This week we discussed the social status of artisans in China during the Qin and Han dynasties. On Tuesday we had class outside and used the pointing method to go over chapter 2 of Artisans in Early Imperial China by Anthony Barbieri-Low. I thought the pointing method was very helpful and through this as a class we found that artisans were feared and looked down on instead of respected and appreciated, they were seen by many as “parasites on the economy”. The societal opinion of artisans really surprised me, and in a way I think this opinion of artisans has translated into how they see themselves even in the present day. The quote I selected to point out was “Many writers did, in fact, voice opinions about what the perfect artisan would be like, how his or her skill would manifest itself, and what processes would be used to create works of sublime beauty However, the idealized artisan was a person who did not really exist, except as a kind of Platonic mental con-struct in the mind of the philosopher, the poet, or the historian”, the idea of the “perfect artisan” is something that was created by societal opinions as well as individual opinion of the artisan.
Going off of the untrustworthy view of the artisan my group talked about royal court artists and their task of painting the possible suitors of the emperor. The ability for an artist to embellish the appearance of suitors, even though they were bribed into making the changes, undoubtedly made them seem untrustworthy and perpetuated the societal opinion of artisans.
I was really interested in the “Giving Birth to Children” text in the chapter, which covered the fates children would face based on the day they were born. The fates given to children were so crazy to read, they went from one extreme to another determining that one child will be wealthy and yet another will be “orphaned young and will wear filthy clothes”. I found this section the most interesting just because of how bizarre it was. I am truly interested in knowing what my fate would be. In a way I feel like this was sort of guaranteeing the life path a child would either strive towards or run in the opposite direction of, or unknowingly become.
Sources
Barbieri-Low, Anthony J. Artisans in Early Imperial China. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2007.
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