Ten Thousand Things: Module and Mass Production in Chinese Art 9780691201368, 9780691006697, 9780691009575

Table of contents :
Frontmatter
Acknowledgments (page vi)
Introduction (page 1)
1. The System of Script (page 9)
2. Casting Bronze the Complicated Way (page 25)
3. A Magic Army for the Emperor (page 51)
4. Factory Art (page 75)
5. Building Blocks, Brackets, and Beams (page 103)
6. The Word in Print (page 139)
7. The Bureaucracy of Hell (page 163)
8. Freedom of the Brush? (page 187)
Notes (page 215)
Bibliography (page 229)
Glossary of Chinese Terms (page 252)
Index (page 256)
Picture Sources (page 264)

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Mutual combinations of the eight trigrams result in the production of the ten thousand things. —Shao Yong (1011-1077)

Outer Chapter on Observation of Things

The ten thousand things are produced and reproduced, so that variation and transformation have no end. —Zhou Dunyi (1017-1073)

Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate Explained

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Lothar Ledderose

Module and Mass Production in Chinese Art

The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, 1998

The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. | Bollingen Series XXXV:46

Princeton University Press Princeton, New Jersey

Frontispiece — Fu Shen (born 1937), Wanwu (Ten Thousand Things), March 1997. Calligraphy.

Copyright © 2000 by the Trustees of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Chichester, West Sussex This is the forty-sixth volume of the A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, which are delivered annually at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. The volumes of lectures constitute Number XXXV in Bollingen Series, sponsored by the Bollingen Foundation. All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ledderose, Lothar.

Ten thousand things : module and mass production in Chinese art / Lothar Ledderose.

p. cm. — (The A.W. Mellon lectures in the fine arts ; 1998) (Bollingen series ; 46) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN: 0-691-00669-5 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Art, Chinese—Technique. 2. Mass production—China. |. Title. Il. Series. ll. Series: Bollingen series ; 46

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Composed in Berkeley and Formata by Dix! Designed and edited by Brian D. Hotchkiss, Vernon Press, Inc. Printed and bound by CS Graphics, Singapore

10987654321 1098765432 (pbk) ISBN-13: 978-0-691-00957-5 (pbk : alk. paper)

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Acknowledgments

AS A BOY, I FIRST CAME ACROSS MODULES IN THE GUISE — University offered me the opportunity to give the Slade

of a jigsaw puzzle. At one particular Christmas I was Lectures. At that time Jessica Rawson generously given a puzzle different from all others | had had so _—ihelped me sharpen my arguments and to make my far. A chain of mountain peaks at the left flattened out § English more understandable. When Ernest Gombrich toward the right into a wide plain dotted with atower, | once came to Cambridge, I mentioned to him that I houses, trees, carriages, and a rider. But the pieces did was working on the issue of Versatzstticke in Chinese not have curved edges or interlocking shapes. Rather _art. Typically, Versatzstucke reters to pieces of furniture they were all simple rectangles, tall and thin, arranged § and other set decor that can be used in a variety of in a horizontal sequence. Altogether there were only = ways and rearranged in many plays to create different about a dozen of them. This is easy, I thought, actu- _ stage sets in a theater. Gombrich told me that he knew

ally, pretty boring. what I had in mind, but that here existed no precise

Only when I took the pieces out of the box and — equivalent for Versatzstticke in the English language. rearranged them on the table did it occur to me that, § Thus, with his blessings, I settled on module, a term unlike with other puzzles, there was no fixed position — that is both more understandable and more versatile. for each piece. The mountains could go into the mid- Many institutions and individuals contributed to dle of the landscape or to the right; the tower would my further research. Untorgettable is the day when as easily fit between the peaks as on the plain, andthe = Yuan Zhongyi in Lintong descended with me into the

rider could be placed heading toward the hills or re- __ pit of the terra-cotta army. Standing among those sol- | turning. A coherent panorama invariably emerged. diers, I finally saw close up the extraordinary variety The trick to completing this puzzle was that, on of faces, gestures, and armor that Chinese artisans had every single piece, the horizon crossed the left and achieved more than two thousand years ago in an inright edges exactly at midpoint. The pieces couldthus — geniously devised system of modular production.

be put together in ever new combinations, thousands The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft made posof them, yet the continuous horizon always guaran- sible a sabbatical term that I spent at the Freer and

teed an intelligible composition. Sackler galleries’ marvelous research library in WashThis jigsaw puzzle had been made in China. ington, D.C. The unflagging support of the library staff

; under Lily Kecskes was invaluable, as were the many I remembered that puzzle when I studied with Vadime — conversations with gallery staff members. Jan Stuart Elisseeff in Paris, in the 1960s. He attempted to isolate read several chapters as I wrote them and offered exand define hundreds of distinct motifs in the endlessly pert criticism.

varied decor of ancient Chinese bronzes. His ultimate A new version of my text was presented in 1998 aim was to devise a computer program that would as the Mellon Lectures at the National Gallery of Art allow him to arrange all known bronzes in one in Washington. Henry Millon, Dean of the Center for chronological sequence. We now know that this could |= Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, and his staff could

not have worked, because the corpus of bronzes is not have made my stay more enjoyable.

just too complex. Nevertheless, I was fascinated by The preparation of the final manuscript would Elisseeff’s premise, which he often repeated—namely have been impossible without the professional assisthat the Chinese create works of art by first defining — tance of Patricia Fidler of Princeton University Press,

elements, and then by playing with them. and Brian Hotchkiss and Peter Blaiwas of Vernon In the 1970s I joined the research group of Press. Judith Whitbeck graciously agreed to help with Suzuki Kei in Japan to work on their survey of paint- the proofreading. At the Institute of Art History of ings of the ten kings of hell. Minato Nobuyuki, then Heidelberg University, Ingeborg Klinger produced exone of Professor Suzuki's students, analyzed the ways cellent photographs and Tsai Suey-ling ably compiled in which the painters of these scrolls assembled their the glossary with the Chinese characters. compositions from set parts. In an article on a king of Still many other friends and colleagues helped tohell painting in Berlin, I suggested that comparable = ward completion of the work. To all of them, named modes of production might be detected in yet other | and unnamed, | offer ten thousand thanks. areas of Chinese att.

I first systematically pursued these lines of investi- LLL.

gation when, in the Lent Term of 1992, Cambridge Heidelberg, 1999

Introduction HROUGHOUT HISTORY THE CHINESE HAVE somewhat contradictory objectives are always evi-

| produced works of art in huge quantities:a | dent: they produce objects both in large quantities tomb of the fifth century B.c. yields bronze and of great variety. Taken into consideration are artifacts that total ten metric tons in weight; the the demands of notorious customers who exterra-cotta army in the third-century B.c. necrop- _ pected high quality for a low price and thrived on olis of the First Emperor boasts more than seven _ setting difficult deadlines. Module systems were thousand soldiers; lacquer dishes manufactured __ best suited to reach all these contlicting goals.

in the first century A.D. have serial numbers rang- In roughly chronological sequence, the ing in the thousands; a timber pagoda of the chapters cover a wide time span. The first case eleventh century A.D. is constructed ofsome thirty study deals with ritual bronze vessels of antiquity, thousand separately carved wooden members; particularly of the twelfth century B.c. Chapters 6

and in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and 8, respectively, concern an encyclopedia of China exported several hundred million pieces of | over one hundred million characters printed with

porcelain to the West. movable type, and a series of bamboo paintings, All this was feasible because the Chinese both dating to the eighteenth century A.D.

devised production systems to assemble objects To pursue the same issue over a period from standardized parts. These parts were prefab- spanning three millennia, without resorting to the ricated in great quantity and could be put to- Hegelian concept of China as a country of eternal — gether quickly in different combinations, creating stasis, begs tor explanation. A fundamental justian extensive variety of units from alimited reper- _ fication is to be found in the ubiquity of Chinese

toire of components. These components are script that was in existence from at least the thir-

called modules in the present book. teenth century B.c. and is still in use today. Chi- | Ten Thousand Things investigates module nese script, which is arguably the most complex systems in the production of ancient Chinese system of forms that humans devised in premodbronzes, terra-cotta figures, lacquer. porcelain, ern times, is a module system par excellence. Its architecture, printing, and painting. It also ex- fifty thousand characters are all composed by plores technical and historical evolution in all choosing and combining a few modules taken these fields as well as the implications of module from a relatively small repertoire of some two systems for particular makers and for society at | hundred parts." large. Along the way, readers will discover that the Script profoundly affected the patterns of West learned about modular production from thought in China. Almost everyone had at least a China, and ultimately the definition of art in rudimentary understanding of the system, as total

China will be addressed. illiteracy was rare. Most people knew a few charThe following eight chapters present case _ acters, if only those used in their own names, or studies that focus on particular module systems | some numbers, and who would not recognize the and ask similar sets of questions. The description characters representing happiness (fu) and long and analysis of a given system is the main subject __ life (shou)? For the educated elite, writing was the

of each chapter. The achievement of the module core of culture. The decision makers spent the system is then assessed by reconstructing the tasks greater part of their formative years learning how that the makers were assigned or that they set for —_ to read and write, and then used script every day themselves. Regardless of the situation, two basic, __ of their lives. In the course of history, knowledge ]

2 of characters became ever more widespread in so- Module systems do not occur in China ciety. Thus, through their script, the Chinese ofall alone; comparable phenomena exist in other culIntroduction periods were familiar with a pervasive module _ tures. However, the Chinese started working with system. This system is the topic of the first chap- | module systems early in their history and develter and a paradigm for all later discussions. oped them to a remarkably advanced level. They All Chinese knew about still other module — used modules in their language, literature, philossystems. Probably the most popular one isthe bi- — ophy, and social organizations, as well as in their nary code expounded in the celebrated opus of arts. Indeed, the devising of module systems seems

divination and wisdom from antiquity, the Bookof to conform to a distinctly Chinese pattern of Changes (Yijing), which has been called “perhaps thought. the single most important work in China’s long in-

tellectual history.” It teaches how to build units through combinations of only two elements, a

broken line and an unbroken line. There are eight Th e Advan cement of M od ul dr different ways to arrange three lines in one group, Syste ms those are the eight trigrams. By doubling the strokes into groups of six, the hexagrams, sixty- | Emphasizing the pervasiveness of modular patfour different combinations can be formed. Fur- terns in Chinese history does not mean to deny ther limitless transformations and changes are that there have been developments and changes. said to bring forth the “ten thousand things,” the Increasing standardization, mechanization, and myriad categories of phenomena in the universe. | ever more precise reproduction constitute a uniThe binary pattern of thoughtinthe Bookof — fying trend. A preliminary overview reveals that Changes has fascinated intellectuals in the West advances are especially noteworthy during a few from the time they first encountered it. Inthesev- crucial periods.

enteenth century it confirmed the expectation of The first such period came after culture in the mathematician and philosopher Gottfried | China emerged from its Neolithic beginnings into

: Wilhelm Leibniz that China would become a the light of recorded history. At that point, the major player in a global scientific academy. thirteenth to twelfth centuries B.c., module sysLinguists may find modular structures in tems can be identified in script, bronze casting, the Chinese language. There is a repertoire of | and architecture, although none of these systems some 440 syllables, most of which can be pro- had yet reached maturity. In script, stroke types nounced in four different tones. Almost every syl- were not yet standardized, nor were the shapes of lable can assume various meanings. The correct characters, yet more than two thirds of them conmeaning in a particular case derives fromitscom- tain modular parts. Bronze casters deployed a bination with other syllables. Words are formed module system to decorate vessels, and a techniby combining syllables, not by modifying them. — cal modular system to cast them, but they did not Many other modular patterns can beiden- = yet make use of mechanical duplication. In architified in the Chinese cultural fabric. To mention __ tecture, a bay and a courtyard system evolved bebut one example, a certain Buddhist rock cave, fore bracketing came into use.

hollowed out in A.D. 616 not far from Beijing, By the late centuries B.c., bronze casters contains four pillars with a total of 1,056 small had begun to reproduce identical parts, and they Buddha figures carved in relief. Engraved next to mass-produced weapons and complicated comeach Buddha is his name, consisting of three or ponents for chariots. Makers engraved their four characters. The same characters occur again names on their products for the sake of quality and again, but through combination overathou- control. Builders assembled bracket clusters from

sand different names are formed.* _ standardized wooden blocks, and for the first

time, script was reproduced on a flat surface. By | Jingdezhen received an imperial order to deliver 3 the third century B.c., Chinese artisans had be- _—-174,700 pieces of porcelain. Textile factories and

come so used to modular production that, with paper mills employed workforces of over a thou- Introduction no precedent to which to refer, they could devise — sand people. An unprecedented upsurge in printa system for a monumental task: the terra-cotta ing activity made books and illustrations available

, army of the First Emperor. In the same years, this toa wide range of consumers. The definition of art emperor’s chancellor designed a standardized, expanded beyond calligraphy and painting to ingeometrical type of script, in which almost all clude manufactured items such as porcelains and

idiosyncrasies were eliminated. | lacquer dishes. Another seminal period was the fourth to This was the very period when contacts beseventh centuries A.D. Buddhist painters and tween China and the West became direct and fresculptors produced great quantities of figuresand quent, and interaction has not ceased since. scenes through repetitive use of readily identi- | During the Middle Ages, techniques of silk manu-

fiable motifs. Printing with wooden blocks, a facture had already been passed from China to technique that allows virtually identical repro- | Europe, and when Europeans mastered the techductions in limitless numbers, was simultane- _ nique of printingin the fifteenth century, it helped ously developed. A pervasive module system of _ to usher them into the modern age. Yet the great timber frame architecture was firmly established. nineteenth-century sinologue Stanislas Julien still Its crowning achievement was the design ofame- found reason to lament that the West did not learn tropolis laid out on a modular grid, which pro- about printing early enough. If there had been vided a unified living space for over a million timely contacts with China, he says, many of the people. Script types were codified and have re- chef d’oeuvres of Greek and Roman literature, mained in place for over a millennium anda half. now irrevocably lost, would have been saved.°

But this was also the time when systematic explo- When communications between East and ration of the aesthetic dimension of art began. West intensified, China revealed that it possessed Certain calligraphic pieces were the first objects far superior module systems. Europe learned eabrought into art collections because of their per- _—_ gerly from China and adopted standardization of ceived aesthetic qualities, and a theoretical litera- | production, division of labor, and factory man-

ture arose that espoused aesthetic values, suchas agement. By introducing machines, westerners spontaneity and uniqueness, indiametricaloppo- carried mechanization and standardization even

sition to modular production. further than the Chinese, who continued to rely During the eleventh to thirteenth cen- | more on human labor, as they had traditionally turies, when the compass and gunpowder were _—_ done. Consequently, since the eighteenth century, invented, block-printing projects ofenormous di- | Western production methods have tended to surmensions, such as the Buddhist canon, were real- _ pass those of China in efficiency.

ized. Printing with movable type was invented as The story has not yet ended. Perhaps the well. The treatise Building Standards (Yingzao fashi) | most pressing problem on the globe now is popu-

of A.D. 1103 prescribed a system for architecture lation growth. In coping with this situation, the in which all parts were completely and minutely capabilities and social virtues that the Chinese standardized. Ceramic production was organized have developed over the centuries while working in large factories. Paintings whose compositions with module systems may, in the future, come were built from movable parts depict Buddhist into their own yet again: to satisfy the needs of

hells as bureaucratic agencies. great numbers of people who are accustomed to In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, living in tight social structures and to minimize industrial production became common formanu- the use of natural resources by maximizing the factured goods. In 1577, kilns in the city of | input of human intelligence and labor.

4 Voltaire once remarked that the peoples of | produces more than one million pieces of porcethe East had formerly been superior, but that the — lain per day. One memorable afternoon, we adIntroduction West made up for the lost time to become preemi- _miringly observed the extraordinary speed and nent on earth.® Voltaire wrote more thantwocen- _—_ dexterity of the ceramic workers, who kneaded turies ago. Perhaps he was notright. Twocenturies the clay, brought it into cylindrical shape, cut off

from now we will know. disks, formed them into cups, embellished them with various colors, fired them, and, after having

, taken them out of the kiln, added more paint over Sha 'D in g So ciety the glaze. The next morning we had breakfast in a large noodle shop. The cooks skillfully kneaded

Modular production shaped the tabric of Chinese the dough, which had almost the same consissociety in various ways. If one were to name the tency as clay, brought it into a cylindrical shape, single most important factor in China’s social his- _cut off flat slices, formed them into dumplings, tory, it would be the country’s achievement in enriched them with various vegetables, cooked

| supporting great numbers of people since the Ne- _ them, took them out of the oven, and finally garolithic age. And if one were to name the single —_ nished them witha few colorful spices.

most important driving force in Chinese social Those who frequent Chinese restaurants history, it might be the aim to keep these people may have wondered how it is possible to have a within one unified political and cultural system. menu of over one hundred different dishes, each

Much was done and much was sacrificed to of which usually arrives within a few minutes

achieve this goal. after having been ordered. The secret is that many Module systems contributed toward the menus are modular. Most dishes are combinatask. Again, script is the paradigm. Chapter 1 ar- _ tions of ready-made parts: pork with mushrooms gues that script was the most powerfulinstrument and bamboo sprouts, pork with mushrooms and to foster cultural coherence in China, because it — soya sprouts, chicken with mushrooms and bamrecords the meanings of words rather than their _ boo sprouts, chicken with mushrooms and soya

ever-changing pronunciation. This required the sprouts, duck with mushrooms and bamboo creation of thousands of distinct characters, sprouts, and so forth. which was only possible with a module system. Much of what we call Chinese art today Preparation of food is another paradig- was produced in factories. This is true for artifacts matic, almost archetypal kind of production. Itis in all the major materials such as bronze, silk, lac-

the plight of humans that they have to produce = quer, ceramic, and wood. Factory production food continuously. A society that has to nourish started very early in China. Ifa factory is defined large groups of people is likely to develop elabo- _ by its systemic properties, such as organization of

rate and efficient methods of food production. the workforce, division of labor, quality control, The Chinese have excelled at this. Although itis serial production, and standardization, then it is not appropriate here to extol Chinese cuisine, possible to speak of bronze, silk, and possibly there are similarities between preparing meals jade factories as early as the Shang period (about

and making works of art: aesthetic judgment is 1650-about 1050 B.c.). | called for on the part of the producer and taste on These factories already explored methods

the part of the consumer. of mass production. When Henry Ford wrote the Further comparison between the produc- article on mass production for the 1947 edition of tion of food and art was once broughthometome the Encyclopaedia Britannica, he defined it as “the

and my students in Jingdezhen. This city in focussing upon a manufacturing project of the Jiangxi Province, which was one of the greatest in- principles of power, accuracy, economy, system,

dustrial centers in the premodern world, now continuity, speed, and repetition.”’ Except for

power, which refers to machine power, Ford’s — who will recognize the difference between ances- 5 principles were probably applied in Shang facto- __ tor halls five or seven bays wide and between din-

ries. It might be argued that there was no large __ ner sets of forty-eight or eighty-lour pieces. Introduction consumer market yet, and hence the early tacto- Graded products extend the circle of parries could not churn out large enough quantities ticipants in the system. A petty Shang aristocrat of products to qualify as centers of true mass pro- owning a few small bronzes could take pride in duction. Yet it would be hard to dispute that mass __ the fact that his vessels displayed the same kind of

production existed by the sixth or fifth centuries | decor and were cast in the same technique as the B.c. The most famous example is the foundry at gorgeous bronze sets of the mightiest ruler. A Houma in Shanxi Province. More than thirty minor Qing-dynasty official serving food to his

thousand ceramic fragments used for casting guests on porcelain plates made in Jingdezhen bronze vessels have been found there, and the could relish the thought that the emperor in his casting process entailed mechanical reproduction palace also used dinner sets from Jingdezhen,

of parts on a massive scale. even if those differed in decoration and quality. Because production in factories involves Modular production thus contributes to the foslarge numbers of participants, work tends to be __ tering of social homogeneity and cultural and pocompartmentalized and divided up into ever __ litical coherence.

more separate steps. As a consequence, the per- The system of grades has advantages for formance of each worker becomes more regi- producers, too. It helps them to organize their mented. Control of the workforce, of material production process and allows them to attract resources, and of knowledge is a primary con- _customers of different economic means. A workcern. Above the level of workers there hastobea shop specializing in paintings of kings of hell that level of managers who devise, organize,andcon- _—_can offer a choice of sets in different sizes and with trol production. Modular production thus con- _—s more (or fewer) figures and motils will be able to

tributes its share toward forging and maintaining appeal to a wide range of clients.

structures of an organized society, and it promotes Yet implementing module systems also re-

a powerful bureaucracy. quired enormous sacrifices. To mention only a On the consumer side, the availability of | few examples, for the sake of political stability the many sophisticated luxury goods, such as lac- Chinese forfeited the easy way to become literate, quer- and porcelain ware, pleased greatnumbers the richness of separate national literatures, the of people, improved the quality of theirlives,and metaphysical quality of their hells, some treedom contributed to their feeling of privilege. When _ of the painter’s brush, and also some aspects of

applied to architecture, the module system al- what the West considers human rights. Indeed, lowed timber frame buildings to be erected all module systems are bound to curtail the personal over the empire, because they were adaptable to _ freedom of the makers of objects, and the owners diverse climates and heterogeneous functions. and users. Modular systems engender unbending Printing spread information and social values restraints on society.

throughout the realm—dquickly, cheaply, and in The post and beam buildings analyzed in

great quantities. chapter 5 supply a metaphor of a modular society: It is another asset of module systems that all blocks and brackets are individually shaped, they allow production of objects in a hierarchy of but the differences between them are small. Each grades. Individual ritual bronzes or sets of them block is made to fit into only one particular posican be larger or smaller, the differencescanbesub- _ tion in the building. The joints between the memtle, and the grading fine-tuned. This permits the bers have to be tight, because the shocks of an owners of these objects to define their respective | earthquake and the gusts of a typhoon must be social position and make it known to their peers, | absorbed and distributed throughout the entire

6 structure. If one member does not fit perfectly, the will take up these phenomena, and analyze how, adverse effect will multiply. If, however, every in specific cases, intentional imperfections are exIntroduction part fits well, the precarious construction will ploited creatively. For now, suffice it to recall that enjoy an astonishing resilience. Life is tight in this principle is well known in nature: the ten

module systems. thousand leaves of a mighty oak all look similar, but exact comparison will reveal that no two of

| them are completely identical.

