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31.1 EXCELLING HEAVEN FINAL 10/8/07 12:18 PM Page 54

EXCELLING THE WORK OF HEAVEN

P ERSONAL A DORNMENT FROM C HINA

Kate Lingley

poem by the Yuan dynasty calligrapher, painter and else) in traditional is well known, and one result has poet Zhao Mengfu (1254-1322) provides the title for been a distinctive opposition between high on the one hand A Excelling the Work of Heaven: Personal Adornment and technical sophistication on the other. Just as the traditions from China, an exhibition opening at the University of Hawai’i of philosophical Daoism and Chan Buddhism maintained that at Manoa- Art Gallery. The poem is a double quatrain addressed too much study was detrimental to true understanding, the to the fireworks-masters who engineered elaborate fireworks traditional ideals of literati painting suggested that too much displays to celebrate festive occasions in China at the time. training was detrimental to true art. Although many painters, Describing the spectacle of light and sound that they created, literati and otherwise, were indeed interested in the development Zhao wrote that “Among men, there is an art which excels the of their own skills and painting techniques, the literati ideal work of heaven.”1 In the seven hundred years since, his words still dominated theories of art and artistic self-expression to have been immortalized as a proverb describing human skill of the extent that overt displays of technical skill in painting and such marvelous refinement that it seemed to rival the work calligraphy were often considered gauche at best. of creation itself. To “excel the work of heaven” is to produce By contrast, the decorative in China were not generally work of such virtuosity that it seems to transcend common subject to this restriction. The artists who produced the fine materials and ordinary techniques, giving rise to wonders. , carvings, lacquerwares, and silks of China were Such delight in the perfection of human skill is not accorded the same social prestige as painters, but neither characteristic of much of what might be called the decorative were they constrained by the ideals of literati art theory to arts in China. The conceptual dichotomy between the fine arts sacrifice artistry in favor of self-expression. As such, the (painting and calligraphy) and the decorative arts (everything work of artisans was often valued, even by the literati, for

HAIRPINS AND ORNAMENTS of kingfisher feather inlay on gilt metal, pin shanks of ; set with , , and , 2.1 to 30.5 - 54 ORNAMENT 31.1.2007 centimeters wide. Courtesy of University of Hawaii at Manoa Art Gallery. Photographs by Wayne Kawamoto. 31.1 EXCELLING HEAVEN FINAL 10/8/07 12:18 PM Page 55

