3.2 Sublime simplicity and Avant-garde art in Taiwan
3.2.3 Bi discs and Taiwanese abstract painting
One of the distinguishing forms of the earliest Chinese art is bi discs (璧) made out of jade. Bi discs look like often seen element in Taiwanese Avant-garde art: big round
surfaces, light on the dark background, which can be found in many artworks of the 60th and afterwards.465 There are also a lot of artworks in a round format (rondo). Such connotation between material culture artist is exposed to and the art by this artist is not unknown in Avant-garde art studies. Thus, Leonid Katzis sees Jewish influence in the origin of the main artwork of Suprematism, the Black Square. In particular, the tefillin, a ritual object of Judaism, which looks like a little black cube, could inspire K. Malevich, the founder of Suprematism, to use this form in his main masterpiece, the Black
Square.
466 This return of an object from the artist's cultural milieu is a form of Greenberg's continuity of sensibility, ''the most inexorable one of all (…) [y]ou can no more escape from it than you can from yourself''.467Examples of the bi-like silhouettes are such works as Liu Guosong's space-themed ink paintings,468 and some of space acrylic paintings by Xiao Qin ( 蕭 勤 ), as well as many of Liu Shengru's (劉生容)469 art works. Zhuan Zhe's ( 莊喆) painting The Three
Generations (三代, 1969
470) has two bi disc-like abstract figures – dark jadeite green in the right upper corner and yellow circle right in the center, with a texture reminiscent of that of the mineral. The bi discs-like forms enter also the installation art, for example, the installation with dominoes of 1966-1967 years without a name by Li Yangqi ( 李鍚 奇 )471, as well as his another installation with dominoes, Wenzitu 1003 ( 文 字 圖 1003,465 Please, see the examples in the illustrations.
466 Leonid Katzis (2000), ‘The Black Square by Kazimir Malevich and A Tale of Two Squares by El Lissitzky in Jewish perspective’, in Russian eschatology and literature, (ed) Leonid Katzis, Moscow: O.G.I., pp. 132-139.
467 Clement Greenberg (1999), Homemade Esthetics: Observations on Art and Taste, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, p. 38.
468 Xiao Qiongrui 蕭瓊瑞(2017), Xiandai. Shuimo. Liu Guosong. 現代.水墨.劉國松, Taipei: Yishujia, pp. 89-101.
469 賴瑛瑛(2003),台灣前衛：六○年代複合藝術, Taibei:遠流出版公司, pp . 126-129.
470 Pan Fan 潘襎(2017), Yuanqi. Pongbo. Zhuang Zhe. 元氣．磅礡．莊喆, Taipei: Yishujia, p. 40.
471 賴瑛瑛(2003),台灣前衛：六○年代複合藝術, Taibei:遠流出版公司, p. 157.
1966).472 Li Yuanjia dot is often rendered in a way highly similar to a bi disc,473 or serves as background of such discs, like in his Magnetic Points installation (London, 1966-1968). Lai Yingying ( 賴 瑛 瑛 ) even has taken a flat circle as the main theme for the design of her book on Taiwanese Avant-garde art.474
The bi discs as objects of the sublime aesthetics harmonizes with the view on the East as particularly connected with the idea of the sublime. Such a view is, for example, presented by Hegel, although his prejudices are strong in valuing the beauty and the West higher than his notion of the symbolical sublime natural for the Orient (das Morgendland).475 But this shortcoming can be acknowledged and thus neutralized in the whole of Hegelian argument. And thus Hegel can be taken here as an eyewitness from an age of Kant and as another great mind.
The artworks reminiscent of bi discs have propensity to stay without a name (Li Yangqi nameless installation, Liu Shengru's numbered works: No. 308, No. 86, etc.), to be late in Taiwanese Avant-garde art. It is often the end of the 60-s or the beginning of the 70-s. Liu Guosong treatment of the disc's theme even crosses the border of the 20th century, like in his most recent works, Obscured Moon (月色朦朧, 2014)476 or Buddha ( 如 來 , 2010 ).477 The shadow of the jade discs slowly floats to the surface of the Taiwanese art world as if it is an unconscious memory. As if a possible solution is found in a dream, but it is a collective dream for the collective task of the artists of the 60-s.
472 賴瑛瑛(2003),台灣前衛：六○年代複合藝術, Taibei:遠流出版公司, p. 160.
473 Ibid., p. 193., p. 198.
474 See cover, the first pages and pages between chapters of 賴瑛瑛(2003),台灣前衛：六○年代複合藝術, Taibei:遠流出 版公司.
475 Joshua Rayman (2012), Kant on Sublimity and Morality, Cardiff: University of Wales Press, pp. 155-156.
476 See entry in Artnet.com, http://www.artnet.com/artists/liu-kuo-sung/yuesemenglong-jingxin-zhiben-obscured-moon-MnL-ZqS6dN8z9YXtxHsvIA2 (Accessed on 20th of July, 2018, the title's translation is as given by Artnet.com).
