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

FERENCZY Mária: A modernizáció megjelenése a századeleji kínai ábrázolásokon

1. THE GOD OF THE HEARTH WITH HIS WIFE; CALENDAR FOR THE YEAR 1912 Inventory no.: 89.42.1 Size: 43,5 x 30 cm Title: The Divine Seat of the Lord of the Hearth in the Fourth Year of the Hsiiant'ung Period of the Great Ch'ing Dynasty [=1912]

7 (Ta Ch'ing Hsiian-t'ung ssu nien Tsao chiin chili shen wei) Signature: none. Technique: block-printed with black, green, yellow, lilac and (above the handcoloured parts) golden colours; handcoloured with blue, red, orange, pink and white colours and Chinese ink. The faces are hand-coloured with delicate brushstrokes. Condition: Its paper is yellowish, stained; mounted non-professionally in Hungary. Subject: in the upper part the calendar, with notations on the abode of other tutelary gods of the family and the household,

8 surrounded by a rustic frame with dragons, above it the gate of Heaven, underneath a ledge with inscriptions.

9 The god and his wife (on his right) sit in the two main places of the strictly symmetrical composition behind the altar-table, facing the onlooker. The deities wear the ritual robe and headgear of high-ranking imperial officials with a golden collar and ornaments in orange. They hold tablets in their hands to show their rank. Behind their heads are haloes in red and green respectively. Between the two figures the head of a red horse and the upper part of a man clothed in green can be seen, accompanied by a martial-looking bearded man (a military mandarin) holding a scroll, and a gentle-looking moustached official (a civil mandarin) with a book. Beneath each of these is a youth with hair partly done up. They have boxes in their hands (to keep notes in). On the right-hand box the character meaning joy (hsi) can be seen. The altar-table is covered with a richly decorated cloth. On it is a vessel for incense; in the middle there are candlesticks and vases (with red flowers), among them bowls for offerings. Before the altar, on the floor, there are three huge silver sycees heaped on one another, together with a dog and a cock (symbols of family wealth). On each side is a vase with symbols of richness (coins, boxes and banana leaves). The background is formed by carved wooden panels and heavy draperies; on both sides, parallel inscriptions.

10 Explanation: the God of the Hearth (the "Kitchen God") is an important figure in Chinese popular religion. As the local representative of the Jade Emperor, the Ruler of Heaven, he keeps watch over families, and keeps a record of their deeds. On New Year's Eve he departs for Heaven on his red horse to give his report to the Jade Emperor; therefore his picture is put into the kitchen, the centre of the household.

11 He is represented as a high-ranking mandarin, mostly together with his wife, a number of servants, a military and a civil mandarin of lesser rank, officials who keep the records, and with his mount and its groom for the trip to heaven. On this picture this tradition is represented in full. Beside this important cultic function, the picture fulfils other magic purposes too: by the accumulated riches, especially the sycees and the precious things heaped up in the bowls — i.e. the multiple representation of the symbols of wealth — prosperity and peace are presaged for the family.

12 Even the image of the vase itself (the name of which is p'ing, is homonymous with a word meaning 'peace'; cf. WILLIAMS p.416.). Parallel cases: similar pictures and cal-