The Pictorial Portrayal of Women and Didactic Messages in the Han and Six Dynastiesâ©
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This study examines the visual forms into which Liu Xiangâs (ca. 79-8 BCE) compilation Lienü zhuan (Categorized biographies of women) were translated during the Han (221 BCE-220 CE) and Six Dynasties (220-589) periods. After Liu Xiangâs work appeared, the images of lienü were established as a distinctive visual category, developed within a broader context of a didactic pictorial genre that engaged the use of images for both the living and the dead. They not only provided admonitory functions, but also were considered auspicious and visually pleasant. In addition to a body of excavated lienü images from these periods, I examine two later scrolls originally rooted in this pictorial genre of lienü, the Lienü renzhi tu (Sympathetic and wise women scroll) in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and the Nüshi zhen tu (Admonitions of the court instructress) in the British Museum. I argue that the two paintings epitomize an ideal female exemplar who is virtuous, graceful, and physically attractive â all these qualities and their textual associations served as markers of the owner/viewerâs elite status.â©
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5
âWu Hung, The Double Screen: Medium and Representation in Chinese Painting (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 89.
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13
âBan Gu, Hanshu, 3983-84. All translations are mine unless otherwise noted.
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18
âMartin Powers, âPictorial Art and Its Public in Early Imperial China,â Art History 7.2 (1984): 135-64, and see page 144.
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70
âJan Stuart, The Admonitions Scroll (London: The British Museum, 2014) offers a concise study of the scroll, summarizing various aspects of research that have been done to date. See also Shane McCauslandâs focused study of the scroll, First Masterpiece of Chinese Painting: The Admonitions Scroll (London: British Museum Press, 2003).
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88
âMurray, âWho was Zhang Huaâs âInstructressâ?,â 104-5.
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89
âArthur Waley, Chinese Painting (London: Ernest Benn; New York: Grove Press and Charles Scribner, 1923; reprint, New York: Grove Press, 1958), 51.
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The Pictorial Portrayal of Women and Didactic Messages in the Han and Six Dynastiesâ©
In: NAN NÃSearch for other papers by Wen-chien Cheng in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
This study examines the visual forms into which Liu Xiangâs (ca. 79-8 BCE) compilation Lienü zhuan (Categorized biographies of women) were translated during the Han (221 BCE-220 CE) and Six Dynasties (220-589) periods. After Liu Xiangâs work appeared, the images of lienü were established as a distinctive visual category, developed within a broader context of a didactic pictorial genre that engaged the use of images for both the living and the dead. They not only provided admonitory functions, but also were considered auspicious and visually pleasant. In addition to a body of excavated lienü images from these periods, I examine two later scrolls originally rooted in this pictorial genre of lienü, the Lienü renzhi tu (Sympathetic and wise women scroll) in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and the Nüshi zhen tu (Admonitions of the court instructress) in the British Museum. I argue that the two paintings epitomize an ideal female exemplar who is virtuous, graceful, and physically attractive â all these qualities and their textual associations served as markers of the owner/viewerâs elite status.â©
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 155 | 0 | 0 |
| Full Text Views | 1639 | 281 | 18 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 2385 | 380 | 15 |
