Li Gongming | Secretary of the Week: In the perspective of cross-cultural research... Ancient historical images and mysteries

"Cross-Cultural Art History Yearbook 3: Images of Ancient History", edited by Li Jun, Shandong Fine Arts Publishing House, January 2022 edition, 298.00 yuan

The "Yearbook of Cross-Cultural Art History" (Shandong Fine Arts Publishing House, hereinafter referred to as "Yearbook"),edited by Li Jun, has published three series so far ("Cross-Cultural Art History Yearbook.1, Two Ways to Tell a Story", 2019; "Cross-Cultural Art History Yearbook.2, The Birth of Europa"" in 2021; "Cross-Cultural Art History Yearbook.3, The Image of Ancient History", 2022), With a fairly thick research text, it initially presents the conscious pursuit and research strength of an academic group of art history that combines research and publication. The "cross-cultural art history" proposed in the "Yearbook" refers to a holistic academic research vision, integrating Chinese art history and European art history, emphasizing the "original text", "original work" and "original cultural context" in the research method, and striving to make research stand at the forefront of contemporary scholarship. As a research and publishing project with common academic interests, its main consensus is reflected in: "We need to explore a new methodology, explore how to follow the trajectory of things, trace the path of cross-cultural transmission of objects, technologies, concepts and images, and restore the truth of human cultural interaction one stop at a time." (Yearbook 2, p. 3) The section setting of the yearbook also reflects this research pattern: "methodological vision", "decoration, artifacts and material culture", "big books and small books", "old classics and new texts" and "scene", from methodology to special research and book reviews, translations and on-site discussions, it can be seen that it is a communication platform structure centered on academic exploration and interaction. In his "Introduction" to Yearbook 3, Li Jun said that the process of reading these papers was an extremely beautiful experience. I also feel the same way, not that the methods or conclusions of these papers are impeccable, but in them I see the spirit and pursuit of serious learning.

A true love of scholarship, openness and self-confidence in exploration, are the primary factors I value in the Yearbook. This academic atmosphere is more directly and vividly reflected in the "live" section of Yearbook 3, and I even thought that students who can join this young academic group are lucky, as William Wordsworth said in his Overture to recall the French Revolution: "It is happy to have such a dawn, let alone young, it is a godsend!" "I forget who translated it, but I still like it the most. Yes, especially in the present, if there is no dawn of scholarship that truly loves scholarship and fearlessly pursues the truth, what is the meaning of the youthful life spent in the academic quagmire of quxue and fame and profit?

The beginning of each series of "Yearbook" is an "introduction" written by the editor-in-chief, which is a good reading guide for readers, and of course, it also reflects the academic pursuit and methodology of the editor-in-chief Li Jun. There are many academic topics involved, and I can only talk about a few points here. "Introduction to Almanac 1: Why Can Stories Always Be Told In Two Ways?" In response to the question of "how to get out of the compilation state" in Chinese Western art history research, the principle of "three originals" is put forward: one is the "original text", that is, entering the language used by the object of study; the second is the "original work", that is, entering the work, "that is, going deep into the material and cultural level of the work, we can observe, examine, and even play with it (if it is an artifact, and if it is allowed)"; the third is the "original cultural context", that is, entering the context of the original work, entering the cultural context of the past and foreign countries. Includes the context in which the subject is being studied. He believes that the "three originals" are only a small step for profound academic research, but a big step for "getting out of the compilation state". He then argues that taking this step only provides a way to tell the "story", and he uses his comprehensive study of the relationship between images and space in the Church of St. Francis of Assisi in Italy and the Spanish chapel of the Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence as an example, showing that after following the principle of "three originals" to tell a typical Western story, it will continue to tell another story in a cross-cultural context, the story of European art that relies on the larger context of cultural exchange in Eurasia. This is the so-called "two ways of telling a story" – two ways of telling from different positions and perspectives of the East and the West.

In my opinion, the so-called "two ways of speaking" is more like a symbolic statement, of course, there can be a variety of ways to tell a story, since the earth is round, the East and the West are just a large, general division, and there will be more different positions and perspectives waiting to make their own voices and their own statements.

