Zhigongtu
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Liang Zhigongtu (梁 職貢圖) (Wade-Giles Liang chih-kung-t'u).
Zhigongtu (職貢圖) were official historical documents used in many Chinese dynasties. The phrase roughly translates to "duty-offering pictorial". Throughout Chinese history, kingdoms and tribes conquered by Chinese forces were required to send ambassadors to the imperial court of China periodically and pay tribute with valuable gifts (gongbin).
Drawings and paintings with detailed descriptions were used to record the look of these ambassadors to show the cultural aspects of these ethnic groups. These historical documents became good records of diplomatic relations in each dynasty. The drawings were reproduced as woodblock prints and distributed among the bureaucracy in albums. The Manchu Xie Sui Zhigongtu, recorded about 1751, gives verbal descriptions of outlying tribes as far as the plains of Hungary.
The Liang Zhigongtu is of special significance because the Liang dynasty ruler Liangyuan Di (南朝 梁元帝 蕭繹) was a painter and this particular document was his personal work. The original has been lost. The surviving document in museum is a copy made in the Song dynasty.
External link
- Picture of the Liang Zhigongtu (http://www.cnarts.net/cweb/arts/yishubaoz/history/history2.asp#h23)