China:The Glorious Tang And Song Dynasties - Asian Art Museum ...

highly symbolic—images conveying messages about abundance, harmony, fecundity, heroism,
stability, and strength. Some rulers emphasized military prowess and authority through the arts.
Others preferred images of refinement and championed visual art that was very delicate or austere.
• Art by and for the educated elite: Scholarly forms of art that conveyed knowledge of the past,
demonstrating the artist-author’s achievement and education through “quotations” from past
masters; an art that ran contrary to professional art (theoretically not exchanged for wages),
beginning in the Tang-Song period, but more developed in later periods.
There was of course overlap among these product categories. For example, an object might have
been produced locally, given as tribute to court, used at court, and then buried as a prized possession
in the tomb.
We often think of art as something exceptional or extraordinary, and might ask why very ordinary,
utilitarian objects would be considered alongside exceptionally unique paintings or sculptures.
Yet many Chinese products, especially those for export such as certain ceramic wares, silk, lacquer,
printed books, and tea, were finely produced and virtually unsurpassed anywhere else in the world.
To the local Chinese producer, such products might have seemed “stock in trade,” but elsewhere
they were highly sought after and indeed probably viewed as prized possessions. In fact, during the
Tang-Song period, fine objects such as silk were often used as currency or bribes to keep foreign
powers from attacking China.
Even the most prized possessions, such as the collections amassed by both Tang and Song
emperors, were never completely secure. The Tang capital of Chang’an (modern day Xi’an) and the
Northern Song capital at Kaifeng were both overrun and in large part demolished at different times.
Works of art were frequently confiscated or destroyed. We can only imagine the full extent of what
once existed during these glorious eras of Chinese culture.
3. BRIEF BACKGROUND ON: A) CHINESE CERAMICS, B) BUDDHIST ARTS, AND C) PAINTING AND
CALLIGRAPHY.
3a) Chinese ceramics
We should begin by asking what some students probably ask—why bother studying ceramics? In
the West, we traditionally look on ceramics as a kind of folk art or humble utilitarian ware. That is
hardly true of ceramics in China, where the very name “china” is historically derived from its association
with fine dinnerware. Still, why should study these objects? What’s so special about “china”
and why is it important during the Tang and Song dynasties?
It’s important to remember that for almost 1,000 years, roughly beginning with the Tang
dynasty and continuing till about the 1700s, the Chinese produced the world’s best high-fired
ceramics. Chinese potters were exceptionally creative and technically inventive. They also had
important resources at their disposal: clays, wood, and coal for heating kilns. High-fired wares were
often more durable than low-fired wares, and their glazes were less likely to flake. High-fired ceramics
were also highly sought after by non-Chinese peoples. Such ceramics often replaced, or supple-
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