The Art and Archaeology of Bodily Adornment: Studies from Central and East Asian Mortuary Contexts

Editor:
Sheri A. Lullo and Leslie V. Wallace

Publisher:
Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge

Publication date:
2019

Abstract:

This book examines the significance of adornment to the shaping of identity in mortuary contexts within Asia, and brings these perspectives into dialogue with current scholarship in other worldwide regions. The mortuary contexts of focus in this volume represent unique sites and events where identity was visualized, and often manipulated and negotiated, through material objects and their placement on and about the deceased body. In both breadth and depth, it will be of interest to students and scholars interested in the archaeology, art, and history of Central and East Asia, as well as anyone interested in the general study of dress and adornment.

Table of Contents:

Dimensions of personal adornment / Sheri A. Lullo and Leslie V. Wallace

Adornments at Odake Shell Midden Site: perceptions of early Jomon hunter-gatherer gender and identities / Ilona R. Bausch

Some features of "Xiongnu" composite belts / S.S. Miniaev

Adornments of golden Silla / Sarah Milledge Nelson

The Yayoi-Kofun transition as seen from the exchange network of beads in the Japanese archipelago / Ari Tanizawa

Why wear dolphins? Greek imagery among the pastoralists along the ancient Oxus / Karen S. Rubinson

The power and authority of exotic accessories: ornamentation of human and equine haniwa at Tsukamawari tomb 4, Gunma, Japan / Karen M. Gerhart and Katheryn M. Linduff

Jade age adornment of the Liangzhu elite / Elizabeth Childs-Johnson

Does a feather in your hat a barbarian make? Headgear and hairstyles in Han Dynasty tomb murals in the Ordos / Leslie V. Wallace

Dressing the dead in Jin China / Sarah Laursen

銅鏡から読み解く2～4世紀の東アジア： 三角縁神獣鏡と関連鏡群の諸問題

Editor:
實盛良彦 (Jitsumori Yoshihiko)

Publication date:
September 2019

Publisher:
勉誠出版

Table of Contents:

序文　銅鏡研究と日本考古学 實盛良彦
総論　東アジア世界と銅鏡 森下章司

Ⅰ　中国の鏡
後漢・三国鏡の生産動向 上野祥史
後漢鏡の図像解釈―中国美術史上における儒教図像の意義 楢山満照
鋳造技術からみた後漢・三国時代の銅鏡 南健太郎
類書に映る鏡の記述―『藝文類聚』を例に 佐藤裕亮

Ⅱ　倭でつくられた鏡
倭における鏡の製作 加藤一郎
倭独自の文様を持つ小型鏡の創出と展開 脇山佳奈
倭鏡に見る「王権のコントロール」 林正憲

Ⅲ　三角縁神獣鏡と関連の鏡
三角縁神獣鏡生産の展開と製作背景 岩本崇
黒塚古墳三角縁神獣鏡の鋳上がりと切削研磨の程度からみる製造状況―二面同形二十号・三十二号鏡の調査から 三船温尚
画文帯神獣鏡の生産 村瀨陸
華北東部の銅鏡をめぐる諸問題 馬渕一輝
斜縁鏡群と三角縁神獣鏡 實盛良彦

Ⅳ　銅鏡から歴史を読む
新見東呉尚方鏡試考 朱棒／藤井康隆（訳・解題）
二・三・四世紀の土器と鏡―土器の併行関係と出土鏡からみた暦年代を中心として
久住猛雄
日本列島における銅鏡の流通と政治権力―二～四世紀を中心に 辻田淳一郎
跋文　銅鏡から読み解く二・三・四世紀の東アジア 實盛良彦

Asian Studies Vol 7 No 2 (2019): Meaning and transformation of Chinese funerary art during the Han and Wei Jin Nanbei periods

Table of Contents:

Guest Editor’s Foreword
Guest Editor’s Foreword
Nataša Vampelj Suhadolnik https://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/as/article/view/8589
5-9

Fuxi and Nüwa from Centre to Periphery
Integration and Transformation: A Study of the Sun and the Moon Depicted in the Imagery of Fuxi and Nüwa
Jinchao Zhao https://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/as/article/view/8390
13-45

Transmission of Han Pictorial Motifs into the Western Periphery: Fuxi and Nüwa in the Wei-Jin Mural Tombs in the Hexi Corridor
Nataša Vampelj Suhadolnik https://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/as/article/view/8458
47-86

Chinese-Buddhist Encounter: Synthesis of Fuxi-Nüwa and the Cintamani in Early Medieval Chinese Art
Fan Zhang https://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/as/article/view/8318
87-111

Meaning of the Bi Disc and the Hunping Spirit Jar

Representation of Heaven and Beyond
The Bi Disc Imagery in the Han Burial Context
Hau-ling Eileen Lam https://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/as/article/view/8415
115-151

The Meaning of Birds on Hunping (Spirit Jars)
The Religious Imagination of Second to Fourth century Jiangnan
Keith Nathaniel Knapp https://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/as/article/view/8471
153-172

Tomb Iconography in the Territory between the southwestern to northern Frontiers

Cliff Tomb Burial and Decorated Stone Sarcophagi from Sichuan from the Eastern Han Dynasty
Hajni Pejsue Elias https://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/as/article/view/8212
175-201

Dual Portraits of the Deceased in Yangqiaopan M1, Jingbian, Shaanxi
Leslie Wallace https://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/as/article/view/8311
203-219

The Representation of Military Troops in Pingcheng Tombs and the Private Household Institution of Buqu in Practice https://revije.ff.uni-lj.si/as/article/view/8313
Chin-Yin Tseng
221-243

Empire of Style: Silk and Fashion in Tang China

Author:
BuYun Chen

Publisher:
University of Washington Press

Publication date:
May 14, 2019

Abstract:
Tang dynasty (618–907) China hummed with cosmopolitan trends. Its capital at Chang'an was the most populous city in the world and was connected via the Silk Road with the critical markets and thriving cultures of Central Asia and the Middle East. In Empire of Style, BuYun Chen reveals a vibrant fashion system that emerged through the efforts of Tang artisans, wearers, and critics of clothing. Across the empire, elite men and women subverted regulations on dress to acquire majestic silks and au courant designs, as shifts in economic and social structures gave rise to what we now recognize as precursors of a modern fashion system: a new consciousness of time, a game of imitation and emulation, and a shift in modes of production.

