Tomb Treasures Provide Insight Into An Ancient Chinese Society

---------- Art review

"Imperial Tombs of China," through Sept. 15 at Portland Art Museum, 1219 S.W. Park Ave.; 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily (last entry at 8 p.m.). $12 adults, $10 seniors/students (under 16), $5 youth (16 and under), $7.50 members; special rates available to groups of 20 or more. Tickets, issued for specific dates and times, available through TicketMaster (503) 790-ARTS. -----------------------------------------------------------------

PORTLAND - The "Imperial Tombs of China" are everywhere in Portland.

From the Fred Meyer shopping bags publicizing the exhibition, to Nordstrom display windows featuring vaguely Asian-looking outfits, to "Imperial Tombs of China" chocolate bars and lollipops, the Portland Art Museum's exhibition of Chinese imperial tomb treasures is riding the publicity juggernaut.

So does the exhibition itself live up to the hype?

Yes. And no.

With 250-some objects spanning 25 centuries of Chinese history, the exhibition admirably achieves its stated goals of conveying the Chinese fascination with death and the afterlife, and the importance of imperial patronage in the creation of these art objects. The quality of the objects is excellent. And the exhibition itself is well thought out and well executed, from traffic flow to chronology, audio tape to lighting.

But the exhibition is smaller than one would expect, given the hype. And the small number of objects reflecting some of the later

dynasties makes the centuries rush by in a blur.

Nevertheless, the objects themselves are fascinating - both for their artistic beauty and for what they tell us about ancient Chinese culture.

The most interesting - and uniformly excellent - rooms are the ones featuring ancient bronze vessels from the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C.). These treasures - excavated from the tombs of Marquis Yi of Zeng and King Cuo of Zhongshan - are striking in their craftsmanship. There's a marvelous simplicity of line in most of the objects, coupled with elaborately intricate carvings and inlays.

The first arresting object in the exhibition is a 700-pound, 4-foot-tall bronze wine vat. This vat was buried, along with hundreds of other objects, and the bodies of 21 women, thought to have been Marquis Yi's wives, concubines or servant girls, executed to accompany the Marquis into the afterlife.

The Chinese believed that humans became two spirit entities upon death. One of the entities ascended into heaven. The other remained with the body, the tomb its eternal home. Life in the afterworld was thought to be similar to life in this one; the spirit would have need of food, shelter and riches, just as he did in his earthly life.

Thus, ancient rulers were buried with the things they would need in the afterlife - wine vessels, bowls, spoons, jewelry and servants, executed and buried with their masters. (In later centuries, the Chinese came to believe that replicas of humans or buildings would serve the same function.) Ancient rulers often spent much of their lives and their treasury (not to mention countless hours of labor by artisans) preparing their tombs.

Attention to detail

All this is reflected in the objects on display here. A bronze wine container and cooling tray, for instance - decorated with a rococo explosion of Medusa-like coiling serpents and dragons - were each formed from more than 30 separate pieces.

The highlight from the Tomb of King Cuo of Zhongshan is a pair of large, three-pronged bronze standards, green from 2,000 years of oxidation. Most likely mounted on wooden poles and carried by guards in a procession, the standards are simple, bold, striking.

The next room houses the exhibition's "mascot" - the terra cotta warriors from the tomb of China's first emperor. When Emperor Qinshihuang, who united China, died in 210 B.C., he had buried with him 8,000 terra cotta soldiers, chariots and horses. More than 700,000 artisans worked on this terra cotta army; construction of the tomb cost one-third of the national treasury at the time.

The exhibition has four of these soldiers and one horse. They're displayed well, with lighting and background hinting at the immensity of the underground army. Viewers can also get fairly close to examine the warriors (unlike much of the rest of the exhibition, the terra cotta figures are not enclosed in glass). Up close, the marvelous detail of the soldiers becomes apparent - from the uniforms showing ranks, to the different facial expressions and body positions. None of the 8,000 terra cotta figures is the same.

