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Mawangdui, Excavated Materials, and Transmitted Texts: A Cautionary Note

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2015

Jerome Silbergeld
Jerome Silbergeld*
Affiliation:
Division of Art History, DM-10, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
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Type
RESEARCH NOTES
Information
Early China , Volume 8 , 1982 , pp. 79 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Study of Early China 1988

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References

FOOTNOTES

1. See especially: Hunan Provincial Museum and Archaeological Institute of the Chinese Academy of Science, editors, Changsha Mawangdui yi Hao Han mu , 2 vols. (Beijing, 1973)Google Scholar; various articles in Wen wu, 1972.9; Loewe, Michael, Ways to Paradise: The Chiense Quest for Immortality (London, 1979), pp. 17–59Google Scholar.

2. Silbergeld, Jerome, Chinese Painting Style; Media, Methods, and Principles of Form (Seattle, 1982), pp. 32–37Google Scholar.

3. To Gu Tiefu, wno sees virtually all of this painting as earthly rather than cosmic, this pair are merely family gatekeepers, appropriate to the feudal status of the deceased; cf. Tiefu, Gu, et al., “Zuo tan Changsha Mawangdui yi nao Han mu—Guan yu bo hua” , Wen wu, 1972.9, pp. 56–57Google Scholar, See Loewe, p. 49, for his objection to identifying these figures as the Greater and Lesser Lords.

4. Lan, Tang, Tiefu, Gu, Shuqing, Shi, et al., “Zuo tan Changsha Mawangdui yi hao Han mu—Guan yu mu de shi dai, mu zhu ren he mu de ming cheng” , Wen wu, 1972.9, pp. 54–55Google Scholar.

5. Ibid., I, 120, and II, pl. 231.

6. Changsha Mawangdui, I, 31–32Google Scholar.

7. Changsha Mawangdui, I, 39Google Scholar; Zhimin, An, “Changsha xin fa xian de Xi Han bo hua shi tan” , Kao gu, 1973.1, p. 46Google Scholar.

8. Kun, Luo, “Guan yu Mawangdui Han mu bo hua de shang tao” , Wen Wu, 1972.9, pp. 48–49Google Scholar. Luo shows that the Nortnern Dipper was sometimes represented by eight rather than seven stars in Han illustrations; but this derived from the belief that it included two neighboring stars and these were always shown as overlapped. Moreover, each of these Han representations still retained a characteristic dipper shape, which is not at all evident here. See also Nai, Xia, “Luoyang Xi Han bi hua mu zhong de xing xiang tu” , Kao gu, 1965.1, pp. 80–90Google Scholar; Che, Wang and Chen Xu , “Luoyang Bei Wei Yuan Yi mu de xing xiang to” , Wen Wu, 1974.12, pp. 56–60Google Scholar.

9. Changsha Mawangdui, I, 41Google Scholar; An Zhimin, p. 47.

10. Cnow, Fong, “Ma-wang-tui: A Treasure-Trove From the Western Han Dynasty,” Artibus Asiae, XXXV (1973), pp. 13–14Google Scholar.

11. Zhitan, Shang, “Mawangdui yi hao Han mu ‘Fei yi’ sni shi” , Wen wu, 1972.9, p. 45Google Scholar; Zuoyun, Sun, “Changsha Mawangdui yi hao Han mu chu tu hua fan kao shi” , Kao gu, 1973.1, p. 55Google Scholar.

12. An Znimin, pp. 43-45; Changsha Mawangdui, I, 41Google Scholar; Xi Han bo hua (Beijing: Wen wu, 1972), p. 1Google Scholar; Fong Chow, p. 12.

13. Bulling, A. Gutkind, “The Guide of the Souls Picture in tne Western Han Tomb in Ma-wang-tui Near Ch'ang Sha,” Oriental Art, XX (Summer, 1974), pp. 167–169Google Scholar.

14. Qian, Sima, Shi ji , “Feng shan shu” , quoted in Sun Zuoyun, p. 55Google ScholarPubMed; Si bu Dei yao edition (Shanghai: 1936), 28.23bGoogle Scholar; Watson, Burton, translator, Records of tne Grand Historian of China (New York: Columbia University Press, 1971), II, p. 54Google Scholar. These three stars actually represented the spear of Taiyi, according to Sima Qian, implying a constellation of stars in this name in addition to the well-known, single Taiyi star, his abode. The commentary locates these three stars by the mouth of the Northern Dipper [Ursa Major, the Big Dipper]. See Needham, Joseph, Science and Civilization in China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959), III, pp. 259–262 and fig, 97Google Scholar, for a chart suggesting the possible identity of this three-star cluster and for a correct location of the Taiyi star.

15. Bulling, pp. 167, 166.

16. Loewe, p. 59. Naive yet clever visual plays on key words and phrases, very much like this, may be seen in the well-known Admonitions to the Court Instructress attributed to Gu Kaizhi; but in this case the pun seems to be Loewe's own invention.

