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RE-MAKING ANIMAL BODIES IN THE ARTS OF EARLY CHINA AND NORTH ASIA: PERSPECTIVES FROM THE STEPPE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2022

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Petya Andreeva*
Affiliation:
Petya Andreeva, 安陪雅, Assistant Professor of Asian Art and Design History at Parsons, The New School; email: andreevp@newschool.edu.
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Abstract

The Iron-Age Eurasian nomads created and circulated elaborate metalworks embellished with images of entwined, abbreviated, or contorted zoomorphic anatomies. This approach to zoomorphism has entered scholarly discourse under the blanket name “animal style,” a term often used to describe a vast corpus of zoomorphic images associated with the arts of steppe pastoralists. Numerous Warring States burials across the Ordos Loop indicate the transmission and adaptation of steppe-inspired zoomorphism into the funerary cultures of China's northern zone (beifang diqu 北方地區) and the Eastern Steppe more broadly. In the Han dynasty, animal-style images seem to have been transmitted even more widely, reaching China's southern periphery at the Kingdom of Nanyue 南越 and Lelang 樂浪 in the northern Korean peninsula. The Xianbei hegemony in the post-Han period marked a new trajectory for these designs, which reached Kofun Japan in the fifth century. Thus, the original trans-steppe visual formula underwent significant regional and local translations on a material and conceptual level to fit already established Chinese design strategies, techniques, and conceptions of animality. In this essay, I explore the regional alterations applied to the “supra” animal-style visuality in the Chinese northern periphery and other regions of Chinese political influence in North and Central Asia. In so doing, I seek to understand the swift entry of nomadic visual tropes, namely a specific “pars-pro-toto” device, into the visual vocabulary of early Chinese craftsmen from the Eastern Zhou to the Northern dynasties.

提要

提要

鐵器時代， 歐亞游牧民族創作與傳播了精緻的金屬藝術品， 其特點是用怪獸形花纹和“交織在一起的動物”的圖案。這種動物形象就是學術界眾所皆知的 “animal style”。該術語通常用以表示不同的錯綜複雜動物型意。從鄂爾多斯的戰國墓來看，草原風格的動物形象快到了中國的北方地區，然後中國的金屬工匠加以採用和改造。漢朝的 “animal style“ 得到了更加官方的採用。比如，它進入了位於中國南部邊疆的南越國和朝鮮半島的樂浪郡。漢代之後，尤其是在鮮卑作為草原霸權崛起後，草原風格的飾物從中國傳播到日本的古墳文化。因此，為了適應中國傳統的實際策略和動物性觀念，草原的“原始公式“ 經歷了巨大的變化。在本文中，我調查在中國势力範圍進行的地域變異。這樣，我希望能理解某些產於歐亞大草原的藝術個性如何進入中國的視覺詞彙。

Keywords

Eurasian nomadsanimal stylezoomorphismfantastic beastsbronzesChinese northern frontier歐亞游牧民族動物形象青銅器神奇動物中國的北方邊界
Type
Research Article
Information
Early China , Volume 45 , September 2022 , pp. 413 - 465
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Society for the Study of Early China

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References

1. In this study, Central Eurasia is defined as primarily occupying the steppe zone in North-Central Asia, the North Caucasus region, the north Black Sea Steppe, and parts of Southeastern Europe (namely Dobrudzha). I recognize that such definitions differ across studies, fields, and methodologies—these interdisciplinary tensions have further complicated the study of early nomads.

2. In early China, the most notable such historiography appears in the Shi ji which is known for its account of the Xiongnu (Xiongnu liezhuan 匈奴列傳), but also contains scattered references to various Donghu branches. The Greeks wrote numerous accounts of the Pontic Scythians: the most widely known remains the ethnography written by Herodotus in Book IV of his Histories. Less well-known accounts of Scythian activities exist in Pliny’s Naturalis Historia, Ctesias’ Persica and Strabo’s Geographica. Pliny believed the Achaemenids incorrectly conflated the Scythians and the Saka people, as in Persia, the two were recorded as one and the same in inscriptions at Behistun and Persepolis.

