Welcome to our 88th volume
Is there anything new under the sun? We often encounter the tired belief that all things late imperial China are monolithic, without change. In this volume, the authors and translator are concerned with newness and originality in the Ming. Two of these are concerned with art history, while another addresses representation of courtesan behavior, and takes into account the visual as well literary.
Katharine Burnett, in her article “Contemporaneity in Seventeenth-Century Chinese Painting, Theory, and Criticism,” argues that being new (shi 時) and of their time was a critical element to the writing and the artwork of the late Ming (and by extension the longer period of 1570–1720). Professor Burnett explores this term and its ideas in the writings of scholars such as Yuan Hongdao and Li Rihua and the paintings of Shen Zhou, Dong Qichang, and Wu Bin.
Shiyun Wang approaches newness in a quite different way in her article “Signaling Seduction: The Courtship Strategies of Ming Era Courtesans.” Her strategy is to employ theoretical constructs from the field of modern courtship and behavioral studies and apply them to the representation of seduction in Ming literature (and artwork). This proves to be a fruitful exploration of contemporary theory and courtesan culture, and it reveals much in the way of comparative thought.
The third extended piece is Kathleen Ryor’s translation of He Liangjun’s (何良俊, 1506–1573) comments on painting. She notes that this is an important work whose use and understanding demands a fuller context, and so she has produced a complete annotated translation of it in English. In her introduction, Professor Ryor highlights several approaches in understanding He Liangjun, including how he explores “the representational function of painting, the importance of the moral character of the artist, and the place of correct knowledge in connoisseurship.”
The fourth piece is an interview with Julia Murray, conducted by Kathleen Ryor. Julia Murray is an emeritus art historian (University of Wisconsin-Madison) who has written importantly on Confucian visual narratives and other aspects of Chinese art history.
We follow with a return to our book reviews. There are two in this issue. The first is Xing Hang’s review of Robert Anthony’s The Golden Age of Piracy in China, 1520–1810. The second is Paul R Katz's review of Richard Wang's Lineages Embedded in Temple Networks: Daoism and Local Society in Ming China.
We conclude with Ming News with conferences, talks, and other news from the field.