Celebrating the Year of the Ox

The ox was regarded as the most prestigious of the sacrificial animals offered to deities and ancestor spirits in ancient China. A wine container
in the shape of the beast emphasizes its significant role in solemn and sacred rituals. Distinct in both form and ornamentation from classic
Shang prototypes, this sculptural vessel points to the existence of regional cultures that flourished beyond the Shang sphere of influence.

One of the innovations of Shang jade carving was the creation of figures in the round. The artists further ornamented this water buffalo with spirals that recall bronze decorative motifs. They created the illusion of the patterns being raised by engraving the surface with two slightly beveled parallel lines. A hole piercing the figure’s mouth and lower lip suggests it was probably worn as an ornament or a talisman.

This small sculpture was probably an ornament that adorned a large bronze vessel. Richly embellished with abstract arabesque inlays, the piece epitomizes the secularization of ritual bronzes into emblems of status and wealth in the late Zhou dynasty.

Ingeniously shaped out of a massive dark green nephrite boulder from the riverbed of Yarkand, in northwestern China, this sculpture weighs more than forty pounds. The cunning naturalistic details, including a whorl of hair on the animal’s forehead, demonstrate the observant eye of a master carver in the eighteenth century.

Cloisonné, a decorative technique by which colored enamels are fused in small compartments formed by fine wires on the surface of metalwork, was introduced to China from western Asia in the late thirteenth century. During the Qing dynasty, it enjoyed extensive popularity and was used for both large vessels and a variety of figures, including this herdboy playing a flute on the back of a water buffalo.

Auspicious symbols and visual puns expressing good wishes are recurring themes in Chinese decorative art. A delightful example is this white nephrite sculpture that depicts a small boy gently prodding his companion, a large water buffalo, with a stalk of rice. The ears of rice symbolize a good harvest and rhyme with the Chinese word for “year” (sui), thus implying the wish for “a good harvest year after year” (sui sui nian feng).

This animated sculpture depicts a scene of peaceful life in China’s agricultural society. It is also an example of a remarkable innovation by craftsmen of the imperial workshops during the late seventeenth century: the application of enamel colors, originally used for metalwork, on porcelain, which significantly enlivened the pallet of ceramic decoration.

The twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac are popular decorative motifs that appear in various media. This set, made of flawless pale green jade, would have been especially prized. Qing-dynasty master carvers individualized each animal with distinctive accessories and varied postures. The dragon, for example, holds a large pearl. This set is from the collection of Heber R. Bishop.

In contrast to mass-produced ceramic zodiac figurines, this imposing sculpture must have been created for members of the privileged class and used for solemn rituals before it was eventually interred. Dressed in the distinctive robe of a Daoist deity, the figure was clearly intended to inspire veneration and awe.

From the Tang dynasty onward, zodiac animals were routinely given human attributes. Here, the figure is envisioned as a Daoist deity holding the head of an ox. The large Chinese character wang (king) on the front of his hat signifies his heavenly identity.

By the Eastern Han dynasty (9–220 CE), the conventional order of the twelve Chinese zodiac animals was well established. Subsequently, they were paired with ten other calendrical elements, forming a rotating cycle of sixty that was used in China to count the years until the twentieth century. The animals, along with this calendrical system, were also adopted by many other East Asian and Southeast Asian countries.

As burial practices grew more elaborate, pottery animals wearing official robes became popular tomb offerings, presumably as symbols of renewal and regeneration. These figures were once colorfully painted, but only the white slip, which usually served as a base for decoration, has survived.