Page 21 - September 23 to 24 Important Chinese Art Christie's NYC

appearance in the arts of the Tang. Now in the collection of the Shaanxi
History Museum, Xi’an, a small, parcel-gilt silver box recovered at Hejiacun
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in 1970 bears a rhinoceros. And another Tang silver box emblazoned with
a single seated rhinoceros is in the collection of the Hakutsuru Museum
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of Fine Art, Kōbe, Japan. In 1991 Christian Deydier exhibited a Tang silver
bowl of different shape but with gilt repoussé decoration of a recumbent
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rhinoceros set against a punched and parcel-gilt floral arabesque ground. .
Apart from those rhino-embellished silver dishes, bowls, and boxes, a
small bronze sculpture of a standing rhinoceros now in a private collection
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has been dated to the Tang by thermoluminescence testing, and a Tang
bronze mirror whose back is decorated in pingtuo technique—that is, lacquer
inset with ornaments in thin sheets of gold and silver, or, in this case, black
lacquer inset with mother-of-pearl decoration—features decoration of a pair
of striding rhinoceroses, the mirror in the collection of the Shōsō-in, Nara,
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Japan. In addition, a damaged quatrefoil oval gilt bowl with a reclining
rhinoceos in the center was recovered from wreckage of the Arabian dhow
sailing vessel that sank off the coast of Belitung Island, Indonesia, in the
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mid-ninth century, the bowl dating to c. 825 to 850. (Fig. 2) Arab-made, the
ship, which was bearing Chinese goods, was en route from China to a Near
Eastern destination, when it sank approximately 1.6 kilometers off the coast
of Belitung Island.
In the Shang and early Zhou periods the rhinoceros was prized for its tough
hide, which was used to make armor. By the Warring States period, if not
earlier, belief had taken hold that the beast’s horn could detect, even neutralize,
poison in food and drink, giving the rhinoceros special cachet. In fashioning
armor, the hide—whether rhinoceros hide or leather from the hide of an ox or
other animal—once dried and properly prepared, was cut into small rectangular
strips, known as plates, that were linked together to form lamellar armor, often
termed fish-scale armor in Chinese. Such armor no doubt resembled the
lamellar armor worn by the terracotta warriors recovered from the trenches
around the tomb of Qinshihuangdi (r. 221–210 BC), though the lamellar armor
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of Qinshihuang’s warriors surely had plates of leather or, more likely, of iron.
With the gradual extinction of the rhinoceros in north China late in the Bronze
Age (c. 1700 BC–AD 220) and with the rise of iron-plate armor during the
Zhou, the use of rhinoceros-hide armor had seriously declined by the early
years of our era; even so, it is believed that at least a little rhino-hide armor was
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still being made during the Tang dynasty. And a diagram in a book published
in 1852 indicates that rhinoceros-hide armor was still in use for ceremonial
purposes as late as the Qing dynasty. 19

此類鎧甲近似秦始皇 (公元前221至210年在位) 陵墓周邊俑坑出土的兵馬俑所穿之板
甲，但後者顯然由鐵片綴成。 鑑於青銅時代末葉 (約公元前1700至公元220年) 華北犀
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牛銳減，兼之周代鐵甲與漢代鋼甲相繼興起，犀革的 使用很早就大幅減少；話雖如此，
相傳唐代仍有製作少量犀甲。 根據1852年刊行的一本著作中的圖示，晚至清代 ，犀甲
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在祭祀中仍有亮相。 19
唐代文獻未有闡明犀牛的象徵意義，所以為何本盤及其他唐代藝術品的犀牛紋身披
鱗甲，此謎底亦無從得知。但鱗狀犀皮最為可信的解釋是，這種動物的形象已與當時
主流的麒麟形象共冶一爐。誠然，有人相信犀牛即中國神話中虛構的有蹄瑞獸麒麟，
據說麒麟現身乃聖賢、明君誕生或逝世的先兆。(時至明代，長頸鹿即麒麟之說亦流
傳甚廣) 。麒麟形象通常矯若遊龍，且如鹿般身有軟毛， 但亦不乏身披鱗甲的描寫，
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阿姆斯特丹國家博物館藏元代 (公元1279至1368年) 景德鎮麒麟紋青花大盤 (館藏號
AK-RBK-1965-88)即爲一例。 21
1970年10月何家村出土的一批銀盤之中，也有若干盤心以一隻動物為鎏金紋飾的實例，
這些動物或虛或實，如狐狸、猞猁、鳳凰、飛廉、熊、龜等。以飾犀紋者而言，最引人入
勝的是當中一例局部鎏金的小巧銀盒，此物現藏西安市陝西歷史博物館。器物內底飾
壓花動物，背景光素平坦，既無邊框，亦無地子。遼寧省敖漢旗李家營子亦曾出土一例
造型近似但具圈足的唐代銀盤，其盤心飾猞猁紋。遼寧盤內底微凹，其沿恍若圖框，內
飾鎏金壓花猞猁紋；此獸左足輕踏內凹盤心邊沿，鼻尖剛伸出盤心前沿，不僅酷肖具三

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