Introduction and Background

Document 1: The “Guiding and Pulling” Chart (Daoyintu)

Document 2: Lady Dai’s Outer Coffin

Document 3: A Cosmic Journey on a Dragon

Document 4: Two Immortals and Plants of Immortality

Document 5: A Han Dynasty Incense Burner

Document 6: The Holy Man and Cosmic Flight

Document 7: Poem on the Mighty One

Document 8: Living in Harmony with the Seasons

Document 9: Mountain Climbing to Reach the Heavens

Document 10: Biography of an Immortal

Sources


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Zhuangzi (Master Zhuang) is believed to have lived at the end of the fourth century BCE. Little is known about his life and career. The book named after him is not only one of the fundamental Daoist texts, but is also one of the most admired works of Chinese philosophy and literature.

His accounts of the “Holy Man” provide the earliest expression of an important Daoist theme, that of cosmic flight. Also, the Holy Man’s diet—not eating grain, sucking the wind, drinking dew—points to the search for longevity. In this context, “Holy Man” (Shenren) is synonymous with “Immortal” (Xian).

. . .there is a Holy Man living on faraway Gu’she Mountain, with skin like ice or snow, and gentle or shy like a young girl. He doesn’t eat the five grains, but sucks the winds, drinks the dew, climbs up on the clouds and mist, rides a flying dragon, and wanders beyond the four seas. By concentrating his spirit, he can protect creatures from sickness and plague and make the harvest plentiful. . .Though flood waters pile up to the sky, he will not drown. Though a great drought melts metal and stone and scorches the earth and hills, he will not be burned (Zhuangzi 1.5; Watson 1964: 27-28).

This is a section from a poem by Sima Xiangru (179-117 BCE), a famous Han dynasty poet. He was also a contemporary of the nobles buried in the Mawangdui tombs.

This poem describes escape “where far from the dust of this world, the poet no longer sees anything, neither the sky above nor the earth below” (Robinet 1997: 36). The theme of a cosmic journey became important in Daoist meditation and religious writings.

In this world there lives a Mighty One
Who dwells in the Middle Continent.
Though his mansion stretches ten thousand miles,
He is not content to remain in it a moment
But, saddened by the sordid press of the vulgar world,
Nimbly takes his way aloft and soars far away.
With crimson carriage flags interwoven with crystal rainbows,
He mounts upon the clouds and wanders on high;
He raises his long standard of yellow flame
Tipped with multicolored plumes of shimmering radiance,
Streaming with starry pennants
And banderoles of comet’s tails.
Drifting with the wind, he threads his way;
With banners fluttering, he wanders aloft.
He snatches a shooting star for a flag
And sheathes his flagstaff in a broken rainbow.
A blaze of vermilion, dazzling the eyes,
He whirls before the gale and drifts upon the clouds.
. . .Beneath him in the vastness, the earth has disappeared;
Above his head, the heavens vanish in endless space.
Gazing about, his eyes swim and grow sightless;
His ears are deafened and discern no sound.
Riding upon the Void, he mounts on high,
Above the world of men, companionless, to dwell alone (Watson 1968: 332, 335).

By the end of the second millennium BCE ideas about extending life or just staying healthy became closely connected with qi.

Qi was the basic stuff of the universe. A person was born through accumulation of qi; a person died when his/her qi dispersed. Illness was the result of an imbalance of qi. Wellness was the result of qi circulating freely throughout the body. Exercises could help qi circulate properly.

Living in harmony with the seasons was also important. This document is from one of the basic texts of classical Chinese medicine. It describes summer, when growth is at its height, and winter, when the world is at rest.

The activity of qi is symbolized by yin and yang, words now part of everyday English. In summer, yang is at its height as crops grow and the weather is hot. In winter, yin is dominant as nature sleeps and growth slows to a standstill.

The three months of summer one calls “thriving and fulfillment.” The qi of Heaven and earth mingle, the ten thousand creatures flower and ripen. Sleep at night and rise early, don’t be too greedy for the sunshine, restrain your feelings, let flowering fulfill its growth, allow the qi to seep out from you, as though something you desired were on the outside.

—This is the response to the qi of summer, the way to nourish the growing up. If you go against it you will harm the heart and in autumn will suffer from fevers; there will be too little provision for the gathering in.

. . .The three months of winter one calls “the shutting up and storing away.” Water freezes, the ground cracks, don’t put strain on the Yang. Sleep early, rise late, be sure to wait for the sunshine. Keep intent as though lurking, hiding, as though there was something you had already succeeded in. Avoid the cold, stay near the warm, don’t allow the seeping through the skin which lets the qi be quickly stolen away.

—This is the response to the qi of winter, the way to nourish the storing away. If you go against it you harm the kidneys and in spring will suffer from impotence; there will be too little provision for the giving of life (Adapted from Huangdi neijing suwen; Graham 1989: 352-354).

Mountains were close to the heavens. Certain mountains—Kunlun in the northwest and Penglai in the Eastern Ocean— were home to those who had become immortals.

This document is from a book called Huainanzi, a second century BCE text roughly contemporary to the lives of the Mawangdui tombs’ occupants.

