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

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 1000 best agrees with these facts.


NOTES OF CHAPTER X

(1) Salmony, 8).
(2) Pottier, pl. XVI.
(3) Chosen Koseki Zufu, vol. IX, fig. 1266.
(4) Salmony, 8).
(5) Siren, vol. I, p. 68 seq.
(6) Salmony, 1), pl. 35 seq.
(7) Kümmel, pl. 26 seq.