Literati theorists in Ming Dynasty China opposed imitation pictorial expressions, not simply for aesthetic considerations, but for the possible inability to express some kind of philosophical ideas, which was Precisely Qiu Jun's motivation for opposing idolatry.
Many scholars, especially those who serve as local administrators in the government, have severely criticized certain drawings because their obscene and pornographic content undermines the social and cultural order. They demand that people not only spit on these drawings, but also destroy them.
Tang Bohu Mandarin Duck Secret Recipe
The phenomenon of y* or s-love images of the Ming Dynasty is related to a range of other problems, and it also shows the connection between figurative art and gender and other social hierarchical orders. However, X-related content is not the only reason why such drawings are required to be destroyed. In his complicated calculations of merits, yunqi Qihong, a reformer of Buddhism, had to consider the possibility that some of the destroyed images were icons to him, while to others it might be the opposite:
Destroying the statues of the heavens, ruling the world, and the wise men and gentlemen is worth a hundred dollars. The blood and blood evil gods deceive the world. This reminds us of the pluralism of the religions of the Ming Dynasty, that is, it is entirely possible that one person's "god" is another person's "evil god", so that the reverence and disgust that arise from these painted, printed, or sculpted gods coexist.
Works by Tang Bohu
One of the series of township covenants made by Huang Zuo (1490-1566) was the prohibition of evil masters and witches who engaged in other illegal activities. They share the same concerns about "adulterous things," a phrase that encompasses a range of illegal activities in which the production and consumption of (adulterous) drawings clearly have a place. As one of the earliest and most important authors of this type of meritorious deed, Yuan Huang (1533-1606) severely condemned obscene paintings:
Destroy an obscene book edition, three hundred merits. Make a book of abstinence from adultery, a hundred merits. The prostitutes and servants of the opera are at home, causing adultery, and one day is ten times. Wives and daughters listen to obscene words, thirty times at a time. Obscene books and paintings, ten times a day. Writing obscene books, writing obscene paintings, passing on to the world and future generations, bad men and women are mentally disciplined, immeasurable. Prostitution books and paintings and aphrodisiacs are immeasurable.
It is more likely than the authors of the good books to specifically relate to material directly related to x, and they do express concern about this to varying degrees. At times they would refer to such drawings in an unpersonal, provocative tone, similar to the interest of contemporary European scholars in the cult of the masculine in ancient Greco-Roman art.
In the mid-16th century, He Liangjun mentioned his collection of Han Dynasty drawings on chepel shells, some of which depicted explicit scenes of sexual intercourse, both between the opposite sex and between the same sex (male color). According to him, these shell paintings were obtained from the hands of tomb robbers, and his comments on them were more based on the characteristics of ancient paintings revealed by shell paintings, and He was more willing to boast about the rarity of these shell paintings, explore their stylistic origins, and describe how they came about (bought by Suzhou merchants who went to Shandong to buy books), rather than blaming them for their alleged obscenity.
He also explores the ancient role of such objects in avoiding evil spirits, that is, protecting the coffins of the dead from the plague of foxes and rabbits. The word he uses to describe these erotic drawings is "spring painting", which is the general term for such works in the Ming Dynasty, and usually appears in other works of he's contemporaries (another relatively rare word is "spring *palace* painting").
Lang Ying, a contemporary of the He clan, made a historical argument on "spring painting obscenity", in which the condemnation meaning was even more obvious. He believes that spring painting originated in the Han Dynasty, from the palace of the Han Cheng Emperor, and he painted the scene of the last emperor of the Shang Dynasty and his concubines gathering together on the screen. Lang Ying hoped to correct the widely spread false impression that the debauched and promiscuous King Lu was the initiator of the "spring painting".
Because of the notoriety of the King, people blamed all kinds of adultery on his absurdity (including sexual toys, which is called "fornication" in the text). At the beginning of the 17th century, another author, Shen Defu, gave a more detailed account of the topic in his book Wan Li Ye Zhi (1606). He also believes that spring painting began in the Han Dynasty (although he believes it was under the rule of another emperor), and then listed other emperors who were better than this (all of whom are "emperors" in the canonical records). For example, according to Shen, the tang dynasty empress Dowager Wu (reigned between 684 and 704) used spring paintings to "declare adultery." He mentions the decorative spring paintings found on the masonry and stone in the tomb, which contain content depicting men's sexual intercourse. He also introduced the use of Tibetan Buddhist-style Buddha statues in the court, which are in the form of male and female Buddhas, originating in the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty.
Tang Bohu female figure
In addition, he also listed various jade, silk thread weaving or embroidered Spring Palace statues, as well as ivory carved Spring Palace playthings from Fujian, but said that these are not as good as spring paintings that can truthfully write about their obscene forms.
There are "spring paintings" from Japan in the Ming Dynasty market (the word "spring painting shunga" in Japanese means exactly the same), which was confirmed by another Ming dynasty author earlier. Li Xu (1505-1593) mentioned in a work published in 1597 that "secular spring paintings are despised", and that merchants imported spring paintings from Japan for sale, and their exquisite works were also expensive.
Ukiyo-e
Chinese culture at this time strictly prohibited such art, or it could be secretly circulated in certain privileged classes or places. This is different from the naked sexual cognition of the West, where "carnival" and "queuing" can be displayed in public spaces and is called "vulgar" culture in China.
European body paintings