Lughnasa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waxing Artemis Moon<\/p>\n
Two very different tours today:\u00a0 Peace Games with small children in globs of 15 or so for 15 minutes and a Matteo Ricci tour for Chinese folks.\u00a0 The first one is about fun, questions, seeking treasure and oh by the way this is art.\u00a0\u00a0 In the first room I have, a collection of modern Japanese ceramics, not very promising for\u00a0 young kids, I’m going to have them look for something that looks like it came off an airplane and some flowers.\u00a0 Then, if they seem interested, we’ll put together a group story.\u00a0 In the next room there is a very cool piece in which an artist who is under pressure from the law is defended by characters from his prints.\u00a0 I’ll tell the story there.\u00a0 In the ukiyo-e gallery, we’ll be looking at netsuke.\u00a0 The kids will decide which one is most like someone in their life.\u00a0 In the next to last gallery I’ll tell the story of the Minamoto battles on the big screen, we’ll look at the samurai armor and swords.\u00a0 If there’s time, we’ll hunt for animals in the last gallery.<\/p>\n
The Matteo Ricci is something completely different.\u00a0 This is an exhibit honoring a Westerner, Ricci, who visited China as a Jesuit, landing in Macao in 1583 and dying in Peking in 1610 while serving as court mathematician to the WanLi emperor.\u00a0 While in Peking, he created a huge map in six large panels, a map of the world, the first to use Western and Chinese cartography.\u00a0 Though Ricci had hundreds of these maps printed only 5 survived to the present day.\u00a0 At least that was what was originally thought.\u00a0 A London rare maps dealer found this map, the one on display at the MIA, in the collection of a private party in Japan.\u00a0 It’s discovery caused one map scholar to name it “the impossible black tulip.”\u00a0 The James Ford Bell Library at the university of Minnesota purchased it for $1,000,000.\u00a0 It will complement their collection which “documents the history and impact of international trade prior to ca. 1800 C.E.”<\/p>\n
It represents an interesting historical nexus, reformation and enlightenment era Europe visiting China in the final years of the Ming Dynasty, at a point when the Chinese had turned away from sailing in the age of sail and had begun to deemphasize foreign contacts just as European traders from the Dutch and Britain began to show up alongside the earlier and better established Portuguese and Spanish.\u00a0 They were not alone.\u00a0 It was in the early 1600’s that Japan closed the country to foreign trade and foreign visitors.<\/p>\n
The Wanli Emperor, the Emperor of Ten Thousand Calendars, was in the last years of his reign when Ricci finally made it to Peking becoming the first Westerner in the northern capital established by the Yongle Emperor in the 15th century.\u00a0 The Wanli emperor had started his reign well, executing military matters and administrative concerns with some skill.\u00a0 He became disenchanted, however, with the infighting and moral attacks back and forth among Neo-Confucian scholar officials.\u00a0 In response he essentially gave up the running of the country, leaving China with a faction fractured central government compounded by his imperial inaction.\u00a0 The effect was to remove China from the world scene just as European exploration, commercial avarice and technological advancements grafted itself onto Europe’s own imperial ambitions.\u00a0 The result of these two forces moving in opposite directions would change the course of world history, a change only now beginning to right itself from a Chinese perspective.<\/p>\n
It was into this volatile mixture that Ricci brought European science, mathematics, art and, of course, religion.\u00a0 Ricci became a literati, a member of the scholar-official class, mastering Chinese and the mores of the governing class.\u00a0 His acceptance in those circles propelled him close to the Imperial court and found him buried in Peking after his death in 1610, an honor accorded to few Westerners.\u00a0 He did not, however, convince many Chinese to become Roman Catholics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lughnasa\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waxing Artemis Moon Two very different tours today:\u00a0 Peace Games with small children in globs of 15 or so for 15 minutes and a Matteo Ricci tour for Chinese folks.\u00a0 The first one is about fun, questions, seeking treasure and oh by the way this is art.\u00a0\u00a0 In the first room I have, a … Continue reading Emperor of Ten-Thousand Calendars<\/span>