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The Water Mill and Northern Song imperial patronage of art, commerce, and science - China
Art Bulletin, The, Dec, 2002 by Heping Liu
The Water Mill as Illustration of State Commerce
The Northern Song art of jiehua developed side by side with the Northern Song economy, science, and technology as part of China's first commercial revolution, which took place from the tenth to the fourteenth century. This revolution was marked by advances in mathematics, astronomy, medicine, metallurgy, and mechanical engineering, together with discoveries in farming, water transport, money and credit, and urbanization. The cumulative effect of all these improvements made the Northern Song economy the most advanced in the world. (26) Among the factors contributing to the economic prosperity were government incentives, imperial sponsorship, and sometimes, the involvement of the state. (27) The Water Mill illustrates the state's direct engagement in the thriving milling industry and its related commercial activities. Most conspicuous among the workers is a man seated in front of a desk inside a thatched pavilion in the upper left corner of the painting (Fig. 5). Depicted in three-quarter view (28) and dressed in full court attire, he wears the distinctive black hat known as pingjiao futou (literally, "hat with two horizontal legs"), the formally designated court hat worn exclusively by the Song emperor and courtiers on official occasions. (29) This iconographic detail can be confirmed by a portrait of the Northern Song founder Taizu (r. 960-76, Fig. 6). (30) Another official of slightly lower rank who wears a dark robe and the same "hat with two horizontal legs" approaches the seated official. Behind the seated official stand three attendants in simpler dress. The two officials, unmistakably supervisors of the milling operation, seem to be engaged in bookkeeping, recording, and evaluating the product of the mill. The empty thatched pavilion on the other side of the mill seems to be an alternative on-site office for them. The presence of these officials clearly indicates that the government owns and operates the mill.
The involvement of the state can be further linked to another commercial enterprise depicted in the lower right corner of the scroll: a wineshop across the river from the mill (Fig. 7). A handsome building, it has a barely legible signboard at its entrance reading "New Wine [xinjiu]," which confirms that the painting shows the harvest season. (31) Wineshops of Northern Song times could be easily recognized by their distinct architecture and trade signs. All wineshops in the capital, Kaifeng, had decorated, multistoried welcoming gates, according to the 1147 nostalgic reminiscences of Meng Yuanlao (ca. 1090-1150), who lived in the capital until 1126, when the city was sacked by the invading Jurchen armies. (32) These canopied structures were made of timber or bamboo scaffolding. The welcoming gate in the Shanghai scroll has a solid footing of four thick, tall pillars. Its towering height and the inclusion of a large, striped trade banner with the large character "Wine" (jiu) on it make the function of the welc oming gate self-evident: to mark the entrance of the wine-shop and to draw in customers.
