The qin is one of the oldest musical instruments native to China.  
It has seven strings strung over a slightly curved soundboard made of wood.  
During the time of Confucius, the qin was an essential
instrument in ritual music as part of an ensemble, although its sound quality
has always been characterized as "quiet as breathing".  After the Han dynasty,
the qin was associated with intellectuals, both Confucian 
scholar-officials as well as unorthodox thinkers, as a solo 
instrument for contemplation.   From this point on, the qin personified
a person who has reached an extraordinary depth of inner cultivation.  
A qin player is not only a virtuoso musician, but also a person who has
a deep understanding of Chinese literature, history, fines arts, and 
philosophy.
	
	
Suggested Resource: The Resonance of the Qin in East Asian Art,
China Institute in America, 1999.
 

	

	
The screen is a type of furniture, consisted of multiple vertical panels, 
that is portable and expandable; it is often used as a device to 
create the illusion of separated spaces.  According to historical 
documents and archaeological evidence, screens constructed of wooden 
frames were used in China as early as the Western Han dynasty (206 BCE-
9 CE). Further, at least one literary source from the Han references the 
use of screens with painted panels, similar to the one depicted in 
this painting, as a decorative device in the interiors of a receiving 
room of a manor.  Because fragments of screens have been found only 
in the tombs of emperors, kings, and nobles, archaeologists have 
surmised that this type of furnishings was exclusively used by 
the elite in early China.
	
The use of a screen in this painting indicates the senior status of Laozi. 
According to ancient texts, Laozi was the keeper of the royal Zhou 
archives and much older than Confucius.  In this rendering, the elder 
academician is shown seated on a dais in front of a screen in a 
position of authority as a teacher, while Confucius and his disciple are 
depicted to be standing, a position of modesty and learning.
	
In this painting, the screen is also a visual device that separates the lofty 
act of transmission of knowledge, occurring in front of the screen, 
from the mundane activities of preparing tea and cooking behind the screen.
	
Suggested Resource: Michael Sullivan, Notes on Early Chinese Screen
Painting, Artibus Asiae, Vol. 27, No. 3 (1965), pp. 239-264.
	
	  

The meeting of Confucius and Laozi (also known as Lao Dan,
 the ascribed founder of Daoism) was likely an apocryphal event,
 conceived by Han Confucians as part of Confucius's hagiography.
The earliest known reference to this event is found in the Records of 
the Grand Historian, China's first dynastic history compiled by Sima
Qian (c. 145-90 BCE) during the Western Han dynasty (206 BCE-
9 CE); there are no references to this event in the Analects or the
historical annals from Confucius's lifetime, the late Spring and
 Autumn period.   Confucianism was adopted as the statecraft by the
Han emperors, and it is during this time that this hagiographic
iconography first appeared.  The best known example is a bas-relief
from the renowned Wu Liang shrine from the Eastern Han dynasty
 (25-220 CE).  For a computer reconstruction of the site,
please visit http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/barbierilow
/Research/ComputerRecon.html.
In both Records of the Grand Historian and the image from the Wu
 Liang shrine, Confucius is shown having arrived by a horse-drawn
carriage, as it would have befitted the noble status of his traveling
companion and disciple, Nangong Jingshu, according to the 
sumptuary laws at the time.  In this painting, however, the mode of
transportation is a simply constructed cart pulled by a single ox.
This graphic 
discrepancy likely reflects the Ming dynasty Neo-Confucian 
interpretation of the story to further enhance Confucius's modesty.  
Single-ox carts would have been the appropriate mode of transportation
used by low-ranking officials, such as Confucius himself, 
during the Spring and Autumn period.
Suggested Resource:  Providing for the Afterlife: "Brilliant Artifacts" 
from Shandong, China Institute in America, 2005.

		
Buddhism, an element in the Neo-Confucian intellectual
triad, is manifested in this painting in the form of a
ruyi, a talismanic scepter intrinsic to the foreign
religion, shown as being held in the hands of a figure
in a white robe in the foreground.  Most scholars believe
that the origin of the ruyi comes from its association
with the Buddhist-Hindu deity, Aniruddha, whose name in
Sanskrit was translated to vernacular medieval Chinese as
"never poor" wupin 无贫and "as you wish" ruyi
如意.  Textual records from the Northern and
Southern dynasties (420-589 CE) inform that the ruyi was
originally used for scratching one's back; however, as the
"head" of the object gradually evolved to resemble an
auspicious mushroom lingzhi 灵芝 (ganoderma
lucidum), it would become a purely decorative object by
the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE).  In this exemplary blanc
de chine  (Chinese white-glaze ceramic ware) statue from
the Ming dynasty (1368-1644 CE), the deity He Chaozang is
seated on an exotically shaped rock, his left arm supported
on an outcrop and holding a ruyi scepter.
 
