Wednesday 21 June 2017

A Swarm of Dragons Four MORE CHU

A Swarm of Dragons Four MORE CHU

I mentioned the CHU HAN wars and rebellions briefly last time and how close we may have come to having the first dynasty to unify most of china being called CHU rather than CHIN / QIN.

Here's some innovative CHU culture artifacts in lacquer

Note the rich colors that influenced HAN dynasty art.

But first a reminder of its location amongst the other states and realms.




Yes Black and Red Lacquer appeared in the CHU state before the Han dynasty and it would seem the CHU state lacquer workers developed polychrome lacquer first first!



Finally the first known and surviving silk scroll came from a tomb near a major CHU state city
the famous Lady with a Dragon and Phoenix!



The lasting influence of CHU culture probably strengthened Taoism within Chinese culture against the militarism of the QIN and the restored Confucianism of the HAN.

If you can access a translation of Sima Qian read about the struggles of CHU against Qin and Han.

Chinese culture modern or ancient is not a monolith.

A Final thought artifacts show that the CHU traded south and southwest with the Yue Ba Shu and other cultures. Was that a factor in the sinicization of what became Vietnam?







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