A universe painted in lacquer

Roots in Chu

Zuo traces the artistic style of Guangling lacquerware to the shamanic traditions deeply rooted in Chu culture. Originally a vassal state of the Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th century BC-256 BC), Chu gradually emerged as an independent power over eight centuries, from the 11th century BC until its conquest by Qin in 223 BC, two years before Qin Shi Huang unified China for the first time.

Rising in the middle Yangtze region, Chu reached its greatest territorial extent in the second half of the fourth century BC, extending eastward toward the Yangtze River Delta, where Guangling was located. Under sustained Qin attacks, it later retreated from its ancestral heartland and shifted its political center eastward. There, elements of Chu's artistic traditions, including lacquer craftsmanship, found new ground on which to endure and evolve.

These traditions found renewed resonance under the Western Han, when the pursuit of immortality and ascent to celestial realms captivated aristocrats and commoners alike. Feathered immortals, mythical beasts and flowing clouds evoked a universe animated by qi, the vital force linking all things. This fascination with the supernatural gave Chu's shamanic legacy fresh relevance, allowing its visual language to take root in Han culture.

Cloud patterns do more than fill empty spaces: they create visual transitions between forms not ordinarily seen together, such as a deer and a dragon. The animals seem to travel with the clouds rather than interrupt their movement, their bodies woven into a continuous flow. Sometimes rendered with extraordinary delicacy, the lines possess an inner rhythm that lends the compositions a distinct musical quality.

A similar sensibility runs through Han fu, or rhapsody, an elite literary form exemplified by Jia Yi's work. Its rhythmic cadences and vivid descriptions drew on the lyrical intensity and mythological imagination of the Chuci (Songs of Chu), a classical poetic tradition rooted in the ancient state of Chu. "Let's be frank: those who composed rhapsodies may well have used lacquerware, but the artisans who made these objects were almost certainly unable to read such sophisticated literary works. Why, then, is the correspondence between them so striking?" asks Zhang Yinan, a researcher of ancient Chinese poetry at the National Library of China.

"Because both drew on the folk culture of Chu, allowing it to blossom in different forms."

According to Zuo, lacquerware had eclipsed bronze as a dominant art form by the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), reflecting a subtle shift in humanity's relationship with the cosmos. Reverence for Heaven endured, alongside a growing awareness of humanity's place in a vast, interconnected universe. The flowing lines of lacquer designs evoke journeys through time and space without end.

"With lacquer trees abundant in the Guangling region and lacquerware easier to produce than cast bronze, it became part of everyday life. People drank from two-handled lacquer cups, served wine and soup with lacquer ladles, and placed their food on trays with gently raised edges to prevent spills," Zuo says.

"Even when going on picnics, they packed their provisions in ingeniously designed lacquer food containers that fit neatly together inside a larger lacquer box, sometimes with two tiers."

One highlight is a duck-shaped wine ladle with a flat base that bobs gently in the wine like a duck on water. Another is a tortoiseshell-inlaid lacquer wine vessel whose form, like that of many contemporary lacquer vessels, draws on the long tradition of bronze vessel design.