Ways to Paradise: The Chinese Quest for Immortality

297 Pages·1979·12.419 MB·English

by  Michael Loewe

WAYS TO PARADISE
Other books by the same author include
IMPERIAL CHINA
CRISIS AND CONFLICT IN HAN CHINA
Ways
to Paradise
The Chinese Quest for Immortality
MICHAEL LOEWE
London
GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN
Boston Sydney
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. All
rights are reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the
purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as
permitted under the Copyright Act, 1956, no part of this
publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
etorical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the
copyright owner. Enquiries should be sent to the publishers
at the undermentioned address:
GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD
40 Museum Street, London WC1A 1LU
© Michael Loewe, 1979
British Library Cataioguing in Publication Data
Loewe, Michael
Ways to Paradise.
\A. Art, Chinese - Ch’in-Han dynasties, 221 B.C.
-220 A.D. 2. Immortality in art
I. Title
704.94,9,12960931 N7343.23 78-41229
ISBN (M)4-181025-2
Typeset in 11 on 12 point Times by Bedford Typesetters Ltd
and printed in Great Britain
by Fakenham Press Limited, Fakenham, Norfolk
Preface
This book is concerned with three subjects of Chinese art and iconog­
raphy of the Han period: a recently-found silk painting from central
China, which may be dated very close to 168 BC; bronze mirrors of
the well-known TLV pattern, which came into fashion at about the
beginning of the Christian era; and the representations of the Queen
Mother of the West which appear as a leading motif of Chinese art from
perhaps a century later. The subjects are alike in so far as they all derive
from burial furnishings; all were designed with the same purpose,
that of conferring a benediction on the deceased person; and for this
reason they may each be studied with a view to understanding the
underlying beliefs of the Han Chinese regarding death and the hereafter.
The three subjects are examined in conjunction with the evidence of
literature and historical incident; they reveal the development of Chinese
ideas of the cosmos and immortality during the three centuries in
question, towards the end of which Buddhism was beginning to take
root in Chinese town and country-side. The subjects and their treatment
reflect a change whereby the hopes of an after-life were directed first
towards a paradise of the east and thereafter towards one of the west.
While the magical Isles of Feng-lai and the Eastern Seas attracted
prayer and devotion during the second century BC, by the eastern Han
period (AD 25-220) hopes were centred on the Queen Mother of the
West, to whom were ascribed certain powers of controlling the universe.
Such a change is fully consistent with contemporary developments in
the religious, intellectual and political outlook of Han China. Fortu­
nately the evidence permits general chronological distinctions. The
beliefs that are expressed in the painting of Ma-wang-tui, which need
not be regarded as untypical, hark back to the visions and beliefs of
the pre-imperial age, as may te seen, in some of the poems of the Ch'u
tz'u. The appearance of TLV mirrors with their definite intellectual
functions reflects the growing acceptance of the cosmic scheme that is
associated with Han Confucianism. That scheme was formulated by
about 100 BC; it was promoted by leading statesmen some fifty years
later; and it was fully adopted under the regimes of Wang Mang and
the eastern Han emperors. The iconography of the Queen Mother of
the West enters into Chinese art during the eastern Han period; and the
theme is subsequently developed in the literature of the San-kuo, Chin
and Nan-pei-ch'ao periods (220-589).
Some of the ideas that are incorporated below can only remain
matters of speculation. As each of the chapters has been designed so
that it may be read independently there is a certain amount of repetition
between each one, and it is hoped that this will not irk a reader of the
whole volume unduly. Since the main part of the research was com­
pleted, several discoveries have been made which concern the subjects
of the book, but full details of such finds have yet to be published. In
particular, at the time of going to press, only the preliminary reports
were available for the important paintings found in the tomb of Pu
Ch，ien-ch，iu，near Lo-yang.
My thanks are due to a number of friends and colleagues who have
helped me by discussion of these themes and examination of the
evidence. I single out the names of a few to whom I am especially
grateful and whose ideas have been most fruitful; Carmen Blacker, of
Cambridge; Nathan Sivin, of the University of Pennsylvania; and the
curator of the museum erected at Ch'ang-sha to house the relics found
at Ma-wang-tui. I am glad to thank Mr Richard Wang, of the Chinese
Language Project, Cambridge, for writing the Chinese text for the book,
Mr Bernard Thomason, of the Department of Aerial Photography,
Cambridge，for the preparation of Figures 2, 17，23 and 25; and Mr
Kominami Ichiro, of the Research Institute for Humanistic Studies,
Kyoto, for permission to reproduce Figures 15，17，18 and 22. I am
grateful to the following for permission to reproduce illustrations: the
Trustees of the British Museum (Plates II，IV，V，XXIV and XXV); the
Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum (Plates III，XII-XIV and
XXII); Mr Inoue Masashi of the Kyoto National Museum (for plates
of mirrors in the Moriya collection); and the present owner of a mirror
which was formerly in the Cull collection (Plate X).
M.L.
Cambridge
March 1978
Contents
page vxi
Preface
xi
List of illustrations
1
Chapter One The Han frame of mind
Chapter Two The painting from tomb no. 1，Ma-wang-tui 17
Chapter Three TLV mirrors and their significance 60
86
Chapter Four The Queen Mother of the West
Chapter Five The bird in the sun and the hare in the moon 127
NOTES
134
Chapter One
Chapter Two 1
Chapter Three 36
Chapter Four

Chapter Five 1
4w
1

APPENDIX

One Classification and list of TLV mirrors 158
4^
Two Select inscriptions of TLV mirrors 192
1
Three The diviner’s board 204
56
Four Types of mirrors and their distribution 2109
Five Mirrors dated to a specified year 2 2 3
Six Decorative features and calligraphic styles in
• 227
mirrors 1
1
List of books cited and abbreviations used 230

Glossary of Chinese and Japanese proper names and terms 247
Index 2164
1
List of Illustrations
LpXAA. E5^ >
TV 1 Queen Mother of the West; from a brick from Ssu-ch’uan (Ssu-

cKuan Han tai tiao-su i-shu, Peking 1959 no. 61).
Ts，'ao-yeh mirror，from the collection in the British Museum.
X I Tsao-yeh mirror with TLV marks, A 0005; from the collection in
the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Shou-chou mirror; from the collection in the British Museum.

