All About Chinese Culture: An Illustrated Brief History in 50 Art Treasures

By Yonghong Wang and Guimei Yang

Are you curious about the diversified views in “Contention of the Hundred Schools of Thought”? What's the origin of the Chinese zodiac signs? Or the history of the Chinese tea culture that is popular around the world? As one of the few ancient civilizations in the world, China features her a multidimensional cultural deposit in consistency and unification, endowing her history with a sense of perplexity and enchantment. Would you find it quite difficult to study Chinese culture? Well, relax. Together in this book, we shall follow the historical trace of 50 national treasures of the museums through the time tunnel, and enjoy their stories buried in the past 5000 years. They would be your company to explore the magnificent world of ancient China. In this book, the Chinese history is divided into eight periods. The treasures selected as samples are precious collections from museums around the world, including ceramics, jades, bronze wares, paintings, bamboo slips, sculptures, gold wares and silver wares. Rich in photographs and illustrations, the book introduces the most representative academic thoughts, moral education, religious beliefs, and folk customs in every period of the ancient China, and describes the interaction of Chinese and foreign cultures, as well as the spirit of the times and the cultural characteristics hidden behind them. In this way, the most crucial social concepts and the most attractive anecdotes in history will be revealed, and a sketch of Chinese culture will be unfolding in front of you through the rising and falling of those ancient dynasties. The treasures will no longer be resting in silence, as they are about to tell their own stories and present you with a journey of knowledge and visual feast. Let's take a stroll along the glory years to unveil the Chinese culture.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shanghai Press
• Release date: Apr 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9781938368905

Book preview

THE EARTH MOTHER

inline-image Pottery Figurine of a Pregnant Woman

Hongshan Culture, Neolithic Age

Residual height 7.8 cm

National Museum of China

The figurine is polished in entirety and appears to be painted red, with some damage to the head, the right arm and the feet. The woman, with a bulging belly and fat buttocks, crosses her left arm over her chest and slightly bends her lower limbs. With a focus on the symbolism of the female form, the figurine exaggerates the shapes of the abdomen, buttocks, and legs, and doesn’t ignore the regular proportions of a female body.

Our ancestors were always curious about the origin of life. In prehistoric times, due to limited levels of productivity, people didn’t have the ability to live in harmony with nature, so they were constantly faced with the threat of disasters and death. And the worse the disaster was, the stronger their desire for protection from a supernatural force grew. Amidst these disasters, mortality was of central focus. As reproduction was closely related to the survival and growth of clans, prehistoric people were desperate for the birth of a new life and prayed for endless births to withstand frequent disasters and deaths. At that time, due to the lack of knowledge about fertility, the one basic fact people saw was that everyone was born of their own mothers. Therefore, women were deified, and people worshiped the goddesses of fertility. Meanwhile, great importance was attached to childbirth, which was carried out in the wild and accompanied by a grand blessing ceremony. The people of that time believed that the reproductive capacity of pregnant women could be passed to the earth through these mysterious rituals, making the earth fertile, and vice versa. Therefore, the worship of fertility was often combined with sacrifice to the Earth Mother and prayer for bumper harvests in ancient times.

Female figurines with a focus on the pregnant body have been found in the Xinglongwa Culture (6200–5400 BC) in the western part of Liaoning Province; the common feature of these stone statues is that they give a full depiction of women’s large breasts and bulging bellies, while comparatively ignoring other parts of the body. There are seven figurines of nude pregnant women unearthed from the Zhaobaogou Culture (4500–4000 BC), among which a stone statue with a damaged head captures, in particular, the posture of a woman in labor. The bottoms of those figurines are mostly conically shaped, which indicates that they used to be planted in the earth and worshipped as goddesses.

There have also been human-shaped sculptures of various textures unearthed, known as objects of Hongshan Culture (with a history of about 1500 years), among which the female statues are especially eye-catching. The worship of women embodied in those female statues played a vital role in the process of the development of civilization. The Pottery Figurine of a Pregnant Woman was unearthed in a stone building complex of the Hongshan Culture, which may have been the center of sacrificial rituals where the ancestors worshipped nature and their forefathers and also prayed for bumper harvests. The edge of the circular base in the site is neat (fig. 7), and the fragments of several large clay statues of seated human figures have been excavated near it. Those figures may have been the ones that were worshipped by our ancestors. And as the representation of the concept of fertility and reproduction, the two figurines of nude pregnant women indicate that the ceremonies held at that time expanded from clans or tribes on a larger scale and are an expression of our ancestors’ worship of fertility, as well as of prayers for bumper harvests.

Fig. 7 Dongshanzui Site of Hongshan Culture in Kazuo County, Liaoning Province

This is a man-made elevated platform with an area of 240 square meters (see panorama above). In the near part of the middle lies a stone circular altar with a diameter of 2.5 meters (see detail on the left); in the back lies a square altar with a side length of more than 10 meters, and there are three stone piles on it. A large number of pottery statues of nude women have been excavated around the altar.

