V-1：Plip K. Hu.docVIP

Idealized Labor: Material and Social Manifestations of Riziculture and Sericulture in Imperial China Philip K. Hu Institute of Fine Arts, New York University Paper prepared for the conference “Discourses and Practices of Everyday Life in Imperial China” Organized by the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taipei Columbia University, New York October 25-27, 2002 Draft only; please do not cite without permission of the author In China, farming practices are deeply rooted in the distant past. In a civilization long known for its great dependence and achievements on agriculture as well as sericulture, it is hardly surprising to find systematic depictions of ploughing, harvesting, cultivation of mulberry trees, and rearing of silkworms for the weaving of silk, but the extent to which they have been appreciated, framed, and manipulated through history has yet to be fully explored. Independent images of the daily tasks associated with tilling and weaving have a very long history in China. Depictions of sericulture have been found on bronze vessels of the Warring States period between 475 and 221 B.C., while portrayals of fields ploughed by oxen appear in pictorial stones and wall murals of the Han dynasty between 206 B.C. and A.D. 220. The genesis of a fully developed pictorial cycle, however, only came about in the mid-12th century, during the latter part of the Southern Song dynasty, in the form of the so-called “Illustrations of Tilling and Weaving” (Gengzhi tu). From this time on, the pictorial theme not only spawned numerous recensions and variations, but also became increasingly popular as subject matter and decorative motifs in diverse material forms. My paper today will begin with a brief account of the principal versions of the Gengzhi tu from the Southern Song through the Qing periods. Then, by focusing on Gengzhi tu themes in prints, paintings, and porcelain of the Qing period, I hope to show how the theme underwent parallel developments