This first book on fashion in premodern China is informed by archaeological sources―paintings, figurines, and silk artifacts―and textual records such as dynastic annals, poetry, tax documents, economic treatises, and sumptuary laws. Tang fashion is shown to have flourished in response to a confluence of social, economic, and political changes that brought innovative weavers and chic court elites to the forefront of history.

Table of Contents:

Part 1 Traces
History : cloth and the logics of cosmopolitan empire
Discourse : fashion and sumptuary regulation

Part 2 Surfaces
Style : fashioning the Tang beauty
Design : silk and the logics of fashion
Desire : men of style and the metrics of fashion

Art in a Time of Chaos: Masterworks from Six Dynasties China

Publisher:
New York : China Institute in America

Publication date:
2016

Abstract:
Art in a Time of Chaos: Masterworks from Six Dynasties China provides the first major survey of Chinese culture and its international influences during the Six Dynasties period, as well as the relationship between the two dominant political centers in the North and South. This bilingual catalogue of the exhibition presents more than 100 ceramics, sculpture, calligraphy, and paintings, many only recently unearthed. 12 essays by leading scholars explore the works and artistic achievements of the period in greater depth, and the informative appendix features renowned Six Dynasties artistic subjects and a glossary of characters and terminology.

Table of contents:

Forword / Gong Liang

Preface / Willow Weilan Hai

Six Dynasties: Seeking the Origin of Chinese Art / Willow Weilan Hai

Important Archaeological Findings of the Six Dynasties (in the South) / Gong Liang

Jiankang : The Southern Capital and Metropolitan Life / Bai Ning

The Northern Dynasties and Major Archaeological Discoveries / Shi Jinming

Celadon and Customs of the Six Dynasties / Willow Weilan Hai

Buddhist Sculpture: Innovation, Invention and Imagination / Annette L. Juliano

Negotiating the Afterlife in the Tombs of the Northern and Southern Dynasties / Susan L. Beningson 

Calligraphy of the Six Dynasties / Xue Longchun

An Overview of Seals from the Wei-Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties / Zhou Xiaolu and Zhu Bang

The Admonition of the Instructress to the Court Ladies and the Six Dynasties / Clarissa von Spee

After the "Five Barbarians Brought Disorder to China" : Painting in north China in the Sixth Century / David Ake Sensabaugh

Key events in the history of art in the Six Dynasties period / Li Xiujian

Appendices

Table of Six Dynasties artists by period / Li Xiujian

Popular Six Dynasties literary subjects in art through the ages / Willow Weilan Hai and Shawn Eichman

Selected reference paintings / Willow Weilan Hai

Early Medieval North China: Archaeological and Textual Evidence

Editors:
Shing Müller, Thomas O. Höllmann, and Sonja Filip

Publication date:
2019

Publisher:
Harrassowitz Verlag · Wiesbaden

Abstract:

The Xianbei from southeast Mongolia were the first foreign sovereignty over North China since the 4th century. During the 200 years of Xianbei rulership, the cultures of old and new inhabitants – the Han-Chinese, the Xianbei and diverse steppe peoples, the Sogdians and other Central Asians from the west – confronted and competed with one another.

This volume is one of the first in Europe that concentrates on the cultural conflicts and the emergence of new traditions in North China during the Early Medieval period. Topics include archaeological evidence of the early Fuyu culture in southern Manchuria and early traces of Sogdians in Qinghai, impacts of Buddhism in the formation of new funerary cults and new city planning, the hybridization of diverse funerary traditions such as the use of head rests and stone beds and house-shaped sarcophagi, the emergence of a multiple identity for denizens as an adaptation to a fast changing world, and the militarization of the northern society as seen in murals and in defense lines. Also included are new insights on the Chinese sabao and Sogdian s’rtp’w titles, and discussions on Sogdian slaves in the Kocho Kingdom as well as on “multi-culture” in Chinese historiographical works.

Table of Contents:

EARLY MEDIEVAL SOCIETIES:HISTORICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE

Monique Nagel-Angermann 丁慕妮
Cultural Diversity in Early Medieval Northern China from the Perspective of Chinese Historiography (從史籍看中古世紀早期中國北方的文化多樣性)

Annette Kieser 安然
Eastern Jin Society from the Perspective of the Archaeological Evidence:  A Preliminary Survey (從考古角度看東晉社會)  

田立坤 Tian Likun 
四世紀夫餘史蹟鈎沉 (Exploring the Forgotten History of the Fuyu 夫餘of the 4th Century: An Archaeological and Textual Survey)

張志忠 Zhang Zhizhong 
大同北魏墓葬佛教圖像淺議 (On the Buddhist Imagery of a Northern Wei Tomb in Datong) 

林聖智 Lin Sheng-chih 
反思北魏的宗教與墓葬圖像 (Rethinking the Religious and Funerary Iconography of the Northern Wei Dynasty)

Chin-Yin Tseng 曾慶盈 
Imagining the Self in Northern Wei: Case Studies of Shaling M7 and Yanbei Shiyuan M5 (北魏時代的自我畫像: 以沙嶺M7與雁北師院M5為例)

羅豐 Luo Feng 
固原北魏漆棺畫年代的再確定 (The Painted Northern Wei  Lacquer Coffin of Guyuan: Dating Revised)

魏堅 Wei Jian
牛川古城與北魏六鎮 (The Niuchuan Fortress and the Six Garrisons of the Northern Wei Dynasty)

