  Dated 
to  483.  Rock  carvings.  Mao  county,  Sichuan  Province. 


wondrously  as  a  magician.  So  I  suggest  ranking 
him  at  the  top  with  Gu  and  Lu  (preface  to 
vol.  7,  Lidai  minghua  ji). 

Li  and  Zhang  are  both  certainly  unstinting'3  in 
their  praise  of  Sengyou,  but  for  a  specific 
description  of  Zhang's  style  we  have  only  Li's 
remark  about  his  marvelous  sense  of  bones.  What 
should  we  make  of  this  phrase?  After  the  previous 
passage,  the  Lidai  minghua  ji  goes  on  to  quote 
Zhang  Huaiguan: 

In  the  subtleties  of  drawing  people,  Zhang  gets 
the  flesh  right. 

This  is  most  crucial.  Elsewhere,  the  Lidai  minghua  ji 
is  even  more  explicit: 


In  drawing  the  bones  of  people,  Zhang  falls 

behind 

(vol.  6). 


behind  Gu  and  Lu.  Zhang  gets  the  flesh  right 


In  contrast  to  the  styles  of  the  great  masters  who 
preceded  Sengyou,  the  main  point  about  Sengyou's 
"marvelous  sense  of  bones"  is  his  shift  in  emphasis 
from  spirit  and  bones  to  "getting  the  flesh  right," 
that  is,  the  shift  from  slender  to  ample.  Hence,  the 
terms  used  in  temple  inscriptions  of  the  time  to 
describe  the  Buddha's  image  included  "a  relaxed 
moon  face"1'  and  "a  face  like  a  full  moon."1' These 
round  faces  are  very  different  from  the  narrow  faces 
so  highly  regarded  before.  Early  signs  of  this  change 
from  the  slender  style,  and  of  the  gradual 
emergence  of  the  fuller-bodied  figures  that  "tret  the 


flesh  right,"  can  be  seen  in  the  two  stone  carvings 
of  Amitabha  and  Maitreya  Buddha  from  Mao 
county,  Sichuan  Province,  dating  from  483  (fig.  11). 
Fuller  and  rounder  figures  can  also  be  seen  clearly 
in  the  stone  carvings  from  the  Wanfo  Temple  in 
Chengdu,  which  date  from  523  (cat.  150),  529,  537, 
and  548,  all  bearing  inscriptions  from  the  Wuji 
period  of  the  Liang  dynasty.  (The  above  are  all  in 
the  collection  of  the  Sichuan  Provincial  Museum.) 
These  same  traits  are  also  evident  in  the  carved 
images  of  female  attendants  from  the  painted  brick 
tomb  of  the  late  Southern  dynasties  period  in  Qijia 
village  of  Changzhou,Jiangsu  Province. '6  And  as 
the  bodies  grew  fleshier,  the  garments  became 
simpler. 

By  about  the  second  quarter  of  the  sixth  century 
the  new  Southern  style  represented  by  Zhang 
Sengyou  had  probably  diffused  all  the  way  north  to 
Luoyang,  the  new  capital  of  the  Northern  Wei, 
which  was  again  turning  avidly  to  southern  China 
for  models  in  conduct  and  in  art.  According  to  the 
"Biography  of  the  monk  Fazhen": 

The  monk  Fazhen  .  .  .  was  well  wised  in  the 
Chengshilun,  and  had  a  profound  grasp  ot  its 
meaning.  His  lectures  were  brilliant  and 
original,  and  he  was  peerless  between  tlu-Yi 
and  1  110  rivers.  His  tame  was  as  great  as  that  o\ 
the  monk  Jian.  At  the  time  the  virtues  of  the 
Wei  were  in  decline,  women  were  in  the 
ascendant,  predictions  of  doom  were 
increasingly  common,  suspicions  were  rampant. 
envy  was  excessive — this  is  whal  the  world  was 


ORIGINS    AND    TRENDS    IN    THE    DEPICTION    OF    HUMAN    FIGURES 


137 


Fig.  12.  Fragments  of  sculptures.  Dated  to  5ig  (Northern 
Wei  dynasty).  Stone.  Pagoda  oftheYongning  Temple, 
Luoyang,  Henan  Province. 


coming  to.  Zhen  said  to  Jian,  "The  Liang  is  a 
nation  which  follows  the  rites,  they  have 
bodhisattvas  and  observe  the  rules  and  customs, 
and  they  preach  the  correct  ways.  Let  us  go 
there."  .  .  .Jian  said, "The  moment  is  not  to  be 
lost.  I  have  also  had  the  same  intention."  So  in 
the  second  year  of  the  Putong  period  of  the 
Liang  (521)  they  headed  south  together. 
Zhen  was  overtaken  by  pursuing  cavalry  and 
killed.  .  .  .  [Jian  then]  travelled  to  the  kingdom 
in  the  south  and  reached  Jiangyin,  where  he 
lived  in  the  Heyuan  Temple.17 

Given  that  the  polities  of  southern  China  were 
perceived  as  authentically  Chinese  and  admirable,  it 
naturally  became  the  fashion  among  artistic  circles 
in  central  and  northern  China  to  emulate  the  new 
styles  of  the  south.  Thus,  after  the  eighth  month  of 
519  a  group  of  sculptures  was  made  and  placed 
within  the  pagoda  of  the  Yongning  Temple,  built  by 
the  Northern  Wei  royal  family  at  Luoyang.lSThe 
surviving  heads  are  about  seven  centimeters  high, 
and  greatly  resemble  those  of  the  Liang  dynasty 
(fig.  1 2). I9  The  trend  toward  simpler  draperies  and 
fleshier  bodies  is  increasingly  evident  in  the  slightly 
later  figures  of  patrons  from  caves  1,  4,  and  3  of  the 
Dalishan  caves  in  Gong  county,  Henan  Province 


Fig.  13.  Figures  of  patrons.  Mid-6th  c.  Rock  carvings. 
Dalishan  cave-temples,  Gong  county,  Henan  Province. 


(fig.  13).  From  the  late  Wei,  this  trend  became 
pronounced. The  "Biography  of  Du  Bi"  in 
volume  24  of  the  Beiqi  shu  ("History  of  the 
Northern  Qi")  records  the  following  conversation 
that  Gao  Huanping  had  with  Du  Bi  after  he 
pacified  the  capital,  Luoyang  (532): 

Bi  noted  that  when  Wenwu  reigned,  there  was 
a  level  of  clean  government  seldom  seen,  and 
he  mentioned  it  to  Emperor  Gaozu.  Gaozu 
said,  "Come  here,  Bi,  let  me  tell  you  something. 
It  has  long  been  the  custom  for  the  country  to 
be  corrupt  and  chaotic.  Nowadays  many  of  the 
generals'  families  live  west  of  the  pass  where 
Heita  [i.e.,YuwenTai]  is  constantly  beckoning 
to  them,  and  it  is  unclear  if  their  loyalties  will 
be  to  stay  or  to  go.  In  East  China  there  is  an 
old  man  named  XiaoYan  living  in  Wu  who 
specializes  in  the  proper  dress  and  rites.  The 
gentry  of  the  central  plains  regard  him  as  the 


ORIGINS    AND    TRENDS    IN    THE    DEPICTION    OF    HUMAN    FIGURES 


guardian  of  the  correct  ways.20  I  am  eager  to 
establish  laws  and  rules,  and  would  not  mind 
borrowing,  for  I  fear  that  if  the  generals  go  over 
to  Heita  and  the  gentry  leave  to  follow  Xiao 
Yan,  then  our  talents  will  have  all  dispersed,  and 
how  then  could  I  run  the  country?" 

In  light  of  this  historical  background,  it  was  almost 
inevitable  that  the  Eastern  Wei  and  Northern  Qi 
should  copy  the  southern  style.  Hence,  the 
following  all  reveal  the  fuller-figured  style:  the 
Gushan  caves  in  Handan,  Hebei  Province  (i.e.,  the 
North  and  South  Xiangtangshan  caves);  the  stone 
carvings  in  the  Shuiyu  cave-temple;  and  the  figures 
on  the  steles  unearthed  in  Xiangcheng  and 
Luoning  counties  in  Henan  Province  in  1963, 
which  date  from  559  (Northern  Qi)  and  565 
(Northern  Zhou)  (cats.  157,  158);  the  carved  stone 
grotto  statues  of  the  Northern  Qi  unearthed  in 
1954  at  the  Huata  Temple  in  Taiyuan,  Shanxi 
Province  (cat.  156);  and  the  earthen  figures  from 
Eastern  Wei  and  Northern  Qi  tombs  recently 
unearthed  in  Henan,  Hebei,  and  Shanxi.  In  1975  a 
group  of  figures  within  a  square  setting,  made  of 
white  marble  and  believed  to  date  from  the 
Northern  Zhou,  was  discovered  in  Caotan,  a 
northern  suburb  of  Xi'an  in  Shaanxi  Province 
(cat.  159). These  figures,  most  likely  from  a 
multistoried  stone  pagoda,  are  also  of  the  Northern 
Qi  style.  Because  many  white  marble  figures  came 
from  Dingzhou,  in  Qi  territory,  there  is  speculation 
that  these  stone  pagoda  images  may  also  have  been 
made  in  Qi  territory.  In  1987  a  tomb  discovered  at 
Wanzhang  in  Ci  county,  Hebei  Province,  proved  to 
be  the  Wuning  Mausoleum  in  which  Gao  Yang  was 
buried,  and  its  date  is  believed  to  be  560  (Northern 
Qi).  In  this  tomb,  as  in  the  tomb  of  Lou  Rui, 
Prince  of  Dong'an,  discovered  in  1979  atWangguo 
village  in  Taiyuan,  Shanxi  Province,  and  dated  to 
570,  there  are  large  murals  depicting  a  cavalry 
honor  guard;  in  both  murals  the  full-fleshed  bodies 
are  particularly  obvious  (fig.  14). 2I  Both  tomb 
murals  are  drawn  with  simple  and  forceful  lines, 
and  show  a  vitality  in  keeping  with  the  high  social 
standing  of  those  buried  there.22  Quite  a  number  of 
commentators  believe  that  they  may  have  been 
done  by  the  Northern  Qi  court  painter  Yang 
Zihua.23  Yang  Zihua  was  the  most  highly  regarded 
of  the  Qi  painters,  and  the  early  Tang  artist  Yan 
Liben  praised  his  works  thus: 


Fig.  14.  Mounted  honor  guard.  Dated  to  $yo.  Mural. 
Tomb  of  Lon  Rui,  Prince  of  Dong'an,  Wangguo  village, 
Taiyuan,  Slianxi  Province. 


the  Yang  school,  which  was  so  popular  during  the 
Northern  Qi.  Zhang Yanyuan  calls  the  period  from 
the  Qi  and  Liang  through  the  Chen  and  Zhou  the 
Period  of  Recent  Antiquity,  and  he  discusses  the 
paintings  of  Recent  Antiquity  thus: 

Those  from  Recent  Antiquity  who  can 
compare  with  those  of  Middle  Antiquity  are 
Sengyou  and  Zihua.25 

Just  as  Gu  and  Lu  were  contemporaries,  practiced 
similar  styles,  were  ranked  as  equals,  and  were 
considered  comparable  in  excellence  to  the  best 
painters  of  the  preceding  age,  so  Zhang  and  Yang 
were  paired  with  each  other  and  compared  with 
their  predecessors  Gu  and  Lu.  Volume  2  of  the  Lidai 
minghuaji  lists  Yang  Zihua  among  those  painters  in 
central  China  during  the  Northern  Qi  period  who 
had  learned  from  Gu,  Lu,  and  Zhang  Sengyou: 

Tian  Sengliang.Yang  Zihua, Yang  Qidan,  Zheng 
Fashi,  Dong  Boren,  Zhan  Ziqian.  Sun  Shangzi, 
Yan  Lide,  andYan  Liben  learned  from  Gu,  Lu, 
and  Sengyou.26 


As  for  painting  people,  the  subtlest  lines,  the 
utmost  beauty  in  simplicity,  having  little  enough 
so  that  not  a  single  thing  can  be  omitted,  yet 
just  enough  that  nothing  should  be  added — 
only  Zihua  cm  do  this! 24 

Although  it  is  not  certain  that  Yang  did  the  murals 
in  the  tombs  of  Gao  Yang  and  Lou  Rui,  it  is 
probably  safe  to  say  that  they  were  in  the  style  of 


Of  these, Tian  Sengliang.Yang  Zihua.  Zheng  Fashi, 
Dong  Boren.  and  Zhan  Ziqian  were  famous  during 
the  Northern  Qi  and  Zhou,17  while  Sun  Shangzi 
and  Yang  Qidan  were  active  during  the  Sui,  and  the 
Yan  brothers  during  the  early  rang.  Sengyou,  in  the 
phrase  "learned  from  Gu.  1  u.  and  Sengyou," 
actually  taught  Tian,  Yang,  and  the  rest,  whereas  Gu 
and  Lu  were  the  originators  o!  the  style  they 
studied.  Hence,  the  Lidai  minghuaji  also  cites  earlier 


ORIGINS    AND    TRENDS    IN    THE    DEPICTION    OF    HUMAN    FIGURES 


139 


commentators  on  the  subject  of  Zheng  Fashi,  Sun 
Shangzi,  and  theYan  brothers  purportedly  studying 
with  Zhang  Sengyou: 

[About]  Zheng  Fashi  ...  the  monk  Zong28  said: 
"He  learned  Zhang's  methods,  and  could  paint 
anything  ....  Li  [Sizhen]  said,  "He  studied  the 
school  of  Zhang,  and  was  considered  his 
disciple"  (vol.  8). 

Li  said:  "Sun  [Shangzi]  and  Zheng  [Fashi]  both 
studied  with  Zhang.  Zheng  was  incomparable 
at  drawing  people  and  buildings,  whereas  Sun 
was  supernatural  in  the  way  his  spirit  infused 
his  work"  (vol.  8). 

Pel  [  Xiaoyuan]  said: " Yan  [Lide  and  Liben] 
studied  with  Mr.  Zhang  and  surpassed  their 
teacher.  They  mastered  all  the  subtleties  of 
drawing  people,  garments,  horses,  chariots,  and 
buildings"  (vol.  a).29 

Moreover,  according  to  Zhang  Yanyuan,  Li  Ya,  Fan 
Changshou,  and  He  Changshou  also  had  studied 
with  Zhang: 

LiYa  [of  the  Sui]  studied  with  Zhang  Sengyou 
(vol.2). 

[At  the  beginning  of  the  dynasty]  Fan 
Changshou  studied  with  Zhang  Sengyou.  .  .  . 
He  Changshou  had  the  same  teacher  as  Fan, 
but  was  slightly  less  skillful  than  Fan.  Fan  and 
He's  Drunken  Dcwist  Priest  is  extant.  People  say 
this  was  done  by  Sengyou,  but  that  is  untrue 
(vol.9). 

We  can  see  what  a  profound  influence  Sengyou's 
quality  of  "getting  the  flesh  right"  had  on  the  artists 
of  the  central  plains  from  the  Northern  Qi  and 
Zhou  on.  Many  extant  images  continue  to  follow 
the  tradition  of  fuller  figures — for  instance,  the 
Zhou  and  Sui  paintings  and  reliefs  from  the 
Maijishan  caves  ofTianshui  in  Gansu  Province,  the 
Mogao  grottoes  of  Dunhuang,  and  Mt.  Sumeru  at 
Guyuan  in  Ningxia;  stone  carvings  from  various 
pre-High  Tang  tombs  north  of  the  Wei  River  in 
Shaanxi  Province;  funerary  murals  and  incised 
carvings  trom  the  Qianling,  the  mausoleum  of  Tang 
Gaozong  and  Wu  Zetian;  and  extant  Song  copies  of 
early  Tang  Portraits  of  Emperors  through  the  Ages 
(fig.  i5).3°The  great  artist  Wu  Daozi  of  the  High 
Tang  era  drew  people  in  relaxed  poses  that, 
according  to  the  Lidai  minghua  //',  can  also  be  traced 
back  to  Sengyou: 

Wu  Daoxuan  [Daozi]  studied  under  Zhang 
Sengyou  (vol.  2). 


Fig.  15.  Portrait  of  Sun  Quan.  Song  dynasty  (g6o—i2yg) 
copy  from  early  Tang  (6iS—goy)  Portraits  of  Emperors 
through  the  Ages  (Lidai  dihuang  tu).  Handscroll,  ink 
and  light  color  on  silk.  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston. 


Zhang  Huaiguan  also  remarked: 

Wu  Daoxuan  probed  all  the  subtleties  of 
painting,  and  he  was  probably  a  student  of 
Zhang  Sengyou  ("Huaduan,"  cited  in  vol.  751 
of  Taiping  yulan).1' 

He  also  notes: 

The  brushwork  in  Wu's  paintings  has  a  soul. 
He  is  a  reincarnation  of  Zhang  Sengyou  (Lidai 
minghua  ji,  introduction  to  vol.  9). 

Thus,  Sengyou's  influence  lasted  through  the  reign 
of  Emperor  Xuanzong  of  the  Tang. 

IV. 

Painting  and  sculpture  have  long  been  closely 
linked,  and  as  Chinese  sculptures  were  always 
colored,  those  engaged  in  sculpting  had  to  have  a 
solid  foundation  in  painting.  In  his  Wudai  minghua 
buyi  ("A  Supplement  to  Famous  Paintings  of  the 
Five  Dynasties"),  Liu  Daochun  of  the  Northern 
Song  noted  that  among  those  -who  studied 
alongside  Wu  Daozi  under  Zhang  Sengyou  was 
Yang  Huizhi,  who  was  famous  for  his  sculptures: 


ORIGINS    AND    TRENDS    IN    THE    DEPICTION    Of    HUMAN    FIGURES 


140 


Yang  Huizhi's  hometown  is  unknown.  During 
the  middle  of  the  Kaiyuan  period  of  the  Tang 
dynasty  (713—741),  he  and  Wu  Daozi  learned 
brushwork  together  from  Zhang  Sengyou,  and 
they  called  each  other  "friends  through  art." 
They  were  both  highly  skilled,  yet  only  Daozi 
had  a  great  reputation.  Huizhi  then  burned  his 
brushes  and  inkstones,  and  threw  himself  into 
sculpting.  He  was  able  to  capture  the  look  of 
Sengyou's  paintings,  and  thus  could  rival  Daozi. 
It  was  said  at  the  time,  "Daozi's  paintings  and 
Huizhi's  sculptures  capture  the  spirit  of 
Sengyou's  brush."  He  was  also  praised  for  this.32 

The  Lidai  minghua  ji  noted  in  vol.  9  that  the  great 
sculptors  of  the  day  all  had  a  mastery  of  painting: 

At  the  time,  there  was  a  Zhang  Aier  who  was 
unsuccessful  at  learning  [Wu  Daozi's]  painting, 
and  so  turned  to  sculpting.  Emperor  Xuanzong 
personally  wrote  and  changed  his  name  to 
Xianqiao.  His  paintings  of  insects  were  superb. 
Yang  Huizhi  of  the  same  era  was  also  adept  at 
sculpting.  Yuan  Ming  and  Cheng  Jin  carved 
works  in  stone.  Han  Botong  of  the  Sui  dynasty 
was  adept  at  sculpting.  During  the  reign  of  the 
Empress,  the  local  officials  Dou  Hongguo  and 
Mao  Poluo,  Supervisor  of  the  Eastern  Garden 
Sun  Rengui,  and  the  general  Quan  Zhongyi  at 
the  Court  of  Emperor  Dezong  were  all 
exceptionally  skilled.  This  generation  also 
[studied]  painting.  They  were  all  excellent 
draftsmen,  but  their  tone  was  not  very  high. 

Since  the  earliest  times  it  had  been  natural  for  great 
sculptors  to  also  excel  at  painting.  According  to  the 
Lidai  minghua  ji, 

There  was  a  man  named  Dai  Kui  [d.  395] 
[during  the  Eastern  Jin  dynasty].  He  was  styled 
Andao,  and  was  a  native  of  Zhi  in  Qiao 
Prefecture.  He  was  very  gifted  even  as  a  child, 
was  intelligent  and  widely  read.  He  played 
musical  instruments  well,  and  was  a  skillful 
calligrapher  and  painter  ...  his  paintings  of 
scenery  in  the  ancient  style  were  wonderful. 
While  in  his  teens,  he  was  painting  in  the 
Waguan  Temple.  General  Secretary  Wang 
|Meng]  saw  him  and  said,  "This  child  is  not  just 
good  at  painting.  Sooner  or  later  he  will  make  a 
great  name  for  himself."  .  .  .  He  was  also  adept 
at  casting  images  of  Buddha  and  .it  sculpting. 
He  had  made  a  wooden  statue  of  Amitabha 
Buddha  1.6  zhang  tall,  together  with  attendant 
bodhisattvas.  Kui  used  the  simple  ancient  style, 
and  when  the  work  was  initially  unable  to 
move  people's  hearts,  he  sat  silently  behind  a 
curtain,  listening  secretly  to  everyone's 
comments.  He  gave  careful  consideration  to 
both  praise  and  criticism,  and  collected  his 


Fig.  16.  Mural  and  carved  figure  qfSakyainuni.  Sth  c. 
(High  Tang  period).  Mogao  Cave  325,  Dunhuang,  Gansu 
Province. 


thoughts  for  three  years,  whereupon  he 
completed  the  sculpture.  .  .  .  Also,  in  middle  age, 
Dai  Andao  drew  figures  of  great  draftsmanship 
(vol.  5).» 

Kui's  son  Yong  was  styled  Zhongruo.  His 
quickness  of  mind  was  comparable  to  Kui's.  .  .  . 
He  carried  on  his  father's  mastery  of  music, 
calligraphy,  and  painting.  .  .  .The  [Liu]  Song 
crown  prince  was  casting  a  1.6  zhang  golden 
image  at  the  Waguan  Temple.  When  it  was 
completed,  he  was  annoyed  that  the  face 
seemed  so  thin,  but  the  workmen  could  do 
nothing  about  it.  He  then  invited  Yong  over 
and  asked  him  about  this. Yong  said. "It  is  inn 
that  the  face  is  thin,  but  that  the  shoulders  are 
too  big."  He  then  pared  down  the  shoulders, 
and  the  face's  proportions  then  became  right. 
Everyone  was  impressed  by  the  sharpness  of  his 
thinking  (vol.  s).34 

Jiang  Shaoyou  [of  the  1  .iter  Wei |  was  a  native  ol 
Bochang  in  Le'an.  He  had  .1  keen  and  nimble 
mind,  and  was  adept  at  calligraphy  and  painting. 
He  was  skilled  at  painting  people  and  at 
sculpting  (vol.  S 

The  Indian  monk  l.inmozhuovi  |ot  the  Sin 
dynasty]  was  also  skilled  at  painting.  During  the 
reign  of  Emperor  Wen  of  tin-  Sui,  he  came  from 


ORIGINS    AND    TRENDS    IN    THE    DEPICTION    OF    HUMAN    FIGURES 


his  own  country  and  visited  all  the  pagodas  of 
King  Asoka  in  China.  When  he  came  to  the 
Dashi  Temple  at  Luo  county  in  Chengdu,  he 
saw  the  forms  of  twelve  spirits  in  the  sky, 
whereupon  he  studied  the  looks  of  each  one 
and  then  carved  their  images  at  the  base  of 
the  temple's  pagoda.  They  still  survive  today 
(vol.  8)J6 

These  are  all  well-known  examples.  Extant  sites 
such  as  the  Mogao  grottoes  at  Dunhuang  indicate 
that  even  the  earliest  surviving  caves  show  a 
consistency  of  layout  and  a  uniformity  in  design 
and  style  among  both  paintings  and  sculptures  that 
could  only  have  been  achieved  by  a  single  creator 
(fig.  i6).That  accounts  for  the  roughly  synchronous 
development  of  sculpture  and  painting  in  China 
prior  to  the  late  Tang.  From  the  Northern  Song, 
painters  increasingly  specialized  in  particular  genres, 
and  neither  court  painters  nor  literati  painters 
deigned  any  longer  to  sculpt.17  Popular  art 
preserved  the  tradition  of  linking  painting  and 
sculpture,  but  in  vulgarized  styles  that  could  no 
longer  properly  reflect  the  tastes  of  the  times. 

Translated,  from  the  Chinese,  by  June  Mei. 


SOURCES    FOR    FIGURES 

Fig.  i.  See  Zhongguo  shiku: 
Yongjing  Binghngsi  ("Chinese 
Cave  Sculptures:  Tlie  Singling 
Temple"),  pi  21. 

Fig.  2.  See  Zhongguo  shiku: 
Yongjing  Binghngsi  ^''Chinese 
Cave  Sculptures:  Tlie  Singling 
Temple"),  pi.  36. 

Fig.  3.  See  Yungang  shiku  ("Tlie 
Yungang  Caves"),  pi.  92. 

Fig.  4.  See  Zhongguo  shiku: 
Yungang  shiku  er  ("Chinese 
Cave  Sculptures:  The  Yungang 
Caves,  Part  2"),  pi.  124. 

Fig.  3.  See  Wenhua  dageming 
qijian  chutu  wenwu 
("Archaeological  Relics  Unearthed 
During  the  Cultural  Revolution  "), 
pi.  143. 

Fig.  7.  See  Zhongguo  Jintongfo 
("Gilded  Bronze  Buddhas  in 
China"), fig.  5, p.  236. 

Fig.  8.  See  Liuchao  yishu  ("Tlie 
Arts  of  the  Six  Dynasties"),  fig. 
163. 

Fig,  g.  See  Dengxian  caise 
huaxiang  zhuanmu  ("A  Color- 
Painted  Brich  Tomb  at  Deng 
County"),  jig.  24. 


Fig.  11.  See  Zhongguo  shikusi 
yanjiu  ("Studies  of  Temples  in 
Chinese  Caves"),  p.  108,  jig.  4,  and 
p.  wg, Jig.  5. 

Fig.  12.  See  Xinzhongguo  de 
kaogu  faxian  yu  yanjiu 
("Archaeological  Discoveries  and 
Studies  of  New  China"),  pi.  14$. 

Fig.  13.  See  Zhongguo  shikusi: 
Gongxian  shikusi  ("Chinese 
Cave  Sculptures:  Tlie  Cave 

Temples  of  Gong  County"),  pi.  38. 

Fig.  14.  See  Wenwu,  ig83;io, 
lower  illustration  on  color  page. 

Fig.  16.  See  Zhongguo  shiku: 

Dunhuang  Mogao  san 
("Chinese  Cave  Sculptures:  The 
Mogao  Grottoes,  Part  3"),  pi.  114. 

NOTES 

I.  Wenhua  dageming  qijian  chutu 
wenwu  ("Archaeological  Relics 
Unearthed  During  the  Cultural 
Revolution")  (1990),  vol.  r, 
pp.  H3-44- 


ai  minpnua 


2. The  edition  of  Lidt 
ji  ("Record  of  Famous  Painters 
of  All  the  Dynasties")  cited  in 
this  paper  is  based  on  the 
original  Xunyang  edition  of 
Wangshi  huayuan  ("Wang's 
Garden  of  Paintings"),  which  is 
now  in  the  Beijing  University 
Library  collection  and  which 
dates  back  to  the  early  Wanli 
period.  Although  this  version 
contains  more  errors  than  the 
one  in  Mao's  Jiuguge  edition  of 
Jindi  mishu  ("Secret  Works  of 
the  Jindi"),  it  is  nevertheless  a 
reprint  of  the  Shupeng  half- 
page,  1 1 -line  edition  published 
in  Lin'an  during  the  Southern 
Song,  and  is  the  earliest  extant 
copy  of  the  Lidai  minghua  ji. 

3.  Zhang  Huaiguan  compiled 
the  three-volume  Shuduan 
("Opinions  on  Calligraphy"); 
see  vol.  57,  the  "Arts  and 
Letters,  Part  1,"  of  the  Xin 
Tangshu  ("New  Tang  History"). 
He  also  compiled  Huaduan 
("Opinions  on  Paintings");  see 
vol.  1  of  Tuhua  jianwen  zhi 
("Notes  on  Pictures  and 
Paintings")  by  Guo  Ruoxu  of 
the  Northern  Song  dynasty. 

4.  Xu  Bangda,"Gu  Kaizhis 
'The  Goddess  of  the  Luo 
River',"  in  vol.  1  of  Gushuhua 
wei'e  kaoshi  ("Studies  of  Errata 
in  Ancient  Calligraphy  and 
Paintings"),  1984. 

5.Yao  Qian  et  al,  Liuchao  yishu 
("Arts  of  the  Six  Dynasties") 
(1981),  pp.  162-79. 

6.  In  vol.  6  of  the  Lidai  minghua 
ji,  this  excerpt  is  rendered  thus: 
"He  goes  to  the  limits  of 
understanding  and  nature,  and 
there  are  no  words  to  describe 


his  achievements;  he 
encompasses  the  past  and  bears 
the  seeds  of  the  future,  yet 
stands  out  among  both  past  and 
present;  he  cannot  be  praised 
merely  by  effusiveness,  and 
exhausts  all  description.  He  is 
the  best  of  the  best,  there  is 
nothing  left  to  say  ...  so  the 
most  I  can  do  is  place  him  in 
the  first  rank.  He  is  the 
toremost  person  ot  the  first 
rank." 

7.  Work  team  of  the  Henan 
Provincial  Bureau  ot  Relics, 
Dengxian  caisc  huaxiang 
zhuangwu  ("Color  Paintings 
from  a  Brick  Tomb  in  Deng 
County"),  1958. 

8.  Relics  Administration  Office 

of  Xiangfan,  "Xiangfan 
Jiajiachong  huaxiang  zhuanmu" 

("A  Painted  Brick  Tomb  in 
Jiajiachong,  Xiangfan"), 
jianghan  Archaeology,  1986:1. 

9.  According  to  the  "Lidianxu" 

("Preface  to  the  Book  of 
Rituals")  in  vol.  41  of  the 
Tongdian,  "By  an  edict  in  the 
second  year  of  Yongnnng 
during  the  reign  ot  Emperor 
Wu  of  the  Qi,  the  Minister 
ordered  the  officials  to  establish 
the  Five  Rituals.  Then  Emperor 
Wu  of  the  Liang  ordered  the 
scholars  to  refine  and  complete 
them.  When  Emperor  Wu  of 
the  Chen  succeeded  to  the 
throne,  he  mostly  adhered  to 
the  Liang  standards." 

10.  Geng  Xin,  "Lament  for 
Jiangnan,"  in  Zhou  shti  ("H/ifory 
of  the  Zhou"),  vol.  41, 
"Biography  of  Geng  Xin."  Also 
"Biography  of  Baochang"  in 
vol.  1  of  Xu  Gaoseng  zhuan 
("Sequel  to  Lives  of  Eminent 
Monks"):  "For  fifty-odd  years, 
the  south  was  uneventful." 

11. Vol.  90,  Xin  Tangshu  ("New 
History  of  the  Tang"): 
"Biography  of  Li  Sizhen." 

12.  Vol.  190  of  the  Jiu  Tangshu 
("Old  History  of  the  Tang"). 
"Diviners:  Biography  of  Li 
Sizhen"  notes  that  Sizhen 
compiled  one  volume  each  of 
"Books"  and  "Paintings." 
Chapters  1  and  3  respectively 
of  the  "Bibliography"  section  in 
vols.  57  and  59  of  the  Xin 
Tangshu  list  separately 
"Addendum  to  Calligraphy" 
and  "Addendum  to  Paintings." 
Vol.  1  of  Notes  on  Drawings  and 
Paintings  mentions  the 
Catalogue  of  Later  Paintings 
compiled  by  Li  Sizhen.  In  vol. 
3  of  his  Junzhai's  Reading  Notes, 
Chao  Gongwu  of  the  Southern 
Song  writes  of  Sequel  to  Notes 
on  Paintings  in  one  volume  by 
Li  Sizhen  (Yuanzhou  edition), 
the  extant  edition  now  known 


as  Sequel  to  Catalogue  of 
Paintings. 

13.  Vol.  6  of  the  Lidai  minghua  ji 
cites  Zhang  Huaiguan  thus:  "As 
for  Lu,  Gu,  and  Zhang 
Sengyou,  commentators  stress 
each  of  their  strengths,  and 
these  are  all  appropriate."  This 
can  be  taken  to  mean  that  the 
styles  in  vogue  during  the  three 
periods  following  the  Eastern 
Jin — Liu  Song,  Qi,  and  Liang — 
all  differed,  and  hence  different 
emphases  were  placed  on  them. 

14.  Yiwen  leiju,  vol.  76,  quoting 
the  stele  of  the  Buddha 

Amitabha  in  thejmxiang 
Temple  of  Yongzhou,  carved  by 
Liu  Xiaoyi  of  the  Liang 

dynasty. 

15.  Yiwen  leiju,  vol.  77,  quoting 
the  inscription  for  the  Buddha 
Sakyamuni  by  Emperor  Jianwen 
of  the  Liang. 

16.  See  Lin  Shuzhong,  "Dating 

the  Painted  Brick  Tomb  of 
Changzhou  and  the  Art  of  the 
Painted  Bricks,"  Wenwu,  1979:3. 

17.  In  vol.  6  of  Xu  gaoseng 
zhuan  ("Further  Lives  of 
Eminent  Monks"),  by  the 
monk  Daoxuan  of  the  Tang 

dynasty. 

18.  According  to  the 
"Biography  of  Cui  Guang"  in 
vol.  67  of  the  Weishi  ("History 
of  the  Wei  Dynasty"),  "In  the 
eighth  month  of  the  second 
year  [of  Shengui],  Dowager 
Empress  Ling  visited  the 
Yongning  Temple  and  climbed 
up  the  nine-story  pagoda. 
Guang  submitted  a  memorial, 
saying  ...'Although  the  image 
has  not  yet  been  constructed, 
this  is  already  the  home  of  the 
deity.'  "  From  this,  we  know 
that  the  figures  were  built  after 
the  eighth  month  of  the  second 
year  of  Shengui. 

19.  Luoyang  work  team  of  the 
Institute  ot  Archaeology, 
Chinese  Academy  ot  Social 
Sciences,  "Brief  Report  on  the 
Excavation  around  the  Base  of 
the  Northern  Wei  Yongning 
Temple  Pagoda,"  Kaogu,  1981:3. 

20.  The  "Annals  ofWenxiang" 
in  vol.  3  of  the  Beiqishu 
("History  of  the  Northern 
Qi")  notes  that  in  the  fourth 
year  ofWuding  (546), 
"[Marquis]  Jing's  general,  Cai 
Zundao,  returned  from  the 
north  saying  that  Jing  felt 
repentant.  The  Prince 
(Wenxiang)  believed  this,  and 
thought  he  could  lure  him 
over,  so  he  ignored  Jing's  letter. 
Jing  had  written,'.  .  .  Nowadays 
in  Liang,  we  were  beckoned  to 
with  every  courtesy,  given  tiger 


ORIGINS    AND    TRENDS    IN    THE    DEPICTION    OF    HUMAN    FIGURES 


142 


skins  for  blankets  and  urged  to 
stay  with  fine  cups.  .  .  .  Leave 
the  dangerous  for  the  safe,  and 
return  now  to  the  correct 
ways;  change  disaster  into  good 
fortune,  we  have  escaped  the 
net.*  "This  mention  of  the 
correct  ways  refers  to  the  Liang 
dynasty  kingdom  in  southern 
China. 

21.  See  Xu  Guangji, 
"Excavation  and  Studies  of 
Large  Tomb  Murals  of  the 
Northern  Dynasties  at 
Wanzhang  in  Ci  County, 
Hebei,"  Wenwu,  1996:9;  also  the 
Shanxi  Provincial  Institute  of 
Archaeology  et  al.,  "Brief 
Report  on  the  Excavation  of 
the  Tomb  of  Lou  Rui  of  the 
Northern  Qi  in  Taiyuan," 
Wenwu,  1983:10. 

22.  See  Beiqishu,  vol.  4,  "Annals 
of  Wenxuan";  vol.  48, 
"Relatives  of  the  Empress: 
Biography  of  Lou  Rui";  and 
Beishi  ("History  of  the 
Northern  Dynasties"),  vol.  54, 
"Biography  of  Lou  Zhao,  with 
Appended  Biography  of  His 
Nephew  Rui." 

23.  See  "Notes  on  the 
Northern  Qi  Tomb  of  Lou 
Rui  in  Taiyuan,"  Wenwu, 
1983:10. 

24.  Lidai  minghua  ji,  preface  to 
vol.  8.  Vol.  8  of  the  Lidai 
minghua  ji  further  says  about 
Yang  Zihua:  "Emperor  Shizu 
[Gao  Zhan,  of  the  Northern 
Qi|  held  him  in  high  esteem, 
and  let  him  live  in  the  palace. 
He  was  known  throughout  the 
land  as  the  Divine  Painter,  and 
was  forbidden  to  paint  for 
outsiders,  except  by  imperial 
edict.  At  the  time  there  was  a 
prince  named  Chong  Shan 
whose  chess-playing  was 
godlike,  and  the  two  of  them 
were  known  as  the  Two 
Ultimates." 

25.  Lidai  minghua  ji,  vol.  2. 

26.  In  Zhenguan  gongsi  hiialu 
("A  Record  ot  Paintings  in 
Public  and  Private  Collections 
in  the  Zhenguan  Era  [627- 
fi.SOJ"),  Pei  Xiaoyuan  notes  that 
"after  Yang  Zihua,  they  are  all 
northern  painters."The  six 
listed  .liter  Yang  Zihua  arc  Cao 
Zhongda,  I  >oug  Boren,  Zheng 
Fashi.Yang  Qidan,  Zhan 
Ziqian,  and  Sun  Shangzi. 

27.  About  [lie  five  artists 
mentioned,  vol.  8  of  the  Lidai 
minghua  fi  makes  the  following 
comments  on  .ill  other  than 
Yang  Zihua:  "Tian  Zengliang 
reached  the  official  position  of 
Sangong  Zhonglangjiang  [during 
the  Qi],and  entering  the  Zhou 
period  he  became  a  Changshi, 


and  at  the  time  had  a  higher 
reputation  than  Dong  and 
Zhan";  "During  the  Zhou, 
Zheng  Fashi  was  a  Dadou 
Duzuo  Yuamvai  Shilang,  a 
Jianzhong  General,  and  was 
given  the  fief  of  Changshe 
county,  and  entering  the  Sui 
period  he  was  made  a  Zhongsan 
Datfu;  his  Images  of  the  Northern 
Qi  .  .  .  is  still  extant";  "Dong 
Boren  was  from  Ru'nan,  and  a 
man  of  many  talents  .... 
[During  the  Sui]  he  reached 
the  positions  of  Guanglu  Datfu 
and  Dianzhong  General.  .  .  . 
Initially  both  Dong  and  Zhan 
were  summoned  together  to 
the  Sui  Court,  one  from 
Hebei,  the  other  from  southern 
China.  Initially  they  were  not 
taken  seriously,  but  later  they 
were  rather  well  regarded. 
Dongs  Emperor  Ming  of  the 
Zhou  Hunting  is  still  extant"; 
"Zhan  Ziqian  lived  through 
the  Northern  Qi,  Zhou,  and 
Sui  dynasties,  and  became 
Chaosan  Daifu  and  Zhangnei 
Doudu.  His  Tlie  Later  Ruler  of 
the  Northern  Qi  Visiting  finyang 
is  still  extant."  From  this,  we 
know  that  they  were  all  famous 
during  the  Qi  and  Zhou. 

28. The  monk  Zong  is  the 
same  person  as  the  monk 
Yanzong,  who  compiled 
Hoithuaht  ("Sequel  to 
Catalogue  of  Paintings").  See 
Tushu  jianwenzhi,  vol.  1,  and 
Junzhai  dushuzhi,  vol.  3,  pt.  2. 

29.  According  to  part  3  of  the 
Yiwenzhi  ("Bibliography") 
section  in  vol.  59  of  the  Kin 
Tangshu  ("New  Tang  History"): 
"Pei  Xiaoyuan  wrote  Huapin  hi 
["Ranked  Catalogue  of 
Paintings"]  in  one  volume.  He 
was  a  Zhongshu  Sheren,  and 
recorded  events  of  the 
Zhenguan  and  Xianqing 
periods."Vol.  1  of  Tulnnt 
jianwen  zhi  ("Notes  on 
Drawings  and  Paintings")  refers 
to  the  work  as  Gongsihua  In 
("Catalogue  of  Public  and 
Private  Paintings"). The  extant 
version  is  titled  Zhenguan 
gongsihua  sin  ("History  of  the 
Public  and  Private  Paintings  of 
the  Zhenguan  Period"). The 
text  in  the  extant  version  is 
more  detailed  than  the  passage 
cited  by  Zhang,  and  reads, 
"TheYans  originally  studied 
with  Mr.  Zhang,  and  can  be 
said  to  surpass  their  teacher.  As 
for  drawing  people  and 
garments,  soldiers,  horses  and 
buildings,  they  have  mastered 
the  subtleties  of  both  south  and 
north." 

30.  See  Jin  Weinuo,"Thc  Dates 
and  Artists  of  Ancient  Portraits 
of  Emperors,"  in  Collected 
Essays  on  Chinese  Art  History., 
198 1. 


31.  See  n.  3. 

32.  Wu  Daozi  and  Yang  Huizhi 
were  regarded  equally  highly  at 
the  time.  Vol.  212  of  the  Taiping 
guangji  cites  Tang  Kangpings 
Jutanlu  thus:  "There  is  a 

Xuanyuan  Monastery  on  Mt. 
Beimang  of  the  Eastern  capital. 
To  the  south  of  the  monastery 
stands  a  temple  to  Laozi.  Its 
buildings  are  tall  and  imposing, 
and  overlook  Yiluo.  All  of  its 
clay  sculptures  of  the  deities 
were  done  by  Yang  Huizhi 
during  the  Kaiyuan  period. 
They  are  extraordinarily  well 
done  and  meticulous,  and 
everyone  who  sees  them  is 
filled  with  admiration. The 
walls  have  paintings  by  Wu 
Daozi  of  the  Five  Sages  and  of 
stories  from  Laozi.  The 
paintings  are  exquisite,  and 
have  no  peer  either  past  or 
present." 

33.  At  the  end  of  his  comments 
on  Dai  Kui,  Zhang  Yanyuan 
appends  the  following  notes: 
"See  the  Jinshu  ['History  of  the 
Jin*],  Songshu  ['History  of  the 
(Liu)  Song'],  and  Kuibiezhuan 
['Biography  of  Kui'],  Xu 
Guang's  Jinji  ['Record  of  the 
Jin'],  Huigiji  ['Record  of  the 
Huiqi'],  Guozi,  Liu  Yiqing's 
Shishuo,  and  the  Mingyanji  by 
Wang  from  Linchuan  of  the 
[Liu]  Song  dynasty." 

34.  At  the  end  of  his  comments 
on  Dai  Kui,  Zhang  Yanyuan 
appends  the  following  notes: 
"See  the  'Biographies  of 
Hermits'  section  in  the  Songshu 
['History  of  the  (Liu)  Song'], 
and  Wang  Zhishen's  Songji 
['Record  of  the  (Liu)  Song']." 

35.  At  the  end  of  his  comments 
on  Jiang  Shaoyou,  Zhang 
Yanyuan  appends  the  following 
note:  "See  the  Houweishu 
['History  of  the  Later  Wei']." 

36.  At  the  end  of  his  comments 
on  Tanmozhuoyi,  Zhang 
Yanyuan  appends  the  following 
notes:  "See  the  Insights  into  the 
Three  Treasures? 

37.  There  were  also  exceptions. 
such  as  Zhai  Ruwcn.  who  was 
[he  Anfushi  of  both  Zhiyue 
Prefecture  and  Andong  in 
Zhejiang  during  the  late 
Northern  Song. The 
"Inscription  for  Sir  Zhai" 
which  is  appended  to  the 
Zhonghuizi  notes  that  R.uwen 
"was  conversant  with  painting, 
and  had  himself  painted  some 
sixty-odd  scrolls,  including 
Heights  of  the  linn  Locales, 
Various  Sages  oj  the  Ten 

{ Mmatcs,  Ih,  Nine  Heavetu  as 
(  »«e,   I'hc  lour  Holy  Men 
Subduing  the  I  kmotis,  etc. . . . 
1  le  was  also  .in  expert  sculptor, 


and  taught  craftsmen  to  carve 
the  images  of  the  Three  Holies, 
the  Jade  Emperor,  and  Zhenwu 
which  are  in  the  Zaocheng 
Monastery  at  Huiqi. These  all 
display  the  greatest  dignity  and 
gentleness  in  their  visages,  and 
their  expression  is  one  of 
natural  ease  as  if  they  were 
human,  such  that  all  who  saw 
them  were  awestruck.  People 
of  that  prefecture  call  them 
treasures  of  wood. .  .  .  Zhai  felt 
that  the  old  work  was  not  well 
done,  and  personally  resculpted 
it.  He  captured  the  Rulai 
[Tathagata]  Buddha's 
compassion  for  the  world  and 
sympathy  for  the  weak,  and 
even  if  Dai  Andao  and  Yang 
Huizhi  were  to  be  reborn,  they 
would  have  a  hard  rime 
surpassing  him."  For  more  on 
Zhai  Ruwen  s  life,  see  his 
biography  in  vol.  131  of  the 
History  of  the  Song  (Song  shu). 


ORIGINS    AND    TRENDS    IN    THE    DEPICTION    OF    HUMAN    FIGURES 


143 


Transfiguring 
Divinities:  Buddhist 
Sculpture  in  China 


The  advent  of  Buddhism  in  China  more 
than  two  thousand  years  ago  heralded 
profound  changes  in  almost  every  aspect 
of  life  and  thought,  state  and  society. 
Buddhism  differed  markedly  from  earlier 
Chinese  religions  and  philosophies.  It 
challenged  and  in  part  even  flatly 
contradicted  some  of  the  most  cherished 
concepts  and  ideals  of  the  ancient 


Helmut  Brinker 

Professor,  University  of  Zurich 


Chinese.  Indian  Buddhism  arrived  as  a  complex 
religious  system  based  on  a  variety  of  doctrines, 
practices,  and  premises  that  the  ancients  would 
never  have  understood.  The  new  faith  assumed  that 
life  was  transitory  and  illusory,  essentially  painful, 
and  thus  inevitably  unsatisfactory.  It  offered, 
however,  the  consoling  prospect  of  finding  release 
from  fatal  destiny  and  breaking  through  the  endless 
chain  of  causality  in  the  illusory  world  of 
phenomena,  in  Sanskrit  called  samsara. 

Following  the  Noble  Eightfold  Path — that  is,  the 
Buddha's  rules  for  right  living — one  could  escape 
the  perpetual  cycle  of  rebirth  by  the  virtues  of 
sincere  belief,  compassion,  meditative  discipline, 
exemplary  moral  conduct,  accumulation  of 
religious  merit,  development  of  wisdom,  and 
renunciation  of  worldly  wealth  and  status  in  order 
to  seek  the  truth.  The  doctrine  of  karma  (literally, 
"work"  or  "action")  was  thought  of  as  a  system  of 
moral  causalities.  Good  or  bad  actions  of  an 
individual  would  be  rewarded  or  punished  either  in 
this  life  or  in  the  next.  To  attain  supreme 
enlightenment  was  the  ultimate  goal  for  the 
practitioners  of  the  faith.  A  person  who  had 
reached  this  awakened  stage  became  a  Buddha  and 
qualified  for  entering  into  nirvana.  For  the  first 
time  the  Chinese  had  to  come  to  grips  with  totally 
alien  beliefs  and  highly  sophisticated  religious 
concepts.  The  success  of  Buddhism  in  China  was 
due  mainly  to  its  tolerance  for  other  philosophical 
paths  and  religious  practices,  its  readiness  to  adopt 
and  adapt  to  Daoism  and  Confucianism. 

This  exposure  to  foreign  ideas  and  images, 
languages  and  metaphors  inevitably  caused  a  radical 
transformation  of  older  traditions  in  Chinese 
culture  and  art.  In  India,  the  homeland  of  faith, 
mysticism,  and  magic,  Buddhism  was  originally  an 
aniconic  religion.  Since  the  Buddha  stood 
ultimately  for  an  abstract,  metaphysical  concept, 
initially  he  was  not  depicted  as  a  human  figure. 
Rather,  his  salvific  presence  and  power  were 
evoked  by  such  representative  symbols  as  Ins 


footprints,  the  wheel  that  stands  for  his  preaching, 
or  the  stupa,  a  tumulus-like  monument  erected  over 
his  holy  bodily  remains.  During  the  time  of  the 
Kushan  empire,  established  in  the  latter  half  of  the 
first  century  ce,  the  worship  of  images  at  last 
triumphed,  and  soon  thereafter  iconographic 
schemes  and  forms  of  great  intricacy  and 
complexity  rapidly  evolved.  Buddhism's  historic 
founder,  known  as  Sakyamuni,  or  Gautama 
Siddhartha,  is  naturally  the  most  widely  worshiped 
figure  of  the  Buddhist  pantheon.  He  is  said  to  have 
lived  between  565  and  486  bce — the  dates  are  not 
precisely  fixed — in  what  is  now  southern  Nepal. 
Sakyamuni  achieved  enlightenment  in  his  lifetime 
by  discovering  the  middle  path  between  severe 
ascetic  self-mortification  and  self-indulgence.  After 
spreading  his  new  insights,  performing  miracles,  and 
gathering  disciples,  he  entered  into  nirvana  at  the 
age  of  eighty  and  receded  far  beyond  the 
imagination  and  reach  of  mortal  believers.  His  truly 
unfathomable  reality  could  only  be  experienced 
and  visualized  through  supreme  insight,  assisted  by 
sacred  images  and  rituals,  by  magic  words,  gestures, 
and  symbols,  by  the  mysteries  of  faith  and  worship. 

BUDDHIST    CULTURE    IN    CHINA 

FORMATIVE    STAGES,    EXPANSION, 
CURTAILMENT 

In  Buddhism's  formative  stages  in  China,  Buddhist 
imagery  appears  only  sporadically,  and  mingled  into 
indigenous  Han  contexts. Traditional  Buddhist 
motifs  of  Indian  origin  were  fused  with  Daoist 
beliefs,  figures,  and  customs,  and  rendered  in 
stylistic  and  technical  patterns  familiar  from  tomb 
decoration  and  furnishings.  Buddhist  imagery  had 
to  be  translated  into  forms  and  modes  that  Chinese 
could  understand,  as  was  true  tor  Buddhist 
scriptures.  We  must  assume  that  the  early 
missionaries  from  the  West  knew  little  if  any 
Chinese  and  that  their  local  collaborators  probabr) 
had  no  comprehensive  knowledge  of  Central  \sian 
or  Indian  languages.  Pertinent  Daoist  terms  and 
metaphors  as  well  as  loanwords  from  the  Cotlfui  ian 
classics  were  appropriated  in  the  attempt  to  rendei 


TRANSFIGURING    DIVINITIES:    BUDDHIST    SCULPTURE    IN    CHINA 


145 


religious  concepts  such  as  impermanence  and 
insubstantiality  and  to  describe  the  transcendental 
notions  of  transmigration  and  reincarnation. 

According  to  tradition,  extensive  translation 
activities  began  with  the  arrival  of  two  Indian 
monks,  Dharmaratna  and  Kasyapa  Matahga.  They 
allegedly  joined  a  group  of  Chinese  envoys  that  had 
been  dispatched  by  Emperor  Ming  of  the  Eastern 
Han  dynasty  (r.  57-75  ce)  in  order  to  track  down 
the  import  of  a  miraculous  dream  apparition.  We 
are  told  that  the  two  missionaries  brought  with 
them  a  copy  of  "The  Scripture  in  Forty-Two 
Sections,"  which  they  translated  into  Chinese  as 
Sishi'er  zhangjing — traditionally  the  first  Chinese 
rendition  of  an  Indian  Buddhist  text.  The  true 
origin  and  date  of  this  work,  however,  have  been 
subjects  of  scholarly  controversy.  By  medieval  times, 
Dharmaratna  and  Kasyapa  Matahga  were  regularly 
credited  with  the  translation  of  this  "short 
collection  of  aphorisms  and  pithy  moralistic 
parables."1  The  emperor  is  said  to  have  established 
the  Temple  of  the  White  Horse  (Baimasi),  the  first 
official  Buddhist  institution  on  Chinese  soil,  as  their 
new  residence  in  Luoyang. 

Another  pioneer  missionary  and  translator  was  the 
Parthian  prince  known  to  the  Chinese  as  An 
Shigao,  who  came  to  Luoyang  in  148  ce.  The 
impact  of  the  Central  Asian  missionary  translator 
KumarajTva  (344—409/413?)  was  even  greater.  A 
Kuchean  aristocrat  turned  monk,  he  had  been 
invited  to  China  by  the  ruler  of  one  of  the  Sixteen 
Kingdoms,  but  en  route  was  captured  by  a  rogue 
general  and  held  for  nearly  two  decades  in  the  area 
of  present-day  Gansu  Province.  There  the  Kuchean 
monk  learned  Chinese.  A  new  ruler,  equally  pro- 
Buddhist,  finally  destroyed  the  rogue  general,  at 
least  partly  in  order  to  secure  KumarajTva's  release. 
KumarajTva  arrived  in  Chang'an  in  402  and  became 
the  spiritus  rector  of  one  of  the  greatest  Buddhist 
translation  projects  of  sacred  scriptures. 

At  first,  Buddhist  congregations  existed  primarily  in 
the  foreign  merchant  quarters  of  larger  cities;  only 
gradually  did  the  new  religion  gain  a  substantial 
following  among  native  Chinese.  From  roughly  the 
fourth  century,  however,  religious  life  in  China  was 
largely  dominated  by  Buddhism.  In  his  preface  to 
the  Luoyang  qielau  ji  ("Record  of  Buddhist  Temples 
in  Luoyang"),  completed  in  547,  the  military  leader 
and  chronicler  Yang  Xuanzhi  noted: 

The  people  and  wealthy  families  parted  with 
their  treasures  as  easily  as  with  forgotten 
rubbish.  As  a  result,  Buddhist  temples  were  built 
side  by  side,  and  stupas  [pagodas]  rose  up  in  row 
after  row.  People  competed  among  themselves 
in  making  or  copying  the  Buddha's  portraits. 
Golden  stupas  matched  the  imperial 


observatory  in  height,  and  Buddhist  lecture 
halls  were  as  magnificent  as  the  [ostentatiously 
wasteful]  Efang  [palaces  of  the  Qin  dynasty 
(221—207  bce)].  Indeed,  [Buddhist  activity  was 
so  intense]  that  it  was  not  merely  a  matter  of 
clothing  wooden  [figures]  in  silk  or  painting 
earthen  [idols]  in  rich  colors.2 

Yang  Xuanzhi  reports  that  there  were  forty-two 
temples  in  Luoyang  by  the  beginning  of  the  fourth 
century  ce  and  that  this  number  increased  rapidly; 
by  the  end  of  the  Wei  dynasty  in  the  second  half  of 
the  sixth  century  we  have  an  estimate  of  no  less 
than  1,367  Buddhist  temples  in  and  around  the 
capital  city.  Medieval  Chang'an  was  also  early 
famed  for  its  magnificent  temples.  Notwithstanding 
two  serious  persecutions — during  446—452  under 
Emperor  Taiwu  of  the  Northern  Wei  and  again 
during  574-578  under  Emperor  Wu  of  the 
Northern  Zhou — the  Buddhist  church  continued 
to  flourish  during  the  Period  of  Disunity 
(220-589),  the  Sui  (589-618),  and  most  of  the  Tang 
(618-907)  dynasty. 

The  third  and  most  severe  suppression,  gathering 
head  from  about  about  841  and  culminating  in 
844—845,  under  the  reign  of  the  Tang  emperor 
Wuzong,  marked  the  beginning  of  a  gradual 
decline  in  influence,  power,  and  wealth  of  the 
Buddhist  church  as  an  established  institution.  A 
series  of  increasingly  harsh  imperial  edicts  was 
directed  toward  confiscation  of  monastic  property 
and  secularization  of  the  clergy.  The  violent  return 
to  secular  life  of  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  million 
nuns  and  priests  was  witnessed  and  recorded  by  the 
Japanese  pilgrim  Ennin  (793—864),  who  kept  a 
detailed  diary  of  his  sojourn  in  China.  The  vast 
properties  and  monetary  wealth  of  the  Buddhist 
church  were  confiscated  by  the  government,  and 
some  of  the  splendid  temple  compounds  in 
Chang'an  were  converted  into  imperial  parks. 
Buddhist  bronze  bells  and  metal  icons  were  ordered 
to  be  surrendered  to  the  state  authorities  and  were 
eventually  melted  down.  In  the  entire  empire  no 
images  of  bronze,  iron,  gold,  or  silver  were 
permitted  for  public  or  private  worship.  Only 
sculptures  made  of  stone,  wood,  clay,  or  other 
nonmetallic  materials  are  said  to  have  been  exempt 
from  the  tragic  suppression  and  devastation.  The 
actual  extent  of  the  loss  of  religious  art  and 
architecture  and  of  Buddhist  literature,  icons,  and 
sacred  paraphernalia  toward  the  end  of  the  Tang 
dynasty  can  hardly  be  imagined.  Arriving  in 
Dengzhou  after  his  own  expulsion  from  Chang'an, 
the  Japanese  pilgrim  Ennin  noted  in  his  diary: 

Although  it  [Dengzhou]  is  a  remote  place,  it  has 
been  no  different  from  the  capital  in  the 
regulation  of  monks  and  nuns,  the  destruction 
of  the  monasteries,  the  banning  of  the 


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146 


scriptures,  the  breaking  of  the  images,  and  the 
confiscation  of  the  property  of  the  monasteries. 
Moreover  they  have  peeled  off  the  gold  from 
the  Buddhas  and  smashed  the  bronze  and  iron 
Buddhas  and  measured  their  weight.  What  a  pity! 
What  limit  was  there  to  the  bronze,  iron,  and 
gold  Buddhas  of  the  land?  And  yet,  in 
accordance  with  the  Imperial  edict,  all  have 
been  destroyed  and  have  been  turned  into  trash.3 

EVIDENCE    OF    EARLY    BUDDHIST    IMAGERY 
IN    CHINA 

Tradition  holds  that  the  first  Buddha  image  was 
introduced  into  China  sometime  between  64  and 
75  CE,  as  the  result  of  a  dream  of  Han  Mingdi.The 
emperor  saw  a  divine  man  whose  body  was 

golden  in  color,  wearing  a  solar  halo  about  the 
crown  of  his  head.  He  inquired  of  his  courtiers, 
one  of  whom  said:  "In  the  West  there  is  a  deity 
known  as  the  Buddha,  whose  form  is  like  what 
Your  Majesty  dreamed  of;  may  it  not  have  been 
he?" Thereupon  envoys  were  dispatched  to 
India,  who  had  copies  made  of  a  Sutra 
[scripture]  and  [obtained]  an  image,  which  they 
displayed  in  China.  There  from  the  Son  of 
Heaven  on  down  through  the  princes  and 
nobles,  all  paid  them  honor;  for  when  they 
heard  that  a  man's  soul  is  not  extinguished  by 
death,  there  was  none  who  was  not  fearful  of 
being  lost.4 

This  famous  dream-and-envoy  story  was 
considerably  embellished  over  time.  It  occurred 
initially  in  an  early  preface  of  the  Sishi'er  zhang  jing 
("The  Scripture  in  Forty-Two  Sections"),  which 
may  be  dated  to  the  Eastern  Han  (25—220  ce)  or 
shortly  thereafter.  Such  edifying  anecdotes  later 
acquired  an  aura  of  fact,  and  were  often  cited  as 
literal  truth  by  Chinese  buddhologists.-s  By  the  fifth 
century  the  icon  mentioned  among  the  Buddhist 
paraphernalia  in  the  luggage  of  Mingdi's  returning 
delegation  had  been  identified  in  Chinese  records 
either  as  the  original  or  as  a  faithful,  equally  sacred 
replica  of  the  celebrated  Sakyamuni  portrait 
commissioned  by  the  youthful  king  Udayana, 
Buddha's  ardent  admirer  and  pious  patron.  Although 
this  account  of  the  legendary  Udayana  icon  is 
apocryphal,  it  tells  us  something  about  the 
significance  of  imagery  in  the  transmission  of 
Buddhism  and  the  early  Chinese  concern  and 
respect  for  the  foreign  religion  and  its  art. 

