Legacy Lines: Exploring World History

12/07/2024

Korean Traditional Music
Although music making in Korea is as Old as the presence of people on the peninsula, the earliest evidence of the practice is provided in Chinese historical records, which tell of merry farmers' songs and dances, and in tomb furnishings and wall paintings from the Three Kingdoms period (57 B.C.—668 A.D.). Korean music includes three quarter time, in contrast to the duple rhythms preferred in China and Japan. Until at least the fifteenth century, music notation consisted of a page of grids with performance notes written in Chinese characters.
Korean traditional music can be divided into two broad categories: court music and folk music. (Music played to accompany Buddhist and shamanistic ceremonies forms a third category.) Music performed at court and for the aristocracy accompanied Confucian rituals, banquets, or military events and tended to be stately and slow, in keeping with the solemnity of the occasions. Singing and dancing often accompanied court music, which derived from both native and Chinese sources. The term tang-ah, referring to China's Tang dynasty (61 8—907), is usually used for foreign court music, while the term hangar refers to court music that has native Korean origins.
Folk music, including songs and instrumental compositions for farmers' festivals and popular enjoyment, is generally freer in mood and style than court music. Two of the most widely enjoyed types of folk music are the dramatic opera like Prussian Sonja, which are a form of chamber music played by a small ensemble. Folk music is often accompanied by dance performances or other types of entertainment such as games and storytelling and typically varies by region.
Korean music employs approximately sixty different kinds of instruments, including flutes, drums, gongs, bells, and plucked and bowed stringed instruments. Although a few musicians crafted their own instruments, they were usually made by highly skilled specialists. East Asian musical instruments are traditionally categorized according to the primary material used in their manufacture: stone, skin, metal, silk, earth (pottery), bamboo, and wood. The three illustrations
of musical instruments included in this resource show traditional instruments in the silk (kayagüm), wood (taep'yöngso)

11/07/2024

7. More information about the formats, materials, and display methods of East Asian paintings may be found in the online feature A Look at Chinese Painting in The Metropolitan Museum of Art metmuseum.org/explore/Chinese/ HTML pages/index.htm).
8. For a full description and history of painting styles associated with China's scholar-officials, see Wen C. Fong, Beyond Representation: Chinese Painting and
Calligraphy, 81/1—14th Century (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992).

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10/07/2024

Calligraphy
The Chinese written language and the art of calligraphy were introduced into Korea through the military commandeers established in the northern part of the peninsula during the Han dynasty (206 B.C.— 220 A.D.), at the end of the second century B.C. Koreans used five primary script types. Standard script (haesö; Chn. kaishu), in which each stroke is separately executed and clearly defined, was used for documents and texts that demanded clarity and legibility. Running (haengsö; Chn. xingshu) and cursive (ch'osög Chn. caoshu) scripts, in which characters are abbreviated and strokes linked in continuous motions of the brush, allowed greater freedom for artistic expression and was used for personal communications and other nonofficial purposes. The earlier script styles known as small seal (sojön; Chn. Xiao zhuan) and clerical (yesö, Chn. lishu) were usually reserved for special purposes, such as commemorative plaques or personal seals. The Neo-Confucian scholar-officials who dominated the Chosön period prized the ability to express themselves eloquently in classical literary Chinese written in a refined hand. Although initially inspired by the work of their Chinese counterparts, the Korean educated elite developed numerous variations and styles that elevated calligraphy to a fine art in their country.
Notes
l. See the essays on "Status of the Artist" and "Patronage" by Hong Sön P'yo and
Kim Kumja Paik, respectively, in Turner, ed., The Dictionary of. lrt, vol. IS, pp 258—59. See also Yi Söng-mi, "Art Training and Education," ibid., pp. 380—81. 2. In East Asia "low-fired ware" customarily refers to earthenware and "high-fired ware" to stoneware and porcelain.
3. "'Celadon" is the term generally used in the West for green-glazed ceramic wares. This term is derived from the color of a shepherd's costume in a popular play written by Honor d'Urfé (1567—1625).
4. For a detailed description of the shapes, designs, and decorative techniques in Koryö and Chosön ceramics, see both, Korean Ceramics from the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka.
5. For an excellent and authoritative study of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean lacquer objects, see Watt and Ford, East Asian Lacquer: The Florence and Ilerbert Irving Collection.
6. For examples of paintings by Chöng Sön and Kim Hong-do, see Arts of Korea, pp. 202—5, 21 1—13, and the Metropolitan Museum's Web site http://. www.metmuseum.org 'explore/Korea/Korea online/index.HTML.