3. For a comprehensive overview of signature “animal style” objects from the Eastern Steppe zone, see Bunker, Emma, Ancient Bronzes of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections (New York: Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, 1997)Google Scholar. See also So, Jenny F., and Bunker, Emma C., Traders and Raiders on China’s Northern Frontier (Seattle: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, in association with University of Washington Press, 1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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28. A recent in-depth discussion of the Xinzhuangtou finds identifies the group buried there as the Loufan nomads, akin to the Linhu peoples inhabiting Ordos, and suggests that the Loufan might have a connection to the equestrian Pazyryk nomads of the Altai. Evident is the striking similarity between the goldworks found at Aluchaideng in Ordos and Xinzhaungtou at Yan’s capital Xiadu, which points to the wider production and distribution of animal-style items. See Kovalev, A. A., “Xinzhuangtou M30 – Pogrebenie znatnogo predstavitelya Pazyryktsev – ‘Loufan’ na sluzhbe vana kitaiskogo tsarstva Yan (seredina III v. d.n.e.)”. Kratki Soobshteniya Instituta Arheologii 238 (2015), 229–42Google Scholar.

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37. Instead, the rest of the steppe follows the Arzhan formula which is practically devoid of such symmetrical configurations and instead opts for junctures and individual animal heads.

38. See Xirong yi zhen, 50.

39. A closely related example exists in the Eugene V. Thaw collection of early Chinese art of the Metropolitan Museum.

40. Yikezhaomeng wenwu gongzuozhan 伊克昭盟文物工作站, “Xigoupan Xiongnu mu” 西溝畔匈奴墓, Wenwu 1980.7, 1–10.

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48. In the same tomb at Shizishan, there was a peculiar gold ornament in the shape of a ram’s head. The object was hammered and not cast like most gold items in China. The complete gold collection is now at the Xuzhou museum.

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50. Jessica Rawson has written extensively on the Qin and Han predilection for Chu practices, likely a result of the Qin conquest of the area: Liu Bang, the founder of the Han, was himself from the area of Xuzhou in Jiangsu, where the royal burials examined in this paper come from. More on Chu’s impact on Han material and visual culture in Jessica Rawson, “The Eternal Palaces of the Western Han: A New View of the Universe,” Artibus Asiae 59.1/2 (1999), 5–58.

51. Xuzhou bowuguan 徐州博物館, “Xuzhou Houloushan Xi-Han mu fajue baogao” 徐州後樓山西漢墓發掘報告, Wenwu 1993.4, 29–45.

52. Yang Haili 楊海莉 and Li Qiang 李强, “Hubei Zhushanxian bowuguan shoucang de yi jian Xi-Han jin daikou” 湖北竹山縣博物館收藏的一件西漢金帶扣, Wenwu 2010.9, 77.

53. Wei Zheng, Li Huren, and Zou Houben, “Xuzhou Shizishan Xi-Han mu de fajue yu shouhuo,” 673–92; For the textual reference, see Shi ji, 58.19.

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57. The political relationship between Nanyue and the Han empire was marked by a series of formal submissions of Nanyue rulers to the Han emperor; even so, many of them remained the de-facto emperor of the state which acted as a semi-autonomous. It was only during the reign of the fourth-generation ruler, Zhao Xing, that Nanyue became formally a part of the Han domain.

58. Huang Guangnan 黃光男, Artifacts in the Nan Yue King’s Tomb of Western Han Dynasty (Taipei: National Palace Museum, 1998), 138.

59. Another gold buckle has been excavated from the Yangfutou cemetery in Kunmin. It features a pair of a twisted tiger and dragon and bears very close stylistic similarities with the Nanyue examples. See Yunnansheng wenwu kaogu yanjiusuo 雲南省文物考古研究所, Kunming Yangfutou mudi 昆明羊甫頭墓地, Vol. 3 (Beijing: Kexue, 2005), 857–58.

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61. Kunming Yangfutou mudi, 262.

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63. This is most evident in the Xiongnu tombs at Noin-Ula in Mongolia, a complex where animal-style is overshadowed by luxurious rugs of Bactrian and Gandharan manufacture, Hellenistic metalworks, and Chinese silks. The Xiongnu clearly wished to reject the old “steppe warrior” label and show their worldliness and economic acumen. I have recently discussed Noin-Ula and “otherness in tomb décor” in a different article. See Andreeva, “Glittering Bodies,” 1–30.