張慶捷 Zhang Qingjie 
忻州九原崗北朝壁畫墓軍事內容窺探 (Military Themes in the Murals of the Northern Dynasties Tomb in Xinzhou)

王銀田 Wang Yintian
北朝時期的獸面紋: 以鋪首銜環為例 (Animal Masks of the Northern Dynasties) 


BECOMING METROPOLITAN

錢國祥 Qian Guoxiang

北魏洛陽宮城的勘察研究新進展 (The Imperial City of the Northern Wei Luoyang in Light of Recent Archaeological Studies)

朱岩石 Zhu Yanshi 

東魏北齊鄴城皇家佛寺遺跡考古發現與研究 (Buddhist Temples in the Eastern Wei/Northern Qi City of Ye: An Archaeological Study)

Dorothy C. Wong 王靜芬

Buddhist Transformation of Chang’an’s Architectural and Cultural Landscape, ca. 650–720 (佛教對長安建築與文化的改造, 約 650 年至 720 年)

SOGDIAN DIASPORA

張建林, 才洛太 Zhang Jianlin, Tshelothar (Cai Luotai) 

青海藏醫藥文化博物館藏彩繪棺板 (Painted Wooden Coffins in the Tibetan Medical Culture Museum) 

Jonathan Karam Skaff 斯加夫

Slavery and Foreign Slaves at Turfan during the Gaochang Kingdom (442–640) (高昌國（442–640）時期吐魯番地區的奴隸制與胡奴)

Albert E. Dien 丁愛博

Consideration of Some Aspects of the Sogdian Experience in China: From sabo to s’rtp’w (入華粟特人的生命歷程: 從“薩薄”到“s’rtp’w”)

CULTURAL INTERACTIONS

倪潤安 Ni Run’an 

北魏平城灰枕葬俗考 (Funerary Headrests in the Northern Wei Pingcheng Burials) 

韋正 Wei Zheng 

五世紀中後期的平城: 以墓葬資料為中心的觀察 (Pingcheng in the  Second Half of the Fifth Century as Seen fromBurial Materials)

Shing Müller 宋馨

Funerary Beds and Houses of the Northern Dynasties (北朝的石床與石室) 

白雲翔 Bai Yunxiang 

北朝時期民族文化交流與融合的宏觀考察: 以北朝墓葬遺存為中心(The Confluence of Cultures during the Northern Dynasties Period from the Aspect of Tomb Findings)

齊東方 Qi Dongfang 

生與死——兩個世界的徘徊 (Life and Death – Pondering the Two Worlds) 

[Dissertation] Cultural Encounters: Ethnic Complexity and Material Expression in Fifth-Century Pingcheng, China

Author:
ZHANG, Fan 張帆

School:
New York University

Defended:
2018

Abstract:

My dissertation focuses on art and material culture produced in the city of Pingcheng, the capital of the Northern Wei dynasty (386–535 CE) during the fifth century. A city of immigrants from diverse social, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, Pingcheng was an unusually fertile land for vigorous cultural exchanges. Through investigation into material remains, from both funerary and religious contexts, and textual sources, both transmitted and excavated, my research delineate multiple ethnicity, artistic innovation, and cross-cultural interactions of Pingcheng. I adopt an interdisciplinary approach that combines art history, archaeology, and history to examine how individuals articulate their identities in a multiethnic society via various visual and material forms. Built on top of a set comprehensive archaeological data, this project highlights three tombs for in-depth case studies, including funerary portraits that display identities of the deceased, innovative burial furniture that crosses ethnic boundaries and showcases Pingcheng’s syncretism, and exotic silverwares that exemplify the intensive cultural exchange between East and Central Asia.

My dissertation challenges the Sino-centric perspective and Han/non-Han binary division. By investigating artistic productions associated with individuals, I explore the mediating role art plays in the social network and the process of identity articulation. My research situates Northern Wei art in a trans-cultural context of Eurasia by tracking movements of objects and migration of people. My emphasis on material culture also expands the scope of art historical study by including less-studied genres and experimenting with a trans-medium approach to conceptualize funerary art.

[Dissertation] Affordable Luxury: The Entanglements of Metal Mirrors in the Han Empire (202 BCE–220 CE)

Author:
Yanlong, GUO

School:
University of British Columbia

Defended:
2016

Abstract:

This dissertation is a relational study of the multiple entanglements of metal mirrors with consumers in the context of a monetized economy during the Han dynasty (202 BCE-220 CE). By looking at the triad of physical, economic, and semiotic interdependences, I trace the complex ways in which Han users shaped their mirrors and vice versa. Balancing transmitted and excavated sources, qualitative and quantitative methods, and physical sciences and art historical inquiries, I foreground an interdisciplinary understanding of the early imperial history of luxury consumption. This study follows these objects, from the accoutrements of mirrors such as ribbons, stands, pouches, and boxes, to all sorts of metal mirrors made from bronze, iron, lead, and those with additional ornaments, as they were purchased, then displayed and appreciated in the quotidian as well as mortuary settings of both wealthy and middle classes in Han China. I argue that these specular discs served as a dominant form of affordable luxury, signaling personal intimacies, monetary wealth, and aesthetic enjoyments.  

This study is divided into four chapters. Chapter 1, "Introduction," introduces the theoretical framework of entanglement and a perspective on the consumption of mirrors as luxuries. Chapter 2, “The Physical Entanglements,” explores the use value of Han mirrors, arguing for the portability and intimacy of the relations between these small yet intricate objects and their Han users as revealed through the holding, viewing, wearing, and burying practices. Chapter 3, “The Economic Entanglements,” investigates the market value of the mirrors, the socioeconomic status of consumers, and the gifting practices based upon such value. Chapter 4, “The Semiotic Entanglements,” highlights the physical, optical and symbolic interdependence between mirrors and the people of early imperial China. Moving beyond issues of representation, this chapter closely scrutinizes the aestheticization, symbolic correlations, and attainment of brightness in a variety of practices dependent upon the medium of Han mirrors. This study contributes to the field of early Chinese art with a nuanced examination of Han mirrors as treasured things that created systems of value, and with a reconstruction of lost linkages between the mirror as physical paraphernalia, source of value, and embodied aesthetic.  

