CHINA - THE CONFUCIAN REVIVAL The Ming
Ming period (1368-1644) is espe cially noteworthy for its great achievements in architecture, even to-day hardly appreciated at their real worth. Nearly all the city and frontier walls, paved roads, bridges, palaces, temples and pagodas still existing in China were constructed by the great Ming builders. Next to its architecture, probably the most im portant work of the Ming period was that accomplished in pot tery. Here too inspiration was sought from the earlier epochs, especially that of the T'ang. But original work was done, and Ming celadons, polychromes and blue-and-white ware are well known. It was during the latter half of the dynasty that porce lain was first regularly exported to Europe, although isolated examples had reached Mediterranean lands far earlier through Arab traders. The sculpture of this time is dull and uninspired, as shown by its best known examples, the colossal figures of men and animals lining the famous avenue to the Ming tombs just north of Peking. Painting not infrequently displays much excel lence, but necessarily lacks the interest always aroused by original creative art. Emphasis was placed chiefly upon landscapes and nature studies, and to the Ming artists who industriously copied earlier works we owe by far the greater part of our knowledge of the secular paintings of the T'ang and Sung times.
In the realm of textiles, embroideries, brocades and damasks of high character were produced, and for the first time, perhaps as a consequence of the contacts opened up with the Near East under the Mongols, Chinese rugs and carpets assume a place of importance. In the minor arts also development attained a high level. Ming cloisonné is characterized by a boldness of design and depth of colour never excelled. Much work of a high technical order was done in the carving of jades and other semi precious stones and ivory, in dignity and beauty often far superior to later examples. In general, the art of this time, perhaps largely owing to the revival of Confucianism with its worship of antiquity, falls far below that of the earlier and truly great periods. These were spontaneous and creative and had a genuine message ; while that of the Mings was consciously imitative and sought its mission in trying to bring back to life a long dead past. Like all its predecessors, the Ming dynasty toward its close underwent a rapid process of degeneration and decadence, the central power becoming weaker and weaker until at last it was overthrown in a great rebellion.
The vacant throne was swiftly seized by the warlike Manchus, who proceeded to overrun the entire country, and who gave the Empire an enormous expansion. Their dynasty, known as that of the Ch'ing, produced several rulers of first-rate ability; but their genius displayed itself to better advantage in statecraft and war than in the development of the arts. In architecture they did but little in comparison with their predecessors the Mings, perhaps because the latter had left so little to be done. In sculpture, China under their rule displayed little originality, development being mainly in the direction of grotesque perversion of taste and excess of ornamentation. In painting almost no original work of consequence was done, al though the copying of earlier works was continued. It was in the field of porcelain that the most noteworthy aesthetic achieve ments of the Manchu period have occurred. A marked develop ment took place in fineness of texture and elaboration of form and decoration. The greatest work was done in the two decades from 1662 to 1683. During the 18th century the tendency toward elaboration of form and decoration became more and more marked, and some of the pieces of the Ch'ien-lung period have never been excelled in these respects. The weaving of textiles and rugs, the execution of objects of personal adornment and household decoration, as well as carving of every sort, also display this elaborating tendency. With it went a steady deterioration in taste for which no intricacy of design could compensate.
Whether the present turmoil in China will lead to another period of artistic greatness, only the future can disclose.
Chinese culture spread to Korea and Japan (qq.v.), but these were not the only regions into which it was carried. During the early centuries of the Christian era it spread over southern China and gradually made that region definitively Chinese. Indo-China and Tibet, although strongly affected, es caped such complete absorption, partly because of the presence in those countries of strong Indian cultural counter-currents. Dur ing the T'ang period, and again under the dynasty of the Mings, the influence of China penetrated far and wide through the Indian Archipelago; Formosa was partially subdued and assimilated, Borneo and the Philippines underwent Chinese contacts of which traces still remain, and even distant Ceylon for a time was a tributary of the Ming emperors.
As so often occurs in cases of culture diffusion, the influence of Far Eastern aesthetic development continues to be widely felt, although moribund or dead in the lands which saw its birth.
Interest in it grows apace, and collections, researches and pub lications are multiplied. In the light of recent critical study, largely by Chinese and Japanese scholars themselves, it is being found necessary to reduce greatly the extravagant dates claimed by most Far Eastern nations, with no support from contem poraneous history, for the earlier periods of their culture.
Dillon, Porcelain ( r904) ; R. L. Binyon, Painting Bibliography.-E. Dillon, Porcelain ( r904) ; R. L. Binyon, Painting in the Far East 0908. 3rd ed., 1923) ; E. F. Fenollosa, Epochs of Chinese and Japanese Art (1912) ; M. Anesaki, Buddhist Art (1916). For China, see E. J. Eitel, Handbook of Chinese Buddhism (1870. znd ed., rev., 1888) ; B. Laufer, Jade. A Study in Chinese Archaeology and Religion in Field Columbian Museum Publications. Anthropo logical Series, vol. 10 (Chicago 1913) ; S. W. Bushell, Chinese Art (19o4-06, new ed., 1921) ; A. L. B. Ashton, An Introduction to the Study of Chinese Sculpture (1924) ; B. Laufer, Chinese Grave Sculptures of the Han Period (Leipzig 1911) ; O. Siren, Chinese Sculp ture from the 5th to the z4th Century (1925) ; A. J. Koop, Early Chinese Bronzes (1924, see also Bushell, Loc. Cit.) ; T. J. Arne, Painted Stone Age Pottery from the Province of Honan, China, Geol. Survey of China (Peking 1925) ; W. G. Gulland, Chinese Porce lain (1898) ; W. C. Monkhouse, A History and Description of Chinese Porcelain (19o1) ; S. W. Bushell, Description of Chinese Pottery and Porcelain (191o) ; R. L. Hobson and A. L. Hetherington, The Art of the Chinese Potter from the Han Dynasty to the End of the Ming (1923), and The Later Ceramic Wares of China (1925). E. F. Strange, Chinese Lacquer (1926) ; The Burlington Magazine Monographs (1925) ; Ars Asiatica (ed. v. Golonbew, 1914) ; Artibus Asiae (Dres den, 1925) ; The Chinese Journal (Shanghai, 1923) . See also CHINESE ARCHITECTURE ; CHINESE PAINTING ; CHINESE SCULPTURE ; BRONZE AND BRASS ORNAMENTAL WORK : Chinese. See further JAPANESE PAINTING AND PRINTS; KoREA: Aesthetic Development. (C. W. B.),
