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"The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology:
Celebrated Discoveries from the People's Republic of
China"
Andrew K. Y. Leung
Center for
Advanced Study in the Visual Arts
National Gallery
Washington,
DC
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"The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from
the People's Republic of China" opened in the East Wing of the National
Gallery, Washington, D.C., on 19 September 1999. Organized jointly by the
National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of
Art in Kansas City, with the cooperation of the State Administration of
Cultural Heritage and Art Exhibitions in the People's Republic of China,
this exhibition is an impressive overview that provides the American
public with a rare opportunity to view the results of many important
archaeological discoveries in China during this century. The show is
divided chronologically into four sections: Late Prehistoric China (c.
5000-2000 BC), the Bronze Age (c. 2000-771 BC), Chu and Other Cultures (c.
770-221 BC), and Early Imperial China (221 BC-AD 924). Within each
section, the exhibits are further arranged by their respective sites and
regional traditions. The majority of the artifacts on display are newly
discovered. Many have never traveled to the United States before.
Since the 1970s, Chinese archaeology has made tremendous strides
and has greatly increased our knowledge of China's past. The many
discoveries during the last twenty-five years have drastically altered our
perception of the early development of Chinese culture. The term "golden
age" in the title of the exhibition, therefore, refers in fact to this
highly fruitful period of archaeological activity, not to the fabulous
finds themselves.
The show opens with artifacts from various
Neolithic regional traditions. Materials more familiar to the Western
viewer include painted pottery of the Yangshao culture from the northwest,
jades and pottery of the Hongshan culture from the Northeast, and white
jades of the Liangzhu culture from the South. In stark contrast to the
geometric designs of the Yangshao pots, a unique gang urn from
Linru depicts realistic images showing a bird holding a fish in its bill
and an axe. Another urn from the Dawenkou culture contains a mysterious
sign that may be a form of early writing. This section ends with a more
unusual group of painted pottery from the site of Taosi in southern
Shanxi, an offshoot of the Longshan culture in Shandong. The marvelous
designs on these vessels appear to foretell the design principle for
Chinese decorative arts in Shang (ca. 1600-1045 BC) and later
periods.
The Bronze Age section of the show is dominated by the
fabulous bronze vessels and related materials from Anyang, Dayangzhou, and
Sanxingdui. It is not possible to elaborate on the impact of the
Dayangzhou and Sanxingdui findings on Shang archaeology here. It has
become quite clear, however, that Anyang should no longer be seen as the
center of Shang culture. In fact, the findings from the sites of
Dayangzhou and Sanxingdui prove that Shang civilization is more diverse
and complex than previously thought. Equally intriguing are three pots
from Dadianzi, an early Shang site in Inner Mongolia. The painted
decoration on these vessels should make specialists rethink the origin of
decorative motifs on early Shang bronzes. The exhibition also includes a
number of objects from Erlitou, a site that some scholars believe to be
from a period of Chinese civilization whose existence has yet to be
proven, the so-called preceding Xia dynasty (ca. 21st-16th c. BC). The
Western Zhou period (1045-771 BC) is represented by objects recovered from
sites such as Shijiazhuang, Zhuangbai, and the tombs at Tianma-Qucun.
Among these finds, the largest and heaviest Western Zhou bronze vessel
(226 kilograms) ever found in China and the jade ornaments recovered from
the tombs of the lords of Jin are perhaps the most outstanding.
In
the last two parts of the exhibition, Western viewers enter more familiar
ground. The section on the Chu period (?-223 BC) features some of the
finest bronzes and lacquers from the Eastern Zhou period (770-256 BC). A
good number of these remarkable artifacts were recovered from the tomb of
Marquis Yi of Zeng at Leigudun. Other attractions from the same historical
period include the set of twenty-six bells from Xiasi, textiles from
Mashan, the painted lacquer coffin and other artifacts from Baoshan, and
artifacts from Tomb 1 at Tianxingguan.
Many of the most
recognizable Chinese artifacts on display are in the last part of the
exhibition. Objects such as the terracotta figures from the mausoleum of
Qin Shihuangdi (r. 221-209 BC) and the jade suit of Liu Sheng from
Mancheng (Western Han, 202 BC-AD 203) are without doubt the most
well-known examples of Chinese art. Besides these "blockbuster" pieces,
the show also include a second jade suit belonging to the King of Nanyue
from Xianggang, three Northern Dynasties (386-581) Buddhist sculptures
from Qingzhou, and some of the finest Tang (618-907) metalwork from the
Famen Temple. Although less well-known, the two painted marble reliefs of
female musicians from the tomb of Wang Chuzhi at Xiyanchuan from the Five
Dynasties period (907-960) are certainly great examples of stone relief
works from China.
