From the Warring States period to the end of the Han Dynasty for 700 years, three types of images representing nature appeared in Chinese art, namely the realm of sacred mountains, the immortal mountains of the world, and the mountains, forests and fields developed by humans. The realm of Mount Kinabalu is full of fantastical monsters and real animals, attracting adventurous aristocrats to explore in bizarre four-wheeled carriages. The "idol-style" fairy mountains then came out of the plural sacred mountains, the most famous of which were Penglai in the east and Kunlun in the west. As sacred places that hide the secrets of immortality, they are the abode of immortals and become the objects of mortal yearning.
Although the concept of "immortal" has appeared in the Warring States period, the main popular way to become an immortal at that time was to maintain health, open the valley, guide, practice qi and other physical cultivation, "Zhuangzi" described the realm of becoming an immortal as "not eating grains, inhaling wind and drinking dew, riding the clouds, flying dragons, and swimming beyond the four seas". Sayings about "Immortal Mountain" or "Immortal Island" have emerged, but they are mainly popular along the coast of Yan and Qi, where alchemists began to preach that mortals could live forever if they could reach the three islands of Penglai in the Bohai Sea. This statement indicates a new way to become immortals: those who aspire to immortality do not need to go through arduous valley cultivation or cultivation, as long as they find and set foot on such mysterious immortal islands or immortal mountains, they can become immortals immediately.
As you can imagine, this path is particularly attractive to kings who are powerful and wealthy, but lack the will and patience to cultivate. According to Han records, King Qi Wei, King Xuan of Qi and King Yan Zhao in the middle of the Warring States period to Qin Shi Huang, who was rich in the world, were all moved by this theory and sent people to search for Penglai's location. The concept of "entering the mountains and becoming immortals" not only continued to attract such eloquent monarchs as Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, but also penetrated into the psychology of ordinary people and spread widely in society. For nearly 400 years, it became a major driving force for people to imagine and represent the natural world.
A facsimile of the early Western Han Dynasty "Guide Map" unearthed from the No. 3 Han Tomb in Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan, early 2nd century BC
The Visual Language of Xianshan (excerpt)
According to Sima Qian's (145 BC – early 1st century BC) recount, some monarchs during the Warring States period had already begun to go to the sacred mountain to seek immortals, and the earliest destination was the three islands of Penglai in the Oriental Sea. The following is recorded in the "Historical Records and Feng Zen Book":
Ziwei, Xuan, and Yanzhao made people enter the sea to seek Penglai, Abbot, and Yingzhou. The three gods of the mountain, their Fu in the Bohai Sea, not far away, and when the trouble comes, the wind will lead away. Cover the taste, all the immortals and the medicine of immortality are there. Its objects and beasts are white, and the gold and silver are palaces. Before it arrived, it was like a cloud. And when it arrived, Sanshen Mountain was underwater. When it comes, the wind leads away, and it will not reach the clouds in the end.
Although it is still called the Sacred Mountain, this sea wonderland where "all the immortals and the medicine of immortality are there" is undoubtedly a genus of immortal mountains. The reigns of King Qi Wei, King Qi Xuan, and King Yan Zhao were from the mid-4th century BC to the early 3rd century BC, but the Feng Chan Shu, written between the late 2nd century BC and the early 1st century BC, directly reflects the Western Han people's concept of immortal mountains. According to this concept, the immortal mountain is located on the earth and within the reach of humans, but the immortals who live on it and the elixir of immortality in their possession, as well as the extraordinary materials and colors of the palaces, utensils, and beasts, make this place different from other places in the human world. Another characteristic of Xianshan is that the road to it is full of difficulties and obstacles: any ship approaching Penglai will be led elsewhere by a sudden hurricane, so although it is "not far away", very few people can reach it. For art historians, Sima Qian's passage defines the three mountains of Penglai as "imaginary visual objects", and points out three visual factors that mark his identity as an immortal mountain: first, special subjects, mainly immortals and the elixir of immortality in their possession, second, special materials and colors, including palaces made of gold and silver, and pure white beasts and objects, and third, illusory and uncertain forms, which look like clouds from a distance, and turn into reflections in water when viewed up close.
