Page 511 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

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indicating that such deliberate movement was a 1 Excavated in 1995; reported: Hebei 1996, 4-13; Hebei 1998.
convention in Tang imperial tombs. 2 The relevant section is reproduced in Yang 19973, 74.
3 Kuwayama 1987, 85.
Another striking aspect is the large size of all 4 See, for example, a Liao tomb found at Baoshan, repro-
thirteen of the female figures who form the compo- duced in Zhao 1996,160, and in Neimenggu 1998, espe-
sition. They are full-faced, heavy-set, substantial cially the color reproduction from Tomb 2 printed
on the inside back cover. See also the Later Zhou tomb
women, reminiscent of the image of the Tang cour- dated c. 958 mentioned in cat. 175 n. 4, where the
tesan Yang Guifei, the favorite of Emperor Xuan- Tang ideal still prevails.
5 In the context of tomb decoration, the slender Song ideal
zong; her ample proportions changed the fashion of of feminine beauty is illustrated by the female orchestra
3
Tang women everywhere. If it was generally as- painted on the wall of a Northern Song tomb excavated
sumed that the preference for ample women some- in Jiangjiagou village, Shanxi province: Shaanxi 1996, 6,
fig. 4, and color frontispiece. Most secular figure paint-
how died out toward the end of the Tang dynasty,
ings associated with the Five Dynasties also favor a slen-
these ample women — and others like them from der female physique. See Yang 19973,112 -113.
the same period — make clear that for those who,
like Wang Chuzhi, continued the Tang imperial
4
traditions, the Yang Guifei ideal endured. Only
in the late tenth and eleventh centuries do we see
the loss of this ideal in the new Song models of
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feminine beauty. RB

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