East Asian Art History

Eastern Zhou

770 - 256 BCE

Shift in the center of the ancestral worship from ancestral shrine to tomb

Tomb is new center of ancestral worship

Zu

“Familial Lineage”

Social community is an extension of family

Mutual dependence between living and dead

Wu Liang’s Shrine

• Aristocrat who once served at the court of the Eastern Han Dynasty

• Located Shandong Province ( 151 CE)

• Typical Eastern Han Dynasty funerary parks - strong central axis

• Pictorial reliefs installed on the shrine, form of adornment, read from top to bottom

• Mythical figures: Queen Mother of West AND King Father of the East

Queen Mother of the West

• Idea of immortality, thought to live in Mt. Kunlun 

• Figures represented alongside her have a wish for the transfer to the immortal land

Beginning of human history depicted in Wu Liang’s Shrine under Queen Mother of East

• 3 Sovereigns represented as semi-deities, serpentine/ anthropomorphoc forms

• Thought to have created the world (they’re holding a ruler and a spade)

• 5 Emperors; Human rulers the first 5

Portrait of Wu Liang

• A courtly official paying homage to Wu Liang

• Bigger figure is the court official

• Entity floating, supposed to be ucnclear

Concept of Li

• Ritually proper deportment in all social circumstances, from serious religious ceremony to trivial daily etiquette.

• Most complex among 4 major family rituals; funerary rites

• Provided important rules/code for making funerary art and tombs

Hun Soul vs Po Soul

Hun soul is light and goes up to the sky

Po soul is heavy and stays trapped in the ground

Visual material: Yongqi vs Mingqi

1. Yongqi (Practical articles) : Things used personally by the deceased and included in tombs

2. Mingqi (Spirit articles) : Made specially for the burial, not supposed to be used by humans (small size, etc.)

2 types of tomb structure

1. Vertical pit - oldest version

2. Horizontal chamber(s)

helps understand movement of soul

Mawangdui Tomb no.1, 2nd BCE, Hunan Province, China

• Tomb of Lady Dai

• Many layers of preservation and body wrapped in high quality silk → privilege and status

• Feather embroidery on the second coffin of Lady Dai

• Various immortals and fantastic animals painted on the outermost coffin.
  Colors on lacquer wood

• Mt.Kunlun depicted on a foot panel of one of Lady Dai’s coffins

• Mawangdui Tomb no.1

Food tray (with food), placed empty seat near for eating. Musican figurines play music for deceased and provide entertainment.

Minqui articles recreating like an underground household

Also contains funerary gifts offered by people

Mawangdui tomb no.1, 2nd BCE, Hunan province, China

• On top of coffin was the silk “name banner”

• Body of the deceased being ritualized

• Top part is spiritual realm, polycentric vision of afterlife: Universe, Underworld, Immortal’s paradise

Horizontal Chamber tomb

• Life sized, you could technically walk through it although legally and ritually no

• Sealed underground

• Innermost chamber “main chamber” is MOST IMPORTANT

• Ink rubbings

• River as a symbol of crossing to other world

• Open carriages for daily life, but for funerary processions it is closed carriages and driven by RAMS- or at least symbolically this animal is associated with funerals

• Pay attention to large sized figures

Incense burner in the shape of Mt.Kunlun found in Liu Sheng’s tomb.
113 BCE, Han dynasty. Hebei province, China

Material Symbolism of Jade

• Precious and difficult material to work with

• Bi-disk found in Lady Dai’s name banner, 2 dragons connect through the disk→ symbol of high class

• Doesn’t degrade, concept of immortality

Prince Liu Sheng’s tomb: Han dynasty, 113 BCE, Mancheng, Heibei province China

• Body of deceased covered in jade pieces tied together

• Jade body > body will transform into the jade > immortality

• jade bead/disk on the head

Reading: Jane Portal “Three Kingdoms and Unified Silla”

• Three Kings Period 300-668

• Silla went on to unify the majority of the Korean peninsula

• Korea was at first divided into four: Koguryo, Paekche, Kaya/Karak, Silla

Koguryo:

• Early Koguryo tombs were cairns, then became enormous stepped pyramids with elevated burial chambers

• Later tombs show influence from Han Dynasty; white tiger and green dragon

• End of 6th century includes Buddhist guardian figures, shows acceptance of Buddhism

• 3 thematic groups in Koguryo tombs: Illustrating events in occupant’s life, Chinese animals of the four directions, Portraying the occupant

