Ancient China was based on agriculture, with smooth wind and rain and abundant crops throughout the year, which not only represented the adequacy of the people's food and clothing, but also represented the abundance of the national treasury. Therefore, the emperors of china have attached great importance to agricultural production, and throughout the history of our country for thousands of years, they have left countless written materials related to agricultural activities, such as agricultural decrees, agricultural books or agricultural persuasion texts. In order to better propagate the "heavy peasant ideology" to the peasants, from the Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, dozens of systematic farming and weaving maps appeared, which not only publicized the advanced agricultural production technology of the time to the peasants, but also promoted the idea of "living and working in peace and contentment, performing their duties" for the rulers, and maintaining social stability.
The origin of the cultivation map can be traced back to the Warring States period, and the cultural relics we see now, the copper-patterned pot of the mulberry, depict the most primitive picture of male and female weaving. Then, after experiencing the Han Dynasty and tang dynasty, in the process of continuous improvement of the cultivation and weaving map, the Song Dynasty has initially formed a relatively mature cultivation and weaving map system. For example, the Southern Song Dynasty Lou Xuan's "Cultivation and Weaving Map", the Qing Dynasty Kangxi's "Imperial Cultivation and Weaving Map", etc., are all relatively famous farming and weaving map systems.
Today we will take a look at some of the most typical cultivation and weaving diagrams after the Song Dynasty.
Southern Song Dynasty Lou Xuan "Cultivation and Weaving Map"
This painting is the earliest cultivation and weaving chart system preserved in China. Lou Xuan(楼璹), also spelled Shouyu , was born in the fifth year of the Northern Song Dynasty. At that time, in order to promote the idea of heavy peasantry, the emperor issued the "Edict of Farming" to local officials, and then some officials found Lou Xuan and invited him to create this cultivation map. Lou Xuan himself was also a literati who cared about the suffering of the peasants, and in his later career, he repeatedly asked his superiors to reduce the burden on the people.
On the inscription of this cultivation map, Lou Xuan recorded:
''Emperor Gaozong was full of great deeds, Shao Kai Zhongxing, in and out of the army, industrious and industrious, full of wind and rain, prepared for the people's troubles, especially the hearts of the people, not to mention other affairs, the edict of farming, and the diligence of farming. ''
In the Song Dynasty, an important criterion for the evaluation of officials, Lou Xuan created cultivation and weaving maps, also to lay the foundation for his career. Later, this cultivation map was presented to the emperor, and the dragon heart was greatly pleased, and Lou Xuan was indeed rising step by step.
Lou Xuan's cultivation and weaving diagram can be described as the mother of the later dynasties and dynasties, and his works have been valued by the Song court shortly after their creation. In order to express the tradition of ''Empress Pro-Silkworm, Yi Fan Tianxia'', Empress Gaozong Wu even wrote an inscription herself, which shows her admiration for this painting.
Yuan Dynasty Cheng Tang "Cultivation and Weaving Map"
This painting is now hidden in an art museum in Washington, D.C., and was completed by Cheng Tanglin's cultivation drawing of Lou Xuan.
Cheng Di (程棨), also spelled Yifu ( Literally Yifu ) , was a famous calligrapher and painter at that time , known as a boya gentleman. Cheng Tang's creation of the cultivation map was not in response to the emperor's call, nor was it a political need, but only because of his love for Lou Xuan's works, and the creative behavior spontaneously occurred.
In fact, since the Southern Song Dynasty, many painters have copied Lou Xuan's "Cultivation and Weaving Map", purely out of appreciation for the previous generation of painters and nostalgia or yearning for farming culture, rather than publicizing the idea of heavy agriculture or promoting agricultural production technology. In the Southern Song Dynasty alone, there have been many such works, such as Liang Kai's "Cultivation and Weaving Map" and Liu Songnian's "Cultivation and Weaving Diagram".
The Yuan Dynasty also has to mention the "Nong Sang Tu" made by Yang Shuqian, which is a poem inscribed by the famous poet Zhao Mengfu, and now the poem has been preserved, but this "Nong Sang Tu" has been lost. The role of this "NongsangTu" is to present the emperor, although it is also an imitation of Lou Xuan's "Farming and Weaving Map", but the scene depicted is different from the previous farming and weaving map, not the scene of male and female weaving in the Jiangnan region, but the cultivation and weaving picture in the Kyoto area.
Qing Dynasty Kangxi "Cultivation and Weaving Map"
The Ming Dynasty's cultivation and weaving map still did not jump out of the blueprint of the Lou Xuan cultivation and weaving map. In the Qing Dynasty, the cultivation and weaving map ushered in the peak period of development, not only local officials contributed, but also the cultivation and weaving map of the imperial court system appeared. The themes of the cultivation and weaving drawings of this period are also more abundant, not only paintings depicting scenes of male and female weaving, but also paintings that depict the production scenes of the sericulture and cotton industries, and later derived stone carvings and wood carvings.
