Page 102 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts

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shooting nine of them out of the sky. On objects
dating from the Warring States period through the
Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE),fusang trees appear
Wemore frequently than before. find it, albeit very
small and much changed in shape, on the silk gauze
embroidered with dragons and phoenixes found in
the Chu state tomb at Mashan,Jiangling county,
Hubei Province. On the famous silk painted banner
from Mawangdui tomb Number 1 (ca. 168 bce), at
Changsha, Hunan Province, we also find afusang
tree with nine small suns and one large one. Relief
carvings in stone tombs, especially, showfusang
trees, sometimes with jingwu birds, sometimes with
a horse tethered to the trunk, sometimes with a
leaf-gathering basket or even with female leaf
pickers. In that last depiction it very closely
resembles a mulberry tree.
Contemporary with Han stone reliefs bearing
fusaiig designs are a number of reliefs illustrating silk
production. According to archaeological reports, at
least seventeen such reliefs exist, nine from
Shandong, six from Jiangsu, one from Anhui, and
one from Sichuan, including a stone relief depicting
silk production now on display at the National
Museum of Chinese History in Beijing.
Sericulture and silk production became increasingly
prominent art motifs in the Song (960—1279),
reflecting the great importance of sericulture in the
economy of that time. The best-known example is
perhaps the Gengzhitu ("Pictures ofTilling and
Weaving") of 1145, text and pictures by Lou Shou,
administrator of Yuhang county near Hangzhou,
then capital of the Southern Song (1127— 1279). In
part two of this work twenty-four illustrations
depict and describe the whole process of sericulture
and silk weaving: hatching; gathering newly
hatched larvae; silkworm feeding and raising; first,
second, and third moltings; arrangement of feeding
trays; gathering mulberry leaves; last molting;
picking mature silkworms; cocooning; warming the
cocoons; gathering the cocoons; selecting the
cocoons; storing the cocoons; reeling the silk; silk
moths laying eggs; making offerings to the gods of
sericulture; winding; warping; wefting; patterning;
cloth cutting. The earliest known version of Pictures
of Sericulture and Weaving, in the Heilongjiang
Provincial Museum, bears an inscription attributed
Wu Ato Empress
(ca. 1127—1162). later version,
attributed to Chen Qi of the Yuan dynasty
(1279— 1368), now in the Freer Gallery of Art in
Washington, was widely influential. But the most
frequently reproduced version is that of the court
painter Jiao Bingzhen (act. ca. 1680— 1720), whose
illustrations accompany didactic verses attributed to
the Kangxi emperor (r. i662-i722).Jiao's
illustrations contain Western stylistic elements,
learned from the Western missionaries with whom
he had contact at the imperial court. Close copies
ART OF SILK AND ART ON SILK IN CHINA
QmgofJiao's illustrations appeared throughout the
period (1644— 1911), in the most various mediums
wood carvings, stone reliefs, painted porcelains,
molded ink sticks, and woodblock-printed book
illustrations. Furthermore, the Pictures of Cotton
Production by Fang Guanchen (ca. 1765) and the
twelve pictures of sericulture done in relief carving
on stone in the Guangyuan Temple in Sichuan
Province are undoubtedly derived from the earlier
works by Lou Shou and Jiao Bingzhen.
FOREGROUND AND BACKGROUND DESIGNS ON
BRONZES, JADES, AND OTHER MEDIUMS
A major evolutionary change is apparent in the
decoration of early Chinese art, especially jades and
bronzes. In the Neolithic and the earlier Bronze
Age the zoomorphic patterns on jades and bronzes
were simply rendered against relatively plain
backgrounds. Increasing complexity became the
rule during the middle and later Bronze Age, with
the principal zoomorphic motifs set against
geometric background figures such as S or T shapes
or squared spirals. What inspired this change? The
creation of design, of course, was the main reason.
Silks featuring animal motifs embroidered on a
damask ground woven with small geometric figures
were the prototypes tor the later bronze art.
From fragments of mats unearthed from Neolithic
sites at Hemudu, Banpo, Qianshanyang, and
Caoxishan, we know that patterns made from
woven bamboo and braided £c-hemp threads were
being executed long before patterns woven on the
loom. Some traces of the earliest woven patterns on
silk can be seen in the form of "ghost" impressions
left by cloth or mats that were used to wrap
jade and bronze objects of the Shang dynasty
(ca. 1600-ca. 1100 bce). Although the cloth or mat
wrapping have long since disintegrated, the patterns
that remain include a lozenge pattern from silk
tabby on a bronze ax excavated at Anyang and now
in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities,
Stockholm, noted by Vivi Sylwan; the S-shaped
pattern from silk tabby on a jade knife now in the
Palace Museum, Beijing, which was noted by Chen
Juanjuan, and an S-shaped damask pattern on a
bronze ritual vessel found at Anyang. Some carved
jades and stone sculptures also manifest textile
patterns, including T-shaped diaper patterns.
Furthermore, we also find traces of silk embroidery
on some of the woven figured silks in which the
excavated bronzes have been found wrapped;
although the complete pattern of most of these has
been lost, the embroidered patterns on the
fragments seem to be large-scale mythical animals
on a damask ground with small geometric figures.
Some jade figures from Shang sites show
background patterns similar to those found on
bronzes of the same period. Patterned silks of that
time have two "layers" of design, the woven ground
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