The Issue of Creativity Growth in manufactured modular units happens in two ways. For a while, all modules

Permeating the concerns of this book is the issue —_ grow proportionally, but at a certain point propor-

of creativity. One basic definition of humans is tional growth stops and new modules are added that they create objects. They make pots and instead: the animals in the decorative field of a crossbows, timber pagodas, and mainframe com- __ bronze vessel will be a bit larger ona slightly larger

puters. They make objects by certain techniques _ vessel, but not exceptionally large on an excepand give them certain—often very sophisti- tionally large vessel; rather, a new decorative zone

cated—shapes. Manufactured objects can be will have been added. A three-bay hall may be measured against creations in nature. Nature is built wider by 10 to 20 percent, but a hall that is prodigious in inventing shapes, in using materi- _ wider still will need five bays. Zheng Xie painted als, and in devising systems of forms. Humansare __ clusters of bamboo leaves, say, ten centimeters in hard-pressed to approach this creativity, let alone diameter ina small album. Ona tall hanging scroll

to surpass it. the clusters may average twelve or fifteen centime-

When people develop systems of modular __ ters, but the painter will need many more of them production they adopt principles that nature uses _ to fill the composition. This is the principle of a as well in creating objects and shapes: large quan- _cell growing to a certain size and then splitting tities of units, building units withinterchangeable into two, or ofa tree pushing out a second branch modules, division of labor, a fair degree of stan- _ instead of doubling the diameter of the first.

dardization, growth through adding new mod- Reckoning with proportional rather than ules, proportional rather than absolute scale,and absolute measurements is a principle that has production by reproduction.® The first three of | been applied widely and with much sophisticathese seven principles are here considered to be __ tion, especially in the field of architecture. As a tairly self-explanatory and therefore not given rule, measurements of brackets and beams are not further comment, whereas the latter four princi- _— given in absolute terms, such as inches, but in

ples may merit some explanation. “sections.” The length of one section varies acStandardization of units that stops short of cording to the overall size of a building. The chap-

pertect duplication is pervasive in modular pro- ter on architecture presents evidence that the duction: the same decoration on the front and Chinese explored the principle of relative proporback of a ritual bronze vessel, upon close inspec- _ tions in their anatomical studies. One particular tion, is bound to reveal minor discrepancies; eye- _ text divided the total length of the body into sevbrows and beards of the terra-cotta warriors may __ enty-five sections, which were then used to mea-

have the same basic shape because they are sure body parts. Obviously, the length of the formed from molds, but reworking the clay by sections varied, depending on the size of the perhand has individualized them all; the prefabri- son. The system allowed one to locate exactly the cated wooden blocks in the bracketing of a points for acupuncture on the human body, that pagoda look totally exchangeable, but exactmea- most familiar and enigmatic creation of nature.

suring uncovers differences of a few millimeters Reproduction is the method by which nabetween each of them. The following chapters _ ture produces organisms. None is created without

precedent. Every unit is firmly anchored in an than making things that looked like creations of 7 endless row of prototypes and successors. The nature, they tried to create along the principles of _ Chinese, professing to take nature as their master, nature. These principles included prodigious cre- Introduction were never coy about producing through repro- _ ation of large numbers of organisms. Variations, duction. They did not see the contrast between mutations, changes here and there add up over original and reproduction in such categorical time, eventually resulting in entirely new shapes. terms as did westerners. Such an attitude may be There seems to be a well-established Westannoying when it comes to cloning software, but ern tradition of curiosity, to put the finger on it also led to one of the greatest inventions of hu- _ those points where mutations and changes occur. mankind: the technique of printing. In the West- | The intention seems to be to learn how to abbreern value system, reproduction in the arts has viate the process of creation and to accelerate it. In traditionally had a pejorative connotation. In- the arts, this ambition can result in a habitual dedicative, and influential in our century, has been mand for novelty from every artist and every the view of Walter Benjamin, who declaredthata — work. Creativity is narrowed down to innovation.

work of art loses its aura when reproduced by — Chinese artists, on the other hand, never lose technical means.° However, recent research has sight of the fact that producing works in large uncovered that in the arts of the European Middle numbers exemplifies creativity, too. They trust Ages, for instance, reproduction could indeed be that, as in nature, there always will be some ~ used asameans to define an artistic tradition,and among the ten thousand things from which even to reinforce the impact of specific works.!° change springs. A rich and profuse body of theoretical writ-

ings in China deals with the issue of creativity, es- , , pecially in the visual arts. Invariably, the creativity of humans is described in relation to the creativity of nature, which is upheld as the ultimate model. We are told that a sage of antiquity invented script when gazing at the footprints of birds. Early trea-

tises describe the qualities of calligraphy in terms , of nature imagery such as a gentle breeze through |

a bamboo grove, or a phoenix soaring to the clouds. Praising an artist for his “spontaneity” (ziran) and “heavenly naturalness” (tianran), or saying that he captured life as nature does, are the highest acclaim a Chinese critic can bestow.

Artists in the Western tradition consider

the emulation of nature a primary task, too, but : they have been pursuing it on a different course. 7 Beginning with the competition between two oe

Greek painters to determine which of their paint- ,

ings a viewer would more readily mistake as real, , questions of realism, verisimilitude, and mimesis | , have stimulated and haunted Western artists ~ down to today." To Chinese artists, mimesis was not of

paramount importance. (Only in images of the , dead did they strive for verisimilitude.) Rather

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| The Syst t Script

eleventh-century Chinese philosophers spellfor outthis somebook, of — —_ [19.17 Stone inscription of Lotus Hand Sutra (aetall |: thetwo epigrams that together serve as a motto Opposite:

their basic assumptions about the principles of creation: pro- of Fig. 1.6, 14.5 10 crm)

duction happens by combining parts (typified by the eight trigrams), and by , reproducing, varying, and transforming established categories of units with-. | out end. Shao Yong and Zhou Dunyi refer to creations in nature. Yet, and this — pn

is my basic thesis, when the Chinese created products in module systems, they did so along the very same principles.'

The first module system that I will analyze is the Chinese script. Whereas each system discussed in later chapters—be it bronze casting, post

and beam construction, or printing with movable type—has counterparts in on

other cultures, the Chinese script, with its fifty thousand characters, is all but ,

unique. To have devised a system of forms in which it is possible to produce distinguishable units in a mass of such breathtaking dimensions is the single — most distinctive achievement of the Chinese people. This attainment set a standard of quantity and complexity for everything else that was done in China. , In illuminating the principles of construction in the system of forms Fig. 12. Thou Dunyiepigram (computer print)

that is the Chinese script, the second of the two epigrams will serve as a first | visual example. Written in Chinese, the quotation comprises ten characters ca Loy He He ; in two lines. Figure 1.2 shows the epigram with the author's name and the

tion reads: | Td 8 (bE #2 5 title of his text added. To repeat, rendered into English Zhou Dunyi’s quota-

The ten thousand things are produced and reproduced, 1"

Zhou Dunyi ja BY (ial y

so that variation and transformation have no end. ~ Diagram of the Supreme Ultimate Explained

Likewhich all Chinese these seventeen units be arefurther built updivided. of singleThe K Awk =Hae ° strokes, are thecharacters, basic elements. They cannot 9

10 Ten Thousand Things two simplest units in the series are the character “transformation” (hua; line 2, third character from the left), and the character “supreme” (tai) in the book title (line 4, first character). Each consists of four strokes only. Most compli-

Ti JN ye d cated is the characterwhich signifying “variation” (bian; line 2, second character), has twenty-three strokes. Ne ) | are Between the level of the strokes and the much more complex level of the complete character units is another, intermediate level, which displays

‘\ / moderate complexity. This is the level of building blocks or components, SI~ J |e each of which consists of several strokes. In a series of characters such as the . seventeen characters in Figure 1.2, these building blocks tend to recur and, I~ J Vie die in different characters, are used in different combinations. The component meaning “word” (yan), which occupies the center of the upper half of the character “variation” (bian), occurs again at the left side

G3NlZ7 | le ee of the last character, which means “explain” (shuo; line 4, last character).

Four horizontal dots are found in the lower part of “without” (wu; line 2, character 4), and in the final particle yan (line 2, character 6). While this par-

) | ticle is also pronounced and transliterated yan, it is not the equivalent of the r oliewphy nee Commun Gree. irom the component that represents word. A part that means “mouth” (kou) and looks like a small square occurs in the third line, in zhou, dun, and yi of Zhou Dunyi, and in each of the last three characters in line 4, the tithk—more than once in the penultimate character.

Such components will be called modules. They are interchangeable building blocks that can be put together in varying combinations to make the written characters that have been and still are used today in China.

| Thus, the Chinese script is a system of forms built up in a hierarchy of five levels of increasing complexity:

element a single brushstroke module a building block or component

unit a single character series a coherent text

; i ; mass all existing characters

Fig. 1.4 The “Eight Laws in the Character yong

This scheme, in a nutshell, is what this book has to say about modules

An) and mass production.

The following analysis considers the separate levels in the five-tier system of Chinese script, then traces the system’s evolution, and finally ad-

—w ) / dresses the question of why the Chinese developed a module system at all for

Lo ) oF their script. fa

AB ON Brushstrokes Ss The abasic elements, strokes, areItseach executed withofa asingle, movement of thethe writing brush. elastic tip consists bundlecoherent of hairs. Before writing, the tip is dipped in ink. At the beginning of the stroke, it touches the flat writing surface, and as the writer increases pressure, the

a hairs spread and the stroke becomes wider. The writer only lifts the brush

again at the end of the stroke. Thus each stroke has a coherent shape with

gral i a (EH Seen » 7 i cannot be further divided. vs yay alii ine Sh ‘ : ‘ | j tas : nA De BS ey ae Over the centuries, writers on the theory Ww pon (bu ie eS age Fi clear-cut contours. It is a graphic element that oes ik-

~ an 4-4 ;ee be

: .ikee. 3 : ;, ;yr . , B= iy}. ‘a 2 ge ¥ |Pow es VEN

of Chinese calligraphy have established several , (big sys oar ig sets of stroke Some sets are different very elaborate, Ay, ie =i:a Ga saa | aSine

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apa aera PAR APA LTORE S pikect Ae AE ee Se bik ae a ue Ha RAR e Fae ) fe es eS £424 fap SS Po. Sage we “ih bie Beary ors " mae bss! a

dil erly earn pee Si cae ee ah Be iM HbFlic © Bo SLah Few Bese aeae eee tte ote 8 tm axe | Ve aah ia)3Bae jet 'F VIS neaBi HeStS ‘ee rant, and so on, according to the scheme in Figure 1.8. One could thus de- »» »_ » | »/

sign 9,999 characters. oo, .different Fig. 1.8 — |maginary characters composed of four The telegraph service in China uses such a system, capable of trans- girokes each, arranged in quadrants

mitting 9,999 characters, each represented by a four-digit number. An experienced telegraph dispatcher knows them by heart and can swiftly convert the characters into numbers and back again. It is the shortest possible system. There is no redundancy, no repetition of any information. In every unit each bit of information is given only once. If the telegraph dispatcher makes a mistake in one digit, he garbles the entire character.

At the other end of a theoretical spectrum of systems, each of the many thousand characters would be totally unique. Each unit would have a completely individual form, sharing no part with any other unit. To design these would require an extraordinary degree of visual inventiveness, and the characters would have to be very large and unwieldy. Indeed, it is almost inconceivable that such a variety of forms could be achieved at all. The Chinese found a middle way between the extremes of reduction to the mathematical minimum and boundless individuality. In their characters the average number of strokes is higher than four, and they did not set them into neat quadrants. Rather, they allowed for a great variety in size and relative position of the strokes. The character system has to be more complicated than mathematically necessary, because the human brain does not work like a simpleminded computer. An essential part in all perception processes is the recognition of known elements. (Perception theory teaches us that in identifying shapes, our eyes and brain rely on the repetition of information.) It is easier to remember slightly more complex shapes in which some parts are familiar than shapes in which the repetition is reduced to the minimum. If we miss a bit of the information, recognition of familiar forms allows us to grasp the meaning of the whole unit all the same. On the other hand, it would be equally impractical and counterproductive if each character were a completely individual creation. Between the extremes of merciless reduction and boundless individuality a solution was developed: the module system. The modules of the character units are precisely those familiar components that occur again and again and thereby facilitate identification of

the characters for the eye and the brain. When learning a new character, one does not have to remember a unique and unfamiliar structure of, say, a dozen strokes, but only the place of perhaps three familiar modules in a specific composition. Similarly, the reader will not look at every single stroke of a character but only at the character components. Eyes and brain thus can identify a character in the split fraction of a second that is available in fast reading.°®

16 Ten Thousand Things In addition to remembering modules as graphic components, the brain can also remember them as semantic units. Almost all modules have a specific meaning, and in most characters the meaning of one module contributes to the meaning of the entire character. This is another layer otf repeti-

tion that makes it possible to remember thousands of characters. This pattern does not exist in the telegraph-code system. The module system also allows for flexibility when the number ot characters has to be increased. It was no problem for the Chinese to design charac-

ter number 10,000 after character number 9,999. A telegraph dispatcher would have to rework the entire system the moment he added a fhitth digit.

According to the definition given above, modules are interchangeable building blocks that are put together in varying combinations to make the written characters. The details from the rubbing of the Lotus Hand Sutra illustrate how it is done (Figs. 1.1 and 1.9—1.12). Several characters in the details contain modules also found in characters of the motto (Fig. 1.12). The module representing “word” (yan) occurs in the motto in the characters for “variation” (bian) and “explain” (shuo). In the rubbing detail (Fig. 1.1), the same component yan is seen in the characters indicating “read” (du; first vertical column at right, second character from top; hereafter 1/2), “recite” (song; 1/3), and “all” (zhu; 3/7). A left-hand part, which means “man” (ren), occurs in the motto in the character for “transformation” (hua). The same ren module turns up in the rubbing in “practice” (xiu; 1/4) and “Buddha” (fo; 2/4). Bi, which stands for “spoon,” is the right-hand part of the hua character and is also found in the rubbing where it is the right-hand part of “this” (ci; 3/6). The module representing “tree” (mu) at the left of “ultimate” (ji), the second character of the

;Fig.; ;1.2leu ro, 2 rie . wis , .

CL re yak A oy Se ge ; : . . aE. & = a i ~ wa ‘4 . eee) . \ts-)° acterFd in the recurs in the » sutra, i]motto, ¥ 4although —t- | , lala e. ». Buddhist written in se ? ae 2. . re motto’ title, recurs in the rubbing as

A~ —- hee the lower part of “joy” (le; 4/5). The Fig. 1.9 Modules in (right) detail from Lotus Hand REP s a | component “grass (cao) on Lop ol Sutra (Fig. 1.1), and (below) in Zhou Dunyi epigram ee tt y: As] “S\se9. “ten thousand” (wan), the first char-

., \.t [4 ibe he ar 3 slightly different form, in “bitter

8) | ~~ — ]% . ’ y mlz] 2H > 2 ee

. : , xoePy. K Ay 1 mass (ku; 4/3). The square-shaped modx= E=a)Rive | $75 sink — i oe i ar es =o Ee eee | f= ule meaning “mouth” (kou), which is

oo ; _ see Seen several times in the motto, is

AS) Tt 3 17 3 also met with frequently in the rub. WIV ICIJN.bing (1/6, 2/1, 3/4, 473, 4/7, 5/7) Pe + be 4 L. Indeed, it is remarkable how many =} a modules in these two completely ‘ : |’aeHT Beclilferent Sx7tCtexts ATC > “oF er]\2% | rl El umm are1identical. 5 2 ="Een 7 Combining modules into ‘eee 3°? ae 2 AOA, ey Ul £p t U4 BF SF) Ak nd BR

[hese steles, first such monuments fi , oe established the the genre of historical inscriptionsin] China, 8 * ¥ ae 4% ee Tt- 5199.) lt Re .Rage ie ¢‘m ip a3 4 and set stones a precedent and We a standard for thou AAAS F AS 44 40 So ne. sands upon thousands of engraved that 3 - Say ema ai dPIRQe + i% oe

have been carved since that time. The original J © XK &P-3H SH. us F = VTA i ~

seven stones all seem to have been lost, but a a4 ) Ths ie ee Te Sa qinplaced tet 2h Apr Yi, s Bhs ecut o 993nnn, of the stele on Mount gg EE go Aa ee+eeWY a: Ae

20 Ten Thousand Things or Yishan bei, in Shandong Province in 219 B.c. is believed to preserve faithfully the style of the original writing (Fig. 1.16). The tectonic script type on

Pte Ee. Gate ya theage emperor's steles is called Small Seal —_ Script (xiaozhuan). Its epigraphic SRD Ae ert i = = eee ae ie ( —e | | _—_ . ee bedi a f1\ eR : = — dignity equals that of stone inscriptions of the Roman Empire." (( ae AS are eS OS fan a According to tradition, the emperor's chancellor, Li Si (died 208 B.c.), ar ES Sila oo fo Oe a ee designed the Small Seal Script and unitied the scripts employed in the vari-

eg Ne ON es ee . . a ; “ie

Me A parts wareofortheiwee ‘re.Unification Unificatiin'nthe thepolitical litical realm real hus itsparalparal E77SPE (0 Fe3g a Se 1" |ous empire. thus had had its RNa OR ay ofp Pee. bo lel in the realm of script.'!° We are not told what “unitication” of script meant

ee bP 607%. | —oS in DP concrete yet one can tell looking at of thecharacter script itself ae MLN cationterms, must have included thefrom standardization size that and unifistroke

Po ENE pede pact 6 ae © or shape. The Small Seal Script is set out on a strict grid pattern, the characters

See bP Te | is Peg ne ge» SR Wiccge tee sings 9 Ps ae : F Sein (pate = pice ae eee me

aes eh faded Oh AB De ee .

c= faces ah I H.. ry :. are uniform in size, the strokes are drawn in straight lines and in measured fF aha IRMA 9" po ear 4 curves, and they are of an equal thickness throughout.

2 PSE sa AN it tak ae system Ee SEN abfully : : developed. ; : oe esRules & eee ) , laid oe down 2:: a Ch SAPS ae [he module is now haveiabeen

a “Deas eS ree oe “ie

pate OES oS? Vase a about which phonetic and which semantic parts each character must contain. ; fara 7 PAR LTE ae Idiosyncratic characters have all but disappeared. All characters are built from =, Ao Eee Pog ae Nee distinct, interchangeable parts. The philologist Xu Shen canonized a reperie So, Wo a EQN ‘re of 540 c =_— f the Seal Scrivt in a dictionary presented in AD seal Hip ai ili aed toire of 540 components of the Seal Script in a dictionary presented in A.D. fe at: L res [\\ b] SNe 100 and called Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters (Shuowen jiezi). ol Canomer eons Mem Cie In the tollowing years, when the Chinese adapted their script to new

. F PR a ‘ at ae ¢ T1i ( y > y a =a > ST ) A . ah rS > ) “2 rt O a

Fig. 1.16 Stele on Mount Yi (detail), 219 8.c,, recut materials ind new needs, they sim] lilied the module system by reducing the A.D. 993, Forest of Steles, Xian. Rubbing of stone number of modules, and the number of strokes in single modules. The major

inscription, 43 61 cm. Private collection step was taken in the second century A.D. with the so-called Clerical Script (lishu), which had tewer than half the number of components of the Small Seal Script. Only much later was this reduced repertoire of parts canonized in

: sie - 8 a list of 214 so-called radicals, which served to classify and arrange charac-

Fig. 1.17 — Stele of Yi Ying (detail), A.D. 153, Temple ot ~~ | | . ~~ . er . | r inscription, ca. 24 * 15cm A.D. 1716. The 214 radicals are still used in modern dictionaries, and most o1

= 2 tS Se ee. ; ; : ; i a

Te them are modules in the above definition, except for a few simple ones that eS oe ee | consist of one stroke only, and some complicated ones that can be broken ok 5. aetna’ Ph = down into smaller modules. Hence, beginning with the Clerical Script, the a x See ee ss ee system of Chinese script has comprised about two hundred modules.

as a i ae ee ee a Moreover, the Clerical Script considerably simplitied the composition

wad as153Pin thewitha ie —in Quiu, . .Shandong . . : Province, . : Py pS AF ‘ z oeeo bei) of.A.D. Temple of Confucius il-

s = g ay Se aN ARE of single modules. A detail of the inscription on the Stele of Yi Ying (Yi Ying

Ware ee ee lustrates the point (Fig. 1.17). The module yan (3/1) already displays the

ay Pe pea, oS dae: ,

ae See a (cate ee structure that is seen on the rubbing of the Lotus Hand Sutra (see Figs. 1.1, eee & Se: 2 Sm. 1.10), whereas the same module yan is more complicated on the older stele EEN ee WANS from Mount Yi (Fig. 1.16; 5/6). Similarly, the module that indicates “water Ee ee, Py ae (shui) is reduced to three dots on the Yi Ying stele (2/2 and 2/4). The abbreviSe i ala eC a ated shapes of the strokes conform to the fairly swift movements of the sup-

Rs Cd are = + Ra : ; Pigg ; E : . - ec ee is ; j . « aii

ARES, “i grat : ie Feta B : not egmoe eS j “usta fy 1 i)Rig Fee FY Ce FS } RO tena, re Ae vaVfoe ed * ;FPS eyeen CeMW ‘ ~~ Sag CASS J.) W aineed aa, bs aIP We RET . ite aHie ae Wd Groe Be*bye mentees : ‘ OY ae AL tt, =>} Ghfeess die LS Bey i GPA

rae el | OLGTi CN de A Nemderis i, =Sim: Bos bei uit 3 gee) nS SeSSeaite eS SS4Na AAT G28 SOA

ih NAC Ses Wage A\'ty TELL Vaneddense | Coo pace ty LEtswhine Pe ' 14 ee eaef & eae a f bin r po RSP erie Sol mbaes lett’ 450 Series dR wah © reteani Yicx"peer iiaee‘ 'Risa gt nee . RACH ; 4 * yen een aim sb Srewarcmtyor 3} nated UPR ee | MF ff A) Yaseen Casey Ato he is eS, eee Be at Yen iy! py 8 Le beeen

oe OS ee rte Tae he RR yas 3} Te Saene f iin ee Te ; lay antl , E “aus re Pi og i if Pe ‘ey

SeinOhnd ERAS iat MN ee S|oe meneel SSS Sesh Tn giueM LE. Wefo bes ine oh ae ihe tee CN RERee at eae Nae BLAAB) | Wound rimAlea haaeeae& se reasARN 2 RS OBE Sealed TDN er ash ee mreIN me aan oi gte ARObem Res “anioucengl § {i iitcl Feo Femmes seue ‘ same. 7 aiid

Ss etn EEtoee eatertalee Nal ere freer stndtig7eTBene tb or _Me , SER se Sep nee ORE a aot othSam vig BINS a med eS PhSpeen Saree eee

as«tS ERT yyerTees ge SE ek neni HOOT ta Weaa Se Ors eas ee es. SONA y esSAU ae ORME NS Rony) VPS

(iad PO a a Bhs. ) ¢ ers ae aie ts * Bails Ca apa path tans ee 6 Baa OR 4 ; Fa Een i ee RAB wap pee ae

i ie PAN) H: phe Fa | at Me aad th eT Sea BRAG Ara eae: aes ee er GE si hak Pee a : ; Ps: on Th eas ait Hibs waa! Fr) cass | ines) i —— wey ee EO " Si eras Rares Te Pe fs BAe coe f % ‘i ets ‘ "s 3} Ste oA JARS a eat pete eee f pero h BIEL BT piece, ees Porn ex 7 ax} Wy a, Sa p> £ Perl EE Sad Pb es Seti aT | ea a

yh: ae AN a al arateEF YiryBie, Bereny fitare Sa 4Ww i ‘lesas Vi be oensh i Sk SoneNOE Zadg iP PEST peePAs “leeryyi aeed], i a UB OH } he . . ; Qa orata jprag oeYS eRcas Pate chee Wath A LotitisSORTER 1 Fe ; ;,pea bas titeeh .toga sigh se 3 ye yes Aare ;p hee (Ay giant nine! ct mets 4 PETE 8 RS TT «Breen ae Saat tiene Be it SAF Ged B/E NaN

bast} 1 Peeimettai armenll NA =| po2 NOR Sa = AT pal SC Na eel aa i Pe eas 9 We ee Beetiyse ageale ts Pee Fee ND bcachae te ice Be es] 35 Ghee is saeLg ae?9 4sey ff ilpaeos ¥e , ay eset LOE PP peat: PES ees es PAN \\ 4 3 oR \e s\tS “a tien Tel th be ¥en tal iootiae ‘ sic 1 fox ef rooms, ) Pes bo Nid Rohe 9 »se beMined =D % YP) | bone Wp iter BP is Bier eae i Be=AS SG AUP AESea Mee LAR Sayaeeae, : Ra) Sg GAH «mies.

