Page 488 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

346 on such contrivances. Portraits of various Song that of later chairs, its relative simplicity argues
dynasty (960-1279) personages reveal that the for a fairly early date. In particular its naturalistic
THRONE-LIKE ARMCHAIR chair came to be considered a symbol of status; carving is comparable to carved lacquer work of
abbots as well as emperors and empresses were the late fourteenth century, and the throne may
I4th-i6th century depicted seated on textile-covered and ever more thereby be dated to a period not far removed. Just
Chinese substantial chairs. By the fourteenth century as the lotus growing unsullied out of a murky
zitan hardwood
5
height 109 (42%), se0f width 98 (j8 /8), seat depth raised chairs and footstools connoted high rank pond provided an apt visual analogy for the
78 ( 3o%j and authority, whether secular or religious. enlightened soul unstained by the dust of the illu-
The present chair, according to Wang Shixiang, sory world, so too does this throne-like chair
Palace Museum, Beijing is unique, the only extant example that is securely characterize the political or religious sovereign for
datable to the Ming period. Although its func- whom it was created as a man of strength as well
Three pieces of zitan, the hardest, heaviest, and tion—to exalt its occupant —was identical with as delicate sensibility. H.R.
most prized of all the Chinese hardwoods, were
used to make the sides and back of this thronelike
armchair. The undecorated seat and waist are sup-
ported by a lower frame with continuous floor
stretchers. Like most thrones, this chair has a
matching footstool, lotus shaped. All surfaces save
for the seat and waist are elaborately carved with
lotus leaves, stalks, and blossoms, intertwined and
overlapped as in nature itself.
Due largely to Buddhism, the lotus is of unique
importance in Chinese thought. In the words of
Wolfram Eberhard, "the lotus comes out of the
mire but is not itself sullied; it is inwardly empty,
outwardly upright; it has no branches but it
smells sweet; it is the symbol of purity, and one of
the eight Buddhist precious things/' By extension,
these carved emblems of ultimate rectitude
became attributes of the exalted personage who
was raised and supported by this chair.
Exactly when and how the chair came to be
introduced into China remains obscure. It seems
likely, however, that this occurred under the aus-
pices of Buddhism, perhaps sometime late in the
Tang dynasty (618-907). Even during the Ming
dynasty chairs wide enough to sit in cross-legged
were termed chan yi, "meditation chairs/ and
early pictorial representations of chairs do in fact
depict monks with their legs drawn up in that
posture. Another early term for the chair was hu
chuang, "barbarian bed/' presumably because it
was believed that foreigners slept seated upright

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