National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

Sec. ii]   CHINESE DESIGNS IN DECORATION OF TEXTILES   905

duceci in Plates CVI—CVIII, Cx, CXI will fully illustrate this.' Among them the cover Ch. xxii. 0019 (Plate CVI) with its bold design of trailing' stems and multicoloured flowers, enlivened by flying birds, is certainly the finest as well as the best preserved. Of special excellence in harmonious composition and delicately executed design is the banner head-piece Ch. xxvi. 002 (Plate CXI), similarly well preserved.

We also find floral designs of considerable freedom and grace in their details among the printed fabrics of purely Chinese style, as a reference to certain pieces reproduced in Plates CVIII, CXIII, CXXII, CXXIII will show.8 In the design of the patchwork border Ch. lv. 0028, reconstructed in Plate Cxxli, the very naturalistic treatment of the graceful floral stems and the parrots clinging to them deserves special notice. The printed silk of the banner Ch. i. 0022 (Plate CXIII) in its round ` repeating spots ' shows us an animal motif very characteristic of the Chinese type of design, in the shape of two birds, in this case cranes, whirling in a circle.° Patterns of a distinctly geometric type, composed of small 'rosettes forming a diaper, are seen in Ch. 00305, 00306, 00309 (Plate CXIII). With-the printed silks may be classed also a small number of pieces from banners, decorated with stencilled designs of distinctly Chinese character.10 Plate CxIIi reproduces the most interesting of these designs. It shows two ducks facing within a lozenge of rich and naturalistically treated floral tracery, and in style and treatment is distinctly reminiscent of a fine painted design in the Shôsoin Collection.11

Among designs produced on the loom the first place may well be allotted to those found in the few but remarkable specimens of tapestry work. Here too the style is purely Chinese, and the motifs mainly floral in character. But their treatment is distinctly stiffer and more conventionalized than in the former groups. Very striking is the design of the tapestry borders of the triangular head-pieces of banners Ch. 0058 ; Iv. 0034 (Plate CVI), showing in minute execution a duck within a lotus pond, surrounded by floral ornament. Scrolls and formal palmettes seem to make up the pattern of the tapestry strips of Ch. 00166 and of the manuscript-roll cover xlviii. ooi, reproduced in the same plate. This shows also the rich harmonious colouring and exceedingly fine texture which characterize these and the other few tapestry pieces. Among them Ch. 00300 (Plate CXII) and 00301 exhibit a fine floral and scroll design.

A large and interesting group of designs is presented by the polychrome figured silks, comprising also a few fabrics which by their technique may be considered as true brocades.12 There both naturalistically treated floral patterns and geometric ones in varying degrees of conventionalism are plentiful. Of the former Plate CVI reproduces several interesting specimens in colour. Most characteristically Chinese are, perhaps, the round ' spots' of Ch. 00228, formed by three birds whirling in a circle ; to them the round pairs of lions chasing each other, in Ch. 00179 (Plate CXI, CXV), present a more conventionalized counterpart. In Ch. co165. b (Plate CVI) we have a very

Chinese designs in printed or stencilled fabrics.

Chinese style in tapestry work.

Polychrome figured silks of Chinese floral design.

Chinese origin, as they find numerous parallels in the ornament of Han and pre-Han stone-reliefs, bronzes, and jades (see, e.g., the Chin shih so, p. 237 (hill-censer), p. 224 (vase); and many other instances in the Po ku tu, Kao ku tu, and Kul ii tu), and one at least of the lozenge patterns plainly recalls the key-pattern diaper which is particularly characteristic of that period (Ch. 00430. b, 00500).'

See Ch. xxii. 0019 and xxvi. 003 in PI. CVI; lv. 0028. ro, Pl. CVII-CVIII; Ch. 00259, 279, 347, 348, Pl. ex; Ch. xxvi. 002, Pl. CXI. For other embroidery remains, cf. Ch. 0075, 219, 28o, 281, 332, 446, 448-5o. a.

s See Ch. lv. 0028. 15, and border in Pl. CVIII, CXXII; Ch. 00307, 308, 320 ; i. 0022 ; XXiV. 009, Pl. CxIII;

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Ch. 00358, 36o, Pl. CXXIII. For other printed silks, cf. Ch. 00279.4, 372, 372, 376. a, 00483 ; xxii. 0036; lxi. 005.

9 It is interesting to note that this printed silk bears an inscription written in Cursive Brâhmi script and, as Dr. Hoernle's transcript shows, in Khotanese language. The manner in which the date is recorded might suggest that the banner was offered by some votary from Khotan. But there is nothing to prove that the banner was brought from there.

10 See Ch. 0024, 89, 303 (Pl. CXIII), 439.

" See Fenollosa, Epochs of Chinese and Japanese Arl, i, plate opposite p. rro.

" Cf. Ch. 0065, 170 (Pl. LV), 228-9 (Pl. CVI), 364, 482 Iv. 0028.3.

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