good evening everyone
wow we have a sold-out event tonight so
if you're yeah absolutely so if you're
if you're in some of these these places
if you want to move in a little bit to
the center because we do expect other
people to come in and sit down we would
greatly appreciate that
my name is michael taylor i am chief
curator and deputy director for our
education here at vm fa and it gives me
immense pleasure to welcome you to
tonight's lecture in this joint talk the
curators of the exhibition Terracotta
Army legacy of the first emperor of
China who are legion and whom a song
will provide an overview of the themes
and highlights of this remarkable show
that is breaking attendance records and
thrilling visitors to vmf a first is
legion she is the erodes and leona B
carpenter curator of East Asian art at
the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
prior to joining V MFA in August 2007
she served as the kettering curator of
Asian art at the Dayton Art Institute
and before that as a Mellon fellow at
the Indianapolis Museum of Art in
addition to overseeing the major
reinstallation of the Asian way in
Dayton Li Jian curated two critically
acclaimed exhibitions with accompanying
catalogues their eternal China art from
the first dynasties which was on view in
1998 and the glory of the Silk Road art
from ancient China in 2003 she received
her BA in English and management in
Beijing and her MA degree in the history
of art from the University of Minnesota
since completing another major
reinstallation this time at the MFA of
the East Asian galleries lesion has
focused on strengthening the museum's
Chinese Japanese and Korean art holdings
through superb acquisitions and gifts
she also organized the major exhibition
here entitled Forbidden City Imperial
treasures from the Palace Museum Beijing
which opened in 2014 and I will say as
chief curator Li Jian is an absolute
treasure to work with she is so
dedicated so hard-working she's laughing
but it's all true so we're honored to
have her she's a great scholar our
second speaker will be dr. whom a song
and she has been the curator of Asian
art at the Cincinnati Art Museum since
2002 she received her BA and MA degrees
from the National Taiwan University and
her PhD in Museum Studies from Case
Western Reserve University prior to
joining the Cincinnati Art Museum dr.
song served as research associate at the
Cleveland Museum of Art and has held a
variety of research and teaching
positions in both Asia and the United
States including the National Palace
Museum in Taipei the Cleveland State
University and Case Western Reserve
University in 2000 she received a
Fulbright scholarship to carry out
research on Ming Court paintings and has
more than a little under 50 publication
I think you have 49 publications under
her name you know that 50th is on the
way these include decoded messages the
symbolic language of Chinese animal
painting which was published by Yale
University Press in 2009 and
masterpieces of Japanese art in the
Cincinnati Art Museum which was
published by Dee Giles in 2014 please
join me in welcoming both speakers to
the podium beginning with lesion for
what I'm sure will be a fascinating and
insightful lecture
enjoy
good evening thank you so much for
coming to this evening's event hum a
song and myself are so pleased to be
here with you to introduce this
exhibition and its contents the plan to
bring Terracotta Army to Richmond began
during the expansion of a V MFA in 2009
but major preparation did not begin
until 2015 followed the Forbidden City
exhibition in the spring of 2015 who may
and I traveled to see and together with
our museums of Directors where we
visited visited numerous museums and
formulated our collaborative plan after
two and a half years the exhibition has
finally opened in Richmond Terracotta
Army like say of the first emperor of
China features more than 130 objects
drawn from 14 lenders across Shanxi
Province Shanxi is the birthplace a home
of chin where 34 rulers resided for more
than 500 years this exhibition is about
the history of the team is the first
round Emperor and his legacy
eun-jung later known as the first
emperor became the king of the qin state
in 246 BC when the central authority of
the preceding Cho dynasty this solved
leading to civil war between provincial
States Ying Chun managed to conquer the
Chin's
six rival state and in two hundred years
of turmoil and beginning the Qin Dynasty
in 221 BC senior was established as a
king's capital in 350 BC after six
generations ruling for 150 years the
city of Rita is a peak during the Qin
Dynasty Palace number wise you see here
is one of 300 palaces constructed along
the road from Siena to the first
Emperor's mausoleum
today only the platform of this palace
remains
under the first emperor that in court
issued edicts to abandon the use of
occurrences and merriment from others
days the team coins see on the left
became the standardized currency that
would circulate it for trade across the
newly unified country according to the
law described under planker to the left
the standardized weight mass robbery an
official edict after the death of the
