Outlines of Chinese art
by John C. Ferguson
1919
CONTENTS
PAGE
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS vii
THE CHINESE DYNASTIES xi
LECTURE I. INTRODUCTION .... i
LECTURE II. BRONZES AND JADES . . 33
LECTURE III. STONES AND CERAMICS . 82
LECTURE IV. CALLIGRAPHY AND PAINTING 134
LECTURE V. PAINTING 170
LECTURE VI. PAINTING . 208
ILLUSTRATIONS
LECTURE I
PAGE
ENTRANCE TO GOVERNMENT MUSEUM, PEKING . . xii
CENTRAL ENTRANCE TO GOVERNMENT PALACE, PEKING . xii Ho T'u: MYTHICAL ORIGIN OF DRAWING . . .11
Lo SHU: MYTHICAL ORIGIN OF WRITING . . I I IDEOGRAPH LUNG, MEANING DRAGON . . . .15
IDEOGRAPH Lu, MEANING DEER . . . . 15
BRONZE VESSEL DECORATED WITH FACE OF OGRE, T'AO-
T'IEH . . . .... . .i?
BRONZE VESSEL WITH DECORATION OF PHOENIX . . 18
T'IEH T'A, IRON PAGODA ...... 23
FANG T'A, SQUARE PAGODA 23
TEMPLE AT GRAVE OF KUAN Ti . . . . . 25
LECTURE II
BRONZE TABLE WITH WINE VESSELS (COLLECTION OF
TUAN FANG) ....... 34
BRONZE DAGGERS, CHOW DYNASTY . , . . 39
YOKE BELLS, SHANG DYNASTY ..... 39
BRONZE VASE, HAN DYNASTY 44
BRONZE VESSEL, HAN DYNASTY (COLLECTION OF PAUL Ho) 47
BRONZE WINE VESSEL, CHOW DYNASTY ... 49
Two BRONZE VESSELS OF THE CH'I Hou SET . . 54
Two BRONZE VESSELS OF THE CH'I Hou SET . . 56
SACRIFICIAL VESSELS ON ALTAR OF CONFUCIAN TEMPLE . 58
BRONZE FIGURE OF UNICORN, HAN DYNASTY . . 61
BRONZE FIGURE OF WEI T'o, T'ANG DYNASTY . . 63
[vii]
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
JADE TUBE, HAN DYNASTY ..... 67
DETAIL OF DECORATION ON JADE TUBE ... 67
JADE CARVING OF DANCING WOMAN, CHOW DYNASTY . 68
JADE AMULET, HAN DYNASTY 69
JADE DAGGER, HAN DYNASTY ..... 70
JADE DISK, HAN DYNASTY 71
JADE DISK-TABLET, HAN DYNASTY . . . .71
JADE TABLET, CHOW DYNASTY . . . . . 73
JADE Cup, SUNG DYNASTY . .. . . 76
DETAIL OF DECORATION ON JADE CUP . . . 77 JADE BELL, SUNG DYNASTY " . . . -79
JADE DRAGON CARVING, SUNG DYNASTY ... 80
JADE PENDANT, HAN DYNASTY ..... 80
LECTURE III
TABLET OF BUDDHA PREACHING . . . . .83 WEN SHU- YANG STONE . ' . . . . 88
FUNERARY-CHAMBER DECORATION .... 89 FENG STONE PILLARS . . . . . .91
CONFUCIUS MEETING LAOTSE 92
SHEN MEMORIAL PILLARS . . . . . .95
Li Hsi STONE -97
STONE OF FUNERARY CHAMBER ..... 98
SHE YANG STONE 101
VIEW OF LUNG MEN . . . . . .103
INTERIOR OF SMALL GROTTO, LUNG MEN . . .105 WEI DYNASTY FIGURES AT LUNG MEN . . . 107
STONE FIGURE OF AMITA BUDDHA . . . .109
YUNG Hsi TABLET . . . . . . . 1 1 1
MAITREYA -113
FOUR LI-CH'ENG TABLETS . . . . . 114, 115 EIGHT STEEDS, BY CHAO MENG-FU . . . .117
[viii]
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
BAMBOO LEAVES ARRANGED AS IDEOGRAPHS . - .117 DECORATIVE DESIGN ON TABLET, T'ANG DYNASTY . 1 18
T'ANG DYNASTY FIGURE AT LUNG MEN . . .119
CLAY FIGURE OF A GENERAL 122
POTTERY PILGRIM BOTTLE, SUNG DYNASTY . . .126
"OLIVE" POTTERY VASE 127
POTTERY CREMATION RECEPTACLE . . . .129 EIGHT- PANEL POTTERY JAR . . . . .131 PORCELAIN VASE DECORATED FOR IMPERIAL USE . . 132
LECTURE IV
COLOPHON OF THE "FivE VENERABLE MEN" . . 135
LETTER OF CHU Hsi . . . . .141
ANNOTATION OF WENG FANG-KANG . . . .141
CHIA HSING SCRIPT OF WANG HSI-CHIH . . 145
COLOPHONS OF Su SHIH AND Su CH'E . . . .147
COLOPHONS OF Li HUNG-FU AND WANG TSIN-CH'ING . 147
LOH HSIONG SCRIPT OF Mi FEI 149
COLOPHON OF CHAO MENG-FU . . . . .151
COLOPHON OF TUNG CH'I-CH'ANG . . 153
Two EXAMPLES OF "REGULAR" WRITING . . 155
Two EXAMPLES OF "RUNNING" WRITING . . 159
EXAMPLE OF "DRAFT" WRITING . . . .163
LECTURE V
HOME AGAIN: THE RETURN OF T'AO YUAN MING . 173 THE ARHATS . . . . . . . .173
THE TEN HORSES 177
SEARCHING FOR TRUTH . . . . . .181
THE TIGER 183
BLACK AND WHITE SKETCH BY Ni TSAN . . .185 HILL IN CLOUDS 193
[ix]
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
LANDSCAPE BY WEN CHENG-MING . . . .198
CARTOON, T'ANG DYNASTY 200
THE HILLS OF KUEI-CHI . . . . . .201
LECTURE VI
PORTRAIT OF Kuo Tzu-i . . . : . .211
KUAN YIN, GODDESS OF MERCY . . . . .214
THE LION AND BARBARIANS . . . . .217
A PRIEST IN CONTEMPLATION . . . . .219
BIRDS ON A TRUNUS BRANCH . . : . . .222
THE LONE FISHERMAN . .... . . 226
LANDSCAPE BY Kuo Hsi . . . .' r . . . 229
A TARTAR HORSEMAN . . . ." ".' .232
THE THREE HORSES . . . . . ' ' ' . 234
EGRETS AMONG LOTUS FLOWERS . . . . .236
THE FOUR MAGPIES ". , . . . ' ' '. 238
A STATESMAN . . . . . . " . . 240
EXAMINING THE POINTS OF A HORSE . . ' ' ."" "" . 241
1*1
THE CHINESE DYNASTIES
Hsia Dynasty Shang Dynasty Chow Dynasty Ts'in Dynasty Han Dynasty Wei Dynasty Tsin Dynasty Six Dynasties T'ang Dynasty Five Dynasties Sung Dynasty Chin Dynasty Yuan Dynasty Ming Dynasty Ch'ing Dynasty
2205-1766 B.C. 1766-1122 B.C. 1122-255 B - c>
255-206 B.C. 2O6 B.C.-22O A.D.
22O-264 A.D.
265-420 A.D.
42O-6l8 A.D.
618-906 A.D.
907-960 A.D.
960-1277 A.D. III5-I26O A.D. 1277-1368 A.D. 1368-1644 A.D. 1644-1912 A.D.
Republic of China 1912
[xi]
ENTRANCE TO GOVERNMENT MUSEUM, PEKING WU YING TIEN
CENTRAL ENTRANCE TO GOVERNMENT PALACE, PEKING
INTRODUCTION
The Government Museum at Peking, containing some of the best art treasures of China, is unique among the museums of the world. In architectural design and detail and in historical surroundings, as well as in the examples of art products stored within its walls, this Museum is exclusively and characteristically Chinese. The bronzes and jades, paintings and manuscripts, pottery and porcelain, inks and writing-brushes, all owe their common origin to the genius of the Chinese race. This Museum has not needed to borrow from other nations examples of an earlier art, out of which its own development has directly or indirectly sprung; on the contrary, the art spirit which found its expression in these various forms during the historic period joins hands even with the earliest mythological and legendary traditions of the country.
There can be no doubt of the inherent right of an artistic people to interpret its own art and to determine its own standards of relative values. It is naturally of some concern for us to know what impression Chinese art objects have made upon
[i]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
neighboring nations, upon western students and western art critics, but such opinions as may have been expressed in these quarters have no finality, except in so far as they are based upon accepted canons found in the extensive art literature of China. It is quite right for other nations to decide upon the importance of Chinese art in comparison with that of other ancient nations, such as Greece, Rome, or Egypt, and to assign to it only such moiety of consideration as its previously determined relative merit justifies. This is a comparative study of art; but in the realm of Chinese art studied by itself, its own standards must prevail. The explorer in this new world, if indeed it is a new world to him, must not carry the ready-made compass perfected by his own countrymen; for the divergent currents of wind and water will so distort its guiding needle that it will prove useless to him. His compass must be obtained in the country whose art product he studies, so that it may be fully corrected and adjusted. It must not be taken for granted that what is new to the explorer has been unknown or unstudied by the age-long inhabitants of the country, especially as the race with which he is dealing in this instance has been devoted to cultural pursuits during the whole of its long history. Though his methods of observation may be more
INTRODUCTION
scientific and accurate than those of the people whose product he is studying, an explorer, if wise, will give his first attention to the classification and elucidation of such facts as are disclosed to him by those whose opportunity of observation has been earlier and wider than his own.
The art of China is interesting to students of other countries in proportion as it is entirely national and expresses the ideals and spirit of this ancient people. It cannot properly be classified as one division of a widely pervading art of Asia, for the interaction of outside forces which have resulted from intercourse with other nations has had relatively small influence upon its evolution. One cannot use the phrase "Art of Asia" with the same freedom as in the use of the generic term "European Art," for all art in Europe leads back during an authentic period of history to com mon sources in Greece and Rome. In Asia the earliest historical records carry us back to several civilizations which had already existed long enough to have been moulded into distinct types, but leave us only to conjecture, when we attempt to trace their sources or inter-relations. It is, however, fairly clear that China, at least, has a civil zation and an art the fountains of which bubble forth from her own territory. In order to understand Chinese art, a knowledge of that of India, Japan,
[3]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
or Persia is not necessary, no matter how desirable it may be as throwing side-lights upon the subject. The only accurate viewpoint for the study of the art of China is from the center of its own cultural development.
In China art is the expression of culture. What was known by the Greeks as paideia and by the Romans as humanitas is known to the Chinese as hsioh or wen y meaning thereby the refinement in manners and taste acquired by mental and moral training. While they have never underestimated the value of technique, there has been no thought of making manual dexterity the central principle of art. Conformity to culture has been the first essential of art expression, and culture is the outgrowth of noble national ideals. Technique has been given credit for the clever products of artistic workmen, even when these products have been denied a place in the temple of art. In this temple, only that which is in accord with, and contributes to, the spirit of culture finds a place, no matter how beautiful or aesthetic it maybe in itself. There has never been an attempt to train a painter, for example, by teaching him a clever method of performance; the aim has always been to fill the soul with spiritual culture, before training the hand to be expert in the use of expressive materials. In some instances, such as in the production of
W
INTRODUCTION
bronzes and jades, even the personality of the artist has been entirely subservient to the supreme demand that his product should conform to national ideals. The greatest skill of an artist consisted not infrequently in so effacing his own individuality that the first thought of a beholder was not of the skill of the artist, but of the beauty, grace, or dignity of the object and of its place in the accumulating culture of his race. What is, and has been, the culture of China which has determined its art life ? It has been, for one thing, a devotion to ceremony family and tribal. Respect for rulers, reverence for parents and seniors these two principles were the foundation upon which the family and the state rested. They were responsible for the occasions which caused to be produced the earliest Chinese art objects of which we have any knowledge. These are bronze vessels which were used at family or tribal gatherings. On all such occasions, ceremonial observances were carefully prescribed in minute detail. We know from the accounts of the Shang dynasty (B.C. 1766-1122), as found in the Shu King, that there was careful regulation of ceremonies prescribed for the emperor, his officers of state, and all others associated with the court. These became fixed during the Chow dynasty (B.C. 1122-255)
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OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
such rigidity that they have controlled the ceremonial and ritualistic life of the Chinese down to the present time. During the attempt to revive monarchical government in 1915, the ceremonial rites which were introduced were based upon those of the Chow dynasty, even to the style of garments worn by the participants in the worship at the Altar of Heaven.