Sete BoE FY ed are / om Fae Toes 2 Mego } 4h pa i ehh eae Ls oe Meneat oi teats.) er FPA |; i Roepe CEE)teAS ey lh: aid: Roaeemda SEES | BeoePa ‘ ood

Nate aaSee PE Sats RV Soe Veep es FH Use Prose at Seep eae Re ‘ ities a ee Eve)L|sh ASu) Ae GS GATSj 5¥ "Ge 3SOU a taeme vet, Bretndash cay arSak ee area wenn # ViRane Gee SB rc bE Pape eeene bien Pose ti Sey cf DORE >SeRea aro ewee Bid tis! Pecans) Heniiteeye CkWEgieney SeLEN A PAE Pe=yan fag |8) Raijegfms dod ~2 See lkied, pater an Ucn fem aait SA Wa Cotyeat eanze tony - * aE a} ha ee AS teBe: at eM ek soar AyetSX) fasee1S aati| IVY 2) Ae Biteeeey AR” ion aS Shea Aight be A) E4 ‘ ~ is y

sesENA ERR ERR Ne OeER aescae 176TREC ES heyMol ES 4 BAe Teevmreeer eeetg Nati \ BA ‘Denies ¢ BA ihe.9 es aby Bd Ae ES riorn re :aea SA iraratemrne. Ra ae. wenccek 1 ahs eer cit CNY cicaEe Dae eRbiter OR oO od a AR goer es Saal eneasy en wit ak hy: dei were iS “SS tjLe OE OT rte rs oad oooMorais) laRENT pe Ae sens eget CoA FAL CAE Ree RtRULE eteeumn eststat eet ThSebened tet tyaefdq ay Ane Sata !ee etSie?AEN Bd ai Spa ope oy Fay eee) fe a ¥ tx oe AE My Reena Min Po SAA ates vk CO ae P gad Se Sa eee ASS eens tae eo

Pa ee paella gS ent)i 3} eee SREei esa sCaN aii; P a

ioe RY i. fae Reo

Casting B th C i ted W

material remains surviving from Chineseand antiquity. The 19-27 — Fangy), ca. 1200.8.c. H. 26.5 cm, Dimens. R itual bronzes most impressive fascinating Opposite: oo . . are at the mouth 13.3 X 11.1 cm, Weight 3.6 kg. Museum fir intricately decorated vessels come in many shapes Or — Qaacaticche Kunst, Cologne

types. Cast for and used by the early aristocracy of China in the Shang dynasty (about 1650-about 1050 B.c.) and in the Zhou dynasty (about 1050-256 B.c.), they were made to hold food and wine in ceremonial ban- quets prepared tor the ancestors. These bronzes were the most precious ob- ~

jects in the religious and political life of their day. | | Vessels and utensils of bronze were manufactured in several other regions of the ancient Eurasian world, in Mesopotamia, India, Greece, and |

Japan. Among the artifacts of all Bronze Age cultures, Chinese ritual bronzes —

stand out in at least three respects: their decoration, their technique, and their being grouped as sets. This chapter concentrates on these three aspects, which make Chinese bronzes unique among other bronzes in the world. For decoration the bronze makers developed a modular system that allowed them to assemble countless combinations from a limited repertoire

of motifs and compartments. They also devised a modular technical system , for casting their vessels. These systems offered the best solution to the task that the ancient Chinese had set for themselves: to produce high-quality bronzes in sets. In order to understand why they made this effort at all, it is necessary first to look at where and when they cast their bronzes, and what they used them for.

CU nearthing Ritual Vessels Thousands of ancient Chinese bronze vessels are known. New ones come to light almost every day. Yet the objects preserved in the earth can be only a

fraction of all the bronzes that were ever cast. We shall never know how many 25

26 Ten Thousand Things were destroyed in wars, melted down for weapons or coins, or lost in other ways. It is certain, however, that more bronzes were produced in ancient China than in any other comparable culture in the history of humankind. The most significant bronze discoveries have been made at Anyang, Henan Province. Anyang’s archaeological importance was recognized as early as 1899, when oracle bones were first unearthed there (see Fig. 1.13). The inscriptions with names of the rulers of the late Shang dynasty made it seem likely that their residence and their tombs lay under the ground somewhere in the Anyang area. Before the 1930s, almost all bronzes were chance finds or came from

clandestine excavations at Anyang and elsewhere in China. Chinese and foreign treasure hunters pursued valuable objects only, disregarding and even disguising their archaeological context. Peasants near Anyang probing and drilling the earth with long metal rods could tell what kind of material they had hit from the resistance they met. They are said to have been very good at it. Indeed, even more professional robbers still continue to loot tombs very successfully. Many of the bronzes that came to light in this way reached the international art market. As spectacular pieces from Anyang were sold abroad, and oracle bones, too, left the country, the Chinese government tried to stop such diggings by controlling excavations there. The first campaign began in 1928, and more campaigns followed year after year. Work was interrupted in 1937 by the Sino-Japanese War but resumed in 1950. The Chinese archaeol-

ogists have uncovered far more than a thousand tombs and pits and the foundations of some large architectural structures, all dating from the late second millennium B.c., and they have brought to light great numbers and many varieties of artifacts. They have given the understanding of Chinese antiquity a new foundation, and they have added considerably to our views of the development of humankind in general. Anyang has become a household Fig. 2.2 — Royal tomb no. 1004 at Anyang (13th-11th word among archaeologists all over the world.!

century B.C.), during excavation The Shang tombs excavated at Anyang vary greatly in size and in their

ws oe a: Ee i apa —— bes o : furnishings. Small tombs consist only ol a pit with a

eee ee Be ee = ~ -— == ae skeleton and perhaps a few ceramic pieces near the — 7S. ee " ve: =e a og “ skull. If the social status of the occupant of the tomb

eee eee | d the 1 ied

ss ee B. s ee ae oe @-. warranted, bronze items may have been added. A Vee. Ge ee eee Sm Some larger tombs contained the skeletons of retain-

i ee SS ee eee. «CTS OF Slaves, an the largest ones were accompanie Ze. - a. (SS : ae Loe by pits for horses and a chariot (see Fig. 3.18). Their

See Ve ae ee right and the means to own such a chariot, and | 2 3 - Se - Se ee whose heirs were affluent enough to dispose of it

ere , _ = ie a TE The largest tombs, which were built for the

FP as re . one i a * 2 ch “Tig cies hig Es uv : j,. Zo a alle Tae ek foo 7 ee Set >¢fehadge OR de HEE =ae SSS FoEa|aise Fin ‘ —— 4Pathe, édLe Se % eae BePe eg x inase Hi liken ia EY ome sat =a Ni Caray 3 |, MeL): Po he y “> ee oe ei, Hie} rh![sont yfTreen aan ALL Loco Aoyee » asf iOiegis ee Pep FFs/)/ < 9/2 fd © hoeLSet arsenal f ayYi | Hitt 5 LAS ate 4 aS - e ov;lefae a a. hi, ig aN

F. Ta eee A a es 2

3 We ff 3 fight han Py 2 eS 5 BE encore t forsee A RH r= iat ff ge “Saree Ak | BO alts «ete ¥ j OF: ne i] fs, a cnn eet, re =o FEV Ram ij} ; fiver 3 Ws, =e WN > ie oi >” ae z eae Age de " -

ey i)Kerri corti |iespreg SS . WE Ww] ae tes PS es Ne Se OR BSE fgLf me LEK es oe AA eeSee as\ai aoe renee. Meee ,. ee ify, At, CY bie Pape: : Bitar EY 7iah aap \ *P,eee \s fae frter ed £fRen “1sSP i nae: \\ sanGWn \ | See ara OTEE BSA big th. aNaLe. é |OF ie tess nN RF Bes bps): B OL UAT a Rs a ee Pate at et ee Pd aS ee gp tae geY ee | Skits. baaae(asota Aas |Se Gee & \\\ ae ioeree. eS jeaf, OFLo POOLE: ie fog Bei YP es ES. cag“hi josie: \\0 Nias “an NR Pm 2.29), and a jian in the Pillsbury Collection in the Minneapolis Institute of . a a Wy’ Arts (Fig. 2.30) are examples. The two basins carry inscriptions indicating oS ie e. ke Suh, :

that they were cast in the state of Jin before its demise in 453 B.c.* os LF Go ee

The basins’ bodies are each decorated with three horizontal bands = oS Ae oe |

filled with interlaced animal designs. This kind of decor, which has its ori- ce < Ns hee anc gins in the late Western Zhou period, differs from Shang decor in several re- ae He ae Be %

spects. Although it is still composed of animal forms, distinct creatures on ee ay Ee a cannot be easily identified. The body parts merge into a homogeneous pat- oe ee oF ‘ tern that continues in uninterrupted bands without vertical divisions. The - Cp a - 4

traditional bilateral symmetry is replaced by radial symmetry, “masks” point- oe

ing downward and upward in alternating succession.*! These properties ol Fig 28. inecintian on each anave anal bea the decor all but conceal that the decorative bands actually consist of repeti- _ of Y@ Chou gong (Fig. 2.20). Idemitsu Museum, Tokyo

tive sections. Meticulous investigation will reveal that the sections are com-

pletely identical, which indicates that they must have been reproduced mechanically. *

42 Ten Thousand Things | Oia Pee ee Gt ree P Bat cae lef ed eats es ORES ttc rer errant fa Ce oes I Fe eeagt 8— Le)Tees ee ae a eteccieuae bee hae eS are ae

ee ey OR aCe

oh AAA ee ae "es em at FSG ahi rs: BP Widsets cep i ai as 2 : ction aa eae gues (ear aut 7, Se yaks: aU OS Gime i ae MS Ce SE rey ian ah SEE Rae ae NN Pe URN ON eee AN BY pag

ey. 82 «aN NC eeCyoD Os oyaSE Nie eeeeAO Et) CC RS i aalte gee re CRFigs) hur.|)

ee ee ee Be a a oe

“eg “Se Ne Re tee Or ee

Fig. 2.29 — Jian basin, before 453 B.c. H. 22.8 cm, i OS ae W. 51.7 cm, Weight 9.27 kg. TheWashington, Freer Gallery ofD.C. Art, eyme an ae Smithsonian Institution, ee}

The process is thought to have involved the following steps: a workman first carved a decor unit into clay in the positive. The piece was fired hard and then served as a pattern block. Figure 2.31 shows a clay piece from Houma with an elaborate animal mask in the positive. Most likely it is such a pattern block. Another craftsman then took repeated impressions from the block in soft clay and inserted them, one next to another, into a prepared mold mantle of slightly larger dimensions than the intended vessel (Figs. 2.32, 2.33). While “wallpapering’—as Robert Bagley has called it—the interior of the mantle in this way, he could adapt the malleable clay to its curved surface, but almost invariably he had to shorten the last unit to fit into the mantle’s circumference. Scrutiny reveals this break in the regular spacing of the decorative units. It will also be seen that at times impressions taken from two different pattern blocks were used in alternation, or that one large pattern block had itself been generated from smaller pattern blocks. When the two basins from Minneapolis and Washington were placed side by side, it was demonstrated that the same pattern blocks had been employed for the decoration of both vessels.

The two jian and many similar vessels are believed to have been cast in a foundry at Houma, Shanxi Province. It is the site of ancient Xintian, the capital of the state of Jin from 585 B.c. until 453 B.c. The foundry was

Fig. 2.30 Jian basin, before 453 B.c. H. 22.8 cm, Win Se ee Re ae re Se ao Ear

W. 51.7 cm. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts ‘pt WE ia Ges Se Nw oar ae me CP | " a Hapa ad ep eS') 8s GUN OF pah Reda ine a Oe res ieee ee (Eat ERR Si o>

probably dissolved at the end of this period after having been in operation Casting Bronze the Complicated Way 43 for about a century. Bronze casters at Houma were not the first and only ones to use pattern blocks, however. The technique was known by the sixth century B.c., if not earlier, and not only in Jin but also in Chu and other

states.*? Yet Houma is by far the largest foundry site that has been ar- Fag Se A ee be, OAR

chaeologically identified. In anofarea ofmodels, severalandsquare = Gai: espern more than thirty thousand fragments molds, other §kilometers, pac DP ye Ss (rr OLS 4 debris have been found. Excavation began in 1957 and the signifi- La O 4 Ce Eve vat cance of the discoveries was soon recognized, yet the material re- Ker XS ae GS Fi mained all but unpublished and inaccessible. Only about three fy as y NG O TA J te ON ee

decades later did systematic study begin.** Cae a ae It has now become clear that Houma was a center of mass pro- .

. the foundry at Houma, Shanxi Province. Baked clay,

duction on an industrial scale, capable of turning out rapidly a great variety of ii 2h) PeusHmnigeh petites ar Bieabteaat bronzes in large numbers. As the decorated fragments reveal, the factory drew jg. x aa. cm on stylistic sources of an astonishing diversity, including revivals of Shang zoomorphic and spiral patterns, late Western Zhou dragon interlace, animal

erp ee

: ~ e . foe Ce a eye ; patron = " at : 3 :tt7 en : : ; |ee ; * |ee . " :ee : : i| fea : : is : : ‘ fe ; = wee EeEBel) dei :ee - “fiz — Seine — — — — eine Oe ghee eet Ps eee ee en

TT ee a eC SEED Taae ° NGS 6 . “ -, oe at th a > : ne: 2 - ; a fs, Lye oe RR SUED I Faas ee EE yor Ge? cee ee ee) Lr es ee lee ne 88s tia. aT pe Nei at RT SORE ee NTT ee NORE SN ata riceeren a eecrearee 9: eh combat designs from the steppe nomads, and even more far-fetched motifs Fig. 232 (left) — Clay stripes in a mold mantle for

such as griffins from central or western Asia.*> The stippling and dotted orna- ting ayian basin mentation in some bronze patterns probably imitated exotic granulation in Fig. 2.33 (right) Section of a mold mantle for casting gold.*° Apart from the stylistic range, the output at Houma also greatly varied —_ayan basin in quality: extremely exquisite pieces stood next to ordinary, even inept products. Yet in most cases the pattern block technique was used for the decoration. The wide range in style and quality of its products allowed the factories to cater to a wide range of customers. While the ruler of the state of Jin

was certainly entitled to the finest pieces, the foundry also churned out rather cheap consumer goods for its clientele lower down the social scale. In addition to casting valuable pieces on demand, the factory may have

stockpiled products and offered them to whoever wanted to buy. The foundry did not produce for local consumption only. Archaeological finds of bronzes in distant locations that seem to have been cast at Houma could testify to a wide market. Exotic features, such as animals in combat, may have appealed to customers who were familiar with such motifs from their own Stylistic traditions.

| | Things ‘edented versatilityversatility r ‘om resulted new applications 44 Ten Thousand This unprecedented from new apy :

of the

modular principle. By introducing pattern blocks and treating them as modules, the later bronze makers accomplished decisive advances. First, they embraced the stylistic tradition that had disentangled decoration trom

| vessel shape. As a rule they did not fit decorative motifs into rec-

a fem CSPz. tangular fields that conformed to sections in tectonic vessel ME Sai ee hi a "q _ oS 0) (A So designs. Rather, they usually let the decoration cover the ee aa body of a vessel in a continuum of repetitive modular units.

eg nF | = ae) ae | —

ce ae oS Discarding the interplay between decoration and vesfo ee ss cel shape gave the artisans freedom. They could bend and

WH 2 trim the negative clay impressions taken from a pattern Le eee them into Pity. a: ie esblock JR. Fey and ISS raifit er Gige . fs NSS LA:mold x ‘ Sigemantles rf dma E> . :tor casting ves-

CL ON AOE ee ae Ws sels of varying shapes and sizes. Thus they were able

4 OS SS \ es Ay 3, Bi Boasts By AO CIR re igo Bt ieee SoA Sone eae IE ERS ie eS salt = i 4

Be TIN care” hd REEseveral LO See vor eee Reese iS "ey Ba : — ' : . tin one @4 aSpeony aa Ce a iBARA f to select distinct patterns for¥ decorating

ha Oia eo but eethey eecould beeas(Ou Ee Jdisa a ies Fa ee ee)WISSeANGN ne ime §=— and the same vessel, easily adorn

Bo SSNS ee Oe cl NE Ce : .

a . ee

gh a a, Poe \ oi ae | CN similar vessels with the same pattern. A bowl of the dui

ies i esl ae type in the Freer Gallery, Washington, D.C., has one main Pe. a — register of interlace animal design running around the vessel, oe ee” =— and asecond, narrow register around the neck. The lid is undec-

= - ae orated except for three ducks sitting on top (Fig. 2.34).*” A lidded 2 ee i spas esheets Fre. 7 _ ; ° . . a ° wy ).. Pomonsg ON ding tripod in the Musée Guimet in Paris has three feet instead of one

CG eS ee | . h dge of the bowl in-

Ets 2 circular foot, handles that spring from the top edge ot the bowl i

eo | | i” adiffe1 foe ‘li ; of the numerous ee ee stead of annular handles, and, on the vessel's lid, not only the ducks,

a but a ring and an additional register from which three crouched ani-

Fig. 2.34 (above) Dui \idded bowl, 5th century B.c. mals appear in high relief (Fig. 2.35).** In spite |

H. 15.5 cm, W. 16.2 cm, Weight 1.05 kg. The Freer ences between these two vessels, their main registers are completely identical, GallenyfoL arf Saninsonlat Iisuieen MMasnInS OD indicating that they may have been cast from mold impressions from the same

pattern block.*? The ducks on the two lids may have come trom the same bi-

hel ahead valve molds. This once more to show how parts of vessels and decorative ig. saat 2.35 (below ing 'tripod, century B.C. .as . goes hi ieeeStrand iat units5thfunctioned modules.

H. 18.5 cm. Musee Guimet, Paris | 5 ae Most important, the later bronze casters developed the

OE een Or | or 3 — So SAB os piece eS: { clay. Whenlating about the reaj: 4a ii, | AEC ie theBee same ol clay. speculating fis ee eae “a Me potential for replication that is inherent in any module.

ub Bi. ee | They finally did what they had had the technology to do 4 Pee. * WEEN Os. | long before: they took more than one impression from

a ee ee ee scons why the Shang-period casters did not do this, we

-s id) ee Oe ee te mentioned the intricacy of technical problems as one pos: oC} 316s = sible obstacle. blocks, technical EOEE GY Aygaea onWith — Z pattern a Ama «MS eesize, , ,; _— Eproblems paperes oeBeppe ee ee ge were far lesso complicated. Their small uniform dimenDe CNS oS, oS 8 ) nd flat shape must have encouraged the artisans to try

ae ec. ee Pala sions, a at 7 g Cee OOS Geer oe an . oo

ax ee: ee ge,emion bers, which boosted efficiency \Na «Gein. — cali reproduction in large numbers, which booste y,

tere eS See se oe ae -® — making multiple impressions.

—a...

|Or: eerse4 |,| |2ani ns | en P

cl. Oo Ou “ Those artisans paved the way for techniques of mechani-

aa ¢ B _—s speed, and production volume to unprecedented dimensions. The

ed \ 3a casters who duplicated decor sections mechanically with the help FE oa of pattern blocks finally exploited a potential for mass production

he | that had existed since Shang times. It included manufacturing all but identical vessels. Today this would be called cloning.

Sets Casting Bronze the Complicated Way 45 After this excursion into the later centuries of the Bronze Age, the modular systems of Shang-period bronze makers must be addressed once more. The

: | NY Va Va Va Va Va | of sets of vessels. AA A A AB A

discussion so far has analyzed a decorative system of fields and | oo a |

a technical system of molds, but there is a third level: a system 4 i i W i/ 4

Rarely are ritual bronzes singletons. Bronzes were cast, VW W W/ W/ W W Vv 7 VW a7

used, and as buried in several sets. Sets normally comprise vessels differ-| kh A&A&, & N : eh k || ent types, well as examples of each particular type.ofYet | A GX A&A

: ‘ ., :‘y\fIh \ Ai || | |

the units that an owner assembled in a set were not necessarily | \Y/ W \V/ \FA/ \i/ A/ Hy

i | - a. 6) A AA Ak 2h ZB

produced together. Some may have been cast for him, some he | e eF ef fF fe & & may have inherited, and some may have been gifts. Therefore,

rather than technically, sets should be defined functionally, as the | W u | i i i

laeerena ama wt allndieecinee. ieee ne eres 2 ff © be om |

; ; haa hag an bi

total assemblage of all units required for a certain ritual occasion. BA ofA AR fA AA AA AB |

Although known in theory, these facts have not always VW’ \W/ VW |

been on the minds of students of Chinese bronzes. Because al- - t tt & most all pieces in Western and Japanese collections were ac- fy fA A of quired individually, they were also studied as such. Only after \y La | \W/Lid VWe\y/ \/ W \V/ W/ | cad : H& a&W ha&VW Ly controlled excavations began in China were the~ limitations of tfi He &£§L & &&|

this view realized. Focusing instead on17the of sets has" || Nyissue j Ce RA ST Nt

, a 6 © © © &@ BB @B | social status of their owners.”° a a = ‘vine t 7 Shang ) ) 7 >e it itt] . , :

opened new perspectives concerning the technique of casting WW WY Vv W YI Vv \ \\ | bronzes, on the function and history of the bronzes, and on the ka RAAAA A A

In trying to study Shang bronze sets, however, one meets with difficul Fig. 2.36 — Total complement of fifty-three'gu beakers ties. The evidence from excavations is not sufficient. As mentioned before, all from the tomb of Lady Hao, ca. 1200 B.c.

but one of the royal tombs at Anyang were looted sometime before they were scientifically excavated. Hence, what would have been the most important evidence is irrevocably lost. Moreover, even if a tomb is found intact upon dis-

' ; 10.2.37 Fi r

covery, its contents are rarely published in their entirety and in enough detail gia pre en vee

iI c . F tnal hic al ’ i Hao, ca. 1200 B.c. Beakers a-d (subgroup 5): H. from

to answer all questions about its sets of ritual vessels. This also applies to the —_ 8.9 to. 28.5 cm: beakers e-h (subgroup 6): H. from

only unlooted royal tomb at Anyang, that of Fu Hao. Some observations —26 to 263.cm

about the Lady’s bronze sets are possible, nevertheless.?’ , rane il

~ & aif bh Bs BY e a i:

Among the 210 ritual bronzes unearthed from Lady x a a Vy The Hao’s tomb are more than 20 different types, most of which ‘ : | | vf are more than Several i \ Jtee ey| seenrepresented on the published flooronce. plan (see Fig.pairs 2.4), of andvessels many are Pe :xthe other groups were found. The largest assemblage of one type #4 [: u\ BB & A e ts

‘ : ; ae ay a Se a area ; =3 oy a 4 3 ‘ae pointed projections on the other.”? 4 i AM) a

consists of 53 gu beakers. Figure 2.36. ;shows them drawn to jgggiieeeeetes, ¢ J P= - “> one@ am BBN T ea iE BOL PRONE ITER SS Ee Dieter: eae _enstfTSee aee

scale.°* The second-largest group consists of 40 jue—three- sae SEES ae SRE legged wine vessels with long, open spouts on one side and ae i ae ¥s / Wer 9

3 my ae re aT . Aree

The elegant silhouette of the gu beakers is made up of ra a : 4. b

three distinct zones: an outward curving foot, a slender at Bia eS Se

— oe ee C | pe aia oe ae ay ee 2a

waist, and a trumpet-shaped upper part, with a gracefully E | ee m4 S | 7s 7 wiv N flaring lip. The vessels bear inscribed dedications to three Or (#RSMmNIEE Bac limestone re ate z

46 Ten Thousand Things four different individuals, at least 22 of them to Lady Hao herself. Chinese archaeologists have divided the 53 beakers into six subgroups, which are distinguished by their inscriptions and variations in shape and proportions. The beakers from each subgroup look similar, but are not identical. Beakers a through d on the right in Figure 2.37 belong to subgroup 5. They are on average two centimeters higher and have slightly squatter proportions than the four beakers of subgroup 6 (e through h). Vessels of one subtype bearing the same inscription were probably made together. The pieces are uniform in shape and size. Apparently the casters attempted and achieved a fair degree of standardization. When they produced a first, rough form of the model, they may have used tools such as jigs to shape the curved contour of the beakers into the clay, possibly on a potter’s wheel.

