Meaning and Explanation
Author(s): Robert W. Bagley
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Archives of Asian Art, Vol. 46 (1993), pp. 6-26
Published by: University of Hawai'i Press for the Asia Society
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Correction
to Archives
of Asian Art Vol.
xlvi:
On page 24, Figures 24 and 25 have been reversed so that the caption now under Fig. 24
should appear under Fig. 25, and vice versa. The Editors regret this error and the
confusion arising from it in the text on pages 23-25.
Fig.
i.
Cross-carpet
page
from
of the British Library, London.
6
the Lindisfarne
Gospels
(folio
27). Ca.
A.D.
698.
34 by
26 cm. By
permission
and Explanation
Meaning
Robert
W.
Bagley
Princeton University
Author'snote:
ered on 25 June
no.
15, Percival
This
is the written
article
1990 at the Colloquy
David
Foundation
version
of a lecture
deliv
on Art
in Asia
and Archaeology
of Chinese
of
Art, University
for its invita
David
Foundation
to the Percival
I am grateful
in the colloquy
and to the Department
of Art and
participate
for a grant
toward
Princeton
Archaeology,
University,
publication
costs which
has made
the use of color illustrations.
possible
London.
tion
to
a
on the
in Shang
of meaning"
l\t
colloquy
"problem
I find myself
in an awkward position,
decoration
rather
like that of an agnostic
invited to a theological
confer
ence: my hosts are more
than I am that the
confident
we
are
to
exists. I am not
be
thing
discussing
supposed
sure that Shang decoration
I am
had symbolic meaning.
we do not have the evidence
sure
to
needed
that
quite
a case for any
make
particular
symbolic
interpretation.
Iwould
And even if the evidence were more promising
issue
in
the
of
any large place
begrudge
symbolism
bronze
for
the
of
studies,
power
symbolic
explanatory
seems to me greatly overrated;
if our curiosity
meanings
can be satisfied by
about Shang bronzes
sym
attaching
to their decoration,
bolic meanings
then our interests are
too narrow. But these are unpopular
I know,
opinions,
not
at
and in the hope of making
if
them,
persuasive,
I should like to approach my subject in
least intelligible,
a roundabout way. In order to gain some
on
perspective
a debate in which
the battle lines have long been fixed
to look briefly
at decoration
I wish
and questions
of
context.
I
in
In
another
effect
will
be
meaning
religious
an extended
pursuing
analogy, and to avoid any possible
stress at the outset that my
I
should
misunderstanding,
not
meant
to
is
about Shang
prove anything
analogy
use
as
a
I
it
bronzes.
of
and
Rather,
way
identifying
the
in
made
other
scholars
examining
assumptions
by
to prove things about Shang bronzes.
their attempts
1 and 3 show decorated
pages from two fa
Figures
mous
Insular manuscripts
of the gospels:
in Figure 1 the
Lindisfarne Gospels,
from about a.D. 700, and in Figure
of Kells,
from about a century
later. The
3 the Book
on an island
Book was made
in amonastery
Lindisfarne
off the coast of Northumberland;
in the British
also made
Isles but
not
the Book of Kells was
its exact provenance
is
certain.1
In the Lindisfarne
faces the beginning
Book
of
the page
the Gospel
in Figure
St. Matthew.
shown
of
1
It
crosses
contains a decorated
decorated
cross; differently
of the other three gospels.
face the beginnings
page from the
Figure 3 shows the so-called Chi-rho
In principle
Book of Kells.
this is a page of text from the
of St. Matthew,
the
but three letters abbreviating
Gospel
name of Christ have been
to the
and
decorated
enlarged
the rest of the text off the page (a small
point of crowding
residue can be seen near the bottom
right corner, the two
one
to
words
"autem"
and
letter]
[abbreviated
on the
"generatio").
Following
immediately
genealogy
in the gospel
of Christ,
this is a special moment
story,
It is a point in the text
the moment
of the Incarnation.
to be underlined.
which
deserved
Ihave chosen Insular manuscripts
for comparison with
cases
in
is
the decoration
bronzes
because
both
Shang
art this is not very
InWestern
from animals.
In ancient China animals enjoyed a near mono
but in theWest
the most popular and
poly of decoration,
ornamental
motifs
have
been plant-derived:
long-lived
concocted
common.
vine scrolls and palmettes
and Corinthian
capitals refer
to the vegetable
ornament
is all
Plant-derived
kingdom.
orna
around us and we tend to ignore it; animal-based
ment
is harder to ignore. Chinese
artists made
spectacu
lar use of it and so did Irish and Anglo-Saxon
monks.
Let us take a closer look at the Lindisfarne
page and
then ask some questions
about its decoration.
The ani
mals visible in the detail shown in Figure 2 are interlaced
birds and dogs, not easy to disentangle.
Interlace designs
are two-dimensional
an
which
configurations
play with
can be very
third
dimension.
They
ingenious
implied
even when
but
they do not go beyond
simple knotwork,
when
they take animals for raw material
they become
the viewer whose
eye is caught by some part
entrancing:
of an animal is immediately
drawn into a search for the
are used
On
remainder.
the Lindisfarne
colors
page
to help the search, sometimes
to hinder and
sometimes
tease. The
is wonderfully
interlace
almost
inventive,
so in the
the painter
miraculously
irregular spaces where
an
met
cross.
the challenge
by
oddly
presented
shaped
For each of the four gospels he drew a different cross and
out a different design.
worked
Now
suppose we address to the Lindisfarne
page the
our
to
is
that
question
colloquy
addressing
Shang
bronzes. What
does itmean?
7
invites controversy,
if only because of
The question
"mean
the word
the vague and elastic senses in which
an
answer
is
first
toward
been
used.
The
has
step
ing"
to
ourselves
the
by asking
question
just
clarify
perhaps
sort of information
it seeks. I can think of at least
what
two
sorts corresponding
to two different
in
of
the
question.
terpretations
is asking us to
the question
On one interpretation,
that
the
all
the
symbols
painter put into the page.
identify
are there other symbols?
Is the
The cross is a symbol;
this
of
On
constructed
symbols?
interpretation
design
asks: if there is a religious message
the question
encoded
crosses
what
and
decode
it; please explain
here, please
to do with Christian
and
interlace
have
and
birds
dogs
distinct
theology.
But another
is possible.
of the question
interpretation
to know what thoughts
wants
the
the
questioner
Perhaps
an
in
of
Lindis
mind
aroused
the
page
eighth-century
we could show it to an eighth-cen
farne monk.
Suppose
to you?"
and ask him, "What does this mean
tury monk
The
I doubt that he would
dissect it like an iconographer.
cross is a potent symbol in Christianity
and a Lindisfarne
onto
the page everything
could have projected
monk
to
meant
He
would
know
that
him.
that Christianity
to
one
him
the
had performed
like this
books
miracles;
that could hardly
"mean" a host of emotions
page would
that he saw in itwould
The meanings
be put into words.
in detail by the painter,
not be meanings
encoded
they
attached after the fact by the viewer;
be meanings
would
not be fixed meanings,
and they would
vary
they would
to another. But they are meanings
of
from one viewer
to the believer.2
transcendent
importance
loaded with
Shang bronzes must have been similarly
must have gathered
associations
Powerful
significance.
were
in which
about them because of the context
they
the
that the bronzes were
used. We can safely assume
at awe-inspiring
center of attention
rituals, and every
or felt about the realm of
thing the Shang king thought
onto them. Imight
the spirits could have been projected
to describe
of
words
the
choice
with
employed
quarrel
be
would
of
this phenomenon?to
symbolism
speak
not for amoment
I
would
confusingly
ambiguous?but
I certainly do not believe
that when
deny its existence.
the Shang king looked at a bronze he was dazzled by a
pure aesthetic experience.
or
But to say that the bronzes had potent associations
is quite different
symbols
powerful
somehow
decoration
encoded
that
Shang
saying
us back to the
claim
The
latter
brings
Shang religion.
narrower
"What does it
of the question
interpretation
we
mean?"?the
interpretation.
