So with covid forcing most universities to switch to online instruction, a lot of incoming freshman as well as current students aren’t going to be on campus. With this in mind I thought it could be fun to make a uni studyblr directory!!
Basically if you would like to participate please reblog this and add your university (or country/state if you’re more comfortable with that), your major, and your year in the tags!! In a few days I will compile everyone’s info into a large directory and masterpost. Feel free to participate if you are in undergrad or grad school!! This is really just for fun and to allow you guys to connect to people in your area/major!!
Tldr: making a uni directory reblog with major, year, and uni to participate
Professor Nicole Scalissi arranged for her HAA0030 Modern Art class to consult materials in Archives & Special Collections that illustrates different art practices and mediums including painting, photography, and other experimental and creative works from all over the world. Students had the opportunity to closely examine the works of Tsukioka Kōgyo and his depictions of the Art of Noh.
On July 8th, our Intro. to Modern Art class visited Special Collections at the Hillman Library and had the opportunity to encounter the Nōgaku zue, or Picture of Noh in person. Nōgaku zue is a series ofJapanese woodcut prints by the artist Tsukioka Kōgyo (1869-1927) published between the Meiji year 30-35, or 1897-1902. The series includes 5 volumes of 261 prints inspired by classical Japanese nohtheater.
TheNōgaku zue prints are multi-color, multi-block woodblock prints on kōzo paper. Each image is an individual full-page, horizontal in orientation, measured about 230 * 335 mm. The pigments that were used are water-based, sometimes with metallic gold and silver patterns printed on top. Hiroyuki Good, Pitt’s Japanese Studies Librarian, informed us that each color was printed separately using an individual woodcut block, therefore the printing process was repeated multiple times until each color was filled in. When looking closely, one can see different textures and patterns created by different printing and coloring techniques. The combination of lighter, more diluted paint and thicker, more pigmented paint was used to create the illusion of various textures as well as pictorial space.
Tsukioka, Kōgyo, b.1869- d.1927, Nōgaku zue, Color prints, created around 1902 (Japanese–Meiji period), owned by University of Pittsburgh
Some of the prints contain metallic colors laid on the paper’s surface, which, when viewed from different angles and under shifting light conditions, imbues the prints with an almost three-dimensional visual effect.
The subject of the prints is inspired by Japanese noh plays, therefore most of the images include details of the stage, sets , costumes, and even the preparation process of the actors, as suggested in the image below.
Tsukioka, Kōgyo, b.1869- d.1927, Nōgaku zue, Color prints, created around 1902 (Japanese–Meiji period), owned by University of Pittsburgh
Archives & Special Collections is featuring a series of articles written by our student staff in conjunction with our current exhibit Travelers Along the Silk Roads: 10th Century to the Present, which is currently located on the Ground Floor and the Second Floor of Hillman Library. This post was written by Demetri Ramos, a student employee in Archives & Special Collections at the Hillman Library location and a history major who is graduating this month.
Exploration is part of the human spirit. Humans are constantly pushing into the unknown, attempting to discover what had been previously thought unknowable. The groundbreaking pioneers that first breach the threshold of the uncharted are often held up as heroes. Some of the great explorers of history were wildly famous in their own time, some not. Some have names that will live on forever, but many have been forgotten. Each has a story that is totally unique. The thread that connects them all is the fact that they opened a formerly closed door to the full view and wonder of the watching world.
An image of Pelliot from the Bibliothèque nationale de France
Too often achievements of explorers are marred by controversial and sometimes downright despicable conduct. It is rare to find a western explorer who not only respects the culture and people of the area he (and it is unfortunately overwhelmingly he’s) is trying to bring into the light, but is also a modern genius. Paul Pelliot was a sinologist, scholar, explorer, linguist, and author with a nearly eidetic memory. He could also read, write, and speak at least 13 languages. But Pelliot was far from perfect. His companions on his many travels often describe him as stubborn to a fault, disagreeable, and mean-spirited. That being said his contributions to the modern study of Central Asia cannot be overstated.
We all have a sense of wonder within us, the same was true for Pelliot. From an early age he wanted to experience firsthand the world that he could only read about in his books. Early in his life he thought the most direct path to explore the world was through the avenue of foreign affairs. His early study of languages was in hopes of finding a diplomatic post within the French government. Luckily for him fate intervened and one of his professors recognized his prowess as a student and steered him on a path towards scholarship. His career would go on to span over four decades and be filled with adventure, controversy, and discoveries never before dreamed of in the west. But Pelliot’s journey through what was then known as Chinese Turkestan, encompassing parts of China, Russia, Cashmere and Afghanistan, and the controversy that followed is by far the most famous of his exploits.
