Page 125 - Made For Trade Chinese Export Paintings In Dutch Collections

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peoples of south China, extensively studied by
historian Laura Hostetler. 39 Some personages
appear to be borrowed directly from Huang
Qing zhigong tu (Qing Imperial Illustrations of
Tributaries), an eighteenth-century (1757-1761)
illustrated ‘catalogue’ (handscrolls) with
ethnographic illustrations of the dress and
customs of minority peoples and foreign
nationalities, painted during the reign of the
Qianlong Emperor. 40 Like the Royer albums,
124 male and female representatives of each ethnic
group living in frontier regions, and individuals
of different ranks, shown in a variety of
Fig. 4.15. Opera
activities and professions, are rendered in vivid
personage, Chinese
colours in the gongbi zhongcai (fine line/heavy
warrior from Baoqing,
colour) style. As Figures 4.13. and 4.14. show,
the Imperial reign from
natural scenery does not appear in the backdrop,
1225 to 1227 of Emperor
although accessories, like agricultural
Lizong of the Southern
implements, looms, musical instruments or
Song dynasty,
weapons, are sometimes included. I follow Wei
anonymous,
Dong’s idea that these pictorial records not only
watercolour on
“provided useful information for the Qing court,
Chinese paper,
that could serve as an aid in the formulation of
1773-1776,
national policy towards foreign and minority
29.9 x 34.2 cm,
peoples,” but also “provide invaluable records
Royer Collection,
of the historical background, customs and
Museum Volkenkunde/
international contacts of the minority peoples
Nationaal Museum van 41
of the Qing period.”
Wereldculturen,
The ethnic minorities illustrations in the
inv.no. RV-360-378-
Leiden album sets are combined with images
D/4.
of historical figures from the Ming dynasty
historical novel Romance of the Three
Fig. 4.16. Picture seller,
anonymous,
watercolour on
---
Chinese paper,
39 Hostetler 2001, 81-211, Plate 2 and 3, following 108. In Qing colonial enterprise, Hostetler shows how Qing
1773-1776,
China (1636-1911) used cartography and ethnography to pursue its Imperial ambitions. She argues that far from being
29.9 x 34.2 cm,
on the periphery of developments in the early modern period, Qing China both participated in and helped shape
Royer Collection,
the new emphasis on empirical scientific knowledge that was simultaneously transforming Europe (and its colonial
Museum Volkenkunde/
empires) at the time. Museum Volkenkunde: Inv.nos. 360-377-a to 377j (ten albums with each 32 images) and 360-
Nationaal Museum van
378a to 378l (twelve albums of each 24 images).
Wereldculturen,
40 Wei 1995, 23. The book is a geographical description of foreign countries and non-Chinese peoples within the
inv.no. RV-360-378-
borders of the Qing empire (1644-1911). It is 9 juan ‘scrolls’ long and was compiled under the supervision of Fuheng.
H/8.
A first draft was finished in 1759; an additional part was added six years later. In the first juan, foreign countries are
described with whom the Qing court had a kind of official relationship, especially Korea, Japan, England, France, the
Netherlands, and Russia. The other scrolls give an account on peoples that were not Chinese but who were
incorporated into the Qing empire during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, like Tibetans, Uyghurs, and
other peoples in the northeast and the provinces of Fujian, Hu-Guang (modern Hunan), Guangdong, Guangxi,
Gansu, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou. More than 600 illustrations in two scrolls, made by Jin Tingbiao, give a deep
impression of both the minority peoples of Qing China, and its view of foreign countries and their representatives.
Source: http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Science/huangqingzhigongtu.html, in its turn cited from: Liu
Ruzhong, ‘Huang-Qing zhigong tu’. Zhongguo da baike quanshu, Zhongguo lishi, vol. 1. Beijing and Shanghai:
Zhongguo da baike quanshu chubanshe, 1992, 402.
41 Wei 1995, 24. Wei Dong is the pen-name of Jin Weidong, a researcher in the Paintings Department of the Palace
Museum in Beijing and a specialist in Chinese genre-painting.
42 Van Campen 2010, 47-50.
43 Van Campen 2000, 2000-a, b and c.
44 Van Campen 2000-b, 116.