Sets of narrative pictures portraying the life of Confucius (Fig. 1; all figures appear at the end of the text) first appeared in considerable numbers in the late Ming period, typically under the title Sheng-chi t'u (Pictures of the Sage's Traces; hereafter SCT) or some close variant. Produced at varying levels of expense, these illustrated biographies or hagiographies were made in a variety of media, such as woodblock prints, paintings on silk, and incised stone tablets. The various examples also exhibit a wide range of artistic quality. These differences in quality and form suggest that pictorial biographies were made for multiple purposes and for diverse audiences. Furthermore, the pictorial biographies differ in total numbers of scenes and in specific episodes selected for inclusion. These differences in content imply disparate conceptions of Confucius and the significance of his life.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. Artibus Asiae Publishers is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Artibus Asiae. The late Ming period saw the appearance of numerous pictorial biographies or hagiographies of Confucius (ca. 551-479 B.C.), the great Eastern Zhou philosopher and teacher. Many sets of annotated pictures, usually bearing some form of the title Shengji tu (Pictures of the Sage's Traces), were created to portray a comprehensive series of events and anecdotes associated with Confucius's life, arranged in roughly chronological order. Illustrations of the subject were far more common in printed or carved media than in painting, and the majority of examples were woodblock prints bound into books. The few painted illustrations that survive were based on printed models, contrary to the dominant direction of influence between the two media. As the theme evolved during the middle and late Ming period (late ISth-mid 17th centuries), the number of biographical episodes illustrated steadily increased, from between twenty-nine and thirty-four in the earliest set (1444) to one hundred twelve in the largest (1592), and the sequence of events also varied. The additions and reorderings reflect shifts in official and popular conceptions of Confucius and in the treatment of his cult, as well as the adaptability of his image as a symbol in periods of political turbulence and socio-economic change. Prefaces and colophons offer some insight into the circumstances in which new sets of pictures were created and suggest the purposes that they were intended to serve.In this article, I will examine the origins and iconography of illustrated accounts of Confucius's life and investigate the relationships between different sets of pictures. Besides tracing illustrated episodes to textual sources, I will examine the influence of other pictures (including illustrated lives of other heroic individuals) on the conceptualization of the pictorial biography of Confucius. In the main section of the article, I will reconstruct the significant stages in the evolution of the Shengji tu theme in the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries, exploring at the same time the functions and significance of the illustrated biographies within a broader historical context. Finally, I will briefly examine the relationship between paintings on the theme of Shengji tu and the far more numerous printed editions and versions carved on stone tablets. THE CULT OF CONFUCIUS AND ITS USE OF ICONSThe teachings of Confucius have wielded enormous influence on Chinese culture and statecraft for well over two thousand years, continuing even to the present. Although Confucius had been unable to influence the conduct of feudal rulers of hi...
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