A  century  after  the  purported  introduction  of  the 
hist  Buddhist  scripture  and  image,  a  lavish  religious 
ceremony  in  honor  of  Sakyamuni  and  ofLaozi,  the 
founding  figure  of  Daoism,  is  mentioned  by  the 
astrologer  and  scholar  Xiang  Kai  in  his  well-known 
memorial  presented  to  the  Han  emperor  Hiun  in 
r.66.  His  text  refers  to  the  beliefth.it  Buddha  was  in 


reality  none  other  than  the  deified  Laozi.  Images  of 
the  two  Sacred  Ones  were  installed  under 
sumptuous  floral  canopies  in  a  special  palace 
building.  Rituals  and  sacrifices  were  performed  with 
pomp  and  ostentation,  using  precious  vessels  of  gold 
and  silver,  consecrated  beads,  and  embroidered 
textiles.6 

Fairly  reliable  information  has  been  preserved 
regarding  the  installation  of  yet  another  golden 
Buddha  image  in  what  is  now  Jiangsu  Province. 
About  the  year  190,  Zhai  Rong,  an  active 
propagandist  for  Buddhism,  reportedly  built  a 
structure  of  considerable  size  to  house  a  gilded 
bronze  statue  and  to  accommodate  a  large 
congregation:  "He  erected  a  Buddha  shrine,  making 
a  human  figure  of  bronze  whose  body  he  coated 
with  gold  and  clad  in  brocades.  He  hung  up  nine 
tiers  of  bronze  plates  [on  the  spire]  over  a  multi- 
storied  pavilion;  his  covered  galleries  could  contain 
three  thousand  men  or  more."7 

Buddhist  icons  must  have  been  in  ritual  use  in 
China  well  before  this  date;  they  probably  arrived  in 
the  luggage  of  foreign  merchants  and  missionaries 
who  had  come  along  the  ancient  overland  trade 
routes  of  Central  Asia  or  by  sea  around  Southeast 
Asia.  Most  of  these  images  were  probably  made  of 
gilded  bronze.  Their  shining  surface  was  intended  to 
reproduce  the  sunlike  radiance  of  the  Buddha's 
body.  It  is  only  toward  the  end  of  the  Eastern  Han 
dynasty,  about  the  year  200,  that  the  Chinese 
themselves  may  have  started  to  experiment  with 
casting  such  icons.  We  are  informed  by  the  noted 
Vinaya  master,  translator,  and  biographer  Daoxuan 
(596—667)  that  a  certain  monk  Huihu  made  a  gilded 
Sakyamuni  image  at  the  Shading  Temple  in  Wujun 
in  the  year  377.  According  to  Daoxuan,  the  sixteen- 
foot-high  statue  was  cast  in  a  cave  dug  on  the  steep 
south  side  of  the  temple." 

In  general,  bronze  casters  and  sculptors  enjoyed  little 
social  eminence.  Like  their  craftsmen  ancestors,  they 
remained  anonymous.  Very  few  won  recognition 
comparable  to  that  of  contemporary  painters.  One 
of  the  earliest  sculptors — perhaps  the  first — whose 
name  entered  historical  records  was  Dai  Kui  (d. 
395).  He  is  said  to  have  made  monumental 
configurations  for  various  temples  and  to  have 
achieved  an  unprecedented  technical  versatility  and 
inventiveness,  beauty  and  expressiveness  111  casting 
bronze  icons,  carving  wood  sculptures,  and  making 
portable  lacquer  statues.  In  Daoxuan's  view,  Dai 
Kui's  genius  contributed  decisively  to  the 
progressive  disuse  of  exotic  foreign  styles  in  t.ivor  of 
Sinicized  Buddhist  imagery; 

hi  [Dai]  Kui's  opinion  die  images  made  m 
Middle  Antiquity  had  almost  all  been  rude  and 
oversimple,  and  in  their  function  of  inspiring 


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147 


worship  lacked  the  power  to  stir  men's  hearts. 
Since  he  was  both  pure  in  faith  and  highly 
inventive,  he  was  spurred  to  alter  the  carving  of 
the  August  Visage,  so  as  to  attain  the  utmost  in 
truthfulness.  He  pondered  the  problem  for  years 
on  end  and  finally  succeeded  in  producing  a 
statue  in  which  the  excellence  of  Chinese 
figure  sculpture  exceeded  anything  previously 
known.9 

Early  sources  record  miraculous  finds  of  golden  or 
gilded  statues  deep  underground  at  Buddhist 
temple  sites.  When  the  Yongning  Temple  ("Temple 
of  Eternal  Peace")  was  built  in  Luoyang  by  decree 
of  the  dowager  empress  in  516,  thirty  golden  icons 
were  unearthed  during  the  construction  process. 
The  Yongning  Temple,  which  was  in  the  inner  city, 
is  said  to  have  rivaled  the  magnificence  of  the 
imperial  palace.  Writing  three  decades  later, Yang 
Xuanzhi  tells  us  that  the  unexpected  discovery  of 
thirty  sacred  images  "was  interpreted  as  an 
auspicious  reward  for  the  dowager  empress's 
conversion  to  Buddhism.  As  a  result,  she  spent  all 
the  more  lavishly  on  its  construction."  He  describes 
the  splendor  of  the  temple  in  great  and  admiring 
detail: 

North  of  the  stupa  [pagoda]  was  a  Buddhist 
hall,  which  was  shaped  like  the  Palace  of  the 
Great  Ultimate  (Tianjidian).  In  the  hall  was  a 
golden  statue  of  the  Buddha  eighteen  feet  high, 
along  with  ten  medium-sized  images — three  of 
sewn  pearls,  tive  of  woven  golden  threads,  and 
two  of  jade.  The  superb  artistry  was  matchless, 
unparalleled  in  its  day.  .  .  .  Here  were  kept  all 
the  Sutras  and  Buddhist  images  presented  by 
foreign  countries."3 

ASPECTS    OF    BUDDHIST    FAITH    AND 
RITUAL 

The  most  common  Chinese  terms  for  Buddhist 
icons  azefoxiang  and  foxingxiang,  both  meaning 
"Buddha  images."  Since  ancient  dines  the  main 
object  ot  veneration  or  prime  statue  worshiped  in  a 
particular  ritual  or  enshrined  in  a  building  of  a 
Buddhist  temple  has  been  called  benzun  ("Original 
Honored  One");  as  a  rule,  the  chapel  or  hall  is 
dedicated  to  and  named  after  that  particular  deity. 
The  word  benzun  can  be  traced  back  at  least  as  far 
as  the  Northern  Wei  dynasty  (386-534).  Stronger 
emphasis  on  the  intimate  relationship  between  the 
devotee  and  the  deity  addressed  in  an  icon  is 
connoted  by  the  word  zizun  ("Personal  Honored 
One"),  defined  in  early  exegetic  medieval  texts  as 
"the  venerated  deity  to  which  one's  Self  is 
clinging."  We  may  assume  that  icons  of  this 
category  were  preferably  set  up  on  the  private  altar 
of  a  practitioner.  Another  key  term  frequently 
encountered  in  Buddhist  scriptures  is  xingxiang 
("form  image"),  emphasizing  the  perceptible 


appearance,  the  formal  likeness,  and  iconographic 
appropriateness  of  the  represented  deity.  Yingxiang 
("shadow  image")  characterizes  the  icon  as  an 
ultimately  illusory  reflection  without  inherent 
reality,  and  is  regularly  used  to  designate  the 
visualized  image  of  a  deity  and  its  pictorial 
representation.  In  his  instructions  on  the  methods 
of  performing  such  visualization,  the  extremely 
learned  Tang  monk  Zhiyan  (602-668),  who  is 
regarded  as  the  second  patriarch  of  the  Huayan 
school,  remarks: 

How  does  one  attain  to  dwelling  in  quiet 
meditation?  During  day  and  night  one  should 
visualize  with  energy  the  form  image 
[xingxiang]  of  the  Buddha,  but  without  sticking 
to  [the  illusion  of]  its  characteristics  [as  being 
real] ....  Should  this  Buddha  have  been  made 
by  man,  then  the  practitioner  ought  to  reflect  as 
follows:  Is  this  Buddha  made  out  of  clay  or 
wood,  or  is  it  made  out  of  gold  or  bronze? 
After  such  a  visualization  he  truly  recognizes 
the  Buddha  whom  he  sees.  If  you,  only  relying 
on  your  own  self,  visualize  the  form  image 
[xingxiang]  of  the  Buddha  in  a  pure  abode,  and 
remember  it  day  and  night,  then  this  Buddha 
will  appear  constantly  before  your  eyes." 

Icons  were  a  means  to  the  fundamental  goal  of 
every  devoted  Buddhist,  a  goal  the  Chinese  called 
jianfo  ("seeing  the  Buddha").  Material  substance 
and  form  remain  a  totally  worthless  "shadow" — 
that  is,  a  mere  visual  perception — as  long  as  an  icon 
has  not  received  its  proper  spiritual  enlivenment 
through  consecration  in  an  adequate  ritual.  Only 
then  does  a  sculpture  change  from  a  piece  of  stone, 
wood,  bronze,  clay,  or  lacquer  to  a  sacred  image:  it 
metamorphoses  from  form  image  (xingxiang)  or 
shadow  image  (yingxiang)  into  the  Original 
Honored  One  (benzun),  imbued  with  the  potency 
to  assist  and  guide  believers  on  their  way  to  true 
enlightenment  and  salvation.  The  final  step  in 
creating  an  icon — depicting  the  pupils  of  the 
eyes — was  an  act  of  ritual  as  well  as  representation. 
The  practice  seems  to  have  been  known  in  ancient 
Indian  Buddhism  as  well  as  in  Brahmamsm,  and  it 
was  common  cultic  practice  (along  with  the 
"mouth-opening"  ritual)  in  Mesopotamia  perhaps 
as  early  as  the  third  millennium  bce.  Called  the 
"eye-opening"  ritual  (kaiyan),  it  is  the  most 
important  process  in  consecrating  a  new  icon: 
endowing  the  image  with  gaze  endows  it  with  a 
sense  of  life.  The  Tang  emperor  Taizong  (r.  627—649) 
himself  attended  such  an  inaugural  "eye-opening" 
ceremony  for  the  main  Buddha  image  in  the 
Xingtu  Temple  (formerly  Hongfu  Temple)  in 
Chang'an,  which  in  634  he  had  renamed  and 
rededicated  to  the  spiritual  felicity  of  his  mother. 
Unfortunately,  the  sources  give  no  further  details  of 
this  dedication  service,  but  the  monarch  probably 


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148 


played  an  active  part  in  the  ritual  of  invoking  the 
Buddha  and  endowing  his  image  with  beneficial 
and  protective  power.12 

Since  early  times  Buddhist  theologians  have 
speculated  and  commented  on  the  relation  of  the 
outer  form  and  the  inner  principle,  the  actual  and 
spiritual  presence  of  deities  or  saints  in  images 
made  by  human  hands.  They  were  deeply 
concerned  with  the  degree  of  reality  and  potency 
dwelling  in  a  pictorial  representation.  The  efficacy 
of  Buddhist  icons,  and  therefore  of  the  rituals 
addressed  to  them,  was  thought  to  depend  to  a 
great  extent  on  their  magic  essence.  To  reinforce 
the  potency  ascribed  to  the  images,  all  sorts  of 
objects — precious  relics,  ritual  implements,  holy 
scriptures  and  pictures,  printed  or  written  magic 
spells,  miniature  figures  of  deities,  even  textile 
models  of  human  organs — were  sometimes 
deposited  in  special  cavities  or  in  the  hollow 
interior  of  a  sculpture  before  it  received  its 
finishing  touches  and  initial  consecration.  Literary 
evidence  and  extant  statues  bear  witness  to  the 
early  existence  of  this  magic-religious  practice  in 
China,  which  was  not  limited  to  any  particular 
Buddhist  school  or  category  of  religious  imagery. 

SACRED    ICONS    AND   THE    BUDDHIST    CULT 
OF    RELICS 

One  of  the  earliest  references  to  a  sacred  deposit  in 
a  Buddhist  figure  appears  in  the  biography  of  the 
distinguished  evangelist  and  translator  Dao'an 
(312-385),  who  once  received  a  foreign  gilded- 
bronze  statue  that  was  seven  feet  high: 

Whenever  there  was  a  lecture  or  assembly,  the 
holy  images  would  be  set  out.  Banners  and 
canopies  would  be  hung  up;  festoons  of  beads 
would  swing;  everywhere  would  be  incense 
smoke  and  flowers;  so  that  those  who  mounted 
the  steps  and  crossed  the  threshold  were 
awestruck  and  paid  the  utmost  in  devotion.  The 
foreign  bronze  image  was  so  archaic  in  form 
and  workmanship  that  most  people  had  no 
great  respect  for  it.  [Dao-]  An  said:  "The  shape 
and  the  body-marks  are  excellent;  the  only  fault 
is  that  the  form  of  the  usnfsa  [the  protuberance 
on  top  of  the  head]  is  incongruous."  So  he 
ordered  a  disciple  to  fire  and  re-mould  the 
usnTsa.  At  once  a  light  flamed  up  with  such 
brilliance  that  it  filled  the  whole  hall.  On  close 
inspection  it  was  discovered  that  inside  the 
usnTsa  there  was  a  relic. The  brothers  were  filled 
with  consternation;  but  [Dao-|  An  said:  "The 
statue  is  already  a  wonder-working  one,  and 
will  not  be  disturbed  by  recasting."''1 

The  unexpected  discovery  of  a  sacred  relic  in  the 
Buddha's  head  secured  this  rare  foreign  statue  a 
special  rank  as  miraculous  icon,  and  therefore  even 


minor  changes  of  iconographic  features  due  to 
repair  or  finishing  work  essentially  would  not 
impair  its  efficacy. 

In  the  orthodox  Buddhist  sense,  the  sarTra  (C:  sheli) 
refers  to  the  pure  crystallized  grains  found  after  the 
historical  Buddha's  cremation;  to  his  ashes  and 
other  bodily  remains,  such  as  teeth,  hair,  finger 
bones  and  fingernails;  or  to  the  ashes,  bones,  and 
similar  physical  fragments  of  saints.  According  to 
ancient  tradition,  Sakyamuni's  body  was  incinerated 
after  he  had  attained  his  final  nirvana.  His  ashes  and 
physical  remains  were  divided  with  diplomatic  skill 
and  interred  in  eight  separate  tumulus-like  burial 
mounds,  or  stupas.  In  the  third  century  bce,  India's 
first  Buddhist  ruler,  Asoka  of  the  Mauryas, 
recovered  and  brought  these  relics  together  again, 
later  dispersing  them  throughout  his  far-flung 
kingdom  in  84,000  stupas  that  are  said  to  have  been 
erected  in  a  single  day. 

The  miraculous  division  and  widespread  veneration 
of  the  Buddha's  remains  established  a  powerful 
precedent.  The  process  of  dividing  the  sarTra  again 
and  again — not  only  those  of  Sakyamuni  himself, 
but  also  those  of  his  disciples  and  of  later  saints  and 
patriarchs  of  the  various  Buddhist  schools — created 
an  almost  inexhaustible  supply  of  minute  holy 
objects  for  the  entire  Buddhist  world.  The 
enormous  number  of  84,000  refers  to  the  number 
of  atoms  in  the  Buddha's  corpus  as  well  as  to  the 
corpus  of  his  sacred  words.  Thus,  by  erecting  these 
stupas,  the  pious  king  As'oka  intended  to  recreate 
Sakyamuni's  physical  body  symbolically  and  to 
reconstruct  his  myriad  teachings.  The  sarTra  of  the 
historical  Buddha  and  his  doctrines  were 
considered  equivalent  manifestations  of  the  same 
reality  and  sacred  presence.  The  possession  of 
"authentic"  relics  ensured  the  possessor  an  elevated 
place  in  the  ecclesiastical  hierarchy  as  well  as  in 
society.  At  the  same  time,  it  was  a  powerful 
instrument  of  monastic  and  imperial  legitimacy 
and,  by  stimulating  donations  from  the  faithful, 
guaranteed  economic  independence. 

In  recent  years  discoveries  of  Buddhist  reliquary 
deposits  have  been  reported  from  almost  every  part 
of  China,  from  Liaoning  in  the  northeast  to  Yunnan 
in  the  southwest.  Sacred  Buddhist  relic  assemblages 
were  mostly  found  within  or  on  the  site  of 
pagodas,  which  served  as  monumental  architectural 
reliquaries  and  usually  stood  at  a  distinguished  place 
on  the  temple  grounds.  Relics  might  be  enshrined 
not  only  in  a  sealed  crypt  but  in  other  parts  of  the 
structure  as  well — for  example,  at  the  base  of  the 
mast  atop  the  pagoda. The  finds  date  from  the  tune 
of  the  miti.il  impact  of  Buddhism  and  its  arts  on 
Chinese  culture  and  increase  concomitantly  with 
the  faith's  subsequent  powerful  spread  from  the 
fourth  century  through  the  Ming  dynastt 


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149 


(i368-i644)-The  most  spectacular  sarTra  discovery 
was  made  in  1987  at  the  Famen  Temple  ("Temple 
of  the  Gate  to  the  Law"),  in  Fufeng  county,  west  of 
Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province  (cats.  63-65). There  the 
Chinese  excavators  claim  to  have  found  (among 
much  else)  four  authentic  finger  bones  (fogu)  of 
Sakyamuni.The  sarira  were  well  preserved  and 
concealed  in  precious  reliquaries  in  the  Tang 
dynasty  underground  palace  (digong)  of  the  Famen 
Temple's  sixteenth-century  octagonal  brick  pagoda. 
The  collapse  of  the  pagoda  in  1981  made  possible 
the  investigation  of  its  crypt.  Thus  well-known 
literary  evidence  for  the  cult  of  relics,  such  as  Han 
Yu  s  (768—824)  forthright  memorial  to  the  Throne 
(819)  condemning  veneration  of  the  Buddha's 
bones,  was  substantiated  more  than  a  millennium 
later  by  archaeological  evidence. 

HanYu  had  serious  grounds  for  protest. 
Sakyamuni's  physical  remains  had  several  times  been 
carried  in  lavish  procession  between  Famen  Temple 
and  the  Tang  capital,  a  distance  of  more  than  100 
kilometers.  Like  many  conservative  literati  of  the 
day,  HanYu  was  appalled  by  the  religious  frenzy 
pervading  all  strata  of  society,  and  he  proposed 
drastic  measures  to  suppress  the  enormous 
influence  of  the  Buddhist  church.  When,  in  819,  the 
Famen  Temple  finger-bone  relics  were  received  by 
an  enthusiastic  crowd  in  Chang'an  and  temporarily 
placed  on  view  at  the  imperial  palace,  he  wrote  the 
Lunfogu  biao  ("Memorial  Discussing  the  Buddha's 
Bones")  and  presented  it  to  the  Throne.  HanYu 
criticized  His  Majesty  in  harsh  words:  "You  are  .  .  . 
putting  on  for  the  citizens  of  the  capital  this 
extraordinary  spectacle  which  is  nothing  more  than 
a  sort  of  theatrical  amusement.  .  .  .  Now  that  the 
Buddha  has  long  been  dead,  is  it  fitting  that  his 
decayed  and  rotten  bones,  his  ill-omened  and  filthy 
remains,  should  be  allowed  to  enter  in  the 
forbidden  precincts  of  the  palace?  .  .  .  Without 
reason  you  have  taken  up  unclean  things  and 
examined  them  in  person."'4 

DEITIES    OF   THE    BUDDHIST    PANTHEON 
AND   THEIR    ICONOGRAPHY 
Three  major  doctrinal  divisions,  emerging 
successively,  coexisted  within  the  Buddhist  faith. 
First  in  time  is  HTnayana,  the  "Small  Vehicle,"  a 
conservative  form  of  Buddhism  based  almost 
exclusively  on  the  Pah  canon  and  asserting  that 
enlightenment  comes  only  through  one's  own 
efforts. The  second  is  Mahayana,  the  "Great 
Vehicle,"  the  doctrinal  outlines  of  which  seem  to 
have  been  formulated  in  India  as  early  as  the  first 
century  bce,  advocating  salvation  for  everyone 
through  the  assistance  of  a  vast  pantheon  of 
compassionate  divinities. The  third  is  Esoteric 
Buddhism,  also  called  tantric  orVajrayana 
("Diamond  Vehicle")  Buddhism,  known  in  China 
as  mijiao,  "Secret  Teachings." This  form  of 


Buddhism,  depending  largely  on  "mysteries"  taught 
and  transmitted  by  Esoteric  masters,  developed 
from  the  fifth  century  ce  as  part  of  a  most  complex 
religio-philosophic  movement. 

Each  Buddhist  school — there  were  eight  major 
schools  by  the  Tang  period — emphasized  different 
aspects  of  faith  and  worship  and  thus  favored 
particular  figures  from  the  vast  pantheon.  Sacred 
texts  offered  clear-cut  descriptions  of  the  special 
qualities  and  appearance  of  the  Buddha  and  all  the 
other  figures  of  the  Buddhist  pantheon,  providing  a 
basic  assurance  of  iconographic  correctness  and 
conformity.'5 

In  artistic  representations  the  Buddha's  ideal  figure 
appears  very  austere  in  stature,  pose,  and  dress. 
Usually,  his  modest  monk's  robe  and  the  near 
absence  of  specific  attributes  and  individualizing 
features  convincingly  indicate  his  holy  status  of 
utmost  unworldliness  (cats.  147-49,  156,  162).  Such 
utter  simplicity  gives  his  human  figure  a  lofty 
majesty.  Several  unusual,  seemingly  aesthetic  or 
miraculous  features  were  assigned  to  the  Buddha. 
They  are  manifestations  of  the  Sacred,  and  basically 
statements  of  ontological  quality,  like  the  mudras, 
the  gestures  (literally,  "seal  marks";  C:  yin[xiangj) 
formed  with  the  hands  to  convey  such  actions  as 
preaching,  meditating,  wish  granting,  protecting,  or 
releasing  from  fear. The  Buddha's  thirty-two  major 
distinguishing  physical  marks  are  called  lakshana 
(C:  xiang).  One  of  the  most  important  is  the 
protuberance  on  top  of  his  head  symbolizing  the 
absolute  perfect  wisdom  of  the  Enlightened  One.  It 
is  usuaUy  referred  to  by  the  Sanskrit  term  ushntsha 
(C:  rouji  or  dingxiang);  ancient  Buddhist  scriptures 
sometimes  explain  it  as  a  "mark  of  the  crown  that 
is  invisible"  to  ordinary  people  and  list  it  as  the 
sixty-sixth  among  the  eighty  minor  distinctive 
marks  of  the  Buddha.  Another  sign  of  supreme 
enlightenment  is  the  lima  on  his  forehead; 
originally  a  white  curl  (C:  baihao)  between  the 
Buddha's  eyebrows,  it  was  later  simplified  to  a  light- 
emanating  spot  that  illuminated  the  world.  Most  of 
the  exceptional  marks  and  supernatural  qualities 
were  either  derived  from  legends  associated  with 
the  Buddha's  life  and  virtues  or  devised  as  symbols 
of  ultimate  truth  beyond  human  imagination,  of 
unworldly  beauty,  holy  distinction,  and  the  sublime 
power  of  omnipresence. 

In  accordance  with  their  salvific  mandate, 
bodhisattvas  appear  less  austere  and  inward  than 
figures  of  the  Buddha  in  sculpture  and  painting. 
Bodhisattvas  are  compassionate  figures  "whose 
essence  is  enlightenment."  Renouncing  their  own 
salvation  and  immediate  entrance  into  nirvana,  they 
devote  all  their  power  and  energy  to  saving 
suffering  beings  in  this  world.  As  intercessionary 
figures,  majestic  in  power  and  sublime  in 


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150 


compassion,  bodhisattvas  are  usually  represented  in 
graceful  postures,  dressed  in  elegant  garments  with 
sophisticated  drapery.  They  are  adorned  with 
crowns  and  precious  jewelry,  and  often  they  are 
equipped  with  specific  emblems  and  attributes 
(cats.  163,  165,  166,  172-76).  Some  bodhisattvas  are 
depicted  riding  on  a  powerful  animal  (an  elephant 
or  lion,  for  example),  indicating  the  irresistible 
nature  of  the  Buddhist  Law.  Others  appear  with 
multiple  heads  or  arms  to  signify  their  limitless 
compassion  and  their  suprahuman  potential  as 
beneficent  intercessors  (cat.  164).  Perhaps  the  single 
most  popular  focus  of  Buddhist  art  and  devotion  is 
Avalokitesvara  (C:  Guan[shi]yin  or  Guanyin;  "One 
Who  Perceives  [with  compassion]  the  Sounds  [of 
the  suffering  world]").  Religious  imagination  has 
endowed  this  widely  adored  bodhisattva  with  the 
greatest  variety  of  attributes  and  manifestations.  No 
less  than  thirty-three  forms  became  canonized  in 
the  Lotus  Sutm.They  are  indications  oi  his 
compassionate  omnipotence  to  save  sentient  beings 
in  different  states  of  existence.  As  a  benign 
emanation  and  agent  of  Amitabha,  the  Buddha  of 
the  Western  Paradise  (cat.  160),  he  has  a  small  image 
of  this  Buddha  in  his  crown.  This  image  alone 
suffices  to  identify  him  as  Guanyin  (cat.  176). 

Like  the  bodhisattvas,  the  vidyarajas  ("Bright  Kings 
[of  Esoteric  Wisdom]";  C:  mingwang)  are  easily 
recognized.  The  vidyarajas,  however,  are  wrathful 
deities,  terrifying  in  appearance  and  often  depicted 
in  belligerent  poses,  with  abnormal  multiplication 
of  limbs  and  heads,  ferocious  facial  expressions, 
threatening  weapons  in  their  hands,  and  flame- 
edged  halos  (cat.  170).  But  their  anger  is  beneficent. 
They  embody  the  militant  energy  and  retaliatory 
power  of  the  Tathagatas  when  confronted  with  such 
evils  as  heresy,  ignorance,  illusion,  passion,  and  other 
spiritual  obstacles.  Tathagatas  are  a  class  of  fully 
enlightened  Buddhas.The  Chinese  epithet,  rulai, 
means  something  like  "he  who  has  thus  come,"  that 
is,  like  other  Buddhas  before  him.  Although  the 
Five  Bright  Kings,  their  names,  and  their  function 
are  of  Indian  origin,  they  were  probably  conceived 
as  a  distinct  group  of  five  in  Chinese  Esoteric 
Buddhism  during  the  seventh  to  eighth  centuries. 
The  Five  Bright  Kings,  or  protectors  of  faith, 
correspond  to  the  Five  Tathagatas,  just  as  the  five 
cosmic  elements,  the  five  cardinal  points,  the  five 
transcendental  wisdoms,  the  five  senses,  the  five 
colors,  the  five  vitality  centers,  and  the  five  viscera 
of  the  human  body  do.  These  Tathagatas  of  the  Five 
Wisdoms  (wuzhi  rulai)  were  thought  of  as  spiritual 
principles  constituting  the  body  of  the  universe; 
and  the  relationship  among  them  was  clarified  by 
the  use  of  schematic  diagrams,  known  as  mandalas. 
Such  formal  geometric  diagrams,  depicting 
Buddhist  deities  in  a  highly  abstract  theological 
schema,  originated  in  India.  In  China  mandalas  of 
painted  or  sculptural  images  were  employed  in 


liturgies  and  special  rituals,  such  as  ordination  and 
baptism,  and  also  as  aids  to  private  exercises  such  as 
the  visualization  of  deities. 

The  cosmic  All-Buddha  Mahavairocana  ("Great 
Radiance  of  Illumination";  C:  Dari)  was  established 
as  the  highest  of  these  principles,  penetrating  with 
his  light  the  darkness  of  ignorance.  Each  Tathagata 
had  a  particular  bodhisattva  and  vidyaraja  as  his  pair 
of  agents,  representing  his  benign  (sauta)  and 
wrathful  (krodha)  aspects.  Practitioners  of  the  mijiao, 
or  "Secret  Teachings,"  believed  that  each  person's 
body,  mind,  and  speech  were  inherently  divine  and 
that  his  or  her  deeds,  thoughts,  and  words  were 
actually  those  of  Mahavairocana.  Through  such 
ritual  practices  as  incantations,  recitation  of  magic 
spells,  mystical  hand  gestures,  and  trances  the  deities 
could  be  constrained  to  fulfill  material  goals — cure 
illness,  defeat  one's  enemies,  protect  the  state  and 
government — and  spiritual  goals — hasten  one's 
enlightenment  or  progress  to  a  higher  state  of 
consciousness.  Correct  performance  of  such  rituals 
was  beheved  to  offer  access  to  the  power  of  the 
expansive  Buddhist  pantheon.  That  pantheon  was 
systematically  defined  and  organized  into  a  highly 
intricate  and  complex  schema,  more  elaborate  than 
any  previously  known  in  the  Buddhist  world. 
Picturing  that  pantheon  presented  a  new  challenge 
to  the  imagination  and  skill  of  Chinese  artists  of 
the  Tang  dynasty. 

A  large  class  of  lesser  deities,  or  devas  (C:  tiari),  rank 
just  below  vidyarajas  in  the  order  of  sanctity  (cats. 
167,  169).  Among  them  are  the  belligerent 
dvarapalas,  who  evolved  out  of  Indian  demonic 
creatures  (yakshas)  and  Chinese  warrior  heroes  and 
who  protected  the  entrance  of  a  sanctuary.  In 
China  they  became  known  as  envang  ("Two 
Kings"),  a  pair  of  guardian  deities.  Four  lokapalas,  or 
"Divine  Kings"  (C:  tianwang)  were  responsible  for 
protecting  the  Buddha  and  his  Law,  the  sanctuary, 
and  the  Buddhist  congregation  from  dangers  and 
threats  of  evil  forces  arising  from  the  four  cardinal 
directions  of  the  compass.  Their  images  became 
standard  furnishing  on  a  Buddhist  altar  platform 
and  at  the  four  corners  of  a  stupa  or  a  mandala. 

Symbolically,  figures  on  the  human  level  of 
existence,  such  as  arhats  (C:  luohan;  supran.itur.il 
persons  who,  having  attained  enlightenment,  will 
enter  into  nirvana  after  death)  and  the  Buddha's 
major  disciples,  were  more  important  as  .1  group 
than  as  individuals.  Arhats  received  .1  much  simpler 
iconographical  treatment  than  bodhisattvas. 
vidyarajas,  and  other  suprahuman  beings:  on  the 
other  hand,  they  were  represented  with  greater 
artistic  and  doctrinal  freedom.  The  legendary. 
wonder-working  arhats  were  often  depicted  .is  .1 
group — groups  of  eight,  sixteen,  or  five  hundred 
being  the  most  tr.ulition.il.  Arhats  are  frequently 


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151 


accompanied  by  animals  and  other  companions 
(cat.  177).  Originally  worshiped  as  saints  of  the 
Hmayana  pantheon,  in  China  by  the  fifth  century 
the  sixteen  arhats  would  become  guardians  of 
Mahayana  Buddhism.  Their  names  and  abodes 
appear  in  a  scripture  translated  into  Chinese  in  654 
by  the  famous  pilgrim-monk  Xuanzang  (600-664). 
According  to  this  text,  the  Buddha  advised  the 
arhats  to  remain  in  this  world  to  await  the  advent 
of  the  redeeming  Buddha,  Maitreya. 

COMMISSIONING    AND    INSCRIBING 
BUDDHIST    IMAGES 

Despite  the  great  variety  of  savior  figures,  the  scope 
of  artistic  creativity  and  innovation  in  Buddhist 
imagery  was  limited  on  the  whole  by  iconographic 
and  iconometric  constraints.  Needless  to  say,  statues 
were  appreciated  not  primarily  as  art  objects  but  as 
sacred  icons.  Nevertheless,  such  variables  as  the 
nature  and  intensity  of  piety  in  various  parts  of  the 
vast  country;  locally  available  materials;  patrons' 
preferences;  the  function,  purpose,  placement,  and 
installation  of  a  given  icon;  as  well  as  adaptations  of 
Indian  and  Central  Asian  aesthetics  and  stylistic 
traits  to  traditional  Chinese  taste  and  modes  of 
representation  brought  about  a  surprising  variety  in 
Buddhist  sculpture. 

If  we  are  able — despite  the  canonical  uniformity — 
to  perceive  connections  and  variations  in  the 
process  by  which  Buddhist  art  was  slowly 
assimilated  in  China  and  in  the  complicated 
development  of  style  and  iconography,  it  is  largely 
owing  to  the  Chinese  urge  for  accurate 
documentation.  Dates,  names,  and  facts  were 
inscribed  on  Buddhist  sculptures  with  such 
thoroughness  that,  with  the  aid  of  more  or  less 
accidentally  surviving  material,  we  can  reconstruct 
almost  uninterrupted  chronological  sequences  of 
dated  works.  This,  at  any  rate,  is  generally  the  case 
in  northern  China,  where  the  new  religion  and  its 
arts  were  strongly  supported  by  the  Tuoba,  the 
foreign  rulers  of  the  Wei  dynasties  (386-557).  In 
southern  China  many  of  the  ancient  Buddhist 
monuments  have  not  survived.  Besides  the  date  of 
completion  or  consecration  of  an  icon  and  the 
names  of  its  donors  and  beneficiaries,  inscriptions 
often  indicate  the  dual  motivation  for 
commissioning  a  Buddhist  statue.  The  devotee 
intended  to  provide  a  main  object  of  worship  and 
at  the  same  time  to  incur  the  manifold  blessings 
promised  by  the  sacred  texts  to  those  who,  solely  or 
jointly,  sponsored  the  making  of  an  icon.  In 
compliance  with  the  doctrine  of  karma,  the  pious 
donor  could  even  transfer  or  extend  merits  and 
virtues  to  others — to  the  imperial  house,  to 
ancestors,  to  living  members  of  the  family,  to  "all 
sentient  beings." 

"The  Scripture  on  the  Production  of  Buddha 


Images"  (Z110  fo  xingxiang  jing)  elaborates  in  great 
detail  on  the  marvelous  rewards  that  may  be 
expected  in  a  future  life  by  those  who  make  and 
commission  sacred  icons.  This  short  text  is  among 
the  most  popular  and  earliest  Buddhist  scriptures  to 
be  translated  into  Chinese,  perhaps  in  the  first  half 
of  the  third  century.  Virtually  nothing  is  known  of 
its  provenance  or  translators.  The  scripture  does  not 
give  any  ritual,  artistic,  or  technical  instructions  on 
the  actual  making  of  Buddhist  icons.  But  it  provides 
the  background  for  the  production  of  the  first 
"authentic"  Buddha  image,  the  earliest  known 
reference  to  the  mysterious  Udayana  statue: 

The  king  addressed  the  Buddha  further  saying: 
"When  people  perform  virtuous  acts  they  gain 
good  fortune,  but  where  does  this  lead  them?  I 
dread  no  longer  being  able  to  look  upon  the 
Buddha  after  the  Buddha  is  gone.  I  want  to 
produce  an  image  of  the  Buddha  to  venerate 
and  bequeath  to  later  generations.  What  sorts  of 
good  fortune  will  I  obtain  thereby?  I  ask  the 
Buddha  to  take  compassion  upon  me  and 
explain  this  matter,  as  I  earnestly  desire  to 
understand."'" 

What  follows  is  a  list  of  salvific  aspects  of  rebirths 
to  be  gained  through  the  production  of  sacred 
icons.  One  of  these  promulgations  reads: 

One  who  produces  an  image  ot  the  Buddha 
will,  in  a  later  life,  always  honour  the  Buddha 
and  revere  his  scriptures.  He  will  continually 
make  offerings  to  the  relics  of  the  Buddha  of 
variegated  silk,  fine  flowers,  exquisite  incense, 
lamps,  and  all  the  precious  jewels  and  rare 
objects  of  the  world.  Afterward  for  innumerable 
aeons  he  will  practice  the  path  to  nirvana. 
Those  who  aspire  to  present  precious  jewels  to 
the  Buddha  are  not  common  men;  they  have  all 
practiced  the  Buddhist  path  in  previous  lives. 
Such  is  the  fortune  obtained  by  one  who 
produces  an  image  of  the  Buddha.'7 

On  the  pedestal  of  a  gilded  bronze  altar  of  the  Sui 
dynasty  (581—618),  representing  the  Buddha 
Amitabha  and  his  retinue,  we  find  a  long  engraved 
inscription  (cat.  160).  This  masterwork  of  bronze 
casting,  made  up  of  twenty-three  components,  once 
served  a  pious  person  and  his  family  members  for 
their  private  worship.  It  was  discovered  in  1974  near 
the  village  of  Bali  on  the  outskirts  of  Xi'an,  in 
Shaanxi  Province.  The  beginning  of  the  inscription 
is  almost  formulaic:  "On  the  fifteenth  day  of  the 
seventh  month  in  the  fourth  year  of  the  Kaihuang 
[era,  i.e.,  584]  the  general  of  Ningyuan  and  deputy 
district  magistrate  ofWujiang  [in  present-day  Hebei 
Province,  by  the  name  of]  Dong  Qin  had  this 
Amitabha  image  made,  so  that  His  Majesty  the 
emperor  and  his  inner  circle  above  and  father  and 


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152 


mother,  brothers  and  sisters,  wife  and  children 
below  all  may  perceive  the  correct  Law  [of  the 
Buddha] ."There  follows  a  panegyric  in  four  verses 
on  the  prospects  of  salvation,  the  true  marks  ot  the 
Buddha's  body  becoming  manifest,  cause  and  effect, 
illusion  and  rebirth,  and  finally  on  salvation  in 
Amitabha's  paradise.  A  red  sandstone  stele  more 
than  sixty  years  older  than  the  Sui  altar  was 
unearthed  in  1954  at  the  ancient  site  of  theWanfo 
Temple  ("Thousand  Buddha  Temple"),  at  Chengdu 
in  Sichuan  Province  (cat.  150). Tradition  holds  that 
the  Wanfo  Temple  was  established  shortly  after  the 
middle  of  the  second  century;  under  the  Liang 
dynasty  (502—557)  it  was  known  as  Anpu  Temple 
("Temple  of  the  Peaceful  Riverbank"),  and  under 
the  Tang  (618-907)  as  Jingzhong  Temple  ("Temple 
of  the  Cleansed  Multitude").  The  first  Buddhist 
sculptures  were  discovered  at  this  site  in  1882. 
Subsequent  investigations  in  1937,  1945,  and 
1953-54  brought  to  light  a  total  of  about  two 
hundred  figures  and  fragments  (cats.  151,  163,  168, 
176).  The  elaborate  configuration  of  this  stele 
depicts  the  standing  Buddha  Sakyamuni  surrounded 
by  pairs  of  bodhisattvas,  deities,  and  disciples.  A 
scenic  composition  in  shallow  relief  on  the  rear  of 
the  stele  shows  Sakyamuni  worshiped  by 
ceremonially  aligned  men  and  women  in  a 
landscape  setting  as  he  sits  in  meditation  under  a 
tree.  The  inscription  below  may  be  translated: 

On  the  eighth  day  of  the  third  month  in  the 
fourth  year  of  the  Putong  [era]  of  the  Liang 
[dynasty,  i.e.,  523]  the  [Buddha]  disciple  Kang 
Sheng,  upon  his  awakening,  reverently  had  one 
stone  image  of  Sakyamuni  made.  We  pray  that 
his  present  relatives  may  always  be  at  peace  and 
quiet,  and  that  by  giving  up  the  world  [entering 
priesthood]  his  body  will  be  blessed  with 
receiving  a  state  in  which  he  forever  will  see  the 
Buddha  and  hear  his  Law.  May  his  fathers  and 
mothers  for  the  past  seven  generations,  together 
with  all  sentient  beings,  share  one  and  all  in  this 
prayer.  May  they  quickly  attain  Buddhahood 
and  altogether  magnificent  salvation. 

ON    THE    PRODUCTION    AND    ICONOMETR.Y 
OF    BUDDHIST    IMAGES 
A  few  Buddhist  image  makers  may  have  been 
ecclesiastics  or  artists  loosely  associated  with  a 
religious  institution;  most  were  probably 
professional  lay  craftsmen  who  may  have  been 
organized  in  workshops  through  which  they 
handed  down  their  technical  skills  and  experience 
to  following  generations.  Ancient  Chinese  prejudice 
condemned  even  the  most  talented  masters  in  the 
laborious  art  of  sculpture  to  social  inferiority  and 
anonymity.  Not  until  the  end  of  the  Tang  dynasty  is 
any  individual  sculptor  known  to  have  left  his 
signature  on  an  extant  work.  A  few  sculptors  are 
known  by  name  solely  through  literary  sources. 


Chinese  sculptors  rarely  had  the  opportunity  to  see 
Western  Buddhist  monuments  with  their  own  eyes. 
Only  now  and  then  could  they  draw  inspiration 
from  major  Western  prototypes  that  had  been 
imported  or  officially  presented  to  the  court  or  to  a 
renowned  temple  in  China.  Instead,  sculptors  had  to 
rely  largely  on  oral  descriptions  by  missionaries  and 
returning  pilgrims,  perhaps  on  their  sketches  and 
drawings  made  en  route,  on  manuals  handed  down, 
and  on  images  made  for  private  worship — small  and 
therefore  easily  portable. 

Canonical  scriptures — some  of  Indian  origin,  some 
apocryphal — contain  detailed  accounts  of  the 
imagining,  in  the  true  meaning  of  the  word,  of 
Buddhist  deities.  These  compilations  of  ritual 
prescriptions  read  like  iconographic  handbooks. 
They  provide  accurate  descriptions  of  the  figures 
with  all  their  features  and  attributes.  Although  no 
early  Chinese  manuals  on  designing  and  making 
Buddhist  images  have  survived,  there  must  have 
been  guides — plus  strong  oral  traditions — with 
rules,  instructions,  perhaps  even  illustrations.  The 
famous  Pmtiinamana  laksliana  was  translated  from  a 
Tibetan  version  as  late  as  1742  by  the  Manchu 
prince  Gongbu  Chabu  and  published  under  the 
title  Zaoxiang  liangdu  jing  ("Classic  of  Measurements 
for  Making  [Buddhist]  Images").18  As  with  the 
canon  of  classical  Greek  sculpture,  Buddhist 
imagery  followed  elaborate  rules:  proportions  and 
measurements  of  a  figure  were  of  fundamental 
significance  and  may  be  traced  back  to  the  old 
Indian  iconometric  system  called  talomana.'9  The 
Buddhist  "doctrine  of  measuring  icons"  (S: 
pratimamana)  is  based  on  various  modules.  For 
example,  the  smallest  unit  is  the  width  of  a  finger 
(S:  angula;  C:  zhiliang).  Next  comes  the  span  of  a 
hand  (S:  tala  or  vitasti;  C:  shouliang):  this  maximum 
distance  between  tips  of  thumb  and  middle  finger 
corresponds  to  the  length  of  the  face  from  hairline 
to  the  tip  of  the  chin.  The  length  of  the  forearm 
from  elbow  to  the  tip  of  the  thumb  (C:  zhouliang) 
constitutes  another  unit.  Standard  measurements  of 
this  sort  provide  the  fabric  and  grid  for  the  canon 
of  proportions.  Although  derived  from  parts  of  the 
human  body,  the  proportions  were  not  used  to 
represent  observed  reality  or  to  depict  the  natural 
beauty  and  harmony  of  the  human  figure.  Rather, 
this  system  of  proportions  embodies  spiritual  and 
metaphysical  laws  of  the  Sacred,  symbolic  norms  of 
abstract  character:  it  prescribes  different 
mathematical  relationships  for  the  various  categories 
of  figures,  according  to  their  level  ot  existence  in 
the  Buddhist  pantheon.  Multiples  of  the  modules 
determine  the  size  of  a  standing  or  .1  seated  figure 
as  well  as  the  height  and  proportions  ol  .1  Buddha, 
bodhisattva.  deity,  guardian,  or  an  ordinary  human 
being.  In  sculpture,  configurations  are  dominated  by 
this  principle  of  hieratic  scaling.  Individual  figures 
are  also  distinguished  h\  then  volume  and 


TRANSFIGURING    DIVINITIES:    BUDDHIST    SCULPTURE    IN    CHINA 


153 


placement.  In  relief  representations,  for  example 
(cats.  150,  161),  they  range  from  the  central  figure  of 
the  Buddha,  on  his  supreme  level  of  transcendence, 
who  stands  out  against  the  background  and  is 
carved  almost  completely  in  the  round,  to  the 
worldly  donors,  who  occupy  subordinate  positions 
at  the  bottom  and  the  edges  and  are  rendered  in 
low  relief  or  simple  line  engraving. 


ancient  times  this  technique  was  mainly  reserved 
for  dedicatory  inscriptions.  Portable  miniature  altars 
and  small  icons  for  private  worship  stood  more 
chance  of  preservation  than  did  the  monumental 
temple  bronze  statuary,  almost  all  of  which  was 
destroyed  in  the  course  of  infrequent  but  ferocious 
persecutions  of  Buddhism  or  in  other  disasters,  such 
as  revolts,  wars,  earthquakes,  fires,  or  floods. 


Artists  in  the  service  of  Buddhism  sought  to 
represent  their  religious  figures  with  stylized  beauty 
and  sumptuous  splendor,  using  a  complex  system  of 
idealization  beyond  human  forms.  It  was  their  aim 
to  visualize  the  sacred  essence  of  the  faith  through 
majestic  manifestation  of  the  deities,  through  their 
serene  nobility,  and  through  their  lavish 
adornment — an  aesthetic  quality  called  alamkara  in 
Sanskrit  (C:  zhuangyan) .The  fine  linear  engraving 
on  a  horizontal  panel  depicting  the  Buddha 
surrounded  by  bodhisatrvas  and  disciples  suggests  a 
convincing  vision  of  the  reward  awaiting  pious 
believers  in  paradise  (cat.  152).  Highlighted  by  a 
large  mandorla  and  seated  beneath  a  precious 
canopy,  the  central  figure  can  probably  be  identified 
as  "Sakyamuni  Preaching  the  Law."  Subsidiary 
figures,  "varied  in  pose  and  expression,  are 
hierarchically  grouped  in  front  of  luxuriant  trees. 
This  hierarchical  symmetry  and  concern  with  three- 
dimensional  form  extends  to  the  entire 
composition,  inviting  comparison  with  wall 
paintings  of  Buddhist  paradise  scenes  in  cave- 
temples.  The  fluent  draftsmanship  creates 
an  exquisite  pictorial  effect  that  must  have  been 
considerably  heightened  by  the  now-vanished 
polychromy.  On  both  sides  the  figures  are  flanked 
by  a  long  dedicatory  inscription  dated  in 
accordance  with  524,  making  this  Northern  Wei 
panel  from  Jingming  Temple  in  Luoyang  one  of  the 
most  valuable  early  monuments  in  China's  history 
of  religious  figure  painting.  To  suggest  these 
visionary  conceptions  of  paradises  and  the 
suprahuman  character  ot  their  sacred  figures,  artists 
rendered  their  icons  ageless,  passionless,  and 
flawless,  wearing  an  introspective,  compassionate 
expression  (cats.  163,  164,  166,  174,  176).  Only 
figures  of  lesser  sanctity  were  represented  with  a 
degree  of  pictorial  realism. 

The  materials  Chinese  artists  used  for  Buddhist 
images  varied  greatly  over  region  and  time.  Besides 
bronze,  clay,  and  lacquer,  various  kinds  of  stone  and 
wood  were  very  popular.  We  find  sculptures  made 
of  sandstone,  limestone,  schist,  and  marble  as  well  as 
statues  carved  in  sandalwood,  camphor,  and  pine. 
As  a  rule,  they  received  a  polychrome  finish  over 
preparatory  coatings  (cats.  161,  170-73). The 
technique  for  casting  bronze  icons  employed 
traditional  molds  as  well  as  the  lost-wax  method 
(cats.  160,  169).  Overall  fire  gilding  was  favored. 
Additional  engraving  may  be  seen  occasionally;  in 


CATEGORIES    OF    CHINESE    BUDDHIST 
SCULPTURE 

The  spread  of  Buddhism  and  its  art  can  to  some 
extent  be  traced  through  the  chronological 
sequence  of  the  establishment  of  cave-temples.  The 
architecture  of  the  earliest  Chinese  cave-temples 
follows  Central  Asian  models  and  clearly  reveals  its 
Indian  origins.  Textual  evidence  suggests  that  the 
first  was  built  in  366  at  Dunhuang  in  the  extreme 
northwest,  a  junction  of  the  great  trade  routes  and  a 
gateway  to  Western  influence.  Soon  afterward, 
extensive  work  was  carried  out  in  the  southeast  and 
east.  The  construction  of  the  Bingling  cave-temple 
at  Mount  Xiaojishi  in  northwestern  Yongjing 
county,  Gansu  Province,  seems  to  have  begun  early 
in  the  fifth  century;  in  1963  a  votive  inscription  in 
ink  bearing  a  Western  Qin  date  corresponding  to 
420  was  discovered  in  Cave  169. The  cave-temple  at 
Maijishan,  east  ot  the  ancient  Buddhist  center  of 
Liangzhou  in  Tianshui  county,  Gansu  Province,  may 
have  been  founded  at  about  the  same  time.  In  his 
biographical  account  Gaoseng  zhuan  ("Lives  of 
Eminent  Monks"),  Huijiao  (497—554)  records  that 
the  monkTanhong  from  Chang' an,  who  was  living 
as  a  hermit  at  Maijishan  in  the  early  420s,  was 
joined  there  by  another  monk,  Xuangao.20  At  that 
time,  a  congregation  of  more  than  a  hundred 
monks  is  said  to  have  resided  at  Maijishan. 

The  first  series  of  cave-chapels  atYungang,  near 
Datong  in  Shanxi  Province,  was  begun  at  the 
instigation  of  the  monk  Tanyao  in  460  under  the 
patronage  of  the  Northern  Wei  sovereigns.  Far  into 
the  sixth  century  caves  with  sculptural  ensembles 
continued  to  be  carved  into  the  rock.  In  493  the 
Tuoba  ruler  Xiaowen  (r.  471—499)  abandoned  the 
flourishing  and  populous  center  of  Datong  and 
transferred  the  Wei  court  to  Luoyang  in  Henan 
Province.  This  move  into  the  heartland  of  Chinese 
civilization  was  a  significant  historical  event  and  a 
profoundly  political  statement.  Soon  afterward,  the 
laborious  chiseling  of  cave-temples  with  extensive 
sculptural  programs  began  afresh  on  a  long  cliff  of 
dark  gray  limestone  at  Longmen,  seven  miles  south 
of  the  new  capital.  At  Gongxian,  approximately 
forty  miles  downstream  from  Longmen,  caves  with 
superb  sculptures  were  carved  in  a  colossal  cliffside 
overlooking  the  Luo  River.  A  votive  inscription 
dated  in  accordance  with  531  has  been  discovered 
under  niche  227  outside  Cave  5. 


TRANSFIGURING    DIVINITIES:    BUDDHIST    SCULPTURE    IN    CHINA 


The  commission  of  the  imperial  caves  at 
Xiangtangshan  was  also  connected  with  the  founding 
of  an  ancient  capital:  Ye,  capital  of  Northern  Qi 
(550—577),  in  southwestern  Hebei  Province.  Literary 
evidence  and  inscriptions  on  steles  permit  us  to 
assume  that  the  emperor  Wenxuan  (r.  550-559) 
initiated  this  project.  In  Buddhist  texts  he  is 
described  as  a  "devoted  and  generous  follower  of 
the  Church." The  work  on  the  large  complex  of 
Buddhist  caves  on  the  southwestern  slope  of 
Tianlongshan,  southwest  of  present-day  Taiyuan  in 
Shanxi  Province,  is  likely  to  have  begun  around  535 
and  seems  to  have  continued  until  the  middle  of 
the  eighth  century,  after  more  than  a  hundred  years 
of  suspended  activity,  under  the  patronage  of 
influential  people  closely  connected  with  the  ruling 
Tang  dynasty. 

In  addition  to  Buddhist  images  in  cave-temples, 
images  of  stone,  clay,  bronze,  and  other  materials 
were  worshiped  in  wood-constructed  buildings, 
temple  courtyards,  domestic  shrines,  and  private 
homes.  Although  we  have  a  general  view  of  the 
development  of  Buddhist  sculpture  in  China,  it  will 
require  further  investigation  to  more  precisely 
identify  regional  schools  and  individual  workshops 
and  to  determine  their  characteristics,  patrons,  and 
periods  of  flourishing.  More  research  is  also  needed 
to  discover  when  the  first  freestanding  stone 
Buddhist  images  were  created  and  where  this 
process  began.  The  oldest  freestanding  stone  statues 
in  the  round  are  not  likely  to  predate  the  first  half 
of  the  sixth  century.  The  use  of  micaceous  white 
marble  known  as  Han  baiyushi  ("white  jade[-like] 
stone  of  Han")  may  have  played  an  important  role; 
it  was  an  almost  ideal  material  for  the  sculptors 
working  in  the  Dingzhou  and  Baoding  areas  in 
Hebei  Province.  Besides  smaller  sculptures  and 
steles,  monumental  statues  in  the  round  have  been 
found  in  this  area  that  exhibit  a  delicate 
smoothness.  The  flat  drapery  folds  cling  to  the  body 
and  flow  in  subtle,  graceful  lines,  contrasting  with 
the  rounded  forms  of  the  head.  A  large  number  of 
marble  sculptures,  several  inscribed  and  dated  to  the 
520s,  were  excavated  from  the  ruins  of  the  ancient 
Xiude  Temple  near  Quyang  in  Hebei. 

Most  important  for  the  study  of  Buddhist  sculpture 
is  the  comparatively  large  corpus  of  votive  steles 
(huanyuan  fobei)  richly  decorated  with  engravings 
and  reliefs  of  various  depths  and  heights.  They  were 
usually  installed  in  temple  compounds,  in 
monasteries  and  nunneries  or  their  courtyards,  and 
also  in  cave-chapels.  Their  prototypes  may  be  seen 
in  the  memorial  and  other  inscribed  steles 
customary  in  China  since  Han  times.  Four-sided 
pier-steles  resting  on  a  pedestal  usually  have  a 
simulated  roof  that  serves  as  a  top  member  and  are 
adorned  in  several  registers  with  Buddhist  images, 
often  set  in  niches  on  each  of  the  four  sides. 


Another  major  type  is  a  rectangular  monolith  set  up 
vertically  on  a  low  base.  On  the  front  of  the  stele  is 
a  triad  or  a  larger  configuration  centered  on  a 
seated  Buddha  and  placed  in  a  recess  with  imitated 
architectural  elements,  draped  curtains,  and  canopy 
at  the  front  (cats.  154,  155,  157,  158,  161). This 
arrangement  is  strongly  reminiscent  of  the  walls  of 
cave-chapels.  The  reverse  side  of  such  steles  may 
also  be  sculptured  in  relief,  with  groups  of  figures 
from  the  Buddhist  pantheon,  narrative  scenes  of 
sacred  events  and  locations,  or  assemblages  of 
donors.  Often  the  rear  is  reserved  for  inscriptions, 
including  long  lists  of  donors'  names.  In  some  cases, 
pairs  of  intertwined  dragons  crown  the  work 
(cat.  157).  Steles  with  images  in  relief  on  the  front 
only,  leaving  the  rear  unworked,  were  originally 
most  likely  set  into  the  walls  of  a  temple  structure. 
In  1975  seventeen  marble  steles  of  this  sort  were 
unearthed  near  the  village  of  Caotan,  at  Xi'an,  in 
Shaanxi  Province  (cat.  159). They  were  discovered 
standing  in  pairs,  face  to  face,  which  accounts  for 
their  excellent  state  of  preservation.  Further 
archaeological  evidence  suggests  that  they  were 
carefully  buried  at  the  site  of  an  ancient  Buddhist 
temple  for  safety  reasons — probably  to  protect  them 
from  the  iconoclasts  of  one  of  the  devastating 
Buddhist  persecutions  in  old  Chang'an.  Steles  with 
a  multitude  of  miniature  Buddha  niches 
surrounding  the  central  image  are  customarily 
referred  to  as  "Thousand  Buddha"  steles. 

One  of  the  earliest  and  most  enduringly  popular 
types  of  votive  stele  represents  a  seated  or  standing 
Buddha  haloed  by  a  leaf-shaped  mandorla,  or 
aureole  (cats.  147-49). The  Buddha  thus  represented 
is  often  Sakyamuni,  the  historical  Buddha,  or  the 
redeeming  Buddha  of  the  Future,  Maitreya, 
identified  as  a  rule  by  his  cross-ankled  pose.  The 
Buddha  is  presented  in  solemn  frontality  and  high 
relief,  almost  in  the  round — a  stately  figure,  imbued 
with  majestic  grandeur.  A  blissfully  withdrawn  smile 
on  his  face  radiates  tranquility  and  salvific  certitude. 
The  symbolic  gestures  of  the  hands,  or  mudras, 
effectively  convey  powerful  instructive  messages  to 
the  devout  beholder.  On  the  front  of  the  aureole, 
dense  patterns  and  ornaments  are  often  interspersed 
with  miniature  Buddha  figures  called 
"Transformation  Buddhas"  (huqfo).  Occasionally,  the 
pointed  mandorla  curves  gently  forward  at  the  top. 
This,  along  with  other  features  such  as  the  engraved 
wreath  of  flames,  may  have  been  inspired  by  gilded 
bronze  images.  On  the  reverse,  carved  in  low  relief 
or  incised,  we  find  groups  of  minor  deities  and 
donors,  along  with  narrative  scenes  of  the  Buddha's 
life  and  depictions  of  holy  or  miraculous  deeds, 
events,  and  encounters.  Most  of  these  features  may 
be  seen  on  a  stele  reportedly  unearthed  in 
Xingping  county,  Shaanxi  Province  (cat,  147). The 
inscription  on  the  rear  of  its  pedestal  is  parti] 
damaged,  but  the  date  can  be  safely  read:  it 


TRANSFIGURING    DIVINITIES:    BUDDHIST    SCULPTURE    IN    CHINA 


155 


corresponds  to  the  year  471.  The  soft  modeling  and 
conspicuous  parallel  folds  of  the  drapery  suggest 
that  the  sculptor  intended  to  transfer  the  qualities  of 
a  molded  clay  prototype  into  stone  carving,  which 
may  reflect  stylistic  influences  from  Taxila  in 
Gandhara  (in  present-day  Pakistan)  or  Bamiyan  in 
Afghanistan. 

