LAUFER, THE DECORATIVE ART OF THE AMUR TRIBES. 3 



tion of the Chinese with the Amur region and with Tungusian tribes. This art 

 was perhaps first introduced as a mere fashion, which overruled taste, then 

 gradually infused itself into the minds of the people, who in this way absorbed 

 and assimilated a part of the Chinese art, as the nations of Europe imbibed 

 classic art in the period of the Renaissance. It was due no less also to a con 

 geniality of the minds of the two peoples. At present it is hardly possible to 

 define exactly the historical relation between Chinese and East Siberian art, 

 especially since the art of China, and particularly its ornamentation, has as yet 

 been so little explored. 



We read in the annals of Chinese history that the great body of Tungusians 

 knew nothing further than the use of wooden tallies with certain rude conven 

 tional marks, which served as bonds in case of contracts ; and that then A-paou-ke, 

 the first emperor of the Liao Dynasty, employed a great number of Chinese ; and 

 they instructed him, by an adaptation of the official Chinese writing, with certain 

 additions and contractions, how to construct several thousand characters, by 

 which the engraved contract-tallies were replaced, these new forms referring to 

 the beginning of the tenth century. Although the Khitans thus early took the 

 lead, their example was not followed by their neighbors, at least not for many 

 years ; for up to the twelfth century we still find the Niiichi chiefs issuing their 

 orders by the old device of an arrow with a notch in it, while matters of urgency 

 were distinguished by three notches. On their establishment as the Kin Dynasty, 

 however, they for the first time gained a knowledge of written characters. 1 



Since writing forms a most important part of art, according to Chinese 

 views, we may conclude that the introduction of ideograms among Tungusian 

 tribes became at the same time the incentive for adopting also ornamental and 

 decorative forms. So, too, we may be sure that the ornamentation of these Tun 

 gusian tribes can have been but very poor before ; and from this point of view 

 it is still more likely that they felt themselves under the necessity of adopting 

 Chinese ornaments. From remote times the forms and figures of Chinese orna- 

 ture may have been handed down among the Amur tribes for many centuries ; 

 and thus it may even be the case that traditions regarding the meaning of cer 

 tain patterns are fuller, and have been better preserved in the minds of these 

 naive unlettered tribes than in the fast-fading memories of a writing nation. If the 

 patterns of the Amur tribes were derived from China, it is most astounding that 

 exactly corresponding devices have never before been discovered in that country, 

 nor adequate explanations obtained for related ones. It is true that we know 

 very little about Chinese ornaments ; nevertheless, from the fact that the in- 

 habitants of the Amur country have now given us the first clew to patterns of 

 apparent Chinese origin, we seem to be justified in concluding that they arc 

 founded on a better-preserved oral tradition there. Further, we may infer that 

 examples similar to those in our ornaments are necessarily still to be found in the 

 large province of Sino-Japanese art. Those Chinese and Japanese designs which 



1 Wylie, Chinese Researches, Vol. II., p. 254- 