The author then talks about the "history of cross-cultural art", taking the story of the Silk Road and the Ceramic Road as an example to illustrate what is the "cross-cultural" approach. Whether it is silk or ceramics, the traditional way of talking about the route and the goods is basically about the goods, and pay little attention to how those goods are accepted, imitated, and even how to produce the cultural story of the receiving country itself. On the road of cultural dissemination and exchange, this is of course missing an equally important part of the road. Therefore, "in order to explore the influence of Chinese factors on the West, we must study the material and cultural history of the West, such as the history of silk weaving, the history of clothing, and the history of ceramics, so as to explore the process of imitation, appropriation, transformation and reproduction of Oriental objects in the Western world." To put it simply, we must not forget the story of the "cottage" that once occurred at the end of the receiving country of goods and culture. "Thinking in this way, The history of Chinese art and the history of Western art can overlap innately, and they are not completely disconnected... Discussing works of art and material culture within this world history perspective gives us an innate vision of art history. I myself wouldn't like to call it 'global art history', but rather 'cross-cultural art history.'" (Yearbook 1, page 7)

In fact, it is the story of cross-cultural translation in the history of art. The so-called "transliteration" comes from the English translation, usually translated as "translation", but implies "deviating from the original meaning" in the English translation; the use of the word "transliteration" is also used many times by the French sociologist of science Bruno Latour, such as "translation", "transfer", "displacement" and "metaphor" The enlightenment of concepts such as (metaphor), which contains complex meanings such as transfer, displacement, transformation, and even transformation, is precisely the situation that occurs when the cultural transmission and change to be discussed is a kind of loss of one or the other or even the darkness of the situation. Such a transformation "is not an inevitable necessity, and its direction and degree can also be said to be the result of a cultural tug-of-war", "at different stages, it also includes the meaning of 'transformation', 'evolution', 'localization', 'alienation' and so on." (See Zhang Ning, "Translation of Exotic Things: Horse Racing, Running Dogs and Pull-Back Ball Races in Modern Shanghai", Social Sciences Academic Press, August 2020, pp. 5-6.)

Behind the material artifacts that have been copied and transplanted is the translation between different cultures, a story that cannot be ignored or viewed in a black and white light. The fundamental meaning of cross-cultural translation is actually cross-, transpose, transpose - intercultural, transplanted (transpose) and re-narrated (transposed). There is nothing here that is one-dimensional, solidified and non-black-and-white, but a process from demand and introduction to fusion, imitation and re-creation, and for researchers, it is the story of phenomena, behaviors, mentalities, emotions, values, and historical processes that occur between people (elites and commoners) and things (all things). In particular, the ambiguous transformations that seem to be the same but actually have major variations that occur between the reproduction, transplantation and creation of cultures, as well as the "tug-of-war" between acceptance and transformation that occurs under the domination of historical context. From the perspective of anthropology and sociology, it is also possible to excavate many other issues such as the change of class barriers, the transformation of identity, and the shaping of social system in the process of cross-cultural, all of which depend on the objective position, pluralistic perspective and careful academic attitude of the researcher. All of these together converge into an academic field centered on cross-cultural research and diverse symbiosis.

"Introduction to Art in the Epidemic Era" in Yearbook 2 is very realistic, and "the path and way of cross-cultural communication are also similar to the way the epidemic and the virus spread." Today we happen to encounter the ravages of the new crown virus, but in fact the virus does not spread on its own, but spreads with the spread of people. ...... From this perspective, we must not only see the spread of the virus, but also the spread of human culture. Viruses are only a concomitant phenomenon of the spread of human culture. As we see today, it is very difficult to stop the spread of the virus, and it is even more difficult to stop the spread of human culture. (p. 3) This is an interesting "see": it is practically impossible for anyone to prevent the spread of human culture, knowledge, and ideas. That's so true! When it comes to the flow, encounter and dissemination of people and culture, it is thought of Li Jun's research on "no questions asked about the West and the East", in fact, he has been asking questions everywhere in the East and west, looking for books and materials everywhere. Remembering that almost twenty years ago, Li Jun and I first met in Paris, and he dared me to help him bring back to China a box of French documents bought in bookstores and stalls--he bought too many books in France, which is also the first principle of his "three originals".