A  great  variety  of  freestanding  Buddhist  sculptures 
have  been  preserved  from  the  Tang  dynasty 
(618-907).  One  of  the  finest  works  is  the  white 
marble  torso  of  a  standing  bodhisattva  that  was 
excavated  in  the  old  precincts  of  Daminggong,  the 
Tang  imperial  "Palace  of  Great  Brightness,"  in  Xi'an 
(cat.  165).  Only  traces  of  gold  and  colors  remain  on 
the  polished  stone  surface.  The  attractively  rounded, 
swelling  forms  of  the  body  and  the  pliant  pose 
imbue  this  statue  with  the  sensuous  and  tactile 
beauty  that  so  emphatically  marks  Tang  sculpture  at 
its  zenith,  about  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century. 
The  triple-bend  posture,  or  tribhahga,  suggesting  a 
gentle  sway  at  the  hips,  demonstrates  the  sculptor's 
interest  in  organic  movement.  At  the  same  time  this 
torso  shows  the  influence  of  India's  mature  Gupta 
art.  An  elegant  scarf  across  the  naked  chest  and  a 
dhoti  covering  the  lower  body  are  draped  in 
graceful  folds  and  pleats  that  closely  follow  the 
forms  of  the  body.  A  precious  necklace  contributes 
to  the  effects  of  elegant  courtly  refinement, 
splendor,  and  grandeur. 

A  totally  different  stylistic  approach  is  seen  in  a 
nearly  contemporaneous  sandstone  torso  of  a 
powerful  guardian  figure  (cat.  168). This  statue  was 
excavated  in  1954  at  the  site  of  the  Tang  dynasty 
Jingzhong  Temple  (known  as  Wanfo  Temple  in  late 
Han  times)  at  Chengdu,  in  Sichuan  Province.  The 
threatening  attitude  of  the  robust  guardian  deity  and 
his  physical  dynamism  testify  to  his  role  as  protector 
of  the  sanctuary.  Forceful  ■workmanship  creates  an 
almost  overly  emphatic,  manneristic  muscularity, 
reinforced  by  manneristic  elements  in  the  agitated 
treatment  of  the  garment. 

TANG    MARBLE    SCULPTURE    FROM   THE 
METROPOLITAN    ANGUO   TEMPLE 
In  the  arts  of  Esoteric  Buddhism  flourishing  under 
the  Tang  dynasty,  wrathful  figures  such  as  vidyarajas 
and  bodhisattvas  in  their  awesome  (S:  krodha) 
incarnations  played  a  prominent  role.  Of  ten  icons 
made  of  finely  grained  white  marble  with  traces  of 
gold  and  polychromy,  excavated  in  1959  in  the  old 
Changle  ward  of  the  Tang  capital  Chang'an,  at  least 
eight  qualify  as  members  of  the  Esoteric  Buddhist 
pantheon  (cats.  166,  170-72). Two  depict  the 
ferocious-looking  Bright  King  Budong 
(S:  Acalafnatha];" Immovable  One"),  who  was  the 
unshakable,  indomitable  adherent  and  protector  of 
the  Buddhist  Law.  Two  other  terrifying  deities  on 
bizarre,  layered  rock  pedestals  most  likely  represent 


Trailokyavijaya  (C:  Xiangsanshi;  "Victor  over  the 
Three  Worlds  [of  greed,  hatred,  and  folly])  (cat.  170). 
One  of  his  characteristic  attributes  is  the  ancient 
Indo-Aryan  vajra,  the  magic  thunderbolt  or 
diamond  scepter  (C:  jingangchu),  which  symbolizes 
the  diamond-like,  indestructible  character  of  the 
ultimate  truth.  In  one  of  his  emanations, 
Trailokyavijaya  has  three,  sometimes  even  four  heads 
and  eight  arms.  His  furious,  scowling  visage,  with 
bulging  eyes,  bestial  fangs,  and  knotted  eyebrows 
expresses  his  holy  wrath  (S:  krodha;  C:  fennu),  while 
his  combative  attitude  and  flamboyant  hair  point  to 
his  destructive  energies  and  militant  opposition  to 
evil,  both  physical  and  spiritual.  The  Bodhisattva 
HayagrTva,  the  "horse-headed"  Matou  Guanyin,  also 
has  three  heads  and  eight  arms.  He  is  shown  sitting 
on  a  lotus-and-rock  pedestal  in  front  of  an  aureole 
of  swirling  flames.  Another  prominent  member  of 
the  Esoteric  Buddhist  pantheon  is  the  mystic 
Buddha  of  the  South,  Ratnasambhava  (C:  Baosheng; 
"Producer  of  Treasures"). This  figure,  now  headless, 
is  seated  with  legs  crossed  in  vajrdsana  pose  (legs 
folded  in  the  "adamant,"  or  unshakable,  posture)  on 
a  lotus  throne  that  rests  on  seven  winged  horses 
(cat.  171).  Among  the  finest  works  in  this  group  of 
marble  sculptures  is  the  image  of  Manjusn 
(C:Wenshu),  one  of  the  agents  of  the  Buddha 
Sakyamuni  (cat.  172).  In  his  left  hand  he  holds  the 
stem  of  a  lotus.  A  palm-leaf  book  of  Indian  type 
placed  on  the  blossom  above  his  left  shoulder  allows 
us  to  identify  him  as  the  Bodhisattva  of  Great 
Wisdom.  His  cultic  center  was  on  Mount  Wutai  in 
Shanxi  Province,  which  was  thought  to  be  his 
sacred  abode.  Richly  adorned  with  heavy  jewelry, 
Manjusn  is  seated  on  an  elaborate  throne  of 
overlapping  lotus  petals.  Deeply  sculptured,  scrolling 
leaves  create  an  almost  baroque  quality. 

The  sculptural  refinement  of  all  these  marble  statues 
and  fragments  is  exceptional. Their  subtle  and 
elaborate  surface  treatment — including  the  original 
polychromy  and  gilding — attests  to  the  artist's  or 
the  metropolitan  atelier's  remarkable  technical  skill 
and  sensitivity  in  imparting  a  forceful  expressiveness 
and  an  extraordinary  lively  grace  to  the  works.  In 
their  original  setting  the  icons  may  have  constituted 
a  complete  mandala.  It  is  likely  that  they  were 
commissioned  for  the  great  Anguo  Temple 
("Temple  for  Pacifying  the  Country")  in  Chang'an, 
which  historical  records  locate  at  the  ancient 
Changle  ward  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of 
the  imperial  palaces,  just  outside  present-day  Xi'an. 
Local  government  workers  digging  for  a  water 
conduit  discovered  the  sculptures,  several  in  badly 
damaged  condition,  in  a  small  tunnel;  they  had  been 
buried  deep  and  were  found  at  a  depth  of  over  ten 
meters. 

The  Anguo  Temple  was  founded  in  710.  According 
to  Duan  Chengshi's  (d.  863)  Sitaji  ("Notes  on 


TRANSFIGURING    DIVINITIES:    BUDDHIST    SCULPTURE    IN    CHINA 


156 


Temples  and  Pagodas"),  published  in  853,  the  Anguo 
Temples  Buddha  Hall  was  originally  the  bed- 
chamber hall  of  the  emperor  Xuanzong  (r. 
712— 756). 2I  The  structure  was  purportedly 
dismantled  and  transferred  to  the  temple  grounds 
by  imperial  decree  in  713.  Its  main  image  seems  to 
have  been  a  Maitreya  statue  that  frequently  emitted 
miraculous  light.  Unfortunately,  there  is  no  mention 
of  any  other  icons.  As  a  renowned  study  center  for 
Esoteric  Buddhism  and  a  colossal  monument  to 
piety  and  the  arts  in  the  capital  city  of  Chang' an, 
the  Anguo  Temple  was  a  chief  target  in  the  violent 
persecution  of  845.  Anti-Buddhist  iconoclasts  may 
have  buried  the  sculptures  at  such  a  great  depth 
because  they  feared  revenge  and  punishment 
through  the  magical  powers  of  the  terrifying  deities 
embodied  in  the  images. The  turmoil 
accompanying  general  An  Lushan's  insurrection  of 
755-763  had  far-reaching  negative  effects,  not  only 
on  the  subsequent  political,  economic,  and  social 
structure  ofTang  China,  but  also  on  the  prestige 
and  development  of  the  Buddhist  church  and  its 
arts.  The  Anguo  Temple  sculptures  probably  predate 
this  dramatic  decline,  and  thus  may  have  been 
completed  in  the  second  quarter  of  the  eighth 
century. 

It  was  just  at  this  time,  during  Xuanzong's  reign, 
that  Esoteric  Buddhism  first  received  official 
recognition  and  active  encouragement  from  the 
court.  In  716  the  famous  Indian  Tantric  theologian 
Subhakarasimha  (637-735),  known  to  the  Chinese 
as  Shanwuwei,  arrived  in  Chang'an  with  a  number 
of  Sanskrit  texts.  Eight  years  later  his  Chinese 
disciple  Yixing  (638-727)  assisted  him  in  translating 
and  commenting  on  one  of  the  fundamental 
Esoteric  Buddhist  scriptures,  the  Mahavairocana 
Sutra  (C:  Darijing;  "Sutra  of  the  Great  Radiance  of 
Illumination").  This  text  describes  most  of  the 
important  Esoteric  Buddhist  deities  in  some  detail: 
they  were  novel  and  infinitely  more  varied  in  their 
iconography  than  their  traditional  counterparts.  The 
powerful  presence  of  the  Bright  Kings,  in  particular, 
must  have  overshadowed  the  appeal  of  the 
bodhisattvas,  whose  prominence  they  were 
usurping. 

stylistic;  trends  in  buddhist 
sculpture 

The  number  of  securely  dated  Chinese  Buddhist 
icons — mainly  gilded  bronzes — of  the  fourth 
century  is  very  small,  and  their  style  is  reminiscent 
of  images,  from  Gandhara.  Although  attached 
canopies  are  also  known  in  early  Indian  sculpture, 
the  leaf-shaped  mandorla  with  flaming  border 
seems  to  be  a  Chinese  innovation.  The  attempt  to 
emulate  the  Indian  naturalism  soon  fused  with 
indigenous  Chinese  tendencies  toward  stylization 
and  abstraction.  Early  Chinese  Buddhist  images 
tend  to  ignore  rather  than  emphasize  human 


anatomy.  Thus,  the  robes  do  not  drape  easily;  on  the 
contrary,  they  are  stiffly  modeled  and  rigidly 
symmetrical,  creating  a  rather  austere,  disincarnat&- 
image,  but  one  of  compelling  majestic  poise.  By  the 
end  of  the  fifth  century  all  the  stylistic  idioms  of 
Buddhist  sculpture  that  had  reached  China  from 
Gandhara,  India,  and  Central  Asia  had  been  slowly 
assimilated  into  a  consistent  Chinese  declaration  of 
faith  and  zeal.  Throughout  the  first  half  of  the  sixth 
century  traditional  styles  and  motifs  persisted  in  the 
Chinese  Buddhist  sculptor's  art,  but  from  about  the 
mid-sixth  century  a  novel  style  was  evolving  in 
north  China. 

The  sculpture  of  the  Northern  Qi  and  Sui  periods 
is  clearly  distinct  from  earlier  linear,  geometric 
treatments  of  Buddhist  images.  In  this  new  stage  of 
the  development  we  see  a  genuine  attempt  to 
indicate  the  human  body  beneath  the  garments,  an 
attempt  that  was  stimulated  by  Indian  influences  of 
the  classic  Gupta  period.  In  their  striving  for 
volume  and  graceful  movement  in  their  figures, 
Tang  sculptors  of  the  seventh  and  eighth  centuries 
went  even  a  step  further,  combining  solid,  almost 
weighty  reality  with  voluptuous  fleshiness.  Suave, 
rhythmic  drapery  patterns  follow  the  form  of  the 
body  so  closely  that  one  senses  the  texture,  weight, 
and  fall  of  the  cloth.  As  the  figures  became 
substantial,  often  plump,  there  was  an  ever- 
increasing  tendency  toward  rich  detail,  complexity 
of  forms,  and  restless  movement  in  the  sweeping 
curves  of  the  drapery  folds.  Their  extraordinary 
technical  skill  allowed  the  sculptors  to  reproduce 
the  finest  details  of  hair,  ribbons,  and  jewelry  with 
utmost  accuracy.  In  the  end  the  monumental 
solidity  of  the  mature  Tang  style  was  diminished 
through  an  overconscious  striving  for  aristocratic 
elegance  and  sensuous  beauty. 

Over  the  past  decades  several  of  the  large  cave- 
temple  sites  have  been  thoroughly  investigated;  a 
number  of  individual  temples  and  buildings  have 
been  restored;  groups  of  religious  icons  as  well  as 
isolated  images  have  been  excavated;  and  several 
spectacular  reliquary  deposits  have  been  recovered 
from  China's  great  Buddhist  heritage.  All  these 
substantive  archaeological  finds  and  results  of  recent 
restoration  and  research  have  greatly  clarified  and 
enriched  our  understanding  of  historical  records 
and  literary  sources. They  help  to  document 
changes  in  Buddhist  piety,  worship,  and  faith; 
developments  in  the  structure  and  importance  of 
various  schools  and  temples:  prominence  of 
individual  deities,  saints,  patriarchs,  donors,  and 
rulers  over  the  centuries.  They  also  allow  us  deepei 
insight  into  the  nature  and  living  tradition  ot 
Chinese  Buddhist  art.  its  liturgical  foundations, 
iconography,  style,  materials,  techniques,  .\n<\  last  but 
not  least,  its  perfect  Sinicizatdon. 


NOTES 

1.  Robert  H.  Sharf.  "The 
Scripture  in  Forty-Two 
Sections,"  in  Religions  of  China 
in  Practice,  ed.  Donald  S.  Lopez. 
Jr.,  Princeton  Readings  in 
Religions  (Princeton: 
Princeton  University  Press, 
IQQ6),  P-  360;  for  a  concise 
introduction  to  and  full  transla- 
tion of  the  text,  ibid.. 

pp.  360-71 ;  and  for  the 
Chinese  version  see  Taislto 
shinshu  daizokyo,  ed.Takakusu 
Junjiro  and  Watanabe  Kaigyoku 
(Tokyo,  1925;  reprint, Tokyo: 
Taisho  shinshu  daizokyo 
kankokai,  1968),  vol.  17, 
no.  784,  pp.  7223—7243. 

2.  See  Taisho  shhisltu  daizokyo 
(Tokyo,  1928;  reprint,  Tokyo: 
Taisho  shinshu  daizokyo 
kank5kai,  1973),  vol.  51, 

no.  2092,  p.  999a. Translation, 
with  minor  changes,  by  Yi- 
t'ung  Wang,  A  Record  of 
Buddhist  Monasteries  in  Ix-yang 
by  Yang  Hsuan-chih  (Princeton: 
Princeton  University  Press. 
[984),  pp.  sf. 

3.  Edwin  O.  Reischauer,  trans.. 
Ennin's  Diar)':Tltc  Recoid  of  a 
Pilgrimage  to  China  in  Scaitli  0) 
the  Law  (New  York:  Ronald 
Press.  I9SJ),  pp.  3811". 

4. Translation  by  Alexandei  ( 
Soper,  Literary  Evidence  fo\ 
Buddhist  Art  in  China,  Ambus 
Asiae,  Suppl.  n>  (Ascona: 

Ambus  Asi.u-.  [959),  pp.  it'. 

5.  Another  version  of  this 
apparition  talc  has  been  pre- 

i  in  the  Mingxiatigji 
("Records  ot"  Miraculous 
Omens"),  b\  VrangYan  (act 
Lite  sih-early  6th  .      I  Ik-  131 
stones  th.it  can  be  attributed  to 
the  now  lost  Mingxiang  n  make 
W.mcY.m's  compilation  one  ot 
the  most  fascinating  early 
Buddhist  miracle-tale  collec- 
tions. In  1.1.4  Daoxuan  included 
this  anecdote  as  the  first  111  .1 

ol  famous  images  in 
chapter  ;  ofhisji  shenzhou  son- 


TRANSFIGURING    DIVINITIES:    BUDDHIST    SCULPTURE    IN    CHINA 


157 


bao  gantong  In  ("Catalogue  of 
the  Salvific  Influence  of  the 
Three  Jewels  on  China's 
Assembled  [Temples  and 
Pagodas]"),  in  Taisho  shinshu 
daizokyo  (Tokyo,  1927;  reprint, 
Tokyo:  Taish5  shinshu  daizokyo 
kankokai,  i960),  vol.  52, 
no.  2106,  p.  413c. 

6.  Soper,  Literary  Evidence,  p.  4. 

7.  Soper,  Literary  Evidence,  p.  4. 

8.  See  Daoxuan,  Ji  shenzhou 
sanbao  gantong  lit,  chap.  2, 
pp.  416c— 417a. 

9.  Daoxuan,  Ji  shenzhou  sanbao 
gantong  hi,  p.  416c.  Translation, 
with  minor  changes  by  Soper, 
in  Literary  Evidence,  p.  21;  for 
the  Chinese  text,  see 
"Quotations  and  Technical 
Terms,"  in  Literary  Evidence, 

p.  296:  G. 

10. Yang  Xuanzhi,  Luoyang 
qielan  ji,  in  Taisho  shinshu 
daizokyo,  vol.  51,  no.  2092, 
p.  1000a;  translation  by  Wang, 
Record  of  Buddhist  Monasteries, 
pp.  i6f. 

1 1.  Translation,  with  minor 
changes,  by  Roger  Goepper, 
"Some  Thoughts  on  the  Icon 
in  Esoteric  Buddhism  in  East 
Asia,"  in  Studia  Sino-Mongolica: 
Festschrift  fur  Herbert  Franke, 
herausgegeben  von  Wolfgang 
Bauer,  Miinchener 
Ostasiatische  Studien,  vol.  25 
(Wiesbaden:  Franz  Steiner 
Verlag,  1980),  p.  248. 

12.  See  Arthur  E  Wright,  "Tang 
T'ai-tsung  and  Buddhism,'7  in 
Arthur  E  Wright  and  Denis 
Twitchett,  eds.,  Perspectives  on 
the  T'ang  (New  Haven  and 
LondomYale  University  Press, 
1973),  p.  256. 

13.  Soper,  Literary  Evidence, 
pp.  i5f.  Cf.  also  in  Daoxuan s 
Guang  hongmingji  ("Expanded 
Collection  on  Propagating  the 
Light"),  the  panegyric  on  the 
celebrated  icon  by  Dao'an's 
distinguished  disciple  Huiyuan 
(334_4i6),  in  Taisho  shinshu 
daizokyo,  vol.  52,  no.  2103, 

p.  198D-C 

14.  Translation,  with  minor 
changes,  by  James  Hightower, 
in  Edwin  O.  Reischauer, 
Ennin's  Travels  in  China  (New 
York:  Reginald  Press,  1955), 
pp.  223f.;  and  in  Stanley 


Weinstein,  Buddhism  under  the 
T'ang  (New  York  and 
Melbourne:  Cambridge 
University  Press,  1987),  p.  104. 

15.  Mahayana  doctrines  hold 
that  the  Buddha  exists  simulta- 
neously in  three  essentially 
identical  "bodies":  the 
dharmakaya,  the  samhhogakaya, 
and  the  nirmanakaya. The 
dharmakaya,  or  true  "body  of 
the  Law"  (C:  fashen),  transcends 
personality  and  the  multitude 
of  forms  and  colors  in  the 
phenomenal  world.  Thus,  it 
can  neither  be  depicted,  nor 
expressed  in  words,  nor  con- 
templated by  the  unenlight- 
ened human  mind.  The  sam- 
bhogakaya, or  "body  of  requital" 
(C:  baoshen),  is  the  Buddha's 
level  of  existence  upon  enter- 
ing Buddhahood  as  a  result  of 
vows,  exercises,  and  religious 
merit.  This  aspect  of  the 
Buddha  may  be  visualized  by 
enlightened  beings.  The 
nirmanakaya,  or  "shadow  body" 
(C:  yingshen),  is  the  Buddha's 
perceptible  incarnation  for  the 
benefit  of  unenlightened  sen- 
tient beings.  In  the  aspect  of 
this  body,  the  devotee  is  able  to 
perceive  the  Buddha  as  a 
human  figure,  in  the  person  of 
Sakyamuni.The  latter  two  bod- 
ies are  also  referred  to  as 
nipakaya,  "form  bodies"  or 
"color  bodies"  (C:  seshen). 
Images  for  worship  and  devo- 
tion may  be  made  only  of 
these  two  bodies. 

16.  See  Taisho  shinshu  daizokyo 
(Tokyo,  1925;  reprint,  Tokyo: 
Taisho  shinshu  daizokyo 
kankokai,  1964),  vol.  16,  no. 
692,  p.  788a;  Robert  H.  Scharf, 
trans., "The  Scripture  on  the 
Production  of  Buddha 
Images,"  in  Religions  of  China, 
p.  265. 

17.  Scharf,  trans.,  "Production 
ot  Buddha  Images"  p.  266. 

18.  Taisho  shinshu  daizokyo 
(Tokyo,  1928;  reprint, Tokyo: 
Taisho  shinshu  daizokyS 
kankokai,  1968),  vol.  21, 

no.  1419,  pp.  936-56. 

19.  "The  word  taia,  of  ancient 
origin  and  uncertain  deriva- 
tion, has  from  a  very  early  time 
served  as  a  basic  term  for  the 
standard  of  measure  (pramana) 
in  the  visual  and  performing 
arts.  .  .  .The  basic  meaning  of 
taia  is  'span' — a  span  of  space 


(as  measured  from  the  tip  of 
the  outstretched  thumb  to  the 
tip  of  the  middle  finger)  [or]  a 
span  of  time  (as  marked  off 
and  articulated  by  audible  and 
silent  gestures  performed  by 
the  hand[s])."  See  Kapila 
Vatsyayan,  ed.,  Kalatattvakos'a, 
A  Lexicon  of  Fundamental 
Concepts  of  the  Indian  Arts, 
vol-  2,  Concepts  of  Space  and 
Time,  ed.  Bettma  Baumer 
(New  Delhi:  Sri  Jainendra 
Press,  1992),  pp.  333,  335. 

20.  See  Taisho  shinshu  daizokyo 
(Tokyo,  1928;  reprint, Tokyo: 
Taisho  shinshu  daizokyo 
kankokai,  1968),  chap.  11, 
vol.  50,  no.  2059,  p.  397a. 

21.  See  the  translation  by 
Alexander  C.  Soper,  "A 
Vacation  Glimpse  of  the  T'ang 
Temples  of  Ch'ang-an:The 
Ssu-t'a  Chi  by  Tuan  Ch'eng- 
shih,"  Ardbus  Asiae  23,  no.  1 
(i960),  pp.  23f.The  Taisho 
shinshu  daizokyo,  vol.  51, 

no.  2093,  pp.  1022b— 1024a, 
gives  only  an  abridged  version 
of  the  text. 


TRANSFIGURING    DIVINITIES:    BUDDHIST    SCULPTURE    IN    CHINA 


158 


Calligraphy 


Calligraphy  is  often  called  the  most 
Chinese  of  arts.  This  is  a  label  of  praise, 
perhaps,  but  one  that  is  also  problematic, 
for  it  exoticizes  calligraphy  by  prompting 
associations  of  the  "mysterious  East"  and 
by  reinforcing  the  natural  tendency 


anions  those  who  do  not  read  Chinese 


to  believe  that  this  art  of  dynamic  but 
seemingly  incomprehensible  strokes 


Peter  Sturman 

Associate  Professor,  Department  of  the 
History  of  Art  and  Architecture, 
University  of  California,  Santa  Barbara 


159 


Fig.  l.  Cangjie,  legendary  inventor  of  the  Chinese 
characters.  Computer-generated  image. 


and  dots  is  inaccessible  to  outsiders.  It  is  true  that 
the  well-trained  viewer  of  calligraphy  must,  at  a 
minimum,  be  able  to  read  Chinese  characters,  but  it 
is  largely  unknown  that  Chinese  calligraphy  is,  in 
fact,  a  remarkably  open  art,  one  that  actively 
engages  its  viewer  in  a  manner  unlike  that  of  any 
other  art  form  of  any  culture.  Little  can  be  done 
about  the  language  divide — hence,  that  sense  of 
democratic  engagement  will  remain  largely  beyond 
the  reach  of  most  of  us.  Nonetheless,  a  fairly 
informed  appreciation  is  possible  once  some  of  the 
rules,  techniques,  aesthetic  qualities,  and  history  of 
Chinese  calligraphy  are  introduced.  Most 
important,  one  can  understand  why  calligraphy  is 
so  engaging  and  thus  why  it  is  truly  a  unique  art. 

FROM    ORACLE    TO    AUTOGRAPH 

Early  sources  attribute  the  creation  of  the  Chinese 
written  language  to  Cang  Jie,  an  official  in  the 
employment  of  the  legendary  Yellow  Emperor  and 
a  man  whose  remarkable  vision  and  ability  to 
communicate  with  the  spirit  world  was  signified  by 
his  four  eyes  (fig.  i).  Ancient  texts  recount  that 
Cang  Jie  fashioned  graphs  in  the  form  of  pictorial 
images  after  being  inspired  by  such  natural 
phenomena  as  bird  tracks,  animal  paw  prints,  and 
shadows  cast  by  trees.  "Millet  rained  from  heaven 
and  demons  howled  in  the  night,"1  reads  one,  a 
clear  indication  of  how  momentous  was  Cang  Jie's 


7^ 


jrm 


m 


'if  mi  f»^; 

■^'  &| '  ft  T:-WK'$r- 


(I 


""^^^&»^J 


Fig.  zb.  Oracle  hone,  inscribed.  Shang  dynasty.  Tortoise 
plastron.  National  Museum  of  Chinese  History,  Beijing. 


accomplishment.  There  is  no  need  to  dwell  on  this 
ancient  myth — Cangjie  joins  such  other  celebrated 
culture  heroes  as  Fuxi  (inventor  of  the  trigrams) 
and  Shennong  (the  inventor  of  agriculture)  as 
curious  personifications,  convenient  though  vague 
markers  of  the  early  progress  of  Chinese 
civilization.  There  is,  however,  an  important  point 
to  be  noted  in  Cang  Jie's  story:  the  characters,  or 
graphs,  in  a  sense  are  found,  determined  from 
patterns  cast  by  images  of  the  natural  world.  Cang 
Jie,  or  whomever  Cangjie  represents,  created  not 


CALLIGRAPHY 


by  forging  something  new,  but  by  carefully 
examining  what  already  existed.  In  other  words,  he 
did  not  write  so  much  as  he  read. 

Cangjie's  story  resonates  suggestively  with  the 
earliest  fully  developed  and  sustained  system  of 
writing  in  China:  the  oracle  bones  from  the  Anyang 
phase  of  the  Shang  dynasty  (ca.  1300-ca.  1100  bce) 
(fig.  2a).  "Oracle  bones"  is  the  general  term  used  for 
the  ox  and  deer  scapulae  (fig.  2a)  and  tortoise 
carapaces  and  plastrons  (fig.  2b)  that  were  used  to 
communicate  with  Heaven.  To  specific  questions 
incised  onto  the  bones  ("Will  it  rain?"  "Will  the 
hunt  be  good?"  and  so  on),  Heaven  responded  in 
the  form  of  cracks  that  appeared  on  the  surface  of 
the  bone  after  the  application  of  a  heated  point  to 
drilled  holes.  These  cracks  were  auguries,  and 
professional  scribes  in  charge  of  this  vital 
communication  interpreted  their  patterns  and  then 
recorded  the  interpretation  on  the  bone  surface. 
The  scratchy  appearance  of  the  incised  forms 
echoed  the  original  fissures  resulting  from  the 
applied  heat.  The  writing  was  not  an  imposition 
but  an  evocation,  the  giving  of  form  to  what  was 
understood  to  be  embedded  within. 

The  significance  of  Cangjie's  story  is  twofold:  the 
presumption  that  writing  in  China  is  rooted  in 
natural  process  and  that  writing  carries  inherent 
meanings.  More  than  a  millennium  separates  the 
oracle  bones  from  our  earliest  evidence  ot 
calligraphy  being  recognized  as  an  art  of  personal 
expression  (in  the  Eastern  Han  period,  1st  c.  ce),2 
yet  these  two  presumptions  remained  a  consistent,  if 
slightly  modified,  foundation  of  the  art.  The  source 
of  the  writing  changed — it  was  now  a  person 
rather  than  Heaven  that  communicated — but  what 
issued  forth  was  still  considered  the  embodiment  of 
inherent  truths.  "Writing  is  pictures  of  the  heart," 
wrote  Yang  Xiong  (55  bce— 18  ce)  in  the  Han 
dynasty.3  The  beauty  of  Chinese  calligraphy  is  that 
the  tools  of  writing,  as  well  as  the  rules,  allow 
practice  to  concur  with  this  promise  of  expression. 
Deceptively  simple  in  appearance,  the  brush  proves 
capable  of  conveying  the  slightest  nuance  of 
movement.  It  is  a  direct  line  from  that  point  where 
the  ink-charged  brush  meets  the  paper  or  silk 
through  the  fingers,  hand,  and  wrist  to  the  eye  and 
brain;  and  as  anyone  who  has  tried  to  wield  the 
calligrapher's  tool  would  know,  skill  or  ineptitude  is 
readily  apparent.  Equally  important,  Chinese 
characters  are  essentially  of  fixed  form,  composed 
of  an  established  number  of  brush  strokes.  There  is 
a  predetermined  order  to  the  writing  of  the 
individual  strokes  in  a  given  character,  and  a 
predetermined  direction  for  the  writing  of  each 
stroke. These  rules  are  integral  to  calligraphy's 
expressive  dimension,  for  they  allow  a  later  viewer 
to  retrace  visually  the  process  ot  writing,  to  re- 
experience  the  spatial  and  temporal  unfolding  of 


\t 


ft  ^ 


Fig.  j.  Mi  Fu  (1052—1107/8).  "Poems  Playfully  Written 
and  Presented  to  My  Friends,  About  to  Embark  for  Tiao 
Stream."  Dated  to  10S8.  Detail  of  a  handsaoll,  ink  on 
paper.  Palace  Museum,  Beijing. 


the  text.  Stroke  by  stroke,  character  by  character, 
column  by  column  (from  right  to  left),  one  "re- 
views" the  original  performance  of  writing.  The 
more  informed  the  viewer,  the  more  familiar  with 
using  the  brush  to  write,  the  more  vividly  that 
viewer  will  sense  the  brush's  original  movements 
and  pacing.  Some  say  that  the  visual  retracing  of  a 
particularly  dynamic  piece  of  calligraphy  evokes  an 
unearthly  sense  of  the  calligrapher  writing  it  for  the 
first  time.  No  other  art  can  claim  such  immediacy. 
No  other  art  captures  the  process  of  creativity  so 
vividly. 

The  immediacy  of  Chinese  calligraphy  can  create 
an  aura  of  timelessness.  An  informed  viewer  attuned 
to  the  subtle  art  of  reading  calligraphy  may  feel  as 
familiar  with  the  author  of  a  piece  of  writing  done 
centuries  earlier  as  with  a  contemporary.  No  one 
illustrates  this  effect  better  than  the  Northern  Song 
calligrapher  Mi  Fu  ( 1052-1 107/S).  a  celebrated 
eccentric  and  dedicated  student  of  his  art. 
Throughout  his  life  Mi  Fu  diligently  collected 
ancient  bits  of  writing,  savoring  them  to  the  point 
of  obsession."!  have  no  desire  for  wealth  or  noble 
rank."  he  wrOte,"My  only  love  is  for  those  letters 
from  the  brushes  of  the  men  ol  antiquity.  Ever) 


CALLIGRAPHY 


161 


time  I  clean  the  inkstone  and  spread  out  a  scroll,  I 
am  oblivious  even  to  the  roar  of  thunder  by  my 

side,  and  the  taste  of  food  is  forgotten I  suspect 

that  after  I  die  I  will  become  a  silverfish  who  enters 
into  scrolls  of  prized  calligraphy,  with  gold-lettered 
title  inscriptions  and  jade  rollers,  roaming  about  but 
without  causing  harm."4  "Letters"  by  "the  men  of 
antiquity"  refers  primarily  to  casual  notes  written 
by  calligraphers  of  the  Jin  dynasty  (265-420), 
especially  those  ofWang  Xizhi  (307?-365?)  and  his 
son  Wang  Xianzhi  (344-388),  who  were  long 
considered  the  most  brilliant  writers  active  during  a 
golden  age  of  calligraphy.  By  the  eleventh  century 
these  were  extremely  rare  works,  prized  not  only 
for  the  quality  of  the  writing  but  also  for  the 
untrammeled  personalities  of  the  writers 
themselves,  who  lived,  it  was  imagined,  at  leisure  in 
the  beautiful  landscape  of  the  Yangzi  River  basin. 
Mi  Fu  and  others  knew  of  the  quirks  and  follies  of 
the  men  of  Jin  from  collections  of  miscellaneous 
anecdotes,  such  as  Shishuo  xinyu  ("A  New  Account 
of  Tales  of  the  World"),  compiled  under  the  aegis  of 
LiuYiqing  (403— 444),  biographies  in  the  official 
history,  and  various  early  writings  on  calligraphy. 

In  the  autumn  of  1088,  at  the  height  of  Mi  Fu's 
infatuation  with  Jin  calligraphy,  he  was  invited  by  a 
local  magistrate  to  participate  in  an  outing  along 
Tiao  Stream,  a  scenic  stretch  of  landscape  just  south 
of  Lake  Tai  in  what  is  now  Zhejiang  Province.  In 
anticipation  of  the  excursion,  Mi  Fu  wrote  and  sent 
to  his  host  a  number  of  poems  on  one  scroll 
(fig.  3);  afterward  he  recorded  on  another  scroll  the 
poems  he  had  written  during  the  trip.5  Both  sets  of 
poems  repeatedly  refer  to  people  ol  the  Jin  dynasty 
as  if  they  were  alive  and  present,  sometimes 
conflating  them  with  other  members  of  the  outing. 
In  one  poem,  written  for  their  gathering  on  the 
Double  Ninth  Festival,  Mi  Fu  quotes  a  line  directly 
from  the  most  celebrated  of  all  works  of 
calligraphy,  Lanting  xu  ("Preface  for  the  Poems 
Written  at  the  Orchid  Pavilion"),  written  by  Wang 
Xizhi  in  353,  thereby  suggesting  that  their  own 
gathering  in  1088  had  somehow  merged  with  that 
famous  meeting  of  seven  hundred  years  earlier.  The 
likely  source  for  Mi  Fu's  flight  of  fancy  was  a 
superb  Tang  dynasty  tracing  copy  of  Wang's 
"Preface,"  which  Mi  Fu  had  acquired  earlier  in  the 
year  and  no  doubt  was  proudly  showing  off  to  his 
friends.  Needless  to  say,  Mi  Fu's  calligraphy  in  these 
two  scrolls  of  poems  closely  follows  the  Jin  dynasty 
style  associated  with  Wang  Xizhi  and  the  Orchid 
Pavilion  Preface.  Although  Jin  calligraphy,  even 
copies,  became  increasingly  rare  in  later  dynasties, 
the  spirit  ofWang  Xizhi  and  the  Orchid  Pavilion 
gathering  would  still  be  invoked  through  such 
writing  objects  as  inkstones  carved  with  scenes 
from  the  life  ofWang  Xizhi. 


Fig.  4.  Wang  Xizhi  (307?— 365?).  "Ping'an  tie,  Heju  tie, 
Fengju  tie.  "Tang  dynasty  (61S-907)  tracing  copy.  Detail 
of  letters  mounted  as  a  handscroll,  ink  on  paper.  Palace 
Museum,  Taipei. 


As  Mi  Fu's  story  illustrates,  in  Chinese  calligraphy 
the  vertical  expanse  of  history  can  seemingly  be 
transformed  into  the  horizontal  space  of  the 
present.  This  combined  sense  of  unity  and 
continuity  is  an  important  characteristic  of 
calligraphy.  Moreover,  it  extends  back  to  the  so- 
called  high  tradition  that  began  with  Wang  Xizhi 
and  Jin  calligraphy.  With  the  preservation  and 
continued,  if  limited,  practice  of  such  ancient 
scripts  as  seal  (zhuanshu)  and  clerical  (lishu)  (see  cat. 
183  for  an  example  of  the  latter),  later  calligraphers 
felt  conversant  with  a  spectrum  of  writing  that 
literally  spanned  millennia.  The  catalyst  for  the 
interaction  could  be  a  masterful  genuine  work  or  a 
rare  tracing  copy  of  the  type  Mi  Fu  sought;  it  could 
be  a  faded  rubbing  from  a  compendium  of 
collected  writings  engraved  in  stone  or  from  some 
ancient  stele  accidentally  discovered  in  a  farmer's 
field.  In  each  case,  the  right  viewer  under  the  right 
circumstances  would  become  engaged,  assimilate 
what  had  been  learned,  and  thereby  invigorate  his 
or  her  own  art.  It  is  an  ever-expanding  circle. 


CALLIGRAPHY 


162 


AESTHETIC    CRITERIA:    RESONANCE, 
METHODS,    IDEAS 

Looking  back  on  the  long  history  of  calligraphy 
that  preceded  him,  the  Ming  dynasty  theorist  Dong 
Qichang  (1555— 1636)  recognized  three  epochs 
fundamental  to  the  formation  of  the  canon  and 
succinctly  characterized  each  one:  Jin  dynasty 
calligraphy  is  governed  by  yun  ("resonance"), Tang 
dynasty  (618-907)  calligraphy  by  fa  ("methods"), 
and  Song  dynasty  (960-1279)  calligraphy  by  yi 
("ideas")/' Terse  formulations  such  as  this 
oversimplify  the  complexities  of  history. 
Nonetheless,  it  remains  an  insightful  observation 
and  a  useful  point  of  departure  for  a  brief 
discussion  of  some  of  Chinese  calligraphy 's  aesthetic 
qualities. 


.^■E^rV      .    V  .  v^C  X  jtttt   i 


Fig.  5.  Shuang  ("frost").  Computer-generated  image; 
(left)  from  Wang  Xizhi  (3077-365?),  "Fengju  tie";  (right) 
from  Lujianzhi  (7th  c),  Rhapsody  on  Literature. 


By  Jin  dynasty  calligraphy,  Dong  Qichang  was 
referring  to  the  tradition  exemplified  by  Wang 
Xizhi  and  Wang  Xianzhi,  or  the  Two  Wangs,  that 
developed  during  the  fourth  century.  Wang  Xizhi's 
calligraphy,  in  particular,  was  considered 
representative  of  the  artistically  graceful  writing 
adopted  for  casual  notes  and  letters  by  the 
aristocrats  of  his  day.  What  can  be  gleaned  from 
extant  Tang  dynasty  tracing  copies  of  calligraphy 
attributed  to  Wang  Xizhi  suggests  a  remarkably 
controlled  hand  that  demanded  nothing  less  than 
perfection  of  beauty  from  the  brush  (fig.  4).  Each 
stroke  is  utterly  smooth  and  tensile,  ribbon-like  in 
its  twists  and  turns.  At  the  same  time,  the 
calligraphy  displays  an  extraordinary  sense  of  ease.  It 
appears  absolutely  unforced  and  natural,  which  was 
precisely  the  writers  aim.  Early  critiques  of 
calligraphy  almost  invariably  utilize  metaphors  of 
the  natural  world  to  describe  the  forms  and  forces 
of  the  writing.  Suo  Jing  (239-303),  for  example, 
wrote  the  following  in  reference  to  the  informal 
and  abbreviated  cursive  script: 

Quivering  like  a  startled  phoenix, 
Not  yet  aloft,  wings  spread, 
Ready  to  rise, 
It  returns  to  a  state  of  rest. 
Insects  and  snakes  coiled  and  poised: 
Some  advancing,  others  retreating, 
Some  fragile,  soft  and  willowy, 
Others  aggressive,  charging  forward. 
Wandering  freely,  this  way  and  that, 
Suddenly  upright,  suddenly  twisted. 
An  outstanding  steed  bolts  in  anger. 
Struggling  against  the  bridle.7 

Suo  Jing's  emphasis  is  on  the  energy  of  the 
calligraphy,  its  sense  of  movement  and  liveliness. 
The  general  term  used  to  describe  such  energy  is 
shi,  which  can  be  roughly  translated  as  "configur.il 
force,"  or  "momentum."  Shi  is  the  manifestation  of 
both  potential  and  kinetic  energy — process  about 
to  happen  and  already  realized.  It  can  be  embodied 


in  a  single  brush  stroke,  but  slti  more  commonly 
emerges  through  the  interaction  of  two  or  more 
elements  in  the  calligraphy — brush  strokes 
interacting  to  create  perceptions  of  continuity  and 
discontinuity,  balance  and  confrontation.  Shi  is  an 
essential  component  of  all  good  calligraphy  from  all 
periods,  but  its  manner  of  presentation  differs 
depending  on  both  personal  and  period  styles.  In 
writings  attributed  to  the  Jin  period  that  energy 
seems  muted  by  refinement  and  decorum. 
Individual  elements  tend  to  achieve  subtle 
balancing  of  forms  and  forces,  with  generous  spaces 
created  between  the  traces  of  ink.  A  quiet,  self- 
contained  energy  seemingly  resonates  about  the 
writing  like  an  electrical  field.  This,  I  would 
suggest,  is  what  Dong  Qichang  refers  to  as  yun 
("resonance"). 

A  single  character  from  one  Wang  Xizhi  attribution 
will  help  to  illustrate  (fig.  5,  left). The  graph  shuang 
("frost")  is  composed  of  two  basic  elements:  the 
upper  portion,  which  by  itself  means  "rain,"  and  the 
lower  portion,  which  is  composed  of  left  and  right 
units.  Note  the  length  of  the  stroke  at  the  upper 
left.  This  was  the  second  stroke  to  be  written  (after 
the  topmost  horizontal  stroke),  and  it  is  so 
pronounced  that  in  writing  the  rest  of  the  character 
the  calligrapher  had  to  consider  ways  to  counter  a 
threatened  imbalance  in  the  overall  structure. Two 
solutions  are  apparent:  a  strong  right-to-left  curving 
stroke  that  connects  the  upper  portion  of  the 
character  to  the  lower  left  element,  and  the  vertical 
stroke  on  the  right  side  of  the  lower  right  element. 
The  former  parallels  and  balances  that  problematic 
second  stroke  while  echoing  and  amplifying  the 
curving  stroke  immediately  above  and  to  the  right 
(which  preceded  it),  thus  creating  a  strong 
cascading  movement  that  helps  to  anchor  the  top 
element.  The  verticil  stroke  at  the  lower  right  was 
the  very  last  stroke  of  the  character.  It  extends  a  bil 
lower  than  it  otherwise  might  have — a  last,  minor 
correction  to  balance  the  entire  composition. This 


CALLIGRAPHY 


163 


character  radiates  harmony,  balance,  and  classical 
beauty,  but  also,  as  we  have  seen,  a  strong  inner 
tension.  It  is  this  perfect  balance  of  energy  and 
restraint  that  characterizes  yun. 

To  illustrate  fa  ("methods"),  which  Dong  Qichang 
associated  with  the  Tang  dynasty,  we  use  the  same 
character,  shuang,  this  time  written  by  Lu  Jianzhi,  a 
seventh-century  follower  of  Wang  Xizhi  (fig.  5, 
right).  At  first  glance,  Lu  Jianzhi 's  shuang  appears 
almost  identical  to  Wang  Xizhi  s;  and  this  is  as  one 
may  expect,  considering  that  Lu's  calligraphy  style 
was  founded  on  a  slavish  study  of  the  earlier  writer. 
There  is,  however,  an  important  difference:  Lu's 
character  is  a  pasteurized  version  ofWang's. 
Achieving  overall  balance  and  harmony  was  now 
such  a  paramount  concern  that  there  were  no  self- 
generated  challenges  and  hence  no  creative 
solutions.  That  second  stroke  is  not  as  long  now, 
and  it  is  positioned  in  a  way  that  makes  the  entire 
upper  element  much  more  stable.  Each  element  of 
the  character  is  carefully  balanced  and  spaced.  No 
slips  have  been  made,  but  then  no  risks  were  taken. 
Fa  suggests  regimen  and  discipline  imposed  from 
above  by  a  higher  authority. The  association  of/fl 
with  the  Tang  dynasty  calls  to  mind  the  Tang 
emphasis  on  structure,  on  rules  and  their 
codification,  all  in  the  interest  of  assuring  stable 
continuity.  Singling  out  Wang  Xizhi's  calligraphy  as 
a  canonical  model  to  be  emulated  at  the  court  was 
one  such  standardization.  Lu  Jianzhi's  calligraphy,  as 
well  as  that  of  many  of  the  other  early  Tang 
writers,  demonstrates  the  result:  the  spontaneity  of 
Jin  has  been  transformed  into  an  image  ot  wrought 
perfection. 

Methods,  of  course,  did  not  appear  first  in  Tang 
calligraphy.  Rules,  propriety,  and  established 
standards  ot  aesthetic  quality  are  the  foundation  for 
the  practice  of  calligraphy  in  any  period.  Similarly, 
yun  is  not  necessarily  absent  from  Tang  calligraphy. 
It  is  true,  however,  that  these  two  very  significant 
periods  in  the  development  of  Chinese 
calligraphy — the  fourth  and  seventh  centuries — are 
distinguished  by  different  emphases  on  what  was 
considered  important.  In  the  Jin  dynasty  it  was 
spontaneity,  naturalness,  the  images  and  energies  of 
the  natural  world;  in  the  Tang  dynasty  it  was 
elegance  tempered  by  propriety,  stateliness, 
decorum,  and  orthodoxy.  Both  sets  of  aesthetic 
criteria  are  essential  components  of  Chinese 
calligraphy.  "Resonance"  and  "methods"  are  simply 
convenient  terms  to  designate  these  two  different 
aspects  of  the  calligrapher's  art. 

But  what  of  "ideas,"  which  Dong  Qichang 
associated  with  the  Song  dynasty?  Yi  ("ideas")  means 
"intent,  will,  reason."  It  refers  to  the  cognitive 
processes  that  distinguish  an  individual,  along  with 
his  or  her  idiosyncrasies.  In  calligraphy  it  suggests 


Fig.  6.  Wang  Shen  (ca.  1048-after  1104).  "Poem  Written 
on  the  Lake  at  Yingchang  and  Song  to  the  Time  of 
Dielan  hua.  "  Dated  to  1086.  Detail  of  a  handscroll,  ink 
on  paper.  Palace  Museum,  Beijing. 


an  imposition  of  the  self,  qualities  of  singularity  that 
draw  attention  to  the  distinguishing  characteristics 
of  a  particular  person.  Qualities  of  individuality  are 
not  absent  in  the  earlier  calligraphy,  but  never  are 
"ideas"  more  strongly  sensed  and  the  individual 
more  directly  celebrated  than  in  the  writing  of  the 
Song  calligraphers  active  in  the  second  half  of  the 
eleventh  century.  When  Dong  Qichang  wrote  of 
"Song  ideas,"  he  most  likely  had  in  mind  the 
triumvirate  of  great  Song  calligraphers — Su  Shi 
(1037-1101),  Huang  Tingjian  (1045-1105),  and  Mi 
Fu — but  what  he  points  to,  in  fact,  was  a 
widespread  phenomenon  apparent  in  the  work  of  a 
number  of  calligraphers.  Wang  Shen  (ca.  1048-after 
1 104),  a  close  friend  of  the  above  three,  wrote  in  a 
particularly  distinctive  style  (fig.  6),  which  Huang 
Tingjian  made  fun  of  by  likening  it  to  the  images 
of  strange  demonic  creatures  he  once  saw  in  a 
piece  of  embroidery  from  a  foreign  land — some 
without  hands  and  feet,  some  with  too  many.  "This 
kind  of  strangeness  is  not  what  is  normally  studied 
in  calligraphy,"  Huang  wrote,  "but  Wang  Shen 
certainly  has  developed  his  own  style.""  There  is  a 
tone  of  grudging  approval  in  Huang  Tingjian  s 
comment,  admiration  for  Wang  Shen's  ability  to 
distinguish  his  writing  from  that  of  others,  even  if  it 
means  unorthodox  results. 

Historically,  the  "ideas"  of  Song  calligraphy  proved 
the  most  problematic  for  later  Chinese 


CALLIGRAPHY 


164 


*    ^ 


*•-  ^Lv"- 


v* 


4^  #  >fc>  -7C 


HI 

lii 


Fig.  7.  So«g  Huizong  (Zhao  Ji;  1082—1135, 

r.  1100-1126).  "Poem  on  Peonies."  Ca.  1100—26.  Detail 

of  an  album  leaf,  ink  on  paper.  Palace  Museum,  Taipei. 


calligraphers.  Just  as  Huang  Tingjian  felt  compelled 
to  poke  fun  at  his  friend  Wang  Shen,  many  later 
critics  felt  a  compulsion  to  dismiss  the 
unconventional  aspects  of  Song  calligraphy  as 
indulgent  and  heterodox.  Certainly,  "ideas"  tend  to 
manifest  themselves  at  the  expense  of  the  classical 
norms  of  beauty  evident  in  both  Jin  and  Tang 
calligraphy.  The  educated  class  of  scholar-officials, 
who  were  the  primary  practitioners  of  calligraphy, 
took  it  as  their  incumbent  duty  to  represent  the 
state,  tradition,  and  orthodoxy.  Excessive  expression 
of  one's  individuality  was  at  best  irrelevant  to  this 
responsibility,  at  worst  contradictory.  By  unhappy 
coincidence,  the  Song  dynasty  came  perilously 
close  to  total  collapse  just  one  generation  after  the 
great  individualist  calligraphers  of  the  Northern 
Song.  For  those  who  truly  believed  in  the 
expressiveness  of  calligraphy — its  ability  to  reflect 
inherent  truths — the  idiosyncrasies  of  Song  "ideas" 
were  symptomatic  of  the  graver  ills  that  ultimately 
led  to  the  loss  of  the  northern  half  of  China  in  1127. 


Fig.  8.  "Geyang  ling  Cao  Quan  bei. "  Dated  to  185  CE. 


writer's  presence  or  personality,  and  this  happens 
most  readily  with  calligraphy  that  is  particularly 
distinctive.  To  give  an  extreme  example,  one 
twentieth-century  author  goes  so  far  as  to  read 
physical  as  well  as  behavioral  traits  from  the 
calligraphy  of  Northern  Song  writers:  Mi  Fu  was 
"tubby";  Shu  Shi,  "fatter,  shorter  and  careless  in 
nature";  Huang  Tingjian,  "tall,  lean  and  obstinate"; 
Emperor  Huizong  (r.  1100—1126),  "handsome,  slim, 
meticulous,  and  somewhat  effeminate"  (fig.  7).  "We 
can  even  affirm  that  he  [Huizong]  was  slow  and 
measured  of  speech,"  the  author  goes  on  to  write!9 
If  it  does  nothing  else,  this  imaginative  critique 
presents  one  positive  aspect  of  Song  ideas:  the 
opportunity  to  establish  so  personal  an  imprint  on 
the  tradition  that  later  viewers  would  be  inspired  to 
imagine  what  one  was  like. 


Despite  such  reservations,  most,  if  not  all, 
calligraphers  wished  to  develop  singular  styles  of 
calligraphy  that  would  distinguish  them  as 
individuals  and  serve  as  the  evidence  from  which 
others  would  read  their  characters  (or  "understand 
their  sounds,"  as  an  old  saying  goes,  in  reference  to 
expressive  music).  Certainly  one  of  the  most 
enjoyable  aspects  of  viewing  calligraphy  is  the 
intangible  pleasure  that  stems  from  the  sense  of  the 


PARAMETERS     OF     INNOVATION     IN     THE    LATER 
TRADITION 

"Resonance," "methods,"  and  "ideas"  are  vague 
labels,  but  they  are  useful  for  designating  three 
different  aspects  of  Chinese  calligraphy:  naturalness 
associated  with  spontaneity,  skill  and  practice 
associated  with  tradition,  and  personal  expression. 
By  choosing  these  terms  to  epitomize  the  three 
great  epochs  of  writing  that  preceded  the 


CALLIGRAPHY 


165 


seventeenth  century,  Dong  Qichang  suggests  both 
the  aesthetic  and  historical  parameters  within 
which  later  calligraphers  worked  at  their  art.  After 
Dong  Qichang's  time  another  epochal  movement 
would  take  place  in  Chinese  calligraphy,  known  as 
jinshixue  ("metal-and-stone  study"),  referring  to  the 
careful  examination  of  earlier  calligraphy  incised  on 
old  steles  (many  of  them  newly  excavated)  (fig.  8) 
as  well  as  cast  on  ancient  ritual  bronzes.  Perhaps  if 
Dong  Qichang  had  lived  in  the  twentieth  century 
he  would  have  coined  a  fourth  category  for  Qing 
dynasty  (1644-1911)  calligraphy:  gu,  or  "antique." 
Again,  this  was  not  a  quality  lacking  in  the  earlier 
periods — in  fact,  the  pursuit  of  antiquity  was  almost 
always  a  concern  of  Chinese  calhgraphers,  and  the 
systematic  study  of  steles  and  bronzes  began  as  early 
as  the  Northern  Song — but  the  dominant  trend  in 
Qing  calligraphy  sought  inspiration  in  antiquity  to 
an  unprecedented  degree.  Written  in  the  clerical 
script  (lishu),  "Couplet  in  seven-character  lines" 
(cat.  183)  by  Deng  Shiru  (1743-1805)  provides  an 
excellent  example. 

Each  of  the  works  in  the  exhibition  reveals  the 
calligraphers  attempt  to  create  something  new 
within  the  parameters  of  the  tradition.  This  was  no 
simple  matter,  considering  the  longevity  and  weight 
of  that  tradition  by  the  sixteenth  century,  when  the 
earliest  of  the  included  works  was  written. 
Moreover,  the  parameters  differed,  depending  on 
the  specific  circumstances  of  the  calligrapher  and 
which  particular  aspect  of  the  tradition  was  being 
tapped.  Consider,  for  example,  Zhang  Zhao's 
(1691-1745)  transcription  of  "Seventh  Month"  from 
the  Odes  of  Bin  (cat.  182).  Zhang  Zhao  was  an 
important  minister  and  cultural  figure  at  the  Qmg 
dynasty  court,  rising  to  such  high  positions  as 
president  of  the  Censorate  and  of  the  Board  of 
Punishments  under  theYongzheng  (r.  1723— 1735) 
and  Qianlong  (r.  1736— 1795)  emperors.  Zhang's  skill 
as  a  calligrapher  was  much  admired  by  Qianlong  in 
particular,  who  employed  him  as  a  ghostwriter  early 
in  his  reign.10  In  keeping  with  Zhang  Zhao's  high 
profile  at  the  court  and  the  pressures  of  conservatism 
that  accompanied  such  prominence,  both  the 
content  and  style  of  Zhang's  transcription  of 
"Seventh  Month"  are  unfailingly  orthodox,  even 
predictable.  The  poem  is  from  the  ancient 
compilation  Shijing  ("Classic  of  Poetry") ,  long  a 
favorite  source  for  lessons  of  good  government,  and 
the  calligraphy  is  written  in  a  precise  standard  script 
that  instantly  recalls  the  fa  ("methods")  of  such 
early  Tang  dynasty  exemplars  of  standard  script  as 
Yu  Shi'nan  (558-638),  Ouyang  Xun  (557-641),  and 
Chu  Suiliang  (596-658). "  The  writing  is  a 
definitive  statement  of  orthodoxy  and,  as  such, 
allows  only  the  most  tightly  controlled  expression 
of  individual  creativity.  We  admire  Zhang  Zhao's 
ability  to  carry  off  such  a  lengthy,  if  constrained, 
performance,  and  politely  applaud  his  handsome 


character  compositions;  but  innovation  here  is 
revealed  only  by  the  most  subtle  of  indications  and 
only  to  those  who  recognize  hints  of  the  brush 
modes  and  compositions  of  past  masters  under  this 
highly  polished  formal  veneer. 

Zhang  Zhao  wrote  under  the  most  restrictive  of 
circumstances.  In  contrast,  both  Deng  Shiru  (cat. 
183)  and  Zhang  Ruitu  (cat.  180)  worked  within 
considerably  broader  spaces  of  the  tradition. 
Writing  at  a  time  when  the  rediscovery  of  ancient 
steles  acted  to  liberate  calhgraphers  from  the  torpid 
repetition  of  learned  habits,  Deng  Shiru  found 
plenty  to  play  with  in  archaic  styles  of  writing  that 
appeared  fresh  and  unusual  to  a  largely  jaded 
audience  of  scholars  and  merchants  eager  for 
something  different  and  sophisticated.  Here  the 
solemnity  of  the  clerical  script  is  subtly  tweaked 
with  whimsical  touches  in  composition  and 
brushwork  so  that  the  end  result  is  a  buoyancy 
within  the  weighty  forms.  The  earlier  Zhang  Ruitu 
(1570-1641),  on  the  other  hand,  sought  an 
innovative  image  by  deliberately  tapping  into  that 
portion  of  the  tradition  which  was  already 
inextricably  associated  with  individualism.  In  the 
late  1620s,  Zhang  Ruitu  retired  from  important 
positions  at  the  Ming  court  and  pursued  personal 
interests  in  Chan  (Zen)  Buddhism.  Chan  had  its 
own  tradition  of  calligraphy,  one  that  had  been 
strongly  influenced  by  the  Song  dynasty  emphasis 
on  "ideas"  and  personality.  In  the  context  of  the  late 
Ming  and  such  influential  thinkers  as  Li  Zhi 
(1527-1602)  and  Yuan  Hongdao  (1568-1610),  Chan- 
inflected  calligraphy  discarded  rules,  methods,  and 
standards  in  favor  of  recapturing  the  "child's  heart," 
or  original  nature,  of  the  writer.  Zhang  Ruitu's 
cursive  script  in  his  transcription  of  Wang  Wei's 
"Song  of  the  Aged  General"  (cat.  180)  is  highly 
spirited,  yet  by  emphasizing  an  even  tempo  down 
his  columns  he  manages  to  suggest  an  overall 
uniformity,  almost  a  placidity,  that  is  most  fitting  for 
the  Chan  devotee  in  search  of  personal  enlightenment. 

These  general  observations  about  the  calligraphy  of 
Zhang  Zhao,  Deng  Shiru,  and  Zhang  Ruitu  suggest 
how  later  writers  established  their  art  in  the 
context  of  their  immediate  surroundings  largely  by 
positioning  it  in  a  working  relationship  to  some 
aspect  of  the  past  tradition.  The  same  can  be  said  of 
two  major  works  by  ZhuYunming  (1461-1527)  and 
Wang  Duo  (1592— 1652),  to  which  we  turn  now  in 
order  to  explore  this  act  of  positioning  in  finer 
detail  (cats.  179,  181). The  goal  is  not  to  clarify  Zhu 
Yunming's  and  Wang  Duo's  contributions  to  the 
history  of  Chinese  calligraphy — a  task  that  would 
demand  much  more  time  and  space  than  is  granted 
here — but  rather  to  elucidate  the  practice  of  the 
calhgraphers  art  by  considering  specific  concerns 
reflected  in  the  writers'  choices  of  script,  style, 
and  technique. 


