Dian Kingdom

A Bronze Age culture and barbarian kingdom in southwest China centered on Lake Dian in Yunnan province. According to Chinese sources, the Dian royal house traced its descent from a Chu general who invaded Yunnan in the late 4th century BC and remained to rule the local tribes. In 109 BC, Dian surrendered to Han armies; a generation later the kingdom was destroyed after a revolt. The highly distinctive culture is known mainly from cemetery sites, especially Shizhaishan where the burials date from the Han occupation. Earlier burials of the period c 600-300 BC have been excavated at Dapona and Wanjiaba. Many of the objects unearthed at Shizhaishan were imports from China: coins, mirrors, belt hooks, silk, crossbow mechanisms, and a gold seal from the Han court that reads 'Seal of the King of Dian'. Other finds seem to be local adaptations of prototypes originating in the state of Chu. There was active trade with the southern Zhou states of Shu and Ba before the Han Dynasty.

A barbarian kingdom in southwest China centred on Lake Dian in Yunnan province. According to Chinese sources the Dian royal house traced its descent from a Chu general who invaded Yunnan in the late 4th century bc and remained to rule the local tribes. In 109 bc Dian surrendered to Han armies and the Dian king was enrolled as a Han vassal. A generation later the kingdom was destroyed after a revolt. The highly distinctive culture of the Dian kingdom is known mainly from cemetery sites excavated since 1955 near Lake Dian. Of these the richest is Shizhaishan in the Jinning district, where the burials date from the Han occupation (2nd-1st centuries bc). Earlier burials of the period c600-300 bc have been excavated at Dapona and Wanjiaba. Many of the objects unearthed at Shizhaishan were imports from China: coins, mirrors, belt hooks, silk, crossbow mechanisms, and a gold seal, the gift of the Han court, that reads ‘Seal of the King of Dian’. Other finds, such as lacquer coffins and eccentric ge blades, seem to represent local adaptations of prototypes originating in the state of Chu, the likely source also of certain ornamental motifs (e.g. combinations of birds and snakes). Chu and Sichuan were the intermediaries by which influences reached Dian not only from Chinese civilization but also from the northern steppes. Dian bronze plaques copying Animal Style models show the animalcombat motif in the most animated and realistic versions known in the full range of Animal Style art and indeed in the entire history of this very ancient motif. The vivid narrative art and mastery of lost-wax casting (see cire perdue) seen in these plaques are the salient features of Dian material culture. Both are illustrated again in the characteristic drum-shaped containers for cowrie shells found regularly in Dian burials. Threedimensional figures grouped on the tops of these containers portray scenes of ritual, war and daily life with a lively movement and enthusiasm for realistic detail unmatched in contemporary Chinese art. Prominent in nearly all the scenes are bronze drums, the same drums that the cowrie containers themselves imitate. Similar in shape to the chunyu bells of Sichuan, the Dian drums are regarded by many scholars as prototypes of those found in neighbouring Guangxi province and in Vietnam, where they are the defining artefact of the Dong-son culture. See bells (China), drums (China).