THE OVERSEEING MOTHER: REVISITING THE FRONTAL-POSE LADY IN THE WU FAMILY SHRINES IN SECOND-CENTURY CHINA*

In the paper

“Not coincidently, situated about 60-90 centimeters above the ground, the frontalpose lady in the Central scene in the Wu family shrines remained approximately at the eye level of a kneeling adult.46”

What the sources say

• ?Could not verify

  The passages from “Reaching its highest point” discuss mourning and mother–son ties, not the Wu family shrines. Searches for the shrines, the Central scene, the 60–90 cm height, and a kneeling viewer’s eye level found no passage addressing the claim in our copy (page numbers unavailable). (LLM, conf=0.75)

  cites [46] sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured

In the paper

“In the pavilion the lady reveals her body from the waist up on the second floor above her male counterpart sitting on the lower floor”

In the paper

“Facing the viewer and the entrance of the shrine head on, the lady emerges in full frontal view from behind the railings in the center of the second floor of a two-story pavilion”

In the paper

“She is not only physically larger than all her companions but also holding the most notable position in the entire shrine in a most compelling upright, frontal posture.”

In the paper

“In this Central scene, the central pavilion is like-wise flanked by two pillar towers.Whereas the two central ladies on the pavilion remain frontal, the peripheral female spectators, behind the railings on the second floor of the two-story pillar tower on the left, stare into the distance in full side view”

In the paper

“Like the central lady, the goddess takes the central pos-ition and possesses a notably larger stature than her attendants on both sides.Even some of their physical features are similar.”

In the paper

“The generally formulaic Central scene is divided into two registers.The frontal-pose lady is always situated in the upper register, and the lower register displays a chariot procession moving from the right to the left.”

In the paper

“But the later artist(s) of the Wu family shrines did more to the female body by increasing her scale and introducing more physical details, including the compelling eyes with pronounced pupils”

In the paper

“Near the center of the composition, slightly on the right stands a compelling watchtower, in which a woman indicated by a typical coiffure with two round hair bundles reveals her face in frontal view from behind an opened window on the upper floor”

In the paper

“Such a moment was captured in another second-century stone bas-relief discovered at present-day Feicheng 肥城 in Shandong province, in which a male worshipper kneels and faces the entrance of a shrine.”

• Also stated in: § THE ELEVATED EYES · hedged

  “In front of him a bowl (of sacrificial grains?) is dedicated on the ground, and a lamp lit up to indicate the dusk time when sacrifices were usually scheduled (Fig. 12).45”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [45]

In the paper

“The goddess appears on the triangular west gable above the west wall of the shrine (Fig. 10, highlight B).”

In the paper

“A busy kitchen and a dance and acrobatic show were almost always represented on the lower registers of the east side wall of the shrine; other spectacular scenes such as hunting or fighting, probably historical plays, 41 were customarily carved on the west side wall”

In the paper

“In the Wu family Central scene, despite the lady's position, much higher than that of the chariot procession below, the artist did not redirect her eyes toward the lower target.A tension thus emerges: on the one hand, the lady's eyes still remain open and active; on the other hand, they have lost fixed targets in the picture.”

In the paper

“In the Wu Liang Shrine, for example, eight of the thirteen illustrations of virtuous paragons deal with a son’s filial piety toward his mother and his deceased father, and six concentrate on the love between mother and child.86”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites [86]

In the paper

“Although no historical records about these gentlemen survive, the excavated stelae from the Wu family cemetery show them as favored by the court.79”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [79]

In the paper

“In the Wu family shrines, as male occupy the lower floor of the pavilion, the second floor forms an exclusively feminine space loftily cut off from the outside world.”

In the paper

“Wu Kaiming 武開明 (91-148), Wu Ban 武班 (120-145), and Wu Rong 武榮 (d.168) were all nominated as “filial and incorrupt” (xiaolian 孝廉) and appointed as local officials; Wu Liang 武梁 (78-151) was also offered official positions, which he declined.80”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites [80]

In the paper

“First, all the major divine features unique to the goddess, including feathers or wings, the toad and hares pounding immortal drugs, and flanking demigods, were absent; 59”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [59] source

In the paper

“Instead of dwelling in an abandoned mountain cave as described by the texts, the goddess wearing a prominent sheng 勝 headdress was portrayed as the sole inhabitant of the second floor of a typical Chinese pavilion on the left side of the panel, like the head of a secular household, with people beating drums, hitting chimes and dancing on the right.”

• Also stated in: § THE GODDESS-MOTHER · plain

  “Meanwhile, the figure is also receiving homage from grotesque-looking deities, some of them with animal bodies or heads, a reminder of her supernatural status.78”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites [78]

In the paper

“the lady en face remains solemnly upright and totally indifferent to her female companions who, portrayed in side view, flank her on both sides.”

