Page 62 - China's Renaissance in Bronze, The Robert H.CIague Collection of Later Chinese Bronzes 1100-1900

where he washed his ears to remove from them any defilement they may
have incurred through listening to such worldly temptation. His companion,
Chao Fu, on hearing the reasons for Xu You's hurried ablutions, immedi-
ately washed his eyes and ears; noticing his ox drinking from the stream
below the fall, he hastened to lead it away from the contaminated water.
The legend further recounts that Xu You was accustomed to drinking water
from the palms of his hands; noting this, a charitably disposed person
gave him a gourd to use as a drinking cup. Xu You hung the gourd on the
branch of a tree near his hut; since the wind whistling through it created a
musical sound, however, he threw the gourd away, lest the pleasing sound
remind him too much of the outside world he had rejected. 1
The figures on the vase clearly correspond to those in the story, Xu
You washing his ear with water from the waterfall, and Chao Fu leading
his ox away from the contaminated stream rushing about the shoulder of
the vessel. Xu You's gourd hangs not from a tree branch, but from an
elegant, low-relief stand placed directly above the ox. Though not part of
the story proper, the crane and pines suggest the wilderness setting and
stand as symbols of the immortality often associated with reclusive sages.
Though its proportions have been radically altered, the basic shape
of this vase finds its locus classicus in the zun wine vessels of the Shang
2
dynasty, with their angular profiles and flaring necks. Compared to Shang
zun vessels, the body of this vase has been compressed, its shoulders
flattened, and its neck elongated - not merely to create a stage for the
figures, at it might first seem, but ultimately to create an elegantly attenu-
ated vessel, as discussed below. Unknown in antiquity, the cusping of the
mouth is a feature that rose to prominence in lacquer 3 and ceramic ware 4
during the Northern Song period but that did not gain currency in the more
conservative bronze tradition until late in the Ming period, when greater
liberties began to be taken in interpreting the revered shapes [see 32].
This bronze ranks among the most vexing in the Clague Collection
in terms of attribution. Virtually identical pieces in other collections have
been attributed not only to China but to Japan and even to Korea. 5 The
present author contends that this vase was made in Japan, most likely in
the seventeenth century, though he hastens to point out that others have
assigned it to Ming-dynasty China with certitude. 6
Although the story depicted on the Clague vase comes from Chinese
mythology, it does not assist in determining the vessel's country of origin;
with the revival of Chinese studies in seventeenth-century Japan, Chinese
stories came into vogue among samurai officials, especially stories involving

5 8 C H I N A ' S R E N A I S S A N C E IN B R O N Z E