A history of Chinese art

In the 1950's marxism becomes the new ideological basis of Chinese archeology, and until 1990 every possible contact or cooperation with Western scholars is interrupted. During this period, the leading principle of Chinese archeology is that there is one, and only one, unique origin of the Chinese civilization, and this has to be identified with the cultures of the central plain, in the basin of the Huanghe (Yellow River): a unique ancient Chinese civilization which, starting from the central plain, progressively conquers the surrounding areas inhabited by "barbarians". The sites of Anyang and Zhengzhou are its symbols.
Nowadays China is coming out of these ideological restrictions and the excavations - which never stopped - cover now an enormous geographical area, from Liaoning to Southern China, and the ideal image of a Chinese civilization born from one original core is now disappearing; resarch is focused now on areas and populations once considered marginal.

Around 2000-1600 B.C. the emergence of metallurgy, of writing, of the first cities and of a central power marks the passage to the Bronze Age. According to Chinese scholars, the neolithic communities of the different areas came into contact and merged; in the late Neolithic Age a gradual uniformity appeared, laying the basis for the formation of a unitarian Chinese civilization: these communities form a link between the late Neolithic and the flowering of the Bronze Age.
According to the ancient written traditon the Xia (around the 21st century B.C.) is the first dynasty in the history of China, but due to the lack of written evidence historians generally consider it nothing more than a mythological invention.
In the 1950's Chinese archeologists discovered over a hundred sites in the area of northern Honan and southern Shansi, the more interesting being Erlitou, near Luoyang. Here they unearthed ceramics, bronze vessels, objects inlaid with turquoise and carved jades. Fundamental is the discovering of the remains of a palace with a terrace, which, because of its position and dimensions, is considered by Chinese historians as the evidence that at this point Chinese society was already organized into classes. Scholars divided the Erlitou Culture period into four stages and have been long debating whether all four levels or only the lower two should be assigned to the Xia Dynasty: Erlitou in its early phase reveals stylistic manifestations of the Longshan Culture and in its late one is very close to the early Shang Culture - Western archeologists agree in assigning the upper strata to the Shang Dynasty. Anyway, since written evidence dating back to this period has not been found, no site can be definitely assigned to the Xia.

The Shang Dynasty (1600-1050 B.C.) With the Shang Dynasty we enter the reign of writing: plenty of oracle inscriptions on bones and tortoise shells were found in Anyang (Henan) and in Erligang at Zhengzhou; such inscriptions are questions and answers regarding the most various topics and give us an enormous amount of information on science and technology, agriculture, military affairs, rites and so on; this material, along with the numerous inscriptions on bronze vessels, provides fundamental resources to study this period. Erligang is the direct descendant of the Shang city of Erlitou, and probably the capital of the dynasty between 1500 and 1400 B.C., where Anyang has been the last capital, between 1300 and 1050 B.C. circa. In Anyang bronze casting had reached a high level, and in many sites, like near Xiaotun in the tomb of Shang king Wuding's wife, evidence has been found of casting on a large scale into composite moulds. Separate casting was used for accessory parts.

The evolution of the taotie mask.

Zun, wine container in bronze with relief decorations of dragons and tigers, Shang dynasty, Anyang phase.	These beautiful bronzes have thick sides, bear short inscriptions and are decorated with animal figures, as taotie, dragons, phoenix, birds, oxes, fishes... every type of geometric pattern is also included. Among the grave goods were found numerous jade pieces, carved into jewellery or into ceremonial objects: the technique of jade carving had already reached a high level. The main color of these pieces is green, but yellow, brown and white were also employed. The use of bronze vessels in Shang times was mainly related with ritual purposes; so there is a prevalence of wine container bronzes, as zuns and gus, and of bronzes for cooking food, as lis and fangdings cauldrons.
The decorations of vessels also reflect their ritual use: the taotie mask, a monster represented without the jaw, according to the Annals of Spring and Autumn has a head but no body: it tries to devour man but is body is destroyed before it is able to swallow him. Again, on a zun vessel a man is represented with a serene facial expression (maybe smiling!) while a tiger with a double body and only one head open its jaws right above his head. It is clear that these motifs reflects the control by man of natural or supernatural powers, although we don't know exactly which rite or magical practice it refers to.
	Political and religious power were deeply related: tthe King was responsable for the cult, including the relations with the supernatural and the ancestors, and the decorations and functions of bronze pieces are a significant evidence of their religious/political use. Bronze vessels are divided into three main groups, according to their function: food cointainers (for food cooking and food storing), wine containers and water containers.