In the paper

“Although these scholars appreciated the significance of the lady, they missed a basic physical feature of hers: the wide-open eyes, which suggest her visual attention is being directed at something in front of her”

In the paper

“at least by the end of the first century similar motifs had appeared in many stone funerary shrines in the vicinity of Jiaxiang.In these closer models, the composition had been modified and relocated to the rear wall, giving rise to the earliest form of the Central scene”

In the paper

“According to ample historical documents, during the annual festivals held in the cemetery to remember the dead, various rituals and sacrifices were offered to occupants of the shrine.”

• Also stated in: § THE ELEVATED EYES · plain

  “The hosting family would invite guests to the cemetery and entertain them with banquets, music, dancing, and acrobatics, as vividly illustrated on the walls of the shrines.47”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites [47]

In the paper

“one of the secular scenes painted on the west wall includes a group of ladies, who sit before a twofold screen, and rest upon a large threefold armrest to enjoy music, dance, and acrobatics performed in front of them”

• Also stated in: § THE FRONTAL-POSE GAZE · plain

  “Among the ladies, one, identified by the excavators as the hostess of the scene, stands out in the center”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites [25]

In the paper

“The dictionary definition of the word “woman” (fu 婦) in the Eastern Han was “obedience.”Thus states Baihu tong 白虎通 (Comprehensive Meanings Held in the White Tiger Hall), the official exegetic canon of the Eastern Han dynasty: “The word fu (women) means fu 服, or, to be obedient according to the ritual and etiquette.”56”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [56] source

In the paper

“The seemingly insignificant upward moving of the spectator's position actually redefined the nature of her watching: viewing from superior heights generates a radically different experience, lends the lady much broader visual access, and converts her from a gazerto an overseer.”

In the paper

“Li You 李尤 (44-126), a talented poet, described in his “Pingleguan fu” 平 樂觀賦 (Rhapsody of Watchtower of Peace and Happiness) his breathtaking panoramic view of a dazzling variety of magic shows, masquerades, and acrobatics (recalling the performances portrayed by the Pixian bas-relief), which were staged in all directions across the imperial capital city Luoyang 洛陽 to celebrate the first day of the”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites [48]

In the paper

“whereas during the first century either male or female protagonists could occupy the second floor in frontal view, in the Wu family shrines a rule was set that only the lady did so, while her male counterpart always remained downstairs in profile.”

In the paper

“A law was made that anyone who dared to peep at the traveling officials from a high building were to be mercilessly stopped by a shower of arrows.52”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites [52]

In the paper

“Despite the borrowings from earlier models, the Wu family Central scene is not only stylistically finer and iconographically richer, but also conceptually innovative.”

In the paper

“In the camp of the “goddess theory,” the lady is indisputably analogous to the Queen Mother of the West, a supreme goddess Han subjects believed as dwelling on the sacred Mountain of Kunlun 崑崙 in the remote western region of China. 57”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites [57]

In the paper

“I will argue that the artist made this seemingly paradoxical synthesis intentionally to combine two equally important attributes on the central frontal-pose lady: she is not only the major consumer of what is visually present in front of her, but also the top overseer of what surrounds (in space) and occurs next (in time).”

In the paper

“In the mind of the onlookers along the road, chariot processions spoke of power, wealth, and fame, and stirred up envy as well as admiration.”

In the paper

“it seems the Wu family artists opened up the picture and created a three-dimensional space along the three walls of the shrine.”

In the paper

“Although neither of them is present in the Central scenes, the two motifs were not expelled from the Wu family shrines.”

In the paper

“The forgotten cultural meaning of overseeing can be reconstructed through a number of references in contemporary transmitted texts.”

In the paper

“During the Han dynasty the imperial state made laws to regulate the use of official chariots as well as the number of escorts.21 People of higher ranks enjoyed more chariots and personnel.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites [21]

In the paper

“Perhaps following this example, emperors of the Han dynasty ritually scaled high buildings to stare into the distance.50”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites [50]

In the paper

“Que (pillar towers) means guan 觀 (to oversee).During the Zhou dynasty (1046-255 BCE) the entrance to the palace was marked by two flanking pillar towers, whose upper floors were inhabitable.Built for people to ascend and gaze into the distance, these structures were called guan, or watchtowers.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites [34]

In the paper

“Both walls were physically located in front of the Central scene and therefore intuitively subject to the lady's encompassing eye on the rear wall.”

In the paper

“Although the charioteers in the other two shrines remain unidentified, the chariots were almost surely official and associated with the male host.”