TOC:

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Physical Entanglements of Mirrors: Portability, Intimacy, and Memory

Chapter 3: Economic Entanglements of Mirrors: Gifts, Commodities and Social
Distribution

Chapter 4: Semiotic Entanglements of Mirrors: the Sun, the Moon and the Great
Brightness

Chapter 5: Conclusion

Mirroring China's Past: Emperors, Scholars, and their Bronzes

Editor:
Wang Tao 汪濤

Publisher:
Art Institute of Chicago

Publication Date:
March 6, 2018

Abstract:

In ancient China (2000–221 b.c.) elaborate bronze vessels were used for rituals involving cooking, drinking, and serving food. This fascinating book not only examines the cultural practices surrounding these objects in their original context, but it also provides the first in-depth study tracing the tradition of collecting these bronzes in China. Essays by international experts delve into the concerns of the specialized culture that developed around the vessels and the significant influence this culture, with its emphasis on the concept of antiquity, had on broader Chinese society. While focusing especially on bronze collections of the 18th and 19th centuries, this wide-ranging catalogue also touches on the ways in which contemporary artists continue to respond to the complex legacy of these objects. Packed with stunning photographs of exquisitely crafted vessels, Mirroring China’s Past is an enlightening investigation into how the role of ancient bronzes has evolved throughout Chinese history.


Table of Contents:

Emperors of the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties

Matter of things: how to read ancient Chinese bronzes / Tao Wang

Bronze-casting technology in the late Shang Dynasty / Su Rongyu

Interpreting the decoration of early Chinese bronze vessels / Sarah Allan

Lost archaeology: from antiquity to plaything / Tao Wang

Chen Mengjia and the reading of bronze inscriptions as historical sources / Edward L. Shaughnessy

Figuring things: early scholarship on Chinese bronzes / Jeffrey Moser

Mirroring the past: Emperor Qianlong and his bronzes / Tao Wang

Emperor Qianlong's four catalogues on bronzes / Liu Yu

One or two? : self-representation in Emperor Qianlong's portraiture / Lu Zhang

The Hezi You vessels: a case study in authenticity and forgery / Zhou Ya

Rivals and friends: scholar-collectors and their circles / Tao Wang

A legend retold: the Duanfang bronzes' journey to the Metropolitan Museum of Art / Zhixin Jason Sun

The past in the present: an epilogue / Tao Wang

[Dissertation] Engraving Identities in Stone: Stone Mortuary Equipment of the Northern Dynasties (386-581 CE)

Author:
XU, Jin 徐津

School:
University of Chicago

Defended:
2017

Abstract:

The Northern Dynasties (386-581 CE) marked a turning point in Chinese history. After the collapse of the Han Empire in 220 AD, the native Han Chinese were never again able to establish an enduring unified dynasty again. Consequently, the Northern Dynasties represented the final stage of the longstanding political division between dynasties in the south, ruled by Han aristocrats and generals, and the kingdoms in the north, founded by various peoples of nomadic origins. From the Northern Wei (386-534 CE) to the Northern Zhou (557-581 CE), nomadic Xianbei rulers created and consolidated a ruling coalition composed of multiple cultural and ethnic groups, which paved the way for the reunification of China in 589 CE and the emergence of the so-called golden age of Chinese civilization.

The interaction between diverse cultural and ethnic groups that characterized the Northern Dynasties was especially intense among the uppermost echelon of the society. The key to understanding the dynamism of this interaction is a careful consideration of the colorful ways in which people of the period defined themselves politically, culturally, and personally. To this end, this dissertation addresses the question of how the elites of the Northern Dynasties used stone mortuary equipment to express their identity. Eschewing the hackneyed analytical paradigm of sinicization (or desinicization), this dissertation draws attention to political, communal, and individual identity through a series of case studies. By so doing, it also reveals the intersection of identities during the Northern Dynasties.

This dissertation is comprised of three chapters and chiefly uses visual analysis to account for the material properties, spatial strategies, and narrative images of mortuary stones. The first chapter investigates the mortuary stones of three groups of people: the Tuoba royalty of the Northern Wei, Sogdian immigrant merchants, and Han scholarly officials. It demonstrates how these people articulated their distinct political, communal, and cultural identity by taking advantage of the ritual significance, versatility, and natural beauty of the material of stone. Concentrating on the Shi Jun 史君 sarcophagus, the second chapter reveals the dualistic identity (secular and spiritual) of a Sogdian immigrant merchant. Shi Jun’s tomb brings together two distinct spaces — a physical space of ancestor worship constructed according to Confucian ritual protocols and a virtual space of paradisiac afterlife invoked by religious visual devices. The third chapter focuses on the narrative engravings of mortuary stones and demonstrates that artists of the Northern Dynasties tended to customize standardized illustrations in such a way that they could capture the personal identity of the tomb owner. This chapter first discusses how artists transformed filial son illustrations into mortuary symbols or allegorical portraits of the deceased. Secondly, this chapter shows how the artists that created the Shi Jun sarcophagus composed a pictorial biography of the deceased by deploying the illustrations of the Buddha’s life.

Yungang: Art, History, Archaeology, Liturgy

Author:
Lidu Yi

Publisher:
Routledge

Publication Date:
November, 2017

Abstract:

The first ever comprehensive analysis of its kind in any western language, this unique volume provides a social art history of Yungang: a fifth-century rock-cut court cave complex, UNESCO World Heritage site, and one of the greatest Buddhist monuments of all time. Yungang asks why, when, and under what circumstances this impressive cave sanctuary was made, and who played significant roles at various stages.

