The Confucian Heritage And Modern Exhibition Of The Collections Of Pang Yuanji

Pang Yuanji(1864-1949),informally known as Laichen and whose literary name was Xuzhai,was born in Nanxun,Zhejiang and was the largest collector of Chinese traditional paintings in the modern history of China.In contrast to previous research which focuses on Pang Yuanji exclusively instead of contextualizing him in history,this dissertation attempts to apply the research methods of intellectual history to the study of art history and will utilize statistical keyword research to place itself in the complicated and delicate historical ideas underlying the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China in a bid to sort out the turbulent history of the Republic of China as well as the true inner world of Xuzhai.After a careful study of the six bibliographical descriptions for Xuzhai's collections of painting and calligraphy works,the correspondences between Xuzhai and Charles Lang Freer,the collection acquisition archives of Freer Gallery of Art,and the newspapers and journals of the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China,this writing concludes that Xuzhai's collections hold both a traditional confucian and modern transformative characteristics.Both the Xuzhai Minghua Lu(The Album of Famous Paintings of Xuzhai)and Xuzhai Minghua Xulu(The Sequel to the Album of Famous Paintings of Xuzhai),which are compiled according to the textological approach,are representative of the bibliographical descriptions of paintings in the late Qing Dynasty.These works mainly include landscape paintings and inherit the aesthetic taste of the scholar-gentry stratum of the late Qing Dynasty,which take fancy to the orthodox lineage of literati paintings of the Southern School.While other traditional art collectors of his time tended to conceal their collections from the public,Xuzhai took an open attitude towards his collection and he often made public exhibitions of this work and of collotype-printed bibliographical descriptions for the paintings so as to popularize the elite culture.This research reveals the legendary story between Xuzhai and Charles Lang Freer.The works canonized by the foreigners' craze for ancient Chinese paintings have exported Chinese art to the world through fostering an internationalized public sphere of art and spreading of Confucian aesthetic values to the world.Throughout his life,Xuzhai accepted the loss of his wealth and stature and devoted himself to preserving and collecting painting and calligraphy works which have had far-reaching impact throughout history.This dissertation finds that when the Chinese traditional society was being influenced by the West and the second East-West cultural integration and the Chinese modern transition was being ushered in,Xuzhai and his contemporaries from the scholar-gentry stratum played a role similar to the private gallery owners in Europe and America.Xuzhai's collections and his lifetime career as a connoisseur have left a precious legacy to later generations and has promoted world-wide research of Chinese art history.