This devotion to ceremonial observance has been even trajected into the legendary period of the Three Emperors and Five Sovereigns, San Huang, Wu Ti. There were three races of emperors the heavenly, the earthly, and the human and each received its due proportion of respect. The five houses of sovereigns had fanciful names, such as the Nest-Builders, Yu-ch'ao, and the Fire-Producers, Sui-jen. These imaginary creatures were fabricated by the Chinese, so as to account for the culture which the earliest literary records found existing. They are the evident invention of later times and are valuable only as showing the stage of advancement reached in China at the beginning of the historical period. The interest in this present discussion in them is the light they throw upon the ceremonial observances which must have been well established among the Chinese in ancient times, since we find them in full force at the dawn of authentic [6]
INTRODUCTION
history. The only way in which Chinese historians have been able to account for them has been by the manufacture of mythological and legendary creations.
The Nine Tripods, chiu ting, said to have been cast by the emperor Yii out of metal sent to him from the nine divisions of the empire, are the earliest bronze vessels mentioned. The Tso Chuan, in its comments on the Cfiun Ts'iu, says: "When the virtue of Chieh, the last emperor of the Hsia dynasty, was obscured, the tripods were transferred to Shang for 600 years. Chow Sin (the last emperor of the Shang dynasty) proved cruel and oppressive, and they were transferred to Chow. Ch'eng Wang fixed the tripods in Chia-yu and divined that his dynasty should extend through thirty reigns, over 700 years." In this account we have all that is known of the location and use of these bronze tripods, and I fully agree with Legge and Hirth as to the genuineness of the records. The ascription of their casting to Yii may be considered doubtful or be rejected entirely, but the use of these tripods in the Hsia, Shang, and Chow dynasties is well established. They were the central objects of the grand ceremonial observances of the state, as well as the symbol of the possession of the imperial power.
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
The family life was also carefully regulated as to ceremonial observances. We learn from inscriptions on early bronzes that in some cases they were presented by sons to fathers, probably on the occasion of the anniversary of birthdays, and they were used in offering sacrifices and libations to the spirits of ancestors. Exploits in war and celebration of special honors received by a member of the family are recorded in these inscriptions on vessels, so that confirmation is given of the earliest literary references to the elaborate and minute ceremonial observed in the family. The higher the status of the family, the more precise the ceremonial. The daily routine of the emperor was so carefully laid out and the observances so onerous that no leisure time could have been left to him if he faithfully performed his prescribed duties.
Associated with ceremonial observances was the practice of divination, by which it was attempted to discover the will of High Heaven and to know in advance the events of life. The instruments of divination were the carapace of the tortoise, animal bones,. and stalks of milfoil. The tortoise shells or bones were subjected to heat, and then portents were read from the designs of the resultant cracks; the milfoil was observed as to the direction in which it swayed. Divination must have begun very early, as we find it at the [8]
INTRODUCTION
beginning of literary records. In the Counsels of Yii, the great emperor Shun is credited with having performed its rites and is said to have warned his successor Yii that divination, even when fortunate, must not be repeated. It was practiced in the Shang dynasty by P'an Keng, and the palace of the Chow dynasty had a full staff of diviners attached to it. These augurs had a high standing among the officers of the state, just as in Rome after Caesar's time the sixteen members of the college of augurs ranked next after the pontifical college. The reading of portents, omens, and collocation of signs became the subject of careful study by the most learned men. Its greatest treasure-house of lore is found in the "Book of Changes" / King. The influence of this littleunderstood classic upon Chinese life and thought is one of the most important factors in any investigation of the origin of art in China and of its inspiration. It is indissolubly connected with the doctrines and practices of Taoism, founded by Laotse.
Ceremonies and portents represent the essential spirit of the culture of the people of ancient China, out of which art first developed. There was some scope for the creation of objects of imagination and taste, but never without reference to their utility on ceremonial or divining occasions. Art,
[9]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
from the first, struggled against the restraints of its surrounding cultural life. Its first reputed results were in the decoration of the Nine Tripods with "remarkable objects," designed to teach the people to recognize the sprites of the hills and rivers, and thus not be injured by their malign influences. Then came representation of the phoenix, the dragon, clouds and thunder, ox-heads and ogres, fao-fieh) used in decorating bronze vessels and jade objects, and along with these the beginnings of ideographs, which later developed into written language. There seems to have been no difference between the early use of pictographs and ideographs. Both were used for decorating objects. Their artistic quality lay in their being works of imagination and not tracings of known objects. The distinction between the representation of objects and of ideas is expressed in geometric terms as that between the round and the square. In the "Book of Changes" it is said the round, t'Uy came from Ho and the square, shu, from Lo. The "round" refers to the marks which the mythological Fu Hsi is reputed to have found on the back of a dragon horse and from which he evolved the Eight Diagrams. These diagrams were found in circles, and from them came the principles of map-drawing, decoration, and imaginative designs. The "square" forms evolved [10]
INTRODUCTION
from the signs found on the shell of a tortoise, when the mythical emperor Yii was engaged in his great work of regulating the waters of the empire, and are the reputed prototypes of ideographs. They were the numbers from one to nine arranged in an order which he used in fixing the nine divisions of his work or the nine provinces. Each
HO T'U LO SHU
portion of each number is said to have been an ideograph, and there was much discussion among early Chinese scholars as to the number of these characters found. The Han Shu mentions the fact that characters were found on tortoise shells by Yu, but gives no number. The use of shells with inscriptions of characters in prehistoric days is confirmed by the finds in Ho-nan province of similar bones and shells in recent years. One need not stretch his credulity to the point of believing in these extraordinary accounts of the origin of pictographs and ideographs. It is only
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OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
necessary to realize that both appeared so early in the cultural life of China that the first literary records found it necessary to assign some method of their first production. The fanciful tales of their origin may be discarded, but the fact of their existence at the dawn of history must be admitted. Thus the roots of art in China strike deep into a time when the processes of divination and the ceremonial life of family and tribe were inseparably joined.
The impress of this union is seen in the combination of invention, science, literature, and art which came to be known as the "Six Arts/' luh i. These were ritual, music, archery, charioteering, writing, and calculation. Of these there are only three which agree with our conception of the essentials of artistic production. They are ritual, music, and writing. Ritual can properly occupy the same place among the fine arts which we give to dancing, while writing can be substituted for our drawing. Thus in comparison with our western conception of the fine arts as consisting of painting, drawing, architecture, and sculpture, with the addition of poetry, music, dancing, and dramatic art, the ancient Chinese omitted all but the three already mentioned and added in their stead the arts of archery, charioteering, and calculation. Archery was not only
[12]
INTRODUCTION
connected with skill in hitting a mark, but with graceful movements of the body, as was fitting to the exercise of a gentleman. This allies archery to the movements of formal dancing. Charioteering offered a fine chance for ornamental decoration of chariots and equipage, all of which should be suited to the occasion on which it was displayed and to the rank of the owner. This could be done only by one who possessed an artistic spirit. Calculation was originally associated with landplotting and map-drawing. The Li Ki has a passage in which it is said, "The question as to the wealth of a sovereign can be answered by a calculation of the size of his territory." The implication of this passage, considered in the light of the inclusion of calculation as one of the six arts, seems to me to be that the amount of territory could be calculated as the result of maps made from surveys and that in this connection calculation really meant mensuration. This is the only explanation which allows for artistic expression in the process of calculation. In modern times a new term, met shu> has been introduced into Chinese literature to express the idea of the "fine arts," and the phrase has been generally adopted. It conforms to our western idea of including music, poetry, sculpture, and architecture with painting as the fine arts and is a
[131
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useful nomenclature. It must, however, be recognized as a modern term used to explain the art of western countries and more or less at variance with early Chinese usage.
The original point of divergence of Chinese art from that of Greece and Rome is found in the contrasting type of their civilizations. China found her ideals in the filial piety of the home and the fidelity of the people to their ruler. This accounted for ceremony as the correct regulation of the relations of life, in accordance with the will of the all-dominating High Heaven, and for divination as a natural desire to know how future events would affect these relations. Greece and Rome, on the other hand, had ideals of political freedom and of the importance of individual men in the scheme of the universe. In a word, the early civilization of China centered around the gentleman, chun, while that of Greece and Rome placed man, homo, at the center.
In view of the foregoing, it will be readily conceded that Chinese art is indigenous. It could not have had its origin in a culture other than that found on the soil of China. The similarities which it bears to that of other countries are accounted for by the common traits shared alike by all nations. This culture was in close touch with surrounding nature. Just as to ancient shepherd
[Hi
INTRODUCTION
peoples the starry firmament took on the animal shapes of the zodiac, such as taurus, leo, scorpio, etc., so to the agricultural race of ancient Chinese the powers of nature which controlled their fortunes resolved themselves into animal forms. The clouds gathering before a summer thundershower took on the form of a dragon with huge
IDEOGRAPH LUNG, IDEOGRAPH LU,
MEANING DRAGON MEANING DEER
head, wide-spreading feet, and elongated tail. This was the spirit of the wind and the rain, which brought productivity to their soil. Thus the dragon was included among the four beneficent animals unicorn, phoenjx, turtle, and dragon. The first two were associated with the coming of spring life and the last two with fructifying summer rains. These four animal shapes were among the first used in decoration of bronzes, and they
1-5]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
were intended as stimulus to good thoughts. I cannot agree with Professor Hirth that "the names of dragon and phoenix occur in the oldest literature, but the shapes in which they are represented in these older works of art are quite different from the elaborate pictures made of them by later artists," nor with Chavannes that "this group of fantastic conventionalization [i.e., of dragons and phoenix] is perhaps not Chinese at all, from the outset, and, in any case, not so old as one would feel tempted to believe. I find before the Han period nothing that resembles the phoenix." These opinions are not in accord with the best authorities in Chinese archeology. Yuan Yuan, in Volume V, notes a libation cup, tsioh, with an inscription of one character, which represents a phoenix perching on a tree. This cup now belongs to the Ch'en family, at Wei-hsien. Hsieh Shan-kung, in Volume V, mentions a vase, ku y with the inscription of an ideograph in the shape of a dragon, and assigns the vase to the Shang dynasty. This vase was owned in recent years by the Yeh family, of Han-yang, opposite Hankow. I have seen a vessel which has been assigned to the Shang dynasty by Wu Chung-hsi, on which is a decoration of phoenix cast in delicate, fine lines. With these kindly creatures were associated in decoration other objects of frightful mien and [16]
INTRODUCTION
sinister purpose, which were meant as a warning against evil deeds. One of these, found most frequently, is the ogre, t'ao-t'ieh, which Hirth allows to be a Chinese invention. It has large protruding eyes arid a terrifying face, thus warning
BRONZE VESSEL DECORATED WITH FACE OF OGRE, T'AO-T'IEH
the beholder against greed and gluttony. It is among the earliest decorative motives. Whether malevolent or benevolent, the creatures used for decorative purposes on the earliest bronzes are in every instance products of Chinese imagination based upon the type of life which prevailed in the ancient life of the country.
'
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
Apart from bronzes and jades, which carry us back to the culture of the Shang dynasty, and the inscriptions on bone, which possibly carry us a
BRONZE VESSEL WITH DECORATION OF PHOENIX
little farther, there is as yet no external evidence confirming the accounts found in the "Book of History" Shu King. The records of Yao and Shun, as well as of the engiinneerg works of the great Yii, must for the present be considered as fi8]
INTRODUCTION
the afterthoughts of a later age, which sought to deduce the civilization known to it from some earlier source with which it could find itself in agreement. The discovery of the "Bamboo Books," about A.D. 280, confirmed the records of Ssu-ma Ch'ien but added little to the information found in this author's Shi Ki. Compared with the ruins of the ancient cities of Egypt or Assyria, China is lacking in monumental remains of her civilization, which must have been coeval with, or prior to, that of these other ancient races. This is accounted for, in large measure, by the unfavorable climatic and soil conditions of China as compared with those of these two countries.
