Técnica Personas y sus Transformaciones

TRADITION

B

Although for most of his life Confucius was a teacher, for a time he served as a public official in his state’s government. He resigned his post after an incident that he felt compromised his moral values, and spent the rest of his days preaching rather than working as a bureaucrat. In the centuries since his death, Confucius has been revered by those who subscribe to his teachings, and he has often been depicted in various forms of art. This bronze statuette shows Confucius in the attire of a mandarin, or public official, relating him to the ancient sage rulers.

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Confucius—the scholar, the public official, the founder of the great tradition—has been represented in many different ways in the centuries since he first came to prominence. Perhaps one of the most common—and most accurate—are those depictions that, like this one, show Confucius as a stately man who holds his head high, but as someone who seems more interested in his role as teacher and scholar (note the scrolls he is carrying) than in any recognition by title or position.

Mencius, seen in this ink drawing done in the eighteenth cen-tury, became the foremost interpreter of original Confucian thought. He was a disciple of a grand-son of Confucius.

Although his ideas were not the most influential during his lifetime, after his death, his work, known as the Book of Mencius, later won a place of honor as one of the Four Books.

D

Filial piety, the concept of a child’s devotion and obedience to his parents, is one of the most common themes in Con-fucianism, and one that is frequently depicted in art. This relief sculpture, believed to have been created sometime between 1127 and 1279, is known as The Loving Son. It shows a grown son carrying his elderly parents, taking care of them as they age. The sculp-ture is one of thousands found on the walls of a series of caves in Ta Tsu, China, that are considered representative of the most impressive achievements in rock carving of the time.

An artist named Yoshitoshi created this ink drawing of Tzu Lu, a disciple of Confucius, in 1888. Tzu Lu was one of the so-called “Twenty-four paragons of filial piety”—a group of Confucians who expressed their views on filial piety in classical ways.

Tzu Lu is known as the paragon who carries sacks of rice on his back in order to feed his parents, as he is seen doing here. In this drawing, as Tzu Lu walks along, he studies

the teachings of Confucius by the light of the moon. Although he was known to be somewhat brash, Tzu Lu was also a devoted scholar and a brave soldier. He died in battle in 480 ^B.^C. while attempting to put down a rebellion.

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Confucian temples, like this beautiful example in Taipei, Taiwan, are marvels of ancient architecture.

With their sloping roofs and their ornately decorated interiors, they preserve the traditional artwork and symbolic meanings that were especially important during Confucius’s own time.

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Temples devoted to Confucius were built with elaborate detail and taken care of with the same devotion that would be shown to an emperor. Not only was a temple a place for worship, but it was also a showcase for extra-ordinary artwork related to religious and political subjects.

Many of the decorations in Confucian temples took the form of symbolic creatures, such as dragons, that were also strongly associated with imperial authority. Also common in a Confucian temple are carvings in stone, such as the sculpture of a guard who stands watch over the temple in China’s Shantung Province.

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In some places, such as Chunghak-dong, South Korea, Confucianism has been preserved as a way of life with very little change from pre-modern times. Confucianism has fit into local practices and folk traditions providing the basis for the people’s lifestyle. This photograph, taken in the early 1990s, shows the blending of local religious traditions with Confucianism. Here we have two villagers conducting ritual before a local religious figure. The characters announce the altar as devoted to the Palace of the Immortal with a portrait of the founder of this local religious cult.

Such ritual would then be followed by formal ritual at the Confucian Temple, a separate building, but nonetheless connected to the Confucian institution. Such blending of traditions assimilates Confucian teachings and practice to the local lifestyle of a village.

H

Despite the fact that Confucius died in 479 ^B.^C., the tradition that he began certainly did not die with him. If any-thing, in the hundreds of years since his death, Confucianism has grown and adapted as necessary to the changing world.

Even today, many elements of Confucianism remain an essential part of life in the Asian world. These women, for example, photographed during a Grand Ceremony in 1987, display historical elements of the Confucian tradition through music, dance, and costume. This particular ritual took place at Chongmyo, South Korea, at the Royal Ancestral Shrine.

Growing up