Yuan Dynasty

Yuan Dynasty (1271±1368) During the Yuan dynasty, China²for the first time in its long history²was history²was completely subjugated by foreign conquerors and became part of a larger political entity, the vast Mongol empire. empire. Ironically, during this century of alien occupation, Chinese culture not only survived but was reinvigorated.

Lacking experience in the administration of a complex empire, the Mongols gradually adopted Chinese political and cultural models. Ruling from their capital in Dadu (also known a s Khanbalik; now Beijing), the Mongol Khans increasingly assumed the role of Chinese emperors. During the 1340s and 1350s, however, internal political cohesion disintegrated as growing factionalism at court, rampant corruption, and a succession of natural calamities led to rebellion and, finally, dynastic collapse. In spite of the gradual assimilation of Yuan monarchs, the Mongol conquest imposed a harsh new political reality upon China. As a group, the literati were largely ignored by the Mongols; those few who did enter government service often received only minor appointments, either as teachers in local schools or as lowlevel clerks. Southern Chinese, having resisted the Mongol invasion the longest, faced a conscious policy of discrimination, leading many scholars to withdraw from public life to pursue their own personal and artistic cultivation, often under the aegis of the Buddhist or Daoist religions. Drawing on the scholar-official aesthetic of the late Northern Song, Song, Yuan literati painters no longer took truth to nature as their goal but rather used painting as a vehicle for self-expression. self-expression. In the hands of highly educated scholar-artists, scholar-artists, brushwork became calligraphic and assumed an autonomy that transcended its function as a means of creating representational forms.

1285 An estimated 400,000 artisans are employed in government workshops and factories creating porcelains, textiles, metalwork, and other luxuries.

Mongol passport (paizi), (paizi), Yuan dynasty (1271±1368), 13th century China Iron with silver inlay Although it was in use in China before the adv ent of the Mongols, the paiza the paiza,, an inscribed metal plaque that functioned as a passport or a patent of office, became a symbol of Mongol administration used to regulate and secure communication in the vast empire. Most paizi Most paizi were were circular or rectangular and were worn either fastened on an item of clothing or suspended from the neck to m ake them visible to customs officers. These metal plaques are not only important historical documents but are also of great interest for the study of Asian metalwork during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, a time of

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massive movements of people and rapid exchange of ideas and technology. Two kinds of Mongol plaques were issued±to officials as patents of office, and as passports for persons on state missions and for important guests. (Marco Polo on his return journey to Venice would have carried one.) The paiza illustrated here is a passport, made of iron with inlay of thick silver bands forming characters in the Phagspa script, devised for the Mongol language in 1269 by the Tibetan monk 'Phagspa (1235²1280), a close advisor to Kublai Khan (r. 1260±95). The inscription reads in translation (by Morris Rossabi): By the strength of Eternal Heaven, an edict of the Emperor [Khan]. He who has no respect shall be guilty. Above it is a lobed handle, with an animal mask in silver inlay. The mask is probably the kirttimukha(lion mask) taken from Tibetan art but ultimately of Indian origin; the lobed shape reflects Islamic influence. Silver inlay on iron (as opposed to bronze) is extremely rare in China before the Mongol period. This plaque is one of about a dozen Mongol paizi known. Two others of the same type are in Lanzhou, China, and in Russia. (The latter example was found during the nineteenth century in Tomskaya.) Bodhisattva

Avalokiteshvara (Guanyin Pusa), Yuan dynasty (1271±1368), dated 1282 Probably Hebei Province, China Wood (willow) with traces of pigment, single woodblock construction This sculpture is dated to 1282 because of an inscription found at the back on a piece of wood that was used to close the consecratory chamber, and it is interesting that this piece of wood also has an indentation that holds a small mirror. This is one of two pieces in the Museum's collection that contain mirrors, which have a long history as protective and auspicious devices i n Chinese culture. The rounded physique of the sculpture and the way that it twists to suggest depth illustrate the introduction of Indo-Himalayan tradition into Chinese sculpture in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, when the Mongol controlled both China and Tibet. The dramatic rendering of the hair, in which the strands or braids are shown as upright

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individual pieces that end in little curls, also derives from these traditions; however, in India and Tibet, this hairstyle is generally used in depictions of ferocious protectors rather than in representations of bodhisattvas.