• Earthenware roof-tiles and tile ends to decorate palaces + temples is evidence of chinese influence

Paekche:

• King adopted Buddhist faith

• Paekche had greatest artistic refinement + sophistication

• Tombs were horizontal chambers, jar coffins, stepped pyramid chamber shows contact with Koguryo

• Impressive intact King Muryong chamber similar to chinese liang tombs

• Evidence of high quality metalwork of bronze wine cup, decorated with lotus petals and dragons in his tomv

• Lotus is buddhism, silver lid is Daoism ( afterlife; heavenly beings, immortals flying around in cloudy landscape)

• also seen in incense burners

Silla:

• Had great agricultural production

• Shamanism continued to be practiced too as seen through gold crowns in Silla royal tombs. Adopted Buddhism later

• Stone-surround wooden chamber tombs- not easily looted since wood would decay and collapse

• Inclusion of foreign glass vessels suggests chinese contact

• ‘Heavenly horse’ motif could be linked to silk route or inlaid jades from scythia, or unicorn from han dynasty

Unified Silla:

• Chambers covered in smaller mound of earth faced with upright stone slabs carved with 12 animals of zodiac, carrying weapons to guard deceased

Tomb of the General. Koguryo. Ji'an. Jilin province, China. Late 4th-early 5th c.
12m high. Composed of more than 1000 stone pieces

• Stone mound tomb

• Ho-Sok “protecting stone”, 12 of them placed around the sides ; connect ancestors to deities, verticality tied with ritualistic beliefs.

• Shamanistic belief in power of large stone

Three phases of thematic changes in koguryo tomb murals

1. Tomb as a home for the deceased (late 3rd to 5th century):

• Food, pots

• Images of banquets, dancing

• Interest in illusory space, idea of domestic space painted in life-size

• Major ritual function: Tokungri tomb; Chin, refugee from China

2. Tomb as a diversified celestial world (mid-5th to early 6th centuries):

• Motifs 4 directional animals: Blue Dragon west, White Tiger East, Vermillion Phoenix South, Dark Warrior (Tortoise) North

• Expression of indigenous motifs and style 

• Idea of creating another level of universe, walls used as small universe

3. Tomb space as idealized universe  (mid-6th to the 7th centuries)

   • Great tomb of Kangso, Pyongyang, Koguryo ; mural of the 4 directional animals as celestial beings

Tokungri Tomb

• Idea of commemoration, leaning towards large size portrait of tomb occupant. He faces the viewer, we can guess he was focus of ritual

• Main chamber: Part of wall painted with big lotus (symbol of rebirth in Buddhism)

• North wall has canopy painted with man inside (occupant), empty space next to him reserved for his wife, on the right there are female servants and ox-ridden carriages usually for women

• Transcultural Han Dynasty as similar servants leaning and tomb occupant portrait facing viewer.

Tomb of King Muryong, Paekche, Korea. c.525 - compared to line drawing of the interior of a Liang dynasty tomb. 6th c. China.

• Diplomatic connection

• Artifacts: Earlier Chinese bronze mirrors and contemporaneous
  Chinese ceramics. Show connection

• Burial objects: Land deed: Paid to “King of the Earth”,  indigenous beliefs (Daoism) of China 

• Daoism emphasizes the relationship between humanity and cosmos

• For the living: action through non-action, naturalness

• For the dead: seek immortality

• Popular daoism: Folk beliefs developed during Han period, dervied from the desire for immortality, legends of immortalized deities, or immortal land

• Philosophical daoism: Systematically organized during 2nd-5th centuries, became rival to Buddhism

Reading: Wu Hung “Realities of Life after Death”

• Grave figurines : “Muyong”

• Became regular component of tomb furnishings during middle-late Eastern Zhou period

• Essential for constructing a post-humous world and substitutes of human sacrifice

• Miniatures regained popularity in early Han period, with stronger effort to mimic life forms

• Mawangdui tomb no.1 - Lady Dai’s tomb: Northern Chamber wooden figurines (dancers, musicians) represent social life. Southern + Eastern chamber had male figurines representing household servants and household properties.