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70. A. F. P. Hulsewé, China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BC–AD 23: An Annotated Translation of Chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty (Brill, Leiden, 1979), 73–80; The record indicates that the Xiongnu also occasionally attacked the Loulan kingdom, which was evidently an entity vastly different from both the Han empire and its nomadic neighbor to the north. Another independent oasis state in the Tarim basin is mentioned in the Book of Han by the name of Jingjue 精絕, likely referring to the commercial site of Niya in the Taklamakan desert. By the third century, Niya formally became part of the Loulan kingdom.

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79. A notable example is the “balbal” statue (also known as “baba”) installed around the top of kurgan-type tombs of the Turkic period in Central Eurasia.

80. Bingkun Xu 徐秉琨, Xianbei, Sanguo, Gufen: Zhongguo, Chaoxian, Riben gudai de wenhua jiaoliu 鮮卑, 三國, 古墳: 中國, 朝鮮, 日本古代的文化交流 (Shenyang: Liaoning guji, 1996), 18–19.

81. Sanguozhi 30.832; Ibid., 18–19.

82. Hou Hanshu 90.2985.

83. Wei shu 112b.2927.

84. Wei shu 1.1, See also Wu, Huaiqi, and Chi Zhen, An Historical Sketch of Chinese Historiography (Berlin: Springer, 2018), 228–30.

85. Andreeva, Petya, “Animal Style at the Penn Museum,” Orientations 51.4 (2020), 48–57Google Scholar.

86. The British Museum, Metropolitan Museum, Ariadne Galleries in New York, the George Ortiz collection, as well as several private collections in Switzerland and London have a large corpus of animal-style material, often attributed to the Zhou dynasty, namely Warring States. Some of these portable items could fall comfortably within this later phase of animal-style art based on new themes and idioms employed by their designers.

87. Sarah Laursen, “Leaves that Sway: Gold Xianbei Cap Ornaments from Northeast China” (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2011).

88. Datongshi kaogu yanjiusuo 大同市考古研究所, “Shanxi Datong Yunboli lu Bei-Wei bihuamu fajue jianbao” 山西大同雲波里路北魏壁畫墓發掘簡報, Wenwu 2011.12, 13–25, fig. 16.

89. Nei Menggu bowuyuan and Zhonghua shijitan yishuguan, Chengjisihan, 143.

90. Luo Xiwen. Bencao gangmu: Conpendium of Materia Medica, trans. Chenglong Hu (Oakland: University of California Press, 2003), 4132. See also Andreeva, “Animal style at the Penn Museum,” 54.

91. Luo Xiwen. Bencao gangmu, 4132; The tree-like monster penghou (hōkō) was included in the later Japanese bestiary collection Konjaku Hyakki Shūi 今昔百鬼拾遺, which contains references to a great number of ancient Chinese demons and theriomorphic beasts from the Shanhai jing and other Classical Chinese texts. Interestingly, both the baize and penghou enjoyed a far greater and longer lasting popularity in the Japanese tradition than they did in the Chinese one: the baize has been the subject of a number of Japanese Zen paintings but did not make frequent appearances in Chinese art and literature. A notable example of the “baize” comes from a scroll made by Gusukuma Seihō.

92. Kidder, J. Edward, Early Japanese Art; the Great Tombs and Treasures (Princeton: Van Nostrand, 1964), 6Google Scholar.

93. Brown, Delmer, The Cambridge History of Japan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 176CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kidder, “The Fujinoki Tomb and its Grave-Goods,” Monumenta Nipponica 42.1 (1987), 57–87.

94. Another example of such crowns comes from the Sammaizuka tomb dated to the sixth century. The crown’s openwork and animal pendants on top are close parallels to Xianbei crowns excavated from several Chinese tombs.

95. Weapons featuring these motifs have been found across elite tombs in protohistoric Japan, including the gilt bronze helmet from the Gion tomb in Chiba prefecture, and the sword and saddle bits from the Suketo tomb in Tochigi prefecture. Kidder discusses these occurrences briefly in his overview of Early Japanese art but these finds need to be reexamined in light of newer discoveries in the rest of Eurasia.

96. A fresh perspective of Japanese portable adornment in the Kofun period was just recently offered in an essay dedicated to the study of haniwa and their adornment potential, offered through the case study of Tsukamawari tomb no. 4. See Linduff, Katheryn and Gerhart, Karen, “The Power and Authority of Exotic Accessories,” in The Art and Archaeology of Bodily Adornment, edited by Leslie Wallace and Sheri Lullo (London: Routledge, 2019), chap. 7Google Scholar.