The earliest and most complete traditional Chinese painting in existence in our country is "The Picture of Proverbs of the Female History".
"The Picture of Admonitions of Women's History" is a silk painting created by Gu Kaizhi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty of China. The original work has been lost, but there is a Tang Dynasty copy. It originally had 12 sections, but due to its age, only 9 sections remain. It was inked on silk and is now in the British Museum.
The works depict the deeds of female fans, including the story of Feng Yuan in the Han Dynasty who protected Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty by fending off a bear; there is the story of Ban Jieyu refusing to ride with Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty to prevent him from being greedy for women and misdirecting the government. wait. The remaining paragraphs describe the moral emotions that upper-class women should have, and have a certain didactic nature.
Although the work contains the moral creed that women should abide by, the depiction of upper-class women's daily chores such as dressing up and dressing up truly and vividly reproduces the tenderness and reserve of aristocratic women, regardless of their posture or manners. , clothing are in line with their identity and personality. ?
"The Picture of Proverbs of Women's History" successfully created the images of palace women with different identities, which to a certain extent reflected the life situations of women in the era in which the author lived.
Extended information:
Creative background of "Proverbs of Female History":
"Proverbs of Female History" is a poem written by Zhang Hua in the Western Jin Dynasty to satirize Empress Jia. Jia's wife, named Nanfeng, was the daughter of Jia Chong, who had made great contributions to the establishment of the Jin Dynasty for the Sima family. She was canonized as a princess when Sima Zhong, Emperor Hui of Jin Dynasty, was the crown prince. Empress Jia was jealous, cruel, greedy and violent.
After Sima Zhong proclaimed himself emperor and made her queen, his ambition to monopolize power was even more exposed. In order to seize power, she coerced Emperor Hui and issued an edict to kill thousands of her relatives, Yang Jun, who was assisting the government at the time, and his accomplices, in order to remove the obstacles to the dictatorship, and then monopolized power for eight or nine years.
Zhang Hua, courtesy name Maoxian, was a minister and writer of the Western Jin Dynasty. He was praised by people at the time for his erudition, eloquence and gorgeous rhetoric. Empress Jia valued Zhang Hua's talent and learning, entrusted him with important responsibilities and showed special respect to him.
At that time, Zhang Hua saw that Empress Jia was monopolizing power, and had foreseen that the future was not good, so he wrote "Proverbs for Women's History" based on the etiquette and laws of the feudal society at that time that favored sons over daughters and promoted women's so-called virtues. , used to sarcastically admonish empress Jia, and to persuade the funeral concubines to cultivate their moral character and establish noble moral qualities.
The full text is 340 words long. For this proverb, people at the time considered it a masterpiece of "a bitter statement and a warning to the world". Gu Kaizhi used this famous work as the title of his illustrated painting. It was an ordinary event in feudal society. There is also a saying that "Pictures of Admonitions of Women's History" is based on the admonitions of women of Cao family in the later Han Dynasty. Judging from the existing literature records, most people today believe that it was created based on Zhang Hua's "Proverbs for Women's History".
About the author of "Pictures of Admonitions of Female History":
Gu Kaizhi, also known as Changkang and Hutou, Han nationality, was born in Wuxi, Jinling. Outstanding painter, painting theorist and poet. Gu Kaizhi was erudite and talented, good at poetry, calligraphy, and especially painting.
He was good at portraits, Buddha statues, animals, landscapes, etc. People at that time called him the three masters: painting, writing and infatuation. Xie An attached great importance to it, thinking that it had never happened before. Gu Kaizhi, Cao Buxing, Lu Tanwei, and Zhang Sengyao were collectively known as the "Four Great Masters of the Six Dynasties". Gu Kaizhi's paintings were intended to convey the spirit, and his arguments such as "imagination is wonderful" and "describing spirit with form" laid the foundation for the development of traditional Chinese painting.
Baidu Encyclopedia - Pictures of Admonitions from Women’s History