Director and CEO Max Hollein celebrates an important moment as the Museum moves forward with renovation plans for the new Oscar L. and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing with architect Frida Escobedo, the first woman to design a wing in the Museum’s 154-year history.

09/07/2024

Poems, historical notes, or dedications might also be written on the painting itself or the mounting by the artist, a collector, or a connoisseur. Silk. Silkworms are native to northern China, as are the mulberry trees that provide their food source. The cocoons made by silkworms consist of one long silk filament, which can be spun into a fabric that is extremely fine, elastic, and smooth Silk cloth, silkworms, and the technique of producing silk cloth were most likely introduced into Korea from China during the Han dynasty (206 B.C.—220 A.D.). The oldest surviving piece of Korean silk dates to the sixth century.
Buddhist Paintings
Buddhist images were painted on silk during the Koryö period, and more commonly on h**p, linen, or heavy paper during the Chosön period (see images 15, 16, 18, '29). The silk used for Koryö Buddhist paintings (hwagyon, or "picture silk") was specially woven, with the warp and weft well-spaced so that the resulting weave was more transparent than ordinary silk cloth and allowed the pigments to permeate evenly throughout. It is believed to have been dyed a pale tea color, obtained by mixing yellow and a small amount of purple. The prepared silk was then framed and sized with a solution of alum and animal glue. From a full-scale cartoon, or drawing, visible through the silk cloth from behind, the outlines were drawn on the picture surface in black ink or red pigment, after which the colors were applied.
Colored pigments were first painted on the back of the silk cinnabar red and malachite green on the garment areas, lead white and ocher on the flesh and other remaining areas—and subsequently to the picture surface. The application of pigments on the back of the silk served to fix the pigments on the front and thereby enhanced the intensity and volume of the colors. In addition, the alkalinity of the ocher aided in conservation. (This technique of painting color on both sides of the picture surface was invented in China, and both Korean and Japanese painters adopted it for religious paintings that required opaque and intense colors.) Finally, when all the other colors had been applied and contour and drapery lines completed, gold was used. When a painting was finished, an "eye-dotting ceremony" was held to give life to the images.

08/07/2024

expected of a learned man. Favorite painting themes included landscapes and the group of plants known as the Four Gentlemen— bamboo, orchid, plum blossom, and chrysanthemum.
Brush. East Asian painting and calligraphy brushes are made of a variety of animal hairs such as horse, fox, weasel, and rabbit. Long hairs form a flexible point that can produce a fine or thick line. Beneath the long external hairs is a tuft of shorter hairs that serve to hold the ink or pigment. The brushes are fitted with a cylindrical handle, often made of wood or bamboo.
Ink. Traditionally ink was made of a carbon-based material, often pine soot, that was then mixed with an adhesive and other substances. The ink was dried and pressed into a cake or stick, which was rubbed against a very fine surface such as an ink stone, while mixing with water to produce liquid ink for painting or writing.
Paper. Although the technology came to the peninsula from China, Koreans developed the ability to make superior paper that was highly regarded throughout East Asia. Most paper was made of mulberry pulp, although h**p and rice straw were also used (see images 17, 29 The establishment of the Office of Paper making (Chiso) by the Koryö government played an important role in the development of the high quality thick, hard, and smooth paper for which Korean papermakers became renowned.
Pigments. Most pigments used for paintings were made by grinding minerals into a powder and then combining them with glue and other materials. Like ink, mineral pigments were dried and compressed into cakes, which were then ground while mixing with water to produce a form usable for painting. Frequently used pigments were cinnabar red, lead white, and malachite green Col— oared pigments were also derived from plants: for example, lotus (light green), rattan (yellow), and indigo (blue). After the mid-nineteenth century, imported artificial pigments were also used.
Seals. An artist might apply one or more personal seals to a painting in place of or in addition to his or her signature. Seals are made from a variety of materials (stone being the most common), carved in relief or intaglio, and impressed on the painting with a viscous, oil-based cinnabar-red seal paste. Seal legends might consist of the artist's sobriquet, a studio name, or a phrase. Similarly, collectors often impressed their seals on paintings to indicate their ownership and appreciation, thereby marking the painting's provenance and passage through time

