Happy New Year from China

Writing a new year’s blog post when we are on the kind of adventure that we are on is complicated.  Every time we transition to a new site we are ending one chapter and beginning another. Each new site we see, culture we experience, language we hear, person we meet is an opportunity for challenge and renewal. Each day is its own kind of resolution.  So instead of trying to sum up our year before this adventure is even over, I thought I’d catch you up on our time in mainland China since Greg’s post about Christmas in Shanghai.

On December 26^th we woke bright and early to catch our flight to Xi’an (home of the Terra Cotta Warriors). The atrocious air quality delayed our flight such that we were unable to make it to the Provincial Museum, but we still enjoyed a walk on top of the old city wall and a great dumpling dinner.  After dinner, Greg and I left the kids in their hotel room and ventured out to a night market with a couple of students.  It was a wonderful stroll through narrow streets filled with food vendors and trinket hawkers.  The streets spread out from a central mosque, so there was a strong Islamic influence in the market.  It felt wonderfully familiar and new all at the same time.

 

A delicious dumpling dinner

The Xi'an street market

On December 27^th, we spent the day marveling at the site of the Terra Cotta Warriors.  I was excited to see them, had learned a little from Greg and James (who were REALLY excited to see them), and had even looked at a few images to try to understand why they were such a big deal, but I was completely unprepared for the enormity of the project.  There are thousands of these life size sculptures – each one unique.  Many of the bodies were cast from molds, but each face was individually crafted to look distinct.  They were absolutely, stunningly amazing.  The other part of the site that amazed me was to see the condition in which the Warriors were discovered – smashed to bits by marauding peasants who were angry with the Emperor.  The current task of putting each Warrior back together is utterly monumental.  Most of the Warriors are on display in these giant buildings that were built up and around the dig sites.  If you’ve ever been to the Mammoth sites in South Dakota, where they are still excavating and tourists get to see the process, then you have a small idea of what the Warrior sites are like.  Grace and James recorded a video that we’ll post from Seoul once we get it all edited!

row upon row of warriors

On December 28^th we transitioned yet again, traveling to Beijing.  We arrived in the early afternoon and started our four-day whirlwind tour of this amazing city. It would take hours to describe everything we’ve seen, but the list goes something like this: the Temple of Heaven; Tiananmen Square (where I cried remembering the events of June 1989 – events our tour guide mentioned while telling us that he isn’t allowed to talk about them); the Forbidden City and Coal Hill Park (where we should have had a gorgeous view of the Forbidden City but the smog was so bad that we just saw rooftops peaking through the haze); a pedicab tour of the Hutong District (complete with a stop at an artist’s residence); a spectacular day climbing the Badaling section of the Great Wall (climbing up both the north and south sides, we counted 1114 stairs going up – which doesn’t quite capture just how much we climbed that day!); the Summer Palace; the Olympic Park; an acrobatic show; and a Peking Duck dinner. 

Grace really grasped the Temple of Heaven

Tiananmen Square

The Forbidden City as seen through the smog

A beautiful day on the Great Wall

Tomorrow, New Year’s Day, we will be heading to the Beijing Zoo to see James’ beloved pandas.  And then we are off to Seoul.  It is easy to get caught up in the listing and picture taking and forget to be present in the moment sometimes, but I think we are doing our best to soak in as much as we possibly can these days (except for the smog, of course).  I am extremely grateful for a life-changing 2015, and I look forward to all the new adventures that 2016 will bring.  Happy New Year!

圣诞节快乐

Celebrating Christmas away from friends and family can be a heartbreaking experience or it can be an opportunity to learn and experience new things.  We spent a cold dreary day yesterday touring the wonderful gardens in Suzhou village (population 5 million).  Wow.  The gardens were amazing each aspect of Chinese garden art was present in glorious and unique fashion.  There was water, vegetation, architecture and rocks…amazing rocks painstakingly harvested from nearby lake beds.  Each rock was unique in its nooks and crannies, form and imagery.  

A Christmas Eve feast followed the gardens tours with countless dishes brought to the tables steaming hot.  There was sweet and sour pork, whole fried fish, tender beef with mushrooms, steamed cabbage, shrimp, dumpling soup and I’m-not-sure-what-I-just-ate-but-it-might-have-been-cartilage.  The students had arranged a “white elephant” gift exchange and we had a great time fighting over hotel slippers and Winnie-the-Pooh candy canes.