Suppose
iconographer's
the services of an expert medieval
obtained
iconographer
encoded
and told him: there is some religious meaning
it
for
decode
in the Lindisfarne
us;
page, please
please tell
that
from
8
they
became
us what
do with
crosses
and dogs and birds and interlace have to
How might
he reply?
Christianity.
to say about the
would
The iconographer
have much
the cross he might
hesitate.
cross, but after explaining
us that he was unable to find anything
told
he
Suppose
in the scriptures or commentaries
about interlaced birds
Is it possible?is
it conceivable-? that the birds
and dogs.
to do with Christianity?
and dogs don't have anything
to Shang
The scholars who
ascribe symbolic meaning
find it inconceivable
that the animals
bronze decoration
on the bronzes might
to do with
have nothing
Shang
I find it quite conceivable.
I should like at least
religion.
to persuade you that it cannot be ruled out on principle.
the dogs and birds in Figure 2. Ifwe wanted
Consider
to the animal interlace in the
to give a Christian meaning
we
would
have to deal somehow with
Lindisfarne
Book,
the fact that the interlace comes from pagan art. Figure
a pagan burial at
6 shows a famous
gold buckle from
A.D.
seventh
The interlace on
Sutton Hoo,
century
early
to a tradition of pagan Germanic
the buckle belongs
art;
its closest relatives are in Sweden.
the Lindis
Though
are
a few
buckle
farne page and the Sutton Hoo
only
one
is
is
of
them
Christian
and
the
other
decades
apart,
pagan.3
this knowledge,
suppose we ask again
what
the animal interlace in Figure 2 means. The buckle
an answer
to the question,
but it may
doesn't
supply
seem less urgent. A moment
make
the question
ago if I
on
had told you,
say, that St. Jerome's
commentary
Matthew
refers to dogs as a symbol of the Crucifixion
and birds as a symbol of the Resurrection,
you might
Armed
with
that you understood
birds and
felt satisfied
why
on the cross-carpet
are
But now
interlaced
page.
dogs
that fails
any explanation
you will not be satisfied with
to mention
does not
pagan animal interlace. Meaning
alone could
explain the presence of the animals; meaning
not fully account for the design.
can certainly
tell us much
So while
the iconographer
he has finished
that is of interest about the page, when
some features of the design will remain un
his account
I rather doubt that he can explain the dogs and
explained.
birds; I am sure that he cannot explain the odd shape of
look at a design
the choice of colors. We
the cross?or
like this and ask "What does itmean?" but we really want
have
to know much more
than that. Suppose
the iconogra
us firmly: the dogs and birds have no symbolic
tells
pher
to do with Christianity.
meaning,
they have nothing
are they here? I am not
to know: why
I still want
Then
to know
to know what
Iwant
content
the page means,
it does.
it looks the way
why
And a full answer to that question will always be his
will ever be enough
of meanings
torical. No
inventory
to explain the appearance
of the Lindisfarne
page or the
an
a
has
The
bronze.
of
page
infinitely
appearance
Shang
Fig.
2. Detail
of Fig.
i, Lindisfarne
Gospels
cross-carpet
page.
By
permission
of
the British
Library,
London.
9
Fig.
3. Chi-rho
Dublin.
College,
10
page
from
the Book
of Kells
(folio
34).
8th or 9th
century
A.D.
33 by
25 cm. Courtesy
of Trinity
nam
quum
pera
?i*^
.
MM
3l\
hOT
up*-*
%:..--,
'
-'- ^
.
*?
,#?*X
V?
?
&?:
.>t.?&V.^
-4;
^:^S^:-,1
~3
M
?MW
:*v,/rfl?SS?ii,i
,&
; *;' ? Y *>;??*A^
".';*:
Fig. 4. Book of Keils, detail of folio 250V.Courtesy of Trinity College, Dublin.
II
Fig. 5. Book of Kells, detail of folio 20iv (series of initial q's, turned 90 degrees). Courtesy of Trinity College, Dublin.
are only a part
ramified history behind it, and meanings
ofthat history. For the page or for a Shang bronze or for
answer to
the only complete
any other human product,
is a
it
look
it
the question
does
the
does?"
way
"Why
we
In
of
the
of
course,
complete history
design.
practice,
lack both the evidence and the energy towrite a complete
history of any design. But we cannot just pin ameaning
onto the
to ourselves
and then pretend
that we
design
it.
have explained
Turn to the Book of Kells Chi-rho
page (Fig. 3). To
reach even the most basic understanding
of the Chi-rho
we
must
sorts
must know
know
all
of
We
page
things.
sources like Sutton
that its animal interlace has Germanic
Hoo
geometric
(Fig. 6). We must know that the whirling
ornaments
enfolded by the arms of the letter Chi come
art of the British
the Des
Isles?compare
a
cen
mirror
Celtic
bronze
of
the
first
borough
a.D.
must
account
We
into
take
several
tury
(Fig. 7).
other artistic traditions. And
then we must
try to dis
cover how all those sources came
in
this
together
particu
trace the ancestry of
lar result. In other words, we must
sort of thing might
the Kells page in detail. What
the
Kells painter have seen and taken as his starting point?
One obvious
is the Chi-rho
page made a cen
possibility
earlier
for
the
Lindisfarne
Book
tury
(Fig. 8), and with
even a casual
we
at
the
Lindisfarne
Chi-rho
glance
begin
to understand
the Kells page a little better: in the Lindis
it is more
farne version
apparent that we are looking at
a page of text with
a fancy capital letter, and suddenly
we realize that the
bar in the bottom
reverse-L-shaped
corner
a letter, it is the
not
the
is
of
Kells
page
right
remnant of a frame around the text.
a page like the one
The Kells painter must have known
in the Lindisfarne
and his ambition must
have
Book,
been to elaborate on it and surpass it. But we may
still
find it hard to believe that a painter could look at the page
in Figure 8 and in one leap of the imagination
shown
in Figure
invent the page shown
3. Can we discover
between
these two, a starting point
that
something
a little more
would make his leap a little less prodigious,
from Celtic
mirror,
12
A likely candidate
is the Chi-rho
page
comprehensible?
a few decades
illuminated
of St. Chad,
from the Gospels
in Figure 9 the letter Chi is
Book:
after the Lindisfarne
a starfish over the page. No one could ever
like
spreading
the Kells Chi-rho
have produced
starting from nothing,
but an artist of supreme gifts could perhaps have pro
of St. Chad.
duced it if he started from the Gospels
1 and 3, the Lindisfarne
I look at Figures
When
carpet
it seems to me
that
page,
page and the Kells Chi-rho
But
much.
don't
really explain very
symbolic meanings
of Shang bronze
about the meaning
scholars who write
ex
seem to believe
that symbolic meanings
decoration
before
Lindisfarne
With
the
you
page
plain everything.
of the bronze
let me quote a passage from a discussion
this
K.
C.
Allan
decoration
(Sarah
Chang
adopts
by
as
on
to
the
her
passage
Shang art).4
epigraph
chapter
to be the salient
lists what he considers
Professor Chang
and then in the passage
features of the bronze decoration,
Iwill quote
I quote he asks how they are to be explained.
he
whenever
him exactly with one slight modification:
I
will
Irish
mentions
and
Zhou
bronzes
substitute
Shang
do this in all serious
and Northumbrian
manuscripts?I
on the assump
ness as away of getting some perspective
tions which
lie behind
his questions.
He writes:
to account
for the meaning
of the
should explain
manuscripts
some of them.
In other
just
not a
involves
the issue of the animal design
words,
single question
of Ireland and Northum
did the monks
but a series of questions: Why
on their decorations?