Recent economic changes in China including the expansion of roads have led to unprecedented numbers of objects being unearthed on site and near the cave chapels. Archaeological discoveries in 2010 have shed significant new light on the architectural configuration of monasteries in the capital and the functions of different sections of the cave complex, as well as monastic life within it. For the first time, it is possible to reconstruct where the monks lived and translated sacred literary texts, and to fully understand that freestanding monasteries are an important component of the rock-cut cave complex.

Illustrated throughout with remarkable full-colour photographs, this re-examination of the cave chapels, which brings together previous scholarship, primary documentation, and more than a decade of first hand field research, will not only fill in the gaps in our knowledge about Yungang, but also raise, and perhaps answer, new questions in art history.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgements

Chronology of Chinese Dynasties

Chapter One  Introduction

1. Chinese Antiquarian Documentation 2. Pioneering Japanese Expeditions 3. Chinese Scholarship 4. Western Research 5. Purpose and Organization of the Book

Chapter Two  The Sacred Site of Yungang

1. Making the Sacred Cave Temples of Yungang 2. Auspicious Geographical Environment of Yungang 3. Archaeological Excavations and Related Issues 4. Art and Architecture

Chapter Three  Phase One—Emperor As Tathāgata

1. The Imperial Five Tanyao Caves 2. Dates of Excavation of the Five Tanyao Caves 3. Emperor as the Living Tathāgata in the Cave temple 4. Tanyao and the Significance of the Translation of Sacred Books in Yungang 5. Concluding Remarks

Chapter Four  Phase Two: Political Struggles and Chronicles Reconsidered

1. Dates of Caves 11-13 Reconsidered 2. Reconstructing a Chronological Sequence of the Second-phase Cave temples 3. Summary of the Chronology of the Second-phase Cave temples

Chapter Five  Considering Karmic Narratives And Liturgical Functions

1. Reading the Iconography 2. Modes of Narratives and Viewers’ Response 3. Ritual and Function in a Rock-cut Cave Sanctuary 4. Folk Faith, Karmic Practice and the Tiwei Boli Jing 5. Concluding Remarks

Chapter Six  Phase Three—The Remaining Splendour

1. Architectural Structure 2. Iconographic Composition 3. Telling Tales: Narrative Stories and Visual Representations 4. Iconographic Style 5. Classification, Dating and Chronological Sequence 6. Concluding Remarks 7. One Final Remark: Buddhist Sinicization Re-considered

Chapter 7  Postscript

Classification of the Caves in the Third-phase
Groups and Periodization of the Third-phase Caves
Character Glossary

[Dissertation] The Mancheng Tombs: Shaping the Afterlife of the “Kingdom within Mountains” (Zhongshan 中山) in Western Han China (206 BCE- 8 CE)

Author:
SHI Jie

School:
University of Chicago

Defended:
2017

Advisor: 
Wu Hung

Abstract:

To extend the imperial authority to the newly conquered lands, early Western Han 漢 emperors in the second century BCE dispatched their sons and brothers to reign over some remote kingdoms in the restive border regions, whose people lived in vivid memories of their pre-imperial pasts. While ancient historians only left succinct and fragmentary documents about these kingdoms, modern archaeologists have excavated dozens of royal tombs, which allow us to probe into religious, social, and political agendas of early imperial Chinese rulers.

This dissertation scrutinizes one king’s complex identification with himself, his family, and his state in the formative period of the Chinese empire by analyzing his and his wife’s tombs, dubbed Mancheng 滿城 Tombs 1 and 2, located in Hebei 河北 province in the northern border region of the Han Empire. Widely acknowledged as the richest, most significant, highest-ranking, and best-preserved royal tombs so far excavated in early imperial China, both tombs were found miraculously intact. More than ten thousand objects, many of which have been declared national treasures of China, were distributed on the floors in meaningful patterns across a cluster of interconnected, house-like burial chambers. These parallel tombs were occupied by King Liu Sheng 劉勝 (d. 113 BCE) and Queen Dou Wan 竇綰 (d. ca. 109 BCE), who re-established the originally non-Chinese “barbaric” state called Zhongshan (literally, “People within Mountains”) in 154 BCE.

This dissertation argues that architectural plans, the patterns of furnishing, and the diversity of burial objects addressed the royal couple’s three significant concerns during their lives: harmonizing the body with the soul, the husband with the wife, and the Chinese with the “barbaric.” In doing so, this dissertation methodologically synthesizes interdisciplinary methodologies from art history, archaeology, and sinology by closely reading visual materials from the royal tombs in conjunction with textual sources about Zhongshan.

This dissertation consists of three main chapters. Chapter 1 examines the tombs’ pattern of furnishing as the material embodiment of the traditional Chinese philosophy of harmonizing body and soul, which were housed respectively in the rear coffin and the front chamber. Chapter 2 studies the parallel relationship between the twin tombs as a visual commentary on the discourse of ideal husband and wife, who is mirroring and subject to the husband. The last Chapter 3 shows how non-Chinese elements were intertwined with Chinese elements in the tomb to represent the king’s double identity both as the heir to the local “barbaric” cultural tradition and as a Chinese imperial representative.


This dissertation contributes to the field of Chinese art history and culture by providing the first comprehensive analysis of one of the most important archaeological discoveries of ancient China and by offering a theoretical and methodological reflection of what early Chinese tombs were and how to study them as a source for historical inquiries.