first emperor the zone passed to his son
huhai who issued a second edict
enforcing the initial law the weight to
the right is a rare example on which
both addicts are chiseled beginning in
219 BC the first emperor made five
Imperial tours across the unified
country this bronze chariot activated
near the Emperor's tomb may be modelled
after he saw royal convoy oh he's a
fortunate or the Emperor ascended monkey
in Shandong province where he ordered
the carving of stones daily to document
his accomplishment here the calligraphy
inscribed in rounded form and even
strokes
present in scrip the official writing
language of the qin dynasty king Wanda a
port city on the East Coast in Hubei
province is the only place in China
named after the first emperor the
emperor traveled four times to this
place to worship the sea and send out
court officials and the tourists masters
in search of immortal medicines in the
mythical Pillai Island to defend against
the invasion of you know a powerful
nomadic group to the north the first
emperor ordered in 215 BC to connect
existing was built formally by the Jing
Chou and a yin state as you see and on
this map this session of the Great War
fifteen feet high and 20 feet wide at
the base was constructed with a process
just stones and earth in the Qin Dynasty
it is estimated that seven hundred
thousand workers participated in
construction projects including the war
the Muslim and palaces all of this
quickly exhausted the Qin's labor forces
and its financial resources
now section 2 this assertion of the
exhibition goes back to since early
history beginning in the 8th century BC
King grow from through eastward equation
from a small state into a very powerful
Empire by the 3rd century BC horse
riding played an essential role in teens
history that in people started with the
breeding horses for the Jo court and
learned hurting and hunting from their
nomadic neighbors this figure represent
a nomad and is the early sculpture of
the cavern men find in China the
exhibition features modern sturdy breed
o and chariot components excavated from
different Tunes along the Jin's path of
accretion and a series hunka capitals
include luncheon party and the first
Impreza Muslim bronze bell was one of
the ritual musical instruments in
ancient China this example is one of
eight and earth from Royalton near party
the inscription she's old on its surface
indicate this Bell was cast in the 7th
century BC
assertive bells varying in size would
have been hung understand as you see
here and a plate with a wooden mallet
this wine vessel with a chained handle
is a fine example of Bronzeville wrestle
with the gold and silver inlay made in
the third century BC while Nobles
furnishing their tombs with precious
bronze vessels commoners instead use
ceramic vessels to imitate the shape and
the decoration of the bronzes excavated
from a royal cemetery these two pieces
belonged to lady rage young the wife of
a king of drei a small state on the bank
of yellow river sharing his border with
him during the 8th century BC upon
activation the Jade bar and the two
strands of the bead were had in the hand
of lady Gaea really revealing a unique
funeral Rite of the great nobility
ancient Chinese architecture began to
utilize roof tiles around the ninth
century BC large amounts of roof tiles
excavated from the remains of various
Palace buildings in the Cinque habita of
eun-jung show that the Qin adopted a
desert
tradition to protect their house and
wooden eaves water pipes will find among
the remains of palaces and Muslims near
Hsieh demonstrating the use of running
water and underground drainage system at
the Jin's capital of senior cia is a
very close to today's city of CN and if
you fly into CNN you fly enthusiam
Airport the final session covers one of
the most important archaeological
discoveries of the 20th century the
Terracotta Army and other objects
activated from the first Empress Muslim
the Muslim located 35 miles east of
Shion originally consists of
above-ground structures surrounded by
two sets of walls and an underground
burial chamber the Muslim is enormous
the area within the war as you see here
is of 570 acres and the Muslim complex
beyond the walls is nearly 14,000 acres
beginning in 1974 archaeologists
excavated three piece containing the
Terracotta Army about one mile east of
the Muslim scholars believe that this
underground army was modeled after
military formations as described in the
art of war written by since in the fifth
century BC Pete one is largest among the
three containing about six thousand
figures in a singular military formation
known as the thin front and the deep
rare line it includes a close formation
with the light armed infantry in front
and deeper ranks on the bank the teracle
Terracotta Army includes infantry
commander we call general horses and a
wooden chariot the figures was placed 15
feet deep originally covered with timber
the straw mat undeterred today after
restauration 1,100 figures are standing
on the brick braved floor as they were
before
PT 2 contains 1300 figures in for
military arrangement called dispersed
formation
to utilize smaller units of for Archer
