Page 85 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts

Fig. 7. Container for liquids fhuj. Early 5th century BCE. Fig.8. Covered spouted server (he). 11th— 10th century
Bronze. Freer Gallery ofArt, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D.C. (57.22).
Rujiazhuang elephant the elaborate surface
decoration of the earlier vessels has dwindled to a
large spiral above each leg, no doubt intended to
suggest rippling musculature but appearing
essentially ornamental. The animal's head, however,
is rendered with considerable realism.
The bronze bell (bo; cat. 33) represents a group of
bells with similar decoration that date from the late
tenth century bce and are now in various Chinese
and Western collections. 37 Like bronze drums (cat.
34), bronze bells are closely identified with the
Yangzi River basin, having a continuous history of
use and production there since the late second
millennium bce. 3* By the tenth century BCE,
however, they had penetrated the Zhou court,
where sets of large bronze bells began to appear as
important components of ritual regalia. Despite the
integration of the bells into mainstream Zhou
tradition, many of their southern characteristics
persisted, particularly the use of animal decoration,
such as the four tigers climbing down the sides of
the bell, or the bird at the top of the flange in the
center.
Other peripheral regions also contributed to
metropolitan bronze designs, as exemplified in an
unusual lopsided vessel (cat. 44). Part of the large
group ot bronzes unearthed from the same fin
noble's tomb that contained catalogue 43, this flask
with asymmetrical profile and bird-shaped lid
INNOVATION IN ANCIENT CHINESE METALWORK
BCE. Bronze. Freer Gallery ofArt, Smithsonian
Institution, Washington, D.C. (33.2).
illustrates the ancient Jin state's contact with
nomadic peoples living in the area north of today's
Great Wall. v' Its peculiar shape was probably
inspired by the animal-skin flasks carried by hunters
and herders who lived along ancient China's
northern and western borders, an antecedent more
clearly illustrated by a plain bronze example
recovered in northern Hebei Province (fig. 40 Its
9).
surface decoration, however, was drawn from the
standard late sixth-century bce Chinese decorative
repertoire, and its workmanship is typical of Jin
state bronzes. Such bronze vessels were probably
made in Jin or similar workshops as exotica for
their noble patrons, and occasionally to be
presented as gifts to leaders of northern tribes.
One of these northern tribes, known in Chinese
historical texts as the Di, actually settled south of
the Great Wall in the fourth century bce. founding
the small and short-lived state of Zhongshan just
south of Beijing. The multiarmed lamp in the shape
of a tree (cat. 54), together with a rich assortment
of bronzes that reflect the tribe's northern heritage,
came from the tomb of a Zhongshan king who
died at the end of the fourth century bce. 41 In this
—lamp eight monkeys, perceptively even
—affectionately portrayed, scamper about and hang
from the tree branches, as two bare-chested fellows
below appear to be cajoling the monkevs, rc.uh to
catch whatever may be flung to them. Two
centuries later the elaborate fittings on the
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