Networks and Monumentality in the Pacific ed. by Aymeric Hermann et al. (review)

earliest rock-cut tomb in the kingdom of Liang because it provided only one room for the burial and the offerings. The mural paintings divided this room in two halves, with the murals mainly functioning to delineate the coffin room. Very important is that Miller argues that the murals “enabled the living to act as if the spirit of the deceased were nearby and could view the mural” (p. 208). She also convincingly compares this with the north chamber of the vertical pit chamber of Mawangdui tomb 1, found in Changsha, Hunan province. In another short section in this chapter, she provides a discussion of the murals in royal tombs “after Shiyuan” (p. 210), concluding that the murals of Shiyuan “are a unique window for analyzing the types of decorative painting popular in the courts of the early Western Han” (p. 216). “Of the several industries for which Qi was known, textiles, especially purple textiles, were a major source of income” (p. 217). The special case study on purple textiles of the kingdom of Qi (today in Shandong province) is the last of the six inspiring and thoughtprovoking chapters of this book. By contrasting the three terms zhengse (“correct colors”), jianse 間色 (“(“intermediate colors”), and jianse 姦色 (“false colors”), Miller not only introduces historical clues in written sources, but also looks at the archaeological evidence of the color spectrum used during the Qin and Western Han Dynasty. The Qi kingdom’s workshops belonged to the so-called “Three garment bureau” or sanfuguan, which was most likely the name of the three buildings where silk was made and dyed. Excavations of clay figures from Han tombs and especially a well-preserved purple garment found in a large-scale stave wall tomb at Lingsheng lake in Shandong province, demonstrate the importance of the color purple in this area. The color may have been, as Wang Xu, a famous textile archaeologist has argued, “extracted from marine mollusks” (i.e., the “shellfish purple” dye) (p. 234). Additionally, Miller provides archaeological, historical, geographical, and textual evidence for the possible use of shellfish purple. However, scientific tests that confirm the use of this special type of purple are still missing. In excavation reports of Eastern Zhou tombs three textiles have been described as purple, and to date only four purple textiles have been excavated intact from Western Han tombs. These textiles demonstrate that “only the finest embroidered silks were dyed purple” (p. 236). With a great deal of pleasure, the reviewer welcomes the concluding chapter, a wellstructured summary of the profound research behind Miller’s book. Furthermore, “this study has demonstrated that the early Western Han kings were key patrons of art and played a critical role in the formation of the major genres of Chinese funerary art” (p. 248). In sum, Miller shifts the political and social power from the imperial towards the kingly courts and reads the royal courts as places of innovation by providing a convincing compilation of political and historical backgrounds, cultural exchange and manifold contacts between the imperial court and kingly realms. Working within the framework of art history, material culture, archaeology, and primary sources, Kingly Splendor should be mandatory reading for many scholars and students. I would also recommend Miller’s research to anyone interested in Early China, especially the Western Han era, and in the history and culture of imperial and kingly courts.