Study On Visual Confucius In Ancient China

ABSTRACT:Visual expression of Confucius which is mainly made as a flat image or a sculpture is a special example of ancient China's ideology,culture and art. Confucius Ideology is the main body of Chinese ideology and culture especailly in Feudal China. It has effected every detal of Chinese society deeply. Thus Confucius has become a typical sign of Chinese traditional ideology, culture and art as Confucianism rose and fell during the Feudal Sociey. Since visual portraits and stories were considered very important to make the people well-educated and have polite manners, painting and making images and sculptures of Confucius is necessary for the ruling class during the course of publicizing Confucianism. At the same time, Confucius was also admired by his offsprings as a great ancestor as well as a great thinker, a teacher and a sage of all time. People from the ruling class to common civilians mostly admired Confucius and many great painter and sculptors and common ones took part in the work of making images of sculptures of sculptures of Confucius. Different styles and materials conseiquently appeared. The were maily of two kinds, of Confucius'portrait and of his stories. Actually, both the two kinds of the images and sculptures of Confucius have been more than Confucius himeself. They reflect the deconstructions and reconstructions of the status and meanings of Confucius as well as the relationship of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism in different dynasties and periods. We can know something about the figure paintings in ancient China by studying the images of Confucius. But the study of the images and sculptures of Confucius is not only of Confucianism or of the history of art, it is interdisciplinary.I would like to begin my study with the previous documents in which the looking of Confucius was described and try to find out the reasons of the way of descriptions which, I believe, should be more believable than those in the documents written by later confucians. The status of culture and art and related Archaeological discoveries are also seriously considered in my study to find out what real Confucius should be like. I will try to find out how and why Confucius was graduallly made up (especially from Han Dynasty)with the help of the early and later documents and art history. Since no real images of sculptures of Confucius have been found, the early murals in the palaces and tamples provide us the possibilities of the images of Confucius after his death. We have found many paintings,mural and sculptures before Han Dynasty which can help us to have general impression of the images of Confucius.A great number of relief stone sculptures which are usually considered as paintings have been found in many porvinces of China. In many of them images of Confucius are found. They are the main origins of many of the later images of Confucius.In Han Dynasty, all other schools of thoughts were abandoned and Confucianism was worshiped alone by the ruling class. The Han confucians began to describe a new Confucius in documents and pictures probably according to the orders of the emperors and the need of delivering Confucianism. This may be the first and most important apotheosis of Confucius. Confucius meeting with Laozi is most popular theme in the stone sculptures which is quite different from the origin story. In the origin story, Confucius went to meet Laozi who is much older than Confucius to ask for some knowledge or rule of the universe. The main idea of this story is to show how wise and knowledgeable Laozi was. But in Han stone sculptures, Confucius is the leading role who is described as a kind, polite and diligent old man-even as old as Laozi-who is usually followed by some of his students. Confucius is usually described much more carefully than others. Although there are a few differences between the stone sculptures, the stories of Confucius are very easy to be identified from others because there are some fixed figures and rules in them. It is obvious that the images are based on one or two examples which may be drawn by some great artists or outstanding workers. The images helped common people who were not able to read and understand Confucianism document to know and understand Confucius and his thoughts. But at the same time, the images also deprived people of their chances to understand Confucius in different ways.Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties in Chinese history is a great period of social unrest and emancipation. The awakenings of individuals and art are two of the most important features. All these had deeply influenced the images of Confucius. During this period, the status and meanings were doublted widely. Also, the arsing of Taoism and Buddhish had great influence on Confucius,too. The three religions learned from each other,especiallly Taoism and Confucianism had learned much from Buddhism. For instance, both Confucianism and Taoism learned from Buddhism to make sculptures of Confucius and Laozi and other important figures of the two religions. Not only Confucians drew images or made sculptures of Confucius. So we can see that there were quite different kinds of types of Confucius then. In some works, Confucius was not the leading role but made to contrast someone else like Laozi.Although Confucius was not regarded he was in Han Dynasty, he was still highly respected by emperors of Tang Dynasty and their people. No matter how glorious and important Taoism and Buddhism became in Tang Dynasty, Confucianism had much attentions from the ruling class to consolidate their regime and enlighten (or tame in anther word) their people. From Tang Dynasty, the tend of Three-in-one of the three religions was clear. The rulers would rather to make the three religions to live in peace. This ideal was expressed widely in paintings and sculpture. But Confucius was generally less important than Laozi and Shakya. Shakya was mostly the most important. Confucius was first canonized in Tang Dynasty as The Lord Propagator of Culture and since then he had a new looking with clothings of a real king which made Confucius further than what he was really like in his time.Emperors of Song Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty respected Confucius even more than Tang emperors. They recanonized Confucius three times and gave him three new callings which were longer and more important than The Lord Propagator of Culture. More paintings and sculptures of Confucius were required to provide and some great artists like Ma Yuan in Southern Song Dynasty took part in this work. They expressed their own understandings of Confucius and created many different and excellent works. And during Song Dynasty, Seven-ugliness about Confucius looking appeared in common people. It makes images or sculptures of Confucius more easily to make and identify. It is said that the first Drawings of Confucius' Saint Deeds were drew an painter in Yuan Dynasty and even in Song Dynasty, some experts believe that there had been some works like these. From Ming Dynasty, Confucius was no longer as honored as before. He was deprived of the canonition of Tang Dynasty as The Lord Propagator of Culture and was renamed as Pioneer Teacher or so. There was only a change made by Shunzhi, an emperor of early Qing Dynasty who again called Confucius The Lord Propagator of Culture, but soon he changed his idea and called Coufucius Pioneer Teacher again. The sculpture in Congfucius Temple was also asked to be replaced by a name board (Wei in Chinese)which was widely used before late Han Dynasty. But many types of images and sculptures of Confucius including Confucius in a king's dressing were tolerated by the rulers and copied in society. Portraits of Confucius were imatated from the previous and most of them were in low level. Quite a few paintings of Three-religion-in-one were painted in the two dynasties and Confucius was always expressed as a real old man compared with the other two who were painted as two supernatural beings. Yes in folk activities, Confucius was still regarded as a god. At the same time, different kind of images and sculptures of Confucius began to appear. Confucius was worshipped in more ways than before.