CALLIGRAPHY 


166 


Zhu  Yunming,  often  considered  the  greatest 
calligrapher  of  the  Ming  dynasty,  wrote  in  a  wide 
array  of  styles  and  scripts.  Such  versatility  reflects 
broad  training,  which,  we  learn  from  Zhu 
Yunming's  own  words,  was  strictly  directed  by 
paternal  guidance  to  well-established  models  of  the 
Jin  and  Tang  dynasties.  '2  Although  the  work  in  the 
exhibition,  a  scroll  of  poems  composed  by  Zhu 
Yunming  himself  (cat.  179),  appears  absolutely  free, 
it  in  fact  belongs  to  a  long  and  curious  tradition  of 
writing  that  is  generally  referred  to  as  kuangcao 
("wild  cursive"). Two  basic  historical 
transformations  are  recognized  in  the  cursive-script 
tradition. The  first  occurred  about  the  fourth 
century  and  within  the  milieu  of  Wang  Xizhi,  with 
the  development  of  what  was  then  called  "modern 
cursive"  (jincao).  Four  hundred  years  later  another 
epochal  change  took  place  with  the  appearance  of 
wild  cursive.  It  was  associated  almost  exclusively 
with  Zhang  Xu  (ca.  700-ca.  750),  one  of  the  "Eight 
Immortals  ofWine"  and  a  spirited  fellow  given  to 
wild  tantrums  while  in  his  cups.  According  to  a 
number  of  sources,  Zhang  Xu  would  temper  his 
drunken  fits  by  channeling  his  energy  through  an 
ink-charged  brush.  Some  claim  that  on  occasion  he 
would  even  dip  his  unbound  hair  into  the  ink  and 
use  that  to  write. '-'  This  was  writing  aimed  at 
revealing  the  fundamental  nature  of  the  calligrapher 
and  based  on  the  assumption  that  wine  was  an 
essential  element  in  dissolving  all  inhibitions  and 
intentions.  After  this  mode  of  writing  became 
established  in  the  eighth  century,  a  number  of  wild- 
cursive  specialists  emerged  in  quick  succession. 
Poems  by  Yu  Xin  and  Xie  Lingyun,  a  celebrated  piece 
that  for  many  years  was  erroneously  attributed  to 
Zhang  Xu,  provides  an  excellent  example  of 
eleventh-century  kuangcao  (fig.  9).'4 

Kuangcao  presents  interesting  problems  in  all  three 
ot  the  aesthetic  domains  previously  described.  Yun 
resonance  is  an  important  desideratum  for  all  forms 
of  cursive  script,  but  wild-cursive  script  promotes 
an  outward  display  of  raw  energy.  Containment, 
that  subtle  sense  of  resonating  energies  rippling 
across  characters  or  columns,  is  often  lost  in  the 
calligrapher's  eagerness  to  open  the  emotional 
floodgates.  Similarly,  methods  {fa),  reflective  of 
diligence  and  restraint,  at  first  seem  totally 
irrelevant.  As  for  ideas  (yi),  their  presence  would  be 
antithetical  to  the  absolute  naturalness  demanded  of 
the  calligrapher.  But  herein  precisely  lies  the 
problem.  Later  critics  recognized  that  kuangcao,  in 
tact,  often  was  written  with  intention — the 
intention  to  be  as  wild  as  possible.  Wildness  was  not 
to  be  equated  with  genuineness,  especially  when 
there  was  a  ready  audience  and  market  for  this  new, 
exciting  form  of  performance  calligraphy.  Eleventh- 
century  critics  like  Su  Shi  and  Huang Tingjian 
were  careful  to  emphasize  that  Zhang  Xu's  wild- 
cursive  writing  was  built  on  a  solid  foundation  of 


Fig.  g.  Anonymous  (nth  c).  Poems  byYu  Xin  and  Xie 
Lingyun.  Northern  Song  dynasty  (g6o-H2y).  Detail  of  a 
handscroll,  ink  on  "Jivc-wlorcd  paper. "  Liaoning 
Provincial  Museum,  Shenyang. 


orthodox  study,  without  which  his  wilder 
experiments  would  have  been  unacceptable.  The 
proof  lay  in  a  stele  exhibiting  Zhang  Xu's  standard 
script,  which  was  a  considered  a  model  of  Tang 
discipline  and  suggested  to  Song  dynasty  viewers 
some  relationship  with  the  earlier  Jin  tradition 
because  of  its  relatively  open,  sparse  structures — 
aesthetic  qualities  generally  associated  with  Jin 
writing. ''  The  existence  of  this  standard-script 
writing  was  extremely  important,  for  it  validated 
Zhang  Xu's  unconventional  cursive  by  proving 
that  Zhang  was  steeped  in  rules  and  methods. 
Huang  Tingjian  prided  himself  on  the  ability  to 
spot  Zhang  Xu  fakes — wild  writing  by  pretenders 
and  followers — precisely  because  rules  and 
methods  were  lacking."'  Both  Su  Shi  and  Huang 
Tingjian  strongly  emphasized  the  propriety — the 
solid  foundation  rooted  in  orthodoxy — governing 
the  dots  and  dashes  of  Zhang's  drunken  brush. 
It  was  what  separated  Zhang  Xu  trom  his  followers, 
who,  by  merely  imitating  the  wildness  ot  his 
writing,  were  guilty  of  using  conscious  intent 
to  write  that  which  should  have  emerged 
spontaneously. 


CALLIGRAPHY 


167 


Fig.  w.  Zhu  Yunming  (1461—1527).  Examples  of  prose  by 
four  masters  of  the  Tang  and  Song.  Ming  dynasty 
(1368—1644).  Palace  Museum,  Beijing. 


Zhu  Yunming  was  probably  well  aware  of  the 
controversy  that  surrounded  the  wild-cursive  script. 
In  fact,  his  own  writing  was  also  mired  in  it. 
Although  supporters  were  willing  to  see  Zhu's 
kuangcao  as  a  natural  outlet  for  his  personality, 
described  by  one  friend  as  "bold  and  direct,  with 
no  patience  for  strictness  and  reserve,"  critics 
disparaged  it  as  "undisciplined,"  "careless,"  "self- 
indulgent,"  and  "bordering  on  the  heretical." 
Interestingly,  Zhu  Yunming  s  wild-cursive  writing, 
like  Zhang  Xu's,  was  apparently  much  forged.  As 
the  contemporary  scholar  Fu  Shen  has 
documented,  one  later  calligrapher  went  so  far  as  to 
claim  that  all  of  Zhu  Yunming's  wild-cursive  works 
in  circulation  were  outright  fakes.17 

The  approach  taken  in  the  present  scroll  (cat.  179), 
a  late  work  dated  to  1523,  suggests  Zhu  Yunming's 
solution  to  the  problems  posed  by  the  kuangcao 
tradition.  Unlike  the  eleventh-century  "Poems" 
(fig.  9),  which  emphasizes  a  kind  of  zigzagging 
columnar  speed,  Zhu's  wild  cursive  explores  a 
broad  horizontal  dimension.  He  purposely  leaves 
many  of  the  structures  loose  and  open  so  that  dots 
and  lines  almost  seem  to  disperse  instead  of 
connecting  to  form  distinct  characters.  In  fact,  the 
untutored  eye  may  have  a  difficult  time 
distinguishing  Zhu  Yunming's  individual  columns  of 


mm 


•1 


r&m 


^ffpfi^l 


Fig.  11.  Yan  Zhenqitig  (709-785).  "Record  of  theYan 
Family  Ancestral  Shrine.  "  Dated  to  780.  Detail  of  a 
rubbing. 


writing.  There  is  evidence  here  of  the  influence  of 
Huang  Tingjian's  cursive  calligraphy,  and  this  is 
significant,  for  Huang  Tingjian  repeatedly 
emphasized  the  importance  of  yun  ("resonance")  in 
cursive  calligraphy.  Viewers  cognizant  of  Zhu 
Yunming's  standard-script  calligraphy  will  also  be 
tempted  to  recognize  in  the  writing  compositional 
principles  that  Zhu  had  mastered  from  his  study  of 
the  very  early  calligrapher  ZhongYou  (is  1—230) 
(fig.  10).  Samples  of  writing  attributed  to  Zhong 
You  epitomize  that  association  of  loose 
compositional  structures  with  early  writing.  If  Zhu 
Yunming  did  apply  the  methods  of  standard-script 
writing  to  his  wild  cursive,  it  would  have  been 
reassuring  to  the  viewer  that  the  underlying  quality 
of  propriety  so  important  to  Song  dynasty  critics 
was  indeed  present.  Zhu  Yunming  refrained  from 
interconnecting  many  of  the  characters,  opting 
instead  tor  measured  compositional  interplay.  The 
writing  is  dynamic  and  inspired,  but  the  overall 
feeling  is  of  a  deep  pool  of  complex,  interweaving 
energies,  like  swirling  eddies,  rather  than  a 
cascading  release.  Zhu  Yunming  successfully  realized 
a  delicate  balance  between  containment  and  vigor. 
He  explains  at  the  end  of  the  scroll  that  he  wrote 
after  drinking  and  that  though  he  was  fatigued,  the 


CALLIGRAPHY 


168 


brush  moved  spiritedly,  without  urging.  No  ideas; 
in  other  words,  no  intentions — -just  Zhu  Yunming. 

Wang  Duo's  large,  standard-script  (kaislui) 
transcription  of  poems  by  the  Tang  dynasty  poet 
Wang  Wei  (699-759)  taps  into  a  rather  different 
tradition  (cat.  181).  This  is  unusual  writing  by  Wang 
Duo,  who  is  better  known  for  the  highly 
individualistic  style  of  semicursive  and  cursive 
calligraphy  exhibited  in  the  inscription  at  the  left  of 
the  scroll,  following  his  transcriptions.  The  poems 
themselves  are  written  in  the  unmistakable  manner 
of  the  great  Tang  calligrapherYan  Zhenqing 
(709—785),  whose  bold,  assertive  standard-script 
writing  has  served  as  one  of  the  canonical  models 
for  calligraphers  throughout  the  ages  (fig.  11).  Wang 
Duo,  like  Zhu  Yunming,  was  a  devoted  student  of 
the  art,  and  he  avidly  devoted  himself  to  copying 
classical  models.  It  is  not  surprising  to  find  him 
writing  a  rather  diligent  rendition  ofYan 
Zhenqing's  style.  But  Wang  Duo  was  first  and 
foremost  an  individualist  who  commonly  used  the 
ancient  models  as  a  point  of  departure  for  his  own 
expressive  means.  A  more  careful  comparison  is 
merited,  beginning  with  Yan  Zhenqing. 

Yan's  style  is  one  of  the  most  easily  recognized  of 
all  Chinese  calligraphers.  The  brush  strokes  are 
muscular,  the  character  compositions  expansive. 
Not  everyone  appreciated  this  style  of  writing.  For 
example,  Li  Yu  (r.  961-975),  ruler  of  the  Southern 
Tang  kingdom,  found  Yan's  calligraphy  offensively 
direct — "like  an  uncouth  farmer  facing  forward 
with  arms  folded  and  legs  spread  apart."18  Almost 
all,  however,  considered  this  confrontational  style  an 
appropriate  correlative  to  the  larger-than-life  image 
Yan  Zhenqing  cast  as  a  high  minister  of 
unquestioned  loyalty  and  courage.  Yan  Zhenqing 
was  well  known  as  a  stalwart  defender  of  the  court 
and  as  a  martyr  who  died  at  the  hands  of  a  would- 
be  usurper.  This  identification  between  the  moral 
qualities  ofYan  Zhenqing  and  his  forceful  style  of 
writing  was  well  ensconced  by  the  eleventh 
century,  when  Ouyang  Xiu  (1007— 1072)  announced 
that  Yan's  calligraphy  resembled  a  loyal  minister: 
correct,  severe,  and  serious.19  And  so  it  has  been 
perceived  through  the  later  dynasties.  Beginning 
students  of  calligraphy  are  often  given  Yan 
Zhenqing's  writing  as  a  model,  no  doubt  in  hopes 
that  some  of  the  Tang  minister's  virtuous  character 
would  be  passed  along  with  his  particular  brush 
habits. Yan  Zhenqing's  style  is  so  widely  known  that 
one's  immediate  perception  of  any  later  rendition 
ot  the  Yan  style  is  colored  by  associations  of 
propriety,  moral  fortitude,  and  orthodoxy. 

That  is  precisely  what  makes  Wang  Duo's  scroll  so 
interesting.  In  the  1620s  and  1630s,  Wing  had  served 
in  high  offices,  culminating  in  his  promotion  to 
Minister  of  Rites  in  1640.  He  retired  after  only  two 


months  because  of  his  father's  death  and  remained 
in  mourning  until  spring  of  1644,  when  he  was 
recalled  to  the  same  office.  Unfortunately,  before 
Wang  could  resume  his  duties  the  Ming  dynasty 
collapsed.  Wang  Duo  wrote  this  transcription  of 
Wang  Wei's  poems  in  the  late  autumn  of  1643, 
while  staying  with  friends.  Those  were  chaotic 
times,  and  one  is  tempted  to  read  into  Wang  Duo's 
adoption  ofYan  Zhenqing's  style  a  statement  of 
dynastic  loyalty  and  political  resolve.  Yet  the  two 
poems  Wang  chose  to  transcribe  are  largely 
celebrations  of  a  reclusive  lifestyle,  and  Wang's  own 
inscription  at  the  end  speaks  not  of  the  nation's  ills 
but  of  the  camaraderie  of  friends,  the  sweetness  of 
their  wine,  the  clear  sounds  of  a  bubbling  brook  by 
his  window,  and  tomorrow's  planned  outing  to 
scenic  spots. Viewed  retrospectively,  the  writing  is 
even  more  curious,  because  Wang  Duo  would  later 
earn  the  unenviable  historical  reputation  of  a 
turncoat:  he  was  one  of  a  number  of  high  officials 
who  joined  in  ignominious  surrender  to  the 
Manchus,  founders  of  the  Qing  dynasty 
(1644— 1911),  and  he  immediately  began  to  serve 
under  the  new  regime,  resuming  his  position  of 
Minister  of  Rites  in  the  spring  of  1646  (Wang's 
official  biography  is  listed  in  the  section  Er  chen 
juan  ["Officials  who  Served  Two  Houses"].)20 

In  the  light  of  such  infelicities,  Wang  Duo's  copying 
of  the  Yan  style  begins  to  appear  somewhat 
questionable.  A  closer  look  at  Wang  Duo's 
inscription  confirms  that  he  was  not  exclusively 
concerned  with  the  state  of  the  nation.  He  writes, 
"Few  are  those  who  attempt  to  write  standard- 
script  calligraphy  on  satin.  One  does  not  even  find 
such  a  combination  among  the  works  of  Xuanzai 
of  Huating.  ...  In  the  future,  upon  opening  this 
scroll,  those  who  have  made  some  progress  in  the 
art  of  calligraphy  will  certainly  reject  this  [i.e.,  my 
writing],  even  wish  to  spit  upon  it.  But  what's  to  be 
done???"  Xuanzai  is  Dong  Qichang.Wang  Duo's 
older  contemporary  and  the  dominant  figure  in  the 
world  of  calligraphy  circa  1640.  Whatever  Wang 
Duo's  initial  inspiration  for  this  essay  in  the  Yan 
Zhenqing  style,  it  quickly  became  a  personal 
challenge,  an  opportunity  to  do  what  tew,  if  any, 
had  attempted  before — in  other  words,  a  forum  for 
the  expression  of  Wang's  individualism.  The 
decidedly  unpolished  quality  ofWang  Duo's 
writing  here  helps  to  explain  his  last  modest 
remarks.  At  the  same  time,  such  self-deprecation 
should  not  be  taken  seriously.  One  can  imagine  the 
calligrapher  being  somewhat  pleased  with  the 
results,  knobby  strokes,  bleeding  ink,  and  all.  This 
calligraphy  may  not  exactly  be  a  work  ot  beauty. 
but  it  certainly  makes  an  impression;  and  that, 
ultimately,  was  Wang  Duo's  goal. 

The  point  here  is  not  to  question  Wang  Duo's 
integrity  or  moral  fiber,  nor  is  it  to  accuse  him  of 


CALLIGRAPHY 


169 


debasing  the  hallowed  heritage  ofYan  Zhenqing.  It 
is,  rather,  to  reveal  some  of  the  complexities 
attending  the  practice  of  calligraphy  in  the  later 
dynasties.  The  weight  of  the  tradition  had  become 
so  massive  that  the  creative  artist  found  himself 
constantly  negotiating  with  the  landscape  of  the 
past  in  an  attempt  to  explore  new  territories  of  the 
present.  Wang  Duo's  appropriation  and  handling  of 
the  Yan  style  so  that  this  most  familiar  of  images 
became  recast  into  something  peculiarly 
appropriate  to  the  circumstances  of  a  late  Ming 
high  official  who  cultivated  a  distinctive  voice  is,  I 
believe,  the  mark  of  an  exceptional  artist.  Similarly, 
ZhuYunming's  delicate  balancing  act  between 
propriety  and  wildness  in  his  kuangcao,  a  balance 
achieved  through  the  creative  utilization  of  earlier 
styles,  demonstrates  how  a  great  calligrapher  could 
rise  to  the  challenge  posed  by  an  ancient  debate 
and  achieve  a  creative  resolution. 

Innovation  in  calligraphy  is  defined  by  creative 
engagement  with  tradition.  Mastery  of  rules  and 
methods  is  prerequisite,  but  must  be  conjoined  with 
the  confidence  and  ability  to  express  one's  own 
vision.  Ultimately,  what  allows  ZhuYunming's  and 
Wang  Duo's  calligraphy  to  succeed  is  not  a 
reprising  of  what  others  had  done  before,  but  the 
palpable  sense  of  two  artists  molding  the  past  to  suit 
the  needs  of  the  present.  In  their  works, 
calligraphy 's  immediacy  is  once  more  confirmed. 


SOURCES    FOR    FIGURES 

Fig.  1 .  After  Smcai  tuhui 
(Taipei,  1970). 

Fig.  3.  After  Gugong  bowuyuan 
cang  lidai  fashu  xuanji.  vol.  3 
(Beijing,  1982). 

Fig.  6.  After  Gugong  bowuyuan 
cang  lidai  fashu  xuanji,  vol.  3 
(Beijing,  1982). 

Fig.  8.  After  Shodo  zenshu, 
vol.  2,  pi.  118  (Tokyo,  1954— 1961). 

Fig.  a.  After  Tang  Zhang  Xu 
caoshu  gushi  sitic  (Beijing, 
1962). 

Fig.  10.  After  Gugong 
bowuyuan  cang  lidai  fashu 
xuanji,  vol.  1  (Beijing,  1982). 

Fig.  li.Aftct  Yan  Zhenqing, 
vol.  5,  pi.  241  (Beijing,  1985). 

NOTES 

1.  Huainanzi  zhuyi  (reprint, 
Taibei:  Hualian  chubanshe, 
1968),  p.  116. 


2.  Stories  of  individuals  active 
in  the  Eastern  Han  whose 
writing  was  preserved  by  those 
who  read  qualities  of 
personality  into  the  calligraphy 
are  recounted  by  Lothar 
Ledderose,  Mi  Fu  and  the 
Classical  Tradition  of  Chinese 
Calligraphy  (Princeton: 
Princeton  University  Press, 
1979)- PP- 30-3I. 

3.  "For  presenting  the  desires 
of  the  inner  heart  and 
communicating  that  which 
others  do  not  comprehend, 
nothing  can  compare  with 
words  (yan).  For  spreading  and 
explicating  the  affairs  of  the 
world,  recording  them  for 
longevity  and  illuminating 
them  far,  making  manifest  that 
which  cannot  be  seen  of 
antiquity  and  transmitting  for  a 
thousand  miles  that  which  is 
not  understood,  nothing  can 
compare  with  writing  (shu). 
Thus,  words  are  the  sounds  of 
the  heart.  Writing  is  pictures  of 
the  heart.  By  the  forms  of  the 
sounds  and  pictures,  superior 
and  lesser  people  are 
distinguished.  Sounds  and 
pictures — by  these,  superior 
and  lesser  people  move  ones 
feelmgs."Yang  Xiong,  Fa  yan, 
juan  4,  pp.  2b— 3  a,  in  Han  Wei 
congshu,  vol.  24  (Taipei:Yiwen 
yinshuguan,  1967).  It  would 
appear  that  by  "wnting,"Yang 
Xiong  is  referring  primarily  to 
the  content  of  the  written 
word.  In  later  times,  however, 
Yang  Xiong's  comment  was 
clearly  associated  with  the  art 
of  calligraphy. 

4.  Mi  Fu,"Ba  mige  fatie,"  in 
Huang  Bosi,  Dongguan  ynlim 
(reprint,  Taipei:  Guoli 
zhongyang  tushuguan,  1974), 
juan  1 ,  p.  46a— b. 

5.  The  two  scrolls  are  "Poems 
Playtully  Written  and  Presented 
to  My  Friends,  About  to 
Embark  forTiao  Stream,"  in 
the  collection  of  the  Palace 
Museum,  Beijing,  and  "Poems 
on  Sichuan  Silk,"  in  the 
collection  of  the  National 
Palace  Museum,  Taipei.  See 
Peter  Sturman,  Mi  Fu:  Style 
and  the  Art  of  Calligraphy  in 
Northern  Song  China  (New 
Haven:  Yale  University  Press, 
1997),  chap.  2. 

6.  Dong  Qichang,  Rongtai  ji 
(reprint, Taipei:  Zhongyang 
tushuguan,  1968),  juan  4,  p.  23b. 

7.  Suojing,  "Caoshu  zhuang," 


in  Peiwenzhai  shuhuapu,juau  i, 
pp.  nb-i2a,  Siku  quanshu  ed. 
(reprint,  Shanghai:  Shanghai 
guji  chubanshe,  19S7). 

8.  Huang Tingjian,"Ba  Wang 
Jinqing  shu,"  in  Shangu  ji,  Siku 
quanshu  ed.,juan  29,  p.  I9a-b. 

9.  Chiang Yee,  Chinese 
Calligraphy  (reprint, 
Cambridge:  Harvard  University 
Press,  1973),  pp.  11-12. 

10.  When  Zhang  Zhao  was 
found  delinquent  in  his  task  of 
helping  to  pacify  the  Miao 
tribe  of  the  southwest  in  1735 
and  consequently  ordered  to 
be  executed,  he  was  pardoned 
by  Qianlong,  owing,  it  is  said, 
to  their  mutual  interest  in 
calligraphy.  Zhang  Zhao  was 
also  an  eminent  painter  at  the 
Qing  court  and  a  prominent 
figure  in  the  compilation  of 
Shiqu  baoji,  the  Qmg  imperial 
catalogue  ot  paintings  and 
calligraphy.  Arthur  Hummel, 
ed.,  Eminent  Chinese  of  the 
Ch'ing  Period  (Washington, 
D.C.:  Library  ot  Congress, 
1943),  pp.  24-25. 

11.  Zhang  Zhao's  models  for 
standard  script  were  Dong 
Qichang  (1555-1636)  andYan 
Zhenqing  (709-7S5).  I  am 
referring  here  to  the 
meticulous  manner  in  which 
Zhang  Zhao  writes,  which 
recalls  that  of  the  early  Tang 
writers. 

12.  Shen  C.Y.  Fu,  Traces  of  the 
Brush  (New  HavemYale 
University  Art  Gallery,  1977), 
p.  211,  citing  a  colophon  by 
Zhu  Yunming  in  which  he 
discusses  copying  a  range  of 
Jin,  Tang,  Song,  and  Yuan 
calligraphers. 

13.  Zhang  Xu  was  celebrated  as 
one  of  the  Eight  Immortals  of 
Wine  in  Du  Fus  poem 
"Yinzhong  baxian  ge,"  in  Du 
shi  xiangzhu  (Beijing: 
Zhonghua  shuju,  1979),  juan  2, 
pp.  80-85.  Other  early  sources 
on  Zhang  Xu  include  Zhu 
Changwen,  Xu  shu  duan,  juan 

1,  in  Chugoku  shown  taikei 
(Tokyo:  Nigensha  shuppansha, 
1977-92),  vol.  4,  pp.  403-4,  and 
Xuanhe  shupu,juan  18,  in 
Chugoku  shown  taikei,  vol.  6, 
p.  47. 

14.  This  scroll  ot  four 
transcribed  poems,  two  by  Yu 
Xin  {513-581)  and  two  by  Xie 
Lmgyun  (385-433),  is 


erroneously  recorded  under 
Xie  Lingyun's  name  in 
Huizong's  Xuanhe  shupu  (juan 
16)  of  circa  1120.  In  recent 
years  both  Xu  Bangda  and  Qi 
Gong  have  both  pointed  out 
that  a  changed  character  in  one 
ot  the  verses  may  reflect  the 
avoidance  of  a  character  that 
was  taboo  in  the  early 
Northern  Song  period.  By  this 
reasoning,  the  calligraphy 
would  date  from  after  1012 
(but  somewhat  before 
Huizong's  reign).  See  Xu 
Bangda,  Gu  shuhua  weie  kaobian 
(Nanjing:  J langsu  guji 
chubanshe,  1984),  pp.  94-98; 
and  Qi  Gong,  "Jiu  ti  Zhang 
Xu  caoshu  gushi  tie  bian,"  in 
Qi  Gong  conggao  (Beijing: 
Zhonghua  shuju,  1981), 
pp.  90-100. 

15.  The  stele  is  titled  "Record 
ot  the  Langguan  Stone."  See  Su 
Shi,  "Shu  Tang  shi  liujia  shu 
hou,"  in  Su  Shi  wenji  (reprint, 
Beijing:  Zhonghua  shuju, 
1986),  juan  69,  p.  2206. 

16.  Huang  Tingjian,"Ti 
Jiangben  fatie,"  in  Shanggu  ji, 
juan  28,  pp.  iob-na. 

17.  Fu,  Traces  oj  the  Brush, 
pp.  214-15. 

18.  Dong  Shi,  Shu  hi,  Siku 
quanshu  ed.,juan  2,  p.  6b. 

19.  "Tang  Yan  Lugong  shu  Cao 
bei,"  in  Ouyang  Xiu,  Ouyang 
Kin  quanji  (reprint,  Hong 
Kong:  Guanzhi  shuju,  n.d.), 
juan  6,  p.  31.  See  also  Ronald 
Egan,"Ou-yang  Hsiu  and  Su 
Shih  on  Calligraphy,"  Harvard 
foumal  of  Asiatic  Studies  49, 

no.  2  {December  1989),  p.  372. 

20.  See  Mingshui  Hung's  entry 
on  Wang  Duo  in  L.  Carnngton 
Goodrich,  ed..  Dictionary  of 
Ming  Biography  (New  York  and 
London:  Columbia  University 
Press,  1976),  vol.  2,  pp.  1434—36. 


CALLIGRAPHY 


Calligraphy  and 
Painting — The  Essence 
of  a  Civilization 


Liu  Jiu'an 

Researcher,  Palace  Museum,  Beiiin? 


The  five-thousand-year  history  of 
Chinese  civilization  has  shaped  the  cul- 
ture and  art  of  the  Chinese  people.  The 
arts  of  painting  and  calligraphy  are 
rooted  in  this  ancient  civilization.  They 
are  fruits  borne  by  it,  and  through  their 
unique  artistic  expressiveness  and  pro- 
found artistic  inner  content,  they  also 
epitomize  one  aspect  of  it.  Just  as  Chinese 


civilization  is  generally  regarded  as  one  of  the  classic 
civilizations  of  world  history,  so  too  are  Chinese 
painting  and  calligraphy  classic  types  among  the 
world's  art  forms. 

This  exhibition  features  the  works  of  thirty-seven 
painters  and  calligraphers,  ranging  from  the  middle 
of  the  Northern  Song  dynasty  in  the  mid-eleventh 
century  through  the  middle  of  the  late  Qing 
dynasty  in  the  eighteenth  century.  These 
outstanding  works,  selected  from  museums 
throughout  mainland  China,  compose  in  microcosm 
a  history  of  the  development  of  painting  and 
calligraphy  during  this  period.  For  instance,  Wang 
Shen's  Misty  Riper  and  Layered  Hills  (cat.  184),  the 
Southern  Song  Snowy  Landscape  (cat.  186),  and  Zhao 
Kui's  In  the  Spirit  of  Poems  by  Du  Fu  (cat.  185),  taken 
together,  succincdy  epitomize  the  rapid 
developments  in  landscape  painting  during  the 
Northern  and  Southern  Song  dynasties. 


members  of  the  educated  elite  using  a  deliberately 
plain,  even  awkward  manner  intended  to  signify 
their  status  as  noble-minded  amateurs.  They  claimed 
to  paint  only  for  self-expression,  "as  a  lodging  for 
[their]  feelings"  (Ni  Zan),  never  at  the  behest  of  a 
patron  or  for  the  marketplace.  Wang  Meng's 
Dwelling  in  the  Qingbian  Mountains  (cat.  189)  reveals 
only  to  the  closest  inspection  the  dwelling  of  a 
recluse,  to  which  the  craggy,  bristling  mountain 
seems  to  deny  all  access — an  emblem  of  the  literati 
ideal  of  literally  forsaking  and  spiritually 
transcending  the  mundane  world.  Ni  Zan's  Six 
Gentlemen  (cat.  188)  uses  six  trees,  upright  and 
unbending,  to  allude  to  the  austere  integrity  of  the 
literati.  Though  the  first  painting  teems  with 
writhing  forms  and  the  second  is  almost  minimalist, 
both  of  them  slight  pictorial  description  and 
emphasize  instead  the  quality  of  the  brush  stroke, 
which  was  held  to  express  the  character  of  the 
painter. 


Misty  Rii>er  and  Layered  Hills  invokes  a  vast 
panorama  in  the  depiction  of  a  single  scene.  Snout)* 
Landscape  uses  instead  the  classic  allusive  technique 
of  the  renowned  Southern  Song  landscape  artist  Ma 
Yuan  (act.  late  I2th-early  13th  c),  suggesting  the 
immensity  of  the  mountains  by  showing  only  their 
peaks  and  not  their  bases.  The  buildings  have  been 
drawn  not  as  architectural  renderings  but  freehand, 
without  benefit  of  straightedge,  and  the  dominant 
mood  is  one  of  quiet  and  solitude  in  a  setting  of 
great  beauty.  Very  few  of  Ma  Yuan 's  paintings  have 
survived  to  the  present,  but  this  anonymous  scroll 
conveys  some  sense  of  them.  The  Qianlong  emperor 
of  the  Qing  dynasty  sought  to  express  the  essence 
of  Zhao  Kui's  small  painting  of  a  bamboo  grove 
(cat.  185)  in  the  following  couplet: 

The  tranquil  lotus  and  verdant  creek  reject  the 
summer's  heat, 

And  in  the  depths  of  the  bamboo  grove  fans  are 
unfurled  in  the  little  pavilion. 

This  emperor's  couplet  alludes  consciously  to  a 
verse  by  the  renowned  Tang  dynasty  poet  Du  Fu: 

The  depths  of  the  bamboo  grove  urge  the 

visitor  to  stay 

And  enjoy  the  coolness  of  the  tranquil  lotus. 

Hence  the  title  of  the  painting.  To  paraphrase  the 
great  Song  poet  Su  Dongpo:  In  the  words  of  the 
poem  we  find  the  painting;  in  the  lines  of  the 
painting  we  find  the  poem.  This  masterpiece  of 
Chinese  "poetic  painting"  is  also  the  only  known 
work  by  Zhao  Kui. 

During  the  Yuan  dynasty  paintings  as  pictures  of 
things  and  paintings  as  cosmic  metaphors  began  to 
be  displaced  by  literati  paintings — executed  by 


From  the  mid-Ming  period  prosperous  southeastern 
cities  such  as  Suzhou  and  Songjiang  in  Jiangsu 
tended  to  attract  literati  painters.  These  urban  literati 
transferred  their  love  of  nature  and  the  bucolic  life 
to  their  gardens  and  studios,  which  became  favorite 
artistic  subjects.  Wen  Zhengming's  Studio  of  True 
Appreciation  (cat.  197)  depicted  the  study  of  Hua  Xia 
(b.  ca.  1498),  the  most  famous  collector  of  his  day. 
Shen  Zhou,  in  Eastern  Villa  (cat.  196),  abjured  his 
usual  broad  brush  strokes  in  favor  of  a  meticulously 
detailed  picture  of  the  garden  residence  of  his 
literatus  friend  Wu  Kuan  (1435— 1504).  Likewise,  Qiu 
Ying's  Playing  the  Flute  by  Pine  and  Stream  (cat.  195) 
expresses  the  literati  pastoral  ideal.  From  the  mid- 
Ming  onward,  the  literati  ideal  dominated  Chinese 
culture  and  society,  and  the  less  rigorously  austere 
examples  of  literati  painting  found  acceptance  at 
court  and  among  the  mercantile  class  as  well  as 
among  the  scholar-official  elite. 

From  the  outset  Qing  painting  displayed  a  rich 
diversity.  Wang  Shimin  (1592— 1680),  Wang  Jian 
(1598— 1677),  Wang  Hui  (1632— 1717),  and  Wang 
Yuanqi  (1642— 1715),  collectively  known  as  the  "Four 
Wangs"  of  Chinese  art  history,  primarily  carried  on 
the  literati  landscape  traditions  of  the  early  Song 
and  Yuan  dynasties.  Artistic  archaism — paintings 
alluding  to  the  styles  of  earlier  masters — became 
fashionable  at  court  and  among  the  upper  classes 
generally.  The  literati  style,  revolutionary  during  the 
Ming,  became  the  new  orthodoxy  of  Qing 
painting,  exemplified  by  the  "Four  Wangs" 
(especially  the  first  three)  and  their  epigones. 
Contemporaneously,  Bada  Shanren,  Shitao, 
Hongren,  and  Kuncan,  collectively  known  as  the 
"Four  Monks"  of  art  history,  expressed  their  inner 
turmoil  at  the  fall  of  the  Ming  and  triumph  of  the 
non-Han  Qing  dynasty  in  powerfully  individualistic 
works.  Take,  for  instance,  Ducks  and  Lotuses  (cat.  210) 


CALLIGRAPHY   AND    PAINTING  — THE    ESSENCE    OF   A    CIVILIZATION 


172 


by  Bada  Shanren  (Zhu  Da),  who  was  a  descendant 
of  the  Ming  imperial  family.  He  used  the  splashed- 
ink  method  to  draw  the  lotus  blossoms,  and  hooked 
brush  strokes  to  depict  the  rocks  in  the  pond,  with 
just  the  slightest  use  of  pale  ink  to  limn  the  rocks. 
The  Qing  painter  Zheng  Xie  (1693-1765)  inscribed 
on  this  painting,  "Few  ink  drops,  many  teardrops," 
alluding  both  to  the  drawing  and  to  the  artist's  grief 
and  anger  over  the  loss  of  his  country  and  family. 

Distinct  regional  schools  in  abundance  arose  during 
the  Qing.  Gong  Xian  (cat.  209),  Zou  Zhe 
(cat.  212),  Gao  Cen  (cat.  214),  and  others  who  were 
active  around  the  Nanjing  area  were  known  as  the 
Jinling  school,  while  Gao  Xiang  (cat.  215), Yuan 
Jiang  (cat.  213),  and  others  were  active  in  the 
Yangzhou  area.  Even  artists  working  in  the  same 
region  and  grouped  into  the  same  school  show 
distinctive  characteristics.  The  style  and  method  of 
painting  of  Yuan  Jiang's  Garden  for  Gazing  clearly 
differ  from  Gao  Xiang's  Finger-snap  Pavilion.Tbis 
wealth  of  expressiveness,  the  artistic  hallmark  of  the 
period,  reflected  the  variety  of  artistic  traditions 
available  to  painters  during  the  Qing  dynasty. 

Elevating  the  writing  of  words  into  an  art  form  was 
an  inspired  development.  The  five  pieces  of 
calligraphy  exhibited  here  exemplify  four  principal 
calligraphic  scripts,  namely,  clerical,  standard, 
cursive,  and  wild  cursive.  Perhaps  no  other  art  form 
is  as  condensed  and  abbreviated  as  calligraphy,  or  as 
expressive  of  the  artist.  For  instance,  the  Ming 
calligrapher  Zhu  Yunming,  known  as  a  free  spirit 
and  unbridled  personality,  was  a  master  of  all  scripts 
but  with  a  particular  affinity  for  the  wild  cursive 
script.  In  The  Terrace  of  Ode  to  the  Wind  (cat.  179)  his 
brush  moves  with  abandon — a  display  of  the 
writer's  naturally  uninhibited  character — yet  the 
writing  shows  a  firm  and  steady  hand.  Zhang 
Zhao's  scroll  of  the  poem  "Seventh  Month"  from 
the  Odes  of  Bin  (cat.  182)  uses  a  dignified  and 
poised  standard  script  that  shows  the  influence  of 
the  calligrapher  Yan  Zhenqing  (709—785)  of  the 
Tang,  while  also  reflecting,  in  its  poise  and 
elegance,  Zhang's  long  tenure  at  court.  In  contrast, 
Deng  Shiru,  who  never  held  any  official  post,  took 
as  his  models  the  inscriptions  on  stone  tablets  of 
the  Han  and  Wei  dynasties,  and  these  helped  shape 
the  dense,  archaic  style  seen  in  his  Couplet  in  seven- 
character  lines,  written  in  clerical  script  (cat.  183). 


allusiveness  made  possible  by  that  concept,  the 
freedom  from  the  need  to  depict  literally  and 
completely.  In  Snowy  Landscape,  for  example,  only 
the  mountaintops  are  shown,  while  the  bases  are 
left  to  our  imaginations,  lending  the  landscape  far 
greater  monumentality  than  if  the  mountains  had 
been  shown  in  their  entirety.  The  Chinese  use  of 
monochrome  ink  alone  is  a  prime  example  of  the 
penchant  for  allusion.  Third  is  the  creative  leeway 
given  to  subjectivity  and  expressiveness  without 
ever  abandoning  description  in  favor  of  abstraction; 
this  fusion  of  expression  and  objective  description 
is  summed  up  in  Bada  Shanren's  Ducks  and  Lotuses. 
Even  calligraphy,  which  is  wholly  abstract,  involves 
a  complex  process  of  "encompassing  a  million 
particularities  and  abstracting  them  into  a  single 
image."  The  theory  that  calligraphy  and  painting 
had  a  common  divine  origin,  and  that  the  two  arts 
have  "different  names  but  a  common  form,"  dates 
at  least  from  the  ninth  century  and  has  never  been 
questioned  since.  That  same  theory  has  given  rise  to 
"the  three  perfections" — works  in  which  poetry, 
calligraphy,  and  painting  are  integrated  into  one 
totality,  in  which  each  form  alludes  to  and 
completes  the  others.  Fourth  is  the  insistence  on 
inner  refinement — "freedom  from  vulgarity" — of 
the  artists  and  of  their  works,  for  the  simple  reason 
that  only  a  person  of  great  understanding  and 
cultivation  could  comprehend  the  preceding  three 
characteristics.  Last  is  the  honor  paid  to  the 
creation  and  even  the  collecting  of  paintings  and 
calligraphy,  activities  generally  considered  to  denote 
persons  of  understanding,  delicacy  of  perception, 
and  moral  fastidiousness. 

These  ancient  works  of  Chinese  painting  and 
calligraphy  are  material  embodiments  of  the 
Chinese  civilization.  They  touch  our  hearts, 
stimulate  our  minds,  and  nurture  our  continuing 
growth. 

Translated,  from  the  Chinese,  by  June  Mei. 


Taken  together,  the  works  in  this  exhibition 
disclose  the  distinctive  characteristics — the 
leitmotifs — of  Chinese  painting  and  calligraphy. 
First  is  the  central  role  of  people  as  subjects.  Even 
unpeopled  landscapes  embody  the  adage  attributed 
to  Confucius,  "The  virtuous  delight  in  mountains, 
and  the  wise  delight  in  waters,"  an  association 
deeply  rooted  in  the  ancient  philosophic  concept 
that  "Heaven  and  man  are  one."  Second  is  the 


CALLIGRAPHY    AND    PAINTING  — THE    ESSENCE    OF    A    CIVILIZATION 


173 


Chinese  Painting 
Innovation  After 
"Progress"   Ends 


The  time  is  long  past  when  Western 
specialists  in  the  history  of  Chinese 
painting  have  had  to  be  defensive  about 
the  status  of  their  subject  within  world 
art.  A  succession  of  major  exhibitions,  the 
building  of  impressive  museum  and 
private  collections,  and  an  outpouring  of 
substantial  publications  both  scholarly  and 
popular  over  the  past  half-century  or  so 


James  Cahill 

Professor  Emeritus,  History  of  Art, 
University  of  California,  Berkeley 


174 


have  instilled  it  firmly  in  the  consciousness  of  both 
academics  and  the  larger  community  of  art-lovers 
as  ranking  among  the  supreme  artistic  achievements 
of  any  culture.  And  yet  a  curious  belief  about 
Chinese  painting  persists — that  in  its  later  phases  it 
is  essentially  a  performance  art,  within  which  the 
artist  is  reduced  to  making  individual 
interpretations  of  long-established  formulae. 

Two  examples  can  represent  quite  a  few  more. 
E.  H.  Gombrich,  in  his  influential  Art  and  Illusion, 
reproduces  from  a  seventeenth-century  Chinese 
manual  for  beginning  painters  a  page  of 
instructions  for  painting  orchids  in  ink,  stroke  by 
stroke.  This  he  takes  to  exemplify  China's  "complete 
reliance  on  acquired  vocabularies,"  commenting 
that  "there  is  nothing  in  Western  art  which 
compares  with  this  conception  of  painting,"  which 
he  characterizes  as  a  "combination  of  traditionalism 
and  respect  for  the  uniqueness  of  every 
performance"'  More  recently,  Arthur  Danto,  in 
"Ming  and  Qing  Paintings,"  misunderstands 
Sherman  Lee's  opening  statement  in  a  catalogue 
essay  that  by  the  beginning  of  the  Ming  dynasty 
"the  materials,  formats,  and  techniques  of  painting 
had  developed  in  flexibility  and  complexity  to  a 
point  where  further  subtlety  was  both 
unimaginable  and  superfluous."2  Danto  takes  Lee's 
statement  to  mean  that,  in  Danto's  words,  "all  the 
truths  of  Chinese  painting  were  in  place  before  that 
protracted  [Ming-Qing]  period  began."  And  Danto, 
too,  contrasts  this  reading  of  the  Chinese  situation 
with  what  happened  during  the  same  period  in 
Western  art:  "Imagine,  then,  an  exhibition  which 
begins  witli  Giotto  and  ends  with  Gauguin."  One 
scarcely  could  say  ofWestern  painting  during  that 
time,  as  Danto  believes  we  can  say  of  Ming  and 
Qmg  painting,  that  "everything  was  already  in  place 
at  the  beginning,  further  development  of  which 
[sic|  was  'unimaginable  and  superfluous.'"'  In 
support  of  his  view,  Danto  cites  observations  by 
Roger  Fry  about  the  "strange  atrophy  of  the 
creative  spirit"  that  afflicted  later  Chinese  art  and 
about  its  "excessive  reverence  for  the  tradition."1 


One  might  see  these  simply  as  misreadings:  there  is 
a  large  gap  between  the  woodblock-printed 
painting  manual  cited  by  Gombrich  and  the 
practice  of  serious  later  Chinese  artists  that  he 
wrongly  took  it  to  represent;  and  there  is  an  even 
larger  gap  between  Sherman  Lee's  unobjectionable 
statement  that  further  subtlety  was  unimaginable  in 
the  later  centuries  in  China  (one  could  persuasively 
argue  that  Gauguin  does  not  represent  any  advance 
in  subtlety  over  Giotto)  and  Danto's  construing  this 
to  mean  that  no  further  development  took  place.  But 
it  is  less  a  misreading,  I  think,  than  a  proclivity 
among  Western  scholars  (even  good  ones) 
unfamiliar  with  Chinese  painting:  to  believe  a 
version  of  its  history  in  which  innovation  ended 
about  the  fourteenth  century  and  to  take  what  they 
see  and  read  as  evidence  for  that  version. 

What  lies  behind  this  inclination  to  see  the  later 
centuries  of  Chinese  painting  as  essentially 
repeating  the  earlier  ones?  In  part,  it  is  a  carry-over 
from  the  ill-informed  belief  of  pioneer  Western 
writers  on  Chinese  painting  that  its  great  creative 
period  ended  with  the  Song  dynasty  in  the  late 
thirteenth  century,  and  that  all  beyond  was 
repetition  and  decline.  No  one  seriously  engaged 
with  Chinese  painting  believes  that  now,  but  this 
attitude  no  doubt  continues  to  resonate  in  the 
minds  of  people  who  have  read  the  old  books  or 
taken  courses  with  the  old  teachers.  Another 
important  reason  is  the  inability  of  even  sensitive 
observers  to  recognize  stylistic  distinctions, 
including  large  and  crucial  ones,  within  an 
unfamiliar  art,  whether  it  be  painting  or  music  or 
poetry.  I  noted  this  often-encountered 
phenomenon  at  the  beginning  ot  my  book  The 
Compelling  Image,  recalling  the  experience  ot  taking 
a  distinguished  and  recently  arrived  Chinese 
connoisseur  around  the  National  Gallery  in 
Washington  (yes,  from  Giotto  to  Gauguin  and 
beyond)  and  being  told:  "Very  nice,  but  they  all 
look  alike."4  Danto's  admission  that  the  works  in 
the  Ming-Qing  exhibition,  spanning  some  six 
centuries,  seemed  to  him  "oddly  contemporaneous" 


CHINESE    PAINTING:    INNOVATION    AFTER    "PROGRESS"    ENDS 


175 


is  another  case  of  the  same;  both  responses  betray 
limitations  not  in  the  art  but  in  the  observer,  who 
infers  sameness  from  his  own  failure  to  perceive,  or 
at  least  to  properly  evaluate,  difference.  Of  course 
Chinese  painting  appears  to  have  had  no 
development  if  the  later  ones  appear  no  different 
from  the  early  ones. 

Also  accounting  in  some  part  for  this  phenomenon 
is  the  insistence  of  many  of  the  Chinese  painters 
themselves,  in  inscriptions  on  their  works,  that  they 
are  "imitating"  some  old  master:  taken  literally,  such 
inscriptions  would  indeed  attest  to  derivativeness. 
But  to  accept  such  statements  at  face  value  would 
be  equivalent  to  charging  T.  S.  Eliot  with  being 
derivative  because  he  claims  in  a  certain  passage  to 
be  "imitating"  Chaucer.  When  one  looks  beyond 
the  inscriptions  to  compare  the  paintings 
themselves  with  their  putative  models,  it  is 
immediately  obvious  that  the  old  style  is  usually  no 
more  than  a  frame  of  reference,  a  jumping-off  point 
for  formal  explorations  that  can  be  as  original  as 
any  in  painting.  All  art,  in  some  sense,  imitates  other 
art;  the  Chinese  have  simply  recognized  and 
institutionalized  such  derivation  and  made  it  more 
self-conscious,  more  a  matter  of  deliberate  and 
sophisticated  allusion  than  Western  artists  generally 
have,  at  least  until  very  recent  times. 

Even  after  we  have  recognized  all  these  reasons  for 
the  derogation  of  later  Chinese  painting,  however, 
we  must  admit  and  come  to  terms  with  certain 
elements  of  truth  that  underlie  the  perceptions  of 
repetitiveness.  It  is  generally  true  (with  exceptions, 
as  always)  that  later  Chinese  artists  were  more  open 
in  their  reliance  on  established  convention  and 
insisted  less  on  direct  observation  of  the  world  than 
Western  artists  of  the  same  period  usually  did.  One 
must  quickly  add,  however,  that  the  best  of  them 
accomplished  such  creative  and  even  radical 
manipulations  of  the  conventions  that,  again,  the 
outcomes  can  scarcely  be  seen  as  any  real  loss  of 
originality.  It  can  also  be  argued  that  after  the  end 
of  the  Song  dynasty  in  the  late  thirteenth  century 
no  clear,  unilinear  development  can  be  observed  in 
Chinese  painting,  in  the  sense  of  successive 
advances  in  representational  techniques,  or  in 
pervasive  stylistic  shifts  like  those  defined  by  the  old 
art  historians  for  European  painting — from 
Medieval  to  early  to  high  to  late  Renaissance, 
Baroque  to  Rococo  to  Romantic  to  Modern. 

But  granting  this  need  not  carry  any  implication 
that  Chinese  painting  ceased  to  be  innovative.  It 
might,  alternatively,  be  argued  that  the  great  global 
shifts  took  place  earlier  in  China — that  their 
equivalent  of  the  Giotto-to-Gauguin  phase 
happened  between  the  Tang  and  Yuan  dynasties 
(i.e.,  between  the  eighth  and  fourteenth 
centuries) — and  ended  sooner,  so  that  the  Chinese 


arrived  in  their  painting,  long  before  we  did,  at  "the 
end  of  the  history  of  art."  This  is  not  the  place  to 
make  that  argument  at  length,  nor  am  I  the  person 
to  make  it;  an  unpublished  book  by  James  Elkins, 
entitled  "Chinese  Landscape  Painting  as  Object 
Lesson"  (1995)  presents  an  interesting  case  for  this 
large  and  highly  controversial  proposal,  in  terms 
with  which  I  am  generally  in  agreement.  In  any 
case,  leaving  aside  particulars  of  argument,  this  is 
the  direction  in  which  any  real  understanding  of 
later  Chinese  painting's  "failure  to  develop"  must  be 
charted  out.  Instead  of,  in  effect,  writing  off  later 
Chinese  painting  as  attractive  but  more  or  less 
irrelevant  to  our  own  artistic  concerns,  we  might 
better  look  to  it  for  ways  out  of  what  may  seem 
perilously  like  an  end-game  situation  (Elkins  s  term, 
adopted  from  chess  and  Duchamp).  A  tradition  that 
folds  so  insistently  back  on  itself,  that  comes  to  be 
caught  up  in  such  a  potentially  paralyzing 
engagement  with  its  own  past,  obliges  its  artists  to 
devise  stratagems  for  escaping  repetition  and 
stagnation.  An  account  of  Ming  and  Qing 
painting — a  non-history,  it  might  be  called — could 
be  constructed  around  the  successive  stratagems 
that  were  devised  to  this  end,  both  by  individual 
masters  and  within  particular  movements  and 
schools.  Such  an  account  would  acknowledge  some 
of  these  stratagems  to  have  been  relatively 
conservative — the  disciplined,  somewhat 
intellectualized  uses  of  old  styles  by  such  Ming 
masters  as  Shen  Zhou  and  Wen  Zhengming,  for 
instance;  it  would  recognize  others,  such  as  the 
brilliant  transformations  of  older  pictorial  materials 
carried  out  by  the  Individualist  masters  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  as  radical,  even  revolutionary. 

Most  of  all,  such  an  account  would  recognize  that 
critical  theorizing,  in  writings  that  are  sophisticated 
and  often  contentious,  affected  the  later  practice  of 
Chinese  painting  much  as  such  theorizing  has 
affected  the  recent  practice  of  painting  in  the  West. 
Many  of  the  Ming  and  Qmg  artists,  along  with 
their  scholar-critic  contemporaries,  argued 
vehemently  and  interestingly  tor  this  or  that 
position  on  what  the  artist  should  paint  and  how, 
drawing  their  arguments  from  a  diversity  of 
grounds — aesthetic,  philosophical,  moral,  political, 
economic.  In  both  traditions,  the  artists  themselves 
might  talk  themselves  into  corners.  But  proponents 
of  established  ideologies  could  also  make 
moralizing  judgments — Confucian  or  Marxist  or 
other — proclaiming  certain  kinds  of  painting  to  be 
low-class  or  inauthentic  or  otherwise  unacceptable, 
thus  effectively  shutting  off  broad  ranges  of  options 
that  artists  might  otherwise  have  found  viable  and 
fruitful.  Or,  if  they  did  not  manage  to  shut  them  off 
completely,  at  least  they  made  them  difficult  and 
unrewarding  to  pursue,  so  that  those  who  pursued 
them  risked,  and  usually  incurred,  critical 
condemnation.  No  artistic  dilemma  could  resonate 


CHINESE    PAINTING:    INNOVATION    AFTER    "PROGRESS"    ENDS 


176 


more  painfully  with  the  predicament  of  artists 
today.  It  is  not  that  the  Chinese  artists,  freed  of  such 
pressures,  would  have  made  their  choices  purely  on 
aesthetic  grounds,  unconcerned  with  the  broader 
issues  of  their  time;  but  they  surely  had  their  own 
agendas,  as  their  writings  sometimes  indicate,  which 
did  not  necessarily  correspond  with  the  established 
systems  that  sought  to  control  them  and  usually  did. 
Counterforces  to  the  coercion  of  the  literati  critics 
were  few  and  mostly  weak. 

Two  opposing  forces,  one  aimed  at  narrowing 
options  for  artists  and  so  inducing  them  to  paint  in 
the  "right"  way,  the  other  at  broadening  again  the 
spectrum  of  acceptable  styles  or  breaking  the 
boundaries  altogether,  are  represented  by  the  two 
major  writers  on  painting  in  the  late  Ming  and 
early  Qing:  Dong  Qichang  (1555— 1636)  and  Shitao 
(1642- 1 707). The  two  can  be  seen  also  as  arguing  in 
opposite  directions  about  what  was  for  both  of 
them  the  central  dilemma:  how  to  stand  up,  as 
creative  and  highly  original  artists,  against  the  nearly 
overpowering  weight  of  the  past.  They  establish 
themselves  as  the  most  powerful  proponents  of  two 
different  ways  out. 

Dong's  way  was  to  reduce  and  absorb  the  past  by 
making  a  rigorous  selection  of  suitable  models  from 
it,  simplifying  the  history  of  painting  into  two 
"schools,"  or  lineages,  only  one  of  which  he  judged 
to  be  appropriate  for  the  practice  of  a  cultivated 
literatus-amateur  like  himself.  He  then  "imitated" 
the  models  in  this  established  canon  so  freely  that 
the  old  styles  virtually  vanished  under  his  hand, 
transmuted  into  new  structures  within  which  the 
old  are  scarcely  recognizable.  Shitao  s  way  out,  based 
on  a  desperate  recognition  of  the  advanced  state  of 
conventionalization  into  which  much  of  the  art  had 
descended,  was  to  reject  the  past  entirely  and  start 
over,  as  if  situated  at  the  first  dawn  of  painting. 
That,  at  least,  would  be  his  claim  and  the  ideal 
toward  which  he  would  strive  in  some  of  his  late 
and  more  extreme  works.  It  was  a  magnificent  but 
ultimately  unrealizable  attempt — painters  can  no 
more  return  to  a  state  of  pristine  simplicity  than 
anyone  else — and  incapable  of  pointing  a  clear 
direction  out  of  their  common  predicament  for 
artists  who  followed.  Dong  Qichang's  direction, 
carried  on  in  ever  more  exclusionary  ways  by  the 
Orthodox  landscape  masters  who  claimed  to  be  his 
legitimate  successors,  was  to  prove  more  influential, 
but  its  authority  was  sapped  by  the  quick 
debilitation  of  that  landscape  tradition. 

The  capsulized  account  of  Chinese  painting  that 
follows,  while  it  certainly  will  not  substantiate  the 
proposal  outlined  above,  will  accommodate  it,  as 
conventional  histories  that  attempt  broad 
characterizations  of  the  "period  styles"  of  the 
successive  periods  cannot. 


EARLY    PAINTING:    REPRESENTATIONAL 
CONQUESTS 

Early  Chinese  writings  about  painting  praise  its 
capacity  to  arouse  the  feelings  and  responses  that 
the  depicted  thing  would  arouse  if  seen  in  reality. 
Portraits,  for  example,  captured  salient  qualities  of 
the  sitter  and  presented  them  to  the  viewer,  thus 
taking  on  the  Confucian  function  of  preserving  for 
contemplation  models  of  moral  worth  or  depravity. 
The  painting  could  fool  the  viewer  into  confusing 
it  with  the  real  thing:  a  picture  of  a  beautiful 
woman  would  be  mistaken  for  the  person,  a 
painting  offish  hung  on  the  riverbank  would  attract 
otters  to  leap  at  it.  For  this  criterion  of  excellence,  a 
high  degree  of  verisimilitude  and  even  "magic 
realism"  are  obviously  appropriate.  But  these  naive 
views  (as  we  would  see  them)  were  supplanted 
relatively  early  by  recognition  of  the  evocative 
powers  of  paintings  that  transcended  simple 
representation  and  required  of  the  artist  more  than 
descriptive  techniques.  Brief  essays  by  Zong  Bing 
(375-443)  and  Wang  Wei  (415-443)  already  credit 
landscape  painting  with  the  power  to  present 
expansive  and  absorbing  vistas  to  the  entranced 
viewer,  who  can  enjoy  vicariously,  through  the 
artist's  subtle  understanding  and  technical  skill, 
journeys  among  mountains  and  rivers  that  refresh 
the  spirit. 

Pictures  with  the  capacity  to  affect  their  viewers 
that  way,  however,  were  preceded  by  centuries  of 
simpler  landscape  representation,  a  formative  stage 
that  can  be  traced  in  designs  on  bronze  vessels  and 
other  objects,  including  several  in  this  exhibition. 
An  Eastern  Han  (25—220  Ce)  gilt-bronze  vessel  with 
hills  and  animals  (cat.  51)  represents  hilltops  and 
clouds  in  the  simplest  schematic  forms.  By  contrast, 
on  an  inlaid  bronze  chariot  fitting  (cat.  49)  the  hills 
on  which  the  animals  scamper  are  drawn  in 
intricate  linear  arabesques  derived  from  earlier 
dragon  forms,  a  metamorphic  process  common  in 
early  Chinese  art.  Simple,  overlapping  triangular 
peaks  make  up  a  schematic  landscape  (a  "magic 
mountain")  to  which  trees  and  animals  and  figures 
are  added  in  the  splendid  gilded  bronze  incense 
burner  from  the  tomb  of  Prince  Liu  Sheng 
(cat.  50). The  landscape  scenes  on  a  late  Han  relict 
tile  from  Sichuan  Province  (cat.  103)  achieve 
remarkable  (for  that  time)  integrations  of  the 
pictorial  materials  in  space,  and  some  transcending 
of  schematic  forms,  but  the  achievement  was  not 
followed  up,  at  least  on  extant  objects.  Three 
centuries  later,  for  instance,  the  landscape  settings 
for  Buddhist  narratives  on  a  Liang  dynasty 
(502-557)  stele  (cat.  151)  still  display  an  archaic 
system  in  which  rocks  and  trees  and  hilltops 
compartmentalize  the  composition  into  "space 
cells"  within  which  the  figures  and  other  narrative 
elements  are  placed. 


CHINESE    PAINTING:    INNOVATION    AFTER    "PROGRESS"    ENDS 


177 


Surviving  early  landscape  paintings,  or  believable 
copies  of  them,  seem  designed  to  fulfill  the  aims  set 
forth  in  the  texts.  They  typically  offer  densely  filled 
scenes  of  mountains  and  rivers  within  which 
travelers,  mounted  or  on  foot,  move  among  trees; 
cross  bridges;  pass  by  rustic  residences  and  temples. 
The  compositions  may  recede  to  high  horizons, 
demonstrating  the  painter's  ability  to  carry  the 
viewer's  gaze  into  depth.  The  individual  entities  that 
make  up  these  pictures,  especially  those  of  the  Tang 
dynasty  (618-906),  are  typically  drawn  in  fine 
outline  and  colored  with  mineral  pigments.  This 
analytical  outline-and-color  mode,  characteristic  of 
early  Chinese  painting,  encourages  the  viewer  to 
read  the  picture  part  by  part  while  moving  over  its 
richly  detailed  surface. 

By  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries,  the  Five 
Dynasties  (907—960)  and  Northern  Song 
(960—1127)  periods  that  followed  the  collapse  of  the 
Tang,  this  archaic  mode  was  seen  as  charming  but 
unsuited  to  new  directions  in  landscape  painting, 
which  in  these  centuries  was  rising  to  displace 
figural  subjects  as  the  central  concern  of  leading 
artists  and  critics.  Landscapes  in  the  new  manner 
are  dominated  by  earth  masses  rendered  in  broader, 
scumbled  brush  strokes  of  monochrome  ink, 
strongly  varied  in  tone,  which  shape  the  forms  with 
light  and  shadow  while  also  rendering  the  tactile 
qualities  of  their  pitted  surfaces.  Indications  of 
human  presence — buildings,  figures,  bridges — are 
diminished  in  size  and  visually  integrated  into  the 
landscape  setting,  so  that  they  no  longer  command 
the  viewer's  attention.  Beside  the  attractive 
artificialities  of  the  archaic  landscape  mode,  this 
new  manner  can  be  seen  (admittedly,  in  terms 
unacceptable  to  "new  art  history"  practitioners)  as  a 
great  leap  forward  in  naturalism — in  its  power  to 
engage  the  beholder's  vision  with  forms  that  read  as 
truer  to  one's  experience  of  the  physical  world  and 
as  all  but  palpable.  It  was  exactly  the  development 
of  this  new  manner,  combining  refinements  of 
monochrome  ink  tonality  for  effects  of  light  and 
shade  with  systems  of  overlaid  brushwork  to 
differentiate  textures,  that  opened  the  way  to  the 
towering  achievements  of  monumental  landscape  in 
the  Five  Dynasties  and  Northern  Song  periods. 