infantry and cavalry for very powerful
attack Peter 3 contains the military
headquarters with only 68 Turk hora
fevers and horses but without any
high-ranking officials most of the
figures from this pit amazing their
health and one and why this site was
raided is a mystery here I will show you
very quickly some images you see
generally in the middle and then charity
Riya and infantrymen cameramen and horse
and archers
the last year to image this long sword
from Pete one was as sharp as new were
excavated it is coated with a layer of
chromium oxide which protected at the
sword from corrosion reportedly such
techniques were not used in the West
until the early 20th century the stone
armored pit was discovered in 1999 near
the Emperor's tomb and the armor is
symbolic representing the Kings real
armor made of metal and the leather each
garment contains nearly 300 limestone
tiles
carved and polished and of threaded
together with metal wire to conclude
three years after the sudden death of
the first emperor in 210 BC the Qin
Dynasty collapsed but left an enduring
legacy of government law language
architecture technology and Muslim with
the Terracotta Army all of that
inference Chinese nation and society for
thousands of years
we believe that a thorough comprehensive
study of excavated cultural materials we
will deepen
our understanding of a king history and
for sure Emperor's a Moslem and he's
like Issei thank you so much
thank you
now let's welcome my colleague dr. hor
Mason
good evening everyone it's my great
pleasure to join Legion in this lecture
and I will talk about the world around
the chin people since Li Jian has
already given you such a wonderful
comprehensive introduction
I thought I will highlight only a few
objects from this exhibition and some
related objects to particularly the
depiction of animals and natural
subjects to briefly introduce the world
around the Qin people and particularly I
will focus on two points one is how
animal depiction of the Ching and the
preaching reflect Qin people's lifestyle
and of hunting herding and the
agriculture and the second I will focus
on briefly the inyoung cosmology or the
inyoung and five phases cosmology and
their concept of nature at this Qin time
during the late Joe before the Qin state
transformed from a small kingdom into a
superpower Qin people lived in close
proximity to the nomadic wrong and deep
people who inhabited in the today's
Gansu Ning Ning Xia northern San Shi and
Inner Mongolia from these nomads Qin
people learned about horses archery
hunting and combat archaeological
recoveries of artworks and artifacts
provided evidence of their dynamic
interaction and exchange among these
cultures the Qin people's exchanged with
them and these works
so reviewed how the chin developed its
own distinctive style by integrating
traditions of the surrounding states and
other nomadic peoples here we have two
bronze plaques they are typically used
for the belt as about elements then the
one is a tiger holding a mule and the
other one is a tiger attacking a ball
and you can see I'm actually bailed on
Ehrman's
are the most distinctive artifacts
associated with the nomadic peoples
bordering the chin region and this both
of these depiction very spirited and the
vibrant depiction of wild animals are
closely associated with the culture and
arts of the Eurasian steps including the
orders region of northern Shaanxi and
the Inner Mongolia here this is a molded
brick with the hunting scenes you can
see here this brick was that is
decorated with two bands of identical
hunting scenes each band depict a
mounted hunter with bow and arrows
chasing after four wild beasts running
in a hilly landscape here we have roof
tile ends as you can see these again
these images captures the wild animals
in their while in their natural habitat
and reflecting the qin people's
lifestyle and their interactions with
their neighboring nomadic tribes and
here we have Matt Waite during the Qin
people still
on floor floor mats and or rather than
on chairs so weights like such as these
were used for keeping floor mats in
place preventing it from curling and
then most mats weight met weights of
this period when were made of bronze and
they are often designed in animal motifs
including bears tigers deer and
turquoise and this Crouching Tiger with
its hind leg tucked under its body and
its front paws resting on the ground is
very realistically modelled despite its
well-worn features and flaking gold
coating the tiger still shows its magic
majestic spirit this little gold tiger
it's very small but it still captures
the fierce spirit as you know Tiger is
the king of beasts in China so it's with
his teeth open mouth and it's a very
nice piece and this is my favorite tiger
with the cub
unfortunately the general and me tried
very hard we couldn't get this piece and
this is a very rare subject in you know
artifacts and also it's a very realistic
and lively depiction of a tiger with its
cub holding its cub in that mouth and
that the cub is turning his head toward
its mother showing an intimate bond and
this sensitive depiction of the intimate
moment and loving relationship between