There are no authentic stone tablets earlier than the Han dynasty. An ancient tablet at Yungning, Kuei-chow province, without date, has been assigned, but on doubtful authority, to the. Chow dynasty. Another tablet at Tan-yang, Kiang-su province, has an inscription in seal characters which were supposed to have been written originally by Confucius. This tablet bears on its face the record that the inscription was recut in A.D. 799, during the reign of Ta Li, of the T'ang dynasty, and it is impossible to confirm from any existing records the genuineness of the statement which alleges that Confucius wrote the characters which were thereon inscribed. There is also a
[19]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
tablet at Tsan-huang, Chih-li province, which is supposed to have been written by Mu Wang, of the Chow dynasty, and others at Chi hsien, Ho-nan province, and Ta-hsing, Chih-li province, which are similarly ascribed to the Chow dynasty. In addition to these, there are some brick tiles of the Ts'in dynasty (B.C. 255-206) the genuineness of which seems to be undoubted. There are also four stone monuments assigned to the Ts'in dynasty in the well-known "Records of Tablets," Fang Pel Lu. The most famous of these tablets is the one located on the top of T'ai-shan, which is usually spoken of as Wu-tzu pel. This is reputed to have been set up by the emperor Shih Huang. The other three monuments ascribed to this period are located at Chu-ch'eng, Shan-tung province, at Hsi-an, Shen-si province, and at Kueichi, Cheh-kiang province. There is a stone of the Han dynasty ascribed to B.C. 143, but there has been much discussion as to the correctness of this claim. The earliest authentic stone tablet is that found at Ch'ii-fu, Shan-tung province, the birthplace of Confucius, and is dated the sixth month of the second year of Wu Feng, i.e., B.C. 56. It must be frankly admitted that it is disappointing to the student of Chinese art-archeology that he can find no earlier remains in stone than are at present known to Chinese scholars.
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INTRODUCTION
The earliest historical stone relics are the Stone Drums, Shift Ku, now located on either side of the main entrance to the Confucian Temple, Kuo-tzii Chien, Peking. These were discovered in the seventh century, in the prefecture of Feng-hsiang, Shen-si province, and set up in the Confucian Temple of this city in the ninth century. They were removed to K'ai-feng, Ho-nan, by the Sung emperors, who filled the incisions of the characters with pure gold. When the Nii-chen Tartars captured the Sung capital, these drums were carried off to Peking, where they were installed in their present position in 1307 by Kuo Shou-ching. There are ten of these drums, and on each one an ode is inscribed. These odes celebrate a hunting and fishing expedition to Mount Ch'i, located in the district where the drums were exhumed. They describe the elaborate preparations made for a grand military review, by the leveling of roads and deepening of water courses. There is no internal evidence by which these drums can be assigned to a. definite date, but the consensus of opinion among Chinese scholars with which I fully agree refers them to the reign of Hsiian Wang (B.C. 827-782), of the Chow dynasty. Bushell is inclined to place them even as early as the reign of Ch'eng Wang (B.C. 1115-1079), while Chavannes would assign them
[21]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
to a king of the Ts'in state, about B.C. 300. Their only decoration is the inscriptions, and their artistic appeal is in their shape. They are primarily of interest to archeologists and philologists, but by the Chinese are reckoned as part of the art product of their country.
Enormous as was the labor expended in the construction of the Great Wall, for a long period of time during the existence of the ancient states of Ts'in, Chou, and Yen down to its lengthening by the First Emperor of the Ts'in dynasty (B.C. 221-209), I do n t remember to have seen it used as a motive in any early work of art, whether in stone, jade, or painting. Even the watch towers which have been preserved from the Han dynasty in pottery represent the type found throughout Shen-si rather than those of the Great Wall. There are many allusions to hunting trips and military excursions through the mountain passes, but none that I have discovered to the wall itself. It was considered wholly as a military necessity and not as an outcome of the genius or spirit of the people. Not so with early architectural structures. These have claimed a share in the artistic development of the nation. The mythological Huang Ti, of the twenty-seventh century B.C., is reputed to have taught the people to make bricks and build houses. He erected a sacrificial
[22]
T1EH T'A, IRON PAGODA, K'AI-
FENG, HO-NAN PROVINCE,
BUILT A.D. 1396
FANG T'A, SQUARE PAGODA, K'AI-FENG, HO-NAN PROVINCE, ELEVENTH CENTURY
[23]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
temple and a palace, around which a town was built. In the Chow dynasty " the imperial palace consisted of a vast inclosure, surrounded by high mud or brick walls, in which were the following: the dwelling-houses of the emperor, the empress, the concubines, and their servants; the offices of the ministers, reception halls, and temples; shops for weaving silk and hemp for the use of the court; treasuries for the preservation of the imperial archives, historical documents, jewelry, and other precious belongings of the state or the emperor; depositories for stores and all that was necessary for the maintenance of life. In other words, it was a walled city within the capital city, reserved for the emperor, his household, and his government; and the monarch seldom left it except in his official capacity." The palace Ah Fang Kung, or Ah Pang Kung, as explained by Chavannes in Se Ma Ts'ien II, p. 174 built by the emperor Shih Huang (B.C. 221-209) at Ch'ang-an (Hsi-an), Shen-si province, was a work of magnificent grandeur and has frequently been portrayed in paintings and on porcelain, as well as praised in poetical allusions. According to the Shi Ki, it was 250 feet in length and 500 feet in width and was situated on the south bank of the Wei River in the Shang Lin park. Ten thousand persons could be seated
[24]
INTRODUCTION
within its walls. Other famous palaces' of early date were the Wei Yang Kung, built by Hsiao Ho (died B.C. 193) at the beginning of the Han dynasty, near Ch'ang-an, and the Kan Ch'iian Kung. These three palaces are well known in poetry and painting. There is a famous painting
TEMPLE AT GRAVE OF KUAN TI, LO-YANG, HO-NAN PROVINCE. REBUILT A.D. 1594
by Li T'ang (circa A.D. 1 100), of the Sung dynasty, which gives a good idea of the beauty of the Ah Fang Kung. These palaces set the model for later dynasties, and their main architectural points may be seen in the present Peking palace. None of these palaces has survived the ravages of time, and we must trust to literary records to confirm the likeness of later palaces to the earlier ones.
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This lack of survival of ancient art remains has never appeared to be disconcerting to native critics. It has been the genius of the Chinese to preserve unchanged the same art spirit from generation to generation, even though early examples might perish. It is safe to say that the same art motives which flourished in the Shang and Chow dynasties stirred the hearts of all kinds of artists in the Ming and Manchu dynasties. There has never been among the Chinese a dread of reproduction or copying, for this has not been a slavish exercise. Copyists do not follow in minute detail the chosen model, but each reproduction shows the individuality of the worker, even when following the same general lines of conformity to an original. This method has seemed to the Chinese to be a glorification of national consciousness and a preservation of precious tradition. The shapes of early bronzes were reproduced in pottery and then in porcelain, the crude drawings of dragon and phoenix on early castings were beautified in paintings, and yet each succeeding generation drew its artistic inspiration from the same unfailing sources. This often gives to the foreign student an impression of monotony, such as Bushell records in reference to Chinese architecture, but it also creates a profound admiration for the endless variety [26]
INTRODUCTION
evolved from such limited sources. In perpetuating the continuity of the art spirit, the Chinese have succeeded better than any other nation, for they have maintained a continuous succession for about four thousand years.
It is interesting to note also that art motives had become stabilized before China began to have much intercourse with outside nations and when her own territorial limits were confined to a small area in what is now the northwestern part of the country. It would be profitless to this discussion to attempt to trace the origin of the Chinese people. Lacouperie endeavored to prove that they were the Bak tribes, led by Nakhunte (Nai Huang Ti) through Chinese Turkestan and along the Kashgar River to the northwestern part of China, where we first find them. He thus gave a Babylonian origin to Chinese culture. His thesis has been successfully refuted on philological grounds by Hirth, and I must bear my testimony as to the unreliability of his theory, in so far as it regards artistic motives. The list of arts which, he says, the Chinese owed to their early civilizers contains a curious medley, early and late, of the cultural development of early China.
These early art motives and traditions were so firmly established before China began to have
[27]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
communication with the surrounding peoples that they have been able not only to survive, but also to dominate, influences from without. Even allowing that there was an overland traffic with India through the Shu principality (Sze-ch'uan province), in the fifth century B.C., from the Ch'in principality (Shen-si province), we know that by this time there had been a development of artistic creations in bronze, jade, and ideographs which have continued to control the minds of artists down to the present time. Later there was frequent communication with the outside world. Chang Ch'ien was sent (B.C. 139) on a mission to the Indo-Scythians, whose capital was on the Oxus River. He traveled through eastern Turkestan, Ferghana, Bactria, and Khotan for thirteen years and brought back with him many new plants, such as the grape-vine and also alfalfa. He gave descriptions of the products and customs of the countries which he visited.
Buddhism was officially introduced into China in A.D. 67 by the emperor Ming Ti. The envoys whom this emperor sent brought back with them from India two monks with their Pali books, their pictures, and their customs. Their return was celebrated by the erection east of Lo-yang (Honan fu) of the White Horse Temple Pai Ma Ssu. This temple has been frequently restored and is [28]
INTRODUCTION
preserved to the present time. The historian Ssu-ma Ch'ien (died B.C. 85) records in his History the relations of China with the Indo-Scythians, the Man barbarians to the southwest, and the people of Ta Wan (Ferghana). Pan Ch'ao, in A.D. 97, led an army to Antiochia Margiana and ordered one of his generals to take ship from the Persian Gulf westward toward Rome, of which China had begun to hear. The expedition never started on its journey, but before another century had passed Roman merchants found their way to Cochin-China and soon to Canton. The overland trade route through Parthia and Samarkand to Rome and northern India was also reopened, with the result that, during the period of division of northern and southern states which followed the Han dynasty, several of the small kingdoms had Turkic rulers. The Wei and the Northern Wei dynasties had their capital at P'ing-ch'eng (Ta-t'ung fu) until the middle of the latter dynasty, when it was removed to Lo-yang (Honan fu) by the emperor Hsiao Wen Ti. Both of these dynasties reflect the influence of Turkestan and Gandhara in their art products. The imperial extent of the domain of the T'ang dynasty brought under its control almost all of the neighboring states. Many of them on the northwest border appealed to China for protection against the
[29]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
growth of Mohammedan power. Arabian ships reached Canton, Nestorian missionaries, Jews, and Manicheans came to the empire by the overland route, and the stronghold of Buddhism was removed from India to China. Art flourished during this period of general prosperity and, when foreign influences were stronger than at any other period of the history of China, continued to show an adherence to early indigenous tradition which refused to be perverted. Artistic motives introduced from outside sources were subjected to the domination of Chinese principles and, when used, were brought into harmony with existing canons.
The Yuan dynasty, founded by the Mongol warrior Kublai Khan in 1280, restored the empire, which had fallen into separate divisions under the Sung, but did little for art other than to release its spirit from the hidebound literalism of the conservative school. There was an immediate rebound into the freedom which had been known in the T'ang dynasty. The sway of the Mongols was over such a wide area that there was even an exchange of workmen between Persia and China. Persia felt the influence of these Chinese workmen, but the Persian workmen left no permanent impression on China. There was little or no outside influence during the Ming dynasty,
[30]
INTRODUCTION
and in the past century western influences have not been able to penetrate deeply enough into the inner life of China to control, or even to influence, its art. China remains the only existing example of the persistence and continuance of an art life which connects itself with the earliest national traditions. Frequently beset with strong influences from outside sources, it has never been diverted from its characteristic type. On the contrary, it has always absorbed these influences and conformed them to its own uses. It has borrowed decorative forms and perhaps even technical methods, but has clung to its own principles.
China, therefore, must be studied as an artistic entity. The laws and principles which today control criticism or production are those which have come down from the earliest period of China's national life. Art is now decadent in China, as far as products are concerned, but considered in the light of adherence to principles it flourishes with a strength equal to that which characterized it in the golden age of the T'ang dynasty. It is found in every man of culture and struggles to assert itself in every new collector. Its sway is not even disturbed by the incoming of modern education.
The divisions of art products according to Chinese usage are chin shih work in metals,
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
stone, or ceramics and shu hua calligraphy and painting. These may be roughly described as the plastic and graphic arts. The chin shih division is an inseparable mixture of art and archeology, or, in other words, it is archeological art or artarcheology. The shu hua division is entirely concerned with the fine arts. It is under these two divisions that the succeeding lectures will treat Chinese art.
[32]
II
BRONZES AND JADES
BRONZES
The study of chin shih literally, metal and stone has been confined to a comparatively small group of Chinese scholars. ' It is closely connected with the tracing of the origin and development of the form of the ideographs in which the Chinese language is written, but it also concerns itself with the examination of historical facts, as stated in inscriptions, and a comparison of them with later literary records. If this branch of expert knowledge stopped with these linguistic inquiries, it would not be necessary to include a reference to early bronzes, jades, or stone tablets in a review of the art of China. Fortunately, in addition to linguistic considerations, writers on chin shih have paid attention to art motives and their evolution, though it must be confessed that not so much study has been devoted to artistic as to linguistic problems. It has been left to students and collectors from Japan and the Occident to emphasize the artistic qualities of these early art products, though perhaps somewhat at the expense, or to the neglect, of the
[33]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
BRONZE TABLE WITH WINE VESSELS. EXCAVATED IN 1902. COLLECTION OF TUAN FANG
BRONZE TABLE WITH WINE VESSELS. ANOTHER VIEW OF THE COLLECTION SHOWN ABOVE
[34]
BRONZES AND JADES
phase of the subject which has chiefly attracted Chinese experts.