What
did these
functions
bria use animal designs
theory
aiming
Any
interpretive
animal design on Irish and Northumbrian
and not
characteristics
all of the above
designs serve in their ideology?Why was there such variety?Why do
occur
in pairs? Why
do they sometimes
often
the figures
appear
man
in
distinc
and
beast
such
humans?
do
with
appear
Why
together
tive formal
relationships?
Let me
sentence
by sentence.
to account
for the
aiming
theory
"Any interpretive
should explain all of the
of the animal designs
meaning
and not just some of them." There
above characteristics
are several points
be made
here but for the
that might
moment
Imention
explana
only one. Professor Chang's
he lists will be one in which
tion of the characteristics
consider
this passage
Fig.
7. Bronze
a.d.
century
Museum.
mirror
Length
from Desborough,
35 cm. Courtesy
ain animal
interlace was
a
it was
long-established
Fig.
6. Gold
Length
13.2
buckle
cm.
from
Courtesy
A.D.
7th century
Early
the Trustees
of the British Museum.
Sutton
of
Hoo.
time and history
every
play no role. He will
explain
to him by attaching amean
feature that seems important
is a patchwork
of meanings.
ing to it. For him a design
If he were
asked to explain
the Lindisfarne
page, either
or
us
he would
for
the
he would
animals,
give
meanings
leave them off his list of salient characteristics.
Their
as raw material
for
decoration
would
go
prior history
For him neither designs nor meanings
unremarked.
have
history.
The passage continues:
of Ireland
"Why did the monks
on their decora
use animal designs
and Northumbria
answer: not because of any meaning
tions?" Iwould
they
attached to the animals, but because animal interlace was
a certain purpose. The cross
their way of accomplishing
was
a
to the Lindis
of
symbol
surpassing
importance
to convey
farne painter, and he wished
that importance
In seventh-century
the cross spectacular.
Brit
by making
of
Northamptonshire,
the Trustees
of
ist
the British
a proven way
of doing
that:
local way
of making
things
beautiful.
is: "What functions did these designs
The next question
serve in their ideology?" The word
is almost
"ideology"
as vague as the word
it
and
has
troublesome
"meaning,"
connotations
(here it seems to hint that the designs were
Itmight
tools of some systematic world view).
be clearer
and less prejudicial to ask simply: "What functions did
these designs serve?" And we could not answer that ques
tion about the Lindisfarne
interlace without
asking simi
as a
lar questions
about the page and about the book
whole. How was the book used? What was its function?
Like the Lindisfarne
the bronze vessels
served a
Book,
in
and their decoration must have contributed
function,
some way to their effectiveness,
but to assume that that
contribution
unhelpful
Next
falls under
at best.
the heading
of
"ideology"
is
there
such variety?"
question:
"Why was
we ask it of Insular designs or of Shang bronzes,
Whether
I do not quite see the point of this question,
and Professor
not
return
to
it.
does
he
Chang
Oddly
enough, while
in
of
the
other
scholars
have
bronzes,
variety
speaks
described Shang design asmysteriously
repetitive (they
x3
Fig.
8. Chi-rho
page
from
British Library, London.
H
the Lindisfarne
Gospels
(folio
29). Ca.
A.D.
698.
34 by
26 cm. By
permission
of
the
Fig.
9. Chi-rho
page
from
the Gospels
of St. Chad.
Second
quarter
of
the 8th century
a.d.
30.8
by
23.5
cm.
By kind permission of theDean and Chapter of Lichfield Cathedral.
15
as
casters
take repetitiveness
proof that the bronze
Both
de
constrained
rules).
by rigid iconographie
me
seem
must
to
have
arbitrary. Variety
scriptions
to do with
how many
bronzes were
different
mainly
over
casters
how
different
how
made
many
long a
by
of
in
time
how
for
how
different
many
places
period
mea
to
not
I
know
but
do
how
different
many
patrons,
then
were
sure it in any absolute way, nor do I see how any measure
the presence or absence
of variety
could establish
ment
of symbolic meaning.5
is: "Why do the figures often appear
The next question
is surely: for symmetry.
Pascal
in pairs?" The answer
that we find bilateral symmetry
suggests
interesting be
cause our notion of symmetry
is derived from the human
face; hence, he says, we demand
symmetry
horizontally
nor in
and in breadth only, not vertically
depth. This
is of course found not only in the
kind of symmetry
human
face, it is common
organic nature.
throughout
we
in nature
it
it
find
because
interesting
Presumably
repays
And
attention.6
occur together
finally: "Why do they sometimes
and beast appear in such
humans? Why
do man
Since humans
do not
formal relationships?"
distinctive
I
have
been
in
the
Lindisfarne
you
page
appear
discussing
feel that at this point an already strained parallel
may
and Shang bronzes breaks
Insular manuscripts
between
down. To defend the parallel by turning to other pages
be possible but beside
inwhich humans do appear would
in fact
is to notice
that humans
the point; what matters
a
in
decoration.
role
bronze
Shang
negligible
play
are known;
at most only a
of Shang bronzes
Thousands
few dozen have human figures or faces in their decora
tion; and most of those few are provincial
castings from
with
scholars who
the
of
interpretations
iconographie
attempted
a
few
has
Professor
treated
bronzes,
provincial
Chang
at large
items as though they were
typical of the bronzes
are the only ones that are even re
because
they
simply
to the sort of interpretation
he wishes
amenable
motely
on
in
to propose.
man-animal
relationships
By insisting
one solid piece of
the
is
bronzes
he
disregarding
Shang
the bronze designs offer us: if Shang
information which
at all about Shang religion,
tell us anything
bronzes
they
was different
tell us that religion in the Changjiang
region
from religion at Anyang.7
about the bronzes does Profes
In none of his writings
to the possi
sor Chang
consideration
extended
give any
mean
no
had
bronze
decoration
the
symbolic
bility that
must
had
have
the
decoration
that
ing; he is convinced
convic
his
which
underlie
Two propositions
meaning.
for most of the scholars
tion deserve particular attention,
seem to
to Shang decoration
attribute meaning
who
them self-evident.
agree with him in finding
be no reason
is that there would
The first proposition
were
not being
an object
if the decoration
to decorate
the Changjiang
have
i6
region.
Like many
other
used to convey
symbolic meaning.
Why would
Shang
on decorated bronzes
if the dec
aristocrats spend money
oration had no meaning? What purpose could decoration
serve if not
to convey meaning?
Professor
possibly
to imagine another purpose
is unable
for it. No
Chang
one would
to make
invest time, energy,
and money
as "art for art's
this he dismisses
"mere decoration";
sake." Nothing
but symbolic
existence
of decoration.
meaning
could
explain
the
is that when
The second point he finds self-evident
decoration
the decoration
appears on religious utensils,
must
refer to the religion.
Since Shang bronzes were
for religious purposes,
their decoration must have
made
content.
religious
I believe
of Kells would
that the painter of the Book
not have found either of these propositions
self-evident.
he
have
been
would
Certainly
by the expres
puzzled
sion "art for art's sake"; but he would
have been equally
saw
"mere decoration"?he
by the expression
puzzled
were
mere
to
I
about
decoration.
type
nothing
Suppose
out the words
"Christi autem generado": my typed ver
sion would
that the Book of Kells version
say everything
one
for
Kells version says that this
says except
thing?the
occurrence
for fireworks.
of Christ's name is an occasion
are an incom
thinks that fireworks
of the Book
but
the
maker
of
money,
prehensible
were
ef
that
worth
of Kells
they
thought
superhuman
had no symbolic
fort. Suggesting
that Shang decoration
to saying that Shang bronzes
content
is not equivalent
Professor
were
art
Chang
waste
for
art's
sake.8
on religi
that the decoration
The second assumption,
ous objects must contain religious
if
symbols,
applied to
seem to mean
that dogs and
would
Insular manuscripts
are Christian
Or
birds and Celtic whirligigs
symbols.
an
from
utensils
than
rather
consider
religious
example
books: as a loose Christian
parallel to Shang ritual vessels
we might
take a group of late medieval
objects from the
ear
a
church
of
Swedish
treasury
(Fig. 10). Imentioned
decoration
has commonly
been
lier that in the West
the object at the
rather than animal-based;
plant-based
far right in Figure 10 supplies an instance. It is a reliquary
a bone from the forearm of St. Bridget,
and
containing
sorts of leaves, including
on it are vines with various
in
For com
the lowest register a vine with half-palmettes.