the ever more refined techniques and ever more The prevailing official Chinese attitude toward antiques and other virtuosic skills it displayed. Woodworkers, artifacts of China’s past during the Cultural Revolution was that they carvers, metalsmiths, jewelers, and other artisans were relics of feudal oppression, an unwanted burden hindering China were free to explore the limits of their abilities, to on her march toward modernization and the socialist utopia. For the push the bounds of technique until they “excelled most part, those charged with the sale of such objects were not antiquarian the work of heaven.” experts but rather Party representatives, whose political credentials In the history of Chinese connoisseurship, such were impeccable but whose knowledge of antiques was often limited. a fascination with technical virtuosity is particularly Typically, jewelry and other small objects were sold in boxed lots characteristic of the social changes of the Ming which could not be opened for prior inspection. Instead, the collector dynasty (1368-1644). The Ming saw the emergence would be shown selected pieces from the lot. Given the lack of expertise of a class of wealthy urban merchants who on the part of those handling the sales, these were not necessarily what grew prosperous in the newly burgeoning market would now be considered the best pieces. Inevitably, this meant that each economy. This led to an explosion in the market for purchase contained a mix of jewelry pieces of differing quality and luxury goods, including fine porcelains, silk textiles, antiquity. It was up to the collector to investigate the objects after purchase high-quality furniture, lacquerwares, cloisonné and decide which pieces were worth keeping, whether for their quality, enamels, paintings, calligraphy, and not least, fine their value or their historical interest. jewelry and personal adornment. Ming merchants, The Shyns began buying these lots and bringing them back to the seeking cultural capital to match their material United States at a time when most of the country’s interest in Chinese wealth, consulted manuals of taste such as the famous jewelry was focused on antique beads and other components, which Zhangwu zhi (Essay on Superfluous Things) for American designers would remake into contemporary pieces. These advice on garden design, antique collection and contemporary rethinkings of antique objects were often pastiches, not elegant pursuits. In such texts, terms of praise necessarily faithful to the context, function, or style of the originals. ranging from “rare and intricate” to “devil’s work” describe the technical mastery that was so prized by connoisseurs from the Ming onward.2 The same perfection of skill and delight in artistry that fascinated Chinese connoisseurs has long made the decorative arts of China appealing to collectors around the world. Outside China’s borders, was a mysterious material; the secrets of its manufacture were unknown for centuries, despite the efforts of ’s alchemists to reproduce it. Chinese porcelain vessels filled the cabinets of curiosities of Renaissance Europe, set in fittings of silver and gilt, and treasured alongside precious gems and exotic pearls. Impossibly intricate ivory carvings traveled home to New England on the ships of the China trade, carried by sailors who themselves were skilled ivory carvers and scrimshawers. Sea captains brought jade and kingfisher hairpins to their waiting wives and daughters. The well-known collectors of Chinese antiques, Susan and Aven Shyn, from whose collection this exhibition of personal adornment is drawn, began to travel from the United States to China in the early 1970s, before the end of the Cultural Revolution. SILVER HAIRPINS, repoussé and often pier ced, They planned these trips to purchase other kinds of some enameled or with semiprecious s tone antiques, including and furniture, for their appliqués; those with single and double pins worn v ertically, the f lat ones hor izontally. wholesale business. At that time, the right to sell Largest is 30.5 centimeters long.

any antiques was reserved to the Chinese government. 55 ORNAMENT 31.1.2007 31.1 EXCELLING HEAVEN FINAL 10/8/07 12:18 PM Page 56

Excelling the Work of Heaven Personal Adornment from China

October 28 – 14, 2007

University of Hawai’i Art Gallery University of Hawai’i at Manoa- 2535 McCarthy Mall Honolulu, Hawai’i 808.956.6888 www.hawaii.edu/artgallery

Excelling the Work of Heaven: Personal Adornment from China is cura ted by Lisa Yoshihara, Director of the Univ ersity of Haw ai’i Art Galler y and Ka te Lingley, Assistant Professor of Chinese Art His tory. A 160-page, full color catalog accompanies the exhibition, featuring an essay by Kate Lingley.

BELT HOOK WITH DRAGON’S HEAD of br onze with and silv er inlay; imitation of Warring States inlaid br onze work. Reverse has inlaid inscription: junzi bao zhi,“the gentleman will treasure it.” Below this are Tibetan characters scratched into the metal, 11.9 x 2.3 x 2.4 centimeter s, Song dynasty. BELT HOOKS of porcelain with overglaze enamels. Left: Belt hook with dragon’s head and floral meander, 9.3 x 2.7 x 3.4 centimeters. Right: Belt hook with dragon’s head and landscape panel, 7.7 x 2.3 x 2.6 centimeters.

