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Fashion of the ethnic groups and minorities | Furniture Silk and Clothing Finery and Adornments Minority Fashion Silk painting and embroidery Folk Art Money, Coins, and Bills Seals 5 Treasures of the Study Weapons | |
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] | The four flounder-shaped objects were just ornaments for a horse' headgear the Spring and Autumn period 春秋. |
 | A warrior of bronze. His eagle beak shaped tinhat is a proof of the non-Chinese origin of this object the Warring States period 戰國. It is indeed a relict of the Saka culture of Xinjiang. |
 | This kind of tiger-shaped object called hufu 虎符 "tiger symbol" served the Warring States period on as a document of the owner' enfeoffment or official authority. In old times, bamboo was used for a documentation and then broken or cut in two pieces. One half stayed in the palace's archives, the other was handed to the new baron or general. |
 | the Warring States period on, the art to inlay gold and silver made a great improvement. This sleeping calf or cow has a bronze core and is decorated with silver ornaments. |
 | The coin shape we know today is the round one with the quadrangular hole in the middle. Buildings and art objects with this shape symbolize earth (quadranguar, the feet) and the heaven (round, the head). Even the word for "round", yuan 圓, is still today similar to the word for "coin" in Chinese (Yuan, abbreviated to 元), Japanese (Yen) and Korean (Wŏn). The two other kinds of coins during the Warring States period were a knife-shaped coin (dao 刀), a type shaped like a cowry shell (bei 貝) and a spade-shaped one (bu 布). See more on the money page. |
 | Being the stand for a screen or a candle, this fabulous animal is a mixture of a rhino and a tiger. It is inlaid with gold and silver. |
 | Inlaid with gold and silver and showing fighting animals, this backside of a bronze mirror is a wonderful work of the late Warring States period. |
 Only 104 cm tall, this bronze coach the Qin Dynasty 秦 is a perfection of early goldsmithry. The main part of the chariot, the horses and the driver are cast of bronze and painted with different colors and worked with many different technics like soldering, inlaying, embossing, chiseling and filing. | |
 | Inlaid with gold and with red stones, two leopards the Han Dynasty 漢. |
 | This belt buckle the Han dynasty is inlaid with turquois stones. The border has the shape of a herd of monkeys. |
 | A storing vessel, standing on a small round platform. This type of vessel called zun 樽 was only in use during Han times, and it is not shure if its only purpose was to contain wine. No dragons or Taotie ornament the surface of the golden box. |
 | Designing human faces is a new expression of Han Dynasty art. Faces and movements became more real then in older times. Man is now the center of art, not the gods and ancestors or fabulous animals. This 84 cm tall wonderful tool of the Changxin Palace 長信宮 shows a girl holding a lamp or a sublimation tool for alchemist material. |
 | An other wonderul piece of Han Dynasty's lamps has the shape of a bull, inlaid with silver. the bull's head to the top of the lamp, a handle stretches (46 cm tall). The surface is very smooth. In spite of his weighty body, the piggy tail of the bull make him a bit funny. |
 | A small embossed horse the Han Dynasty. |
 | Cast of bronze, this amazing and very famous artwork shows a galopping horse balancing on a swallow. |
 | Only one piece of a whole cavalry company is this bronze cast warrior of the Han Dynasty. |
 | This ornament (a belt buckle or a brooch) of the Han Dynasty shows an unidentifiable animal with its head in the bushes. Parts of the object are already stained. |
 | A belt buckle with the shape of shepherds and a cow the Han Dynasty. Goldened bronze, 15 cm long. |
 | An incense burner the Han Dynasty. It has the shape of mythical mountain, inlaid with gold and silver stripes in the shape of dragons and decorated with many people and beasts (28 cm tall). |
 | This Pusa 菩薩 (Bodhisattva) is one of the first Buddhist art objects found in China. It was made in the Eastern Jin period 東晉. |
