Sculpture

The subject ot sculpture in China must for the present be treated with extreme reserve; the discoveries of to-day prove that the theories of yesterday were based on false conclusions, and justify great hopes of interesting excavations yet to be made, which may prove the existence of a native school of importance. This article is, therefore, written rather with the idea of encouraging students to give time and attention to this most important branch of art and archaeology, than with any thought of giving a history of Chinese sculpture —this is yet to be written. Too general has been the acquiescence in the opinion expre ed by Paleologue in U Art Chinois (published 1887), thus translated: "At last we reach the supreme moment in the history of Art in China: the introduction of Buddhism. We have noted in the preceding chapters the considerable* influence which the introduction of this religion and the importation of sacred statues from India, exercised in the 6th and 7th centuries a.d. upon the art of working in bronze. From the very beginning this iulluence was no le on the carving in stone. It appears indeed that the Buddhist idols brought from Nepal and the Punjab by the Chinese pilgrims, were the source from which the sculptors of the Middle Kingdiom drew the inspiration for their 513 first statues. Until then they had only ta-eated ttone in bas-relief, and at that a bas-relief with no projection, no modelling; they had not attempted the full relief, which frees, as it were, the effigy from its wall of stone; they had been unable to rise to the heights of a statue. Therefore the most ancient statues known in China are figures of Buddhist divinities." That under Buddhist influence much sculptural work of value has been produced, no one will deny; witne the cliff carvings at Yiin-kang in Shansi, at Lung Men in Honan, at Hang-chou in Chekiang; but that it proved the sole source whence the Chinese sculptor drew his inspiration is an hypothesis which has, since Paleologue wrote i as above, been absolutely refuted. In 1907 two stone lions dating from \.v. 147 were exhumed in Western Shantung; these, which were until recently the most ancient statues in full relief known in China, stood in front of the sepulchre of the family Wu, near Chia-hsiang IMG:p513_1.png:Chinese characters; a winged tiger of purely indigenous type was found to e.xist in Ssuch'uan, date a.d. 209; and finally in 1911 at the tomb of Ho Ch'u-ping an archaic group, consisting of a charger trampling upon a barbarian of hideous aspect was discovered by the French Mi ion composed of Comte Gilbert de VoTSiNS, Jean l'Abtigue, and Victor Segalen. This interesting statue dates from 117 B.C., the time of the Former or Western Han. Magnificent figures which show no traces of foreign influence exist at the Liang tombs near Nanking, and the superb winged horse at the tomb of T'ang Kao Tsung, which is equally free from Buddhist elements, is indubitably the work of a native sculptor of great power. Although the Han bas-reliefs at Hsiao Shan T'ang in Shantung were noticed and remai-ked upon by Dr. Bushell at the Congre of Orientalists in Berlin in 1881, the pioneer in the study of Chinese sculpture is undoubtedly M. Ed. Chavannes, who, suppoited by the Mini stere de I'lnstruction Publique, and I'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres', Paris, has made most extensive researches in China. These same public-spirited bodies have further extended their patronage, and so it may be hoped that in the not far distant future a comprehensive study of Chinese sculpture, both indigenous and of foreign extraction, may appear. Paleologue: L'Art Chinois; Bushell: History of Chinese Art; Foucher: I'Art Greco-Buddhiqiie (In Gandhara; Atjrel Stein: Ancient Khdtan; Chavannes: Mi ion Archeologique dans la Chine Septentrion ale; Premier expose des Recherches Archeologiques; and La Sculpture sur j)icrre in Chinv; Mis.sion Gilbert de Voisins, etc., Journal As i at i que, 1915 and 1916; Sf.galen: liev.ent Discoveries in Ancient Chinese Sculpture, Journal, N.C.B.R.A.S., 1917; Stone Mortuary Shrines, Tei Sekino Kokka, xix and xx, 1908-1909; Tchang: Tombcoux des Liang; Var. Sin. 33. [F.A.]