Not knowing whether it would be appropriate to conduct and informal worship service in our side rooms of the restaurant we chose to retire to our hotel room for stories and carols.  Perhaps it was the emotion of the being away but I felt a very strong connection to the story of the Disciples hiding in an upper room away from prying eyes and Roman soldiers.  It was humbling to know that 2000 years later we were still “hiding” the practice of our faith and the experience gave me a sense of sympathy for all those who are teased and stared at as they bow to Mecca or wear a Yarmulke as part of their daily devotion.

Christmas morning came with the predicted enthusiasm from the children.  We opened the gifts from one another, called family and watched the sunrise through the smog of Shanghai.  One of the Muth family traditions is to have an open house brunch on Christmas day.  While we were a little short on the open house part we did rock the brunch in a big way.  Wandering across the street from the University we discovered friendly street vendors hawking banana pancakes, egg-spinach-crepe things and these doughy bread pockets filled with veg and spicy pulled pork (I had two!)

Before arriving in Shanghai we received a tip from a family friend to visit Zotter’s Chocolate Theater for an educational experience in all things chocolate.  What a treat this was!  Every type and flavor combination of chocolate in multiple samples with hand painted porcelain spoons.  We all channeled our inner Augustus Gloob as we tried white chocolate, dark chocolate, rice chocolate, chocolate with fruit, candy, liquor, chili, masala, fish and nuts.  We drank chocolate, ate chocolate, smelled chocolate and even watched a movie about chocolate.  There were chocolate fountains, chocolate on conveyor belts, chocolate served hot, chocolate in bars and chips and the gift shop!

Whew.  In many ways our Christmas was typical.  We were all together.  We exchanged gifts and read the familiar stories of our shared faith.  We ate excellent food and made new friends.  In many ways it was the most remarkable of days but if I’m not mistaken, Christmas began with a pretty remarkable day too.  Blessings to all.

White Jade Dragon on Cloud Scrolls

By James Muth

In Hong Kong, the college students, Grace, dad and I all took the "Art in China" course. It was a three week course covering topics like calligraphy, jade, painting, bronze working, ceramics and much more. At the end of the course, it was required to write a course paper, so here's mine.

James Muth

Art in China

St. Olaf Global Semester

December 2015

In Chinese mythology, the dragon is represented as the bringer of rain, the symbol of the emperor and a sign of good luck and power. It is a symbol so sacred that only the highest officials or the emperor himself can wear it. The dragon is the animal representing the east direction and many times the ideal creature. Dragons are said to have the antlers of a deer, the head of a crocodile, the eyes of a demon, the neck of a snake, the innards of a turtle, the claws of a hawk, the palms of a tiger and the ears of a cow. Okakura Kakuzo wrote in his text “The Awakening of Japan”

“Hidden in the caverns of inaccessible mountains, or coiled in the unfathomed depths of the sea, he awaits the time when he slowly rouses himself to activity. He unfolds himself in the storm clouds; he washes his mane in the blackness of the seething whirlpools. His claws are in the forks of the lightning, his scales begin to glisten in the bark of rain-swept pine trees. His voice is heard in the hurricane which, scattering the withered leaves of the forest, quickens the new spring. The dragon reveals himself only to vanish.”

This is a poem that shows the power of the dragon. It portrays how strong, mysterious and elusive the dragon is. It also shows the amount of responsibility that is a dragon. There is always work for a dragon to do, and unfortunately the dragon sleeps quite a lot. The dragon has the responsibility of all the rainfall and weather all over the world. Although there is lots of pressure, the dragon handles all of it quite well. The dragon is one of the most hallowed creatures ever.

My piece is a white jade dragon on cloud scrolls. It is part of the Restrained Lustre collection by Cissy and Robert Tang and is currently on display at the Chinese University of Hong Kong art gallery. It was made in the Tang or Liao dynasty, around the 9-10th century CE. It is 4.8 centimeters tall, 8.3 centimeters long and 0.3 centimeters thick. It is identical on both sides and is flecked with brown around the feet, hands and bits of the clouds. It has lots of smooth curves and very sharp teeth and antlers. There are small bits of detail and texture on the head and body that show off the realistic muscles of the dragon. The clouds under the dragon are shaped like scrolls. They appear to be rolling under the dragon as though it is floating through the heavens on a cloud shaped chariot. This dragon has a long snake-like body that is pure white and is made to look very muscular.

