Chinese sculpture during the Han dynasty examined
Chinese sculpture during the Han dynasty examined
A discussion of Chinese art, from the documentary China: West Meets East at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Great Museums Television (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Transcript
NARRATOR: This intriguing sculpture from the 2nd century BC was created during the Han empire, one of the greatest dynasties in China's history. Even today the Han people represent the ethnic majority in China and the largest single ethnic group in the world.
JASON SUN: One of the very highly accomplished forms of art in Han dynasty was sculpture, the pottery sculptures. So this very [unintelligible] that we have here is a dancing figure, and as she's dancing this very traditional dance. But what's special about this work of art is that it is trying to express motion, or movement, through a still object. It doesn't matter from which angle you look at this object; you could almost feel it's just about to move forward. And this is one of the great works of art ever created.
[Music in]
NARRATOR: In any culture. The Han ruled China for 400 years, beginning in 206 BC.
JASON SUN: By this time China unified the entire country. It was an empire, and this was a time that China started to have lot of contact with the Western world.
MIKE HEARN: Very much like the Roman Empire, which existed at the same time, the Han empire was based on the rule of man. And so you get a very humanistic culture arising. It's the time when Confucian ideas are put into practice, and a notion of morality, as its most important principle for the emperor to govern with, was really put into place.
NARRATOR: At the center of the Han world stands man. The Han believed that the realm of the dead was a lot like the land of the living. Even in death people would need to care for their most basic worldly needs. These models of a Han village, or perhaps a large estate, were built for the afterlife.
JASON SUN: They simply go to another world. To make sure that they would live happily, they would have everything that they would need in other world, what they would do is to bury all these little figures with little architecture models—houses, small pigpens, chicken farms—everything that he would possibly need in the other world.
NARRATOR: Practically everything they needed they could get. This image of a Bactrian camel indicates the importance of desert caravans along the Silk Road. Controlled by the powerful Han Chinese rulers, this 4,000-mile network crisscrossed the Eurasian continent. The Silk Road led to the free exchange of goods and ideas, including Buddhism, which originated in India and spread through Asia and beyond.
[Music out]
MIKE HEARN: Being a culture now that is used to the concept of man as the center of the universe, it's when the Han dynasty falls that we see the first inroads of Buddhism—the idea of a human who's become deified, who's transcended the cycle of free birth and becomes like a god.
[Music in]
NARRATOR: This paradise burial jar was created within decades of the demise of the Han empire, in 220 AD, after the Han's confident worldview of Confucianism gave way to political chaos. The jar portrays some of the earliest Buddhist images known in China. Here a row of tiny Buddhas meditate on lotus thrones, circling the waist of the urn. Still, the jar combines both Chinese and Buddhist ideas. Above the Buddhas, mystical beasts and birds help support a model of paradise. Their mission was to guide the soul of the deceased inside the urn through the grand double-tiered gate.
MIKE HEARN: The remarkable thing about Buddhism is that we see how malleable it could be as a religion. But the Buddhists' images, that look so Indian when they were created in northern India, are subtly transformed when they reach China.
NARRATOR: A comparison of an Indian Buddha with a Chinese version of about the same period shows the differences in interpretation.
DENISE LEIDY: The Indian one is stone—probably dates about 435, 450 AD. You can see right away that it's—it's about physical form. It's a very idealized physical form, but you have this very powerful figure who has a very subtly rounded body. And always in the Indian sculpture you get this tiny little stomach that shows you that this figure is filled with life and it's breathing. All of this—and—and the very Indian notion that if you're spiritually evolved you're physically perfect—comes to China, which is a culture which is thought more in line than in volume over the years.
NARRATOR: China's version of Buddha downplays the body.
MIKE HEARN: They didn't want to be distracted with the sensual qualities. They really wanted to present the Buddha as a spiritual being rather than a physical one.
DENISE LEIDY: So the Chinese piece is a little bit squarer; it's a little less soft and rounded. And one of the things that's really fascinating is that when you look at the Indian piece, the folds of the drapery tend to articulate the body, whereas when you look at the Chinese piece, the folds of the drapery tend to obscure the body.
NARRATOR: Buddhism taught that man could attain spiritual enlightenment, an ideal state known as nirvana. Yet, ultimately, the Chinese found this spiritual concept too remote for practical everyday guidance.
MIKE HEARN: Nirvana is literally [Music out] kind of the extinction of the person. So they became much more attracted to many of the Buddha's followers. And one group in particular were the Luohan.
[Music in]
NARRATOR: The Luohans were legendary early followers of Buddha who had not yet achieved nirvana. They came to be protectors of the religion.
DENISE LEIDY: Luo's sculptures, I think, are phenomenally Chinese. First of all, they're clay, not stone. They are covered with these wonderful three-colored glazes, which were actually developed in China in the 8th century. Unlike many other kinds of Buddhist art, where you're always looking at these very idealized figures, those Luohans look like two different people. I mean, they have real personalities. They're almost hard to ignore, I think.
