Hollins Digital Commons

Authority through Religious Depictions: How Qing Costume Portraits Legitimized the Manchu Rule of China

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The Manchus wrested control of China from the Chinese Ming dynasty and founded the Qing dynasty in 1644. They then went on to extend the Chinese empire, into one covering the majority of the East Asian continent. As a foreign dynasty, the Manchu emperors needed to bolster their authority in China. In this paper, I argue that the Qing emperors overcame this obstacle by associating themselves with the dominant religious and ethical authorities of China. I explore how they studied religious texts, built shrines and temples, practiced filial piety, and most importantly for this paper, had themselves painted as religious figures. My argument is that by having themselves painted as Buddhist bodhisattvas, Confucian scholars, and Taoist ascetics, they symbolically placed themselves in the roles of traditional Chinese authority figures, which in turn led to their literal control of China. I analyze religious iconography of four court costume portraits of Qing dynasty emperors to understand the legitimating impact of the representations. My analysis found that the Qing dynasty used Han religious and cultural traditions to convince their Chinese subjects of the Manchus' right to rule, which legitimated Manchu dominance of the Chinese empire.