More than 150 ancient Chinese objects are on display at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco’s exhibit, “Phoenix Kingdom: The Lost Splendor of China’s Bronze Age.”
Over the years, the Asian Art Museum has collaborated with museums in China to bring countless exhibits to San Francisco, including exquisite artworks and giant warrior statues from tombs. What could be better?
Yes, the now-famous treasures – giant bronze cauldrons, tiny coins, paintings of writhing serpents, and intricate silk gauze robes – were unearthed in the Yangtze River region and later put on display in Chinese museums.
Now, through July 22, these objects (more than 150 of them) are on display as “Kingdom of Phoenix: The Final Glory of China’s Bronze Age,” a scholarly approach to the kingdoms of Zeng and Chu, which flourished during the Zhou dynasty 3,000 years ago.
Recent scientific advances have allowed archaeologists and conservators to excavate and restore many artifacts without damaging them, and as Asian Art Museum staff point out, waterlogged tombs that seem hopeless to the layman can actually protect fragile artifacts from decay by exposing them to oxygen and bacteria.
“These objects have rewritten China’s history over the past 40 years,” said chief curator Robert Mintz during a tour of the exhibit. Exhibit organizer Fan J. Chang called the objects “a true missing link between myth and recorded history.”
Museum visitors may not care about the history, archaeology, or even the detailed descriptions of the exhibits. “You don’t have to read the descriptions to enjoy the exhibits,” Mintz says. “Just walk through them and marvel at the beauty of the exhibits.”
Mintz noted that the bronzes were originally “a bright, shiny gold color.” Today, most of them are darker in color, making the carvings and detailed animal figures and deciphering mythical beasts even more intriguing.
The “Phoenix Kingdom” exhibit, named after the Zeng and Chu dynasties who worshipped the resurrected phoenix, is set to add to the mystery. The rooms are dark, the objects are spotlit, historical text is kept to a minimum, and the captions aren’t always well lit. At least one wall-to-wall video projection provides detailed footage of the excavations of many of the objects.
These objects are imaginative and intriguing.
There is a lidded box in the shape of two pigs back to back, designed to hold wine cups, and which still retains its lacquer and staining. Nearby is a huge square bronze object, a double-walled “jiang fu” for keeping drinks cold on the go – a cooler box from around 43 BC. Around its perimeter are sturdy bronze rings intended for carrying by stout servants.
Animals and mythical beasts are featured repeatedly, sometimes grotesque, sometimes fantastical: a bronze beast serves as both an incense burner and an oil lamp, with a basket on its head and a wick basket in its tail; the basin features the figure of a bird in its centre, which, when filled with water, appears to stand on the surface.
A lovely surprise among the sculptures is a reclining bronze deer with a pair of real antlers attached to its head.
Meanwhile, countless snakes coil about, but most impressively, the entwining of 16 dragons that form the base of the drum stand, one of many items unearthed in the tomb of Yi Marquis of Zeng, dating to around 433 BCE.
Suggesting a more realistic level of violence is a display of more than 4,500 arrowheads found in Yi Hou’s tomb, each with three blades and a caption that reads, “Anyone hit by this arrowhead would have bled profusely.”
The exhibition’s subtitle, “The Last Glories of China’s Bronze Age,” is further explained by the “extinction” of the multi-state Zhou dynasty in 221 BC by China’s first emperor and conqueror, Qin Shi Huang, who ordered the creation of the Terracotta Army.
Jay Xu, director of the Asian Art Museum, said the exhibit builds on the museum’s decades-long project exploring early Chinese culture and civilization, and that it “can upend the idea of a monolithic early China and update it with a story of many different cultures coming together over thousands of years.”
“The Phoenix Kingdom”—The Lost Glory of China’s Bronze Age
Through: July 22
where: Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin St., San Francisco
time: 10am-5pm. Friday-Monday, Thursday 1am-8pm
Admission fee: $24-30, 415-581-3500, www.asianart.org