During the span between the Sui dynasty and the Yuan dynasty, there was a change in the way that jade was carved. This change came out of nowhere because there wasn’t much interest in jade - after a huge demand for jade - before the Sui dynasty. Since this piece was carved in the Tang or Liao dynasty, there is a big difference because of this change. The change was that the carvers, were striving towards a lifelike realism. They wanted their pieces to look like they came straight from nature. There was a desire to be the creator of some of the greatest pieces ever. The carvers wanted to make items that resembled flora and fauna. Another change was that there was a sudden interest in mythology and deities. There were more and more carvings and appearances of gods and goddesses and creatures like dragons and phoenixes. This miraculous change brought back the cultural importance and love of jade along with new flourishing colors and styles for the jade.

In ancient China, jade was carved using a “water bench”. It is a machine that has a disc that is replaceable with other discs of different sizes. It also has two foot pedals that control the disc so that it spins. The disc has some abrasive sands that consist of ground quartz, chalcedony and agate, are on the edge of the disc and would create an ancient equivalent of a modern diamond drill. But before the “water bench” could be used, the large jade rocks needed to be cut down to a reasonable size. Two workers would hold a double sided saw with the abrasive sands on the edge, then they would saw the jade rock to have straight edges. Since jade is such a hard rock, (6.5 on the Mohs scale) there are certain extents that you have to go to, to get a successful work of art. After the jade was cut by the saw, the “water bench” could be used. The worker would start by drawing a basic design on the jade and then carving that basic outline with a coarse abrasive sand disc. On the piece, you can see where the artist might have made the drawing for the basic outline and carved just the edges and very basic divots. Then they would draw more detail onto the rock and keep on switching out discs and keep on adding details until eventually they would get the final designs. This dragon is a perfect example of a water bench carved jade piece because there are lines that you can tell where the artist likely used different grades of sand and different sized discs to get some of the very precise details.

This piece was found in the empress’s tomb of the Wu-Yue kingdom (907-978 AD) in Kangling (near modern Hangzhou). It is thought to be the emperor’s or a high official’s, but some archeologists believe that it is the end to a hairpin belonging to the empress. This is contradictory to the fact that a phoenix or a peacock is the symbol of the empress and the dragon is known and accepted symbol of the emperor. The dragon represents the emperor because he is the son of heaven and the dragon lives in heaven, therefore the dragon is the symbol of the emperor. There is no evidence against the fact that the dragon is the emblem of the emperor. There is though, a bit of confusion or mixed beliefs about the symbol of the empress. Some say that it is the peacock, others say that it is the phoenix and still more say that it is just a red bird. It is difficult to tell exactly which one of those is the real symbol for the empress because there was so much attention towards the emperor and not the empress. Many historians believe that it was a pendant that the emperor wore everyday, but there is still the belief that is was a hairpin that belonged to the empress. It is also thought that this piece was passed down through several generations before it was obtained by Robert Tang.

Jade is sometimes used as a metaphor for excellence. Especially if it was white jade. The Liji regulates the ceremonial jades and the zhen-gui belongs to the emperor or king. Ceremonial jade pieces show a high military power and a high political rank. This object may seem like an everyday pendant but I think an ornament of this elegance could be a ceremonial piece. Here are my reasons,1) white jade was used to represent only the highest officials. 2) This piece is very elaborately carved. If you were to look closely at a photo of this piece, you would see that the artist made some very realistic facial muscles, especially around the eyes, jaw and snout. 3) This piece is in pristine condition. Many pendants that were worn everyday were chipped, dented or broken but this piece is in top condition after over 100 years of use and 1000 years of sitting in a museum. 4) Finally, dragons are reserved for the emperor and high officials only. An emperor would need a very nicely carved and elaborate necklace or pendant for ceremonies or rituals and it would only make sense that he would take advantage of this exclusive figure.