Cosmological

Mandala with Mount Meru, Yuan dynasty (1271±1368) China Silk tapestry (kesi )


This mandala is in the form of the Tibetan cosmological diagram. In the center is Mount Meru, the axis of the cosmos, surrounded by oceans and mountains of the four quarters. The work is typical of the Mongol Yuan period in China: technically superb, while stylistically and iconographically eclectic²Indian, Tibetan, and Chinese elements are all present.

Groom

and Horse, dated 1296 Zhao Mengfu (Chinese, 1254±1322) Handscroll, ink and color on paper The imported "celestial steed," treasured by early emperors and noble warriors, was a subject favored by such leading painters as Han Gan (active ca. 742±56) and Li Gonglin (ca. 1041±1106). In the early Yuan period (1271±1368), when alien Mongol rulers curtailed the employment of Chinese scholarofficials, the theme of "groom and horse" became a metaphor adopted to plead for the proper use of scholarly talent, and the famous saying of the Tang essayist Han Yu (762±824) was frequently quoted: "There are always excellent steeds, but not always a Bole, the excellent judge of horses." In Zhao


Mengfu's painting, executed in early 1296, when Zhao had recently retired from serving under Kublai Khan (r. 1260±95), the circular, abstract form of the horse serves as a deliberate foil to t he sensitively rendered figure of the groom²a portrait, perhaps, of the painting's recipient (identified in Zhao's dedication at left), who may have been a government recruiter. Canopy

with phoenixes, Yuan dynasty (1271±1368) China Embroidery; silk and gold thread


The combination of two different types of phoenixes (distinguished by their tail feathers) that fly toward each other creating a circular composition was a popular motif in the Yuan period. It is not unusual to see a disk in the center of such compositions of paired animals; however, the motif is associated more often with a pearl chased by a dragon.

Belt

slide, Jin (1115±1234)±Yuan (1271± 1368) dynasty, 12th±14th century China Jade (Nephrite) Belts composed of metal pieces attached to leather or fabric were first introduced to China from Central Asia in the Western Jin period (265±317 A.D.). During the Tang dynasty, jade belt plaques of this type were produced in large numbers. From the Tang to the Ming dynasty, such jade belts were a sign of status worn by members of t he imperial family and high-ranking individuals. The slide with a loop was used to suspend personal accessories from a belt. The piece is made from translucent white nephrite that has the unctuous texture that prompted the stone's frequent comparison to "mutton fat" in Chinese writings on the properties of jade. The borders are a series of pearl-like shapes. A flying goose with a lotus in its beak pursued by a small falcon is shown in the openwork center. This motif has been identified as a symbol for the goose, or swan, hunt conducted as a spring rite by the Jurchen, a forest people from Manchuria who controlled parts of northern China as the Jin dynasty


Embroidered

Square with Animals, and Flowers, late 12th±14th century Eastern Central Asia Silk thread on silk

Birds,


A textbook example of the eclecticism of Central Asian art, this colorful square features motifs and stylistic aspects typical of Central Asia and of its neighbors, including China during two dynasties that had a formative influence on the eastern Central Asian style: the Han (206 B.C.±220 A.D.) and Tang (618±906). Combining animals, birds, and a profusion of different flowers in an overall pattern is a distinct artistic tradition of eastern Central Asia. The disposition of the four animals on the sides of the square, however, recalls the decoration of certain Han-dynasty mirrors in which the four animals used in China to signify the four directions²the dragon, tiger, phoenix, and x uanwu, a composite animal²are placed at the cardinal points. On this textile, the f our animals²a rabbit, two deer or antelope, and a spotted horse²are Central Asian. The reclining deer, with a mushroomshaped antler topped by a crescent, is seen in Sogdian art, which entered eastern Central Asia in the sixth century; clay mortuary figures of spotted horses have been found at seventh-century sites in Astana in the Turfan region of eastern Central Asia. Furthermore, three of the four animals, with heads turned back, display a stance characteristic of Central Asia's so-called Animal Style. The birds on the square are also arranged in accordance with the Han scheme, but their forms owe much to the influence of the Tang dynasty, when birds were depicted with outstretched wings and long tail feathers. The parrot, in particular, echoes representations found in Tang decorative arts. On the other hand, the slightly awkward drawing of some of the birds lends them a quirky vitality that is part of the charm of Central Asian decorative arts. Wang

Xizhi Watching Geese, Yuan dynasty (1271±1368), ca. 1295 Qian Xuan (Chinese, ca. 1235±before 1307) Handscroll; ink, color, and gold on paper