The  supplanting  of  figural  themes,  including 
narrative,  historical,  and  religious,  by  landscape  at 
such  an  early  period  distinguishes  the  Chinese 
tradition  of  painting  from  all  others,  prompting  us 
to  ask  what  conditions  and  objectives  underlay  this 
crucial  change.  It  is  another  question  too  large  to 
address  here,  except  to  say  that  in  the  hands  of  a 
succession  of  great  masters,  Chinese  landscape 
painting  not  only  developed  to  a  sublime  point  its 
function  of  "making  the  viewer  feel  as  though  he 
were  in  the  very  place,"  thus  allowing  it  to  serve  as 
spiritual  refreshment  for  people  who  could  not 


physically  retire  into  the  mountains,  but  also 
acquired  the  capacity  to  embody  metaphysical 
concepts  in  forms  and  so  convey  them  to  its 
viewers.  The  rise  of  monumental  landscape 
paralleled,  not  coincidentally,  the  great  age  of  Neo- 
Confucian  philosophy,  which  similarly  attributes  a 
coherence  and  order  to  natural  phenomena.  It 
corresponded  also  to  the  ascendancy  of  expressive 
theories  of  painting:  Mi  Fu  (1052-1107/8)  wrote 
that  landscape  "is  a  creation  of  the  mind  and  is 
intrinsically  a  superior  art" — superior,  that  is,  to 
pictures  of  animals  or  human  figures,  which 
could,  in  his  view,  be  done  by  simply  copying 
their  appearances.  These  are,  to  be  sure,  Chinese 
formulations;  our  own  account  of  the  rise 
of  landscape  painting  in  China  would  follow 
other  lines. 

Underlying  the  "great  leap  forward  in  naturalism" 
was  the  development  by  tenth-  and  eleventh- 
century  artists  of  representational  techniques  that 
opened  the  way  to  all  these  achievements. 
Specialists  in  portraying  birds  and  animals  were 
creating  systems  of  patiently  repeated  brush  strokes 
for  natural-looking  renditions  of  plumage  and  fur, 
while  painters  of  interior  scenes  with  figures  were 
working  out  spatial  schemes  as  intricately  readable 
as  any  that  Chinese  artists  would  ever  attempt.  Early 
Song  landscapists  would  refine  the  device  of 
atmospheric  perspective  so  as  to  create  breathtaking 
effects  of  height  and  deep  space,  within  which 
strongly  volumetric  forms  were  shaped  and 
geologically  differentiated  with  new  texture-stroke 
systems.  We  are,  that  is  to  say,  at  that  apogee,  or  roll- 
off  point,  arrived  at  by  the  Chinese  relatively  early 
in  the  collective  mastery  of  representational 
techniques  that  allowed  them  to  create,  when  they 
wished,  paintings  that  could  be  read  as  close  and 
convincing  likenesses  of  the  persons,  things,  or 
scenes  portrayed. 

No  painting  could  better  exemplify  this  observation 
than  the  astonishing  Bamboo,  Old  Tree,  and  Stones  in 
Winter  (fig.  1),  attributed  to  a  tenth-century  master 
named  Xu  Xi  but  in  truth  an  anonymous  work  of 
the  late  tenth  or  early  eleventh  century.  The  subject 
carries  a  metaphorical  meaning  of  survival  and 
integrity  under  harsh  conditions,  but  we  know  this 
only  from  external  literary  evidence:  nothing  in  the 
picture  itself  suggests  that  it  is  other  than  a 
meticulously  detailed,  objective  portrayal  of  a 
passage  of  nature.  The  unknown  artist,  who  has  not 
signed  his  name  but  has  inscribed  "This  bamboo  is 
worth  more  than  a  hundred  pieces  of  gold"  in  tiny 
archaic  characters  (upside  down!  on  a  bamboo 
stalk)  has  concealed  his  hand  throughout,  using 
virtually  no  outlining  or  other  conspicuous  brush 
strokes,  creating  the  image  as  if  entirely  out  of  light 
and  dark,  making  the  picture  seem  more  a  work  of 
nature  than  a  product  of  human  artifice.  In  truth, 


CHINESE    PAINTING:    INNOVATION    AFTER    "PROGRESS"    ENDS 


Fig.  1 .  Anonymous  (attrib.  Xu  Xi,  10th  c). 
Bamboo,  Old  Tree,  and  Stones  in  Winter. 
Late  10th  or  early  nth  c.  Shanghai  Museum. 


put  into  proper  context  the  "non-development"  of 
later  Chinese  painting,  along  with  the  complaints  of 
seventeenth-century  Jesuits  and  other  early  Western 
writers  that  the  failure  of  Chinese  artists  to  employ 
linear  perspective  and  chiaroscuro  made  their 
pictures  flat  and  dead.  A  recognition  of  the  true 
attainment  of  early  Chinese  painting  can  only  be 
humbling. 

LATER    SONG    PAINTING:  THE    PURSUIT    OF 
POETIC    MOOD 

If,  as  argued  here,  the  Chinese  reached  their 
highpoint  in  the  development  of  representational 
techniques  as  early  as  the  tenth— eleventh  century, 
all  the  later  history  of  Chinese  painting  can  be 
constructed  as  a  series  of  moves  away  from  that 
point,  "retreats  from  likeness"  that  take  many 
different  directions.  One  of  these  is  the  literati,  or 
scholar-amateur,  movement  in  painting,  which 
began  in  the  late  Northern  Song  period  but  is 
represented  in  this  exhibition  only  from  the  Yuan 
dynasty  on,  and  so  will  be  discussed  below. 
Spokesmen  for  this  new  movement  were  inclined 
to  adopt  antirepresentational  positions.  Mi  Fu, 
quoted  above,  saw  landscape  painting  as  a  creation 
of  the  artist's  mind;  Su  Shi  (1037— iioi),  the  central 
figure  in  the  movement,  wrote  in  a  poem  that  "If 
someone  talks  of  painting  as  formal  likeness/  His 
way  of  looking  is  like  a  child's." 


the  technical  achievement  it  displays  is  nothing 
short  of  amazing.  Some  technique  of  reserve  was 
probably  used  for  the  light-against-dark  passages; 
but  how  the  subtle  shifts  from  these  to  dark- 
against-light  were  accomplished  is  not  easy  to 
reconstruct.  Like  other  moves  toward  realism  in 
Chinese  painting,  this  one  is  abortive  and  produced 
no  following;  it  was  suppressed,  presumably,  by  a 
critical  dogma  that  condemned  the  pursuit  of 
verisimilitude,  or  "form-likeness,"  as  an  unworthy 
objective  for  painting.  The  work  has  come  down  to 
modern  times  unrecorded  and  unnoticed  by  critics, 
with  none  of  the  collectors'  seals  and  adulatory 
inscriptions  that  embellish  old  paintings  of  more 
prestigious  kinds. 

As  an  exercise  in  comparative  chronology,  we  might 
ask,  "In  what  other  artistic  culture,  at  this  time, 
could  such  a  feat  of  descriptive  naturalism — 
avoidance  ot  artificed  patterning,  near-photographic 
depiction — have  been  accomplished?"  And  if  the 
answer  must  be,  "No  other,"  the  next  question  is, 
"How  many  centuries  must  one  wait  for  anything 
comparable  111  the  West?"  In  descriptive  painting 
techniques  as  in  technology,  the  Chinese  far 
outstripped  the  West  in  early  centuries,  then  />)' 
choice  largely  turned  away  from  that  mode  to  pursue 
other  directions,  while  Western  artists  took  up 
(more  or  less)  the  descriptive  vein  the  Chinese  had 
abandoned.  This  understanding  of  the  matter  will 


About  the  same  time  that  these  scholar-amateurs, 
some  of  whom  held  official  posts  in  the 
government,  were  working  out  their  new  styles  and 
genres  so  as  to  separate  themselves  clearly  from  the 
professional  tradition,  another  group  of  semi- 
amateur  artists  were  taking  a  somewhat  different 
course,  aimed  at  endowing  their  paintings  both 
with  poetic  content  and  with  a  cultivated  kind  of 
archaism  through  allusions  to  early  styles.  This 
group  might  be  called  aristocrat-amateurs,  since 
they  were  associated  with  the  court  and  imperial 
family;  their  socially  and  economically  privileged 
positions  gave  them  access  to  old  masterworks,  and 
their  "quoting"  of  these  in  their  own  paintings 
credited  their  viewers  with  a  correspondingly 
sophisticated  understanding  of  historical  styles.  This 
was  an  art  by  and  for  the  elite. 

Misty  River  and  Layered  Hills  by  Wang  Shen 
(ca.  104S— after  1104)  is  a  fine  example  of  this 
courtly  poetic-archaizing  mode  (cat.  1S4).  Wang 
Shen,  descendant  of  a  military  hero,  son-in-law  a\~ 
an  emperor,  friend  of  Su  Shi.  and  himseli  a 
distinguished  connoisseur  and  collector,  began 
painting  landscape  during  a  period  of  political 
banishment  from  the  capital — his  works  have  been 
read  (bv  Richard  Barnhart,  who  has  written  most 
interestingly  about  him)  as  landscapes  ot  exile."  As  a 
style-conscious  amateur,  he  could  choose  among 
stvles  with  a  freedom  normally  denied  the  full- 


CHINESE    PAINTING:    INNOVATION    AFTER    "PROGRESS"    ENDS 


179 


time,  vocational  masters,  adopting  the  manner  of  his 
great  court-academy  contemporary  Guo  Xi  for  one 
painting,  reviving  the  old  outline-and-color  mode 
from  the  Tang  for  another.  Misty  River  belongs  to 
the  latter  style,  using  green  mineral  pigment  within 
decoratively  repeated  outlines.  Unrolling  the  scroll 
from  right  to  left,  one  traverses  a  long  stretch  of 
empty  silk  that  stands  for  water  and  that  renders  the 
farther  shore  of  cloud-veiled  hills,  when  it 
eventually  appears,  even  more  remote.  The  picture 
echoes,  presumably  by  intent,  paradise  or  isles-of- 
immortals  imagery  in  which  the  green  and  blue 
colors  represent  jade  and  chalcedony.  The  flattening 
and  decorative  richness  that  can  be  seen  as 
genuinely  archaic  in  early  works  (or  close  copies 
after  them)  are  here  elements  in  an  archaistic  mode 
consciously  adopted  for  the  cultural  values  it 
carried. 

Other  members  of  the  Song  imperial  family 
(surnamed  Zhao)  who  painted  include  Zhao 
Lingrang  (also  called  Zhao  Danian;  act.  ca.  1070- 
ca.  1 100),  who  did  bucolic  scenes  of  thatched 
houses  on  the  riverside  which  evoked  the  ideal  of 
escaping  the  sordor  of  the  city  for  a  simple  life  in 
the  (morally  and  physically)  purer  air  of  the 
countryside  (as  none  of  these  artists  could  do  in 
reality);  and  Zhao  Ji,  the  emperor  Huizong 
(r.  1100— 1126),  who  painted  bird-and-flower 
subjects  and  was  especially  taken  with  the  ideal  of 
making  paintings  that  embodied  poetic  concepts, 
enforcing  it  on  the  artists  who  served  in  his 
academy. The  late  Song  painter  Zhao  Km 
(1185-1266)  did  not  belong  to  the  imperial  family 
but  held  a  high  ministerial  post.  The  handscroll 
titled  In  the  Spirit  of  Poems  by  Du  Fu  (cat.  185) 
originally  bore  his  signature,  according  to  a 
colophon  by  a  slightly  later  writer,  but  the  signature 
has  been  lost,  probably  in  remounting.  The  painting 
echoes  a  couplet  from  a  poem  by  the  great  poet  Du 
Fu  (712-770):  "The  depths  of  the  bamboo  grove 
urge  the  visitor  to  stay/  And  enjoy  the  cool  of  the 
tranquil  lotus."  Unrolling  the  scroll,  we  are  taken 
through  groves  ot  bamboo  by  a  stream  and  glimpse 
the  top  of  a  thatched  kiosk  hidden  among  them, 
then  two  servants  bringing  donkeys  along  a  path, 
and  finally,  toward  the  end,  a  man  who  sits  in  a 
waterside  pavilion  and  is  fanned  by  a  servant  as  he 
gazes  out  over  water  lilies.  The  scroll  recreates  the 
quiet  experience  of  escaping  from  the  city  and 
the  heat  into  cool  seclusion;  it  may  represent 
scenery  around  Yangzhou,  where  Zhao  Kui  lived 
for  some  years. 

The  ideal  of  poetic  painting  advocated  by  Emperor 
Huizong  continued  to  pervade  the  output  of  the 
imperial  painting  academy  in  the  Southern  Song,  or 
late  Song,  where  masters  of  transcending  technique 
and  sensitivity  created  works  that  are  among  the 
glories  of  Chinese  painting.  One  of  the  greatest  of 


them  is  Ma  Yuan  (act.  late  I2th-early  13th  century). 
An  unsigned  Snowy  Landscape  (cat.  186)  is  not 
attributed  to  him  but  is  closely  in  his  style  and  may 
well  be  from  his  hand.  Whatever  its  authorship,  it 
belongs  to  a  mode  of  poetic  terseness  that  became 
popular  in  the  late  Song. The  scenery  is  simple:  a 
traveler  with  his  servant  carrying  the  luggage 
approaches  a  Buddhist  temple  in  a  ravine.  Dark 
mists  capture  the  wintry  mood;  earth  banks  and 
hilltops  recede  in  clear  stages,  the  nearer  ones  given 
volume,  the  farthest  in  simple  silhouette.  With  all 
technical  problems  of  creating  effects  of  space  and 
atmosphere  long  solved,  insofar  as  China  was  ever 
to  address  them,  the  artist  could  work  in  a  broad, 
sparse  manner,  reducing  the  pictorial  materials  as  a 
poet  might  evoke  an  extensive  scene  in  a  couplet. 
Art-historical  hindsight  allows  us  to  see  this  as  an 
end-of-an-era  work,  attenuated  in  both  its 
composition  and  its  poetic  content. 

Another  work  that  reveals  the  late  Song  passion  for 
poetic  imagery  is  the  woodblock-printed  book 
Meihua  xishen  pit  ("Album  of  Plum  Blossom 
Portraits")  by  Song  Boren.  First  printed  in  1238,  it 
survives  in  a  single  copy  of  a  1261  reprint  and  has 
been  called  the  world's  first  known  printed  art 
book  (cat.  187).  In  text  and  pictures  it  presents  one 
hundred  aspects,  or  "moods,"  of  blossoming  plum 
branches,  each  comprising  a  poetic  title,  a  simple 
pictorial  image,  and  a  quatrain  (four  five-character 
lines)  arranged  on  a  single  page  with  an  elegance 
that  is  astonishing:  the  book  appears  to  be  the 
earliest  attempt  at  anything  of  the  kind,  in  China  or 
elsewhere.  A  craze  for  blossoming  plum  had  swept 
China  in  the  Southern  Song,  producing  thousands 
of  poems  and  paintings  that  celebrate  its  pure  and 
fragile  beauty.  A  range  of  meanings,  including  the 
erotic  and  the  political,  had  come  to  be  attached  to 
the  theme  (as  explored  in  Maggie  Bickford's  recent 
book  Ink  Plum).7  Song  Boren's  poems  are  full  of 
allusions  to  the  plight  of  his  country — the  Mongols 
had  already  conquered  the  north,  and  the  Song  was 
soon  to  fall — and  admonishments  to  strength  and 
loyalty,  themes  that  the  various  stages  of  the 
blossoming  plum  are  made,  somewhat  forcedly,  to 
symbolize. 

YUAN    PAINTING:    LANDSCAPE    AS 
SELF-EXPRESSION 

The  Song  dynasty  ended  with  the  conquest  ot 
south  China  by  the  Mongols  under  Khubilai  Khan, 
grandson  of  Chinggis  Khan  and  first  emperor  of 
the  Mongol  dynasty  in  China,  which  they  named 
the  Yuan.  Although  Mongol  rule  was  to  last  less 
than  a  century  (1279-1368),  it  was  a  traumatic  time 
for  the  Chinese:  never  before  had  their  entire 
territory  been  under  the  control  of  one  of  the 
northern  nomadic  peoples  whom  the  Han  Chinese 
had  traditionally  regarded  as  "barbarians."  In  the 
early  Yuan  period  the  civil-service  examinations 


CHINESE    PAINTING:    INNOVATION    AFTER    "PROGRESS"    ENDS 


.' 


ft* 

4ft 

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were  abolished,  and  although  Khubilai  Khan  sought 
to  surround  himself  with  traditionally  educated 
Chinese  advisers,  many  such  scholars  who  would 
normally  have  attempted  government  careers 
withdrew  instead  from  public  lite,  supporting 
themselves  through  various  activities  for  which 
their  scholarly  backgrounds  fitted  them,  among 
which  were  calligraphy  and  painting.  The  literati,  or 
scholar-amateur,  movement  in  painting,  inaugurated 
in  the  eleventh  century  but  eclipsed  during  the 
later  Song  by  the  brilliant  achievements  of  the 
professional  and  Academy  masters,  came  to  the  fore 
during  the  Yuan  and  maintained  its  primacy  during 
most  of  the  later  centuries. 

The  Song- Yuan  transition  is  accordingly  seen  as  a 
great  turning  point  in  the  history  of  Chinese 
painting,  when  (to  oversimplify)  a  primarily 
representational  tradition  gave  way  to  one  primarily 
aimed  at  individual  expression.  A  Yuan-period 
critic,  reflecting  a  view  that  had  already  become 
orthodox  among  the  literati,  put  "form-likeness" 
last  on  a  list  of  criteria  forjudging  paintings;  what 
was  to  be  esteemed,  he  wrote,  was  "plays  with 
brush  and  ink  in  which  lofty-minded  men  and 
superior  scholars  have  lodged  their  exhilaration 
[intense  feeling]  and  sketched  their  ideas." The 
move  from  painting  as  pictorial  description  of 
appearances  to  painting  as  an  expressive  art 
concerned  with  its  own  conventions  and  its  own 
past,  the  very  shift  that  in  the  West  (according  to 
one  common  view)  marks  the  beginnings  of 
modernism,  thus  happened  at  least  half  a 
millennium  earlier  in  China. 

A  central  figure  in  the  creation  of  new  literati  styles 
in  landscape  painting  during  the  early  Yuan  was 
Zhao  Mengfu  (1254-1322).  Although  a  descendant 
of  the  Song  imperial  house,  he  did  not  adopt  the 
stance  of  a  Song  loyalist,  but  accepted  high  posts  in 
the  Mongol  administration  under  Khubilai  Khan 
and  had  a  distinguished  official  career.  As  a  painter 
he  rejected,  like  most  others  in  his  time,  what  he 
saw  as  the  polish  and  overt  appeal  of  Song  painting, 
choosing  instead  to  revive  styles  from  the  more 
distant  past,  especially  the  Tang  and  Five  Dynasties 
periods.  His  Villa  by  the  Water  of  1302  (fig.  2), 
painted  for  a  friend  whose  retreat  bore  that  name,  is 
for  Chinese  connoisseurs  "in  the  style  of"  the 
tenth-century  landscapist  Dong  Yuan,  whose 
deliberately  plain  scenery  and  lulling  repetitions 


Fig.  2.  Zhao  Mengfu  (1254—1322).  Villa  by  the  Water. 
Dated  to  1302,  Yuan  dynasty  (i2jg-i36S).  Handscroll, 
ink  on  paper;  24. g  x  120.5  cm.  Palace  Museum,  Beijing. 


of  brush  strokes  were  admired  as  the  antithesis 
to  the  now-unacceptable  drama  and  diversity  of 
later  Song  painting.  Zhao's  picture  is  even  flatter 
and  simpler  than  any  of  DongYuan's,  with 
minimal  detail  absorbed  into  the  fabric  of 
brushwork  to  the  point  of  being  barely  discernible. 
It  is  executed  in  brush  strokes  that  reject  everything 
gestural  and  overtly  expressive;  the  ink  is  rubbed  on 
dry  to  catch  the  slight  nap  of  the  paper,  for  an 
effect  not  unlike  charcoal  drawing.  Here  for  the 
first  time  landscape  takes  on  the  capacity  to  express 
in  its  forms  and  execution  both  the  reclusiveness  of 
the  recipient  and  a  tranquil  state  of  mind — 
considered  an  essential  attribute  of  high  character — 
in  the  artist. 

This  expressive  capacity  of  landscape  painting  is 
fully  expanded  in  the  late  Yuan,  especially  in  the 
works  of  two  artists  who  are  often  paired  in  a 
relationship  more  of  contrast  than  of  similarity: 
Ni  Zan  (i306[?]-i374)  and  Wang  Meng 
(ca.  1308— 1385).  Ni  Zan  spent  his  early  years  as  a 
rich,  cultivated  youth  who  collected  antiques, 
entertained  a  rigorously  selected  group  of  friends 
(he  was  neurotically  cleanly,  washing  his  hands 
frequently  and  shunning  anyone  he  considered 
"vulgar"),  and  practiced  poetry,  calligraphy,  and 
painting.  When  he  was  in  his  thirties,  however,  the 
burden  of  taxes  and  the  depredations  of  local 
uprisings  drove  him  to  disperse  the  family  property 
and  take  up  a  wandering  life.  He  traveled  about  by 
small  boat,  staying  with  friends  and  patrons, 
repaying  their  hospitality  with  his  paintings,  which 
were  increasingly  in  demand — by  the  time  of  his 
death,  we  read,  the  ownership  of  a  Ni  Zan  was  a 
mark  of  elevated  cultural  status  for  families  in  the 
region.  In  his  hands  the  sparse,  dry-brush  manner. 
with  its  effect  of  visual  disengagement,  became  a 
metaphor  for  emotional  alienation  from  what  he 
saw  as  a  contaminated  world.  His  Six  Gentlemen  of 
1345  (cat.  iSS).  done  for  one  of  his  hosts,  presents 
his  typical  river  scene  with  widely  separated 
banks — a  compositional  device  itself  expressive  ot 
distance  and  loneliness — with  six  exiguous  trees  in 
the  foreground  "representing"  the  six  men  present 
at  the  gathering. This  way  ot  endowing  the  barest 


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181 


of  materials  with  multilayered  meaning  would 
become  another  option  and  ideal  for  artists  of 
later  periods. 

Ni  Zan's  younger  contemporary  Wang  Meng  was 
the  grandson  of  Zhao  Mengfu  and  grew  up  with  a 
familiarity  with  old  painting  that  informs  his  own 
works.  Rejecting  the  reclusiveness  of  Ni  Zan  and 
others,  he  followed  the  family  tradition  of  official 
service,  holding  a  minor  post  in  the  1340s  and 
another  after  the  founding  of  the  Ming  dynasty, 
eventually  becoming  implicated  in  a  supposed 
treasonous  plot  and  dying  in  prison.  His  landscapes, 
densely  packed  and  tactilely  rich,  can  be  read  as 
emblematic  of  engagement  and  thus  as  representing 
a  stance  opposed  to  that  of  Ni  Zan.  The  highly 
activated  forms  that  make  up  Wang  Meng's  best 
pictures  create  powerful  tensions,  even  turbulence, 
which  undermine  the  original  implications  of 
stability  and  coherence  carried  by  the  Song 
monumental  landscapes  on  which  they  are  distantly 
based.  Such  a  calculated,  expressionist  distortion  of 
an  established  type,  intended  to  subvert  its  normal 
associations,  seems,  again,  a  very  modern  stratagem. 

Finest  among  Wang  Meng's  surviving  paintings 
is  his  1366  Dwelling  in  the  Qingbian  Mountains 
(cat.  189),  which,  according  to  research  by  Richard 
Vinograd,  was  probably  painted  for  the  artist's 
cousin  Zhao  Lin  and  represents  the  Zhao  family 
retreat  at  that  place. s  Depictions  ot  secluded  villas 
were  a  specialty  ofYuan  literati  artists,  who 
ordinarily  portrayed  them  as  securely  sequestered 
from  the  outside  world.  Wang  subverts  this  type 
too,  by  confounding  the  viewer's  attempt  to  read 
his  picture  as  made  up  of  coherent  geological  forms 
and  spaces,  and  by  instilling  a  powerful  restlessness 
through  nervous,  constantly  shifting  brushwork  and 
an  unnaturalistic  play  of  light  and  shadow.  The 
insecurity  was  real:  the  two  principal  contenders  for 
the  succession  to  Mongol  rule  were  battling  nearby 
at  just  this  time;  one  of  them,  Zhu  Yuanzhang, 
would  become,  two  years  later,  the  first  emperor  of 
the  Ming  dynasty. 

EARLY    AND    MIDDLE    MING    PAINTING: 
DIVERGENT    DIRECTIONS 
In  the  early  Ming  dynasty  painters  were  called  to 
court  and  assigned  projects,  as  they  had  been  in  the 
Song.  By  the  Xuande  reign  (1426— 1435)  of  the 
emperor  Xuanzong,  a  conscious  attempt  was 
underway  to  revive  the  Southern  Song  Painting 
Academy,  employing  court  artists  who  basically 
continued  the  Song  styles.  Literati,  or  scholar- 
amateur,  artists  of  the  early  Ming  continued  late 
Yuan  literati  styles  in  a  similarly  conservative  way; 
the  first  century  or  so  of  the  Ming  might  thus  seem 
to  support  the  idea  of  a  stagnation  in  later  Chinese 
painting.  But  the  lull  was  not  to  last  beyond  the 
middle  and  later  fifteenth  century,  when  both 


currents  were  powerfully  redirected  by  great 
original  masters. 

Imperial  Academy  artists  made  paintings,  mostly 
under  orders  or  on  commission,  for  a  diversity  of 
uses — auspicious,  decorative,  seasonal — besides 
doing  pictures  that  carried  political  meanings  for 
presentation  and  hanging  on  special  occasions  such 
as  the  appointment  and  retirement  of  court 
officials.  A  competence  in  portraiture  was  normally 
required  of  these  versatile  artists,  even  when  their 
primary  specialty  was  flowers-and-birds  or  some 
other  subject.  Shang  Xi,  best  known  for  what  in 
the  West  are  called  history  pictures,  is  credited  with 
a  huge  painting  (over  2  x  3.5  m.),  which  may  have 
been  mounted  originally  on  a  screen,  representing 
Emperor  Xuanzong  and  members  of  his  court 
setting  off  on  a  hunt  (cat.  190). The  emperor,  seen 
at  the  top,  is  the  largest  figure,  as  longstanding 
convention  dictated;  the  principal  figures  among 
the  mounted  party  in  the  foreground  are  given 
portrait-like  faces  and  must  represent  particular 
people.  We  can  assume  that  their  inclusion  in  the 
picture,  and  their  positions  within  it,  reflected  their 
ranks  in  the  court.  The  creatures  crowded  into  the 
upper  right — deer,  rabbits,  ducks  and  other  birds — 
stand  for  the  intended  quarry,  but  play  only 
subsidiary  roles  in  this  grand  display  piece. 

Another  group  portrait  by  a  court  master,  this  one 
in  handscroll  form  and  more  modest  in  size,  is  Tlie 
Literary  Gathering  in  the  Apricot  Garden,  an  event  that 
took  place  in  1437  and  was  depicted  by  Xie  Huan 
(act.  1426— 1452)  (cat.  191).  Xie  had  a  long  and 
successful  career  in  the  Academy,  attaining  great 
favor  with  the  emperor,  with  whom  he  is  said  to 
have  played  chess  every  day.  His  status,  and  the 
place  in  society  that  a  painter  might  attain  by  his 
time,  is  indicated  by  his  including  himself  in  the 
picture — at  the  beginning  of  the  scroll,  to  be  sure, 
farthest  out  from  the  garden  that  is  its  climactic 
scene,  but  still  there.  The  central  figures  are  the 
Three  Yangs,  members  of  the  Grand  Secretariat  and 
the  emperor's  most  trusted  advisers.  They  have 
invited  high-ranking  friends  for  a  day  of 
banqueting  and  drinking,  appreciating  antiquities, 
doing  calligraphy,  and  composing  poems.  Here,  too, 
the  sizes,  poses,  and  positioning  of  the  figures 
establish  a  clear  hierarchy  among  them.  Another, 
shorter  version  of  the  picture  is  in  the  Metropolitan 
Museum  ot  Art;  it  may  be  that  the  composition  was 
loosely  replicated  by  lesser  Academy  masters  for 
presentation  to  participants  in  the  event. 

Both  these  paintings  were  executed  in  the  Song- 
derived,  traditional  manner  of  the  early  Ming 
Academy;  neither  artist  allowed  his  personal  style, 
or  "handwriting,"  to  intrude.  The  first  significant 
break  with  that  practice  was  accomplished  by  Dai 
Jin  (1388— 1462),  who  served  in  the  Academy,  if  at 


CHINESE    PAINTING:    INNOVATION    AFTER    "PROGRESS"    ENDS 


all,  only  briefly,  but  whose  stylistic  innovations 
heavily  influenced  its  later  masters.  His  typical 
works,  large  landscape  hanging  scrolls  on  silk,  are 
still  relatively  traditional  in  subject  and 
composition,  but  are  made  up  of  massive,  strongly 
contoured  earth  forms.  The  brush  drawing  is  less 
constrained  than  before  by  its  bounding  and 
texturing  function,  more  expressive  of  nervous 
energy  in  the  artist's  hand.  This  stylistic  move  is  not 
only  another  assertion  of  the  rising  status  of 
painters,  including  professionals,  but  also  an 
incursion  into  the  territory  of  the  scholar- 
amateurs — who  would,  however,  have  been  quick 
to  point  out  that  Dai  Jin's  brushwork-oriented 
paintings  were  still  very  different  from  theirs,  less 
subtle,  as  befitting  the  work  of  a  professional. 

An  untypical,  very  fine  work  by  Dai  Jin  is  the  small 
picture  on  paper  now  titled,  somewhat 
misleadingly,  Landscape  in  the  Manner  of  Yan  Wengui 
(cat.  192). The  association  with  this  tenth-  to 
eleventh-century  landscapist  comes  from  the 
inscription  written  on  it  by  Dong  Qichang 
(1555-1636),  leading  spokesman  for  the  literati 
position,  who  was,  we  can  imagine,  shown  the 
work  and  invited  to  inscribe  it  by  some  collector. 
Dong,  to  whom  Dai  Jin's  typical  work  must  have 
seemed  heavy-handed  and  overcharged,  could 
scarcely  praise  a  painting  without  identifying  in  it 
the  kind  of  style-conscious  allusions  to  old  masters 
that  he  and  other  literati  artists  practiced 
themselves;  he  felt  obliged  to  find  such  allusions, 
however  forcedly,  in  Dai's  work. The  words  of 
heavily  qualified,  even  evasive  praise  that  Dong 
wrote  on  it  reveal  the  uneasy  relationship  between 
artists  occupying  different  socioeconomic  positions 
in  Ming  China:  "Among  the  professional  painters 
of  our  dynasty,  Dai  Jin  is  considered  a  great  master. 
This  picture  follows  Yan  Wengui's  style,  and  is  pure 
and  empty,  not  at  all  like  [Dai's]  everyday  work  in 
character — it  is  highly  unusual."  Although  the  shape 
of  the  highest  peak  and  a  few  other  features  may 
relate  distantly  to  Yan  Wengui,  Dai's  painting  is  not 
style-conscious  at  all,  but  is  a  sensitive,  painterly 
evocation  of  a  misty  scene  centered  on  the 
thatched  retirement  house  of  the  man  for  whom  it 
was  done,  identified  in  Dai's  own  inscription  as 
"Old  Teacher  Yongyan." 

The  "school"  or  movement  that  Dai  Jin  is  credited 
with  founding  was  later  named,  after  his  birthplace 
in  Zhejiang  Province,  the  Zhe  school.  Among  the 
artists  who  succeeded  him  in  what  is  now  called 
the  Zhe  school  and  who  served  in  the  Imperial 
Academy  was  Wu  Wei  (1459— 1508).  His  career 
marks  a  further  stage  in  the  social  elevation  of  the 
artist.  He  was  much  in  demand  as  a  drinking 
companion  for  men  of  high  position  and  was  a 
familiar  of  the  emperor  himself,  who  excused  His 
aberrant  behavior  because  of  his  artistic  brilliance. 


Wu  Wei  exemplifies  a  new  type  of  artist,  the  urban 
eccentric,  to  whose  personality  the  quick  and 
spontaneous  manner  of  execution  seen  in  his 
paintings  was  taken  to  be  a  stylistic  counterpart.  His 
subjects  and  compositions  are  in  themselves 
relatively  conservative:  Fishermen  on  a  Snowy  River 
(cat.  193),  for  instance,  with  a  landmass  on  one  side 
and  a  receding  river  on  the  other,  follows  a  very 
old  pattern.  In  the  eyes  of  the  audiences  for  whom 
Wu  Wei  worked,  fishermen  represented  an  ideal  of 
escape  from  the  pressures  and  spiritual 
contamination  of  city  and  court. 

By  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  great  city 
of  Suzhou,  which  had  been  a  gathering  place  for 
artists  and  poets  in  the  late  Yuan  period  but  had 
declined  under  persecution  by  the  first  Ming 
emperor,  was  recovering  its  cultural  preeminence, 
which  it  would  retain  for  about  a  century.  Besides 
being  the  principal  locus  for  the  revival  of  literati 
painting,  it  offered  the  most  attractive  patronage  to 
professional  artists,  who  could  benefit  also  from  the 
great  collections  of  old  paintings  to  be  seen  there. 
Among  these  professionals,  three  stand  out:  Zhou 
Chen  (ca.  1455— after  1536)  and  two  who  learned 
from  him — QiuYing  (ca.  1495— 1552)  and  Tang  Yin 
(1470-1523).  Zhou  and  Qiu  are  represented  in  this 
exhibition  by  excellent  paintings  that  display  the 
conservative  side  of  their  output;  judged  by  these, 
they  might  seem  to  substantiate,  once  more,  the 
idea  that  little  had  changed  since  the  Song  dynasty. 

The  subject  of  Zhou  Chen's  Peach  Blossom  Spring 
(cat.  194),  which  he  painted  in  1533,  was  a  favorite 
among  Suzhou  and  other  big-city  audiences,  since 
it  was  another  image  of  escape  from  the  "dusty 
world."  In  the  famous  account  by  Tao  Qian 
(365—427),  a  fisherman  discovers  a  hidden  elysium 
(the  origin  of  the  Shangri-la  story)  where  refugees 
from  an  oppressive  ruler  had  lived  tor  centuries 
without  aging.  The  fisherman  returns  to  his  town, 
and  a  search  party  is  sent  to  find  this  blessed  place; 
needless  to  say,  they  never  do.  The  compartment- 
alized composition  of  Zhou's  painting  follows  this 
narrative  in  its  structure:  passage  from  the 
foreground,  the  outside  world,  to  the  elysium  is 
through  a  cave;  beyond,  in  the  sequestered  space, 
the  fisherman  is  seen  being  greeted  by  the  village 
elders.  The  picture  is  executed  in  brushwork  that 
conceals  the  hand  of  the  artist,  answering  the 
continuing  fondness  of  the  Suzhou  patrons  for 
Song-styic  painting — preference  tor  the  styles  of 
the  Yuan  literati  masters  had  yet  to  become  the 
dominant  critical  taste. 

QiuYing's  Playing  the  Flute  by  Pine  and  Stream 
(cat.  195)  is  another  successful  evocation  of  Song 
style  and  another  image  of  reclusion.The  man 
playing  .1  flute  in  .1  boat  is  not  .1  working  fisherman, 
as  portrayed,  lor  instance,  in  Wu  Wei's  painting 


CHINESE    PAINTING      INNOVATION    AFTER    "PROGRESS"    ENDS 


183 


(cat.  193),  but,  as  his  attributes  (Daoist  wine-gourd, 
loose  robe,  flute)  indicate,  a  scholar-gentleman 
enjoying  solitude,  having  come  out,  presumably, 
from  the  thatched  house  seen  behind.  The 
melancholy  sound  of  the  flute  merging  with  the 
splash  of  water  and  ■wind  in  the  pine  is  evoked  as  a 
familiar  metaphor  for  harmony  with  nature.  The 
spaces  opening  back  successively  beyond  the  flute 
player  serve  as  sounding  chambers  for  these 
imagined  sounds  and  are  accomplished  with  Song- 
like gradations  of  tonal  values.  Other  works  by 
Zhou  Chen  and  Qiu  Ying  would  bring  out  better 
their  individual  styles  and  innovations;  these  reveal 
them  as  heirs  to  a  great  tradition,  who  could  still 
practice  it  on  a  high  level. 

The  literati,  or  scholar-amateur,  movement  in 
painting,  which  had  been  concentrated  in  the 
Suzhou  region  in  the  late  Yuan,  had  received  a 
serious  setback  with  the  persecution  of  that  city 
and  its  cultural  elite  by  the  first  Ming  emperor.  Its 
real  comeback,  leaving  aside  a  few  secondary 
masters  active  during  the  first  century  of  the  Ming 
who  bridged  the  hiatus  without  ending  it,  was 
accomplished  by  Shen  Zhou  (1427— 1509).  Born 
into  a  gentry  family  with  land  holdings,  he  was  able 
to  live  comfortably  without  attempting  an  official 
career,  and  devoted  much  of  his  leisure  to  literary 
and  artistic  pursuits.  His  status  also  relieved  him  of 
the  need  to  master  high-level  representational 
techniques  as  a  painter;  he  developed  instead  an 
amiable  and  ingenuous  personal  style  in  which 
forms,  simply  textured  and  bounded  by  thick  brush 
line,  are  made  up  into  inventive  compositions  that 
read  basically  as  strong,  flat  designs.  In  contrast  to 
the  escape-and-reclusion  themes  of  so  much  of  the 
output  of  the  Zhe  school  and  other  professional 
masters,  paintings  by  Shen  Zhou  and  the  Suzhou 
amateur  artists  who  follow  him  typically  take  as 
their  subjects  the  local  scenery,  occasions  such  as 
outings  and  gatherings  and  farewells,  the  villas  and 
gardens  of  friends — idealized  versions,  that  is,  of  the 
here-and-now  of  their  real  lives.  The  Eastern  Villa 
album  (cat.  196)  depicts  scenes  on  the  estate  of 


Shen  Zhou's  friend  Wu  Kuan  (1435— 1504). Three  of 
the  original  twenty-four  leaves  have  been  lost,  one 
of  them  reportedly  bearing  Shen's  own  inscription, 
so  that  the  attribution  (first  made  in  a  colophon 
dated  to  1611  by  Dong  Qichang)  is  not  absolutely 
secure;  this  might  be  an  exceptionally  tine  work  in 
Shen's  style  by  a  follower.  In  any  case,  it  exemplifies 
the  flattening  and  abstracting  direction  that  literati 
painting  was  taking  in  this  period,  notably  in  Shen 
Zhou's  own  hands. 

That  direction  can  be  seen  also  in  the  works  of 
Shen  Zhou's  principal  follower  Wen  Zhengming 
(1470-1559),  who  came  from  a  Suzhou  gentry 
family,  had  a  brief  period  of  official  service  in  the 
capital,  and  in  principle  painted  as  an  amateur  artist 
and  "retired  scholar"  without  thought  of  profit.  In 
reality,  he,  Shen  Zhou,  and  the  others  engaged  in  an 
intricate  pattern  of  exchanges  of  goods,  services, 
and  favors  through  which  they  derived  substantial 
"incomes"  from  their  painting.  Works  such  as  Wen 
Zhengming's  Studio  of  True  Appreciation,  painted  in 
1549  (cat.  197),  were  usually  done  at  the  request  of 
the  owner  of  a  house  or  villa  and  portrayed  him  in 
it,  receiving  visitors,  surrounded  by  the  trappings  of 
high  culture  and  taste,  including  in  this  case  the 
huge,  fantastically  eroded  Taihu  rocks  brought  from 
a  nearby  lake  shore  to  be  set  up  like  natural 
sculptures  in  gardens. To  have  one's  dwelling 
depicted  by  an  artist  of  Wen's  status  and  renown,  in 
his  cool,  disciplined,  irreproachably  upper-class 
style,  invested  it  with  an  aura  of  literati  elegance. 

The  art  of  Shen  Zhou  and  Wen  Zhengming  is 
highly  style-conscious  and  self-reflective,  deeply 
occupied  with  its  past.  Both  artists  sometimes 
painted  landscapes  in  the  manners  of  the  Yuan 
masters  Ni  Zan  and  Wang  Meng,  among  others. 
The  cautious  moves  into  abstraction  in  their  works 
were  in  part  expressions  of  disdain  for  the  "form- 
likeness,"  or  verisimilitude,  toward  which  less 
cultivated  artists  were  assumed  to  aspire;  they  must 
have  impressed  art-lovers  of  their  time  as  strikingly 
original  and  "modern." To  later  Chinese 


CHINESE    PAINTING:    INNOVATION    AFTER    "PROGRESS"    ENDS 


184 


connoisseurs,  and  to  us,  they  seem  to  foreshadow 
the  truly  revolutionary  moves  of  the  later  Ming 
without  quite  realizing  them — occupying  art- 
historical  positions,  that  is,  somewhat  like  Courbet 
and  Manet.  If  so,  Dong  Qichang  (cat.  200)  was  to 
be  the  Chinese  Cezanne.  Such  comparisons  are 
perhaps  idle  and  easily  discredited;  they  are  meant 
only  as  loose  indicators  of  how  large  patterns  of 
change  in  artistic  styles,  first  slower  and  then  more 
radical,  might  be  seen  as  repeating  themselves. 

LATE    MING    PAINTING:    RADICAL    MOVES 
The  self-expressive  concept  of  painting,  by  which 
the  qualities  of  the  work  reflect  the  artist's 
personality  and  cultivation,  was  well  established  in 
Chinese  literati  painting  theory  of  the  Song  period 
and  was  taken  to  be  ideally  exemplified,  as  we  saw, 
in  the  work  of  such  late  Yuan  masters  as  Ni  Zan 
and  Wang  Meng.  A  corollary  of  this  idea,  popular  in 
China  as  in  the  West  (the  "van  Gogh's  ear"  notion), 
was  that  eccentricity  or  even  aberration  in  the 
painter  produced  corresponding  oddities  in  the 
picture.  Audiences  for  artists  identified  as  "mad," 
then,  expected  some  evidence  of  "madness"  in  the 
paintings,  and  the  artists  responded.  Those  such  as 
Wu  Wei  (cat.  193),  who  cultivated  eccentricities  of 
behavior  and  matched  them  with  wild  brushwork 
in  their  paintings,  should  be  distinguished  from 
those  who  suffered  real,  disabling  bouts  of  mental 
disorder.  Two  of  the  latter  are  represented  in  this 
exhibition:  Xu  Wei  and  Bada  Shanren. 

Xu  Wei  (1521— 1593)  is  another  artist,  like  Ni  Zan, 
whose  paintings  can  scarcely  be  discussed  apart 
from  his  life.  After  failing  in  successive  attempts  at 
an  official  career,  he  made  his  living  as  a 
playwright,  calligrapher,  and  painter,  exhibiting 
brilliance  in  all  three  pursuits.  His  emotional 
disorder  sometimes  took  violent  forms:  he 
mutilated  himself  while  in  prison,  and  in  a  drunken 
fit  beat  his  second  wife  to  death,  narrowly  escaping 
execution  for  this.  Xu  Wei's  favorite  subjects  as  a 
painter  have  no  implications  of  violence,  however; 
he  painted  plants,  including  fruits  and  flowers. 


Fig.  3.  Xu  Wei  (1521-1593).  Flowers  and  Other  Plants 
(grapevines).  Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644). 
Handscroll,  ink  on  paper;  30  x  1,053.5  an. 
Nanjing  Museum. 


which  he  depicts  in  assertive  strokes  of  ink 
monochrome.  An  extreme  example  of  his 
semicontrolled,  gestural  manner  can  be  seen  in  a 
section  representing  grapevines  in  his  great 
handscroll  in  the  Nanjing  Museum  (fig.  3).  Another 
kind  of  nonconformist  brushwork,  in  which  the 
ink  is  applied  so  wet  that  individual  strokes  cannot 
be  distinguished  within  puddled  areas  and  the 
image  is  blurred  as  if  by  atmosphere,  is  displayed  in 
his  large  hanging  scroll  Peonies,  Banana  Plant,  and 
Rock  (cat.  198).  By  accepting  a  role  outside  normal 
social  demands,  Xu  Wei  freed  himself  to  violate 
established  literati  disciplines  of  brushwork  and 
form.  At  the  same  time,  however,  he  creates  here  a 
moving  evocation  of  what  one  might  see  in  the 
corner  of  one's  garden  on  a  foggy  morning.  In  all 
their  moves  to  the  very  edge  of  abstraction, 
Chinese  artists  never  renounced  representation 
completely,  presumably  because  doing  so  deprives 
the  artist  of  the  power  to  create  visually  arresting 
effects  through  tensions  between  image  and 
abstraction. 

The  centuries  after  the  Song  dynasty  had  produced 
few  distinguished  figure  painters,  but  that  long- 
neglected  subject  category  rose  again  to 
prominence  in  the  late  Ming,  especially  in  the  work 
of  Chen  Hongshou  (1598-1652).  Like  Xu  Wei,  he 
lived  in  the  region  of  Shaoxing  in  Zhejiang.  and 
also  like  Xu  he  was  an  educated  man  and  frustrated 
would-be  official  who  failed  the  examinations 
repeatedly,  settling  finally  and  reluctantly  into  the 
role  of  professional  painter.  Both  his  level  of 
cultivation  and  his  bitterness  can  be  read  in  his 
paintings.  I  he  nonconformity  of  his  works, 
however,  is  not  manifested  in  bold,  gestural  brush 
strokes;  Chen  paints  mostly  in  the  old  manner  ot 
fastidious  fine-line  drawing  with  washes  of  color. 


CHINESE    PAINTING:    INNOVATION    AFTER    "PROGRESS"    ENDS 


185 


His  nonconformity  appears,  instead,  in  highly 
cultivated  archaisms  of  style  that  can  turn  quirky  or 
even  bizarre.  His  figures  are  often  drawn  in  a  pre- 
Tang  mode,  with  elongated  faces  and  flattened 
drapery  drawing  that  implies  no  articulated  body 
beneath  it. 

In  Chen  Hongshou's  handscroll  Tlie  Pleasures  of  He 
Tianzhang  (cat.  199),  done  in  collaboration  with  his 
studio  assistant  Yan  Zhan  and  a  portrait  specialist 
named  Li  Wansheng  (who  painted  the  man's  face, 
using  the  new  illusionism  derived  from  contacts 
with  European  pictures),  three  levels  of  "reality"  and 
artifice  are  clearly  distinguished.  He  Tianzhang, 
seated  at  a  stone  table  surrounded  by  the  trappings 
of  high  culture,  is  a  "real  person"  looking 
complacently  out  at  us;  the  diminutive  flute  player 
at  the  end  (left)  of  the  scroll  is  a  conventional  image 
from  the  past,  without  substance.  He  Tianzhang's 
wife  or  concubine,  sitting  between  them  on  a 
banana  leaf  and  holding  an  upright  fan,  occupies  a 
mediating  position  also  in  mode  of  representation; 
she  is  given  some  weight  and  prominence  but 
reduced  to  a  type  of  beauty,  presented  more  as  a 
lovely  attribute  of  his  than  as  an  individual  person. 
Such  refinements  of  style  and  plays  on 
representation  bespeak  both  a  highly  sophisticated 
audience  and  an  art  that  can  scarcely  present  its 
imagery  any  longer  in  a  straightforward  way. 

Chen  Hongshou  is  the  author  of  an  essay 
castigating  both  the  professional  masters,  for  not 
looking  far  enough  into  the  past  in  their  search  for 
models,  and  the  literati-amateurs,  for  using  their 
social  position  to  claim  lofty  achievements  in  art 
beyond  their  real  merits.9  It  is  true  enough  that  by 
the  late  Ming  period,  a  great  many  amateur  artists 
of  small  technical  prowess  were  engaging  in  a 
repetitive  production  of  conventional  river 
landscapes  and  the  like.  One  great  master,  however, 
rescued  the  whole  scholar-amateur  tradition  from 
its  doldrums:  Dong  Qichang. 

Dong  Qichang  (1555— 1636)  could  be  seen  as  a  foil 
to  Chen  Hongshou  in  almost  all  respects.  He  took 
high  honors  in  the  official  examinations  and  held 
several  positions  at  court,  including  that  of  tutor  to 
the  heir  apparent.  During  his  long  periods  out  of 
service  he  lived  as  a  rich  landholder  in  Songjiang, 
in  Jiangsu  Province.  His  paintings,  writings,  and 
expertise  as  a  connoisseur  were  constantly  in 
demand — and  were  always,  we  can  assume,  suitably 
recompensed.  He  was  the  most  respected  and 
influential  painting  theorist  of  his  time,  devising  a 
grand  formulation  in  which  the  history  of  painting 
was  divided  into  two  "schools,"  the  "southern"  and 
"northern" — the  former  corresponding  loosely 
with  the  literati  tradition,  the  latter  with  the 
professional  and  academy  masters.  As  a  painter, 
Dong  limited  himself  almost  exclusively  to  "pure" 


landscape,  in  which  figures  virtually  never  appear, 
much  less  the  narrative  or  human-interest  themes 
of  other  artists'  works.  Stylistically,  he  moved, 
moreover,  in  a  profoundly  antinaturalistic  direction. 
"For  splendid  scenery,"  he  wrote,  "painting  cannot 
equal  the  real  landscape;  but  for  marvels  of  brush 
and  ink,  real  landscape  is  not  at  all  the  equal  of 
painting."  He  advocated  a  kind  of  free  "imitation" 
of  old  styles  (  fang),  in  which  the  canonical  old 
masters  are  evoked  in  ways  that  reveal  the  artists 
familiarity  with  them,  at  no  real  compromise  to  his 
originality;  good  analogies  might  be  to  Stravinsky 
in  music  or  Ezra  Pound  in  poetry.  All  three  assume 
a  knowing  viewer-listener-reader  whose  experience 
of  the  work  will  include  recognition  of  the  learned 
allusions  embedded  in  it. 

Dong  Qichang's  Poetic  Feeling  at  Qixia  Monastery, 
painted  in  1626  (cat.  200),  can  be  read  on  a  number 
of  levels:  as  a  quasi-topographical  picture  (it 
"represents"  a  mountain  near  Nanjing,  with  its 
famous  Buddhist  monastery);  as  a  demonstration 
of  the  brushwork  and  compositional  principles  that 
Dong  advocated  in  his  theoretical  writings;  as  a 
stark,  diagrammatic  exposition  of  Dong's 
understanding  of  old  paintings  (it  invokes,  among 
others,  the  monumental  landscape  type  from  the 
tenth  and  eleventh  centuries);  and  as  a  near-abstract 
construction  within  which  dynamic  forms  interact 
for  powerfuDy  unsettling  effect.  And  this  last 
reading,  if  one  chooses,  can  be  further  linked  to  the 
political  situation  of  the  late  Ming  by  seeing  the 
picture  as  a  consciously  subversive  distortion  of 
an  old  type,  a  deliberate  misreading  of  the 
monumental  landscape  in  which  established 
implications  of  stability  and  order  are  denied,  as 
Wang  Meng  (cf.  cat.  189)  had  denied  them  three 
centuries  earlier. 

When  the  achievements  of  Xu  Wei,  Chen 
Hongshou,  and  Dong  Qichang,  along  with  other 
late  Ming  masters  not  represented  here  (notably, 
Wu  Bin),  are  set  against  Gombrich's  "performance" 
art,  Danto's  "further  development  unimaginable," 
and  Fry's  "atrophy  of  the  creative  spirit,"  these 
Western  assessments  of  later  Chinese  painting  fall, 
I  think,  into  true  perspective.  And  the  great  early 
Qing  Individualist  masters  are  still  to  come. 

The  late  Ming  was  also  the  peak  period  of  pictorial 
woodblock  printing,  seeing  notable  advances  in  the 
quality  of  block-cutting,  refinements  of  design,  and 
the  introduction  of  new  techniques  for  color 
printing.  Major  artists,  including  Chen  Hongshou, 
produced  designs  for  printed  illustrations.  In  a  few 
of  the  pictures  in  the  1606  Cheng  shi  mo  yuan 
("Cheng  Family  Garden  of  Ink"),  the  linear  designs 
were  printed  in  color  through  the  simple  device, 
called  yitao  ("single  block"),  of  putting  pigments  on 
different  areas  of  the  single  woodblock  in  place  of 


CHINESE    PAINTING:    INNOVATION    AFTER    "PROGRESS"    ENDS 


ink.  This  method  was  soon  superseded  by  another, 
the  douban  ("pieced-together  blocks")  method  of 
using  a  number  of  blocks,  one  for  each  color.  The 
Chinese  way  of  printing,  with  the  block  face-up. 
ink  or  color  applied  to  it,  and  the  paper  laid  over  it 
and  rubbed  with  a  burin,  permitted  subtle  effects  of 
shading  by  applying  the  pigments  unevenly  or  by 
wiping  the  block  after  applying  them.  No  two 
impressions,  then,  are  quite  identical. 

This  process  was  superbly  utilized  in  two  works 
published  in  Nanjing  by  Hu  Zhengyan.The 
Shizhuzhai  shuhuapu  ("Ten  Bamboo  Studio  Manual 
of  Calligraphy  and  Painting")  (cat.  201),  completed 
in  1627  and  issued  in  eight  volumes  between  then 
and  1633,  reproduces  paintings  of  flowers-and-birds, 
bamboo  and  blossoming  plum,  garden  stones,  and 
other  subjects  by  a  number  of  artists.  It  can  be 
admired  both  as  the  finest  reproductions  of 
paintings  made  anywhere  up  to  that  time,  and 
simply  as  color  printing  of  a  technical  and  aesthetic 
refinement  similarly  unmatched  elsewhere.  The 
Shizhuzhai  qianpu  ("Ten  Bamboo  Studio  Letter 
Papers"),  issued  in  four  volumes  by  the  same 
publisher  in  1644  (cat.  202),  added  a  further 
technical  innovation:  in  addition  to  the  designs  in 
ink  and  colors,  "blind  blocks"  were  used  to  impress 
low-relief  patterns  into  the  paper,  a  process  called 
gauffrage.  It  is  hard  to  believe  that  these  papers  can 
really  have  been  intended  for  use,  with  letters  or 
poems  written  (in  elegant  calligraphy,  to  be  sure) 
over  their  exquisite  designs.  Happily,  examples  that 
have  survived  have  no  such  writing. 

Color  printing  continued  in  China,  but  for 
economic  and  other  reasons  still  to  be  explored,  the 
achievements  of  the  late  Ming  in  this  medium  were 
never  surpassed  and  seldom  approached  there 
afterward. The  Japanese  learned  the  techniques  of 
color  woodblock  printing  from  China  and  used 
them  brilliantly  through  the  eighteenth  and 
nineteenth  centuries  for  the  well-known  Ukiyo-e 
prints,  as  well  as  for  the  less-known  printed  books 
called  gaju,  and  these  have  understandably 
overshadowed  later  Chinese  color  printing  in 
foreign  writings.  A  late  nineteenth-early  twentieth- 
century  Chinese  publication  titled  Baihua  tupu 
("Album  of  a  Hundred  Flowers")  (cat.  203),  based 
on  paintings  by  Zhang  Chaoxiang,  a  flower-and- 
bird  specialist  active  in  Tianjin,  illustrates  this 
observation;  the  quality  of  the  color  printing  is  still 
high,  but  represents  no  real  advance  over  the  Ten 
Bamboo  Studio  publications.  The  finest  pictorial 
printing  of  the  late  period  is  not  in  color  but  in  the 
ink-line  tradition:  in  stylistic  and  technical 
refinements,  the  books  designed  by  Ren  Xiong 
(1823— 1857)  nearly  match  those  by  his  model,  Chen 
Hongshou  of  the  late  Ming  period. 


EARLY    QING    PAINTING:    ORTHODOXY   AND 
INDIVIDUALISM 

Dong  Qichang  was  unquestionably  the  most 
influential  painter  of  his  age,  but  his  following  took 
two  more  or  less  opposed  directions.  In  one,  his 
creative  manipulations  of  old  compositions  inspired 
the  Individualist  masters  of  the  early  Qing  period 
to  attempt  similarly  radical  feats  of  transforming 
selected  materials  from  their  heritage  while 
seeming  to  embrace  them.  In  the  other,  Dong's 
authoritative  pronouncements  on  the  "right"  way 
to  paint,  and  the  possibility  of  deriving  a  consistent 
set  of  compositional  techniques,  brushwork 
conventions,  and  type-forms  from  his  more  routine 
works,  encouraged  the  emergence  of  an  orthodoxy. 
Such  an  orthodoxy  took  shape,  in  fact,  in  the 
paintings  and  writings  of  the  so-called  Four  Wangs 
of  the  Ming-Qing  transition — Wang  Shimin 
(1592— 1680), Wangjian  (i598-i677),Wang  Hui 
(1632-1717),  and  Wang  Yuanqi  (1642-1715) — along 
with  Wu  Li  (1632-1718)  andYun  Shouping 
(1633— 1690),  who  have  collectively  come  to  be 
called  the  Six  Orthodox  Masters.  Their  following, 
in  turn,  has  continued  down  to  the  present, 
although  significant  contributions  to  the  style 
declined  precipitously  after  their  time.  An 
appreciation  of  Orthodox  school  landscape,  and  the 
ability  to  discriminate  between  the  different  hands 
engaged  in  it,  has  remained  the  very  hallmark  of 
traditional  connoisseurship  in  Chinese  painting. 
Whole  exhibitions,  symposia,  and  book-length 
studies  have  been  devoted  to  the  Orthodox  school, 
and  deservedly.  It  will  receive  less  attention  here,  in 
keeping  with  the  argument  of  this  essay  and  the 
direction  of  this  exhibition,  in  which  only  one  of 
the  Four  Wangs — Wang  Yuanqi — is  represented. 

Wang  Shimin  is  credited  with  establishing  the 
school.  As  a  well-to-do  young  collector  he  had 
studied  painting  with  Dong  Qichang,  and  it  was  he 
who  reduced  Dong's  prodigious  artistic 
achievements  to  a  learnable  system,  in  keeping  with 
his  own  more  limited  talents  and  conservative  taste. 
The  "right"  or  "true"  lineage  of  painting  that  Wang 
Shimin  and  his  followers  defined  was  set  in 
opposition  to  other  currents  of  painting  in  their 
time:  what  we  would  regard  as  a  healthy,  exuberant 
diversification  of  styles  and  subjects  in  late 
Ming-early  Qing  painting  they  saw  as 
fragmentation  and  decline.  Variety  in  subject  matte) 
was  far  from  their  purpose:  an  overall  title  such  as 
River  Landscape  with  Houses  ami  Trees  would  cover 
most  of  their  output.  Spokesmen  today  for  this  kind 
of  painting  exhort  us  to  "I  00k  .it  the  brushwork. 
not  the  scenery!"  but  one  can  wish  nonetheless  for 
a  bit  more  variety  in  the  scenery.  Wang  Shimin  s 
fellow  townsman  and  friend  Wangjian,  through  an 
abundant  and  consistently  high-level  output,  helped 
to  consolidate  the  style  and  establish  its 
preeminence  in  the  eves  ot  critics  ot  their 


CHINESE    PAINTING:    INNOVATION    AFTER    "PROGRESS"    ENDS 


187 


persuasion.  The  third  of  the  Wangs,  Wang  Hui,  was 
taken  on  while  still  young  as  a  protege  by  the  older 
two  and  trained  in  the  Orthodox  manner.  He  had 
more  natural  talent  and  technique  than  his  mentors 
and  could  imitate  the  old  masters  so  successfully 
that  he  was  much  in  demand  as  a  forger.  He  went 
on  to  a  highly  successful  career,  including  a  period 
m  the  imperial  court. 

