CONFUCIUS.

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A series of woodblock prints illustrating his life. An example of the Chinese genre known as "Sheng ji tu", in which Confucius's sagehood, spirit of public service, and mastery of self-cultivation were celebrated through prints showing famous moments in his life.The first pictorial biography of the Master was composed in 1444 by Zhang Kai (1398-1460), an imperial censor responsible for scrutinizing the conduct of officials. Zhang's 29-image series spawned a new artistic genre, developed and supplemented by successive generations of officials keen to promote Confucian virtues. Individual compilations had their own characteristics, including varying numbers of illustrations and different accompanying text. In this example, the corpus was expanded to almost 100 scenes. The preliminary prints of Confucius and Yan Hui are arranged to echo a common theme of the Sheng ji tu genre: the devotion of Yan, Confucius's favourite disciple, and his obedience to his master in all things.The first double-page scene shows Confucius's mother, Yan Zhengzai, praying for a child on Mount Ni near Qufu. Successive illustrations portray his precocious childhood, the arrival of his first disciples, and his work revising classical texts. Later scenes record Confucius's official career in the state of Lu and conversations with disciples that are chronicled in the Analects. Concluding prints picture two occasions, a millennium apart, when emperors came to Qufu to perform the highest sacrificial rites in

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