The emperor Wu Ti (A.D. 502-550), of the short-lived Liang dynasty (A.D. 502-556), who had his capital at Nanking, was a devout adherent of Buddhism and is reputed to have made the first literary collection of inscriptions on stone tablets and grave monuments. His work, which is said to have been in one hundred and twenty volumes, was lost in the troublous times which followed his death. This collection seems to have been the beginning of art-archeological studies in China and was apparently pursued on lines different from those in the investigations of early remains by Hsu Shen, second century, which were concerned wholly with etymological research, in preparation of the famous glossary Shuo Wen.
Scholars of the T'ang dynasty did not concern themselves with this study, and interest in it was not revived until the tenth century A.D., when Nieh, of Ho-nan, brought out the San Li T'u. This was an illustrated description of the customs and manners of early China. The text is valuable, but the illustrations are crude and unreliable, having evidently been based upon written records rather than upon observation of existing objects. The first serious work was that of Ou-yang Hsiu, in the eleventh century A.D., in the compilation
[35]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
of the Tsih Ku Lu, which was a treatise on early inscriptions. This was followed by that of Wang Fu, who edited the Hsuan-Ho Po Ku Tu "Illustrated Description of Antiquities Contained in the Hsiian-ho Palace." The illustrations in this work were probably taken from drawings and rubbings of objects in the imperial collection and are therefore valuable. Its mistakes in interpretation of inscriptions and in historical statements have given rise to much literary controversy among later authors. The student using this valuable book must therefore be on his guard against inaccuracies.
A more scholarly and reliable book of the Sung dynasty is that of Hsieh Shan-kung, author of Li Tai Chung Ting K'uan Chih> in twenty volumes. This was written in the Shao Hsing period (A.D. 1131-1163) of the Southern Sung dynasty and is, in reality, the basis upon which all later scholars have built. Hsieh may be considered as the first thorough student of early bronzes, but his work is concerned exclusively with the study of inscriptions. It is, however, a mine of information also as to artistic matters, but this is always found in admixture with his discussion of linguistics. In the Sung dynasty there were also the artists Liu Sung-nien, Li Kung-lin, Chao Mengchien and the statesmen Lii Ta-fang, Wang
[36]
BRONZES AND JADES
An-shih, and his brother, Wang An-kuo, who were all keenly interested in bronzes and jades and regarded them as objects of art.
There was again a hiatus of scholarship in this subject, for no important contributions to it were made during the Yuan and Ming dynasties. The emperor Ch'ien Lung, in 1749, gave a new stimulus to it by ordering a group of distinguished scholars to prepare an illustrated catalogue of the imperial collection. This was published under the name of Hsi Ch'ing Ku Chien "Mirror of the Antiquities of the Imperial Studio" in fortytwo splendid, large volumes, and was supplemented by the works Hsi Ch'ing Hsu Chien and Ning Shou Chien Ku, which have been published in recent years in volumes corresponding to the earlier one. The illustrations in these works can now be compared with the specimens themselves, as exhibited in the Government Museum, Peking.
Imperial patronage gave great encouragement to this branch of study. In 1804, Yuan Yuan published his scholarly work Chi Ku Chai Chung Ting I Ch'i K'uan Chih "Inscriptions on Vessels by Chi Ku Chai," which is the studio name of Yuan Yuan. In this book the rubbings of 560 inscriptions are criticized and explained. This was followed, in 1822, by the publication of Chin Shih So "Researches in Metal and Stone" by
[371
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the scholarly brothers Feng Yiin-p'eng and Feng Tim-yuan, who approached the subject more from the aesthetic side than from the literary. It is a most useful book to a foreign student. Other important contributions have been made since the publication of this work, but they have been devoted chiefly to discussions of linguistic problems. Only one work has been published in recent years which is a distinct contribution to the importance of the artistic qualities of early bronzes. It is called T'ao Chai Chi Chin Lu "Records of the Bronze Vessels in the Collection of T'ao Chai." T'ao Chai is the literary name of the late Viceroy Tuan Fang, who was a good scholar and an unusually discriminating collector. This book gives illustrations of the most important specimens of bronze vessels in his great collection. It is a pity that similar publications were not issued in illustration of the collections of the P'an family, of Su-chow, or of the Ch'en family, of Wei-hsien.
All historical records show that bronze vessels were held in high esteem during the Hsia, Shang, and Chow dynasties, which are usually classified together as the San Tai or Three Dynasties. The vessels were used on all important occasions in national and family life. Victory over enemies, prayers for blessings and favors, penitence for
[381
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BRONZE DAGGERS, CHOW DYNASTY
YOKE BELLS, SHANG DYNASTY
f39]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
transgressions, memorials for deceased rulers and parents, birthdays of superiors these were all celebrated in dignified ceremonies in which bronze vessels were used. There were nine vessels, chiu ting, used only by the ruler, and the retention of these signified the possession of kingly authority in the state. They were regarded as emblems of the lex regis. "The Ritual of Chow," Chow Li, has a section devoted to the use of vessels for indicating the difference in rank among officials. It is called Fen Ch'i. Officers of lower rank in performing sacrificial rites could not use the same number or size of vessels as those used by one of higher rank. Bronze vessels thus came to serve as insignia of office. They were also used as presents from princes to ministers to whom they had granted interviews, and much importance was attached by ministers to the kind of vessel presented, as a sure indication of the estimation in which the prince held them. In B.C. 672, Cheng Po had an audience with the King of Chow, after which he was presented with a mirror girdle which had belonged to the Queen. Shortly afterwards the Duke of Kuo was presented with a libation cup at which Cheng Po took great offense, since the gift of the Prince to him had been only some trifling ornament worn by a woman, while that given to the Duke had been a vessel used in state ceremonies.
[40]
BRONZES AND JADES
Another use was connected with dishonorable transactions, in which bronze vessels were presented as bribes by small states or by individuals who wished to acquire influence. The Tso Chuan Commentary gives many instances of this illegitimate use. The Marquis of Ch'i bribed the principality of Ts'in, in B.C. 589, by the gift of a bronze vessel, hsien. The men of the principality of Yen attempted to bribe the principality of Ch'i by the gift of a libation cup, chia. Large and small bells, tripods, and other sacrificial vessels are mentioned as having been perverted to this base purpose. These subsidiary uses of bronze vessels did not obscure their chief use for sacrificial and memorial purposes.
The dates to which bronze vessels are assigned by Chinese authorities are frequently stated in general terms. Bronzes of the earliest period are referred to as belonging to the San Tai, or previous to B.C. 255. Then follow the Ts'in-Han types, dated B.C. 255 A.D. 221. These are all ancient bronzes. The reproductions of the T'ang and Sung dynasties are not classed as "ancient." The style of decoration but more especially the ideographs used in inscriptions serve to divide the vessels of the San Tai into those of the Hsia, Shang, and Chow dynasties. This classification, based upon linguistic development, seems
[41]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
trustworthy but is of slight value as to artistic differences. The motives, technique, and form of vessels of these three dynasties are interchangeable, and for an art student there need be no subdivision of the period previous to B.C. 255. It is stated by Chinese authorities that in bronzes the Hsia dynasty was noted for reliability, the Shang for quality, and the Chow for display; but this is a general characterization of the manners and customs of these periods rather than of the artistic qualities of the bronzes which they produced.
The archaic ceremonial types of the San Tai were replaced by more utilitarian and decorative ones in the period of freedom which set in with the imperial sway of the Ts'in and Han dynasties. Few ancient vessels seem to have been recovered during this time from the safe hiding-places where they were buried to elude Shih Huang, the founder of the Ts'in dynasty, so that new types had a chance to be introduced. These were vases, bowls, lavers, sacrificial cooking utensils, girdle buckles, and articles of house decoration or of personal adornment. In general terms, it may be said that the vessels of the San Tai are of the severe ceremonial types, while those of the Han are of decorative forms.
So great have been the perils and difficulties through which these vessels have come down from
BRONZES AND JADES
ancient times, that it is a matter of wonder that so many have survived. P'an Tsu-yin, in his P'an Ku Lou I Ctii Kuan Chih "Inscriptions on Vessels in the Collection of P'an Ku Lou" speaks of seven great perils which have been encountered by bronze vessels since the end of the Chow dynasty, in B.C. 255. The first was when the founder of the Ts'in dynasty attempted to destroy all bronze vessels and military utensils with inscriptions, at the time of his burning of the books. His object was to destroy all the literary records of an earlier age and to commence a new era with his reign. After melting up these bronze objects, he cast them into twelve statues. The second peril was when Tung Cho (died A.D. 192), in his attempts to bolster up the waning fortunes of the Han dynasty, melted down the bronze statues which he found at the two capitals, Lo-yang (Ho-nan fu) and Ch'ang-an (Hsi-an fu), and also many bronze vessels, melting them into coins. The third occurred in A.D. 590, during the reign of the emperor Wen Ti, of the Sui dynasty, when three great bells and a large number of vessels of the Ts'in and Han dynasties captured from the Kingdom of Ch'en were destroyed by melting. The fourth peril was in A.D. 955, during the reign of the emperor Shih Tsung, of the Later Chow dynasty, when an imperial decree was issued
[43]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
BRONZE VASE, HAN DYNASTY
BRONZES AND JADES
allowing a limit of fifty days within which all bronze figures, vessels, and other articles from the two capitals and from every district should be presented to local officials for destruction, with the exception of the ceremonial articles belonging to the court, articles used for military or official purposes, mirrors, and bells used in temples. The fifth was in A.D. 1158, during the reign of Cheng Lung, of the Chin dynasty, when an edict was issued ordering the destruction of all ancient vessels captured during the expeditions against the Liao and Sung dynasties. The sixth was during the reign of Kao Tsung (A.D. 1131-1163), of the Southern Sung dynasty, when bronze vessels in the possession of the people were collected and added to fifteen hundred vessels from the imperial collection. All were handed over to the keeper of the Mint and are said to have amounted to more than two million catties (three million pounds). The seventh peril was in the stripping of the palaces and temples at Pien-lo (K'ai-feng fu), at the close of the Northern Sung dynasty, of all their bronze objects and the carrying them away to the capital of the Chin dynasty.
Much importance was attached in successive dynasties to the discovery of exhumed bronze vessels. The reigning sovereign has celebrated the event by a change in the name of his governing
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
title, nien hao, or the name of the place where the discovery was made has been changed in honor of it, or memorial temples have been built, in which the gods have been given special titles. One of the first recorded discoveries was during the reign of Yuan Ting (B.C. 116-110), of the Han dynasty, when the Pao tripod was found in the Fen River (Shan-si province). There are records of several similar discoveries during the Han dynasty and down through the periods of the smaller dynasties to the T'ang, when, in the reign of Hsu an Tsung (A.D. 713-742), several important finds were made. It is recorded that in 733 a vessel, hsien, was discovered at Mei-chow, the weight of which was 700 catties (more than 900 pounds). During the Northern Sung dynasty, ancient vessels were often discovered in the high lands and in ancient mounds. They became so numerous that the discovery of new vessels no longer was considered as a strange or portentous matter. The number of scholars who could decipher the inscriptions constantly increased. The K'ao Ku T'u "Illustrated Examination of Antiquities" contains accounts of the vessels in the possession of collectors of the Sung dynasty. The names of more than thirty collectors are given, together with a brief description of the vessels in their collections. Contrary to what has happened in the case of
[46]
BRONZES AND JADES
BRONZE VESSEL, HAN DYNASTY. COLLECTION OF PAUL HO, PEKING
f47]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
other art objects, it has thus transpired that there has been a gradual increase in the number of recognized examples of vessels belonging to the San Tai period. Excavations in building new houses or temples, changes in the face of the country due to floods or the drying-up of river beds, and the construction of railways in recent years have been responsible for many new finds, which have added much information to what was previously known.