Map of Pelliot’s Route in 1908 from a 2000 article in T’uong Pao by Eugene Protot.
Pelliot’s grand expedition began in the summer of 1906. He was accompanied by Dr. Louis Vaillant, a medical officer in the French army, and Charles Nouette, an acclaimed photographer of the time. Their task generally was to expand the school of Central Asian studies and further the understanding of the history and cultures that were in the region. More specifically they were looking for artifacts and manuscripts to bring back to France not only for scholarly purposes but also to pay for the three year undertaking. The three Frenchmen were exploring the same area at the same time as the famous Hungarian-British explorer Aurel Stein. These two men, Pelliot and Stein, stumbled upon the same ancient library within weeks of each other. This strange confluence of fate that centered on Dunhuang, in Northwestern Gansu, China, in the first decade of the twentieth century would prove to open the floodgates into the study of ancient eastern cultures by western scholars.
Photograph of Pelliot in the caves at Dunhuang in 1908. Image Courtesy of WordPress.
Stein reached the library first so he had first pick over what scrolls and manuscripts to purchase and take back with him to Europe. However, he was inhibited by the fact that he did not read Chinese so he had no idea of the content of the writings he was buying. Pelliot on the other hand could read and write almost every language in the region, from the widely spoken Chinese, Persian, Mongol, and Tibetan to the less well known and ancient tongues of Sogdian, Sanskrit, Uighur, and much more. He was determined to take only the most important works with him. He spent three weeks in the cave reading by candlelight until he had read everything there was to read. He acquired some of the more important scrolls to take home to France, but what was more significant was the knowledge that he gained from his time in the caves at Dunhuang.
Title Page of The Ruins of Desert Cathay by Aurel Stein, the book that restored Pelliot’s reputation and saved his career. Image Courtesy of the exhibit Travelers Along the Silk Roads.
Upon his return to France in late 1909 Pelliot was not met with the hero’s welcome he expected from his colleagues. Instead he was ridiculed and marked as a fraud. No one believed in the existence of the cave library at Dunhuang, or that he could have read all that he did in such a short amount of time. They accused him of making up the story and all of his findings after doing months of research in a western library. Pelliot was largely helpless to defend his honor and his only recourse was to insist that he was telling the truth. It wasn’t until Aurel Stein published an account of his travels throughout Western China in his book Ruins of Desert Cathay in 1912 that Paul Pelliot’s reputation was restored. Stein wrote that he too had been in the Library at Dunhuang, but, as he lacked the requisite language skills, he left countless manuscripts behind not knowing what they were, confirming Paul Pelliot’s original report of the expedition.
Long after the exploits that he is famous for, Pelliot remained the foremost expert in Asiatic scholarship in all of Europe. By the time of his death in 1945 he had published hundreds of essays and articles. Some were about his own travels and research findings but much of his writing was dedicated to criticizing the tactics and motivations of other leading scholars in his field who, in his mind, had been steering the field of Sinology in the wrong direction for decades. His incredibly detailed methods led him to look down upon those who did not share his passion for total clarity and exactness especially when it came to the languages and the phonetics of Central Asia.
Paul Pelliot, Aurel Stein, and many other important figures from the history and study of the Silk Roads and Central Asia are commemorated in the exhibit Travelers Along the Silk Roads: 10th Century to the Present, open in Hillman Library until May, 2019.
Bibliography
Honey, David B. 2001. Incense at the Altar: Pioneering Sinologists and the Development of Classical Chinese Philosophy. New Haven, Connecticut: American Oriental Society.
Stein, Aurel. 1912. Ruins of Desert Cathay: Personal Narrative of Explorations in Central Asia and Westernmost China. Two volumes. London: Macmillan and Co., Limited.
Tamm, Eric Enno. 2011. The Horse That Leaps Through Clouds: A Tale of Espionage, the Silk Road, and the Rise of Modern China. Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint Press.
Walravens, Hartmut, compiler. 2001. Paul Pelliot (1878-1945), His Life and Works — a Bibliography. (Indiana University Oriental Series. 9). Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University; Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies.