The subtitle of Yearbook 3 is "The Image of Ancient History", which surprises me because "Ancient History" is highlighted. Regarding the paper at the beginning of the book, "The Absorption and Transformation of Qin Jin Jewelry on the Animal Art of the Eurasian Steppe" (Liu Yang), Li Jun said that the ornamentation of the ancient hybrid animal image that was very popular in Eurasia formed a dynamic rotational situation, which was very close to the standard pattern representing Chinese civilization in later generations, the Taiji Diagram; "In view of this 'Taiji Diagram', the various parts of the pattern perfectly integrate herbivores and birds of prey, animals and plants, nomadic and farming, life and nature into a whole. I prefer to see it as an image of the intermingling and symbiosis of the various civilizations of Eurasia itself; at the same time, in another sense, it is actually an image of the concept of 'cross-cultural and artistic history' that we have advocated in this series of books, an image of 'ancient history'." (p. 2) Pan Sangrou's "Image of Ancient History: Examination of the Source of Imperial Illustrations of Rasht's History of China" discusses that "in the illustrated manuscript of "History of China", Rasht tells the lineage of thirty-six dynasties and two hundred and sixty-seven orthodox emperors in ancient China in the form of a text, and the painter is accompanied by a corresponding portrait of Chinese emperors, constructing a Chinese history at the same time on the dual level of text and figure" (p. 136), which is the direct source of the "image of ancient history" in the title.

Li Jun's thesis "The True Form" of The Korean "Tianxia Map" in the Cross-Cultural Context - On the Methodological Problems of Ancient Map Research" is a masterpiece that "sees" the "image of ancient history" from ancient maps, and it reads with a sense of joy at first, but in the end I even feel a little "shocked" in the image of ancient history. The story begins with an 1895 replica by the French orientalist Maurice Courant of an eighteenth-century "map of the world" of Korea known as the Map of the Kingdoms Under Heaven. It is a circular map that gives people a very old situation, but the Japanese scholar Taku Nakamura has seen a side portrait of a man on the medallion: China is centered, the chin and neck are Annam and India, the "front or east of the hairstyle" is Korea, and the back or west is the Western countries. This is a surprising insight, and the question arises: Does this "portrait" really exist? Is there a connection between the "world map" of ancient Korea and the "world" of the same era? Is it some purely accidental cartographic effect of the cartographer? Or is it just a self-projection from the whimsy of the viewer? If it is not a "portrait", then under its "strange" appearance, will it also conceal or reflect in some special way the precious historical situation and historical reality of the era? In short, what is its original form or historical "true form"? (pp. 5-6)

This story is very complicated, and the ancient history behind the story is even more bone-chilling. The author's methodological cue is important: "One of the mistakes that historians who are accustomed to text-based research on images is to regard images as a direct embodiment of the imposition of ideas or texts; in fact, images are not transparent, but a material existence (what I call 'the material nature of images') that casts its own ghosting between images (or in the image tradition). Specific to the study of maps, the author develops the 'materiality of images' into a methodological appeal of 'graphics as knowledge'—an appeal that attempts to regard the production of maps as an expression of geographical reality or ideas, and also as an expression of the producer's 'emotions and desires', and presents it as an objective process of knowledge generation, transmission and evolution in the form of graphics. (pp. 153-154) After talking about how the North Koreans' "Map of The World" was formulated—and perhaps many researchers will stop there—his question is: Behind the clues that the map was used at the time, it is very likely that some major historical situation and information are hidden, so what are they?

