Page 339 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

families and communities to provide education
and young men to study. The Village School
Scene (dated to 1649), a leaf from an album of
Figures in Settings by Zhang Hong, is a humor-
ous rendering of a stock subject known since the
eleventh century. For all the deficiencies of this
very poor village school, it was a setting in
which the "poor but bright boy" (even if sur-
rounded by mischievous or dull children and
taught by a barely competent teacher) could
begin the life of learning through which he
might rise in society. This^represents the Con-
fucian social dynamic in its most humble and
most broadly dispersed aspect. Since official
position gained through the state civil service
examinations was not hereditary (though the
social standing conferred by office tended to
endure for a time), the motive to achieve indi-
vidual success through education remained
operative from generation to generation. It was
Pe
a strongly achievement-oriented, open society.
The painting Literary Gathering in the Apri-
cot Garden, by Xie Huan, depicts an actual
social gathering of the highest officials of the
realm in the suburbs of Beijing in 1437. ^ n tne
first of two details shown here, we see the host,
Yang Rong (1371-1440), who had been a Hanlin
Academician since 1402 and Grand Secretary
since 1419, in the red gown, at the left of the
group of three central figures. The central fig-
ure, in the blue gown, is Grand Secretary Yang
Shiqi (1365-1444), who had come into the
Hanlin Academy with Yang Rong in 1402, and
had been named Grand Secretary in 1421. His
central position and dignified posture indicate
that he is honored as the oldest person present.
or its script imposes limitations on its users' affairs: these were derived from accumulated In detail number two the central figure in the
mental activity is passe. knowledge accessible to all through observation, red gown, shown admiring a painting held up
The philosophy of government and the out- learning, and study. That environment was very by a servant, is Yang Pu (1372-1446); although
look of the governing class were also conducive conducive to the systematic development of long in high office, he had been named Grand
to the systematic development of knowledge. In knowledge. 4 Secretary only in the previous year. Although
addition to their long and unbroken tradition of A further element encouraging scholarly pur- the "Three Yangs" shared a surname, they were
literacy and learning, the Chinese very early on suits is found in the social patterns of China, not related.
developed a tradition of employing learned men beginning well before the Western Common They and like-minded colleagues, however,
in leading positions in society. Early on they Era. China began to depart from its feudal dominated the government under the reigns of
created many schools of philosophy, out of system of closed social classes and a perpetuat- three emperors, beginning in the Yongle reign
which came the dominant Confucian school. ing aristocratic elite by the third century B.C., 5 (1402-1424). Zheng He's vast maritime expedi-
Confucianism, like all early schools of Chinese gradually substituting a more or less open elite tions (discussed below) had the personal sup-
thought, avoided the idea of revealed truth, recruited on the basis of demonstrated ability port of those three emperors, but when the
teaching in its place that men must study the founded on education. The ideal image of the Xuande emperor, Yongle's grandson, died in
past, observe the world about them —especially poor but bright boy, enabled by some good for- 1435, it was these great court officials who
the human world —and apply the lessons tune to acquire education, advancing up the guided the decision to abandon all further state-
derived from human experience to solving ladder of success to become a chief minister of sponsored voyages, as well as other expansive
present problems. The Confucians' competitors the throne, was very actively present in and expensive involvements beyond China's
urged that the patterns of nature offered a Chinese minds. Such success brought material borders, just as they had influenced the decision
better guide to human conduct, but since no one reward to the man's family and descendants and to withdraw from the occupation of Vietnam
school claimed divine or suprarational authority, glory to his ancestors. However few the poor after the death of the Yongle emperor in 1424.
all schools coexisted and competed for boys who actually achieved this scenario in any In this group portrait we see realistically
adherents. All early Chinese trends of thought generation, the strong belief that education and depicted the highest level of fulfillment of the
posited similar sources of authority in human individual excellence brought success motivated life of Confucian learning, at the opposite end of

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