Chinese art / [Stephen Wooton Bushell].

  • Stephen Wootton Bushell
Date:
[1909]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Chinese art / [Stephen Wooton Bushell]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    40/338 page 30
    CHAPTER II. Sculpture. There are no relics of carved stone in China to be compared in importance or antiquity with the ancient monuments of Egypt, Chalda;a, and Susa. The chief materials of Chinese buildings have always been wood and bricks, so that stone is generally used only for architectural accessories and for the decoration of interiors. The origin of sculpture in stone, like that of many other Chinese arts, is very obscure, in spite of all that has been written on the sub- ject in native as well as in foreign books. In Chinese books its indigenous origin and development are always taken for granted, and it seems natural to accept such views until the contrary be proved. Non-Chinese theories are of the most varied character and depend mainly on the ideas of the individual writer as to the source and subsequent history of the Chinese race. Dr. Legge, like many other missionaries, starts in his speculations from the Book of Genesis and— ^ suposes that the family, or collection of families—the tribe—of the sons of hJoah, which has since grown into tlie most numerous of the nations, began to mpe eastwards, from the regions between the Black and Caspian Seas, not Ion- after the confusion of tongues,” ^ and finally reached the valley of the Yellow River, where they met with other early immigrant tribes of ruder manners, whose route is not sketched so minutely, and ultimately prevailed over their opposition. M. Terrien de Lacouperie brings his fanciful “ Bak tribes from nearly the same region—the southern slopes of the Caspian—under the leadership of a certain Nakhunte, who is pre- sumed to be the ancient Chinese ruler Huang Ti, provided with an Akkadian cuneiform scrij)t, and with many items of ancient lore, for
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