Question about very large Korean bows.(More like Qing bows)

[Stephen Selby]

A word about the name "red bow" (彤弓) . This is a loanword from Chinese into Korean. It is the word used in the Chinese classics (and even bronze vessel inscriptions) from the Western Zhou dynasty to describe a bow bestowed by the King as a gift to a lord. The word simply meant 'red lacquer' (not 'cinnabar') in those times. The king would regularly bestow one red bow and 100 black arrows. The word subsequently became used to denote ' bow of the best quality'.

I have no doubt that the bows in the photographs are Manchu bows from the Qing Dynasty. It is quite possible that they were presents from the Qing Emperor to the Korean ruling house.

Alternatively they may have been heavy bows for the military examination (i.e. for displaying strength and not for shooting.)

[Peter Dekker]

Hi,

Thanks for that. Indeed the word used for cinnabar red in the texts I mentioned is 朱, used alongside 紅 to distinguish it from regular red.

The top bow most certainly appears Chinese-made, second half of the 18th century. (Slender ears, no use of ray-skin, relatively simple, understated design.) The bottom is so far gone that it's hard to tell, I share Stephen's hunch that it might be a strength tester.

The Young Yip museum also has some excellent bows, some rather early and rare that can't be found anywhere else anymore. Some of these are probably in Korea for quite a while, some perhaps as early as the late 17th century. One of these early features are bone plates on either side of the handle.

-Peter

[jack farrell]

When one sees red lacquer, for instance from an imperial workshop piece; what is that pigment?

And on a Japanese red lacquered bow; what is that pigment?

Stephen; when you say lacquer do you mean urushi? Poison sumac base lacquer?

[Peter Dekker]

Hi Jack,

To be honest, I am not sure. We are lucky that Qianlong was quite keen on having all his posessions and those of his ancestors carefully cataloged, but at the same time we should be cautious because species of plants and animals as well as minerals were not as clearly differentiated as they are today. To name a few examples: Today's word for ruby for may have been about any randon translucent red stone during the Qing. What today is dark green "shiqing", used to be dark blue, and what is called a yellow goat (huangyang) is actually a species of gazelle.

Texts describing items differentiate between things being painted and lacquered, and between red and vermillion. The word used for lacquered is 漆, the same that describes the Urushi tree. When Jaap Koppedrayer visited me he was positive that the lacquer on one of my Chinese bows was also urushi, so that's at least confirmed.

The pigment seen between the feathers of 18th cent. arrows is indeed the typical orange-red of vermillion. It is not shiny on most arrows (save for those for the stag hunt), so likely applied in a way other than lacquering. But to answer your question, it does seem to be actual cinnabar.

Most of what I know is restricted to the Qing, though. For no other period do we have such a wealth of textual references paired with remaining examples.

-Peter

[Stephen Selby]

By understanding is that the word 'lacquer' denotes two different things:

The first is urushi and its chemical imitators. (= Shensi lacquer). This is a vegetable product (allergenic, as you say) which polymerizes on contact with moisture. Basically the more contact with moisture, the harder/more moisture-resistant it gets. The product is normally applied unrefined in a spirit base and is honey-coloured/transparent.

The second is Indian lacquer. This is a dye made from the crushed carapaces of very small insects that congregate (Hindi 'lakh='myriads') on a lacquer tree. The ground shells are scarlet and are used as a dye.

The former coloured with the latter created the familiar dull-red of Chinese classic lacquer ware. Other colourings used were ochre (dull yellow), copper sulphate (blue-green) and black. Indian lacquer may have been indigenous to central China in the Shang and Zhou times, when the climate was warmer. Some Shang and Zhou lacquer has survived (I saw a newly-excavated Zhou chariot wheel last week.) In later times it was probably imported.

[Peter Dekker]

Thanks Stephen, that is clarifying.

I've doe some further reading and it appears that the "lac" bug is still indigenous to China so it's likely to also have been produced there in later times also.

As for the red commonly found on lacquerware, much lacquerware is described as "cinnabar lacquer". Do you know how to differentiate cinnabar and shellac red?

The chariot wheel sounds like an interesting find!

-Peter

[Stephen Selby]

I don't know how to differentiate the two. But does 'cinnabar red' red really mean that it is made by mixing cinnabar, or is it just a colour term for 'red'? Despite the early experimentations of the Daoist mystics, it has always been generally understood that cinnabar is highly toxic. I can't see how it would have got into the production chain of a major industry like lacquer ware.

[Peter Dekker]

I don't think we should dismiss its widespread use because it was poisonous. The use of poisonous pigments was widespread all over the world until fairly recently. (Hence the phrase "mad as a hatter")

Another highly toxic color is the arsenic "parisian green", which colors the green ray-skin we find on Chinese bows and sword scabbards. Some hilt wrapping cords were also this color. It was known in China and Europe, its use was abandoned in Europe as late as the 60's. Today it serves as rodent poison.

The tiangong kaiwu described the vermillion winning industry and mentions the use of vermillion for lacquerware. It states that when mixed with lacquer alone it will be dull red and when mixed along with tung oil it will be bright red. Ink sticks were also made for use by imperial and aristocratic painters. The emperor wrote all his communication with it as well.

From this I tend to believe that what was called vermillion 朱, was in fact vermillion and that other red colors went by the name 紅, or 髤 when speaking of the scarlet red of the lac bug.

-Peter

[jack farrell]

I will just speak from my own experiences doing finishing.

Lac is supposed to be mucilage of a bug deposited on and collected from tree branches in India. It comes in dry flakes and already prepared and is known as orange shellac after its transparent light orange color, very light color. Some folks in Qinghai recently told me that it is used as a universal finish coat in the furniture restoration business there.

Shellac is not so durable, can be easily scratched with the thumb nail and no matter how old it is, can be dissolved or reconstituted with alcohol. It crawls on the surface of furniture and successive coats bunch up in places and turn dark, even black; but can be easily reconstituted with alcohol.

Decades ago I was able to buy urushi in black and oxblood from a fish pole supplier at the sword collector show. It was supposed to also include some additives and came in tubes like toothpaste; was frighteningly expensive. It would easily combine with oil base type products like oil stain and oil base paints.

To a lesser degree it would combine with water base products. The greater the amount of additive, the less hard was the surface.

In a mostly pure form the finish coat was like the plastic surface of a counter top; which is to say almost indestructible and rejected any later attempt to dissolve.

Urushi has its own rules for application and the product is most interesting that way. It coated a prepared bamboo arrowshaft in the most marvelous way. Those who enjoy wailing about the expense of bamboo arrows will move on to a new degree of discomfort when they try urushi. -j-