If one climbs to a height double that of the Kunlun Mountains, that peak is called Cool Wind mountain. If one climbs it, one will not die. If one climbs to a height that doubled again, that peak is called Hanging Garden. If one ascends it, one will gain supernatural power and be able to control the wind and rain. If one climbs to a height that is doubled yet again, it reaches up to Heaven itself. If one mounts to there, one will be become a god (Huainanzi 4, “Zhuixing”; Major 1993: 158-159).

This account of an Immortal named Gu Chun is from a book traditionally believed to have been written in the first century BCE by a scholar named Liu Xiang. It contained the biographies of many Xian, people who had achieved immortality.

Gu Chun held an official post in the reign of Emperor Cheng (r. 32-7 BCE) of the Han dynasty. Stricken with disease, he died except that his body did not grow cold. His relatives carried out the funeral ceremonies and went into mourning, but they were reluctant to nail up the coffin. Three years later, Gu Chun reappeared, sitting upon the railing of one of the town gates and still wearing his cone-shaped official hat. All the people in the town were amazed. His relatives came to bring him home but he would not go with them. They opened his coffin, and found grave-clothes but no corpse. For three days and nights Gu Chun remained where he was. Then he transported himself to the capital at Chang’an and took up a similar position above the Heng Gate. As soon as his people heard of it, they went after him and tried to get him to return. Again he departed, and took refuge on Mt. Taibo. A shrine was then built for him on the mountain, to which he would come from time to time and stay for the night (Adapted from Giles 1979: 29-30).

Introduction

The Chinese Emperor as Link Between Heaven, Earth, and Humankind

Late Imperial China—The Ming (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasties (1644-1911)

The "Three Emperors"

Qianlong and the World of the Arts

The Decline and Fall of the Qing Dynasty

The Life and Times of Pu Yi (1906-1967), Last Emperor of China

The Dispersal of the Imperial Painting and Calligraphy Collection

Cultural Property and Cultural Heritage: To Whom Does the Artistic Past Belong?


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Click on Image to Enlarge

Shen Zhen (1400-1482)
The Studio of Zhulu Hut (detail)
Liaoning Provincial Museum

The Chinese Emperor as Link between Heaven, Earth, and Humankind

"I don’t like it here. I want to go home. I don’t like it here. I want to go home". . . My father tried to soothe me by saying, "Don’t cry, don’t cry; it’ll soon be finished, it’ll soon be finished" (Three-year-old Pu Yi at his coronation on November, 1908).⁴

The very first emperor was named Ying Zheng, king of the powerful Qin state from 247-221 BCE. In 221 Qin completed the task of unifying China, ending the turbulent Warring States period (479-221 BCE). Ying Zheng took the title "huangdi," a word commonly translated into English as "emperor."

"Huang" has connotations of "great," "august," or "magnificent"; "di" was the name of the high god worshipped as far back as the second millennium BCE. To emphasize that the Qin unification was unique, Ying Zheng also added "shi" ("beginning" or "first") to his title. Thus he became "Qin shi huangdi": the First Emperor of Qin. This was the beginning of imperial history. It was to end over two thousand years later with the brief reign of Puyi in the twentieth century.

Chinese emperors held total power over the organization of society and the universe, and space and time. . .The emperor imposed order on the world through inauguration ceremonies, the diffusion of the calendar, the bestowal of titles and names, the classification of the various cults and deities, the diplomas he granted them. . . .The Chinese emperors combined, in their persons, functions and aspects in which the profane and sacred were indistinguishable.⁵

By acceding to office the emperor became more than human—or, conversely, if he revealed human traits, those traits must accord with the accepted historiographical patterns of imperial behavior. In becoming emperor [he]. . .became the symbolic center of the known world, the mediator between heaven and earth. . .Almost every detail of his life emphasized his uniqueness and superiority to lesser mortals.⁶

This "uniqueness and superiority" was always at odds with the sovereign’s human side—very few rulers lived up to either the symbolic or practical demands of the office. According to the Song dynasty Confucian thinker Fan Zuyu (1041-1098),

one thing is definite: wise rulers were few and ordinary ones many. This is why periods of good government were short and periods of disorder long. . .Some rulers such as Jie, the last ruler of the Xia dynasty or Zhou, last ruler of the [succeeding] Shang dynasty [c. 1570-1045 BCE], could not be urged toward learning at all. They brought disorder to the state. . .When later generations speak of evil rulers, it is always these two that are held up as examples.⁷

Jie and Zhou were always mentioned in tandem, and condemned as bad last rulers. Puyi’s life was a study in frustration and powerlessness rather than the abuse of power. The last years of the dynasty and his brief reign as emperor were in sharp contrast to the first century-and-a-half of Qing rule.

Wen Zhengming (1470-1559)
Calligraphy and Painting of the Orchid Pavilion (detail)
Liaoning Provincial Museum

The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)

Puyi, the Xuantong Emperor (r. 1908-1924), was the last of twelve Qing sovereigns, ten of whom ruled China proper.

