Page 62 - Fine Chinese Art Christies London May 2018

HEAVENLY GOOD FORTUNE – AN ARCHAISTIC
INLAID BRONZE BIRD

ROSEMARY SCOTT, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL ACADEMIC CONSULTANT

This handsome bird, which most closely resembles a by 呂大臨 Lü Dalin, a supplement to which – completed by
phoenix, is usually known in Chinese as a ‘heavenly chicken’ another author – was published some 70 or 80 years later.
天 雞 tianji. In Views of Antiquity in the Qing Imperial Palace, The original Kaogu tu dealt with inscribed pieces from a
Macau, 2005, p. 182, the authors explain the reason for this number of diferent collections, including items from the
name is that 雞ji chicken provides a pun for 吉 ji meaning imperial collection (for an illustration from the 1601 edition
auspicious, and thus the bird is a symbol of good fortune. of the Kaogu tu, see R. Kerr, Later Chinese Bronzes, London,
In addition, a rooster is a symbol of high rank because of its 1990, p. 14, pl. 2). The Kaogu tu also set a precedent in
of its cockscomb, 雞 冠 jiguan in Chinese, which is a pun for terms of organisation and illustration for future publications
官guan, meaning oficial. The vase on the bird’s back also of this type.
has auspicious connotations. The vase can be either 瓶
Perhaps the best known of these early illustrated
ping or 壺 hu. Ping is a pun for 平安 ping’an, meaning peace,
while 壺 hu suggests one of the isles of the Immortals 方 壺 catalogues of ancient bronzes is the 重修博古圖錄 Chongxiu
Xuanhe bogu tulu (Drawings and Lists of all the Antiquities
Fanghu. The vase may also suggest the vase 罐 guan which
stored in the Xuanhe Palace) , which was compiled by 王
is one of the Eight Buddhist Emblems 八吉祥 ba jixiang. In
黼Wang Fu on the orders of the Emperor Huizong around
this context the vase symbolises the elixir of life as well as
AD 1123 and included some 840 bronzes – both inscribed
containing treasures, which represent all wishes fulflled.
and without inscription - from the palace collections (for an
This inlaid bronze bird and vase group is a fne example of illustration of a goose-shaped pouring vessel – dated in its
the art objects made in the late Ming-early Qing period, caption to the Zhou dyansty - from the 1588 edition of the
which refect a passionate interest in antiquities not only Xuanhe bogu tulu, see R. Kerr, Later Chinese Bronzes, op.
within the scholar class, but also amongst the upper cit., p. 16, pl. 3, while a Song dynasty goose-shaped inlaid
echelons of the newly wealthy merchant class. While a bronze pouring vessel in the Victoria and Albert Museum
relatively small proportion of the population would have had is illustrated in pl. 4 ). According to the Xuanhe bogu tulu
access to real antiques, the availability of illustrated books all the pieces listed belonged to the Shang Zhou or Han
on antiques grew exponentially in the late Ming period. periods, while in fact it is clear that a number of them date
During the Song dynasty not only had there been a great to later periods, such as the Tang dynasty. Mistakes of
interest in the books relating to ancient bronzes and their this sort caused considerable confusion, a fact that was
inscriptions, but a signifcant number of ancient sites were recognised by contemporary scholars. In the preface to金
excavated, adding to the ancient works which had already 石錄 Jin Shi Lu (Collection of Texts on Metal and Stone) a
been brought to the marketplace by farmers who had found book of rubbings from some 2,000 inscriptions compiled
precious antiques during the course of their agricultural between 1119 and 1125, Zhao Mingcheng (趙明誠 1081–1129)
activities. Extensive collections were built up – the best and his wife the poet Li Qingzhao (李清照 1084 – c. 1155)
known being that of the Emperor Huizong (r. AD 1101-26), pointed out:
who was rumoured to have amassed a collection of some
ten thousand items. The illustrated catalogues of these ‘When archaeological materials are used to examine these
collections provide a rich source of information about these things, thirty to forty per cent of the data is in confict.
collections, and also provided a rich source of inspiration That is because historical writings are produced by latter-
for bronze craftsmen of later periods, often through later day writers and cannot fail to contain errors. But the
editions of the Song dynasty publications. The earliest of inscriptions on stone and bronze are made at the time the
these Song dynasty illustrated publications on antiquities, events take place and can be trusted without reservation.’
which survives to the present day, is the 考古 圖 Kaogu tu (translated by Craig Clunas in Superfuous Things – Material
(Illustrated Research on Archaeology) compiled in 1092 Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China, Cambridge,
1991, pp. 95-6)
60