The  youngest  of  the  Four  Wangs  was  Wang  Yuanqi, 
who  was  the  grandson  of  Wang  Shimin  and  so 
belonged  in  the  direct  succession  of  the  "true 
lineage."  He  held  high  positions  in  the  Manchu 
court  and  edited  an  imperial  anthology  of  writings 
on  painting  and  calligraphy.  Given  his  wealth  and 
position,  he  could  have  achieved  a  successful  career 
in  painting  merely  by  carrying  on  the  family  style. 
Instead,  he  became  the  most  innovative  and 
interesting  of  the  four,  the  equal  of  the  Individualist 
masters  in  his  sophisticated  manipulations  of 
semiabstract  form.  Even  more  strikingly,  he 
accomplished  this  within  the  boundaries  of  the 
Orthodox  style.  No  artist  who  followed  that  lineage 
after  him  was  to  be  so  successful  in  revitalizing  it. 
Wang  Yuanqi 's  Complete  in  Soul,  Sufficient  in  Spirit 
(cat.  204),  painted  in  1708,  is  a  good  example  ot 
how,  while  seeming  to  replicate  the  over-familiar 
river  landscape  type  of  his  school,  he  could  build  a 
formal,  near-abstract  structure  charged  with 
complex  tensions.  In  his  inscription  he  argued  that 
although  paintings  in  the  Dong  Yuan— Juran  manner 
(i.e.,  the  "southern  school"  style)  had  to  be 
sufficient  in  "spirit  and  soul,"  these  qualities  could 
not  be  attained  apart  from  technical  mastery.  "But 
this,"  he  flatteringly  assured  the  dedicatee,  "is  not  a 
matter  one  can  discuss  with  shallow-minded 
people." 

Wu  Li  has  been  of  special  interest  to  Western 
scholars  because  he  was  converted  to  Christianity, 
becoming  a  Catholic  priest  in  1688  and  serving  in 
his  late  years  as  a  missionary  in  Shanghai.  Only  a 
few  of  his  paintings,  however,  betray  any  contact 
with  European  art;  most  are  pure  landscapes  in  his 
version  of  the  Orthodox  manner,  in  which  the 
earth  masses  seem  to  have  been  constructed  in  an 
almost  modular  way  out  of  simple  forms  and  are 
given  an  unnaturally  consistent,  sometimes  furry 
texture  that  eliminates  surface  differentiation.  Wu 
Li's  Reading  "The  Book  of  Changes"  in  a  Streamside 
Pavilion  (cat.  205),  painted  in  1678,  displays  this 
manner,  which  could  be  seen,  like  Wang  Yuanqi  s 
painting,  as  doing  for  the  traditional  river  landscape 
something  comparable  to,  but  far  less  radical  than, 
what  the  Cubists  would  later  do  for  still  lifes. 

Contemporaneous  with  the  Orthodox  landscapists, 
spanning  the  tumultuous  Ming-Qing  transition  and 
affected  by  it  in  different  ways,  were  the  artists  who 
have  come  to  be  loosely  grouped  as  the 


Individualists.  Five  are  represented  here:  Kuncan, 
Hongren,  Gong  Xian,  Bada  Shanren,  and  Shitao. 
They  were  mostly  associated  with  local  schools  of 
painting  in  Nanjing  andYangzhou  (Jiangsu 
Province),  and  in  Anhui  Province,  places  where 
patronage  and  other  conditions  were  favorable. 
Only  Bada  Shanren  was  isolated  from  these  great 
centers,  working  in  Nanchang,  in  Jiangxi  Province, 
where  there  was  no  notable  tradition  of  painting. 
All  except  Gong  Xian  were  Buddhist  monks, 
having  joined  the  order,  as  a  great  many  did  in  the 
early  Qing,  either  out  of  religious  convictions 
(Kuncan)  or  as  a  way  to  escape  involvement  in 
politically  dangerous  secular  affairs;  Hongren  had 
already  been  linked  with  an  anti-Manchu 
movement,  while  Bada  and  Shitao  were  both 
descendants  of  the  Ming  imperial  house  and 
therefore  under  suspicion.  Although  more  or  less 
marginalized  in  their  time  by  the  "mainstream" 
Orthodox  masters  and  their  adherents,  the 
Individualist  artists  had  their  own  circles  of 
admirers,  and  some  following  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  Interest  in  them  was  reawakened  in  the 
second  quarter  of  our  century,  when  major  artists 
took  up  their  strikingly  "modern-looking"  styles  as 
the  basis  tor  a  revival  of  landscape  painting. 

The  paintings  of  Kuncan  (1612— ca.  1674)  are  a  good 
beginning,  since  an  understanding  of  how  they 
differ  fundamentally  from  those  of  the  Four  Wangs, 
to  which  they  may  at  first  appear  similar,  will 
illuminate  the  Orthodox-Individualist  distinction. 
His  Clear  Sky  Over  Verdant  Hills,  painted  in  1660 
(cat.  206),  is  an  outstanding  example.  Seen  in  the 
original  or  in  a  good  reproduction,  it  reveals  itself 
immediately  as  not  made  up,  as  Orthodox-school 
landscapes  are,  of  repeated,  conventional  forms 
rendered  in  a  neat  system  of  brush  strokes,  nor  are 
the  forms  so  clearly  demarcated.  On  the  contrary, 
the  heavily  vegetated  hillsides,  depicted  in  loose, 
disorderly  brushwork  that  imparts  to  them  an 
earthy  naturalism,  read  as  richly  variegated 
continuums  of  space  and  matter,  imagery  and 
texture;  the  visual  experience  of  moving  over  the 
surface  of  one  of  Kuncan 's  pictures  is,  accordingly, 
more  than  usually  akin  to  that  of  moving  through 
natural  terrain  and  absorbing  transitory  sensory 
stimuli.  The  effect  is  personal  to  the  artist,  a  deeply 
troubled  man  who  found  no  comfortable  place  in 
the  tortured  world  of  human  affairs  and  took  solace 
in  immersion  in  nature.  His  paintings  typically  lay 
out  an  ideal  narrative,  the  kind  of  excursion 
reported  in  his  long  inscriptions:  from  a  secure 
base,  a  thatched  house  shown  in  the  foreground, 
one  moves  upward  along  paths  and  through  ravines, 
perhaps  passing  a  Buddhist  temple,  sometimes  (as 
here)  going  at  last  through  a  gate  leading  still 
farther  outward.  Implied  always  is  the  safe  return  to 
the  security  of  one's  hermitage. 


CHINESE    PAINTING.    INNOVATION    AFTER    "PROGRESS"    ENDS 


Kuncan  spent  his  later  years  in  monasteries  in  the 
area  of  Nanjing,  but  also  traveled  to  Anhui  and 
knew  the  scenery  of  Huangshan,  the  spectacular 
range  of  granite  peaks  that  has  inspired  poets  and 
painters  from  the  late  Ming,  when  it  was  first  made 
accessible  to  pilgrimages  both  religious  and  literary, 
down  to  the  present  day.  In  the  early  Qing  a  school 
of  painters  grew  up  in  southern  Anhui  that  took 
Huangshan  as  their  principal  subject;  the  central 
figure  was  Hongren  (1610-1664).  Responding  in 
part  to  the  bare,  geometncized  patterns  of 
Huangshan  rock  formations,  the  Anhui  landscapists 
most  often  worked  in  a  dry-brush  linear  manner, 
taking  Ni  Zan  and  some  works  by  Dong  Qichang 
(cf.  cats.  188,  200)  as  their  principal  models, 
relinquishing  washes  and  texture-stroke  systems  for 
effects  that  are  often  stark  and  semiabstract.  Their 
pictures  thus  occupy  an  opposite  pole  from 
Kuncan's  dense  textures  and  variegated  forms. 
Hongren's  Peaks  and  Ravines  at  Jiuqi  (cat.  207)  is  less 
severe  and  geometricized  than  some  others  of  his 
works  (notably,  the  great  Sound  of  Autumn  in  the 
Honolulu  Academy  of  Arts),  but  exemplifies  his 
ability  to  create,  within  his  self-imposed  limitations, 
effects  of  substantiality  and  even  monumentality  in 
his  landscapes.  Sparse  pines  and  other  trees  grow 
from  rocky  crevices;  in  the  lower  right,  a  path  leads 
up  from  a  bridge  to  a  simple  pavilion.  This,  no  less 
than  Kuncan's,  is  a  landscape  inviting  imaginary 
engagement  with  a  somehow  believable  world. 

Engaging  the  viewer  in  visionary  worlds  that 
cannot  simply  be  dismissed  as  convention  and 
artifice,  as  most  of  the  landscapes  of  the  Orthodox 
masters  can,  is  the  large  project  underlying  the  best 
painting  of  the  Individualists.  They  too  plunder  the 
past,  but  less  for  style-conscious  allusiveness,  more 
to  retrieve  pictorial  devices  that  enhance  the  power 
and  presence  of  their  images.  For  a  few  of  them, 
including  Gong  Xian  (1618-1689),  the  leading 
master  of  the  Nanjing  school  in  the  early  Qing,  the 
search  extended  even  outside  the  boundaries  of 
their  own  painting  tradition,  to  the  European 
pictorial  art  that  had  by  this  time  become  known 
to  Chinese  artists  through  paintings  and  prints 
(principally,  engravings  in  books)  brought  from 
Europe  for  proselytizing  uses  by  Jesuit  missionaries. 
The  question  of  what  seventeenth-century  Chinese 
painters  adopted  from  European  pictorial  art  is 
complex  and  controversial,  and  it  is  enough  for  the 
present  purpose  to  point  out  that  the  rendering  of 
light  and  shade,  air  and  space,  seen  in  such  Gong 
Xian  paintings  as  his  Summer  Mountains  after  Rain 
(cat.  209)  cannot  be  accounted  for  without  looking 
beyond  Chinese  precedents  to  European  pictures. 
The  indistinct  and  overlapping  brush  strokes  on  the 
slopes,  for  instance,  are  not  so  much  the  texture 
strokes  ot  Chinese  practice  as  a  brush  equivalent  of 
Western  style  stippling.  The  inky  depths  of  the 
groves  ot  leafy  trees,  set  against  strange,  ambiguous 


areas  of  light  in  which  empty  houses  appear,  seem 
similarly  foreign  to  Chinese  landscape.  In  Gong 
Xian's  hands,  the  European  illusionistic  devices  are 
used,  not  as  one  might  expect  for  the  portrayal  of 
comfortingly  real-world  scenery,  but  for 
otherworldly  visions;  and  the  whole  effect  is 
somber  and  unsettling.  Gong  is  another  painter 
who  was  somehow  involved  in  the  throes  of 
dynastic  change — the  short-lived  court  of  the  last 
Ming  pretender  was  located  in  Nanjing — so  that 
political  readings  of  his  dark  landscapes  seem 
warranted. 

Bada  Shanren,  or  Zhu  Da  (1626— 1705),  is  the  other 
famously  "mad"  artist  (along  with  Xu  Wei)  in 
Chinese  painting.  In  the  late  1670s,  after  spending 
some  years  in  Buddhist  monasteries  near 
Nanchang,  he  experienced  bouts  of  crazy  behavior; 
opinion  is  still  divided  over  whether  they  were 
feigned  to  escape  suspicion  of  political  subversion 
or,  as  seems  more  likely,  real.  He  burned  his  monk's 
robes  and  returned  to  secular  life,  but  according  to 
contemporary  reports  never  spoke  again, 
communicating  instead  by  laughing  and  crying  and 
gesturing.  His  paintings,  which  he  produced 
prolifically  in  later  years,  came  to  be  in  great 
demand  and  probably  were  his  chief  means  of 
support.  He  was  not,  like  the  other  Individualist 
masters,  primarily  a  landscapist;  his  best-known 
works  are  enigmatic  portrayals  of  birds  and  fish, 
along  with  plants  and  rocks,  in  which  the  creatures 
strike  unnaturally  expressive  poses,  often  seeming  to 
project  negative  human  feelings — suspicion, 
disgruntlement,  anger — along  with  a  dark  humor. 
The  models  for  these  came  chiefly  from  the 
mysterious  pictures  of  such  subjects  by  Muqi  and 
other  Chan  (Zen)  Buddhist  monk-artists  of  the  late 
Song  and  Yuan,  which  are  known  now  only 
through  examples  in  Japan,  since  Chinese  collectors 
for  the  most  part  did  not  consider  them  worth 
preserving.  Bada  must  have  seen  examples,  and 
perhaps  a  contemporary  practice  by  monk- 
amateurs,  111  the  local  monasteries.  His  Ducks  and 
Lotus  (cat.  210),  painted  in  1696,  is  a  striking 
example.  The  oft-balance  poses  and  cryptic, 
mismatched  interrelating  of  the  two  birds,  the  way 
the  lower-right  rock  hovers  without  a  solid  base, 
and  the  way  the  contours  ot  rock  and  lotus  stalks 
repeat  and  intersect  as  thcv  twist  upward,  confusing 
mass  and  space,  are  among  the  devices  that  give  the 
picture,  like  others  of  Bada 's,  powerful  instabilities 
which  viewers  both  then  and  now  are  inclined  to 
ascribe  to  Ins  bottled-up  "madness." 

The  youngest  ot  the  Individualist  masters  was 
Yuanji,  or  Shitao  |  K142-1707),  who  like  Bada 
Shanren  was  descended  from  one  ot  the  Ming 
rulers.  Since  Shitao  was  only  a  child  when  the 
Ming  dynasty  tell,  the  rupture  was  tor  him  less 
traumatic.  Late  in  his  lite  he  renounced  Ins  Ming 


CHINESE    PAINTING:    INNOVATION    AFTER    "PROGRESS"    ENDS 


189 


loyalist  stance  altogether,  met  the  Kangxi  emperor 
on  one  of  his  southern  tours,  and  traveled  to  the 
capital  in  Beijing,  probably  as  the  guest  ot  a 
Manchu  official.  During  his  active  years  he  lived  for 
periods  of  time  in  each  of  the  major  centers  of 
painting — Anhui  Province,  Nanjing,  and 
Yangzhou — and  absorbed  and  utilized,  always  on 
his  own  terms,  the  local  styles.  In  the  end,  he 
became  independent  of  all  of  them,  and  an  artist  of 
unparalleled  versatility.  It  was  Shitao  who,  as  noted 
earlier  in  a  contrast  with  Dong  Qichang,  conceived 
the  extraordinary  project  of  relinquishing  all 
established  styles  and  making  a  fresh  start,  as  if  he 
could  return  to  a  state  prior  to  the  formulation  of 
conventions.  "Before  the  old  masters  established 
methods,"  he  wrote,  "I  wonder  what  methods  they 
followed."  To  raise  the  question  was  to  challenge 
directly  the  Orthodox  masters'  insistence  on  "right 
method";  what  Shitao  advocated  was  a  "method 
that  is  no  method."  The  rhetoric  of  the  claim, 
needless  to  say,  could  not  be  matched  in  his  actual 
artistic  practice.  The  attempt,  however,  while  it 
ultimately  led  (along  with  ravages  of  age  and  illness, 
commercialization,  and  overproduction)  to  a 
marked  decline  in  much  of  the  work  of  his  last 
years,  produced  some  strange  and  wonderful 
pictures.  It  also,  together  with  the  drastic  failure  of 
creative  energy  within  the  Orthodox  school  of 
landscape  around  the  same  time,  left  a  curious  and 
not  entirely  healthy  legacy  for  the  artists  who 
followed  in  the  eighteenth  century,  confronting 
them  with  still  another  "end  of  the  history  of  art." 
The  most  interesting  ot  them  turned  away  from 
landscape  altogether  to  pursue  other  subjects,  and 
landscape  would  not  recover  its  central  importance 
until  the  twentieth  century. 

Two  of  Shitao's  finest  landscapes  are  in  the 
exhibition.  Neither  is  dated.  Pure  Sounds  of  Hills  and 
Streams  (cat.  208)  is  probably  from  his  years  in 
Nanjing,  1680— 1687,  when  he  was  affected  by  the 
styles  of  the  local  artists — notably  Gong  Xian 
(cf.  cat.  209). The  heavy  application  of  dotting  over 
the  surface,  which  seems  to  vibrate  apart  from  the 
solid  masses  and  to  convey  a  psychological  rather 
than  a  physical  state,  is  a  feature  also  of  Gong's  late 
period,  the  1680s.  At  the  right  of  Shitao's  picture,  a 
path  ascends  a  ravine  to  disappear  in  fog;  at  the  left, 
in  a  similarly  constricted  space,  a  waterfall  seen  at 
the  top  emerges  below  to  flow  under  a  roofed 
bridge  in  which  two  men  relax,  listening  to  the 
sounds  and  enjoying  the  cool.  Clear  Autumn  in 
Huaiyang  (cat.  211),  judging  from  its  style,  must  be 
much  later;  Jonathan  Hay  dates  it  to  1705  and 
associates  it  with  a  flooding  that  Yangzhou  suffered 
then.10  In  brushwork  it  stops  well  short  of  the  more 
extreme  essays  toward  "stylelessness"  seen  in  other 
works  of  Shitao's  last  years;  in  its  handling  of  the 
flat  recession  along  the  river,  it  would  appear  to 
betray  some  acquaintance  with  Western  pictorial 


techniques,  which  were  easily  accessible  by  this 
time  to  any  artist  who  chose  to  draw  on  them — 
and  many  were  doing  so,  in  diverse  ways.  Huaiyang 
is  an  old  name  for  the  city  ofYangzhou,  where 
Shitao  lived  as  a  professional  artist  in  his  late  years. 

Gong  Xian  and  seven  other  artists  active  in 
Nanjing  in  the  early  Qing  period  are  designated  in 
Chinese  writings  as  the  "Eight  Masters  of  Jinling" 
(an  old  name  for  the  city). Two  of  the  others  are 
Zou  Zhe  (1636— ca.  1708)  and  Gao  Cen  (active 
ca.  1645— 1689.)  A  distinct  school  style  runs  through 
the  output  of  the  Nanjing  masters  and  is  well 
exemplified  by  Zou  Zhe's  twelve-leaf  Album  of 
Landscapes  (cat.  2 12). The  style  includes  a  preference 
for  angular  divisions  of  the  picture  area — strong 
diagonals,  V-shaped  compositions — and  a  fondness 
for  rich  textures  in  both  earth  surfaces  and 
vegetation.  This  textural  richness  responds  to, 
among  other  factors,  the  richly  forested  terrain 
around  Nanjing,  just  as  the  linear,  geometricized 
style  of  the  Anhui  masters  responds  to  the  fractured 
rock  masses  of  Huangshan.  Dark,  mysterious  groves 
of  trees  often  dominate  Nanjing-school  landscapes, 
and  can  even,  as  in  two  of  Zou  Zhe's  album  leaves, 
serve  as  the  sole  subject  ot  the  picture.  By  contrast, 
Gao  Cen's  large  hanging  scroll  Hie  Temple  on 
Jinshan  (cat.  214)  avoids  the  local  manner — or  any 
established  manner,  in  fact — to  give  a  close  visual 
report  of  a  famous  sight,  using  all  the  techniques 
for  convincing  representation  that  an  artist  of  his 
time  and  place  could  muster,  including  some 
adopted  from  Western  pictures.  Jinshan  ("Gold 
Mountain")  is  an  island  in  theYangzi  River  near 
the  neighboring  city  ot  Zhenjiang;  topped  by  a 
Buddhist  temple  and  pagoda  that  were  visible  from 
atar,  the  island  was  a  familiar  landmark  for  travelers. 

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY    PAINTING:  THE 
YANGZHOU    "ECCENTRICS" 

By  the  early  decades  of  the  eighteenth  century  the 
older  centers  of  painting  had  been  replaced  in 
importance  by  the  city  ofYangzhou.  Artists  and 
litterateurs  were  attracted  by  the  generous 
patronage  of  salt  merchants  and  other  wealthy  men 
who  settled  there.  Painters  with  different  styles  and 
specialties,  polished  professionals  and  self-styled 
amateurs  (who  mostly  depended,  nonetheless,  on 
their  painting  for  income),  responded  to  a  diversity 
of  tastes  and  demands. 

Two  depictions  of  real  places  by  Yangzhou  masters 
exemplify  this  diversity.  One,  in  handscroll  form 
(cat.  213),  depicts  the  Zhan  Yuan  ("Garden  tor 
Gazing"),  probably  the  garden  of  that  name  on  the 
Qin-Huai  Canal  in  Nanjing,  which  still  can  be  seen 
today,  although  much  altered  and  restored.  The 
artist  is  Yuan  Jiang,  who  was  active  from  the  1690s 
until  about  1746.  Such  a  work  was  ordinarily 
commissioned  by  the  owner  of  the  garden,  who 


CHINESE    PAINTING:    INNOVATION    AFTER    "PROGRESS"    ENDS 


would  then  invite  noted  literary  people  to  add 
inscriptions  to  it.  The  choice  of  Yuan  Jiang  as 
painter  indicates  a  desire  for  a  detailed  and 
descriptive  picture  in  the  conservative  tradition 
stretching  back  to  the  Song  dynasty.  Yuan 
accomplished  this  on  a  high  technical  level,  laying 
out  his  panorama  of  the  garden  so  that  the  viewer 
can  explore  its  spaces  and  appreciate  its  elegance. 

The  aim  of  Gao  Xiang  (1688-1753)  in  Finger-Snap 
Pavilion  (cat.  215),  by  contrast,  is  certainly  not  close 
description,  but  rather  to  apply  his  loose,  amiable 
style  to  conveying  the  rustic  charm  of  the  place,  the 
residence  of  a  noted  monk  at  the  Tianning  Temple 
in  Yangzhou.  A  Buddhist  altar  is  visible  in  the  upper 
story  of  the  open  building,  and  the  monk  himself 
and  a  visitor  appear  outside,  under  shaggy  trees. 
Yuan  Jiang  s  patron,  given  such  a  picture  by  his 
chosen  artist,  would  have  returned  it  indignantly, 
complaining  of  sloppiness;  the  recipient  of  Gao  s 
would  have  reacted  the  same  way  to  one  in  Yuan  s 
style,  calling  it  fussy  and  stiff.  Both  artists  worked  in 
response  to  well-understood  expectations,  instilling 
their  paintings  with  visual  pleasures  of  very  different 
kinds.  The  ingenuous,  technically  less  demanding 
mode  seen  in  Gao  Xiang's  work  would  be  favored 
and  developed  in  interesting  directions  throughout 
the  eighteenth  century  by  the  artists  known 
collectively  as  the  Eight  Strange  Masters  ofYangzhou. 

Some  time  in  the  second  decade  of  the  century, 
around  the  end  of  the  Kangxi  era,  with  the  deaths 
within  a  few  years  of  the  major  early  Qing 
landscapists  Wang  Hui,  WangYuanqi,  and  Shitao, 
Chinese  painting  seems  to  undergo  a  great  change. 
Whatever  economic  and  other  factors  we  introduce 
in  accounting  for  it  and  however  we  assess  its 
effect — it  might  be  seen  as  the  onset  of  decline,  but 
many  specialists  in  Chinese  painting  would  argue 
vehemently  against  such  a  reading — we  must 
recognize  that  painting  of  the  eighteenth  and 
nineteenth  centuries  was  on  the  whole  milder, 
flatter  in  all  senses  than  that  of  the  late  Ming  and 
early  Qing,  less  concerned  with  creating  spacious 
and  otherwise  plausible  worlds  or  stirring  effects 
and  less  engaged  in  the  large,  complex  formal  and 
expressive  problems  of  its  predecessors.  Interest  in 
landscape  declined  among  the  best  artists  and  their 
audiences,  who  turned  their  attention  to  figures 
(including  portraits)  and  flower  and  plant  subjects, 
along  with  some  fresh  imagery,  unknown  in  earlier 
painting,  that  expanded  the  artists'  thematic 
repertories.  The  fondness  of  some  eighteenth- 
century  artists,  especially  those  active  in  Yangzhou, 
for  sketchy,  quirky,  and  otherwise  unorthodox 
brush  manners,  and  for  compositions  that  are 
sometimes  equally  odd.  has  earned  them 
reputations  as  nonconformists  within  Qing 
painting.  Prominent  among  them  are  the  Eight 
Strange  Masters,  or  Eight  Eccentrics  ofYangzhou. 


One  of  the  eight,  Gao  Xiang,  has  already  been 
introduced  (cat.  215).  A  more  serious  and  prolific 
artist  numbered  in  the  group  is  HuaYan 
(1682-1756).  Born  in  the  southeast  coastal  province 
of  Fujian,  he  was  active  in  his  later  years  in 
Hangzhou  and  Yangzhou,  supporting  himself  by 
producing  a  large  and  heterogeneous  body  of 
painting  that  encompasses  nearly  all  subjects  and  an 
astonishing  range  of  styles,  drawing  on  predecessors 
as  diverse  as  the  Song  Academy  masters  and  Shitao. 
He  is  unmatched  in  his  time  for  group  figure 
compositions,  of  which  Tlie  Golden  Valley  Garden 
(cat.  219),  painted  in  1732,  is  an  outstanding 
example.  This  was  the  garden  of  Shi  Chong,  a 
fabulously  rich  man  of  the  third  century.  HuaYan 
portrays  him  with  his  concubine  Lii  Zhu  ("Green 
Pearl"),  who  was  an  accomplished  flutist.  Rocks, 
trees,  flowers,  and  servants  surround  the  two  in  an 
arrangement  that  harks  back  to  the  "space  cells"  of 
early  painting. 

Another  who  was  attracted  from  his  native  place  in 
Fujian  by  the  richer  patronage  and  livelier 
atmosphere  ofYangzhou  was  Huang  Shen 
(1687— after  1768). The  local  style  he  learned  in 
Fujian  was  too  finished  and  detailed  for  Yangzhou 
taste,  to  which  he  accommodated  by  moving  into  a 
looser  brush  manner  that  had  the  added  benefit  of 
permitting  faster  and  more  copious  production. 
Best  known  for  figures,  he  also  painted  landscapes 
and  quickly  rendered  scenes  from  nature,  such  as 
Willows  and  Egrets  (cat.  216).  Here  the  gestural 
flourishing  of  a  heavily  loaded  brush  for  the  broad, 
suffusing  strokes  at  the  base  of  the  trees  and  for  the 
trees  themselves  creates  a  sense  of  the  momentary, 
which  is  caught  also  in  the  stalking  movements  of 
the  birds  through  shallow  water.  The  picture 
demonstrates,  among  other  things,  how  an  artist 
with  Huang  Shen's  solid  training  can  make 
seemingly  free,  calligraphic  brush  strokes  serve 
descriptive  and  evocative  ends. 

Li  Shan  (1686— after  1760)  was  born  near  Yangzhou 
into  a  scholar-official  family.  He  himself  attempted 
a  government  career  and  spent  some  time  at  the 
court  in  Beijing  during  the  reign  of  the  Kangxi 
emperor  (1662-1722),  whose  special  favor  he 
enjoyed  as  a  poet  and  painter.  Later,  after  he  had 
lost  imperial  support  and  become  frustrated  with 
officialdom,  he  settled  in  Yangzhou  as  a  professional 
artist.  In  a  stylistic  shift  like  Huang  Shen's.  he  gave 
up  the  more  traditional  and  careful  manner  he  had 
learned  at  court  to  do  vigorously  executed  pictures 
of  trees,  flowers,  and  other  plants,  along  with 
vegetables  and  other  mundane  subjects.  In  addition 
to  their  decorative  value,  all  these  carried  auspicious 
and  symbolic  meanings  that  fitted  them  for  hanging 
on  particular  occasions.  Prominent  in  Li  Shan's 
oeuvre,  accordingly,  are  large  hanging  scrolls  such  as 
his  [755  Pine,  Wisteria,  and  Peonies  (cat.  217).  Here 


CHINESE    PAINTING:    INNOVATION    AFTER    "PROGRESS-    ENDS 


191 


the  quirkiness  appears  in  the  attenuated,  twisting 
shapes  of  the  rock  and  trees,  and  the  odd,  quasi- 
postural  way  they  answer  each  other,  like  partners 
in  an  ungainly  dance.  In  some  of  his  smaller  works, 
notably  album  leaves,  Li  Shan  used  opaque 
pigments  and  run-together  brush  strokes  in  ways 
that  opened  new  stylistic  options  for  nineteenth- 
and  twentieth-century  painters. 

The  real  amateur  of  the  group  was  Jin  Nong 
(1687-1764).  Although  his  claim  that  he  did  not 
begin  painting  until  he  was  fifty  is  exaggerated,  it  is 
true  that  most  of  his  dated  works  are  from  his  late 
years.  Earlier  he  made  his  living  as  an  itinerant 
antique  dealer  and  calligrapher.  It  was,  of  course, 
not  new  for  an  amateur  to  paint  and  sell  his  works; 
what  was  audacious  and  attractive  about  Jin  Nong 
was  how  he  made  no  effort  to  conceal  his 
amateurism,  even  flaunting  it.  Not  limiting  his 
paintings  to  the  technically  undemanding  types 
favored  by  the  scholar-amateurs  (unpeopled  river 
landscapes,  ink  monochrome  bamboo  and  other 
plants),  he  took  on  subjects  that  usually  required 
professional  skills — figures,  including  religious 
images  and  portraits;  horses;  illustrations  to  old 
poems;  figure-in-landscape  compositions.  All  these 
and  others  he  did  with  an  ingenuous  air,  relying  on 
his  cultivated  taste,  familiarity  with  old  painting, 
and  a  sure  and  sensitive  hand  developed  through 
practicing  antiquarian  calligraphy.  His  inscriptions 
to  paintings  often  claim  illustrious  models;  on  the 
leaf  representing  two  men  strolling  and  conversing 
in  a  forest  from  his  1759  Album  of  Landscapes  and 
Figures  (cat.  218),  for  instance,  he  wrote  that  it  was 
based  on  a  work  by  the  twelfth-century  Academy 
master  Ma  Hezhi.  In  an  age  and  setting  in  which 
fine  technique  had  become  a  bit  boring,  the 
demand  for  Jin  Nong's  paintings  was  more  than  he 
could  keep  up  with,  and  he  used  "ghost-painters" 
to  do  works  in  his  style  for  him  to  sign. 

Most  of  these  complex  stratagems  tor  instilling 
freshness  into  a  very  late  stage  in  a  very  old 
tradition  will  seem  familiar  to  us.  We  can  conclude 
by  recognizing  also  that  Chinese  painting  from  the 
fourteenth  through  the  seventeenth  centuries  (the 
Yuan  to  early  Qing  periods)  presents  the  single 
other  case  in  world  art  of  what  can  follow  the 
deliberate  relinquishing — even,  on  the  theoretical 
level,  the  discrediting — of  representation  as  the 
underlying  project  for  a  highly  evolved  tradition  of 
painting.  Later  Chinese  painting  also  demonstrates 
that  after  artistic  "progress" — in  the  sense  of  a 
coherent  series  of  pictorial  modes  that  seems  to 
exhibit  a  cumulative  mastery  of  representational 
techniques — had  come  to  an  end,  stagnation  could 
still  be  staved  off  by  successive  manipulations  of  the 
past,  some  of  them  brilliantly  conceived,  all  (at  least 
until  the  late  Shitao)  preserving  basic  strengths  from 
the  tradition  while  transforming  it.  IfWestern 


painting,  at  that  future  moment  when  three 
centuries  will  have  elapsed  since  it  passed  through 
the  corresponding  turning  point,  can  look  back 
over  those  centuries  and  claim  comparable 
successes,  it  will  be  cause  for  rejoicing. 


SOURCES    FOR    FIGURES 
Fig.  2.  After  James  F  CahiU,  The 
Compelling  Image  (Cambridge, 
Mass. :  Harvard  University  Press, 
1982),  pi  2.15. 

Fig.  3.  After  James  F  CahiU, 
Parting  at  the  Shore  (New  York 
and  Tokyo:  Weathcriiill,  197S), 
pis.  78-80. 

NOTES 

1.  E.  H.  Gombrich,  Art  and 
Illusion:  A  Study  in  the 
Psychology  of  Pictorial 
Representation,  The  A. W.  Mellon 
Lectures  in  the  Fine  Arts  1956, 
2d  ed.  (New  York:  Pantheon, 
IQ65),  pp.  148-50  (italics 
added). 

2.  Sherman  Lee,  cited  in  Arthur 
C.  Danto,  "Ming  and  Qing 
Paintings,"  in  Embodied 
Meanings:  Critical  Essays  & 
Aesthetic  Meditations  (Farrar, 
Straus  and  Giroux,  1994),  p.  35. 
For  the  catalog  essay,  see 
Sherman  E.  Lee,  "Ming  and 
Qing  Painting,"  in  Howard 
Rogers  and  Sherman  E.  Lee, 
Mastem'orks  of  Ming  and  Qing 
Painting  from  the  Forbidden  City 
(Lansdale,  Pa.:  International 
Arts  Council,  1988),  pp.  17-31: 
this  quotation  is  on  p.  17. 

3.  Danto,  "Ming  and  Qing 
Paintings,"  pp.  34-35. 

4.  Roger  Fry,  cited  in  Danto, 
"Ming  and  Qing  Paintings," 
P-  35- 

5.  James  CahiU,  The  Compelling 
Image:  Nature  and  Style  in 
Seventceth-  Century  Painting,  The 
Charles  Eliot  Norton  Lectures 
(Cambridge:  Harvard 
University  Press,  1982),  p.  5. 

6.  Richard  Barnhart,  "Wang 
Shen  and  Late  Northern  Sung 
Painting,"  in  International 
Symposium  on  Art  Historical 
Studies,  no.  2,"Ajiya  m  okeru 
sanzui  no  hyogen"  ("Landscape 
Expression  in  Asia")  (Kyoto: 
Taniguchi  Foundation.  1983), 
pp.  62-70. 


7.  Maggie  Bickford,  Ink  Plum: 
Tlie  Making  of  a  Chinese 
Scholar-Painting  Genre  (New 
York  and  Cambridge: 
Cambridge  University  Press, 
1996). 

8.  Richard  Vinograd," Family 
Properties:  Personal  Context 
and  Cultural  Pattern  in  Wang 
Meng's  Pien  Mountains  of 
1366,"  Ars  Orientalis  8  (1982), 
pp.  1-29. 

9.  A  translation  of  Chen 
Hongshou  is  in  James  Cahill, 
Tlie  Distant  Mountains:  Chinese 
Panning  of  the  Late  Ming 
Dynasty  (Tokyo  and  New  York: 
Weatherhill.  19S2),  pp.  264-65. 

10.  Jonathan  Hay,  "Shitao  s  Late 
Work  (1697-1707):  A  Thematic 
Map"  (Ph.D.  diss., Yale 
University),  vol.  1,  p.  45:  and 
vol.  2,  pp.  60—61,  n.  55. 


CHINESE    PAINTING:    INNOVATION    AFTER    "PROGRESS"    ENDS 


192 


Catalogue 


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■&&-. 


Ornament  in  the  shape  of  hooked  clouds 

with  central  bird  motif 

Neolithic  period,  Hongshan  culture 

(ca.  3600-ca.  2000  bce) 

Nephrite  jade;  1.  22.4  x  w.  11.5  x  d.  0.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1979  at  Sanguandianzi,  Lingyuan  city, 

Liaoning  Province 

Liaoning  Provincial  Museum,  Shenyang 


Ornament  in  the  shape  of  a  pig-dragon  (zhulong) 

NEOLITHIC  PERIOD,  HoNGSHAN  CULTURE 

(ca.  3600-ca.  2000  BCE) 

Nephrite  jade;  h.  15.7  x  vv.  10.4  X  d.  4.3  cm 

Found  in  Jianping  county,  Liaoning  Province 

Liaoning  Provincial  Museum,  Shenyang 


Prismatic  tube  (coug) 

Neolithic  period,  Liangzhu  culture 

(ca.  3600-ca.  2000  bce) 

Nephrite  jade;  h.  8.8  x  max.  width  17.6  cm 

Unearthed  in  1986  from  Fanshan  tomb  No.  i2,Yuhang, 

Zhejiang  Province 

Zhejiang  Provincial  Institute  of  Cultural  Relics  and 

Archaeology,  Hangzhou 


Prismatic  tube  (cong) 

Neolithic  period,  Liangzhu  culture 

(ca.  3600-ca.  2000  bce) 

Nephrite  jade;  li.  5  x  max.  width  74  cm 

Unearthed  in  1982  from  Fuquanshan  tomb  No.  9, 

Qingpu  county,  Shanghai 

Shanghai  Museum 


5- 

Prismatic  tube  (cong) 

NEOLITHH    I'l  MOD,  1  1  WI..-1II    CULT!  Ill 

(ca.  3600-ca.  2000  bce) 
Nephrite  jade;  h.  29.7  x  max.  width  0.1  cm 
Unearthed  in  [982  in  Wujin  county.Jiangsu  Province 
Nanjing  Museum 


Knife  (dao)  with  semihuman  mask  motifs 
Neolithic  period,  Longshan  culture 
(ca.  3000— ca.  1700  bce) 
Nephrite  jade;  1.  23.7  x  w.  7.7  cm 
Shanghai  Museum 


Blade  (zhang) 

XlA  OR  $HANG  PBRIOD  (c\1.  2200-ca.   1 100  UCE) 
Nephrite  jade;  1.  37  x  w.  11.2  x  d.  0.6  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


Blade  (zhang) 

Shang  period  (ca.  1600-ca.  noo  bce) 

Nephrite  jade;  1.  68  x  w.  io.s  cm 

Unearthed  in  (986  from  Sanxingdui  pit  No.  a, 

Guanghan.  Sichuan  Province 

Sichuan  Provindal  Institute  of  Archaeology  and  Cultural 

Relics,  Chengdu 


Chime  with  design  of  crouching  tiger 

Shanc  period  (ca.  1000-c.i.  iioobce) 

Stone:  I.  S4  x  w.  42  \  d.  2.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  [950  atWuguan  village,  Anyang, 

I  kn.111  Province 

National  Museum  of  Chinese  History,  Beijing 


Four  figures:  (1)  bird  with  ram's  horns  (2)  kneeling 

human  (3)  bird  (4)  bird-headed  human 

Shang  period  (ca.  i6oo-ca.  noo  bce) 

Nephrite  jade;  (i)  h.  4.9  cm  (2)  h.  5.6  cm  (3)  h.  10  cm 

(4)  h.  9.8  cm 

Unearthed  in  1976  from  Fu  Hao  tomb  No.  5,  Anyang, 

Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Museum,  Zhengzhou 


Dagger-ax  (^e)  with  grooved  blade 
Western  Zhou  period  (ca.  1100-771  bce) 
Nephrite  jade;  1.  25.4  x  w.  6.1  cm 
Unearthed  in  1983  at  East  Sidaoxiang,  Xi'an, 
Shaanxi  Province 
Shaanxi  History  Museum,  Xi'an 


Fourteen-piece  burial  mask 

Western  Zhou  period  (ca.  1 100-771  bce) 

Nephrite  jade;  max.  width  10.7  cm 

Unearthed  in  1990  from  Guo  State  tomb  No.  2001, 

Sanmenxia,  Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Institute  of  Archaeology  and  Cultural 

Relics,  Zhengzhou 


■MH 


13- 

Ornamental  plaque  with  interlacery  and  animal 

mask  designs 

Eastern  Zhou,  Spring  and  Autumn  period  (770-476  bce) 
Nephrite  jade;  h.  7. 1  cm 

Unearthed  at  Xiasi,  Xichuan  county,  Henan  Province 
Henan  Provincial  Institute  of  Archaeology  and  Cultural 
Relics,  Zhengzhou 


■■■■■■■ 


14- 

A  pair  of  dragon-shaped  pendants 

Eastern  Zhou,  Warring  States  period  (475-221  bce) 

Nephrite  jade;  1.  11. 4  cm 

Unearthed  at  Pingliangtai,  Huaiyang  county, 

Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Institute  of  Archaeology  and  Cultural 

Relics,  Zhengzhou 


IS- 

Ring  (huan)  with  abstract  designs 

Eastern  Zhou, Warring  States  period  (475-221  bce) 

Nephrite  jade;  diam.  10.6  cm 

Unearthed  in  1991  at  Xujialing,  Xichuan  county, 

Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Institute  of  Archaeology  and  Cultural 

Relics,  Zhengzhou 


Id. 

Disk  (hi)  with  grain  pattern 

Western  Han  dynasty  (206  bce-8  ce) 

Nephrite  jade;  diam.  i8.y  cm,  depth  o.y  cm 

Unearthed  in  Zhouzhi  county,  Shaarud  Province 

Shaanxi  History  Museum,  Xi'an 


17- 

Winged  horse 

Han  dynasty  (206  BCE-220  ce) 

Nephrite  jade;  h.  4.2  X  1.  7.8  X  w.  2.6  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


Chimera  (bixie) 
Han  dynasty  (206  BCE-220  ce) 
Nephrite  jade;  1.  13.5  x  w.  8.5  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


19- 

Vessel  (lian  or  zun)  with  design  of  deities,  animals, 

and  masks 

(Detail  on  facing  page) 

Western  Jin  dynasty  (265-316) 

Nephrite  jade;  h.  10.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1991  from  the  tomb  of  Liu  Hong, 

Huangshantou,Anxiang  county,  Hunan  Province 

Administrative  Office  for  Cultural  Relics,  Anxiang  County, 

Hunan  Province 


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Sixteen-piece  belt 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Nephrite  jade;  1.  of  pieces  3.5-5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1970  at  Hejia  village,  Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province 

Shaanxi  History  Museum.  Xi'an 


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21. 

Vessel  (Jue) 

Xia  period  (ca.  2100-ca.  1600  bce) 
Bronze;  h.  11.7  x  w.  14. 1  cm 
Shanghai  Museum 


Square  cauldron  (fang  ding)  with  thread-relief  frieze  of 

animal  masks,  and  nipple  pattern 

Shang  period  (ca.  i6oo-ca.  noo  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  82  x  w.  50  cm 

Unearthed  in  1990  at  Qian  village,  Pinglu  county, 

Shanxi  Province 

Sh.mxi  Provincial  Institute  of  Archaeology,  Taiyuan 


23- 

Square  vessel  (Jang  zun)  with  four  rams 

(Detail  on  facing  page) 

Shang  period  (ca.  1600-ca.  noo  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  58.3  cm,  w.  of  mouth  52.4  cm 

Found  in  1938  atYueshanpu,  Ningxiang,  Hunan  Province 

National  Museum  of  Chinese  History,  Beijing 


Vessel  (zun)  in  the  shape  of  a  bird,  inscribed  "Fu  Hao" 

Shang  period  (ca.  1600-ca.  noo  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  45.9  cm 

Unearthed  in  1976  from  Fu  Hao  tomb  No.  5,  Anyang, 

Henan  Province 

National  Museum  of  Chinese  History,  Beijing 


25- 

Vessel  (zim)  in  the  shape  of  an  elephant 

SHANG  PERIOD  (ca.  lOoo-ca.  noo  BCE) 

Bronze;  h.  20.5  x  I.  22. X  cm 

Found  in  1975  at  Shixingshan,  Liling,  Hunan  Province 

Hunan  Provincial  Museum,  Changsha 


26. 

Vessel  (you),  inscribed 

(Details  on  facing  page) 

Shang  period  (ca.  1600-ca.  noo  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  37.7  cm 

Found  in  1970  at  Huangcai  village,  Ningxiang  county, 

Hunan  Province 

Hunan  Provincial  Museum,  Changsha 


Vessel  (zun)  in  the  shape  of  a  boar 

Shang  period  (ca.  1600-ca.  noo  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  40  X  1.  72  cm 

Unearthed  in  1981  at  Chuanxingshan,  Xiangtan  county, 

Hunan  Province 

Hunan  Provincial  Museum,  Changsha 


28. 

Vessel  {gong)  in  zoomorphic  shape 

Suang  pbriod  (ca.  1600-ca.  iioo  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  19  x  1.  43  x  w.  13.4  cm 

Unearthed  in  1959  at  Taohua  village,  Shilou  county, 

Shanxi  Province 

Shanxj  Provincial  Museum, Taiyuan 


29. 

Basin  (pan)  with  coiling  dragon  design 

(Detail  on  facing  page) 

Shang  period  (ca.  1600-ca.  uoo  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  26  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  61.6  cm 

Unearthed  in  1984  at  Chenshan  village,  Wenling, 

Zhejiang  Province 

Administrative  Office  for  Cultural  Relics.Wenling 


30. 

Mask  with  protruding  eyes 

Shang  period  (ca.  1600-ca.  noo  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  65  x  w.  138  cm 

Unearthed  in  1986  from  Sanxingdui  pit  No.  2, 

Guanghan,  Sichuan  Province 

Sichuan  Provincial  Institute  of  Archaeology  and  Cultural 

Relics,  Chengdu 


3i- 

Vessel  (lei)  with  elephant  trunk  handles  and 

buffalo  liorns 

Western  Zhou  period  (ca.  1100-771  bce) 
Bronze;  h.  70.2  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  22.  8  cm 
Unearthed  in  tySo  at  Zhuwajie,  Peng  county, 
Sichuan  Province 
Sichuan  Provincial  Museum,  Chengdu 


Vessel  (rim),  inscribed 

Western  Zhou  period  (ca.  1 100-771  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  38.8  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  28.6  cm 

Unearthed  in  [963  atjia  village.  Baoji  county, 

Sh.unxi  Province 

Baoji  Municipal  Museum 


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33- 

Bell  (bo)  with  four  tigers 

Western  Zhou  period  (ca.  1100-771  bce) 
Bronze;  h.  44.3  x  w.  39.6  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


34- 

Drum  (git)  with  abstract  zoomorphic  designs 

Shang  period  (ca.  1600-ca.  1100  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  75.5  cm,  diam.  of  drum  39.5  cm 

Found  in  1977  in  Chongyang  county,  Hubei  Province 

Hubei  Provincial  Museum, Wuhan 


35- 

Two-handled  vessel  (gui)  with  ox-head  motifs, 

inscribed 

(Detail  on  facing  page) 

Western  Zhou  period  (ca.  1100-771  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  31  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  25  cm 

Unearthed  in  1981  from  tomb  No.  I,  Zhifangtou  village, 

Baoji  county,  Shaanxi  Province 

Baoji  Municipal  Museum 


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36. 

Vessel  (gong),  inscribed 

Western  Zhou  period  (ca.  1100-771  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  28.7  x  1.  38  cm 

Unearthed  in  1976  at  Zhuangbai  village,  Fufeng  county, 

Shaanxi  Province 

Zhouyuan  Museum,  Xi'an 


37- 

Vessel  (zun)  in  the  shape  of  an  elephant 

Western  Zhou  period  (ca.  1100-771  net) 

Bronze;  h.  21  x  1.  38  cm 

Unearthed  in  1975  at  Rujia  village,  Baoji  county, 

Shaanxi  Province 

Baoji  Municipal  Museum 


38. 

Covered  spouted  vessel  (he)  in  the  shape  of  a 

four-legged  duck,  inscribed 

(Detail  on  facing  page) 

Western  Zhou  period  (ca.  1100-771  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  26  cm 

Unearthed  in  1980  from  theYing  State  tomb  at 

Pingdingshan,  Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Institute  of  Archaeology  and  Cultural 

Relics,  Zhengzhou 


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39- 

Two-handled  vessel  (gui),  inscribed 

Western  Zhou  period  (ca.  1100-771  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  26.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1986  from  theYing  State  tomb  at 

Pingdingshan,  Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Institute  of  Archaeology  and  Cultural 

Relics,  Zhengzhou 


40. 

Vessel  (/hi),  inscribed 

Western  Zhou  pbriod  (ca.  1100-771  bc:e) 

Bronze;  h.  65.4  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  19.7  cm 

Unearthed  in  1976  at  Zhuangbai  village,  Futeng  county, 

Shaanxi  Province 

Zhouyuan  Museum,  Xi'an 


41- 

Rectangular  vessel  {fang  yi),  inscribed 

Western  Zhou  period  (ca.  1100-771  bck) 

Bronze;  h.  38.5  x  1.  of  mouth  20  x  vv.  of  mouth  17  cm 

Unearthed  in  1963  at  Qijia  village,  Fufeng  county, 

Shaanxi  Province 

Shaanxi  History  Museum,  Xi'an 


42. 

Miniature  carriage  with  human  guardians  including 

one-legged  watchman,  birds,  and  crouching  tigers 

Western  Zhou  period  (ca.  1100- — 1  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  9.1  x  1.  13.7  x  w.  11.3  cm 

Unearthed  in  lySo  at  Shangguo  village.  Wenxi  county. 

Shanxi  Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Institute  of  Archaeology,  Taiyuan 


43- 

Four-sided  vessel  (Jiiif.i;  hit)  with  square  base  and 

lotus-petal  crown 

Eastern  Zhou,  Spuing  and  Autumn  period  (770-476  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  66  x  max.  width  34  cm 

Unearthed  in  l°HK  from  tomb  No.  251,Jinsheng  village, 

Taiyuan,  Shanxi  Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Institute  of  Archaeology,  Taiyuan 


44- 

Vessel  (/hi)  with  bird-shaped  lid 

Eastern  Zhou,  Spring  and  Autumn  period  (770-476  bce) 

Bronze:  h.  41  x  w.  2;. 5  cm 

Unearthed  in  [988  from  tomb  No.  2$i,Jinsheng  village. 

Taiyuan.  Shanxi  Province 

Sh.nixi  Provincial  Institute  of  Archaeology,  Taiyuan 


45- 

Square-based  vessel  (fang  hu)  with  lotus-petal  crown 

and  crane 

Eastern  Zhou,  Spring  and  Autumn  period  (770-476  bce) 
Bronze;  h.  126  x  1.  of  mouth  30.5  x  w.  of  mouth  24.9  cm 
Unearthed  in  1923  at  Lijialou,  Xinzheng  county, 
Henan  Province 
Henan  Provincial  Museum,  Zhengzhou 


46. 

Mythical  beast 

Eastern  Zhou,  Spring  and  Autumn  period  (770-476  bce) 

Bronze  inlaid  with  malachite;  h.  48  cm 

Unearthed  in  1990  from  Xujialing  tomb  No.  9, 

Xichuan  county,  Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Institute  of  Archaeology  and  Cultural 

Relics,  Zhen^zhou 


47- 

Tapir  bearing  figure  holding  interlace  tray 

Eastern  Zhou,  Warring  States  period  (475-221  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  15  cm,  diam,  of  tray  11  cm 

Unearthed  in  1965  at  Fenshuiling,  Changzhi, 

Shanxi  Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Museum, Taiyuan 


Rectangular  basin  (pan)  with  turtle,  fish,  and 

interlacing  dragon  designs 

(Detail  on  facing  page) 

Eastern  Zhou,  Warring  States  period  (475-221  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  22.5  x  1.  73.2  X  w.  45.2  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


49- 

Chariot  fitting  with  mythical  hunting  scenes 

(Detail  on  facing  page) 

Western  Han  dynasty  (206  bce-8  ce) 

Bronze  inlaid  with  gold,  silver,  and  turquoise;  h.  26.4  cm, 

diam.  3.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1965  from  Sanpanshan  tomb  No.  122, 

Ding  county,  Hebei  Province 

Hebei  Provincial  Institute  of  Cultural  Relics,  Shijiazhuang 


50. 

Incense  burner  in  the  shape  of  a  magical  mountain  isle 

of  the  immortals 

Western  Han  dynasty  (206  bce-8  ce) 

Bronze  inlaid  with  silver,  gold,  and  turquoise;  h.  26  cm, 

max.  diam.  12.3  cm,  diam.  of  foot  9.7  cm 

Unearthed  in  1968  from  the  tomb  of  Prince  Liu  Sheng, 

Mancheng  county,  Hebei  Province 

Hebei  Provincial  Museum,  Shijiazhuang 


51- 

Covered  vessel  (Han  or  zun)  with  mythical  hunting 

scenes,  inscribed  and  dated  (26  CE?) 

Eastern  Han  dynasty  (25-220) 

Gilt  bronze;  h.  24.5  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  23.4  cm 

Unearthed  in  1062  at  Dachuan  village, Youyu  county, 

Shanxi  Province 

Sh.mxi  Provincial  Museum, Taiyuan 


52- 

Screen  support  in  the  shape  of  a  kneeling  figure  biting 

and  holding  snakes 

Western  Han  dynasty  (206  bce-8  ce) 

Gilt  bronze;  h.  31.5  X  1.  15.8  cm 

Unearthed  in  1983  from  the  tomb  of  the  king  of  Nanyue, 

Guangzhou,  Guangdong  Province 

Museum  of  the  Tomb  of  the  Nanyue  King  of  the  Western 

Han  Dynasty,  Guangzhou 


53- 

Lamp  in  the  shape  of  a  goose  holding  a  fish 

Western  Han  dynasty  (206  bce-8  ce) 

Bronze  with  paint;  h.  53.8  X  1.  31.3  cm 

Unearthed  in  1985  at  Zhaoshiba  village,  Pingshuo, 

Shanxi  Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Museum,  Taiyuan 


54- 

Lamp  with  fifteen  oil  saucers  in  the  form  of  a 

mythical  tree 

(Detail  on  facing  page) 

Eastern  Zhou,  Warring  States  period  (475-221  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  82.6  cm 

Unearthed  in  1977  from  the  tomb  of  the  king  of 

Zhongshan,  Pingshan  county,  Hebei  Province 

Hebei  Provincial  Institute  of  Cultural  Relics,  Shijiazhuang 


55- 

Spear  head  with  hanging  men 

Western  Han  dynasty  (206  bce-8  ce) 

Bronze;  h.  41.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1956  at  Shizhaishan.Jinnmg  county, 

Yunnan  Province 

Yunnan  Provincial  Museum,  Kunming 


56. 

Buckle  ornament  with  dancers  holding  cymbals 

Western  Han  dynasty  (206  bce-8  ce) 

Gilt  bronze;  h.  12  X  1.  18.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1956  at  Shizhaishan.Jinning  county, 

Yunnan  Province 

Yunnan  Provincial  Museum,  Kunming 


57- 

Low  offering  stand  with  two  bulls  and  pouncing  tiger 

Eastern  Zhou,  Warring  States  period  (475-221  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  43  x  1.  76  cm 

Unearthed  in  1972  from  Lijiashan  tomb  No.  24, 

Jiangchuan  county, Yunnan  Province 

Yunnan  Provincial  Museum,  Kunming 


58. 

Man  holding  parasol 

Western  Han  dynasty  (20ft  bce-8  ce) 

Bronze;  h.  of  man  55.5  cm,  h.  of  parasol  110.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1956  at  Shizh.iishan, (inning  county, 

Yunnan  Province 

Yunnan  Provincial  Museum,  Kunming 


59- 

Rearing  dragon 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Gilt  bronze  and  iron;  h.  34  X  1.  28  cm 

Unearthed  in  1975  at  Caochangpo  in  the  southern  suburb 

of  Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province 

Shaanxi  History  Museum,  Xi'an 


60. 

Six-lobcd  plate  with  design  of  mythical  beast 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Silver  with  gilding;  h.  1.2  cm,  diam.  is. 3  cm 

Unearthed  in  1970  at  Hejia  village,  Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province 

Sliaanxi  History  Museum,  Xi'an 


61. 

Six-lobed  plate  with  design  of  bear 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Silver  with  gilding;  h.  1  cm,  diam.  13.4  cm 

Unearthed  in  1970  at  Hejia  village,  Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province 

Shaarud  History  Museum,  Xi'an 


Plate  in  the  shape  of  two  peach  halves  with  design  of 

two  foxes 

Tanc;  dynasty  (618-907) 

Silver  with  gilding;  h.  i.s  x  max.  width  22.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1070  at  Hejia  village,  Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province 

Sh.unxi  History  Museum,  Xi'.m 


63- 

Censer  found  with  figure  of  Ganesha 

(Detail  on  facing  page) 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Silver  with  gilding;  h.  41.8  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  24.5  cm 

Discovered  in  1987  in  underground  chamber  of  the  Famen 

Temple  Pagoda,  Fufeng  county,  Shaanxi  Province 

Famen  Temple  Museum,  Shaanxi  Province 


64. 

Storage  container  with  bird  designs  for  holding 

brick  tea 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Silver  with  gilding;  h.  17.8  cm,  diam.  16. 1  cm 

Discovered  in  1987  in  underground  chamber  of  the  Famen 

Temple  Pagoda,  Fufeng  county,  Shaanxi  Province 

Famen  Temple  Museum,  Shaanxi  Province 


65. 

Jar  with  design  of  figures  in  a  landscape 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Silver  with  gilding;  h.  24.7  cm,  diam.  of  jar  12.3  cm, 

diam.  of  foot  12.6  cm 

Discovered  in  1987  in  underground  chamber  of  the  Famen 

Temple  Pagoda,  Fufeng  county,  Shaanxi  Province 

Famen  Temple  Museum,  Shaanxi  Province 


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66. 

Vessel  based  on  bronze  hu  vessel 

Western  Han  dynasty  (206  bce-8  ce) 

Wood-core  lacquer;  h.  57  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  18. 1  cm, 

diam.  of  foot  20  cm 

Unearthed  in  1972  from  Mawangdui  tomb  No.  1, 

Changsha,  Hunan  Province 

Hunan  Provincial  Museum,  Changsha 


67. 

Set  of  eight  cups 

Wbstbrn  Han  dynasty  (206  bce-8  ce) 

Wood-core  lacquer;  h.  12.2  cm,  w.  16-19  cm 

Unearthed  in  1972  from  Mawangdui  tomb  No.  1. 

Changsha,  Hunan  Province 

Hunan  Provincial  Museum,  Changsha 


LACQUER 


68. 

Rectangular  box  with  cloud  designs 

Western  Han  dynasty  (206  bce-8  ce) 

Wood-core  lacquer;  h.  21  X  1.  48.5  X  w.  25.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1972  from  Mawangdui  tomb  No.  3 , 

Changsha,  Hunan  Province 

Hunan  Provincial  Museum,  Changsha 


69. 

Round  tray  with  scroll  designs 

Western  Han  dynasty  (206  bce-8  ce) 

Wood-core  lacquer;  h.  4.5  cm,  diam.  53.7  cm 

Unearthed  in  1972  from  Mawangdui  tomb  No.  1 , 

Changsha,  Hunan  Province 

Hunan  Provincial  Museum,  Changsha 


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70. 

Rectangular  tray  with  scroll  designs 

Wbstern  Han  dynasty  (206  bce-8  ce) 

Wood-core  lacquer;  1.  75.6  cm 

Unearthed  in  1972  from  Mawangdui  tomb  No.  1, 

Changsha,  Hunan  Province 

Hunan  Provincial  Museum,  Changsha 


71- 

Round  box  with  painted  and  incised  designs 

(Detail  on  facing  page) 

Western  Han  dynasty  (206  bce-8  ce) 

Wood-core  lacquer;  h.  18  cm,  diam.  32  cm 

Unearthed  in  1972  from  Mawangdui  tomb  No.  3, 

Changsha,  Hunan  Province 

Hunan  Provincial  Museum,  Changsha 


72- 

Reliquary  with  Buddhist  figures 

Northern  Song  dynasty  (960-1127) 

Wood-core  lacquer  with  seed  pearls;  h.  41.2  x  w.  24.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1966  at  the  Huiguang  Pagoda  site,  Rui'an, 

Zhejiang  Province 

Zhejiang  Provincial  Museum,  Hangzhou 


73. 