When it came to decorative patterns, mechanical shaping ended and Fig. 2.38 Ritual vessels belonging to Earl Xingof Wei, forming the clay by hand began. None of the decorative patterns were dupli-

mid-Sth century B.C. cated mechanically. A detailed study of other gu beakers from Anyang, which were taken to Taiwan by the Acade-

,Gane E>, mia has confirmed that two gu CY (an):cy wereSinica, cast from the same set of no molds.** Oar ons) Py Hence, even in the same from subgroup, each Yea ae | SES: ee vessel differs slightly the others. GE D,. Each vessel is an individual. The phenomaLED ee 5GE, Ca >, —) cay enon is comparable to the twenty-four —— Sonal = character pairs shijieofdiscussed in chapter 4 IE eIele 3 [ee ge Ne +) 1: a great number units, similar to one

A Cys CAs eg aN (Ue .

A I oe Crome, Sy oq oe . ——— : SOG Elo —— ss! Sys eo Cl aA ee ence Wenice ‘ , another but distinct in execution.”

——— ——— —— Rules and conventions must have

edi ce elas ia . f governed which types of vessels and how OY i Ws ( pele. al many units of each type were appropriate

Ane L|fae a| aS) : y\\U \ ffs VRCHG \ for a set. Certainly the composition of”parLp) ane BING NY / & / & \ . | , a) \VaNS)) | fal ffYg)| ticular sets reflected the social position of ae @ We) CaS: SED AES: BED ( P Q AF\\g fo} tN fio —— Feast Nie Vag Re Lig : . tig ZZ Ee RAE Yai the owner, his personal history and that of his family. The nature and importance of

= ipSE content r the ceremony mayHowever, have determined x | | | [| Tie mm of a set, too. the rulesthe do —— « — Ss SS a | lel eel not seem to have been rigid.*’ cd 5) eas, TLD 6) ess TQS) CS ID) A Caan ei) (aged (ees) Neo | eh)

es) loolFeo! tal GOH een [Roa Do} (a eesieee! Ja} GBF, jee) (eaox We2) a Changes in the composition of sets

| Ben) | fet SE apres EA S || SS | practice and in| |society in general, for _ _ ; ; which there may be no or little other his-

feo) Ieee [eal lass) Payiieo% (SoG over time indicate turns of events in ritual

iC | | | fl fF ae LU torical or ftextual evidence. Most noticeATS aU ee

et aS a aL. ac able is a shift in the middleinofthe thepieces ninth alsl Iefas eS peeliee a |ed fe fo) ree ne ig century B.c., which is evident 1@ 52)Lee | BEG ees saad

ee, Be | wag ee | belonging to Xing Earl Xing of Wei thehoar hoard iS|oo) faaesi5 laa elonging to Earl of Wei in.inthe tds) cs A) (FD Aye : . . aDe find of 103 vessels mentioned earlier (Fig. , 2.38). Venerable, graceful wine-vessel types, such as gu and jue, have been all but

abandoned for large wine flasks of the hu type (only three little jue are left). Casting Bronze the Complicated Way 47

New food vessels such as tureens of the gui type—round, two-handled basins on square pedestals—have come into use, as have bells.** The changes in the vessel repertoire are so dramatic that one insightful art historian has spoken of a “ritual revolution.” *° Among the bells of the zhong type that the earl owned were fourteen pieces from four sets inscribed with his name. Bells are a most poignant case of ritual bronzes being made in sets. In all other parts of the world a bell or, at the most, a few bells are used to give signals. The Chinese, however, as-

sembled many bells to create one composite musical instrument. Sets of bells could vary in numbers of units, but the sizes and, correspondingly, the pitch of each unit had to be calculated carefully. If it was done properly, har-

mony resulted. The self-conscious awareness that ritual bronzes were to be used in sets increased after the ritual revolution. Later sumptuary regulations prescribed

how many ritual bronzes an aristocrat of a particular rank was entitled to own. The complicated rules changed with time and place, and the archaeological evidence from earlier centuries does not agree neatly with the later texts. Yet unvaryingly, all sets included an odd number of ding tripods, and the next lower even number of gui tureens.°! Nine tripods and eight tureens also formed the core group of the most extravagant set of ritual bronzes that has come to light so far. It was de- Fig. 2.39 Ritual vessels from the tomb of Marquis Yi posited after 433 B.c. in the tomb of a Marquis Yi of Zeng (Zeng hou Yi). The _ of Zeng after 433 B.c.

Weare al sth alleCEE ow.GE emGE — ee ee llyeeATe TeREASA Yee UV,ORGIES FTE GEE, Ge

eee 3

ZB Zz) ee }) p yu i you yy iy a Cc) WIS uU WwW & CT WI

4y oh " tiyu i 5 Hh i 66 EE = = = uy iyu

yy iy51) y uy yu i) = f i i} si) ~ I ii) oe ; {j | | | | | { | I | seve ee, i Pesce OR SEN I Pees i f acer a, | | a |). | eee /, Gee, | gh Suara i

a ae | } : ; f\ , Quorn) © 9 ——— Oona reat See SPREESTCAEP CE ATTOTETINEG: Nell aY gel fil oy ral raien AY SSeS — +

48 Ten Thousand Things total weight amounted to more than ten metric tons, the largest quantity of bronze ever unearthed from a single Chinese tomb. The drawings in Figure 2.39 show the most important vessel groups.® Not included in the drawing are the sixty-five bells that were hung in the ritual chamber of the tomb on a three-tiered wooden rack supported at its ends by bronze maidens (Fig. 2.40). This assemblage of bells was composed of seven or eight different chime sets together spanning five octaves. Its music must have been overwhelming.®

Division of Labor_ The division of labor in bronze casting merits some final remarks. There are no contemporary written sources telling us how the work in Shang foundries was organized, yet, again, the bronzes themselves allow us to draw pertinent , conclusions. Certainly it required an awesome operation to make these sophisticated products. It has been estimated that two to three hundred cratftsmen were needed to produce an eight-hundred kilogram vessel such as the Square Ding Dedicated to Mother Wu.°* Doubtless a still larger pool ot laborers was required for mining and smelting the metal in the first place.®

| Casting bronze the complicated way involved division of labor. One Oo can envisage a spectrum that extends from a holistic production on the one

| , hand to a subdivided production on the other. An example of a purely

Bn holistic creation would be the carving of a figure out of a tree. This can be | done by a single man in a linear sequence of steps. During each step he can , , still experiment spontaneously. The final shape of the sculpture cannot be

, , foreseen, and even shortly before finishing, the maker can still introduce . major changes or improvements. Michelangelo chiseling David out of a marble block is an example of a holistic process.

| Chinese bronze casting is close to the opposite end of this spectrum. Here, the production is compartmentalized into single steps and units. These steps can also be viewed as modules—modules of work in a system of production. Most of them could be completed simultaneously and in great numbers, because the final shape of the product had been precisely determined before work began. While some workers prepared the bronze, others carved the molds, which must have been a particularly time-consuming stage in the production process. One craftsman may have been responsible tor carving

| all the mold pieces required for one vessel, but if an entire set of vessels was cast, which was the normal case, many workers could simultaneously make the necessary molds. Chinese bronze vessels were the result of a coordinated effort of several specialists, each of whom was responsible for a standardized part of the process.

Standardization, coordination, and predictability are essential aspects in such a production system. Individual creativity, by contrast, is cur-

tailed and only possible within a strict framework, because even small changes in one module may endanger the success of the entire process. No

participant in this process can single-handedly change the shape of the

product or decisively influence its quality. Division of labor favors unifor- Casting Bronze the Complicated Way 49 mity, albeit on a qualitatively high level. If somebody has been carving taotie

faces for twenty years, his performance will not easily be surpassed by somebody who in the same time had to perform all kinds of other tasks as well. Here lies one of the reasons why Chinese craftsmen have always, and in all fields, reached and kept an amazingly high standard of quality. Even in Neolithic times, the making of large quantities of ceramic vessels of varied shapes must have necessitated a certain division of labor. Over the centuries labor became ever more compartmentalized, as the production process was divided ever more minutely. The adoption of the pattern block technique allowed the complete separation of the carving of the decoration from mold making. This entailed reorganization of the workshop and encouraged efficiency of production.’ Division of labor was also the best way to produce great numbers of bronze vessels, and this was precisely what was required. To have religious and political life function properly, the Shang aristocracy may have needed in, say, the twelfth century B.c., sets of ritual bronzes totaling several thousand units. The bronze makers met the demand by devising modular systems. Modular products lend themselves to a division of labor. They are most Fig. 2.40 _ Bells in the ritual chamber of the tomb of

smoothly and efficiently fabricated in a production system in which the — Marquis Yi of Zeng, after 433 B.c.

— aentalized. i 1 i Se W ork 1s compartine YeeLS ee eeog co eereeeee ax =Sy eee Another essential difference between a g@ yy vgs Tae _ Bae ae i aS te

_ —_ (aa FEE ag > a as oe

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_, . ; as ae iS| a? ES ae 5ai SE sae | |QOL | , flck)Gi! pee

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oo ae Millions Olt V1S1tOrs have also seen selected LCi ba-COUd LL2ZULes Lil CAL ia rifyoN “ie Daybitions outside China. In 1976 two warriors and one horse were shown in

yMY rab as) ;anIS;exhibition Gasp ite Er ;in:New P= , ee oOeight . :figures fast cami es aaat|Fe Japan. For originating York in 1980, tJig Ad | | ee ‘ Be ey AM to the West for the first time.! Since then terra-cotta figures have traveled to

ef j he ‘ ! ; . ; ; i ; ee. a .,se, “ae a od ; . 7a :a .ee, ; ‘ 1ee1

eeeforeign |S \e . country ih f ai xor° Ty “ . {almost Ke } >every Ort rr>e ? si "Siade!) aE one another year.a Tle ( se leat) CNRAaaa NM

q ‘ ee:4ae«rfewat eaeextraordinary ‘ i” {OTT ‘ tact : ee) ene Ae)Ological es ] find : \ mndate [he most about 1S a quite shears {©} i :a.this ? archae Te | a a simple OLie.. buried were not a few. or even a lew dozen. lite like soldic rs but Rt | eae | several thousand. About two thousand ligures have been unearthed so tar,

; ay 2 a ba . 1 1 , ‘ ; . Keer DATs | ON wW:)H Irthed |

oa Ny and it is estimated that there are more than seven thousand altogether.

-siemer2iP36ok isos ah an a : - hari Shin tticers. andJcommancers. Armored it - f , , ] sm | ] 1 - ; ae es |

a "y [he figures are not only lifelike but life-size, of various types, including cn armored and unarmored intantrymen, standing and kneeling archers, caval fee rymen with horses, charioteers, petty olficers, and commanders. Armored in

aa fantrymen appear most olten. Each held a spear or halberd in his right hand, oe yg and some DOSSID1) neld a sword 1n thelr lett hands U 5 oe ihe charioteers es DAR ’ . Sg Sartre ie a ‘ é H. 190 cm ereat care, down to the stippled tread of the sole of the archer’s sandal. The lifelike quality of these warriors must have been even more striking when they were still painted with their original colors, which indicated ° (“~har TRA lalerra-cotta, ) atta Hr1. Ul) ; 1 Se : the : : different Ra | eeeparts | =o1rey San aeWhen Se eethese rOfigures WhNeE4Ntt Ya Mig. 3.4 Charioteer. 190cm cn precisely their dress. are unearthed.

° ° ° ne ae 2 ee) : oe . | ° Ei = : nee

' . —Upon . bsexcavation, 1 a erehowever, ‘ + | -nNITAamen oe their colors are still. visible. most of the pigment — adheres to the surrounding earth and not to the figures. Moreover, once exSaale posed to air, the lacquer in which the pigments are embedded tends to crum

———— J ) a C: - ; ae ” ~ _

7 oy) 4 4> 1 4% a) . ] ; ;; 5+ ae p+ + | .—;eemt in Ix meet 7a the eae . . ; . 4 fF ble rapidly, reducing the colors to powder. Only traces last thereafter. Only

Pe a recently has a method been tound to stabilize the DOly¢ nrome coating. Be

ie | none —alel eg | vie a Bi: 7LNA UN} Ba ree ~ .I nr yb] sm )| ‘Oonservation excavation |work ea A eae lee a Cause [ 1€ DI CLELS: WULIOWEL V.ALIN ae biremain < LALI unsolved UAL i \ As VCACAVACL

ae 7,ae : \s f ORIEN

now

yroceeds at a slow pace.

3 eae a [he following discussion of this army, which the emperor commis

«NT aS hy) ae »2

— \ eS sioned for his tomb, will consider three questions: What was done? Why was

a cicBatis 3 |itoRdone? And how was it done: % aa \\¢ 3) ) Lye

BAe eae

ReLee caea |;| , - , 1.4 — oe Re q

Pp What Was Done: i 4 The Necropolis

es eye | een ied ee ais ex it ap. ines bad to'') AUS tetheLpthrone thrL-: eAking Inool esSO ce. eae ne OSS nF \, ,RRS C chae” theeas -empne scen as BN rt oh ae [he Grand Historian Sima Qian (born 145 B.c.) gives a detailed account of

ee ae ae the tomb in his Records of the Historian (Shiji), which he completed in 91 B.c.

ee began as soon theVie future ascended eeeae,(ge AinWork in 047 p etic ‘Tsasaie eenemperor i. Be Se es eeethe et:throne es Tecn r SG RATES ee - Pr a JD eae : C2 LP Aer Bho. WED fle Was: CELELLGGE YCalo Ol, it | VWELievecu Liat. LLLG Ki ;

— SS as was customary, put his chancellor in charge of designing the royal toml

and supervising construction. This was Lt Buwei (died 235 B.c.), who had A Magic Army for the Emperor 53 been a trusted adviser to the king’s father. In 237 B.c., Lt Buwei fell from grace, and Li Si (ca. 280-208 B.c.), one

of the ablest men of his time, followed as chancellor. He was instrumentalin : a implementing the unification of the empire and in forging its administrative | “gg, structures. He is personally credited with creating the stately, tectonic Small \

Seal Script for the imperial steles that were set up to glorify the emperor's _ an. : unification of the realm. As mentioned in chapter 1, these steles set a prece- Ae Upe

dent for the millions of stone steles that followed in succeeding centuries ee ' (see Fig. 1.16). It seems that Li Si also took extraordinary measures to pre- fo é pare a worthy tomb for his ruler. It was probably he who, in 231 B.c., turned i y. the area around the tomb into a government district with its own administra- i: 4 ‘a tive center, named Liyi (District of Li) after the nearby Mount Li. The people 14 2

in this district were responsible for the construction and later for the mainte- = a

nance of the imperial necropolis.” ... " 2 After the king became emperor in 221 B.c., the design for his tomb '

seems to have been expanded to a much larger scale. As the series of military i | campaigns had come to an end, large numbers of conscripts became avail- a i able, and more than seven hundred thousand men from all parts of the realm a | were recruited to build the emperor's palace and his tomb. Most of them a _ 4 were forced laborers, slaves, and prisoners, “men punished by castration or a 4

sentenced to penal servitude,” in the words of the Grand Historian.° Work | P ie ee on the terra-cotta army probably started at this time.’ ee a — ~< a a In 212 B.c., Li Si had thirty thousand families resettled to the district,® Lee but when the emperor died two years later construction stopped at once, Fig. 3.5 Standing archer. Terra-cotta, H. 178 cm

even though his tomb compound was not yet finished. The laborers at the } palace also ceased work to join the men at the tomb. All seven hundred

thousand of them heaped earth on it during the following year.’ | , Today a large tumulus still occupies the center of the compound." BTS ._Sieeing aeaicl. Ieee eee

This artificial hill has the shape of a truncated pyramid, with a base ol ap- ices seaee proximately 350 meters. The original height is said to have been about 115 a e ic 2 meters. Erosion has taken its toll and reduced the tumulus to its present os ff I Se ee

height of 76 meters, or less. The exact location of the emperors tomb was | : 2 \ a8 : thus known throughout history, even after the walls and halls above ground > had decayed, since nobody could overlook the tumulus. Figure 3.7 is a pho- RW tograph made by the early French explorer Victor Segalen in 1914, in which eo A

the stepped profile of the tumulus is still clearly visible." 4 Moe | i Bushes and trees planted since adorn and protect the hill because Chi- Ok 22 oa

nese archaeologists have decided not to excavate the tomb in our time. — ee ee Lg Knowing what wonders wait for them once they open the ground, they also | F we. BEE «x. know that they would be unable to preserve properly what they might find. Ye ae . Te"

In a famous passage, Sima Qian tells us of the tombs content: Ys cs ye ee ¢ 7

As soon as the First Emperor became King of Qin, excavations and building had ty ‘Sp o been started at Mount Li, while after he won the empire more than seven hundred i i o/. =

thousand conscripts from all parts of the country worked there. They dug through Se ae ee De® a “three subterranean streams and poured molten copper for the outer coffin, and the i

54 Ten Thousand Things tomb was filled with models of palaces, pavilions and offices, as well as fine vessels, precious stones and rarities. Artisans were ordered to fix up crossbows so that any thief breaking in would be shot. All the country’s streams, the Yellow River and the Yangzi were reproduced in quicksilver and by some mechanical means made to flow into a miniature ocean. The heavenly constellations were shown above and the regions of the earth below. The candles were made of whale oil to ensure their burning for the longest possible time. The Second Emperor decreed, “It is not right to send away those of my father’s ladies who had no sons.” Accordingly all these were ordered to follow the

First Emperor to the grave. After the interment someone pointed out that the artisans who had made the mechanical contrivances might disclose all the treasure that was in the tomb; therefore after the burial and sealing up of the treasures, the middle gate was shut and the outer gate closed to imprison all the artisans and laborers, so that not one came out. Trees and grass were planted over the mausoleum to make it seem like a hill.”

Fig. 3.7 Tumulus in the necropolis of the First eee cee : See a coe ee = a : : ee Emperor (photograph made in 1914 by Victor Segalen) Oe Fe ER fee Sie ae Sn AO Se RE Raa I es a eae aa hE

The tomb thus contains a microcosm, an ideal model of the realm over which the emperor had ruled and intended to continue to rule after his death. Doubtless it will be difficult for any future excavator to preserve quicksilver streams and heavenly constellations. Indeed, the tomb may have been looted long ago. The Grand Historian talks about the destruction wrought upon the Qin empire and its capital Xianyang in 206 B.c. by General Xiang Yu: “Xiang Yu led his troops west, massacred the citizens of Xianyang, killed Ziying, the last king of Qin, who had surrendered, and set fire to

the Qin palaces. The conflagration raged for three whole months. Having looted the city and seized the women there, he started east.” !° General Xiang Yu is also said to have dug up the emperor’s tomb.'* At

the same time he may have destroyed the underground pits housing the terra-cotta army. Excavations have revealed that they have been burned. Above ground the rectangular layout of the imperial tomb resembled that of a palace with an outer and an inner wall (Fig. 3.8). Except in a very

} . } | | A Magic Army for the Emperor 55 2. Side hallsof©Retiring Yuchicun 1. Foundation Hall ~ oWudongcun “~

4. Bronze chariots N 3. Foundation of provisions office 5. Burials of rare animals 6. Burials of 300 horses

7. Mass burials of forced laborers .

24 ee | 1d | 3A 8 8. Pits with the terra-cotta army

Street to Lintong

an |= © Xiyang

AJ ioaobeihucun | =| ag |;6 A archaeological finds =i oShangliaocun o modern villages

A “hess ~ gates

| >—Tivers . a associated tombs

a horse burials ,

e burials with clay _ grooms

0 500 m Fig. 3.8 Plan of the necropolis of the First Emperor

few places, these two walls made of pounded earth have completely vanished. The walls measured 8 meters in width, and they are believed to have

had an original height of 8 to 10 meters. The inner wall was 1,355 meters | long and 580 meters broad. The outer wall was 2,165 meters long and 940 ,

the four sides. , |

meters broad. Watchtowers guarded the tour corners, and gates opened at

The compound contained buildings of many sorts, making it a necropolis, a city for the dead. Several foundations of mighty architectural structures have been located and excavated. About 53 meters north of the tumulus lay a large square hall, enclosed by a covered corridor 57 meters wide and 62 meters deep (no. 1 in Fig. 3.8). It was the retiring hall (gindian) and contained the emperors garments, headgear, armrests, and walking statis. Once every

month these relics were taken in a procession to an Ancestor Temple of the Absolute Gimiao). After having received due sacrifices and veneration, the emperor’s personal objects were carried back.’> The Ancestor Temple of the Absolute was dedicated to the First Emperor only. It is believed that it was situated to the south of the necropolis and connected to it by a road.'° According to literary sources, in earlier times a retiring hall and a tem-

ple hall (miao) belonged to an ancestor-temple compound in the capital, where all the rulers of one lineage received sacrifices. Transferring the retiring hall to the necropolis and making it the ceremonial center there was a means to augment the importance of the ruler’s posthumous presence.

oO /

56 Ten Thousand Things North of the retiring hall, but still within the inner wall, foundations of more buildings have been identified (no. 2 in Fig. 3.8). These may have been side halls (biandian), where the visiting members of the imperial family put on mourning dress and prepared for making sacrifices." Apart from these special occasions, routine sacrifices of food and drink were made three or four times a day. These and other activities were administered by an office organized like the imperial household agency at the capital. Cooks prepared the sacrificial food. At the west side of the necropolis, be-

ee ee ee ee ne the inner and outer walls, the remains of three Se ee CD uilcings have been located, and inscriptions on ce-

ee shat ds found there identify as the provi ge ee eeeeeSi0nS Ollice (siguan; no. 3 in them Fig. 3.8). Ceramic 2ceoo fn cat Clc(t*C eee Clrainage channels, pillar tools, and woey ; iheS ; oe a.*. >a©ei Sia seam ol ia : :objects pee ee are ine) bsstone . Peta hy,been “a bases, 5 ;found 7 ; . iron ° here.!® . Soa es ie ge ALS of daily use have ma. aeaA} ONE i eS Bos a se di Som ay I Re . J Uieeteee As ee pay os PRS, eee OS "o It has been esti- Rdg, ; ‘een { mated aninarmy with chariot warriors have farreached exceeded ——- Se Nye is TT Re 10,000that men the seventh century, andwould that itnot may have a maxi-

mum of about 50,000 men in the sixth century. = Then, after the mid-sixth century B.c., the size of armies increased —_ i dramatically and they consisted mostly of infantry formations. In the Period ar

64 Ten Thousand Things of the Warring States, infantry armies could deploy several hundred thousand men in the field, because soldiers were now recruited from lower social levels, especially from the rural population and from larger territories.” Conscripted men in those armies could not possibly possess the martial skills that the aristocratic fighter acquired through years of training and constant testing in hunts. Nor could the lower-class warriors boast expensive equipment such as a technically sophisticated chariots, custom-made armor, and ornamented weapons. Nevertheless, the infantry armies won out through sheer mass, standardization, organization, and discipline. These soldiers’ uniforms were not fancy but they were efficient. The same can be said for the standardized, mass-produced weapons. An army

was organized into a composite body of units, each with its different weapons and tasks: vanguard and rear guard, hand-to-hand fighters, crossbow archers, spearmen, and swordsmen fought simultaneously in a force marked by its “division of labor.” Single fighters and groups of fighters became interchangeable, modular units. Discipline and absolute obedience were the supreme virtues of the soldier. Outstanding individual courage and unchecked bravery were not called for. One story tells of a bellicose soldier who, before battle began, charged over to the enemy lines and returned after having killed two of the

| foe. His commander had him executed on the spot for disobedience.**

The commander directed all movements and actions of the mass army. He took all the credit for victory, and all the blame for defeat. His authority

| was absolute, mirroring that of the ruler of the state. The commander's standing was based, in part, on his knowledge of military treatises. He was a

a master of texts and did not even need to excel as a fighter himself. Above all , , he was an integrator of men and an organizer.°° His role, in some respects, resembled that of a manager or even a bureaucrat. The shift from warrior elite to mass army occurred in all the feudal states in China, but most radically in Qin. Qin forged a social order in which civil administration and military structures converged. The rise of an individ-

| ual in a system of aristocratic ranks, the amount of land allotted to him by the state, or his salary as an official depended on the number of enemies he had killed as a soldier.*° The organization of the civilian population into units of

, five for mutual surveillance and liability also applied to the military sphere. Members of one unit were held mutually responsible for one another's performance in battle.?’

| Seen in this context, the terra-cotta army is a monument glorifying Qin’s superiority in military organization. At the same time, this advanced war machine, which proved so irresistible to its neighbors, is a model of Qin society itself. None of this, however, yet explains why the figures were buried un-

, derground, and why they were made of terra-cotta. As far as we know, this was the first terra-cotta army. To appreciate what that meant, one must take

a look at the tradition of burials installed alongside and around Chinese royal tombs.

