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Reinventing the Past: Antiquarianism in East Asian Art and Visual Culture—Part 2 |
< Back Antiquarianism in Eastern Zhou Bronzes and Its Significance Lothar von Falkenhausen UCLA Archaizing reference to the past is common even at the early stages of Chinese art history; there is, for instance, convincing evidence that aristocrats as early as the Shang dynasty (ca. 1550-1046 BC) were collecting as well as imitating Neolithic jades dating back to the preceding millennium or earlier. Such practices continued during the Zhou period (ca. 1046-256 BC). This paper presents and analyzes a particularly significant case of early antiquarianism in Eastern Zhou-period (771-256 BC) ritual bronze vessels. In the archaeological record, one may observe that after ca. 600 BC, vessel assemblages underwent a transformation; new vessel types and new forms of ornamentation were introduced, signalizing the introduction of new, apparently somewhat simplified rituals for the ancestral sacrifices of the élite--sacrificial practices that differed, sometimes considerably, from region to region, and which constituted a significant departure from the relatively uniform practices reflected in materials dating from the period between ca. 850 and ca. 600 BC. Yet throughout the following four centuries, some of the vessels from tombs of very high-ranking owners constitute a group of their own, stylistically and functionally separate from the majority of vessels seen. What distinguishes this "Special Assemblage" is the fact that in their shapes and ornamentation they resemble specific older vessel types that, during this period, were no longer in general use, but which had been the standard components of ritual-vessel sets current during the ca. 850--ca. 600 BC interval. In their archaeological contexts, such vessels of archaic features occurred side by side with the more "modern" vessels that are more widely distributed during this time; in contrast to the latter, interregional variation is quite limited. It seems that in the post-600 BC period, the highest echelons of the élite, aside from embracing the new rituals practiced by the aristocracy as a whole, were additionally engaging in special, archaizing ritual practices that set them apart as a special, privileged subgroup within the upper class. Significantly, this subgroup, though articulated within the local élite of the various regional states and kingdoms, held on to a unified set of cultural standards that applied throughout the Zhou cultural sphere and that harked back to an idealized, sociopolitically and religiously more homogeneous past. During the final four centuries of Eastern Zhou, finds from lower-élite tombs intimate that some of the trappings of these special rituals gradually came to be emulated within groups of the population that did not actually practice them. The interest in restricted high-élite practices of ancient derivation shown by such lower-ranking members of the élite appears to have been essentially of an antiquarian nature. Given that the actual trapping of such rituals were prohibitively expensive, this interest was symbolically expressed through the use of mingqi imitations. Interestingly, faint memories of such practices may be picked up centuries later in some Eastern Han commentaries to the Confucian classics. Considered in conjunction, archaeological and textual evidence can be used to trace (and date) the rise of a philosophical, rather than religious, ritual mentality—an attitude complemented by an antiquarian aesthetics. |
