Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

This series of prints, based on a book published in 1847, was, in turn, based on a text by the Chinese scholar Guo Jujing (1271‒1368). The book recounts the self-sacrificing behavior of twenty-four filial sons and daughters. Many of the images in this series exhibit a decidedly Western influence— shadows and one-point perspective— were probably copied from Western prints.
Although the immediate source for models of proper behavior comes from Guo, the ideas are largely derived from the Analects, a collection of sayings and teachings of Chinese sage, Confucius (ca. 551‒479 BCE) compiled by his students. Confucius lived during the Eastern Zhou period (771-221) when China, no longer unified, was experiencing political and social upheaval and instability within and between fractious rival states. Confucius developed a moral philosophy based in the Chinese ideals li, an amorphous term which includes performance of sacred ritual as well proper manners, ren or compassion, and a code of conduct exemplified by the Five Relationships —between father and son, ruler and minister, husband and wife, elder brother and younger brother, and friend and friend — which, taken together, formed a matrix of social obligation. A thorough understanding of li and ren and the Five Relationships would lead to harmony both personally and within and between rival states. Although Confucius never achieved great recognition within his lifetime his teachings have had a profound effect on China in particular and East Asia in general.

A dutiful son treks out into the winter weather to fulfill his sick mother’s wish to eat bamboo. After praying, he is rewarded with the discovery of a succulent clump of bamboo hidden under the snow. He is wearing a coat of straw and carrying a hoe in his left hand with the bamboo shoots in his right.