{{short description|Subject in Chinese Buddhist painting}} {{italic title}} [[File:MET DP202689.jpg|thumb|16–17th century copy of [[Qian Xuan]] (d. 1301). The [[arhat]] is in red, [[Manjushri]] at right.]]
'''''Washing the Elephant''''' ({{lang-zh|c=扫象图|p=saoxiang}}, literally '''sweeping the elephant''';<ref>Christie's</ref> English variants: "sweeping", and "white" or "sacred" elephant) is a subject in Chinese Buddhist painting, showing a group of men washing a [[White elephant (animal)|white elephant]] with brushes, under the supervision of the [[bodhisattva]] [[Manjushri]] and an [[arhat]] with a [[khakkhara]] (''xīzhàng'') staff. Manjushri is usually depicted in the costume of a meditation master in Chinese Buddhist monasteries, rather than his usual appearance in iconic paintings.
The Buddhist meaning of the subject relates to "sweeping away illusion", in a pun as the Chinese words for "elephant" (象) and "illusion/form/image" (相) are both pronounced as ''xiang''. One painting is inscribed with the explanation “wash off the dust and see the Buddha of thusness”.<ref>Tsinghua; Christie's</ref> [[File:Sweeping the White Elephant by ding Yunpeng.jpg|thumb|[[Ding Yunpeng]], c. 1588. [[Manjushri]] enthroned, with arhat to his left.]]
The white elephant, widely regarded as sacred in [[Buddhism]], may be shown as having six tusks,<ref>Tsinghua; [https://www.priestleyandferraro.com/art.aspx?id=404 A 17th-century 6-tusked elephant in this painting] at a dealer.</ref> a form that Buddha himself took in an earlier life recounted in the [[Jataka tales]], and also during the [[dream of Queen Maya]], when according to Buddhist tradition, he was conceived for his last earthly life.<ref>Ascot</ref>
==History== The subject is restricted to China, and was most popular during the 16th century. [[Ding Yunpeng]], a devout Buddhist, painted the subject several times,<ref>Tsinghua</ref> and it became popular painted on [[Chinese porcelain]] in the Late Ming and early Qing. A vase fetched USD 137,000 in a [[Christie's]] auction in 2015.<ref>Christie's; [https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/74336 A Ming brushpot in the Metropolitan Museum of Art]; Ascot, for a [[Famille Rose]] vase.</ref>
The earliest record of the subject in art dates from the 6th century.<ref name="BergerArt1994">{{cite book|author1=Patricia Ann Berger|author2=Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art|author3=Asian Art Museum of San Francisco|title=Latter Days of the Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism, 850 – 1850 ; [exhibition, August 27 – October 9 1994 ...]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y6ffYIPn--wC&pg=RA2-PP6|year=1994|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-1662-9|pages=2}}</ref> [[Tang dynasty]] paintings of the same theme have a traditional colour scheme of red and white with some green.<ref name="BergerArt1994"/> A [[Ming dynasty]] painting of the same scene by [[Chen Hongshou]] in the collection of the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] has an inscription suggesting that Ming intellectuals considered this scene to represent "sweeping away illusion".<ref name=hawaii />
There is little literary evidence for the origins of the elephant tale, but researchers speculate a connection with one of the stories of the ''[[Nirvana Sutra]]''. The story is of the blind men who feel an elephant ({{lang-zh|c=盲人摸象|j=mang2ren2mo1xiang4}})—the elephant in this tale symbolizes the "Buddha nature". A group of blind men reach out to touch a different part of the elephant—one feels the tusk and thinks it is a carrot, another mistakes the elephant's belly for an urn, and so on. The king seeks that [[Shakyamuni]] (Buddha) illuminate their limited perception (symbolized by blindness in the parable) that permits only partial truths.