The mystery turned out to be gradually revealed from a grand treatise published by the emperor in the forty-eighth year of Kangxi (1709): Kangxi wanted to argue the historical legitimacy of the Manchu invasion of the Central Plains, and its "theoretical innovation" was to sweep away all the Orthodoxy of the Central Plains and the feng shui doctrine behind it, and establish the sacredness of the North based on the worship of the sacred mountains in Inner Asia with the new "Changbai Mountain Center" theory. "In fact, this new feng shui theory was the end of a series of political operations and practices of the Kangxi Dynasty", prompting the evolution of Changbai Mountain from a local famous mountain into a "sacred mountain" that even provided legitimacy for the dragon vein of the Central Plains. (p. 181) The same "saint-making" movement was sparked in the Joseon Dynasty. Because Korea and the Qing Dynasty shared the same "dragon vein" that originated in the Changbai Mountains, the connection between the two was thus refined. (182 pages)

However, the real mystery is still below, and before telling it, the author Zheng reiterated: "The following brief analysis is only inferred by the author of this article, but the plot, protagonist and background of the story are completely true. (p. 186) This is important: the analysis is an inference, but it is based entirely on the truth; that is, if the author's inference is disagreed, the basis is first confirmed to be untrue.

The author's mystery and background are roughly as follows: Korea, Annam, Ryukyu and other countries were originally members of the tributary system centered on the Ming Dynasty, and had long been regarded as the Ming Dynasty. In 1636, Korea was forced to sign a contract with the Qing Dynasty to change the name of "Bong Da Qing Guo Zhi Zheng Shuo", in fact, Yang Bong Yin violated, still wearing the Ming Dynasty crown clothes. However, at the celebration of the eightieth birthday of Qianlong in 1790, the Korean ministers saw that the King of Annam changed into Manchu costumes to please Bo Qianlong, so he was extremely conflicted. As a result, "the four-square pattern revealed by the ink book text on the Bagua-shaped "Map of the World" is actually the true portrayal of North Korea. ...... Is it to practice unrealistic cultural idealism as usual, or to adhere to the realism and grandeur of the tendencies of the inflammatory? In particular, gossip shows that the 'Gong' position, which is crucial to obtaining talents or luck, overlaps with the 'Guishan' behind North Korea and the hidden 'Changbai Mountain' feng shui centralism, which is even more thought-provoking, making it difficult for people to choose and can't stop wanting." (p. 186) This is what the author has already suggested earlier: "We will reveal the complex and contradictory mentalities, desires, and ideas of map makers and users who, in a cross-cultural context, are hidden behind the image appearance." (p. 147) I would like to say that without a keen (and at the same time sensitive) awareness of the problem, even if this "Map of the World" is repeated in cumbersome examination, I am afraid that it will still not recognize the true face of "Changbai Mountain".

The story of Cultural Translation in China as a recipient from ancient times to modern times is equally rich, with both cross-cultural and interdisciplinary and cross-media examples, and the psychological state in its cultural translation is also worth telling seriously. Here are two examples of research I talked about in recent reading and writing.

In his article "Sapao and sabook: The Leader of the Sogdian Caravan in the Buddhist Grotto Murals", Rong Xinjiang demonstrated that under the influence of practical factors, the local painters transformed the Indian sabao books in the Buddhist scriptures that should be depicted into the images of Sogdian sapo and merchants common in the western region at that time through detailed analysis and examination of the images of sabaos and merchants in the guizi grotto murals and dunhuang grotto murals. The last section of the text deals specifically with the "conversion of images and texts", i.e., when the images of Indian sagrams and merchants in Buddhist frescoes were replaced by images of Sogdian merchants, this was a transition from text to image; this in turn affected later texts, resulting in new transformations, i.e., there was no longer a "sa book" in kumarosh's translation of the Lotus Sutra, and the word "merchant" in the Uighur Buddhist texts found in Turpan after the ninth century was derived from the Sogdian sabho. (This article is included in the tenth series of French Sinology, "The Sogdians in China: A New Exploration of History, Archaeology, and Language", edited by Rong Xinjiang, Hualan, and Zhang Huaqing, Zhonghua Bookstore, December 2005) This is an important historical example of images and texts deviating from the original text due to the influence of practical factors in cross-cultural communication, in which the image creation, text translation, and dissemination acceptance involved are all important issues of cultural translation in the perspective of historical iconography and cross-cultural research.

