Description
Stanford University Press, 1995. Paperback, xviii, 376 pp.; 25 x 27 cm (oblong); illustrated with about 400 black-and-white photographs, drawings, ink rubbings, plans and maps.
Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997
112
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Catalog notes
Condition & notes
In Very Good condition. Glossy black pictorial paper covers, front cover with a Western Zhou bronze ritual vessel, white lettering on front cover and spine. Light bumping and creasing to edges and corners, mild shelf and edge wear with some scuffing, hint of color loss along edges, more scuffing on rear cover, and a diagonal crease at top corner of rear cover. Binding tight. Pages clean and unmarked. [From back cover] "This pathbreaking work reinterprets the history of early Chinese art and architecture over twenty centuries, focusing on the notion of monumentality and forms of monuments as they evolved from prehistory to the early sixth century." Wu Hung, then of the University of Chicago, treats ritual bronzes and jades, temples, palaces and tombs, the Han capital Chang'an, and the carved funerary shrines of the Eastern Han as one continuous artistic tradition. The chapter on funerary monuments draws heavily on the Wu Liang Shrine, reproduced in ink rubbings and line reconstructions. Choice called it "a rich synthesis" and concluded, "If one is going to have only one book on early Chinese art, this is it." Contents: Figures and Maps; Chronologies; Introduction: The Nine Tripods and Traditional Chinese Concepts of Monumentality; The Age of Ritual Art; Temple, Palace, and Tomb; The Monumental City Chang'an; Four Voices of Funerary Monuments; The Transparent Stone: The End of an Era; Illustration Credits; Notes; Works Cited; Character List; Index.