The ruyi is an anachronism in this painting, as Buddhism
was not introduced to China until several hundred years
after Confucius's time.
Suggested Resources: Bamboo Carving of China, 
China House Gallery, China Institute in America, 1983, 
and Blanc de Chine: Divine Images in Porcelain,
China Institute in America, 2002.

The depiction of a stack of bound books printed on paper is an anachronism. 
During Confucius's time, writings were recorded on bronze ritual vessels, 
bamboo strips, wood planks, and silk scrolls.  Paper was not 
invented until the Western Han dynasty (206 BCE-9CE), and the 
earliest dated evidence of printing is a fragment of the Diamond Sutra, 
also an artifact of Buddhism, from the late Tang dynasty (618-907 CE).   
For more information about the earliest known printed book, 
please visit http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/diamondsutra.html.
Suggested Resource:  Shu: Reinventing Books in Contemporary Chinese Art, 
China Institute in America, 2006.

	
The dais is one of the earliest types of Chinese furniture.  
It is believed that until the late Warring States period 
(c. 475-221 BCE) Chinese lived in houses in which the earthen 
floor was covered with straw mats; furniture with low or no 
elevation was invented to accommodate this kind of habitat. 
By early imperial times (from 221 BCE on), furniture became a 
symbol of status that distinguished the privileged from the 
commoners, who still slept, ate, and lived on the earthen floor.  
The dais was the most important form of furnishings for the 
Chinese elite and used primarily to symbolize authority in 
the highly ritualized act of receiving audience, before the 
introductions of a taller, collapsible model in the Eastern Han 
dynasty (25-220 CE) and the western-style chair with back during 
Tang dynasty (618-907 CE).
	
The earliest known example of a dais, archaeologically excavated 
from a tomb, dates to the Western Han dynasty (206 BCE-9 CE).   
The funerary artifact, rendered in stone to mimic the original 
wooden structure used in the tomb occupant's lifetime, 
was inscribed and therefore yields its ancient name - 
ta 榻.  The inscription further indicates that the 
original was bestowed to a certain Royal Academician taifu大傅, 
a lofty post by imperial decree - a tutor to princes - in 
the Western Han.
  
In this picture, the use of the dais is a visual device to distinguish 
Laozi (the ascribed founder of Daoism, who is attributed to have 
authored the Daoist canon, Daodejing) from the other figures, 
as he holds the most senior position on this occasion.  In 
Neo-Confucianism, Laozi is revered as the keeper of the 
Zhou royal archives and a sage of advanced age.  This 
depiction accurately reflects the Ming dynasty Neo-Confucian view 
of Laozi's seminal role in China's intellectual history.

The dais remained the only type of furniture used for elevated 
seating until the end of the Eastern Han dynasty, when a collapsible 
type with taller legs was introduced to the Chinese court by foreign 
traders; this was called a huchuang bed胡床 
and was said to have been a novelty favored by Emperor Ling 
and his courtiers.
Source: Hsin-Mei Agnes Hsu, Pictorial Eulogies of Three 
Eastern Han Tombs, University of Pennsylvania Dissertation, 
pp. 63-67, 2004.
    

Porcelain is a Chinese invention of ancient origins.  Archaeological 
discoveries have shown that a prototype of porcelain (proto-
porcelain) was made as early as the Shang dynasty (c. 18th century 
to 1045 BCE) and the earliest true form of porcelain was developed 
by the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 CE).  During the pinnacle of Silk 
Road trade in the time of the Tang dynasty (618-906 CE), 
Chinese porcelain was exported to and highly valued in the 
Islamic world for their brilliant glazes and whimsical shapes.  
Despite its long history, Chinese porcelain from the Ming 
dynasty (1368-1644 CE) is arguably the best known 
type of porcelain among collectors and art historians in the West. 
Based on the color scheme used by the artist, this is likely a 
depiction of a Ming dynasty cup in celadon.  Celadon is a 
type of ceramic ware known for its translucent jade green 
color among the earliest European collectors of Chinese porcelain.
Suggested Resource: Ming Porcelains, China Institute in 
America, 1970.

This type of vessel, known as a ewer, was 
originally used to contain grain alcohol in 
ancient China.  It has a pear-shaped body 
and a gently widening neck.  The spout is long 
and thin, and curves forward for functionality.  
The handle connects the rim and the sloping 
"shoulder" of the container.
Suggested Resource: Early China Miniatures, 
China Institute in America, 1977.