Page 101 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts
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from its origin was closely related to the other (ca. 3000—2500 bce) is carved with a silkworm
pattern; and Xihuang village in Shanxi and
traditional arts of China. The interrelationship is at Nanyangzhuang in Hebei have both revealed
least threefold: the processes of sericulture and silk Achrysalis-shaped ceramics. stone carving from a
production have been illustrated throughout
Chinese history in other art objects; the designs Hongshan site (ca. 3600-ca. 2000 bce) at Houwa,
developed for patterned silks have influenced and Liaoning Province, has a pair of small wings on the
been influenced by other mediums in Chinese art; form of a chrysalis: we are being shown the
and silk, used as a ground for painting and metamorphosis of chrysalis into mature moth.
calligraphy, interacts materially with the brush to Numerous Liangzhu culture (ca. 3600—ca. 2000
affect the appearance of the created work of art. bce) sites in southern China have disclosed similar
carvings in jade. By their sheer numbers, these
The life cycle of the silkworm is extraordinary.
Bombyx mori begins as the minute egg of a small survivals suggest the lively importance of the
moth, from which emerges a tiny larva, or
caterpillar. This is the silkworm, which by voracious silkworm to Neolithic Chinese. The most
feeding on mulberry leaves grows from about one important find is the small half cocoon from
millimeter to about seven centimeters; its ceaseless Xiying village, Shanxi (ca. 3500-ca. 3000 bce); it is
feeding is interrupted by four day-long dormancies, reasonable to assume that the cocoon had been cut
after each of which it molts, then continues eating. open in order to observe the final metamorphosis
After some forty days, each worm is placed into an —and emergence of the moth a form of augury
individual compartment, where it spins the cocoon that we might term seriomancy.
within which it metamorphoses into a chrysalis, or
pupa, and finally into a new moth. To emerge, the Images of the fusang tree appear frequently in
moth secretes an enzyme that softens and breaks ancient art. Most texts explain the fusang tree as a
the fibers or the cocoon. To preserve most of the giant mulberry tree that connects earth with
cocoon intact for silk reeling, the pupa is killed Heaven, or as the Tree of the Sun. In Chinese
before its final metamorphosis into a moth. legend there were once ten suns, one of which,
carried by thejingwu bird, traverses the sky from
From the number of very early renderings of east to west every day, then rests on the fusang tree
silkworms and their life cycle, we may speculate all night. Therefore mulberry groves, the true
that such a sequence of metamorphoses, with its habitats of the Jusang tree on earth, were places
alternations between stillness and motion, reminded from which people could ascend to Heaven to
the early Chinese vividly of the human life cycle, communicate with the gods, and thus places
of prayer.
perhaps with the motionless chrysalis within the
The fusang pattern probably appeared on Neolithic
cocoon representing death and the emerging moth
art objects, but the fust verifiable image is the
seen as an allegory of rebirth. bronze Jusang tree excavated from .1 Shang ritual
site at Sanxingdui. Sichuan (ca. 1600-ea. 1100 Ben).
Whatever the ancient interpretation, archaeologists
have discovered many representations of caterpillar, A lacquer box with a design of i Jusang tree.
chrysalis, and moth in many Neolithic sites in
unearthed from a tomb of the Warring States
north and south China. A carved ivory from
period U~s n\ bce) in Hubei Province, shows the
I [emudu, Zhejiang Province (sooo-4000 bce), archer Yi shooting at thejingwu bird. The modi'
shows four pairs of silkworm patterns; a black
pottery shard from Meiyan.Jiangsu Province derives from .1 legend in which all ten suns
appeared together in the sk\ one day, threatening to
incinerate the earth; the heroYi saved the world by
ART OF SILK AND ART ON SILK IN CHINA 99