NARRATOR: These monumental stoneworks are relics of Buddhism's impact on a changing China. Over the centuries, the sculptures have lost none of their power.
MIKE HEARN: Some of the sculptures you see in our collection from the 5th and 6th century actually come from these large cave temples that were carved out of the living rock and created as acts of piety by members of the royal family.
NARRATOR: Before the 5th century, China had very little monumental stone sculpture, but, influenced by Indian and Central Asian cave temples, the Chinese began carving large-scale Buddhist images directly into the sides of mountains.
MIKE HEARN: Stone sculpture in China was never viewed as a high art. It was religious art. Of course, in the West stone sculpture has a long tradition of being appreciated as a high art. So Westerners were much more willing to acquire these works of art when these things came on the art market.
NARRATOR: It took nearly 600 years, but by the time of the Tang dynasty, in the 7th century AD, Buddhism was the official religion of the imperial family and the predominant religion in China.
JASON SUN: Buddhist art had a lot of influence on Chinese art, especially on Chinese sculpture. And this was made in the 7th century. By this time, Chinese art already completely adapted all the foreign elements from Buddhist art.
NARRATOR: This small Tang dynasty sculpture of a musician, made of marble, embodies a world of borrowed tradition. The artist wrapped the figure in the soft draping lines typical of Indian Buddhist sculpture.
JASON SUN: One other elements also shows the foreign influence on Chinese culture, and that is the flute, which was introduced into China from Central Asia.
NARRATOR: During the Tang dynasty, China celebrates a golden age.
MIKE HEARN: China projects its power across the Central Asian Silk Routes—becomes very open to traders from the West. It was actually the most cosmopolitan state on the planet.
JAMES WATT: The Tang period, in many peoples minds, was so Chinese, but in fact Tang art is very much Western influenced.
DENISE LEIDY: You find in Tang dynasty gold and silver shapes that are very Chinese, but they often have decoration on them that alludes to things that we might think of as Central Asian or Byzantine or west Asian.
NARRATOR: This Tang dynasty bowl, from around the 8th century, has a traditional Chinese shape.
JASON SUN: But the decorative elements in the center of the bowl is completely un-Chinese. It's totally different from anything that you would have seen in Chinese art.
NARRATOR: The crouching deer with the crown of antlers comes from Central Asia. And the technique, hammered gold and silver, is something the Chinese picked up centuries earlier from the nomadic people of the northern steppes. Throughout the Tang dynasty, the world left its imprint on Chinese art and society, but in the 10th century came a change.
[Music out]
JASON SUN: One of the very highly accomplished forms of art in Han dynasty was sculpture, the pottery sculptures. So this very [unintelligible] that we have here is a dancing figure, and as she's dancing this very traditional dance. But what's special about this work of art is that it is trying to express motion, or movement, through a still object. It doesn't matter from which angle you look at this object; you could almost feel it's just about to move forward. And this is one of the great works of art ever created.
[Music in]
NARRATOR: In any culture. The Han ruled China for 400 years, beginning in 206 BC.
JASON SUN: By this time China unified the entire country. It was an empire, and this was a time that China started to have lot of contact with the Western world.
MIKE HEARN: Very much like the Roman Empire, which existed at the same time, the Han empire was based on the rule of man. And so you get a very humanistic culture arising. It's the time when Confucian ideas are put into practice, and a notion of morality, as its most important principle for the emperor to govern with, was really put into place.
NARRATOR: At the center of the Han world stands man. The Han believed that the realm of the dead was a lot like the land of the living. Even in death people would need to care for their most basic worldly needs. These models of a Han village, or perhaps a large estate, were built for the afterlife.
JASON SUN: They simply go to another world. To make sure that they would live happily, they would have everything that they would need in other world, what they would do is to bury all these little figures with little architecture models—houses, small pigpens, chicken farms—everything that he would possibly need in the other world.
NARRATOR: Practically everything they needed they could get. This image of a Bactrian camel indicates the importance of desert caravans along the Silk Road. Controlled by the powerful Han Chinese rulers, this 4,000-mile network crisscrossed the Eurasian continent. The Silk Road led to the free exchange of goods and ideas, including Buddhism, which originated in India and spread through Asia and beyond.
[Music out]
MIKE HEARN: Being a culture now that is used to the concept of man as the center of the universe, it's when the Han dynasty falls that we see the first inroads of Buddhism—the idea of a human who's become deified, who's transcended the cycle of free birth and becomes like a god.
[Music in]
NARRATOR: This paradise burial jar was created within decades of the demise of the Han empire, in 220 AD, after the Han's confident worldview of Confucianism gave way to political chaos. The jar portrays some of the earliest Buddhist images known in China. Here a row of tiny Buddhas meditate on lotus thrones, circling the waist of the urn. Still, the jar combines both Chinese and Buddhist ideas. Above the Buddhas, mystical beasts and birds help support a model of paradise. Their mission was to guide the soul of the deceased inside the urn through the grand double-tiered gate.