I illustrate in Figure 11 a bronze
image from the
parison
same vine with
on which
the
altar of a Buddhist
temple
half-palmettes
decorates
the mandorla
behind
the head
of aBuddhist deity.
is an imaginary
very long
plant whose
palmette
can be traced back to the Greek vase of Figure 12
history
that. The half-pal
and indeed a thousand years beyond
11 is Buddhist
while
the one in
mette
scroll in Figure
were
10 is Christian,
lifted out of
but if they
Figure
one
a
hard time deciding which
context we would
have
The
belongs
to which
religion.
It is regularly
said that Shang
io. Part of the silver treasure from
Museum
of National
Cathedral.
Link?ping
Fig.
at right are Swedish,
two reliquaries
The
Stockholm.
15th century. After Kienoder
historia (Uppsala,
1984), p. 131.
Antiquities,
ur ?ldre svensk
12. Athenian
vase
Ca.
(red-figure
Fig.
kalpis).
cm. The Arthur M.
Harvard
Sackler Museum,
Museums.
Bequest
of Frederick
M.
Watkins
500 b.c. Height
Art
University
(accession
38
no.
1972.40).
Fig.
11. Detail
of bronze
triad, H?ry?ji,
Nara.
A.D.
623.
After
A
Pictorial Encyclopedia of theOriental Arts, Japan, Volume 1 (New
York,
1969),
gravure
plate
57.
17
for use in religious
ceremonies
bronzes were made
and
that their decoration
therefore must have a religious con
as
is put forward
tent, must refer to the religion. This
were
not
it
it
is
but
If
self-evident.
self-evident,
though
to
to
refers
this
decoration
needs
Shang
Shang religion,
it cannot simply be assumed. The re
be demonstrated,
10was made of silver and gold to show
liquary in Figure
on it for the
and it has decoration
that itwas important,
was to declare that the ob
same reason. What mattered
was no ordinary bone;
gold and palmette
ject it contained
to say that. Compare
standard ways
the
scrolls were
a
with
less
Kells Chi-rho
page (Fig. 3)
slightly
spectacular
initial from the Book of Kells
(Fig. 4). The initial in
for itwas
the occasion
Figure
less important.
I said at the beginning
of this paper that my reason for
was
Insular
that they have in
manuscripts
discussing
a decorative
common
bronzes
with
vocabulary
Shang
is animal-based,
and this was
indeed one of my
which
reasons for choosing
for
them. But I had another motive
4 is less spectacular
because
of
and the Book
you the Lindisfarne
showing
Gospels
I hoped that, like me, you would
find them irresis
Kells.
to be persuaded
that their beauty could not
tible enough
as an accidental
have come into being merely
byproduct
was
to these
essential
of some other concern.
Beauty
won
assent
of the
the
beauty
holy objects: miraculous
to everything
stood for, and itwas
emotions
the books
supplied by decoration.
can thus have a function
far more
Decoration
impor
tant than the conveyance
but un
of symbolic meaning,
it difficult
the taste of our own time has made
fortunately
Since
the
Middle
for us to take this function
seriously.
esteem?
low
into
has
fallen
decoration
very
Ages
in our day to an all-time
low. At the turn of the
perhaps
century the architect Adolf Loos declared (Ihope with
is crime," and though
tongue in cheek) that "ornament
in their choice
charitable
have been more
other writers
is at best superflu
of words,
that decoration
the suspicion
to wonder
ous has led many
it exists at
observers
why
we must
the past, however,
all. If we are to understand
an effort to escape from the values of Adolf Loos
make
and his spiritual heirs in the International
style. At one
our
failure to under
point in her book Dr. Allan deplores
we have failed because
stand Shang bronzes;
perhaps
less to us than it did to Shang kings.
decoration matters
that decoration
We should at least consider the possibility
was valued by the owners of Shang bronzes not because
it said about their religion but because of what
of what
is the visible sign
it said about their bronzes. Decoration
and the visible sign that the
that an object is important,
is
of
the
possessor
object
important.9
ani
the bronze vessels were decorated with
Perhaps
cross was
mals for the same reason that the Lindisfarne
decorated with animals; perhaps religious content or sig
itself but only in the
nificance
lay not in the decoration
18
cross or the vessel to which
itwas applied (after all itwas
were
the
vessel
tied to specific
presumably
shapes that
ritual functions).10 Generation
after generation,
scholars
have racked their brains over one or two cryptic occur
rences of the word
taotie in Eastern Zhou
texts, hoping
to find in a few obscure phrases the key to the symbolism
texts are fairly clear about the
of the bronzes. But Zhou
of
the
bronzes.
The texts tell us that amar
symbolism
was
a
to
certain
entitled
number
of ding and gui
quis
was
a
a
to
duke
entitled
different
and so
vessels,
number,
the texts don't tell us is that amarquis
used this
on; what
a duke used that kind. Eastern Zhou
kind of decoration,
bronzes were
symbols but there is little reason to believe
that their symbolism
resided in their decoration.
Perhaps
the same is true of Shang. The ceremonial
presentation
an art of lavish
of sacrifices may
simply have required
and awesome
display.11
as
This conclusion
strikes many observers
disappoint
conviction
The
that
ingly pedestrian.
persists
mysteries
are locked within
on the bronzes. David
the decoration
relates amuch-quoted
story about a colleague
Keightley
who
told him, "If you don't understand
the taotie, you
cannot
understand
the Shang."12 What
is
precisely
Professor
troubling
Keightley's
colleague?
Perhaps he
taotie was
in
"The
only means
obviously
important
and if you don't know why,
then your
religion,
"
is incomplete.
If so, then he is
of Shang
I have
with
the kind of symbolic meaning
a
But perhaps he is expressing
been discussing.
larger
For some writers
the word
dissatisfaction.
"meaning"
and vaguer
embraces
broader
than any I
phenomena
for them the bronze decoration must
have yet discussed;
its way
into the
that works
carry some sort of content
or not. In other
it
whether
the
designer
plans
designs
or the
or the
the Shang world
words,
Shang mentality
in
itself
expresses
automatically
Shang
Shang Zeitgeist
is somehow
distilled
the essence of Shang
decoration;
into the bronzes.
invokes a rationale of this
Sarah Allan
kind in support of her reading of the bronze decoration.
are the material
artifacts
She writes:
"Archaeological
of that thought
manifestations
[i.e. Shang
religious
or 'mythic'
"In
she
And
primitive
explains:
thought]."13
as I
art, ritual, divi
societies,
prefer to call them, myth,
are all manifestations
of
nation,
sacrifice, and cosmology
an integral belief
from the
system,
generated
directly
Shang
knowledge
concerned
from
the
rather than secondarily
structure,
religious
is
written
records."14 In other words,
religious
thinking
art is epipheno
art is generated
from
and
it,
primary
menal.
an almost mystical
to positing
this is equivalent
as uninformative
of
culture,
something
unity
Hegelian
to Insular manu
as it is difficult
to disprove. Transferred
would
be saying, "If
Professor
story
Keightley's
scripts
and
these
don't
understand
birds,
you cannot
you
dogs
i and 3: the asser
the Irish." Look at Figures
understand
But
tion that art is amanifestation
of an integral belief system
of
does not take us very far toward an understanding
as amanifestation
of
these pages. If art is to be explained
a belief system, why do we see animal interlace on pagan
do we find palmette
and Christian
artifacts? Why
scrolls
on Buddhist
and Christian
and classical Greek objects?
can indeed be connected with
Decoration
religion, but
to postulate
at the outset of
the form of the connection
our studies is to
the case and limit the scope of
prejudge
our
contexts
In
well
such as
documented
inquiries.
art we would
medieval
Christian
be hard put to demon
strate an inflexible one-way
causal relationship
between
art. The
forms
of
and
the
thought
religious
religious
statement
that objects are material manifestations
of be
lief systems implausibly makes
visual forms wholly
de
on beliefs without
mechanism
any
suggesting
pendent
for translating beliefs into visual form.
serves Dr.