In the paper

“This was also true in the Han dynasty, as “ascending high to gaze into the distance” (denggao yuanwang 登高遠望) became a favorite motif not only to artists but also among writers.”

In the paper

“In a patriarchic society in which males were considered superior to females, being overseen by ladies could be humiliating and even outrageous for men.”

In the paper

“First, the former is deprived of the attendants that flank the latter, indicating that the spectators on the watchtower are not always high-ranked; second and more importantly, the former does not specify a visual target in front of the viewer as the latter does.”

In the paper

“Consisting of open cars (chaoche 弨車) with the passengers exposed to the audience, such official chariot processions were meant to be social spectacles that showed off the charioteer's honorable social status”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites [20]

In the paper

“The unique power of frontal view also manifests itself through the fact that this is the only perspective that allows the spectator's eyes to radiate from the picture plane out to the other walls.”

In the paper

“Although“impri-soned” on the upper floor, she stands above her socially superior husband and indeed everything else in the earthly world.”

In the paper

“This turned into a convention throughout the second century, when the construction of the Wu family shrines occurred.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [75] source

In the paper

“all the central figures on the upper story sit behind a window and steer their eyes straight forward, unmoved by scenes nearby.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Lewis 1999

In the paper

“Little doubt remains that the Wu family artists creatively modified the local pictorial conventions and forged a visible analogy between the Queen Mother of the West and the frontal-pose lady without denying the latter’s human identity.”

In the paper

“Because the family shrine, as the public “face” of the entire clan, must have been under critical public scrutiny during regular ritual festivals, it was absolutely vital that its every detail should be both ideologically and politically correct, although ideology and politics could conflict.88”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites [88]

In the paper

“The decoration of the shrines, so dearly invested in, had to be flawless even to the most critical and informed eyes of the time, because, as we can easily imagine, any artistic mistakes could have disgraced the family, or even worse, totally ruined it.”

In the paper

“Among the ten emperors of the Eastern Han dynasty, five ascended the throne younger than ten, and the other five were between eleven and seventeen in age.74”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [74] source

In the paper

“However, without an informed eye that knows how to connect the lady, the chariots, the building, the kitchen and so on, many such “soft” motifs as the feminine overseeing just fade before our eyes into oblivion.”

In the paper

“After the fall of the Xin, empress mothers were granted even greater real and symbolic power during the Eastern Han dynasty, when a total of six empress dowagers, unparallel in all Chinese history, successively became the de-facto controllers of the court after 88. 73”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites [73]

In the paper

“Such ambiguous feminine images anticipated the mothergoddess by the Wu familyartist(s), who unambiguously distinguished the two characters in iconography while keeping the two in both form and placement as mirror images of one another.”

In the paper

“Although it was not directly from the Wu family shrines, the similar artistic style and carving technique demonstrate that it was almost surely associated with the same workshop or group of artists; see Jiaxiang xian Wushici wenguansuo 1979, pp.5-6.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Jiaxiang xian Wushici wenguansuo 1979

In the paper

“In a patriarchal society such as the Eastern Han, as Wu Hung once remarked, “the primary subject matter of the Wu Liang Ci (Shrine) carvings is the mother-son relationship.It is especially surprising to find that the first picture in the series focuses on this theme.”87”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites [87]

In the paper

“As women were almost always served by women in Han pic-torial art, it is unlikely that the two spectators are women”

In the paper

“In other words, the design of the shrines had to comply both with the Confucian patriarchal ideology, in which the father must always remain as the head of the house, and with the contemporary political reality that the mother must act as a powerful backstage overseer.”

In the paper

“This text included a focus on two famous heroines, the mothers of Mengzi 孟子 and Tian Ji 田忌 who used their authority to help their sons to correct errors.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites [83]

In the paper

“The ear-liest Left Stone Chamber was established in 148, the second year into the reign of the Emperor Huan 漢桓帝 (r.146-168), who ascended the throne at the age of fifteen.The factual supreme ruler behind the young emperor was Empress Mother Liang (Liang Rui 梁妠, 106-150), who maintained a firm grip on the power till her very last breath.”

In the paper

“To the Wu family members thriving in the political environment of second-century China, in effect, this must have come as no surprise.”

In the paper

“In other words, the frontal-pose lady was intentionally made both divine and human, and in either case, a mother (mu 母), at least in the descendants’ point of view.”

