Mani's Parents
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''Mani's Parents'' is a color painting on silk drawn in the coastal areas of southern China during the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties. It is in the collection of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, US, and was donated by Ivory Brendage. The title given on the official website of the museum is "Fragment of a Manichaen Mandala". After Miki Morita's research, especially after comparing it with "The Birth of Mani", it is believed that the painting is a work of Manichaeism, depicting the image of the father and mother of Mani, the founder of the religion, Mani and Mani. Morita's research results were published in "Piecing a Picture Together: A New Manichaean Perspective on a Chinese Religious Painting in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco", a view which was also adopted by the religious art historian
Zsuzsanna Gulácsi Zsuzsanna Gulácsi (born on 10 April 1966) is a Hungarian-born American historian, art historian of pan-Asiatic religions. She is a professor of art history, Asian studies, and comparative religious studies at Northern Arizona University (NAU) ...
in her work "Mani's Pictures". This painting was originally part of a large-scale Manichean silk painting. The drawing technique and artistic style are the same as those in "The Legend of the Holy One", "The Birth of Mani" and the "Manichae Universe".


Brief analysis

Miki Morita identified this painting as Manichaean mainly by its artistic style: the woman sitting in the hall of the main hall is very similar to the image of Mani in The Birth of Mani, and the artistic style of this painting is almost identical to that of the birth picture, which shows that it depicts "how Mani was conceived". The first half of this account is a reference to the birth of a mani. The first half of this entry states that Man-yin's strict observance of the precepts of fasting and purification enabled her to conceive the saint Mani, which is the message the painting is supposed to convey. In addition, the painting lacks the important element of the white elephant entering the dream of the Māyāvādīs, which is usually depicted in the birth of the Buddha, indicating that it is not a Buddhist painting..


Excursus

Eight silk hanging scrolls with Manichaean didactic images from southern China from between the 12th and the 15th centuries. They can be divided into four categories: ; Two single portraits (depicting Mani and Jesus) * Icon of Mani * ''
Manichaean Painting of the Buddha Jesus The ''Manichaean Painting of the Buddha Jesus'' ( zh, t=夷數佛幀, w=I2-shu4 fo2-chên1, p=Yí shù fó zhēn; ), is a Chinese Southern Song dynasty silk painting, silk hanging scroll preserved at the Seiunji Temple in Kōshū, Yamanashi, Japa ...
'' ; One scroll depicting Salvation Theory () * ''
Sermon on Mani's Teaching of Salvation ''Sermon on Mani's Teaching of Salvation'' ( zh, t=冥王聖幀, l=Sacred Scroll of the King of the Underworld) is a Yuan dynasty silk painting, silk hanging scroll, measuring 142 × 59 centimetres and dating from the 13th century, with didactic ...
'' ; Four scrolls depicting Prophetology () * Mani's Parents * Birth of Mani *
Episodes from Mani's Missionary Work Episodes may refer to: * Episode An episode is a narrative unit within a larger dramatic work or documentary production, such as a serial (radio and television), series intended for radio, television or Streaming media, streaming consumption. ...
* Mani's Community Established ; One scroll depicting
Cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...
() *
Manichaean Diagram of the Universe The ''Manichaean Diagram of the Universe'' ( zh, t=摩尼教宇宙圖; ) is a Yuan dynasty silk painting describing the cosmology of Manichaeism, in other words, the structure of universe according to Manichaean vision. The painting in vivid colo ...


References

{{Manichaeism footer Chinese Manichaean art Paintings in China Religious paintings Chinese artifacts held abroad