This openwork ornament in the shape of a dragon on cloud scrolls is a gorgeous representation of jade-work. It is an intricately carved masterpiece from the Restrained Lustre collection. It was likely used by a high official if not by the emperor himself. It is believed to be a ceremonial jade pendant used by the emperor but others believe that it was a hairpin used by the empress throughout the Wu-Yue kingdom. There is no way to tell for sure, but in my opinion this dragon will always be fit for a king.

Bibliographies:

"Chinese Dragon." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_dragon>.

"Chinese Jade: Sui to Yuan Dynasty." China Online Museum. Unknown, n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2015. <http://www.comuseum.com/jade/sui-to-yuan/>.

So, Jenny F., Xin Chu, Jo-hsin Chi, and Robert Tang. "28a." Chinese Jades from the Cissy and Robert Tang Collection. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 150. Print.

Sullivan, Michael. "Dragons." The Arts of China. Berkeley: U of California, 2008. 195-96. Print.

Xu, Xiadong. "Ancient Chinese Jade." Ancient Chinese Jade. CUHK, Hong Kong. 25 Nov. 2015. Lecture.

The Record of the Miaoyan Monastery

         For the past month in Hong Kong, James and I have been taking the Arts of China college course with the Oles.  For the final project we had to write a research paper on one of the topics that was covered in class.  For my paper I chose to research Chinese Calligraphy, and more specifically a piece titled The Record of Miaoyan Monastery at Huzhou.

By: Grace Muth

Chinese Calligraphy, one of the original forms of writing, is also one of the most beautiful.  Typically written in black ink, this form of art is very important in Chinese culture.  You can tell because it is on ceramics, jade, fans, scrolls, paintings, on its own, pretty much everything.  On its own Chinese Calligraphy is mostly found on silk and paper; if the piece is on silk it is more important and valuable.  In this paper I am going to describe the different forms of Calligraphy and one piece of Calligraphy in particular.  Chinese Calligraphy consists of seven scripts, each unique and interesting.  The first script is Oracle Bone script, this is the oldest script.  Originally the script was carved onto bones with a very sharp knife.  You can tell Oracle Bone script from other scripts by the straight lines and pictographic characters.  Oracle Bone script was carved into ox or turtle bones and was used as a form of divination.  Even though Oracle Bone script has been around the longest, experts have not yet figured out what all of the characters mean.  The next script is Bronze script.  The characters of Bronze script were carved into clay molds for bronze vessels.  The clay was much easier to carve characters into than the bones, so there are less straight lines and more curves.  The third script is Seal script.  There are two kinds of Seal script, small Seal script and large Seal script.  Large Seal script was around before small Seal script.  Small Seal script was created in the Qin dynasty as a part of the unification of China.  Seal script has a very distinct form.  The characters are all the same size, thickness, and spaced evenly apart.  They are written two units by three units, and have very smooth turns.  In contrast to Seal script is Clerical script.  These scripts are about as different as night and day.  While Seal script’s lines are even and thin, Clerical script’s lines are of different thicknesses.  That is not the only difference, the turns are different too.  The smooth turns of Seal script were replaced by angular turns, even the dimensions of the characters changed. The even elongated characters were for Seal script, but not for Clerical script when short squat characters were introduced.  This script was created in the Han dynasty, and is the last script before the modern scripts.  The first modern script is the most common.  It is Regular script.  Regular script like Clerical script has differing thicknesses.  All though it is the most common, Regular script is the most complicated of all seven scripts.  Next up is Running script.  A casual way to write Regular script, Running script is a lot like American cursive where the characters are connected.  Not only are the characters connected, but they are simplified as well.  The seventh and final script is Cursive script.  Cursive script was created to save time.  The characters greatly reflect that fact.  They are highly simplified and connected.  The lines are thin and loopy.  It is said that a character of Cursive script should be written in one breath.  For my piece I chose to do one that was a mix of both large Seal script and Regular script.  The piece is the Record of the Miaoyan Monastery at Huzhou by Zhao Mengfu.

The Miaoyan Monastery at Huzhou is in the province of Zhejiang.  Zhejiang is in the south eastern corner of Mainland China, another city in Zhejiang besides Huzhou is Shanghai.  The Miaoyan Monastery is a famous Buddhist monastery.  Unfortunately, there is no other information on this monastery.  The Record of the Miaoyan Monastery at Huzhou is a brief history of the monastery.  Believe it or not the Record was not written by Zhao Mengfu. While the piece was composed and painted by Zhao, the actual Record itself was written by a scholar official by the name of Mou Yan, who is not the novelist Mo Yan.  

