Page 13 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

Foreword

Wercwu, the modern Chinese word for "antiquities" or, in the classical Chinese language, "ob-
jects of accomplishment," embodies profound meanings. Wenwu refers not merely to excellence
of artistry, but also to moral refinement and cultural literacy. In traditional China, wenwu often
served as material standards marking distinctions of rank. As such, they made manifest the so-
cial order of Chinese civilization and defined its identity. Over thousands of years, collectors
coveted ancient objects not merely for their physical beauty but as tokens of an enduring intel-
lectual and emotional connection with the sages of antiquity.
Modern archaeology, or kaogu, was introduced to China in the 19205. Since then, it has
put a new face on the notion of wenwu. Excavations under carefully controlled conditions have

made it possible to reconstruct in far greater detail than ever before the cultural meaning of
ancient works of art in their own times. No longer isolated "objects of accomplishment," wenwu
have become constituent parts of a panorama of Chinese history, complementing, expanding,
and at times correcting the textual record. By identifying, in several Neolithic cultures in
northern and central China, features that are recognizably "Chinese," archaeology can now
reliably trace the cultural ancestry of the historical dynasties to remote prehistoric times, to
periods that, in fact, antedate the time spans traditionally accepted. Archaeology has also
shown that Chinese civilization did not develop from a single root or in a linear fashion, but
that different parts of China had their own distinctive cultural traditions, which gradually
merged over the course of millennia.
The astonishing works of art exhibited here are good indicators for the rich diversity of
the earliest times, and for the way in which increasingly uniform cultural standards were im-
posed over the centuries. The present exhibition expands upon a foundation laid in 1974-1975,
when our two institutions collaborated on The Exhibition of Archaeological Finds from The People's
Republic of China. Dating from prehistoric times to the tenth century, many of the exhibited
works have never been seen in the United States, and some were discovered only in 1997. An

exhibition such as this requires many resources, but above all it is the immense and sustained
effort made by generations of Chinese archaeologists, across more than five decades, that en-
ables us to present this great exhibition to the American people. Their work has resulted in
nothing less than the rewriting of the history of Chinese civilization. We look forward to great
archaeological discoveries still to come.
A large debt of gratitude is owed to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, headed
by Mr. Zhang Wenbin, without whose cooperation and goodwill our joint project might never
have been realized. We thank the many museums and archaeological institutions throughout
the Republic who lent to this exhibition, and our colleagues at Art Exhibitions China for their
extensive efforts on our behalf. We are grateful to Ambassador Li Zhaoxing for his support.
Xiaoneng Yang, curator of Chinese art at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, chose the works
and provided the vision that makes it possible for Westerners to place these often surprising
works of art within the continuum of Chinese civilization. In this task he was aided by scholars

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