Page 97 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

eating and drinking, with flanges on the long sides. Winged cups
have been found in sets standing on a tray and were made not only
in jade but in silver, bronze, and pottery and lacquer. This new
technical freedom made the lapidary more adventurous, inspiring r
him to carve, in three dimensions, figurines and animals—of
which one of the most beautiful specimens is the famous horse in
the Victoria and Albert Museum. He no longer rejects the flawed
stone but, rather, begins to exploit the discolorations: the brown
' \u
102 "Winged cup, .«un.; Jiilr LaCC
stain, for instance, becomes a dragon on a white cloud. Jade has by Chou Dynaity.
this time begun to lose its ritual significance; it now becomes in-
stead the delight of the scholar and the gentleman, for whom its
ancient associations and beauty of colour and texture will become
a source of the profoundest intellectual and sensual pleasure.
Henceforward he will be able to enjoy his pendants and garment
hooks, his seals and the other playthings on his desk, in the confi-
dent knowledge that in them aesthetic and moral beauty are
united. This, however, can hardly be said of the jade burial suits
described.on page 38, which were made at enormous cost in hu-
man travail for members of the I Ian imperial family. After the fall
of the Han there was a reaction against this sort of extravagance;
jade shrouds, for instance, were banned in 222 A.D., and most Six
Dynasties graves arc more simply furnished.

10} Head and shoulders of a horse.
Jade. Han Dynasty.