As to the shapes of ancient bronzes there is a great variety. The "Mirror of Antiquities of the Imperial Studio" Hsi Ctiing Ku Chien gives seventy-one shapes, to which are appended various early coins. In addition to bronze vessels, this list includes bells, drums, daggers, crossbows, chariot ornaments, surveying instruments, staffheads, spoons, mirrors, and other small articles. The number of the most important shapes of bronze vessels is interesting. There are 233 ting or tripods. A ting is a tripod or caldron, usually with three feet and two ears, though occasionally vessels with four feet are also included in this class. It was used to hold food offered in sacrificial ceremonies. The name is also used in a generic sense and is associated with chung, bells, in the phrase chung fing, which means simply ancient bronze vessels. Of vases p'ing
[48]
BRONZES AND JADES
BRONZE WINE VESSEL, CHOW DYNASTY. DECORATION INLAID WITH GOLD AND SILVER
[49]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
and hu there are 173, and these were used as wine receptacles. Wine-jars, tsun, number 148. Goblets, ku, include 116 specimens and cups, chih, 42. There are 95 yu or wine-jars with handles, 17 lei or wine-jars, 67 /, 49 tun, and 31 jy/, all of which are wine receptacles of differing shapes. There are also 17 p'an or platters, and 40 lavers, hsi, for sacrificial ablutions. Besides these vessels, there are 46 bells, chung, 14 drums, ku, and 93 mirrors, chien, included among the bronze articles of antiquity.
As these vessels were all intended for sacrificial uses, the shapes are dignified and severe, but all have grace of form and purity of line. Bushell considers that the majority of these vessels "are heavy, barbaric, and of ill-balanced proportions and betray the absence of the free spirit and love of line which inspired the hand of the ancient Greek modeler in bronze." This is certainly true of many vessels and perhaps of the majority of those which have come down to the present time. The reason is that the large demand for these vessels in ancient times on the part of rulers and families not only must have employed the talents of all the available artists, but also must have attracted great numbers of ordinary artisans who were devoid of artistic spirit. However, in all shapes there may be selected, out of the whole
[50]
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number, artistic specimens which compare favorably with the best Grecian ones in modeling, casting, and decoration. Every ancient bronze vessel is of archeological interest, though it may be devoid of artistic qualities; but there are enough examples of graceful forms to justify the statement that the ancient Chinese exhibited an excellent plastic sense. There are a decisiveness and a precision in their best bronze vessels which exhibit the truest understanding on the part of the artist of the material which he used. He fully understood that the demands of metal are different from those of wood or marble.
The decorations varied somewhat, according to the period in which they were produced. The earliest vessels have but little decoration, i.e., more of the surface is left plain than is covered with ornamentation. Such decoration as there is set the model for the bronzes of the rest of the period. It is a combination of geometric and animal motives. The geometric lines are developed into rectangular scrolls on the borders and in panels. These scrolls are called lei wen, " thunder pattern," and yun wen, "cloud pattern." With these are intermixed undeveloped animal forms, such as k'uei wen or "pinniped pattern," p'ank'uei wen or "coiled pinniped pattern," clian wen or "cicada pattern." These partially developed
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
animal forms, as found in scrolls, are often in pairs on opposite sides of a central design in relief consisting of an ox-head or, as often, of a circle of geometric lines. In the scrolls are found fearsome ogre heads fao-fieh. The fao-fieh comprises a variety of forms, of which the only essential element seems to be the large protruding eyes, which blend with the other lines of scroll patterns. There are also tiger heads, elephant heads, goat heads. The dragon is chiefly in an undeveloped form throughout the whole period of the San Tai. There are diapers, in the center of which are nipples. This is the only instance in ancient Chinese art where the motive seems to have been drawn from the body, and I am not sure that the Sung dynasty scholars were correct in interpreting this round, bulging shape as intended to represent a nipple. Many of the geometric forms are said to have symbolic meanings, but it is difficult to decide whether the symbolism is an interpretation of the forms or the forms an outgrowth of existing conceptions. At any rate, the artists exhibited a high degree of imagination in their depictions and avoided the pitfall of attempting to represent animal forms by crude designs.
The characters used in inscriptions may be divided into three classes. There are the early ideographs in the style of hieroglyphics, such as
[5*1
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are found on vessels of the Shang dynasty. Along with this class, there developed the fine spiral writing which is found on bone relics of this or an earlier period. The second class of writing is that found in the Chow dynasty, when the ideographs began to lose their pictorial character and assumed the square, regular forms. The number of ideographs also greatly increased, keeping pace with the greater complexity of daily life. Many of the inscriptions of this period show beautiful forms of characters which are still written in practically the same way but without so many flourishes. The Chow style of writing is reputed to have been systematized by Shih Chou into the style of the great seal characters ta chuan. This style is the counterpart of that used in illuminated texts in Europe during the Middle Ages. The third style is that of the Han dynasty, when the number of ideographs had increased to such an extent as made the writing of books possible. This style of writing has been in continuous use, with some modifications and additions, down to the present time. These cast and incised inscriptions are sometimes records of noble deeds or of some historical facts; again, they are dedications from sons to fathers or glorification of the donor's own deeds; others record penitence and resolutions for a better life. They often confirm historical
[53]
TWO BRONZE VESSELS OF THE CH'I HOU SET. COLLECTION OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF NEW YORK
BRONZES AND JADES
statements or shed new light upon otherwise obscure passages. The language used is so terse that it is not easy to interpret the meaning, if, indeed, at all times one can be sure of the correct identification of the ideographs. They vary in length from one to 497 characters, which is the number on the Mao-kung ting as interpreted by Wu Shih-fen in his Chun Ku Lu. This ting (tripod) is in the collection of Tuan Fang and on account of the length of its inscription is one of the best-known pieces in China.
Other noted pieces are the Wu-chuan ting in the temple on Silver Island (Chiao Shan), near Chinkiang, concerning which many learned books have been written. Another is the K'o ting, of which there were three specimens of different sizes, one belonging originally to the Ting family, of Weihsien, and sold to Tuan Fang, one belonging to P'an Tsu-yin, and one in the University Museum, Philadelphia. A famous set is that of the Ch'i Hou. Two lei (wine-jars) of this set were in the possession of Wu Yiin, and from them he took his sobriquet of "Liang Lei Hsien." He also wrote, in 1872, a valuable book describing them. Four vessels of this famous set are in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Ch'i Hou means "Marquis of Ch'i" and refers to Huan Kung (B.C. 684642). With the aid of Kuan Chung, he succeeded
[55]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
TWO BRONZE VESSELS OF THE CH'I HOU SET. COLLECTION OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM, NEW YORK
[56]
BRONZES AND JADES
to the rulership of Ch'i and managed the affairs of the kingdom with great wisdom. The inscriptions on these vessels tell of these events. Another well-known wine-vessel is the Kung Fu Keng Yu in the Cleveland Museum. The name means that it is a jar shaped like a bow and dedicated to father Keng. The handle of this jar is like a bow, having both ends decorated with animal heads. It was formerly in the collection of Liu, of Chu-ch'eng, Shan-tung, and is assigned to the Shang dynasty by Wu Shih-fen in his Chiin Ku Lu. These latter are only a few of many beautiful and important specimens which may be found in American museums and private collections. Japanese collectors have been most active in recent years, so that, outside of those in the Government Museum, Peking, many of the noblest .pieces may now be found in the Sumitomo and Fujita collections in Osaka or in the Nakura collection at Tokyo.
There were ten sacrificial vessels presented in 1771 by the emperor Ch'ien Lung to the temple built in honor of Confucius, during the Ming dynasty, at his birthplace in Ch'ii-fu, Shan-tung. These vessels are placed on a long rectangular table in front of a large statue of Confucius, which occupies the place taken by a tablet in other Confucian temples. The order in which they stand
[571
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
on the table, right to left as one enters the central doors and looks north toward the altar, is as follows :
Back row: tou, fu, i, tsun, tsun.
Front row: ting, yu, ko, tun, hsien.
ARRANGEMENT OF SACRIFICIAL VESSELS ON ALTAR OF CONFUCIAN TEMPLE, CH'U-FU, SHAN-TUNG PROVINCE
These ritual vessels comprise those used for meat offerings, food, and wine.
In 1901 there was dug up about ten miles from Pao Chi, Shen-si province, a bronze table, tsa chin, with accompanying vessels. They passed into the possession of Tuan Fang. They are sacrificial wine-vessels and number eleven in all. There are one tsun (wine-vase), two yu (wine-jars with handles), one ho (wine-pot with handle and spout), one chia (large wine-cup), two tsioh (liba-
[58]
BRONZES AND JADES
tion cups), three chih (cups), and one ku (goblet). These vessels and the table form the most interesting discovery in recent times of bronzes having an artistic interest. Their elaborate decoration shows good taste, but the casting is not so delicate as that of some other existing specimens.
Two examples of gilded bronzes of the Chow dynasty have also been discovered in recent years. Both are tsioh (libation cups) and have answered to the description of literary records, which state that vessels made of the finest quality of bronze were later gilded with a cover of gold. The gold was beaten into gold-leaf and spread over the surface of the vessel, which was then gradually heated until the gold and bronze formed an amalgam. Both of these libation cups are beautiful in form and exquisite in workmanship. This process of gilding was afterward used during the period of the small contending states (A.D. 221-618) for a purpose directly opposite to the earlier one, viz., that of hiding blemishes in the casting. It is necessary to bear in mind this difference between early and later bronzes in the use of gilding.
Four examples of. bronze statuary were discovered in 1915 by a farmer named Chiang. While he was in the process of digging a pond for irrigating purposes, he ran across an ancient grave and near it found four figures buried deep
f59l
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
in the loess. These were a unicorn, a statue of Wei T'o, and two statues of heavenly kings, fien wang, who are also known as guardians of Buddha. The place where they were found is on the border of San-yuan hsien, a city lying about twenty-five miles northwest of Hsi-an fu, the capital of Shen-si province. This is recorded in the Geography of the T'ang dynasty as having been the burial place of Ching Tsung (A.D. 825-827), fourteenth emperor of the T'ang dynasty. As the emperor died in A.D. 827, this tomb was probably completed a few years later say about A.D. 830.
The unicorn appears to be earlier than this date and probably was cast during the later Han dynasty (second century A.D.) or during the revolutionary period of the Northern and Southern dynasties (fifth and sixth centuries A.D.) and removed to this site from some previous location. The bronze from which it was cast appears to be of the same quality as bronze vessels of the Han dynasty, which has led me to the belief that the figure was produced from bronze obtained by the melting down of early vessels. The original core over which this figure was cast remains inside. The framework is of reed grass closely packed and covered with core sand and clay. It was cast in a mould covered with wax. The chaplets used for separating the core from the mould are easily [60]
BRONZES AND JADES
seen. The dimensions of the unicorn are: from mouth to tail in straight line, 4V' height, 1'%". The second figure is that of Wei T'o or Veda, described by Eitel as a fabulous bodhisattva, the
BRONZE FIGURE OF UNICORN, HAN DYNASTY
first general in command of the Chatur Maharajas. The measurements of this figure are as follows: height, 4'6"; circumference at waist, 3'i"; height of pedestal, I'll". The other two figures are those of two heavenly kings or guardians of Buddha. Buddha is represented as having four guardians, Devaraja. The dimensions of [61]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
these two figures are : height, 2'6"; height of base, 8"; circumference at girdle, I'loJ": These three statues were probably cast at the time when the tomb was constructed.
In the casting of both vessels and statues, the cire perdue or waste-wax process was used. A model was constructed with a wax surface of suitable thickness. The outside mould was formed about this, the wax melted by heating, and the metal poured in. This gave precision to the edges of lines, not alone in decoration, but especially in ideographs. One of the unfailing tests of the genuineness of inscriptions is a careful microscopic examination of the edges of ideographs, to see whether or not they bear the marks of tools. If so, they have been incised at a later period and not cast in the wax mould with the rest of the vessel.
The proportions of copper and tin alloy used in the making of bronze objects have been carefully recorded in the sixth chapter, called K'ao Kung Chi, of the "Ritual of Chow" (Chow Li). This chapter is not part of the original work, but, though there has been much discussion as to whether it was added during the Han or the Ch'i dynasty (A.D. 479-501), its statements are undoubtedly reliable. Bells, tripods, vases, and measures contained one-sixth alloy, axes and [62]
BRONZE FIGURE OF WEI T'O, TANG DYNASTY
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
hatchets one-fifth, lances and spears one-fourth, two-edged swords and agricultural implements one-third, and mirrors one-half. These proportions are only those fixed for the imperial workshops, and we know from actual examples that there were many variations from them. Good workmen in the earliest periods sought to give a silvery, iridescent color resembling mercury to their best fabrications. There is one example of this kind in the Metropolitan Museum. It is a covered tripod decorated with pinniped pattern and unquestionably belongs to the Shang dynasty. It formerly belonged to the noted scholar and collector Shen Po-hsi.