Zhao Mengfu was a descendant of the Shang dynasty imperial family, but lived in the Yuan dynasty.  He was born in 1254 and died in 1322.  Zhao was married to Guan Daosheng, who was not only a painter and calligrapher, but a poet as well.  Zhao and his wife lived in Huzhou, where the Miaoyan Monastery is located, and went there often to worship and meditate.  Together they had many sons. Zhao Yong was the only one of his sons to become a famous painter and calligrapher like his father.  Zhao Mengfu was a full believer in the Yuan policies and was called a traitor for that reason.  It is said that the Record of the Miaoyan Monastery is one of many pieces that Zhao would have done throughout his life.  Zhao was not just famous for his calligraphy, he was also an accomplished painter like his wife.  He is one of the most famous calligraphers and the Record of the Miaoyan Monastery is one of his most famous pieces.  

The Record of the Miaoyan Monastery at Huzhou begins with a six character title written in large Seal script.  The Seal script comes from Zhao’s study of fourth to fifth century current era stone inscriptions.  The characteristics of the Regular script in this piece are subtle ends, hooks, varying thickness, and brushwork details that are absent in the Seal script.  The physical piece of art is a handscroll and is thirty-four point two by three hundred and sixty-four point five centimeters in area.  A handscroll is a long, thin piece of calligraphy or a painting, that is meant to be kept secret and treasured by one’s self.  Most times the piece is rolled up and is a scroll.  Usually only the high officials, literati or the Emperor himself would have access to these works of art.  The piece is ink on paper and dates to the fourteenth century, Yuan dynasty.  While Zhao’s work is original, his style of writing is taken from the Wang family.  Comparing his work to a piece done by Wang Xizhi here are some differences that I noticed, first when Zhao writes two of the same characters the individual characters look almost identical, but when Wang writes those same two characters they vary from one another.  Next Wang’s characters seem more fluid and accented, while I cannot say the same for Zhao, his characters seem very stiff and exact.  

The Record of the Miaoyan Monastery at Huzhou is clearly written to display his love for the Miaoyan Monastery and Buddha, which is understandable because both Zhao and Guan were Buddhists.  Buddhism arrived in China in third century before current era, so it is no surprise that it was around in the Yuan dynasty.  What is a surprise is while the dynasties were very destructive of each other this handscroll that is nearly four meters long, survived and is in fairly good condition in the Princeton University Art Museum.  The Record of the Miaoyan Monastery  at Huzhou is an amazing piece with an equally amazing background.

To sum up, the Record of the Miaoyan Monastery at Huzhou was written by Mou Yan, and painted by Zhao Mengfu.  The Record of the Miaoyan Monastery at Huzhou was a handscroll of ink on paper and dates back to the fourteenth century current era.  The style of the characters take after eighth century brushwork that has also been based on the characteristics of the characters written by Wang Xizhi and Yan Zhenqing.  The title of the Record of the Miaoyan Monastery at Huzhou is written in large Seal script, which is distinguishable by the elongated characters, clean, thin, even strokes, uniformed thickness and spacing, and the smooth, relaxed turns.  The rest of the piece is written in Regular script, the most complicated of all scripts.  The signature difference in thickness of the lines and complicated characters are a dead give away.  Each character was clearly formed with patience, elegance, and expertise, despite the crude eighth century writing technique.  The handscroll was most likely written for the Emperor though there is no way of knowing for sure.  One thing I do know is, this piece was very important.  Over twenty five seals of ownership can be found on this piece.  The bigger the seal the more important the owner, one of the seals looks very similar to the seal of the Emperor at the time.  The Record of the Miaoyan Monastery at Huzhou is a very amazing and interesting piece of calligraphy, I hope this paper has been interesting and informative as well.  Thank you for your time.

Bibliography

Wikipedia.org

Google Images

Elliott, John B. "Record of the Miaoyan Monastery." PUAM - Asian Art Collection. Princeton University Art Museum, 2004. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.

Clunas, Craig. "4: Art in the Life of the Elite." Art in China. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1997. 146-47. Print.

This is a picture of my piece.  It is read top to bottom, right to left.