However, the impact of the show weakens with this
last section, almost becoming anti-climatic. This is partly due to the
number and variety of objects on display. Works with a status equal to the
earlier materials are the previously mentioned jade suits as well as the
artifacts from Famen Temple and from Qingzhou. The rest are ordinary --
tomb figurines and similar works -- that do not contribute significantly
to the scholarship of the field.
To this reviewer, the present
exhibition provides a great service in assembling these extraordinary
works of art under one roof. Every artifact in this show is the best
representative example of its respective genre. Furthermore, the objects
on display are borrowed from thirty-seven different museums and
institutions in China. Even if one were willing to travel to China in
order to glimpse these artifacts, it would be impossible to view them in
one place. This is thus a rare treat for every American
museum-goer.
Equally importantly, this exhibition successfully
demonstrates the progress of Chinese archaeology. Many long-accepted
beliefs concerning the development of Chinese civilization have now been
overturned, especially in the first two sections of the show, the
Neolithic and the Bronze Age. With the new discoveries that must come in
the future, it will not be surprising if we see new theories regarding the
origin of Chinese civilization arise.
After closing at the National
Gallery on 2 January 2000, the show travels to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
(13 February to 7 May), then to San Francisco. 
Click here to purchase
the exhibition catalogue Golden
Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People's
Republic of China.
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Yin Jinan
China Central Institute of Fine Arts
Nixi Cura
On the State of the Field
Scholarship in the History of Ancient Painting in the 1990s
by Xue Yongnian
Puyi's Legacy
New Discoveries of Calligraphy
and Painting from the Palace Museum's "List of Lost Works"
by Liu Jianlong
A Record-Breaking Purchase by the Palace Museum
Zhang Xian's Ten Odes
by Yang Lili
Zhang Xian's Ten Odes: Counterpoint
On the Inauthenticity of Ten
Odes by Zhang Xian of the Northern Song Dynasty
by Wu Gan
Select Bibliography on Chinese Painting
Palace Museum Exhibition
"Treasures of Painting
and Calligraphy Acquired by the Palace Museum over the Last 50 Years"
by Fu Dongguang
Palace Museum Exhibition
"Grand Exhibition
of Cultural Relics Collected over the Last 50 Years"
Palace Museum Symposium
Academic Symposium Accompanying
the "Grand
Exhibition of Cultural Relics Collected over the Last 50 Years" at the Palace
Museum
by Wang Qi
Shanghai Museum
The Shanghai Museum
Holds A Symposium on Its Exhibition of Masterpieces
by Xue Yongnian
Liaoning Provincial Museum
An Assembly of Masterpieces,
Presented in Radiant Splendor: Record of the "Exhibition of Treasures from
the Ten Great Archaeological Discoveries in Liaoning"
by Ma Cheng
Important
Results from the Liao Tomb Excavation at Jarud Qi
by Tala, Yang Jie, and Dong Linxin
Three Eastern
Han Tombs with Wall Paintings at Otog
by Wang Dafang and Yang Zemeng
"Appreciation
and Analysis of the Murals Unearthed from a Song Tomb at Wang Shang Village
in Dengfeng, Henan Province
by Zhang Songlin and Zhang Deshui
"A
Breakthrough in the Interpretation of the 'Stone Carvings' at Junshan"
by Chen Xiangyuan
"Notes
on the Excavation of Han Tomb No. 1 at Huxi Mountain, Yuanling"
by Guo Weimin
"Animal
Designs and Chinese Script on the 'Five Stars of the East Favor the Central
Kingdom' Brocade"
by Li Ling
Extracts
from China Archaeology and Art Digest 3:2/3 (January 2000): Painting
and Pictorial Arts
Ding Xiyuan on Quehua
qiuse tu
Hao Junhong on Ma
Shouzhen
Shan Guoqiang on "Haipai"
Yu Hui on Yuan court artists
Macao Art Museum
"The Efflorescence of a Prosperous Age: Fine Works of Qing Dynasty Painting
and Objects of the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong Reigns in the Collection
of the Palace Museum"
National Gallery, Washington, DC
"The Golden
Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People's Republic
of China"
by Andrew K. Y. Leung
The
Qingming shanghe Scroll and Qingming shanghe Studies
by Wang Qi
On Qingming
shanghe Studies
by Nie Chongzheng
Chai Zejun: Collected
Works on Ancient Architecture
Fifty
Years of Archaeology in New China
Volume 1, Issue 1 (October 1999)
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