Although such work could give new life to old and discarded the present one to scholars, students and the public, in both pieces, and although it certainly did raise Western awareness of China and the West. In this way the Shyn collection aims to Chinese materials, it also tended to obscure the original serve as a record of practices of the past, and as an educational meaning or function of the objects so reused. When the Shyns tool for the future. incorporated jewelry and personal adornment into their The exhibition is the result of cooperation between the antiques business, they became among the first United States Shyns and the University of Hawai’i at Manoa- Art Gallery. collectors to make original pieces of Chinese jewelry a focus Over seven hundred pieces have been selected from the Shyns’ of their collection. While they did buy and sell beads, they extensive collection for exhibition in Honolulu. Among increasingly sought to deal in articles of jewelry whose forms them are a wide selection of silver pieces, kingfisher feather and assemblages were more or less original. Although objects ornaments, ivory carvings, and other object types which will of personal adornment are of course subject to wear and be familiar to those interested in personal adornment from tear through use, and therefore are often repaired, restrung or China. The objects have been selected with an eye to the otherwise altered over time, the Shyns tried, as much as qualities of technical virtuosity and mastery of skill that possible, to keep pieces intact rather than decouple them from characterize the best of such materials. their original context and function. One of the oldest pieces in the exhibition is a The present collection is made up of pieces that the Shyns belt hook inlaid with silver patterns, which appears to be have kept for themselves in the course of more than thirty Song (A.D. 960-1279 ) in date. The Song mania for years of buying and selling objects of personal adornment from antiquarianism prompted the manufacture of many kinds of China. While the collection has many strengths, it is not luxury goods made in an antique style. Song bronzewares focused on a particular theme or material or object type, but often imitated the fantastically complex abstract inlay patterns spans the whole range of antique jewelry. According to Susan found on the surface of made in the Eastern Zhou Shyn, their impulse to put together a balanced collection of this (771-256 B.C.), Qin (221-206 B.C.) and Han (206 B.C.-A.D. sort was based in their realization, on those early trips to 220). The ancient inlays were made of precious metals China, of how much knowledge about these pieces had been (gold, silver), semiprecious stones (jade, , ), lost or was in danger of disappearing, whether due to the or glass, while the Song inlay work tended to be done mostly political vagaries of contemporary Chinese history or to lifestyle in metal. In addition, the belt hook itself was an archaic changes from one generation to the next. It has been their form, having been used to fasten sashes as early as the Zhou hope as collectors to bring together a range of representative period: One end of the sash would be attached to the button pieces that share both historical and artistic value, and on the back of the belt hook, and the free end looped around

56 ORNAMENT 31.1.2007 eventually to make them available through exhibitions like the hook itself. 31.1 EXCELLING HEAVEN FINAL 10/8/07 12:18 PM Page 57

HAIRPIN OF KINGFISHER FEATHER INLAY on gilt metal, decorated with red coral, white jade carvings of flowers, insects and animals, and semiprecious stone or glass, 17.4 x 10.5 x 2.7 centimeters. Right, clockwise: ORNAMENT IN THE FORM OF A BAT AND PEACH, kingfisher feather inlay on gilt metal, 1.8 x 3.8 x 0.2 centimeter s; HAIRPIN IN THE FORM OF A BUTTERFLY, with coral wings and body; ORNAMENT IN THE FORM OF A CICADA, kingfisher feather inlay on gilt metal with red coral beads, 2.1 x 1.9 x 0.3 centimeters. Such ornaments were often sewn or tied onto jewelry or headgear.

A pair of later porcelain belt hooks in the exhibition are to know whether these were in fact imperial pieces; but their decorated with overglaze enamel painting of such that workmanship is evocative of the work of skilled enamelers it can only be called masterful. The technique is largely working at an eighteenth-century court. associated with the Ming and Qing periods. It was invented A particular strength of the Shyn collection is its array of locally, but was refined under the influence of European kingfisher feather ornaments. Literary evidence suggests that techniques brought by French and Italian Jesuits to the early the feathers of the kingfisher had been used in ancient times to Qing courts. The influence of French painted enamel work, ornament the clothing and furnishings of ladies, as which was typically done on a metal rather than a references to “halcyon canopies” and “kingfisher hairpins” are ground, was particularly strong. While the Chinese enamel common in Tang poetry and occasionally earlier. Few actual makers gladly adopted European formulas for enamel colors examples of kingfisher jewelry have been found from ancient and techniques for painting with enamels, the decorative times, but pieces of feather inlay work have been discovered style of the European pieces had relatively little effect on the dating as early as the Han dynasty; the innermost coffin of Chinese work, which continued to develop independently. Lady Dai, the tomb occupant of Mawangdui tomb #1, Thus, pieces like these two belt hooks are basically Chinese which dates to around 118 B.C., is decorated with a geometric in their decorative style. The first is a warm honey-brown pattern painted in lacquer into which colored bird feathers color with a scroll of beautifully shaded pink flowers and had been carefully set. a raised, spotted green meander. The color palette of the piece Kingfisher feather work was by its nature very exacting, and the techniques for shading pink into blue and yellow above and beyond the cost of the feathers themselves. The are probably derived from European techniques; but the form jeweler would construct a metal backing with frames to hold of the belt hook, the dragon’s head with its slightly humorous each section of feather. Often the framework was gilded as well expression, the floral scroll and meander, all are Chinese. before the feathers were added; many of the kingfisher pieces Similarly, the use, on the other belt hook, of a white reserve in this collection are gilt metal rather than gold. The jeweler panel containing a landscape painted in enamels may owe would then cut the feathers to fit each frame and glue them something to the use of similar panels in European enamels, carefully in place. In the case of a particularly complex design but the landscape itself is delicately Chinese, its pinks and blues this might involve a of many very tiny fragments of harmonizing with the turquoise color of the piece as a whole. feather. In addition, many of the kingfisher pieces also have These two belt hooks were indeed treasured for the skill and inset stones or pearls. Some pieces, such as a hairpin shown quality of their workmanship; this was skill fit for an emperor’s here, are fanciful works of such complex joinery and such use. Even the firing spurs on the underside of the brown belt varied materials that the kingfisher feather work becomes

