Yesterday morning I spent two happy hours at the British
Museum, visiting the current exhibition
Ming, 50 years that changed China.
It was a fascinating show, displaying not only the
inevitable blue and white porcelain for which the era is best known, but also
other artefacts, including jewellery, statues and scroll paintings, many of
which have never before been outside China. Some of these were grave goods from recently
excavated tombs of princely provincial families and were in astonishingly good condition.
This was the era when the Chinese capital was moved from Nanjing
to Beijing and the first Forbidden City was built. Being made of wood the vast complex burnt down many
times, but its overall shape and the colour of the buildings were very similar
to what can be seen there today.
I was very struck by one scroll painting that showed that both
football and a form of golf were played at the early fifteenth century Ming
Court. In addition they already used
paper money. This is quite remarkable
when one remembers that at the same time that we were fighting the Battle of
Agincourt.
The Ming Emperors presided over a bureaucracy that was every bit as complex as our own. I was very
taken with the following instruction to his son from the Yongle Emperor (pronounced
Yongler) (r.1403 -1424)
‘Even though the
secretaries handle the documents you must read them all yourself. Thus you may know the hardship of the
official so that one day you may be the ruler of men’.
This is also good advice to some present day councillors.
Ming, 50 years that changed China, runs at the British Museum until January 5th. Further details are on the British Museum website.
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| Scroll painting of the Forbidden City |
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