A set of six green-glazed pottery musicians and matching 'ox-slaughtering' group Han dynasty

comprising a figure standing atop a square base, raising a knife aloft as if about to slaughter an oxen while a dog nibbles on an off-cut nearby, accompanied by six kneeling figures, including two musicians with hands raised as if to play the flute, two with hands over one ear, another playing a type of wind instrument and one seated in contemplation, applied in varying degrees with a pale or dark olive-green glaze

Acquired on the Hong Kong art market, early 1990s.

The present set of figures most likely represents an allusion to the Daoist book, Zhuangzi, written by the Warring States period philosopher, Zhuang Zi.  One of the chapters touches on the Daoist approach to spontaneity and asserts that it is accessible in everyday life, illustrating the example of a certain Cook Ding cutting up an ox in such a careful yet effortless way, that every touch is in perfect rhythm as though he were performing a dance or keeping time to music.

It is also interesting to compare a bronze 'house and figure' group depicting a religious ritual associated with agriculture, illustrated in Hunting and Rituals: Treasures from the Ancient Dian Kingdom of Yunnan, Hong Kong Museum of History, 2004, no. 50, pp. 92-93, where numerous figures are engaged in activities similar to the present group, playing the flute, listening to music and preparing food amidst ox heads and other meat off-cuts.

The dating of this lot is consistent with the results of a thermoluminescence test, Oxford Authentication Ltd., no. C206j3.