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Reinventing the Past: Antiquarianism in East Asian Art and Visual Culture—Part 2 |
< Back Wu Dacheng (1835-1902) and Composite Rubbings Qianshen Bai Boston University Composite rubbings (quanxin ta), a kind of rubbing that tries to catch the three dimensional quality of the original ancient bronze vessels, became popular cultural artifacts among scholars and collectors during the late Qing period, especially in the second half of the nineteenth century. Wu Dacheng (1835-1902) was one of the most important collectors of this period. He not only zealously collected ancient bronze vessels but had composite rubbings made of them. A number of Wu’s teachers and friends shared his interest. This paper begins by tracing the short history of late Qing composite rubbings. Then, it concentrates on members of Wu Dacheng’s circle, including his friends Wu Yun (1811-1883), Pan Zuyin (1830-1890), Chen Jieqi (1813-1884), and Wang Yirong (1845-1900). It introduces their collections and scholarship by depicting a group of scholar-official collectors who enthusiastically sponsored the production of composite rubbings and who exchanged rubbings among themselves. Although I argue that their enthusiasm for composite rubbings derived from a general interest in making rubbings of ancient artifacts, including steles, tiles, bricks, and ancient coins, the ownership of composite rubbings attained especially high status among the cultural trappings of sophisticated collectors during the second half of the nineteenth century. This paper also discusses two of Wu Dacheng’s assistants, Huang Shiling (1849-1909) and Yin Bohuan (fl. 1880s), both renowned producers of rubbings. Discussion of Huang Shiling focuses on those of his paintings that simulate composite rubbings and the relation of these paintings to photographic reproduction, which was introduced to China in the second half of the nineteenth century. The source material for this analysis is a large private collection of Huang’s sketches of bronze vessels, from which he planned to paint composite pictures, and also Huang’s many paintings depicting composite rubbings. Compared to Huang, Yin Bohuan remains an obscure figure. Among scholars of Chinese seals, it is well known that in 1888 Yin assisted Wu Dacheng in completing the expanded version of his famous Seal Book from the Sixteen Golden Fu Studio, yet, we know almost nothing about him. However, through composite rubbings made by Yin, as well as through a group of newly discovered letters that Wu Dacheng wrote to Yin, I trace Yin’s ancestral hometown to Shandong province, which connects Yi to an area famous for making composite rubbings and hence to other rubbing makers in that area. Several questions will be asked in my paper. Why were scholar-collectors interested in the three-dimensional depiction of ancient objects during this period? What is the relationship between composite rubbings and photographic reproduction? How were these rubbings used in the late Qing? The primary sources of this paper are composite rubbings, correspondence, catalogues, writing anthologies, paintings by the antiquities scholars mentioned above, and related materials. |
