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

FERENCZY Mária: A modernizáció megjelenése a századeleji kínai ábrázolásokon

endar tables, e.g. in ALEKSEIEV 1966: p. 156.(no.

77.) with calendar for the year 1905); CHRISTIE, Anthony: Chinese Mythology. London 1968. p. 105. (with calendar for the year 1903); WANG 1989: No.5. (date illegible); KNK 1987: (with calendar for the year 1902).

13 2. ALTAR OF THE LORD OF ALL SOULS Inventory no.: 89.41.1 Size: 43,5 x 40 cm Title: (inscribed on the altar's tablet): The True Lord of the Myriad Souls of Heaven, Earth, the Three Worlds and the Ten Regions (T'ien ti san cliieh skill fang wan ling chen ts'ai)

14 Signature: none. Technique: block-printed with black, yellow, blue and finally (above the handcoloured part) gold colours; handcolouring with yellow, orange-red, purple, green and blue colours. Condition: yellowish paper slightly stained; mounting non-professionally done in Hungary. Subject: the symmetrical composition portrays a richly decorated altar: the stele, with the name of the deity written with characters in gold on an orange-red background with a frame painted in blue, green and gold, stands on a lotus socket, placed on a pedestal surrounded by a low railing; above these is a roof supported by six slender columns. In the foreground there are two spotted lions on square bases at the two sides, and between them are stone slabs decorated with flowers. Blue dragons surrounded by tiny coloured clouds coil around the columns. The stele is flanked by two pied phoenixes. From beneath the roof hang two big lanterns with tassels; on both sides long strings of lampions on which orna-ments shaped like musical stones hang down, with tassels between five small lampions. At the end of the strings coins are attached with tassels. Above the stele, under the roof there is a mask of a beast in blue-red-gold. At the extremity of the coloured eaves the comers are decorated with dragon-heads with tassels; on a horizontal blue streak there is an illegible inscription. Above it are lotus-shaped lampions; in the middle is another mask of a beast in green, yellow and gold, with two richly painted phoenixes with quill-feathers elevated high, between them an ornate sunshade with inscription,

15 and a lotus-shaped crest. Explanation: In this picture the deity is represented by a name oidy, by the magic power of writing, his visual, anthropomorphic representation being disposed of. This proceeding is by no means alien to traditional Chinese thinking: the age-old practice of the cult of ancestors, or even the cult of Heaven, did not originally entail a pictorial representation of the gods or ancestors, although the world had been populated by a whole host of gods and immortals with earthly histories, and by ancestors who had been turned into gods. Nevertheless, the formula conjuring up the lord of every deity and spirit of the world is by no means old, and does not imply any kind of monotheism, as one might assume at first sight, especially since, having been written in Chinese, the inscription could be understood to be both in the singular and in the plural. It was invented as a result of the resourcefulness and thriftiness of the poor Chinese: offering a sacrifice before a single altar in this way, one could hope that none of the gods or heavenly beings, the benevolence and protection of whom were essential to the welfare of the family, had been neglected.

16 The decorations on the altar serve magic functions: dragons and phoenixes ensure the balance of the male and female prin-