Miniature "lian" vessel

Abstract

The Chinese have always had a perpetual awareness and a sense of connection to the values of the past; they consciously re-examine it from time to time. Throughout Chinese history from the Song to subsequent dynasties, a self-conscious reproduction of archaic forms was an effort to record ancient practices and to revive the past. Artifacts in ancient forms covered from tombs of the Southern Song and Yuan periods show evidence of this approach. The shift from viewing the past as a source of true values to be exploited for current political concerns led to a very eclectic access to antiquities of all sorts. Great collections were formed by Emperors and their officials. Jade became a metaphorical expression of power. During the late Ming period economic expansion produced a new class of wealthy people who were willing to invest in objects of antiquity as a form of material possession, and not for their ritualistic values and practices. Small objects like this carving were evidently for personal enjoyment rather than for use in rituals or burial. This miniature vessel takes the shape of a vessel known as the lian* in the Song dynasty. Its cylindrical body rests on three small legs. The carving has an austere tubular form and a smooth surface decorated with parallel grooves around the body in the style of the later phase of the Song and Jin dynasties (c. 13th-14th A.D.). This type of object continued to be produced in the Yuan, Ming, and Qing periods. The square and round shapes of bronze and jade vessels often reflected the ancient Chinese thought of "The heaven is round and the earth is square" (see object #113 a square wine cup). This miniature jade vessel may have been carved some time during the early Ming period, when earlier forms were reproduced, with cruder and less artistic characteristics compared to those of subsequent times. * The lian form was later manifested in the Longquan porcelain