Page 83 - Fine Chinese Art Bonhams London May 2018

just visible through her clenched teeth, whilst in the body portions of mental composure through wisdom. Such a figure of Wenshu
can be seen now-plugged vent-holes at the navel and in the small astride a blue lion stands in the Shuxiangsi 殊像寺 (The Temple
of the back. These were presumably sealed before glazing and of the Likeness of Wenshu) in Wutaishan. It is an imposing 10
subsequent second firing. There may also have been a third vent- meters in height overall, though made not of ceramic but of
hole in the base of the body. The second firing, carried out at a lower plaster and other materials. It is possible that the colour of the
temperature of 900-1000°C, would have taken place on a now very guardian lions under discussion might be a metaphoric reference
dry ceramic body with reduced risk of failure. to Wenshu and possibly therefore to the temple for which they
were commissioned.
Whilst the modelling of the parts would often have been executed
from familiar traditional models which evolved only slowly, In conclusion, these lions were probably made by leading
especially in the case of guardian lions, the glaze-application craftsmen from Shanxi Province working either in Shanxi or
would have required innovation for every new commission. The near to Beijing, and they were very possibly commissioned for
shading, interlining, outlining and application of colour fields on an important and generously endowed temple dedicated to the
pieces such as these would very likely have changed from one Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī (Wenshu). The glazes used were all fully
commission to the next because such works were often unique developed by the mid to later Ming and the lotus petal motifs and
demonstrations of the craftsmen’s art. animal figures on the pedestals are consistent with that period.
These lions are an exceptional example of the liuli master’s art
Although the production techniques for these figures was exhibiting timeless quality and their own exotic ancestry.
developed in family craft workshops in Shanxi, craftsmen from
the province and their linear descendants, together with their
jealously guarded techniques, were successively drafted to set
up kilns for the construction of the new capital city, first Dadu for
the Yuan, and at the subsequently re-named Beijing for the Ming
and Qing capitals.
Recent research has established that at least two of the luohan
figures, out of ten surviving works now all in museums worldwide,
were made from clay whose distinctive compositional markers
indicate that it came from a scarce geological deposit in China
measuring a compact 8km by 50km. just west of Beijing. In
part of this area in the Western Hills, kilns making architectural
ceramics still operate under the supervision of contemporary
descendants of the original Shanxi craft families (see N.Wood,
et al, ‘A Luohan from Yixian in the Hermitage Museum’, Beijing,
2015, pp.31-33).
The unusual predominant colour of the lions may connect in
another way with both Buddhism and Shanxi Province. The
mountainous Wutaishan region, in the north-east of Shanxi lies
roughly 300km west of Beijing, and has some seventy important
surviving ancient Buddhist temple-sites. Most were founded in
the Ming but some earlier and two survive from the Tang dynasty
(618-907). Beginning in the 5th century, repeated accounts
of local apparitions and mystical phenomena led Wutaishan
to become a major destination for Lamaist (Tibetan Buddhist)
pilgrims from Mongolia, China and the Himalayan Plateau
including Tibet and Northern India. In time, the region became
identified with the earthly home of Mañjuśrī (in Chinese Wenshu
文殊), the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, in honour of whom many
temples and temple halls were richly endowed (a Bodhisattva is
a person who has delayed making the final step to nirvana and
Buddhahood in order further to conduct good worldly deeds).
Patrons included from earliest times members of the (Buddhist)
imperial families whose rulers were considered to be imbued with
the qualities of Wenshu, their patron deity.

Wenshu is sometimes associated emblematically with a blue
lotus and is often represented riding a blue lion, the combined
representation said to signify iconographically the achievement