Li gui

We just learned about the Flying Horse of Gansu.

Another ancient Chinese sculpture is the Li gui, a small bronze bowl about 11 inches tall, made some time around 1,000 BC.

This sculpture is very important in China, because long ago they did not save records of all of their history, so people are not sure what happened or when it happened.

The Li gui is the oldest bronze sculpture from the time in Chinese history called the Zhou dynasty that lasted about 800 years.

There is some writing on the inside of the bowl that has helped people figure out important dates in history, thousands of years ago.
The writing mostly talks about King Wu winning a battle over the Shang dynasty, the people that ruled before the Zhou dynasty took over.



(from: wikipedia - li gui)


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Flying Horse of Gansu

We just learned about the Mao Gong Ding.

Another ancient Chinese sculpture is the Flying Horse of Gansu, also called the Bronze Running Horse or the Galloping Horse Treading on a Flying Swallow.

This sculpture was found underneath a monastery in an old tomb with over 200 different bronze sculptures.

The horse in this sculpture is a type of horse called Tianma, which means heavenly horse.
These horses came from a place called Ferghana, and they were such great horses that the Emperor of China gave them the nickname of heavenly horse.

The statue is perfectly balanced on just one foot, which is stepping on top of a bird.
This is supposed to mean that the horse runs so fast it is almost like it is flying through the air with the birds.



(from: wikipedia - flying horse of gansu)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: David - Donatello

Mao Gong ding

We just learned about the Da Ke ding and the Da Yu ding.

Another ancient Chinese sculpture is the Mao Gong ding.

Along with the other two dings, these three are some of the most famous Chinese sculptures.

This ding weighs 75 pounds, and is made of bronze.
People think it was made around 800 BC.

There are carvings on the inside of 497 characters telling about the history of the Kings of China in the old days.



(from: wikipedia - mao gong ding)


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Da Ke ding

We just learned about the Da Yu Ding.

Another famous Chinese sculpture is the Da Ke ding, made around 1000 BC in Shaanxi China.

Just like the Da Yu ding, this is a large sculpted bowl on a tripod, used to hold things usually for special ceremonies.

Along with the Da Yu ding and another ding, it is one of the most sacred historical treasures in China.

During the many wars through the years in China, enemies would come through towns and try to destroy all of the special sculptures and take the treasures of people.

The Pan family was the owner of the Da Ke ding, and they knew people would try to destroy it so they buried it underground to hide it.
Armies came into town and tried to dig around and find it, but they never did, so it is one of the few pieces of history telling the story of what happened long ago.

It is about 36 inches tall and weighs over 400 pounds.
It has special patterns and dragons carved into it, and inside are 290 letters inscribed telling the story of Ke, the ruler of the Western Zhou dynasty.


(from: wikipedia - da ke ding)


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Da Yu ding

We just learned about the Yixian glazed pottery luohans.

Another ancient Chinese sculpture is the Da Yu ding.

A ding is used for storage or for special ceremonies and rituals.

This bronze ding sculpture was made around 1000 BC in Shaanxi China.
It has patterns and animal faces engraved on it, and on the inside of the ding is carved a speech from the Chinese King Kang of Zhou.

The speech talks about a few things:
Don't drink too much wine.
People need to support the king.
Everyone should try to be like the king's old grandfather Nang Gong.
All of the stuff the military owns and who is in charge of it.
The ding was made for his grandfather Nang Gong.

In the old days during wars a lot of times old sculptures like this would get destroyed, so it is hard to know what happened long ago because the history was erased.
This ding was hidden many times through the years so it was able to save the history of the past.



(from: wikipedia - da yu ding)


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Yixian glazed pottery luohans

We just learned about the Six Ritual Jades.

Another ancient Chinese sculpture is the Yixian glazed pottery luohans.

This is a set of life sized statues of Buddha that were made sometime around 1000 AD in China.

There have been at least eight found, but people think there may be many more.
All of the sculptures found are a little different, and were not just copies made from one sculpture.

They are made of terracotta which is a kind of clay, covered in glaze in a style called Sancai which means "three colors", brown green and white.




(from: wikipedia - yixian glazed pottery luohans)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Cantoria - Luca Della Robbia

Six Ritual Jades - Zhang

We've learned about four of the ancient Chinese Six Ritual Jades:
Cong - earth, Bi - sky/heaven, Huang - North, Hu - West,
and Gui - East.

The last of the Six Ritual Jades was the Zhang.

This was a flat blade or axe, and it was used to mean "South".


(from: wikipedia - chinese jade)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Gates of Paradise

Six Ritual Jades - Gui

We've learned about four of the ancient Chinese Six Ritual Jades:
Cong - earth, Bi - sky/heaven, Huang - North, and Hu - West.

Another of the Six Ritual Jades was the Gui.

This was a kind of blade, and it was used to mean "East".


(from: wikipedia - commons: jade gui in the western han dynasty)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Judith and Holofernes - Donatello

Six Ritual Jades - Hu

We just learned about three of the ancient Chinese Six Ritual Jades:
Cong - earth, Bi - sky/heaven, and Huang - North.

Another of the Six Ritual Jades was the Hu.

This was something like a vase, and it was used to mean "West".


(from: wikipedia - category:chinese jade)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: David - Michelangelo

Six Ritual Jades - Huang

We just learned about two of the ancient Chinese Six Ritual Jades: Cong - earth and Bi - sky/heaven.

Another of the Six Ritual Jades was the huang.

This jade sculpture was in the shape of an arc, and was worn as a pendant sometimes.

The arc shape was made for the direction of "North".

Sometimes the ends of these sculptures were carved into tigers or dragons.



(from: wikipedia - huang (jade))


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Six Ritual Jades - Cong

Let's keep learning about the ancient Chinese Six Ritual Jade sculptures

We already learned about the Bi disc - for the heaven or sky.

