Figurine

Museum number:

9-7525

Permalink:

ark:/21549/hm21090007525

Alternate number:

3-219 (original number), 4-381 (original number), and 5-359 (original number)

Accession number:

Acc.2384

Description:

Figurine: man standing. He has huge eyes, beard, and carries a disc.

Donor:

Estate of Geraldine C. and Kernan Robson

Collection place:

Japan

Collector:

Geraldine C. Robson

Collection date:

before 1940

Materials:

Ivory (material)

Object type:

ethnography

Object class:

Figurines

Function:

5.7 Objects made for sale, souvenirs, models, and reproductions

Accession date:

1968

Department:

Asia (except western Russia)

Dimensions:

ca.— height 20.4 centimeters

Comment:

Made by men. Per Robeson Accession File: Very large ivory carving of a supernatural being with great eyes and a beard, standing and holding a disc. [the person writing this is now talking about the symbol on said disc] The famous Yang and Yin principal, the backbone of the Chinese cult. Yin and Yang are the negative and positive principals of Universal life, and are pictured by the symbol which is a diagram of an egg, the dark and light distinguishing the two principals. Yang: Sun, heaven, light, vigor. Penetration; the male principal. Symbolized by a dragon and is associated with the azure color, and the odds in numbers. Yin, standing for the earth, moon, darkness, absorption, quiescence, the female principle. Symbolized by the tiger and associated with orange colors, and even numbers. Valleys and streams posses the Yin qualities. The celestial principle or the soul of the Universe. T'ien Li. Li first existed, compiled with the immaterial principle, Ch'i or vapor, then came primary matter, which accumulated and constituted substance (or the qualities of matter). Chih, from which all creation evolved. The great Monad or Extreme, the first cause T'ai (being contained in the immaterial principle, C'hi) moved and produced the Yang, the superior male principle of nature. Then it rested and produced the Yin, the inferior or female principle of nature. Stagnation, futility, malevolence, frustration. When the pure male was diluted it formed the Heavens, while the dark and heavy Yin coagulated and formed the Earth. The Yin and Yang together constitute the Tao, the eternal principle of heaven and earth, the origin of all things human and divine. From all eternity was Tao, the cause, the reason, the way that cannot be walked, the name that cannot be named, the Unknowable. It is the philosophy of nature. Yang and Yin probably enter Chinese life around the Chou dynasty circa 1100 BC. Tradition gives the authorship of the older portions to Wen Wang and Chou Kung. and that it was done while Wen Wang was a political prisoner and in voluntary exile. It assigned the appendices to Confucius. Through the interaction of the Yin and the Yang sprang the five elements, which [the] Chinese believed composed the physical wile: fire, water, earth, wood, and metal. Chu Hsi was dedicated to the cognitation [sic] of all these principles. Strong and good men are full of Yang. Officials are supposed to embody Yang. Firecrackers and gongs, the cock, and the peach, the earliest trees to bloom in the spring, under the impulse of the returning sun are all of the Yang retinue.

Loans:

S1968-1969 #4: University of California, Berkeley (July 2, 1968–May 3, 1973)

Images:

Legacy documentation: