Page 16 - Lydia Chen - The Complete Book of Chinese Knotting

01 Chinese Knts inA nct (09-16) rp08 5/30/08 5:58 PM Page 13

Clothing
Long robes with flowing sleeves, the traditional garb of both men and women
in ancient China, had to be fastened at the waist with knotted sashes. Simple
examples exist in paintings (pages 11 and 12). Gentlemen of the Zhou Dynasty
(c. 1050–256 BCE) would carry a special device, a xi (page 9), tied to their waist
sashes for untying knots. They were also fond of wearing elaborate belt orna-
ments hung from their sashes, composed of several small pieces of delicately
carved jade with cord eyelets strung together with intricate knotwork.
Tang sculpture has preserved the designs of a handful of knots, some quite
complex, that have survived to the present day. The prototype of the good luck
knot (with only one layer of overlapped ear loops) can be seen in a hanging
tassel on a statue of the Goddess of Mercy, Kuan Yin, dated to the Northern Zhou
Period (page 3). Subsequently, the Buddha knot, which Buddhists hold as a sym-
bol of all good fortune, was spotted hanging from the waist of another statue of
Kuan Yin, dated from the Sui Dynasty, now in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,
Kansas City (page 4). The double connection knot was first discovered decorat-
ing the back of a sash on a Tang terracotta figure housed in the Royal Ontario
Detail of a portrait,“The Lady with the Fan,”Tang
Museum, Toronto (page 4). On the same tassel is a Buddha knot. Indeed, a few Dynasty (CE 618–906).
double connection knots with outer loops, of which the knotting technique still
remains elusive, are apparent on various stone Bhodisattvas from the Western Wei
and Northern Qi periods (mid-sixth century). An elegant knot was found on the
tassel of the empress’s devotee on the stone carving of the same name found in
Bingyang Cave, Luoyang (page 12). The cross knot made its debut on a Tang
Dynasty silk belt in the Tokyo National Museum. The image on page 4 shows a
net bag tied from cross knots.
In the Southern Song portrait “Seated Folks” (page 12), some double connec-
tion knots with outer loops are clearly visible on the characters, but the knotting
technique still eludes us. Since it only appears around the Southern Song–early Rubbing of the “Seven Scholars of the Bamboo
Garden,”rubbing from a brick frieze, Danyang,
Yuan period, it can serve as a diagnostic indicator for other artifacts. Jiangsu Province.

Stone frieze entitled “The Emperor Praying to Buddha,”Bingyang Cave, Longmen Ru yi (sacred fungus) knot,Tang Dynasty (CE 618–906). Photo courtesy
Grottoes,Luoyang,Henan Province. Palace Museum,Taipei.

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