Resources

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JADE
SNUFF BOTTLE
KINGFISHER
CLOISONNE
CANTON ENAMEL
PEKING GLASS

Depicted on several objects of Chinese art are subject matter that have meaning:

Boats in water imply smooth sailing.

Cranes suggest health, relaxation and longevity.

A dragon and phoenix rejoicing represents the ultimate union referencing mating and harmony.

Fish, pronounced yu in Chinese, implies fertility, bounty or plentifulness.

Lotus, pronounced he, implies harmony. Lotus can also be interpreted as lian, implying continuous.

Monkey, pronounced hou in Chinese, implies conferred nobility. Peaches imply very long life.

When a fish and lotus are combined, they mean plentiful wealth and fortune year after year.

Chang Lin-sheng, “The Formation of the Collection of the National Palace Museum,” Orientations 26, no. 9 (October 1995): 50-57.

Hevia, James. “Looting Beijing: 1860, 1900.” In Tokens of Exchange.   Ed. Lydia Liu, pages 192-213.   Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999. (e-reserve)

Raymond Dragan, “The Dragon in Chinese Myth and Ritual: Rites of Passage and Sympathetic Magic” in Julia Ching & R.W.L. Guisso ( eds. ) , Sages and Filial Sons: Mythology and Archaeology in Ancient China , pp.135-162.

Chinese art: a guide to motifs and visual imagery‬ By Patricia Bjaaland Welch

Dictionary of Chinese Symbols by Wolfram Eberhard.

Symbolism in Ancient Chinese Art by Hugo Munsterberg.

The Arts of China (Fourth edition, expanded and revised) by Michael Sullivan, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1999.

Chinese Art by Mary Tregear ISBN #: 0500202990

Chinese Art in Detail by Carol Michaelson and Jane Portal ISBN#: 0674023897

History of East Asian Art by Sherman E. Lee ISBN #: 0131830635

The Odyssey of China’s Imperial Art Treasures by Shambaugh Elliott, Jeannette, with David Shambaugh.  Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2005, 56-92. (PDF)

Treasures from the Bronze Age of China by Wen Fong

Kingfisher Blue: Treasures of an Ancient Chinese Art by Beverly Jackson

Chinese Art and Culture by Robert Thorp and Richard Vinograd

http://library.ciis.edu/resources/asianartmuseum.asp

http://www.chinese-art.com/newsletters/trad073100.htm

http://www.asianartnewspaper.com/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/g-roger-denson/china-now-1-earner-in-art_b_838066.html

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Newsfeed/Article/128467482/201103191117/Shock-Wave-Through-the-Art-MarketChina-now-Ranks-First-Ahead-of-the-USA-and-the-UK.aspx