Page 425 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

The second ring is also an unusual type, com- bodice to her skirt. The small scroll above her head
posed of an openwork design of four creatures, appears to be some sort of ornament. In contrast
two of which are conventional dragons with long, with the rings and the dancer, the remaining ele-
pointed jaws and wings (or winglike plumes) that ments of the pectoral are conventional carvings.
emerge from behind their ears. The heads of the Arc-shaped pendants are familiar from many tombs
two other (apparently winged) creatures resemble of the Warring States period, and beads were com-
those of feline dragons, but the composition of monly used as ornaments during earlier periods. JR
their bodies overrides any suggestion of anatomical
1 Excavated in 1983; reported: Guangzhou 1991,1:242-245,
accuracy. It is likely that both these rings were fig. 164.
carved in the Chu kingdom or copied from pieces 2 See Xuzhou 1984, fig. 47:2.
from that area. A similar ring was found in Xuzhou,
the capital of the Chu kingdom during the Han
period. 2
The form of the dancing figure (represented
three-dimensionally in another such figure from
the tomb [cat. 146]) is suggested by slight rounding
of an otherwise flat surface. She has round eyes and
a small nose in relief; the mouth is indicated by a
slit. She holds her right arm above her head, behind
which the sleeve curls upward. Her left arm is drawn
across her body, which bends to the right, and
the long sleeve appears to cross over an elaborate

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