The white porcelanous figure is characterized by a handsome face with a distinguished mustache and large almond-shaped eyes beneath arched brows. He stands upright on a square plinth with canted corners dressed in a long belted robe and dignitary’s winged cap. The belt is detailed on the backside of the figure to suggest it was embellished by a series of jade plaques. The cap and heavy folds of the garment were enhanced with iron pigment to produce brown-colored details over the bright, transparent, pale greenish glaze. The official’s hands are clasped around a small coiled snake, one of the twelve signs of the Chinese zodiac.
The official here is close in style to members of a zodiacal set from Jiangxi province exhibited in Japan several decades ago (fig. 1). Further, finds at Hutian in Jingdezhen include porcelain heads and torsos in brown iron-decorated clothing figs. 2-3). The similarity of the present figure to these excavated examples suggests its provenance and origin in the Northern Song period.
The “Twelve Earthly Branches,” or houses of the zodiac were symbolized by a set sequence of animals: the rat, ox, tiger, hare, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, cock, dog and pig, which were, in a sense, the lords of time. The depiction of the actual animals as symbols of the zodiac began around the 6th century long after the concept originated. By the end of that period a hybrid creature with the body of a human and the head of the animal was created to represent each of the twelve branches. Simultaneously, images of human figures dressed in solemn ceremonial attire were created, each figure holding a zodiacal creature. This formula was precedent for the most commonly encountered Song-period representations, exemplified by finds from burials in the region of the Jingdezhen kilns where the present figure would have originated, along with eleven others to complete the lineup.
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Fig. 1: Ceramic figures from a zodiacal set, yingqing-glaze with iron painting, Northern Song period, 12th century after Chūgoku Koseisho Bunbutsu Ten (“Exhibition of Chinese Treasures from Jiangxi Province”), Gifu, 1988, no. 58, p. 67 (detail).
Fig. 2: Yingqing porcelain heads, excavated at Hutian in Jingdezhen, Northern Song period, 12th century, after Jingdezhen Hutian yaozhi II (report on excavations from 1988 to 1999), color plate 142.
Fig 3: The torso of a porcelain standing figure with iron brown detailing on the robe, excavated at Hutian in Jingdezhen, Northern Song period, 12th century, after Jingdezhen Hutian yaozhi II (report on excavations from 1988 to 1999), color plate. 150, fig. 1.
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