Chinese Objects

Dish with Varied Scrolling Flowers

• Cobalt was imported from Persia (modern Iran) to China along the Silk Route and used to make ceramics. Learn more about this network of trade routes used from around 200 BCE through the 1400s CE and the variety of objects that traveled across Asia. See http://www.silkroadproject.org and The Silk Route by John S. Major (for children).
  
  

Lacquer Tray

• Find out more about mythological and actual animals in Chinese folklore, many of which are associated with magical abilities. The heavenly dragon, for example, is mythological and endowed with special powers to bring rain, while the earthly tiger is believed to command the wind.
  
• Compare this tray with the lacquer wares found in the other DIA Asian galleries and in other museums.
  
  

Head of a Lion

• Compare this style of lion with the celadon pillow lions from late twelfth century Korea (no. 80.39). Discuss the symbolism of mounts for gods, contrasting the lion with the Cambodian Garuda as a mount for Vishnu (no. 43.419).
  
• For an image of the Lion of Cangzhou, see
  http://www.staff.hum.ku.dk/dbwagner/cangzhou/
  cangzhou-fg.html

Lobed Bowl Stand

• The stoneware Jian bowl (no. 62.18) is an example of the type of tea ware that would have fit inside this lacquer stand. For another example of lacquer suitable for tea service, see the two-bird tray (no. 80.25).
  
• Discuss how tea artifacts changed according to fashionable tea customs. Wide Jian bowls were necessary for whipping tea; explore what happened to tea ceramics when steeped tea was introduced in the fourteenth century. Look at tea sets in Chinese groceries and tea stores today. Note that tea practice in Asia, unlike the enjoyment of tea in the West, is a high art requiring training and skill. See
  China: http://urbandesires.com/1.4/Food/Docs/tea2.html
  http://filmakers.com/indivs/RobertFortune.htm
  http://www.enhancetv.com.au/study_it/robfort.pdf
  Japan: http://www.asia-art.net/japanese_tea.html
  Korea: http://www.easterntea.com/tea/panyaro.htm

Money Tree

• Taoism is rooted in symbols. Learn about some of the symbols for long life and find these images elsewhere in the Asian galleries at the DIA (or in other museums, Chinese restaurants, grocery stores, and Chinatown shops). Also see the films "Tao: The Harmony of the Universe" and "Ch'i: The Arts of China," both from the series Asian Man: China, Encyclopedia Britannica Education Corporation, 1977.
  
• Modern good luck charms in the shape of ancient Chinese coins express wishes for luck, prosperity, and wealth. The shapes have remained the same as those used on the money tree, with a round shape representing heaven and a square hole in the center representing earth. Students can become familiar with Chinese coins at the following Web sites:
  http://www.calgarycoin.com/cast1.htm
  http://coas.missouri.edu/anthromuseum/minigalleries/
  chinesecoins/intro.html
  
• Modern reproductions of ancient Chinese coins are available at http://store.yahoo.com/asianideas/chinesecoin.html
  
• Other sources about ancient Chinese coins are Coins in China's History by Arthur Braddan Coole and Money and Credit in China, a Short History, by Lien-sheng Yang.
  
  

Korea

• Find a flag of Korea. Explore how the ideals symbolized in the flag reflect the cultural traditions of the country as seen in Korean objects from the DIA. The philosophy behind the yin/yang symbol in the center of the flag, for example, is echoed in the lucky symbols found on the ox horn box (no. 1986.3); the symbols in the four corners of the flag representing harmony and balance are seen in the balanced proportion of painting to calligraphy in the plum blossom fan (no. 2000.89); the ideals of order and symmetry making up the design of the flag find their counterpart in the symmetrical form of the twin lions on the celadon pillow (no. 80.39). For an explanation of the flag, see http://www.pbs.org/hiddenkorea/religion.htm.
  
  

Korean Objects

Plum Blossom Fan

• Korea traditionally adopted the writing system of China, and the literati wrote using Chinese script.** Try to recreate the artist's act of writing by tracing how long the artist used one dip of ink before the brushstroke went dry; check the speed or slowness with which the brush was set down and lifted up; when the artist flicked the wrist or used one smooth motion. Team up and have one of the partners paint an image, the other a poem.

* All Web sites accurate as of February 2004.

**Today, Koreans use Hangul, a phonetic script developed by King Sejong's court, dating to the 1400s, for most written communication. Chinese characters are sometimes still used for the writing of names and certain scholarly texts.