Page 237 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

14. See Bo Gyllensvard and John Alexander Pope, auspicious animal in the realm of Chinese mythol-
Chinese Art from the Collection of H. M. King ogy and an emblem of the north in Chinese
Gustav Adolf of Sweden, New York: Asia Society, directional symbolism - the hexagon began to find
1966, 107, 125; Watt and Ford, East Asian Lacquer, favor as form in Song times. At least as early as
56, number 11; 60, number 14; 105-07, numbers 40-42. the Yuan dynasty, hexagons were occasionally used
15. See Rene-Yvon Lefebvre d'Argence, 'Chinese for surface patterning in both bronze and architec-
Lacquerware of the Late Medieval Period,' Apollo tural ornament, sometimes with simple internal
(London), volume 112, number 221, August 1980, embellishments, sometimes without; for an example
11, figure 14. For an example with identical shape in bronze, see Ministry of Culture and Information,
and with identical leiwen borders on its straight Sinan haejoyumul, 130, number 164; for an example
vertical sides but with figural decor on its broad as architectural ornament in a painting, see Editorial
flat face, see Watt and Ford, East Asian Lacquer, Committee of the Joint Board of Directors of the
107, number 42. National Palace Museum and National Central
16. See d'Argence, 'Chinese Lacquerware of the Museum, Three Hundred Masterpieces of Chinese
Late Medieval Period,'11, figure 14; Watt and Ford, Painting, volume 4, number 175. By the early six-
East Asian Lacquer, 105-06, numbers 40-41; teenth century, blue-and-white porcelain decoration
Gyllensvard and Pope, Chinese Art, 107, number occasionally included hexagonal diapers with single-Y
125; Watt, Chinese Jades, 138-39, numbers 114-15. markings on their interiors; see Palace Museum com-
17. C.A.S. Williams, Outlines of Chinese Symbolism piler, Gugong bowuyuan cang ci xuanji (The Palace
and Art Motifs, Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, 1932, Museum: Ceramics), Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe,
second, revised edition, 324-26 (Plant of Long Life). 1962, number 60.
18. See San Francisco Center of Asian Art and 27. Compare Tsang and Moss, Chinese Metalwork,
Culture compiler, Osaka Exchange Exhibition: 46, numbers 9-10.
Paintings from the Abe Collection and Other Master- 28. Wen Zhenheng, Zhangwu zhi (1637), in Deng Shi
pieces of Chinese Art, San Francisco: San Francisco and Huang Binhong compilers, Meishu congshu,
Center of Asian Art and Culture, and Osaka: Osaka Taipei: Yiwen yinshuguan, photo reprint of 1947,
Municipal Museum of Fine Arts, 1970, 36, number fourth revised edition, volume 15, 3/9, juan 7, 198.
11; for information on Zheng Sixiao, see Chu-tsing 29. Wen Zhenheng, Zhangwu zhi, juan 7, 199.30.
Li, 'Cheng Ssu-hsiao' (Zheng Sixiao), in Herbert Tu Long, Xiangjian (not dated, but late sixteenth
Franke editor, Song Biographies: Painters, century), in Deng Shi and Huang Binhong compilers,
Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag GMBH, 1976,15-23. Meishu congshu, Taipei: Yiwen yinshuguan, photo
19. See The National Palace Museum compiler, reprint of 1947, fourth revised edition, volume 10,
Wupai hua jiushinian zhan (Ninety Years of Wu 2/9, 159-60.
School Painting), Taipei: Guoli gugong bowuyuan,
1974, 128, number 115; 173, number 155; 176, 12
number 158; 222, number 198; Richard Edwards,
The Art of Wen Cheng-ming (1470-1559), Ann 1. Literally, feiyu means 'flying fish' in Chinese. A
Arbor: University of Michigan, 1976, 183, number fabulous creature of Chinese mythology and decid-
LIMA; National Palace Museum, Wan Ming bianxing edly a member of the dragon family, the feiyu has
zhuyi huajia zuopin zhan, 117, number 021. a dragon's head and a scale-covered body that
20. See Kerr, Later Chinese Bronzes, 15, figure 1; sometimes resembles that of a fish but that more
43, figure 31. commonly resembles that of a dragon (as usually
21. See Kuo, Born of Earth and Fire, 76, number 54. depicted in Chinese art). The feiyu has a pair of
22. See Watt, Chinese Jades, 139, number 115. wings - usually webbed, like those of a bat, but
23. See Gyllensvard and Pope, Chinese Art, 107, sometimes feathered like those of a bird - clearly
number 125; Watt and Ford, East Asian Lacquer, setting it apart from the standard dragon (long); it
100, number 36; 105, number 40. typically has a fish tail, which also distinguishes it
24. See National Palace Museum, Wan Ming bianxing from the standard dragon. The feiyu is often,
zhuyi huajia zuopin zhan, 448-49, number 085, espe- though not necessarily, horned, sometimes with
cially detail on 448; 482-83, number 095, especially one horn, other times with two. The feiyu may or
detail on 483. may not have a pair of clawed legs; if it lacks legs,
25. In many ways, the broadening of the deco- it may have a pair of caudal fins, though such do
rative palette associated with Ming bronzes parallels not always appear. It may also have a pair of ventral
the expansion of the palette associated with fins placed near the wings. For more information
contemporaneous porcelains; with porcelains, the about the feiyu and other Ming fabulous beasts,
palatte was limited to underglaze cobalt-blue and see Schuyler Cammann, 'Some Strange Ming Beasts,'
copper-red at the beginning of the dynasty but Oriental Art (London), new series volume 2, number
came to include a full range of overglaze enamel 3, Autumn 1956, 94-102.
colors by the end. 2. Baize and bixie defy ready translation into
26. Because of its similarity in shape to the English, though both terms denote types of lion-
markings on the shell of a tortoise [see 44] - an like chimeras.
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 2 2 1