Wolff, J./2007/ Emperor Qin in the Afterlife/ Writing 20: The Archaeology of Death/ Duke University/ Volume number unknown/ pp 10-16…
This Lidded Chinese Canton Enamel Vase bears a Qianlong reign mark indicating it was manufactured during Qianlong period (1736 – 1795) of the Qing Dynasty. It is a baluster-shaped vase with a flared foot and short, waisted neck. The final, luxurious gilding of rim and base indicate a second firing had been completed. The vase is 23.8cm in height, moderate in size yet relatively deep. This elegant vase is decorated entirely in colored glaze enamels that make its surface extremely smooth. Multiple bright colors used in this enamel vase with a warm lemon-yellow ground project a pleasant and harmonious mood. The scroll of rosebud on the lid is pink, shaded with a rose-purple color. Its vigorous design is neatly crafted. The vase has various geometric shapes that are not identical due to different widths in rim, shoulder, and base. However, the overall layout of this vase is strongly harmonious, and its movement is fairly stable and rhythmic.…
In the readings for this week, from Mair entries 54-59, the various author’s wrote poems to describe the life in Song China. These poets shared their stories by using beautiful imagery to describe it for them. Stories that describe the noise of rats to the paintings of bamboo, the writings of the Song poets conveyed the outlook of the Song Dynasty. Although these poems served as an art for entertainment, the poems, in a deeper way, addressed the thoughts and views of the culture in the Song.…
* Hagesandros –[and Polydoros, Athanadoros] Laocoon and His Sons * S Chapter 10 China * 6 Dynasties (220-579) * Gu Kaizhi – Imperial Instructress to Court Ladies * Wang Xizhi –Letter Feng Ju album * Song (960-1279) * Fan Kuan –Travelers Among Mtns and Streams * Xia -12 Views from a Thatched Hut…
Song capitals boasted a lively street life, with markets, shops, and restaurants about which we know in surprising detail. Kaifeng had an external wall, but its population spilled beyond it. The wall we see in the scroll has lost its military purpose, but its gate — seen here — still forms an impressive entrance into the city.…
Hung Liu is an innovative artist who has persistently pour in her thoughts in producing new artworks. Throughout her artworks, she was known as an artist who inputs Asian-American aspects in most of her artworks. Not only that she pours Asian-American aspects in her arts, but she has also put in realism in her artworks, which depicts her life that focused on her struggle to live in China and her adaptation to the learn arts in the United States, which includes pictures of prostitutes and migration themes in her artworks. Through her paintings, we can see how she was trying to convey her audiences about how hard it is to live in China. Her paintings show her nationalism, despite her long-live staying in the United States, by giving Chinese…
The focus on social harmony and respect are also evident in the scroll painting Admonitions of the Imperial Instructress to Court Ladies, which relates to seven Confucian stories about wifely devotion and rightness (Text 342). The story revealed in this painting exhibits Lady Feng placing herself between a vicious bear and her husband, the emperor, making it is easy to assume that she is expressing both her devotion and respect towards him. Attaining self-discipline not only encompassed the teachings of being motivated and controlled but also focused on the cultivation of one's self. In works of art, this becomes obvious simply by observing the brushstrokes of both paintings and calligraphy, both of which were believed to reveal the artist's true self and his improvement with self-discipline. This act of self-discipline required the artist to harmoniously orchestrate skill, patience, and their overall understanding of Confucian philosophy, which would be reflected in works of art.…
I do not remember when I first reached for the coarse surface of a stepping stone. The stepping stones, relics from the Qing dynasty, were everywhere. The almost faded memory of my childhood started in hutongs, the original alleyway in Beijing, where I was born and grew up, where the legacy of Beijing’s past was within reach.…
Generally acknowledged that LI Bai created “Shu-dao Nan” approximately in 742-744 BC, Changan, the capital city of Tang Dynasty, for his friend WANG Yan who prepared to go to Sichuan. LI Bai warned his friend to return to Changan as early as possible, if not, might be calumniated by evildoers. “Shu” is an antonomasia of Sichuan. In “Shu-dao Nan”, LI Bai exaggeratedly described the strategically located and difficult of access of Sichuan. And he combined mythologies and his amazing imagination to express the emotion of revered and loved in country land. The entire distribution of “Shu-dao Nan” was followed the timeline, from ancient times to the present (Tang Dynasty), and the space, from Qin to Shu. In this paper, will focus on analyzing the time and space metaphors in “Shu-dao Nan”.…
