Archaeological Institute of America

Archaeological Institute of America

American Journal of Archaeology

January 2005 (109.1) - Online Museum Review - China: Dawn of a Golden Age - Victor Cunrui Xiong

China: Dawn of a Golden Age

By Victor Cunrui Xiong

American Journal of Archaeology Vol. 109, No. 1 (January 2005)

Published online at http://www.ajaonline.org/online-review-museum/378

DOI: 10.3764/ajaonline1091.Xiong

The title of Section II, “The Coming of the Xianbei,” suggests a major thematic departure. The Xianbei were a non-Han nomadic tribal group in Manchuria and Inner Mongolia who later spread to north China. Descending from the Donghu group in Han times, they arose north of China proper, after the breakdown of the Han Empire, and continued their expansion under the Jin and during the chaotic age of the Sixteen Kingdoms.

Overall, the objects of this section are of an exotic flavor that distinguishes them from the artistic styles of China proper. The golden plaques with openwork motifs of steppe animals (nos. 29–32, 35) are reminiscent of Scythian art. One of them, with the inscription Yiyi jin, or “Gold of Yiyi” (no. 32; fig. 3),3 deserves particular mention because of the status of Yiyi and his special relations with the Western Jin. After Luguan, the supreme leader of Tuoba (a branch of the Xianbei), divided the territory under Tuoba control into three areas in a vast tract of land extending west from White Mountain (northeast of Zhangjiakou), to Dai (Datong, Shanxi), to Shengle (south of Hohhot), and beyond, Yiyi (r. 295–305) was named chieftain of the central area, which included north Shanxi and the region to its north. In this tumultuous age of ethnic unrest, Yiyi is said to have rescued Sima Teng, governor of the Jin province of Bing, from the Xiongnu. Consequently, his younger brother Yilu, who came to power in 307, was created Duke of Dai in 310 by a Jin court desperately seeking alliance with the Xianbei to ward off Xiongnu attacks. That year marked the beginning of Tuoba statehood, the predecessor of the state of Wei, known as Northern Wei in history.

A number of objects are clearly provenanced to the Former Yan (nos. 23–25, 36) and the Northern Yan (nos. 37–41), two of the Sixteen Kingdoms. The founders of the Former Yan (337–370) were the Murong of Xianbei, cognates of the Tuoba. Originally, based in Longcheng (Chaoyang, Liaoning), the Murong moved their capital south to Ye (southwest of Linzhang, Hebei) in 357, in the heartland of the Central Plain. Before its conquest by the Former Qin of Di, the Former Yan dominated present-day Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, and Liaoning. The Northern Yan (407–436), as a revived state of Yan, was but a pale shadow of the Former Yan at its height, with significantly reduced holdings (south Liaoning and north Hebei). Although the Northern Yan was founded and ruled by Han Chinese, its culture, as attested by the exhibits in question, clearly shows strong influence of nomadism and elements of central Asia.

All five Northern Yan items on display come from the tomb of Feng Sufu, the brother of Feng Ba, the second sovereign of the Northern Yan and its true founder. One of them is a recumbent animal in bronze with its mouth open (no. 39). The catalogue labels it “vessel in the shape of an animal” without attempting to explain its utility. In the exhibition the Chinese label for it is huzi, which should have been translated as “chamber pot” (Morohashi, v. 9, 1049). Another item is a metal container (no. 40) with bronze body and iron lid, which the catalogue, translating the Chinese term guo (“wok”), calls a “cauldron.” Considering the small size of this piece (16.5 cm in height), guo is probably more appropriately rendered “pot” than “cauldron.”

In Section IV, “The Western Regions and the Way Thither,” we witness a shift of geographical focus to an area that often fell outside Chinese dominance, the “Western Regions,” or Xiyu. Narrowly defined, it encompassed the area east of the Pamirs and west of Yumen Pass in west Gansu. In a broader sense, it refers to all areas west of China in premodern times, including central Asia, west Asia, east Europe and the subcontinent. The objects in this section fall naturally into two groups, Chinese and foreign. Of the Chinese items (nos. 80–89), three are of Eastern Han vintage (nos. 80–82), and one dates back to Cao-Wei and Western Jin times (no. 83). The latter consists of three gold seals, unearthed in Xihe, southwest of Tianshui, in southeast Gansu. These seals of office were issued to local Di and Qiang tribal chieftains by the Central Plain court as proofs of investiture. Archaeology proves that the practice of granting investiture through issuance of gold seals by the central court to non-Han or foreign leaders goes back to the Han dynasty. The seal of the “prince of Dian,” unearthed in Yunnan, and the seal of the king of the Wa-Na state of Han, discovered in Fukuoka, Japan, provide the critical evidence. Both of them have a coiled serpent as their finial design; on the Gansu seals the finial depicts a recumbent sheep. The latter motif probably reflects the predominant pastoral lifestyle of the peoples who used them (the Di and Qiang).

It is interesting to note that the largest number of the Chinese objects in this section are personal paraphernalia of Former Liang times (317–376). They include a paper scroll carrying part of the Buddhist scripture Dharmapāta sūtra (no. 87), a tree-shaped lamp model in wood (no. 88), a jade ram (no. 98), a writing brush (no. 85), a bronze seal-clay container inlaid with gold (no. 84), and three wooden tablets (no. 86). The last three items also functioned as Han administrative tools. The cultural dominance of the Han Chinese reflected in these objects can be explained by the fact that, although the Former Liang was one of the Sixteen Kingdoms that carved up north China in the wake of the fall of the Western Jin, it was founded and ruled by the Zhang house, of Han descent. As an independent state, the Former Liang continued the cultural practices and customs of Han Chinese.