Fitting out Burials for Rulers A Magic Army for the Emperor 65 From the earliest dynasties down to the mausoleum for Mao Zedong built in 1976, tombs for their rulers have been a major concern of the Chinese. The Han dynasty rulers, for example, are said to have spent one third of the state revenue on imperial tombs.’® As seen in the preceding chapter, the Shang constructed gigantic tombs, and their belief in an afterlife necessitated the burial of dozens of humans and horses with the lord of the tomb. The Zhou continued this practice, and the number of horses and humans interred increased with time. The pits around a sixth-century B.c. tomb in the capital of the northern state Qi in present Shandong Province have a combined length

of 215 meters. They contained the skeletons of probably more than 600 horses, 228 of which have been excavated.*°

The early rulers of the Qin State, like their rivals in other parts of China, indulged in the construction of large tombs. Thirteen tombs have been found in a cemetery in Fengxiang County near the ancient city of Yong, the

capital of the Qin State from 677 to 384 B.c. Tomb no. 1, which is believed to ea Teva RE nS OL NE et ee)

belong to Duke Jing (577-537 B.c.), is the largest jai Pe ae ee ee a 0

i , . 2 seen wee a ee

tomb 1n pre-lmperla China known so tar (Fi 8: jee ees. ee cee ela pais pee ay ee?

see) a ee ee ee

3.19). The pit of this gigantic structure,noverisnur See. ee ie Rae ee aay teed age on ‘ includin oP A Pee “3 PsoC APB LapcRIN riepat S.A AMR Oa te eeote Lo Ti> ighes PAO eitCae hae fe)ay a. I, esr ameC BRED! I raged on

: , So ae ae ee ee

the ramps, is 287 meters long. Skeletons of 166 ijppiecs) [ 8. 7

= RS GS } eee SUEY. ORAS Ment chap INR Sl Haire 5 i hips ae ae CNet g rece Per een. men and women: buried to gether with the duke me a, Ss eR SCN rene ae desu OO ee ee

have been identified. Another 20 skeletons were 4g GSS 2 Cee okie

found in the earth used to fillBe theeepit. 2 ¥ecme= IRThe RF,excavaiam as ip eR. On NO RE aee

tors had to dig 24 meters down tooereach = NL Wee | oeaa Oe a ee eeEse pl les the EebotORM cn.. ales tom, after which they were so exhausted thatiethey | 3\ #4 3ess, ee Pe.Bo Sa coe 60 RE CR sh od RTE ETS i gga, nN A Eas a th noes ha

SA Wee gl eeaa || SAN JS0\: (eat “ee Se EE ee ee

were ableato publish a report. : os —— Mim ee ee oo Bynot this time trend was under way in Seen Re “sn,/MO ie nee China that eventually led to fundamental changes a as - a a tae Pe ee ee in tomb contents and methods of construction. Se Cela. a ee. & ie ee : ate" air? AA ea SS Ss fot, BER ONT aging Bellis So ances Ultimately, the very what a tomb ¢- ee OO oN ee be should be began to concept change.ofVessels madeaspecially > = ae ee

for burial b ls that that a a M0 ee 3eh : eNO or burial replacedlaced bronze vessels hadhad actu- ReSR ee eo3ARO ce SG

. oe 7a (ee Vee, et oe MRS) SE sane Pe . Nn ee NC RS om oo ae

ally been used in ritual, and objects of lesser qual- No | ee, Re ee, ity or cheap copies in clay became acceptable as aN a ee a ae Se. oe

burial items. These substitutes were called spirit 2 ae 8 YOR Ve iN , a sw rae 5. ea utensils (mingqi). The first. recom such items occur the oe ee \ = Re SveeeeTePkestie.. eattty a, aia iilin caacemeas eeeae i Eat late Shang dynasty, and their numbers increase aoe RS en A A. oA a cao eh 8gs ye Sa ON eM =? ey,NA Rene ae We + ag Det 6] ee.) Serena Seo”,Be A ROR ~~ aaa, AS ts| NO. i ta sO, 2,

alter thei real eighth century.® eeCEN | Oi‘Gall ensat aeHea a Bo eS RRS and Str Maewere SSon, eee eaANON Similarly, humans horses i. eee : mec ME ieTe, “i aNchen... i *s ee eeeal

. - | d b fj f h d peo Ue i, ” ee a RS : Mie SO sagt) Ra’ Va gs a ae : Sra t iis A ge ul sometimes replace y figures oO umans an Be ae \ aa Be hes Gig te a a Sea Ri horses. Early examples made of ceramic or wood Baim Ne NE Ee Nes os ee ae : occur in the sixth century B.c., and theFp custom eee>.ome onaaa wie EN ee Hoot" ialapmarg RE gee 2 8Pye ce ‘ Sees, eseSt

. | "OS eee RR 3 aeee Ngadia. Seer

gained acceptance during the Period of the War- Eee et: OS a ease sa? ES: pera ee =

ring States.°* The largest numbers of tomb figures bog pag ee that have been preserved are made of wood and S22 "a#a”” © SOO SEM ek AM a | eee

66 Ten Thousand Things found in burials in the state of Chu. Figure 3.20 shows two examples from Changsha, Hunan Province, excavated in 1936-37.”

a These changes in the character of the objects that went into a tomb cae were followed by changes in tomb construction. Early tombs constitute a grt pes ef, building type in its own right that had little in common with above-ground

een ee 8 architecture. They are basically pits, the larger and deeper ones being acces_ ea ao E J sible by ramps. In the Period of the Warring States, however, tombs began to a | A q ee. : 4 acquire features of dwellings used by the living. By the Han dynasty a disA ‘Ate | es: a tinct tomb architecture existed, making use of bricks and hollow tiles and Re a — 4 es a > featuring doorways, a chambered layout, and vaults.°

ie Bo a a An early example of a chambered tomb is that of Marquis Yi of Zeng

= hl ™ Bk (after 433 B.c.). Found intact and excavated in 1977-78, it yielded fifteen Be: al . an thousand artifacts, including as mentioned earlier, an enormous quantity of atl | pee bronzes (see Figs. 2.39, 2.40). The tomb has four chambers built of wooden | Tea =e logs and connected through small doors. Each chamber has a different conwe a, _— tent and runction, Ee central chamber with the famous set of sixty-tive ui wy Je 7 ae Qo bells and ritual vessels is modeled on a royal ceremonial hall. Then nee is

| ae i Tit wes an cue wml various weapons and chariot trappings, @ harem with the ni ie ‘ie coffins of thirteen female attendants, and the private or nats eqtrenntiens of Hee i | ag a the Jord of the tomb, containing the coitins of the marquis himself and ae Ts a pe. of eight more of his female companions in death. Painted on the lord’s inner

tt ’ gl fi i coffin were two doors and a window.’

) As tombs began to resemble dwellings of the living, they also came to

Fig. 3.20 — Wooden figures from the state of Chu, contain more utensils of daily use, such as dishes. In addition, miniature

4th century B.C. models, usually made of clay, substituted for actual items that the buried person had needed or cherished in life, including stoves, granaries, and animals. A shared pattern of thought is evident in burying effigies instead of living beings, clay copies instead of bronze vessels, and in laying out a tomb like a house. All this turns a tomb into a replica, a model of reality. The tomb represents, idealizes, and perpetuates the reality of life on earth. By making ideal versions of the world, the tomb designers of the first millenium B.c. created the first paradises in Chinese art. At the time of the First Emperor, the shift in the function of the tomb was not yet complete. His necropolis represented his palace, and the main chamber under the tumulus contained a replica of the universe. Pits repre-

sented imperial stables, with models of imperial chariots and an army in replica. Yet not everything was a substitute: the pit stables contained the skeletons of real horses and real nobles and forced laborers were buried in the necropolis. Apparently, man-made replicas were not seen as being less effective than real things or living beings, nor did material or size matter. Terra-cotta grooms guarded the burials of real birds and horses. Half-size bronze chari-

ots and bronze horses were as useful as life-size clay soldiers with real weapons and clay horses drawing wooden chariots. All served their emperor equally. Why then did the builders of the necropolis choose terra-cotta fig-

ures for the army instead of real soldiers?

Pragmatic considerations may well have influenced this decision. Ra- A Magic Army for the Emperor 67 tionalists surely pointed out that dead men and horses, chariots, bronze utensils, and weapons buried underground simply could not be used anymore, and that burying them was wasteful rather than pious. Humanitarian feelings probably also came into play. The great humanist Confucius (551-479 B.c.) lamented the practice of burying people and professed ignorance about the workings of the netherworld.

Yet the Qin rulers had traditionally liked large companies in their graves: 166 human skeletons were in the tomb of Duke Jing, and 177 persons

accompanied in death Duke Mu (659-621 B.c.).67 Human sacrifice was widely practiced in the Warring States Period, and although a king of Qin attempted to ban the practice in 383 B.c., princes and workers were still slaugh-

tered at the First Emperor's necropolis.® As the Grand Historian and others , tell us, the First Emperor was a cruel megalomaniac, ordering all artisans and laborers to be imprisoned in his grave and buried alive after they had finished their jobs.©° Had he been convinced that this was the best way to protect him-

self in his tomb, he might conceivably have sacrificed seven thousand men. There must have been other reasons why the emperor preferred figures to real soldiers, and why they were not made of wood but of clay, which

may never have been used before for life-size sculptures. As no written ae sources are extant, one must deduce these reasons by examining the army it- . | self and asking what its makers set out to achieve. Apparently they pursued three goals: the army had to be durable, it had to be finished within a reason-

able time, and it had to look “real.” , The emperor was obsessed with immortality. Unlike his palace in life, his posthumous residence was to last eternally. What he needed, theretore, was everlasting protection. He and his advisers may already have been sulticiently accomplished archaeologists to know that human bodies decay fast, even in sturdy tombs. Certainly, figures made of clay would be more durable than humans of flesh and blood, and also more durable than wooden figures.

Subsequent history has proven this reasoning right. The army is still extant—at least so far. The clay figures were smashed but did not burn during the conflagration of the necropolis. Nor did they decay in the water that seeped into their subterranean hideout. Only after men who no longer believed in the figures’ magic power began to unearth them did their final, per-

haps irrevocable, decay begin.

The workers also met their deadline—almost. Although the emperor fervently tried to acquire the elixir of immortality in his lifetime, the makers of his army did not take any chances. Working on a tight schedule, they filled three of the four pits in the subterranean garrison with figures, which shows that they had given themselves only a few years to complete everything. Clay was the most expedient material to do this. Clay is found in loess, and large areas of China’s northern plains are covered with layers of loess, three hundred meters deep in some places. Where loess has been washed by water in the course of the millennia it may become enriched with clay and suitable to be formed and fired. Clay-bearing

68 Ten Thousand Things loess was and has always been available in China in almost limitless supply and could be formed into bricks or tiles or pots.”° At the time of the First Emperor, wood was more abundant in China than today; nevertheless, it was probably cheaper and logistically easier to use wood for firing rather than for carving. Clay can be brought into a certain form more quickly; it does not require metal tools to do so, and it also lends itself better to division of labor. If the emperors artisans had ventured to carve thousands of life-size soldiers in

wood instead, their task would have been more laborious, and they might not have finished in time: A lifelike appearance of the army must have been an urgent concern of the emperor. Probably only insofar as the army looked “real” could it successfully fulfill its magical function. No written evidence explicitly confirms this assumption, but the history of religious sculpture after the Han dynasty makes it evident that realism and the efficacy of magic went hand in hand.”

The wish to equip the clay soldiers with real weapons that had proven their usefulness in earlier battles must have been the main reason why the figures were made life-size. Yet for the entire army to look real,

eeOeLEZ iBe Ss eee ey EER ee et = oe . : ;

rs Se mm two more features were essential: numerical significance and credible vari-

Se eR ety. In order to be convincing as a fighting force, the number of soldiers

OO SS had to be considerable, approaching or equalling that of a real army. On ene et eee ithe other hand, enough variety among figures was needed if they were to ee ei mee be more than lifeless mannequins. But the makers of the army worked hard

nt ee aNd ingeniously to achieve these goals, and clay was the material best

Fig. 3.21 — Drainage pipes from Qin palace no. 1, suited for the task.

Ga, 350-206 8.¢. Long pipe: L. 56cm, Diam. at ends The emperor’s order thus might have read, “Make me a magic army. It

26-27 andcm21-22 cm;decay Knee-shaped pipe: at ends Iteter Amust i d look ;7_ i7 filea 7 Yas 7Diam. . 7for“YT 97 and 202 must never but protect my residence eternity. like . | real3.22 army in all respects. Only then will warrior the magic work!” Fig. Legs of a terra-cotta |

oe he a How Was It Done? = = ee ey CN The logistical problems in procuring material and men must have been con.. Be ae eae siderable. A sufficient supply of clay, firewood, lacquer, and pigments had to ex oa SY be constantly available at the necropolis. Although none of the workshops ee — ae and kilns have been located so far, the figures were presumably formed, cs a) Tee fired, and painted near the pits to avoid costly and hazardous transportation lL as Pe of the semifinished or finished products. Only a well-observed sequence of eee ee eee steps in the production process and a tight schedule could guarantee that

eda 2 EMRE : io ‘

ae ¢@ 3 work went smoothly. we No less demanding was the task of organizing the labor force. Once

Bee - Baan ees ; a

ee oe : the workers were recruited, they had to be fed and given shelter. Their efforts See Ao ae had to be coordinated and the results supervised. Moreover, the makers of we ora Oy the terra-cotta army were but a small group among several hundred thouBese saa fae sand busy men at the site. There is no doubt that all this activity necessitated OL) ) Sean eee eee pore detailed planning and an organizational framework.

The Workforce A Magic Army for the Emperor 69 What kind of workers could possibly have had the experience necessary to fire such large clay figures in such quantities? The answer: the makers of drainage pipes! An impressive drainage system made of clay was found under the provisions office in the necropolis and under the Qin palace. Figure 3.21 shows two pieces excavated from the pounded-earth terrace that formed the substructure of Qin palace no. 1. Both pipes have round cross sections of different sizes at each end. The diameter of the knee-shaped tube is 26-27 centimeters at one end and 21-22 centimeters at the other. The larger tube is 56 centimeters long. In size and proportion these tubes resemble the legs of the terra-cotta warriors (Fig. 3.22). The technique used to

make the drainage pipes must have been similar to the technique for making eecietienaeaie seins

circular torsos, legs, and arms from slabs of clay rolled into tubes. ee ate Py ae

Inscriptions confirm this observation. The foremen of the palace oe A LES LUE i ee workshops used to stamp their names on floor tiles and roof tiles. Some of at gas Ole # le the same names have been discovered on the terra-cotta figures.’? This indi- ae Gorge Pala shee

cates that the makers of the terra-cotta army, rather than being sculptors, asl fed were potters who knew how to manufacture ceramic architectural parts. | PP fos memes The inscriptions on the terra-cotta figures also enhance our under- nh gine ie standing of the organization of the workforce. When the first 1,383 warriors atte wr ek, and 132 horses were excavated, archaeologists gathered preliminary statis- bo ee t ie, Raat j tics. They counted 477 inscriptions. The characters had either been incised ee eee with a stylus or stamped before firing, mostly on inconspicuous parts of the [aaa Lh A i Be body. Two hundred thirty inscriptions consist of serial numbers only. Most | frequently, one finds the numbers five (40 times) and ten (26 times). This in- Le Lane ae Net ee oe EG dicates that the figures were counted in groups of five and multiples of five, Fig. 3.23 Impression of seal of Foreman Jiang of the

as was customary with real men in civil and military administration.” Palace Workshops Altogether, on 249 figures the names of 85 different foremen appear. Eleven of them preface their names with the character meaning “palace” (gong). Once again, this is an abbreviation for the Palace Water factory and — Fig. 3.24 __Inscription of Foreman Ge from Xlanyang

also is seen on floor tiles of the pit. The foremen in this factory usually gyorg ee ee

stamped the inscription into the soft clay with a seal, for example: “[Fore- ‘> ., wie eae pi

man] Jiang of the Palace” (gong Jiang; Fig. 3.23). a i eon ee ie A second group of 23 foremen put a place-name in front of their names. a 3 DLP ne fj) : In all but three cases it is the capital Xianyang. One such inscription reads ae OM ae ee, Hig “[Foreman] Ge of Xianyang” (Xianyang Ke; Fig. 3.24). This type of inscription i Os hoe meh - P is always incised and never stamped, which makes it somewhat less official ny he Crepe We than a seal imprint. It is believed that these masters came from local factories. fd 1 Te hee te The third group is the largest, comprising +8 men who neither added | \ iy, ee } y, on ag on i

the name of a factory nor a place-name to their own names. Most of these | ve ee Yiss ad ue names occur only once. Those men probably also belonged to either one of 4 , a a We 4 ay

The inscriptions reveal that staff members from state factories and a alge!

workers from local workshops pooled their efforts in one big project. This is i a fs e he ae

common in later periods, too, for example in Han-dynasty lacquer workshops OM

70 Ten Thousand Things or Qing-dynasty porcelain factories. Typically, workers from state factories set standards of quality and enjoyed a somewhat better position than private workers. They were allowed to use seals and were given a higher proportion of the work. The names of the eleven men from the palace workshops are found on 87 figures; two of them made 21 figures each. By contrast, together all 23 local foremen produced only 56 figures. Yuan Zhongyi, the chief excavator of the terra-cotta army, has described stylistic differences between the figures made by the two groups. Not surprisingly, the figures from the palace factories are more static, their bodies more sturdy, and their expressions stern and heroic. They also show a more consistent level of workmanship and greater stylistic uniformity. Figures from local workshops are more varied in their postures and faces, and tend to be more realistic. Yuan Zhongyi even talks about the styles of individual masters.” It was hardly artistic pride, however, that caused the foremen to put

, | signatures on the figures they had made, nor did those who commissioned the figures look at signatures in this way. As in the case of the weapons, quality control was the sole purpose of the inscriptions. The numbers served to

verify how many figures had been completed; the names guaranteed the quality of craitsmanship. If the overseers found a figure to be faulty, they were able to track down a man whom they could hold responsible. Precise laws specified the fines in such cases.” The foremen did not work alone, of course. They probably had the status of masters (gongshi), and each of them controlled a team of perhaps ten workers.’© The 85 toremen identified so far would then have directed 850 men. Since many terra-cotta figures have not yet been excavated, pre-

Oo sumably more names of foremen will come to light. The total workforce may Fig. 325 — Sections ofa standing terra-cotta warrior have comprised a thousand men. Assuming they set up shop only after the

' unification of the empire in 221 B.c. and continued until the emperor's death , ry in 210 B.c., they would have completed more than 7,000 ligures in eleven See nN Vi years, or close to 700 figures in one year, which is quite conceivable for a Gace oO a workiorce of about a thousand men. Yet in the first years the workers cerae =H fi OQ tainly produced less than the average, due to their lack of experience. Firing

ANA =Y ie Ne figures of such dimensions was tricky, especially as the thickness of the clay

ae ey walls varied considerably, and in the kiln the figures shrank in size by about ry » UE 10 percent. Presumably there were frequent misfirings.

fer \ \ A Valuable as they are, the inscriptions do not say what the workers actually Ai) ~~ Loe did, which can only be inferred by closely examining the figures. The fore-

A Nan , men and their many subordinates worked within the framework of a well lhe Ct thought out production system. Each of the figures of the standing warriors

Guan aman A weighs between 150 and 200 kilograms, and normally consists of seven oe major parts: aand plinth, the feet,The the workers legs below themodeled garment,each the part torso,sepathe One ) LZZ/ | lj, arms, the hands, the head.’’ first SN Lire rately and then fitted them together (Fig. 3.25). They luted the arms to the P_20;em_ _ body with wet clay, then inserted the prefabricated head into the opening at

the neck where they secured it with wet clay, too. Because the figures are as- A Magic Army forthe Emperor 77 sembled from set parts, they have the appearance of mannequins.