The patina of ancient bronzes differs according to the way in which they have been preserved. Those that come from the tombs of early emperors or kings, which were solidly built and in which the bronzes were placed on stone pedestals, were not in contact with surrounding earth or water. The influence of the air caused such bronzes to take on bluish tints, which are characteristic of the most beautiful type of patina. Vessels that have been buried in dry or wet soil have a patina varying according to the chemical elements surrounding them. The malachite green shades of such specimens are very beautiful and resemble the rind of a melon, kua-p'i lu. Sometimes many
[64]
BRONZES AND JADES
colors are found on one vessel. Such are called five-colored, wu seh. The thickness of the patina was influenced by surrounding conditions and varies from sub-surface changes of color to thick scales. Patina is, in reality, a new chemical composition and can rarely be separated from the original bronze, except in the case of gilded or lacquered objects.
This sketch of ancient bronzes has been so brief and incomplete that there has been no discussion of bronze military weapons, chariot and house decorations, surveying instruments, coins, or other objects for which we know this metal was used. Neither has there been space to discuss the many reproductions and imitations of the T'ang, Sung, and Yuan dynasties.
JADES
Jade is associated with bronze, not only as to similarity of use in ancient times, but also as to design and form. Jade carvings find their prototypes in bronze vessels and implements. Just as bronze vessels were sufficient to indicate the rank oftheir owner, and as they were used for ceremonial purposes, so also was jade used as an expression of the artistic experiences of an age controlled by considerations of rank and ceremony. As a symbol of the power of a rjiler or a means of
[65]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
recording his commands, as a warrant of office among officials, in semi-official or non-official religious worship, and.Jbr decorative purposes, jade was wrought into various shapes by skilled lapidaries. (These have been fully described by Laufer in his monumental work on jade.) It did not lend itself so readily to decorative designs as bronze, but it possessed mor^natural beautyy In ancient China it was considered the most precious stone, not only on account of its variety of color., but also for its delicacy of texture.
Using the term "jade" as inclusive of jadeite and nephrite, there is a great variety of coloration; the beauty of some of the colors is enhanced by the semi-transparency of the stone. There is black jade, in which the coloration is the result of the presence of large quantities of chromic iron; there is also pure, clear, white jade, which is compared to mutton fat. Between these extremes of color are found jades with red and brown veins caused by the action of iron peroxide. There are yellow jades in which the yellow is tinged with green, also gray jades with white or brown interlacings. The most common variety is green jade, in which color all shades may be found. This infinite variation of color makes its convincing appeal to the side of human nature which can be reached through vision.
[66]
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Jade, however, has another and more subtle appeal. It is to the delicate sense of touch. Just as painting is appreciated by sight and music by
JADE TUBE, HAN DYNASTY
DETAIL OF DECORATION
hearing, so jade offers to its devotee the purest delights of the artistic sensation of touch. It^is described as iun. which me^ns soft, like morning
dew or gentle rain; it.alo.
elegant, glossy
surface. It is a quality which corresponds to [67]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
harmony in sound or to grace in movement. It is also defined as wen, i.e., warm and smooth, like the flesh of a child; again as chen mi, fine and close, like the texture of a delicate silk fabric. I venture
JADE CARVING OF DANCING WOMAN, CHOW DYNASTY
to claim that this artistic appreciation of a sensitive touch is peculiar to the Chinese race and that, even among them it has been confined in its expression to this one medium of jade. Those who enjoy the beauty of form into which jade has been carved or its wonderful colorations have missed a good share of artistic enjoyment and appreciation if they have not also learned the delights of jade [68]
BRONZES AND JADES
to a sensitive touch. This is a form of artistic feeling new to occidental consciousness, but it cannot fail of recognition, solely for the reason that it has never been applied to any of our art products. It is this peculiar quality of jade which always has been most prized in China.
JADE AMULET, HAN DYNASTY
Many of the pieces of ancient jade which have survived to our times are not decorated or inscribed. Those that are decorated have the same geometric and animal forms as are found on bronzes, and there is little new in artistic motives that can be learned from them. Perhaps the most characteristic decorative motives are taken from the starry firmament the Great Dipper, groups of stars, and bands of united stars, lien chu. One can readily dismiss from consideration the
[69]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
wonderful specimens portrayed in the Ku Yu Tu P'u and can assign them to the fertility of imaginative reproduction of the Sung artists, who furnished drawings for the lapidaries of their time. The fact that no such specimens have survived and that this book has never been quoted by later writers as an authority is sufficient to exclude consideration of types peculiar to it. Wu Ta-ch'eng
JADE DAGGER, HAN DYNASTY
says of this book that "it is vague, confused, and inaccurate." The only safe method of procedure is to follow the method of Wu Ta-ch'eng in Ku Yii K'aOy as adopted by Laufer. This is to work from existing specimens under the guidance of literary records. The sources of information in literature are fewer than in the case of bronzes, but are sufficient to serve as guides along true lines of investigation.
There are three great periods in which jade was especially prized and when jade objects were faEricate'd, viz., the San Tai and the Han (down [70]
JADE DISK ON STAND, HAN DYNASTY
JADE DISK-TABLET, HAN DYNASTY
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
to^A.p. 22 1 Vthe Tang-Sung (A.D. 618-1277), and pre-eminently the Ch'ien Lung period (A.D. 17361726].. Reference to ancient jade means jade belonging to the dynasties precedent to A.D. 221, and reference to modern jades means those of the Ch'ien Lung or later periods. Some of the most beautiful specimens which are now known belong to the T'ang-Sung period, when jade was held in high esteem by the wealthy, influential classes and when artists of known repute furnished proofs for lapidaries, as they did for makers of ink and of bronze mirrors. Such proofs were called p'u, were painted on silk or paper, and may still be occasionally seen in collections.
An interesting example of ancient jade is the large scepter, fa kuei. It was the symbol of imperial sovereignty. It was carried by an emperor in his girdle, where it was attached by cords passing through the circular holes in the scepter. When he granted formal audiences, he held it in his right hand upright to the shoulder, where it rested comfortably on account of the smoothingoff of the upper edge near the end. This tablet is one of three that were taken, in 1902, from the grave of Shao Kung, who is said to have died in B.C. 1053. While Tuan Fang was governor of Shen-si province, he ordered the repairing of this grave, but in the process the masonry collapsed
JADE TABLET, TA KUEI, CHOW DYNASTY
[73]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
and these scepters were found. One remains in the possession of Tuan Fang's family, one belongs to Feng Kung-tu, of Peking, and the third is now in an American collection. It is not decorated or inscribed. The color is a combination of brown, yellow, and dark shades. Shao Kung was the link between the Shang and Chow dynasties, so that this is one of the earliest authenticated specimens of jade. A jade scepter with a phoenix on one side and a man's head on the other is owned by Huang Chung-hui and is by him attributed to the emperor Shao Hao (B.C. 2598-2514). Its form is that of the hsin kuei, which were carried by officers of the rank of marquis during audiences. It is a beautiful specimen, but there seems no good reason for assigning this piece to any special period, although I have no doubt that such work was done in very remote antiquity in China.
Other interesting examples are those of the figure of a lady from the collection of Wang I-jung and by him attributed to the Chow dynasty, of a man's face used as a am-nament, of flat bells, of seals, and of jspear heads. The~b!ecoration of a largtTHisk, pi t is characteristic of the good work of ancient jade. The disk has a diameter of 8 3 ig- inches and a bore of 2-J- inches. It has concentric, wide bands around the bore and outer
[74]
BRONZES AND JADES
rim, both richly decorated with conventional scrolls. The outer scroll is of square geometric designs and the inner of interlacing lines. Two concentric bands divide the flat surface of the disk midway between the inner and outer bands. This division allows different decoration on the inner and outer halves of the disk. The outer half is a decoration of intertwining dragons, of which there are pairs. Each pair is separated from the adjoining one by a circular disk representing the sun. The decoration of the inner half is of cloud pattern scroll, yun wen. The reverse side of the disk has concentric bands around the bore and outer rim decorated in the same style as on the obverse. The flat surface, however, is not divided into inner and outer halves, but is covered with a bold design of k'uei lung or undeveloped dragon.
A curious example of the symbolism of the San Tai period is the fantastic creature made to serve as the neck of a violin, yao ctiin. The head of the creature is divided into four lobes as a reminder of the four classes of ancient music, viz., that which resembles the noise of a deer, the call of the fabulous beast, tsou yu> the beating of sandal-wood, and the voice of Wen Wang. There are perforations for five strings. The squatting posture makes possible the holding of this neck
[751
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
in the hand so as to be comfortable and easy. More usual is the symbolism by which a round disk, pi, was used in the worship of earth, and other shapes for the four points of the compass.
JADE CUP ON STAND, SUNG DYNASTY
Jade was also the most precious gift to the dead. It was used in preparing the body for burial by providing a cover for the eyelids and mouth and a stopper for the nose and ears. It was also used
[76]
BRONZES AND JADES
as weights for holding the burial clothes in place, and for this purpose small holes were bored in the
DETAIL OF ONE SECTION OF DECORATION ON JADE CUP ILLUSTRATED ON PAGE 76
reverse side through which the jade objects could be sewed on. For these purposes, jade of white color was preferred.
[77]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
The uses of modern jades have been described by^Bushell in a translation from a Chinese writer: yAmong the large_things carved jnjade, we have C all kinds of_orname" tal vasgs_ar^H_rprepfarles for flowers, large round dishes for fruit, widemouthed bowls, and cisterns; /among smaller objects, pendants for the girdle, hairpins, and rings. /For the banquet table there are bowls, cups, and ewers for wine; as congratulatory gifts, a variety of round medallions and oblong talismans with inscriptions. Beakers and vases are provided, to be frequently replenished at wineparties, a wine-pot with its prescribed set of three cups for bridal ceremonies. There is a statuette of the Buddha of long life to pray to for length of days, a screen carved with the eight immortal genii for Taoist worship. Ju-i scepters and fretwork mirror-stands are highly valued for betrothal gifts; hairpins, ear-rings, studs for the forehead, and bracelets for personal adornment. For the scholar's study the set of three, tripod, vase, and box, is at hand for burning incense; for more luxurious halls sculptured flowers of jade and jewels in jade pots are arranged in pairs, displaying flowers appropriate to the current season of the year. Combs of jade are used to dress the black tresses of beauty at dawn, pillows of jade for the divan, to snatch
BRONZES AND JADES
"a dream of elegance at noon. Rests for the writer's wrist lie beside the ink pallet, weights are made for the tongue of the dead laid out for the funeral. Rouge-pots and powder-boxes provide the damsel with the bloom of the peach,
REVERSE OBVERSE
JADE BELL, SUNG DYNASTY
brush-pots and ink-rests hold the weapons of the scholar in his window. The eight precious emblems of good fortune the wheel of the law, conch-shell, umbrella, canopy, lotus-flower, jar, pair of fish, and endless knot are ranged on the altar of the Buddhist shrine; pomegranates bursting open to display the seeds, sacred peaches, and Buddha's hand citrons appear as symbols of the three all-prayed-for abundances
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
JADE DRAGON CARVING, SUNG DYNASTY
JADE PENDANT, HAN DYNASTY [80]
BRONZES AND JADES
"of sons, of years, of happiness. Linked chains of jade are tokens of lasting friendship, jade seals attest the authenticity of important documents. There are beads for the rosary, to number the invocations of Buddha, paper-weights for the writing table of the scholar, tassel ornaments for the fan screen hiding the face of the coquette, and keyless locks of jade for clasping round the necks of children. Among other things may be mentioned mortars and pestles for pounding drugs, thumb-rings for protecting the hand of the archer from the recoil of the bowstring, jade mouthpieces for the pipes of tobacco smokers, and jade chopsticks for gourmands."
The beauty of good specimens of jade, especially of ancient jade, is not only appreciated by the eye, j but also, as has been pointed out, by the sense of touch. It is unique in making this double appeal to the aesthetic taste. It may readily be granted that it is not a branch of art that can become popular with a large number of people. Its subtlety restricts its enjoyment to the few, but to them it provides, in every sense, the refinement of artistic feeling.
[8:
Ill
STONES AND CERAMICS
STONES
The paucity of ancient stone monuments cannot be accounted for by the difficulty of working in this hard material nor by any lack of suitable varieties of stone in the districts where civilization flourished. Jade is harder than stone, and it must also have been very scarce; yet it was fabricated into artistic shapes at the very dawn of Chinese life. One reason for the neglect of the use of stone is doubtless that its products did not fit into the ancient Chinese scheme of life, i.e., ceremonial vessels could not be fashioned from it with such perfect technique as from bronze; neither was there any place for stone in divination. Furthermore, stone is coarse of grain and cold. It breathes no warmth of feeling except in the hands of the greatest artists, and in China these all preferred to work in bronze and jade. Such materials did not require great muscular strength in the manipulation of tools and did not make it impossible for artists to turn their hands to the more delicate process of plying the stylus or writing-brush. From the earliest times, the
STONES AND CERAMICS
I
TABLET OF BUDDHA PREACHING
[83]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
ability to write ideographs in an artistic fashion has been the beau-ideal of cultured Chinese, and anything which interfered with writing was to be strictly avoided. This calligraphy has required a careful development of muscular delicacy rather than strength, and artists have been unwilling to sacrifice the arm-power necessary for writing to that needed in sculpture. Another reason is that stone sculpture where it has chiefly flourished has devoted itself to human subjects, and in Chinese philosophy man stands at the end in the trinity of heaven, earth, and man. It was more important, in the opinion of the Chinese, that they should discover the will of Heaven and placate the powers of Earth through ceremony and divination than that they should busy themselves with perpetuating the figures of their fellow human beings.