07/07/2024

Portable Korean paintings were produced as hanging scrolls hand scrolls (horizontal paintings), fans, or album leaves mounted in a book. Paintings could also be attached to folding screens. These works were executed on silk or paper using an animal-hair brush. The image itself was made with black ink or pigments. Once the painting was created, usually on a flat, horizontal surface, a mounter would strengthen it by attaching several sheets of paper (applied with water-soluble rice glue that can be removed to allow future remounting’s) and secure it to a mounting finished with silk borders. East Asian paintings are sensitive to light and, thus, generally displayed for limited periods of time (fig. 10).7
Following the Chinese landscape tradition of the Northern Song period (960—1 127). Korean painters typically employed three basic schemata in their landscape paintings: a scene dominated by vertical elements, a panoramic view filled by a series of horizontal elements, and a composition combining the two (see images 25A, B). In these paintings, the impression of recession is achieved simply by shifts in the scale of landscape elements, from the foreground to the middle ground to the far distance. Instead of modeling forms as if illuminated by a consistent light source, as in Western art, painters built up forms using contrasts of light and dark ink wash and texturing. Rather than presenting a scene with a single vanishing point, as in Y'Vestern one point perspective, artists visualized each composition from several vantage points. This constantly shifting perspective allows viewers to imagine themselves traveling through the picture space.
During the Song dynasty, the Chinese educated elite who painted and practiced calligraphy for their own enjoyment advocated that artists pursue not merely "form likeness"—that is, formal resemblance to what the eye sees in reality— but the inner spirit of their subject. By the succeeding Yuan dynasty (1272—1368), this ideal was firmly entrenched among both Chinese and Korean scholar-artists. Such artists subordinated representational goals in favor of self-expression through the use of calligraphic brushwork. By reducing painting to a set of brush conventions that could be varied and inflected in the same manner as an individual's handwriting, they transformed the act of painting into a highly personal vehicle for expressing emotions. Painting, like writing, became a "heart print" of the artist (see image 28). s The Korean educated elite of the Koryö and Chosön periods considered painting and calligraphy as two of the Four Accomplishments (in addition to music and a board game of strategy called paduk)

