Images of Power

IMAGES OF POWER: CHINESE YUAN and MING DYNASTIES: FOCUS (Chinese Decorative Arts and the Forbidden City) ONLINE ASSIGNMENT: https://www.khanacademy.org/huma nities/art-asia/imperial-china/yuan- dynasty/v/david-vases ONLINE ASSIGNMENT: https://www.khanacademy.org/huma nities/art-asia/imperial-china/yuan- dynasty/a/chinese-porcelain- production-and-export TITLE or DESIGNATION: The David Vases CULTURE or ART HISTORICAL PERIOD: Chinese Yuan Dynasty DATE: 1351 C.E. MEDIUM: white porcelain with cobalt-blue underglaze ONLINE ASSIGNMENT: https://www.khanacademy.org/ partner-content/asian-art- museum/aam- China/v/forbidden-city ONLINE ASSIGNMENT: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/43 9 TITLE or DESIGNATION: Forbidden City CULTURE or ART HISTORICAL PERIOD: Chinese Ming Dynasty DATE: 15th century C.E. and later LOCATION: Beijing, China TITLE or DESIGNATION: Guan Yu Captures General Pang De Artist: Shang Xi CULTURE or ART HISTORICAL PERIOD: Mughal Dynasty DATE: c. 1430 C.E. MEDIUM: hanging scroll, ink and colors on silk IMAGES OF POWER: CHINESE YUAN and MING DYNASTIES: SELECTED TEXT (Chinese Decorative Arts and the Forbidden City) The emperors of the Yuan dynasty were Mongols, descendants of Ghenghis Khan (1162-1227), the “Universal Leader” as his name translates. Ghenghis had conquered part of northern China in 1215, having already united the various nomadic tribes of the steppe land. He divided his empire into four kingdoms, each ruled and expanded by a son and his wife. Ghenghis' grandson, Kublai Khan (reigned 1260-94), was ruler of the eastern Great Khanate. He completed the conquest of China by defeating the Southern Song in 1279. He ruled as emperor, giving his dynasty a Chinese name, Yuan, meaning “origin”. He moved the capital to Dadu (now Beijing), shifting the central focus of the empire away from Central Portrait of Kublai Khan Asia. Under the Mongols, the élite was formed by military officers, rather than the scholar-officials of previous dynasties. Though the bureaucracy was still necessary for administering the country, many scholar-officials retired, rather than serve a foreign regime. These yi-min, or “leftover ones”, dedicated themselves to painting and other literary pursuits. Generally, the Mongol emperors and bureaucrats were not great patrons of the traditional Chinese arts, although there are a few exceptions. Craftsmen were free to develop and exploit new influences, many dictated by the demands of trade. This is especially apparent in ceramics production, the most important example of which is blue-and-white porcelain. Because it was foreign-ruled, the Yuan dynasty was traditionally considered to have been all detrimental, contributing nothing new or good to Chinese culture. In the past few decades, this thinking has undergone a change, resulting in a more objective appreciation of the Mongol period. The David Vases, 1351, white porcelain with cobalt-blue underglaze They were made for the altar of a Daoist temple and their importance lies in the dated inscriptions on one side of their necks, above the bands of dragons. The long dedication is the earliest known on Chinese blue- and-white wares. The dedication records that in 1351 a man named Zhang Wenjin from Yushan county presented these two vases and an incense burner (the whereabouts of which is unknown), to a Daoist temple in Xingyuan (modern day Wuyuan county). Yushan county is in northeast Jiangxi, which lies 120 km to the southeast of Jingdezhen, where these vases were made. This inscription demonstrates that blue-and-white porcelain production was already well-established at Jingdezhen by 1351. Originally the vases, modeled after bronzes, had porcelain rings attached through the elephant head shaped handles. Porcelain was first produced in China around 600. The skillful transformation of ordinary clay into beautiful objects has captivated the imagination of people throughout history and across the globe. Chinese ceramics, by far the most advanced in the world, were made for the imperial court, the domestic market, or for export. These vases were owned by Sir Percival David (1892–1964), who built the most important private collection of Chinese ceramics in the world. For many decades these vases were the only pieces of blue-and-white porcelain that could be definitely dated to the Yuan period. They were obviously not made for export or for a non-Chinese patron. Pieces for export are not so meticulously painted. The David Vases show various original Chinese motifs on the surface, which is divided into different areas by thin lines running round their bodies. If we study the vases from the bottom upward, the areas divide into a first zone showing good luck symbols, with a band of peonies running round the foot above it. The transitional area between the foot and the body shows stylized waves, and the main decorative area is adorned by a scaly