Page 114 - Sotheby's Chinese Art and Porcelain Auction New York September 12, 2018

THE DRAGON

AND THE CICADA:
VISIONS OF TRANSFORMATION

ON A MAGNIFICENT SHANG DYNASTY

BRONZE ZUN

Notable for its crisp decoration that has the Meiyintang Collection, London, 2009, pl. which could be used in life or interred with the
been remarkably preserved, this zun is an 62, where the author notes that these types of body at death, would have borne the same
outstanding example of late Shang bronze high-relief decoration over a dense background connotations for the users or owners of the
workmanship. Similar to a gu but broader design ‘fall into the “transitional” style between vessels.
across the body, zun of this form are relatively the late Shang dynasty and the early Western
The other zoomorphic motifs cast onto the
rare. The craftsman has paid careful attention Zhou’ (see p. 135).
present zun—the taotie and kuilong—were also
to the decorative motifs, which complement its
Originally used as ritual wine containers, zun potent totems. According to the Lüshi chunqiu
elegant silhouette, by placing cicadas at the tip
are known from the late Erligang period and (‘Master Lü’s Spring and Autumn Annals’)
of each upright blade encircling the neck and
grew in popularity during the Shang dynasty. taotie were ferocious beasts that destroyed
in the bold rendering of the taotie mask, with
They were made either with angular shoulders their own bodies before devouring men, which
prominent jaws and C-shaped horns. Both the
or of beaker shape, such as the present piece, is why they are depicted as disembodied heads
shape and style of the decoration suggest a late
which appears to have evolved from archaic on Shang and Zhou dynasty bronzes. The
Yinxu date, also evident in the bold high-relief
bronze gu. Elongated zun were not among the Shanhaijing (‘Classic of the Mountains and
motifs and allover leiwen.
altar vessels recovered from Fu Hao’s tomb, in Seas’) maintains that kui were single-footed
Related zun are more commonly known with Anyang, Henan province, dated to around 1200 dragon-form spirits that dwelled underwater
upward-looking taotie masks enclosed within BC, which suggests that they became popular and caused violent storms when they emerged,
the blades; see one in the Arthur M. Sackler only after this period. thereby associating them with thunder. In
Collection, illustrated in Robert W. Bagley, the Zuozhuan (‘Commentary of Zuo’), 3rd
In ancient China, the cicada was a symbol of
Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler year of Duke Xuan (606 BC), Wangsun Man
transformation and resurrection due to its life
Collections, vol. 1, Cambridge, MA., 1987, pl. 46; of Ding explains to the King of Chu that the
cycle. After mating, the female cicada deposits
and another in the National Palace Museum, creatures represented on bronze ding allow
eggs into a groove she cuts into a tree limb;
Taipei, published in Shang Ritual Bronzes in people to identify the ‘helping and the harming
after a nymph hatches, it feeds on the tree
the National Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, spirits’ as a way of protecting the people and
ß uids until it develops su' cient strength to
1998, pl. 56. Compare also a similar zun, but harmonizing ‘the high and the low’ (e.g., heaven
emerge from the bark and crawl down into the
lacking leiwen on the high-relief motifs and with / the ancestral realm and earth). It follows
earth; the nymph then dwells underground
an additional band of two pairs of kuilong below that the same would have been true for animal
for two to seventeen years, tunneling and
the neck, from the collection of Sakamoto Gorō, representations on other ritual paraphernalia,
feeding all the while; eventually, the mature
sold in these rooms, 13th September 2016, lot including the present zun.
cicada emerges from the ground, sheds its
12.
skin, spreads its wings, and Þ nds a mate. The It is well known that the Shang rulers used
Some vessels of similar beaker shape have insect’s repeated emergence from burial, each bronze ritual vessels and other tools (such
ß anges extending to the neck; one in the Arthur time returning to the world in a new, stronger as oracle bones and divination) to commune
M. Sackler Collection illustrated in Robert phase of its life, inspired a sense of hope for with the higher powers of the ancestral spirit
W. Bagley, op. cit., pl. 47, was sold in these the regeneration of other beings in the spiritual realm. Rulers may have performed the rituals
rooms, 2nd-5th May 1972, lot 435; another, in realm of the ancestors. Thus, as early as the personally, or with the aid of a spirit medium,
the Shanxi Archaeological Research Institute, 3rd millennium BC, the Chinese carved jade such as a shaman. These rituals underpinned
is published in Zhongguo qingtongqi quanji, cicadas and interred them in the ritual burial the religio-political order, therefore the
vol. 4, Beijing, 1998, pl. 119; and a third in the of the deceased; a practice that continued selection and application of animal, insect, and
Shanghai Museum, is illustrated in Shanghai through the Han dynasty. For a jade cicada abstract images for these ritual implements,
bowuguan cang. Qingtongqi [Ancient bronzes from the Hongshan Culture dated to around as well as the contents of the vessels for
in the Shanghai Museum], Shanghai, 1964, 2500 BC, see an example in the collection of consumption, were deliberate and for particular
pl. 8. See also a zun of slightly stouter shape, the British Museum (coll. no. 2006,0502.10). ends. Claude Lévi-Strauss argues in his seminal
illustrated in Wang Tao, Chinese Bronzes from Images of cicadas cast onto bronze vessels, essay, “Split Representation in the Art of Asia
112 SOTHEBY’S IMPORTANT CHINESE ART