Phoenix Kingdoms: The Last Splendors of China's Bronze Age

Phoenix Kingdoms: The Last Splendors of China's Bronze Age is a groundbreaking exhibition and an exquisite accompanying catalog that features the material cultures of the Zeng and Chu states from (primarily) the eight centuries of the Zhou dynasty (ca. 1046–221 bce) in pre-imperial China. Shifting the focus away from Zhou elites residing in the Central Plains, whose textual tradition often disparaged the cultural traditions of peoples in surrounding areas, the exhibition and catalog narrate a visual history of the southern states through material objects. The catalog is divided into three parts. The first part is composed of three essays that introduce readers to the histories of Zeng and Chu; the second part attends to the four main materials—jade, bronze, lacquer, and textiles—featured in the exhibition; and it concludes with images and descriptions of the exhibited artifacts.The first part of the catalog establishes an object-centered framework for approaching the complex histories of Zeng and Chu. While most art-historical investigations into the kingdom of Zeng rely heavily on the Leigudun, Suizhou tomb belonging to Marquis Yi (ca. 433 bce), Jay Xu's chapter provides a summary of other important sites that elucidate Zeng's entangled history with Zhou in the north and Chu in the south. Along the way, Zeng becomes a conduit for introducing disparate styles to the north and south, all the while developing its own visual culture. Fan J. Zhang's essay articulates a tension made manifest in the objects on display. New discoveries in Zeng tombs permit scholars to revise “the previous assumption that Zeng was merely part of the Chu tradition and confirm that both Zeng and Chu functioned as major interfaces between Zhou rulers and the peoples of the south. . . . Our knowledge of Zeng finds has also inspired scholars to explore how Chu material culture appropriated various local customs and traditions to create a southern legacy that took root in the middle Yangzi region” (33). Accordingly, current archaeological evidence from the Central Plains, Zeng, Chu, and other southern cultures seem to muddle clear articulations of material or “artistic” legacies from these regions, especially as they evolved. Nevertheless, Zhang attempts to pinpoint specific aspects of Chu style (perhaps as a guide for readers as they navigate the complex artifacts): the prevalence of phoenix totems and motifs; “impressive naturalism and romanticism” (34); “the taste for splendor and flamboyance” (35); and the invention of “new forms and fancy styles” (36). In the proceeding chapter, John S. Major's survey of Chu religious iconography also provides some justification, along with Zhang's essay and introduction to the volume, for the inclusion of “phoenix” in the title of the show, commenting that one of the reasons for the prominence of birds, especially phoenixes, in Chu visual culture may lie in their transformative abilities (42).Part two of the catalog is also comprised of three essays, each containing direct references to objects from the exhibition. Colin Mackenzie's exploration of jades from Chu and Zeng begins with the neolithic Shijiahe culture (ca. 2200–2000 bce) and traces the development in jade designs into the Warring States period (ca. 475–221 bce). Chu artisans “seem to have been acutely aware of styles in other mediums,” while Zeng artisans were inspired by Chu's openwork and modeled surfaces and developed unique designs of their own such as the linked jades (50). Haicheng Wang's essay on musical traditions on the Jiang-Han plain furthers the previous essays’ exploration of the relations between Zhou, Zeng, and Chu by way of bronze bells. Most notable among the numerous insights that Wang shares is the issue of sourcing and production. Wang narrates a process in which, at the outset, Zhou and Zeng elites’ exaltation of proper music and the ritual role of bronze bells relied on the importation of bells from the south until they collected and copied enough of them to figure out how to cast a full set themselves (60). While Wang speaks of technological transmission, the essay by Guolong Lai and I-fen Huang on lacquerware and textiles speaks of transmission in material terms: from lacquerware that imitated the shapes of bronze ritual vessels to, eventually, inlaid bronzes that captured the colorful designs on lacquer and textiles. Traversing these material transformations are two social and religious axes on class and beliefs on the afterlife, from the ubiquity of lacquerware in tombs belonging to individuals of various social echelons serving as less valuable alternatives to bronzes, to lacquerware and textiles superseding bronzes as “markers of the status and wealth of the tomb occupant” (69).The chapters in part two