Auspicious Motifs in Ninth- to Thirteenth-Century Chinese Tombs

Auspicious Motifs in Ninth- to Thirteenth-Century Chinese Tombs

This abstract is taken from Ellen Johnston Laign's article: "Beginning in the ninth century, a new genre of images appeared in Chinese tomb murals: birds and flowers. These new motifs conveyed wishes for the prosperity of the family and quickly became standard, continuing to be used in Chinese tombs... This article has four goals. The first is to describe the evolution of bird-and-flower compositions in Chinese burials. The second is to document the geographical range of the depiction in tombs of these bird-and-flower motifs... The third goal is to define the auspicious meaning of the bird-and-flower motifs seen in tombs, and the fourth is to explain their function in a funerary context" (33). This article serves, though focused in China, to outline the history, purpose, and symbolism of bird-and-flower motifs that were adopted in Japan from earlier Chinese works. Please note: to access this article, visitors must have access to the online database, jstor.org. This database is accessible through most universities in the US.

this article is available at jstor.org:
jstor.org/stable/4434273

Ellen Johnston Laign

Ars Orientalis Vo. 33 (2003) p. 32 - 75

Freer Gallery of Art

2003

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English

article

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