Reviewing the archaeological and artistic evidence, we find that since the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty where Sima Qian lived, these three visual factors have been frequently combined in art, and they have begun to form a set of visual vocabulary to express Xianshan. The most famous of these evidences is a collection of ingenious Boshan furnaces, some of which are clearly from the Wudi period. In 1981, a fine piece of Boshan furnace in the period of Emperor Wu was found in the burial pit on the east side of the Maoling Tomb in Xingping, Shaanxi, and the inscription on the outside of the furnace lid and the ring foot called it "golden coated bamboo slub smoker". Combined with the bronze ware with the inscription of "Yang Xinjia" unearthed at the same time, scholars propose that this smoker was originally an artifact in the Weiyang Palace of the Western Han Dynasty, and that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty rewarded it to his sister Princess Yang Nobunaga in the fifth year of the founding of the Yuan Dynasty (136 BC), and finally buried it as a burial object next to her tomb near Maoling. This 58-centimetre-tall extra-high smoker is made of a furnace body, a long handle and a base that are split and riveted and finished in gilt and silver. From the bottom to the top, the nine dragons form a continuous upward momentum: first, the two openwork dragons on the base, holding the lower end of the bamboo-shaped long handle with their heads high, the three dragons at the upper end of the handle then hold up the furnace body, and finally the four embossed golden dragons on the upper part of the furnace body rise from the waves and wrap around the fairy mountain on the top of the furnace.
The gilded bamboo smoker unearthed from the burial pit on the east side of the Maoling Tomb in Xingping, Shaanxi, in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty
The "Xijing Miscellaneous Records", which records the strange events of the capital of the Western Han Dynasty, says that Ding Chen, a famous craftsman in Chang'an, designed a nine-story Boshan incense burner, on which "strange birds and monsters are carved, and all the spirits are in natural motion." These few sentences very aptly describe the shape of the wrong gold and silver Boshan furnace unearthed from the tomb of Liu Sheng, King Jing of Zhongshan in Mancheng, Hebei Province, and the visual impression it brings to the viewer. This 26-centimeter-tall piece is made up of three parts: the base, the body and the lid. From the bottom to the top, the furnace seat is composed of three intertwined hollow carved dragons, which rise from the rolling water and hold the furnace body with its head. The bowl-shaped furnace body is inlaid with gold and silver to express the waves of the sea, and the peaks of the mountains rise from the swirling waves. Similar strange peaks are piled up in layers to form a towering fairy mountain on the lid of the furnace.
The tomb of Liu Sheng, the king of Zhongshan in Mancheng, Hebei (No. 1 tomb in Mancheng) unearthed the wrong gold and silver Boshan furnace, in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty
Line Diagram
Mythical beasts haunt the mountains, tigers and leopards run, hunters and pedestrians roam the mountains, and light monkeys either crouch on the high peaks or ride on the backs of beasts to play. One of the details depicts the harmonious coexistence of man and tiger and leopard, reminiscent of the scene of Xianshan depicted on the bronze mirror of Liu Gong's tomb.
Portrait of the coexistence of man and beast
Liu Shengbo's mountain furnace was made in the era when Sima Qian lived. Comparing it with Tai Shi Gong's immortal mountain, the two can be said to be completely consistent in three aspects: one is made of gold and silver and has a special color, the second is the illusory and unpredictable form, and the third is the people, birds and beasts on the immortal mountain. Its illusory mutation, the visual sensation of "natural movement", is further enhanced by the smoke emitted by the smoker. Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty once wrote in a poem entitled "Yang Rebellion": "The incense fire in the Boshan furnace is full of smoke. Indeed, when the smoke rises from the hidden holes in the incense burner, swirling between the peaks and half-enveloping the figures and beasts of the mountains, the whole artifact presents a dynamic landscape that combines sacred mountains, seas, fetishes, and clouds.
A Boshan stove that lights incense
Another Boshan furnace that is artistically comparable to this artifact comes from the tomb of Princess Liu Sheng, Dou Juan. Although the material is not as ornate as the previous one, the base of this bronze smoker was designed with the ingenuity of sculpture as a semi-naked giant riding on the back of a mythical beast, holding up the mountain furnace with one hand. The bowl-shaped furnace body at the lower part of the furnace body was originally gilded with moire, but unfortunately it has been blurred. The openwork lid is made up of two layers, the lower layer is surrounded by real and imaginary animals such as dragons, tigers, red birds, camels, etc., and the upper layer is an overlapping mountain surrounded by flowing clouds, and the mountains are dotted with human and animal figures. Another special feature of this furnace is the 2 cm deep copper disc in the lower part. In his "Archaeological Map", the Northern Song Dynasty scholar Lu Dalin said that the incense burner of the Han Dynasty "stored the soup on the lower plate to moisten the gas and steam the incense, like the four rings of the sea", explaining the actual function and symbolic meaning of the chassis of the Boshan furnace. But there is a deeper meaning to the design of the Dou Juan smoker: when the chassis is filled with water, the sacred beasts and giants that hold the furnace body seem to emerge from the water, reminding people of the legend of the fairy mountain haunted the sea as recorded in the "Historical Records".