In practice
this rather abstract formulation
Allan simply as a restatement
of K. C. Chang's
assump
on religious utensils must have
tion that the decoration
an
it provides
content;
religious
encouraging
point of
a
content
for
of
study of the mythological
departure
in advance that such
Shang decoration
by guaranteeing
content is present. Like other interpreters, Dr. Allan finds
content mainly
in Anyang
bronzes, where
mythological
it not so much
she is able to decipher
because
Shang
a key to it as because
it is conveyed
documents
provide
such
by what Dr. Allan calls "natural symbols"?motifs
as snakes, cicadas, owls, and
are
These
motifs
dragons.
to have meanings
arise
from
which
natural
presumed
and obvious
associations
with
the actual animals
and
are therefore universal.
which
For example:
"Snakes are
a universal motif
art. They may live inwater
in primitive
or burrow
beneath
the ground,
and slough
hibernate,
their skins in the spring; thus, they are a natural symbol
or rebirth."15
of transformation
In other words,
Dr.
Allan assumes
to us
that Shang decoration
is intelligible
because it speaks through a vocabulary
of universal
sym
bols. Ifind this assumption
for at least three
unpersuasive
reasons.
that an interpretation
First, suppose
along these lines
were
correct: it could not be very informative.
If the
are
of
is
the
the
bronzes
universal,
language
designs
why
are
else in
unique? Shang bronzes
quite unlike anything
the world,
but Dr. Allan
talks about them only in terms
of "natural symbols"
and "the principles of mythological
art everywhere."
is a generic
This
of
interpretation
art.
to
art.
It
is
blind
the
of
distinctiveness
generic
Shang
the bronze motifs
could be natural symbols
Second,
were
to
creatures
only if it
possible
identify them with
that exist in nature. Dr. Allan
is concerned
with
the
are
a
not
of
snakes
because
snakes
meaning
particularly
common
in Shang art but because
motif
interpreting
as natural symbols
them as
dragons
requires classifying
as
at
snakes
least
But
what
is
snake-like
(or
reptiles).
we have
the creature in Figure 22? For convenience
a
we should not
to call that motif
but
dragon,
to
it is enough
that the name we have given
suppose
we
it a member
of the class Reptilia. Whatever
make
in nature
choose to call it, it does not resemble anything
can no more
be a natural
than the
and hence
symbol
taotie. Itmight be argued that a few taotie can be associated
animals on the strength of horns bor
with
recognizable
rowed from a ram or a buffalo, but it seems more
impor
tant to observe
of taotie conspicu
that the vast majority
a
real animal:
ously lack any such reference to particular
that we recog
taotie are so unspecific
the horns of most
nize them as horns only because of their location on top
of the head (the horns in Figure 21 would
be taken for
ears if they were moved
to the side of the head).16 Any
on
linking the bronze dec
interpretation which
depends
oration with
animals is irrelevant to an orna
real-world
of whose
animals are imaginary.17
mental
system most
am
I
of
the
idea of natural
whole
Finally,
skeptical
we can
term
The
"natural
symbols.
symbol"
implies that
on certain motifs
to
have fixed, self-evi
confidently
rely
dent meanings,
but if we test this notion
against works
our con
is well documented
of art whose
symbolism
that birds are a
fidence will collapse. We might
propose
of heaven
and that dogs are a natural
natural
symbol
symbol of the earth and that the interlace of birds and
on the Lindisfarne
carpet page therefore
signifies
dogs
communication
heaven
and earth, but no
between
a medievalist
would
be impressed;
knows
medievalist
all sorts of things (a fish can signify
that birds can mean
a human
soul, it can even signify Christ).
Iconographers
art have a wealth
of written
evi
who
study Christian
at their
and
dence
written
evidence
makes
disposal,
for it reveals all too clearly
very difficult,
iconography
and shifting meanings
of symbols.
But
the complex
written
evidence
also makes
To
iconography
possible.
or
do iconography
(which
by ethnographic
analogy
comes to the same
the existence of
thing) by postulating
about
decided
to indulge in free associa
is merely
"natural symbols"
never produce
tion. Ethnographic
will
analogy
anything
reason that the
but universal
for
the
symbols,
simple
it can only tell us to
analogy presupposes
universality:
assume that a given motif
a certain
has
always
meaning,
no matter where we encounter
it.18And no art historian
too well
will assume that, because he knows
that mean
come and go. All Christian
as non
out
art
started
ings
art.
Christian
century Shang bronzes have been a
ink blot onto which
scholars have
their
intellectual
The bronzes
projected
preoccupations.
are ideal for the purpose because we have so little hard
information
about
them. We
know
far more
about
we
do
about
than
but
confi
Christianity
Shang religion,
dent interpreters will
tell us much more
about Shang
venture
to say
than
would
medievalist
any
iconography
In the twentieth
sort of Rorschach
19
13. Detail
Fig.
Panlongcheng.
of
Ca.
the decoration
15th century
on
b.c.
a
ding from Hubei
of vessel
Height
Huangpi
54 cm.
After Ch?ka Jimmin Ky?wakoku kodai seid?ki ten (Tokyo, 1976),
no.
4.
about Insular interlace. In the 1940s scholars already be
a universal
lieved that the bronzes
lan
spoke
symbolic
in
sex
but
the
the
bronzes
about
and
1940s
guage,
spoke
Freud
and Frazer. Today
fertility,
they speak about
shamanism
I cannot guess what
and mythology.
they
will say to the next generation,
but I am sure that what
to change as
as their
they say will continue
long
interpret
ers are
to
an
art
in
what
historian would
engage
willing
call iconography
texts.
without
Yet we do not have quite the same excuse for
interpre
tive license that scholars a generation
ago enjoyed. Ar
has not merely
it has
chaeology
given us more bronzes,
us
and
bronzes
bronzes,
given
pre-Anyang
pre-Anyang
for iconographers.
To speak of
pose special problems
and
case of the
birds
natural
and
in
the
tigers
symbols
20
seems
of
bronze
to
difficult
Anyang
Figure
enough;
so
discover
natural symbols
con
in a design
tenuously
nected with nature as the pre-Anyang
taotie of Figure 13
is surely impossible.
On the subject of pre-Anyang
de
Dr.
Allan's
is
somewhat
When
signs
position
equivocal.
she addresses
them specifically
she seems to suggest that
than impress the viewer with a sense of
they do no more
But
when
she speaks of Shang bronzes
in gen
mystery.
to the early bronzes
the same mean
eral, she attributes
all the meanings
bronzes:
ings she has found in Anyang
are somehow
in Anyang
visible
bronzes
latent in the
earlier
ones.
This
is methodologically
very risky. Let me propose
a
that barbarian
invasions
thought experiment.
Suppose
or
disease
had
the
civilization
epidemic
brought
Shang
to an
it off the face of the earth?a
decade
end?wiped
before
the Anyang
was
no
that
there
period.
Suppose
the bronze
shown
in Figure 20
Anyang
period. Then
would
We
still
would
have
thousands
of Shang
go away.
20
Fig.
b.c.
14. Jue
Courtesy
from Hubei
of Higuchi
Huangpi
Panlongcheng.
Ca.
15th century
Takayasu.
to study, but they would
bronzes
all be Erligang-phase
bronzes.
and Panlongcheng
would
be the
Zhengzhou
and our problem
type sites of the Shang civilization,
would
be to understand
the decoration
of bronzes
like
those shown in Figures
13-19. How would we react to
those bronzes?typical
bronzes?if
Erligang-phase
they
were
the only Chinese
bronzes we had ever seen?