The Qing was the last and arguably the most successful dynasty to rule China. It was also the last conquest regime. The rulers came from Northeast Asia and claimed descent from the Jurchen, who had ruled part of North China during the Jin dynasty (1115-1260). In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, a minor tribal chieftain named Nurgaci (1559-1626) successfully united many of the northeastern tribes. His son Hongtaiji (1592-1643) transformed these diverse peoples into a new solidarity group, the Manchus.⁸

The Manchus succeeded the native Ming dynasty (1368-1644). The Ming founder, Zhu Yuanzhang, a commoner, ruled from 1368-1398. He was one of the most powerful despots in Chinese history. His successors governed a society undergoing "an irreversible shift from a predominantly subsistence base of production to a steadily expanding commercial economy."⁹

During this period China became "the economic center of the world, a role it easily sustained until the eighteenth century."¹⁰

By the seventeenth century, the dynasty’s power was nevertheless waning, weakened by inadequate emperors, corrupt officials and court eunuchs, outdated fiscal policies, and rebellious legions of the unemployed and disaffected.

When rebel armies took Beijing in April 1644, the last Ming emperor committed suicide. The Chinese general defending the easternmost pass of the Great Wall subsequently allowed Manchu forces to enter China.

The Manchus fiercely suppressed all resistance: "Those who follow us will be offered amnesty. . .those who resist will be exterminated."¹¹ So wrote Prince Dorgon in the wake of the Yangzhou massacre in April 1645. By 1662 the last efforts to restore Ming rule had been crushed.

The Qing retained Beijing as the capital and a Manchu conquest elite dominated political life at court and governed the country "administratively superimposed upon the Han Chinese bureaucracy."¹²

All Chinese men were ordered to shave their foreheads and wear, Manchu-style, a long braid or queue. Qing conquests shaped the map of modern-day China, yet its empire actually embraced more territory, including Mongolia and parts of Central and Southeast Asia.

Portrait of the Kangxi Emperor in Informal Dress Holding a Brush (detail)
Kangxi period (1662-1722)
Anonymous court artists
The Palace Museum, Beijing

The Three Emperors

The Qing dynasty reached its height of power and prosperity under three emperors: Kangxi (r. 1661-1722), Yongzheng (r. 1732-1735), and Qianlong (r. 1735-1796). As rulers of a multiethnic empire they had to

patronize and promote the cultures of their subjects and address each of their different constituencies within the realm. Most Qing rulers, until the end of the dynasty, were multilingual: they studied Mongolian, Manchu, and Chinese.¹³

These early emperors were highly conscious of their Manchu heritage and were concerned lest it be lost. Every year Kangxi and Qianlong spent months outside the palace, either on campaign, engaged in great hunts, or touring the empire. Kangxi was an avid hunter:

When Manchus and Mongols go out to hunt in the North we are dealing with skill that eludes words. The hunters mass like storm clouds, the mounted archers are as one with their horses; they fly together and their arrows bring down the fleeing game.¹⁴

In order to win over the Chinese, especially the elite who filled the ranks of the bureaucracy, Qing rulers were also educated in the classics, history and literature, and calligraphy. Kangxi, for instance, tells how

I have practiced my Chinese calligraphy regularly, often writing more than a thousand characters a day; I use my own hand to write my edicts, I copy ancient calligraphic styles in my old age (as I used to do when I was a boy, studying with my eunuchs in the palace).¹⁵

Self-cultivation also embraced interest in the arts. The Kangxi Emperor "assumed personal patronage of the arts and crafts as an inherited imperial obligation"¹⁶ and Yongzheng "passionately cared for and lived with works of art."¹⁷

Calligraphy in Imitation of the Ten Thousand Character Essay by Huaisu
Qianlong Emperor
1770
Liaoning Provincial Museum

Qianlong and the World of the Arts

Qianlong’s relation to the arts, particularly painting and calligraphy, eclipsed that of both his father and grandfather: "The Qianlong reign represented the high point for the amassing of art within the Qing palace. In this period, the greatest collection of calligraphy and painting ever assembled was used to support the authority of the Manchu rulers and to guarantee the legitimacy of their rule."²⁴ Also, Qianlong’s love of painting and calligraphy exerted

a considerable grip on the study of all Chinese art. It was during this period that the imperial collections grew to their largest size, acquiring by gift or by confiscation large quantities of earlier art of all types. . .the imperial collection, which subsequently formed the core of the Palace Museum, Beijing, and the National Palace Museum, Taipei, created a canon of "major" works which it is hard today to escape.²⁵

Qianlong’s passion can be seen, for instance, in his fondness for Autumn Colors on the Qiao and Hua Mountains (Qiao hua qiu se)²⁶, a scroll for which he

wrote the large character title for the painting, showered over it his numerous seals, and wrote a total of nine colophons, thus covering up almost all the empty areas.²⁷

On an inspection tour of Shandong province in 1748, he saw the Qiao and Hua mountains in person, was reminded of the painting, and had couriers bring it overland from the palace to compare it to the real thing.

