A CHINESE BRONZE FIGURE OF THE FOURTH CENTURY BC

A Chinese Bronze Figure of the Fourth Century B.C. Author(s): William Watson and Basil Gray Source: The British Museum Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 3/4 (Spring, 1967), pp. 134-137 Published by: British Museum Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4422975 . Accessed: 06/09/2013 13:23 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . British Museum is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The British Museum Quarterly. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 160.94.45.156 on Fri, 6 Sep 2013 13:23:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions A CHINESE BRONZE FIGURE OF THE FOURTH CENTURY B.C. H E bronze figure of a kneeling man reproduced on Pls. xxxvIIi and xxxix is one of the comparatively rare representations of the human figure made in China of the feudal period. A few pieces are known in which human forms are included in a scheme of ornament, but no great skill was spent on them.' The beginning of a more realistic tradition of sculpture, expressed in small, free- standing figures of bronze, can be traced in the decline of the feudal age, belong- ing approximately to the fourth century B.c. The best and best known of such pieces is that of two wrestlers or acrobats with joined hands, which recently entered the Museum from the collection of the late Captain E. G. Spencer- Churchill. But this work is quite exceptional; it was not until the later Han dynasty, in the first and second centuries A.D., that the human figure was satis- factorily modelled, in natural attitudes and even in the movement of dance. The majority of the pre-Han figures were made merely to be placed with other funeral gifts in great tombs, in prolongation of a practice descended at least from Shang times (c. 1500-1027 B.c.), when actual persons might be buried kneeling and holding the vessels and weapons with which they served their masters. The bronze figure here described illustrates a moment in the slow develop- ment of pre-Han art when a conceptual standard of representation was being modified towards a species of realism, timid but clearly perceptible against the unadventurous feudal tradition. It is superior to other surviving specimens in the modelling of the face, and while others are of solid bronze, and seldom more than 6 in. high, this piece is skilfully cast of thin metal, and twice as large. The bronze is a stony grey-green, with a rough surface which suggests a dusting of sand adhering from the casting mould. The surface has also yellow patches of soil-stain, and a limey substance fills many of the pores of varying sizes which are present in nearly all of the metal. A laboratory examination has shown that the base of the figure is clay core covered by a cast skin of bronze about I mm. in thickness, which is almost wholly mineralized.2 The arms have been broken off and the stamps flattened and coloured to resemble the rest of the body. In the latter process, or perhaps in an effort to attach the arms, some soft solder was used, and this still adheres in places to the surface of the clay core revealed by the break. Here and there (most regrettably on the chin) the flaws which were to be expected in so thin a casting have been made up afterwards, apparently with bronze. The kneeling man is naked except for a head-dress. This consists of a band starting from a knob above the brow, parting to encircle the crown of the head, and joining to hang behind the head as a single piece, cut off square at the nape. On the top of the head, just behind the knob of the head-dress, there is a scar '34 This content downloaded from 160.94.45.156 on Fri, 6 Sep 2013 13:23:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions in the metal where some projection seems to have broken away. Below the head the only anatomical detail is in the feet, on which the man is sitting. Here the toes are indicated summarily. The proportions of the figure are those of a dwarf, and the over-large face, with strong, narrow nose, big eyes, and prominent square chin, is that recognized by the Chinese of the Han Dynasty and earlier as typical of the inhabitants of Sinkiang and Central Asia. Among these were people of Iranian stock, which accounts for the European-like features of merchants, tumblers, ostlers, etc., appearing among clay-tomb figures from the Han to the T'ang period. But often the high cheek-bones and the set of the eyes shown in these statuettes suggest a Mongolian strain, as in the present figure. Here the ears are shown as mere spirals. They are perhaps meant also to be large and coarse, as occidental ears strike the Chinese. The figure was formerly in the collection of Ch'en Jen-t'ao, in whose catalogue it is said to have been found at Ch'ang-sha.3 Near this town the capital of Hunan province, tombs ranging from the fourth century B.c. to the second century A.D. have yielded rich contents, including many strange effigies in polychrome wood.4 But hitherto no metal figures have been reported from this district. Some com- parable statuettes of bronze have, however, been discovered elsewhere recently in the course of excavations. The one most closely resembling the British Museum figure was found at Chung Chou Lu near Loyang in Honan, and assigned by the excavators to their fourth division of the Eastern Chou period.5 The date of this archaeological division remains uncertain, being placed by the excavators in the fifth century B.c., but by another authority in the first half of the fourth century B.c.,6 which on the whole appears to be more