殷代青銅器の生産体制: 青銅器と銘文の製作からみる工房分業

Author:
鈴木舞 (Mai Suzuki)

Publisher:
六一書房

Publication Date:
May 2017

Abstract:

現在実在が証明されている中国最古の王朝、殷。ここで製作された青銅器・またそこに刻まれた銘文について、近年注目される製作技術に基づく分類、また青銅器銘文の文字形態と製作法の分析という新たな研究法をとおして、殷代青銅器生産の実態に迫ります。(東京大学博士論文に加筆刊行)

Table of Contents:

第1章　殷代青銅器生産研究の現状と課題
　第1節　殷とその遺跡
　第2節　編年の設定
　第3節　古代中国における青銅器生産
　第4節　文字資料にみられる青銅器製作者
　第5節　問題の所在と研究方法
　第6節　青銅器の製作方法
　第7節　用語の定義
第2章　鄭州商城における青銅爵の製作
　第1節　東京大学文学部列品室所蔵青銅爵について
　第2節　比較資料の提示
　第3節　二里岡期青銅爵の編年に関する再検討
　第4節　製作技術に関する検討
　第5節　青銅器製作工房遺跡に関する検討
　第6節　小結
第3章　盤龍城遺跡における青銅容器の製作
　第1節　盤龍城遺跡に関する研究史の整理と問題の所在
　第2節　饕餮紋の分類
　第3節　器種ごとの検討
　第4節　二里岡期の青銅器製作地点
　第5節　小結
第4章　殷墟青銅器銘文の字体と工房
　第1節　関連する問題の整理
　第2節　婦好墓青銅器群に関する検討
　第3節花園荘東地54号墓青銅器群に関する検討
　第4節　戚家荘東地269号墓青銅器群に関する検討
　第5節　大司空303号墓青銅器群に関する検討
　第6節　青銅器製作工房遺跡からの検討
　第7節　小結
第5章　殷代青銅武器銘文に関する考察
　第1節　検討の目的と方法
　第2節　武器銘文の集成と分類
　第3節　小結
第6章　殷代における青銅器生産
　第1節　各章の要点
　第2節　殷代における青銅器生産

蜀の美術：鏡と石造遺物にみる後漢期の四川文化

Author:
楢山満照 (Narayama, Mitsuteru)

Publisher:
早稲田大学出版部

Abstract:
後漢時代の蜀、すなわち現在の四川地域でつくられた鏡、および画像石や石闕などの石造遺物には、独特の図像表現がみられる。「官営工房の動向」と「儒教の礼教主義」という2つのトピックから、この時代の四川地域で作られた造形美術にみられる独特の表現形式の経緯を探る。掲載写真多数。

Table of Contents:

まえがき
緒論　四川の造形美術と地域文化
1 四川の造形美術をめぐる本書の問題意識
2 後漢の美術を見据えた「四川」という視座

第１部　銅鏡の生産体制と官営工房の動向

序章　後漢鏡研究における四川という極

第一章　広漢郡製作の紀年鏡の資料的意義
はじめに
1 広漢郡製作鏡の概要
2 広漢郡製作鏡をめぐる問題の所在
小結

第二章　広漢郡製作の元興元年銘鏡の製作事情：紀年の偏在に関する考察その一
はじめに
1 銘文をめぐる問題
2 工官の活動とその製品
3 尚方の動向と工官への影響
4 宦官勢力の伸張と元興元年銘鏡
小結

第三章　桓帝・霊帝代の作例の製作事情：紀年の偏在に関する考察その二
はじめに
1 元興元年以降の官営工房の動向
2 桓帝代の官営工房の動向
3 霊帝代の官営工房の動向
小結
終章　広漢郡製作鏡の意義と官営工房の動向


第２部　漢代画像と儒教の礼教主義

序章　儒教による支配と図像表現にみる地域色

第一章　四川における「聖人」の一表現：三段式神仙鏡の図像解釈をめぐって
はじめに
1 三段式神仙鏡の図像と従来の解釈
2 四川出土作品による図像解釈の再検討
3 四川出土作品の製作地
4 劉向『列女伝』と「尭賜舜二女」の役割
5 聖人の図像表現とその志向
小結

第二章　漢代画像にみる聖帝像の機能
はじめに
1 服部コレクションの三段式神仙鏡
2 三段式神仙鏡にみる聖帝像の機能
3 漢代画像石にみる尭舜禅譲図
小結

第三章　仏教受容前夜の四川：その死生観に関する図像学的考察
はじめに
1 後漢の神仙方術的仏教と四川：問題の所在
2 墓域における石閾の位置と役割
3 石閾にみる図像と歴史故事の役割
4 歴史故事図像の表現と石閾造営者の意図
小結

第四章　漢代画像石にみる荊軻刺秦王図：義士の英雄化と神仙化の契機をめぐって
はじめに
1 荊軻刺秦王図の基本構造
2 陝西省神木県出土作品にみる柱の表現と崑崙山
3 銅柱をめぐるイメージの混交
小結

終章　画像資料からみた儒教的徳目実践の目的

結論　後漢の美術における四川の位置付け

あとがき
図版一覧
テキスト出典
索引
英分要旨

Music in Ancient China: An Archaeological and Art Historical Study of Strings, Winds, and Drums during the Eastern Zhou and Han Periods (770 BCE-220 CE)

Author:
Ingrid Furniss

Publisher:
Cambria Press

Publication Date:
September 28, 2011

Abstract:
Many tombs dating to the Eastern Zhou (770-221 BCE) and Han (206 BCE-220 AD) periods contain musical instruments or their visual representations in the form of wood, stone, and ceramic figures, tomb tiles, and engravings. These finds suggest that music was viewed as an important part of the afterlife. While bells have survived more frequently than wooden instruments, and therefore have received the most scholarly attention, strings, winds, and drums are the focus of discussion in this book.

The book examines the use of these three instrument types in both solo and ensemble music, as well as the social, ritual, and entertainment functions of each. When combined with bells (and chime stones), strings, drums, and winds appear to have been associated with formal ritual ceremonies. However, when appearing alone or in assemblages with other wooden instruments during Zhou, they appear to be connected with warfare and entertainment. By Han times, strings, winds, and drums seem to be associated almost exclusively with entertainment, pointing to a shift in the social life of the times.

Another topic explored in this book is the association of musical instruments with wealth. When combined with bells and chime stones, they are only found in the wealthiest tombs. However, when found by themselves, strings, winds, and drums appear in small to large, modest to wealthy tombs, suggesting that they were available to a broad range of peoples in early Chinese elite society. This book analyzes an often disregarded aspect of early Chinese music, the role of strings, winds, and drums.