Hebei Mancheng Zhongshan King Liu Sheng Princess Dou Juan Tomb (Mancheng No. 2 Tomb) unearthed copper Boshan furnace, the middle of the Western Han Dynasty
The placement of Liu Shengbo's mountain furnace in the No. 1 tomb of Mancheng once again shows the relationship between the image of Xianshan and private desires. As an important representative of the early "horizontal cave tomb", this tomb consists of a series of burial chambers that extend horizontally, simulating the structure of a human palace. At the end of the tomb there is a long-eared chamber on each side, which simulates the treasury and stables of the court. The main chamber later provides a large ceremonial space, in which a row of food and drinking vessels is displayed in front of two tents, simulating a feast or sacrifice. The coffin room behind the stone gate is the private space of the tomb owner, whose body is sealed and wrapped by layers of jade pieces, and finally transformed into an immortal "jade man".
Restoration of the architectural structure of the tomb of Liu Sheng, King of Zhongshan (Mancheng No. 1 tomb).
A jade figure placed between the heavy coffins depicts a man sitting upright with his hands on a table, and the three characters "ancient jade man" engraved on the bottom indicate that this is an immortal. The gold and silver incense burners were placed in a hut connected to the coffin, which belonged to the private chamber of the deceased. Like the bronze mirror with the portrait of fairyland next to Liu Zhi, the "close" position of Liu Shengbo's mountain furnace once again reflects the tomb owner's wish to become an immortal.
The tomb of Liu Sheng, the king of Zhongshan (Mancheng No. 1 tomb) coffin unearthed jade carving immortal statue, in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty
From these and other unearthed objects, it can be seen that the Boshan furnace with unique design and exquisite craftsmanship was mainly prevalent in the middle and late Western Han Dynasty. Specimens from the late Western Han Dynasty include as many as 11 pieces of Boshan furnace in the tomb of Liu He, Marquis of Haiding, with single-layer and multi-layered furnace lids, and the furnace body surrounded by clouds is decorated with images of figures, dragons and phoenixes, plants and trees. Art historian Liu Yang noticed that there were two people at the foot of one of the mountains, who were trekking along the slopes of the mountain, and thought that they were people who had entered the mountains to seek immortals.
One of the Boshan furnaces buried in the tomb of Liu He, Marquis of Haiding, in the late Western Han Dynasty, Jiangxi Provincial Museum
These examples show that the imperial relatives of the late Western Han Dynasty still widely used this utensil, and its decorative images also had new changes, but the overall design and production of the utensils were lower than those of the Wudi period. In the late Western Han Dynasty, the pottery Boshan furnace specially produced for burial gradually increased, imitating the copper Boshan furnace but the cover was not perforated, and it only had the symbolic meaning of "Ming vessel" in the tomb. The popularity of the Taobo Mountain Furnace shows that the fantasy of ascending to immortality after death has further penetrated into all levels of society, indicating that the Boshan Furnace is no longer the exclusive product of the high-level social elite at this time, and its function as a practical smoker is no longer important, and the key thing is that their immortal mountain image implies people's hope for happiness in the afterlife.
Pottery Ming ware Boshan furnace, late Western Han Dynasty
Some scholars have focused on the word "Boshan furnace" when explaining the meaning of such objects. This section does not focus on this, nor does it obsess itself with answering the question "What mountains do they depict?" One reason is that the name "Boshan furnace" appeared after the Western Han Dynasty, and the examples unearthed in Maoling were named "smokers" in the inscriptions, and the words "Boshan furnace" never appeared on a large number of other Han Dynasty objects. Judging from the design of these objects, they do not follow strict iconographic rules, and the details of each piece are different. Rather than representing a specific mountain, they bear witness to the designer's rich imagination of the immortal mountain. The literature of the Han Dynasty tended to use the names Kunlun and Penglai as the code names of Xianshan, such as the "Song of the Suburbs" sung in the court of Emperor Wu, which not only said that the emperor hoped to "ascend Penglai and marry Wuji" ("Xiang Zaiyu"), but also fantasized about "Zhu Yu and die in Kunlun" ("Tianma"), and Cao Cao said in "Qi Out of Song" that he hoped to climb Mount Tai to see the fairy and the jade girl, and fantasized that Penglai learned the Tao from red pine nuts. For this kind of mountain-shaped incense burner called "Boshan furnace", the authors of later generations have also continuously associated them with a variety of immortal mountains, such as Li You of the Eastern Han Dynasty said that it "looks like Penglai", and the ancient poem "Four Sits and Mo Hustle" and says that it is "Cui Wei is like Nanshan". Therefore, we do not need to cling to the name "Boshan Furnace" to seek the meaning of these objects, and it is more reasonable to regard their various designs as visual representations of the imaginary object of Xianshan.