Statuettes of pregnant women from the late Paleolithic period to the early Neolithic Age, most of which are made of stone, have been found in places like France, Austria, and Russia. These stones were carved into the shape of a nude woman with a belly bulge, with a focus on the image of women as life-givers. As Venus is the goddess of love and beauty, as well as the goddess of fertility, in Roman mythology, those statuettes of nude women of ancient times are known as Venuses by archaeologists and art historians. It appears that the worship of the Earth Mother, who gives birth to new life, is universal.

ROUND HEAVEN AND SQUARE EARTH

inline-image Jade Cong

Liangzhu Culture, Neolithic Age

Height 49.7 cm

National Museum of China

The jade cong, a ritual object in the Neolithic Age, takes the shape of a rectangular tube with a circular bore in the middle and decorative patterns carved on its surface as segmentation marks. The cong in the illustration, with a bigger body and a smaller bottom, has 19 sections with a total height of 49.7 cm, which is the longest jade cong ever found in China. The cong served as a ritual object used by people of high social ranking in the Liangzhu Culture. It is carved with highly symbolic animal-mask designs on the four corners of each section and patterns of the sun and the moon near the top. Cutmarks made in the manufacturing process can be seen on part of its surface.

In the Neolithic Age when stone was widely used to make tools, the craft of jade processing appeared and developed. No later than 8,000 years ago, people started to appreciate the beauty of jade, a material that is very attractive when used in the making of stone tools. Since then, people extracted jade by breaking stones and making them into objects through crafting procedures like chipping and polishing—creating a unique jade art form. Jade processing was so laborious and time-consuming due to its hardness that only those in power were able to order the large number of workers needed to produce high-quality jades. Large quantities were produced for them at a high cost. Jade was therefore a symbol of power, status, and wealth. In the society of the time, when religious authority and witchcraft dominated people’s spiritual world, jades, which were believed to have absorbed energy and been recast and adopted over time, profoundly affecting the ideology of ancient China and being venerated by senior officials of the time. Therefore, in thousands of years of Chinese history, this concept has been adopted in multiple cultural fields, such as jade cong for sacrifices to heaven and earth, Chinese cash coins with a round outer shape and a square hole in their center which circulated for more than two thousand years, the mingtang (a place for an emperor to declare punishment, prize, or instructions and a place to worship heaven, earth, and ancestors in ancient times) and biyong (a circular ditch around the mingtang), as well as the Temple of the Earth for sacrifices to the earth, and the Temple of Heaven for sacrifices to heaven (figs. 8 and 9). All of them adopted the concept and pattern of round heaven and square earth to their forms so that they could gain the power to connect heaven and earth. The design of capitals and imperial palaces in ancient China also followed this pattern, symbolizing the legitimacy and authority of wordly power. In addition, some objects for entertainment and divination like boju (the chessboard of an ancient Chinese board game played by two players), shipan (a tool used for mathematical calculations or divination in ancient China), and Go (the traditional Chinese board game) also adopted this spatial layout.

About two or three thousand years ago, China had conceptualized the shape of the world and formed a civilization with its own characteristics based on the spatial concept of round heaven and square earth. The concept, which extended to the social field, provided the basis of the sanctity and rationality for a political structure in which the emperor in the center governed all his vassals and objects in absolute monarchy.

Fig. 8 The ruins of the Temple of Heaven of the Tang dynasty, built in 590 as a ceremonial site for the emperors of the Sui and Tang dynasties to worship heaven, is located in today’s Xi’an, Shaanxi Province. It is a set of round high platforms with a height of about 8 meters, a typical symbolization of the concept round heaven and square earth.

Fig. 9 Line graph of the Temple of Heaven of the Tang dynasty (above, see also fig. 8) and the Temple of Heaven of the Ming dynasty (below).

EVERYTHING IS ANIMISTIC

inline-image Colored Pottery Carved with Naked Figure in Relief

Majiayao Culture (c. 3200–2000 BC), Neolithic Age

Height 33.4 cm, diameter 9.2 cm

National Museum of China

The most notable part of this pottery is the naked figure carved in relief on its surface. His head lies on the neck of the pot with five facial organs, including small eyes, a high nose, big ears, and a big mouth. The man puts both hands on his stomach and stands straight, with protruding breasts and nipples painted black in the center. The most special part of the pottery is the intersexual feature of the central part, which shows an intersex person with both male and female sexual organs. On the back of the neck are painted strands of long hair, under which stands a big frog (see also fig. 10 on facing page), occupying the area outside the intersexual’s legs. The area beneath the figure and the frog is decorated with wave patterns in a circle, which shows that this is not an ordinary household utensil. Instead, it is universally accepted by scholars that this figure carved in relief is related to shamanistic worship in prehistoric culture and that the colored pottery is a worshipping object.

