Representing Nation at the Painting Academy of Song Taizong

• In Event: Song Taizong's Cultural Revolution: the Transformation of Imperial Art, Literature, and Statecraft during the Late Tenth Century

Abstract

Since elite painters held court titles at the Hanlin Academy, the features that this institution acquired under Song Taizong’s reign reflects his patronage of artists. Like other emperors, Taizong recognized the importance of cultivating art and culture as a means for promoting dynastic stability, but his initiatives were distinctive. Indeed, the structural position of painters under Taizong differed from the ways artists were recognized under Taizu, the founder of the Song. This paper aims to define the distinguishing characteristics of Taizong as a supporter of painters in two ways. First, to propose that Taizu established a system to reward favored courtiers, whereas Taizong aimed to create a self-perpetuating, bureaucratic organization. Second, to analyze individual cases against major institutional events pertaining to the Painting Academy’s founding. The structural position of painters recruited from kingdoms vanquished by the Song, such as Huang Jucai of Later Shu, and Juran and Dong Yu of Southern Tang, illustrates how the existing Hanlin system was expanded to meet present contingencies under the second Song emperor: Taizong’s Academy borrowed from the personnel techniques of these very kingdoms to assimilate artists in order to demonstrate Song unified power.

Author

• Ping Foong, University of California, Berkeley