==The emperor views a scroll== [[File:The Qianlong Emperor Viewing Paintings.jpg|thumb|''The Qianlong Emperor Viewing Paintings'', [[Giuseppe Castiglione (Jesuit painter)|Giuseppe Castiglione]], c. 1746–50]]
In a painting of c. 1746–50 by the [[Jesuit]] missionary and court painter [[Giuseppe Castiglione (Jesuit painter)|Giuseppe Castiglione]] of the [[Qianlong Emperor]] viewing works from his huge art collection, the work being viewed is a scroll of the subject by [[Ding Yunpeng]]. The landscape in which the emperor sits echoes that in the painting. Around the same time, Qianlong commissioned a painting of the subject from one of his Chinese court painters, [[Ding Guanpeng]], in which the figure of Manjushri was a portrait of the emperor. This is now in the [[National Palace Museum]] in [[Taiwan]], while the painting of Qianlong is in the [[Palace Museum, Beijing]].<ref>Berger, Patricia, ''Empire of Emptiness: Buddhist Art and Political Authority in Qing China'', 2003, pp 63–64, University of Hawaii Press, ISBN 9780824862367, [https://books.google.com/books?id=0ZoBEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA63 google books]; Clunas, 91–97, who also gives Ding Guanpeng a share in the Castiglione painting</ref>
A different version by Ding Yunpeng was sold in China in 2018 for RMB 10 million, then equating to USD 1,572,327.<ref>[https://en.thevalue.com/articles/poly-xiamen-important-chinese-painting-ding-yunpeng-washing-the-elephant-ming-dynasty-buddhist-2018-jan-results "Chinese Painting ‘Wash Elephant’ Hammered Down for RMB 10m at Poly Xiamen], ''The Value'', Jan 2018</ref>
==Li Gonglin== There is a [[Yuan dynasty|Yuan]] or [[Song dynasty]] ink on silk [[hanging scroll]] attributed to [[Li Gonglin]]. The painting depicts 8 foreign grooms, 2 foreign observers, four monks, and two Chinese attired in loose robes. The heavy labor is left to foreign grooms. It is in the collection of the Indiana University Art Museum.<ref name=hawaii>{{cite book |last1=Berger |first1=Patricia Ann |title=Latter Days of the Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism, 850 – 1850 |date=1994 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=0824816625 |page=405 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y6ffYIPn--wC&pg=RA2-PP5 |accessdate=6 August 2019}}</ref>
The silk painting attributed to Li Gonglin was at one time in the collection of [[Xiang Yuanbian]] (1525-1590),<ref name="BergerArt1994"/> and this and other works were scattered as a result of subsequent military invasions, with some passing into the hands of other collectors.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.npm.gov.tw/exh98/xiang_yuanbian/english/english_introduction.html|title=The Ming Dynasty Legacy of Xiang Yuanbian|website=National Palace Museum|access-date=6 August 2019}}</ref>
==Notes== {{Commons category|Washing the White Elephant}} {{reflist}}
==References== *"Ascot": "[[Famille Rose]] ‘Washing The Elephant’ Vase (YFM061625)", [https://chinese-ceramics.com/portfolio/yongzheng-famille-rose-washing-elephant-vase-sold/ Ascot Court Antiques] *"Christie's": [https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5872062 "A BLUE AND WHITE 'WASHING THE ELEPHANT' VASE, EARLY KANGXI PERIOD, CIRCA 1670"], Lot Eassay for Lot 3569, Live Auction 3721, 2015 *[[Craig Clunas|Clunas, Craig]], ''Chinese Painting and Its Audiences'', 2017, Princeton University Press, ISBN 9780691171937, [https://books.google.com/books?id=IOyPDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA93 google books] *"Tsinghua": [https://www.artmuseum.tsinghua.edu.cn/en/cpsj_english/gndc/gcxy/201605/t20160530_1178.shtml Tsinghua University Art Museum], another version by Ding Yunpeng
[[Category:Chinese painting]] [[Category:Buddhist iconography]] [[Category:Paintings of elephants]] [[Category:Mañjuśrī]] [[Category:Chinese iconography]]