covered boxes, unknown maker from China

Exhibition Label:
"Using the Past to Serve the Present in 20th Century Chinese Painting," Oct-2006, Ai-lian Liu, Asian Art Intern
The lids of the containers are decorated with the familiar “yin-yang” design representing the complementary opposites (female-male, dark-light, yielding-strong, etc.) that constitute and control the world. Deriving from yin and yang are the Eight Trigrams (Bagua), the broken lines found on each side of these octagonal vessels. Yin-yang theory is a fundamental part of ancient Chinese philosophy and has a strong association with Daoist beliefs. The containers may have been used to hold the black and white stones used to play the board game Weiqi (better known by its Japanese name, Go), which is known as a pastime of Daoist immortals and said to symbolize the universe.