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The T’ang Dynasty was an era of unrivalled wealth
and luxury. The country was
successfully reunified and the borders were
expanded, pushing Chinese influence
into new lands. Confucianism became a semi-
religious instrument of the state; yet
Buddhism continued to flourish, spreading into
Korea and Japan. The arts reached
new levels of sophistication. Poetry and literature
flourished under the enlightened
rulers. The Silk Road brought fortunes into China.
Precious treasures were imported
on the backs of camels from far away lands and
bartered for Chinese silk, medicinal
herbs, and pungent spices. T’ang China was a
multicultural empire where foreign
merchants from across Central Asia and the Middle
East settled in the urban
centers, foremost among them the thriving capital
of Chang’an (modern X’ian), a
bustling cosmopolitan center of over two million
inhabitants. Foreign traders lived
next to native artisans and both thrived. New ideas
and exotic artistic forms
followed alongside. The T’ang Dynasty was a
cultural renaissance where many of
the forms and objects we now associate with China
were first created. Moreover,
this period represents one of the greatest cultural
outpourings in human history.
As new philosophical and religious strands
penetrated the thought system of early
China, the subject matter of tomb objects and
tomb patterns changed. The past
practice of entombing elite members of society
with earthenware objects continued
throughout the early and middle Tang period, but
the earlier emphasis placed on
recreating daily life shifted to flaunting status and
excess. Tombs were no longer
"underground houses," but became a landscape
with murals depicting the palaces,
gardens, and open countryside in which the nobles
passed their lives. During the
Tang Dynasty, restrictions were placed on the
number of objects that could be
included in tombs, an amount determined by an
individual's social rank. In spite of
the limitations, a striking variety of tomb
furnishings have been excavated. Entire
retinues of ceramic figures - animals, entertainers,
musicians, guardians - were
buried with the dead.
During the T’ang Dynasty, sculptural effigies of
domesticated animals were often
interred in the tombs of nobility and elite members
of the social hierarchy. Created
in all media, these sculptures accompanied the
spirit of the deceased into the
afterlife. While similar examples exist, most were
found harnessed to wagons and
carts and were meant to function as beasts of
burden. However, this pair of
sculptures was discovered buried as part of a herd,
contained inside a sculpted
miniature pen with other domesticated animals,
suggesting that these oxes served
as nourishment. During the T’ang Dynasty, the
Chinese believed that the afterlife
was a continuation of our earthly existence. Thus,
logically, as we require food to
nourish our bodies on earth, so too will we require
food to nourish our souls in the
afterlife. Created to serve as food for the afterlife,
these works are more than mere
sculptures; they are a gorgeous memorial to the
religious and philosophical beliefs
of the T’ang Dynasty. These effigies have served
their eternal purpose well. Today,
they continue to nourish our souls with their
beauty and grace.
- (LA.524)
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