Confucius at the Apricot Platform,

1154 (stone); late 19th to first half of 20th century (rubbing)

Confucius at the Apricot Platform

1154 (stone); late 19th to first half of 20th century (rubbing)

Wu Daozi 吳道子 , painter, attributed to
Kong Zongshou 孔宗壽 , inscriber
He Xianjue 何先覺 , inscriber, carving agent

Hanging scroll; ink rubbing on paper

image: 79.5 x 68 cm. (31 5/16 x 26 3/4 in.) 151 x 72 cm. (59 7/16 x 28 3/8 in.)

Gift of George Rowley

y1958-143

Asia, China

夫子杏壇圖 Picture of the Master at the Apricot Platform Kong Zongshou 孔宗壽 (late 11th century) 宗壽家藏唐吳道子畫先君夫子按几而坐、從以十弟子者，世謂之『小影』；又立而顏子侍者謂之『行教』。『行教』已有石本，『小影』但摹傳之多，慮久而訛。今亦刻堅珉，庶愈久而不失其真也。紹聖二年[1095?]丙子[1096?]歲十月一日，四十六代孫、宣德郎、知兗州仙源縣孔宗壽記。 Collected in [Kong] Zongshou’s family is a Wu Daozi painting of our ancestral master seated on a ji-platform accompanied by ten disciples, which is called the “Small Picture”; there was also erected [a pictorial stone] of Yanzi in attendance that is called “Teaching.” “Teaching” already has a stone copy, however “Small Picture” has been more copied and transmitted but are concerned the over time it will be corrupted. Today it is cut into obdurate stone and over numerous years will not lose its veracity. Recorded by the 46th generation descendant [or Confucius], the Court Gentleman of Manifest Virtue ,and Administrator of Xianyuan county in Yanzhou Kong Zongshou on the first day of the tenth month in the bingzi cyclical year or 2nd year of the Shaosheng reign. He Xianjue 何先覺 (12th century) 此畫在孔氏家廟，其來極遠貌像最為真絕。百世之後僊源紛擾，無復存焉。神物護持偶得家藏舊本。紹興甲戌[1154]上元日，左宜教郎、權知橫州軍州事何先覺重刋于寧浦郡學鄉貢進士、兖州學正甘彥摹。 This picture at the Kong family temple, its lofty appearance is truly matchless. After a hundred generations, the immortal [sage’s] origins will be in confusion and no longer survive. It is a wonder [that this picture] has been protected and maintained, and by chance to have obtained a copy from the family collection. On the 15th day of the jiaxu cyclical year of the Shaoxing reign, the . . . and Provisional Administrator of Hengzhou and Junzhou affairs He Xianjue recarved at the Ningpu prefectural school from a copy from Gan Yan, who was selected and recommended for the jinshi examinations and was the Instructor Second-class of Yanzhou. Notes: 1. These inscriptions are recorded in Xie Qikun 謝啓昆 (1737-1802), Yuexi jinshi lue 粤西金石略 (Tonggu ting, 1801), juan 8, pp. 1a-b. https://books.google.com/books?id=--lbAAAAcAAJ&pg=PP279&lpg=PP279&dq=此畫在孔氏家廟其來極遠&source=bl&ots=bJgcPagCYc&sig=ACfU3U3gX2eh4R8-sRdwSNhPotjW9M9O5w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjQpLzhoNDqAhU3oHIEHUe0AdAQ6AEwAHoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=此畫在孔氏家廟其來極遠&f=false 2. He Xianjue 何先覺 (1128 jinshi degree), zi: Minshi 民师, native of Guiyang county桂陽縣 (present-day Rucheng county 汝城县, Hunan province). https://baike.baidu.com/item/何先觉/6030325?noadapt=1 3. Yanzhou 兗州 county level city in Jining 濟寧, Shandong province. 4. Ningpu 寧浦郡, present-day area of Hengxian 橫縣in Guangzhou廣州 province. 5. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:父子杏坛图_4224.jpg 南宋“父子杏坛图”石刻拓本。原碑1987年出土于横县。南宋绍兴甲戌年（1154），知横州军州事何先觉以甘彦所摹本重刻，立于宁浦郡学宫。甘彦摹本摹自北宋绍圣二年（1095）孔宗寿所刻唐吴道子“小影”画像

Large tall rect. relief seal with Chinese, Mongol(?), and Manchu(?) scripts.

Group of eleven men facing left with Confucius seated on a low-platform (ji 几) under a canopy and ten disciples standing around him. One of the disciples at top carries a qin-instrument over his shoulder and Confucius seems to clutch a long scepter or pipe under his left arm. The caption at top left labels this as a scene commemorating Confucius teaching students under an apricot tree; although, no tree is depicted. At left are two inscriptions. The one at right in four columns by Kong Zongshou, the 46th generation descendant of Confucius, relates that in 1095 he was responsible for carving into stone a painting of Confucius by the Tang dynasty artist Wu Daozi. The three-column inscription at left by He Xianjue records that the 1095 pictorial stone (at the Confucius Temple in Qufu, Shandong province) was recarved in 1154 at the prefectural school in Ningpu 寧浦 (present-day area of Hengxian 橫縣in Guangzhou廣州 province) based on a rubbing copy in the possession the official Gan Yan 甘彥. After the Princeton rubbing was made in the late 19th to first half of 20th century, the pictorial stone was lost until it was excavated in 1987 at Hengxian 横县, Guangzhou, showing signs of additional damage.

Chinese

Song

rubbings

Confucianism, disciples, figures (representations)