Life is a game; the social aspect of it, especially. All of the human’s brains are intra-related in a certain way. All of us think alike. We may not have certain views that we agree on, but I think it is safe to say that we all draw the same conclusions to a certain extent. In The Style Guy’s Guide by Glenn O’Brien, O’Brien distinguishes bulks of scenarios and typical occasions of the social “field”, and suggests on the most correct way to act upon them. These “social fields” may include how to act with families, workers, friends, enemies, etc. O’Brien elaborates on how to “excel” in the social ladder. For example, O’Brien states that it is important for one’s behavioral posture at parties to match a certain way. “This is where you shine, where you put your best foot forward and catch new eyes” (O’Brien, The Style Guy’s Guide). A person’s acts, behavior, posture, and remarks are crucial to the way others see you. Appearing classy and perfecting the way you should act may be a gateway to greater opportunities and successes in life. It may create hook-ups and important friendship. O’Brien also gives an understanding on who “friends” actually are. During these days of social networking, one has the ability to ”befriend” another with a simple click of a button. Friendship isn’t what it used to be and the traditional values of friendship have been lost. The author also expresses the relationship between friends, friendship with the opposite sex, and creating enemies with those around you. O’Brien clearly has no problem with opposite friendship as he says, “I can be genuine friends with anyone smart and funny, gender aside” (O’Brien, The Style Guy’s Guide). On a personally note, I believe that girls can be friends with guys in a non-sexual way. There are those types of…
Chinese history is long and complex—with records dating to around 1600 BC. Within this extensive period, many forms of art and philosophy were developed by the Chinese people. Poetry was an art form which was very important in Chinese history. One of the most famous Chinese poets was Li Bai. He lived nearly 2000 years ago, during the Tang dynasty. He grew up near Chengdu, in Sichuan Province, which is adjacent to Yunnan Province in the western part of China. Li Bai was influenced by Taoism which is one of the most influencing religions way back more than two millennia.(Robinet, 1997) It puts emphasis on the link between people and nature and much of Li Bai’s poetry portrayed nature and human interaction with it; this type of poetry was known as Jue Ju poetry. (Heifer International) The main themes of the above poems written by Li Bai are connected with Taoism, since inspiration is drawn from the Taoist belief that man has an intuitive connection to nature. The relationship of man to nature is the central theme of Li Bai’s poems.…
Li Po has been acclaimed as one of China’s greatest poets of all time during the Tang Dynasty and “Golden Age of China”. Branded as a rebel with nomadic tendencies, Li Po was known for his love and adoration of wine and revelry. In 745, he was initiated into the Taoist religion and began to write poems supporting his growing interest in Taoism. To understand the significance of some of his writings like “Fighting South of the Ramparts”, it is important to analyze Li Po’s originality of style and technique as it relates to the Taoist imagery employed in this poem. By advising of his sympathy with Taoism, Li Po encourages the readers to understand the human cost of war, and how turmoil can destroy the balance between the universe and humanity, and how one’s spirituality should be powerful enough to break any boundaries concerning the physical and metaphysical world, allowing the unification of people of all social classes as a race and becoming one with the universe. To explain in greater detail, when people are fighting and at war with one another, it destroys a society and causes great turmoil and strife because not only are they at war with each other, but also at war with the universe and nature, destroying the land and themselves because one’s spirituality should overpower one’s desire to participate in disruptive and corruptive behaviors.…
Thuluth was the medieval Islamic style of handwritten alphabet. Thuluth (Arabic: "one-third") is written on the principle that one-third of each letter slopes. It is a large and elegant, cursive script, used in medieval times on mosque decorations. It took on some of the functions of the early Kufic script; it was used to write surah headings, religious inscriptions, and princely titles and epigraphs. It was also used for many of the large copies of the Koran produced from the 13th century.…
Japanese calligraphy (書道 shodō?) is a form of calligraphy, or artistic writing, of the Japanese language. For a long time, the most esteemed calligrapher in Japan had been Wang Xizhi, a Chinese calligrapher in the 4th century but after the invention of Hiragana and Katakana, the Japanese unique syllabaries, the distinctive Japanese writing system developed and calligraphers produced styles intrinsic to Japan.…
When looking at Chinese characters like these: “吗, 日, 林, 认, 再, 男”, it is possible to recognize different shapes and forms that cannot be seen in a typical western alphabet. The characters look like images that represent diverse objects. Does this mean that Chinese is a pictographic-based language? People that have not studied Chinese before, make the common mistake of believing that it is. They incorrectly associate the characters with pictures because their appearance is not as rigid and defined as the alphabet letters used in Western calligraphy. Even though Chinese does include a few pictographic characters in its language, it is not a pictographic-based language.…