Dr. Allan writes:
"The themes are those of death and
transformation
and the world
of the beyond:
the taotie
which
is made up of animals and humans
used in sac
a passage
its open mouth,
to the other world,
rifice,
or
we
If
knew
eating
killing."19
only
pre-Anyang
bronzes
such as the jue of Figure
carries one
14, which
of the simplest versions
we
of the taotie, what would
make of such a statement?
to
Is it possible
that
imagine
some caster or patron devised
that design
it
because
seemed to him a natural way of giving visual expression
to ideas of death and sacrifice?
of the
15 shows one of the simplest versions
Figure
a
no interpreter would
that
be
likely to
dragon,
design
a
swarm
16
shows
describe as a natural symbol.
Figure
are
of things which might be dragons but which
perhaps
more
In Figures
17, 18, and 19 the
likely to be squiggles.
ismore elaborate, but it is no more obviously
decoration
or shamanistic
in content.
If Professor
mythological
to
how
bronzes
he
would
had
these
Chang
only
study,
as I know
As
far
talk about man-beast
relationships?
a human
bronze with
there is no Erligang-phase
image
on it.
in mind
consider
And with Erligang-phase
examples
the following
characterization
the
bronzes:
of
general
on
"Not only are the motifs
Shang bronzes
continually
are to
allusions
their
however,
transformed,
primary
of
and
the
under
sacrifice,
watery
state?eating
changes
of the dead, the dragon which
is also a bird, the
world
from the earth, snakes
cicada which
emerges winged
which
which
their
deer
shed their antlers,
skins,
slough
on real animals,
its emphasis
etc." With
and
activity,
seem
me
a
not
to
continual
this
does
transformation,
very
Fig.
b.c.
ten
Fig.
16. Pan
rubbing
from Zhengzhou,
of decoration.
Ca.
b.c. Diameter
century
Kanan-sh?
Hakubutsukan
pi.
54; Shang
(Beijing,
Zhou
1984),
15. Jia
Height
(Tokyo,
apt description
from Hubei
of Anyang
bronzes;
Ca.
Huangpi
Panlongcheng.
cm. After
ChilkaJimmin
Ky?wakoku
1976), no. 2.
30.1
how
is it to
14th century
kodai seid?ki
with
14th
30 cm. After
1983),
(Tokyo,
wenshi
qingtongqi
no. 707.
21
17. Zun. Ca.
Fig.
the Royal Ontario
b.c. Height
34.9 cm. Courtesy
14th century
no. 954.136.2).
Toronto
Museum,
(accession
of
18. Jue. Ca.
Fig.
Asian
Collection,
B60B723).
Courtesy
b.c.
18
Height
of San Francisco
14th century
Art Museum
of
the Asian
Art Museum
cm.
Avery
Brundage
no.
(accession
of San Francisco.
Fig. 19. Gui from Hubei Huangpi Panlong
of decoration.
rubbing
cheng, with
b.c.
Ca.
17.4
14th century
Height
cm.
After R. W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in
theArthurM. SacklerCollections (Cambridge,
Mass.,
22
1987),
fig.
214.
Fig.
Fig. 20. Fang yi. Ca.
cm. The Arthur M.
12th century
Sackler
University
Art Museums.
Winthrop
(accession
no.
b.c.
Museum,
Bequest
Height
Harvard
29.8
of Grenville
L.
1943.52.109).
Photograph by Michael Nedzweski.
the animals itmen
bronzes, where
apply to pre-Anyang
tions do not appear?20
we knew
If we had never seen an Anyang
bronze?if
we
the
of
the
centuries
bronzes
?would
only
preceding
ever have arrived at such a
I
I
doubt
and
it,
description?
believe
that this is a serious criticism. No
in
symbolic
of the bronzes has yet come to terms with
terpretation
their
instead been
have
history.
Symbolic
meanings
read
into
bronzes
and
then
routinely
Anyang
extrapo
lated back to pre-Anyang
bronzes.
The procedure
is
a
the
result
is
misfit
the
between
questionable,
glaring
and the objects. Erligang-phase
bronzes
interpretation
are not a
were
marginal
phenomenon;
they
produced
over a vast area for several centuries. An
interpretation
of Shang bronzes which must
strain to accommodate
to be right.
them is unlikely
Let me conclude by returning for amoment
to animal
I have used the decoration
interlace.
of Insular manu
to possibilities
that I believe we
scripts to draw attention
as we try to understand
should consider
Shang decora
are not inter
tion. But the animals on Shang bronzes
an
laced. Interlace in China
is
Eastern Zhou phenome
between China and medieval
non, and my comparisons
2i. Detail
Fig.
of
taotie on
22. Detail
the fang
of dragon
yi of Figure
on
the fang
20.
Photograph
yi of Figure
by Michael
Nedzwcski.
20. Photo
graph by Michael Nedzweski.
Britain would
have been much
closer if I had used East
ern Zhou
rather than Shang objects. Regular
interlace
from the Book of Kells has counterparts
in fifth-century
China
(Figs. 5, 25), and in the same period we could also
find a few examples
of irregular interlace
(Fig. 26) to
the Kells initial of Figure 4. The parallels
compare with
are in some ways
so close that
Insular
analogies with
seem
more
a
on
to
relevant
manuscripts
might
colloquy
the meaning
of Eastern Zhou
decoration
than to the
be objected
that Eastern Zhou
present one. And itmight
are too different from
designs
Shang designs for the same
to be applicable
to both?
considerations
about meaning
to use Eastern
though scholars have been quite willing
texts to prove things about the
Zhou
of Shang
meaning
designs.
But ifwe feel that the problem
of meaning
in Eastern
Zhou decoration
is not the same as the problem of mean
then we
should explore
that
ing in Shang decoration,
feeling, because it is an important fact of artistic psychol
to the
we are
it is a part of our reaction
ogy:
designs
are interlaced
less in
confronting.
25)
Why
dragons
(Fig.
need of interpretation
than uninterlaced
dragons
(Fig.
us in some cases but not in
is it that prompts
22)? What
23
Fig.
b.c.
Fig. 23. Hu. Ca. 480
Height
Freer Gallery
of Art,
Smithsonian
D.c.
no. 57.22).
(accession
44.8
cm.
Courtesy
Institution,
of
24. Detail
of
taotie on
the hu of Figure
23. Author's
photograph.
the
Washington,
Fig.
B.c.
26.
Silvered
Length
bronze
34 cm. After
and sheath.
5th century
dagger
The Frederick M. Mayer
Collection
ofChinese Art (London, Christie Manson & Woods Ltd.,
sale of 24-25 June 1974), P- 343 Cot 2I1)
Fig.
25. Detail
24
of dragons
on
the hu of Figure
23. Author's
photograph.
itmean?" Yet since we all feel the effect regardless of our
views about the presence or absence of symbolic mean
the design
ing, the effect must not depend on meaning:
to suppose
is visually compelling.
Is it so unreasonable
that the visual power we feel is precisely what the bronze
to demand
an explanation
in terms of symbolic
21 and 24 are the same,
in
The
motifs
Figures
meaning?
it is only the taotie in Figure 21 which
but somehow
cries
one
out to be interpreted. Certainly
is
design
compelling
in away that the other is not, and our twentieth-century
to that
effect is to ask "What does
response
compelling
others
caster and his patron
Notes
never
taotie
carry
felt and valued
To
designs.
a
make
and sought?
i. Good
are
with
references
excellent
color
illustrations
general
The Lindisfarne
Phaidon,
Janet Backhouse,
(Oxford,
1981)
Gospels
and Fran?oise
The Book of Kells
Thames
and Hud
Henry,
(London,
son, 1974).