The next rooms house treasures from the Han Dynasty, a period of expansion and prosperity. Here, one can see artistic growth as well in the delicate, cunningly crafted miniature bronze processions of chariots, figurines, horses; and in the architectural details of pottery replicas of buildings.

A jade burial suit - made of 2,007 pieces of jade sewn together with two pounds of gold thread - lies like a corpse in a glass case. Jade was believed to have the ability to preserve the body. More remarkable even than the suit itself, perhaps, is the realization of the work that went into it: A team of artisans worked more than 100,000 days to produce a single such jade suit.

The Tang Dynasty is represented by some pottery figurines: multi-color-glazed, fearsome tomb guardians; plump, serene-looking aristocratic beauties; animals from the Chinese zodiac. Also included are some gold and silver objects, and a Buddhist reliquary set - indicative of the growth of Buddhism at the time. Unfortunately, the objects here don't come close to even hinting at the great cultural and artistic accomplishments for which this dynasty was famous.

The small number of objects in the Ming Treasury also doesn't do justice to the era. It does, however, offer a glimpse of the gaudy, over-ripe aesthetic of the time (a blue, red and gold concoction of a crown, dripping with 2,000-plus pearls, 100 rubies and sapphires and three gold filigree dragons, is a prime example).

The exhibition ends with a replica of a throne room from China's last dynasty, the Qing. An ornate, gold-lacquer throne with dragons coiling around the back stands in front of a gold-lacquer, seven-panel screen. Two elaborate blue-and-gold braziers, two columns used to burn incense, and two stork-shaped candle holders stand to each side of the throne. To the front sits a red-lacquer spittoon and white jade scepter. If the lights in the room were dimmed a bit, one could imagine an emperor sitting on the throne, tendrils of incense swirling, the whole empire imploding upon itself in a fit of excess, dissoluteless and discord.

A desire for more

It is, perhaps, a tribute to the smooth execution of the exhibition that one wishes the whole thing were bigger. Up to the Han Dynasty, the objects chosen and the wall labels and audio tour form a coherent story. After that, the objects seem a little more haphazardly chosen, the context glossed over a bit more. That may be a function of there simply being more art objects to choose from in latter centuries; if so, one wishes more were shown here.

A 45-minute audio tour (in adult and child versions) is included with admission. The tapes are very good - once one gets past the introductory sponsor speech and settles in to the pace of the speaker. They provide much-needed context for the pieces and supplement the wall labels nicely. Printed scripts are available for the hearing impaired. Plan on spending an hour and a half at the exhibition.

In conjunction with "Imperial Tombs," the museum also has a good exhibition titled "Contemporary Printmakers from China." It's well worth seeing for the variety of prints: from the Socialist Realism of the Mao Zedong era, to today's prints - some abstract, some surreal, some figurative; others based on themes or traditional Chinese symbols.

Just as the tomb treasures teach much about ancient Chinese society, so too do these contemporary prints tell us about Chinese culture today. ----------------------------------------------------------------- What you'll see in `Imperial Tombs'

The objects in "Imperial Tombs of China" are arranged chronologically in eight groupings. Here are highlights of what you'll see in each:

-- Marquis Yi of Zeng (approximately 433 B.C.): bronze vessels

-- King Cuo of Zhongshan (approximately 320-308 B.C.): bronze standards, stands, vessels

-- First Emperor of Qin (246-210 B.C.): terra-cotta warriors and horse

-- Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.): bronze figurines, pottery figurines and miniature buildings, bronze and gold animal figures

-- Prince Liu Sui (approximately 39 B.C.): jade burial suit, gold burial mask

-- Tang Dynasty (618-906): pottery figurines, tomb guardians, silver and gold objects, Buddhist reliquary set

-- Ming Treasury (1368-1644): phoenix-and-dragon crown, jade objects, porcelain; gilt bronze miniature pagoda

-- Qing Throne Room (1644-1911): replica of throne room, imperial robes