Page 36 - Christie's Important Chinese Art Nov 3 2020 London

of Zhao Hun describes the joys of riding in a royal yi hao tongche’, Wenwu, 1991, no. 1, pp. 14-19). Such
park in a magnificent chariot: fittings were attached to the front of the chariot to
support a cross-bow. The cross-bow would have
‘You shall explore, O Soul, the parks in spring;
been suspended so that it rested on the curved neck
of the phoenix, while the stock of the cross-bow
Your jewelled axels gleaming in the sun
rested against the upper part of the chariot. In this
And yoke inlaid with gold;’ position the trigger mechanism of the cross-bow
would have been within reach of the charioteer, and
Ending with: ‘O Soul come back and live for these the string of the bow could have been drawn using
delights’ (Translated by Arthur Waley, Translations the gaping mouth of the dragon on the fitting.
from the Chinese, New York, 1941, p. 14.)
Very few chariot-fittings of this type have survived,
The kind of chariots for which the current chariot but fittings of similar type, albeit of simpler design
fittings were made first appeared during the Zhou were excavated at Jincun in the 1920s (see Sueji
dynasty for the use of kings, their consorts, and other Umehara, ‘Rakuyo Kinson Kobo Shuei’ (Report of
members of the aristocracy. The size of the chariot the Findings of the Old Tombs at Jincun, Luoyang),
and the number of horses used to pull it depended Kyoto, 1937, pls. 53-56). The Jincun find included four
on the rank and sex of the occupant. It is interesting pairs of fittings with dragon heads and bodies cast
to note that a chariot with fittings somewhat similar in relief (although without open-work). Another pair
to the current pair was excavated in 1980 from a of chariot fittings, now in the Idemitsu Collection
late 3rd century tomb to the west of Qin Shihuang’s have similar phoenix heads to those on the current
mausoleum (see Cheng Xuehua, ‘Qin Shihuang ling fittings (illustrated Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Ancient
yi hao tongchema’, Kaogu yu Wenwu, 1990, no. 5, Chinese Arts in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1989,
frontispiece and pp. 1-2; Sun Ji, ‘Luelun Shihuang ling no. 219).

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