Wen Boren, Penglai Square Pot, Ming Dynasty, Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei
Although the designs of these smokers are different, they all emphasize the combination of mountains and clouds, and the two are sometimes difficult to distinguish from each other. This expression is related to an important feature of Western Han art, that is, clouds became an almost ubiquitous theme in visual art. The "qi" in the pre-Qin writings mainly refers to the vitality of the universe and the human body, and the Han Dynasty popularized and concretized this concept, and "qi" became a tangible visual phenomenon, and "wangqi" also became a specialized profession. The breath-seeker is able to determine the special meaning of the clouds based on their changing shape and color. Qi can be in the shape of a pavilion, a flag, a boat or a beast, and a kind of qi called "Qingyun" or "Qingyun" is described as "smoke is not smoke" and "gloomy", which is an excellent description of some cloud patterns in Han Dynasty art. It is also believed that if you want to find something, you must first find its qi, so finding the qi of the fairy mountain has become a prerequisite for visiting the fairy mountain. The "Historical Records" records that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty followed the precedent of previous kings and sent Fang Shi to the sea to seek Penglai Xiandao. Fang Shi came back and reported that although Penglai was not far away, they were unable to land on Xiandao because they did not find Penglai's qi. For this reason, Emperor Wu specially set up the official position of "Wangqi Zuo", waiting day after day to look at the seaside, waiting for the appearance of Penglai immortal energy.
The cloud pattern on the black coffin unearthed from the No. 1 tomb of Mawangdui in Changsha, Hunan, early Western Han Dynasty
Once this concept became the main theme of artistic expression, it led to the combination of immortal mountains and clouds. In the artifacts and tomb murals of the Western Han Dynasty, clouds fill the mysterious space, surrounded by magical animals.
Clouds and animals on Western Han artifacts
The clouds may emerge between the lofty mountains or turn into rolling hills in circulation. Sometimes the sacred mountain or fairy mountain even completely turns into clouds, and the concept of "mountain" is indicated only by running animals. Although some mountains maintain a coherent mountain shape, the flaming peaks internalize the uncertainty of the clouds. The last example of this form is a tubular ornament excavated from the tomb of the Zhongshan King in the Liupan Mountains of Hebei Province, which depicts 128 figures and animals in a mosaic fashion, unfurled in front of a winding mountain backdrop. Although the surface of the trim is divided into four parallel frames, the mountains spiral upwards and pass through the geometric borders of the frames. It is a mountain in motion: the undulating ridges and the jumping peaks create a strong sense of movement, and the trees, flowers, clouds, and animals in the middle are also depicted in flowing lines, which in turn reinforces the dynamic of the mountains spiraling and rising. I have pointed out that this kind of car decoration is related to the "Yunqi Che" created by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, which was inspired by Fang Shi Wencheng's persuasion: one of the conditions for the visit of the gods is to depict the images of the gods on the palace chambers and utensils ("the palace chamber is not dressed like a god, and the gods are not there"). This also explains why only the most luxurious royal ornaments have this combination of mountains, clouds, and auspicious beasts – in addition to the three pan mountain ornaments, there are two pieces found in the No. 2 tomb of Loess Mountain in Yongcheng, Henan, and similar collections at the Miho Museum in Shiga Prefecture and the Tokyo University of the Arts Art Museum in Japan.
Hebei Sanpan Mountain Zhongshan King tomb unearthed car ornament image copy
At the conceptual level, these examples reveal that the Han Dynasty people once again faced a fundamental paradox when creating the image of Xianshan. In the previous chapter, we discussed the images of Sengoku Kinabalu and argued that since Kinabalu is a fantasy being, the representation of them cannot be modeled after real mountains and rivers. This situation reappeared in the art of the Han Dynasty, challenging the artist to imagine that although the immortal mountains were within the geographical confines of the world, they had to be distinct from the real mountains in order to bring them eternal happiness. Therefore, as in the previous representations of the sacred mountain, logically speaking, the shaping of the image of the fairy mountain cannot adopt realistic logic, otherwise these images will not have the charming charm of fairyland. But if we leave the realistic model and realistic logic, where does the artist find the visual vocabulary to shape the fairy mountain?
Flowing moire on Warring States bronzes
As mentioned many times above, one of the basic sources of the images of the Immortal Mountains of the Western Han Dynasty is the images of the Sacred Mountains of the Warring States Period, although the two concepts are different, they contain many common factors, indicating their inheritance. On the basis of this historical continuity, the Han Dynasty Xianshan images in turn obtained a vocabulary of structure and images from other sources. One of these sources is decorative art images from the Warring States period to the early Han Dynasty, which are characterized by their fluidity and flux. Just as the concept of "qi" evolved from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty to the Han Dynasty, the dynamic spiral patterns of the Warring States period were given specific literary meanings in the Western Han Dynasty. In the eyes of the Han people, the intricate linear patterns are like an imaginary labyrinth, in which infinite images such as mountains, clouds, plants, people and beasts, and elves flow. The tendency of "qi" to materialize and materialize has thus contributed to this transformation.
*The article is excerpted from "On the Occasion of Heaven and Man: Landscapes from the Perspective of Archaeological Art" (Wu Hung, Joint Publishing Co., Ltd., 2024-3)