国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

already in other circumstances, that China seems to have been influenced not
from relatively near Siberia, but rather from the extreme west. Once more we
must bear in mind the possibility of trade between the extreme points of the
circle of the Steppes, which permitted Scythian articles to reach the Far East.

We have only one specimen here of a clasp bearing a purely Chinese decor-
ation. We shall therefore not have to deal here with geometric designs often
formed by inlay, nor with fantastic Chinese animals (dragon, hydra), even
when they are connected with the clasps in the same way as are the stags from
Alexandropol. In fact we find the wider end shaped like a horse or tiger with
the bar issuing from the chest in examples from the famous excavations in
northern Korea that can be dated with certainty as being of the first half of the
Han period (80). At that time the inhabitants of this region were Tungus,
whose productions were naturally more similar to those of the Steppes than to
those of China. The rough way in which the bar and animal-body are con-
nected would certainly be awkward work for Chinese artists. It is characteristic
of the latter that they had already tried, probably in the Han dynasty, to overcome
this harshness in the composition. On Plate XVIII no. 4 the legs of a bear have
been arranged around the bar, and the hydra-head is so far away that it has
become an independant motive and is not inconsistent with the wider part. Han
art has often invented such balanced solutions. At the same time, however,
Scythian combinations are not lacking, and therefore many of the animals
represented by the Chinese, as well as those designed by Steppe people, seem to
be joined to the bar without any organic connection.

The tiger of Plate XVIII no. 5 is one of the earliest examples, that is, it is of
the Han period. The thick-set body formed by curved lines corresponds very
well with Han tendencies, while at the same time we find older motives in the
claws, the heart-shaped ear, and in the scale-like ribbon ornamentation of the
body. A clasp, often reproduced (81), follows the transition to a rather natural-
istic reproduction of the animal and with non-Chinese elements such as an emphasis
on the shoulders and a regular drawing that has the appearance of being incised.
This technique comes from the ingraved bones of the Altai (82) and is also a
characteristic feature of the Steppes. The fact that we find bevelling in the
Chinese technique of bronze casting, that is to say a usual technique for other
materials, has been explained by Glück as a northern influence (83).

The tiger in the round (Pl. XVIII no. 6) is not an ordinary form of belt-
clasp. It could never have been used for practical purposes since even on the
predominant side there seems to be no means of joining it with the part
to be hooked. It has however its place here, because of the non-Chinese method
of connecting the two parts of the object. The hook is at the same time the
tiger's tail. A bird-head is at the end of the hook which, however, does not
necessarily lead us to state definitely that like the Steppe motive it forms the