The pilgrimage paintings of Huang Xiangjian (1609--73) in the Ming-Qing transition.

摘要

This dissertation argues that Huang Xiangjian (1609-73) produced a small group of personal yet politically charged paintings as one means of providing for his impoverished family after their return to Suzhou from Yunnan in the Ming-Qing transition. His topographical paintings of southwest China represent the 'social commodities' through which the Huang family could have garnered the support, be it monetary help or social influence, of a gentry network that aided the loyal and filial.;Chapter One discusses the pictorial conventions of topographical painting of the famous scenery, ancient sites and monasteries of Ming-Qing Suzhou from which Huang Xiangjian drew. Here I introduce three categories of late-Ming paintings of specific Suzhou sites, their characteristics and their primary social functions.;Chapters Two and Three present my translations of Huang Xiangjian's story of his journey to the southwest to rescue his parents, A Record of the Journey in Search of My Parents (Xunqin jicheng), and the Huang family's voyage home to Suzhou, Diary of the Return from Yunnan (Dianhuan riji).;Chapter Four introduces the reputation as a Filial Son and the body of painting Huang developed upon his return home. The writings accompanying the published version of Huang's travel diaries correlated with the paintings Huang produced soon after to present a filial piety tale, a heroic adventure tale and a journey into the foreign wilds. The major characteristics of his extant and recorded oeuvre suggest Huang's work functioned as 'social commodities.';Chapter Five focuses on a 1656 handscroll by Huang that illustrates a journey to Mount Jizu in Yunnan. Its unusual compositional structure and the artist's inscription suggest it was meant to depict a 'religious pilgrimage' to the top of this Buddhist mountain for Huang's father to re-experience and perhaps share with a sympathetic audience.;Chapter Six deals with Huang's masterpiece of 1658. The unique subject matter, brushwork, compositional structure and 'grand views' of the Diannan album present the 'personal pilgrimage' of the recipient, in this case Huang's father, with a painting symbolic of his enlightened understanding at his life journey's end.