As a Manchu. . .[Qianlong] strove incessantly to demonstrate his complete mastery of Chinese scholarship to ensure that he would be accepted as a model ruler in the spirit of Confucian state ideology. Art collecting and proven expertise in the fields of calligraphy and painting were part of this ambition. By emulating the great imperial collectors and patrons. . .he placed himself and Manchu rule in the legitimate tradition of Chinese dynastic history.²⁸

Qiu Ying (?-1552)
Qingming Festival on the River (detail)
Liaoning Provincial Museum

The Life and Times of Pu Yi (1906-1967), Last Emperor of China

Puyi’s position is unique in Chinese history. He was not only the last ruler of the Qing dynasty, but also the last of a line of imperial rulers beginning with Qin Shi huang di in 221 BCE. His journey from three-year-old emperor to "reformed" citizen of the People’s Republic of China reflects the twists and turns of twentieth century Chinese history.

Calligraphy and Landscape after Mi Fu
Dong Qichang (1555-1636)
Liaoning Provincial Museum

These remarks, part of a longer account by Yang Renkai, Honorary Director of the Liaoning Provincial Museum, are interspersed with quotations (italicized) from Puyi’s autobiography, From Emperor to Citizen. They tell of the sale and dispersal of books, calligraphy, and painting from the Imperial Collection during the 1920s.

"When they succeeded to political power in China, the Qing rulers inherited the ancient palace collection of the Ming emperors, the oldest art collection in the world with a continuous collecting tradition of about 1,600 years." The fall of the Qing made the collection vulnerable to looting.

I had been told by my tutors that the treasures of the Qing palace were world-famous and that the antiques, calligraphy and paintings alone were amazing both for their quantity and value. . .Most of these objects were uncatalogued. . .This made things very easy for thieves.³³

After careful planning by Puyi and his staff, they began on Sept. 4, 1922 to first steal the precious and rare books of the Song and Yuan dynasties [late tenth to late fourteenth centuries] by awarding "gifts" to the royal brothers Pujie and Pujia. . .Since then, bundle after bundle of rare books were removed from the Forbidden City.

. . .Feeling secure after a trial period, Pu Yi and his men began to remove large quantities of painting and calligraphy masterpieces. . .from the imperial palace. At the beginning, these "gifts" were awarded once every several days, and each time ten or over a dozen books were given away.

Pu Jie used to take a large bundle home after school every day for over six months, and the things we took were the very finest treasures in the collections. As it happened the heads of the Household Department and my tutors were checking through the pictures and calligraphy at the time, so all we had to do was take the items they selected as being of the very highest grade. In addition to paintings and calligraphy we also took many valuable ancient additions of books.³⁴

When we conducted our sorting and counting process after 1949. . .The numerous occurrences of "awarding of gifts" had basically plundered the Qing court of all valuable scrolls in its original collection.

We must have removed over a thousand handscrolls, more than two hundred hanging scrolls, and pages from albums, and about two hundred rare Song dynasty printed books.³⁵

The artifacts removed by the Pu brothers included paintings, calligraphy, antique books, and jewelry. . .Thereafter, they crated the treasures into some seventy to eighty big containers and shipped them via railroad to a Western style mansion that had been purchased in the British Concession in Tianjin [where, from February 1925 on, Pu Yi was to remain for seven years].

Although a hefty annual subsidy of four million silver dollars was granted by the Republican government to the abdicated emperor. . .it was still far from enough to cover their huge expenses. . .They then came up with the idea of making money from the art works. . .they had smuggled out of the palace. . .It remains a mystery as to how many pieces of important painting and calligraphy were sold by Puyi. . .in Tianjin because many of these deals were not recorded.

Looking back on it today it all seems to have been an orgy of looting. The looters included everyone from the highest to the humblest; anybody who had the chance to steal did so without the least anxiety. . .The most advance technique was that used by Pu Jie and myself. Of course, I did not think about it in these terms at the time, and it seemed to me then that everyone else was stealing my property.³⁶

Ma Shi, Li Zai, and Xia Zhi (active c. 1426-1435)
Coming Home—After the Poem by Tao Qian
Liaoning Provincial Museum

Cultural property is any movable or immovable property of great value to the cultural heritage of all people, such as monuments of architecture or history, archeological sites, works of art, books or any building whose main and effective purpose is to contain cultural property.³⁷

The works featured in The Last Emperor’s Collection were recovered in the early years of the People’s Republic of China and became part of the holdings of the Liaoning Provincial Museum. Other dispersed objects were returned to the palace in Beijing; still others, works considered the cream of the collection, were eventually taken by the Nationalists to Taiwan and became the core of the National Palace Museum in Taibei.³⁸

Both the Communists and Nationalists put tremendous effort (even in wartime) into reclaiming and safeguarding these works. The palace collection symbolized political legitimacy on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Such use of cultural property isn’t confined to China: Napoleon’s widespread confiscations of classical and post-classical art draped the new French empire in the mantle of imperial Rome. In the words of Arthur Danto:

The possession of art was a symbol of authority. . .The same symbolic connotation of power as might primitively have consisted of eating one’s enemy’s heart has to enter into the explanation of Napoleon’s incredible seizure of works of art on his various expeditions, most especially in Italy, the Low Countries, Germany and Egypt.³⁹

Beginning with the occupation of Belgium in 1794 Napoleon appointed scholars and artists to accompany French armies. They were to supervise confiscation of art and "prepare instructions for generals in the field on the proper removal and confiscation procedures to be used."⁴⁰

Zhang Gao (act. 1736-1795)
Imperial Banquet (detail)
Liaoning Provincial Museum

Another famous example of art theft in the West is the Elgin Marbles. From 1801-1805 Thomas Bruce, Seventh Earl of Elgin and British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, removed sculpture and other parts of the Parthenon and took them back to England. The return of these artifacts is still a bone of bone of contention between the United Kingdom and Greece.

