CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

109
Painted lacquer deer
Height 77 (30), length 45 (17%),
height of torso 27 (10 5 /s)
Warring States Period (c. 433 BCE)
From the tomb of Zenghou Yi at Leigudun, Suixian,
Hubei Province
Hubei Provincial Museum, Wuhan
Placed in the marquis' burial chamber, this figure
of a recumbent deer 1 is the more elaborate of two
deer found in Tomb i at Leigudun; the other sculpture
was placed in the central chamber with the
ritual bronzes. The head and the body are separately
carved from single pieces of wood, and the
head rotates left and right on the neck so that the
animal can be positioned to look straight ahead
or to the side. The sculpture evidences an artistic
sensibility that was quite new in the fifth century
BCE: the deer reclines on its legs in a natural posture,
and its head seems to have been copied from
nature (the antlers are in fact real deer antlers,
fixed in holes carved into the wood). Black lacquer
covers the entire surface of the wood, and against
this background, small, almond-shaped designs,
together with myriad tiny dots, are painted in red
lacquer to imitate fur. The antlers are decorated
with black triangles and scrolls. The materials and
the quality of the workmanship indicate that this
was a luxury object; pieces of lower quality were
usually coated with ink.
A square hole is cut into the back of the deer,
probably to attach an object such as a drum; several
deer-shaped drum stands have been found over
the years in Chu tombs in the Jiangling district of
Hubei province and, to a lesser extent, in Hunan
province. 2 Some stands were made to support real
drums (fig. i); others supported replicas in plain
wood. The drum found in the eastern chamber of
the marquis' tomb was not associated with this
stand; the three rings attached to the drum strongly
suggest that it originally hung from the antlered
cranelike figure (cat. 100) found in the tomb.
In many cases, however, wooden figures of
reclining deer did not serve as stands but rather
as auspicious figures intended to protect the tomb
and the deceased. 3 Most, if not all, such guardian
objects were placed at the head of the outer coffin,
as evidenced in the seven tombs at Yutaishan,
Jiangling. 4 AT
1 Excavated in 1978; published: Hubei 1989,1:381, fig. 238;
2: color pi. 16, pi. 142; Tokyo 1992, no. n; Tokyo 19983,
no. 21.
2 Several tombs in the Jiangling district contained such
drum stands, in particular, Tombs 2 and n at Paimashan
(see Hubei 1973,158, fig. 12, and pi. 9.1); Tomb 7 at
Xi'eshan (see Hubei 1984^ 525, fig. 14); and Tomb 10
at Wuchangyidi (see Jiangling 1989, 49, fig. 38.1).
3 Tomb i at Tengdian, Jiangling, Hubei province (see
Jingzhou 1973,12, pi. 4.1); Tomb i at Liuchengqiao, Changsha,
Hunan province (see Hunan 1972, pi. 10); and three
tombs from the cemetery at Jiudian, Jiangling, Hubei
province (see Hubei 1995, 306, fig. 208.3 anc^ pi- 93-3)-
4 Hubei 19843, io8a, and in, fig. 89.2.
FIG. i. Painted lacquer
deer-shaped drum stand
from Tomb 7 at Xi'eshan,
Jiangling, Hubei province;
Warring States period;
length 45 (17 3 / 4 ). After
Hubei 1984^, 525, fig. 14.
314 I CHU AND OTHER CULTURES