When fabricating cylindrical parts, such as torsos and arms, the

workers first kneaded clay into thick slabs that they then rolled into tubes. et = ' fj Lp aft In other cases they built up the circular forms from coils of clay. They also wy 4 i —— — had to be joined when the clay was neither too hard nor too soft. The heavy A Ye ea a torsos, for example, could only be hauled onto the legs after they had dried ea “aN aN . , to such a degree as to be sufficiently firm. On the other hand, reworking had ee: ¥ oA SS 4 to be done while the clay was still somewhat damp. The members of the [im » 4 e Pak team had to set up their schedule accordingly. Probably they could solve : As Ao . NAS

these problems more easily when they worked on several figures simultane- 2 a ee

ously. One explanation for the frequency of serial numbers that are multiples a ee

of five could be that five figures were made at a time. Be a ae Thus, there were no long assembly lines with many workers, each performing one small operation. Rather, the team under each foreman lormed its own small, self-contained assembly line that saw a figure through all the production stages. Nevertheless, the teams worked according to similar blueprints. All workers assembled their figures from the same small number of basic parts. There were variations, to be sure. The shoes could be fixed

to the plinth, for example, and the lower legs could be made from rolled slabs or coiled clay. Yet the basic structure remained the same.

72 Ten Thousand Things Uniformity is also evinced in the measurements. The respective parts of each clay body have similar dimensions, although oversize limbs or heads appear from time to time. The overall height of the standing soldiers, including the plinth, varies between 180 and 195 centimeters, the length of the feet from 25 to 29 centimeters, the circumference of the torsos from 85 to 107 centimeters, the breadth of the head from about 19 to 23 centimeters, and

a Nn the length of the face, normally, from 19 to 20 centimeters.’® The soldiers ‘areal igs Ss Oe Tee thus are large, but life-size. This is confirmed by the fact that they carry real as =m ae ies Tas weapons, and it is also apparent in comparison to the size of the clay horses.

pe. poe. The variations in all measurements remain within a consistent range. ss ae 4 | Ste .. ae Even more important, only a small and quite limited repertoire exists ee ee oF be ae of different types for all parts of the figures. The authors of the archaeological

CS a eee com Starla) a Ge TS

a =}. oe < report have, for example, identified three types of plinth, two types of feet, Like bronze, silk was a luxury commodity whose use was monopolized by the aristocratic elite. Probably weavers had to supply silk to all members of the nobility for garments and other purposes. The customers expected sizable quantities and likely asked for variety at the same time. The makers responded by devising rationalized schemes of production and by weaving various patterns (and possibly by dyeing with different colors). Again like bronze, silk was made in factories in which seasonal occu-

, pation was abolished and administrators supervised the workers. The tasks of founders and weavers were comparable, but the discipline that was expected of the silk workers may have been even more rigorous than that required in bronze foundries.** The regular movements of the loom dictated the rhythm and speed of the production. Through more thorough mechanization, Shang-dynasty weavers must have achieved more perfect reproductions than Shang-dynasty bronze casters.

84 Ten Thousand Things By the Han period, a state-run silk industry that provided luxury products for the court existed in various parts of the empire. Seven hundred serving boys were busy in a big private household during the first century B.c.,?°? and the workforce in one government factory numbered several thou-

sand male and female artisans.*° The silk workers accomplished amazing feats. In addition to plain weave they made patterned, monochrome damask, embroidery, and various types of brocade, including polychrome woven fabric. They also created polychrome patterns by printing and painting directly on the textiles.” The most important group of Han-dynasty silks has been found in the tomb of the same Princess Dai who owned the

use - oo s = 3 ir ' lacquer dishes illustrated . ay it Ne r : y es , a . GTS in. Pigure “2. The Tenis q ¢ E gt 2 oe : z vf ‘4 | ai, A a On om OY in her wardrobe vary t 7 ‘| ‘ . pe a RY sic age f he Ce a Bi ak A phe enormously in terms of

_ i a rg -” £ “Ne vi fiiy. *~oew——— techniques as well as , ay a colors. One particular undergarment of plain silk, ZG Paw t poten! with a length of 160 centimeters, is so delicate that it Fig. 4.6 — Undergarment in plain silk, : a ae wy Cy Re weighs no more than 48 grams (Fig. 4.6).?8

shortly after 168 B.c,, from tomb of Princess RA ie A Throughout the history of imperial China, silk

Pel aL Maen e HN a a 160 i ee ae production remained a major industry and one of the cm, W. (across sleeves, cuff to cuff) 195 cm ay is eo 4 , . . .

ayo » ui nS q country’s economic mainstays. In fact, because silk was be Cr es * arg highly valued and silk factories employed vast numtia zi 1% aug *t bers of people, silk contributed to the prosperity of fod & va Ae | entire regions and, for example, made Suzhou one of a Jy a. : " ‘4 y 4 the richest cities in the empire. As with the manufacDp : vy he | . P ae ture of lacquer and other commodities, private and

teraeVig > state silk factories existed side bythe side. As always, ig “haga - the latter excelled in producing greatest quanti-

2 ties and the highest quality.

Silk produced under government control also served as currency. Officials were given certain amounts of silk as salary,

which in turn fostered standardization of sizes and quality. In particular, there was enormous demand for brightly colored court robes. Traditional paintings illustrate how dozens and even hundreds of officials display their sumptuous dress in court ceremonies. At the same time, silk was available to private buyers. Indeed, silk clothing was very common. Luxury goods and wide distribution were not mutually exclusive in imperial China. People in other countries admired and envied the Chinese for their fine silks. Isolated traces and fragments of silk from as early as the sixth and fifth centuries B.c. have been found in tombs in Europe.’? Beginning in the Han dynasty, silk was traded in considerable quantities westward along the so-called Silk Road. The Romans even called the Chinese the “silk people” (seres), and some historians believe that the import of silk drained the financial resources of the Roman Empire, contributing to its fall. Thus warned, Europeans struggled to produce silk themselves instead of importing it. In the first centuries of our era, imported raw silk was woven

in the Near East in countries such as Palestine, Syria, and later in Byzantium. Factory Art 85 There is a famous story that, around A.D. 552, Emperor Justinian received two itinerant monks who came from China with the eggs of silkworms concealed in their walking staffs. They had had to make it through the desert before the eggs perished.*° True or not, Byzantium did develop a silk industry that had far-reaching trade into western Europe. Wherever Europeans succeeded in producing their own silk, it contributed to economic prosperity, as it did in Venice, Florence, and Lucca in the thirteenth century, or in Lyon, which from the sixteenth century onward grew into a center of European silk industry. In the eighteenth century, the Prussian king Frederick the Great turned an estate near Berlin into a home for silkworms. Those, however, seem to have found it too cold there, and died. By mastering the manufacture of silk, Europeans learned more trom

the Chinese than skills for making a high-tech luxury good. They also found that producing these goods required organized production in factories. This knowledge contributed to the rise of modern mass-production

oo Clraamicss . techniques in the West.

Ceramics is another area in which the Chinese did astonishing things. Their a oe

extended, diverse experience in working with clay was one of the factors that allowed them to develop the complicated bronze-casting technique with sectional molds. The terra-cotta army was another outstanding demonstration of proficiency in ceramic technology. But the crowning achievement in this field was the invention of porcelain, which has become commonplace all over the world and synonymous with China. Today, easterners and westerners alike sip coffee or tea from china cups. It is no accident that porcelain belongs to the range of goods for which the Chinese developed mass-production methods involving modular systems. The Chinese started early. In prehistoric times they already displayed

remarkable skill in working with clay. It is sometimes said that the most beautiful Neolithic pots in the world are found in China. That they are also the most numerous comes as no surprise. A wide array of shapes, typically with articulate silhouettes, is known in third-millennium B.c. pieces of the Dawenkou and Longshan cultures in Shandong Province.*! The vessels consist of distinct parts, which were made separately and then joined together.

Many other sites in eastern and central China dating from the fourth and third millennia B.c. testify to this deliberate and controlled method of constructing ceramic objects.°?

Assembling segmented vessels requires parts with standardized shapes and measurements, and standardization is best achieved by mechanical duplication. There is evidence that this was done as early as the Neolithic period. For example, the legs of a tripod could be formed by repeated molding over the same core. Thus, the two fundamental principles of assembling objects from parts and of mechanical replication were in place at the very beginning of the Chinese ceramic tradition.

86 Ten Thousand Things This was the starting point on the road that, after many centuries, was to lead to the perfection of porcelain. A milestone was reached in the Shang dynasty, when Chinese craftsmen managed to make pottery with a white body. They also achieved controlled glazing in their kilns. By the seventh century A.D., potters had learned to fire ceramic at temperatures of about 1,200 degrees centigrade, at which heat it becomes white and hard. It can be called porcelain. From the tenth century, porcelain, when fired, could be so thin that

, | - - alte due sintering and densification it became tra slucent Ex

g ms | ; A ! periments with metallic oxides generated various colors in | aia : é PIP ) Ed @® giazes. Then, in the fourteenth century, a technique was mas-

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96 Ten Thousand Things boo and others peonies. Still, in assembling his compositions the painter is bound by rules and conventions. For example, no chrysanthemum is seen without a fence and no bamboo lacks its garden rock; a pavilion must never be in the background if none is in the foreground.

— ee The distinct character and adaptability of each . arn i Milt : 4 yp : 3 ES .. module permits the painter to comb I ne it with others on

a4 Ls Ve ee 5 4.24 also occur on the curved outsides of the bowls that

er oe eet , Vf te Jos accompany those saucers. For the latter, the trees have By go) ” py (A Ping " been adapted to a decorative field of a completely differ-

ae Fico oq a —— ent shape. Even on globe-shaped teapots one meets the Ja ag z c ~a H . | ‘ae RN | , familiar willows, garden rocks, fences with chrysanthe-

‘“ * Mes 7. A aes aS mums, and oversized peonies as well as the distant

AN oe, 0 ee oe promontories with pavilions (Fig. 4.29).

a ~_ — The adaptability of motif modules proved to be a Poa ALS > — boon when it came to sets. It allowed the painters to

a la : “= , achieve an aesthetically satisfying unity among porcepes | g fe’ A oa Bie a lain pieces of different sizes and shapes, and it enabled | fe | AA 5 .Y the user to identify pieces that belong together. Ranging We a / Y > Pie a i, 5 f. ‘ iis in diameter from 22.5 to 39.5 centimeters, the plates aseS ~29 ZN ce ee as \ io wy, ¥ sembled in Figure 4.28 exemplify this.

Vt > om e . nee ig Since antiquity, tableware in China has been. pian } eb wana made and used in sets. The ritual bronzes of the Shang

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BONS, pars ate: SN pliSaar Ae ea bes atts ap SYbyl. OE 1csoe Pee SENG seiiputicgties ool e aa% ;a Meee eo) SP patee tgseerie Coe oe CaY T OEE i Nae AOS SEAe SE eae eae eeee fe ee RC aBE natn ean elses PEE BRT Oe ee Oe pete 3eed) “4 aFtie aia ;toh wei ;5:2Sy Saeee is St eee ae eh 2S Ai Ra iS Reeehet 2eae Oder Hitler Starea + taaie aAA Poet pieelye the i.ESS att ie Bj a ee ee Gtae SABE RiGee Re Re eae acy Rare Peewee een 8 OY oeLl Ae ig3 Ee ae Deny aSerene ign RAeN peSs econ nee ee ‘: ne >: Resi: Prt hore aSVIRAGO plat Raha aint renga, ORR STE J.TEA RSD ohn MO: see PON Berea , Re ae fe Raa ie an Sa Ssqmeter 5 Ri aa PIRI erBee: aaUae eattie Bat RNa OIA RR I ECC, oS eat ass $176 sf Cea ieBeRot y :SUR. A Seg bf ay a“A == -ee eee pes es SPEEA R 9X7 isyee So Ae RRS IR 2?ESTO Bs 1h Rae gee Acne (ae 5 ‘oe i Sa a ots ce ‘Be 5 2 r > a : > a > ‘ A ; > immigrant priest Jianzhen, or Ganjin in

| | ~_ |

a = | eee Japan, founded monastery inf A.D. 759, N iii saoaeiiaaiies: (ead Da}the Paine: cd | | / and it closely follows Chinese models. Like FE i See| the a A enmain Ae ee eee ee eee | | > m:angsi all ot Foguangsi1 of a ce -vlater, later SEE h ul of ee Fogu of a century | il | the plan of the Golden Hall is seven bays

ee , _

F So en a es a a cA tt = Hl | ; a.

| . © TT eee 6 Ie) | wide by tour bays deep, with five doors at the | |REBRER | J front. contrast theJapanese Chinese building hall, 4| I1} Meaetatstetatacanctenceetstctatgtenctateictaselctatatatgicn Hii | | ,how; eeis, RR some ces i} H| ever, the In front wall intothe

SS ee TS OS a | | = A ee Se ae, || H

H bk oO eecmueecenmneoenmennten of | : H I} | BKC coe K RR IARC RSC 1H H set not between the first row of columns but

| | | | | | between the columns one row back. Thus, an

—— 0 6 OO ee) | open porch one bay deep runs all across the

i> (>Olan CO) : .due , 7to .different TC...ritual O OA O) Oo O O a) O P A) Chinese hall ©) may be front (Fig. 5.14). The difference from the

0 20 m

{ needs. In the Japanese hall the participants in 7 = the liturgy, who are not allowed to enter the

building proper, can at least witness the ceremony while being pro- Jay 2 |

tected by a decent roof.!! aa So fy [he same ground plan may also be used for quite different #7 a |

functions. For example, plan 5 of Figure 5.11, which measures inee LU :

five by two bays, would be suitable for an oblong hall. Yet in this Saami ar nay” ys Ae case there are no longitudinal walls at front or back. The single B3aaaam ee ee a fi 7

ee . ). ae > vm g |

wall, which hasby been set doors between columnswhich of the turns middlethe row, tf eeah i y: yf is interrupted three at the its center, struci 4 hf /

, tl earsaaro nas Ssiecoest Oe 14;WS oy S.eeWales

The next level of complexity is that of the courtyard. Much as ritual 2 es an ay “SU eons a

bronzes and lacquer dishes come in sets, Chinese buildings do not oe. ee _ eh

. Ly oy ge . . Pe met Ne? cere i} aa oy is laid out according to.certain principles. Itis symmetrical anden. «3 ee 4 | na J ee “| \ ne fnee ea a . . ae. 3 eee ee i ee closed by a.wall. a rule eee it faces south. building is a hall »** _ SE) ae? ‘’ , ae il|a |ee | a | a . .Asee ReIts main | Reem Ue the eastern and western sides face the yard. One enters the court- ~~ ee ES RN et a ee yard through a gate to the south, and approaches the main building . So i by means of the central axis. ie. r — stand alone but are assembled in courtyards. Once more, the rela- a Ve sts i 4 . | ig Hen bles |

tion of building to courtyard is that of module to unit. A courtyard 4 he | i 4 uk | ee

at the rear with an open space in front of it. Secondary buildings at “""""") ayaasss 4 bie WN " tens

The standard type of courtyard, with buildings at the four se ”

sides, is called a fourfold yard (siheyuan; Fig 5.15). Since evil spirits are be- Fig. 5.14 View into porch of Téshédaiji, Golden Hall

lieved to find it hard to turn corners, the gate leading to the street is often

placed at the side so that they may not enter the yard. Neighbors and passersby are also conveniently prevented from peeping inside. This basic compound can grow by adding more buildings and more courtyards, but such additions will also conform to the principles of axiality and hierarchy.

. ; 7 ff .

The enclosed courtyard is the dwelling space for the family—that par-

~ . cr ° . il %, (3 '”| ,srt . . . . Ces eS i 7 — 4 a eeaeON sc,MeSamad layout of the courtyards made easy to funcoe ar): hy = a i et Sheeae ; . We kee : —toa.convert iF WE: (e. residence he yy; ea a eres: het (e/eamet) - ty REatano ve tions—for instance, a private intoEo a Ah EREasi T ek2: ie ats eS Soo

monastery or a monastery into a government office. eee _ ao ot ao = en 0 tae Like every assemblage of modules, the Chang’an city [ieek tes Sele 7 whe el ef: a =, — ee

——— - ag ve tyInNEA Meee {S| ——Ea!ets |: ya Sy plan also featured irregularities. oe ge ee anties pley a ge | a. few , Le, ee ee eRtheaLsoutheastern s Gist ne || kar @tiGaara =

a i. | SG ae et a ee ae

: cua a iy BE wel eS 4 ; a: Regie 5 .& brake 2? ase

corner was a lake and, in the north, immediately to the east eee HE ive a _ Ad ip We ipl b “Che ae

of the Supreme Palace, some city blocks were cut to an [Raa 2 7 ae hes fa i Pic ie Mag Hiatt

unusual size in order to provide an avenue leading up to [iam qm fy) Loree Sy Wier et the Palace of Great Brightness (Daminggong), rnc which wasa [iae——lilil ame ea oat get Sa aii i By ms=f —iacomes r & Sart oo pal

begun in A.D. 634 outside the northern city wall.'’ Another (ae eee el

3 Palace city . 1 Great Vermilion Bird Road

2 — Imperial city

4 West market 5 — East market

6 Daming gong

78 Pond West imperial park :

:i’. {:|

Ct] a ——— t

TTL J Le i Fi ‘ne oe Pye mao HE — EbPRa i jd —a tee eee on CEE | oa ee cetenama e a — a i [| os —_ Tit a a

C_t_ esCJ a ee ee | ee ee reer Nemneconmmmerered

ae | OE ee | ee S| Pa

a

0 5 km Fig. 5.19 Urban plan of imperial Chang’an

Fig. 5.20 Urban plan of imperial Rome Ag OW ogVaneris apg R ( ) NEf weg mx, SVs Res. Ye 3 o = 28. Templum et Romus bi Pa & Wee, ee |, Prenat, S\PortaSalaria OSSSa | 29)tt. Goh. Vigitom s ay! Se oxy Garin, |foatthe ? BY 30. Cok. Vigitum cales 1:28.00 gt A _ Repack BHiclan pt : RY $1, Cob. tti,Vigitem

Scale of ee Yards : RA “Ae ENSSESE OF % ARIAT. 5)| 32. JY.Vigitem Vigitem } a cer ee ad \ &oe TR al ae 5s¥aos ar Momentans 35, Co, Con. SAN eoCaN i Saget a ee as ~ “y > Sas ia ~ ig toned 3" = F peeneal aycoil oe ; |~] od pi» : j 7~ vw Va kTrometi re: af .. a BeSt 8 SOULS +> eee es ’ $ aos ee : i a \ ¢ ban. . ' ee Ba ms aie. aehs : as qsinBeco Wane Se Bere Seaweaiti ate eae”‘aoaascii iene ioe ai axthee, paral «Sinn cewsnypns celYe ile. Sissons Paredes « » cance 3 ESB } ; i; sa ‘ a Rees a Dae ee

: ee r ARe a *.; rs (a rF see Asis 2i

AMink ee eee =“Se Bote . | Bas a ae A ; ; ee ”x ee on : eis. ae Eg ao | 2S le eee, ae eee 2 ra 4 Jo ee ; iA i ie '

bee & etRees, Dea yRo Byvei et 4asa a 4 ri fea nikeae OSieae \ ‘ F4 he .-

Fig. 5.40 (above, left) — Hokkiji pagoda, block on top oosno; aEee oa repicgpl ‘ “ ‘ : AY Nay wih Digpevinivee _— REAR A

of two crossing longitudinal beams oe oe aay, oepata ~ ; ; RAO Sp anaesSRE pA Dae ipe ! teontts "am SADR 2 : ry : 2 See 0 aMMaMnIE Tt a ln, Fig. Teg"hn ie me5.41 e = (above, . ¥ : a »right) Gain — ht Hokkiji pei at aepagoda, up uae workers gana i +G~ ay,anni acd =anh, “gree ‘ : PR Sint Pha toatl Debt Ver tay. Lis age ee o 7... ao “Wate, a

4 . , hs Si ies LPF i Tar Wien pee Se Sey VE ae sree ws a. ‘ee Pe a fr ee Res

‘ cs cate a a ete aah dh , PERS copagae " ES eis Vitis: tei. Nae yeni me

Be ee eee ; » ata fa: ae CMR te eae aaaatisOF ne ee i 0 aP Bee Oeeo ae aN Bou ee

GREER CGRRCUNC ese: a a (ged | Sa ne, ys Gin Se he NN Cena se —r eo ~~ POR I sc

Sear ay ance ersten Catlett, J . Odile ee Me 1 ee

ge CRS NSS eaRs “one tenet a agee soe eates SL em Ba Morse oe ‘ : SRS aaa Soe ek Na saa ee AiSy oe Seles pO tare $ $ “ Se ~ . -Te % PP. tayses ¥ eeos Fig. 5.42 (right) oAng beam at Hérinji pagoda RRS a. | : ae: Bape A RR aes asIF aging =: Boca ste Nae Naa o, pate _ a Bir ek * ee }

| ara Prefectur iad Nae | a Fig. 5.43 (below) — Hokkiji pagoda, block on“8 topwe ofCA - F green ™~ e.:: " as ae ang beam a.» at | ee are We. = a | ‘ eS a . ' . =A Ny Siete & ree te ’ . (reconstructed 1973-74), Prefecture, Japan Poee, ! ! ’ HA ine Nara H the Sahaiod Stes a| 7 RS eee i semat. Ce\' ~~ a a Sate af UNS Sen c2. : ares te > "

be Nett AON Ae. ae CSE AS TAN i ae cea ae

ee _— j nee Or ci: = Ti

= a ae ee oNYee eee. ie me? re x ae A Pet «Se we SASS x “ Mi Nr Ee: Soe ae SS x hath

aeseh ET reay Seos ; + ee "3 ary VE;“SS . ae iseeNe oeSe Bt te

p>SaDR aa ACO eeie\ o>. pea pea Mi Ae SOSey Nadgi hoy”\ | Ve MA AE

putes Peat,Vid? 3 t Befi| Caeaaan ti ee ERaSap paki Tieaa _— Ne bsMis hsvieim Bier" —_ bier, ' Beecoe -. Barer ss Riss Mis.pti je Bie Wi Yeieee cs! oo (fw poi Ge, am : pana a io aE A et aa Rd in a ° ae ms A Preneineeetares tak Pat mene instaaNs ©! sg . Reni!

gus4 Re HN Mapai! Fs hark Fh cake Sell Seem y. ay 4: iat i cage

instruments that have not changed for centuries (Fig. 5.44), as a medieval Building Blocks, Brackets, and Beams 127

handscroll confirms (Fig. 5.45). The tools apparently were not precise enough to cut similar blocks and beams to exactly the same dimensions. For example, handheld saws could not compensate for the differences caused by the grain of wood, as high-speed, circular saws can. Yet precise contact between all wooden members is of immense importance in a structure that relies on joinery instead of nails. Any sloppiness in one joint is bound to have repercussions and multiple adverse effects throughout the entire building.