477 See entry in Artnet.com, http://www.artnet.com/artists/liu-kuo-sung/buddharulai-ivdhbrH4pF9gZe66S_GbjQ2 (Accessed on 20th of July, 2018, the title's translation is as given by Artnet.com).
What can be called the impact of bi disc on Taiwanese Avant-garde art is often not as direct as it needs to be for a 100% sure, solid analogy. The artist uses the disc form indirectly, the necessary hole in the center of the standard bi disc is sometimes absent.
But Katzis analogy is also not free of such problems – in his view, Malevich moves from the impression of a small three dimensional black box fixed on the head of a praying Jew to a flat two dimensional square.
In fact, is the Black Square a 'portrait' of a square? Names can be misleading, as René Magritte shows us. The Black Square can be no less a square, than it is a black hole or just a universe of darkness. Its squareness can be only a result of a standard form of a canvas. But Katzis work is meaningful, because it shows the significance of time Malevich has spent in Viribsk, a Belorus town with a distinct Jewish minority. Katzis presents a connotation which draws too much from cultural dialogue to be random. Such connotations are helpful in our understanding of art in its context. In the case of the shadow of the jade disc – it is not only less of transformation of the object (bi disc has the third dimension, but it is insignificant and preserved in the early Taiwanese installation art), but also not a single painter as it is the case with Katzis analysis of Malevich. Moreover, the Black Square's squareness can be a random quality, a result of the instrumental convenience of this format, while rondo format found in Li Yuanjia and others is actually an intended turn, demanding from artist additional effort and even small extra fee (rondo canvases and underframes or other basis for an artwork in round format are usually more expensive).
The bi discs are often present in Chinese archeology of the Neolithic and of the Bronze age. Moreover, ''[f]rom both archaeological contexts and textual records, it is evident that bi were the most important among jade objects.''478 As Childs-Johnson describes it, ''bi has a small mouth (sometimes called hao after the Chinese term used in
478 Teng Shu-P'ing (2000), ‘The Original Significance of Bi Disks: Insights Based on Liangzhu Jade Bi with Incised Symbolic Motifs’ (tr) Lothar von Falkenhausen, in Journal of East Asian Archaeology, vol. 2 (1), p. 180.
the ErYa dictionary) that is created with a drill worked from two sides and marked usually by thin circular ridges.''479 The bi discs can be very big, especially the discs from Liangzhu culture, which are the biggest such discs known.480 Liangzhu discs are plain and undecorated.481 The bi discs can be found among the wast majority of Chinese archaeological cultures: in the excavating sites related to Hongshan culture482, Lingjiatan culture,483 Taosi,484 Fanshan485 as well as in other places.
As it is often the case with the Neolithic objects, the original function of the bi discs is not completely clear. In the early historic period, the bi discs play a role in the most important rituals. As Rudolf V. Vyatkin describes it, ''[b]i is flat jade or jasper decoration in the form of a disk with a hole in the middle. It was worn by representatives of the highest aristocracy during the rituals."486 Rites of Zhou names bi as the main of the 'Six utensils' ( 六 器 ).487 However, indirect evidences allow to suggest that ''[t]hese objects [the bi discs] were handled by shamans who were the religious leaders of Liangzhu society and the transmitters of cosmological knowledge.''488
However, regarding Liangzhu culture there is a problem with the bird motif, which is very important for the shamanist interpretation. According to Roger Keverne it is
479 Elizabeth Childs-Johnson (2002), Enduring Art of Jade Age China: Chinese Jades of Late Neolithic Through Han Periods. New York: Throckmorton Fine Art, p. 64.
480 Roger Keverne (1991), Jade, New York: Springer, p. 75.
481 Ibid.
482 Li Liu and Xingcan Chen (2012), The Archaeology of China From the Late Paleolithic to the Early Bronze Age, Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 179-180.
483 Ibid., p. 206.
484 Ibid., p. 222.
485 Ibid., p. 241.
486 Rudolf V. Vyatkin (2010), ‘Commentaries’ in The Records of the Grand Historian, (tr) Rudolf V. Vyatkin, vol. 9, Moscow: Eastern Literature, p. 440.
487 Shu-P'ing Teng (2000), ‘The Original Significance of Bi Disks: Insights Based on Liangzhu Jade Bi with Incised Symbolic Motifs,’ (tr) Lothar von Falkenhausen, in Journal of East Asian Archaeology, vol. 2 (1), p. 165.
488 Ibid.
isolated in known objects. Only the bi discs found in some of excavating sites have such birds, so it is possible that such discs are not of Liangzhu production, but are bought by people of the Liangzhu culture from some other culture: Keverne believes it to be ''Dawenkou-type bird'', directly related to Dawenkou culture.489 But the link of the bi disc with shamanism is not countered by this problem. Even if it is not the only problem of Shu-P'ing Teng's approach,490 he definitely has a point. The bi discs cannot be away from religion of Neolithic China and thus from a particular form of shamanism.
