Changes The Image Of Jesus Christ Of Civil Society In The Ming And Qing

With symbolic anthropology as its primary method,this book studies the variouspresentations of the image of Jesus Christ in the Christian painting as well as in theAnti-Christian painting during the Ming and Qing dynasties,and in doing so to locatethe anthropological consciousness associated with them. It attempts to illustrate thefollowing three aspects:first,the symbolic patterns applied for the images of JesusChrist in the Christian painting;second,the"fine-tuning"process of the varioussymbolic patterns of the image of Jesus Christ;third,through the analysis of variousways of presentation of the image of Jesus Christ,efforts are made to demonstrate theanthropological consciousness of different social groups in this great transformationperiod in the Ming and Qing dynasties. This work gives a thorough and carefulanalysis of the patterns of Christian painting,especially the characteristics of culturaland folkloric elements reflected in the image of Jesus Christ,with the aim to illustratethe specific rhetorical implications of the expressions of different art patterns.Chapter One discusses how the Catholic missionaries of the late Ming dynastypresented the image of Jesus Christ through painting as well as the"fine-tuning"process of its symbolic patterns. In the beginning,the missionaries utilized occidentalartistic techniques in paintings and in sculptures,in particular,through the image ofthe Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus,to highlight the humanistic dimension of theChristian faith. Later on,the missionaries localized the composition of paintingwhen they attempted to depict the adult Jesus. This was intended as an illustration ofthe broad symbolic scope of the Christian faith. Afterward,the missionariesabandoned all together the occidental techniques and adopted pure Chinese brushpainting to present the image of Jesus Christ with the cross as the background. Thecross-the special character of Jesus Christ,the second Person of divinity,waspresented as the central message-a real challenge to the Chinese local consciousness.This reveals that only if the cross is regarded as the"signified"for the understandingthe Chinese history,could the historical consciousness give rise to the consciousnessof salvation.Chapter Two discusses the image of Jesus Christ in the paintings of the InlandMissionary of the Qing dynasty as well as its localization status. Inland Missionary submerged themselves into the grass-root class. Through narrative depictions andfable symbols,they presented the image of Jesus Christ as one closely related to thedaily needs and concerns. The purpose was to help to face the hardships of real lifesituations,to enable people to despise hardships in a transcendent manner. Thisdemonstrated well the courage and the hope provided by the Christian faith in thedaily living,so that Christ,the symbol of salvation,was presented as direct intuitionto the daily life.Chapter Three discusses the image of Jesus Christ in the paintings of theReligion of Worship of God (henceforth RWG) of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.The RWG,not like the Christian tradition,which places Christ at the centre theChristian belief,only borrowed the image of Christ as a mediate symbol. However,this was a creative measure taken by Hong Xiuquan and the RWG to remedy theproblem between the Christian faith and native consciousness;this was also a creativetransformation of the symbolic connotation of the image of Christ illuminated bynative consciousness.Chapter Four analyses the great tension between the Christian faith and nativeconsciousness as well as its anthropological root. This is done through the analysis ofthe demonization of the image of Christ in the Anti-Christian movements. When theChristian faith was spreading in the countryside and when churches appeared as asomewhat antagonistic symbol against the ancestral shrines in the countryside,the lifeway of the rural cultural and local squires was faced with enormous challenge.Ancestral shrine or the church? This implies that there was a profound conflict withinthe symbolic field. Through demonization of the image of Christ,the squires soughtto clarify that there was no place for the symbol of Jesus Christ in the countryside.However,ironically,their effort attested to the presence of the sacrificial love (of thecross) in the country life.Chapter Five analyzes the rhetorical aspects associated with the paintingtechniques in Pilgrim's Progress Chinese Version. As far as Tianguo is concerned,memory itself becomes a certain kind of presence of salvation. To awaken memory isto initiate the pilgrimage to the King of Heaven. Only if the gate to memory isreopened and space is transformed in the new memory,i.e. to awaken the memory ofJesus Christ,could the"Gate"of Salvation become a powerful stroke in theethnography of the Chinese people. The analysis begins with the symbol of"gate,"aiming to analyze the relationship between the rhetoric of Jesus Christ andethnography as presented in Tianguo.Chapter Six discusses the image of Jesus Christ of the T'OU-SE-WE ChristianArt Center. The artists of T'OU-SE-WE presented the image of Jesus Christ ashealing of memory. Most of the artists of T'OU-SE-WE were orphans or homelesswanderers by origin. They had been abandoned;they had been struggling at the brink of death. However,at T'OU-SE-WE,a Catholic charity center,not only were theyable to continue their physical being,they were also able to cast away the nightmareof the past memory and thus walk into the new symbol of life. Under their paintingbrushes,the image of Christ was presented as therapeutical:images became a ritual ofmemory and a symbol of healing. Precisely in this artistic expression ofT'OU-SE-WE,an image of Jesus built upon the native consciousness,which had longbeen sought by the Jesuit missionaries and the Inland Missionary,was actualized asnative memory,metaphor and symbol for native consciousness.