The earliest stone remains, k'o shih, concern a student of art only to the extent of the beauty of the ideographs in the inscriptions; otherwise they are devoid of decoration or beauty of shape. Such early tablets as the Shang Shu or T'ai Shan are of profound interest to the student of epigraphy, for they form an essential link between the "tortoise-shell cracks and birds' tracks" writing found in inscriptions on bronze vessels or on oracular bones and the written characters of literature;
[8 4 ]
STONES AND CERAMICS
but their crudity makes it possible to pass them over in a study of the development of art in China, without making any break in continuity and without neglect of any influence which should be noted in later periods. Epigraphy is a fascinating study among Chinese savants. Tuan Fang made a wonderful collection of stones, but it was wholly intended as an aid in the decipherment and interpretation of ancient inscriptions. I have a complete set of rubbings of his best specimens, but have found in them no aid to artistic studies. The contents of this collection may be found in the publication T'ao Chat Chi Shih Lu. Fortunately, the process of making paper rubbings from monuments is coeval with the making of books and manuscripts. This has perpetuated these records. The method of making rubbings at the present time probably does not differ much from the original process. It is as follows: Thin white paper made of bamboo pulp is wetted with a solution of seaweed and then spread over the face of the object, where it is forced into all depressions by the use of a stiff brush. After the paper dries, it is inked, and the desired impression is obtained. Such rubbings have the great advantage of accuracy, as well as of convenience of transmission. Rubbings of all the ancient stone tablets of China have been made.
[85]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
These have been collected into books, commencing with the Sung dynasty, during which period Ou-Yang Hsiu and Hung Kua were pioneers in examining and commenting upon these records. Whenever a new tablet has been discovered, it has been carefully noted in revisions of early books or by later publications. It can be said with accuracy that there is in China practically no stone monument of artistic or literary importance of which one cannot obtain information in books that have been written on this general subject. Western students have been slow to avail themselves of the information contained in these scholarly books. The first to lead the way in this, as in so many other directions, was Bushell, who read a paper before the Oriental Congress assembled in Berlin in 1881 on "Inscriptions from the Tombs of the Wu Family, Located at Tzu-yiin Mountain, 28 //' South of Chia-hsiang, Shan-tung Province." Chavannes followed up this work by making two extended tours in China in the investigation of monuments. After his first journey, he published La sculpture sur pierre en Chine au temps des deux dynasties Han (Paris, 1893) and, after the second, his monumental illustrated Mission archeologique dans la Chine septentrionale. In both of these books Chavannes has made large use of rubbings, [86]
STONES AND CERAMICS
and most of his illustrations are photographs of them.
The earliest stone shaped into the form of a tablet, pet, is at Pao-ch'eng, Shen-si province, and is dated A.D. 63, the sixth year of the famous emperor Ming Ti, who introduced Buddhism into China. This tablet commemorates in an inscription the completion of a section of the Great Wall, built to check the ravages of the Hsiung-nu. Another early stone is found at Hsin-tu, Szech'uan province, and is dated A.D. 105. There are also five stones on the famous Sung Mountain in Teng-feng, Ho-nan province, which I have had no opportunity to examine either by visiting the site or by seeing rubbings. The earliest stone with decorative design is usually considered to be the burial stone of Wen Shu-yang at Yii-t'ai, Shan-tung province. It is dated A.D. 144, the first year of the emperor Chien K'ang. The design is that of two figures squatting on their knees and sitting tete-a-tete. Both wear the high official head-gear and wide-flowing robes, and both have their arms folded within their spacious sleeves. Over their heads auspiciously hovers a bird in flight. To the left is an inscription in six lines. Around the outside of the design and inscription is a series of three squares resembling frames. On account of this tablet having
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
a design of human figures, it belongs to the class of hua hsiang, i.e., tablets with figures, as distinguished from pei, tablets.
il^.-,.^- - . - - .- - ' . *
WEN SHU-YANG STONE, A.D. 144
There is a similar stone, of which I obtained a rubbing, at T'ai-an fu, but the location of which I have not been able to learn definitely, though [88]
STONES AND CERAMICS
it is said to have come from Chia-hsiang, Shantung province. It has figures similar in dress and position of body to those of the Wen Shuyang stone, but the design is much more elaborate. It is a bout between two mounted knights, with musicians on either side in the lowest panel
\- r
L 1
EHffli *.:." r ; A - '
;* i~ *r xl \ 1 < ?%-*
FUNERARY-CHAMBER DECORATION, SECOND CENTURY
and gymnastic performances in the panel above. The architectural designs of the central and two side pavilions correspond with the detailed description found in literary records. On the roof of the main pavilion, a male and a female phoenix have alighted from opposite directions and are being welcomed by an attendant. There are also several pairs of swallows. This stone, together with the Wen Shu-yang stone, doubtless
[89]
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
represents the type of work which was later copied at Lo-yang in the Lung Men grottoes, when Buddhistic scenes came to replace those taken from history or tradition. As examples of this earlier type these stones are of great importance.
A paper published in the Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Shanghai, 1917, by Victor Segalen, assigns the Feng pillars at Ch'ii-hsien, Sze-ch'uan province, to the year A.D. 121. He does not state on what authority this date has been chosen, and I have not been able to find any date on the rubbings of the stone. Fang Pei Lu classifies it among undated stones, but assigns it to the Han period. It is a splendid specimen of early work. It has a rectangular base. This base supports a shaft crowned with a corbel over which is a roof. The shaft is inscribed with ideographs beautifully written and giving the titles of the man Feng, at the entrance to whose grave this pillar was erected. Such cemetery pillars are called shen tao ch'iieh, "pillars of the spirit's pathway." At the base of the shaft is a strange design, resembling a crab spider, which is not mentioned by Segalen and the use of which is peculiar to this one tablet, as far as is known to me.
The best-known of the early stones are those of the Wu Liang Tz'u at Chia-hsiang, Shan-tung
[90]
FENG STONE PILLARS, A.D. 121, CH'UHSIEN, SZE-CH'UAN PROVINCE
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
province. About ten miles south of the city of Chia-hsiang, at the foot of the Tzu-yiin Mountain, funerary chambers were erected by the Wu family. There are inscriptions in honor of various members of the family, four of which have been preserved, viz., those of Wu K'ai-ming, who died A.D. 148, of his brother, Wu Liang (died A.D. 151), and of the two sons of Wu K'ai-ming,
CONFUCIUS MEETING LAOTSE (FROM WU LIANG TZ'U)
Wu Pan (died A.D. 145) and Wu Jung, who died A.D. 167. Wu Pan, whose death occurred before the others, at the early age of twentyfive had already been Lieutenant-Governor of Tun-huang, now in Kan-su province, the place at which Stein discovered his stone house. Wu Jung was an officer in the palace at Lo-yang (Ho-nan fu). Both of these brothers, therefore, had come in contact with the influences of the western part of their country. It would be interesting to know if those who erected the earlier tablet of Wen Shu-yang had also traveled in western China, for in that case it would be easy to come
STONES AND CERAMICS
to the conclusion that stone monuments originated in the Shu district, which comprised all of western China. This is suggested by Segalen, but no such theory has been advanced by any Chinese critic, and it is safer to assert as a working hypothesis that the imperial conquests of the Ts'in and Han dynasties allowed such freedom of intercommunication as to cause simultaneous development of new methods.
These funerary chambers of the Wu family, with their two pillars of approach, have been fully described, in their minutest details, by Chinese authors. Rubbings of them have been taken, of which Chavannes has given a complete photographic reproduction in his Mission archeologique. There were an anterior and a posterior chamber, also one to the right and another to the left, thus forming the usual arrangement of a Chinese residence around a rectangular courtyard. Ancient legendary scenes were represented, commencing with Fu Hsi and extending down through the period of the Five Emperors. These were succeeded chronologically by historical and classical scenes, such as Confucius meeting Laotse, which in their turn were followed by illustrations of domestic life in the Wu family. These pictographs are executed in low relief. They are full of life and show a good degree of artistic taste.
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They exhibit two conventions which are common to the metopes and friezes of Greece. The heads of the persons portrayed are kept as far as possible on the same level, whether they are seated in a chariot, are walking, or are on horseback. Another convention is the adaptation of the size of the figure to the relative importance of the person represented. A servant is always smaller in size than his master, an animal smaller in proportion than a human being. This is the artist's tribute to the idealist spirit which placed moral considerations on a higher plane than visible effects. The technique of these tablets is not equal to that found on similar work of earlier origin in Greece, but rivals it in the vigor of life-movement and in harmony of conception. It is worthy of note that the name of the sculptor, Li Ti-mao, is inscribed on one of the pillars. As a rule, nothing is known of the names of sculptors, and no mention is made of them on their works. There are other remains in Shan-tung notably on Hsiao-t'ang Mountain in Fei-ch'eng which are carved in the same style of work as that found in the Wu family chambers.
Two memorial pillars erected in honor of Shen at Ch'u-hsien, Sze-ch'uan, belong to the Han dynasty and probably to the second century A.D. One has ah inscription of four ideographs and
[94]
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[95]
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the other of seven, over which, in both, cases, is a fine figure of a phoenix. These are the noblest examples of early Chinese sculpture. The design is strong, and the figures are full of nervous energy, especially in the long neck. The extended wings also add life to the figures. These birds compare favorably with the sculptural designs of any country and make these pillars one of the great art treasures of China.
Another stone of great importance is located at Ch'en hsien, Kan-su province. It bears no date, but a short distance behind it is another stone which refers to Li Hsi and which is dated A.D. 171, fourth year of Chien Ning. This is the earliest attempt to represent landscape on stone. At the top of the stone to the right there is a deer and to the left a dragon. At the bottom are two trees joined together by a branch growing into both of them. At the center of this branch a shoot springs up. To the right is a pool of water, by the side of which are two trees. Under the trees to the left stands a man with arm extended, as if elevating some votive offering. As the inscription praises the virtue of Li Hsi, who was a local official, the design of the engraving is to represent the excellent crops, chia ho, which had been vouchsafed to the district during his incumbency. The dragon represents the benevo-
[96]
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LI HSI STONE, A.D. 171
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lent rain which fills the pools, and the deer speaks of the blessing of length of days. The name of the tablet is "Five Omens of the Frog Pool" Ming ctiih wu jui.
There are two other stones of the Han dynasty which deserve especial attention. One is a slab which was over the portal of a funerary chamber
K_
^li^*3f
*-~' hJ *
STONE OF FUNERARY CHAMBER, SECOND CENTURY
erected in honor of the wife of a lieutenantgovernor of a southwestern frontier district. It has a fine figure of a recumbent deer with spreading antlers. The other is located near Yang-chow at Pao-ying, on the Grand Canal, whither it was removed from Chiang-tu in 1830 by the descendants of Wang, who discovered the stone in 1785. It has three panels, the upper being the figure of a phoenix, the lower being the figure of a warrior rushing into combat with a shield in his left hand,
[98]
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which is thrust out in front of him, and an unsheathed sword in his right hand. These examples of stone sculpture are all of the second century A.D., and they are the earliest known to Chinese archeologists; but Segalen claims to have discovered a figure at the grave of Ho Ch'ii-ping dated B.C. 117. Greater details of this discovery are needed before this date can be accepted.
The epoch of the Three Kingdoms, which succeeded the Han dynasty, has left a few inscribed tablets, but none of them is decorated. During the period of .division between the North and South (A.D. 420-907), the northern frontier tribes became increasingly troublesome. The stirring events of those days center around the raids of the Mu-yung and To-ba tribes (the two divisions of the original tribe Hsien-pi) and the deeds of the two generals, Fu Chien (A.D. 337-384) and Wang Meng (A.D. 32.5-375). After the principality of Yen (modern Chih-li) had been annexed to Tsin, General Fu Chien brought 40,000 Turkic families and settled them in the neighborhood of his capital at P'ing Ch'eng (modern Ta-t'ung fu). It was without doubt these families which brought the Gandhara motives eastward and produced the statuary in the P'ing Ch'eng grottoes at Ta-t'ung fu, which Chavannes has named from the adjacent village, Yiin-kang.
