Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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Images from ancient divinationfront

© the artist

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Images from ancient divination

  • loan

  • Description

    The images depict turtle plastrons, or shells, which were used for divination in the Shang dynasty (c.1600-1050 BC). The shells were used in the same way as the bones of sheep or ox scapulae that can be seen in the gallery China 3000 BC-AD 800. Holes were drilled, and a question or comment was inscribed to one side. A hot needle applied to the hole resulted in cracks that were then interpreted as answers to the questions. The forms of characters incised on the Shang oracle bones are the earliest systematic script in China.

  • Details

    show all
    Associated place
    Asia › China › Hong Kong (place of creation)
    Date
    1968
    Artist/maker
    Zhang Yi (born 1936) (artist)
    Zhang Yi (born 1936) (calligrapher)
    Material and technique
    ink and colour on paper
    Dimensions
    page 27 x 19 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    processed material › paper
    Technique index
    decorated › painted,
    painted,
    covered › coated › painted,
    marked › painted,
    drawn (image) › line drawing › brush drawing,
    more
    Object type index
    visual representation › album,
    visual representation › painting,
    visual representation › calligraphy
    No. of items
    n/a
    Credit line
    On loan from the Khoan and Michael Sullivan Collection.
    Accession no.
    LI1109.6.a

  • Further reading

    Sullivan, Michael, Modern Chinese Art: The Khoan and Michael Sullivan Collection, revised edn (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2009), no. 1 on p. 32, illus. p. 33

    Sullivan, Michael, Art and Artists of Twentieth Century China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), pl. 53

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

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