CHINA -- Up to the SONG DYNASTY
(to the year 960 C.E.)
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The Work:
Tribute Offered by a Vassal
/
Bringing Tribute
(
Zhigong tu
) (c. mid-7th century
C.E.
)
depicts a scene of at least twenty-five men presenting gifts to the court. Three of them each
carry long columns of rock, equivalent to three or four feet in length and perhaps six inches in diameter.
Each stone is riddled with hollows. (In a cropped view,
one particular specimen apparently has some flowers growing from it --
but when viewing the larger scene, one can see these are actually
ground plants juxtapositioned behind the rock.)
Three other persons are seen bringing exquisitely shaped rocks.
These are perhaps equivalent to between twelve and eighteen inches high,
arranged in a light brown/tan oval container of from nine to twenty-four inches
in length and three or four inches in depth. (These gifts bear a
striking resemblance to some of the landscape penjing we know today.)
Behind each of the two smaller rock carriers on the left is a fellow carrying an elephant tusk.
These two left-most men have beards, wear uncolored full-length cloaks, and appear to be of Mediterranean heritage. One has sandles and a covered head; the other is barefoot and has an uncovered head. The containers they carry have wider bases than brims. (Almost dogfood bowl-shaped, if you will.) The third container -- which is carried by a bare-foot and clean-shaven but balding character with a strange countenance, loin cloth and reddish wrap under one arm and across the other shoulder -- has more of the wide-brimmed serving tray look. These non-Chinese-appearing persons bringing strange-shaped rocks: Was this because the person receiving the tribute was fond of such things already or could these be original gifts which may have started something? Evidence of native Chinese gardens with rockery predates this work, but what is the earliest a container landscape can be identified elsewheres? Which vassal state is represented here? To which Chinese ruler is the tribute offered and was this a one-time occurrence or a repeated event? Who specified that these rocks be given at this time -- or on other occasions? Were the articles of tribute recorded and what became of the records? What became of the rocks? If, less likely, this is all just a fanciful depiction, what is the symbolism and origin of the concept?
The Artist:
Yan Liben [Yen Li-pen, 600
- 673] was a minister of state and a court painter, in fact, the most celebrated
painter of the seventh century in China. He was the son and brother
of two other famous artists, had been a court painter in attendance to
the second Tang emperor, Taizong [T'ai-tsung], and rose to the high office
of Minister of the Right under the emperor's successor. His father, Yan Bi,
served Northern Zhou and Sui rulers with his expertise in architecture, engineering,
and the visual arts. He also designed weapons, organized imperial processions,
and supervised the construction of a section of the Great Wall; such duties apparently
exceeding those of a court painter as narrowly defined in later times. His two sons,
Lide (d.656) and Liben, both served in Taizong's court. As the designers of Tang
imperial mausoleums, they were probably responsible for the six famous stone horses in
front of Taizong's tomb at
Zhaoling, which have survived as the best examples of early Tang relief carving. Lide
was less a painter than an engineer and architect. Although he made some court portraits,
it was other kinds of service -- designing ceremonial costumes, constructing palace buildings,
and building bridges and ships for military purposes -- that won him thew title of grand duke.
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The Work:
Courtiers and Guests (aka "Courtiers and Foreign Envoys," c. 706) is the ink and color on
plaster wall mural on the eastern wall in the middle of the passage to the tomb of
Zhang Huai
at Qianling [Chien Ling]. It vividly reproduces the scene of Tang officials greeting foreign envoys. In
the front are two enthusiastic court officials, and behind them are three foreign envoys. Research confirms that
the first envoy came from the Tujue tribe,
an ethnic minority tribe in north-western ancient China. This mural reflects the active exchange of friendly and
diplomatic visits between China and foreign countries during the Tang Dynasty.
The Subject:
Prince Zhang Huai (posthumous
name for Li Xian [Li Hsien], 655-684) was the second son of Empress Wu Zetian (r.690-705) and
the sixth son of the third Tang emperor, Gaozong (r.650-683). Zhang was named heir apparent
in 675, but five years later was accused by his mother of plotting a coup and
was banished to Sichuan. There he was later forced to commit suicide.
Following the restoration of Emperor Zhongzong (r.684, 705-710) and the death of the
empress in 705, Li Xian's title of Prince Yong was posthumously reinstated and his
remains were reinterred as one of the seventeen attendant tombs in the vast double
Qianling Mausoleum complex of his father -- and mother -- at Qianxian
[Chienhsien] county, Shaanxi province, to the northwest of the capital city of Xian.