2. The American
a clearer
of the
illustration
flag might
provide
to draw between
I am attempting
distinction
encoded meanings
and
attached
meanings
"symbolic
present
The stars on
by Act
a new
after
the fact
(some
authors
and
meaning"
I use
paper
and
"significance,"
the word
"meaning"
states:
represent
and it influences
the flag
of Congress,
state enters
the two as
distinguish
in the remainder
of the
sense
in the former
this is an encoded
meaning,
of the flag
only).
fixed
the appearance
(when
to
the flag
is redesigned
incorporate
to remind
another
viewers
informed
star). The flag serves not only
of encoded
but also as a focus for any viewer's
however,
meanings,
or
sentiments
to
about
the United
States?ardent
patriotism
hostility
as the case may
American
be.
These
sentiments
attached
imperialism
are
the meanings
in the mind
of the average
uppermost
probably
but they are in no way
in the design
embedded
of the flag;
viewer,
attach
they would
what
makes
into
the function
3. The
reminder
for
to
chose
Congress
words,
woven
the union
designate
the flag
its design
Congress
adoption
that motifs
instance
even
to whatever
the
equally well
design
as the
of
the
States.
In other
United
flag
themselves
a
powerful
the meanings
it.
has assigned
but
is not
symbol
onto
projected
any meaning
it because
of
of pagan motifs
and meanings
if we
could
art is an
by Christian
important
are not
linked. Thus
indissolubly
on
establish
that the face-like
motifs
we would
of the Shang
not
taotie motif,
Liangzhu
jades are ancestors
to conclude
be entitled
that Liangzhu
and Shang
had
religion
religion
ideas or beliefs
in common;
if animal
in seventh-century
interlace
can
Britain
in completely
different
appear
few miles
and decades
apart, we
certainly
across the much
tinuity of religious meaning
that
religious
cannot
greater
bronzes.
contexts
assume
only
any con
a
time and distance
volume
like the Liangzhu
two faces,
includes
(which
ences
are so essential
that
remotely
motif
one
in its most
human
and one
elaborate
incarnation
the differ
animal);
is hardly
the two
the Liangzhu
hand,
an
between
equation
on the other
In its sketchiest
versions,
possible.
motif
does indeed resemble
the earliest versions
of
at this extreme
of
than a pair of eyes,
on
centered
paired
the taotie; but since
to much
more
amounts
neither motif
simplicity
the resemblance
could well be
fortuitous?designs
invented
eyes are a commonplace,
independently
in many
in the
parts of the world
(see Bagley,
Shang Ritual Bronzes
Arthur M.
Sackler Collections,
Harvard
Press,
1987, p. 49,
University
n. 47). It
be added that while
seems to have
the Liangzhu
motif
might
a
with
the cong shape (Liangzhu
cong never occur
special connection
without
it),
cong are rare among
Shang
jades,
and
Shang
examples
would
the
that
did not arise by
of resemblance
much
less
points
identifying
Li (or it would
cited by Dr.
require much
than exists at present
evidence
of a Liangzhu
stronger
archaeological
to
contribution
To decide
then whether
the motifs
culture).
Shang
meant
the same thing would
of a kind we are
call for evidence
unlikely
ever to have.
than
equivocal
require
those
and Ritual
4. K. C. Chang,
Art, Myth,
Press,
(Harvard University
61. Professor
ideas about
the meaning
of Shang
Chang's
are
in this book and in his article "The
presented
'Meaning'
of Shang Bronze
Art"
1990, pp. 8-17). The pass
(Asian Art, Spring
as the
to
6 of Sarah Allan's
The
age I quote
appears
epigraph
chapter
1983), p.
decoration
Shape of the Turtle:Myth, Art and Cosmos in Shang Dynasty China
(Albany, SUNY Press, 1991). Although in the present paper I refer
explicitly
only
to the views
of Professor
Chang
are very
widely
comments
are meant
to examine
Iwish
assumptions
will
be understood
that my
to all
of Shang decoration.
symbolic
interpretations
are made
in the course
of a wide-ranging
points
of
and Dr.
held,
to
the
Allan,
and I hope
it
apply generally
Some of the same
of
discussion
the
taotie by Ladislav
Kesner
51, 1991, pp.
(Artibus Asiae
Dr. Kesner's
to collect my
on
29-53);
paper has helped me
thoughts
to him for
these issues,
me
and I am grateful
to read it in
allowing
on drafts of my
For
comments
I should
manuscript.
paper
helpful
also like to express my
toWilliam
Brendan
Boltz,
gratitude
Cassidy,
meaning
Avi
Alain
Landau,
Thote.
the
Lothar
Ledderose,
Jessica
Rawson,
Elizabeth
Sears,
and
5. The
to prove
many
schemes
Liangzhu
jades from
(In the present
Shang
David
Li Xueqin
[i.e. the Percival
Colloquy
proceedings]
was
writes:
"When
the taotie motif
in the Shang from pre
inherited
a case of
not
historic
it was
an artistic
times,
simply
continuing
but one of inheriting
beliefs
and myths."
But how does he
tradition,
know
of meaning,
it is far
this?) Moreover,
leaving aside the question
from certain
that the motifs
taotie looks
per se are related. No
Shang
separate
chance
case
convincing
similarities between Liangzhu and Shang motifs
William
unity
which
in the bronze
takes regularities
decoration
argument
are at work
that iconographie
common
is
prescriptions
for instance,
took his classification
guises. Bernhard
Karlgren,
to reflect
Watson
of design
in
of a lost iconographie
and
system,
that "the extraordinary
generally
speculates
evolution"
in the bronzes must
logic of stylistic
the dictates
more
and
reflect ritual requirements (The Art of Dynastic China, New York,
sort of art or artifact could not
by this argu
to carry symbolic
of design
and
meaning?
"Unity
are no more
evolution"
in Shang
logic
extraordinary
bronzes
than in Detroit
it follow
does
that the design
automobiles;
a
of Detroit
is governed
automobiles
code?
by
symbolic
6. Professor
connects
bilateral
in Shang decora
Chang
symmetry
tion with
his theory
of "dualistic
a
in
phenomena"
Shang
society,
on
of A and B styles
in Shang
theory modeled
Karlgren's
theory
decoration
and Ritual,
and "Some Dualistic
(see Art, Myth,
pp. 76-8,
"
in Shang
Phenomena
Studies, November
Society,
fournal
of Asian
dualistic
include among
other
1964, pp. 45-61).
Chang's
phenomena
1981,
ment
p. 43). But
be proved
of stylistic
things Karlgren's
and New
Schools
what
styles and Dong
of divination
Zuobin's
ritual.
alternation
I am
inclined
between
to doubt
Old
the
existence
of all the supposed
dualisms.
man-beast
7. Professor
Chang
emphasizes
he
believes
that
the bronze
decoration
because
relationships
a
is shamanistic
in content:
are the shaman's
is a shaman,
animals
This
figure
helpers.
in
rests on dubi
and Ritual,
4 of Art, Myth,
theory, presented
chapter
ous
and tendentious
of late Zhou
ethnographic
analogies
readings
texts. A broader
and Han
statement
of the theory, according
to which
human
25
shamanism
america
is a palaeolithic
in a "Maya-China
inheritance
continuum,"
to
in the epilogue
the fourth edition of Chang's book The Archaeology ofAncient China
Press,
(Yale University
8. In a recent
essay
were
"art for art's
the bronzes
that
the view
Chang
rejects explicitly
Ancient Chinese
sake" (inW. T. Chase,
Sacral Vessel, New
1991, p. 17).
York,
no one has ever held: no one would
the Precious
Casting
is surely a view which
that the bronzes
propose
Art:
Bronze
But
1986).