06/07/2024

Images 25 A, B type are lacquer boxes and containers, of which the core can be almost any material— perhaps h**p cloth, wood, or metal—encased in a lacquer coating so thick that it modifies the object's form, giving it a plump, fleshy shape that can be decorated by carving in addition to the usual techniques of inlay and painting (see images 9, 20). In the first category the strength of the object depends on its material and method of construction, and the lacquer serves to protect its surface. Objects in the second category are essentially fragile, because the thick layers of' lacquer lack tensile strength and are liable to crack and flake off the core surface. Painting Bronze Age depictions of' humans and animals, in the form of petroglyphs, offer the earliest extant evidence of' painting in the Korean peninsula. But it is in the wall paintings of tombs of the late Koguryö period (37 B.C.—668 A.D.) that we find the true beginnings of Korean painting. The wall murals, painted in the tombs' interior chambers, depict hunting scenes and a variety of illustrations of daily life, showing both the nobility and commoners.
Al though for paintings survive from the Three Kingdoms period or the subsequent Unified Silla dynasty, Buddhist devotional works produced during the Koryö dynasty include lavishly detailed paintings of Buddhist deities and illuminated transcriptions of canonical texts (see images 15—18). Evidence of painting in Korea is more complete for the Chosön dynasty. Early Chosön painting is represented by the landscapes of the preeminent painter An Kyön (active ca. 1440—70), who drew upon Chinese themes, techniques, and critical traditions (see images 25 A, B). From his innovative interpretations of these sources, An Kyön developed a distinctively Korean landscape idiom that was continued by his many followers.
Works that can be confidently assigned to individual artists become more numerous in the middle and late Chosön period. Among the most important of these painters is Chöng Sön (1676—17.59), traditionally acknowledged as the leading exponent of true-view landscape, a new trend in Korean painting in the eighteenth century that advocated the depiction of actual Korean scenery as an alternative to the classical themes of' Chinese painting (see fig. 8, p. 61). Other subjects favored by Chosön painters include scholarly themes, such as plum and bamboo, and portraits. Genre painting, one of whose master practitioners was Kim Hong-do (1745—1806), portrayed the daily life of the Korean people in all its variety and liveliness.

05/07/2024

State of bliss attained when one is no longer deluded by ignorance, influenced by attachments and desires generated by the ego, or subject to the cycle of rebirth, the nature of which is conditioned by the deeds (Skt. karma) of former lives. In Mahayana Buddhism, nirvana also includes the awareness of one's unity with the absolute.
Pure Land school. This school of Buddhism, which had reached Korea by the seventh century, emphasizes thigh in Amitabha, expressed primarily through recitation of his name and the desire to be reborn into his Western Paradise. Because it offers a simple and direct route to salvation, Pure Land Buddhism became very popular among the common people in Korea.
Shakyamuni (Sökkamoni or Söka-bul). The name "Shakyamuni," meaning "Sage of the Shakya clan," refers to Prince Siddhartha (d. ca. 400 B.C.; traditional dates ca. 556—483 B.C.) of the royal Gautama filmy, the founder of Buddhism. Born in northeastern India, as a young adult Shakyamuni became distressed over the human condition of suffering and death. He abandoned worldly life to seek the cause of pain and discover a means of attaining release. After achieving enlightenment, Shakyamuni spent the remaining decades of his lift' traveling and teaching his doctrine of meditation and moderate living. He is most often shown as a monk with physical marks that signify his enlightened status, such as a cranial protuberance, tuft of hair in the middle Image 5 of his forehead, and elongated earlobes
Sön (Chn. Chan; Jpn. Zen). Son is the Korean version of the Chan school of' Mahayana Buddhism, which developed in China between the sixth and seventh centuries. The origins of this school are traced to the legendary Indian monk Bodhidharma, who is said to have traveled to China in the early sixth century and guided his followers in their search for a direct, intuitive approach to enlightenment through meditation. A form of Chan Buddhism was transmitted to Korea perhaps as early as the seventh century, reportedly by a Korean monk who journeyed to China and studied with the fourth patriarch Daoxin (580—651). Son developed in nine independent mountain centers (kusan sonmun) and, after the twelfth century, became the dominant form of Buddhist practice in Korea.

