DOI Kapitel:
Essays
DOI Kapitel:Ning, Yao: Propagating the Confucian Virtues: Chinese Artists in Serialized Printed Portrait Books
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70035#0024
Propagating the Confucian Virtues
Fig. 2: Vajracchedika Prajndparamita Sutra or Diamond Sutra
Woodblock-printed scroll, created on 11 May 868, British Library, London, Mus. Or.8210/P.2
sutras dated 947.11 The late Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) witnessed the flourishing of
printing. The illustrated encyclopaedia Xinbian zuantu zenglei qunshu leiyao shilin
guangji ® M(The New Illustrated Encyclopaedia Shilin
guangji) compiled by Chen Yuanjing (active in the fourteenth century) was
produced between 1330 and 1332.12 This encyclopaedia includes many biographies
of sages, emperors and well-learned high-ranking officials; however, only around ten
are full-figured depictions, and all these illustrated figures are of Confucius, his
followers, and Confucian officials.
By the late Ming period (1368-1644), a shift in Chinese portraiture had emerged.
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Yangzi Delta in southern China
evolved into one of the richest regions in the world, where metropolitan cities such
as Nanjing and Suzhou prospered. Informal Chinese portraits came into being due to
this economic development and urbanization. After the arrival of Western Jesuits at
the end of the sixteenth century, production of Chinese portrait paintings flourished.
New subject matters such as xingle tu jyM W (pictures of leisure activity) or huanji tu
17
Fig. 2: Vajracchedika Prajndparamita Sutra or Diamond Sutra
Woodblock-printed scroll, created on 11 May 868, British Library, London, Mus. Or.8210/P.2
sutras dated 947.11 The late Yuan dynasty (1279-1368) witnessed the flourishing of
printing. The illustrated encyclopaedia Xinbian zuantu zenglei qunshu leiyao shilin
guangji ® M(The New Illustrated Encyclopaedia Shilin
guangji) compiled by Chen Yuanjing (active in the fourteenth century) was
produced between 1330 and 1332.12 This encyclopaedia includes many biographies
of sages, emperors and well-learned high-ranking officials; however, only around ten
are full-figured depictions, and all these illustrated figures are of Confucius, his
followers, and Confucian officials.
By the late Ming period (1368-1644), a shift in Chinese portraiture had emerged.
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Yangzi Delta in southern China
evolved into one of the richest regions in the world, where metropolitan cities such
as Nanjing and Suzhou prospered. Informal Chinese portraits came into being due to
this economic development and urbanization. After the arrival of Western Jesuits at
the end of the sixteenth century, production of Chinese portrait paintings flourished.
New subject matters such as xingle tu jyM W (pictures of leisure activity) or huanji tu
17