  | When Buddhism was introduced into China, it was first the upper class of the former-nomadic Northern Dynasties 北朝 that adopted the foreign religion. During the Northern Wei dynasty, these very handy Buddha images became very popular to put them on a family or house altar. |
 | This image the short-lived Sui Dynasty 隋 shows a whole group like they were carved in the grottoes of Yungang 雲崗 and Longmen 龍門. The center is the sitting Buddha, to his left and his right two disciples. In front of them are two guardians. The whole gold-covered group is standing on a table whose feet have the shape of fierce animals. |
 | During the Tang Dynasty 唐, fat people were the ideal body type (just like in Europe during the 17th century). Accordingly, this Guanyin 觀音 image also gives her fat cheeks. Looking at the wall paintings in Dunhuang 敦煌, we see that also the floating bands around the body were very popular during the Tang Dynasty. |
 | Inlaid with mother-of-pearl, this Tang time the Song Dynasty. |
 | Contrasting to the former, this Song time lacquer box has a very simple shape and no design at all. |
 | Carved lacquer box the late Southern Song Dynasty. While the inner side is covered with black lacquer, the outside is carved in meander patterns. The cover shows the simple and therefore very attractive picture of a cassia flower (diameter 9 cm). |
 | Cloud patterns, carved in alternating red and black layers of lacquer, decorate this box the Yuan Dynasty 元 (diameter 15 cm). |
 | Tao Yuanming 陶淵明 collecting chrysanthemum flowers, carved lacquer with the lower layers in black, the upper ones in red. A box the Yuan Dynasty, diameter 12 cm. |
 | A beautiful chest the Ming Dynasty 明 showing two dragons playing with a pearl, in different colors making lacquer art a real pictorial art. |
 | Most carved lacquer objects are red like this dish the middle Ming Dynasty (diameter 35 cm). It shows a bird, probably a phoenix, in a flower garden. The lowest layer of lacquer is in black, and the body of the dish is not wood, but leather. |
 | This Ming time brush box is made of black carved lacquer. The rim is made of ivory. |
 | Two poems and dragons playing within clouds are mother-of-pearl inlaids in a black lacquered surface of a late Ming Dynasty box (length 13 cm). |
 | A double rhomboid shaped box the Ming Dynasty. After carving lacquer, the holes were filled with gold wires, shaping flowers and dragons all over the surface (28 cm long). |
 | Here a very rare exemplar of yellow lacquer for a chrysanthemum shaped box the Qing Dynasty 清. |
 | The Chinese word (not the character) for "bat" 蝠 is identical to the word for "luck" 福. Therefore, bats are a common object in Chinese art since Ming times. This khaki shaped box the Qing Yongzheng period shows four bats flying in a flower garden (diameter 20 cm). |
 | A wonderful piece with inlaid gold wires in the shape of many flowers and plants, containing five jade boxes, one quadrangular and four half-circles. The box itself has the shape of a flower. Qianlong period, diameter 30 cm. |
 | Golden lacquer covers this melon shaped box the Qianlong period. Gold powder was brought upon the still liquid lacquer. The surface of the melon is decorated with leafs and a butterfly (length 10 cm). |
 | A landscape and eight fairies are drawn with green and black lacquer upon the gold powdered surface of this 23 cm diameter box the Qianlong period. |
 | Brush containers were made of every kind of material except metal. Lacquered wood and carved red lacquer was an ideal material to fit with bamboo brushes like this example the middle Qing dynasty. |
 | The shape of the old bronze vessels was imitated with different materials until the Qing dynasty. This is a carved lacquer vessel with the shape of a jue 爵, an antique libation cup. |
 | A covered bowl for soup or for rice, having the shape of a hundred petal chrysanthemum flower. |
 | Playing admidst waves, a dozen of dragons is carved out of a red lacquered quadrangular box the Qing Dynasty. |
 | This is an example of folk art lacquerware that is still used today in the mountainous regions of Southwest China and in Burma (Myanmar). |
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