Page 91 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

93 Dcuilof a funerary binner,/h'i.
much improved paper made from vegetable fibres. Paper, how- From Tomb No. I at Ma-wang-tui.
Changsha. Hunan Western Han
ever, was probably not used by artists for some time, and paint- Dynasty.
ings continued to be executed on rolls of silk. Figure subjects in-
cluded illustrations to the classics and histories and more fanciful
works such as the Huai Nw Tzh and Shan-hai-ching, while for
landscape there were illustrations to the/« rhapsodies describing
the capitals, palaces, and royal hunting parks.
It has long been thought that the hanging scroll was introduced
with Buddhism from India, because the earliest known pictures in
this form were the Buddhist banners of the T'ang Dynasty discov-
ered at Tunhuang. However, in the tombs of the wife of the Mar-
quis of Tai and of her son at Ma-wang-tui in the suburbs of
Changsha have been found two T-shaped banners, draped over
the swathed corpse in the coffin, that are a thousand years older
than all known Chinese hanging scrolls and leave no doubt that
the format is native to China. Called "flying garments" in the in-
ventory placed in the tomb itself, because they were believed to
bear the soul of the dead aloft into the sky, iliey depict beings of
the nether world, the world of men, and the heavens, and include
a portrait of the deceased and a sacrificial scene. These tombs were
also hung with large silk paintings of courtly and domestic pur-
suits, feasting and dancing, and a remarkably accurate map of the
presumed domain of the Marquis, embracing much of modern 94 Covered square-section jar. fang-ha.
Lacquered wood. From a tomb at Ma-
Hunan and Kwangtung. wang-tui, Changsha. Hunan. Western
Han Dynasty.