dragon among the waves. The shoulder bears another band of stylized flowers and tendrils (of the lotus) and the lower part of the neck has a phoenix among ornamental clouds, while the upper part bears ornamentation of lanceolate leaves (banana leaves) interrupted only by the inscription. The handles are worked in the form of realistic elephant heads. Finally, there is a band of leafy tendrils and chrysanthemums around the mouth, which thus shows three of the four flowers symbolizing the seasons. Forbidden City, Beijing, China, Ming Dynasty, 15th century and later Portrait of Yongle, the third Ming emperor The first Ming (a word that means “brilliant”) emperor, Hongwu (1368- 99), was a man of the people and won the throne by force of arms against a hated foreign oppressor. A return to ancient national traditions was thus the order of the day. The civil service was restored with an even less flexible organization than before. Classical Chinese scholarship was revived and in 1403 the third Ming emperor, Yongle, initiated the compilation of all knowledge in an 11,095-voume encyclopedia. Respect for tradition was, however, tempered by a growing taste for ostentation. When Yongle moved his capital from Nanjing to Beijing in 1417, he had his palace laid out according to Zhou dynasty ritual, which prescribed that the “Son of Heaven” should rule from three courts. Raised on the site of Kubilai’s palace and using some of the old foundations, it was also designed to outshine the splendor of buildings that Marco Polo had thought “so vast, so rich and so beautiful that no man on earth could design anything superior.” A 15-mile wall surrounded the axially planned courts dominated by the three great halls of state, which were later rebuilt and refurbished but always in the same sacrosanct manner, with wooden columns and beams and wide-spreading roofs of shimmering glazed yellow tiles- a color reserved for imperial buildings. Top and bottom left: Meridian Gate (outer gate) (1) Below: Gate of Supreme Harmony (5) The outer gate (called the Meridian Gate, built in 1420, restored in 1647 and 1801) gives access to the first courtyard, crossed by the bow-shaped “Golden Water River”. A still larger courtyard is reached through the “Gate of Supreme Harmony” beyond. As Zhou ritual appointed the hour of dawn for the emperor’s audiences, it was here that those who were to be received knelt and kowtowed in the gray twilight when the buildings must have looked their most dauntingly impressive. In the Ming Dynasty (1368 -1644), the Gate of Supreme Harmony was called “Fengtian Men” where the emperor held court to handle state affairs in the early morning. It was here that the emperor met daily with officials and made decisions about state affairs. In the corridor on either side of the courtyard in front of Fengtian Gate were offices where two records were compiled: the daily court record, which was composed of notes about the emperor’s daily activities, and the veritable record, which documented more major affairs such as imperial decrees and rules and regulations of the court. South of the Fengtian Gate was Wumen, Meridian Gate, the main entrance to the Forbidden City, where high-ranking civil and military officials gathered to wait for imperial audiences, where prisoners of war were presented, and where other triumphal ceremonies were conducted. Top Left: Hall of Supreme Harmony Middle Left: Hall of Central Harmony Bottom Left: Hall of the Preservation of Harmony The three main halls are elevated above it on a triple tiered white marble platform. The “Hall of Supreme Harmony”, the only one that can be seen from the level of the courtyard, is about 200 feet wide and 100 feet deep, with the imperial throne on a high dais against its back wall. It was built in 1669 following an earlier design. The other two buildings on the platform date from the Ming period: the square “Hall of Central Harmony”, where the emperor performed such ancient rituals as that of inspecting seed before the spring sowing, and the “Hall of the Preservation of Harmony”, where the final part of the highest civil service examination was held. The Three Great Halls, Fengtian, Huagai, and Jinshen – better known by their Qing-period names of Taihe, Zhonghe, and Baohe – are elevated on a triple-layer marble platform shaped like a capital I. The center hall is the pinnacle of the north-south line of imperial architecture in Beijing. East and in front of the Three Great Halls (to their left) was Wenhua Hall, and to the their right, Wuying Hall. Detatched in their own courtyards, these were where the emperor could reside upon retirement from court life. Wenhua Hall, which contained a portrait of Confucius, was also a place for study and lectures. Wuying Hall was where officials and ladies of rank came to offer congratulations to the empress on her birthday.

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