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Cult of the ancestors
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The tradition of using portraits in ancestor worship reflects the faiths, customs, costumes, furniture and the art of painting. They are windows to understanding Chinese society, says R. NAGASWAMY.
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Portrait of the Sixth Prince Yi, China, Qing Dynasty, 1905, hanging scroll, ink and colour on silk.
MEMORIALS for ancestors in China, represented by huge and impressive portrait paintings, were on display at an exhibition at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. within the vicinity of the Pentagon building recently destroyed by the terrorist attack. Ironically the exhibition came to a close just two days before the attack that killed over 800 people.
The Indian word chitra refers to both sculpture and painting, so does the Chinese word xiaoxiang. Most Chinese portraits are linked with the ritual of death and ancestor worship. The earliest Chinese portrait of this category dates back to about 475 B.C. and some to 200 B.C. to the time of Hang dynasty. These are found in tombs and represent funerary pieces covering the coffins of Marquise of Dai at Muangduai. The paintings depict the corpse laid on a platform covered with painted cloth.
China has a long history of deifying dead officials and nobles in paintings. From the Second Century B.C., images of Confucius (551-479 B.C.) and his disciples were introduced in temples dedicated to the sage. This was a widespread custom that continued up to the 16th Century. The Chinese believed that the spirit of the dead inhabits our world and needs to be propitiated for the prosperity of the descendants.
The rulers and hereditary elite who held high positions in Government were represented, though there remained certain hierarchical differences between the rites for rulers, nobles and common man.
Before 960 A.D., commoners were not allowed to build ancestral temples or make offerings to ancestors beyond three generations. Regulations were issued during the Ming dynasty's tenure c.1400 A.D. governing the number of generations of ancestors, the timing of the sacrifices and the type of ancestral hall that commoners could construct. From the 18th Century, commoners' ancestral halls were built.
The tradition of using portraits in ancestor worship came into vogue into China following the introduction of Buddhism. The portraits of ancestral emperors were hung in Buddhist temples. The Chinese believed that the power of the living person resided in the portraits.
From the 11th Century, the images of the empresses and the mothers of emperors were placed beside that of the emperors. From the 12th Century portraits of emperors were placed in palaces and offerings made. Sacrifices were conducted before the portraits four times a year, the day of the death marked by special worship conducted by Buddhist monks.
Vidya Dehejia
The portrait paintings were also kept rolled up and were hung in the ancestral temple or the hall on the last day of the year so that offerings of meat, rice, vegetable soups, cakes, wine and tea could be made on New Year's day. The kin of the dead passed the offerings from hand-to-hand, until it reached the eldest family member who raised them before the portraits and laid them on the altars.
The imperial ancestral cult now came to be located in several major sites.
There was also a feeling that the portraits should resemble the deceased accurately otherwise it would not confer the desired spiritual merit. This feeling led to accurate depiction of facial features of the dead.
Some neo-Confucians objected to the use of portraits stating that the custom was foreign to Chinese tradition. Others also protested that the queens and other members of the harem were never seen in the public and so questioned the accuracy of their depiction.
However the worship of the dead through paintings continued as in the case of famous Kublai Khan (1280-1295 A.D.) who was painted with his Empress Chabi. Painted by a Nepalese artist Anige, it was considered a model of textual design for religious textiles. The spirits of the imperial ancestors were considered a source of sacred power.
Interesting theories were advanced to explain how the ancestors of earlier dynasties could become the property of a new dynasty. The Mongol rulers collected and preserved these portraits for their claim of legitimate lineage.
From the 17th Century the imperial portraits were removed from one place to another depending upon the conquests of the dynasty. Finally the Quo Ming Dong Government transferred them to Taiwan where 152 imperial paintings were preserved in the National Palace museum.
Wealth lineages worshipped at the ancestral halls. Many Chinese households preserve painted scrolls with names of their ancestors. Some paintings carry pictures of the food and incense offered before the paintings. Many ancient ancestral portraits of nobles and commoners have attracted attention and flow freely into the Western world as they reflect the faiths, customs, costumes, furniture and the art of painting. They are windows to an understanding of Chinese society. Comparative studies are undertaken on contemporary funerary practices of the Chinese people.
The exhibition of Chinese ancestral paintings was organised at the Smithsonian Institution jointly by the Sackler Art Gallery and Freer Gallery of Art at Washington D.C.
The Sackler Art Gallery was started in 1987 with a gift of 1000 objects from Dr. Arthur M. Sackler (1913-1987) a research physician and medical practitioner from New York. Besides this, Dr. Sackler also gifted $1 million for constructing the gallery. The Sackler Gallery is connected by an underground exhibition space to the nearby Freer Art Gallery.
Dr. Vidya Dehejia, from South India but now an American Citizen heads both the galleries as Chief Curator and Deputy Director. She is planning a great exhibition of Chola bronzes in 2002 at the Smithsonian.
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