mother and child shows a time of close
observation of
animals and they in nature and as you
know it's very hard this is a very very
hard to see to find and also it's a very
dangerous scene to intrude upon if a
hunter intruder pounders because the
mother's strong protective instinct it's
extremely dangerous
next I would talk about a little bit
about the agriculture archeological
findings reveal that agriculture played
a very important role in chin society's
livelihood and here in the show you have
a model of a granary which is modeled
after a Qin farmhouse and here there's a
silkworm this is a very interesting one
if it's small but as you know China the
Chinese were the first to produce silk
and according to archaeological findings
and the ancient records we know that the
silk cultivation in China can be traced
to as early as 5000 to 3000 BC and by
the Qin Dynasty sericulture
was considered as important as
agriculture and silkworms were depicted
in stone and powdery as in the beginning
of the Neolithic period finely carved
the Jade silkworms were also found in
the Shang and Joe burial sites and here
this one is very realistically depicted
you can see with its eyes half open its
MA it's had raised and it does you can
also see the segmented body the small
legs and a little tail horn which I just
learned about so with the tail
and unlike the other objects but this
one is particularly interesting I'm
really glad we could get this and then
in addition to circle worms the chin
also kept they raised water birds and
fish here
you know this rounds 40 46 life-sized
bronze water birds were excavated in a
Qin tomb side and there are six cranes
20 swans and 20 wild geese they were
neat very neatly lined up along
carefully constructed small replicas of
River with the wooden banks on the sides
and unlike the early Chinese ancient
Chinese ritual bronzes these bronze
water birds convey a sense of vitality
with a remarkable realism all in all the
birds in different you can see in
different poses some are standing some
are walking some bending looking for
food some are sleeping and have some
details this crane you can see captures
the moment when when it has snatched up
a little worm with its beak I think you
can see that and and our in the
exhibition this piece is a wild geese or
Swan coos officially it's a swan goose
and some special expert can identify
because it's so realistically depicted
they can they can recognize this is the
kind of species of Swan goose that's
native to Mongolia
and it's typically large in brown or
white color and they migrated southward
to China in the winter so that's how
precise this depiction and the fish you
can see this also in our exhibition it's
a toy Belle it's the toy Belle typically
it's a it's made by inserting a small
stone between two halves a molded clay
and on the top you can see it's
decorated with three swimming fish and
in the center you see a four petal
flower in the end the wave pattern
around the rim the whole design appears
to be a vivid depiction of the aquatic
world of fish in a pond and next I would
like to talk a little bit about the
religious and philosophical belief and
the concept of nature of this time from
the late Joe to the chin the major
belief is the in Jung and five phases
cosmology this is very central essential
to early Chinese art and culture the Qin
has assimilated assimilated many aspects
of Jo culture including this in young
cosmology and concept of nature the
Indian concept developed into a
philosophical school in the late in the
warring state period preaching and by
the third century of Jing the principle
of in yang was a fundamental concept in
Chinese culture and according to this in
Jung cosmology all events proceeded from
the five phases of metal
water fire in the earth and a cyclic in
nature the five phases succeeded each
other and that they are associated with
seasons colors directions and virtues
and even animal symbolism according to
this cosmology inyoung are the two
opposite but complementary principles
that regulate the functioning of the
cosmos based on this Chinese interpret
nature and the animals and their
interaction with their surroundings they
explain for example animals have in
animal in a young animal and some animal
in anymore Rome in a young world
it's very complicated I'm not going to
go into that
therefore animals in China is not just a
beast in nature they are a living symbol
and what I want to emphasize here is
during this Qin time I want to use
Phoenix and Dragon these two myths
mythological creatures as the symbol of
being and young and I used this
archaeological material these are the
two in color warring States period silk
paintings and they were used for
funerary rituals and these are the best
examples to illustrate the prevalent the
Indian cosmology prevalent during the
late Joe and King and both of these two
so paintings were excavated from the Chu
State tomb date in Hunan Changsha dates
to fifth to third piece century BC and
this type of paintings were used for
funeral rituals from Late Show to Han
typically they
depict the souls journey after death you
