Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Yang, Xiaoneng[Herausgeber]

Titel

The golden age of Chinese archaeology : celebrated discoveries from the People's Republic of China ; [exhibition dates: National Gallery of Art, Washington, 19 September 1999 - 2 January 2000

Ort / Verlag

London [u.a.] : Yale Univ. Press

Erscheinungsjahr

1999

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Klappentext: In the last fifty years, Chinese archaeology has changed the traditional view about the formation and development of the civilization and art of this vast country. This book covers the period from 5000 BC to the 10th century AD, presenting more than 200 masterpieces in jade, stone, ivory, bone, pottery, bronze, lacquer, bamboo, gold, and silver. Together these astonishing objects confirm archaeologists' conclusion that Chinese civilization and art originated in and flowered throughout ancient China--rather than merely in the Yellow River Valley, as previous generations of scholars believed. The book consists of four sections: late Prehistoric China, the so-called Jade Age, which produced finely carved jade, stone, and pottery objects; the Early Bronze Age, which included cultures from both north and south, such as the Fuhao, Sanxingdui, and Xin'gan discoveries; the Chu Culture, a splendid period revealed through its silk, lacquer, jade, musical instruments, paintings, calligraphy, and ritual bronzes like those from the Zenghou Yi tomb; and Imperial China, represented by objects beginning with the first emperor and ending with the Five Dynasties, which include the Qin terra-cotta army, jade suits, Qingzhou Buddhist sculptures, and the Famensi gold and silver objects. Xiaoneng Yang offers a general introduction to the history and achievements of Chinese archaeology and prefaces each of the four periods with a lucid, brief discussion of the cultures that flourished, while each archaeological discovery is described in an introduction preceding each group of splendid objects. This beautiful book is the catalogue for an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., from 19 September 1999 to 2 January 2000 that will then travel to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.