This document provides descriptions of various Chinese artworks and artifacts from different historical periods. It includes summaries of objects like a Shang dynasty bronze ritual vessel decorated with masks, a green jade dragon pendant from 475-221 BC, a Western Han dynasty female dancer figurine, and a late 3rd century Yueh ware burial jar. It also describes artworks like a Ming dynasty portrait of a literary gathering, a Southern Sung dynasty fan painting of a boy leading an ox, and an 11th-12th century wood Bodhisattva Kuan-yin sculpture. The document covers objects in various media including bronze, jade, ceramics, ink and colors on paper, wood, and lacquer.

1. Tripod Ritual Vessel
• Date: Shang dynasty
• Medium: Bronze
• This three-lobed vessel is
cast in flat relief with three
t'ao-tieh masks comprising
the chief decoration. The
tripod is a good example of
a Shang bronze ritual
vessel whose basic shape
evolved from Neolithic and
early Bronze Age ceramics
like the one shown to the
right.

2. Pendant in the Form of a Dragon
• Date: 475-221 B.C.
• Medium: Translucent green jade

3. Female "Long Sleeve" Dancer
• Date: Western Han dynasty
• Medium: Earthenware
• Many types of pottery dancing figures have been
retrieved from Han tombs, but examples of this large size
with finely sculpted naturalistic details, are relatively
rare. The performance of ritual dance during Han was a
court prerogative, and the number of dancers permitted to
each noble was regulated according to his rank and
merit.This thin elegant dancer is dressed in the traditional
shen-i garment; long and layered robes with oversized
sleeves. She captures the stately motion and austere spirit
of the "sleeve-tossing dance" style (chang-hsiu wu) which
featured a continuous, controlled and coordinated
movement of the long sleeves.The Han dynasty writer
Ch'ang Hung (78-139) described this dance form in one
of his poems:
Their vermilion slippers danced between plates and goblets
And they waved their long, dangling sleeves
With a curvaceous, cultivated bearing
Their lovely dresses fluttered like flowers in the wind.

4. Spirit Jar (hun ping)
• Date: late 3rd century
• Medium: Yueh ware Porcelaneous
stoneware with olive green glaze
Large, extensively decorated burial jars like this
have been recovered in recent decades.
Limited to the area south of the Yangtze
River in the Northern Chekiang and
Southern Kiangsu province, they represent
a vessel type and burial practices specific to
this region. Made without lids, the jars
display an extremely rich assortment of
molded figures, animals, and architecture in
a tiered arrangement comprising their upper
portions.The jars were most likely placed in
the tomb so the soul of the deceased would
have a place to reside. This accounts for a
palace-like structure with entrance gates
facing the four directions. The various
figures at the top most likely represent
Taoist immortals who somehow aided in
the afterlife.

5. Exalted Gathering in the Green Woods
• Date: c.1620
• Medium: Ink and colors on paper
• This rare portrait of a literary gathering depicts Tung Ch'i-ch'ang (1555-1636), one of the most important
personalities in the history of Chinese art, at the far right. Next to him stands his close friend Ch'en Chi-ju
(1558-1639). To the left of Ch'en, the scholars Wang Chih-teng (1535-1612), Chang Feng-i (1550-1636),
and Chao Huang-kuang (1559-1625) are shown playing the ch'in. The monk Yen T'ien-ch'ih (17th century)
and Chu-hung (1535-1615) appear to the left of them. The men are gathered around a large tai-hu rock to
listen to ch'in music, examine scrolls, and to converse. These historic figures epitomize the literati ideal.
They were all trained in Confucian classics, some served the state as scholar officials, and all played the
reclusive role of retired gentlemen. They defined Ming literati tastes through their painting, calligraphy,
music, writing of poetry, carving seals, and collecting of ancient rubbings.Sensitive to literati pictorial taste,
the painter used muted colors and exhibited a variety of brush strokes and a naïve sense of space. The title
colophon, composed of five beautifully balanced characters, is signed by Tung himself, the great literatus
who created a new artistic and cultural synthesis in the seventeenth century. There are seven attached
colophons ranging in date from 1762 to the early twentieth century.

6. Boy Leading an Ox Along the Farm Path
• Date: Southern Sung dynasty
• Medium: Ink and colors on silk
• Taoists saw in the buffalo and herdsman theme
the basic elements of nature and its rhythms. In
Chan Buddhist literature during the Sung
period, the pair appear as a metaphor for the
path to enlightenment. Twelfth and thirteenth-
century academic painters popularized the
theme, rendering the subject in soft colors and
meticulously laid ink outlines like those seen
here. Buddhist and Taoist symbolism aside, this
small fan painting can also be read as a lyrical
portrayal of rural existence.Using a rather
extreme aerial perspective, the artist provides a
detailed scene of a boy leading a buffalo home
at dusk along a river or large canal. They walk
on an elevated path that is part of the dike
system forming the rice paddies to their left.
While at first glance this small fan painting
seems a poetic interpretation of agrarian life, it
also symbolizes the harmonious relationship
between man, animal, and nature espoused by
the Taoists. The artist has skillfully condensed a
remarkably wide panorama of varied landscape
into only a few inches of silk.