Sutra  boxes  with  Buddhist  figures 

Northern  Song  dynasty  (900-1127) 

Wood-core  lacquer  with  seed  pearls;  (outside  box)  h.  K>  x 

I.  40  x  w.  [8  cm,  (inside  box)  h.  11.5  x  1.  33.8  x  w.  11  cm 

Unearthed  in  ly'io  at  the  Huiguang  Pagoda  site.  Kui'an, 

Zhejiang  Province 

Zhejiang  Provincial  Museum,  Hangzhou 


74- 

Round  covered  box  with  aged  scholar  and  servant 

Dated  to  1351 

Yuan  dynasty  (1279-1368) 

Carved  lacquer  on  a  fabric-covered  wood  core; 

diam.  12. 1  cm 

Unearthed  in  1953  from  the  tomb  of  the  Ren  family, 

Qingpu  county,  Shanghai 

Shanghai  Museum 


75- 

Round  covered  box  with  figures  viewing  a  waterfall, 

inscribed 

Ming  dynasty,  Yonclu  mark  and  period  (1403-1424) 

I  '.lived  lacquer  on  a  fabric-covered  wood  core;  li.  7.7  cm, 

diam.  of  mouth  22  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


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76. 
Potpourri  bag 

Western  Han  dynasty  (206  bce-8  ce) 
Chain-stitch  embroidery  on  patterned  silk;  1.  48  cm 
Unearthed  in  1972  from  Mawangdui  tomb  No.  1 , 
Changsha,  Hunan  Province 
Hunan  Provincial  Museum,  Changsha 


77- 

Gauze  with  patterns  of  pine-bark  lozenges,  signifying 

longevity 

Western  Han  dynasty  (206  bce-8  ce) 

Silk  gauze;  1.  75  x  w.  48  cm 

Unearthed  in  1972  from  Mawangdui  tomb  No.  1, 

Changsha,  Hunan  Province 

Hunan  Provincial  Museum,  Changsha 


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78. 

Embroidered  silk  with  designs  signifying  longevity 

WESTBRN  Han  dynasty  (206  bcu-8  ce) 

Chain-stitch  embroidery  on  silk  tabby;  1.  23  x  w.  16  cm 

Unearthed  in  1072  from  Mawangdui  tomb  No.  1 . 

Changsha,  Hunan  Province 

Hunan  Provincial  Museum,  Changsha 


79- 

Printed  silk  with  small  seroll  motifs 
Western  Han  dynasty'  (206  bce-8  ce) 

Silk  tabby  with  pruned  and  drawn  designs;  I.  4s  X  W.  53  Cm 
Unearthed  in  nj-:  from  Mawangdui  tomb  No.  1. 
Changsha,  Hunan  Province 
Hunan  Provincial  Museum.  Changsha 


8o. 

Embroidered  textile  with  cloud  design 

Western  Han  dynasty  (206  bce-8  ce) 

Chain-stitch  embroidery  on  silk  tabby;  1.  17  x  w.  14.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1972  from  Mawangdui  tomb  No.  1, 

Changsha,  Hunan  Province 

Hunan  Provincial  Museum,  Changsha 


Coverlet  with  dragon  design 

LlAO  DYNASTY  (916-1125) 

Silk  tapestry  (kesi)  with  gold  threads;  h.  90  x  w.  56.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1974  atYemaotai,  Faku  county, 

Liaoning  Province 

Liaoning  Provincial  Museum,  Shenyang 


Zhu  Kerou 

Camellias 

Southern  Song  dynasty  (1127-1279) 

Silk  tapestry  (kesi),  mounted  as  album  leaf;  25.  6  X  25.3  cm 

Liaoning  Provincial  Museum,  Shenyang 


83. 

Garden  rocks  with  chrysanthemum,  high  mallow,  and 

begonia,  after  a  painting  by  Cui  Bai  (act.  ca.  1000-1085) 

Soi  iiiiiin  Song  dynasty  \  1 1^-1^79) 

Silk  tapestry  (kesi);  102.5  x  4J"  cm 
Liaoning  Provincial  Museum,  Shenyang 


Heavenly  King  of  the  West 

(Detail  on  facing  page) 

Yuan  dynasty  (1279-1368) 

Silk  embroidery;  250.8  x  247.7  cm 

Donated  in  1949  by  Mr.  Fei  Zhenshan 

National  Museum  of  Chinese  History,  Beijing 


King  of  Bright  Wisdom  Budong 

Yuan  dynasty  (1279-1368) 
Silk  tapestry  (kesi);  90  x  56  cm 
Administrative  Office  of  Norbu  Linka,  Lhasa, 
Autonomous  Region  ofTibet 


86. 

Sakyamuni  Buddha 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-I9I1) 

Silk  tapestry  (kesi);  182.7  X  77-6  cm 
Liaoning  Provincial  Museum,  Shenyang 


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Li  Bai's  "Evening  in  the  Peach  and  Plum  Garden 

(Full  image  on  facing  page;  detail  above 

Oim.  insAsn  (1044-1911) 

Silk  tapestry  (fceji);  [35.5  x  70.2  cm 

1  iaoning  Provincial  Museum,  Shenyang 


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QlN  DYNASTY  (221-207  BCE) 

Terra-cotta;  h.  196  cm 

Unearthed  in  1977  from  the  Qin  Shihuangdi  tomb, 
pit  No.  1,  Lintong  county,  Shaanxi  Province 
Museum  of  Terra-cotta  Warriors  and  Horses  of  Qin 
Shihuangdi,  Xi'an 


GRAVE   GOODS 


8p. 

Military  officer 

Q[N  DYNASTY  (221-207  BCE) 

Terra-cotta;  h.  198  cm 

Unearthed  in  1977  from  the  Qin  Shihuangdi  tomb, 
pit  No.  1 ,  Lintong  county,  Shaanxi  Province 
Museum  of  Terra-cotta  Warriors  and  Horses  of  Qin 
Shihuangdi,  Xi'an 


90. 

Military  officer 

QlN  DYNASTY  (221-207  BCE) 

Terra-cotta;  h.  192  cm 

Unearthed  in  1977  from  the  Qin  Shihuangdi  tomb, 
pit  No.  1 ,  Lintong  county,  Shaanxi  Province 
Museum  of  Terra-cotta  Warriors  and  Horses  of  Qui 
Shihuangdi,  Xi'an 


CRAVE    GOODS 


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91. 
Soldier 

QlN  DYNASTY  (221-207  BCE) 

Terra-cotta;  h.  185  cm 

Unearthed  in  1977  from  the  Qin  Shihuangdi  tomb, 
pit  No.  1,  Lintong  county,  Sbaanxi  Province 
Museum  ot  Terra-cotta  Warriors  and  Horses  ol  Qin 
Shihuangdi,  Xi'an 


92. 

Chariot  horse 

QlN  DYNASTY  (221-207  BCE) 

Terra-cotta;  h.  163  x  1.  200  cm 
Unearthed  in  1977  from  the  Qin  Shihuangdi  tomb, 
pit  No.  1 ,  Lintong  county,  Shaanxi  Province 
Museum  of  Terra-cotta  Warriors  and  Horses  ot  Qui 
Shihuangdi,  Xi'an 


93. 

Chimera  (bixie) 

Easturn  Han  dynasty  (25-220) 
Stone;  h.  114  x  I.  175  x  w.  4s  cm 
Unearthed  in  Yichuan  county,  Henan  Pre*  in<  e 
Guanlin  Museum  of  Stone  Sculpture,  Luoyang 


CRAVE    GOODS 


94- 

Five  kneeling  musicians 

Western  Han  dynasty  (206  bce-8  ce) 

Painted  wood;  h.  32.5-38  cm 

Unearthed  in  1972  from  Mawangdui  tomb  No.  1 , 

Changsha,  Hunan  Province 

Hunan  Provincial  Museum,  Changsha 


CRAVE    GOODS 


95- 

Standing  figure 

Wi  STERN  Han  dynasty  (206  bce-8  ce) 

Painted  wood;  h.  47  cm 

Unearthed  in  1972  from  Mawangdui  tomb  No.  1, 

Changsha,  Hunan  Province 

Hunan  Provincial  Museum,  Changsha 


96. 

Standing  performer  with  a  drum 

Eastern  Han  dynasty  (25-220) 
Earthenware  with  pigment;  h.  66.5  cm 
Unearthed  in  1963  in  Pi  county,  Sichuan  Province 
Sichuan  Provincial  Museum,  Chengdu 


CRAVE    GOODS 


97- 

Squatting  performer  with  .1  drum 

Eastern  Han  dynasty  (25—220) 

Earthenware  with  pigment;  li.  4S  cm 

Unearthed  in  hjS j  from  Majiashan  tomb  No.  ;;,. 

Sanhexiang,  Xindu  county,  Sichuan  Province 

Administrative  Office  for  Cultural  Relics,  Xindu  county, 

Sichuan  Province 


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98. 

Tomb  guardian  holding  an  ax  and  a  snake 

Eastern  Han  dynasty  (25-220) 

Earthenware;  h.  87.2  cm 

Unearthed  in  1957  from  the  Huangshui  Xiang'ai  tomb, 

Shuangliu  county,  Sichuan  Province 

Sichuan  Provincial  Museum,  Chengdu 


99- 

Kneeling  woman  holding  a  mirror 

Eastern  Han  dynasty  (25-220) 

Earthenware  with  red  pigments:  h.  01.4  cm 

Unearthed  in  1963  in  Pi  county,  Sichuan  Province 

Sichuan  Provincial  Museum.  Chengdu 


CRAVE    GOODS 


Model  of  tower  and  pond  with  animals 

Eastern  Han  dynasty  (25-220) 
Glazed  earthenware;  h.  45  cm,  diam.  of  basin  55  cm 
Unearthed  in  1964  in  Xichuan  county,  Henan  Province 
Henan  Provincial  Museum,  Zhengzhou 


CRAVE    GOODS 


101. 

Recumbent  dog 

Eastern  Han  dynasty  (25-220) 

Glazed  earthenware;  h.  47  x  1.  44  x  w.  20  cm 
Unearthed  at  Nanyang,  Henan  Province 
Nanyang  Municipal  Museum 


102. 
Tower 

Han  dynasty  (206  BCE-220  ce) 

Earthenware;  h.  147  cm 

Unearthed  in  1952  at  Jmniizhong,  Huaiyang  county, 

Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Museum,  Zhengzhou 


CRAVE    GOODS 


103- 

Tomb  tile  with  scenes  of  hunting  and  harvesting 

(Rubbing  at  right) 

Eastern  Han  dynasty  (25-220) 

Earthenware;  1.  44.5  x  w.  39.6  x  d.  6.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1972  at  Anren  village,  Dayi  county, 

Sichuan  Province 

Sichuan  Provincial  Museum,  Chengdu 


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CRAVE    GOODS 


104. 

Tomb  tile  with  carriage  and  horses 

(Rubbing  at  right) 

Eastern  Han  dynasty  (25-220) 

Earthenware;  1.  45  X  w.  30.  5  x  d.  6.}  cm 

Unearthed  in  lyss  from  Qingbaixiang  tomb  No.  1, 

Xinlan  county,  Sichuan  Province 

Sichuan  Provincial  Museum.  Chengdu 


105. 

Three  aristocratic  women 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Earthenware  with  pigment;  h.  73-83  cm 

Unearthed  in  1985  at  Hansenzhai,  Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province 

Institute  for  the  Protection  of  Cultural  Relics,  Xi'an 


GRAVE    GOODS 


106. 

Horse 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Earthenware  with  pigment;  h.  87  x  1.  93  cm 

Unearthed  in  Luoyang,  Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Museum,  Zhengzhou 


CRAVE    GOODS 


107. 

Camel 

Tang  dynasty  ((jrH-907) 

Earthenware  with  sancai  ("three-color")  glaze; 

h.  Si  x  1.68  cm 

Unearthed  iii  1973  at  Guanlin,  Luoyang,  Henan  Province 

Luoyang  Cultural  Relics  Work  Team,  Henan  Province 


io8. 

Set  of  twelve  calendrical  animals 

(Detail  on  facing  page) 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Earthenware  with  pigment;  h.  38.5-41.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1955  in  the  suburbs  of  Xi'an, 

Shaanxi  Province 

Shaanxi  History  Museum,  Xi'an 


GRAVE    GOODS 


109. 

Civil  official 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Earthenware  with  sancai  ("three-color")  glaze;  h.  107  cm 

Unearthed  at  Guanlm,  Luoyang,  Henan  Province 

Luoyang  Municipal  Museum 


CRAVE    GOODS 


I  10. 

Tomb  guardian 

Tani;  dynasty  (618-907) 

Earthenware  with  sancai  ("three-color")  glaze;  li.  103.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  19S1  from  the  tomb  ol 'An  I'u  at  Longmen, 

Luoyang,  Henan  Province 

Luoyang  Cultural  Relies  Work  Team,  Henan  Province 


III. 

Heavenly  king 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Earthenware  with  sancai  ("three-color")  glaze;  h.  113  cm 

Unearthed  at  Guanlin,  Luoyang,  Henan  Province 

Luoyang  Municipal  Museum 


GRAVE    GOODS 


Four  brick  reliefs  with  figures 

Yuan  dynasty  (1279-1368) 

Earthenware;  (1)  h.  35  x  1.  35.8  x  w.  21  cm  (2)  h.  34  x 

1.  29  x  w.  22.5  cm  (3)  h.  34  x  1.  31  x  w.  19.5  cm  (4)  h.  35  x 

1.  19.5  x  w.  10  cm 

Unearthed  in  1973  at  Xifengfeng  village,  Jiaozuo, 

Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Museum,  Zhengzhou 


CRAVE    GOODS 


Ceramics 


ii3- 

Bowl  with  stylized  floral  or  leaf  designs 

Neolithic  period.Yangshao  culture,  Miaodigou  type 

(4th  millennium  bce) 

Red  earthenware  with  black  pigment; 

h.  23  cm,  max.  diam.  36  cm 

Unearthed  in  1979  in  Fangshan  county,  Shanxi  Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Institute  of  Archaeology,  Taiyuan 


CERAMICS 


114. 

Basin  with  human  head  and  fish  designs 

Neolithic  period, Yangshao  culture,  Banpo  type 

(late  6th— sth  millennium  bcl) 

Red  earthenware  with  black  pigment;  h.  [5.5  cm, 

diam.  of  month  39.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  lys.S  at  Banpo  village,  near  Xi'an, 

Sh.i.mxi  Province 

National  Museum  of  Chinese  History,  Beijing 


115. 

Vessel  in  the  shape  of  an  owl 

Neolithic  period, Yangshao  culture,  Miaodigou  type 

(4th  millennium  bce) 

Black  earthenware;  h.  35.8  cm 

Unearthed  in  1959  atTaiping  village,  Hua  county, 

Shaanxi  Province 

National  Museum  of  Chinese  History,  Beijing 


HBHHHHHH 


Bottle  in  the  shape  of  a  hird  or  dolphin 

Neolithic  pbriod,  Liangzhtj  culture 

(ca,  3600-ca.  2000  bce) 

Gray  earthenware;  1. 324  x  w.  11.7  cm 

Unearthed  in  iy6o  at  Meiyan.Wujiang  county, 

Jiangsu  Province 

Nanjing  Museum 


CERAMICS 


117. 

Jar  with  incised  animal  mask  designs 
Shang  period  (ca.  1600-ca.  noo  bce) 
White  earthenware;  h.  22.1  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  9.1  cm, 
diam.  of  foot  8.9  cm 
Unearthed  at  Anyang,  Henan  Province 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


CERAMICS 


IIS. 

Jar  (zun)  with  mat  impressions 
Shang  period  (ca.  1600-ca.  noo  bcc) 
Ash-glazed  stoneware  (protoporcelain);  h.  27  cm, 
diani.  of  mouth  27  cm 

Unearthed  in  196-5  at  Zhengzhou,  Henan  Province 
Zhengzhou  Municipal  Museum 


K£V 


IM'Mffl 


in;. 

Candleholder  in  the  shape  of  a  man  riding 

a  mythical  beast 

Western  Jin  dynasty  (265-316) 

Green-glazed  stoneware  (Celadon), Yue  kilns;  h.  27.7  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


Basin  with  applied  liuddha  figure 

Western  Jin  dynasty  (265-316) 

Green-glazed  stoneware  (Celadon),Yue  kiln-;  li  7.5  cm, 

diam.  of  mouth  19.4  cm.diam.of  foot  10  cm 

National  Museum  of  Chinese  History,  Beijing 


CERAMICS 


Jar  with  six  lugs  and  incised  bird  and  tree  motifs 

Northern  Qi  dynasty  (550-577) 

Green-glazed  stoneware  (Celadon);  h.  28.5  cm, 

max.  diam.  of  mouth  18.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1958  from  the  tomb  of  LiYun, 

Puyang  county,  Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Museum,  Zhengzhou 


CERAMICS 


Chicken-headed  ewer  with  dragon  handle 

Northern  Qi  dynasty  (550-577) 

Green-glazed  stoneware  (Celadon);  h.  48.2  cm, 

max.  diam.  32.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  197S  from  the  tomb  of  Lou  Rui.Taiyuan, 

Shanxi  Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Institute  of  Archaeology,  Taiyuan 


123. 

Octagonal  bottle 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Green  glazed  stoneware  (Celadon),Yue  kilns;  h.  21.7  cm, 

diam.  of  mouth  2.3,diam.  of  foot  7.8  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


124. 
Bowl 

I  \\i.  DYNASTS    (6l8    007) 

Green-glazed  stoneware  (Celadon),Yue  kilns:  h.  6.8  cm, 
diam.  of  mouth  22.4  cm 

Discovered  in  [987  in  underground  chamber  of  the  Famen 
remple  Pagoda,  Fufeng  county,  Shaanxi  I'  1  ■  ^  ince 
Shaanxi  Histon  Museum,  Xi'an 


CERAMICS 


125. 

Octagonal  bottle 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Green-glazed  stoneware  (Celadon), Yue  kilns;  h.  21.5  cm, 

diam.  of  mouth  2.2  cm,  diam.  of  foot  8  cm 

Discovered  in  1987  in  underground  chamber  of  the  Famen 

Temple  Pagoda,  Fufeng  county,  Shaanxi  Province 

Famen  Temple  Museum,  Shaanxi  Province 


CERAMICS 


126. 

Dish  in  the  shape  of  a  five-petaled  blossom,  base 

inscribed  with  character  guati  ("official") 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

White  stoneware  with  transparent  glaze,  Xing  or 

Ding  kilns;  h.  3.5  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  13.8  cm, 

di.im.  of  foot  6.45  cm 

Unearthed  in  1985  at  Huoshaobi,  Xi'an,  Sli.unxi  Province 

Institute  for  the  Protection  of  Cultural  Relics,  Xi'an 


127. 

Dish  in  the  shape  of  a  three-petaled  blossom,  base 

inscribed  with  character  glian  ("official") 

Tangdyv\m\  CMS-907) 

White  stoneware  with  transparent  glaze.  Xing  or 

Ding  kilns;  h.  2.3  xw.  [  1.7  cm,  diam.  of  foot  5.9  cm 

Unearthed  in  19S5  at  Huoshaobi,  Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province 

Institute  tor  the  Protection  ot  Cultural  Relics,  "• 


CERAMICS 


Covered  jar  with  four  lugs 

Five  Dynasties  (907-960) 

White  stoneware  with  transparent  glaze,  Xing  or 

Ding  kilns:  h.  26.2  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  10.4  cm, 

diam.  of  foot  9.1  cm 

Donated  by  Mr.  Zhou  Rui 

Shanghai  Museum 


[2y. 

Howl  inscribed  with  characters  yang  ding 

("glorious  Ding") 

Fivk  Dynasties  (907-960) 

White  stoneware  with  transparent  glaze.  Ding  kilns; 

h.  6.3  cm,  diam.  ot  mouth  19. y  cm,  diam.  of  foot  7,5  cm 

Donated  by  Mr.  Huang  Zhaoxi 

Shanghai  Museum 


CERAMICS 


130. 

Bottle  with  carved  and  combed  peony  designs 
Northern  Song  dynasty  (960-1127) 
Green-glazed  stoneware, Yaozhou  kilns;  h.  19.9  cm, 
diam.  of  mouth  6.9  cm,  diam.  of  foot  7.8  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


CERAMICS 


1)1. 

Bowl  with  incised  ducks  and  water  weeds 

Northern  Song  dynasty  (960-1127) 

White  stoneware  with  transparent  glaze  and  bronze 

rim  band.  Ding  kilns;  h.  6.4  cm,  diain.  of  mouth  23.5  cm, 

diam  of  loot  7.3  cm 

Shanghai  Museum 


132. 

Tripod  vessel  in  the  shape  of  an  archaic 
bronze  Han  or  zun  vessel 
Northern  Song  dynasty  (960-1127) 
Pale  blue-green— glazed  stoneware,  Ru  kilns; 
h.  12.9  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  18  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


CERAMICS 


>33- 

Mallow-shaped  bowl 

(View  from  below  at  right) 

Southern  Song  dynasty  (i  127-1279) 

Crackk-d  pale  blue-green-glazcd  stoneware,  Hangzhou 

G111111  ("official")  kilns;  h.  4.2  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  17.3  cm, 

diam.  of  foot  9.0  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


134- 

Vase  with  dish-shaped  mouth  and  raised  ribs 

Southern  Sonc;  dynasty  (1127-1271;) 

Crackled  pale  blue-green-glazed  stoneware. 

I  ongquan  kilns;  h.  31  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  10.4  cm, 

di.1111.  of  foot  11.3  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


135- 

Jar  with  incised  floral  designs 

Northern  Song  dynasty  (960-1127) 

Bluish-glazed  while  stoneware  (i/i'rii;fW),Jingdezher]  kilns; 

h.  26.6  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  5  cm,  diam.  of  foot  8.3  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


CERAMICS 


i36. 

Vase  with  carved  peony  designs 

Northern  Song  dynasty  (960-1127) 

Cizhou-type  stoneware  with  white  slip  and  transparent 

glaze;  h.  34  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  6  cm 

Unearthed  in  1959  inTangyin  county,  Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Museum,  Zhengzhou 


137- 

I'illow  with  painted  design  of  .1  hawk  chasing 

a  rabbit  among  reeds 

Jin  dynasty  (1115-1234) 

Cizhou-type  stoneware  with  white  slip,  black  pigment. 

and  transparent  glaze;  h.  9.7  x  1.  24.7  x  w.  17  cm 

Henan  Provincial  Museum,  Zhengzhou 


CERAMICS 


i38. 

Vase  with  two  leopards  incised  on  a 

ring-matted  ground 

Northern  Song  dynasty  (960-1127) 

Stoneware  with  white  slip  and  transparent  glaze, 

Dengfeng  kilns;  h.  32.1  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  7.1  cm, 

diam.  of  foot  9.9  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


CERAMICS 


139- 

Covered  jar  with  floral  designs  in  painted  applied 

openwork 

(View  of  lid  above;  full  view  on  facing  page) 

Yuan  dynasty  (1279-1368) 

Porcelain  with  underglaze  cobalt  blue  and  copper  red 

painted  and  applied  decoration,  Jingdezhen  kilns;  . 

h.  42.3  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  15.2  cm,  diam.  of  foot  18.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1964  from  a  Yuan  dynasty  hoard  at  Baoding, 

Hebei  Province 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


CERAMICS 


140. 

Covered  jar  with  three  lugs 

Ming  dynasty, Yongle  period  (1403-1424) 

Pale  green-glazed  porcelain,  Jingdezhen  kilns; 

h.  10.4  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  9.9  cm,  diam.  of  foot  14. 1  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


CERAMICS 


141. 

Flower-shaped  brush  washer 

Ming  dynasty,  Xuande  mark  and  period  (1426-1435) 

Copper  red-glazed  porcelain,  Jingdezhen  kilns; 

h.  3.8  cm,  width  of  mouth  15. y  cm,  diam.  of  foot  13  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


[42. 

Moon  flask  with  dragons  among  lotus  scrolls 

Mini;  dynasii.Yoni;ii  nuion  (1401-1  i 

Porcelain  with  underglazc  cobalt  blue  decoration. 

Jingdezhen  kilns;  h.  44  cm,  di.un.  ol  mouth  8  cm, 

diam.  of  foot  14. s  cm 

Palace  Museum.  Beijing 


CERAMICS 


H3. 

Jar  with  flowering  plum,  bamboo,  and  pine 
Ming  dynasty, Yoncle  period  (1403-1424) 
Porcelain  with  underglaze  cobalt  blue  decoration, 
Jingdezhen  kilns;  h.  36  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  6.7  cm 
diam.  of  foot  13.9  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


144- 

Stem  bowl  with  scenes  of  ladies  in  a  garden 

MlNC  DYNASTY',  XlANPI    MARK    \ND  PERIOD  ( I4^f>— 14.;>> 

Porcelain  with  underglaze  cobalt  blue  decoration, 
Jingdezhen  kilns;  h.  10.2  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  i>.s  cm, 
diam.  of  foot  4.S  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


CERAMICS 


Hi- 

Vase  with  flower  and  bird  designs 

QlNG  DYNASTY,  KaNGXI  PERIOD  (1662-1722) 

Porcelain  with  wucai  ("five-color")  decoration, 

Jingdezhen  kilns;  h.  46.4  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  11.2  cm, 

diam.  of  foot  14.7  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


[46. 

Vase  with  flower  designs 

QtNG  DYNASTY', YONGZHENG  MARK  AND  PI  MOD  (1723 

Porcelain  with  doucai  ("clashing"  or  "matched  color") 
decoration, Jingdezhen  kilns;  h.  .:<>  cm,  diam.  of  mouth 
s.-i  cm,  diam.  ol  foot  n  .8  cm 
Palace  Museum.  Beijing 


CERAMICS 





2\  1 


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'47- 

Stele  with  Maitreya 

Dated  to  471 

Northern  Wni  dynasty  (386-534) 

Sandstone;  h.  86.9  x  w.  55  cm 

Unearthed  in  Xingping  comity,  Shaanxi  Province 

Forest  of  Steles  Museum,  Xi'an 


14S. 

Sakyamuni  on  lion  throne 

Dated  to  502 

Northern  Wei  dynasty  (386-534) 

Sandstone;  h.  48.5  x  w.  27.7  cm 

Found  in  1952 

Forest  of  Steles  Museum,  Xi'an 


SCULPTURE 


149. 

Stele  with  Sakyamuni  and  bodhisattvas 

Northern  Wei  dynasti  (386-534) 

Stone:  h.  9<S  \  w.  4.;..-;  cm 

Unearthed  in  [974  in  Qi  county,  Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Museum,  Zhengzhou 


SCULPTURE 


150. 

Stele  with  Sakyamuni  and  attendants 

(Reverse  on  facing  page) 

Dated  to  523 

Liang  dynasty  (502-557) 

Sandstone;  h.  35.8  x  w.  30.3  X  d.  20  cm 

Unearthed  in  1954  at  the  Wanfo  Temple  site,  Chengdu, 

Sichuan  Province 

Sichuan  Provincial  Museum,  Chengdu 


SCULPTURE 


Stele:  (obverse)  bodhisattvas;  (reverse)  lower  tier, 
figures,  animals,  and  buildings  in  mountainous  land- 
scape; middle  panel,  lotus  pond;  upper  tier,  Buddha 
preaching  to  monks  in  garden  setting 
(Detail  of  reverse  on  facing  page) 
Liang  dynasty  (502-557) 
Sandstone;  h.  121  x  w.  60  x  d.  24.5  cm 
Unearthed  in  1954  at  the  Wanfo  Temple  site,  Chengdu, 
Sichuan  Province 
Sichuan  Provincial  Museum,  Chengdu 


SCULPTURE 


Pi]. 


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152. 

Engraved  panel  with  Buddha  beneath  canopy 

Dated  to  524 

Northern  Wei  dynasty  (386-534) 

Stone;  h.  39.5  x  1.  144  x  w.  14  cm 

Unearthed  in  the  late  19th  century  in  Luoyang, 

Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Museum,  Zhengzhou 


SCULPTURE 


'53- 

Pillar  base  with  mountains,  dragons,  and  fijiurcs 

Northern  Wei  dynast*  (386-534) 

Stone;  h.  16.5  x  w.  32  cm 

Unearthed  in  1966  from  the  Simajinlong  tomb,  Shijiazhai, 

IXitong  city,  Sh.inxi  I'roviiu'i* 

Sh.inxi  Provincial  Museum, Taiyuan 


1 54- 

Stele  with  Sakyamuni  and  Maitrcya 

Dated  to  532 

Northern  Wei  dynasty  (386-534) 

Sandstone;  h.  yo  x  w.  46  x  d.  14  cm 

Institute  for  the  Protection  ofCultur.il  Reins.  Xi'.iii 


Stele:  (obverse)  Sakyamuni  and  attendants; 

(reverse)  Maitreya 

Western  Wei  dynasty  (535  $57 

Sandstone;  h.  48.2  x  w.21.3  x  d.  12. 1  cm 

Institute  for  the  Protection  of  Cultural  Relics,  Xi'an 


SCULPTURE 


I56. 

Sakyamuni 

Dated  to  540 

Eastern  Wei  dynasty  (534-550) 

Sandstone;  h.  35  cm 

Unearthed  in  1954  at  the  Huata  Temple  site.Taryuan, 

Shanxi  Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Museum,  Taiyuan 


157- 

Stele  with  enthroned  Buddhas  and  attendant 

bodhisattvas  and  monks 

Dated  to  559 

Northern  Qi  dynasty  (550-577) 

Limestone;  h.  no  x  w.  58.5  x  d.  10  cm 

Unearthed  in  1963  in  Xiangcheng  county,  Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Museum,  Zhengzhou 


SCULPTURE 


*W*™T*'""V*1f' 


B 


15s. 

Stele:  (obverse)  Sakyamuni  and  attendants; 

(reverse)  myriad  Buddhas 

(Detail  on  facing  page) 

Dated  to  565 

Nobthbhn  Zhou  dynasty  (557-5S1) 

Stone;  h.  250  x  w.  73.4  x  d.  10.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1063  in  Luoning  county,  Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Museum.  Zhengzhou 


iHi  ■! 


wmm*am*4tm4m 


SCULPTURE 


159- 

Stele  with  Buddhist  trinity 

Northern  Zhou  dynasty  (557-581) 

Marble;  h.  40  x  w.  28  x  d.  8.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1975  at  Caotan  in  the  northern  suburb  of 

Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province 

Institute  for  the  Protection  of  Cultural  Relics,  Xi'an 


SCULPTURE 


160. 

Amitabha  altar 
Dated  to  584 

SUI  DYNASTY  (581-618) 

Gilt  bronze;  h.  41  cm,  1.  of  altar  stand  24. }  cm,  w.  of  altar 
stand  24  cm 

Unearthed  in  1074  at  Bali  village,  Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province 
Institute  for  the  Protection  of  Cultural  Relics.  Xi'.in 


i6i. 

Stele  with  Sakyamuni  and  attendants 

Northern  Qi  dynasty  (550-577) 

Sandstone  with  polychrome;  h.  46  X  w.  27  cm 

Unearthed  in  1954  at  the  Huata  Temple  site.Taiyuan, 

Shanxi  Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Museum 


162. 

Seated  Buddha 

SUI  DYNASTY  (581-618) 

Marble  with  pigments;  h.  100.7  x  w-  74-7  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


SCULPTURE 


■  ■ 

m 


r 


I63. 

Head  of  a  bodhisattva 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Sandstone;  h.  36  cm 

Unearthed  in  1954  at  the  Wanfo  Temple  site,  Chengdu, 

Sichuan  Province 

Sichuan  Provincial  Museum,  Chengdu 


SCULPTURE 


164. 

Head  of  Eleven-Headed  Avalokitesvara 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Marble;  h.  25.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  [983  in  the  western  suburb  of  Xi'an, 

Sliaanxi  Province 

Forest  of  Steles  Museum,  Xi'an 


I  OS. 

Torso  of  a  bodhisattva 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Marble;  h.  no  x  w.  35  cm 

Unearthed  in  1959  in  the  precincts  of  the  Daminggong,  a 

Ting  dynasty  imperial  palace  in  Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province 

forest  of  Steles  Museum,  Xi'an 


166. 

Head  of  a  bodhisattva 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Marble  with  gold;  h.  15.7  cm 

Unearthed  in  [959  at  the  Anc.uo  Temple  site,  Xi'an. 

Shaanxi  Province 

Forest  of  Steles  Museum.  Xi'an 


SCULPTURE 


W*T 


|C>7. 

Torso  of  a  guardian  king 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Marble;  h.  100  cm 

Forest  of  Steles  Museum,  Xi'.i 


168. 

Torso  of  a  vajrasattva 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Sandstone;  h.  Sri  em 

Unearthed  m  [954  at  the  Wanfo Temple  site,  Chengdu, 

Sichuan  Province 

Sichuan  Provincial  Museum.  Chengdu 


SCULPTURE 


169. 

Heavenly  King 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Gilt  bronze;  h.  65  cm 

Unearthed  in  Baoji,  Shaanxi  Province 

Baoji  Municipal  Museum 


170. 
Trailokyavijaya 

Tang  dynasty  (61S-907) 

Marble;  h.  71  x  w.  42  cm 

Unearthed  in  1959  at  the  Anguo  Temple  site,  Xi'an, 

Shaanxi  Province 

Forest  of  Steles  Museum,  Xi'an 


SCULPTURE 


171. 
Ratnasambhava 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Marble  with  traces  of  gold;  h.  67.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1959  at  the  Anguo  Temple  site,  Xi'an, 

Shaanxi  Province 

Forest  of  Steles  Museum,  Xi'an 


SCULPTURE 


172. 

Manjusn 

Tanc  dynasty  ((iiH-007) 

Marble;  h.  75  cm 

Unearthed  in  [959  at  the  Anguo  Temple  site,  Xi'.in, 

Shaanxi  Province 

Forest  of  Steles  Museum,  Xi'an 


173- 

Head  of  a  bodhisattva 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Sandstone;  h.  30  x  w.  19  cm 

Unearthed  in  1957  at  Nanmeshui  village,  Qin  county, 

Shanxi  Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Museum,  Taiyuan 


174- 

Standing  bodhisattva 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Sandstone  with  gold;  h.  60  cm 

Unearthed  in  1954  at  the  Huata  Temple  site,  Taiyuan, 

Shanxi  Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Museum,  Taiyuan 


SCULPTURE 


'7S. 

Torso  of  a  bodhisattva 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Sandstone;  h.  112  cm 

Unearthed  at  the  Guanghua  Temple  site,  Baicheng  village, 

Taigu  county,  Shanxi  Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Museum. Taivuan 


176. 

Head  of  Avalokitesvara 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Sandstone;  h.  41  cm 

Unearthed  in  [954  at  the  Wanfo  Temple  site,  Chengdu, 

Sichuan  Province 

Sichuan  Provincial  Museum,  Chengdu 


SCULPTURE 


177. 

Two  arhats,  one  with  dragon,  the  other  with  tiger 

Northern  Song  dynasty  (960-1127) 

Stone;  (1)  h.  38  cm  (2)  h.  38  cm 

Discovered  in  1980  at  the  Boshan  Temple  site,  Fu  county, 

Shaanxi  Province 

Shaanxi  History  Museum,  Xi'an 


SCULPTURE 


[78. 

Ink  stone 

Northi  us  Wei  dynasty  i  |86  S3  i 

Stone;  h.  8.5  x  1. 21.2  x  w.  ^1  cm 

Unearthed  in  [970  near  Datong,  Sh.um  Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Museum,  I'.miun 


CALLIGRAPHY 


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179. 

ZhuYunming  (1461-1527) 

"The  Terrace  of  Ode  to  the  Wind"  and  other  poems 

composed  by  Zhu  Yunming,  written  in  wild  cursive 

script  (kuangcao) 

Dated  to  1523 

Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 

Handscroll,  ink  on  paper;  24.6  X  655.6  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


CALLIGRAPHY 


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Zhang  Ruitu  (1570-1641) 

Transcription  of  Wang  Wei's  "Song  of  the  Aged 

General,"  written  in  cursive  script  (caoshu) 

Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 

Handscroll,  ink  on  silk;  29. 5  X  629.5  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


CALLIGRAPHY 


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Wang  Duo  (1592-1652) 

Transcription  of  Wang  Wei's  "Enjoying  a  Repast  at  the 

Home  of  Elder  Zhao  in  Qizhou"  and  "Passing  by  the 

Herbal  Garden  of  Master  Hesui  in  Spring,"  written  in 

standard  script  (kaishu) 

Dated  to  1643 

Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 

Handscroll,  ink  on  satin;  21.2  x  165.5  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


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182. 

Zhanp  Zhao  (1691-1745) 

Transcription  of  "Seventh  Month"  from  the  Odes  of 

Bin,  written  in  standard  script  (kaishu) 

QlNC.  DYNASTY  (1644-lyil) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  paper;  176  x  92  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


183. 

Deng  Shiru  (i_4.;-iSos) 

Couplet  in  seven-character  lines,  written  in  clerical 

script  {lishii) 

QlNG  !"-  NASTI      1644 

1  langing  scrolls,  mk  on  gold-flecked  paper.  130.1  \  27  (>  cni 

Palace  Museum.  Beijing 


CALLIGRAPHY 


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Wang  Shen  (ca.  1048— after  1104) 
Misty  River  and  Layered  Hills 
Northern  Song  dynasty  (960-1127) 
Handscroll,  ink  and  color  on  silk;  45.2  x  166  cm 
Shanghai  Museum 


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185. 

Zhao  Kui  (1185-1266) 

In  the  Spirit  of  Poems  by  D11  Fit 

(Detail  on  facing  page) 

Southern  Song  dynasty  (1 127-1279) 

Handscroll,  ink  on  silk;  24.7  x  212.2  cm 

Shanghai  Museum 


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186. 

Anonymous 

Snowy  Landscape 

Southern  Song  dynasty  (1127-1279) 

Handscroll,  ink  and  light  color  on  paper;  24  x  48.2  cm 

Shanghai  Museum 


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i87. 

Song  Boren  (act.  mid-i3th  c.) 
Album  of  Plum  Blossom  Portraits 

(Above  and  following  three  pages) 

1238;  reprint,  1261 

Southern  Song  dynasty  (1127-1279) 

Woodblock  print  book;  each  leaf  23.1  x  28.6  cm 

Shanghai  Museum 


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Ni  Zan  (i306[?]-i374) 

Six  Gentlemen 

Dated  to  1345 

Yuan  dynasty  (1279-1368) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  paper;  61.9  X  33.3  cm 

Shanghai  Museum 


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[89. 

Wang  Mcng  (ca.  1308-1385) 

Dwelling  in  the  Qingbian  Mountains 

Dated  to  1366 

Yuan  dynasty  (1279-1368) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  paper;  [40.6  x  42.2  cm 

Shanghai  Museum 


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190. 

Shang  Xi  (act.  ca.  3nd  quarter  of  15th  c.) 

77ie  Xuande  Emperor  on  an  Outing 

Ming  dynasty  (136S-1644) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  and  color  on  paper;  211  x  353  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


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191. 

Xie  Huan  (act.  1426-1452) 

TTie  Literary  Gathering  in  the  Apricot  Garden 

Ca.  1437 

Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 

Handscroll,  ink  and  color  on  silk;  h.  37  cm 

Zhenjiang  Municipal  Museum 


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192. 

Dai  Jin  (1388-1462) 

Landscape  in  the  Manner  oJYan  Wengui 

Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 

Hanging  scroll,  mk  on  paper;  98.2  x  45.8  cm 

Shanghai  Museum 


193 

Wu  Wei  (1459-1508) 

Fishermen  on  a  Snowy  River 

Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  silk;  245  x  156  cm 

Hubei  Provincial  Museum,  Wuhan 


194- 

Zhou  Chen  (ca   [455— after  1536) 

Peach  Blossom  Spring 

Dated  to  1533 

Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 

I  langing  scroll,  ink  and  color  on  silk;  [(Si. 5  x  102. s  cm 

Suzhou  Municipal  Museum 


Qiii  Ying  (ca.    I  1 

Playing  the  Flute  by  Pine  •m,l  Strain 

Mini,  di  N  v 

I  hinging  scroll,  ink  and  color  on  Mlh:  IKS 

Nanjing  Museum 


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196. 

Shen  Zhou  (1427-1509) 

Eastern  Villa 

(Above  and  following  three  pages) 

Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 

Album,  ink  and  color  on  paper;  each  leaf  28.6  x  33  cm 

Nanjing  Museum 


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Wen  Zhengming  (1470   i>- 

Studio  of  True  Appreciation 

Dated  to  [549 

Ming  dynasti  , 

1  [andscroll,  ink  and  color  on  papei  v  cm 

Shanghai  Museum 


PAINTING 


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Xu  Wei     k:  i     i 

Peonies,  Banana  Plant,  and  Rock 

Ming  m  nasth 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  paper;  120.6  x  sS  4  cm 

Shanghai  Museum 


199. 

Chen  Hongshou  (1598-1652) 
77ie  Pleasures  of  He  Tianzhang 

(Detail  on  facing  page) 

Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 

Handscroll,  ink  and  color  on  silk;  25.3  X  163.2  cm 

Suzhou  Municipal  Museum 


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Dong  Qichang    i$$$   1636) 

Poetic  Feeling  .»  Qixia  Monastery 

Dated  to  1626 

Mini:  dynas 

i  I       ing  scroll,  ink  on  paper;  133.1  \  52.5  cm 

Shanghai  Museum 


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Ten  Bamboo  Studio  Manual  of  Calligraphy 
and  Painting 

(Above  and  following  three  pages) 

Published  1627-1633  by  Hu  Zhengyan  (1584-1674) 

Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 

Woodblock  print  book;  each  leaf  25.8  x  31  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


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Published  1644  by  Hu  Zhengyan  (1584-1674) 

Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 

Woodblock  print  book;  each  leaf  21  x  13.6  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


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203. 

Album  of  a  Hundred  Floivers,  after  paintings  by 

Zhang  Chaoxiang  (act.  19th  c.) 

(Above  and  facing  page) 

QlNG  DYNASTY,  TONGZHI  PERIOD  (1862-1874) 

Woodblock  print  book;  each  leaf  24.2  x  16.8  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


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204. 

WangYuanqi  (1642-1715) 
Complete  in  Soul,  Sufficient  in  Spirit 
Dated  to  1708 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-1911) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  paper;  137.2  x  71.5  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


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Wu  Li  (1632-1718) 

Reading  "  The  Book  of  Changes"  in  a  Streamside  Pavilion 

Dated  to  1678 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-191 1) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  paper;  211.7  x  78.7  cm 

Shanghai  Museum 


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Kuncan  (1612— ca.  1674) 
C/ear  Sky  over  Verdant  Hills 
Dated  to  1660 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-1911) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  and  color  on  silk;  85  x  40.5  cm 
Nanjing  Museum 


207. 

Hongren  (1610-1664) 

Peaks  and  Ravines  at  Jiuqi 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-I9I1) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  paper;  no. 6  X  58.9  cm 
Shanghai  Museum 


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208. 

Yuanji  (Shitao;  1642-1707) 

Pure  Sounds  of  Hills  and  Streams 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-1911) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  paper;  102.5  X  42.4  cm 

Shanghai  Museum 


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209. 

Gong  Xian  (1618-1689) 
Summer  Mountains  after  Rain 

QlNG  DYNASTS     K144-I9I1) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  ^ilk:  141.7  x  >-  S  cm 
Nanjing  Museum 


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Ducks  and  Lotuses 

Dated  to  t6y6 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-1911) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  paper;  166  x  76.3  cm 
Shanghai  Museum 


Yuanji  (Shitao;  104^-1707) 
<  leai  Autumn  in  Huaiyaug 

(Jin,.  o\  w-n      1644 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  and  color  on  pape 

Nanjing  Museum 


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Album  of  Landscapes 

(Above  and  facing  page) 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-I9II) 

Album,  ink  and  color  on  paper;  three  leaves  each 
12.6  X  28.6  cm,  remaining  leaves  each  12.6  x  14  cm 
Nanjing  Museum 


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Garden  Jot  Gazing 

Qing  m  NAsry  (1044-1911) 

Handscioll,  ink  and  light  coloi  on  silk;  $1.5x3 

Tianjin  Municipal  Historj  Museum 


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Gao  Cen  (act.  ca.  1645— 1689) 

'I'lic  Temple  on  Jinshan 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-lyll) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  and  color  on  silk;  iSo.N  x  95.1  cm 
Nanjing  Museum 


Gao  Xiang    [688    [73 ; 

Finger-Snap  Pavilion 

1  lis.,  at  NAsn  (1644-1911) 

1  langing  scroll,  ink  on  paper;  69  x 

Yangzhou  Municipal  Museum 


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216. 

Huang  Shen  (1687— after  1768) 

Willows  and  Egrets 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-1911) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  and  color  on  paper;  113. 7  x  57.7  cm 

Shanghai  Museum 


217. 

Li  Shan  (1686-after  1760) 

Pine,  Wisteria,  and  Peonies 

Dated  to  1755 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-IOII) 

Hanging  scroll,  mk  and  color  on  paper;  238  x  118. 2  cm 

Shanghai  Museum 


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Album  of  Landscapes  and  Figures 

(Above  and  following  three  pages) 

Dated  to  1759 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-1911) 

Album,  ink  and  color  on  paper;  each  leaf  26.1  x  34.9  cm 

Shanghai  Museum 


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HuaYan  (1682-1756) 
The  Golden  Valley  Garden 
Dated  to  1732 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-1911) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  and  color  on  paper;  178.9  x  94.1  cm 

Shanghai  Museum 


List  of  colorplates 


Objects  are  listed  in  catalogue  order. 


JADE 


BRONZE 


i.  Ornament  in  the  shape  of 
hooked  clouds 
with  central  bird  motif 
Neolithic  period,  Hongshan 

CULTURE 

(ca.  3600-ca.  2000  bce) 
Nephrite  jade;  1.  22.4  X 
w.  11. 5  x  d.  0.5  cm 
Unearthed  in  1979  at 
Sanguandianzi,  Lingyuan  city, 
Liaoning  Province 
Liaoning  Provincial  Museum, 
Shenyang 

2.  Ornament  in  the  shape  of 
a  pig-dragon  (zhulong) 
Neolithic  period,  Hongshan 
culture 

(ca.  3600-ca.  2000  bce) 
Nephrite  jade;  h.  15.7  x 
w.  10.4  x  d.  4.3  cm 
Found  in  Jianping  county, 
Liaoning  Province 
Liaoning  Provincial  Museum, 
Shenyang 

3.  Prismatic  tube  (cong) 
Neolithic  period,  Liangzhu 
culture 

(ca.  3600-ca.  2000  bce) 
Nephrite  jade;  h.  8.8  x 
max.  width  17.6  cm 
Unearthed  in  1986  from 
Fanshan  tomb  No.  i2,Yuhang, 
Zhejiang  Province 
Zhejiang  Provincial  Institute  of 
Cultural  Relics  and 
Archaeology,  Hangzhou 

4.  Prismatic  tube  (cong) 
Neolithic  period,  Liangzhu 
culture 

(ca.  3600-ca.  2000  bce) 
Nephrite  jade;  h.  5  x  max. 
width  7.4  cm 
Unearthed  in  1982  from 
Fuquanshan  tomb  No.  9, 
Qingpu  county,  Shanghai 
Shanghai  Museum 

5.  Prismatic  tube  (cong) 
Neolithic  period,  Liangzhu 
culture 

(ca.  3600-ca.  2000  bce) 
Nephrite  jade;  h.  29.7  x 
max.  width  6.1  cm 
Unearthed  in  1982  in  Wujin 
county, Jiangsu  Province 
Nanjing  Museum 

(>.  Knife  (dao)  with 
semihuman  mask  motifs 
Neolithic  period,  Longshan 
culture 

(ca.  3000-ca.  1700  bce) 
Nephrite  jade;  1.  23.7  x 
w.  7.7  cm 
Shanghai  Museum 


7.  Blade  (zhang) 
Xia  or  Shang  period 
(ca.  2200-ca.  1100  bce) 
Nephrite  jade;  1.  37  x  w.  11.2  x 
d.  0.6  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

8.  Blade  (zhang) 
Shang  period  (ca.  1600— 
ca.  1100  bce) 
Nephrite  jade;  1.  68  x 

w.  10.8  cm 

Unearthed  in  1986  from 
Sanxingdui  pit  No.  2, 
Guanghan,  Sichuan  Province 
Sichuan  Provincial  Institute  of 
Archaeology  and  Cultural 
Relics,  Chengdu 

9.  Chime  with  design  of 
crouching  tiger 

Shang  period  (ca.  1600- 

ca.  1100  bce) 

Stone;  1.  84  x  w.  42  x  d.  2.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1950  at  Wuguan 

village,  Anyang,  Henan 

Province 

National  Museum  of  Chinese 

History,  Beijing 

10.  Four  figures;  (1)  bird 
with  ram's  horns 

(2)  kneeling  human  (3)  bird 

(4)  bird-headed  human 

Shang  period 

(ca.  1600-ca.  1100  bce) 

Nephrite  jade;  (1)  h.  4.9  cm 

(2)  h.  5.6  cm  (3)  h.  10  cm 

(4)  h.  9.8  cm 

Unearthed  in  1976  from  Fu 

Hao  tomb  No.  5,  Anyang, 

Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Museum, 

Zhengzhou 

1 1 .  Dagger-ax  (ge)  with 
grooved  blade 
Western  Zhou  period 
(ca.  1100-771  bce) 
Nephrite  jade;  1.  25.4  x 
w.  6. 1  cm 

Unearthed  in  1983  at  East 
Sidnoxiang,  Xi'an, 
Shaanxi  Province 
Shaanxi  History  Museum, 
Xi'an 

12.  Fourteen-piece  burial 
mask 

Western  Zhou  period 
(ca.  1100-771  bce) 
Nephrite  jade;  max.  width 
10.7  cm 

Unearthed  in  1990  troni  Guo 
State  tomb  No.  2001, 
Sanmenxia,  Henan  Province 
Henan  Provincial  Institute  of 
Archaeology  and  Cultural 
Relics,  Zhengzhou 


13.  Ornamental  plaque  with 
interlacery  and  animal  mask 
designs 

Eastern  Zhou,  Spring  and 
Autumn  period  (770-476  bce) 
Nephrite  jade;  h.  7.1  cm 
Unearthed  in  1987  at  Xiasi, 
Xichuan  county, 
Henan  Province 
Henan  Provincial  Institute  of 
Archaeology  and  Cultural 
Relics,  Zhengzhou 

14.  A  pair  of  dragon-shaped 
pendants 

Eastern  Zhou,  Warring 
States  period  (475-221  bce) 
Nephrite  jade;  1.  11.4  cm 
Unearthed  at  Pingliangtai, 
Huaiyang  county, 
Henan  Province 
Henan  Provincial  Institute  of 
Archaeology  and  Cultural 
Relics,  Zhengzhou 

15.  Ring  (huan)  with  abstract 
designs 

Eastern  Zhou,  Warring 
States  period  (475-221  bce) 
Nephrite  jade;  diam.  10.6  cm 
Unearthed  in  1991  at 
Xujialing,  Xichuan  county, 
Henan  Province 
Henan  Provincial  Institute  of 
Archaeology  and  Cultural 
Relics,  Zhengzhou 

16.  Disk  (bi)  with  grain 
pattern 

Western  Han  dynasty 

(206  bce-8  ce) 

Nephrite  jade;  diam.  18.9  cm, 

depth  0.9  cm 

Unearthed  in  Zhouzhi  county, 

Shaanxi  Province 

Shaanxi  History  Museum. 

