Page 404 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

to Mount Kunlun, a peak that reached upward
to the heavens, or even to a cosmic pillar joining
6
the earth to the heavens. JR

1 Excavated in 1968 (M 1:5182); reported: Zhongguo i98ob,
1:63-66.
2 For the formulation of the notion of qi during the period,
see Graham 1989,101-104 and references in the index.
3 Erickson 1992.
4 See Rudenko 1970, 284.
5 Watson, 1993, 49.
6 Erickson 1992; Munakata 1991, 27-34. The identification
of Mount Kunlun's location changed during the Eastern
Zhou and Han periods; it was first thought to be situated
in the north, and later, in the west. See also Major 1993,
158-159.

FIG. i. Cat. 134 from above. possible that the use of incense may have been
Adapted from Zhongguo stimulated in part by exchanges and contacts with
I98ob, 65, fig. 45.
the inhabitants of these areas; peoples on the
southern borders of Siberia are known to have
inhaled narcotics from basins in which hot stones
were placed. This practice may have stimulated the
development of incense burners in China. 4
Over a relatively short time, the decorated,
covered censer was fully integrated into a system of
associations and meanings through the boshan lu
form. The representation of a miraculous island
supported by dragons may refer to the islands of
Penglai, thought to be situated in the eastern sea.
The First Emperor of Qin sent envoys with young
boys and girls to seek out these islands in the hope
of finding the drug of immortality; the islands dis-
appeared into the sea when the voyagers glimpsed
5
them and sought to land. The Han image of moun-
tains, however, had a broader symbolic import
as well: Mount Taishan in Shandong province, in
particular, was viewed as one of the main routes
of access to the worlds of the immortals and to the
dwelling of the Celestial Deity in the stars. Thus,
the imagery of the mountain-shaped censer may
embody as well the identification of tall mountains
as routes to the spirit world. Indeed, it has often
been suggested that such imagery refers specifically

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