\I Shou-chou mirror with TLV marks, B 0006; from the collection in

the British Museum.
TLV mirror (C 1101).
I
TLV mirror (C 1201).
V I TLV mirror (C 1902).
I vr TLV mirror (C 1903).
/> V/ TLV mirror (C 2104); purchased from Spink and Son by a private
collector, and formerly in the Cull collection.
X I
X - TLV mirror (C 2404).
X TLV mirror (C 3101); detail. From the collection in the Victoria
X v
and Albert Museum.
X
I TLV mirror (C 3101). From the collection in the Victoria and
Albert Museum.
/
TLV mirror (C 3101); detail. From the collection in the Victoria
I
and Albert Museum.
Ivr\\II TLV mirror (C 4126).
/. TLV mirror (C 5002).
* \ / TLV mirror (D 1007).
KV lI I TLV mirror (D 2009).
V
♦*XXX \e .>_vrr TTLLVV mmiirrrroorr ((XX 91000034))..
i- v Pillow-shaped object from tomb no. 2，Wang-tu, Ho-pei, possibly
/ showing the Queen Mother of the West. (Wang-tu (1959) p. 29
?
* II fig, 37).
XXI/IwII Mirror in high relief, with Queen Mother of the West. From the

collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

XXII I I Screen，of jade, showing the Queen Mother of the West and her
I I partner. From tomb no. 43，Ting-hsien, Ho-pei (WW 1973.11
Plate 1).
XXIV Mirror in high relief, with inscription arranged in blocks. From
the collection in the British Museum.
I
I
* For th\e sources of these illustrations see the entries in Appendix One.

I

♦

/

AI

I

I

♦
♦
XXV Late mirror, with decorative devices, of the Sui period. From the
collection in the British Museum.
XXVI Devices on a coffin from Sha-tzu-fang, Ch’ang-sha (WW 1963.2,
colour plate).
XXVII Decorated ends of third coffin, tomb no. 1, Ma-wang-tui (MWT
(Report) Plates 35-6).
XXVIII The suppliant’s path to paradise; from a fresco at Ying-ch'eng-tzu,
Liao-ning. (Ying-ch'eng-tzu, Plate XXXVIa.)
FIGURE ILLUSTRATIONS
page
Religious building, Ch5ang-an (KK 1963.9 fig. 21). 14
The Han empire, 168 BC. 19
Tomb no. 1, Ma-wang-tui: cross-section (MWT (Report)
vol. 1 fig. 3). 22
4 Tomb no. 1，Ma-wang-tui: coffin-structure (MWT (Report)
vol. 1 fig. 6). 23
Second coffin, tomb no. 1，Ma-wang-tui: detail of decor 24

(MWT (Report), vol. 1 fig. 19).
Painting from tomb no. 9，Chin-ch'iieh-shan, Lin-i, Shantung
(WW 1977.11, inside cover).
Painting from tomb no. 1，Ma-wang-tui (MWT (Report)
5 vol. 1 fig. 38).
Interlaced dragons, from a tomb in Kiangsu (KK 1966.2
p. 70 fig. 4.2).
Fu Hsi and Nil Kua, with interlaced tails (WW 1975.8 p. 63
fig- 1). 41
1 TLV mirror (C 4111).
1
1 Diviner’s board (WW 1972.12 p. 15 fig. 8).
A1
6 Diviner's board, as reconstructed (Lo-lang (Harada) PI. CXII). u]
TLV mirror (C 4312). 6A1
1 Liu-po board (WW 1973.9 p. 34 fig. 39).

Queen Mother of the West; from a stone relief in Shantung
1
(Kominami p_ 62 fig. 17).
Roof paintings from the tomb of Pu Ch，ien-ch，iu (Lo-yang)
7
1 (WW 1977.6 pp. 10-11 figs. 33-4).
17 The sheng, or Queen Mother’s crown (Kominami p. 42 figs. 3 n
and 5; Umehara and Fujita PL 65).
Queen Mother of the West; from a stone relief in Shantung
1 8
(Kominami p. 63 fig. 20).
1 Queen Mother of the West; from a stone relief in Shantung

(Finsterbusch no. 271).
1 8
18

8
9

0

1
2

3

4

5
The constellations of the Weaver and the Oxherd (Kominami
p. 34 fig. 1).
Queen Mother of the West and King Father of the East; from
1-nan, Shantung (I-nan Plates 25, 26).
Queen Mother of the West; from a stone relief in Shantung
(Kominami p. 60 fig. 15). 130
*2 3 TLV mirror (D 2004). 1
2 TLV mirror (X 1007).
2 TLV mirror (X 2010).
2 TLV mirror (X 1005). 64
1
* 4
* For the sources of these illustrations see the entries in Appendix One. 1

71
* 5 1

1
2

7
* 6 1

1
1
1