Eating Azurite and Malachite: The Age-Defying Connotation of the Blue-and-Green Style
Quincy Ngan
(Ph.D. student, University of Chicago)
CWAC 156
4:00-6:00 p.m. Jan. 16th, Friday
Abstract
I look at paintings which represent “the realm of the immortals” and, interestingly, all are painted with azurite and malachite, the two pigments which constitutes “the “blue-and-green style.” My presentation questions why “the blue-and-green style,” in Chinese visual culture, is usually deployed to represent “the realm of the immortals.” This phenomenon seems to indicate that “the blue-and-green style” can evoke immortality. In fact, there is a variety of reasons that “the blue-and-green style” can evoke immortality. Firstly, azurite is an ingredient for making elixir, as mentioned in Daoist writings dating back to the Jin Dynasty (265-420). The other reason is that both azurite and malachite are recorded in various pharmacopeias and gazetteers from the Sung to Early Qing Dynasties. These writings state that the two minerals have medicinal healing and age-defying effects. It is these two functions of the two minerals that make “the blue-and-green style” bear the connotation of immortality. Finally, I will use some works by professional painters and forgers to consolidate the above arguments. These professional paintings and forgeries, which I use as corroborations, were made under the influence of “an immortal vogue” in the 16th century. At that time, a number of Ming Dynasty Emperors were Daoist devotees who constantly sought immortality through making elixirs with minerals.
This talk is co-sponsored by The Literature and Cultural of Pre-Modern East Asia Workshop