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After the fall of the Southern Song capital in 1276 (1279?), Qian Xuan chose to live as a y imin, a "leftover citizen" of the Song dynasty. Using his richly archaistic "blue-and-green" painting style, the artist deliberately employed a primitive manner to allude to a lost immortal's realm that could be achieved only through a regimen of "internal alchemy." Watching Geese illustrates the story of Wang Xizhi (ca. 303±ca. 361), a calligraphy master of legendary fame and a practitioner of Daoist alchemy who was said to derive inspiration from natural forms, such as the graceful necks of geese. The artist's poem reads: How pleasant are the elegant bamboo and trees! In a peaceful pavilion, relaxing with bare stomach, how wonderful it must feel! Writing the Daodejing [The Way and Its Power] for a Daoist friend, He leaves behind a romantic image±a man who loves geese.

Seated bodhisattva, Yuan dynasty (1271± 1368), late 13th±early 14th century; Qingbai ware China, Probably from kilns in the vicinity of Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province Porcelain with relief decoration under bluish white glaze This noble figure of a bodhisattva wears a particularly elaborate network of fine beaded chains and pendants at the chest and skirt. It belongs to a series of Buddhist porcelain sculptures of impressive size, all of which are bejeweled in applied ropes of pearl beading, which relates them to a series of early fourteenth-century porcelain vessels ornamented in the same manner. A figure of this type in the Nelson Gallery, Kansas City, carries a date equivalent to 1298 or 1299, and it is generally assumed that these ceramic sculptures were made from the final decade of the thirteenth century to about the end of the first quarter of the fourteenth century. This dating is reinforced in the Museum's figure by the similarity of the "cloudcollar-point"±shaped edge of the uppermost garment at the elbow to the "cloud-collar" motif that is so prevalent in many types of Yuan-dynasty material.


Twin

Pines, Level Distance, Yuan dynasty (1271±1368), ca. 1300 Zhao Mengfu (Chinese, 1254±1322) Handscroll: ink on paper


Zhao Mengfu, a leading calligrapher of his time, set the course of scholar-painting by firmly establishing its two basic tenets: renewal through the study of ancient models and the application of calligraphic principles to painting. In T win Pines, Level Distancethe landscape idiom of the Northern Song masters Li Cheng and Guo Xi has become a calligraphic style. Rather than simply describe nature as it appears to be, Zhao sought to capture its quintessential rhythms. The characteristics of rocks and trees, felt by the artist and acted out through his calligraphic brushwork, are imbued with a heightened sense of life energy that goes beyond mere representation. In a long colophon on the far left of the scroll, the artist expresses his views on painting: "Besides studying calligraphy, I have since my youth dabbled in painting. Landscape I have always found difficult. This is because ancient [landscape] masterpieces of the Tang, such as the works of Wang Wei, the great and small Li [Sixun and Li Zhaodao] and Zheng Qian, no longer survive. As for the Five Dynasties masters Jing Hao, Guan Tong, Dong Yuan, and Fan Kuan, all of whom succeeded one another, their brushwork is totally different from that of the more recent painters. What I paint may not rank with the work of the ancient masters, but compared to recent paintings I daresay mine are quite different."

Pair of incense burners, Yuan dynasty (1271±1368), ca. early 14th century; Qingbai ware China, Probably from kilns in the vicinity of Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province Porcelain with brown, low- and full-relief decoration under bluish white glaze In this winsome pair of incense burners that typify the penchant for increasingly elaborate wares in the Yuan period, we see a skillfully orchestrated mix of decorative techniques. The beautifully articulated growling lions with their flowing manes and carefully fashioned features are fully m odeled; their bulging

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eyes are punctuated with iron oxide. The moldimpressed floral sprays on the six lotus-petal panels of the cuplike containers are all different; while they are rather indistinct, a lotus and peony blossom can be made out. Finally, the potter has carved pendant overlapping lotus petals on the top register of the hexagonal bases, and has finished the feet (in a surprisingly careless manner) in a shape that distantly resembles the "cloud-collar-point" motif.

Dish with Eight Buddhist Treasures, Yuan dynasty (1271±1368), 14th century China Silver


Worked mainly in repoussé, this silver dish is decorated with the Eight Treasures²the wheel, the banner, the double fish, the precious vase, the parasol, the conch, the lotus, and the endless knot²a Buddhist motif often found in Chinese decorative arts. Each treasure rests on a lotus flower placed in the center of a square petal set against a background of dense ring matting. The unusually high relief, the delicate beading that defines the edges of the petals, and the braiding that separates areas in the design are characteristic of art created in China under Mongol Yuan rule, particularly in the first half of the fourteenth century. The decoration shows close parallels to that on the back of a mirror excavated in Beijing in 1962 f rom the tomb of Tie Ke (1247±1313), a hi gh-ranking official whose family included Kashmiri Buddhist monks. A badly abraded and nearly illegible inscription incised into the rim on the back might possibly read "Dong Erni ji," most likely the name of the workshop.

