Page 484 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

ceramic ewers in shapes comparable to the present suggest but do not describe their hindquarters
one were produced at the imperial kilns by the and tails.
early fifteenth century. It was, however, during Almost all of these elements have much earlier
the Jiajing reign-era (1522-1566) that Daoist ico- prototypes, beginning with the shape of the cup
nography became all-pervasive, just as Daoism itself, which appeared in both jade and lacquer
itself permeated all levels of contemporaneous about the third century B.C. Shang dynasty (trad.
society. This vessel, whose color approximates the 1766-1045 B.C.) bronze workers pioneered the use
patina on antique bronzes, appears to date no ear- of a leiwen background, and bronzes of the Zhou
lier than the Jiajing reign-era. When used to pour (1045-256 B.C.), and Han (206 B.C.-A.D. 220)
warmed wine at a celebration, the ewer would dynasties reveal comparable abstraction of animal
have contributed — not only functionally but bodies and decorative use of taotie masks. The
symbolically and aesthetically —to the pleasure insistent archaism here represents an important
of the guests. H.R. trend in Ming dynasty jade carving —a trend
which began with excavations of antique bronzes
and jades during the Song dynasty (960-1279),
and which was propagated from the eleventh cen-
tury onward by publications, often illustrated,
340 about these ancient treasures. The present exam-

CYLINDRICAL CUP ple, however, does not simply replicate earlier
designs but rather displays a knowing and exceed-
late i6th-iyth century ingly sophisticated manipulation of them, a gen-
Chinese eral characteristic of the later Ming period, when decorative theme on blue-and-white wares as well
white jade with brown markings scholarly interest in and appreciation of the past as enameled porcelains.
2
5
height 8.4 f3 /4J, outer diameter 6.7 (2 /s) was at its height. Given that their language is highly homopho-
reference: New York 1980, 106 One of the most celebrated of the Suzhou nous, it is natural that the Chinese have long
Quincy Chuang, Hong Kong craftsmen who catered to that antiquarian taste enjoyed verbal puns. During the Ming they
was Lu Zigang, active mainly during the second became increasingly fond of visual or pictorial
The simple cylindrical form, supported by three half of the sixteenth century. James Watt has puns, or rebuses, in which a word or phrase is
feet carved with animal masks, has been incised noted that the present cup is very similar to two indicated by objects whose names are similarly
with profuse and complex decoration. On the ring other cups, both of which have lids—presumably pronounced. For example, a monkey on a horse
handle with curved thumb-rest is a taotie animal lost in this case —and also incised signatures of Lu together with a bee is a rebus for the auspicious
mask, on the underside of the cup a horned Zigang. This cup may thus be dated to the late wish "May you immediately be enfeoffed as a
dragon strides among clouds. In the central and sixteenth-seventeenth century, when jade work- marquis/'
widest decorative frieze on the body are zoomor- shops abounded on Zhuanzhu Street in Suzhou, Here the key symbols are the lotus, the mouth
phic motifs in low relief: a frontal animal mask and it was boasted that "although the good jade is organ, the jar, and the scepter. This last embodies
bisected by the handle, and two mythical crea- found in the capital, it's Suzhou for the good in its name the idea "according to your wish,"
tures set against a key fret pattern called leiwen workmen/' H.R. while its form resembles the mushroom of
(thunder pattern). Above and below this central immortality (lingzhi), which connotes long life.
band are borders filled with interlocking hori- The musical instrument sheng, consisting of vary-
zontal C-shapes. The creatures, one with phoenix ing lengths of bamboo pipes, is homophonous
head, the other perhaps a dragon, are both her- with two other characters pronounced sheng, one
aldically rampant; behind winged shoulders their meaning "to rise in rank" and the other "to give
bodies continue as rectilinear abstract designs that birth to." The lotus has two names, Han and he;
341 the first of these is homophonous with the charac-
ter Han meaning "continuously," the second with
THREE BOYS WITH LARGE JAR the character he that denotes "peace and concord."
Guan (storage jar) is also the pronunciation of the
i6th century
Chinese character meaning "official" as well as another
gray-green jade with brown markings meaning "string of cash." Obviously this sculp-
2
height 8.3 (3 /4J ture has a wide range of connotations, all auspi-
cious, and generally susceptible of the following
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, The Avery benevolent summary: "May your many sons live
Brundage Collection
long in peace and rise continuously in rank and
Three nicely dressed lads, their eyes tightly status." That such matters rest primarily with fate
closed, encircle a large storage jar (guan) and hold, may be the intended meaning of the shuttered
respectively, a mouth organ (sheng), a scepter eyes, which seem to increase the dependence of
(ruyi), and a lotus (Han). The jar too is decorated, the children on their auspicious accouterments.
with a frieze of so-called lotus petals around its H.R.
base and a border of ruyi lappets around its mouth
rim. Rene-Yvon dArgence has suggested that the
decoration and shape of the jar indicate a date
within the Jiajing reign-era (1522-1566), a period
during which children at play were a common

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