Page 67 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

some terrified game beast—a scene they often witnessed, and the
representation of which probably was intended to bring success to
their own hunting expeditions. Hints of this animal style ap-
peared, as we have seen, on some of the knives at Anyang. During
the late Chou and Han, when the impact on China of the Hsicn-
y un, the Hsiung-nu, and other northern tribes was at its height, its
influence can be seen in the design of some of the inlaid bronzes,
on which hunting scenes with fights with fierce beasts are mo-
delled with a curiously un-Chinese angularity and harshness of
form, although the shape of the vessel itself and its geometric dec-
oration are purely Chinese.
The widest variety of animal designs is found on the bronze
garment or belt hook. Many of these hooks are indeed purely
Chinese in style, being carried out in the exquisite inlaid technique
of Chin-ts'un and Shouchou. Court dancers wore them, as we
know from the Chao Hun:
Two rows of eight, in perfect time, perform a dance of Cheng;
Their hsi-pi buckles of Chin workmanship glitter like bright suns. 1
The beautiful specimen illustrated here is fashioned in gilt bronze,
inlaid with a dragon in jade and multicoloured balls of glass.

62 Belt-hook. Gill bronze inlaid with
jade and glass. Late Warring States
period.