The art of image worship in China of the 17th century

Abstract

Image worship, an important thought in Chinese culture and art, is similar to religious belief in some respects. In the Qing Dynasty of China, image worship was employed as a political means to shackle people's thoughts and divide them into different classes, but it also served as a psychological and spiritual consolation for people. This article investigates a series of cultural phenomena related to image worship in the Qing Dynasty. These include “blind image worship”, the “sense of ceremony in image worship”, and the “generalization of image worship”.