know the Chinese believe they have two
souls the in soul and the young soul on
the one of the banners the middle one
you can see a male the tomb owner in a
robe holding a sword and tattered to a
sailing sailing dragon and a fish on the
lower left indicate water underneath and
a little bird perched on the up turning
tail of the dragon reveals the higher
realm I know it's a little hard for you
to see but since this is not my main
focus but I just want to introduce this
and then a similar banner excavated
around the same time also in the lady
that the Jango a period they Joe depict
a female you can put it together it
really help you to see a female this is
a slender woman wearing a flowery
decorated or robe and then hovering
above her in a central and dominant
position you see a large flying Phoenix
and if you look closely you see that
lady's joined hands are connected to the
Phoenix leg with a string basically I
believe these two are both used to
depict the journey of the soul back to
the inn and young world and they both
illustrated the death myth based on this
Indian cosmology the artists the artists
included both the inn and young animals
the Phoenix and Dragon in each panel and
also identify the gender of the deceased
by highlighting the in order young
animal making a larger and therefore the
in the Phoenix the Phoenix
dominate in the manner of female and the
dragon dominate in the banner of the
male from these two banners and combined
with a later hand banner we learned that
during this time people believe that in
young as the in young acts aspects of
the departing soul would even eventually
journey back to the in young essence of
the universe which is the Sun in the
moon the Sun and Moon you can see the
hand tanner this is a early hunt banner
and combining these three funerary
banners it really helps to understand
this so so this helped us to understand
that the inyoung act aspects of the
departing soul would eventually journey
back to the inn and young and then
during this time they use Phoenix and
Dragon to symbolize the Union young and
this is redirect Li related to our show
this one we could not borrow but I think
it's a very nice depiction there is this
is a break used in the the Dragon one
dragon panel one Phoenix dragon both
were excavated from the side of the
ruined the Qin Palace in Xianyang and
these type of bricks were used to pave
the stairs and the floors of the
Imperial buildings and the dragon panel
you can see a dragon in size design of a
dragon amidst clouds next to a jade disk
a circular like a donut shaped Jade B we
call it's a ritual Jade called the B and
the B is a symbol of heaven and and then
the Phoenix tile is really damaged but I
use this to illustrate that the pairing
of the Dragon and Phoenix were used in
the Late Show to symbolize in a young
aspects of the inyoung cosmology since
the design of the Qin palace in Xi'an
yang were based on that they were built
based on the concept of modeling after
heaven and therefore the two celestial
animals flanking the P which is symbol
of heaven really shows clearly shows
refers to the relationship between
heaven and the ruler in China ruler is
called a Sun of heaven so another point
I want to make our related to the Indian
cosmology is this of time and this based
on this in Jung and five phases
cosmology ancient dynasties often adopt
a representing virtue for example the
shadow ends deep before the Sun they
adopt the virtue of the wood and then
shang dynasty virtue of gold the matter
and Jordan is the virtue of fire and the
Qin Emperor the first emperor believed
that the Qin possess the virtue of water
because Qin overcome or conquered Jo
rule Jo rule virtue is fire so water
conquered fire which demonstrate this so
maybe that's why there are so many
roofed I'll end with water design found
among palace ruins and I want to use
these two as example you can see these
are all depicting water and of all the
designs of tyre and found in the chin
chin our sights i think the tyre with
the water or wave design is probably the
most distinctive chin creation the
craftsman really successfully captured
the beauty and the eternal rhythm of
or waves using only simple kirvline
curvy linear patterns and I hope my talk
gives you a new perspective when you
look at the objects depicting animal or
nature thank you
if you're able to stay for
question-and-answer lesion and how may
would be happy to take questions I do
have a microphone that I'll walk
throughout the audience so that they can
hear your question and everyone else can
so I see a question here Fred can I um
how many years have you both been
studying the China history and the
Terracotta Army
well first we started in school and in
college and for myself of master's
degree and also for the when I started
to work in the museum when we work our
exhibitions of we started several years
like to prepare for the exhibition but
particularly for this show it took two a
half years well when we were in school
we studied the Qin Emperor of course the
first Chinese unified dynasty but until
that uncover the discovery of the tomb
that of course stimulated us to study
deeper and more is that answer your
