Page 135 - Deydier UNDERSTANDING CHINESE ARCHAIC BRONZES

The Rhinoceros Motif 犀牛紋 An exceptional vessel cast in the shape of a full-bodied rhinoceros from
the Avery Brundage Collection is now in the Asian Art Museum – Avery
From archaeological discoveries, we now know that, like the elephant, Brundage Collection, San Francisco (USA).
the rhinoceros lived in ancient times in many parts of central and
southern China, including present-day Jiangsu 江蘇, Zhejiang 浙江,
Hubei 湖北, Hunan 湖南, Guizhou 貴州, Guangdong 廣東 and Guangxi
廣西 provinces, but with time the population became increasingly
smaller through hunting, as a result of death from climate change,
etc. until by the Tang 唐 dynasty very few rhinoceros survived within
China.

In the last century, rhinoceros bones, horns etc. were unearthed from
the Shang royal tombs at Yinxu 殷墟 (Anyang 安陽) and at even earlier
sites, such as the Stone Age Hemudu 河姆渡文化 cultural site (circa
5000 – 4000 B.C.) excavated near Hangzhou 杭州, Zheijiang 浙江
province in the 1970s.

Oracle bone inscriptions, jiaguwen 甲骨文, record that during the
Shang 商 dynasty the kings and nobles enjoyed hunting rhinoceros
and sometimes received such animals as tribute from the rulers of
other kingdoms, especially those of the south.

During the Shang 商, Zhou 周 and later periods, hard, thick, durable
rhinoceros skin was especially valued as a covering for armour and
shields. In the Kaogongji 考工記 section of the Zhouli 周禮 (completed
between the end of the Spring and Autumn 春秋 and the early Warring
States 戰國 periods, circa the 5 century B.C.) it is written that armour
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made with the skin of a male rhinoceros ‘could last 100 years’ 犀甲壽
百年! The horn of the rhinoceros was valued for its medicinal value in
‘cooling hot blood’ and its aphrodisiacal qualities and one of the most
prized bronze drinking vessels of the Shang 商 and early Western Zhou
西周 was the sigong 兕觥 which, strictly speaking, was meant to be
shaped like the horn of a ‘female rhinoceros’!

During the late Shang 商 and early Zhou 周 dynasties, the handles of
bronze vessels were often decorated or cast in the round in the shape of
rhinoceros heads and we know from ancient chronicles that rhinoceros
horns were held in high esteem and deemed precious enough to be
presented to kings and high nobles as tribute.

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Rhinoceros motif, detail of the jiao, early Western Zhou dynasty (circa 11 century B.C.)
Meiyintang Collection n° 12.
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