MIKE HEARN: The remarkable thing about Buddhism is that we see how malleable it could be as a religion. But the Buddhists' images, that look so Indian when they were created in northern India, are subtly transformed when they reach China.
NARRATOR: A comparison of an Indian Buddha with a Chinese version of about the same period shows the differences in interpretation.
DENISE LEIDY: The Indian one is stone—probably dates about 435, 450 AD. You can see right away that it's—it's about physical form. It's a very idealized physical form, but you have this very powerful figure who has a very subtly rounded body. And always in the Indian sculpture you get this tiny little stomach that shows you that this figure is filled with life and it's breathing. All of this—and—and the very Indian notion that if you're spiritually evolved you're physically perfect—comes to China, which is a culture which is thought more in line than in volume over the years.
NARRATOR: China's version of Buddha downplays the body.
MIKE HEARN: They didn't want to be distracted with the sensual qualities. They really wanted to present the Buddha as a spiritual being rather than a physical one.
DENISE LEIDY: So the Chinese piece is a little bit squarer; it's a little less soft and rounded. And one of the things that's really fascinating is that when you look at the Indian piece, the folds of the drapery tend to articulate the body, whereas when you look at the Chinese piece, the folds of the drapery tend to obscure the body.
NARRATOR: Buddhism taught that man could attain spiritual enlightenment, an ideal state known as nirvana. Yet, ultimately, the Chinese found this spiritual concept too remote for practical everyday guidance.
MIKE HEARN: Nirvana is literally [Music out] kind of the extinction of the person. So they became much more attracted to many of the Buddha's followers. And one group in particular were the Luohan.
[Music in]
NARRATOR: The Luohans were legendary early followers of Buddha who had not yet achieved nirvana. They came to be protectors of the religion.
DENISE LEIDY: Luo's sculptures, I think, are phenomenally Chinese. First of all, they're clay, not stone. They are covered with these wonderful three-colored glazes, which were actually developed in China in the 8th century. Unlike many other kinds of Buddhist art, where you're always looking at these very idealized figures, those Luohans look like two different people. I mean, they have real personalities. They're almost hard to ignore, I think.
NARRATOR: These monumental stoneworks are relics of Buddhism's impact on a changing China. Over the centuries, the sculptures have lost none of their power.
MIKE HEARN: Some of the sculptures you see in our collection from the 5th and 6th century actually come from these large cave temples that were carved out of the living rock and created as acts of piety by members of the royal family.
NARRATOR: Before the 5th century, China had very little monumental stone sculpture, but, influenced by Indian and Central Asian cave temples, the Chinese began carving large-scale Buddhist images directly into the sides of mountains.
MIKE HEARN: Stone sculpture in China was never viewed as a high art. It was religious art. Of course, in the West stone sculpture has a long tradition of being appreciated as a high art. So Westerners were much more willing to acquire these works of art when these things came on the art market.
NARRATOR: It took nearly 600 years, but by the time of the Tang dynasty, in the 7th century AD, Buddhism was the official religion of the imperial family and the predominant religion in China.
JASON SUN: Buddhist art had a lot of influence on Chinese art, especially on Chinese sculpture. And this was made in the 7th century. By this time, Chinese art already completely adapted all the foreign elements from Buddhist art.
NARRATOR: This small Tang dynasty sculpture of a musician, made of marble, embodies a world of borrowed tradition. The artist wrapped the figure in the soft draping lines typical of Indian Buddhist sculpture.
JASON SUN: One other elements also shows the foreign influence on Chinese culture, and that is the flute, which was introduced into China from Central Asia.
NARRATOR: During the Tang dynasty, China celebrates a golden age.
MIKE HEARN: China projects its power across the Central Asian Silk Routes—becomes very open to traders from the West. It was actually the most cosmopolitan state on the planet.
JAMES WATT: The Tang period, in many peoples minds, was so Chinese, but in fact Tang art is very much Western influenced.
DENISE LEIDY: You find in Tang dynasty gold and silver shapes that are very Chinese, but they often have decoration on them that alludes to things that we might think of as Central Asian or Byzantine or west Asian.
NARRATOR: This Tang dynasty bowl, from around the 8th century, has a traditional Chinese shape.
JASON SUN: But the decorative elements in the center of the bowl is completely un-Chinese. It's totally different from anything that you would have seen in Chinese art.
NARRATOR: The crouching deer with the crown of antlers comes from Central Asia. And the technique, hammered gold and silver, is something the Chinese picked up centuries earlier from the nomadic people of the northern steppes. Throughout the Tang dynasty, the world left its imprint on Chinese art and society, but in the 10th century came a change.
[Music out]