hook are finely overpainted with gold flowers. It is impossible somewhat peripheral next to jade, coral, , and 57 ORNAMENT 31.1.2007 31.1 EXCELLING HEAVEN FINAL 10/8/07 12:18 PM Page 58

SILVER , obverse and reverse, of silver; repoussé and chased with PENDANT PLAQUE of gilded silv er; repoussé and turquoise, depicting a boy on a pomegr anate in an ela borate basket, chased, depicting a bo y r iding a qilin and holding an inscribed on the ob verse: kai fu, “open good fortune,” and on the re verse: inscribed scroll: tian zi men sheng ,“scholar to the Son of bai zi tu , “image of a hundred sons ,” 21.6 x 7.4 x 1.3 centimeter s. Such basket Heaven,” 8.5 x 7.0 x 1.6 centimeter s. Such are ornaments, often worn on a belt, functioned as amulets. often worn on a silver chain.

pearls. Still, its association with precious materials reinforces seems to be aimed at depicting not a historically accurate past, our sense of how valued these feathers were for their brilliance but an imagined past of “long ago and far away.” Thus, and beauty. a pragmatic wish for very real success in the Qing government Finely wrought silver pieces in the Shyn collection showcase was couched in the visual language of historical legend and the whole range of Chinese silverworking techniques, popular entertainment. including repoussé, chasing, carving and piercing, punchmarking, An unusual archer’s thumb- is made of compressed granulation, and . A fine large toggle in repoussé shows ash from the burning of incense, mixed with a binder and a boy sitting triumphantly atop an open pomegranate in an formed into a solid material. It is lined with a fine layer of horn. elaborate basket. The peach and finger citron, visible from the The ash has a warm brown surface, which may be paint, back of the piece, complete the set of three auspicious fruits and it is incised with a landscape design and inscription which known as the Three Abundances.3 The inscription kai fu are heightened with gold. An archer’s ring was originally a (here meaning something like “invite good fortune”) reiterates practical tool to protect the archer’s thumb from the bowstring, the theme of the piece. but an archer’s ring made of compressed incense ash A large and elaborate silver qilin pendant was almost would of course be far too soft to provide any protection; certainly made as a way of expressing the hope that the son of it would be damaged, if not destroyed, by the pressure a family would grow up to be a successful candidate in the of the bowstring. Thus, this particular ring was clearly worn imperial civil service examinations. Qilin pendants generally for its symbolic value. show the successful candidate riding triumphantly on this The landscape incised on the surface of the thumb-ring mythical animal, often accompanied by signs of his success, recalls the landscape paintings of Ni Zan (A.D. 1301-1374), such as a scroll or other inscription. Although the mothers one of the Four Landscape Masters of the Yuan. Ni Zan who received these no doubt hoped their sons would was a reclusive painter who declined service under the Mongols grow up to become officials under the Qing imperial and lived on his houseboat in the Jiangnan region of government, the boys on qilin pendants are not depicted south China during the waning years of the Yuan. Despite his wearing Qing official uniforms. Rather, their attire vaguely eremitical nature, he was lionized by his contemporaries and recalls pre-Qing scholar’s dress, and they often wear the hat held up as an ideal of scholarly reclusion and painterly associated with the xiaosheng role, typically a young scholar- self-expression. He also became a cultural hero for later 4 58 ORNAMENT 31.1.2007 official, in jingju or Peking opera. Such theatrical imagery Ming loyalists in the early Qing. Thus the use of a Ni Zan 31.1 EXCELLING HEAVEN FINAL 10/8/07 12:18 PM Page 59

