Both types exhibited the hawk's robust power and heroic demeanor, attracting male viewers who sought to assert their physical or political power. 2 These images can be classified roughly into two types: a hawk that belongs to a skilled owner sitting on a gorgeously decorated perch or on the arm of the well-dressed owner going out to hunt and a hawk in the wild, perched on the branch of a tree in a forest or fiercely pursuing prey. Various hawk images were continuously developed throughout the long history of the domestication of hawks as ideal hunting companions for the ruling classes in East Asia. 1 The hawk was seen as wise, with attentive qualities related to its ability to spy prey clearly from a great distance and react swiftly. Hawks were among the types of birds most favored as subjects for painting in premodern China and Korea. For the same reason, the hawk-hero allegory began to lose its relevance over time, and hawk paintings came to take on rather mundane meanings.Īnimal painting, animal allegory, rebus painting, yingxiong, rabbits and foxes The Chinese and Korean allegories of heroic contributions emerged in response to complicated politics, as the Yuan government comprised multiple ethnic groups and the early Ming and early Chosŏn were newly established after the fall of previous dynasties. Another, with the motif of a rabbit caught in the hawk's talons, emphasized the hero's successful achievements and gained popularity through the late Chosŏn dynasty. One was the painting of a hawk sitting still, which indicated the hero's readiness for future achievements. This article then turns to Chosŏn Korea, where two types of hawk paintings reflected the Korean reception of Yuan counterparts. Moreover, Yuan paintings of a hawk and a bear ( yingxiong 鷹熊) employed a Chinese rebus and represented the animals as heroes, comparing them to historical heroic and loyal figures. Through an analysis of Yuan-dynasty poems inscribed on hawk paintings, this article demonstrates that paintings of a hawk sitting still on a tree in the woods conveyed the allegory of a hero subduing wily beings, such as rabbits and foxes. This study explores the allegorical usage of hawk painting to praise a hero with meritorious deeds in Yuan China (1271–1368) and early Chosŏn Korea (1392–1910).
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