Reading: Collcutt “The Archeological Origins of Japanese Culture and Society”

• Earliest phase was paleolithic hunting and gathering

• Ceramic Mesolithic phase also known as Jomon

• Yayoi culture → metal work, woven clothes, agriculture

• 300 AD - great tombs in Yamato region ; emergence of first clearly defined political entity of Yamato Dynasty

• Immigrants from Korean Peninsula, China or Northern Asia via Kuriles ; Introduced some new technologies

• In middle Jomon, pottery had luxuriant forms and powerful surface decoration: Leaping flames, snake head suggest ritual and functional use

• Jars also used for burial or religious offerings

• Stone Phalli found

• Dogu - Carved stone and clay figurines representing pregnant women may facilitate childbirth, alleviate diseases or simulate burial

• Yayoi period pottery characterized by smooth lines and surfaces, burnished or sometimes with painted geometric designs

• Compared to Jomon, Yayoi made social rank more obvious: Chieftains and their families were buried in rectangular mounds w shaft graves in them

• Grave goods included bronze mirror, semi-precious beads, weapons

• Bronze + Iron ages simultaneously : Iron was utalitarian and Bronze was for ritual and power show

• Bronze bells “Dotaku” ritual symbol and politcal authority

• Kofun period- more tombs built

• expressions of power

• Key-hole shaped in side of existing hill

• Haniwa- Rings of clay figurines set on kofun substitute live burials, laid out in ritual order

• Evidence of horse riding culture

Pongnaesan (Mt. Pongnae) incense burner, Gilt bronze, Paekche, early 7th cent

→ compared with Incense burner Mt.Kunlun found in Liu Sheng’s tomb, Han dynasty

• Believed to be residence of immortals

• Idea formed in popular Daoism

• Fluid naturalistic form of mountain

• Idea of exploring; phoenix on top

• Bottom of mountain is different, looks like a lotus flower

• Amalgamation of Daoist and Buddhist ideas; top daoism, bottom buddhist

Tomb of Heavenly Horse, 5-6th cent, Silla

• Representation of winged horse

• Indigenous motif?

• Legend of founding father of Silla: guy born out of a huge egg from this white-winged horse

• Transcultural connection: Similar flying horse imagery in China, West Asia has similar patterns seen under the horse Palmette patterns originate from Egypt

• Gold crown

Royal crown from Tomb of Gold Crown. Silla. 5th -6th ce
Further connection to West Asia

• Gold is paper thin (hard skills required for that)

• Form similar to animal horns

• Jade pieces dangling from crown

• Connection to west asia: Bactria (now afghanistan) with paper thin quality

• Silk route

• Gold object: Belt with pendants also found in Great Tomb of Hwangnam, looks like belt worn by Princes in China

Trade between China and West Asia

• Began as early as Han Dynasty

• Mainly through Silk Roads used by Buddhist monks and merchants

• By the end of Unified Silla (7-8th cent) there was direct trade between Silla Courts and Islamic merchants, Silla was known to some islamic countries as land of gold

Other examples: 

• Gold shoes used for burials

• Wing-shaped ornament and hat in same tomb as heavenly horse; used for diplomatic activities, feathers found in tomb associate with high class burials; birds as metaphor for the soul flying away

Key periods of Prehistoric Japan

Jomon (ceramic) 10,000 - 300 BCE

Yayoi (metals)   300 BCE- 300 CE

Kofun (tombs, first political entity)  300 - 700 CE

Jomon Period 10 000 - 300 BCE

“Rope Cord pattern”

• Technique of coiling and firing pottery

• “Dogu” figurines consistently found broken, encouraging reproduction, ritual purpose

• Stone circle with phallic symbol. Both of these are possibly shintai

• Primordial form of shinto- “Way of the Gods” with “way” being the chinese concept Dao, which is an important concept in Daoism and Confucianism 

Basic concepts:

• KAMI “divine presence / force): Important deities and figures.

1. Heavenly deities of national significance

2. Earthly deities ; mountain kami, river kami

3. Revered peope; Uji - clan system

4. Common Kami; rock, trees, water

• SHINTAI: embodiment of Kami

Yayoi period

Images:

• Bronze bell (“Dotaku”).

• Weapon and bronze bell burial

• Vessels. Middle Yayoi Period, c. 100 BCE-100CE. Painted earthenware. 53 cm.
  

• Social hierarchies to distribute labour - top is Uji clan

• Continuous need for fertility of the land- birth of field deity and others

• Need for dealing with the dead

• Emergence of ruling class

• Emergence of priests, shamans to manage relations with spirits and deities

• Yayoi vessels are much more symmetrical and less flamboyant silhouettes compared to Jomon

• Function as ritual objectives since they’re too fragile to be used

• Earlier bronze bells from China → Yayoi bronze bell → longer and thinner so probs for rituals

• Some bells have inscriptions and drawings of shamans performing rituals

Kofun period “Ancient tombs” 300-700 CE

• Emperor Nintoku’s Kofun : moats and mounds, stone horizontal chambers, furnished with coffins and grave goods. Round was heaven, square was earth

• Haniwa figurines: Dancers, soldiers, shamans, shields → compared with Mingqi. Placed around keyhole shape. Earthen ware providing protection and companionship

• Bronze mirrors with Architectural designs in the back. “Chokomon” pattern of straight lines and arcs. 

