Page 20 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts

in my personal capacity, I am delighted to offer
warm and heartfelt congratulations for the
exhibitions opening at the world-renowned
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and to
anticipate its resounding success.
The exhibition China: 5,000 Years is aptly named,
for the more than two hundred Chinese cultural
treasures here assembled range from extraordinary
and inspired creations of our prehistoric forebears
to objects of luxury and paintings dating from the
reigns of the Yongzheng (r. 1723-1735) and
Qianlong (r. 1736-1795) emperors of the Qing
dynasty. Thirty-nine different cultural institutions
throughout China have made these treasures
available. Among the exhibits are a jade pig-dragon
of the Hongshan culture in Liaoning Province
(cat. 2), the extraordinary four-ram bronze zun of
Shang date from Hunan Province (cat. 23), and a
mwe-glazed octagonal bottle from the Famen
Temple in Shaanxi Province (cat. 125), as well as
stone carvings from a Song dynasty temple site in
Shaanxi Province (cat. 177), and Song, Yuan, Ming,
and Qing dynasty paintings from the collections of
the Shanghai Museum and the Palace Museum in
Beijing. Some of these national treasures of long-
standing fame are being exhibited abroad for the
first time. I may therefore say without exaggeration
that, for quality, size, comprehensiveness, and
diversity of sources, China: 5,oooYears sets new
standards for overseas exhibitions of Chinese
cultural relics. This is truly a magnificent show, and
those who see it will have reason to rejoice.
As Chinese and American experts agreed, this
exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum will focus
on the magnificent advances in the civilization of
the Chinese people over five millennia, as reflected
in culture and art. I strongly agree with this well-
conceived approach, and fully support its
implementation. Although the appearance and
development of every art form are subject to the
constraints of natural, social, and historical
conditions, art, which expresses as well as nourishes
the essence of the human spirit, often epitomizes
the starting and end-points of human development.
It transcends the limitations of era, country, and
ethnicity, brings together all the dignity and pride
of the human race, and demonstrates that most
precious wisdom and capacity inherently possessed
by people. Hence, works of art can reflect the
continuity and variation of a cultural tradition, the
internal meaning and outward manifestations of an
era, and the internal character and spiritual qualities commonality of function: the bronzes of this period
of a people. They do so in the profoundest and
most diverse ways, from a wealth of perspectives,
and through the freshest and liveliest forms. For this
reason, works of art can also easily overcome the
constraints of time and space to communicate
knowledge and friendship between people of
INTRODUCTION
different ethnicities and cultural traditions, and 111
so doing to build bridges of understanding and
trust. Although the various artistic treasures
displayed in China: 5,000 Years are but a tiny portion
of China's ancient artistic heritage, they are among
the most representative and most expressive
Myspecimens. respected teacher, Professor Su Bai
of Beijing University, and others have prepared
excellent detailed comments and analyses. I am
therefore fully confident that through an
appreciation of these remarkable works of art,
viewers will gain a clear and deep, albeit not
comprehensive, impression of the Chinese people
over five millennia, and of the breadth and depth of
their history and culture.
Among the world's great civilizations, that of China
is unique in its continuity. The Mesopotamians or
the Mayans have no modern heirs, but modern
Chinese culture has demonstrably descended in an
unbroken line from its ancient roots. Chinese
culture is also remarkable in the degree to which
cultural differences, born of time and vast distance,
interpenetrated and catalyzed the development of a
coherent and enduring Chinese culture. Like a
mighty and luxuriant tree, China stands tall in the
forest of the world's peoples, surviving and thriving
through five thousand years of winds and rains, a
remarkable history that may not be well known in
the West.
In this exhibition one can see about thirty bronzes
from the Xia, Shang, and Zhou periods (21st-
5th c. BCE).They come from the nine provinces of
Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hubei, Hunan,
Zhejiang, Sichuan, and Yunnan. The sites where
they were unearthed span a distance roughly equal
to that between the east and west coasts of the
United States and a period of roughly fifteen
hundred years. In design, ornamentation, stylization,
and casting techniques these bronzes display
dissimilarities ranging in degree from variations to
pronounced differences. The resulting richness
and diversity was occasioned not only by passage
of time and change of dynasties but also by
differences in region and ethnicity. This richness
and diversity testifies to continuous progress in
social productivity, social structure, and social
consciousness in Bronze Age China. Diversity of
form and technique, however, was subsumed in a
all served as utensils for rituals and ceremonials
(such as sacrifices and banquets) and as symbols of
the social status of their users.
So too with other types of artworks from other
periods of Chinese history; interpenetration and
continuity became a basic phenomenon of Chinese
cultural development. Such cultural intermingling
and merging demonstrate the influence and
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