The spread of the image of Chinese saints in Japan : Kano Yamazuki's Portraits of Great Scholars through the Ages as an Example

中国圣贤道统图像在日本的传播—以狩野山雪《历圣大儒像》为例

The Pictures of Famous Sages through the Ages was created in the Edo period in Japan and commissioned by the Confucian scholar Hayashi Rosan. After Kano Yamakoshi completed the paintings in the ninth year of the Kan-ei era, Hayashi Rosan invited Kim Sae-lien, the deputy director of the Joseon Legation, to comment on the twenty-one paintings four years later and regarded the series of scrolls as a family treasure. This study analyses the origins of portraiture and the function of images through documentary and comparative methods, and then examines the spread of Chinese images of sages in Japan and the evolution of their localisation. At first, it was thought to be Sakyamuni portraits, i.e., portraits used for school ceremonies, but later scholars analysed them as Taoist portraits and argued that Wakayama Hayashi commissioned Yuki Konoyama to produce this group of sage portraits in order to show the orthodoxy and authority of his own school of thought. The choice of figures suggests that the images were influenced by Zhu Xi's Taoist ideology, and that the images of sages and Confucians originated in China and were localised in Japan during their spread. By analysing the specific style of the images in this work, we can gain a general understanding of the circulation and evolution of the images of Chinese sages in Japan, and then dig deeper into their intrinsic cultural information.

《历圣大儒像》作于日本江户时代，是狩野山雪受儒士林罗山所托创作而成，宽永九年狩野山雪完成画作后，时隔四年林罗山又邀请朝鲜通信使副使金世濂对二十一幅作品着赞，并将此系列绘卷视为家珍。本研究通过文献研究法和比较研究法对于该套图像的肖像来源以及功用等进行深入分析，进而探讨中国圣贤图像在日本的传播以及产生的本土化演变。《历圣大儒像》起初被认为是释奠图即作为学校祭祀礼仪之用，后有学者从图式分析入手认为其应是道统图，推测是林罗山为标榜自己学派的正统性与权威性所以委托狩野山雪作此系列圣儒像。从人物选择上可以看出这套图像受到了朱熹道统观的影响，圣贤儒士图像源于中国，在日本流传过程中又出现了本土化的特征。通过对该作品图式的具体分析可以了解中国圣贤图像在日本流传与演变的概况，进而可以深入探寻其内在的文化信息。