Visual Symbols, the Consciousness of Daotong, and Sacrality: A Study of Wang Yangming’s Sage Portraits

Abstract

Wang Yangming’s sage portraits functioned as material objects that transmitted Confucian orthodoxy (daotong 道統) and constructed sacrality through visual symbols, inscriptional texts, and ritual deployment. Drawing on material culture studies, this article examines the typological classification of Wang’s surviving portraits, the material presentation of their visual symbols, the discursive functions of inscriptions, and their roles in shrine worship. It argues that sacrality operated at three analytically distinct yet historically interconnected levels: semiotic, discursive, and practical. This study traces the social life of particular portraits as they circulated among private collections, academies, printed books, family spaces, and shrines, gaining, losing, and reacquiring varying degrees and modes of sacrality. Their sacrality emerged from ongoing interactions between objects and human actors, rather than inhering as a fixed, inherent attribute. The integration of image, inscription, and ritual reveals how Confucian sage portraits served as material media for advancing claims to orthodox lineage and constructing sacrality in late imperial China.