The main reason for the prosperity of the Qing Dynasty's cultivation and weaving map was the emperor's emphasis on Nongsang and Tian Farming, the most typical of which was that during the Kangxi period, Kangxi personally led the creation of a farming and weaving map. In the twenty-eighth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, kangxi who was in his prime came to the land of fish and rice in Jiangnan, and some officials in Jiangnan presented the fragments of the Lou Xuan cultivation and weaving map of that year. Kangxi cherished it and brought it back to the Forbidden City. He specially ordered the court painter to restore and create according to the Lou Xuan version of the cultivation and weaving map, and later after Jiao Bingzhen's re-creation, this new version of the cultivation and weaving map was created, and it took a full decade in the meantime. Kangxi was very happy, and wrote a preface to the poem on this cultivation and weaving map, so this set of cultivation and weaving diagrams is also known as the Kangxi Imperial System "Cultivation and Weaving Diagram".
In the preface to this cultivation map, we can see the purpose of the Kangxi Emperor insisting on creating this map.
''Morning and night are diligent, studying governance, remembering the foundation of the people, and taking food and clothing as the sky... The ancients had a saying: ''The clothes should be the cold of the weaver girl, and the millet should be the suffering of the farmer'", and the sorrow of the peasant should be here, deep and deep... And if you want to make the whole world, all of them revere their own business, be diligent in their planning, be frugal in their accumulation, and be rich in food and clothing, so as to join in the realm of peace and prosperity, Si Ze Jia Hui Yuan Yuan's meaning is also a husband! ''
After the Kangxi Emperor, every emperor of the Qing Dynasty would let the court painters create cultivation and weaving drawings during their reign, "'Day and night, borrowing the original intention of the ancient emperor Chongnongsang'"
The attention of the emperors also promoted the renewal of the creation of cultivating and weaving. In the thirtieth year of Qianlong, when the Qianlong Emperor toured the south, he held up sixteen kapok deeds and drew drawings to advance. Qianlong is a good vassal of elegance, cultivating and weaving this kind of gift that praises virtue and shows the monarch's temperament of compassion and peasantry, he must have loved it very much, praised the creators, and inscribed poems for it. Later, this "Cotton Map" was also called the "Imperial Cotton Map". The creator of this work, Fang Guancheng, was not a court painter, but a directly subordinate governor, who had been in a high position for 20 years, paid special attention to agricultural production, and he had a deep affection for cotton, Zeng Yun: "'Clothes are the benefit of the world'". Fang Guancheng presented the "Cotton Map" to the Qianlong Emperor, in fact, it has returned to the original intention of Lou Xuan, on the one hand, they are all officials who value agricultural affairs and love the peasants, on the other hand, they also want to rely on the cultivation and weaving map to seek official positions and highlight their political achievements.
During this period, the cultivation and weaving map also began to spread widely among the people, truly achieving the purpose of the emperor's propaganda. For example, in the New Year paintings, there are many New Year paintings with the theme of cultivation and weaving, and the very famous ones are the Qing Dynasty Yangliu Youth Paintings "Five Grains fengdeng" and "Farmer Busy" and other New Year paintings that symbolize agricultural harvest, singing the praises of the simple, happy, reunion and tranquility of agricultural life, guiding the agricultural life of the people, and expressing the aesthetics of agricultural life. For the rural areas, where information dissemination was not developed at that time, there was no more disciplinary significance than this miniature weaving map, and the rulers consolidated the harmony of rural life in a peaceful way.
epilogue
Cultivation and weaving map, is a unique form of painting creation in China, it is a kind of map with poetic explanation, the theme is agricultural production, mainly concentrated in farming and weaving two links. Deeply rooted in the purpose of their creation, most of them were created for the rulers of the dynasty, in response to the rulers' persuasion to teach Nongsang. After Lou Xuan relied on this cultivation and weaving map to rise higher and higher, the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty attached great importance to the cultivation and weaving map, so many painters or officials later, for their own career, would also use the cultivation and weaving diagram to prove their achievements in persuading nongsang.
The emperor is in the inner courtyard of the deep palace, it is difficult to know the bitterness and hardship of the people on the field cultivation, the cultivation map makes the emperor more vivid to understand the scene of the people's life, causing the emperor to have compassion and attention to the lower peasants, from this point of view, the cultivation map has a positive significance. Just as Lou Xuan's nephew Lou Key, speaking of his uncle's "Cultivation and Weaving Map", once commented: "The hardships of this real people cannot be known to those who are above, and this map cannot be described. ''
Resources
Wang Chaosheng, editor-in-chief- "Ancient Chinese Cultivation and Weaving Map"
Wang Chaosheng - "Ancient Court Cultivation and Weaving Map", Forbidden City
Wang Chaosheng - "Qing Dynasty Cultivation and Weaving Map Exploration", Qing History Research,
Huang Shirui - "A Brief Introduction to Cultivation and Weaving"
Wang Chaosheng - Several Cultivation and Weaving Maps in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Agricultural Archaeology