probable. It is to the latter date that we provisionally assign the bronze servant of the British Museum. The proportions of the Chung Chou Lu figure, which also is naked, are more normal, less dwarf-like. On the head is a protruberance corresponding to that on the head-dress of the British Museum figure, but the rest of the head-dress is not shown in the photographs, and perhaps is not visible on the corroded surface of the original. The face is too obscured by the corrosion for one to be certain whether a foreigner or a Chinese is intended. The only comment on nakedness to be drawn from ancient Chinese writing is merely that to unclothe oneself denoted the last degree of self-abasement and of respect towards a superior. In the Li chi (Hsiao t'' sheng) it is said that the saluta- tions in order of submissiveness are the bow, the bow with the head to the ground, and the baring of the body. In the Shih chi (Ch'u shih chia) we read that the Count of Cheng went to greet a superior with his body bare and leading a goat. But these instances are less relevant here than the fact that tumblers, acrobats, and dwarfs are portrayed naked in the clay-tomb figurines of the Han period. The earlier bronze figures represent exotic servants of similar origin. Probably the hands of the British Museum figure held a cup or some such '35 This content downloaded from 160.94.45.156 on Fri, 6 Sep 2013 13:23:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions object. There is a class of bronze figures of the Han period or a little earlier, which hold in their hands cups, or short tubes or sockets, intended to support the stems of lamp-trays. These figures, all male, wearing close-fitting coats descend- ing to the knees, opening down the front with a left-over-right overlap and belted in at the waist. The best-known piece is a kneeling man in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art.7 In the right hand is a short tube placed vertically, and a corresponding socket is attached to the base immediately beneath.8 Recent excavations near Chu Ch'eng in Shantung have produced a complete lamp-stand, with two trays held by long stems fixed in sockets held in the man's hands;9 and from the site of the Lower Capital (Hsia tu) of the state of Yen, in Hopei prov- ince, comes a stiffly standing figure of a man with coat descending to the ankles,'0 holding a single lamp socket with both hands before him (Pls. XL, XLI). The last figure wears a skull-cap held by bands beneath the chin and around the back of the head, in the manner of the courtier's cap of later times, and more elaborate than the head-gear of the British Museum's piece. The collar and hems of the coat are painted red; the belt is vermilion and attached with a hook of the kind represented in the numerous bronze specimens of the late Chou period. We may assign this lamp-holder to the fourth or the first half of the third century B.C. No less than six bronze serving men, varying in height from 4 to Io in., were acquired at Chin Ts'un in Honan and published by Bishop White as part of the contents of the great tombs in which so many splendid objects were buried." All of them are squatting on their heels, four of them raised by square bases. One holds a short tube in each hand, the others clasp a single tube with both hands, and those which are furnished with bases have on these a corresponding socket. Although the stems and lamp-trays have not been preserved with these figures, it can hardly be doubted that their function was similar to that of the Chu Ch'eng figure.'2 The Chin Ts'un and the Chu Ch'eng statuettes are dressed in the same plain coat, a garment not unlike the coats worn by the pottery grooms with horses made in the T'ang dynasty. It seems to have been the normal dress of servants in the great houses of north China in the feudal period as well as in Han times and later. The only female lamp-holder is another bronze figure recovered at Chin Ts'un. It shows a girl of stocky build holding tubes in her hands in which short broken lengths of the stems for lamp-trays still remain. Her dress appears to be quilted, and to have a cape on the shoulders; the face is carefully and realistic- ally modelled, with Mongol features. This lamp-girl and the athletic young man of the Nelson Gallery are superior in realism and animation to the stock figures of the kneeling servants, naked and clothed, and give perhaps a truer idea of what the sculptor was capable of. Of like interest is another male lamp-holder, complete with his lamp, belonging to the British Museum (P1. xLII).'3 Unfortunately, the corrosion of the surface obscures 136 This content downloaded from 160.94.45.156 on Fri, 6 Sep 2013 13:23:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions some details. The long coat, closed to the right, is tied in at the waist by a belt, but the fastening is not clear: two ends hang down the front, so that the normal belt-hook does not appear to be used. One clear patch of the surface shows that the coat is decorated with a pattern of lozenges with spirals (i.e. a variant of the common ornament used on bronzes of all kinds). The double hem indicates a skirt worn beneath the coat. On the head is a courtier's cap with side flaps, the feet are booted, and a sword-furnished with the disk terminal of the grip familiar from many surviving swords-is worn in a sheath at the left side of the belt. The lamp rises like a flower from four sepals, and is covered with the spiral- and-hook of the predominant bronze ornament of the fifth-third centuries B.C. The shape copies one of the common bronze vessels of the