In 711, Emperor Ruizong (r.684-690, 710-712) further restored Li Xian's status as heir
apparent with the title Crown Prince Zhanghuai. Later that year, Li Xian's consort,
Madame Fang, was buried with him and, although his tomb was not enlarged, the murals
were repainted to accord with his more exalted status.
The Work:
Frescoes featuring dwarf potted
trees were found near Hebei in the graves of nobles who lived during the
Five Dynasties period. Discovered in 1978, these paintings have images
of a variety of red blossoms arranged in floral pentsai. Six of these
are placed on a five-cornered table. The plants, containers and stand,
the three elements of the gardening art's display, result in a work of
unsurpassed beauty.
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1. Liang, Amy The Living Art of Bonsai
(New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.; 1992), pg. 101 in color;
Zhao, Qingquan Penjing: Worlds of Wonderment (Athens, GA: Venus Communications; 1997), pg.
40, small in color;
Hu, Yunhua Chinese Penjing (Portland, OR: Timber Press; 1987) pp. 129
-130, has as "Paying Tribute" with a detail of one section;
Yang, Xin et al Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting (New Haven
& London: Yale University Press and Beijing: Foreign Languages Press; 1997), pp. 60-61.
Hu, Kemin Scholars' Rocks in Ancient China: The Suyuan Stone Catalogue
(Trunbull, CT: Weatherhill; 2002), Fig. 1 with the alternate title;
Goepper, Roger The Essence of Chinese Painting
(Boston, MA: Boston Book & Art Shop; 1963), pp. 34, 244;
Hucker, Charles O. China's Imperial Past (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press; 1975), pg. 262;
Sullivan, Michael The Arts of China(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press; 1984,
Third Edition), pp. 128-130;
Fitzgerald, C.P. China, A Short Cultural History (Boulder, CO: Westview Press; 1985), pg. 368;
Per Sunset Bonsai (Menlo Park, CA: Sunset Publishing Corporation; 1994, Third Edition), pg. 8, "Chinese frescoes
dating back sometime before A.D.220 clearly show floral bonsai [sic] -- what we would think
of as flower arrangements -- in complementary containers. Painted during the late Han dynasty, these frescoes were
discovered in the 1970's."
Koreshoff, Deborah Bonsai: Its Art, Science and Philosophy (Brisbane, Australia: Boolarong Publications; 1984),
pg. 3;
Stein, Rolf A. The World in Miniature (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press; 1990), pg. 40;
Wen, Chin "Two Underground Galleries of Tang Dynasty Murals" in New Archaeological Finds in China, II
(Peking: Foreign Language Press; 1978), pg. 101;
Wyatt, James C.Y. et al China, Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 AD (New York: The Metropolitan Museum
of Art; New Haven and London: Yale University Press; 2004), pp.302-303.
Hu, Yunhua pg. 128 with b&w photo;
cf. "Princess Zhang-Huai" in the caption of a different picture in Samson, Isabelle and Rémy Samson
The Creative Art of Bonsai (London: Ward Lock, Ltd.; 1986), pg. 9, and the pg. 8 text which reads:
"The first mention of the art of bonsai goes back to the Tsin era (third century BC): on the tomb of Zhang Huai,
the second son of the Empress Tang Wu Zetian, there is a figure of a woman carrying a bonsai in both hands.";
both attendants are shown together in one picture on the "Bonsai in Evolution" information board at the Fuku-Bonsai Center,
Hawaii, and also on pg. 19 of Giorgi, Gianfranco Simon & Schuster's Guide to Bonsai
(New York: Simon & Schuster; 1990); Liang, pp. 100-101, the latter showing the left servant in color;
Chan, Peter Bonsai, The Art of Growing and Keeping Miniature Trees
(Secaucus, NJ: Wellfleet Press; 1985), pg. 144, has close-up of left servant, possibly retouched;
Zhao, pg. 40 has small in color of left servant with the tray being orange in color;
Lesniewicz, Paul Bonsai in Your Home (New York: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.; 1994), color
of left servant on pp. 3 and 8, taken at a slightly oblique angle;
Wen, pp. 95-98;
Sullivan, pp. 128-130;
Zhongmin, Han and Hubert Delahaye A Journey Through Ancient China (New York: Gallery Books; 1985), pg. 212;
"Qianling Mausoleum,"
http://www.chinatravelfactbook.com/chinaattractions/qianling-mausoleum.asp;
Gender identification of servants based on Tang clothing styles courtesy of Dustin Martinez in conversation with RJB Feb. 21, 2002.
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