04/07/2024

Lacquer
Lacquer objects, which incorporate a labor-intensive yet surprisingly adaptable and flexible method of decoration, were among the most prized articles in ancient East Asia. Because of their fragility, however, very few Korean lacquer objects from before the Chosön period have survived. The earliest extant Korean pieces, a holder for a writing brush and undecorated black lacquer vessels, were unearthed from a Bronze Age burial site dated to the first century B.C. Some of the most exquisite examples of inlaid lacquerware were produced in the Koryö period
East Asian lacquer is made from the sap of the lacquer tree (rhus vernici flua), which is native to central and southern China and possibly to Japan. The essential component of lacquer sap is called urushiol after the Japanese term urushi, meaning "lacquer." Urushiol polymerizes when exposed to oxygen. Once dried, it is remarkably resistant to water, acid, and, to a certain extent, heat. Therefore, it is ideal for use as an adhesive and binding agent and as a protective coating on all kinds of materials, especially wood, bamboo, textiles, and leather.
For lacquer to set or "dry," it must be exposed to high humidity (75 to 85 percent) and a temperature between 700 and 800 Fahrenheit. Although raw lacquer is a highly toxic substance that in most people induces an allergic reaction similar to that caused by poison ivy, it becomes inert once it is dry. The very property that makes lacquer such a fine coating material also necessitates application of the raw lacquer in very thin layers so that it can dry properly. If the lacquer layer is thick, as soon as its surface dries, the lacquer beneath is cut off from contact with the humid air and will remain forever liquid.
Lacquer sap is gray in color when first tapped from the tree, but on exposure to light and heat it turns dark brown — the color of raw lacquer—and ultimately a dull brownish black. The color can be altered by the addition of pigments while the lacquer is still liquid. The most commonly used pigments are the mineral cinnabar for red, carbon ink or an iron compound for black, and orpiment for yellow. Not all mineral pigments mix well with lacquer, however.
A distinction can be made between two broad classes of lacquer objects. In the first category, lacquer is applied purely for the purposes of protection and decoration and does not change the form of the decorated object beneath; examples are wooden chairs and leather armor decorated with lacquer. An object in the second category is made mostly of lacquer, supported by a no lacquer core or substrate.

03/07/2024

The glaze contains a slight amount of iron, which when fired results in a bluish green color. Punch'öng decorated under the glaze with inlaid and stamped designs was popular through the fifteenth century. Graffito-decorated ware was produced from around the middle of the fifteenth century (see image 21), followed by incised as well as iron-brown painted designs
White porcelain (Paekcha) is primarily made of kaolin, a clay containing quartz, feldspar, and limestone. It is covered with a clear glaze and fired at a temperature in excess of 12000c. The ware is nonporous, and has a metallic ring when struck. The color of white porcelain may vary depending upon the date and place of production as well as the composition of the clay and glaze.
Plain white porcelain was preferred during the beginning of the Chosön era, in keeping with the austere tastes and sensibilities associated with Neo-Confucianism, which was promoted by the government as the official state ideology. The best grade of porcelain, reserved for the use of the royal court and aristocracy, was manufactured primarily at the official kilns in Kwangju-gun, Kyönggi Province, near modern day Seoul. The glaze color of early Chosön porcelain is snowy white or slightly grayish; white ware made toward the end of the dynasty has a bluer or milkier cast
Chosön potters also produced porcelain wares decorated with designs painted under the glaze in cobalt-blue, iron-brown, and copper red. Cobalt, which produces a rich blue color after firing, was used in Korea in the decoration of porcelain by the mid-fifteenth century. Blue and-white porcelain was initially restricted to use by the royal household and the aristocracy, and made in official kilns under government supervision. Partly because of the high cost of cobalt-oxide pigment, which was imported from China before the development of domestic sources, the decoration of many of these wares was executed not by potters but by professional court painters, who visited the kilns twice a year. Under glaze copper-red decorated porcelain, produced at provincial kilns, reached its peak of popularity in the eighteenth century (see image 23 Painting in under glaze copper-red was more difficult to accomplish than its counterpart decorative medium, under glaze cobalt-blue, because copper readily oxidizes and turns to shades of gray or black during firing, or even disappears entirely.

