1842.
Portrait of Pwánků, the First Man
47
氏古
盤
obtained a number of wooden cuts, among which and first is that of Pwánku. Of this personage we need not repeat what we have before said. See volume tenth, pp. 49, 123, &c. The Chinese are very fond of giving representations of great men and of curious objects, notwithstanding the ill success and bad taste exhibited in their exe- cution. Since the visits of the steamboats to Canton, native artists have filled the country with pictures of 'smoke-ships,' which are now seen on their cloth and paper fans in great numbers. We think Mr. Davis is not correct, in his 'Sketches,' vol. I., p. 32, when he 'it would be the highest and most criminal act of disrespect in the greatest of his subjects to possess a portrait or visible representation of the son of heaven.' We have seen two of Táukwáng; one of which was brought to Canton by an officer of no very high rank on his re- turn from court: the other was in possession of a private gentleman
says