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- Introduction
In this short study wc should perhaps first look at the term �literati� as used in the context of this exhibition. The literati of China and those referred to as literati in Japan differed in social position as well as in their culture, so naturally the paintings they created, and the objets d'art they collected, show some difference in taste, style and materials. The literati in China (wcnrcn) were from the educated and privileged elite. They were the chief arbiters of refined and sophisticated tastes. As officials, scholars, poets, calligraphers, painters and connoisseurs, they came to define the finest aesthetics and styles of the nation. The term literati or bunjin in Japan was different. Japanese literati artists were not necessarily all members of the intelligentsia. They came from various walks of life and simply found their source of inspiration from the art and lifestyle of the scholar-officials of China.
Background of Literati in China
The Chinese term for scholar-officials was shi until the beginning of the 20th century. Today, shi simply means scholar. Originally, the term meant ��knights,� hereditaiy, professional warriors of whom the early aristocracy was composed. With this status came hereditary government positions. Different from the European situation, and most early civilizations, the shi were literate and there was no separate group of clerics (= clerks) who did the writing for the aristocracy. Also different was the lack of a separate priestly class; the shi carried out the primary rituals of Chinese religion, the offering of food to the deceased members of their family and clan.
In the sixth century BCE, this situation began to slowly change. Kongzi (Confucius) seems to have been the first to set up a school to train persons for government service. His students were all hereditaiy aristocrats and were expected to be well trained in archery and charioteering, the primary warrior skills. But they began to receive government positions based on their special education as well as their aristocratic birth and martial skills. This education consisted of texts on poetry, ritual and history, and lectures on ethics and political philosophy. It may also have included music, as Kongzi played the qin, the musical instrument later particular to the literati.
By the Han dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE), government officials were chosen primarily from a pool of educated specialists and their ideology became and remained that of the government. Written examinations developed for the choosing of these officials. By the sixth century CE, civil officials were no longer also specialists in the martial arts. There were two sets of examinations, one for civil, and one for military officials, both sets of officers of equal status. Two centuries later, a failed military coup d'etat led to the loss of status of the military officials and the complete ascendancy of the scholar-officials. Important aspects of the civil examinations included calligraphy and poetry.
The Song dynasty (960-1279) saw the full development of the ��civil service system,� a system in which the primary route to both fame and fortune was through a series of written examinations, at district, provincial and national levels, leading to a final examination in the imperial palace itself. Hereditary distinctions were lost, save for the imperial family. Competing power groups, such as wealthy merchants, were co-opted into the system by being able to purchase civil service examination titles, but not the offices, similar to the modern honorary Ph.D.
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