The second one is Cong, which is for the earth.

The cong is usually a tube with a circle shaped inside and a square shaped outside.



(from: wikipedia - cong (vessel))


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Six Ritual Jades - Bi

We just learned about the Houmuwu Ding.

Another part of ancient Chinese art is the Six Ritual Jades.

Long ago in China there were six jade things that important people like kings or emperors would keep to show that they were powerful and important.

The first of these was called a "Bi", which was a round disc with patterns on it and a hole in the middle.

Some people believe that the six ritual jade things each had a different meaning, and "Bi" was for heaven or sky.



(from: wikipedia - bi (jade))


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Houmuwu Ding

We just learned about the Jade Burial Suits.

Another famous ancient Chinese sculpture is the Houmuwu Ding.

A "ding" is a sculpture that was used to offer up sacrifices to different gods in ancient China.
This ding is the largest piece of ancient bronze artwork that was ever found.

On the ding it says "Queen Mother Wu" so people think this was made for her after she died, by her son Zu Geng of Shang.

It is 52 inches tall, 43 inches wide, 31 inches deep and it weighs over 1,800 pounds!
There are decorations around it of animals, like dragons and tigers attacking humans.


(from: wikipedia - houmuwu ding)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Holy Thorn Reliquary

Jade Burial Suits

We just learned about the Bianzhong of Marquis Yi of Zeng.

Another ancient Chinese work of art is the Jade Burial Suit.

In ancient times in China, people believed that if you were buried in a suit of Jade after you died, it could help you in the afterlife, and protect you from evil.

Jade is expensive, so only the truly rich people like princes or emperors could afford to be covered in a whole suit of jade.
Usually it was small squares of jade with holes in the edges and string used to tie them all together.
Sometimes there was artwork or carvings in the jade.


(from: wikipedia - jade burial suit)


(from: wikipedia - jade burial suit)


(from: wikipedia - jade burial suit)


(from: wikipedia - jade burial suit)


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Leshan Giant Buddha

We just learned about the Tang Dynasty Tomb Figures of Liu Tingxun.

Another work of ancient Chinese art is the Leshan Giant Buddha.

This is a statue of Buddha over 230 feet tall, built around 713 AD.
It was carved out of a cliff face made of red sandtones.
This is the largest stone statue of Buddha in the world, and when it was built it was the largest statue in the world.

The statue has pipes on the inside of the body, to help drain water when it rains so that the water doesn't damage the statue over the hundreds of years.


(from: wikipedia - leshan giant buddha)


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Tang Dynasty Tomb Figures of Liu Tingxun

We just learned about the Terracotta Army.

Another famous ancient Chinese work of art is Tang Dynasty Tomb Figures of Liu Tingxun made in 728 AD.

These are sculptures from the tomb of a Chinese general named Liu Ting, who died in 782 AD.
There are 13 figures, made using the sancai type of art, which means "three colors".
This kind of art used copper, iron and other metals to make different colors when cooked in ovens.

The sculptures are a pair of human like creatures with wings and hooves to scare off intruders.
After that are some guards and servants, and at the back are horses and camels.



(from: wikipedia - tang dynasty tomb figures of liu tingxun)


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Terracotta Army

We just learned about the sculpture of The Buddha, flanked by Herakles and Tychee.

Another famous set of sculptures is the Terracotta Army made in China around 200 BC.

When the Emperor of China Qin Shi Huang died, he was put into a tomb with over 8,000 sculptures in it.
These were small sculptures of soldiers, chariots, horses, acrobats and musicians that were buried with him as they believed these soldiers would protect the Emperor in the afterlife.

These thousands of soldiers all had real weapons like spears, swords or arrows.
Many of these weapons have been stolen, but people believe there were over 40,000 weapons in the original sculpture.
The statues were all painted at first, but the paint has all worn off.

The place where these sculptures were buried with the emperor was part of a very large cemetery area that was about 38 square miles.
There were people that visited it long ago and wrote about it saying that there were miniature palaces, towers, 100 rivers of flowing mercury, and paintings on the ceiling of heaven.

Over the thousands of years, many things have been stolen or broken, but there are still thousands of sculptures there to see.


(from: wikipedia - terracotta army)



(from: wikipedia - terracotta army)



(from: wikipedia - terracotta army)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Fontana Maggiore

The Buddha, flanked by Herakles and Tychee

We just learned about the Bharhat Stupa.

Another sculpture from ancient Asia is The Buddha, flanked by Herakles and Tychee.

When the Greeks came through Asia, many of their stories about Greek mythology were told to people in the area, so when someone made a statue of the wise man Buddha, they put sculptures of the Greek characters Herakles and Tychee.

(from: wikipedia - greco-buddhist art)


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Bharhat Stupa

We just learned about the Kushan Maitreya.

Another work of art in Asia is the Bharhat Stupa, made around 100 BC.

The artwork for this place shows some styles that are a lot like Greek artwork, and also some marks from different types of artists in different areas.
This means the artwork was probably made over several years, with a lot of different people helping.

It was made so long ago and was almost destroyed and buried, so people had to dig it up and try to figure out who made it based on the carvings.

Most of the carvings tell the story of Buddha, a famous wise person from Asia.


(from: wikipedia - bharhut)


(from: wikipedia - bharhut)

Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Portals at Reims Cathedral

Kushan Maitreya

We just learned about the Vajrasana, Bodh Gaya.

Another ancient Asian sculpture is the Kushan Maitreya.

This is a sculpture of the Bodhisattva, which are people seeking enlightenment.
The statue is made in the same style as the Greek mythological characters like Zeuss.

(from: wikipedia - greco-buddhist art)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Portals at Chartres Cathedral