Alfreda Murck: A Leaf Falls: Reading the Motif of Falling Leaves in Chinese Art
Duration: 24 mins 39 secs
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| Description: |
Alfreda Murck (Independent Scholar, Beijing)
For over two thousand years falling leaves have appeared in Chinese literature with consistently somber effect. The minimal meaning was diminished life force and the threat of death. A more charged meaning was that worthy men had been displaced by incompetents. In the eighth century, scholars were explicit: “It is a metaphor for petty men managing affairs and therefore Worthy Men being cast away.” I will analyze the ways by which artists used falling leaves in their art, including by alluding to lines in a text accompanying an autumnal scene, by autumn leaves drifting down, and by depicting the Lady of the Xiang with or without her sister, the consort of Shun. |
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| Created: | 2012-05-29 11:32 |
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| Collection: | Humanitas |
| Publisher: | University of Cambridge |
| Copyright: | Glenn Jobson |
| Language: | eng (English) |
| Keywords: | CRASSH; Humanitas; Alfreda Murck; |
| Abstract: | Alfreda Murck (Independent Scholar, Beijing)
For over two thousand years falling leaves have appeared in Chinese literature with consistently somber effect. The minimal meaning was diminished life force and the threat of death. A more charged meaning was that worthy men had been displaced by incompetents. In the eighth century, scholars were explicit: “It is a metaphor for petty men managing affairs and therefore Worthy Men being cast away.” I will analyze the ways by which artists used falling leaves in their art, including by alluding to lines in a text accompanying an autumnal scene, by autumn leaves drifting down, and by depicting the Lady of the Xiang with or without her sister, the consort of Shun. |
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