The early Chinese believed in the resurrection of the physical man, and only after many centuries did the idea of mere spiritual survival vaguely supplant the earlier superstition. To minister to the needs of the dead the Chinese of the Han period (206 B. C.-221 A. D.) stocked their tombs with jars containing wine and pickled meats, with articles of jade, with clothes, mirrors and weapons. To these were added costly treasures, furniture, chariots, live animals; even immolation of relatives and retainers was practiced in early times. As the conception of spiritual survival gradually replaced that of bodily life after death, simulacra of the objects used in life came to be substituted in burial for real objects. To this class belongs the horse's head, illustrated on this page, intended to take the place of a living sacrifice. The material is a soft grey earthenware, covered with a layer of buff clay, perhaps an original slip or perhaps an adhering soil incrustation. The modeling of the head, which has been made from a mould, combines a close study of nature with monumental elimination of the non-essential. Designs of the period engraved on stone show a similar enthusiasm for the horse and a similar method of treatment, the interest being in the decorative and linear aspect more than in the realistic and plastic.
Mortuary Vase. Han Period
The vase is a typical piece of mortuary pottery of the Han period. It is made of hard reddish clay covered with a thick translucent green glaze, in parts become iridescent. The form is derived from an earlier bronze type; the simulated rings which originally formed the handles of the earlier type of vessel should be noted. The vase is decorated with a band of hunting scenes and animals, real and fabulous, modeled in low relief.
Painting On Silk by Ma Yuan
During the Sung dynasty, a period of highly developed civilization landscape painting occupied the attention of the greatest artists. Wearying of the complexity of life, men of culture turned with eager desire to the peace and solitude of nature. This love of nature finds beautiful expression in the paintings of Ma Yuan, one of the three greatest landscape painters of the period. By this artist, who flourished in the latter part of the XII century and the first part of the following century, is the large kakemono painted in monochrome on silk, which is illustrated opposite. The subject is the meeting between the Taoist teacher, Lee Erh, and his disciple, Ying Hai, on the mountain Wah Shan, one of the five largest mountains of China. Characteristic of the period is the loftiness and simplicity of the style, an austerity tempered by the serene and silent joy of the true lover of nature. Irrelevant details are omitted; only those which are significant expressing the artist's mood in contemplation of nature are recorded.
Ancient Chinese Jades
The earliest Chinese religion was essentially astronomical and cosmic. Heaven, earth, and the four quarters were the six cosmic powers worshiped as deities. The symbol of earth was a yellow jade “tube” or hollow cylinder, round inside and square outside, with a short, projecting neck at either end. The earth was thought of as round in its interior and square outside. The jade earth “tube” or “huang t'sung” in our collection is a very ancient piece, possibly dating from the Chou period (1122-255 B.C.). To the Sung period (960-1280 A. D.) may be assigned the beautiful jade reproduced in the illustration, although the type is reminiscent of Han productions.