Chinese Terracotta Army, Xie He’s Painting Principles, and Korean Three Kingdoms Art

Introductory Anecdote

• Instructor opens by asking audience to visualize unexpectedly finding $20$ in a pocket

  • Purpose: prime the audience for the theme of “long-hidden treasures”

Discovery of the Terracotta Soldiers (1974)

• Date & location of discovery

  • $1974$, near the city of $Shanxi$ (sleepy farming area transformed into a tourism hub)

  • Found while a peasant was digging a well

• Scale of excavation

  • Over $(7{,}000)$ life-size clay soldiers ultimately unearthed

• Historical function

  • Created to guard the tomb of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi

  • Emperor’s profile

  • Ruthless yet pivotal; first to politically unite the warring Chinese states

• Physical details

  • Soldiers originally painted; residual pigment still visible on a few figures

  • Each figure unique in facial features & posture

  • Army includes horse-drawn bronze chariots

  • Wooden chariot parts have disintegrated; bronze components remain

  • Soldiers once brandished real bronze daggers, swords, spears, & axes

  • Weapons now removed from public display for conservation & safety

• Cultural resonance

  • Referenced in modern cinema (e.g.
    mummy-themed films where warriors come to life)

  • Illustrates continuity between ancient art and contemporary imagination

Key Chinese Art Terminology

• Terracotta Soldiers – clay funerary army for Qin Shi Huangdi

• Shanxi – discovery locale

• Xie He (Ye He, Yai He) – 6th-century writer, historian, and art critic

  • Authored the canonical Six Principles of Painting

Xie He’s Six Principles of Painting (Only 1 & 2 treated in depth)

1. Spirit Resonance (Qi Yun Sheng Dong)

   • Defines the overall energy or life-force of a painting

   • Determines emotional impact: Does the work “breathe”?

   • Xie He: if a piece lacks spirit resonance, no further evaluation is needed

   • Ethical/Philosophical implication: art’s foremost duty is to embody living energy

2. Bone Method (Gu Fa)

   • Concerns brush technique; inseparable from calligraphy

   • Requires disciplined posture, grip, & rhythmic stroke practice

   • Links the visual weight of lines to the moral character of the artist

   • Example in lecture slide: tree branches & robe folds show fluid calligraphic lines—never excessively bold or heavy, evoking motion & subtlety
     3–6. (Mentioned but not detailed)

   • Correspondence to the object

   • Suitability to type

   • Division & planning

   • Transmission by copying

Korean Art – Three Kingdoms Period (ca. 1st c. BCE – 7th c. CE)

• Trio of states: Silla, Baekje (Bokce), Goguryeo (Goryeo/Gourguereau)

• Large earthen mounds (5th–6th c.) sealed elite burials containing luxury goods

Silla Kingdom

• Gold Burial Crown (Old Crown Tomb)

  • Constructed from thin sheets of gold

  • Frontal view: tree-like uprights & dangling pendants

  • Lateral view: tall wing/feather-like extensions—symbolize flight of the soul to the afterlife

Unified Silla Period

• Seated Granite Buddha, Seokguram (Chilkuram)

  • Housed in an artificial cave (man-carved chamber modeled on Chinese cave temples)

  • Fabrication: cut granite blocks assembled in situ

  • Height: $11\text{ ft}$ (≈ two adult humans stacked)

  • Visual effect: Buddha appears weightless/floating despite stone medium

Goryeo Kingdom

• Maebyeong Bottle with Celadon Glaze

  • Technical specs

  • High-fired stoneware (gray body) coated with a pale bluish-green glaze

  • Celadon technology imported from China, refined by Korean kilns

  • Aesthetic achievement

  • Goryeo pieces rivaled premier Chinese court ceramics

  • Surface often inlaid (sanggam technique) with white/black slips under glaze

  • Social reach

  • Enjoyed by all social classes

  • Quality scaled to patron wealth (peasants owned simpler wares; nobility & clergy used elaborately decorated vessels)

Broader Connections & Implications

• Chinese funerary art (terracotta army) parallels Korean burial crowns: both assert post-mortem power & spiritual safeguarding

• Xie He’s calligraphic Bone Method foreshadows East Asian emphasis on brush literacy, influencing later Zen painting in Japan

• Technological diffusion: bronze casting (China) → stoneware & celadon glazing (Korea) highlights intercultural exchange yet local innovation

Numerical & Statistical References

• $20$ – surprise money metaphor

• $1974$ – year of terracotta discovery

• $(7{,}000)$ – estimated soldiers

• $11\,\text{ft}$ – height of Seokguram Buddha

Ethical / Philosophical Dimensions

• Guarding the dead (terracotta) vs. enabling the soul’s flight (Silla crown): differing views on afterlife protection vs. liberation

• Xie He’s insistence on Spirit Resonance prioritizes felt vitality over mere craftsmanship—anticipates modern debates about authenticity vs. technical skill

• Democratization of art (Goryeo celadon affordable to peasants) illustrates early example of inclusive aesthetic consumption

Objective Review

• Identified the archaeological, historical, and artistic significance of the Terracotta Soldiers

• Explained Xie He’s first two principles: Spirit Resonance & Bone Method

• Surveyed hallmark Korean Three Kingdoms works: gold crown (Silla), granite Buddha (Seokguram), celadon maebyeong (Goryeo)

• Emphasized continuity of ancient East Asian art traditions in modern culture & scholarship