CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

elaborate arrangements or wear the soft hats often
found on figures of foreigners.
This troupe of women musicians likely represents
part of the entertainment at one of the
elaborate outings favored by the wealthy residents
of Xi'an during the seventh and eighth centuries.
In his "Song of the Beautiful Ladies," Du Fu (712-
770) provides a poetic description of these
entertainments.
Third month, third day, in the air a breath
of newness;
by Ch'ang-an riverbanks the beautiful ladies
crowd,
warm-bodied, modest-minded, mild and
pure,
with clear sleek complexions, bone and
flesh well matched,
in figured-gauze robes that shine in the
late spring,
worked with golden peacocks, silver
unicorns.
On their heads what do they wear?
Kingfisher glinting from hairpins that
dangle by sidelock borders.
On their backs what do I see?
Pearls that weight the waistband and subtly
set off the form. 2
The first woman in the group holds a small drum in
one hand and prepares to strike it with the other;
another woman plays a pair of cymbals. Large stationary
drums and cymbals were employed in Late
Bronze Age China; these smaller, portable forms
(like many Tang musical instruments, apparently
of Central Asian origin) would have been far better
suited to less formal performances such as that
represented in this group of figures. Another musician
plays the four-stringed chuding pipa (crooknecked
lute), or hu pipa (barbarian lute) — the
most common form of lute during the Tang dynasty.
Originating in western Asia, the Tang form of the
hu pipa reflects Central Asian influence; they were
likely imported, along with the musicians who
played them. Bo Zhuyi in "Song of the Lute: Preface
and Poem" describes a woman playing the lute:
She turned the pegs, brushed the strings,
sounding two or three notes
before they had formed a melody, already
the feeling came through.
Each string seemed tense with it, each
sound to hold a thought,
as though she were protesting a lifetime of
wishes unfulfilled.
...
Lightly she pressed the strings, slowly
plucked, pulled, and snapped them,
first performing, "Rainbow Skirts," the
"Waists of Green."
The big strings plang-planged like
swift-falling rain;
the little strings went buzz-buzz like secret
conversations;
plang-plang, buzz-buzz mixed and mingled
in her playing
like big pearls and little pearls falling on a
plate of jade,
...
As the piece ended, she swept the plectrum
in an arc before her breast,
and all four strings made a single sound,
like the sound of rending silk. 3
Two styles of harps, both known as kanghou, were
used in Tang China. According to Tang and Song
dynasty sources, the larger version of the harp
originated in western Asia and reached China
through Central Asia. It was often elaborately
decorated with lacquer and inlaid materials. The
smaller version (played by one of the musicians),
was designed to be portable. 4 A Tang poem likens
the sound of the kanghou to "10,000 real pearls
cascading from a jade face." 5 Another figure plays
a type of oboe, described in Tang texts as a short
and thick, double-reeded instrument; it is thought
to have originated in Kucha. MK
1 Excavated in 1991; reported: Xi'an 1997,14-19.
2 Du, "Song of the Beautiful Ladies," in Watson 1984, 222.
3 Bo, "Song of the Lute: Preface and Poem" in Watson 1984,
250.
4 Zhongguo 1977, 64.
5 Zhongguo 1977,103, Terese Bartholomew trans.
496 EARLY IMPERIAL CHINA