In ancient times, people believed that natural occurrences and changing natural phenomena would bring both joy and disaster, and thus they gradually grew in awe of nature. When they worshipped and prayed to nature, people formed the view that all things have spirit—the main belief of Shamanism, which naturally came into being in primitive society. The ritual of dancing to the gods is the main activity of Shamanism, which is a global cultural phenomenon popular in northern and middle Asia, northern Europe, north and south America, and Africa.

The prehistoric Chinese people divided the world into different parts, such as heaven, earth, men, and gods, and shamans were viewed as wizards who interacted with different parties. Due to their scarcity and specialty, intersex people were believed to be born with divine nature in the eyes of ancient people. Therefore, they often naturally became shamans, messengers between heaven, earth, men, and gods. After the death of the intersex shamans, if there were no intersex descendants in the tribe, some normal shamans would pretend to be intersex so that they could be deemed to have divine nature as intersexual shamans. The male shamans in Yakut in Siberia, Chukchi, and Kamchagar in northeastern Asia would wear fake breasts, long hair, and female clothes, and would even imitate women’s voices to show their divinity while dancing to the gods.

Transformation between different creatures, including humans, is another important element of shamanism. Shamans would transform into animals, a practice known as spirit possession. Apart from wearing animal skins and masks, they would appear animal-like psychologically, displaying both physical and mental changes. In shamanism, frogs are thought to have great divine power and are viewed as spirits of the underworld because they are able to dive into hell to bring back the spirits of ill and deceased people. Additionally, frogs have different forms as larvae and adults. Tadpoles lose their tails and grow new organs, such as legs, to become frogs. They also go into hibernation during winter and revive in spring. The ability to transform and revive has parallels with the concept of all things have spirit in shamanism. Due to the biological traits and instincts of frogs, shamanic peoples believe that frogs have the magic power of variance and revival. Therefore, the concept of a shaman transforming into a frog is a popular legend. In the mind of Yakut people, only shamans with extraordinary power have the ability to become frogs. The intersex shaman and the big frog on the Majiayao pottery unearthed in China share a head (fig. 10). The combination of human and frog highlights the idea of transformation between two creatures. This might mean that shaman is asking frogs to possess him so that he can interact with gods through the medium of frogs.

Fig. 10 Details of frog patterns on the back of the Colored Pottery Carved with Naked Figure in Relief.

Shamanism first appeared and took form in prehistoric times. Northern ethnic groups in Chinese history, including Xiongnu, Xianbei, Rouran, Qidan, Nuzhen, Menggu and Man people, have all been believers in shamanism. In the early 1950s, there had still been shaman believers in northern China among minority groups such as Elunchun, Ewenke, Hezhe, Menggu, Xibo, Man, and Qinhai indigenous people.

THE POWER OF THE TOTEM

inline-image Painted Pottery Jar with Stork, Fish, and Stone Axe Designs

Yangshao Culture, Neolithic Age

Height 47 cm

National Museum of China

The pottery jar, particularly prevalent in the Yangshao Culture, is a kind of ossuary for burying adults. People used one jar, or two jars placed mouth to mouth, to hold remains of the deceased. Mostly found in Yichuan County in western Henan Province, pottery jars have distinct regional characteristics. And the one in the National Museum of China is especially eye-catching because of its unique painted patterns on the outside: a white stork is standing on the left, holding a big fish in its beak, while a stone axe stands erect on the right. The stork’s eyes are big and glistening. Leaning back and holding its head high, it looks like a conqueror. However, the eyes of the fish are very small, and its body is stiff, with its fins drooping down. It makes no attempt to struggle or resist. The appearance of the stork is in sharp contrast to that of the fish.

In primitive society, people of the same clan were believed to have originated from a certain species. This species, which could be either an animal or a plant, therefore became their oldest ancestor. And for some clans, the ancestor could even be inanimate matter. People worshiped it by making its image the totem of their clan. They believed that the totem had supernatural powers, which could ensure the tribe’s safety and subsistence, and bring prosperity. In addition, people in the clan could also acquire the power and abilities possessed by the totem. When it came to keeping tribal members united as one, totems could act as the spiritual pillar, a special symbol that distinguished a clan from others, while blood acted as the genetic pillar or bond between them.

The Yangshao Culture is the most important Neolithic culture spread in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. Many patterns on painted pottery from the Yangshao Culture contain themes of fish and birds—often a bird eating a fish, or a fish eating a bird. There are also paintings in which the fish and bird are in harmony, and it is hardly possible to tell who has the upper hand (figs. 11 and 12). Scholars generally believe that the fish and the bird on the pottery of the Yangshao Culture symbolize the two tribes in that period, who used these two animals as their totems respectively. And the picture of a fish grappling with a bird reflects the continuous tribal conflict.

Patterns on the painted pottery jar on facing page depict tribal life in ancient times. The owner of the jar is presumed to