Warring States Period Chu Kingdom
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戰 楚 國 王 年 國 代 Renowned for providing evidence of ancient music, and three lateral bands of knobs. The second is made by striking the The two figurines shown here are part of a larger group of The long, graceful sleeves and sweeping gestures of the dancing Warring States celebrated around the world for their exquisite craftsmanship, forward edge of one of the two tapered corners at the base of Chu kingdom musicians and dancing figures recovered from the tomb of the figure ouer visual evidence of popular Chu dance; the arms and the 65 serial bells discovered in the tomb of the Marquis the bell. What makes these bells so significant for musicologists king of Chu at Tuolanshan in 1989–90. Although the kingdom sleeves were separately moulded, and each bears the character period Yi of Zeng constitute the largest set of bells found anywhere is that each of these striking points is labelled with an inlaid Dancing Figure and Musician, of Chu, which dominated southern China in the centuries wu, five. The realistic rendition of the se instrument facilitates in Chinese archaeological history. character. Combining these characters with the tones has made 2nd century bc prior to the conquests of the First Emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, reconstructions of Chu music. The se was a 25-stringed instru - Marquis Yi’s Bell Set, 433 bc Unlike Western bells, ancient Chinese bells did not feature it possible for scholars to begin reconstructing the scales and Earthenware was ozcially incorporated into the Han empire, it nevertheless ment that was played flat on the ground like the better-known Bronze, 11 × 5 m / 36 × 16 ft 5 in clappers, but were struck on the outside like gongs. Each notation systems of ancient Chinese music, revolutionizing our H: c.40 cm / 15 in retained much of its distinctive culture. qin, a type of zither. The figures functioned as a simulacrum of Hubei Provincial Museum, Wuhan of the bells in the set has two tones. The first is produced by understanding of the functions of sound in early China. Xuzhou Museum, Jiangsu Province A wealth of recent archaeological discoveries in the region contemporary performance for Chu royalty in the afterlife. striking the bell on the central panel, which vertically bisects is gradually shedding light on the particularities of Chu society. 14 15 元 刘 朝 建 华 These spectacular vases are among the earliest dated blue-and- Celsius (2,370 degrees Fahrenheit). This resulted in complete A room is strewn with shattered fragments of white porcelain, the event adds a realistic dimension. Liu Jianhua (b. 1962) is Yuan dynasty white porcelains in existence. Although ceramic artisans in vitrification of the glaze and body, forming a seal and giving Liu Jianhua the remnants of an explosion. This ceramic installation was primarily a ceramic artist, who worked in the porcelain centre China had long experimented with the application of cobalt in the finished piece the three distinguishing characteristics of made as a reflection on the tragic destruction in 2003 of of Jingdezhen from the age of 12. He emerged on the Chinese David Vases, 1351 glaze, it was not until the fourteenth century that craftsmen ‘true’ porcelain: pure white color, resonance and translucence. Dream, 2005–08 the American space shuttle Columbia, which exploded while art scene in the 1990s, becoming known for making headless Underglaze blue porcelain at Jingdezhen in southern China succeeded in mastering the Blessed with abundant supplies of kaolin clay and firewood, Porcelain and dvd projection re-entering earth’s atmosphere, killing seven astronauts. ceramic female figures with highly decorated surfaces; he later H: 63.5 cm / 25 in technique of sealing cobalt oxide-based pigment to a pure white ezcient canal networks and imperial sponsorship, the kilns Dimensions variable The fragmented objects recall the aftermath of the event, developed a more conceptual ceramic-based practice. His work British Museum, London kaolin clay body under a clear glaze. Using long, cylindrical at Jingdezhen monopolized the global market for high-end Galleria Continua, San Gimignano arranged to echo the outline of the space shuttle – a poignant frequently references the modernization of China and the ‘dragon kilns’, they succeeded in firing these porcelains in low porcelain. Their dominance in the international ceramics trade, expression of the fragility of the human dream of progress. excess of consumption. oxygen environments at temperatures in excess of 1,300 degrees although challenged in later centuries, continues to this day. A dvd projection showing contemporary news coverage of 100 101 蘇 黄 軾 永 玉 The Cold Food Festival was celebrated just prior to the scholar–artists developed powers of self-expression in painting, ‘One eye open, one eye closed’ is a traditional Chinese saying by Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong’s wife. Jiang’s attack on traditional Su Shi spring festival of Qingming (p.284). Its religious implications so they did too in calligraphy, allowing stroke formation and Huang Yongyu of similar meaning to the English phrase ‘turn a blind eye’. art was part of the anti-Confucius campaign of 1974, a veiled are uncertain, but fires were extinguished and people ate cold brushwork to interpret their ideas spontaneously. Nowhere This ink painting, which evokes the phrase, became infamous vilification of Zhou Enlai (1898–1976), the first Premier of Cold Meal in Huangzhou, 1082 food before fresh fires were lit for the new agricultural year. demonstrates this better than these famous Cold Food Festival Winking Owl, 1973 for its role in a political clash at the highest level of Chinese the People’s Republic of China, following his order for newly Handscroll, ink on paper About the time of the festival in 1082, the poet-ozcial Su Shi poems. Here, Su’s emotion is displayed not in the relationship Print, ink on paper politics during the latter years of the Cultural Revolution commissioned traditional paintings to be hung in hotels at a 1 3 1 1 34 × 119 cm / 13 ⁄2 × 46 ⁄4 in (1037–1101; see also p.305) was beginning a third year of exile of characters to each other but in their individual formation, 60 × 92 cm/23 ⁄2 × 36 ⁄4 in (1966–76). Interpreted by the Gang of Four as implying that time when foreigners were cautiously being welcomed back National Palace Museum, Taipei at Huangzhou, where he wrote two poems in semi-cursive the dynamics of constituent strokes and the flow of ink. From a Various locations government ozcials were ignoring wrongdoings within the into China. Huang (b. 1924) had already been punished for his script. The first was morose, but in the second he recovered stuttering start to the first poem, self-confidence grows through regime, the work was shown at the ‘Black Paintings’ exhibition series of animal aphorisms in 1966. After this incident, almost a sense of detached Daoist equilibrium. Just as Song the second, providing a lesson in ‘calligraphic philosophy’. of artworks that departed from the socialist ideal, organized ten years later, he was imprisoned and exiled to the countryside. 126 127 清 何 朝 英 白 Manchu-style semi-formal robes of this sort were worn at early Ming dynasty. Although reserved for the greatest In this series of portraits, 400 passersby were photographed late nineteenth-century photographic portraiture of Westerners Qing dynasty ozcial banquets, and according to the strict sumptuary laws of of the foreign Qing dynasty elite, the auspicious symbolism of Grace Lau in a studio set in the town of Hastings, on the south coast in China, Lau (b. 1939) reverses the role of the ‘exotic subject’, the Qing court, yellow garments were reserved for the emperor, the robe is almost entirely derived from long-standing Chinese of England, replete with a painted classical backdrop and using a random cross-section of contemporary British subjects. Semi-formal Court Robe, after 1759 empress and dowager empress. The robe is embroidered motifs. Their presence thus heralds the degree to which the 21st Century Types: Hastings, 2005 traditional Chinese objects. The contemporary paraphernalia The project followed her investigation into nineteenth-century Satin with gold and silk embroidery with nine dragons, as well as constellations and other icons Manchu emperors wrapped themselves in symbolic trappings Colour photograph – pink bikinis, sunglasses, flipflops and handbags – of these imperialist representations of China in photography, ranging 3 H: 1.45 m / 4 ft 6 ⁄4 in representing imperial power. The five-toed claws of the dragon that their conquered subjects recognized as legitimate. This 61 × 61 cm / 24 × 24 in four young women contrast sharply with the highly formalized from the time of the Opium Wars (1839–42 and 1856–60) Palace Museum, Beijing signify the emperor (non-imperial dragons have four or fewer skilful use of many registers of legitimacy helps to explain Private collection setting, which is rendered ironic through objects such as the to the Boxer Rebellion (1898–1901), for her book Picturing the toes), and the circular arrangement of the toes, as if they were how they were able to rule over a vast, multi-ethnic empire for absurd panda rug that replaces the tiger and bear skins favoured Chinese: Early Western Photographs and Postcards of China. the spokes of a wheel, recalls the classic dragon talons of the nearly three centuries. by Western colonialists. Deliberately re-creating the style of 174 175 岳 耿 敏 建 君 翌 A crowd of laughing young men – half-threatening and a historic commemoration of the French Revolution, which Yue Four heads repeat against a black void, with each face caught Active since the 1980s, Geng (b. 1962) is primarily a Yue Minjun half-absurd – stage a riot.