Like Napoleon, the Nazis attempted a systematic looting of Europe’s artistic heritage. They also employed experts and established over a thousand repositories (such as salt mines) to store objects. ⁴¹ Although World War II has been over for more than sixty years, the return of art looted by the Nazis is still a matter of international concern.

Unlike his Qing forebears, Puyi’s interest in art was minimal. In 1959, after ten years of detainment and political reeducation, he returned to Beijing and visited his former home in the Forbidden City. He expresses regret that very little of the palace collection was left after the activities of the warlords, the Guomindang, "and its various guardians, myself included."⁴²

Puyi might have given two answers to the question "To whom does the artistic past belong ?" As a young man and emperor he would have said it was his personal property; as a citizen of the new China, he would have said that it belongs to the Chinese people.

Introduction

Beijing as Imperial Capital

Beijing as Modern City

Beijing as Global City

Suggested Readings

Quick link to:

Tiananmen Square
Resources

Beijing as Modern City

In the waning years of China’s last imperial dynasty, the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), Beijing was the site of sometimes fierce battles over the political control and direction of an emerging nation-state. A historic turning point for Beijing’s status as the stronghold of an impregnable empire came at the conclusion of the Second Opium War. In October 1860, British and French forces entered Beijing, forcing the Xianfeng Emperor and the imperial family to flee to Manchuria. The troops looted and destroyed the Yuan Ming Yuan (“Garden of Perfect Clarity”) Summer Palace in a symbolic gesture of humiliating China. Today the ruins are a protected historic site to remind citizens of China’s “century of humiliation”.

A second Summer Palace, the Yi He Yuan (“Garden of Nurturing Harmony”), which had also been plundered by troops in 1860, was restored and became the residence of Empress Dowager Cixi popular tourist attraction today, it was often singled out during the Maoist heyday as an example of feudalistic extravagance at the expense of the people’s well-being.

With the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912, Yuan Shikai assumed the role of President with Beijing as the capital. Yuan eventually attempted to enthrone himself as Emperor; this failed power-grab set off a prolonged period of local warlords vying for control over the capital. (Yuan, in fact, was the last person to perform the annual rites for a good harvest alluded to in the previous section).

After the Northern Expedition successfully reunified the country in 1928, Nanjing was officially designated the capital of China and Beijing reverted back to being named “Beiping” (“The North Pacified”). The Japanese occupied Beiping from 1937 to 1945. At the end of the end of a civil war between the Communist and the Nationalists in January 1949, Communist forces peacefully entered the city and reestablished it as the capital of the People’s Republic of China.

Events of the late nineteenth century through the establishment of the People’s Republic of China reshaped Beijing from an imperial capital to the capital of a communist nation struggling with its imperial heritage and eager to project a modern image.

Tiananmen Square

If there is one site that embodies the vicissitudes of 20th Century Beijing history, it is probably Tiananmen (“Gate of Heavenly Peace”) and the complex of governmental buildings and monuments in and around the Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen Gate itself has always been an integral part of the Forbidden City complex and the area in front of it was originally off limits to the general public.

The public square that now occupies the space south of Tiananmen Gate has changed significantly since the 1950s. Inspired in part by Moscow’s Red Square, Tiananmen has served for public rallies and military parades since Mao famously declared on October 1, 1949, “on this day, the Chinese people stand up!” At 100 acres, it is the largest public square in the world.

In the center of the southern end of the square stands the Monument to the People’s Heroes, completed in 1958. This monument bears a calligraphic inscription by Mao that reads, “The People’s Heroes are Immortal!” At its base are eight main relief carvings commemorating important historical rebellions or uprisings of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Standing at the foot of the monument and facing Tiananmen Gate to the North, one sees Mao’s famous portrait. To the East is the Museum of History and the Revolution, and to the West is the Great Hall of the People, where the National People’s Congress convenes. Clearly reflecting a Soviet influence, these buildings were two of ten “great buildings” erected for the tenth anniversary of the foundation of the People’sRepublic of China. After Mao Zedong’s death in 1976, The Chairman Mao Memorial Hall was unveiled in 1977, situated right behind the Monument to the People’s Heroes and completing the current symbolic ordering of the square.

For many people, the events surrounding the pro-democracy student movement and its suppression on June 4, 1989, made an indelible impression on how we understand and read Tiananmen Square as a public space. The student protests during this time are but one instance in modern Chinese history where the space has been the site of important historical public protests: the May Fourth protests in 1919 against the signing of the Treaty of Versailles that inspired a new sense of nationalism, mass rallies during the Cultural Revolution, the 1976 “Tiananmen Incident,”, as well as the 1989 incident. Standing in the center of the square, one gets a full appreciation of the tremendous changes Beijing underwent during the twentieth century.

Resources

The Fury of the Europeans: Liberal Barbarism and the Destruction of the Emperor’s Summer Palace (ringmar.net/europeanfury)

Research site on the destruction of the Yuan Ming Yuan Summer Palace in 1860; many valuable primary sources and visuals.

