Issues of public service in the themes of Chinese court painting.

摘要

This study of paintings produced under imperial and high-level official patronage from the T'ang (618-906) through the Ming (1368-1644) dynasty contributes to our understanding of the functional and commercial aspects of the court artists' enterprise. Investigation into three groups of themes involving issues of public service in the court paintings of the T'ang, Sung, and Ming dynasties reveals the ways in which these paintings were perceived, used, and understood by their contemporaries. The ideals conveyed through these themes were fundamental concerns of China's ruling class, common to all periods. However, they were given different emphases in different periods, depending on the particular historical, sociopolitical, and intellectual contexts in which these paintings were produced.; In the Sung dynasty, old themes in T'ang group portraiture were given new iconographic treatment under different sociopolitical circumstances to offer radically different messages. At the same time, the rise of the new literati-official class, which coincided with the rapid growth of urban centers, prompted the popularity of the ox-herding theme in painting. Ox-herding came to be seen as an ideal alternative to a stressful bureaucratic career in the big cities. The ox-herding theme was used by scholar-officials to demonstrate that their acceptance of the duty to be benevolent officials did not interfere with their appreciation of the traditional virtue of withdrawal from public life. Different social and institutional changes, following the establishment of the new Chinese Ming regime after the fall of the Mongols, brought about a great demand for another group of paintings, all with the theme of hiring retired worthies to serve in the court. The increase popularity of this time-honored theme in the imperial court during the first half of the Ming dynasty reflects the belief among members of the court circle that the prosperity of the Chinese empire would be ensured by an emperor who could convince virtuous scholars, presently in retirement, to serve in the court under enlightened rulership.; This dissertation investigates and demonstrates the various contemporary meanings and functions of themes in Chinese court painting by reconstructing the circumstances surrounding their creation and defining their relevance to those circumstances.