Vadas József (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 11. (Budapest, 1991)

FERENCZY Mária: A modernizáció megjelenése a századeleji kínai ábrázolásokon

I.N.: Bolshoy kitaysko-russkiy slovar. Vol. II. Moscow 1984. no.2584. 38. It is common knowledge that several outstanding members of the Chinese intelligentsia saw the individual way of modernization in learning and practising the medical profession (like Lu Ilsün among others). 39. In EBERHARD: p.269. mention is made (without naming a source unfortunately) of a representation of the god of good luck on which the Sun is held in the hand of the god; the meaning of this pun is according to him: a splendid career in no time. 40. Judging by the printed contour, the attire of the lady is of Manchu design, changed into a coat of older type buttoned in the middle by the paint. This latter cut was more fashionable in the first years of the Republic. 41. The mythical Chinese unicorn, lord of the quadrupeds, its appearance an omen of the birth of a sage in Antiquity. In popular belief omen of many offspring: babies are brought by it (Perhaps a symbol of terrestrial and aquatic beings allied here. Cf. CHAVANNES: pp.17., 75.; EBERHARD pp.68— 70.; WILLIAMS: p.413.). 42. Unfortunately inaccessible to me. 43. The signature is the same as on the pictures Magic Picture Promising Many Offspring (no.

6.), European Hunters (no. 16.) and CHPP 19SS: nos.71.,91. 44. The tracing of the perspective is a mere imitiation, lacking the knowledge of the appropriate methods in construction: the elongations of the converging lines do not meet in a common vanishing point. For a European onlooker the scene of the play, the courtyard, looks like a coulisse. 45. These are all scenes in various styles, the common source of the plays being the book mentioned above, 'Criminal Cases of the Magistrate Shih'. 46. An identical signature in: YANG-LIUCH'ING: no.5. 47. The Yi-ho-yiian, the new Summer Palace of the emperors North-West from Peking, was built in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Its present form dates from between 1888 and 1894 following the wishes and orders of the dowager empress Tz'u-hsi while making preparations for her sixtieth birthday, cf. BLAND, J. O. P.—BACKHOUSE, E.: China under the Empress Dowager. Heinemann London 1911. pp.167-169. According to the introductory sentences of the voluminous inscription on the picture, the Yi-ho-yüan was built especially for the birthday. The text is a lengthy eulogy of the pavilions and the gardens of the palace: lack of space does not permit us to give a translation here. 48. Inscription on the lampion: Long live the emperor, without end! (Sheng shou wu chiang). On the tablets: Officials and commoners wish happiness (Kuan min chu chia). 49. The sixtieth birthday is of peculiar importance: the Chinese time-reckoning follows cycles consisting of sixty years each; being a sexagenarian means starting a new cycle, as though entering a new century. 50. I have been unable to find a publication of the picture. The event is commemorated e.g. by BRANDT, M. von: Der Chinese, in der Öffentlichkeit und in der Familie, wie er sich selbst sieht und schildert. Verlag von Dietrich Reimer. Berlin, n.d. pp.18-19. The original of the print reproduced there might have been another detail of the supposed scroll. A general idea of the ceremonies can be gathered from the description of another birthday in: CARL, Katherine A.: With the Empress Dowager in China. The Century Co. New York 1907. pp. 195-198. 51. In a lengthy inscription, husbandry, regarded as the basic occupation and involving an idyllic rural life, is eulogized in a traditional way. We shall have to abstain from giving a translation here. 52. The same signature in POMMERANIZLIEDTKE: pp.39., 47., 51.; YANG-LIU-CH'ING: nos. 1., 7., 15. 53. The survey of the means of everyday life, the material world as represented on the picture, would be worth a separate study; the rolling stone with a wooden frame has been in use even today since neolithic times, the quern is still visible in rural households, the old sowing box is now rarely met with — or even the small hand-drum with a handle in the hand of a child in the lower right corner. It should be added that the sowing box was one of the modern implements of farming at the turn of the century, thus it is a symbol of prosperity on the picture, together with the mule-drawn, twowheeled carriage. 54. An unpainted woodcut is reproduced with the contours and the inscription printed in black with woodblocks, without mentioning the source. 55. Out of the two characters meaning 'China' the first one is written in archaizing form, the second in a vulgar form (unauthorized later by the reform of writing). 56. The same signature on CHRP no. 128. 57. 'Ihe Hag in use in the Chinese Republic between 1912 and 1928 had five horizontal stripes, red being the symbol of the Manchu, yellow of the Chinese (han), blue of the Mongol, white of the Chinese Muslim (hui) and black of the Tibetan nationalities (cf. WILLIAMS: p. 190 and the inside of the back cover). The stripes on the two small