17. Gu Tiefu, p. 57.

18. Changsha Mawangdui, I, 42Google Scholar; Xi Han bo hua, p. 2.

19. An Zhimin, p. 47; Bulling, p. 165.

20. Cnangsha Mawangdui, I, 42Google Scholar; Xi Han bo hua, p. 2.

21. Bulling, p. 165.

22. An Zhimin, p. 47.

23. An Zhimin, p. 48.

24. Gu Tiefu, p. 57.

25. An Zhimin, p. 48; Changsha Mawangdui, I, 42Google Scholar; Xi Han bo nua, p. 2; Bulling, p. 165.

26. Loewe, p. 39.

27. Gu Tiefu, p. 57.

28. Snang Zhitan, p. 44. Tne figure is obviously not bird-shaped in body, but Shang's willingness to overlook this discrepancy is predicated on his interpretation of the painting as a whole, as noted in the paragraph that follows.

29. Changsha Mawangdui, I, 43Google Scholar.

30. E.g., the early Han painted Danner from Jinqueshan; Jiayi, Liu and Bingsen, Liu, “Jinquesnan Hsi Han bo hua lin mu hou gan” , Wen wu, 1977.11, p. 29Google Scholar.

31. See Changsha Mawangdui, I, 43Google Scholar, for other such points. Loewe, pp. 30-59, provides a critical review of some of the more important interpretations and their discrepancies.

32. Shang Zhitan, p. 44.

33. Loewe, p. 31ff.

34. Fong Cnow, pp. 11-12; Shang Zhitan briefly notes the possibility of wuxing and yin-yang influence, p. 46; for Loewe's criticism of this, see his pp. 31, 34. That these birds are square-faced and dragon-borne is not clear.

35. Fong Chow, p. 12.

36. This inventory is transcribed and discussed in Changsha Mawangdui, I, 130–155Google Scholar; illustrated in II, pls. 270-292. The editors of Changsha Mawangdui (see fn. 1, above) and others nave called this inventory a “send-off scroll” , from an instruction that appears in the Yi li, “Inscribe the offerings [to the deceased] on tablets; inscribe the [items] to be sent off [witn the deceased, in the tomb] on a bamboo-slip scroll.” But this inventory is not self-named, Changsha Mawangdui, I, 130Google Scholar; Yi li, Si bu bei yao edition, 13.7b.

37. Shang Znitan, p. 43.

38. Changsha Mawangdui, I, 149Google Scholar.

39. Ibid., I, 149.

40. Ibid., I, 149.

41. Shang Zhitan, p. 43.

42. Ibid. p. 43. It is worth noting that the earlier, similar banner found in Mawangdui tomb no. 3 (that of Li Cang's son), was apparently not listed in that tomb's inventory; cf. Wen-wu, 1974.7, pp. 42–43Google Scholar, and 1974.11, pp. 40-44.

43. Li Chi, Book of Rites, translated by Legge, James (New York: University Books, 1967, II, 174Google Scholar.

44. Ibid., II, 174-175.

45. Ibid., II, 136.

46. Bulling, 158.

47. Li Chi, II, p. 175Google Scholar.

48. Hawkes, David,Ch'u Tz'u, The Songs of the South (Boston: Beacon Press, 1962), p. 105Google Scholar.

49. See above, fn. 15. Called a “spirit banner,” ling qi, it was wielded on this occasion by Sima Qian's father, Sima Tan.

50. Xu Han shu, “Li yi zhi,” quoted in Sun Zuoyun, p. 54.

51. Bojun, Yang, “Lüe tan wo guo shi ji shang guan yu shi ti fang fu de ji dai he Mawangdui yi hao Han mu mu zhu wen ti” , Wen wu, 1972.9, pp. 36–38Google Scholar.

52. Weizhao, Yu, et al., “Zuo tan Changsha Mawangdui yi hao Han mu—Guan yu guan guo zhi du” , Wen wu, 1972.9, pp. 55–56Google Scholar.

53. Ibid., p. 56.

54. Changsna Mawangdui, I, 32Google Scholar; the excavation reports only indicate that no stoppage material was found, but cloth or other material of a type not specified in the reports seems to appear in the photographs of the corpse.

55. Curious too, is the degree of inaccuracy found in inscriptions on the lacquer utensils from tomb no. 1, many of which were inscribed “family of the Marquis of Dai,” “wine for milady's pleasure” or “food for milady's pleasure,” and on some of which the capacity of the vessel was inscribed. These indicated capacities proved to be very inconsistent when compared with tne actual measure of the vessels, being off by as much as 50 percent and becoming increasingly inaccurate in the smaller vessels. This information, coming directly from the tomb itself, written right upon the objects and yet inaccurate, calls into question the nature of early written materials. Changsha Mawangdui, I, 78Google Scholar.