All finalJadjustments, can onlyCarpenter be made on theusing spot. This is a well- | , , 7 saw | | | Fig.therefore, 5.44 (left) traditional

a(es\jAkibY ma ) s SP vi" e. x» 4 a Bee ~ _ . At | known phenomenon in modular systems: components are mechanically during reconstruction of Hérinji pagoda, May 1974

shaped|up perfection but the finishing touches are still | from |,, artorEa certain r Fig.level 5.45of(right) | Medieval carpenters (detail made by hand. Yet throughout the centuries it has been the ambition ol Kasuga gongen genki-e, A.0. 1309, first scroll, third

builders to entrust to mechanical factors an ever-growing role. section. H. 41.0 cm)

— §. oS iy Fe shag : iN x bh yy a Ni Mi >: ; &. .— |S—) jaa% -ysEa . vai ¢ : \a ti A Gers. wa | pee & % re , Hs_— ass aSS Pa va , ang \ ' es:ko S iebiverti. = ae wy D> e.7-' maa A) SA se ry.) U I ity ‘s ag )_ © ee ee Soe ‘Lag Ve

Sie m " ez , A LY; s. Bay 3

4 os i . f fas Poe : — » OG ZT. a ee z aa 4, f, é pee he ‘4 BS * _ BAY Ly eee ———_ Sy Le : . ‘ sai 2 ST eee yo a nae oe 3 MY \ + i ss eS Ue 5 ay sate at RC ES Pots LES Es Si,

, atin : 1 ite oa ee Es a . hee ae a ee ee ee! Se. ten it Pa PP un Tf < Ee > fw a a SG es . SS @ ae: ae i * i ‘ en WE \

ae \ — | —\—\_ eg nN ) Pere a\ ai . ie 4 ie) / / h ren Ns 2 Za ft bY as s j yo < ey pe \ oh Ss Jet z Ss ') ete eae ; > er yt ee e/ Bet ‘ {| _ aie aren SE2 2. ~y .: f4fFLit¢ 2a baie Baa:=.

~ eye . las ie Aaa , story OC ax yT ¢ TO .aaa 2 -1be Si paesi up the mezzanine above. ee ee ae ee ) f the mezzanine lies a ring of bracKbrack peceerariciicc a eo On top(id of the mezzanine hes aoering OI * er efter tty tf Eee . ; : ON Sa ets and radial tie beams that extend outward, where

_— hed a 7 they support a balcony that runs around the entire

ie aa Ne tata

a rey a ey SET : % ; .

ae A. i = emer er sg or; etl preens ios fe = i cen eee 2 gs LISLE LULL Se. ees | OO” Bere es 2. i | ith7 LP K,.Q., SN 4 -styea2za Ke a%08Yg siti K 4 prOy MyVU CX MEEEEE.WY Vf NE ey SS\ ASSSG te Sy

a ees ea HORE KO ZANE ARIAS. | SHES

', mat— $a~~ tee ~Se Gaara ORSil Res = aemh 2 1 PF \ Si. \Gil WW S|] = aedaren i eae SSSiLig \\ QA Lypaees ag . RA IWS SSSYA= tn

sisi AEE TA EL ED Bi ETN 7 A HERE CSN RS

} : secu tllddidddddildddtlddd ELA Rhece ieee t eo }WSC RR INN 2 4XO QW Hiti}\ oe =»NS LQ NSS ~3 ; : eh Ses : Asti ty a Sy SS a ORAS : NS = 2 NY ' x } © . ‘ : :7.40 Vi| i | SF) RG KW BRGY LESS F coh at ani npr avi habiAnpnPINAIAIANIND NiGtatmmnnreen enone Se EH Cae 2 OH. geen or ee PRP PREPPED EERE OR ERUOSITERELEDS, ( | {{ if. “ pee wee A Ray: THINS 1 |

: . (imaePe epee NRreer:LN : | . Oeee wW\EN QJ sitet“Qe NS ZI \ ea Seal

4 aaF PAPPRRRRL ERT Pe =aSS BGI” ie \NS RS Basen :pat AeheePAR ig Tibi) i BEHRRRn RECnihil AUER ie : gag eS ot(Yeti Ht ;QQ ANX me RY,Si!y \x; ae\\ t =

me lfeelg a NAIR q\ \RREEES RRRHINO QO? eae ea0ay0 Yee! me. ae MARwe) ie © Q @ og

ice|eMO i See ba: RR Li ee oessae{ilamer tal | =XsBote, ® eeevei ty oe I. A 1 4rae Wan 4 ty SF aS: a p A ici ; x RE é e 4 a ke mee: Sali fs ; | = iy S eet oF 0 2m "= LAR sae ee re Pie) ca i, fi iricl iste MARR pole am!

pe ee ih

a 7 al fe Building Blocks, Brackets, andBeams 129 ZEN IAVH eT Inia] Wes \dh7zat Itt fez Pr AVA Vie (Wan

ha eeeecoo TVA Tn

BS ea ee Re ee ee ee I JA Zl} CU gee | =a SS ee ye aa Figs. 5.48 and 5.49 — Timber pagoda at Yingxian Heme, fe Gan | see |i | Lng ig. 5.48 (le ection ae SS ee ee Fig. 5.49 (below) — Explosion drawing showing the

Se SS ee ee S/S SS ee nae, . iS ieee Seri ey i four rings that make up one story

EAIee/— Sea sea= —o> > SE Se ee Ss a——// Re aINce a ya oy WZ SK . i= wer wa” no, =o On | Yyy Y Z =~ \ fp . (Fig. oN ee ®, PegNV; Rae For ¢ aA1IY Re ne’ a‘ TO. Das‘»ye ae Oy See Ba BYSte eg

_ 1 from pair of tomb tiles are \SSS, a.eeox»)hy aayxAwe » (Re also from Zhenegz As WRAY eS>)a)ae ilso Zhengzhou butwith date: garden from thescenes—which late firstOSB centuryASR B.CSa RW, Qo RNS

the tile. maker used limited fant AKO) (i>.oe? “Jy, y ,SONY ' mited . c : again stnumber di a, ¥of;astamps. Ay of :,As Pens , we IP, 2# »SSPR ,7ySOE _a & a¢ 58 — oO 7 he ni YS aN “1g a. A aN arrange d the motifsatively, very creatively, his two c ius OSS arr’ DEA, “5 Pa UNaeyan his two compositions lookRe | SW), BS Pam Oe

rather dissimilar 6.15) ae 5 f00K8 aayey SD YY oR A (Fig. q rool. with >,CO ed nt¢) ; y«aXe eh, Z y] ¢Or=c .Ly. vi).ee ; . Stamp PES, tor Wie YE aneq trapeie ia . ae\ ": “a Fey “We . &. ae}ms, be

os ; shape occurs several times. upper edge the tay, he e {tile, ilotwo = Pee ; am 2 : ; Cc LG:Near ) Jythe *ofSs RB) aK eaeoVe a SN

RASda-roots: agateway . x.curiously, zs 4 We FlSs &isWadi atstamped fy DeWa hehry fo a(g- a\ RS) bah‘a,es a ‘tas with staands MIAN + }igh len ‘ane superimpose onePe. of them BS WS as: K : side down.*° s stamped 1) AN Bash Shas at ae ea teoag UpPSIC €e down Ay RB \\Y Rad >, Wort Oevan PaSS > Gey, UD,fae Ney AM. May oie, > A ie “\ S _ ai —? eh ; | Re ‘ if o> be es i‘ + © ‘ae Vane YA eS Systematic comparison with a great number of other re nt ONES ey PRX Sa Cia tiles . ; Phe Se SrMOE Bey ™ ouldw lead>, to a sehr better understanding of7) the tile decoraHerp ~ iiaee ee PEMack a Tay ae tors’ intelligent modular syste ; : Nase ON VAS g ar system. It is predictable that one Mts y ois ee ara SASVie SND) » «4

would come to recognize works! ad _ Noes AS Oo Re By oe aa Reh

ks] 7 tomb De: of - :Princess NA DNDai CERE D>, SLO ead gcd iterial culture, (died shortly after RR ON + > 5WFP aa SayWY Wy Ke

168i awangdui, Bc.) in Mawanedui . y alte Ws OND a Na aleOpils” 2 eho Hunan Province. A repetitive pattern es «ae \V, ag 4 Se&)> e NW) be

on a particular of her . She (> OW ae“im NRESath eGKS: Ai-45 We , particular piece ofpiece her gauze was gauze printed in three Pe succesgts \; 5” €s: si. 4 ‘Op

ive stages in gold, silver, and gray (Fig. 6.16).*? The lozenge MM YOM OS AI a Oeste yattern on y >Me

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monastery Eigenji, is less terse: fig eae Se Rh Painted by Lu Xinzhong, Flagstone a = S Care) :

Alley, Cartbridge Ward, Qingyuan **"#::cisetitiessss ES Nae fu” (Fig. 7.6).° Master Lu Xinzhong certainly provided the full address of his workshop in order to help potential buyers find it. He might, specifically, have had in mind export business with Japan.'°

168 Ten Thousand g Things Signatures of another master with the surname Lu, as well as signatures by two cousins or brothers with the surname Zhang indicate that the workshops in Ningbo were family enterprises. The Chinese term meaning “family” (jia) actually occurs in a signature.!' It is also possible that the name Lu Xinzhong was used like a trademark by more than one workshop. The signatures provide a clue for dating the paintings: Qingyuan fu is

an old name for Ningbo that was in use between 1195 and 1277. Lu Xinzhong must have been active during this period.'”

unst, Berlin | |

Fig. 7.7 (left) Workshop of Lu Xinzhong, The The composition of a painting of the seventh king in the National Museum at Seventh King, 13th century. Hanging scroll, ink and Nara, Japan (Fig. 7.8), is very similar to that of the Berlin painting, but the

ror “ 25.36 50:5 ccm. Museuniv itr Osteen repertoire of motifs is not as rich.!* The Nara painting does not include the clouds surrounding the screen, the foggy vapors at the left, and the knife

=eventh i ae of Lu ir ae mountain below, and similar elements missing from King, 13th century. Hanging scroll,areink an — . the other scrolls in

color on silk, 80.6 X 45.7 cm. National Museum, the Nara set. The K6tdin set has more extras, as it were, and one can deduce

Nara, Japan that this set was more expensive. The Nara scroll is also smaller than its

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counterpart in Berlin by about five centimeters both in height and width, yet the respective figures are the same size. A comparison of details in the Berlin and Nara scrolls reveals further disparities. All textile patterns differ—those on the frames of the painted

screens, the furniture draperies, and the trousers and blouses worn by the demons. The panels in the balustrades vary, too. Differences are apparent in

the kings’ headgear, whereas almost the same set of lines was used for the faces, even for such details as the ear conchae. Yet the expression of the

pupils set between the eyelids and of the softly swelling lips betray that the two faces could not possibly have been done by the hand of the same master (Figs. 7.9, 7.10). The demons shown pulling their sleeves up and

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to the background cartouche in the Kanazawa Library scroll, a Buddha figure The Bureaucracy of Hell 775 floats in undefinable space, assuring the pious onlooker that the king, as fierce as he may be, is merely the incarnation of a benevolent Buddha.

It is obvious that single figures and groups, as well as other motifs, were transferred onto the picture ground by the mechanical means of stencils. Most likely, the painters had a pounce—a sheet of paper on which the contour lines of a motif are indicated by small holes. When these sheets were

laid on the painting surface, and they were pounced with black or colored powder, the contours became visible beneath. Such pricked papers, a few centuries older, were found in the Buddhist caves at Dunhuang in the deserts of western China. They were used to paint the rows of “Thousand Buddhas” on ceilings, for example.*°

Once the dotted outlines were complete, a master painter reworked them in ink using a brush. In a third stage, other artisans assumed the detailed execution and filled in the colors. Such a division of labor has a long tradition in Buddhist painting. The celebrated master painter Wu Daozi (active about 710-760) is known to have painted the outlines of Buddhist figures in ink and left the coloring to others,?” and even the modern painter Zhang Daiqian (1899-1983) continued this workshop tradition when he

made copies of paintings in Dunhuang.’® , Buddhist painters favored stencils in part because they facilitated the : replication of images in great numbers. As with the printing of holy texts in many copies, producing many images engendered merit for both the living

and the dead. From this point of view, quantity counted for more than qual-

ity. Moreover, stencils guaranteed iconographic correctness. As with printed

texts and charms, this was important for the efficacy of an image. By coloring |

in different palettes inside the outlines generated by the same stencils, the : painters also achieved considerable aesthetic variety.*°

The artisans in Ningbo workshops, although perhaps not the first to |

do so, went a step further by dividing their compositions into segments, singling out figures and figure groups, pieces of furniture, and landscape elements like clouds and rocks. They treated these motifs as movable parts and assembled them on the picture surface into compositions marked by various degrees of elaboration. This method rationalized production, and it engendered an economic advantage: the workshops could offer an entire program of sets to choose from, allowing them to attract a wide circle of customers of varying degrees of atiluence. A comparative glance at similar techniques elsewhere in world art may be worthwhile here. Fifteenth-century Timurid painting, for example, made use of pounced stencils and a restricted set of stereotyped images, in order to produce “a codified visual aesthetic” and “an internal royal vision

that both celebrated and confirmed Timurid rule.” °° At about the same time, around 1400, the principle of compilation was applied to religious sculpture in central Europe. For instance, figures that were quite similar to each other might differ only in the gestures of the hands. The methods to achieve these effects included taking negative impressions and even reproducing body parts through casting. The prevalent

176 Ten Thousand Things means, however, were sketchbooks, which permitted relative freedom in actual execution.*! By comparison, Chinese modular production appears to be more mechanical, systematic, and encompassing.

The Script f the Ten Ki The textual basis for the iconography of the kings of hell is the Scripture of the Ten Kings (Shi wang jing).** It is an apocryphal text written in the style of Indian sutras by a Chinese Buddhist. The anonymous author probably lived in

the province of Sichuan in the eighth or ninth century A.D.** Thirty-two handwritten copies of the Scripture of the Ten Kings, many of which are illustrated, were found in the caves of Dunhuang. The oldest dated version was made in A.D. 908.**

After a few formulaic introductory statements, the text begins with the Fig. 7.25 (left) —traditional Hell Scenes, 1:given ; “osby the Buddha before he PEATE sil eb okinge claim that9th this century is a sermonA.D. that was

Fragment of wallKunst, painting from Bezeklik, 100 cm. legal qj oo Usi leoalthe‘nol h Museum fir Indische Berlin entered into nirvana. 175 Using Ain Fe: Ap a ; a ; Hite Misr SS FT) Alice isa key > fee ee) ant :

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ii] 9b e RT SZ jee nam Oa oie Nee . , a - RAS af [so Se Bebe. . B ee i) ' another traditional attribute employed to convey ROR gee Aeee ia ee aN Re = & Wy aX oe - } . Gales a Oe 7 Re TH BE eR NS fet SG SS ee Ne ane ee ae ;

a Sa SS Ss a as pal i 6 oe eae ]@ the importance of secular figures, including emMonk et- ae gee ihe UN | Pee =’ perors.” Officials and scholars, too, liked to be

es en wee a i Ae \ ee eal ah seen in front of screens decorated with land-

oe each eee) | i oy oo scape paintings. One unidentified fourteenthAe Be Ae ni ae Wy Be an oe | pears, Miceli Gel eee bei a ee ae 7:in—1374) landa) OPSel(1901-1374) relaxing front relax of a aland Pa Ge aN hy ae A Ng ee te: < 8 century painter showed the scholar painter Ni scape screen (Fig. 7.31).

In life, as in art, both the armchair, and the placement of a screen be- The Bureaucracy of Hell 787 hind a figure serve to frame a sitter and to augment his or her stature. But they

also offer shelter from behind, requiring others to approach them from the front. This function is comparable to that of halos behind religious figures.

The backs of chairs and screens in secular painting may, ae . ee , a with some exaggeration, be thought of as profane halos. pe ee ae : a Portraits of three consecutive Chan patriarchs on ~, ofa > ae iM (3 fi ets ae. the so-called Long Roll of Buddhist Images, which proba- L'a7e alec: as | i = él bly was executed between 1172 and 1175, offer an op- we SS ag , we es. hi Hay portunity to observe the metamorphosis of a halo into a OY oo aw = i ae a a sa

landscape screen (Fig. 7.32).°* The patriarch seated to cS a 4 Cal 2 | Pee the right has a traditional halo, a ring of light, behind his re Oe ee ee é ee es cally is reminiscent of a flaming mandorla. The mat fit- MG & 2. a es 2 Rly “ORS a A i ting into the back of the chair of the center figure is NY mle) = ie my Bel pata oe. Peace} |

woven in theandshape of the a double that encompasses = ee J ;Se. ae eS 2 +. both the head body of sitter. Ahalo painted land43am M2 te 14 te Oa | —ie

scape appears at the back of the chair of the patriarch at iii te fg id

the left. This kind of secularization of hieratic formulas siete iedisaiiaues Cele Se is a hallmark of the Chan school. Fig. 7.32 Three Chan Patriarchs (detail from Long The balustrade is a frequently seen element in Song paintings, in __ Roll of Buddhist Images), ca. 1172-75. Handscroll, ink,

which it indicated an aristocratic mansion with a garden. In the Song- olor, and gold on paper, 30.4 X 1,881.4 cm. National

dynasty fan illustrated in Figure 7.33, the balustrade immediately suggests to Seal le iC the viewer that the children are from well-to-do families. They do not play on the streets because they have a personal heaven for their enjoyment.” The painters in the Ningbo workshops did even more than equip their — Fig. 733 — Anonymous, One Hundred Children at kings of hell with certain formulas commonly reserved for secular figures of Pay, 13th century. Fan, ink and slight color on silk,

high standing. Indeed, the entire ambience of the scenes is modeled on i) Sra oes al ha what was appropriate for government officials. Desk, screen, and a i,

balustrade are indispensable elements in a pictorial type that | ae ae | ne Ce

represents officials at leisure in the lush garden next to their eeu Soe 2 sically similar to that of the fifth king of hell and others a a ae ae ot te The same setting is depicted in secular court scenes. hoe pa. ee es ea” | A woodblock illustration from Plain Tales Fully Illustrated a oe he ee, Tear : shows an empress acting as a judge (Fig. 7.35).°’ The am- Soe Wee ee eS ahaa « Empress Lt (r. 188-180 B.c.) decreed in 196 B.c. that Han a a : ye i : Be oe ce ke Xin, a general loyal to her husband, should be beheaded. . ng = deh -2uh lorie a le The designer again made use of the familiar repertoire of a Boo oe ay yao ; ee a oo desk covered by two cloths, one shorter than the other, the “]jiagegs ae ne ae Ls C Ca ce

chair with curled armrests, the screen standing behind it, the si ee | a = a a

clouds encroaching from the side, and the angled balustrade set eS ~ 2 Ae ——— on tiles. The oblong format allowed the illustrator to reveal more of ———— the palace, where the judge resides. Her desk has been moved out in front of

182 Ten Thousand Things Bg Pilea

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Fig. 7.34 Anonymous, Eighteen Scholars in a ee PR ge : Garden, 15th (?) century copy of Song-dynasty Pe = el . ee, 1 3 composition. Hanging set of Palace four), iink and color on silk, 173.7 Xscroll 103.5 (from cm. National — Se i: | Museum, Taipei, Republic of China | the entrance, where it stands right on the borderline between the spheres of law and everyday life. In an abbreviated way the hell scenes also epitomize that liminal space where humans meet justice.” Another page from the same book illustrates the story of Daji, the vicious consort of King Zhou. She implores her husband, who was the last ruler of the Shang dynasty, to have the palace ladies tortured. One is tied to a bronze pole and tortured by fire in front of the royal couple (Fig. 7.36).°° oO

This may have been a practice in real life, but the torture scenes in the Ningbo paintings employ magical and fantastic elements as well, including a

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Fig. 8.1 — Zheng Xie (1693-1765), Bamboo, 1753. Several methods may be employed to establish what was considered Four-fold screen, ink on paper, 119.3 x 235.4 cm. art in imperial China. One is a terminological investigation, which might start from the observation that no general term for art existed in traditional China. The current word meishu is a late-nineteenth-century translation of

the Japanese word bijutsu, which, in turn, is a translation of the French beaux-arts. Another line of inquiry might look at the social status of the mak-

ers. Those who produced the objects examined in the previous chapters were not considered artists in their time. Instead they were simply workers—or, at the most, skilled artisans—who manufactured luxury goods. But two additional methods will be used here to define art in China: an encyclopedia and art collections.

Classification of the Arts in the In the preface to his classic text The Order of Things (1966), Michel Foucault recalls his shattering laughter about a wondrous taxonomy of animals in a “certain Chinese Encyclopedia.” The seemingly meaningless categories led

Foucault to a central theme for his book, the question of whether the human mind is able to come up with valid classification at all. Yet Foucault played on the stereotype of China as Europe's “other,” and he quoted a passage that is likely fictitious.’ In actuality, the classification system of a Chinese encyclopedia, used properly, can reveal much about the minds of its

authors as well as about the things classified. (But then, if Foucault had ° Freedom of the Brush? 189 been a better sinologist, he may not have written his book, which would have been a pity.) The largest extant encyclopedia is the giant eighteenth-century Synthesis of Books and Illustrations, Past and Present, which, as discussed in chap-

ter 6, entailed printing over one hundred million characters. As this comprehensive body of knowledge consists entirely of quotations, it is particularly worthwhile to inquire into what kind of information is quoted and how is it classified.

The ten thousand chapters of the Encyclopedia are divided into six major parts (huibian): Celestial Matters, Geography, Human Relationships, _ Science, Philosophy, and Polity.* These six parts comprise 32 sections (dian)

with 6,109 headings (bu). No section or heading corresponds to art as it is understood today, and the topics of each of the previous seven chapters are found under various headings, with some topics treated more than once. Script Almost everything the Encyclopedia records about the system of script and about calligraphy is found in its prestigious fifth part concerning philosophy (lixue), in the section about script (zixue). This section discusses the different script types, exemplary models of calligraphy, calli-

graphic treatises, writing materials, and it includes ample information on , individual calligraphers. Ritual bronzes Ritual bronzes are treated in three different places in the Encyclopedia, most extensively in the Production (kaogong) section,

where these particular vessels are arranged by typology. The entries concerning bronzes appear after Boats and Oars and before Benches and Tables. The raw material bronze is listed between silver and lead in the section Food and

Commerce (shihuo). The section that deals with branches of literature (wenxue) reviews inscriptions on bronzes as a particular literary genre, which is preceded by Admonitions and followed by Summons to Arms. Tomb figures The Encyclopedia is, of course, completely void of information on the magic army of the First Emperor, which was discovered only in 1974, but no entries on other tomb figures are found either. The chapters on imperial tomb compounds in the section on Earth (kunyu) quote the tfamous passage from Records of the Historian that describes the interior of the

First Emperor’s tomb.* No further information about interred objects is found here or under the heading Sacrifices at Imperial Tombs and Ancestor Temples in the section concerning ritual (liyi). Sculpture, other than that made for tombs, is treated in the section about religion (shenyi), first under the heading Figures of God, and then, more specifically, under Buddhist Images, both sculptured and painted. Factory art Lacquer, textiles, and porcelain are, like bronzes, dealt with extensively under Production. Food and Commerce contains an additional eleven chapters on textiles. Architecture Production also informs at length about the system of architecture, in descending order from cities to palaces and halls on down to beams and pillars. Tombs are treated in the section Earth; and Religion

190 Ten Thousand Things contains the headings Daoist Monasteries, Buddhist Monasteries, and Pagodas, which demonstrates that, in classifying architecture, function was more important than structure. Printing Printing is not given a heading of its own, but scattered references are found in “Canonical and Other Literature” Gingji). Production has several chapters on seals.