Professor
this
seriously
or
for disinterested
designed
that visual
follow,
however,
of the bronzes.
and users
not have been
may
were
consciously
certainly
effects
were
aesthetic
for museums
made
objects
contemplation.
oration
its use which
for
rationale
10. This
should
of dec
the function
describes
1979), which
in chapter
(but which
I find less persuasive).
be amplified.
perhaps
Phaidon,
(Oxford,
terms
in similar
10 adds
Shape of the Turtle,
of
identification
that combines
a
the Percival
David
connect
p. 163.
the taotie motif
concrete
with
with
an oracle
the element
yang "sheep"
pair of eyes with
on this
on the
to
since it depends
objection
ground,
taotie carry sheep's
small number
of bronzes
whose
comparatively
in the present
In support
Tao
of Ding's
horns.
Wang
suggestion,
bone
graph
is vulnerable
[i.e.
cites a vessel
proceedings]
as
as
I
far
the only
is,
know,
taotie has horns
those of a
resembling
Colloquy
which
with
connection
any essential
sheep,
to be unnecessary;
taotie with
the attributes
of
ought
to be the rule, not the exception.
sheep ought
are not
fact that the taotie and dragon
17. The
straightforward
is sometimes
of real animals
acknowledged
by describing
depictions
citing
pursued.
I cannot
which
Zhengzhou
Baijiazhuang
bronze whose
Erligang-phase
if the taotie had
real animal. Yet
to the makers
unimportant
as elsewhere,
In Shang China
aesthetic
as an end in themselves,
but they
pursued
9. On this point I am indebted to Ernst Gombrich's The Sense of
Order
The
Shan's
from
were
effects
objects.
15. Allan,
16. Ding
volume
not
It does
of a formulation
test the validity
and Meso
China
uniting
is found
examples
them as composites, but this description is justified neither by their
a Freudian
I am
analogy
decora
the bronze
The
is a
If a taotie with
buffalo
horns
by their origin.
a buffalo
is the animal
that has been combined
with
nor
appearance
what
point
the cross,
the bronze
vessel with
equates
the cross; in each case, I suggest,
that decorates
the interlace
or cross)
to underline
was
to the
the decoration
(vessel
object
applied
to contribute
not
Alterna
additional
its significance,
significance.
we
as several
the taotie
readers have
equate
might
suggested,
tively,
be a prime
the taotie would
the cross; on that analogy
with
religious
to embellish
decoration
of the bronze
the remainder
serving
symbol,
composite,
term "animal
toWestern
to
is appropriate
it? The
produce
composite"
motifs
like sphinxes,
and griffins:
combi
these are unreal
chimaeras,
nations
of perfectly
real animals,
made
The
by piecemeal
assembly.
came
into
animals
of
bronze
decoration
Shang
being
principal
same way
the Lindisfarne
embellishes
interlace
that animal
I find
this latter analogy
(it draws
unconvincing
Although
which
the taotie and the rest of the decoration
between
distinction
rather
though
analogy,
of its meaning),
motif
and Dr. Allan
relies heavily
(and presumably
on such arguments
"As
K.
has
C.
154:
observed,
p.
Chang
(compare
as a
occurs
in many
of pass
cultures
the open animal mouth
symbol
pursuing
tion with
it in the
a
cross.
seems
to justify),
it is not
of actual bronzes
in the appearance
as I
two
to
merits
of
the
the
Instead,
argue
my
analogies.
purpose
a
in the
I have chosen
stated at the outset,
analogy
chiefly
particular
nothing
hope of making more
carried
intelligible the suggestion that the bronzes
for reasons
decoration
unconnected
with
programs.
I do not see
symbolic
is correct but
of analogy
I cannot
that my
choice
prove
to be incorrect.
it can be shown
evidence
that on present
11. 0?
course
de
of the bronzes
this or any other
interpretation
were
on
context
in which
the bronzes
the
about
assumptions
pends
were
for whom
de
in other words
about
the audience
used,
they
as assertions
we
of
of the bronze
vessels
If
instance
think
for
signed.
to ask toward whom
the assertion
it is important
the king's
power,
we read that the designs were meant
to terrify the
directed; when
we must
common
the common
ask whether
into submission,
people
as
ever saw them. And when we
think of the bronzes
religious
people
was
art we
of applying
the word
the danger
our
of
understanding
everyday
Shang
comes
and
such as Christianity
from missionary
religions
to all strata of society,
and
their doctrines
which
address
should
"religion"
the word
Buddhism,
we cannot
in mind
bear
always
to
ancestral
cults:
the bronze
that the cult which
take it for granted
employed
vessels had similar artistic needs. We know
very little about
were
inwhich
used, but they certainly were
Shang bronzes
statements
obelisks
in
that Egyptian
the way
Press,
128.
p.
1978),
The Shape
The Shape
14. Allan,
use Claude
L?vi-Strauss's
13. Allan,
See
in myths'").
generated
structure
ing art forms
20
also
which
directly
"
Whether
mythology.
not
ing, it is
process
(see Bagley,
imaginative
Shang
sections
1.4-1.6).
at note
15 invokes
ethnographic
quoted
in
of
the universality
of the
support
distantly,
But what
age to the other world").
to determine
cross-cultural
analogy
justification
the symbolic
can there be for
using
of motifs?
meanings
or "so- called
tribal societies
the iconographer's
purposes
primi
are a more
tive peoples
the world"
(p. 126)
appealing
throughout
source of analogies
for Bronze
than, say, Old Kingdom
Age China
turn to cultures whose
is perhaps
that once we
the reason
Egypt,
If for
we
of natural
the notion
know
about,
something
actually
one would
absurd. No
becomes
propose
seriously
patently
symbols
as snakes
mean
art must
in
the same
in Shang
that snakes
thing
no one would
art (not to mention
Christian
art). And
Egyptian
art
sort of carefree
to interpret
attempt
ethnography
by the
Egyptian
of Shang art (for an extreme
of interpreters
that has been the mainstay
see
recent
of the 'T'ao-t'ieh,
"The Meaning
Jordan Paper's
example
to avoid
It is difficult
1978, pp.
18-41).
August
History
of Religions,
symbolism
the suspicion
are
bolism
that ethnographically-based
one more
manifestation
simply
theories
of
of universal
the
sym
condescending
ethnocentrism described by Sally Price in Primitive Art in
Western
Places
Civilized
19. Allan,
20. Allan,
Dr.
mation"
of Chicago
Press,
1989).
of the Turtle, p. 170.
transfor
The Shape of the Turtle, p. 131. By "continual
seems
to mean
in design
that the taotie varies
from
Allan
(University
The
Shape
sense is
in this peculiar
"transformation"
same line of reason
to
the
motifs;
property
Shang
by
special
hardly
we
else in art)
scrolls
that vine
could
argue
(or almost
anything
ing
to
of state.
allude
changes
of Chinese
Art
The Percival David
Foundation
Editorialnote:
one
to the next,
bronze
but
a
12. David Keightley,
religious
and
pyramids
were.
California
Turtle,
the setting
not public
and
temples
an
different
entirely
through
Ritual Bronzes,
introduction,
on snakes
18. The passage
clear
from
from
(University of
Sources of Shang History
p.
137,
quoted
in Allan,
The
of
Shape
the
12.
of the Turtle, p.
"To
continues:
the
14
Turtle,
p.
(the passage
of
'think
in such societies,
people
expression,
sense derives
from
the same
p. 130: "Their
generates
mythology,
that structure
rather
but
than
the Shang people
thought
casters would
to me how bronze
religious
structures,
and
the art forms
are
from
the
derived
or inwrit
inmyths
about
go
generat
I do not
know
how
the
published
article was written:
has
Bronzes
on Art
and Archaeology
in Asia
no.
15), Rod
erickWhitfield editor, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art,
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
Copies can be obtained from the Publications Officer, School of
Oriental
London
to
(Colloquies
for which
Professor
volume
Bagley's
colloquy
in Early Chinese
Ritual
The Problem
of Meaning
and African
wcih
oxg,
Studies,
Thornhaugh
United
Kingdom.
Street,
Russell
Square,
Purchase answer to see full
attachment