The study of material culture is a modern academic field that considers artifacts as a primary source of information of the culture in or for which they were produced. When examined by specialists, primarily archaeologists, sociologists, and art historians, objects from the past help modern researchers form meaningful inquires and develop interpretations of the cultures that produced them. This exhibition, Confucius: His Life and Legacy in Art, presents a varied ensemble of artifacts from a sprawling history of more than two millennia – from the inception of Confucianism as the personal teachings of an itinerant sage in a deteriorating hegemonic world to its final halcyon days as the statecraft of China’s last emperors.

This painting Learning Rites from Lao Dan is valuable on two levels – as a product of the material culture of Confucianism and as a study of the material culture of Confucianism at a specific point in time. Painted in polychrome on silk, this painting is one in a folio of thirty-six leafs collectively known as Pictures of the Sage’s Traces, produced in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644 CE).
According to the colophon, the painting depicts a meeting between Confucius and Laozi:

During the Ming dynasty, the dominant intellectual trend was a syncretistic form of Confucianism known as Neo-Confucianism (developed several hundred years earlier during the Song dynasty), which encompassed basic elements of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. A material culture consequently developed from the Neo-Confucian practice of worshipping the respective founders of these three teachings as a hagiographic triad – Confucius, Laozi, and the historical Buddha, Sakamuni. Artifacts from the material culture of Neo-Confucianism were made to propagate this syncretistic hagiography, for which Pictures of the Sage’s Traces is an excellent example.

On the latent level, however, this painting is more than an objet d’art and inspires further academic inquiry. The painting represents an interpretation of the contemporary attitude toward Confucian teachings; in this mode, the painting is a graphic study of how the collective producer of the object, the Ming literati, perceived Confucianism and their role in the context of this tradition. It is at the latent level that this painting is most valuable to modern researchers of the material culture of Confucianism. The painting is in essence, a 17th century graphic interpretation of a 6th century BCE story. The most ostensible feature is the artist’s rendering of Confucius and Laozi in the traditional attire of the literati, a class of scholar-officials that was a product of Confucianism and postdates Confucius by a few hundred years. The artistic choice signifies that the Ming literati perceived Confucius and Laozi as the progenitors of their kind. Further, it can be argued that the painting is an allegory of Neo-Confucian syncretism – the theme of seeking, inquiring, keeping and transmitting knowledge – Confucius representing the seeking and inquiring, and Laozi personifying the keeping and transmitting.

Buddhism, another element in the Neo-Confucian intellectual triad, is manifested 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 white robe in the foreground of the painting. The ruyi is also an anachronism, as Buddhism was not introduced to China until several hundred years after Confucius’s time. There is an additional anachronistic element in the painting – a stack of bound books printed on paper. 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).

The discussion so far has focused on the painting as a product and a study of the Neo-Confucian material culture in the Ming dynasty. What then, constitutes the material culture of Confucianism during Confucius’s time? The Analects provides an apt description:

Adherence to rituals or sacrifices, li (禮), is an essential principle of Confucianism, particularly during the time of Confucius, when bronze and jade vessels were still widely used in rituals. The Chinese character itself is a graphic study of this material culture – as explained in another section, 禮 is a partial pictogram showing a man carrying a ritual vessel. Three vessels are shown in this painting; the artist uses different colors to suggest that that they are a porcelain cup, a bronze brassier, and a copper-bronze lidded pitcher. It is important, however, to distinguish that the vessels shown in the painting all serve a practical function in daily life, whereas the artifacts from Confucius’s time, shown in this exhibition, were made and used exclusively in rituals associated with ancestral worship. It is in this context that Confucius’s enigmatic response to his disciple Zigong can be deciphered. The key to interpreting this passage lays in the type of the sacrificial vessel that Confucius invokes as a comparison to Zigong, arguably his most inquisitive and capable disciples. The 瑚琏 (pronunciation: hu2lian3) is one of the oldest vessel types associated with ancestral worship for the exclusive use of royalty in pre-imperial times. It was made of jade (as indicated by the commonality of the graphs’ jade radical) and used to contain grains during the rites of Harvest, one of the most important events in agrarian ancient China. By comparing Zigong to one of the most important sacrificial vessels in ancestral worship, it is inferred that Confucius regards Zigong to be capable of serving in a high position at court.

Material culture signifies human response to changing cultural and historical trends. As demonstrated in this brief introduction, material culture in the time of Confucius was widely dissimilar to the material culture of the Neo-Confucians in the Ming dynasty. This exercise helps us, the modern audience, to contextualize the longevity of Confucianism and the legacy of Confucius as the most venerated philosopher in Chinese history.

For a detailed study of some of the objects depicted in this picture, please see the Exhibition Related Materials homepage.