Painting All kinds of stories about hell are recounted in Religion under the heading Dark Office. Buddhist Images records particular sculptures and paintings. The section Political Divisions has a detailed entry on the city of Ningbo. It even lists Cartbridge Ward, where Lu Xinzhong’s workshop was located.* Yet the Encyclopedia does not mention Lu’s workshop, which no longer functioned, its professional paintings having fallen into oblivion long before. Painting by the so-called literati (wenren) is treated at length in the section Skills (yishu), which includes headings for, among others, Agriculture, Fishing, Archery, Charioteering, Medicine, Prognostication, Astronomy, Physiognomy, and Calculations. These categories derive from an elaboration of the six arts (liuyi) of antiquity—tritual, music, archery, charioteering, writing, and calculations—which are akin to the seven artes liberales of medieval Europe. Both denote certain occupations and professions that demand particular physical and mental skills and training. Painting is the third-largest heading in the section, after Medicine and Calculations. Under Painting, one finds theoretical treatises, a wealth of biographical material on literati artists, and inscriptions recorded from particular scrolls. A separate heading, Painting and Calligraphy, is in the Script section, which, because of the high status accorded to writing, is more prestigious than Skills. Samples of handwriting by emperors, together with some of their paintings, are singled out in the section August Supreme (huangji). In conclusion, the eighteenth-century Encyclopedia did not entertain the modern concept of art. What is called Chinese art today was at that time classified either as belonging to Production and Religion, that is, rather low in a hierarchy of values, or somewhat higher up, under Script and Skills. Calligraphy held the highest position because it was likened to literature; painting came next, because it was likened to calligraphy. These two media come closest to the modern definition of art. Manufactured objects qualified for a higher category only to the extent that they had “literary” value, which was best exemplified by inscribed bronzes.

Art Collections. = The analysis of the classification system in the Encyclopedia can be corroborated by a look at the history and content of art collections in China. By detinition, art collections include objects chosen primarily for their aesthetic quality rather than tor their material, historical, political, or religious value. Hence art collections provide another possible definition of art: all objects in an art collection.

Long before they started to build art collections, Chinese rulers al- Freedom of the Brush? 797 ready had collections of precious things in their palaces, for example charts,

registers, and holy objects such as the Nine Bronze Tripods, which were handed down from antiquity.° Ownership of these treasures guaranteed the legitimacy of the ruler and was taken as proof that he deserved the mandate of heaven and would lead a virtuous reign. Later imperial art collections inherited this legitimizing power of the early palace collections in secularized form. This is the reason why, when retreating from the mainland to Taiwan in the winter of 1948, Chiang Kai-shek took several hundred thousand objects from the former imperial collection with him. It was a unique venture in the history of art and the military.’ Rulers were not the only ones who collected precious ancient objects. In the tombs of many Han nobles one finds, apart from contemporaneous treasures, bronzes and jades that were hundreds, even thousands, of years old at the time of interment. Their beauty may have been one reason why owners wished to hold on to them for eternity, but it was not the primary reason. The ritual function of these objects, their significance as documents of antiquity, as tokens of a family tradition, or simply their sheer material value, were more important than their aesthetic quality. Following is a brief overview of when the types of objects discussed in previous chapters entered art collections. Script Specimens of script were the first items to be collected primarily for their aesthetic value. This began in the fourth century A.D. Prior to that, the major criterion for evaluating script had been its text or content. Now certain pieces, above all those by Wang Xizhi (303-361) and his son Wang Xianzhi (344-388), were collected for the quality and beauty of the handwriting itself. One prominent early example is Wang Xizhi’s Orchid Pavilion Preface (see Fig. 1.5). Paintings followed suit, and many emperors and private individuals collected works of calligraphy and paintings during the Tang period (618-906). Ritual bronzes These objects were made as tokens of political and re-

ligious power for elite families to use in rituals honoring their ancestors. Throughout all later epochs, ancient bronzes were highly esteemed, and, when they surfaced from under the earth, were sometimes presented to emperors as auspicious omens. Systematic collecting of ancient bronzes began in the Northern Song

dynasty (960-1127). The great patron of the arts, Emperor Huizong (r. 1101-25), owned several hundred objects, which he exhibited on special occasions in his palace halls. He commissioned a catalog of his bronzes that was comparable to those for his calligraphic pieces and paintings. This imperial catalog and other Song-period bronze catalogs compiled for private col-

lectors contain woodblock illustrations and detailed information on the individual objects, including measurements, physical condition, and provenance. Yet the uppermost interest of collectors was captured by the inscriptions on these enigmatic vestiges from a remote past.®

During the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), scholar-officials, wealthy merchants, and other members of the cultured elite occasionally still put

192 Ten Thousand Things ancient bronzes to use in their ancestral temples.° As a rule, however, bronzes were collected and treated as precious objects. In one listing, a latefifteenth-century collector ranked his finest bronzes immediately below his

works of calligraphy.!° One or two owners took their beloved ancient bronzes with them to their graves. Such high regard was sometimes ac-

: corded to paintings and works of calligraphy as well." Bronzes from antiquity figured prominently in the collection of the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736-95), the largest single art collection in Chinese

history. Qianlong, like Huizong before him, ordered his bronzes to be recorded. In addition to his catalogs of calligraphy and painting, which total some 21,000 pages, four bronze catalogs appeared over a period of approximately forty-five years, describing a total of 3,688 items.’* By this time, the aesthetic qualities of the objects received more attention. Some catalog albums boast exquisitely colored drawings, betraying a fascination with the beautiful form and surface of the metal.* Remarkably, Qianlong never had seals or inscriptions engraved on his bronzes, although he did so on jades

and pieces of porcelain.'* Size permitting, bronzes were included in the

, “boxes of many treasures” (duobdoge) that were constructed to contain a microcosm of the imperial collections, including tiny jades and minuscule bronzes of all ages, decorative objects in every medium, and miniature calligraphies and paintings. Even if curiosity was dominant in the appeal of these cultural playthings (wenwan), a major criterion for selection was their aesthetic properties. Consequently the “many treasures” in these boxes come close to the modern definition of art. Tomb figures Ceramic tomb figures entered Chinese art collections very late, possibly not before the twentieth century. Ancient specimens were little known before the period of archaeological excavations, as tomb robbers were mainly interested in objects made of jade and metal. The Chinese tend to shun things connected with death, and the idea of keeping in one’s house objects made for a dead person did not appeal to them. Tomb figures finally began to enter art collections because westerners held the view that they, like Buddhist or Daoist statues, are sculpture. Factory art Lacquer dishes, textiles, and porcelains were, above all, utilitarian items. If of exceptional quality, they could be considered luxury objects, but they still did not have a place in the Song imperial art collection. Song collectors may have been interested in certain contemporary manufactured products but hardly in ancient ones. During the Ming dynasty, however, the cultured elite began to appreciate such goods, especially pieces of porcelain. Most were products of the

time, but collectors also eagerly sought antique objects and valued them highly. Song-dynasty porcelains topped the list. The proud owners treasured them almost like pieces of calligraphy, paintings, and bronzes, often paying similar prices and including them in the catalogs of their collections. These catalogs and a body of literature on connoisseurship allow us to trace the gradual formation and the history of private collections through the peak period in the late Ming between about 1590 and 1630.'° The art collections of these patrons were generally small, but the aesthetic quality of an object was

the foremost criterion for its inclusion. By expanding the definition of art, Freedom of the Brush? 7193 Ming-dynasty collectors added to a fascinating aspect of China’s cultural fabric: its aesthetic dimension. In the eighteenth century, the Qianlong Emperor adopted the late-Ming concept of art and gave it authority. His palace halls overflowed with exquisite

pieces of porcelain, lacquerware, and furniture, both old and new. However, | Qianlong never commissioned a catalog of these factory-art treasures. Apparently in the imperial collection firm distinctions were still made between calligraphy, paintings, ancient bronzes, and all other manufactured goods. Architecture For obvious reasons, buildings cannot be considered in this discussion of the evolution of art collections. Architectural models, such as ceramic watchtowers of the Han dynasty, only entered museum collections with tomb figures. Printing Printed products were collected separately in libraries. Illus-

trated books, even if designed by renowned painters, did not enter traditional art collections and were stored only with other books. Painting A long time passed before professional religious paintings were included in art collections. Religious scrolls with lengthy inscriptions, compositions executed in ink, and scrolls by known artists—in short, paintings with literary quality—were given preference by collectors. Qianlong’s collection was replete with such works and the first installment of his catalog of calligraphy and painting is devoted to them.!’ The palace even owned a painting of a Buddhist Luohan from the Ningbo workshops.!® However, Qianlong does not seem to have accepted professional products done with movable stencils, like those by Lu Xinzhong. If given a chance, Chinese museums might acquire them today, but they would be following the lead of Japanese and Western museums. Summing up these few observations (on a topic that deserves a booklength study), one can say that the scope of objects included in art collec-

tions in China continually broadened through the centuries. Collecting calligraphy began in the fourth century, followed by paintings shortly thereafter. Bronzes began to enter collections in the Song dynasty; manufactured luxury goods in the Ming dynasty. The eighteenth-century imperial

collection validated the late-Ming concept of art. The introduction of a Western-art concept at the beginning of the twentieth century widened the spectrum even farther. The examination of art collections thus supplements and modifies the observations made when surveying the Encyclopedia. Both the collections and the Encyclopedia emphasize the supremacy of calligraphy and painting as arts, and both grant ancient bronzes an elevated position because of their inscriptions. Yet by acquiring manufactured objects, the production of which involved module systems, Ming-dynasty art collectors had already transcended the traditional classification scheme that, later still, would be expounded in the Encyclopedia. Neither the compilers of the Encyclopedia nor collectors believed that all beautiful pieces of calligraphy and all good paintings should be considered art. Officials with a literary education defined culture and claimed a monopoly

194 Ten Thousand Things on art. Insisting on the distinction between their own calligraphy and that of scribes in offices, and between their paintings and works by professionals, the literati set their own practice apart in various ways. In calligraphy, they emphasized the cursive types of script amenable to individual expression, which were not the script types used by clerks for documents. For their own paintings, the literati preferred ink and light color rather than heavy pigments. Thereby they likened painting to calligraphy and avoided any resemblance to artisans’ products in gaudy colors. They limited their repertoire of themes and motifs, at times narrowing it down to landscapes and plants, and they fa-

vored plants that required little technical competence to paint but were fraught with symbolic meaning. Indeed, attempts to distance themselves from professional practice go a long way to explain why the literati chose certain technical, stylistic, and aesthetic features for their own art.

, The literati used their art collections as instruments by which to promote their definition of art. They primarily acquired pieces of calligraphy and painting that conformed to their own standards and were created by their own group. Handwritten Buddhist sutras, like those engraved into stone in the Cloud Dwelling Monastery (see Figs. 1.1, 1.6, 1.7, 1.10-1.12),

, did not qualify as art, nor did paintings such as those discussed in chapter 7, | from Lu Xinzhong’s workshop, because they were the work of professionals.

The Aesthetic Ambition of Calligraphy ___— In addition to his social status, the educated calligrapher distinguishes himself from the professional scribe through his aesthetic ambition. When exploring the aesthetic dimension of script, calligraphers start from the simple fact, observed in chapter 1, that no two versions of the same handwritten character are completely identical. The same phenomenon is found in other fields. No two blocks in a timber frame building are completely alike, nor are two absolutely identical cups found among the 150,000 porcelains in the shipwreck of the Geldermalsen. Yet, whereas craftsmen have been aiming for ever greater standardization, and have achieved ever more perfect contormity of modules and units, calligraphers have been doing the opposite. They consciously exploit variants that creep in unconsciously in the execution of characters, trying new shapes, finding new forms, studying previous masters’ inventions, modifying their creations and interpreting them. Generation after generation, countless practitioners built the increasingly complex edifice that is the great calligraphic tradition in China. In A.D. 777, the Buddhist monk Huaisu (about 735—about 799) wrote his autobiography (Zixutie). He was a master of the Mad Cursive Script (kuangcao), and his handscroll (Fig. 8.2) is one of the most extraordinary calligraphic creations of all epochs. A work in the literati mode, it represents an extreme aesthetic alternative to most other works illustrated in Ten Thousand Things so far.!9 Whereas those works involved division of labor among teams of mostly anonymous craftsmen, the Autobiography was created by an individual, and we know his name.

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duction on the one hand to total division of labor on the other, Huaisu’s Au- ae Ink on paper, id ae National

tobiography exemplifies a purely holistic creation. The monk wrote it in a a ae

linear sequence from beginning to end, in a “rapid, uninterrupted flow of darting, looping brush movements.”?° He did not plan the shapes of his characters in advance but rather let them evolve under his brush spontaneously. When he began, he had yet to know the final form the work was to take. At each stage he could still experiment. Even shortly before the end, he came up with unforeseen shapes. These fantastic graphic inventions give his scroll a spectacular finale and add considerably to its quality.

The Autobiography also differs from modular works in that it is a unique opus. It is not part of a set of similar scrolls, and Huaisu possibly wrote it only once. Unlike bronze vessels, lacquer dishes, bracket arms, and books, the Autobiography cannot be duplicated or reproduced without losing its essential quality. There is only one original. Nor is Huaisu’s scroll built up of modules. One cannot identify distinct or interchangeable components that the monk may have written at dif-

ferent times and assembled later, or those which he used in this or other scrolls. Whereas working with modules depends upon standardization, division of labor, and predictability, calligraphers like Huaisu strove for original, personal, and spontaneous creations. These aesthetic values are precisely those that lie at the core of Chinese art theory. The educated literati produced a voluminous and fascinat-

ing body of writing on aesthetic issues, with emphasis upon calligraphy and painting. One of the earliest known treatises, written in the fifth century A.D., already gives the highest praise to calligraphy imbued with spontaneity (ziran).?! One eighth-century text relates how Wang Xizhi wrote his Orchid Pavilion Preface in the spring of A.D. 353 (see Fig. 1.5). He invited his friends for an outdoor party at a certain Orchid Pavilion. At the end of the day the

196 Ten Thousand Things host evoked in beautiful prose the serene atmosphere of the gathering and spontaneously wrote his text down with his own brush. Very satisfied with his calligraphy, Wang Xizhi wanted to copy it the next day; yet, as the chronicler tells it, the master tried several hundred times, but was unable to match his performance of the previous day. The Preface was the outflow of a unique and felicitous moment of creation, which was never to repeat itself. Many theoreticians emphasized that a work of art is the visible manifestation of a unique personality, and that true artistic creation has to be distinctive. Although they acknowledged that a calligrapher has to spend years copying other masters’ works, they nevertheless demanded that he must eventually develop a style of his own. They called it “getting the substance” of an old master, “transcending formal resemblance,” and “becoming a master in one’s own right.” This is a tall order, considering that China has been home to millions of dedicated practitioners of calligraphy. Yet the system of calligraphic shapes is so resourceful that throughout the ages, and even today, masters have continuously been able to forge new, individual styles. Experience shows that even a very few characters can betray the hand of a particular calligrapher. Fig. 83 Deng Shiru (1743-1805), Single leaf from Not all calligraphy that coniorms to the aesthetic ideals ot the literati album with Seal Script. Ink on paper, 31.3 X 16.2cm. has to look wild and erratic like Huaisu’s Autobiography. There exists a broad

Formerly Collection of Zhou Peiyuan stylistic range. For example, Deng Shiru (1743-1805), whom some critics regard as the greatest calligrapher of the Qing dynasty, was a master of the

| stately and tectonic Seal Script (Fig. 8.3). He wrote very slowly, in full control of the movements of his hand at every moment. The subtle nuances in

es the width of each stroke and the delicate balance in the sophisticated composition of each character are inimitable.2* Deng Shiru’s epigraphic script conveys a totally different impression than Huaisu’s swift brush traces, but both works embody the same aesthetic values of nonmodular art, which is

a) ee, =—s spontaneous and unique.

| | Yet freedom of the brush is not easily won. A calligrapher works | | within a framework of many rules. First is the essential fact that he writes a | | prescribed sequence of brush movements. In every character, the individual

\ | i _ strokes must follow one another in a specified order to be obeyed by every| | A | one. This is especially important when contracting several strokes into one

ee |) Sweeping movement in cursive script. If a calligrapher were then to change

i 3 =) | the sequence of the strokes, his characters would degenerate into unintelligii p | 7a | ge bu bility. The characters must also follow one another in a definite order, again,

| 7 | Ae a lest the text become incomprehensible.

| , / i \ ee a When watching a calligrapher write, the viewer knows what was obee A Aer a ee served a few seconds ago, and what the calligrapher did in those few secBeet acres ae soe eS onds. The viewer who knows the text, such as that of a famous poem, will : | ‘ \ Sey) also have a fair idea of what the calligrapher will do in the following seconds. ahme Mi)ip=~ the eminent calligrapher Fu to Shen wrote the two characters that stand » | | esse_— ae }\ forWhen “ten thousand things” (wanwu) be the frontispiece for this book, the

¢ y , o ——/ || well-informed spectators present at the occasion could anticipate every : Mg eee | oN stroke as it was about to be written, but they could not visualize its final apBB Rona es a) pearance (Fig. 8.4). Likewise, when a pianist performs a well-known piece,

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198 Ten Thousand Things educated listeners will not concentrate on what he plays (which they know already) but on how he plays. Both, a few characters written by a calligrapher and a few bars played by a pianist can embody the experience of a lifetime. The difference is, of course, that the performance of a calligrapher results in a permanent trace, which remains to be viewed.

A viewer watching Jackson Pollock paint, by contrast, may not remember what exactly he saw in the preceding ten seconds (Fig. 8.5). And he could hardly anticipate what the abstract artist would do next. Some critics who claim that modern action painters have felt akin to East Asian artists of the brush, and looked to them for inspiration and legitimacy, may have failed to see, or perhaps did not want to acknowledge, that Chinese calligraphy requires discipline from beginning to end. Spontaneous freedom in calligraphy is further limited by the paradox that it has to be learned slowly, under painstaking training. When westerners develop a personal handwriting in their youth, certain ways of abbreviating

and contracting letters creep in unintentionally, and these idiosyncrasies tend to remain for life. This is why banks have been persuaded to trust our signatures on checks. A Chinese calligrapher, by contrast, can hardly ever in-

vent his own abbreviations. He learns spontaneous movements by slowly copying the spontaneous movements of earlier masters. Frequently, a calligrapher’s models are copies themselves. In so-called tracing copies (shuanggou), the copyist first traces the outlines of every single dot and stroke and then meticulously fills in the contours with small strokes

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use the same seal, but other leaves in the same album show several others of Freedom of the Brush? 209 his seals and different forms of his name. The artist made use of various signatures and seals to diversify his compositions.

With bamboo, orchid, and rock, Zheng Xie built compositions— probably thousands of them—along three principles: multiplication, combi- Fig. 8.25 (left) Zheng Xie (1693-1765), Bamboo. nation, and individual execution of each motif. Hanging scrolls for which Hanging scroll, ink on paper

nm , VA t)f::

bamboo is the sole motif (Figs. 8.22—8.26) reveal similar clusters of leaves : ; : )

| a . | Fig. 8.26 (right) Zheng Xie (1693-1765), Bamboo.

that were done with the same stroke types as those in the album. At times the 4757 Hanging scroll, ink on paper, 226.5 X 91.5. cm.

clusters mesh in lush profusion, which can be seen especially well in the National Museum, Tokyo

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212 Ten Thousand Things recipient and dedicating it to him, as was customary among traditional literati painters, Zheng Xie could finish a work before he knew who would buy it.

f:

Fig. 8.32 (below, left) — Zheng Xie (1693-1765), This allowed him to produce works for a large and anonymous clientele. Bamboo and Rocks, ca. 1762. Hanging scroll, ink on Motifs such as bamboo, orchid, and rock are not modules in a physi-

Pais GB 2 aii MnSeC nT PO SGelatscie net cal sense, like blocks and brackets, but Zheng Xie treated them as modules when he multiplied and combined them. However, the individual execution Ep EASON GNY)? naGhe Ale Eee “libo) in Zheng Xie’s compositions sets his motifs apart from modules in manutfactured goods. For instance, each of the nodes on the thicker bamboo stalk at

Bamboo and Rocks, 1756. Hanging scroll, ink on paper : : .

Opposite: the left of Figure 8.22 result from three strokes: a large horizontal one topFig. 8.34 (opposite) Zheng Xie (1693-1765), ping off the lower segment, and two little, dark curves that connect to Banoo aiacuigh Hatieiiie Sy nieGihparel the segment above. The same three strokes appear in the dark, thin stalk at

187.7 X 93.2 cm. Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, . _ .

The Avery Brundage Collection. Gift of The Asian Art the right, where they are smaller correspondingly, but each node has them.

Foundation of San Francisco The painter repeated them again and again, as if writing a character with

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three strokes. His hand moved always in the | 3 GaeoF fe ee.

same way. That is why Chinese literati

painters like to say that they “write” (xie) a painting. But now consider the most amazing fact: all nodes are clearly different. Although

. = _ geen, . ONS || “ears it differently each time. The same holds true “ery } ~.. > Saas. Le M3 LA slike ! eee CN NOD a ElheOS PANG. < for his clusters of bamboo leaves, of which i,genie 1 fi yr: m ey") eae Dt‘~~ aeNIKO iabi/, SE) an

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the painter wielded his brush in the same fas ¢ ? 2 v,

way a thousand times, he still managed to do cH > 4 a 2 eZ

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found in the entirety of Zheng Xies oeuvre. 4 FARMED LES. eoie Wale “\yivse=— > "

Considering Seas" =pags ‘es — consideringthat thatthe theartist’s artistshand hand(aeggoge. pyAe, \ usVie mas\ moved this ant Zauat p.' rae id prachieve pa “sa 7wf 4.bee Ww ; °isalmost . °the. :automatically, att astonishing. sat “ihe iOR, peindivida4ZBG’ YY =~ 5 INS ; ; ‘ Z isdthe aavery YA:quality Tf —byaa ieee*%Ai>:ds2 bTe-i .(AL ! ‘ ;KMS ual execution which ml BA\\

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literati painters their apart from fe YYhl: on ee? A SOA ‘By Se 3 aon | ‘catiset . ©work AD Wao that arti of artisans: the3application of64 boundless ee za JLZ a a lta tose meEN TN inventive the-ever-changing Ee TAO toe Jae ‘ ~ oe.energy ; 2 ainoe id a tic z execuce %4\,Caens coe7 we | re |

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tion of details. It is to this creativity that Ce : aoe ie > NE painted like heaven gives life. He saw no | ioe tae riot Gaeer .

Zheng Xie referred when saying that he 4 4 : ba ew iN =(now) (metal)Lili BE FJ (force) hi Ossary He Yanzhi {iJ HE (8th cent.) jin Fr (pound) Li Ji (Li Chi) 253% Chinese Names

Hemudu 7A] ahh Jin © (state) Li Jie 2 aK (died 1110) and Terms

Hokkiji Re Jin Jian 4 f§ (d. 1794) Li Kan 247 (1245-1320) Honenji (EA =F Jin Nong 4 (1687-1764) Li Si 2 Bf (ca. 280-208 B.c.)

Hongren 7X4 Jing & (duke; 577-537 B.c.) Li Xiaoding #7

Hongzhi sh 78 Jingdezhen #3 {$e Li Yangbing 4h vk

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