time. The circular stand is filled with two winged tigers executed in openwork. For this lamp a date in the fourth century B.C. is most probable. WILLIAM WATSON NOTE: Since this article was written, I had the opportunity of seeing a pair with this figure which is now in the Avery Brundage collection and exhibited in the de Young Museum, San Francisco. This figure, B6oB 17, still retains arms lifted parallel with the head. However they appear to be of quite different texture from the rest of the figure and I would think are certainly restorations. The figure is almost the same height (I I inches) but rather less well preserved, being marred by the presence of virulent patches of diseased bronze. The features are similar but not identical, a notable difference being the far clearer definition of the eye- brows. None the less it would seem clear that these two figures were found together, and it may be surmised that originally they supported a tray or receptacle between them. This note is added in the absence of Professor Watson with the Thai British expedition during January and February 1967. BASIL GRAY x Cf. Loyang Chung CAou Lu, Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences, Peking, 1959, p. Io5, pl. 69, I. 2 The figure (1962-2-14-1; Ht. io0 ins.) appears to have been cast in a two-piece mould. Numerous square holes in the head suggest that chaplets were used to secure the core in position, the resulting faulty surfaces being cut out later and made good. Other repairs of small holes on the figure may have been occasioned in the same way. The metal skin is so thin that it was evidently never intended to remove the core. The figures from Chin Ts'un were also cast over clay cores which remain inside them. 3 Ch'en Jen-t'ao, Chin Kuei lun-ku ch'u-chi, Hong Kong, 1952, p. 23, no. 5, fig. 8. 4 Cf. William Watson, 'A Grave Guardian from Ch'ang Sha', B.M.Q. xvii (1952), PP. 52-56. s In Tomb no. 2717; see Loyang Chung CAou Lu (ut supra), p. I II, pl. 70. 6 Lin Shou-chin, 'Tung-Chou-shih t'ung-chien ch'u-lun', K'ao ku Asiieh pao, 1962, no. 2, p. 77. 7 Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, 1959, p. 174. 8 The left hand is missing, but there is no corresponding socket on the base, so we presume that only one lamp stem was held. 9 Chi T'ao, 'Shantung-sheng p'u-ch'a w.n-wu chan-lan chien-chieh', Wen wu, 1959, no.I I, pp. 30 and 31. Io Hobei-sheng wen-hua-chai wen-wu kung- tso-tui, 'Chan-kuo chung-wan Yen Hsia-tu yi-chih nei fa-hsien yi-chien Chan-kuo shih-tai ti t'ung jen-hsiang', Wen wu, 1965, no. 2, p. 43. Ix W. C. White, Tombs of Old Lo-yang, Shang- hai, 1934, pls. lxxvi-lxxxii. x2 The Ch'u Ch'eng figure retains both its lamp- trays; only a lamp-bearer found at Lach-tru'6'ng, North Vietnam, is similarly complete. The latter is of the later Han dynasty (first-second centuries A.D.) and has exuberant ornament in notably un- Chinese taste (see O. R. T. Janse, Archaeological Research in Indo-China, vol. i, Cambridge, Mass., 1947; pls. 8-io). The Ch'u Ch'eng lamp-bearer is ascribed to the Han period in the publication, but is more likely to be of the fourth or the early third century s.c. 13 R. S. Jenyns, 'Two Chinese Bronzes', B.M.Q. xi (I937), no. 3, PP. 114-15, pl. xxixb. I37 This content downloaded from 160.94.45.156 on Fri, 6 Sep 2013 13:23:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions XXXVIII. BRONZE FIGURE OF A SQUATTING DWARF, CHINESE. Early fourth century B.c. Height ioj in. (1962, 2-14. r) This content downloaded from 160.94.45.156 on Fri, 6 Sep 2013 13:23:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions XXXIX. BRONZE FIGURE OF A SQUATTING DWARF, CHINESE This content downloaded from 160.94.45.156 on Fri, 6 Sep 2013 13:23:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions XL. BRONZE FIGURE OF A MAN USED AS A LAMP HOLDER Chinese, from the site of the Lower Capital of the State of Yen, Hopei province. Fourth or early third century B.C. Height i if in. (After Wen wu) This content downloaded from 160.94.45.156 on Fri, 6 Sep 2013 13:23:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions XLI. BRONZE FIGURE OF A MAN USED AS A LAMP HOLDER back of P1. XL This content downloaded from 160.94.45.156 on Fri, 6 Sep 2013 13:23:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions XLII. BRONZE FIGURE OF A MAN HOLDING A LAMP (DETAIL). Chinese, fourth century B.c. Height of the man 41 in. (1936, 12-19, 7) This content downloaded from 160.94.45.156 on Fri, 6 Sep 2013 13:23:41 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Article Contents p. 134 p. 135 p. 136 p. 137 [unnumbered] [unnumbered] [unnumbered] [unnumbered] [unnumbered] Issue Table of Contents The British Museum Quarterly, Vol. 31, No. 3/4 (Spring, 1967), pp. i-viii+67-151 Front Matter [pp. i-viii] Pedro Simón Abril: Three Early Editions [pp. 67-71] Lenau's 'Frühlingsalmanach' [pp. 71-73] The Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy [pp. 73-77] The Old Polish Diets the Museum Collection of Official and Semi-Official Publications [pp. 78-83] The Quincentennial of Netherlandish Blockbooks [pp. 83-87] The Thorne Chronicle [pp. 87-90] Two Books of Hours of Francis I [pp. 90-96] The Dragon King of the Sea [pp. 96-100] Two Arabic Manuscripts [pp. 100-101] A Roman Writing Tablet from London [pp. 101-110] Contracted Mouth Accessory Cups [pp. 111-122] A Roman Iron Window-Grille from Hinton St. Mary, Dorset [pp. 122-130] Two Gold Bracelets from Walderslade, Kent [pp. 131-133] A Chinese Bronze Figure of the Fourth Century B.C. [pp. 134-137] An Early Indian Bronze Figure [pp. 138-140] List of Acquisitions [pp. 141-151] Back Matter