loosely correspond to the six sections of the catalog of objects in part three. While objects in each section are organized mostly chronologically, thoughtful entries accompanying their images and intentional curation provide additional lines of inquiry for catalog readers beyond a straightforward march through time. The “Jades, Agate, and Glass” section features stunning artifacts arranged to encourage traditional art-historical comparisons: a humanoid head on a nephrite from the Neolithic period (cat. 2) and a monster mask on a nephrite from the eighth century bce (cat. 3) share a single page prompting questions on formal identifications and their usefulness. Two linked jades (cats. 7 and 9) from Leigudun tomb 1 appear across a spread, but one linked by jade rings and another by metal “staples,” suggesting different material interpretations of a single technology. The chronological arrangement of the bronze section works exceptionally well as it visually demonstrates the evolution of Zeng bronze designs as they gradually diverged from standards associated with the Zhou ritual bronze tradition. The two Western Zhou bronze vessels (cats. 37 and 38) excavated from E Yangzishan tomb 4 at Suizhou further distinguishes an E visual culture, located in the Jiang-Han plain until E's annexation by Zhou in 875 bce, that further complicates the relations between Chu, Zeng, and Zhou as described in the catalog thus far. The distinctive eyes and eyebrows on the body of the two vessels transforms the more familiar Shang-dynasty monstrous masks of the Central Plains into an eerily familiar human face. The pairing of musical instruments and weapons in the next section reinforces the significant role that music played in military affairs and the display functions of instruments, weapons, and armors. The writers of this section took great care to provide thoughtful entries that cover myriad details on these bronzes, from notes on their production to debates on the meaning of the inscriptions and designs. Given the historical importance of bronze inscriptions, the editors included an appendix of them at the end of the volume, including those found on the bells. Since both the forms as well as the contents of the inscriptions are meaningful, it would have been helpful to have enlarged images of them so that scholars who specialize in bronze inscriptions or early writing could use them as resources for further study. The lacquerwares in the next section are solely from the fifth-century-bce kingdom of Chu and exhibit a certain level of technical and stylistic sophistication. In particular, the inclusion of a few variations of kouqi (cats. 102, 103, 107), the use of metal supports on lacquer objects, was particularly welcome and served as an interesting counterpart to other kinds of mixed-media work included in the exhibition such as the double phoenix cups made of bamboo and wood (cat. 96) and the wooden tomb figurine with real human hair (cat. 120) (171).Unlike the previous sections of part three that were neatly categorized primarily by material and function, the organization of the final two sections—“Special Mortuary Objects” and “Textiles, Gold, and Miscellanea”—appeared more vague. In the former, the justification provided in the section's introduction suggests that it “gathers a group of special mortuary objects that were prepared to fulfill specific functions in burial rites and tomb spaces, though their precise meaning and use remain mysterious to modern viewers” (179). In a way, Major's essay provides the most fitting framework for understanding these objects, but it also seems that the editors here were contemplating a deeper investigation, through objects, of thoughts on death, the afterlife, and the journey through the underworld. That almost all of the objects featured in the catalog and the exhibition were found in tombs, however, suggests that they are all mortuary objects insofar as they were meant to do something for the tomb occupants in death. While some objects are less mysterious—musical instruments should play sounds, weapons (some at least) should be workable on the battlefield—what makes the objects in this section “special” seems to require further explanation.In “Textiles, Gold, and Miscellanea,” the stunning textile finds from Mashan are the stars, with entries that provide a good balance between art-historical and technical information. The miniature robe (cat. 138), the hat (cat. 133), and the elaborately embroidered robe sleeve (cat. 134) exemplify the technical virtuosity of Chu weavers and embroiderers from the Warring States period. The pairing of silk and gold speak to their superior value in early China, but other objects in this section could be placed elsewhere (e.g., two quiver containers perhaps belong in the weapons section) or form their