Imperial Palaces of the Yi He Yuan Summer Palace (Unesco.org)

Entry for the Summer Palace on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites. Scroll to the bottom of the page for link to the 360º zoomable panograpic images.

Morning Suns (www.morningsun.org)

A website associated with the feature-length documentary, Morning Sun, about Beijing during the Cultural Revolution.

The Tank Man (pbs.org)

The feature-length documentary, The Tank Man, about the anonymous protester who faced down a column of tanks on June 5, 1989, is available on-line. A “Teacher’s Guide” is also available.

The Gate of Heavenly Peace (www.tsquare.tv)

A website associated with the feature-length documentary, The Gate of Heavenly Peace, about the June 4th student protest in 1989. Many valuable resources on Tiananmen Square.

Quick link to:

Resources

Beijing as Global City

As Beijing enters the twenty-first century, it is once again reshaping itself. Still the nation’s center of political power, it is also increasingly seen as a global center of business, art, and culture on par with other global cities such as Tokyo, London, Paris, or New York. Hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics is viewed by many as an opportunity to highlight just how cutting-edge Beijing is.

While the Olympic Village and the many venue buildings associated with the games will no doubt attract much notice, Beijing has witnessed a creative flourish of construction throughout the city that also demands attention. The new Paul Andreu designed National Center for the Performing Arts (colloquially known as “the Egg” and formally known as “The National Grand Theater”), for example, stands in stark contrast to both the careful cosmological symbolism of the Forbidden City’s layout and the carefully designed symbolic arrangement of past and present in the buildings surrounding Tiananmen Square. If nothing else, the “Egg” announces a new era in Beijing architecture that is spurring debate between supporters and detractors.

Government sponsored construction is not alone in boldly advancing Beijing’s global city status. Contemporary Beijing is a hotbed of independent artistic and architectural activity. Places such as 798 Art Space (a former East German-designed factory refurbished into a trendy gallery and café complex) and the Commune by the Great Wall (a private “architectural museum” of residential buildings designed by contemporary Chinese and Asian architects now serving as a luxury hotel) demonstrate how artists and architects are molting off their socialist past and positioning themselves as trendsetters for a transnational, cosmopolitan generation.

But for all of Beijing’s new-found glamour and assertiveness as a global city, it also faces daunting local challenges. Perhaps the biggest challenge on Beijing’s horizon is a growing water scarcity crisis. Plans are underway to divert water from more water-plentiful southern regions through an ambitious South-to-North Water Diversion Project. Similar critical innovations in addressing growing energy needs will also play a decisive role in shaping Beijing and its population in the future.

For now, Beijing stands prepared to show the world this summer its pride in its glorious past and its hope for continued prosperity.

Resources

Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games (www.beijing2008.cn)

Includes an “Education” section to give information about the Games’ work with Chinese schools.

Australian Olympic Education Resource Guide for Primary School Children (www.olympics.com.au)

A PDF guide for teachers of 60 primary cross-curriculum topics and activities themed around the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Especially useful for primary-level children.

PBS Newshour In-Depth Coverage: China Prepares for the Olympics (www.pbs.org/newshour)

Includes a lesson plan on “Politics and the Olympics.”

New York Times Series “Choking On Growth” (www.nytimes.com)

Includes an interactive section on China’s water crisis and its South-to-North Water Diversion Project.

Chinese Shadow Theater

Chinese Theater, Opera, and Related Arts

Chinese Shadow Theater-Stories and Characters

Shadow Theater Outside of China

Puppetry and Puppets

Curricula

Other Resources

Books Etc.

A Web-Companion to Shu: Reinventing Books in Contemporary China

Introduction

What is Experimental Art?

Writing

Paper

Printed Books

Yuan Chin-ta, Piling
Up Books (2005).

The character for "to write"
or "book" (shu).
Calligraphy by Zhu Suiliang
(596-658).

Introduction

These web links and questions provide background for both contextualizing and appreciating China Institute’s first exhibition of contemporary art, Shu: Reinventing Books in Contemporary China.

Contemporary Chinese artists draw upon (and react against) more than three thousand years of a visual culture in which writing and books played an important role. They also live in a world in which change is occurring at a rapid pace. These are perhaps the two major stimuli for "reinventing the book."

"Reinvention" means making something over completely. In learning about the Chinese book and asking why Chinese artists would want to reinvent it, students and teachers will both learn about contemporary Chinese art and contemporary Chinese society.

The Written Word and Books in China

Writing and books occupy a central place in Chinese culture. In pre-modern times the written word helped unite a geographically large and linguistically diverse empire. Written documents were not only part of everyday life, but also inseparable from scholarship and the visual arts.

Paper was invented and in use before the beginning of the Common Era.¹ Woodblock printing developed during the Tang dynasty (618-907), centuries before Gutenberg "invented" printing in the 1450s. By the second millennium CE, printed books circulated all kinds of information among a sizable minority of literate people, mostly men.

Based on their knowledge of the classics, history, and literature, these "literary men" (wenren ) qualified to serve in the imperial bureaucracy by taking civil service examinations. Although there were many more applicants than jobs, the examinations remained the most prestigious path of upward mobility until the beginning of the twentieth century. Books and written texts were at the core of this phenomenon.