question Thank You soldiers modeled
after real soldiers or did the artisans
just make up people based on how people
look like this is okay for you we
believe that the Terracotta Army
soldiers was modeled after maybe since
soldiers as to making this you know the
Hat were made from several modes and
details work halved and so you see
almost that there is a no single
face is the same sometimes we notice
this person is from the north and that
one's from the south so well anyway
they're not totally from because they do
have molds made but they make the
details later so there may be several
categories at least also if now I
remember early on when I first traveled
to yeah in the 1990s we look at are
there local people and don't feel they
are they look so much like the terror
army as a soldier now no no any no as
far as I know no you may wish to mass
you wanna be my own sorry
we even waste my she won't be my own why
whole question is why you're like a
terracotta army it is right she speak in
Chinese
I think we we just do you mean why right
um when the museum decided to all to
work on the exhibition organized a show
of Terracotta Army so we have to start
it and also Terracotta Army this show
has been traveled to many places and
cities but since the exhibition
excavation continued even today sweep is
two of them steel archaeologists working
on this so they always bring new
excavation report new discoveries all
this encourage scholars cures art
historians to study these materials I
think you know the ancient Chinese
brands and they have set of wine vessels
for offering the ancestral spirit to
when they do sacrifice sacrificial rites
so they they kept certain forms like
certain shapes types and then you can
identify which one is used for drinking
wine or storing wine or or pouring there
are very rigid categories for this yes
we can identify which one they each have
a term like the Judas gr the GU you know
salt I'm not going to give you all that
but yes there are sacrificial ritual
brands said these types we can know this
shape is
such-and-such did the archaeologists
find the molds are there molds that
available there too to see yes they they
find a excavation site also in the queue
size the molds
some are intact others in fragments how
they find that right I think the farmer
are you asking how they fund how they
founded tomb site
well the farmers tilting the Len first
discovered several charts and some
vessels and then they start digging and
that's how they discovered the hole to
the side there was no thinking before
the farmers discovery we know the
general area but it's kept secret
obviously all the Imperial tombs in the
early times they if it's an imperial
tomb they they even you know killed the
builders yes since the Moslem is so so
large in size so as early as the Han
Dynasty
it is a terracotta army pitch already
been disturbed someone wanted a I saw
two of the three pits was were on fire
and was set on fire intentionally and
then very in
a strange after several thank you later
this information last so until 1974
first farmers find a peat one and then
in the next two years are our
archaeologists really encouraged by the
discovery of the first pit so two years
later they they find second one and
third
so all these a number Pete one two three
actually is named numbered after the
sequence over how they when they were
discovered but to both Pete Pete two and
three
archaeologists didn't really immediately
excavate Adam as their group I think it
ran out far I'd run off the alcohol
Labor's are to really work on so until
10 years and 20 years later and you know
that the Emperor's real tomb has not
been touched yet it's intact this is
just a bordering the neighboring not the
actual tomb of the Emperor that is
waiting yet to be no I don't think so
well for one thing if you want to like
the Terracotta Army now if you want to
excavate it you have to be ready a
thousand soldiers if you they can
immediately terror it exposed to air so
there are all kinds of considerations
where to store them where to work on
them so that's that's why I think I
don't think there's any plan do you know
no earlier the Shanxi provincial city
and the Bureau they've on the early
they really wanted to do it and then the
central government didn't approve and I
don't think that in the next 50 years
the to him away we activated what
accounts for the difference in size
between the mountain and the terracotta
warriors 4 Matic nomadic know the
intentionally the cameraman was built
shorter than like other soldiers know
very early on there is a there is a
horse and a nomad
that was built almost 100 years before
the Terracotta Army so it people really
do comparison of the two how one hundred
years before they only build something
seven inches high and then less than one
hundred years there is a modern
life-sized a terracotta army and there
there are smaller terracotta warriors -
this is not meant to be part of the army
guarding the first Emperor's tomb that's
a separate yeah
right well there are all kinds we we
found all kinds of sizes of funerary
figure rings so okay thank you so much
and please join me in thanking
