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What is Not-so-Ordinary about the Ordinary: Decoding the Social and Political Rhetoric behind Early Modern Chinese Imagery
Organizer: Bo Liu, University of Michigan
Chair: Martin Powers, University of Michigan
Discussant: Katharine Burnett, University of California, Davis
In Chinese art criticism, certain visual images have occasionally been dismissed as simple genre scenes or images of everyday life, at best used by historians as evidence for how things were in a particular period and place. But who was interested in pictures of so-called everyday life in the first place? This panel probes four examples of paintings and prints from early modern China (Song to Ming dynasties) that are regarded in some way as “traditional” or “conventional,” challenging their standard interpretations. Each paper recovers the hidden meanings, metaphors, or innovative ideas behind these sometimes marginalized works, arguing that artists, patrons, and viewers participated in creating social or political meanings for these images.
Blanchard’s paper proposes that paintings of elite women, often misunderstood as merely representing activities typical for their class, frequently encode love themes familiar from Chinese poetry, and, when associated with the court, potentially hide an allegorical meaning. Liu’s paper shows that both the court and dissenting scholar-officials can exploit the seemingly innocuous painting subject of “cold sparrows” to make opposing claims about the appropriate treatment of diligent officials. Cheng’s paper views images of rural life as preserving the “ancient manner” (gufeng) that evoked ideals of purified customs; this “insignificant” subject, therefore, was elevated to exemplify high moral models in a corrupt society. Finally, Park’s paper illuminates how late Ming painting manuals were not mere teaching tools, but presented a forum shared by different groups, in which knowledge, taste, and social values were promoted, circulated, and negotiated.
The Emperor’s New Clothes: Desire and Politics in Huizong’s Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk
Lara C. W. Blanchard, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
Historians writing about Chinese paintings belonging to the shinü hua genre (paintings of elite women) tend to discuss them as paintings that represent daily life and nothing more. One painting that often suffers from this treatment is the handscroll Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk, attributed to the Northern Song emperor Huizong (1082-1135, r. 1101-25), in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Accepted as a free copy after a painting by Tang dynasty artist Zhang Xuan (ca. 730-ca. 800), the painting depicts luxuriously adorned palace ladies demonstrating three steps in making clothes: pounding cloth with poles, sewing, and ironing. Scholars have proposed that it represents a rite known as “palace sericulture” (gongcan), but there is more to this painting than a simple representation of the traditional activities of palace women. Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk clearly draws upon the imagery of palace-style poetry and song lyrics, presenting beautiful palace women as experiencing longing and desire for an unidentified absent man: a theme that critics of poetry sometimes suggest encodes an allegorical or political meaning. In this paper, I will reexamine the scroll’s unabashedly erotic imagery and argue that the absent man implicated here is the emperor himself: as such, Huizong specifically intended this scroll to attest to his power. In keeping with (but perhaps subtler than) other paintings meant to prove his fitness to rule, Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk serves as an implicit display of Huizong’s ability to command his subjects’ devotion and loyalty.
Cold Sparrow, Independent Scholars: Political Criticism in Song Poetry and Painting
Bo Liu, University of Michiga
Besides being viewed as a little creature enjoying its life, the sparrow is hardly understood as a painted motif that bears any social and political significance in recent scholarship. In literature, especially in poetry, the sparrow, however, is a heavily-loaded metaphor that went through significant transitions throughout China’s early history, from the metaphor of incapable commoners during the Qin dynasty to the refined, intelligent scholar during the Tang and Song dynasties. During the Song dynasty, a period that marked a new stage of intertwining the art of poetry and painting, it would be very possible for both the painter and the audience of a sparrow painting, who, in most cases, possessed a certain knowledge of poetry, to paint a sparrow and view the painting metaphorically.
This paper will mainly focus on a Song dynasty fan painting, Cold Sparrow, which is located at the National Palace Museum in Taibei. This painting differs from many other sparrow paintings by depicting suffering sparrows that still maintain a discernable dignity, despite the harsh environment. An analysis of Song dynasty sparrow paintings and a comprehensive reading of Song and earlier poetry on birds, especially sparrows, will suggest that the Cold Sparrow fan painting actually represents scholars who, after being disappointed by the corrupt government or frustrated by the unfair treatment received during their official careers, chose not to serve the government like a suffering, but free sparrow. In this sense, sparrow paintings like the Cold Sparrow functioned as criticism to the current government.
More Than a Simple Country Lifestyle: Decoding Song Paintings of Happy Villagers
Wen-chien Cheng, University of Michigan
What contents of Song paintings could be more ordinary than farmers returning from their work or villagers on a country road welcoming a wedding procession? In Song China, such subjects were regarded as representations of local customs and rural manners. But they were in no way “ordinary.” In fact, such paintings enjoyed privileged positions in contemporary collections.
This paper will examine how these seemingly simple rural images were invested with profound implications, concerning the central political and social discourses of the period. The theme of villager activities in paintings was seen to have a deeper meaning because of its close association with the idea of preserving the “ancient manner” (gufeng) of life. This evoked such ideals as a purified life and an uncalculating mind. Some Song scholar-statesmen particularly regarded these simple antique fashions as a useful tool for rectifying corruption in their society.
This paper will demonstrate how Song paintings of rural themes could be seen as significant indicators of changes in social conditions, especially regarding relations between rural populations and the ruling class. A painting on the theme of happy villagers could either proclaim an era of peace or express a sharp criticism of governmental interference in rural areas. The government’s conduct, therefore, could be justified or criticized using this type of painting. Such political criticisms were made explicit by means of scholars’ poetic commentaries and inscriptions, which were associated with the images.
Negotiating Taste: Popular Culture, Originality, and Late Ming Painting Manuals (1550-1644)
J. P. Park, University of Michigan
Sometime before 1579, Zhou Lüjing (1542 – 1633), a professional writer living in a bustling commercial town in southeastern China, published a series of heavily illustrated books entitled Huilin and Huasou, which were the first multi-genre painting manuals in Chinese history. Their popularity was immediate and their contents and format were widely disseminated and reprinted in a number of contemporary painting manuals. Focusing on Zhou’s painting manuals, this paper will illuminate how these publications accommodated the cultural taste and demand of general public; in other words, how they served as a space of exchange within which popular cultural icons or even clichés could be selected, arranged, and displayed.
Picking out the cultural high ground, leading critics and master painters of the time were more concerned about artistic authenticity and originality. They even criticized the painting manuals as suitable only for philistine tastes. This disjuncture, as I will demonstrate, resulted from a conscious choice made by late Ming intellectuals. They were mindful of the program registered in these manuals, and defined it as harmful for true artists who aspired to innovation and originality in their paintings. My discussion of painting manuals will further explore how their production and consumption in early modern China were intertwined with taste-making mechanisms shared by both the “philistine” and the high-brow.