The research of american scholar Ari Larissa Heinrich also tells the story of cultural translation: how and how the erroneous "sick man" impression of Chinese culture and national identity in the second half of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century was able to prevail in the West, and how it returned to the Chinese nationalist discourse of the twentieth century; at the same time, through missionary activities and early translations of Western medical texts into China. Finally, how to become literary through the Chinese nationalist discourse. In addition, I also note that although the core object of the author's research, as a medium for cultural translation, is medical image, the process of producing, collecting, displaying, and publishing material originals has not been ignored. (See Han Rui, "The Afterlife of Images: Chinese and Western Translations on the Stereotype of the Sick Man", translated by Luan Zhichao, Sanlian Bookstore, August 2020)

Studying traditional concepts of art from the perspective of object and material culture has long been an important method in art historiography, but the cultural "biography" of "things" depicted in Igor Kobitov's Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as a Process (pomegranate translation) from the perspective of economics and social anthropology, included in The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process Novel angles of thought are still proposed, especially the commodification of the process in which he begins with slaves as the starting point of study, which is somewhat unexpected. In short, he strives to break the historical stereotype and purely institutionalized narrative of "slavery", and regards the realization and change of slave status as a process of commodification. After slaves were captured or purchased, the process of being used as commodities continued. In the process, he was given a new social identity, and by acquiring a new identity and special interpersonal relationships, the slave as a commodity was re-specialized. But slaves were still potential commodities and could continue to be resold to achieve their potential exchange value. Ultimately, it was to illustrate that "in the process of gradually integrating into the cultural environment in which the new master lived, the slave's commodity identity weakened and gradually approached that of an individualized person." Biographical studies that view slavery as a process argue that the commodification of other objects, i.e., the cultural shaping of biographies, can be seen from a similar perspective." (p. 400) The key issue is the view of slaves in terms of a new conception of processivity, and at the heart of their social identity lies marginalization and ambiguity of status. Slavery was thus no longer seen as a fixed state of unity, but rather a process of social transformation involving a series of stages and identity changes.

Thus, "when doing a biographical study of an object, one asks questions similar to asking people: for example, what are the biographical possibilities inherent in the 'identity', period, and culture of an object in sociology?" How do these possibilities come to fruition? Where did these things come from and by whom? What is its current 'occupation'? What is the ideal 'occupation' of things that people consider? What is the recognized 'age' or stage of a thing's 'life'? What is its cultural symbol? How does the way things are used change with age? What happens when the use value of the thing is exhausted? (p. 401) – Aren't these good research topics about "things" in the context of cross-cultural studies?

Finally, back to the question of the academic community.

For a Fair[er] Global History (pomegranate translation) of the European University Institute's Global History Seminar Group, included in Yearbook 3, is a review text of a discussion session by a very international academic community of phD students and teachers in the fall of 2020. Reflecting the dynamics and latest developments in the topic of global history, this discussion class explores three main themes: "The Politics of Global History" sees global history as an activist approach; "Whose global history?" "Discuss ownership and sharing; An Open Global History presents a utopian vision of the future for the current dilemma." These discussions were interesting, and I noticed the questions that they themselves felt deeply and asked frankly: "Two months of reading and discussion filled us all with a 'bitter taste' (l'amaro in bocca), giving the impression of competition rather than cooperation, entrenchment rather than inclusion, dominance not only in academic works, but also in academic discussions of global history." Academia can be an obnoxious place, especially in authority bodies." (p. 499) So they suggest a truly diverse and multilingual academic network where more scholars feel they can contribute. "To do so means acknowledging that there are hierarchies of domination and oppression in the existing structures of international academia, which in turn prompts us to think about inequalities between academic institutions committed to knowledge creation, and between national and social, global and local, and those institutions that fund and support them." (500 pages)

I think the text of this global history discussion class reflects a certain real situation inside and outside academic production, the anxiety of academic research methodology and normativity and the inequality anxiety of academic identity and academic power are very closely entangled in this field of global history, and the "research context" of the researchers themselves brings both the opportunity for knowledge exchange and the collision of ideas, and also brings a sense of tension of contradiction and opposition. This is the real context of researchers in cross-cultural studies, and perhaps it can also be an interesting topic after the Yearbook?