The bulk of the section, however, comprises foreign objects (nos. 90–103). Their places of discovery are scattered over a wide geographical area, from Jingyuan, in east Gansu, to Datong, north of Xining in Qinghai, to Ili, in northwest Xinjiang. Their dates span a long stretch of time, from around the second or first century B.C. (nos. 100–101) to the sixth or seventh century A.D. (no. 96). Some of the objects are imports from far beyond the Chinese realm: the Dionysus plate in silver (no. 90) from the Roman Orient, the silver bowl with ostrich motif (no. 91) from Sasanian Persia, and the silver plate with tiger motif (no. 187) from Sogdiana. Although it is more difficult to pinpoint the provenances of the remaining foreign objects, they show a strong association with the West. Whether the gold jar inlaid with rubies (no. 94), gold cup inlaid with agate (no. 95), glass goblet with appliqué decorations (no. 96), trihandled earthenware amphora (no. 97), earthenware rhyton (no. 98), schist tray with a drinking scene (no. 99), silver ewer with a floral frieze (no. 100), or textiles featuring the centaur, acanthus patterns, or a nude goddess (nos. 101–103), the objects have prominent Hellenistic, Roman, and/or Persian characteristics.

The exhibition ends with Section VII, “Arts of the Sui and Early Tang Dynasties, 581–755.” The timeframe of this section is one of the longest in the show. Characterized by the rule of a revived imperial government, China throughout this period stayed essentially united. The rationale for ending the exhibition at the year 755 is apparently grounded in the perception that the cataclysmic An Lushan rebellion (755–763) not only tore the Tang empire asunder, but also conveniently cut the Tang dynasty chronologically in halves (hence the term “Early Tang”). Here a minor issue arises concerning nomenclature. In literary and art historical convention, the Tang dynasty is divided into four phases, with “Early Tang” referring to the period leading to the beginning of the eighth century. The period thereafter (Xuanzong’s reign) until the An Lushan rebellion is referred to as “High Tang” (sheng Tang). To use “Early Tang” to denote the entire pre-755 period seems to imply that a High Tang period had yet to arrive. This is probably caused by the ambiguity of the Chinese title of the exhibition, Zouxiang sheng Tang (“Moving toward the High Tang”), which gives the impression that the High Tang phase falls in the post-755 period.

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The most resplendent piece of the section is the gold necklace from the tomb of Li Jingxun, inlaid with pearls, lapis lazuli, and bloodstone gems (no. 187; fig. 6). With a mixture of Greco-Roman and Sasanian elements, this necklace was probably imported along the Silk Road from Iran or west central Asia. The occupant of the tomb died in 608 at the age of eight and was buried together with more than 230 furnishings in an elaborately decorated sarcophagus. As a young child without any official rank, she was afforded an exceptionally extravagant burial because of her royal connections: her maternal grandmother, Yang Lihua, was the elder sister of the reigning emperor, Yangdi, and her maternal grandfather was Yuwen Yun or Xuandi (r. 578–579) of the Northern Zhou dynasty. Some modern scholars even refer to her as a princess. That designation, however, is inappropriate. The title “princess” was granted to paternal female descendents of the sovereign, his female siblings, or other close female relatives who bore the same royal surname. When a palace lady was married off as a princess to a non-Han chieftain, she would first be made an honorary or make-believe daughter of the sovereign. The tomb occupant, as a Li, was a member of neither the Northern Zhou royal house of Yuwen nor the Sui royal house of Yang.

Among the gold objects of this section is a tablet found at Mt. Song, a unique Daoist artifact (no. 190). On it is inscribed a petition of the reigning female sovereign, Wu Zetian, to transcendents of the Middle Marchmount (Mt. Song, one of the five sacred mountains of premodern China) to delete her name from the book of sinners. This acknowledgement of sin is reminiscent of a self-condemning mechanism known as zuiji zhao (“edict that blames oneself”).13 However, this gold tablet is also different. Unlike a zuiji zhao, which was a public statement, the tablet was a private communication transmitted through a Daoist to the gods. Contacting the divine by reverentially casting a precious object had been a longstanding tradition, especially in Daoism. One of the most common practices was toulong (“casting the dragon”), in which the ritualist threw a gold dragon or an inscribed gold tablet into a body of water to conjure up the dragon. It was often accompanied by the most renowned Daoist ritual jiao (“cosmodrama”), intended to bring transcedents down to earth. On a number of occasions Wu Zetian requested her Daoist proxies to conduct these rituals. In 692 she sent a Daoist master to the iconic landmarks such as the Five Marchmounts and the Four Rivers to perform the toulong rite.14 In 700, the same year when the gold tablet on display was cast, the abbot of the Daoist Qingyuan Abbey in Luoyang conducted jiao for Wu Zetian.15 Although Wu is known as a steadfast supporter and pious believer of Buddhism, this gold tablet provides material evidence of her eclectic view of religion in general and of Daoism in particular.