Lecture 5 : China Art Asian Art History

Qin Dynasty
The power of the Qin Emperor, came from his ability to make strict reforms to the government. - Centralized government - More Kills = Higher Ranks - Standardized coinage - Combined script form language - Better ruled his large empire - facilitated trade - use of script = better communications Calligraphy used: Small sealed scripts and clerical script enable for even better reading Matriculate: Wheels size of carts are the same The Great Wall of China - Qin credited for the building but actually only links up the rest of the wall - Walls were built since the Ming Dynasty - People who built and died then buried into the wall - Therefore the cruel nature of the Qin Emperor History of the China written by the Confusion - The emperor burned the books that promote anything from his - The scholars can still recreate the books that result it from being destroyed Tomb of the First Emperor: Only Sima Qian wrote of the original story The rivers of mercury and the arrows are stopping people from going in There are too many cases that we might not restore and keep them from rotting With zoos of the time period there women of the palace was also buried Mass graves where the conscripts were buried to prevent secret leaks

Lecture 5 : China Art Asian Art History

The Terra-cotta Army - Vast space - Proof to the world that the Chinese can make naturalistic tomb art - The sculptures are meant to protect the grave - He would want the real soldiers to protect him but not practical for the next King - So well made u can tell the rank and the locations they might have come from - Each has a unique features - Different hair styles and hats and amours - Used to be coloured and lifelike - They are not art but tomb guardians only now we see as art - Qin Archers! - With arrows shooting further and better - Archers hold them steady buy kneeling - Extremely detailed hair doos - Horses are also inside - one of the main reason that army was so good. - chariots are not always life size - Chariots - Square earth with rounded top done sky over you - Used in other tomb art

Han Dynasty (202 BCE - 220 ADC)

- Western Han 202 BCE - 8CE - Eastern Han 25 - 220CE Resting period after the Qin Dynasty - High points of Chinese civilizations - Long spanning dynasty and the coming of Buddhism at this point - Coming in from the central asia, silk road into china proper - Clerical script used in the calligraphy and better clarifications of language

Lecture 5 : China Art Asian Art History

Tombs: Tomb of Prince Liu Sheng and Wife Dou Wan - Mancheng - Dug into the mountain - Bathroom included into the back of the tomb - Believed that life continues after they died and therefore all the items they have at life is in the tomb - Believed that the doorway will cut the tomb from robbers however robbers can dig shafts into the tombs - * Place we find the jades suits where body can be preserved by jade - Bodies should be protected so the souls can live in Plugs also presents so that the Chi is contained in the body Golden wires used to sew it together; high and mighty signs Gold more precious them jade Shows that Liu Sheng and his wife are rich Head rested on the pilow There is a B disk on the forehead there to hun and the huar Huars goes to heaven Hun stays Dou Wan = powerful women, part of the family of the Empress Dowager - Lamp in the shape of the serving Girl given by the empress to the family - Family hairloom - Have to have a efficient function - lamp and the soots will be caught in the sleves - the light can also be directed - can be taken apart - well design and beautiful piece of art - Naturalistic design and the clothing and facial values of the art - Boshan Lu - Universal Mountain Censer (Incense Holder) - Follow dou ism idea of the afterlife residing in the GREAT mountains - Greatest mountain rises out of the cosmic seas. Penglai - Enjoy the Chi generated by the mountains - Rises from the sea supported by the sea churning it into the majestic waves - Extremely well detailed sculptures with monkeys (pro nature ideas of Dou ism) - When lits as a incense burner and it will swirl around the burner like Chi - Perfumes the room - Buried in to the mountains to suck in the chi generated by the mountains another way of their attempt to preserve the bodies

Lecture 5 : China Art Asian Art History

Tomb of the Marquis of Dai - Hunan - Main body buried in the center of the tomb - several layers of the tomb to best preseved the bodies as possible - Charcoal and clay and earth to dry out the moisture of the body - The husband the sons tombs are looted and did not survive - Second coffin - no matter of fact deco like the north - depiction of chi on the tomb - depictions of the strange hybrid creatures; ideas of the afterworld - Flying banner (drapped over the coffin) - used to call your soul back - in order for the person to be lied to rest properly they have to zhao hun back to the body so that the process can send the soul to the right place - Sun with Crow - Ancient symbol - The toad in the moon - Orbs present with the legend of hou yi (the 9 suns stories) - One person repeated in the banner - Chang er present in the painting - Hybrid creatures and dragons that are present - Guardians of the gate; pass them to reach the heavens - EARTH realm - two scenes - decorations shows the tomb (Bottom) - Chime present to make it look like a ceiling, not natural scales - depiction of lady dai wearing the banner (Top) - filial piety shows - Shows the suggestion of pictorial depth by overlapping - Viewers to the pictorial realm by having a character looking at us - heretic scale - UNDER REALM - occupied by the overtly weird creatures - The yellow streams as a watery realm - The entire world supported by a dwarf like creatures that tread through out the entire realms ; presents of shamanistic society - Unlike the northern which strives towards the more douism - Hu Vessel - Shows the area produces most of the lacquer wear of the time - Changsha was the main producer - Lacquer expensive because of the long and dangerous process - What is created is light and durable - The corpse of Lady Gui - She might have eaten something bad - Really well preseved body

Lecture 5 : China Art Asian Art History

Eastern Han Dynasty: - Filial Son can recommend you for office - Confucius is a system that the Han is trying to implement - Han Dynasty will see Confucius paragons Wu Family Shrines : Shandong 2nd Century - Home town of Confucius - Reliefs in the Shrines, vast and wide - led to archi thinking that they were not much of an artist but the discovery of the terra cotta army changed that - Shows of pictorial imagery of the myth and factual - Not meant for the dead Shichuan : More drawings and sculptures Assassination of the First Qin Emperor. - Jing Ke was the assassin that failed Figural Painting of the Six Dynasty Gu Kaizhi (ca 344 - 406) - This period was military weak but a flowering period of the arts - Wang Si Ji - Gu Hai zhi - Buddism very much promoted in the north and south Gu Haizhi - Attributes = copies - Admonitions of the instructress to the Ladies of the palace - Cinematic progression - Didactic - education - Teaching the ladies in the palace how to behave (Confucius believe) - Scenes of these virtuous ladies who acted selflessly and loyaly to their husband - Lady Feng - Defended the King from a bear - Landscape of an archer shooting something with lines that teaches the lessons - Lady Bun - Following the back of the carriage and refuse to enter the carriage because its not good for the emperor to be seen with his women - loyalty to ruler vs husband - Style of Gu Haizhu : - Ideal of beauty is long oval heads with bodies slight slender and elongated - flattery and fragile and graceful, elegant dressing and figures - Not a healthy in the figures not naturalistic - kind of sickly looking figures - Text in his work : Rules are laid down and how to thad the rules - Panels of the Chinese Ofician

Lecture 5 : China Art Asian Art History

- Same style in the north

Dou-ist art: Famous douist sages (Not by Gu Haizhi) - Seven sages of the bamboo grove and Rong Qiqi - With the increasing chaos in the time, they lose faith in confucius. - As a result the modernity is lose in the 6th dynasty as it is dangerous to work in courts - hanging out in the bamboo forest and they flaunt the difference rules of the Confucius - I take the earth and the sky and my clothes and pants - one of the sages - They were executed ; high ranked officials in the past - They interacted via debating - They look beyond what is meant to be done and do what is needed to survive - Taken up by people to emulate - An alternative of confucius - Style to the Gu Haizhi style, long flowing robes - Trees poses as space shelfs - Beyond drinking and partying, they have the habit of taking medications elixir that induces that flows through them