Page 73 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

dragon-like creatures that whirl round the central boss (to which a
tassel was attached) against a background of geometric designs
picked out in minute granulations. The swirling coils of the drag-
ons relate to lacquer painting, while the backgrounds seem to be
copied from textile designs. By contrast, many of the mirrors
from the State of Ch'u have concentric rings of interlaced snakes
or large staggered iL -shaped motifs resembling the later form
of the character for the mountain, shan, set against an intricate
"comma" pattern. This rich inventory of Warring States mirror
designs was inherited and only gradually modified by the crafts-
men of the Western Han.
This power to unite in one object the most intricate refinement of JADE
detail with a dynamic rhythm and boldness of silhouette is present
also in the carvedjades of the late Chou period, which must surely
be among the great achievements of the Chinese craftsman. Now
jade was no longer reserved for worship of heaven and earth or for
the use of the dead; it became at last a source of delight for the liv-
ing. Indeed, as the ritual objects such as the pi and tsung lost their
original symbolic power they too became ornaments, while jade
was now used for sword fittings, hairpins, pendants, garment
hooks—in fact, wherever its qualities could show to best advan-
tage. Until recently very few jades had been found in controlled
excavations, and dating on purely stylistic grounds is often, in
view of the Chinese love of copying the antique, extremely unre-
liable. But the jade objects found in scores of Warring States
tombs since 1950 confirm the impression that at this time the qual-
ity of carving rises to new heights; the stones arc chosen for their
rich, unctuous texture; the cutting is flawless and the finish beau-
tiful. A chain of four discs in the British Museum, connected by
links and carved from a single pebble less than nine inches long, is
a technical tour-de-force which suggests that the iron drill and
cutting disc were already in use. Few of the pi of the period arc left
plain; their surface is generally decorated with a row of spirals,
either engraved or raised to form the popular "grain pattern," and
sometimes confined within an outer geometric border. Flat 75 Chain of four discs with linking
collars, carved from a single piece of
plaques in the form of dragons, tigers, birds, and fishes combine jade. Late Warring States period.
an arresting silhouette with a surface treatment of extraordinary
delicacy. One of the most beautiful early Chinesejades yet discov-
ered is the celebrated disc in Kansas City, ornamented with heral-
dic dragons, two on the outer rim, a third crawling around a small
inner disc in the center.
As we survey the inlaid bronzes of Chin-ts'un, the mirrors of
Shou-chou, the marvellous lacquer ware of Changsha, the jades
and the minor arts, we become aware that the period between 500
and 200 B.C. was one of the great epochs in the history of Chinese
art, for it was at this time that the ancient symbolic creatures such
as the t'ao-t'ieh were domesticated, as it were, and refined into a
vocabulary of decorative art that was to provide an inexhaustible 76 Two concentric hum discs with
dragons. Jade. Late Warring States
reservoir of designs for the craftsmen of later dynasties. period.