J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York
MenuPast Exhibition
Bronze and Gold in Ancient China
March 24 - April 12, 2003
30.
FOUR ENGRAVED GILT BRONZE FIGURAL PLAQUES
Eastern Han Dynasty, A.D. 2nd - Early 3rd Century
comprised of two pairs of "immortals" (yuren), each striding figure shown in three-quarter profile, with large ears rising over his head, long wings curling down from his shoulders, and more long feathers curling down around his legs and hanging down from a belt at his waist, in two pairs, one pair shown facing to the right, each holding up a stalk of lingzhi fungus in his left hand and clutching a bag of medicine in his right hand, held close to his chest, the other pair facing to the left, each also holding up a stalk of lingzhi fungus in front of his face and with a dish with three small lingzhi fungus sprigs held in close to his chest in the other hand, the figures all with engraved linear details and with bands of gilding on a silvered ground to reinforce the imagery, the surface showing the effects of burial including small areas of bright green encrusted patina, and with a darker rust-brown patina on one figure.
Height 11 1⁄4 inches (28.5 cm)
The immortal "yuren" (literally "feathered men") are a unique feature of the religious mythology developed in China during the Han dynasty, especially in the region now referred to as Sichuan province. The "yuren" shown here, bearing the longevity-inducing lingzhi fungus and other magic medicines in a bag, embody the wish for immortality which was said to be attainable by those who were administered a magical mixture of rare herbs and minerals.
Compare the cast bronze figure of a kneeling "yuren" with the same exaggerated features and feathered body, excavated in 1964 from a Han dynasty site at Hanchengxian, Xi'an in Shaanxi province, now in the Collection of the Board in Charge of Cultural Relics, Xi'an, included in the 1993-94 special exhibition at the Hong Kong Museum of Art and illustrated in the catalogue entitled Treasure of Chang'an - Capital of the Silk Road, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 71, no. 10, with description on p. 70, where the author states that the image of a "yuren" is associated with "the Daoist idea of a mortal attaining immortality by turning into a feathered crane." The same figure is also illustrated in Zhongguo Qingtongqi Quanji (Compendium of Chinese Bronzes), Vol. 12, Qin/Han, Beijing, 1998, nos. 138 and 139, with description on p. 45.
Compare also the "yuren" depicted as feathered men with large pointed ears shown playing liubo, carved on a Sichuan stone relief now in the Sichuan Provincial Museum, illustrated by Chêng Te-k'un, Archaeological Studies in Szechwan, Cambridge, 1957, p.273, fig. 2 and in a rubbing ibid, p. 272, fig. 3.
30.
FOUR ENGRAVED GILT BRONZE FIGURAL PLAQUES
Eastern Han Dynasty, A.D. 2nd - Early 3rd Century
Height 11 1⁄4 inches (28.5 cm)