02/07/2024

Celadons were fired in multi chambered, tunnel-like kilns built along the side of a hill.
and residential sites of this period is gray in color, which results from the restriction of the flow of oxygen into the kiln's firing chamber. By the end of the Three Kingdoms period, ash glazes were produced. These initially happened by accident when ash fell onto the pottery during firing and fused with the ceramic surface, leaving a thin, mottled yellowish green glaze. Once glaze became desirable, ceramic wares were intentionally dusted with ash before firing. By the Unified Silla, pottery vessels coated with glaze were made
Koryö celadon ware, which reached its height of production both artistically and technically in the early twelfth to the early thirteenth century, owes much of its initial inspiration to Chinese ceramic perv» duction. Celadon or green-glazed (ch'öngja) ware is stoneware covered with a glaze containing a slight amount of iron-oxide and fired in a reduced oxygen atmosphere to achieve a grayish blue-green color.3 Koryö potters in time developed a thinner, more translucent glaze than that used in Chinese celadons, which allowed the carved, incised, and inlaid designs to be seen clearly. Studies of more than 200 kiln sites, most of which are located in southwestern Korea, indicate that celadons were fired in multi chambered, tunnel-like kilns built along the side of a hill. At one of the largest kiln sites excavated in Korea (Yun'in-gun, Sö-ri, in Kyönggi-do Province), the primary wood burning ovens were located at the base, but smaller fires situated along the length of the kiln supplied additional heat
Korean potters produced celadon wares in a variety of shapes, and employed several techniques in decorating these objects. Early celadons were left unornamented or were decorated with designs that were incised, carved, or mold-impressed (see images 10, 12). Koryö potters are renowned for their use of inlay (sanggam) in the decoration of ceramics. The inlay technique, possibly derived from Korean metal inlay and inlaid lacquerware, consists of incising or carving a design into the unbaked, leather-hard clay body and filling in the resulting depressions with a white or black substance to highlight the design (see images 11, 13,). Figural celadons—in the form of human figures, birds and animals (such as waterfowl, monkeys, lions, and turtles), fruits, and imaginary beasts— represent some of the finest wares dating from the peak period of Koryö celadon production.
Punch 'öngware, initially inspired by the Koryö celadon tradition, was made in the early Chosön dynasty, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The term punch'öngrefers to a stoneware made of' a grayish blue clay that is covered with white slip and then coated with

01/07/2024

hops trained younger members of their staff, who were usually selected through an examination process. Craftsmen of a humbler status worked in hereditary workshops and were trained by their seniors. I
Ceramics
The Korean peninsula is well endowed with the necessary materials to make low- and high-fired ceramics: good-quality clay and kaolin, as well as abundant supplies of wood required to fuel the kilns. While pottery was produced throughout the peninsula, the most productive and technologically advanced kilns were located in the south.
The earliest known pottery in Korea dates to about 7000 B.C. in the Neolithic period (ca. 7000—ca. 10th century B.C.). The earliest pots were handcrafted of sandy clay and fired in open or semi-open kilns at relatively low temperatures of about 7000C. These porous, unglazed wares vary in shape and decoration according to the region from which they come. For example, vessels excavated from dwelling sites north of the Taedong River, in what is now North Korea, typically have a flat bottom and minimal or no decoration, while those unearthed south of the river, commonly known as comb-pattern earth enwares (chülmun t'ogi), have a coniform or round base and are decorated with incised linear patterns (see fig. 1). Comb-pattern wares are considered the most representative type of ceramic from Korea's Neolithic period. Other, less common methods of decoration include stamping, punching, pinching, and applied relief. The advent of the Bronze Age (ca. 10th—ca. 3rd century B.C.) brought changes in the material, shape, and function of ceramic wares. Vessels from that period include both
red and black burnished wares (see image 1) and painted wares, probably produced for ritual purposes.
The technique of producing high-fired ceramics is thought to have been introduced to the peninsula from China around the end of the first millennium B.C., possibly through the Chinese commanderies in northern Korea. Within the next few centuries, an improved climbing kiln technology imported from China made it possible to achieve the higher temperatures (in excess of 10000C) needed to produce stoneware (kyöngjil t'ogi).2 NVith the exception of Chinese stoneware, the Korean stoneware of the Three Kingdoms period is the earliest known high-fired ware in the world. In contrast to the soft, low-fired earthenware (wajil t'ogi) of earlier periods, these wares have a harder and more finely textured clay body.