Table of Contents:

Chapter One: Introduction and Methodology

Chapter Two: Musical Instruments from Neolithic to Western Zhou

Chapter Three: Drums in Eastern Zhou and Han Tombs

Chapter Four: Strings in Eastern Zhou and Han Tombs

Chapter Five: Winds in Eastern Zhou and Han Tombs

Chapter Six: Wooden Instrument Ensembles in Eastern Zhou

Chapter Seven: Wooden Instrument Ensembles in Han

Chapter Eight: Ensembles with Wooden Instruments, Bells, and Chime Stones

Chapter Nine: Han Tombs with Bells and Chime Stones

Chapter Ten: Conclusions

Wooden Instruments After Han

Appendix One: Eastern Zhou Tombs by Category

Appendix Two: Selected List of Southeastern Han Tombs by Category

Appendix Three: Selected Southeastern Han Tombs and Shrines by Province and Site

Appendix Four: Northeastern Han Tombs by Category

Appendix Five: Selected Northeastern Han Tombs

The Rhetoric of Hiddenness in Traditional Chinese Culture

Editor:
Paula Varsano

Publisher:
SUNY

Publication Date:
December 30, 2016

Abstract:

This volume brings together fourteen essays that explore the role of hiddenness as both an object and a mode of representation in the history of cultural production in China from the Warring States Period (403 221 BCE) to the end of the Qing Dynasty (1911) and beyond. The rhetorical use of various forms of hiddenness makes its appearance in literary, political, philosophical, and religious writings, as well as in the visual arts. Working in fields as disparate as traditional Chinese literature, religion, philosophy, history, medicine, and art, the contributors attempt to characterize one of the fundamental signifying practices in traditional Chinese cultural production. In the process, they not only reveal otherwise obscure patterns connecting longstanding social, political, aesthetic, and epistemological practices, but also contribute to ongoing discussions well beyond the field of China studies regarding the representation and communicability of knowledge, as well as the practices controlling its dissemination."

Table of Contents:

1. Lowered Curtains in the Half-Light: An Introduction
Paula M. Varsano

I. The Art of Withholding

2. The Ruling Mind: Persuasion and the Origins of Chinese Psychology
David Schaberg

3. Beliefs about Social Seeing: Hiddenness (wei 微) and Visibility in Classical-Era China
Michael Nylan

4. Woman in the Tower:“Nineteen Old Poems”and the Poetics of Un/concealment
Xiaofei Tian

5. Hiding Behind a Woman: Contexts and Meanings in Early Qing Poetry
Wai-yee Li

II. The Lessons of Distraction

6. Hiddenness of the Body and the Metaphysics of Sight
Shigehisa Kuriyama

7. Worlds of Meaning and the Meaning of Worlds in Sikong Tu’s Twenty-Four Modes of Poetry 
Paula M. Varsano

III. On Blind Spots

8. Hidden in Plain View: Concealed Contents, Secluded Statues, and Revealed Religion
James Robson

9. The Vernacular Story and the Hiddenness of Value
Sophie Volpp

10. Absence and Presence: The Great Wall in Chinese Art
Lillian Lan-ying Tseng

IV. The Languages of Synecdoche

11. Synecdoche of the Imaginary
Stephen Owen

12.“The Disarrayed Hills Conceal an Old Monastery”: The Dynamics of Poetry and Painting in the Northern Song
Eugene Wang

V. Just Words

13. Manifesting Sagely Knowledge: Commentarial Strategies in Chinese Late Antiquity
Michael Puett

14. The Yi-Xiang-Yan Paradigm and Early Chinese Theories of Literary Creation
Zong-qi Cai

Japanese Historiography and the Gold Seal of 57 C.E.: Relic, Text, Object, Fake

Author:
Fogel, Joshua A.

Publication Year:
2013

Publisher:
Leiden: Brill

Abstract:
In the year 57 C.E., the court of Later Han dynasty presented a gold seal to an emissary from somewhere in what is now Japan. The seal soon vanished from history, only to be unearthed in 1784 in Japan. In the subsequent two-plus centuries, nearly 400 books and articles (mostly by Japanese) have addressed every conceivable issue surrounding this small object of gold. Joshua Fogel places the conferment of the seal in inter-Asian diplomacy of the first century and then traces four waves of historical analysis that the seal has undergone since its discovery, as the standards of historical judgment have changed over these years and the investment in the seal’s meaning have changed accordingly.

Table of Contents:

Preliminary Material

Introduction: Historiography and the Biography of an Object

1. Wa-Han or Archipelago-Mainland Relations before 57 c.e.

2. The Material Object

3. Kamei Nanmei: “Politics Is Learning and Learning Is Politics”

4. Commentaries on the Gold Seal in the 1780s: Let a Hundred Schools of Thought Contend

5. Ascendancy of the “Ito no kuni” Reading from the Late Eighteenth Century

6. Revival of Interest in the Gold Seal in the Meiji Era and Miyake Yonekichi’s Breakthrough

7. Modern Science and the Gold Seal

8. Persistent Problem Areas in the Twentieth Century

9. Recent Challenges to the Gold Seal’s Authenticity: Conspiracy Theories and Better Science

10. Conclusion: Institutionalization of the Gold Seal and Future Research

A. Miyake Yonekichi, “A Study of the Seal of the Ruler of the State of Na in Wa under the Han Dynasty”

B. Miyake Yonekichi, “A Critique of the Theory That the Gold Seal [Inscribed] to the Ruler of the State of Na in Wa Is a Forgery”

C. Okazaki Takashi, “Measuring the Gold Seal [Inscribed] to the ‘Ruler of the State of Na in Wa under the Han’ ”

Bibliography

Index

Recent Advances in the Scientific Research on Ancient Glass and Glaze

Editors:
Qinghui Li, Julian Henderson

Publisher:
Hackensack, N.J.: World Century

Publishing Date:
April, 2016

Abstract:

The aim of the book is to report the recent research development of ancient glass and glazing technology and the historical–cultural exchange of the East and West along the Silk and Steppe Roads. The contents of this book are dedicated to promote the exchanges between researchers in both social and scientific fields.

