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Secondary sourceBook1758

Pictures of the Sage's Traces

Unknown · 1758

A Qing-dynasty woodblock printed pictorial biography of Confucius, published in 1758 with introductory notes.

A pictorial biography of Confucius's life made nearly two thousand years after he lived, showing his lasting fame.

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Front cover of a bound Chinese book with blue-grey patterned silk brocade of cloud scrolls. A tan label on the left bears large black brush characters reading 聖蹟圖 and a smaller 前頁, with a red seal impression below. The cover edges are worn.
Unknown artist, Pictures of the Sage's Traces (Shengji tu), 1758. Chester Beatty, Dublin.

About this source

What it is

This is the first volume of a Chinese woodblock-printed book called Pictures of the Sage's Traces (Shengji tu), published in 1758 during the Qing dynasty. It contains introductory notes by Fan Guoyu and tells the life story of Confucius through printed illustrations. The book is kept at the Chester Beatty library in Ireland.

Why it matters

Centuries after Confucius lived, Chinese artists and scholars like Fan Guoyu were still creating detailed visual accounts of his life. This shows how important Confucius remained to Chinese culture and education long after his death, and how his biography was passed down and illustrated for later generations.

Look closer

  • What does the decorated cover tell you about how valuable this book was considered?
  • Why might artists centuries later want to illustrate scenes from Confucius's life?
  • What might be left out or changed when a story is retold through pictures many generations later?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Confucius on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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