Review Exam III: China

Funerary Deposits

Buddhist caves

Ink Painting

Ceramics

Forbidden City

4.2 Oracle bone; Shang period, c. 1766-1122 BCE

Oracle bones

• Earliest writing on animal bones, oracle-bone inscriptions, found at Anyang, dated from Shang period

• It was used for divination, communication with the ancestors, and prediction

• The bones came from ox scapulas, female turtles (six oxen and 12 turtles were needed for this purpose every ten-day week

• The inscriptions give information about prediction of up coming weeks, weather, harvest, hunting, childbirth, warfare and various other topics

4.4 Ding (food vessel), Shang, 11th BCE

4.5 Yu (wine vessel), Shang Dy, c. 1200 BCE

4.6 Yu, Zhou, c. 10th BCE

Qin Shihhuangdi tomb, Qin Dynasty, 210 BCE

Qin Shihhuangdi

• First Emperor of Qin; unified China; destroyed books and banished some of Confucian scholars

• Sima Qian (dies in c. 86 BCE), a historian, wrote a history of Qin dynasty

• Discovered in 1974; located in Xian, Shaanxi province

• approximately 8000 life-size terracotta human figurines of officers, soldiers, cavalry (180-190 cm), and more than 1,400 chariots with horses; figurines replaced real human

• Figurines were cast separately, painted and then joined

• Many types of clothes, hair styles, facial features

• PP: 120-121

Officer figure, 1.96 m.

Lady Di with Attendants, Mawangdi tomb, Han dynasty, after 168 BCE

Mawangdui

• Funerary banner of Lady (Marquis) Dai, 168 BCE in Changsha, Han period

• The tomb as chambers for offering (food and clothing, figurines, ritual and domestic utensils and funerary banner), surrounded by a many layered lacquered wood coffin.

• T-shape banner; called “flying garment,” depicts the netherworld, the world of men, and the heavens; it included a portrait of the deceased and a sacrifice scene

4.12 Colossal Buddha, Cave 20, Yungang Cave, late 5th C.(13.7 m)

Buddhism

Mahayana Buddhism: Western Paradise (Pure Land paradise) spread from India around the 5th century, Esoteric Buddhism (Tang-7th) and Ch’an Buddhism (Song-10th)

• Important images are Amitabha Buddha who resides in the Western paradise, Maitreya Buddha (Future Buddha) and Gyanyin (bodhisattva of Compassion)

• Gyanyin (became more feminine from 1279)

4.19 Yen Lipen (attributed), Emperor Wu Di, the Scroll of the Emperors, Tang Dynasty,7th c. (11th century copy)

Tang period (618-907 CE)

• It is the golden age of Chinese civilization; expanding their territories to Korea, Vietnam, and Central Asia

• Emperors supported trading on the Silk Road• Emperor Wu Di• Capitals at Luoyang and Chang’an (modern Xi’an);

population of one or two millions; it was the most cultivated metropolitan center in the world

• Art and literature flourished• Buddhism was supported by the Kings

4-20 Fan Kuan (c. 960-1030), Travelers among Mountains and Streams, N. Song

Landscape painting

• Developed rapidly in the Tang dy. and reached its apex by early Song dy. (first appears in tomb tile, inlaid bronze, and mural at Dun Huang)

• N-Song: a true landscape used precise line manner• Landscape painting are imaginary places. They do not depict any

specific places ( like in Western Paintings).• Landscape depicts a sense of an estate,• a group of building,• a few peasants working,• a fishing boat in a shore,• no narrative,• no perspective,• Depth is created by placement of elements in different grounds:

foreground, mid ground and back group

Literati artists

• Literati artists were well educated elites who painted for pleasure

• landscape represents in fragments• Mountains, streams, water falls, mists, trees, flowers have

symbolic meanings and are significant elements

4-21 Ma Yuan, Scholar Contemplating the Moon, S. Song, c. 1200

4-22 Liang Kai, Hui Neng, Chopping the bamboo at a Moment of Enlightenment, S. Song, C. 1200

4-24 Guan Daosheng, Ten Thousands Bamboo Poles in Cloudy Mist, 1308, Yuan Dy.

Bamboo

• Bamboo painting is special favor in the Yuan dy. (The rulers were Mongolians)

• It symbolizes the true gentle man who always maintain his integrity

• It is the most difficult: need precise placement of leaves and stalks and

4.23 Bottle vase,Guan ware, S. Song

4-25 Chao Mengfu, Sheep and Goat, Yuan dy. c. 1300

Ming dynasty1366-1644

• Chinese ruler Forced the Mongols out

• Enlarging the Great Wall of China

• Sent expeditions in the Indian Ocean

• Built the imperial palace in Beijing

• First Ming emperor established ceramic productions at Jingdezhen; High grade porcelain were produced for his court.

• Later the emperors had monopoly over the utilitarian production of ceramics that were exported to SEA, the Middle East and later to the West

• Blue ( water and cobalt oxide) and white (glaze) porcelains are underglazes

4.26 porcelain vases painted in an underglaze of cobalt blue, Ming dy., 15th century

4-28 Wen Zhengming (1470-1559), Cypress and Rock, dated 1550, Ming Dy.

Qing Dynasty(1644-1911)

• Western influence are seen on the use of perspective on cityscape and landscape paintings.

4-36 Color print from woodblock, 1734

4-32 Yu the Great Taming the Waters, completed 1787, jade (224 x 96 cm.)

4-31 Hall of Supreme Harmony, Imperial Palace, Bejing, Begun 17th c.

The Forbidden City

• Built during Ming and Qing Dynasties (14-20th centiries; founded in 1407; many halls were built in the 18th C.

• Purple Forbidden City-identification of the emperor with the numinous purple radiance of the Pole Star

• As the Son of Heaven, the emperor maintained cosmic order by performing annual rituals such as those at the Altars of Heaven and Earth, the Temple Imperial Ancestors, and the Altar of Society

• Oriented North-south axis; encompassed the main altar complexes, with the palace building facing south

• The complex surrounded by walls, which protecting the royal family from the outside world.

Imperial Beijing, the Three Great Hall, Qin Dy.

Wumen (Meridian Gate, the Forbidden City

Hall of Supreme Harmony, Forbidden City, 17th