Working transactions: viewing Chinese agrarian labor and its production in China and Europe during the early- to mid-19th century

Abstract

In the ninth century the great Tang poet Bai Juyi (772–846) critically commented on class distinctions in a poem on an elaborately woven type of silk fabric, “Liaoling –Honoring the toil of the weaving women.” In it he queried, “Who does the weaving, who wears the robe?” In the next line Bai offered the answer, “A poor woman in the glens of Yue, a lady in the palace of Han.” The poet contrasted standards of living between the hard-working producers and idle consumers, while deftly alluding to the margins of empire and its center of power. Representations of rural Chinese women producing silk that was handed over to the government as tax payment were inaugurated outside of court patronage in the 12th century in a suite of paintings entitled Pictures of Tilling and Weaving. This genre was revitalized in the Qing era through the patronage of four successive Qing emperors, Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong and Jiaqing. The Pictures were very popular on the domestic level and even emigrated to Europe and the United States in the late 18th and 19th century. Situating the Pictures of Tilling and Weaving within the intellectual and historical transactions between China and Europe, this presentation explores the appeal of representations of Chinese farmers at work for local and international audiences to answer questions that amplify Bai Juyi’s 9th-century concerns. Who does the looking at the rural women weaving silk and why?