Art of China, Korea, and Japan [antikvár]

Foreword This book cannot pretend to be more than a very general introduction to a vast subject — an ABC so to speak of three great civilizations of east Asia. It attempts to outline nearly 3,500 years of history and the arts produced by a huge area of the world — an area which now supports well over 700 million people. It is obviously impossible to do more than present the main lines of the developments of these cultures and their arts. In fixing our gaze on the wood we shall inevitably miss a number of individual trees. If the book achieves the aim of every good introduction to a subject it will encourage some readers to look more closely and more deeply through the wealth of material now available in books and museums. China, Japan and Korea have much in common for they have long been dominated by the cultural power of China. The relative isolation of this huge area from the rest of Asia and the West has contributed greatly to its individuality and its cohesion. It has also set up the kind of tensions which inevitably arise in such a closely knit group. These countries are in a sense a family like the Scandinavians but writ very much larger and with greater differences. China has been the fountain head of all Far Eastern cultures, and over the centuries Chinese armies have carried its influence over much of the East. Only Japan, protected by a relatively narrow strip of sea, much like the English Channel, and by the vigour of its fighting men, has been able to resist China's armies at all periods. However, this did not prevent her being enthralled by Chinese achievements. With the rise and fall of Chinese power so the cultural im-