own separate section on objects made with materials less commonly found in the early Chinese archaeological landscape (e.g., a rare tin gui vessel, a horn in the shape of three intertwined dragons, an agate ring, and glass beads).While the last two sections complicate the neatness of the overall catalog, they nonetheless foreground a significant scholarly question that follows studies of early Chinese artifacts. These objects, while not created as art, were made with extensive care and attention paid to how they looked and how they functioned within ritual, social, and political settings, and they therefore defy easy categorization within modern disciplinary boundaries. Iconography and meaning remain elusive. Value is difficult to determine as it is found in a complex calculus of form, function, labor, and the access and use of certain raw materials. In turn, the method(s) by which this impressive body of artifacts can or should be categorized or studied is difficult to pinpoint, an issue faced by some early China specialists keen on centering objects in their studies.While not stated explicitly, the curators of the exhibition seem interested in objects that blur the boundaries between early Chinese “art” and “archaeology.” Many of the objects, especially in the last two sections of the catalog, are rare among the archaeological landscape and some of the finest specimens of their material kind. Among them, a nephrite human face mask excavated from Mashan, for instance, is the only known jade mask constructed from a single piece of jade (cat. 115). A lacquered wood sculpture of three stacked creatures—a winged figure at the top, a bird's head in the middle, and a toad at the bottom—is ready for serious iconological study, not to mention the great mystery that is the tree-root “table” in the shape of a three-legged, two-headed creature (cat. 123) excavated from Jiuliandun, with a version also discovered at Mashan. This gathering of some of the most exquisite artifacts in the early Chinese archaeological landscape might have been prompted by the ease with which Zeng and Chu artifacts lend themselves to this sort of “art” exhibition, given their exceptional artisanal expertise, but it also poses an interesting challenge to art historians to account for the multifaceted nature of these artifacts by pushing the boundaries of what art history as a discipline can be.Thinking broadly about the kinds of connections made possible by the exceptional curation of objects and the descriptions of them, there are two topics that come to mind. First, many of the included objects were excavated from tombs belonging to women, providing an opportunity for further study on the lives of women in early China. A number of bronzes found in tombs with women occupants could reveal details on the role of women as patrons of bronzes, a material traditionally associated with men of royal lineages touting their military success and patrilineage: for example, the ding cauldron for Lady Ji Ying of Huang (cat. 43), the Mi Jia bronze associated with a woman ruler (cat. 45), the pan water basin owned by Pu, a Zhou noblewoman (cat. 47), and the gui food vessel commissioned by Shen Chou excavated from Jiuliandun tomb 2 (cat. 58). Second, objects throughout the catalog speak to innovations in painting. For instance, the chime stone with the phoenix pattern from Jiangling (cat. 72), the stunning crossbow decorated with scenes of hunting, chariot processions, and palace life from Jiuliandun tomb 1 (cat. 83), the two-tiered cosmetics box with painted registers of aristocratic life from Baoshan tomb 2 (cat. 94), and the high-stemmed drinking vessel with two views of a phoenix (one in profile and one in frontal view) excavated from Jiuliandun tomb 1 (cat. 98) are just some examples that might further studies on early Chinese painting.In my time teaching courses on Chinese art and archaeology, the units on Zeng and Chu material culture are always the most popular. Students revel in reconstructing the extravagant lifestyles of tomb occupants through well-preserved daily utensils that serve relatable functions to their daily lives, not to mention the rare textile finds that still look fashionable today. Regardless of the time of day, they passionately debate the meanings and functions of artifacts that do not have straightforward modern equivalents, such as a miniature door on the side of a coffin or a statue built from a square base, an ornithomorphic body, and antlers. Students’ eyes light up when they see the boundaries of animal forms being pushed beyond their imagination in designs that appear on textiles and lacquer. All this intrigue is encapsulated in Phoenix Kingdoms. The exhibition and catalog successfully capture the visual splendor that characterizes the histories of Zeng and Chu in early China.