The story of art, from Ming to Qing in Beijing

A selection of artworks from the Shanghai Museum that will soon go on show in Dublin tells a range of stories, from grand moments in history to snapshots of daily life, that resonate with contemporary Chinese life, writes CLIFFORD COONANin Beijing

ZHONG KUI is reeling with drink. His head lolls forward and his robes are crumpled as he staggers on unsteady feet through the underworld. Supporting him is a bony demon whose spine bends and feet splay with the effort of supporting his master.

This is the legendary Chinese bureaucrat Zhong Kui. He took his own life when he failed to advance in the civil service examinations – a major blow to his status in a Confucian society – but promised to serve the emperor as a ghost. Bad demons have got Zhong Kui drunk to steal his magic demon-slaying sword and his boots, but he is rescued by his loyal helpers, including this spiny and grotesque demon.

The scene is depicted in Drunken Immortalby Guo Xu, part of a major exhibition of narrative and figure paintings, artworks from the 15th to the 20th century from the Shanghai Museum. Entitled Telling Images of China, it opens on February 12th at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin.

Zhong Kui’s is a great story, and stories and how they are told in visual form in Chinese paintings is the unifying theme of the 38 paintings in the exhibition, which covers the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. These are paintings that tell stories, steeped in ancient philosophy and religion, providing insights into culture and folklore of China.

“We looked at how to give an Irish audience a lead-in to a topic that might be otherwise unfamiliar. So we looked at the love of the story. I feel an exhibition like this offers a doorway. The viewer will feel the modernity, it will look modern and accessible,” says co-curator Dr Shane McCausland, who has just started lecturing in Chinese art at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London after five years as head of collections at the Chester Beatty Library.

Dr McCausland’s colleague in curating the exhibition is Ling Lizhong, a Ming and Qing expert from the Shanghai Museum.

THE SCOPE OFthe stories here sweeps between grand moments of history to small vignettes of daily life, and the paintings are a useful step towards understanding contemporary Chinese society.

Educating a Sonby Wu Shien, son of the great Ming painter Wu Wei, depicts the mother of the philosopher Mengzi, known as Mencius in the West, overseeing the teaching of her offspring. She moved the family home three times because of various disturbances, including a problem with a noisy neighbouring blacksmith and a feeling that the local village environment was a bad influence on her son.

This painting shows the great thinker, his mother and their servant carrying tools for learning and pushing ahead on the difficult road to their new home. The story came to be known as “Mencius’s mother’s three moves”. This serious, almost obsessive approach to education still prevails today – students have long schooldays from a young age, with often unbearable pressure to perform academically. Families will often book into hotels for the duration of exams to make sure that their children can focus on the exams and get a good night’s sleep without being disturbed by their noisy neighbours – just like Mengzi.

The exhibition is divided into four, often overlapping, categories, including “crossings”, which are stories about exiles, loyalists and rustics; China’s three formative religions – Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism, as well as the supernatural; models and exemplars in history; and emperor-concubine and scholar-beauty romances.

One of these great beauties, with strong supernatural elements, is Xiwangmu, the Queen Mother of the West, who lived on Mount Kunlun in the south of the Western Sea and had power over the lives of humans. One of China’s great female icons, she was a fierce woman, with a leopard’s tail and the teeth of a tiger, and during the Warring States period (475-221 BC), people believed the Queen Mother of the West could extend people’s lives and had the power of conferring immortality with a peach that grew only once every 3,000 years.

Over the years her image changed into that of a heavenly beauty or a "jade woman" who could bring blessings and helped ensure sons were born, and this is how she appears in Cui Zizhong's (c.1574-1644) Jade Woman among Clouds, an elegant supernatural figure in misty clouds.

"From a specialist point of view it's got real Category A objects, top quality objects by masters," says Dr McCausland. Shitao's Elegant Gathering in the West Gardenand Hua Yan's Golden Valley Gardenare critically acclaimed and some of the most important pieces at the Shanghai Museum.

However, Dr McCausland and Ling stuck closely to their aim of making an exhibition of “story paintings”, which means accomplished works by less well-known and indeed obscure artists merited inclusion.

And there are fantastic tales in this exhibition. Li Shida's handscroll Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove, which was made in 1616, features a group of seven free-thinkers who became famous during the Wei-Jin period (3rd to 6th century), when political and social injustice was rife.

Their calls for freedom and spiritual awakening turned them into heroes in China for generations. They were known for their unusual forms of opposition to the status quo.

One of the worthies, Liu Ling, once got drunk at home and stripped off. When he was chastised for this, he replied: “The world is my home, and my home is my pants. What are you all doing in my pants?” This kind of odd behaviour meant the Seven Worthies avoided more serious punishment, although one of them, Xi Kang, a skilled musician, offended an official and was beheaded. Before his execution, he asked for a zither to play his song, Guangling Melody. When he was finished he said, “Thus the Guangling Melody ends”, and calmly went to his execution.

Ren Xiong’s Lady of the Xiang River dramatises a poem by the bureaucrat Qu Yuan (339-278 BC), a minister of the state of Chu during the Warring States period (475-221 BC). He wrote the poem to show his loyalty to the Chu king but, unable to push through reforms, Qu Yuan later drowned himself and is often cited as a great example of patriotism in China.

A spectacular highlight is the nine-metre scroll by You Qiu called Spring Morning in the Han Palace. This is based on a story, “Pair of Swallows in the Han Palace”, about the Han emperor Cheng who spent too much time enjoying music and women, neglecting his duties as a ruler.

The scroll is a political allegory. It is inscribed by You Qiu’s mentor, Wen Zhengming, and others who lived during the reign of Ming emperor Zhengde, who had similar weaknesses and saw his power in the palace undermined by the eunuchs, and it is a warning to the emperor to mend his ways.

In modern China, there is a visible return to the values of Confucianism, which values loyalty and filial piety, seen in both the way children are devoted to their parents and the way bureaucrats and Communist Party cadres are encouraged to be loyal to their country. Confucianism often manifests itself as patriotism.

There is a really contemporary feel to a short handscroll painting called Elegant Gatheringby Chen Hongshou (1598-1652), with three sublimely depicted figures sitting in a grove surrounded by swirling shapes. There is some debate about what the painting depicts; whether it is a portrayal of Mi Wangzhong, an important calligrapher, or whether it commemorates a literary gathering. What is not in doubt is the quality of the painting.

THE EXHIBITION COVERS400 sq m and has 38 artworks, including two albums, so it comprises 60 paintings. It came about because the library has long contacts with the Shanghai Museum. director and librarian of the Chester Beatty Library, Dr Michael Ryan, had been visiting China since 2003 and over the course of each visit by him and other representatives of the museum, they came up with this theme.

“We know each other very well. We have built up an excellent relationship with the museum over the year and the selection was done by going through their catalogues and paring down the list,” says Dr McCausland.

Telling Images of China: Narrative and Figure Paintings, 15th-20th Century, from the Shanghai Museumruns from Feb 12-May 2 at the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin Castle. See cbl.ie