Chen Shaomei's Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars

Author: Chen Shaomei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: "Filial Piety" is the core of Confucian ethical thought, a moral code that has upheld family relationships in Chinese society for thousands of years, and a traditional virtue of the Chinese nation. In the Yuan Dynasty, Guo Jujing compiled stories of twenty-four filial sons from ancient times and compiled them into The Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars. Later printed editions were accompanied by illustrations, collectively known as The Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars, becoming popular reading material for promoting filial piety. For a considerable period after the founding of New China, filial piety was dismissed as feudal dross. Yet, Mr. Chen Shaomei, in the winter of 1950, accepted an invitation from a friend to paint The Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars, creating a new edition with exceptional artistic skill to promote filial piety. Such a work, produced in such a historical period and painted by a master artist, is truly rare and invaluable. Mr. Chen Shaomei believed that traditional moral codes of the Chinese nation should not be entirely abandoned. Filial piety, as a principle that maintains and promotes the progress and development of society based on the family as its cell, should still be upheld and glorified. This was the ideological foundation for him painting The Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars. The Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars was also the last painting by Mr. Chen Shaomei on traditional painting themes. In 1954, he passed away suddenly due to overwork. Other works by Mr. Chen Shaomei include Spring in Jiangnan, Bathing the Ox, Jungle and Distant Peaks, Xiaogushan, and The Humble Administrator's Garden in the Summer Palace. The album leaf of The Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars he painted was taken to Taiwan in his time and, in early 2003, made its way from Taiwan to Hong Kong. After more than half a century, it was finally purchased by a collector in Beijing, allowing us to appreciate this treasured piece.