Thesis (M.A.)--University of California, Davis, 2013
This paper explores the changes that happened to the iconography of the moon goddess Chang'e from the Han Dynasty until the early sixteenth century. Although the iconography was stable within periods, it often changed from period to period. In the mid Ming Dynasty (ca. 1425 -- 1590), however, the canonic setting of Chang'e, and perhaps immortal beauties in general, was challenged by such belle painters as Tang Yin (1470 -- 1524), Zhang Lu (1464 -- 1537/8) and Qiu Ying (1494 -- 1522) and members of their schools. With new research, this paper takes a single Tang Yin painting as a case study, and reveals how the issue of secularization was manifested in the painting Chang'e. Through iconography and inscription, the Chang'e, as well as contemporary works of Qiu Ying and Zhang Lu, implicate an iconoclastic philosophy of the time
