Page 93 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

With the fall of the Chou, the traditional rituals were forgotten, BRONZE 3
and consequently Han bronzes, while many were no doubt used
in domestic rites of various sorts, arc generally more utilitarian or
decorative than those of Shang and Chou. Shapes are simple and
functional, the commonest being the deep dish and the wine jar
(hu), which were often decorated with inlaid designs in gold or sil-
ver. One object with definite ritual associations is the Po-shan
hsiang-lu, a censer in the shape of a fairy mountain often covered
with animals, hunters, and trees modelled in relief. Its base is
lapped by the waves of the Eastern Sea, while a hole behind each
little peak emits the incense smoke symbolising the cloud-vapour
(yBtt^ch'i) which is the exhalation of the fairy mountain—and, in-
deed, of all mountains, for according to traditional Chinese belief,
all nature is alive and "breathing." The beautiful hill-ccnscr inlaid
with gold illustrated here was found in the Western Han tomb of
Liu Sheng, thejade-clad brother of the emperor Wu.
China's neighbours to the southwest were in a far more primi-
tive stage ofdevelopment than the nomads of the north and north-
west. Over the years, at Shih-chai-shan in southern Yunnan, there
have been found the remains of a bronze culture of late Chou and
early Han date very different from that of China proper. More
than a score of tombs containing bronze weapons and ritual ob-
jects, gold and jade ornaments have been opened. Most extraor- 96 Fairy mountain incense burner. Po-
shan hsiang-lu. Uronze inlaid with gold.
dinary arc the bronze drums and drum-shaped containers filled
From the tomb of Liu Sheng (died
1
with cowrie shells, the top of one of which is illustrated in Figure B.c.) at Man-ch'eng. Hopei. Western
Han Dynasty.
97. The figures who crowd it are evidently taking part in some sac-
rificial rite. Prominent are the ceremonial drums, some of which

97 Drum-shaped container for cowrie
shells, with modelled sacrificial scene.
Bronze. From Shih-chai-shan. Yunnan.
Second to first century B.C