Page 18 - Chiense TExtiles, MET MUSEUM Pub 1934

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
between the Han and Tang dynasties. This i under-
standable in the light of Chinese history. The country
was embroiled in almost constant warfare for nearly
four hundred years after the Hans; trade with Central
Asia and the Near East was interrupted; and, though a
few monuments of these times survive, no traces of the
more delicate arts have been found. The Han textiles
were saved only because they were located in sites near
the abandoned trade routes with Central Asia where
there was little activity through the centuries following
their burial. With the advent of the Tang dynasty the
Chinese gladly gave themselves over to peaceful occu-
pations and foreign trade flourished again. They were
a vigorous and resourceful race, and the influence of
Buddhism gave the necessary impetus to their craving
for expression through the arts. In this period China
produced the greatest painters, sculptors, and poets she
has ever had and indeed some of the world's greatest.
The so-called minor arts flourished no less abundantly,
and the textiles which survive are numerous enough to
give proof of the high artistic and technical ability of
Chinese weavers. A great many Tang textile fragments
were found in Chinese Turkestan, some by Stein on his
first expedition (see above), others by Albert von Le
Coq and Albert Griinwedel in 1904 and 1905. Most of
those found by the German archaeologists are now in
the Volkerkunde Museum in Berlin; they have been
published in Chotscho, but the analysis of weaves is un-
fortunately very brief although the illustrations are ex-
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