VOLUME ONE


I was fortunate to be offered by a Hong Kong dealer two tea chests containing an unknown quantity of images from China with no inkling of their possible provenance, their identities or their quality; the dealer later admitted that he had understood the images within the chests had lain n a warehouse somewhere in Hunan province since 1949 or 1950. When the chests were opened some fifty or so images were revealed. This was in August 1977. The majority of images had had the cavities or niches in the centre of their backs forced open and their consecration slips[1] removed, and have, therefore, remained unidentified with their place of origin and other details lost forever. The relatively few images which still had their consecration slips within caches in the backs indicated that they had mainly originated in Hunan province. From this we can probably assume that the great majority must have originated from Hunan and the neighbouring counties in the central Chinese provinces of Jiangxi and Guangxi. Since then other images and smaller consignments of images from Hunan have been added to the collection providing a total today of 110 images originating or possibly originating from Hunan and immediately adjacent provinces.

The images were all carved wooden statues which fell into three categories, celestial deities, parents or grandparents and religious masters, all of which had been consecrated prior to being placed on temple or household domestic altars by donors. A few have been over-painted with modern chemical paint, whilst the rest had been decorated with either polychrome vegetable paint or had been so badly weathered in south and central China’s tropical climate conditions leaving little or none of their original decoration.

Celestial deities consist of mythical, legendary and deified heroes and worthies. Many are revered China-wide with a few worshipped within the three provinces or even more locally, within the county or small community.

Parents and grandparents are revered within the family or clan, and religious masters, who may also be parents or grandparents, can be exorcist masters or simply ancestral images who may have been or were regarded as religious masters.

It is of interest to note that several forms of religious master images have been perceived from their physical attributes, which are almost identical, suggesting that the carvers possessed a ‘handbook’ from which donors could order the image they required. Daoist religious masters may perhaps be identified by the small cup-shaped bowl containing lustral water which they hold in their left hand whilst in their raised right hand they clutch a Thunder Block, used to expel evil spirits although most of the few Consecration slips from these images make no reference to Religious Masters.

Out of the total of 110 images there are 70 deities (gods and goddesses), four aides to deities, 30 Ancestral and 6 Religious Masters ancestral images. Consecration slips have located the origins of 17 of the 36 ancestral and religious masters, with other mutilated or otherwise limited Consecration slips failing to provide information of much or any value.

It is fascinating to contemplate each image individually as they all have a tale to tell. A number, those with their Consecration slips, can provide a mental picture of where and when the image was carved, and often for whom and who the donor or commissioner of the image was.. by name but not by profession or trade.

A number of these images may not be Han Chinese but religious figures from minority ethnic groups, primarily Yao and Miao. These cannot easily be identified though from experience we know that no Han Chinese deity is portrayed as a warrior standing on the back of his horse (Image 1088).

A few of the ancestral images portraying parents or grandparents, and also some of the religious masters has been carefully carved in what appear to be portrait images. Do note that a China-wide characteristic identifying a parent or ancestor is the pose of the person in question – seated with his legs slightly apart and the out layers of robes are pulled apart revealing the under robes. Deities have their robes fastened and closed. (for good examples see Images 597 and 1030)

A number of consecration slips provide a precise location of the altar or temple where the images stood, with the date of consecration and details of the commissioning party or parties. They also provide the name of the parent or grandparent and occasionally the name of the carver.

Consecration slips, fu 符, are usually hand written though they can be a printed format. The written ones vary considerably depending upon the literacy of the writer. Some have proved difficult to decipher, others have used a character what would appear to have been an incorrect character.

Consecration or dedication slips have been invaluable, providing as they do, details of the deity or ancestor(s) to whom these images are dedicated. These in general have been prepared and written by the ritual master, sometimes known as exorcist masters, shamans and even simply Daoist priests – they are not necessarily educated men. It does have to be borne in mind that there has always been the possibility during the shipping of the images from their storage in mainland China to the point of sale outside China, that the slips, having been removed by one of the Chinese dealers for whatever reason, have been replaced in images other than their original location. It was disappointing to be told by the final dealer in Hong Kong that in the early days of the ability to export such images during the mid-1970s, that when he had paid for the images and their shipment out to Hong Kong with sacks of cement rather than cash, he had removed and destroyed the slips from most of the images to prevent information getting back to the Chinese authorities in Hunan who could then have penalised the original dealers in that province.

Consecration or dedication slips within Chinese religious statuary are not usual and most have tended to have been found within images from Central China, in a few instances from Fujian province and from Eastern China though many Buddhist statues China-wide have similar cavities in their backs which contain scriptures or, in some cases, semi-precious stones. There have been individual cases of ancestral images from Fujian province, usually of important clan members whose images were the centre piece on clan ancestral altars, all having empty cavities in their back, which can be very disappointing.

Consecration slips usually reveal the name of the deity, parent or religious master; the name(s) of whoever commissioned the statue; the date of consecration and location where the statue was installed; and finally, a written talisman beseeching and welcoming the spirit to enter the statue. The surname of the donor(s) and that of the spirit of the image are occasionally the same, with details of the lineage and reason for the consecration being included.

A rough analysis of the places of origin of images taken from consecration slips reveals that there are certain focal points which may be no more than indicating the areas from which the images had been collected and stored in the tea chests. Also, several of consecration slips also revealed that a few images came from areas in Hunan’s two neighbouring provinces but within a relatively short distance from the Hunanese border.

The contents of the caches have varied from simply the consecration slip and possibly one other item, to a collection of items consisting of what would have been exotica in Central China such as dried sea horses, to items of minor value such as a low denomination coin or more usually coloured coils of cotton, tiny slivers of mica, very short pieces of thin lead tubing all representing parts of the viscera. Occasionally the remains of a dried insect had been included which we understand from Daoist priests to have been a live when enclosed to allow the life of the insect to be incorporated into the new image.

Provenance and authenticity provided here may not provide a clear picture. This is not to say that every effort has been made to clarify the background. Also, possibly of use in the future, we have included the place and date of acquisition, as well as the cost in sterling paid for the image at the time.

In Fujianese communities it is frequently possible to identify the actual carving establishment where individual images were carved. The usual outstanding characteristic is the pattern painted on the socle, (the front face of the base of the statue) and whilst this is not necessarily so in Hunan there is a distinct possibility that the unique carving of the socle of some statues from Anhua, Ningxiang, Xiangtan and perhaps Baoqing (Wugang) indicates an individual carving establishment in one of these towns having their own ‘trademark’. Bearing in mind the extreme paucity of examples the theory that there might be a localised ‘trade mark’ should be viewed with great reserve.

It has been disappointing to find no definitive patterns in decoration, carving or painting of socles from the limited number of examples to hand, a mere thirty-six out of the total of images in the collections from Hunan and the counties in the neighbouring provinces.



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[1] Some of these slips are headed Visceral Declaration 臟述