7. The Bodhisattva Kuan-yin
• Date: Late 11th-early 12th century
• Medium: Wood, gesso, and mineral pigments, and
gold
• Bodhisattvas are Buddhist deities who have forgone
entrance into Nirvana until that time when all beings
have attained enlightenment. In China, Kuan-yin
became the most popular bodhisattva and was widely
worshipped as the deity of mercy and compassion.This
magnificent example from north China is constructed
of removable wooden sections that still retain traces of
original pigment. The sculptural style is naturalistic,
detailed, and fully three-dimensional. Several sections
of the robes exhibit fine textile patterns executed in
gold leaf, the eyes are inlaid crystal, and the original
painted mustache is still clearly evident. The image is
attired in the sumptuous silk garments and gold jewelry
befitting a bodhisattva. The elaborate hairstyle was
originally encased by a gilt metal crown now
missing.Seated cross-legged in the lotus position
(vajrasana), both hands turn up with thumbs touching
the middle fingers in the gesture of discourse or
argumentation (varada mudra). Carved during the last
creative epoch of Chinese Buddhist sculpture, this
splendidly attired image expresses the new humanism
of the day while capturing the gentle, benign calm of
near enlightenment.

8. Book of Sudhana from the
Garland Sutra
• Date: Ming dynasty
• Medium: Woodblock print on paper
• The final chapter of the Garland
Sutra (Hua yan ching) was
considered essential reading for all
Buddhists. It concerns the Indian boy
Sudhana who, while searching for
knowledge of the Buddhist law,
sought advice from 53 different
bodhisattvas. Finally, the bodhisattva
Samantabhadra taught him his ten
great compassionate vows and how
to fulfill them in order to attain
enlightenment.This woodblock
printed edition features a printed
frontispiece in which a large seated
Buddha is shown surrounded by
thirty followers. Following the
frontispiece is a colophon wishing
prosperity and long life to the
emperor. The seventy pages of text
contains three large red temple seals.
On the final page is an illustration of
the guardian figure Wei tuo-tian.

9. Verse in Cursive Script
• Artist: Chieh Chin
• Date: c.1410
• Medium: Ink on paper
• The early Ming calligrapher Chieh Chin passed his first
degree civil service exam (hsueh shih) but eventually
withdrew from official service and lived for a while as a
monk. His robust and energetic calligraphy was highly
prized. The exceptionally fluid characters, "dragged-ink"
strokes, and well-modulated brushwork of this scroll
reveal an incredible control of brush and ink and an
individualistic spirit that was highly admired by
calligraphers and literati of the late Ming period.
• His twenty-eight character verse reads:
The mountain's rocky girth has endured a thousand years,
A day has never passed without dragons and oceans,
Beneath heaven a verdant earth awaits benevolence,
Not knowing if clouds will settle here.
Chieh Chin

10. Bamboo and Rocks
• Artist: Hsieh Cheng
• Date: c.1760
• Medium: Ink on paper
• Cheng Hsieh was born in Hsing-hua near Yang-chou.
Although his family lived in genteel poverty, Cheng was
a good student and passed the highest government exams
in 1736. He studied and produced poetry, calligraphy, and
painting while ably serving as district magistrate in
Shantung province. Undisciplined, outspoken, and
passionate about public service, Cheng resigned in
frustration in 1753 and established himself as a
distinctive member of the group known as the Eight
Eccentrics of Yang-chou. He is best known as an artist
who closely integrated calligraphy with orchid and
bamboo paintings.
• His poem reads:
Bamboo and rock stand paired alone in harmony
The multitudes of plants and flowers are in vain
Spring, summer and autumn cannot transform them.
Only the elegant plum has greater virtue. Wooden Bridge
Cheng Hsieh

11. "The Hall of the Taihe Dian, the main hall of the Forbidden City, is 27 m (90 ft) high, 64 m (210 ft) wide and 37 m (120
ft) deep. It has a roof with double eaves and is decorated with carved dragons and phoenixes, most of which are gilded.
The building is raised on a three-tiered terrace, 8 m (26 ft) high, enclosed by marble balustrades, whilst those around the
same courtyard were kept lower so as to set off the magnificence of the hall."The red walls, pillars and yellow glazed
roof-tiles, and the dougong and beams decorated with dark-green designs of dragons, phoenixes and geometric figures,
are conspicuous against the grey background of Beijing. Begun in 1406, the fourth year of the reign of Yongle (Ming
dynasty), the City was completed fourteen years later; partial reconstruction took place during the period of the Qing
dynasty. Twenty-four emperors lived in and ruled China from the Forbidden City over nearly 500 years."

