The recently-opened exhibition at Hong Kong’s Palace Museum, “The Origins of Chinese Civilisation”, has a serious purpose, but one suspects that most visitors focus on the objects, as well they might.
The exhibition opens with a stunning fourth millennium BCE jade dragon from the Hongshan culture, which was situated in northeastern China. While its purpose, one surmises, was ritual to at least some extent, little about it seems to be known: we are left to wonder at its beauty, stylish design—it could almost be modern—and the skill of its execution.
Other unmissable exhibits include similarly mysterious carved jade congs (a straight tube of variable height with a circular bore and square outer section), a Lingjiatan stone ax from about 3500 BCE (the simplicity and workmanship of which could land it an museum of modern art), jade disks, a ring with an incised cicada, a ceramic drum and a stone relief with tigers and a human face, all of which are very ancient, ca 2000 BCE or earlier, and prior to the advent of bronze in China.
The exhibition also includes some ceramics and later bronzes in forms that are likely to be more familiar to museum goers.
It is often said that China has 5000 years of civilization; it is clear from the title that while the phrase never appears, the curators of the exhibition had something like this in mind. “Civilization” it itself a constructed concept, one subject to definition—something discussed in the text that accompanies the exhibits—but is hard to look at these objects, some of which are older than 5000 years, and not conclude that something civilized was going on.
Definitions and paradigms aside, this early period of Chinese history is rather murky; even when there is historiography, it dates from centuries if not millennia later. In a great many cases, it is not (yet) possible to match cultures and their large and sophisticated sites to anything historical. Only the most well-read visitors will likely be familiar with Hongshan, Liangzhu, Dawenkou, Taosi and other cultures whose artifacts are displayed here. Many lacunae remain and although we are still looking at this long and fascinating period period through a glass darkly, “The Origins of Chinese Civilisation” elucidates, as well as making it clear how much there is still left to discover and understand.