Unearthing China’s Golden Age:
A New Exhibition at the Asian
Civilisations Museum
By Patricia Bjaaland Welch
Was the Tang Dynasty the ‘Golden Age’ of China? Were
its women among the most sophisticated of the medieval
world? Its glazes and porcelains the most refined? Its
conviction that the deceased needed to be outfitted with
life’s necessities the most misguided or logical expression of
a belief in an afterlife? Come decide for yourself at the Asian
Civilisation Museum’s newest special exhibition, Secrets of the
Fallen Pagoda: Treasures from Famen Temple and the Tang Courts,
which will run through 4 May 2014.
After four hundred years of relative unity, in 210 CE
China crumbled apart into a tumultuous period known
under a series of names that reveal the era’s chaos (the
Three Kingdoms Period, the Six Dynasties, the period of the
Northern and Southern Dynasties). Three centuries later
China was reunited under Yang Jian (later to be known as
Wendi, the founder of the short-lived Sui Dynasty) and
finally stabilised by a powerful Sui general (whose title was
the Duke of Tang) who usurped the throne, taking the title
Emperor Gaozu (r. 618-626). He predictably named his new
dynasty the ‘Tang’. It lasted until 906.
The new coinage issued by Gaozu bearing the words kai
yuan (beginning of a new era) is symbolic of the changes
China saw during the Tang. The Silk Road flourished,
Buddhism prospered and the arts, inspired by new cultural
exchanges and foreign influences – and nourished by a
restored age of peace and prosperity – blossomed. It was
an age, described by scholar Ann Paludan, of “conspicuous
consumption”.
Tang cosmopolitanism can be seen everywhere – in the
inclusion of exotic earthenware camels amongst Tang grave
goods to the sumptuous glass bottle and dish that emerged
from the crypt of the Famen Temple (Famensi).
The exhibition’s teaser title, Secrets of the Fallen Pagoda,
refers to the sealed
crypt of a Buddhist
temple in Shaanxi
Province that was
discovered and
opened when
the temple was
renovated in 1987.
The temple had been
one of the region’s
most revered as it
held a holy relic
of the historical
Buddha (sarira), a
finger bone of the
Buddha, alleged to
have been the gift
of none other than
King Ashok in the
third century BCE.
The sarira as well
Celadon bottle, probably 870s, height 21.5 cm
as the temple’s
location, a day’s
journey west of
the ancient Tang capital of Changan (modern-day Xi’an)
along the ancient overland Silk Road, guaranteed it royal
patronage. The crypt, holding the holy relic together with a
large array of royal gifts and religious ritualware, was sealed
in 874. When opened in 1987, the entire inventory, listed on
a stone stele recording the ‘Inventory of Ritual Implements,
Gold, Silver, and Precious Objects Offered to the True Body’
was intact.
One secret it unveiled was 13 examples of the long-lost
‘secret glaze’ (mise)
used on the highest
quality Yue ceramic
wares (so-called after
the region in which
they were made, part
of Zhejiang province
known in pre-imperial
times as the Kingdom
of Yue) during the Tang.
Poets had written of its
beauty. Lu Guimeng (d.
881) in his poem Mise
Yueqi (Secret Colour Yue
Ware) described these
exquisite porcelains
as “fired in misty and
windy autumn” with
the colour likened
to “green from trees
despoiled from a
thousand peaks”. Its
Tea grinder, dated 869, partly gilded silver, length 27.4 cm, roller: diameter 89 cm
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PASSAGE March / April 2014
colour has also been described
as the colour of the sky after
rain. These pieces, perhaps best
represented by the octagonal mise
water bottle in the exhibition, are
cited in the collection’s original
catalogue as “the most important
[find] in Chinese porcelain
excavation”.
Ceramics was always an
important part of the tea
connoisseurship that developed
during the Tang Dynasty (and
eventually spread to Japan), and
the gilded silver tea grinder and
other tea-set implements that
emerged from the sealed crypt
were once the personal property
of the Emperor Xizong. Two tea
pieces on loan to us from the
Famensi collection have already
become visitors’ favourites – a
Turtle-shaped tea container, partly gilded silver, length 28.3 cm
gilded silver turtle-shaped tea
container and a gilded silver
lattice-work container that features
flying geese.
located conveniently
Esoteric Buddhism (‘esoteric’ because its secret teachings
just east of Shaanxi,
were passed down from master to disciple) was introduced
home of the ancient
to China during the Tang. It taught that enlightenment could
Tang capital. Sancai
be attained by cultivating the body, voice and mind through
was predominantly
yoga, mudras, mantras and meditation practised during
used on low-fire
elaborate secret rituals. Artefacts found in the Famensi crypt,
earthenware goods
such as a gilded silver arghya ewer decorated with a double
destined to be tomb
vajra have led scholars to believe that esoteric Buddhism was
goods, although
practised at Famensi.
some pieces were
Two bodhisattvas who became very popular in esoteric
made for court
Buddhism are also represented in the exhibition – a stone
use. Chinese texts
statue of Hayagriva Vidyaraja (on loan from the Xi’an
record that during
Beilin Museum) and a stone statue of the Medicine Buddha,
the Kaiyuan era
Bhaisajyuguru (on loan from the Linyou Museum).
(713-742), gongxian
Hayagriva
ware was sent to
Vidyaraja,
the Tang capital as
Kaiyuan coin, gold, diameter 2.5 cm
identifiable by
tribute. Ceramics
the horse-head
marked with the
in his headdress,
Chinese character guan (官) meant that it was the product
belongs to the
of an official kiln as opposed to a private kiln and were thus
Avalokitesvara
known as ‘official kiln wares’ (guan yaoqi). Three such pieces
bodhisattva family
are now on display.
and represents
Many of the artefacts in the exhibition came to light as the
the fierce form of
result of China’s building boom, which has been discovering
compassion. The
old tombs as quickly as it excavates new road and building
holes in the lap of
foundations. It is a miracle that so much survived given
the seated Buddha
China’s tumultuous history, but this is possibly thanks to the
of Medicine on
tomb guardians – those figurines ranging from evil-averting
display would
beasts to warrior bodyguards that were carefully positioned
have held in place
at the entrances to the tombs to safeguard the dead and their
his customary
next-worldly possessions. How surprised these guards and
medicine bowl,
their earthenware companions – domestic servants, camel
perhaps made
drivers and other caravanners, civil officials, horses, a dog, an
of precious lapis
ox and even exotic foreigners – would be to awaken and find
lazuli, the gem and
themselves in a museum in Singapore.
Glass bottle, Syrian-Palestinian region, probably
colour (blue) he
7th or 8th century glass, height 21.3 cm
and his paradise
Patricia Bjaaland Welch has visited Famensi three times and
are identified with.
has led two FOM study tours to the site. She was also co-head of
Students of
the FOM research team for the exhibition. See page 34 for docent
Chinese ceramics will also find excellent examples of
tour timings.
Tang three-coloured wares (sancai) and the high-fire white
porcelain known as guan or guanxian ware. Both were
All photos courtesy of the Famen Temple Museum
produced at the Gongxian kiln sites in Henan Province,
PASSAGE March / April 2014
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