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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

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only a slight patina, and rubbed where the relief is highest, is unparalleled in the ancient art of China. The same type of patina has been found elsewhere on bronzes which we have not dated before the second half of the I millennium or even later. If we give the same late date to this openwork disk we must conclude that not only Steppe elements were repeated at the northern Chinese frontier, but even Chinese elements, which there extend by many centuries their normal length of life. The same phenomenon, but on a smaller scale, has been noticed a number of times by Tallgren, but the great artistic " retardation " of our region, from the point of view of Chinese elements, has still to be revealed. We can find no explanation for this strange fact other than the ritual purpose of this art and its local isolation.

The same object is found in a simplified form that better resembles frontier art (Plate XLIII no. 2) and which corroborates the truth of our theory. It is not modeled plastically, but is entirely flat. The border is no longer ornamented with a braid. A hen is the dominating animal motive with two rows of little chickens, seven in the outer row, five in the inner. The drawing is limited to very simple lines. The date around i000 best agrees with these facts.

NOTES OF CHAPTER X

(I) Salmony, 8).

(z) Pottier, pl. XVI.

3. Chosen Koseki Zufu, vol. IX, fig. 1z66.

4. Salmony, 8).

5. Siren, vol. I, p. 68 seq.

6. Salmony, i), pl. 35 seq.

7. Kummel, pl. z6 seq.