Yamantaka Mandala with imperial portraits, Yuan dynasty (1271±1368), 1330±1332 China Silk tapestry (kesi ) Buddhism flourished in Yuan China and was also practiced briefly in Iran before the official conversion of Il-Khan Ghazan to Islam in 1295. The Buddhist mandala represents the cosmic and sacred realm where the deity (at the center), the ultimate subject of meditation, is surrounded by symbols of the spiritual stages that the devotee must pass through in order to attain enlightenment. This woven mandala, in the style of the Sakyapa school (originating from the Sakya monastery in Tibet), shows Yamantaka (also known as Vajrabhairava), the wrathful manifestation of the Bodhisattva


Manjushri, as the central deity. The basic scheme of this mandala follows the convention of the Sakyapa school in the fourteenth century, and the decoration is rich and complex. Color changes and slits in the weave make up the design, and the use of gilded paper in the crowns and jewelry gives a threedimensional effect. Shading is achieved by combining wefts of two different colors or two shades of the same color, a technique developed during the Southern Song dynasty (1271±1368). The donors depicted in the lower corners, identified by Tibetan inscriptions in the cartouche above their portraits, are (from the left): Tugh Temur, greatgreat-grandson of Kublai Khan, who reigned as Emperor Wenzong of the Yuan dynasty in China from 1328 to 1332; Khosila, elder brother of Tugh Temur, who reigned briefly in 1329 as Emperor Mingzong; and Budashri and Babusha, their respective spouses. The vertical strips that originally extended from the cartouches, which m ay have included the names of the emperors and empresses in Chinese, have been cut out. It is likely that this mandala was commissioned before the death of Babusha in 1330, and completed after the death of Tugh Temur in 1332. The subject of the mandala suggests that it may have been produced for an initiation ceremony. We know from his biography in the Y uanshi (Yuan History) that Tugh Temur underwent two initiations as emperor, and that the imperial family practiced Yamantaka initiations. However, because kesi (imperial portraits) and mandalas were always produced in triplicate or (more rarely) in duplicate, and because no mention of the occasion is ever given in connection with the commissions, it is more likely that t hese portraits and mandalas were meant to be housed or displayed in ancestral and portrait halls in temples connected with the imperial family. In the Yuan period, woven images were thought to demonstrate greater skill than painted ones, and from 1294 onward imperial portraits were commissioned as paintings only to be converted into woven silk. The Museum's mandala with imperial portraits is the only complete example known of this singular class of imperially

commissioned works of art from the Mongol empire.

Fisherman, Yuan dynasty (1271±1368), ca. 1350 Wu Zhen (Chinese, 1280±1354) Handscroll; ink on paper


Wu Zhen lived the life of a recluse. He was not very famous or successful during his lifetime, but in the Ming period he came to be designated one of the Four Great Masters of the late Yuan dynasty and his style was favored by many Ming painters, most notably Shen Zhou (1427±1509). Wu was fond of doing "ink plays," and his drawing shows a cartoonlike simplicity and directness. Accompanying the hermit-fisherman, a symbol of the late Yuan unemployed scholar, is Wu Zhen's poetic colophon: Red leaves west of the village reflect evening rays, Yellow reeds on a sandy bank cast early m oon shadows. Lightly stirring his oar, Thinking of returning home, He puts aside his fishing pole and will catch no more.