The Zhou Dynasty 1. The Western Zhou( 1050-771 B.C.) The Zhou date back to 13th century B.C., when they were just a clan among others; moving from Shaanxi they succeded in conquering the Shang domains, and their reign starts around 1050 B.C., with capital in modern Xi'an. For the first hundred years the Zhou repeated the patterns of Shang bronze vessels, but soon motifs from Southern and Western China emerge: the taotie mask loses its predominance and dragons in spirals, humanoid faces and elegant birds with long feathers are preferred. In the casting of bronzes a new technique of moulding appears, consisting in making several moulds from the same matrix, in order to allow the casting of group of bronzes in the same shape, decoration and inscription. The bronzes gradually lost their function as a link between the king and the supernatural forces, but the use for ancestor cult increased; therefore, their inscriptions became longer, usually commemorating an important event or registering a bestowed honor to communicate to the ancestors. Beyond their historical value these inscriptions denote maturity and creativity, and are to be considered examples of calligraphic art.

Jade and agate necklace, Western Zhou.

Towards the end of this period bronzes for food are preferred to wine containers, the jue, jia and gu types almost disappear while the number of cooking pots and food vessels increases considerably. In 1959 two Zhou tombs were unhearted at Xijiao (Anhui). 102 funeral objects were found there, including pottery, bronzes, jades and lacquerwares. Most of the porcelain is glazed, white or ash-white. The white porcelain consists in a rather crude clay executed with a short firing and a relatively low temperature; in the second case the pottery is made from a more refined, hard clay which is a type of kaolin, done with long firing and high temperature. Glazed pottery was mainly decorated by impression or engraving, usually with lines and geometric figures.

2. Springs and Autumns (770-476 B.C.) In 770 B.C. the Zhou transferred the capital to Luoyi, modern Luoyang. Thus, starting from this date, they are called Eastern Zhou, and their reign is divided in two periods: Springs and Autumns (770-476 B.C.) and Warring States (476-221 B.C.). This period is marked by the strengthening of the small feudal reigns which depended from the Zhou's central power. Both culture and science underwent a great development: Kongzi (Confucius), Sun Wu, the author of the Sunzi bingfa (the Art of War) belong to the Springs and Autumns Period. Astronomical observations become more precise, and medicine gradually detaches itself from sorcery and becomes an autonomous science. The use of iron implements appeared, and the fusion of bronze made further progress and new technologies came into use.     Quadrangular wine container, Springs and Autumns.

The bronzes were now commissioned and realised in the various provincial courts to satisfy the needs of local lords; the iconography of the western Zhou was repeated without significant modifications, the only consistent innovation being the pan chi, a decorative element consisting in the interwawing of dragons, at first large and then minute which can cover the entire surface of the vase; the design now is merely decorative and has lost its mystical meaning, casted with bas-reliefs and high reliefs. Some relevant innovations were introduced at the end of the period, techniques to be improved during the Warring States: first of all, the quality of casting and the adhesion to the mould were refined, and welding and riveting increased the decorative possibilities. 3. Warring States (476-221 B.C.) In the period of the Warring States the Zhou family loses the power to control the periferical reigns, which, because of the continuous annexations during the end of the Springs and Autumns, are reduced to seven most important principalities: Qin, Wei, Zhao, Han, Qi, Chu and Yan. Iron implements were already being widely used: they have been found in a vast area between Jilin and Liaoning, between Guandong and Guanxi, and between Shandong and Sichuan. The production of bronzes reaches new heights, the variety of forms is enormously rich, and the decorations refined with various techniques, as that of inlay, which developed to so a high level that we talk of a "Inlaid Style". The Inlaid Style can be divided in three phases of which the first two are attempts to master this foreign art of Near Eastern importation. The inlay was realised by cold wedging sheets of iron, silver, gold or other precious metals into the body of the object to be decorated. The Inlaid Style was present all over China. A good example of inlay is the wine vase in form of a rhinoceros which a peasant unhearted ploughing a field. The animal, which seems to belong to a by now extinct species, holds its head slightly turned in a typical posture; the surface is entirely worked in inlay in a cloud motif in gold and silver, now disappeared. Traces of gold are visible on the reliefs parts: they indicate the skin of the animal. In the royal tombs of Zhongshan (founded by the Baidi, a population of nomadic herders, it was a kingdom basically similar to the other feudal states of the period) were found very shiny black ceramics, sometimes with impressed decorations, and polichromatic ceramics were unhearted. Among the grave goods of king Cuo were also found big tridents, probably simbols of power, and superb inlaid bronzes: along with wine vessels, which have lost their ritual use, incense burners and lamps.

Zun, bronze wine container in the shape of a rhinoceros, inlaid with gold and silver, Warring States.

 

Home Guides Tools Books News Weather About us

Sinophilia was born in 1998 as a meeting-point for China-lovers. In these years we have managed to build a database of essential information on the Chinese culture, adding here and there a few more specific essays on Chinese art, history, language and religions, and some useful tools.

Feel free to send us your comments and contributions!