ARCHER’S THUMB-RING of compressed incense ash with traces of SILVER PENDANTS AND NEEDLE CASE, the latter in the sha pe of a vase, gilding; lined with hor n depicting a landsca pe scene, inscribed but hollow for holding needles. The other two pendants have auspicious on the reverse side: Xian men xiang shan lu,“A simple gate opens animals, the butterfly and goldfish; all have coral and turquoise to a mountain r oad,” from poem by Liu Shenxu, mid-eighth beads. Like the other metal jewelry shown in this article, the primary century, and the name, “Xiaoshan,” 3.1 x 3.7 centimeters. metalsmithing techniques are repoussé, piercing and fabrication.

composition here implies refined eremitism and the scholarly limitations of human craft and approach the divine. The ideal of withdrawal into nature. pieces in the exhibition, from inlaid bronze and repoussé silver The inscription on the opposite side of the ring conveys to enameled porcelain, carved ivory, kingfisher feather precisely these themes. It consists of a phrase, “A simple gate inlay, and compressed incense ash, are all characterized by the opens to a mountain road,” and a signature or attribution, same fluent mastery and technical élan. It is this that has “Xiaoshan.” Xiaoshan’s identity is unknown. The phrase is lead them to be treasured by connoisseurs of centuries past, a line from a well-known poem by the slightly obscure Tang and this which continues to capture our interest in the poet Liu Shenxu (active circa A.D. 733), describing a mountain modern day; despite technological advances and industrial hermitage: “A simple gate opens to a mountain road, and production, we are still enthralled by human skill which the study is deep among the willows.” The rest of the poem “excels the work of heaven.” describes the clear stream running past, the mountain road disappearing into the clouds, and the sunlight and shade NOTES 1 dappling the scholar’s robes. The themes of the poem are 2 Clunas 2004, pp. 85-86. Clunas’s book, Superfluous Things, is a study of the essentially the same as those of the landscape on the other side. Zhangwu zhi and the relationships between Ming social status and material culture. This is striking because the basic symbolism of the 3 Bartholomew 2006, p. 31. thumb-ring evokes vigorously masculine and even military 4 See Dong Chensheng 1981, particularly the image from the play “The Jade .” The four role types in Peking opera are called sheng, dan, jing, activities like and riding; and yet the decoration of and chou. Xiaosheng is a sub-type of the sheng role, and is typically a young male character in a leading role. the piece is clearly associated with the refined activities of the 5 scholarly recluse. Perhaps this piece belonged to a man who REFERENCES had some allegiance to both identities. The apparent tension Bartholomew, Terese Tse. Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art. San Francisco: Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 2006. between the martial function of the archer’s thumb-ring Clunas, Craig. Superfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early and the fragrant, yielding material from which this one is made Modern China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2004. Dong Chensheng. Paintings of Beijing Opera Characters. Beijing: Zhaohua seems to reflect the same tensions. Publishing House, 1981. When Zhao Mengfu described the Yuan fireworks as “sparkling brilliantly like showers of stars, [and] roaring gruffly like an onslaught of fire,”5 he suggested that the artistry

of the fireworks-masters enabled them to transcend the 59 ORNAMENT 31.1.2007