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Ancient Flasks: Chinese Bianhu Flasks

Chinese bianhu flasks (Chinese: 扁壺), also known as "flat vases" or "shoulder flasks," are a type of ceramic vessel that originated in ancient China. They were primarily produced during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) and were commonly used for storing and pouring liquids such as wine or oil.

Bianhu flasks are characterized by their flattened oval shape, resembling a pear or a gourd. They have a wide, flat body with sloping shoulders and a narrow neck. The mouth of the flask is typically small and may be fitted with a stopper or a lid. These flasks were often decorated with intricate patterns, motifs, and inscriptions, showcasing the artistic skills of the craftsmen.

One notable feature of bianhu flasks is the presence of lotus-shaped supports on their bases. These supports resemble the petals of a lotus flower and provide stability to the flask when it is placed on a flat surface. The lotus motif is significant in Chinese culture, symbolizing purity, enlightenment, and rebirth.

Bianhu flasks were not only functional vessels but also held cultural and symbolic importance. They were often used as prestigious items for ceremonial purposes and were sometimes buried in tombs as funerary objects.

Today, surviving examples of bianhu flasks provide valuable insights into the art, craftsmanship, and cultural practices of ancient China. They are highly regarded as artistic and historical treasures, representing the creativity and skill of Chinese ceramic artisans during the Tang Dynasty.

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head of a ram (pendant) | c. 1400s-1600s | owo kingdom (modern day nigeria)

in the nelson-atkins museum of art collection

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Hes about to hit a MEAN juggle combo with that right hand reeled back..TOD

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The Nahuatl word tlamatini (literally, "he who knows things") meant something akin to "thinker-teacher"--a philosopher, if you will... Many tlamatinime (the plural form of the word) taught at the elite academies that trained the next generation of priests, teachers, and high administrators...

In Nahuatl rhetoric, things were frequently represented by the unusual device of naming two of their elements—a kind of doubled Homeric epithet. Instead of directly mentioning his body, a poet might refer to “my hand, my foot” (noma nocxi), which the savvy listener would know was a synecdoche, in the same way that readers of English know that writers who mention “the crown” are actually talking about the entire monarch, not just the headgear. Similarly, the poet’s speech would be “his words, his breath” (itlatol ihiyo). A double-barreled term for “truth” is neltilitztli tzintliztli, which means something like “fundamental truth, true basic principle.” In Nahuatl, the words almost shimmer with connotation: what was true was well grounded, stable and immutable, enduring above all.

Because we human beings are transitory, our lives as ephemeral as dreams, the tlamatinime suggested that immutable truth is by its nature beyond human experience. On the ever-changing earth, wrote León-Portilla, the Mexican historian, "nothing is 'true' in the Nahuatl sense of the word." Time and again, the tlamatinime wrestled with this dilemma. How can beings of the moment grasp the perduring? It would be like asking a stone to understand mortality.

According to León-Portilla, one exit from this philosophical blind alley was seen by the fifteenth-century poet Ayocuan Cuetzpaltzin, who described it metaphorically, as poets will, by invoking the coyolli bird, known for its bell-like song:

He goes his way singing, offering flowers.

And his words rain down

Like jade and quetzal plumes.

Is this what pleases the Giver of Life?

Is that the only truth on earth?

Ayocuan's remarks cannot be fully understood out of the Nahuatl context, León-Portilla argued. "Flowers and song" was a standard double epithet for poetry, the highest art; "jade and quetzal feathers" was a synecdoche for great value, in the way that Europeans might refer to "gold and silver." The song of the bird, spontaneously produced, stands for aesthetic inspiration. Ayocuan was suggesting, León-Portilla said, that there is a time when humankind can touch the enduring truths that underline our fleeting lives. That time is at the moment of artistic creation. "From whence come the flowers [the artistic creations] that enrapture man?" asks the poet. "The songs that intoxicate, the lovely songs?" And he answers: "Only from His [that is, Ometeotl's] home do they come, from the innermost part of heaven." Through art alone, the Mexica said, can human beings approach the real.

-Charles C. Mann, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus.

Ink stone in the form of a turtle, China, 6th-7th century

from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Eurylocus: I opened the windbag when you were asleep…

Odysseus: shh he doesn’t know I know this hack

Odysseus: Eurylochus, light up six torches