Portraits of Periodical Offering

Portraits of Periodical Offering is based on actual history and displays the thriving interaction between friendly countries during the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589). Twelve envoys from various countries are illustrated and to the right of each is text that lists the name of their countries, and information about geography, customs as well as their relationship with the Liang Court. Most of the descriptions fit the official record of Book of Liang: Documents of Foreign Countries(Liangshu:zhuyizhuan梁書•諸夷傳). That’s why later generations believe that this painting was created during the Liang Period.
The foreign envoys are standing with three fourths of their bodies facing the viewers. Maybe due to the genre of historical documents of this painting, the creator cared about order and accuracy instead of vividness in composition, giving the characters almost identical stances and gestures. As a direct recording of the diplomacy between the courts in the Central Plain and the non-Han peoples of that time, this work bears more significance than a regular artwork. It is exactly because of the nature of historical documentation that it attached great importance to realistic painting, reflecting the development of painting skills in figure painting, especially the portrait category.