Page 203 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

OR THE SCHOLAR'S DESK, the tortoise holds an 'eared cup', a
shallow, elliptical cup with flange-like handles on its long sides, in its
F mouth. Inlaid silver wires indicate the tortoise's eyes, wrinkles, knees,
and toes and define the hexagon design of the shell, each hexagon with a
pattern of inlaid dots at its center. Lying along the top of the tortoise's
back, the snake curves around the circular well that opens into the interior
cavity. An inlaid silver wire indicates the snake's spine and inlaid silver
dots suggest its patterned skin. An opening at the back of the tortoise
may have anchored a separately prepared tail.
The water dropper allowed the scholar to regulate the tonality of
the ink by adding water to the inkstone drop by drop. In this case, the
water was dispensed onto the inkstone from the cup, to which it was
transferred via the small hole at the front of the tortoise's mouth. The step
inside the well on the tortoise's back suggests that the larger opening
may have been fitted with a stopper.
1
Inkstones and solid ink cakes had appeared by the Han, and water
droppers of bronze, jade, and ceramic ware were in use by the Six Dynasties,
if not earlier. This water dropper was inspired by a type of water dropper
popular during the Six Dynasties that took the form of a bixie chimera
grasping an eared cup. 2 In 1637, Wen Zhenheng wrote that his contem-
poraries used a variety of antique water droppers, some of them animal-
shaped vessels made for other purposes but modified in the late Ming to
make them suitable for use as water droppers. 3
The eared wine cup first appeared during the Warring States period. 4
Made of bronze, jade, gold, silver, painted lacquer, or ceramic ware, it was
apparently a regular feature of Han life. Its popularity began to wane with
the fall of Han, but examples exist from the Six Dynasties.
An emblem of longevity, the tortoise appears on Neolithic painted
pottery and on archaic ritual bronzes. By the Han dynasty, it was inter-
twined with the snake to represent both north and winter. 5 Since black is
the color associated with north, and thus with intertwined tortoise and
snake, the pair is sometimes known as Xuanwu, the Dark Warrior. The Zhou-
dynasty Liji, or Book of Rites, states that along with the dragon, phoenix,
and qilin, the tortoise is one of the siling, or four intelligent creatures, 6
which, according to Chinese mythology, appear together only during the
reigns of extraordinarily virtuous emperors.
The integral casting, straightforward archaism, and inlays of wires
and of bands into relatively deep channels with undercut edges signal the
late Ming date of this water dropper. 7

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T H E R O B E R T II. C L A G U E C O L L E C T I O N