The scope of this book includes the new archaeological findings of ancient glass and faience in the world, the relationship of glassmaking with glazing technology, the development and application of modern techniques used for the characterization of ancient glass and glaze, compound colorants/opacifiers among ancient glass, the early exchanges of culture and techniques used between China and elsewhere along the Silk and Steppe Roads, and so on.


Contents:

The Ancient Glass Road: The Cultural and Technical Exchange of Chinese Glass and Faience with Outside China before the Han Dynasty (200 B.C.) (Fuxi Gan)

Glass Provenance along the Silk Road: The Use of Trace Element Analysis (J Henderson, S Chenery, J Kröger and E W Faber)

Travels of Glass Vessels along the Maritime Silk Road (Brigitte Borell)

Chemical Composition of Glass Beads Excavated from Kofun (ca. AD 2nd to 7th c.) in Western Japan by Portable XRF Showing Glass Trade among Asian Countries (Izumi Nakai and Junko Shirataki)

Potash Glass: A View from South and Southeast Asia (Laure Dussubieux)

Archaeological and Technical Study of Western Han Dynasty Lead Barium Glass Chimes (Bian Qing) Unearthed from the Jiangdu King's Mausoleum (Qinghui Li, Zebin Li and Donghong Gu)

Study of Byodoin Temple Glass: Discoveries in Japan of Small, Free-Blown Glass Vessels with Lids from the Byodoin Temple and Other Sites from the Heian Period (794–1192) (Akiko Inoue, Junko Shirataki and Izumi Nakai)

Chemical Analysis of Tang Dynasty Glass Vessels Unearthed from the Underground Palace of the Famen Temple Using a Portable XRF Spectrometer (Qinghui Li, Jie Jiang, Xinling Li, Song Liu, Donghong Gu, Julian Henderson and Junqing Dong)

Chemical and Lead Isotope Analysis of Glass Wares Found in Lijiaba Site, Yunyang County, Chongqing City (Jianfeng Cui, Deyun Zhao, Wei Huang and Yuanhong He)

Scientific Analysis of a Glass Vessel and an Eye Bead from the Zhagunluke and the Shanpula Sites from the Overland Southern Line of the Silk Road (Qian Cheng, Jinlong Guo, Bo Wang and Jianfeng Cui)

Early Byzantine Glass Supply and Consumption: The Case of Dichin, Bulgaria (Thomas Smith, Julian Henderson and Edward W Faber)

Glass Corrosion: Issues and Approaches for Archaeological Science (Nikolaos Zacharias and Eleni Palamara)

Raman Identification of Glassy Matrices in Ancient Glasses from China (Hongxia Zhao and Qinghui Li)

Scientific Analysis of Ancient Glass: Answering the Questions and Questioning the Answers (J W Lankton, B Gratuze, K Tantrakarn, Q H Li and S Liu)

Scientific Research on the Earliest Chinese Glazed Pottery (Junqing Dong, Fuxi Gan, Xiaowei Xia, Qinghui Li, Song Liu and Donghong Gu)

A Study of the Diverse Origins and Primary Development of Chinese High Temperature Porcelain Glazes (Juan Wu, Maolin Zhang, Junming Wu, Qijiang Li, Jiazhi Li and Zequn Deng)

Tracing the Origin and Evolution of White Porcelain in Ancient China (Weidong Li, Xiaoke Lu,, Hongjie Luo, Zhiwen Zhao and Xinmin Sun)

A New Method of Identifying the Flux in Ancient Chinese High Fired Glaze — Sr Isotopic Composition Analysis (Hongjiao Ma, Julian Henderson and Jane Evans)

Research on Glaze-Coloring Mechanism of the Light Sky-blue Series of Ancient Jun Guan Porcelains using Modern Analysis Techniques (Guoxia Li, H W Sun, R W Li, X L Zhang, W J Zhao, W J Zhao, Y Yang, W Li and M M Cai)

Preliminary Studies Based on the Chemical Analysis of Colorful Glazed Pottery Unearthed from Tombs of Yue State at Hongshan Site (Xiaowei Xia, Qing Wang, Qinghui Li, Song Liu and Donghong Gu)

Characterization of the Ancient Glaze Used in Different Types of Ceramics from the Huangye Kiln Site in Gongyi County Using OCT Technique (Junqing Dong, Xin Yan, Qinghui Li, Musen Guo and Yongqing Hu)

Chemical Analysis of Ceramics Unearthed from the Huangye Kiln Site in Henan Province Using a Portable XRF Spectrometer (Song Liu, Yongqing Hu, Musen Guo, Dong Junqing and Qinghui Li)

Microstructure and Composition of Ancient Chinese Octagonal Sticks from the Warring States Period (475–221 B.C.) (Qinglin Ma, Zhiguo Zhang, David A Scott, Heinz Berke and Detlef Günther)

Chinese Blue and Chinese Purple in Copper Tinted Lead Barium Glass Produced During Firing Experiments (Ying Qin, Shicai Li, Xi Chen and Huang Huang)

A Study of Simulation of the Production Technology of Ancient Chinese Blue and Purple Faience During the Warring States, Qin and Han Dynasties (Mo Li, Julin Wang and Qinglin Ma)

Production Technology of Faience Beads from Peng State Cemetery, 
Shanxi Province, China (Zhou Gu, Jian Zhu, Yaoting Xie, Tiqiao Xiao, Changsui Wang and Yimin Yang)


Scientific Analysis of Natural Glasses (Fuxi Gan Hongxia Zhao and Zhenqi Xu)