What does the Qing Palace "Divine Beast" such as qilin, qiyu, and enlightened beasts look like? Today, the exhibition "Qing Palace Animal Genealogy" jointly created by the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum and the Palace Museum opened at the Shanghai Museum of Natural History (Shanghai Science and Technology Museum Branch). Through the two clues of the comparison between specimens and paintings and the development of Chinese mammal science paintings, the exhibition displays high-definition reproductions of 31 "divine beast" paintings in the Qing Palace's "Animal Genealogy" and the specimens closest to the Qing Dynasty specimen making process. The exhibition will run until May.
The Qing Palace "Animal Genealogy" is a huge literary and historical project in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, with a total of 180 paintings of animals, painted by the famous court painters Yu Shengsheng and Zhang Weibang, and proofreaded by the military ministers Fu Heng, Liu Tongxun and others. "Animal Genealogy" is a collection of predecessors, which integrates the realistic style of Chinese painting and the light and shadow techniques of Western painting, and explains the name, habits, habitat and cultural connotation of each animal, providing us with first-hand information for us to explore the Chinese understanding of mammals and the development of mammalology in that era, as well as the mammal exchanges in the world at that time. Due to the limitations of the times, some of the paintings in the Qing Palace's "Animal Genealogy" lack scientific basis and are different from the biological morphological characteristics of real beasts.
One of the highlights of the exhibition is the combination of specimens and ancient paintings, with specific images and intuitive contrasts, allowing the audience to re-examine the Qing Palace's "Animal Genealogy". For example, next to the court painting "Tiger", a tiger specimen is displayed, as if the tiger in the painting jumped out of the paper to welcome the arrival of the Year of the Tiger. The work Tiger consists of paintings and Manchu characters. Under the pen of the court painter, the tiger walks in the mountains, majestic; at the bottom of the picture is an introduction to the tiger: "The tiger is the chief of the beast, and it is the king of the mountain." "Spring and Autumn Wen Yao Hook" said: The tiger was born in July, and the yang stood on the seventh, so the head and tail were seven feet long..."
The exhibition is divided into three sections. The first section, "Opening the Door of Imagination and Curiosity", selects the most influential "divine beasts" among the 107 legendary beasts, and interprets 7 works such as Kirin, Bai Ze and Nine-tailed Fox. The second section, "Beasts of Reality", selects 24 animals in the "Animal Genealogy" and the corresponding 7 orders of 27 animal specimens, and compares the specimens with the paintings. The third section, "Dancing with Divine Beasts", affirms the historical status and value of the "Animal Genealogy", and clarifies the zoological development history of the Chinese nation through the interactive multimedia "Pen and Ink Life". The audience can also play the "Divine Beast in My Heart" puzzle game to learn about the ancient totem of the Chinese nation.
Is the "Divine Beast" Unicorn a real animal? According to the exhibition, the mainstream view is that it is a mythical "chimera" creature with an elk body, an oxtail, a horse's hoof, and antlers, also known as a unicorn. The male is named Qi and the female is Lin, and is regarded as the auspicious Rui of the Taiping Dynasty. However, some scholars believe that the unicorn was an elk that once lived in the Zhou Dynasty, an animal that was extinct during the life of Confucius and still exists on the African continent, often mixed with zebras or other antelope herds. Confucius's "Spring and Autumn" ended with "Four Years of The Duke of Sorrow, Spring, and Western Hunting", reflecting his dissatisfaction with Lu Guoli's collapse and happiness, and he never compiled "Spring and Autumn" from then on.