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

we find beaded spiral ribbons. The legs of the horse of Plate XIX no. 11 are
drawn together in the typical Steppe fashion of the period after the Scythian
epoch. On the fore-leg is a spiral, while supplementary lines follow the outline.

A simplification frequent in China as well as in the circle of the Steppes is
the rendering of but one part of the animal, usually the head. We find an example
of Plate XX no. 1 where a fox-head ends the bar. The stylised drawing carries
with it some indistinct reminder of nature, and at the same time an ancient Chinese
decoration. A date between the III and IV centuries coincides with these facts.
Once more the button is missing that should protrude from the back, although
it is still possible to fasten the wider end by means of the loop hanging under
the head.

A combining of very different elements is distinctly brought out on the piece
ending in double fox-heads (Plate XX no. 2). The loop of the former clasp is
here replaced by a bar that hangs from the two muzzles, and which serves for
the same purpose. But at the same time the button is in its usual place at the back.
This example so clearly shows a Chinese influence that it may be of the Han
period. These Chinese features are demonstrated especially by the heart-shaped
ears, the beaded lines on the convex surface, and by the hollows of the ringed
eyes. If we compare Plate XX no. 1 with this last example, the former piece
must be considered a later production and its stylistic successor, the ornamen-
tation smoother and better combined, while the ridges that surround the eyes
are nearer the Minussinsk perforations than the modeled rings of China.

The human figure is also depicted on clasps. In our region we find it nude
or dressed in a short jacket and small cap (Plate XX nos. 3 & 4), but always with
only sketched details as far as outline and articulation are concerned, that is to
say, it is a purely barbaric interpretation. What still remains Chinese is the
organic way in which the bar and the hook are combined with the man.
The figure seems to be carrying a heavy bar. So rudimentary a rendering does
not seem possible before the end of the I millennium. We know of a variation
of this type where the barbarian is on horseback and is connected in the same
way with the bar (88).

A group of men is plainly derived from a T'ang model (Pl. XX no. 5). The
wide end is formed of an orchestra of three people. Its horizontal arrangement
once more very clearly shows the direction in which the object was meant to
be placed. The careless casting and the condition of the surface, questions
of which we spoke in Chapter V, lead me to believe that this must be a Chinese
frontier production. Were there not similar groups in sculpture this design
could not be explained. The man in profile on the right is playing a flute
as we have seen in the caves of northern China (89). What the man in the centre
is doing is not clear. T'ang mirrors have made us familiar with the stringed
instrument that forms the foreground of the orchestra and which is played by