In the paper

“At the same time, from late Western Han to early Eastern Han, the image of the Queen Mother shifted from three-quarter view to full frontal view, turning the rep-resentational mode of this goddess from “episodic” to “iconic.”77”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [77] source

In the paper

“In this bas-relief from Feicheng two cartouches were inscribed next to the lady on the top floor, labeling her as the wife (furen 夫人) of a marquis (hou 侯), whose image was”

• Also stated in: § CONCLUSION · plain

  “This bas-relief bears a fragmentary inscription that identifies one of the upper-floor frontal-pose ladies as”

In the paper

“Wu Liang specialized in Hanshi waizhuan 韓詩外傳 (External Commentary to the Han Odes, compiled 2nd c.BCE), an exegetic text of Shijing with a special interest in the stories of virtuous women.83”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites [83]

In the paper

“For example, a lady’s portrait is “hard,” but overseeing is “soft,” because while the former can be counted and measured, the latter finds its existence precisely in the intangible link and logic between the subject (overseer) and the object (overseen).”

In the paper

“In this aspect, the images of the goddess and the lady were probably based on the same basic archetype; in fact the latter was por-trayed almost like a mirror image of the former.”

In the paper

“The ultimate goal of the artist(s) in making this creation was to pictorialize the dominant role of the mother in contemporary society and the current political scene, and to propagandize it in a public ritual spacethe funerary shrine.”

In the paper

“It seems to me that the damaged character X should be read as”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites Cheng Shaokui 1990
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  cites Yang Aiguo 2006

In the paper

“Being more than a portrait, the female frontal view must be thought of as a “soft” motif instead of a “hard” one.89”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites [89]

In the paper

“Found exclusively from tombs, these miniature buildings may rise up to a height of five feet and literally stand out among all other burial objects.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites Lewis 1999

In the paper

“Wu Rong was a specialist of the Lu 鲁 text of Shijing, which nurtured Liu Xiang 劉向 (77-6 BCE), the author of Lienü zhuan 列女傳 (Biographies of Eminent Women, comp.first c.BCE).84”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites [84]

In the paper

“The theory also coheres with the Confucian teaching on keeping a proper fence between husband and wife, for it is ritually inappropriate for men and women to blend together.69”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites [69]

In the paper

“Such motifs were later appropriated by early great Chinese painting masters in similar domestic contexts.A great example is a scene of adornment in the famous Admonition Scroll, attributed to Gu Kaizhi, see McCausland 2003, pl. 7.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites McCausland 2003

In the paper

“Using overlapping of images to represent depth was a popular strategy in Eastern Han art; see Soper 1948, pp. 174-175.”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Soper 1948 source

In the paper

“使之不僅成為畫面中主導的中央觀者，也可居高臨下、統觀周圍的 景象”

In the paper

“The same method was used in another shrine at Xiaotangshan 孝堂 山, as”

What the sources say

• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Soper 1941 source

In the paper

“Accordingly, female family members in the Han dynasty were often called”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Raphals 1998

In the paper

“It was modeled after ancestral temples; see Nagahirō Toshio 1961b; Croissant 1964, pp. 92- 105;”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

  Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.

  cites Nagahirō Toshio 1961b
• ?Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites Croissant 1964 source

In the paper

“No violation between the two sides was expected:”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites Kong Yingda, Liji zhengyi
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  cites Ruan Yuan 1980

In the paper

“這一女性形象出現在墓地祠堂這一重要的公共禮儀空 間之中，呼應了東漢時代、特別是二世紀盛行的皇太后臨朝聽政的政治現實。”

In the paper

“Although this theory may work in some particular cases, it hardly applies to the Wu family shrines, in which the two floors are clearly distinguished by the railings appearing only on the second floor, but never on the floor below.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites Miao Zhe 2013
• ?Not matched

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  cites Nagahirō Toshio

In the paper

“According to Zheng Xuan's 鄭玄 (127-200) annotation to Liji:”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites Zheng Xuan
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  cites Kong Yingda
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  cites Ruan Yuan 1980

In the paper

“On another occasion, these spectators are men instead of women; see Jining diqu wenwuzu 1982, p. 66, fig. 15.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites Jining diqu wenwuzu 1982

In the paper

“Jiang Yingju demonstrates that this and other similar later discovered bas-reliefs were also Central scenes from other local shrines of the same period; see id. 1983.”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites Jiang Yingju 1983

In the paper

“A slightly earlier mural tomb at Xunyi 旬邑 in Shaanxi province, dating from the first century contains inscriptions that verify the separation between husband and wife. Although in this tomb there are no multistory buildings, the motif of men in profile versus women in frontal view is similar. Blurry inscriptions label these rigidly sitting ladies as wives of the corresponding gentlemen; see Greiff”

What the sources say

• ?Not matched

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  cites Greiff -Yin 2002

In the paper

“The spectator, in this case a man, is keeping all the properties of his posthumous home within his visual field.”

In the paper

“While men were assigned to the public”