• Geometric similarity with Chinese bronze mirrors

• Symbolic value

• Mirror is one of the imperial regalia (mirror, jewel, sword) , political symbolism of chocomon mirrors as they would be seen on objects for Yamato clan and government higher ups. (coffins, shields)

Tomb Murals

• War paintings

• Takehara tomb mural made in late Kofun period. → compared with Tokungri tomb in Koguryo of “Groom with a Horse”

• Water like elements of crossing the river to other realm /afterlife

Further Intercultural connection between Japan and Kore

• Japan and Kaya federation horse; clay material, tube-like form, kaya predates Kofun

• Kofun shaman figurine necklace has curved bead like Silla jade beads seen on crown

• Gold earrings from Silla and Kaya also in Kofun period

• Takamatsu tomb (late 7th- early 8th cent). 4 directional animals compared with Koguryo tombs, courtly ladies in Koguryo dress style

Reading: Lopez, “Buddhism in Practice”

• Buddhist community flourished in India during Mauryan Dynasty (324-187 BCE)

• Mahayana “Great Vehicle” as a social movement of monks, nuns, and lay people that began in reaction against powerful monastic institution

• Hinayana “Lesser Vehicle” 

• Pan-Asian religion through material movement of monks, texts, relics and icons along trade routes

• Buddhist institutions tended to be stronger in China when the central government was weakest

• Contact with China brought Buddhist monks into the Korean Peninsula in late 4th century. → brought with them products of Chinese civilization

• Part of the appeal of Buddhism to Kings was the claim that worshipping the Buddha, promoting the dharma and supporting the monastic community would protect the state from foreign invasion and calamity.

• Buddhist worldview suggests that sentient beings need protection from suffering of “Samsara”, the cycle of rebirths

• View of universe and afterlife;

1. Realm of desire- inhabited by humans, 4 islands surrounding one mountain where Buddha achieved enlightment 

2. Realm of form- Superior to realm of desire. Inhabited by gods but they can’t taste or smell → greater concentration and mental bliss

3. Formless realm- Gods exist in states of pure conciousness without bodies and sense organs

• Karma determines quality of life and place of rebirth

• Buddha’s 4 noble truths:

1. Life is inherently unsatisfactory, lack of control over future events

2. Cause of this suffering is karma

3. Truth of cessation, the postulation of a state beyond suffering→ if ignorance is destroyed, cease suffering and reach nirvana

4. Path/Technique to end ignorance; Eightfold Path
   

• Buddha was worshipped with paintings, statues and promoted sutras

• Icons were treated as spiritual beings possessing magical powers, to be worshipped with regular offerings of incense, flowers, food, money, etc. 

Theravada Buddhism

• Based on core teachings “Dharma” of Buddha

• Born in present day Nepal as a Prince (5th-6th BCE)

• Important motifs of his life: Left palace to seek truth, reached enlightment through meditation, taught disciples

• Death of the Buddha “Nirvana”, escapes the wheel of birth and death  

• “Ancient Teachings” - Hinayana, Therava Buddhism

• Monasticism

• Architecture: Monasteries, pilgrimage sites centered on Stupa

• Symbolic structure of Stupa: Circular form, walk clockwise ritualistically

• Life of Buddha Sakkyamuni engraved in the walls

• Sanchi North Gate: Attack of Mara, challenge Buddha during meditation to stop his reaching of enlightment

• Image of Stupa = Death of Buddha

Mahayana Buddhism

• Premised on Buddha’s teachings that all sentient life possesses the ‘Buddha Nature’, present in entire cosmos and time

• Rapid expansion of Buddhist scriptures (sutras) to account for Mahayana cosmologies and doctrines of salvation

• Monasticism heavily relies on donors, incentive of merit towards best afterlife

• Art retains some focus on historical Buddha but emphasizes a wider variety of subject matter to accommodate Mahayana pantheon of deities, multiplicity of Buddha

• Gandharan style in pakistan→ naturalistic body form, masculine forms

• Mathura style → seated budda, not naturalistic, simple, clean lines

• Gupta dynasty style→ more feminized body