THE CHARACTER WEN From an inscription dated 156. Wen symbolizes the importance of the written word in pre-modern China. Narrowly defined, wen refers to writing or a written composition. Broadly defined, however, it means "culture" or "refinement." The modern Chinese words for both "culture" (wenhua ) and "civilization" (wenming ) contain the character wen. They were coined in Japan at the end of the nineteenth century under the influence of Western ideas and subsequently adopted by the Chinese.

The intrusion of the West in the nineteenth century brought the rise of modern printing, publishing, and journalism. Western-style lithography was introduced as early as 1834. By the end of the century, Western language books of all kinds were being translated into Chinese.

After the fall of the last imperial dynasty in 1911, reformers sought to discard literary Chinese (wenyan ) as a written language in favor of the modern colloquial (baihua ). After 1949, language reform in the People’s Republic of China resulted in the adoption of simplified characters (jianti zi), making it easier to learn how to read and write.

The late 1970s and 80s were a period of tremendous change witnessing the abandonment of collective farming and China’s opening to Western investment. It also marked the beginning of exhibitions of experimental art (shiyan meishu ) of the kind featured in Shu: Reinventing Books in Contemporary China.

Footnotes

¹ Centuries before the traditional date of its invention by Cai Lun in 125 CE.

Source

Wu Hung 2004.
     Exhibiting Experimental Art in China (University of Chicago Digital Collections: Fathom Archive) http://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/1/777777122473/

—- 2006.
     Shu: Reinventing Books in Contemporary Chinese Art. New York: China Institute Gallery.

What Is Experimental Art?

Yue Minju, Recycle Bin (2005).

Experimental art doesn’t advocate any particular style, subject matter, or political point of view. It’s a reaction against four major trends in contemporary Chinese art:

1. A highly politicized official art directly under the sponsorship of the [Chinese Communist] party,
2. An academic art that struggles to separate itself from political propaganda by emphasizing technical training and higher aesthetic standards,
3. A popular urban visual culture that eagerly absorbs fashionable images from Hong Kong, Japan, and the West,
4. An "international" commercial art that, though often initially part of experimental art, eventually caters to an international art market (Wu 2004: www).

Such opposition to the contemporary mainstream caused artists to focus on issues such as the book’s political power to manipulate masses of people and its role in the "banality of popular culture." This resulted in the use of existing books as ready-made art objects or the creation of unique books as independent objects or as part of installations (Wu 2006: 2).

On a more personal level, experimental artists were concerned with

• The question of historical and cultural memory;
• The dialogue between past and present;
• The East-West relationship;
• The self-identity of the artist (Wu 2006: 2-3).

These issues, relevant to other contemporary societies as well as China, readily find a place in the multi-disciplinary classroom. Also, their relevance to the National Standards for History and its emphasis on understanding "worldwide cultural trends of the second half of the 20th century" is apparent.²

Compared to their teachers, most students are less burdened by preconceptions of what "art" should be; therefore exposure to Shu: Reinventing Books in Contemporary China will lead to fresh insights on these important issues.

This collection of web-links is divided into (1) Writing, (2) Paper, and (3) Printed Books. After each there is a group of questions. Most are simple knowledge-oriented questions, others point to broader issues requiring critical thinking.

² Standard 2F, see http://nchs.ucla.edu/standards/worldera9.html.

A.  A "portrait" of Cang Jie, mythical inventor of writing (Beijing, 1685, ink and colors on paper) from the Bibliothèque Nationale Francais.

Cang Jie, with his four eyes, observed the tracks left by birds and animals and invented Chinese characters. Click here to learn about the inventors of other writing systems, real and mythical.

B.   Tradition and Transformation in the Chinese Writing System by Jerry Norman, from the Asia Society’s AskAsia website.

A brief essay on the history of Chinese writing.

C.  "Chinese Calligraphy" from Columbia University’s Asia for Educators website.

Discussion on using the brush and the various styles of calligraphy, as well as questions and exercises.

D.  Shang (or Yin) dynasty oracle bone script is the earliest known form of Chinese writing.

This website, from the Academia Sinica in Taiwan, discusses the discovery of oracle bones and their use in divination. For an oracle bone inscription and its English translation, click here.

E.  Bronzes with inscriptions are key sources of early Chinese history (National Gallery of Art).

F.  Wooden strips bound with cord were a common medium used for writing before the use of paper became widespread.

G.  Daoism, China’s indigenous religion, uses calligraphy in the form of talismans to ward off evil spirits and communicate with the supernatural world.

H.  Eighteen masterpieces of calligraphy.

This selection of works from the National Palace Museum in Taiwan includes information on the calligraphers and large color reproductions.

I.  "Crossing Gender Boundaries in China: Nüshu Narratives" (Anne McClaren).

This article, from a web-magazine called Intersections, describes a secret women’s script from Hunan province in south China.