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This crude, inartistic, unspiritual statuary has never called for more than a passing notice by Chinese critics, for in addition to its lack of aesthetic appeal it has been considered as unChinese. It is in a class by itself and stands apart from the main current of the evolution of art in China. The chief reason for ruling this sculpture out of the class of Chinese productions is its entire lack of appreciation of the culture of China, shown in its neglect of any literary inscription. This clearly labels it as the work of men who were not Chinese in education or culture. Full details of these grottoes may be found in Chavannes' Mission archeologique.
The Northern Wei dynasty made its capital at P'ing-ch'eng until the reign of Hsiao Wen Ti, the son of Toba Hung, when it was removed to Lo-yang, in Ho-nan, which had been the capital during the Later Han dynasty. Hsiao Wen Ti was a man of refinement and a good scholar. He was an ardent disciple of Confucius, on whom he conferred an honorific title. Not long after his arrival at his new capital, he caused a statue to be erected in honor of an old man of Lo-yang. This was in A.D. 493, and from that date onward Lo-yang became the chief influence in the erection of stone statues and bas-reliefs in the grottoes on the hillsides of northwestern Ho-nan. The in[100]
SHE YANG STONE, SECOND CENTURY
[101]
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fluence of the culture of the new capital may be seen in the contrast of the quality of sculpture in the vicinity of Lo-yang with the unfinished work of the Yiin-kang grottoes near the former capital. In Lo-yang the old classical influences of China, which centered here during the Han dynasty and retained their original strength, exerted their converting power over the sculpture which the Buddhists imported from Gandhara through P'ing Ch'eng. Literary inscriptions were attached to stone reliefs, as was the custom in the Han dynasty, and, though the subjects were exclusively Buddhistic, they were treated in refined taste and with due regard for Chinese tradition.
The first site chosen for the glorification of Buddhism had been long famous in history. I Ch'iieh, about ten miles south of Lo-yang, is the opening in the hills through which the I River flows to join the Lo before it empties into the Yellow River. Precipitous hills of CambroOrdovician limestone are on both sides of the narrow valley, and these became known as the pillars of I, / Ctiueh. It was known in the "Spring and Autumn Annals" as Chow Ch'iieh Sai and was associated with the legendary exploits of the Great Yii in his conservancy of the waters of the empire. It had also been the scene of many important military engagements. The rocky hill [I02l
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on the left bank has a water-worn fissure about ten feet wide, which came to be known as "The Gate of the Dragon," Lung Men, and this is now the popular local name of the whole place. Lung Men has been widely exploited, and from its
VIEW OF LUNG MEN
hillside many of the stone figures now known in western countries have come.
The stone sculpture of this district, which was commenced in an artistically orthodox manner by Hsiao Wen Ti in his erection of a heroic statue, flourished with a new motive during the reign of his son Hsiian Wu Ti, who came to the throne as an infant. This emperor was surrounded by courtiers devoted to Buddhism, and during his reign there are said to have been erected more than
[103]
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13,000 temples. The title of his reign was changed three times. It was first Ching Ming (500-504), then Cheng Shih (504-508), Yung P'ing (508-512), and iinally Yen Ch'ang (512-516). The earliest image, tsao hsiang, at Lung Men bears the date A.D. 502 the third year of this emperor and from this time on through the remaining years of his reign images were produced in great numbers. They are more refined and are of higher grade than the earlier work at the Yiin-kang grottoes, for the influence of earlier Chinese sculpture, such as is found in the funerary chambers at Chia-hsiang, Shan-tung, was felt in court circles and softened the harshness of the earlier Buddhistic importation. It will be noticed that I have begun to use a new term image and in this I am following strictly the Chinese usage, which has steadily refused to allow these Buddhistic products to be dignified by the use of the ordinary term for reliefs of human figures, hua hsiang. The term used, tsao hsiang, means literally "erected according to designs" and serves to designate these figures as religious emblems and to differentiate them from other sculpture in stone or from bronzes. It may be allowed that this distinction is the result of the religious prejudices of Confucian scholars; but this prejudice must be taken into account in the art valuations [104]
INTERIOR OF SMALL GROTTO, LUNG MEN
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of a country where the literary class has been the custodian and defender of artistic treasures as well as' of classical traditions.
These tsao hsiang usually consist of a Buddhistic figure cut in bold relief in a niche out of solid rock, with the highest part of the relief just level with the edge of the niche. The location of the inscription depends upon the relation of the niche to adjoining ones, but, whenever possible, it is below the carving. The stone figures, which are known only by the descriptive name shih hsiang,, are cut in ronde-bosse out of the side of the rock, to which they are attached at the base or back. The mammoth figures are built up out of several pieces, which are cleverly joined together so as to be scarcely visible. These figures are carved on the same general lines as those at P'ing-ch'eng, which were after the models of Gandhara. They show better workmanship than the earlier ones, but in conception they remain emblems of a foreign faith. It may be argued that Buddhism has become so incorporated into the life of China that it should no longer be considered foreign, but this is not, and never has been, officially true. Confucianism and Taoism are indigenous, but Buddhism is exotic. There are many opportunities in American museums at the present time of studying superb examples of the stone figures of this [106]
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period and also a few specimens of the tsao hsiang. Everyone can judge for himself their aesthetic value, according to his own standards. It is sufficient for me to have called attention to the fact that whatever admiration they may elicit from westerners, whose traditions have been derived from Greece, these figures do not form an essential part of the art of China, nor up to the present time have they been sought for by the Japanese, whose art canons are in strict harmony with those of China.
Okakura, in his Ideals of the East, pages 78 and 92, has suggested that "a deeper and more informed study of the works of Gandhara itself will reveal a greater prominence of Chinese (than of so-called Greek) influence" and that the sculptures "follow, in the main, so far as we know, the Han dynasty style in features, drapery, and decoration." Considering the fact that the culmination of the art of the Gandhara school may be dated from A.D. 150, it is impossible to agree with Okakura's view, for we have no known Han stones as early as A.D. 50, and the funerary chambers of which he was evidently thinking when he spoke of "drapery and decoration" were built at the close of the second century. Without going into the question of the origin of the Gandhara school, it is quite clear that China borrowed from [108]
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STONE FIGURE OF AMITA BUDDHA [I0 9 ]
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Gandhara, through Turkic families, its models for the Yiin-kang grottoes. Lung Men later borrowed from Yiin-kang but improved upon the imported style on account of adherence to indigenous classical traditions.
The Lung Men grottoes commence, in point of time, on the south end of the western hill with the Lao Chun grotto, where the earliest stone carvings are found. The oldest image here is dated A.D. 503 fourth year of Ching Ming. It is in honor of the priest Fah Seng. The grotto next to this northward is the Lien Hua Kung, "Lotus Palace." Here is the immense figure of Amita Buddha with attendants on both sides. A tablet on the north side was erected by the empress Wu (A.D. 684-705), of the T'ang dynasty. The bases of immense stone pillars may be seen, showing that it was intended to cover this large opening with a roof and make it resemble a palace. Proceeding to the north, one comes to the fissure beyond which the two large characters / Ctiueh are carved on a huge stone on the hillside; then to the Wan Fu grotto, or the grotto of Myriad Buddhas, beyond which is the charming small grotto, Shuan Yao. The last is the Pin Yang grotto, which is really a series of three grottoes with temple buildings around the entrance. These grottoes contain three large figures, and the [no]
STONES AND CERAMICS
YUNG HSI TABLET, A.D. 534
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ceilings are richly decorated. Pin Yang is the first place which one visits when the approach is made from Lo-yang. It is the latest portion of the work, having been executed in the T'ang and Sung dynasties, and is the anticlimax to the nobler creations of the earlier periods found as the visitor sees the other grottoes farther on.
There is a remarkable incised tablet dated A.D. 534 third year of Yung Hsi in one of these grottoes. It is leaf-shaped and represents a hillside with Buddha seated near the top. Stretching out before him to the right and left are two rows, each of four kneeling attendants, back of whom is a drooping pine-tree. Farther down the hill are three figures standing under a palm-tree, with an attendant on either side. Three other attendants stand lower down. In front of this group are three vessels a laver, a ewer, and a water-jar. On either side are two other Buddhas seated with folded hands. At the side of the one to the right is an attendant and of the one to the left is an incense-burner holding a twisted coil of incense. Below are three rows of persons forming a procession. The two lower rows carry streamers. To the left and at the bottom of the tablet are hilltops and trees, so as to cast the view into perspective. The technique of this stone is perfect. Unfortunately, the photographic
[11*1
MAITREYA, A.D. 542
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reproduction does it scant justice. Another figure in an adjoining grotto is said in the inscription, dated A.D. 542, to be that of the Mi-leh Buddha, Maitreya. A lone figure is seated on a small couch under an overspreading tree, with a bell swung on a frame at his side and a water-
Two LI-CH'ENG TABLETS
vase in front of him. The design is in bold outlines, and the impression which it creates is striking. The face of this figure closely resembles the traditional representation of the first Chinese patriarch, Bodhidharma. He came to China by sea, arriving A.D. 520, and has been a favorite subject in Buddhistic painting, so that the type of his features is well known. It is probable that the artist who designed this stone had seen Bodhidharma and was so impressed by him that
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he gave Maitreya the features of the living missionary, Bodhidharma, just as the early Italian masters transferred the features of their contemporaries to the prophets and saints whom they portrayed.
TWO LI-CH'EXG TABLETS
There are other important stones of this period at neighboring places. At Kung hsien, where the Lo River joins the Yellow River, are grottoes on a hillside similar to those of Lung Men. Some notable stones are at Teng-feng hsien, Yung-yang hsien, and some distance eastward at Ch'ang-ko hsien. There are also four good stones at Lich'eng hsien on the eastern border of Shan-si province. One of these represents a funeral procession with four barbaric figures, having immense
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noses, leading the way. The two figures, one in front of the cart and one following it, are of refined Chinese type. The other three stones have figures resembling those found in the paintings of Ku K'ai-chih. The mountain over which different types of animals wander is exactly similar to that found in Ku's scroll belonging to the British Museum. These Li-ch'eng stones evidence a good quality of work. They do not have Buddhistic motives and show the persistence of orthodox teachings, which did not hesitate, even in the midst of powerful Buddhistic surroundings, to assert an earlier tradition.
Stone has been used also as a means of perpetuating pictures by noted artists. Several paintings by Wu Tao-tzu have been cut in stone. There is a portrait of Confucius at Ch'ii-fu attributed to Wu and another striking picture representing the struggle of a tortoise with a serpent, kuei she t'u, which is in the Prefect's official residence at Ch'eng-tu, Sze-ch'uan. A third beautiful stone is in the Freer collection and has been exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. It has an incised picture on a flat surface and represents the Goddess of Mercy in her most gracious mood. This stone is a good illustration of the canon that such examples possess three essential characteristics: [116]
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the stone is of fine fiber, the picture is full of life, and the chirography of the accompanying inscription is excellent. There is another stone at
EIGHT STEEDS, BY CHAD MENG-FU
BAMBOO LEAVES ARRANGED AS IDEOGRAPHS
Ch'ii-fu, which bears on its face a picture of "Eight Steeds" by Chao Meng-fu. A stone in the Tai Miao at T'ai-an fu uses the leaves of two bamboos to form a picture, while at the
OUTLINES OF CHINESE ART
same time they are arranged as ideographs containing a poetical effusion. The poem of four lines is given on the left side, and one can read it in the leaves of the bamboo. The couplet, "a poem in a picture and a picture in a poem,'* is also incised on the tablet, but this use of the poetical quotation seems far-fetched.
DECORATIVE DESIGN ON TABLET, T'ANG DYNASTY
Only one other stone remains to be mentioned. It bears no date and deserves attention only on account of the strange animal figures which are depicted on it. To the left is what seems to be a gorilla, in front of which is a fish. In the panel to the right are a deer and a strange animal walking on its hind legs. This animal is also found on a T'ang dynasty vase.
The earlier and nobler sculptural traditions of China were carried on by the founder of the Liang dynasty, Wu Ti (A.D. 502-550), in the neighborhood of his capital, Nanking. Like Hsiao Wen [118]
T'ANG DYNASTY FIGURE IN PIN YANG GROTTO, LUNG MEN
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Ti of the Wei dynasty, he was a man of classical culture, and this quality of his character is exhibited in the stone remains of his reign, which have been described in Varietes sinologiques by Pere Gaillard, whose scholarly work was brought to an untimely end by his early death. These remains at Ku-yung, Tan-t'u, and also at places near Purple Mountain, Nanking, show the last survival of a high artistic spirit devoted to expressing itself in stone. The T'ang