Dawenkou can be the origin of religious tradition important for the society of Liangzhu, like Jerusalem is religiously important for Medieval Rome. Or it can be another kind of relations between two religious centers. In any case, the bi disc is a representation of the absolute in Neolithic China.
Moreover, the bird motif is an important symbol in shamanist traditions. As Vinogradov puts it, even if Eurasian shamanism shows great variety, ''[i]n some groups of Eurasia, shamanic spirit-protectors are only animals, in others they may be animals, various mythological personae, and ancestors-humans, and in others only the human
489 Roger Keverne (1991), Jade, New York: Springer, p. 75.
490 Shu-P'ing Teng gives strange references to The Records of the Grand Historian (史記) in a note on the page 181 in his article 'The Original Significance of Bi Disks'. To show the significance of bi discs for the classic Chinese texts he refers there to numerous sources. In particular, Shu-P'ing Teng references to The Records' chapters Fengchanshu (封禪書, 'Tractatus on sacrifices to Heaven and Earth' in the translation by Rudolf V. Vyatkin) and Xiaowubenji (孝武本紀, 'The main record on (Emperor) Xiaowu' in the same translation). Both texts have only one character bi, it is Bimen (璧門, 'gate of Bimen' in the same translation) in two identical passages related to a big fire in the tower of Boliang (柏梁), (compare Vyatkin's translation of The Records, vol. 2. (2001), p. 282 and vol. 4, (1986), p. 190.). If to follow Shu-P'ing Teng's note, one time he refers to the same passage on the fire in the tower of Boliang in Xiaowubenji (Shiji (1959), New edition in 10 vols. Beijing: Zhonghua, vol. 2, p. 482.). But in case of Fengchanshu it is different. On the page 1381 Shu-P'ing Teng uses, there is the beginning of a narrative related to the reform of the calendar and court clothes suggested by Gong Sunchen from Lu (魯人公孫臣) (Shiji vol. 4, p. 1381, Vyatkin's translation vol. 4, (1986), p. 167) and the end of the passage on a ritual reform initiated by Xiao Wen of Han (孝文帝, ruled 180 BC-157 BC); the passage on the gate of Bimen can be found on the page 1402 of the 4th volume of the Chinese edition of The Record (for the Vyatkin's
translation it is vol. 4, (1986), p. 190.). In fact, not only pages Shu-P'ing Teng uses can say nothing in regard of the bi discs, the chapters of The Records Shu-P'ing Teng have chosen do not elaborate on these discs at all.
ancestors play this role''491 it is the birds who ''are usually related to the Upper World, deer, wolf, and elk, to the Middle World, and bear, badger, wolverine, and, especially, the snake, to the Lower World.''492
Not only Shu-P'ing Teng presents the link of an elite class of the first stages of Chinese civilization and production of bi discs. The same conclusion can be found in
The Archaeology of China by Li Liu and Xingcan Chen
493 and it is widespread in other secondary literature. The same can be said about the connection of such elite class and shamanist practices. In fact, ''the central role of shamanism was the most remarkable trait that distinguishes early Chinese civilization from counterparts in Mesopotamia.''494 Thus, the connection of the bi discs and shamanism is safe despite any local shortcomings of Shu-P'ing Teng's approach.As a further matter, early Chinese texts show deep penetration of shamanism into Chinese civilization. For instance, shamans-wu (巫) are often participates in court life as it is presented in The Records of the Grand Historian. It is the case with the illness of emperor Xiao Wudi (漢武帝 156-87 BC) whose health was in caring by shamans495. The most important figures of Chinese mythology have strong shamanist connotations. Sima Zhen (司馬貞, 679–732 CE), according to Vyatkin,496 is an eyewitness of how shamans during rituals moves using 'the walk of Yu' (yubu 禹步).
491 Andrei Vinogradov (2004), ‘Animal symbolism (Asia)’ in Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture, vol. 1, (eds) Mariko Namba Walter, Eva Jane Neumann Fridman, Santa Barbara, Denver, and Oxford:
ABC-CLIO, p. 13.
492 Ibid.
493 Li Liu and Xingcan Chen (2012), The Archaeology of China From the Late Paleolithic to the Early Bronze Age, Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, p. 240.
494 Ibid., p. 393.
495 Sima Qian (2003), The Records of the Grand Historian, (tr) Rudolf V. Vyatkin, vol. 2, Moscow: Eastern Literature, p. 259.
496 Rudolf V. Vyatkin (2001), ‘Commentaries’ in The Records of the Grand Historian, (tr) Rudolf V. Vyatkin, vol. 1, Moscow: Eastern Literature, p. 253.