1. What advantage do written records have over, for example, the quipu, knotted cords the Incas used for record-keeping?
2. What’s the difference between Chinese writing and writing systems that use an alphabet? (Define logographic script.)(B)
3. Take a look at this Chinese typewriter. Using the Jerry Norman essay (B) and the caption accompanying the typewriter photograph, explain how it works. Then, compare it to this English language typewriter. What does your research tell you about the differences between English and Chinese?
4. What do the oracle bones tell us about Shang society? (D)
5. What are the two kinds of history contained in the inscription on the Shi Qiang pan (E)? Where in the text does one begin and the other end? Click here for an English translation.
6. The Chinese believed that calligraphy revealed a person’s character. Read the introductions to the eighteen masterpieces (H): What kind of human beings seem to make great calligraphers? What kind of calligraphy revealed an outstanding human being?

Paper

The character for "paper" (zhi).
Calligraphy by Zhi Yong of the Sui dynasty (589-618).

J.   "Revolution by the Ream—A History of Paper" (Saudi Aramco World).

Jonathan Bloom traces the history of paper’s spread from China westward and its uses in various cultural contexts across Eurasia.

K.  The five steps in making bamboo paper from a seventeenth century Chinese treatise on technology.

The five steps: (1) Steeping and washing cut bamboo; (2) Cooking the inner mass of bamboo in a pot; (3) Collecting bamboo pulp on top of a screen; (4) Removing and pressing paper sheets; (5) Drying paper sheets.³

L.  Indigenous Papermaking in Yunnan.

Yunnan, in southwest China, is home to a number of China’s ethnic minorities. Through interactive features and a video, this website describes the papermaking traditions of people such as the Bai, Naxi, and Dai.

M.  SAPPHIRE Papermaking Processes (SAPPHIRE is the Scottish Archive of Print and Publishing History Records).

An illustrated description of pre-and post-industrial paper making in the West.

N.  How to make paper at home from Infostuff.com.

7. Compared to paper, what are the advantages and disadvantages of wood and these other (non-Chinese) ancient writing materials?
8. What role did Central Asia play in the transmission of paper to Islam and the West? (J)
9. Why did paper cause a revolution in architecture and crafts such as metalworking and textiles? (J)
10. Look at the steps involved in pre-modern Chinese papermaking (K) and compare them to the photos of Western pre-industrial paper making in (M). What are the similarities and differences? The photograph analysis worksheet from the National Archives might be helpful in answering this question.

 

Footnotes

³  For a full description see: Sung Ying-hsing. Chinese Technology in the Seventeenth Century–T’ien-kung k’ai-wu. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc.,1997, pp. 222-229.

Printed Books

The character for "to print" (yin). Calligraphy by Wang Xizhi (307-365).

O.   Writing and Technology in China by Irene Leung from AskAsia.org.

This brief "history of communications technology in China" sketches the media used to carry Chinese writing from ancient times to the internet.

P.   What is a Rubbing? from the East Asian Library at the University of California, Berkeley.

Rubbings made from engraved stones were used to reproduce texts throughout Chinese history.⁴   For photos illustrating the process, click here.

Q.   The Glory of Chinese Printing.

Website based on an exhibition held at the Printing Museum of China.

R.  From The Diary of Matthew Ricci.

The Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), one of the founders of Catholicism in China, writes about printing and printed books.

S.  Traditional bookbinding from the International Dunhuang Project.

In 1900, thousands of manuscripts were found sealed in a cave outside the Silk Roads oasis of Dunhuang. This website uses some of these treasures to discuss traditional Chinese bookbinding.

T.  The world’s oldest dated printed book.

This scroll of the Diamond Sutra, dated 868, was found in the Dunhuang cave mentioned above.

U.   The Book, An Introduction (Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild).

An overview of the history of the book, mostly about the West. Also, click here for a universal timeline of media history from prehistoric rock carvings to the 1999 Ikonos satellite (The Media History Project at the University of Minnesota).

V.   "Bind It Fast–Make or Repair Books With This Easy Technique."

How to repair a book using the traditional Chinese (referred to here as Japanese) stitched binding method.

W.   "To Read Too Many Books is Harmful" (Mao Zedong)

Posters from an exhibition at the Libraries of the Sinological Institute, Leiden University. "The posters exhibited here focus on . . .changing attitudes of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] towards books, book knowledge and learning in general" from the 1950s to the 1990s.

12. How do Chinese books differ from Western ones? (S,U)
13. What explains the development and proliferation of woodblock printing during the Tang and Song periods? (O)
14. What institutions were responsible for the development and spread of printed books in China during the Tang and Song periods? (O) What institution was mainly responsible for the development of the book in the West? (U)
15. Name some of the advantages and disadvantages Ricci sees in the Chinese method of printing. (R)
16. Before the invention of writing, knowledge was memorized and orally transmitted from person to person. Storytelling was an important form of entertainment and education.

    The advantages of books are obvious, but are there disadvantages?

    In East Asia, Chan Buddhism (Zen in Japanese) disparaged written texts as a tool for achieving enlightenment. In the dialogue entitled Phaedrus, Plato criticized learning based on the written word. The New Testament says "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life" (2 Corinthians 3: 6).

    Are there advantages to orally transmitted learning? What things can’t be transmitted in books? Do China’s experimental artists echo any of these questions in their critique of the book?

Teach China is generously supported by
The Freeman Foundation.