12. Imperial Throne
• Date: Ch'ing dynasty, Ch'ien-lung period
• Medium: Polychrome lacquer over a softwood frame
• Made during the Ch'ien-lung period (1736-95), this rare piece of court furniture is one of the larger and more fully decorated thrones outside
of China. Few lacquered thrones have dragons and celestial landscapes like those found here painted in gold lacquer across the entire
expanse of the seat. The composition and iconography of the five-clawed imperial dragons cavorting amongst clouds and flaming pearls
above the ocean is an official insignia and is similar to the decoration of court robes and other official court textiles of the period. The
cabriole legs, aprons, and openwork back and side panels are all carved in relief with scrolls and lacquered in green, red, and gold. The
panels of the removable back and side rails are decorated with stylized dragons and shou medallions emblematic of imperial rule and long
life.

13. Empress's Twelve-Symbol Robe
• Date: Ch'ing dynasty
• Medium: Yellow satin, emboridered with silk and gold threads

14. Blue-and-White Dish
• Date: Yuan dynasty
• Medium: Porcelain with molded and underglaze blue decor, Ching-te-chen ware
• Imported Chinese blue-and-white strongly influenced Middle Eastern ceramic traditions. This magnificent plate was produced in the great
ceramic town of Ching-te-chen in southern China specifically for the Middle Eastern market. Near the beginning of the blue-and-white
tradition, Middle Eastern merchants living in China, who understood the ceramic needs and decorative taste of the Islamic countries, most
likely commissioned works like this. It was, for example, the custom to serve food from large plates in Islamic countries but not in China.
Likewise, the foliate rim and the densely painted floral decor executed with imported "Mohammadan blue" (cobalt oxide) were aimed
specifically at Middle Eastern taste, which the Chinese considered somewhat vulgar during the fourteenth century.

15. Pillow
• Artist: Li Family Workshop
• Date: Sung-Chin dynasty
• Medium: Tz’u-chou ware Stoneware with painted designs on white slip
• These "sages" were historical figures who lived in the environs of Lo-yang during the third century following the fall
of the Han dynasty. In the popular mythology that developed around them, they became prototype symbols of
scholarly resolve, Taoist reclusion, gentlemanly accomplishments and self-indulgence. The theme of the reclusive
sage was repeated in literature and the visual arts throughout most succeeding dynasties. The scholarly subject matter
would have been recognizable to an educated Chinese, the type of individual for whom this pillow was probably
intended.The bottom of the pillow is impressed with a seal bearing three characters which read "made by the Li
family" (Li chia tsao). Rectangular pillows from Tz'u-chou with stamped or brushed inscriptions mention the Chang,
Wang, Chen and Li family workshops. Based on the number of surviving pillows, the Chang family dominated the
market during the thirteenth century while examples of the Li family are the most rare.

16. Official Seal
• Date: Han dynasty
• Medium: Gilt bronze
• The size of this seal as well
as its inscription indicate that
it was probably used to stamp
official rather than personal
documents. Several tortoise
form seals have been
excavated from Han tombs,
suggesting that this animal,
which symbolized longevity,
was already a popular motif
among the educated class.
This seal bears the inscription
Tai-shou Chang lui Huai. Lui
Huai appears to be a place
name meaning overlooking
the Huai river, while Chang is
the official's surname, and
Tai-shou his official title.

17. Cricket Container
• Date: Ch'ing dynasty; Jianqing
period
• Medium: Gourd with heat-
incised decoration, ivory and
tortoise-shell
• The Chinese have long enjoyed
the sound of crickets. During the
Tang dynasty (618-907), people
began keeping crickets in their
homes, and by the Ming dynasty
(1368-1644), it had become a
scholarly pastime. By the
eighteenth century, many writings
existed describing the different
varieties of crickets and their
care. During the winter months,
crickets were kept in gourd
containers like this, which were
warmer than the ceramic ones
used in summer. This gourd has
an engraved design burnt into the
surface with a heated stylus. The
outdoor scene depicts a group of
scholars enjoying tea and
discussing books.

18. Cosmetic Case and Mirror Stand
• Date: Ming dynasty
• Medium: Huang-hua-li hardwood
• Distinguished by its imposing size, this
spectacular mirror stand demonstrates
the decorative tradition of Ming style
furniture. The back simulates a five-
panel screen of the type used as the
backdrop for thrones. The panels each
have dragon-head terminals and their
openwork carving is decorated with
sinuous dragons and phoenixes amid
clouds. The drawers are embellished
with auspicious flowers and phoenixes
while the railing posts terminate in
dragons and lotus blossoms. A round
mirror would have been supported on
the s-shaped easel whose central
openwork panel displays a four-
clawed, horned dragon. Extensive use
of highly detailed imperial imagery in
aristocratic huang-hua-li furniture is
rare, and it may be that this
exceptional dressing table cabinet once
belonged to a woman of the royal
household. The chest is fitted with five
deep drawers made entirely of huang-
hua-li. They would have provided
ample storage for hairpins, combs, and
cosmetics.