Page 69 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

64 Covered bowl. Grey stoneware with
olive-green glaze. Probably from Shou-
chou. Anhui. Lire Warring States
period.
contained bronzes most of which were rather restrained versions
of the Hsin-cheng style, and the art of Shou-chou, even after its
absorption into the expanding state ofCh'u, always retained some
of its northern flavour. It must also have been an important ce-
ramic centre at this time, if we are to judge by the beauty and vig-
our of the pottery excavated there. The body is of grey stoneware
with incised decoration under a thin olive-green glaze, the imme-
diate predecessor of the Yiieh-type wares of the Han Dynasty and
the ancestor of the celadons of the Sung.
It is only in recent years that archaeological excavation of Ch'u
sites, notably at the capital near Chiang-ling and at Changsha and
Hsin-yang, has revealed both the wealth and the essentially south-
ern character of Ch'u art. Indeed, it is interesting to speculate on
the course that Chinese culture would have taken if the victory in
223 B.C. had gone, not to the Ch'in savages from the western
marches, but to this relatively sophisticated and enlightened
people.
Since the replanning of Changsha started in 1950, many large
tombs have been brought to light. The coffin—or, rather, multi-
layered coffins, such as the Kuan Tzu recommended as giving em-
ployment to worthy artisans—was placed at the bottom of a deep
shaft and often surrounded by a layer of charcoal and a much
thicker layer of white clay, which has in some mysterious way
preserved the contents in spite of the fact that many of the tombs
have been waterlogged for more than two thousand years. The
space between the outer coffin and the chamber wall is often
crammed with funerary furniture (ming-ch'i). Sometimes the
body lay on a long wooden plank carved with exquisite pierced
scroll patterns, while about it were set discs of jade, stone, and