Xi'an 

17.  Winged  horse 
Han  dynasty 
(206  BCE-220  ce) 

Nephrite  jade;  h.  4.2  x  1.  7.8  x 

w.  2.6  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

in  Chimera  (bixie) 
Han  dynasty 

(206  BCE-220  ce) 

Nephrite  jade;  1.  13.5  x 
w.  8.5  cm 

I'.il.h  e  Museum.  Beijing 


19.  Vessel  (Han  or  zun)  with 
design  of  deities,  animals, 
and  masks 

Western  Jin  dynasty 
(265-316) 

Nephrite  jade;  h.  10.5  cm 
Unearthed  in  1991  from  the 
tomb  of  Liu  Hong, 
Huangshantou,  Anxiang 
county,  Hunan  Province 
Administrative  Office  for 
Cultural  Relics,  Anxiang 
County,  Hunan  Province 

20.  Sixteen-piece  belt 
Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Nephrite  jade;  1.  of  pieces 
3.5-5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1970  at  Hejia 
village,  Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province 
Shaanxi  History  Museum, 
Xi'an 


21.  Vessel  (jue) 

Xia  period  (ca.  2100- 
ca.  1600  bce) 

Bronze;  I1.11.7x  w.  14. 1  on 
Shanghai  Museum 

22.  Square  cauldron 

(fang  ding)  with  thread-relief 
frieze  of  animal  masks,  and 
nipple  pattern 
Shang  period  (ca.  1600- 
ca.  1100  bce) 
Bronze;  h.  82  x  w.  50  cm 
Unearthed  in  1990  at  Qian 
village,  Pinglu  county, 
Shanxi  Province 
Shanxi  Provincial  Institute  of 
Archaeology,  Taiyuan 

23.  Square  vessel  (fang  zun) 
with  four  rams 

Shang  period  (ca.  1600- 
ca.  1100  bce) 
Bronze;  h.  58.3  cm,  w.  of 
mouth  52.4  cm 
Found  in  1938  atYueshanpu, 
Ningxiang,  Hunan  Province 
National  Museum  of  Chinese 
History,  Beijing 

24.  Vessel  (zun)  in  the 
shape  of  a  bird,  inscribed 
"Fu  Hao" 

(one  of  an  identical  pair) 
Shang  period  (ca.  1600- 
ca.  1 100  bce) 
Bronze;  h.  45.9  cm 
Unearthed  in  1976  from  Fu 
Hao  tomb  No.  5, Anyang, 
Henan  Province 
National  Museum  of  Chinese 
History,  Beijing 

25.  Vessel  (zun)  in  the  shape 
of  an  elephant 

(one  of  an  identical  pair) 
Shang  period  (ca.  1600- 
ca.  1100  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  26.5  x  1.  22. S  cm 
Found  in  19-5  at  Shixingshan, 
Liling,  1  lunan  Province 
Hunan  Provincial  Museum. 
Changsha 

■:■    Vessel  (  poll),  inscribed 

Shang  pi  riod  ca   moo- 
ca.  1 100  i    1 
Bronze;  h.  37.7  cm 
Found  in  1970  ai  Huangcai 
village.  Ningxiang  county, 
Hunan  Province 
Hunan  Provincial  Museum, 
Changsha 


LIST    OF    COLORPLATES 


497 


27-  Vessel  (zun)  in  the  shape 

of  a  boar 

Shang  period  (ca.  1600- 

ca.  1100  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  40  X  1.  72  cm 

Unearthed  in  1981  at 

Chuanxingshan,  Xiangtan 

county,  Hunan  Province 

Hunan  Provincial  Museum, 

Changsha 

28.  Vessel  (gong)  in 
zoomorphic  shape 
Shang  period  (ca.  1600- 
ca.  1 100  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  19  X  1.  43  x 

w.  13.4  cm 

Unearthed  in  1959  atTaohua 

village,  Shilou  county, 

Shared  Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Museum, 

Taiyuan 

29.  Basin  (pan)  with  coiling 
dragon  design 

Shang  period  (ca.  1600- 
ca.  1 100  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  26  cm,  diam.  of 
mouth  61.6  cm 
Unearthed  in  1984  at 
Chenshan  village,  Wenling, 
Zhejiang  Province 
Administrative  Office  for 
Cultural  Relics,  Wenling 

30.  Mask  with  protruding 
eyes 

Shang  period  (ca.  1600- 
ca.  1 100  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  65  x  w.  138  cm 
Unearthed  in  1986  from 
Sanxingdui  pit  No.  2, 
Guanghan,  Sichuan  Province 
Sichuan  Provincial  Institute  of 
Archaeology  and  Cultural 
Relics,  Chengdu 

31.  Vessel  (lei)  with  elephant 
trunk  handles  and 

buffalo  horns 

Western  Zhou  period 

(ca.  1100-771  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  70.2  cm,  diam.  of 

mouth  22.8  cm 

Unearthed  in  1980  at 

Zhuwajie,  Peng  county, 

Sichuan  Province 

Sichuan  Provincial  Museum, 

Chengdu 

32.  Vessel  (zun),  inscribed 

Western  Zhou  period 
(ca.  1 100-771  bce) 
Bronze;  h.  38.8  cm,  diam.  of 
mouth  28.6  cm 
Unearthed  in  1963  at  Jia 
village,  Baoji  county, 
Shaanxi  Province 
Baoji  Municipal  Museum 

33.  Bell  (bo)  with  four  tigers 
Western  Zhou  period 

(ca.  1 100-771  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  44.3  x  w.  39.6  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


34.  Drum  (gn)  with  abstract 
zoomorphic  designs 
Shang  period  (ca.  1600- 

ca.  1100  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  75.5  cm,  diam.  of 

drum  39.5  cm 

Found  in  1977  in  Chongyang 

county,  Hubei  Province 

Hubei  Provincial  Museum, 

Wuhan 

35.  Two-handled  vessel  (gut) 
with  ox-head  motifs, 
inscribed 

Western  Zhou  period 
(ca.  1100-771  bce) 
Bronze;  h.  31  cm,  diam.  of 
mouth  25  cm 

Unearthed  in  1981  from  tomb 
No.  1,  Zhifangtou  village, 
Baoji  county,  Shaanxi  Province 
Baoji  Municipal  Museum 

36.  Vessel  (gong),  inscribed 
Western  Zhou  period 

(ca.  1 100-771  bce) 
Bronze;  h.  28. 7  x  1.  38  cm 
Unearthed  in  1976  at 
Zhuangbai  village,  Fufeng 
county,  Shaanxi  Province 
Zhouyuan  Museum,  Xi'an 

37.  Vessel  (zun)  in  the  shape 
of  an  elephant 

Western  Zhou  period 
(ca.  1100^771  bce) 
Bronze;  h.  21  x  1.  38  cm 
Unearthed  in  1975  at  Rujia 
village,  Baoji  county, 
Shaanxi  Province 
Baoji  Municipal  Museum 

38.  Covered  spouted  vessel 
(he)  in  the  shape  of  a 
four-legged  duck,  inscribed 
Western  Zhou  period 

(ca.  1100-771  bce) 
Bronze;  h.  26  cm 
Unearthed  in  1980  from  the 
Ying  State  tomb  at 
Pingdingshan,  Henan  Province 
Henan  Provincial  Institute  of 
Archaeology  and  Cultural 
Relics,  Zhengzhou 

39.  Two-handled  vessel  (gut), 
inscribed 

Western  Zhou  period 
(ca.  1100^771  bce) 
Bronze;  h.  26.5  cm 
Unearthed  in  1986  from  the 
Ying  State  tomb  at 
Pingdingshan,  Henan  Province 
Henan  Provincial  Institute  ot 
Archaeology  and  Cultural 
Relics,  Zhengzhou 

40.  Vessel  (/in),  inscribed 
Western  Zhou  period 
(ca.  1 100-771  bce) 
Bronze;  h.  65.4  cm,  diam.  of 
mouth  19.7  cm 
Unearthed  in  1976  at 
Zhuangbai  village,  Fufeng 
county,  Shaanxi  Province 
Zhouyuan  Museum,  Xi'an 


41.  Rectangular  vessel 
(fang  yi),  inscribed 
Western  Zhou  period 
(ca.  1 100-771  bce) 
Bronze;  h.  38.5  x  1.  of  mouth 
20  x  w.  of  mouth  17  cm 
Unearthed  in  1963  at  Qijia 
village,  Fufeng  county, 
Shaanxi  Province 

Shaanxi  History  Museum, 
Xi'an 

42.  Miniature  carriage  with 
human  guardians  including 
one-legged  watchman,  birds, 
and  crouching  tigers 
Western  Zhou  period 

(ca.  1100^771  bce) 
Bronze;  h.  9.1  X  1.  13.7  X 
w.  j  1 . 3  cm 

Unearthed  in  1989  at 
Shangguo  village,  Wenxi 
county,  Shanxi  Province 
Shanxi  Provincial  Institute  of 
Archaeology,  Taiyuan 

43.  Four-sided  vessel 
(fang  hit)  with  square  base 
and  lotus-petal  crown 
Eastern  Zhou  period 
(770-256  bce) 

Bronze;  h.  66  x 
max.  width  34  cm 
Unearthed  in  1988  from  tomb 
No.  25i,Jinsheng  village, 
Taiyuan,  Shanxi  Province 
Shanxi  Provincial  Institute  of 
Archaeology,  Taiyuan 

44.  Vessel  (litt)  with  bird- 
shaped  lid 

Eastern  Zhou,  Spring  and 
Autumn  period  (770-476  bce) 
Bronze;  h.  41  x  w.  23.5  cm 
Unearthed  m  1988  from  tomb 
No.  25i,Jinsheng  village, 
Taiyuan,  Shanxi  Province 
Shanxi  Provincial  Institute  of 
Archaeology,  Taiyuan 

45.  Square-based  vessel 
(fang  hit)  with  lotus-petal 
crown  and  crane 
Eastern  Zhou,  Spring  and 
Autumn  period  (770-476  bce) 
Bronze;  h.  126  X  1.  of  mouth 
30.5  x  w.  of  mouth  24.9  cm 
Unearthed  in  1923  at  Lijialou, 
Xinzheng  county, 

Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Museum, 

Zhengzhou 

46.  Mythical  beast 
Eastern  Zhou,  Spring  and 
Autumn  period  (770-476  bce) 
Bronze  inlaid  with  malachite; 
h.  48  cm 

Unearthed  in  1990  from 

Xujialmg  tomb  No.  9, 

Xichuan  county,  Henan 

Province 

Henan  Provincial  Institute  of 

Archaeology  and  Cultural 

Relics,  Zhengzhou 


47.  Tapir  bearing  figure 
holding  interlace  tray 
Eastern  Zhou,  Warring 
States  period  (475-221  bce) 
Bronze;  h.  15  cm,  diam.  of  tray 
11  cm 

Unearthed  in  1965  at 

Fenshuiling,  Changzhi, 

Shanxi  Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Museum, 

Taiyuan 

48.  Rectangular  basin  (pan) 
with  turtle,  fish,  and 
interlacing  dragon  designs 
Eastern  Zhou,  Warring 
States  period  (475-221  bce) 
Bronze;  h.  22.5  x  1.  73.2  x 

w.  45.2  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

49.  Chariot  fitting  with 
mythical  hunting  scenes 
Western  Han  dynasty 
(206  bce~8  ce) 

Bronze  inlaid  with  gold,  silver, 
and  turquoise;  h.  26.4  cm, 
diam.  3.5  cm 
Unearthed  in  1965  from 
Sanpanshan  tomb  No.  122, 
Ding  county,  Hebei  Province 
Hebei  Provincial  Institute  of 
Cultural  Relics,  Shijiazhuang 

50.  Incense  burner  in  the 
shape  of  a  magical  mountain 
isle  of  the  immortals 
Western  Han  dynasty 

(206  bce-8  ce) 

Bronze  inlaid  with  silver,  gold, 

and  turquoise;  h.  26  cm,  max. 

diam.  12.3  cm,  diam.  ot  foot 

9.7  cm 

Unearthed  in-;i968  from  the 

tomb  of  Prince  Liu  Sheng, 

Mancheng  county,  Hebei 

Province 

Hebei  Provincial  Museum, 

Shijiazhuang 

51.  Covered  vessel  (lion  or 
zun)  with  mythical  hunting 
scenes,  inscribed  and  dated 
(26  CE?) 

Eastern  Han  dynasty 

(25-220) 

Gilt  bronze;  h.  24.5  cm,  diam. 

of  mouth  23.4  cm 

Unearthed  in  1962  at  Dachuan 

village, Youyu  county,  Shanxi 

Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Museum, 

Taiyuan 

52.  Screen  support  in  the 
shape  of  a  kneeling  figure 
biting  and  holding  snakes 
Western  Han  dynasty 

(206  BCE-8  CE) 

Gilt  bronze;  h.  31.5  x  1.  15.8  cm 
Unearthed  in  1983  from  the 
tomb  of  the  king  of  Nanyue, 
Guangzhou,  Guangdong 
Province 

Museum  of  the  Tomb  of  the 
Nanyue  King  of  the  Western 
Han  Dynasty,  Guangzhou 


53.  Lamp  in  the  shape  of  a 
goose  holding  a  fish 
Western  Han  dynasty 
(206  bce-8  ce) 

Bronze  with  paint;  h.  53.8  X 

1.  31.3  cm 

Unearthed  in  1985  at 

Zhaoshiba  village,  Pingshuo, 

Shanxi  Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Museum, 

Taiyuan 

54.  Lamp  with  fifteen  oil 
saucers  in  the  form  of  a 
mythical  tree 

Eastern  Zhou,  Warking 
States  period  (475-221  bce) 
Bronze;  h.  82.6  cm 
Unearthed  in  1977  from  the 
tomb  of  the  king  of 
Zhongshan,  Pingshan  county, 
Hebei  Province 
Hebei  Provincial  Institute  of 
Cultural  Relics,  Shijiazhuang 

55.  Spear  head  with  hanging 
men 

Western  Han  dynasty 

(206  BCE-8  CE) 

Bronze;  h.  41.5  cm 
Unearthed  in  1956  at 
Shizhaishan,Jmning  county, 
Yunnan  Province 
Yunnan  Provincial  Museum, 
Kunming 

56.  Buckle  ornament  with 
dancers  holding  cymbals 
Western  Han  dynasty 

(206  BCE-8  CE) 

Gilt  bronze;  h.  12  x  1.  18.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1956  at 

Shizhaishan,  jinmng  county, 

Yunnan  Province 

Yunnan  Provincial  Museum, 

Kunming 

57.  Low  offering  stand  with 
two  bulls  and  pouncing  tiger 
Eastern  Zhou,  Warring 
States  period  (475-221  bce) 
Bronze;  h.  43  x  1.  76  cm 
Unearthed  in  1972  from 
Lyiashan  tomb  No.  24, 
Jiangchuan  county, Yunnan 
Province 

Yunnan  Provincial  Museum, 
Kunming 

58.  Man  holding  parasol 
Western  Han  dynasty 
(206  bce-8  ce) 

Bronze;  h.  of  man  55.5  cm, 
h.  of  parasol  no.  5  cm 
Unearthed  in  1956  at 
Shizhaishan,  Jinning  county, 
Yunnan  Province 
Yunnan  Provincial  Museum, 
Kunming 


LIST    OF    COLORPLATES 


498 


LACQUER 


TEXTILES 


59.  Rearing  dragon 
Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Gilt  bronze  and  iron;  h.  34  x 
1.  28  cm 

Unearthed  in  1975  at 

Caochangpo  in  the  southern 

suburb  of  Xi'an,  Shaanxi 

Province 

Shaanxi  History  Museum,  Xi'an 

60.  Six-lobed  plate  with 
design  of  mythical  beast 
Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Silver  with  gilding;  h.  1.2  cm, 
diam.  15.3  cm 
Unearthed  in  1970  at  Hejia 
village,  Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province 
Shaanxi  History  Museum,  Xi'an 

61.  Six-lobed  plate  with 
design  of  bear 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Silver  with  gilding;  h.  1  cm, 
diam.  13.4  cm 
Unearthed  in  1970  at  Hejia 
village,  Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province 
Shaanxi  History  Museum,  Xi'an 

62.  Plate  in  the  shape  of  two 
peach  halves  with  design  of 
two  foxes 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Silver  with  gilding;  h.  1.5  x 
max.  width  22.5  cm 
Unearthed  in  1970  at  Hejia 
village,  Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province 
Shaanxi  History  Museum, Xi'an 

63.  Censer  found  with  figure 
of  Ganesha 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Silver  with  gilding;  h.  41.8  cm, 
diam.  of  mouth  24.5  cm 
Discovered  in  1987  in 
underground  chamber  of  the 
Famen  Temple  Pagoda,  Fufeng 
county,  Shaanxi  Province 
Famen  Temple  Museum, 
Shaanxi  Province 

64.  Storage  container  with 
bird  designs  for  holding 
brick  tea 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Silver  with  gilding;  h.  17.8  cm, 
diam.  16.1  cm 
Discovered  in  1987  in 
underground  chamber  ot  the 
Famen  Temple  Pagoda,  Fufeng 
county,  Shaanxi  Province 
Famen  Temple  Museum, 
Shaanxi  Province 

63.  Jar  with  design  of  figures 
in  a  landscape 
Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Silver  with  gilding;  h.  24.7  cm, 
diam.  of  jar  12.3  cm, 
diam.  of  foot  12.6  cm 
Discovered  in  1987  in 
underground  chamber  of  the 
Famen  Temple  Pagoda,  Fufeng 
county,  Shaanxi  Province 
Famen  Temple  Museum, 
Shaanxi  Province 


66.  Vessel  based  on  bronze  hu 
vessel 

Western  Han  dynasty 
(206  bce-8  ce) 
Wood-core  lacquer;  h.  57  cm, 
diam.  of  mouth  rS.i  cm,  diam. 
of  foot  20  cm 
Unearthed  in  1972  from 
Mawangdui  tomb  No.  r, 
Changsha,  Hunan  Province 
Hunan  Provincial  Museum, 
Changsha 

67.  Set  of  eight  cups 
Western  Han  dynasty 
(206  bce-8  ce) 

Wood-core  lacquer;  h.  12.2  cm, 
w.  16—19  cm 

Unearthed  in  1972  from 
Mawangdui  tomb  No.  1 , 
Changsha,  Hunan  Province 
Hunan  Provincial  Museum, 
Changsha 

68.  Rectangular  box  with 
cloud  designs 
Western  Han  dynasty 
(206  bce-8  ce) 
Wood-core  lacquer;  h.  21  X 
1.  48.5  x  w.  25.5  cm 
Unearthed  in  1972  from 
Mawangdui  tomb  No.  3, 
Changsha,  Hunan  Province 
Hunan  Provincial  Museum, 
Changsha 

69.  Round  tray  with  scroll 
designs 

Western  Han  dynasty 
(206  bce-8  ce) 

Wood-core  lacquer;  h.  4.5  cm, 
diam.  53.7  cm 
Unearthed  in  1972  from 
Mawangdui  tomb  No.  1, 
Changsha,  Hunan  Province 
Hunan  Provincial  Museum, 
Changsha 

70.  Rectangular  tray  with 
scroll  designs 
Western  Han  dynasty 
(206  bce-8  ce) 

Wood-core  lacquer;  1.  75.6  cm 
Unearthed  in  1972  from 
Mawangdui  tomb  No.  1, 
Changsha,  Hunan  Province 
Hunan  Provincial  Museum, 
Changsha 

71.  Round  box  with  painted 
and  incised  designs 
Western  Han  dynasty 

(206  BCE-8  CE) 
Wood-core  lacquer;  h.  18  cm. 
diam.  32  cm 
Unearthed  in  1972  trom 
Mawangdui  tomb  No.  3, 
Changsha,  Hunan  Province 
Hunan  Provincial  Museum, 
Changsha 


72.  Reliquary  with  Buddhist 
figures 

Northern  Song  dynasty 

(960—1127)  . 

Wood-core  lacquer  with  seed 

pearls;  h.  41.2  x  w.  24.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1966  at  the 

Huiguang  Pagoda  site,  Rui'an, 

Zhejiang  Province 

Zhejiang  Provincial  Museum, 

Hangzhou 

73.  Sutra  boxes  with  Buddhist 
figures 

Northern  Song  dynasty 

(960-1127) 

Wood-core  lacquer  with  seed 

pearls;  (outside  box)  h.  16  x 

1.  40  x  w.  18  cm,  (inside  box) 

h.  11. 5  x  1.  33.8  x  w.  11  cm 

Unearthed  in  1966  at  the 

Huiguang  Pagoda  site,  Rui'an, 

Zhejiang  Province 

Zhejiang  Provincial  Museum, 

Hangzhou 

74.  Round  covered  box  with 
aged  scholar  and  servant 
Dated  to  1351 

Yuan  dynasty  (1279-1368) 
Carved  lacquer  on  a  fabric- 
covered  wood  core; 
diam.  12. 1  cm 

Unearthed  in  1953  from  the 
tomb  ot  the  Ren  family, 
Qingpu  county,  Shanghai 
Shanghai  Museum 

75.  Round  covered  box  with 
figures  viewing  a  waterfall, 
inscribed 

MlNC  DYNASTY, YONCLE  MARK 
AND  PERIOD  (14O3-I424) 

Carved  lacquer  on  a  fabric- 
covered  wood  core;  h.  7.7  cm, 
diam.  of  mouth  22  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


76.  Potpourri  bag 
Western  Han  dynasty 
(206  bce-8  ce) 
Chain-stitch  embroidery  on 
patterned  silk;  1.  48  cm 
Unearthed  in  1972  from 
Mawangdui  tomb  No.  1, 
Changsha,  Hunan  Province 
Hunan  Provincial  Museum, 
Changsha 

77.  Gauze  with  patterns  of 
pine-bark  lozenges,  signifying 
longevity 

Western  Han  dynasty 
(206  bce-8  ce) 
Silk  gauze;  1.  75  x  w.  48  cm 
Unearthed  in  1972  from 
Mawangdui  tomb  No.  1, 
Changsha,  Hunan  Province 
Hunan  Provincial  Museum, 
Changsha 

7S.  Embroidered  silk  with 
designs  signifying  longevity 
Western  Han  dynasty 
(206  bce-8  ce) 
Chain-stitch  embroidery  on 
silk  tabby;  I.  23  x  w.  16  cm 
Unearthed  in  1972  from 
Mawangdui  tomb  No.  1, 
Changsha,  Hunan  Province 
Hunan  Provincial  Museum, 
Changsha 

79.  Printed  silk  with  small 
scroll  motifs 

Western  Han  dynasty 
(206  bce-S  ce) 
Silk  tabby  with  printed  and 
drawn  designs;  1.  48  x  w.  53  cm 
Unearthed  in  1972  from 
Mawangdui  tomb  No.  1 , 
Changsha,  Hunan  Province 
Hunan  Provincial  Museum, 
Changsha 

80.  Embroidered  textile  with 
cloud  design 

Western  Han  dynasty 
(206  bce-8  ce) 
Chain-stitch  embroidery  on 
silk  tabby;!.  17  x  w.  [4.5  cm 
Unearthed  in  1972  from 
Mawangdui  tomb  No.  1, 
Changsha,  Hunan  Province 
Hunan  Provincial  Museum, 
Changsha 

8l. Coverlet  with  dragon 

design 

LlAO  DYNASTY  (Ql6-II35) 

Silk  tapestry  (to  ri)  with  gold 

threads.  Ii.  90  \  W,  $6.$  Cm 

Unearthed  in  i*j-j  acYemaotai, 

Faku  county, 

I  iaoning  Province 

I  iaoning  Provincial  Museum, 

Shenyang 

82.  Zhu  Kerou 

Camellias 

Not  mi  un  Song  dynast* 

■ 
Silk  tapestry  (fceri),  mounted  as 
album  leaf;  15.6  x  15.3  cm 
I  iaoning  Provincial  Museum, 
Shenyang 


83.  Garden  rocks  with 
chrysanthemum,  high 
mallow,  and  begonia,  after  a 
painting  by  Cui  Bai 

(act.  ca.  1060-1085) 

Southern  Song  dynasty 

(1127-1279) 

Silk  tapestry  (kesi);  102.5  X  43.6 

cm 

Liaoning  Provincial  Museum. 

Shenyang 

84.  Heavenly  King  of  the 
West 

Yuan  dynasty  (1279-1368) 

Silk  embroidery;  250.8  x 

247.7  cm 

Donated  in  1949  by  Mr.  Fei 

Zhenshan 

National  Museum  of  Chinese 

History.  Beijing 

85.  King  of  Bright  Wisdom 
Budong 

Yuan  dynasty  (1279— 1368) 
Silk  tapestry  (kesi);  90  x  56  cm 
Administrative  Office  of  Norbu 
Linka,  Lhasa, 
Autonomous  Region  ofTibet 

S6.  Sakyamuni  Buddha 

QlNC  DYNASTY  (1644-1911) 

Silk  tapestry  {kesi);  1S2.7  x  — .6 

cm 

Liaoning  Provincial  Museum, 

Shenyang 

87.  Li  Bai's  "Evening  in  the 
Peach  and  Plum  Garden" 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-1911) 

Silk  tapestry  (kesi);  135.5  x 

70.2  cm 

Liaoning  Provincial  Museum, 

Shenyang 


LIST    OF    COLORPLATES 


499 


GRAVE    GOODS 


CERAMICS 


88.  General 

QlN  DYNASTY  {221-207  BCE) 

Terra-cotta;  h.  196  cm 
Unearthed  in  1977  from  the 
Qin  Shihuangdi  tomb, 
pit  No.  1,  Lintong  county, 
Shaanxi  Province 
Museum  of  Terra-cotta 
Warriors  and  Horses  of  Qin 
Shihuangdi,  XT an 

89.  Military  officer 

Qin  dynasty  (221-207  bce) 
Terra-cotta;  h.  198  cm 
Unearthed  in  1977  from  the 
Qin  Shihuangdi  tomb, 
pit  No.  1,  Lintong  county, 
Shaanxi  Province 
Museum  ofTerra-cotta 
Warriors  and  Horses  of  Qin 
Shihuangdi,  Xi'an 

90.  Military  officer 

Qin  dynasty  (221—207  BCE) 
Terra-cotta;  h.  192  cm 
Unearthed  in  1977  from  the 
Qin  Shihuangdi  tomb, 
pit  No.  1,  Lintong  county, 
Shaanxi  Province 
Museum  ofTerra-cotta 
Warriors  and  Horses  of  Qin 
Shihuangdi,  Xi'an 

91.  Soldier 

Qin  dynasty  (221-207  bce) 
Terra-cotta;  h.  185  cm 
Unearthed  in  1977  from  the 
Qin  Shihuangdi  tomb, 
pit  No.  1,  Lintong  county, 
Shaanxi  Province 
Museum  ofTerra-cotta 
Warriors  and  Horses  of  Qin 
Shihuangdi,  Xi'an 

92.  Chariot  horse 

Qin  dynasty  (221-207  bce) 
Terra-cotta;  h.  163  x  1.  200  cm 

Unearthed  in  1977  from  the 
Qin  Shihuangdi  tomb, 
pit  No.  1,  Lintong  county, 
Shaanxi  Province 
Museum  ofTerra-cotta 
Warriors  and  Horses  of  Qin 
Shihuangdi,  Xi'an 

93.  Chimera  (bixie) 

Eastern  Han  dynasty 

(25-220) 

Stone;  h.  114  x  1.  175  x 

w.  45  cm 

Unearthed  in  Yichuan  county, 

Henan  Province 

Guanlin  Museum  of  Stone 

Sculpture,  Luoyang 

94.  Five  kneeling  musicians 

Western  Han  dynasty 
(206  bce-8  ce) 
Painted  wood;  h.  32.5-38  cm 
Unearthed  in  1972  from 
Mawangdui  tomb  No.  1, 
Changsha,  Hunan  Province 
Hunan  Provincial  Museum, 
Changsha 


95.  Standing  figure 

Western  Han  dynasty 
(206  bce-8  ce) 
Painted  wood;  h.  47  cm 
Unearthed  in  1972  from 
Mawangdui  tomb  No.  1, 
Changsha,  Hunan  Province 
Hunan  Provincial  Museum, 
Changsha 

96.  Standing  performer  with 
a  drum 

Eastern  Han  dynasty 

{25-220) 

Earthenware  with  pigment; 

h.  66.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1963  in  Pi 

county,  Sichuan  Province 

Sichuan  Provincial  Museum, 

Chengdu 

97.  Squatting  performer  with 
a  drum 

Eastern  Han  dynasty 

(25-220) 

Earthenware  with  pigment; 

h.  48  cm 

Unearthed  in  1982  from 

Majiashan  tomb  No.  23, 

Sanhexiang,  Xindu  county, 

Sichuan  Province 

Administrative  Office  for 

Cultural  Relics,  Xindu  county, 

Sichuan  Province 

98.  Tomb  guardian  holding 
an  ax  and  a  snake 

Eastern  Han  dynasty 

(25-220) 

Earthenware;  h.  87.2  cm 

Unearthed  in  1957  from  the 

Huangshui  Xiang'ai  tomb, 

Shuangliu  county,  Sichuan 

Province 

Sichuan  Provincial  Museum, 

Chengdu 

99.  Kneeling  woman  holding 
a  mirror 

Eastern  Han  dynasty 
(25-220) 

Earthenware  with  red 
pigments;  h.  61.4  cm 
Unearthed  in  1963  in  Pi 
county,  Sichuan  Province 
Sichuan  Provincial  Museum, 
Chengdu 

100.  Model  of  tower  and 
pond  with  animals 

Eastern  Han  dynasty 
(25-220) 

Glazed  earthenware;  h.  45  cm, 
diam.  of  basin  55  cm 
Unearthed  in  1964  in  Xichuan 
county,  Henan  Province 
Henan  Provincial  Museum, 
Zhengzhou 

101.  Recumbent  dog 

Eastern  Han  dynasty 

(25-220) 

Glazed  earthenware;  h.  47  x 
1.  44  x  w.  20  cm 

Unearthed  at  Nanyang,  Henan 

Province 

Nanyang  Municipal  Museum 


102.  Tower 

Han  dynasty  (206  bce- 

220  ce) 

Earthenware;  h.  147  cm 

Unearthed  in  1952  at 

Jiuniizhong,  Huaiyang  county, 

Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Museum, 

Zhengzhou 

103.  Tomb  tile  with  scenes  of 
hunting  and  harvesting 

Eastern  Han  dynasty 

(25-220) 

Earthenware;  1.  44.5  x 

w.  39.6  X  d.  6.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1972  at  Anren 

village,  Dayi  county, 

Sichuan  Province 

Sichuan  Provincial  Museum, 

Chengdu 

104.  Tomb  tile  with  carriage 
and  horses 

Eastern  Han  dynasty 

(25-320) 

Earthenware;  1.  45  x  w.  39.5  x 

d.  6.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1955  from 

Qingbaixiang  tomb  No.  1, 

Xintan  county,  Sichuan 

Province 

Sichuan  Provincial  Museum, 

Chengdu 

105.  Three  aristocratic 
women 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Earthenware  with  pigment; 
h.  73-83  cm 
Unearthed  in  1985  at 
Hansenzhai,  Xi'an,  Shaanxi 
Province 

Institute  for  the  Protection  of 
Cultural  Relics,  Xi'an 

106.  Horse 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Earthenware  with  pigment; 

h.  87  x  1.  93  cm 

Unearthed  in  Luoyang,  Henan 

Province 

Henan  Provincial  Museum, 

Zhengzhou 

107.  Camel 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Earthenware  with  sancai 
("three-color")  glaze; 
h.  81  x  1.68  cm 
Unearthed  in  1973  at  Guanlin, 
Luoyang,  Henan  Province 
Luoyang  Cultural  Relics  Work 
Team,  Henan  Province 

108.  Set  of  twelve  calendrical 
animals 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Earthenware  with  pigment; 
h.  38.5—41.5  cm 
Unearthed  in  1955  in  the 
suburbs  of  Xi'an, 
Shaanxi  Province 
Shaanxi  History  Museum, 
Xi'an 


109.  Civil  official 
Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Earthenware  with  sancai 
("three-color")  glaze;  h.  107  cm 
Unearthed  at  Guanlin, 
Luoyang,  Henan  Province 
Luoyang  Municipal  Museum 

no.  Tomb  guardian 
Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Earthenware  with  sancai 
("three-color")  glaze; 
h.  103.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1981  from  the 
tomb  of  An  Pu  at  Longmen, 
Luoyang,  Henan  Province 
Luoyang  Cultural  Relics  Work 
Team,  Henan  Province 

in.  Heavenly  king 
Tang  dynasty  {618-907) 
Earthenware  with  sancai 
("three-color")  glaze;  h.  113  cm 
Unearthed  at  Guanlin, 
Luoyang,  Henan  Province 
Luoyang  Mumcipal  Museum 

112.  Four  brick  reliefs  with 
figures 

Yuan  dynasty  {1279-1368) 

Earthenware;  (1)  h.  35  x 

1.  35.8  x  w.  21  cm  {2)  h.  34  x 

1.  29  x  w.  22.5  cm  (3)  h.  34  x 

1.  31  x  w.  19.5  cm  (4)  h.  35  x 

1.  19.5  x  w.  10  cm 

Unearthed  in  1973  at 

Xifengfeng  village,  Jiaozuo, 

Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Museum, 

Zhengzhou 


113.  Bowl  with  stylized  floral 
or  leaf  designs 
Neolithic  period,  Yangshao 

culture,  mlaodigou  type 

(4th  millennium  bce) 

Red  earthenware  with  black 

pigment; 

h.  23  cm,  max.  diam.  36  cm 

Unearthed  in  1979  in  Fangshan 

county,  Shanxi  Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Institute  of 

Archaeology,  Taiyuan 

114.  Basin  with  human  head 
and  fish  designs 

Neolithic  period,  Yangshao 

culture,  Banpo  type 

(late  6th-5th  millennium  bce) 

Red  earthenware  with  black 

pigment;  h.  15.5  cm, 

diam.  of  mouth  39.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1955  at  Banpo 

village,  near  Xi'an, 

Shaanxi  Province 

National  Museum  of  Chinese 

History,  Beijing 

115.  Vessel  in  the  shape  of 
an  owl 

Neolithic  period, Yangshao 
culture,  Miaodigou  type 
(4th  millennium  bce) 
Black  earthenware;  h.  35.8  cm 
Unearthed  in  1959  at  Taiping 
village,  Hua  county, 
Shaanxi  Province 
National  Museum  of  Chinese 
History,  Beijing 

116.  Bottle  in  the  shape  of 
a  bird  or  dolphin 

Neolithic  period,  Liangzhu 

culture 

(ca.  3600-ca.  2000  bce) 

Gray  earthenware;  1.  32.4  x 

w.  1 1. 7  cm 

Unearthed  in  i960  at  Meiyan, 

Wujiang  county, 

Jiangsu  Province 

Nanjing  Museum 

117.  Jar  with  incised  animal 
mask  designs 

Shang  period  (ca.  1600- 

ca.  1100  bce) 

White  earthenware;  h.  22.1  cm, 

diam.  of  mouth  9.1  cm,  diam. 

of  foot  8.9  cm 

Unearthed  at  Anyang,  Henan 

Province 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

1 1 8. Jar  (zun)  with  mat 

impressions 

Shang  period  (ca.  1600- 

ca.  1100  bce) 

Ash-glazed  stoneware 
(protoporcelain);  h.  27  cm, 
diam.  of  mouth  27  cm 
Unearthed  in  1965  at 
Zhengzhou,  Henan  Province 
Zhengzhou  Municipal 
Museum 


LIST    OF    COLORPLATES 


ii9-  Candleholder  in  the 

shape  of  a  man  riding 

a  mythical  beast 

Western  Jin  dynasty  (265-316) 

Green-glazed  stoneware 

(Celadon), Yue  kilns;  h.  27.7  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

120.  Basin  with  applied 
Buddha  figure 

Western  Jin  dynasty  (265-316) 
Green-glazed  stoneware 
(Celadon), Yue  kilns;  h.  7.5  cm, 
diam.  of  mouth  19.4  cm,  diam. 
of  foot  10  cm 

National  Museum  of  Chinese 
History,  Beijing 

1 21.  Jar  with  six  lugs  and 
incised  bird  and  tree  motifs 
Northern  Qi  dynasty 
(550-577) 

Green-glazed  stoneware 
(Celadon);  h.  28.5  cm, 

max.  diam.  of  mouth  18.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1958  from  the 

tomb  of  Li  Yun, 

Puyang  county,  Henan 

Province 

Henan  Provincial  Museum, 

Zhengzhou 

122.  Chicken-headed  ewer 
with  dragon  handle 
Northern  Qi  dynasty 
(550-577) 

Green-glazed  stoneware 
(Celadon);  h.  48.2  cm, 
max.  diam.  32.5  cm 
Unearthed  in  1978  from  the 
tomb  of  Lou  Rui.Taiyuan, 
Shanxi  Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Institute  of 
Archaeology,  Taiyuan 

123.  Octagonal  bottle 
Tank  dynasty  (618-907) 
Green-glazed  stoneware 
(Celadon), Yue  kilns;  h.  21.7 
cm,  diam.  of  mouth  2.3,  diam. 
of  foot  7.8  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

124.  Bowl 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Green-glazed  stoneware 
(Celadon), Yue  kilns;  h.  6.8  cm, 
diam.  of  mouth  22.4  cm 
Discovered  in  19S7  in 
underground  chamber  of  the 
Famcn  Temple  Pagoda,  Fufeng 
county,  Shaanxi  Province 
Shaanxi  History  Museum, 
Xi'an 

125.  Octagonal  bottle 
Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Green-glazed  stoneware 
(Celadon), Yue  kilns;  h.  21. $ 
cm,  diam.  of  mouth  2.2  cm, 
diam.  of  foot  8  cm 
Discovered  in  19.K7  in 
underground  chamber  of  the 
Famen  Temple  Pagoda,  Fufeng 
county,  Shaanxi  Province 
Famen  Temple  Museum, 
Shaanxi  Province 


126.  Dish  in  the  shape  of  a 
five-petaled  blossom,  base 
inscribed  with  character  guan 
{"official") 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

White  stoneware  with 

transparent  glaze,  Xing  or  Ding 

kilns;  h.  3.5  cm, 

diam.  of  mouth  13.8  cm, 

diam.  of  foot  6.45  cm 

Unearthed  in  1985  at 

Huoshaobi,  Xi'an,  Shaanxi 

Province 

Institute  for  the  Protection  of 

Cultural  Relics,  Xi'an 

127.  Dish  in  the  shape  of  a 
three-petaled  blossom,  base 
inscribed  with  character  guan 
("official") 

Tanc  dynasty  (618-907) 
White  stoneware  with 
transparent  glaze,  Xing  or 
Ding  kilns;  h.  2.3  x  w.  11.7  cm, 
diam.  of  foot  5.9  cm 
Unearthed  in  1985  at 
Huoshaobi,  Xi'an,  Shaanxi 
Province 

Institute  for  the  Protection  of 
Cultural  Relics,  Xi'an 

128.  Covered  jar  with  four 
lugs 

Five  Dynasties  (907-960) 
White  stoneware  with 
transparent  glaze,  Xing  or 
Ding  kilns;  h.  26.2  cm,  diam.  of 
mouth  10.4  cm, 
diam.  of  foot  9. 1  cm 
Donated  by  Mr.  Zhou  Rui 
Shanghai  Museum 

129.  Bowl  inscribed  with 
characters  yaug  ding 
("glorious  Ding") 

Five  Dynasties  (907-960) 
White  stoneware  with 
transparent  glaze,  Ding  kilns; 
h.  6.3  cm,  diam.  of  mouth 
19.9  cm,  diam.  of  foot  7.5  cm 
Donated  by  Mr.  Huang  Zhaoxi 
Shanghai  Museum 

130.  Bottle  with  carved  and 
combed  peony  designs 
Northern  Song  dynasty 
(960-1127) 

Green-glazed  stoneware, 
Yaozhou  kilns;  h.  19.9  cm, 
diam.  of  mouth  6.9  cm,  diam. 
of  foot  7.8  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

131.  Bowl  with  incised  ducks 
and  water  weeds 
Northern  Song  dynasty 
(960-1127) 

White  stoneware  with 
transparent  glaze  and  bronze 
rim  band.  Ding  kilns; 
h.  6.4  cm,  diam.  of  mouth  23.5 
cm,  diam.  of  foot  7.3  cm 
Shanghai  Museum 


132.  Tripod  vessel  in  the 
shape  of  an  archaic 
bronze  Han  or  zun  vessel 
Northern  Song  dynasty 
(960-1127) 

Pale  blue-green-glazed 
stoneware,  Ru  kilns; 
h.  12.9  cm,  diam.  of 
mouth  18  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

133.  Mallow-shaped  bowl 
Southern  Song  dynasty 
(1127-1279) 

Crackled  pale  blue- 
green— glazed  stoneware, 
Hangzhou  Guan  ("official") 
kilns;  h.  4.2  cm,  diam.  of  mouth 
17.3  cm,  diam.  of 
foot  9.9  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

134.  Vase  with  dish-shaped 
mouth  and  raised  ribs 
Southern  Song  dynasty 
(1127-1279) 

Crackled  pale  blue- 
green-glazed  stoneware, 
Longquan  kilns;  h.  31  cm,  diam. 
of  mouth  10.4  cm, 
diam.  of  foot  11.  3  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

135. Jar  with  incised  floral 

designs 

Northern  Song  dynasty 

(960-1127) 

Bluish-glazed  white  stoneware 

(<jiHg/j(i/),Jingdezhen  kilns; 

h.  26.6  cm,  diam.  of  mouth 

5  cm,  diam.  of  foot  8.5  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

136.  Vase  with  carved  peony 
designs 

Northern  Song  dynasty 

(960-1127) 

Cizhou-type  stoneware  with 

white  slip  and  transparent 

glaze;  h.  34  cm,  diam.  of 

mouth  6  cm 

Unearthed  in  1959  inTangyin 

county,  Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Museum, 

Zhengzhou 

137.  Pillow  with  painted 
design  of  a  hawk  chasing 
a  rabbit  among  reeds 

Jin  dynasty  (1115— 1234) 

Cizhou-type  stoneware  with 

white  slip,  black  pigment, 

and  transparent  glaze;  h.  9.7  X  ). 

24.7  x  w.  17  cm 

Henan  Provincial  Museum. 

Zhengzhou 

138.  Vase  with  two  leopards 
incised  on  a  ring-matted 
ground 

NoRTHi  rn  Song  m  NAsn 
(960-1127) 

Stoneware  with  white  slip  and 
transparent  glaze, 
Dengfeng  kilns;  h.  \~.  1  cm, 
diam.  of  mouth  7- 1  cm, 
diam.  oi  foot  '*.<>  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


139.  Covered  jar  with  floral 
designs  in  painted  applied 
openwork 

Yuan  dynasty  (1279— 1368) 

Porcelain  with  underglaze 

cobalt  blue  and  copper  red 

painted  and  applied  decoration, 

jingdezhen  kilns; 

h.  42.3  cm,  diam.  of  mouth 

15.2  cm,  diam.  of  foot  18.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1964  from  a  Yuan 

dynasty  hoard  at  Baoding, 

Hebei  Province 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

140.  Covered  jar  with  three 
lugs 

Ming  dynasty, Yongle  period 

(1403-1424) 

Pale  green-glazed  porcelain, 

Jingdezhen  kilns; 

h.  10.4  cm,  diam.  of  mouth 

9.9  cm,  diam.  of  foot  14. 1  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

141.  Flower-shaped  brush 
washer 

Ming  dynasty,  Xuande  mark 
and  period  (1426-1435) 
Copper  red-glazed  porcelain, 
Jingdezhen  kilns; 
h.  3.8  cm,  width  of  mouth 
15.9  cm,  diam.  of  foot  13  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

142.  Moon  flask  with  dragons 
among  lotus  scrolls 

Ming  dynasty, Yongle  period 
(1403-1424) 

Porcelain  with  underglaze 
cobalt  blue  decoration, 
Jingdezhen  kilns;  h.  44  cm, 
diam.  of  mouth  8  cm, 
diam.  of  foot  14.5  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

143. Jar  with  flowering  plum, 

bamboo,  and  pine 

Minc  dynasty',  Yongle  period 

(1403-1424) 

Porcelain  with  underglaze 

cobalt  blue  decoration, 

Jingdezhen  kilns;  h.  36  cm, 

diam.  ot  mouth  6.7  cm, 

diam.  of  foot  13.9  cm 

Palace  Museum.  Beijing 

144.  Stem  bowl  with  scenes 
of  ladies  in  a  garden 

Ming  dynasty,  Xuande  mark 

and  PERIOD  (I426-  [435 

Porcelain  with  underglaze 
cobalt  blue  decoration, 
Jingdezhen  kilns;  h.  10.2  cm, 
diam,  of  mouth  15.5  cm, 
diam.  of  fool  1 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

145.  Vase  with  flower  and 

bird  designs 

QlNG  l'>  NASTY,  K  INGXI  p]  RIl  ID 

(l662-  I 

1 ;         iin  \\  it li  wucai  ["five 
1  olor")  dc(  oration, 
Jingdezhen  kilns;  h  40.4  cm, 
diam.  of  mouth  11.2  cm, 
diam  ol  fool  14."  cm 

Museum,  Bei|ing 


146.  Vase  with  flower  designs 
QlNG  DYNASTY, YONGZHENG 

MARK  AND  PERIOD  (1723-1735) 

Porcelain  with  doitcai 
("clashing"  or  "matched  color") 
decoration,  Jingdezhen  kilns; 
h.  26  cm,  diam.  of  mouth 
5.2  cm.  diam.  of  foot  n.S  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


LIST    OF    COLORPLATES 


501 


SCULPTURE 


147.  Stele  with  Maitreya 
Dated  to  471 
Northern  Wei  dynasty 
(386-534) 

Sandstone;  h.  86.9  x  w.  55  cm 
Unearthed  in  Xingping 
county,  Shaanxi  Province 
Forest  of  Steles  Museum,  Xi'an 

148.  Sakyamuni  on  lion 
throne 

Dated  to  502 

Northern  Wei  dynasty 

(386-534) 

Sandstone;  h.  48.5  x  w.  27.7  cm 

Found  in  1952 

Forest  of  Steles  Museum,  Xi'an 

149.  Stele  with  Sakyamuni 
and  bodhisattvas 

Northern  Wei  dynasty 

{386-534) 

Stone;  h.  96  x  w.  43.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1974  in  Qi 

county,  Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Museum, 

Zhengzhou 

150.  Stele  with  Sakyamuni 
and  attendants 

Dated  to  523 

Liang  dynasty  (502-557) 

Sandstone;  h.  35.8  x  w.  30.3  x 

d.  20  cm 

Unearthed  in  1954  at  the 

Wanfo  Temple  site,  Chengdu, 

Sichuan  Province 

Sichuan  Provincial  Museum, 

Chengdu 

151.  Stele:  (obverse) 
bodhisattvas;  (reverse)  lower 
tier,  figures,  animals,  and 
buildings  in  mountainous 
landscape;  middle  panel, 
lotus  pond;  upper  tier, 
Buddha  preaching  to  monks 
in  garden  setting 

Liang  dynasty  (502-557) 

Sandstone;  h.  121  x  w.  60  x 

d.  24.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1954  at  the 

Wanfo  Temple  site,  Chengdu, 

Sichuan  Province 

Sichuan  Provincial  Museum, 

Chengdu 

152.  Engraved  panel  with 
Buddha  beneath  canopy 

Dated  to  524 

Northern  Wei  dynasty 

(386-534) 

Stone;  h.  39.5  x  1.  144  x 

w.  14  cm 

Unearthed  in  the  late  19th 

century  in  Luoyang, 

Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Museum, 

Zhengzhou 


153.  Pillar  base  with 
mountains,  dragons,  and 
figures 

Northern  Wei  dynasty 
(386-534) 

Stone;  h.  16.5  x  w.  12  cm 
Unearthed  in  1966  from  the 
Sima  JinJong  tomb,  Shijiazhai, 
Datong  city,  Shanxi  Province 
Shanxi  Provincial  Museum, 
Taiyuan 

154.  Stele  with  Sakyamuni 
and  Maitreya 

Dated  to  532 

Northern  Wei  dynasty 

(3S6-534) 

Sandstone;  h.  90  x  w.  46  x 

d.  14  cm 

Institute  for  the  Protection  of 

Cultural  Relics,  Xi'an 

155.  Stele:  (obverse) 
Sakyamuni  and  attendants; 
(reverse)  Maitreya 

Western  Wei  dynasty 

(535-557) 

Sandstone;  h.  48.2  x  w.  21.5  x 

d.  12. 1  cm 

Institute  for  the  Protection  of 

Cultural  Relics,  Xi'an 

156.  Sakyamuni 
Dated  to  540 
Eastern  Wei  dynasty 
(534-550) 

Sandstone;  h.  35  cm 
Unearthed  in  1954  at  the 
Huata  Temple  site,  Taiyuan, 
Shanxi  Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Museum, 
Taiyuan 

157.  Stele  with  enthroned 
Buddhas  and  attendant 
bodhisattvas  and  monks 
Dated  to  559 
Northern  Qi  dynasty 
(550-577) 

Limestone;  h.  no  x  w.  58.5  x 

d.  10  cm 

Unearthed  in  1963  in 

Xiangcheng  county,  Henan 

Province 

Henan  Provincial  Museum, 

Zhengzhou 

158.  Stele:  (obverse) 
Sakyamuni  and  attendants; 
(reverse)  myriad  Buddhas 
Dated  to  565 

Northern  Zhou  dynasty 
(557-5Si) 

Stone;  h.  259  x  w.  73.4  x 

d.  19.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1963  in  Luoning 

county,  Henan  Province 

Henan  Provincial  Museum, 

Zhengzhou 


159.  Stele  with  Buddhist 
trinity 

Northern  Zhou  dynasty 

(557-581) 

Marble;  h.  40  X  w.  28  x 

d.  8.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1975  at  Caotan 

in  the  northern  suburb  of 

Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province 

Institute  for  the  Protection  of 

Cultural  Relics,  Xi'an 

160.  Amitabha  altar 

Dated  to  584 

Sui  dynasty  (581-618) 

Gilt  bronze;  h.  41  cm,  1.  of  altar 

stand  24.3  cm,  w.  of  altar  stand 

24  cm 

Unearthed  in  1974  at  Bali 

village,  Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province 

Institute  for  the  Protection  of 

Cultural  Relics,  Xi'an 

161.  Stele  with  Sakyamuni 
and  attendants 

Northern  Qi  dynasty 

(550-577) 

Sandstone  with  polychrome; 

h.  46  x  w.  27  cm 

Unearthed  in  1954  at  the 

Huata  Temple  site, Taiyuan, 

Shanxi  Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Museum 

162.  Seated  Buddha 
Sui  dynasty  (581—618) 
Marble  with  pigments; 
h.  100.7  x  w-  74-7  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

163.  Head  of  a  bodhisattva 
Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Sandstone;  h.  36  cm 
Unearthed  in  1954  at  the 
Wanfo  Temple  site,  Chengdu, 
Sichuan  Province 

Sichuan  Provincial  Museum, 
Chengdu 

164.  Head  of  Eleven-Headed 
Avalo  kites  vara 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Marble;  h.  25.5  cm 
Unearthed  in  1983  in  the 
western  suburb  ot  Xi'an, 
Shaanxi  Province 
Forest  of  Steles  Museum,  Xi'an 

165.  Torso  of  a  bodhisattva 

Tang  dynasty  (618—907) 
Marble;  h.  no  x  w.  35  cm 
Unearthed  in  1959  in  the 
precincts  of  the  Darmnggong,  a 
Tang  dynasty  imperial  palace  in 
Xi'an,  Shaanxi  Province 
Forest  of  Steles  Museum,  Xi'an 

166.  Head  of  a  bodhisattva 
Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Marble  with  gold;  h.  15.7  cm 
Unearthed  in  1959  at  the 
Anguo  Temple  site,  Xi'an, 
Shaanxi  Province 

Forest  of  Steles  Museum,  Xi'an 


167.  Torso  of  a  guardian  king 
Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Marble;  h.  100  cm 

Forest  of  Steles  Museum,  Xi'an 

168.  Torso  of  a  vajrasattva 
(a  type  of  bodhisattva) 
Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Sandstone;  h.  86  cm 
Unearthed  in  1954  at  the 
Wanfo  Temple  site,  Chengdu, 
Sichuan  Province 

Sichuan  Provincial  Museum, 
Chengdu 

169.  Heavenly  King 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 

Gilt  bronze;  h.  65  cm 

Unearthed  in  Baoji,  Shaanxi 

Province 

Baoji  Municipal  Museum 

170.  Trail okyavijaya 
(conqueror  of  greed,  hatred, 
and  delusion) 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Marble;  h.  71  x  w.  42  cm 
Unearthed  in  1959  at  the 
Anguo  Temple  site,  Xi'an, 
Shaanxi  Province 
Forest  of  Steles  Museum,  Xi'an 

171.  Ratnasambhava 

Tang  dynasty  (618—907) 

Marble  with  traces  of  gold; 

h.  67.5  cm 

Unearthed  in  1959  at  the 

Anguo  Temple  site,  Xi'an, 

Shaanxi  Province 

Forest  of  Steles  Museum,  Xi'an 

172.  Manjusri 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Marble;  h.  75  cm 
Unearthed  in  1959  at  the 
Anguo  Temple  site,  Xi'an, 
Shaanxi  Province 
Forest  of  Steles  Museum,  Xi'an 

173.  Head  of  a  bodhisattva 
Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Sandstone;  h.  30  x  w.  19  cm 
Unearthed  in  1957  at 
Nannieshui  village,  Qin 
county,  Shanxi  Province 
Shanxi  Provincial  Museum, 
Taiyuan 

174.  Standing  bodhisattva 
Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Sandstone  with  gold;  h.  60  cm 
Unearthed  in  1954  at  the 
Huata  Temple  site, Taiyuan, 
Shanxi  Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Museum, 
Taiyuan 

175.  Torso  of  a  bodhisattva 
Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Sandstone;  h.  112  cm 
Unearthed  at  the  Guanghua 
Temple  site,  Baicheng  village, 
Taigu  county,  Shanxi  Province 
Shanxi  Provincial  Museum, 
Taiyuan 


176.  Head  of  Avalokitesvara 

Tang  dynasty  (618-907) 
Sandstone;  h.  41  cm 
Unearthed  in  1954  at  the 
Wanfo  Temple  site,  Chengdu, 
Sichuan  Province 
Sichuan  Provincial  Museum, 
Chengdu 

177.  Two  arhats,  one  with 
dragon,  the  other  with  tiger 
Northern  Song  dynasty 
(960-1127) 

Stone;  (1)  h.  38  cm 

(2)  h.  38  cm 

Discovered  in  1980  at  the 

Boshan  Temple  site,  Fu  county, 

Shaanxi  Province 

Shaanxi  History  Museum, 

Xi'an 


LIST    OF    COLORPLATES 


CALLIGRAPHY 


PAINTING 


178.  Ink  stone 
Northern  Wei  dynasty 

(386-534) 

Stone;  h.  8.5  x  1.  21.2  x 

w.  21  cm 

Unearthed  in  1970  near 

Datong,  Shanxi  Province 

Shanxi  Provincial  Museum, 

Taiyuan 

179.  Zhu  Yunming  (1461-1527) 
"The  Terrace  of  Ode  to  the 
Wind"  and  other  poems 
composed  by  Zhu  Yunming, 
written  in  wild  cursive  script 
(kuangcao) 

Dated  to  1523 

Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 

Handscroll,  ink  on  paper; 

24.6  x  655.6  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

180.  Zhang  Ruitu  (1570-1641) 
Transcription  of  Wang  Wei's 
"Song  of  the  Aged  General," 
written  in  cursive  script 
(caoshu) 

MlNC  DYNASTY   (1368-I644) 

Handscroll,  ink  on  silk;  29.5  x 

629.5  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

181.  Wang  Duo  (1592-1652) 
Transcription  of  Wang  Wei's 
"Enjoying  a  Repast  at  the 
Home  of  Elder  Zhao  in 
Qizhou"  and  "Passing  by  the 
Herbal  Garden  of  Master 
Hesui  in  Spring,"  written  in 
standard  script  (kaishu) 
Dated  to  1643 

Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 
Handscroll,  ink  on  satin;  21.2  x 
165.5  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

182.  Zhang  Zhao  (1691— 1745) 
Transcription  of  "Seventh 
Month"  from  the  Odes  of  Bin, 
written  in  standard  script 
(kaishu) 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-1911) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  paper; 

176  x  92  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

183.  Deng  Shim  (1743-1805) 
Couplet  in  seven-character 
lines,  written  in  clerical  script 
(lishu) 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-1911) 

Hanging  scrolls,  ink  on  gold- 
flecked  paper;  130.1  x  27.6  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 


184.  Wang  Shen 
(ca.  1048— after  1104) 

Misty  River  and  Layered  Hills 

Northern  Song  dynasty 

(960-1127) 

Handscroll,  ink  and  color  on 

silk;  45.2  x  166  cm 

Shanghai  Museum 

185.  Zhao  Kui  (1185— 1266) 

In  the  Spirit  of  Poems  by  Du  Fu 

Southern  Song  dynasty 

(1 127-1279) 

Handscroll,  ink  on  silk;  24.7  x 

212.2  cm 

Shanghai  Museum 

186.  Anonymous 
Snowy  Landscape 
Southern  Song  dynasty 
(1127-1279) 

Handscroll,  ink  and  light  color 
on  paper;  24  x  48.2  cm 
Shanghai  Museum 

187.  Song  Boren 
(act.  mid- 13  th  c.) 

Album  of  Plum  Blossom  Portraits 

123S;  reprint,  1261 

Southern  Song  dynasty 

(1127-1279) 

Woodblock  print  book;  each 

leaf  23.1  x  28.6  cm 

Shanghai  Museum 

188.  Ni  Zan  (i306[?]-i374) 
Six  Gentlemen 

Dated  to  1345 

Yuan  dynasty  (1279-1368) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  paper; 

61.9  x  33.3  cm 

Shanghai  Museum 

189.  Wang  Meng 
(ca.  1308-1385) 
Dwelling  in  the  Qingbian 
Mountains 

Dated  to  1366 
Yuan  dynasty  (1279-1368) 
Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  paper; 
140.6  x  42.2  cm 
Shanghai  Museum 

190.  Shang  Xi 

(act.  ca.  2nd  quarter  of  15th  c.) 

The  Xuande  Emperor  on  an 

Outing 

Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  and  color 

on  paper;  211  x  353  cm 

Palace  Museum.  Beijing 

191.  Xie  Huan  (act.  1426—1452) 
The  Literary  Gathering  in  the 
Apricot  Garden 

Ca.  1437 

Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 

Handscroll,  ink  and  color  on 

silk;  h.  37  cm 

Zhcnjiang  Municipal  Museum 

192.  Dai  Jin  (1388-1462) 
Landscape  in  the  Manner  oj  Yan 
1 1  engui 

Mink  DYNASTY  (1368— 1644) 
Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  paper; 
98.2  x  45.8  cm 
Shanghai  Museum 


193.  Wu  Wei  (1459-150S) 
Fishermen  on  a  Snowy  River 
Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 
Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  silk; 
245  x  156  cm 

Hubei  Provincial  Museum, 
Wuhan 

194.  Zhou  Chen 
(ca.  1455— after  1536) 
Peach  Blossom  Spring 
Dated  to  1533 

Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 
Hanging  scroll,  ink  and  color 
on  silk;  161. 5  x  102.5  cm 
Suzhou  Municipal  Museum 

195-QiuYing  (ca.  1495— 1552) 

Playing  the  Flute  by  Pine  and 

Stream 

Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  and  color 

on  silk;  116. 4  x  65.8  cm 

Nanjing  Museum 

196.  Shen  Zhou  (1427-1509) 
Eastern  Villa 

Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 
Album,  ink  and  color  on  paper; 
each  leaf  28.6  X  33  cm 
Nanjing  Museum 

197.  Wen  Zhengming 
(1470-1559) 

Studio  oj  True  Appreciation 
Dated  to  1549 
Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 
Handscroll,  ink  and  color  on 
paper;  36  x  107.8  cm 
Shanghai  Museum 

198.  Xu  Wei  (1521-1593) 
Peonies,  Banana  Plant,  and 
Rock 

Ming  dynasty  (136S-1644) 
Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  paper; 
120.6  x  58.4  cm 
Shanghai  Museum 

199.  Chen  Hongshou 
(1598-1652) 

The  Pleasures  of  He  Tianzhang 
Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 
Handscroll,  ink  and  color  on 
silk;  25.3  x  163.2  cm 
Suzhou  Municipal  Museum 

200.  Dong  Qichang 
(1555-1636) 

Poetic  Feeling  at  Qixia 

Monastery 

Dated  to  \(->i6 

Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  paper; 

133.1  x  52.5  cm 

Shanghai  Museum 

201.  Ten  Bamboo  Studio 
Manual  of  Calligraphy 
and  Painting 

Published  [627-1633  by  Hu 
Zhengyan  (1584— 1674) 
Mim.  m  \\sn  (1368  -1644] 
Woodblock  print  hook;  each 
leaf  25.8  x  31  cm 
Palace  Museum.  Beijing 


202.  Ten  Bamboo  Studio 
Letter  Papers 
Published  1644  by  Hu 
Zhengyan  (15S4-1674) 
Ming  dynasty  (1368-1644) 
Woodblock  print  book;  each 
leaf  21  x  13.6  cm 

Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

203.  Album  of  a  Hundred 
Flowers,  after  paintings  by 
Zhang  Chaoxiang  (act.  19th  c.) 

QlNG  DYNASTY,  TONGZHI  PERIOD 
(1862-1874) 

Woodblock  print  book;  each 
leaf  24.2  x  16.8  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

204.  Wang  Yuanqi  (1642— 1715) 
Complete  in  Soul,  Sufficient  in 
Spirit 

Dated  to  1708 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-1911) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  paper; 
137.2  x  71.5  cm 
Palace  Museum,  Beijing 

205.  Wu  Li  (1632-1718) 
Reading  "The  Book  of 
Changes"  in  a  Streamside 
Pavilion 

Dated  to  1678 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-1911) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  paper; 
2 1 1. 7  x  7S.7  cm 
Shanghai  Museum 

206.  Kuncan  (1612-ca.  1674) 
Clear  Sky  over  Verdant  Hills 
Dated  to  1660 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-I9II) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  and  color 
on  silk;  S5  x  40.5  cm 
Nanjing  Museum 

207.  Hongren  (1610-1664) 
Peaks  and  Ravines  at  jinqi 
QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-I9II) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  paper; 
no. 6  x  58.9  cm 
Shanghai  Museum 

208.  Yuanji  (Shitao;  1642-1707) 
Pure  Sounds  of  Hills  and 
Streams 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-I9II) 
Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  paper; 
102.5  x  42.4  cm 
Shanghai  Museum 

209.  Gong  Xian  (1618  1689 
Summer  Mountains  after  Rain 

QlNG  DYNAST*    (1644— lOTl) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  ->i!k; 
141.7  \  57. s  cm 

Nanjing  Museum 

mh    H.ul.i  Sh.inren 

(1626-1705) 

Ducks  and  Lotuses 

Dated  i" 

QlNC  DYNASm    (1644-  1  wu'' 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  papei . 
if>f>  \  76.3  cm 
Shanghai  Museum 


211.  Yuanji  (Shitao;  1642-1707) 
Clear  Autumn  in  Huaiyang 

QlNG  DYNASTY  |  ( 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  and  color 
on  paper;  89  x  57.1  cm 
Nanjing  Museum 

212.  Zou  Zhe  (1636-ca.  1708) 
Album  of  Landscapes 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644— I9II) 

Album,  ink  and  color  on  paper; 
three  leaves  each 
12.6  x  28.6  cm,  remaining 
leaves  each  12.6  x  14  cm 
Nanjing  Museum 

213.  Yuan  Jiang 

(act.  ca.  1690-ca.  1746) 

Garden  for  Gazing 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-I9II) 

Handscroll,  ink  and  light  color 
on  silk;  51.5  x  254.5  cm 
Tianjin  Municipal  History 
Museum 

214.  Gao  Cen 
(act.  ca.  1645-1689) 
The  Temple  on  Jinshan 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-I9II) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  and  color 
on  silk;  180.8  x  95.1  cm 
Nanjing  Museum 

215.  Gao  Xiang  (1688-1754) 
Finger-Snap  Pavilion 

QlNC  DYNASTY  (1644-I9I1) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  on  paper; 

69  x  38  cm 

Yangzhou  Municipal  Museum 

216.  Huang  Shen 
(1687-after  1768) 
Willows  and  Egrets 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-I9II) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  and  color 
on  paper;  113.7  X  57.7  cm 
Shanghai  Museum 

217.  Li  Shan  (1686-after  1760) 
Pine,  Wisteria,  and  Peonies 
Dated  to  1755 

QlNG  DYNASTY  (1644-IOII) 

Hanging  scroll,  ink  and  color 
on  paper;  238  x  (l8.2  cm 
Shanghai  Museum 

218.  Jin  Nong  (1687— 1764) 
Album  oj  Landscapes  and 
Figures 

Dated  to  1759 

QlNG  DYNASTY    ,  [644-IQIl) 

Album,  ink  and  color  on  paper; 
each  leaf  26.1  x  34.9  cm 
Shanghai  Museum 

219.  Hua  Yan 

The  Golden  Valley  Garden 
Dated  to  [73a 
QlNC  DYNASTi      1 644- 191 1 ) 
Hanging  scroll,  ink  and  - 
on  paper;  l"S.-j  \  ^4.1  Clll 
Shanghai  Museum 


LIST    OF    COLORPLATES 


503 


THE    SOLOMON    R.    GUGGENHEIM    FOUNDATION 


Honorary  Trustees  in  Perpetuity 
Solomon  R.  Guggenheim 
Justin  K.Thannhauser 
Peggy  Guggenheim 

Chairman 

Peter  Lawson-Johnston 

President 

Ronald  O.  Perelman 

Vice-Presidents 
Robert  M.  Gardiner 
Wendy  L-J.  McNeil 

Vice-President  and  Treasurer 
Stephen  C.  Swid 

Director 
Thomas  Krens 

Secretary 
Edward  F.  Rover 

Honorary  Trustee 
Claude  Pompidou 

Trustee  Ex  Officio 
Luigi  Moscheri 

Director  Emeritus 
Thomas  M.  Messer 


Trustees 

Giovanni  Agnelli 

Jon  Imanol  Azua 

Peter  M.  Brant 

The  Right  Honorable  Earl  Castle  Stewart 

Mary  Sharp  Cronson 

Elizabeth  T.  Dingman 

Gail  May  Engelberg 

Daniel  Filipacchi 

Robert  M.  Gardiner 

Barbara  Jonas 

David  H.  Koch 

Thomas  Krens 

Peter  Lawson-Johnston 

Samuel  J.  LeFrak 

Rolf-Dieter  Leister 

Peter  B.  Lewis 

Peter  Littmann 

Wendy  L-J.  McNeil 

Edward  H.  Meyer 

Ronald  O.  Perelman 

Frederick  W.  Reid 

Richard  A.  Rifkind 

Denise  Saul 

Rudolph  B.  Schulhof 

Terry  Semel 

James  B.  Sherwood 

RajaW.  Sidawi 

Seymour  Slive 

Stephen  C.  Swid 

John  S.Wadsworth,Jr. 

Cornel  West 

Michael  F.  Wettach 

John  Wilmerding 

William  T  Ylvisaker