Organizer: Yang Lu, Princeton University
Chair: Victor H. Mair, University of Pennsylvania
Discussants: Victor H. Mair, University of Pennsylvania; Robert F. Campany, Indiana University
The purpose of this panel is to place the Chinese fascination with the body and study of physiognomy in its social, political, and cultural contexts. Previous scholarship on premodern Chinese physiognomy, the prediction of personal fate and the analysis of character through the interpretation of physical (especially facial) appearance, has tended to focus on its theoretical bases and pseudoscientific practices. In contrast, the papers in the panel will examine the social meanings and ramifications of the practice and associated activities as exemplified in a variety of contexts and periods.
The diversity of periods and topics examined (images of sages in the pre-Han and Han, physiognomy of official elites in the Northern and Southern Dynasties and the Tang, and images of "barbarians" in Tang art) is intended to demonstrate, first, the continued use and significance of physiognomy in the repertoire of techniques used in China to interpret, symbolize, and predict human behavior and to create social and cultural taxonomies. Second, the papers, taken individually and together, will show how social, political, and cultural developments influenced the changing meanings and uses of physiognomy over the premodern period. Although the materials and interpretive techniques vary from paper to paper, all share a common interest in the fundamental project of physiognomy, to create a set of ideal standards of behavior and appearance. However, they also seek to examine what happens when these standards are violated or when conflicting sets of standards contend with one another, reflecting different social identities and cultural ethoses.
Body Matters: Appearance, Virtue, and Career in Medieval China (200–900)
Yang Lu, Princeton University
One striking feature of medieval Chinese texts, especially official historiographies, is their frequent reference to an individual’s physical characteristics. While appearance was significant in all aspects of medieval daily life, it was particularly so in political and religious spheres. Not only were an individual’s looks used to predict and explain career results, but possession of attractive features was a legitimate career asset. In the Tang dynasty, physical appearance was even listed as the first of the four major criteria for selecting officials. The rise of the civil service examinations did little to change this situation. What was the significance of this? Why did people in medieval China value appearance so much, and use it so openly in public discourse? This paper attempts to interpret these phenomena by placing them in the broad cultural and social context of medieval China. Drawing upon a variety of sources, from written to visual materials, it argues that consciousness of appearance was a common mentality in medieval Chinese society, and a distinctive part of so-called "aristocratic culture." In an age when body and virtue were believed to be directly linked, and the mechanisms determining career success were highly personalized, personal abilities and destiny were judged heavily by physical characteristics. This paper also explores the public’s ambivalence about appearance. Finally by examining the sharp contrast between the Southern and Northern Dynasty’s ideals of physical beauty, as well as the tension and interaction between these ideal types during the Tang, the paper provides new evidence of the cultural transformations in this period.
Why Were the Sages so Ugly?
Pingyi Zhu, Academia Sinica
This paper examines an anomaly in Han physiognomy. Although fine physical features were highly admired in Han society, Han writings typically endowed sages with strange and unique physical characteristics. The concept that sages were abnormal in appearance and could not be readily measured according to the ordinary rules of physiognomy was called shengren buxiang. This paper focuses on the social significance of this concept. It argues that this concept was used as part of a conscious Han strategy to place sagehood beyond the reach of ordinary men. The emergence of this concept was closely related to the formation of the imperial order in China. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the meaning of sagehood underwent a radical transformation. In Han culture, the sage was seen not only to possess moral superiority but supernatural powers as well, and his image was shown to mirror that of the emperor. The Han monarchy used this image of the sage to legitimize the emperor’s powerful status. Ancient sage-kings as well as emperors of the current dynasty were mystified through exaggerated descriptions of their physical features. Emperorship was portrayed as an unattainable state like sagehood, a state that was inborn but could not be achieved through merit or effort. This notion that imperial leadership was predetermined was thus propagated through Han depiction of sages and emperors. It was used to consolidate the power of the imperial incumbent and had a profound impact on subsequent imperial ideology.
Deep Eyes and High Noses: Physiognomy and the Depiction of "Barbarians" in Tang China (618–907)
Marc Abramson, Princeton University
Tang images of non-Han Chinese "barbarians" (hu, yi, etc.), have recently been found in large numbers, particularly as tomb figures and in tomb murals. Research has focused either on the specific ethnic identities of the individuals portrayed or on the foreign origins and paths of transmission and transformation of particular motifs and classes of objects. As a result, the images have been divorced from conditions of their production and usage and explained as an outgrowth of the T’ang craze for exotica and the ubiquity of foreigners.
This paper views physiognomy as the key feature of these images and explores alternative explanations for the various representations of the ethnic Other. It argues that the ways in which non-Han Chinese were imagined and recognized derived from contemporary conceptions of ethnic difference based on myths, tropes, and stereotypes used to construct the "barbarian," and that these conceptions were similarly reflected in political relations and social roles. In particular, the "barbarians’" close association with animals and the belief that they and other morally suspect and social marginal classes (e.g., eunuchs) lacked propriety (li) and failed to meet norms of deportment and physical appearance played a crucial role in their depiction. Images that appear in ritual contexts must also be understood as not merely symbolic but as performing functions for which particular animals and certain skills provided apotroaic potency which partially accounts for their frequent appearance in Tang tombs.
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