Plate, Yuan dynasty (1271±1368), mid-14th century China Porcelain with underglaze blue decoration This splendid plate is an especially strong example of a distinctive group of heavily potted midfourteenth-century Chinese blue-and-white porcelains. It is charged with v itality. With unerring strokes of his cobalt-tipped brush, the artist has managed to portray a fish (probably a sea perch) swimming with great exuberance among aquatic plants. In the cavetto, the freely drawn lotus scroll² with its distinctive spiky leaves²is quite lively; the painting of the blossoms is particularly well done. The base of the plate is unglazed, and the unglazed body has burned a typical reddish brown. The attribution of this plate and kindred wares is based on a pair of blue-and-white vases dated 1351 in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art in


London. A fourteenth-century attribution was further confirmed in the early 1970s with the discovery of a large number of broken plates of this type in the ruins of a palace in Delhi that was destroyed in 1398. Recent finds at the Hutian kiln complex at Jingdezhen in Jiangxi Province document the area in which this type of porcelain was produced. The

Simple Retreat, Yuan dynasty (1271± 1368), ca. 1370 Wang Meng (Chinese, ca. 1308±1385) Hanging scroll; ink and color on paper

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Wang Meng depicted scholars in their retreats, creating imaginary portraits that capture not the physical likeness of a person or place but rather an interior world of shared associations and ideals. He presents the master of T he Simple Retreat as a gentleman recluse. Seated at the front gate of a rustic hermitage, he is shown holding a magic fungus, as a servant and two deer approach f rom the woods. In the courtyard, another servant offers a sprig of herbs to a crane. The auspicious Daoist imagery of fungus, crane, and deer as well as the archaic simplicity of the figures and dwelling evoke a dreamlike vision of paradise. In creating this visionary world, W ang transformed the monumental landscape imagery of the tenthcentury master Dong Yuan. Rocks and trees, animated with fluttering texture strokes, dots, color washes, and daubs of bright mineral pigment, pulse with a calligraphic energy barely contained within the traditional landscape structure. Encircled by this energized mountainscape, the retreat becomes a reservoir of calm at the vortex of a world whose dynamic configurations embody nature's creative potential but may also suggest the ever-shifting terrain of political power. Woods

and Valleys of Mount Yu, Yuan dynasty (1271±1368), dated 1372 Ni Zan (Chinese, 1306±1374) Hanging scroll; ink on paper In 1366, Ni Zan abandoned his home to escape marauding soldiers. Even after the establishment of the Ming dynasty in 1368, Ni continued the life of a


wanderer, visiting old haunts that he had not seen for twenty or thirty years. According to his epitaph writer, Zhou Nanlao (1308±1383), "in his late years, he became quieter and more withdrawn than ever. Having lost or given away everything he ever owned, he did his best to f orget his worries. Wearing a yellow [Daoist] cap and country clothes, he roamed the lakes and m ountains, leading a recluse's life." Woods and Valle y s of Mount Y u, executed two years before Ni Zan's death, expresses the painter's contentment in the life of a recluse. The poem ends with the lines: We watch the clouds and daub with our brushes We drink wine and write poems. T he joy ous feelings of this da y Will linger long after we have parted. The dry but tender brushwork is aloof and restrained. There is a tranquil luminous quality about the painting that makes it one of the most fully realized works of the artist's later years.

Seven-lobed platter with scene of children at play, Yuan dynasty (1271±1368), 14th century China Carved red lacquer This large dish belongs to the class of carved lacquer known asrenwu gushi (narrative scenes with human figures), which, like the f lower-and-bird type, had its beginning in the late Song period (960±1279). The subject depicted on this platter, children at play in a garden, follows a Song tradition. The ladies' dresses are in the style of the period, making it clear that the design derives from a Song original. This is also indicated by the figure in the lower right of a child dressed up as a gentleman at leisure, who is being helped to his feet by two other boys and followed by another holding a parasol. He sports a type of t all hat made fashionable in the Song period by Su Shi (1036± 1101), the most admired poet-official of his generation and a figure beloved by Chinese poets and writers for succeeding centuries. The carving of the platter, however, is very much in the high Yuan (1279±1368) style, which began to mature only in the first half of the fourteenth century. It shows the Yuan propensity for creating three-dimensional

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images in the relief (with particular success in the area of the pavilion and lotus pond). Some of the objects depicted, such as the set of incense-burning utensils on the table at the lower left, also indicate a Yuan date. The size of the dish has some bearing on its dating as well; there are no known lacquer or ceramic dishes of this size from the Song period, but there are a great number of large porcelain dishes dating from the fourteenth century. The pattern of cracks on the back of the platter reveals that its wooden core is constructed, as are those of all other known fourteenth-century dishes, by joining a smaller piece to the main body of the substrate with the grains of the two pieces perpendicular. This has been confirmed by radiography. The theme of children at play is expressive of the wish for offspring and the joy of having them, an idea reinforced by the presence of a pomegranate tree behind the large garden rock where children are playing hide-and-seek. The pomegranate fruit with its many seeds is frequently used as a symbol of progeny.

Yuan Dynasty

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