Page 502 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

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A group of six painted pottery female figures products of centuries of intermarriage and ex-
change that resulted from foreign conquest of this
Height 71 -86 (28- 33 7s)
region shortly after the fall of the Han dynasty in
Tang Dynasty, early to mid-eighth century CE 221 CE; their links to non-Chinese people and social
From the tomb at Hansenzhai, Xi'an,
Shaanxi Province customs remained strong. Nowhere was this diver-
sity more apparent than in attitudes toward women
Xi'an Municipal Institute of Archaeology and and the relative freedom they were allowed. Figures
Preservation of Cultural Relics, Shaanxi Province from the Jinxiang tomb depict women mounted on
horseback — playing musical instruments, partici-
A large number of dated or datable tombs of the pating in hunts or in polo matches (see cats. 170,
Tang dynasty have been excavated in and around 171) — or performing physically demanding dances.
the Tang capital near Xi'an, Shaanxi province, in The women are thin and wear tight-fitting clothing
the past few decades. The funerary figurines found appropriate for the activities in which they are
in these controlled excavations have allowed for engaged, testimony to an athletic ideal of feminine
a remarkably complete survey of the interests and beauty particular to the period.
tastes of the Tang aristocracy. Among the develop- By the middle of the eighth century, however,
ments that can be traced in these figures are that ideal had changed: The women depicted in
changes in the ideal of feminine beauty. paintings and in mingqi are plump; they wear elabo-
The ruling clan and many of the elite of the rate, loose-fitting garments and decidedly imprac-
Tang dynasty came from a group of aristocratic tical shoes — dress ill-suited to a strenuous, active
families from the northwest region of China — life. This change is only one of many signs that

501 TANG POTTER Y F I G U R E S