China - Aesthetic Development

CHINA - AESTHETIC DEVELOPMENT In northern China, mainly in the basin of the Huang Ho or Yellow river, there slowly emerged in late prehistoric times a focus of civilization destined eventually to make its influence felt in all the neighbouring regions, both continental and insular. Apart from certain well-shaped stone implements and fragments of a coarse, unglazed pottery, few vestiges of the Chinese Stone Age culture have thus far been found. An important exception is the recent discovery in northern China of a painted ware with analogies in Turkistan and regions still farther west.

Chinese Bronze Age.—It is only with the acquisition of bronze that a distinctly Chinese civilization first appears. So far no trace has been found of evolution out of an earlier copper period like that which took place in the Occident. On the con trary, the bronze objects found in China are all essentially late forms, identical in principle with types which in other lands appear only toward the close of the Bronze Age. This great advance in civilization seems to have occurred under the mainly legendary Shang dynasty, the date of whose beginning no one knows, but which terminated about the end of the second millennium B.C. It is, however, with the succeeding largely historical Chou period, with its long line of priest-kings and its brilliant feudal aristocracy, that the Chinese Bronze age is especially linked. In the present fragmentary state of our knowledge of China during the first millenium B.C., it is only possible to reconstruct the civilization of that time very imperfectly. It may be said, however, that although barbarous in many respects, it was distinguished for colour and richness and the lavish use not only of bronze but also of gold, ivory, jade, featherwork and ornamental textiles. Its designs are pretty certainly a development of the old Neolithic art, retained because of their traditionally sacred character and the belief that any alteration in them would diminish their magical efficacy. The high artistic quality of this civilization is best exemplified in the great bronze ceremonial vessels used in connection with the ancestor worship of the nobility. These, for grandeur of form, dignity and ornamentation, and mastery of technique, have never been surpassed, and command the admiration of students and art-lovers the world over.

The Ch'in Dynasty.

The later portion of the Chou period witnessed a great social and economic development, which in time undermined the archaic feudal system. The 3rd century B.C. saw its entire overthrow, along with that of its venerable but long since impotent hieratic dynasty, by the vigorous western fief of Ch'in. The ruler of the latter forcibly united the hitherto loosely federated States into a centralized empire, of which he declared himself first emperor. Of the artistic achievements of his power ful but short-lived dynasty we know but little. A nearly con temporary work states that large bronze statues were then cast, and certain types of vessels of that material have been ascribed to the period, with hardly sufficient reason. That it was an epoch of extraordinary magnificence, there is no doubt. The Ch'in dynasty collapsed little more than a decade after its establishment, having fulfilled, however, its historic mission of assuring once for all the cultural unity of China.

The Han Dynasty.—Out of the general welter of war which followed, there emerged in a few years the great dynasty of the Han, which reigned over the empire, with but one brief interval, from 206 B.C. to A.D. 220. This period of over 40o years is a most important one, in art as in other respects. Then first ap peared numerous hitherto unknown culture elements of funda mental importance to the Chinese civilization of later times.

Of its architecture the records have much to say, but nothing has survived save certain foundation mounds and city and bound ary walls of rammed earth. Sculpture in stone now first made its appearance, in the form of low reliefs and figures of men and ani mals set up about tombs ; here some connection with the art of western regions may be suspected, for it was just at this time that direct contact with the Occident was first established. Paint ing underwent a great development, its materials, instruments and technique becoming fundamentally what they have since re mained. Of its achievements, only certain archaic delineations of human figures on funerary tiles are known ; but it would seem mainly to have depicted scenes of battle, the hunt, and court and domestic life, with but little attempt at landscape. Only in the 2nd century A.D., toward the close of the dynasty, did the names of individual artists begin to be recorded.

The pottery of this period also shared in the great aesthetic evolution then taking place. Glaze, known for millenniums in the Occident, now first appears in China, and the great Han mortuary vessels, sometimes inspired by bronze forms or encircled by bands of vigorous naturalistic scenes in relief, are well known to col lectors. The first tentative essays in the direction of porcelain are likewise to be ascribed to this period. Clay figures of men, women, animals, houses and utensils, found buried in tombs, throw much light on the life of the time. The decorative arts, like those of the jeweller and the lapidary, also underwent a rich and striking de velopment ; in connection with the latter it may be noted that seals, usually cut in jade or some other hard stone, long known in western lands, now first appeared in China.

The downfall of the Han dynasty, in the 3rd century, led to a condition of disunion and civil war, which lasted for nearly 400 years. Yet, in spite of this, great progress was made in all the arts. In architecture, probably toward the close of the period, arose the practice of uptilting the corners of roofs, regarded by Westerners as so characteristically Chinese. Paintings on silk, still chiefly of human figures but displaying attempts toward land scape, are known to us through copies by later artists. Pottery was further improved and diversified in form, ornamentation and technique, and true porcelain appears, apparently as a direct evolu tion out of the ware of the Han dynasty.