A selection of photographs, original and published/printed, related to Daoist sites and practice. The time frame of this collection will extend backwards as far as technically and topically feasible, and forward - hopefully - into the 1970s (through the end of the Cultural Revolution, that is). For more current photographs related to Daoism, see the galleries under "(Sacred) Mountains and Sites in China".
Images such as these are difficult to trace. Outside of Hedda Morrison's photographs of Mt. Hua, with its Daoist cloisters and sword-wielding masters, and Anne Swann Goodrich's study of The Peking Temple of the Eastern Peak: the Tung-yüeh Miao in Peking and its Lore (1964), there is very little coherent visual documentation of Daoism's late Qing and (post-)Republican era history, either published in print, or unpublished as unique mementos. To arrive at materials covering what was left of Daoist practice (or sites) during the CR is an even more fragmented undertaking. The photographs here represent these circumstances, by drawing from Perckhammer (1930), Osvald Siren (1924), Carl Kupfer (1911), Melchers (1921), Boerschmann (1906-09), John D. Zumbrum (1911-1929), Japanese expedition reports, early illustrated Chinese language journals, etc. Added - and of considerable interest - is a unique pair of photographs of Daoist Associations (Baoji & Jinan), and a photograph of a Daoist turned filial son-in-mourning who, according to the photograph's description, did not utter a single word over the entire mourning period of three years.
Thomas H. Hahn, Berkeley, CA
Last update: January 2024
Photographs taken on Sunday, April 26, 2015, at the How Weird Street Festival on, well, Howard Street, in San Francisco. Only one focal length and lens used, namely, the Sigma 35mm DG HSM. Camera: Sony A900.
Being in a bit of an urban canyon, I was mainly looking for pockets of good light, where certain subjects would stand out. That wasn't achievable in every image (far from it), but #7 might be a good example to highlight my technique.
Developed from cRAW in LR6 with two custom made presets, one for color, and one for b/w. Especially the color images suffer somewhat from compression and loss of detail after being uploaded, there's actually quite a bit more detail to be gleaned in the original versions.
Thomas H. Hahn
Berkeley, CA
A small series of views from the 80th floor of the tallest building in Beijing, the #3 tower of the Shangri-La owned China Trade Center. This tower, 330 tall, stands at the heart of Beijing's Central Business District (CBD) in the eastern part of the city. It overlooks on one side Rem Koolhaas' CCTV tower site, and is in close proximity to the so-called 12 Golden Lots of China's capital, so named because these just recently auctioned off building lots each brought a huge amount of revenue into the city's coffers, with one site alone bordering on a billion dollars it is said, just for the rights to build, not the land itself.
The tower itself is an interesting one actually. The glass paneling is bullet proof throughout, and - accounting for the events of 9/11 - some floors below the hotel (which occupies floors 64 to 81) are strictly reserved as evacuation spaces, with hazard gear and other emergency provisions stored here. They cannot be occupied or marketed in any other fashion.
All pictures taken with the Sony R1. Processing done in Lightroom using my own color formula to give this mostly nondescript urban expanse a bit of a sandbox and toy-like character.
Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca/Beijing, April 2011
Reproduction of a commemorative album published by the Shanghai Mercury shortly after His Royal Highness the Duke of Connaught (Queen Victoria's seventh child, Prince Arthur) had visited Shanghai on April 8, 1890 with his wife, Princess Louise of Hohenzollern. As a Freemason, the Duke was presented by an address of Shanghai Freemasons, and made an appearance at the Shanghai Masonic Lodge.
The reporters of the Mercury called the royal visit the "greatest success Shanghai has ever witnessed", no doubt alluding to the worldwide recognition it brought to this up- and coming port city on China's southern coast. Praise was bestowed on the international community at large which had contributed in this success, stating that there was no other place on earth where a large crowd of onlookers and spectators were so well-behaved and orderly: "Where else but here could a crowd of 200.000 persons be found to give so much trouble? Nowhere else."
Shanghai itself must have been in a very festive mood indeed - judging from the few pictures published in this slim volume, the main arteries (Bund, Nanjing Road) the Duke and Duchess would pass through, for a brief period were adorned with what landscape architects call "soft monuments", disposable arrangements of flowers and plants mounted on (in this case) bamboo structures in the form of archways and the like.
The Royal Party stayed but a brief two days, and then sailed on to Bombay, India, where it arrived on April 15, 1890.
Images provided by Prof. Michael Schoenhals, to whom I extend my sincere gratitude.
Thomas H. Hahn
January 2012, Ithaca, NY
For a lens which was first introduced exactly 20 years ago (=1993), this solid Minolta zoom acquits itself very nicely. It balances well on the A900, produces images which are very sharp (use with caution on anyone over 18 years of age!), and possesses a wonderfully rich, native color signature. I use it as much for architecture (usually to isolate a specific detail in, say, the masonry of a building) as for people and street photography.
These - random - sample images were taken throughout New York state, California, Tokyo and Beijing. Processing (sometimes more involved, sometimes less so) in Lightroom, CS5/6 and - on a couple occasions - in Silver Efex 2.
Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY
Photographs taken at the 2015 Oakland Malcolm-X Jazz Festival in San Antonio Park, Oakland California.
The event, the way I understood it, was a complex mix of stages, conversations, narrations, and actual performances. Here is a breakdown:
Some images from April 15 and 27, around the Civic Center in downtown Berkeley. Groups/parties to these demos: Black Bloc, Oath Keepers, Liberty Revival Alliance, American Freedom Keepers, AntiFa splinters, Proud Boys, Identity Evropa, BAMN (By Any Means Necessary), International Socialist Organization, San Francisco chapter of Refuse Fascism, 51st Staters, Berkeley High students, UC Berkeley students, etc. Things were relatively peaceful today, not so on the 15th.
For a useful overview of the various groups see this Berkeleyside breakdown
Pictures taken in early 2013 of one of the last old neighborhoods in all of China (ok, Wuxi it is in this case). It is slated for demolition, its residents will be moved to "higher ground", i.e.; non-descript but modern 20-story apartment blocks somewhere on the periphery of the city.
There are a number of interesting elements at play here in this area. An old bridge (actually, two), an old pier (the Silk pier)for canal barges; low-density housing right next to the waterway; pedestrian-friendly street grid (the roads are seldom wide enough for cars); an aging population; no designated public spaces, therefore life takes place outside the gate anyway and anywhere; old industrial heritage sites: a) related to a dense sprinkling of curious and perhaps unique Ming dynasty brick kilns (formerly about 120 of them, surviving to date - in various states of repair and decline - around 56); b) related to silk manufacturing.
Into this historically grown fabric of houses, kilns, factories and matou (piers) the present-day city elders found it wise to insert a number of tourist sites while sanitizing the canal and the neighborhood. Those tourist sites are quite successfully integrated I would argue (one a silk museum placed right off the old silk loading dock, the other a lovely little museum dedicated to the brick kiln enterprises of the area), but they don't carry the neighborhood in GDP terms. For that, it has to be knocked down completely, and rebuild as a new fake old village/neighborhood. Which means that Mr. Li (see pictures #9 and #10), and with him thousands of other long-term residents, has no choice but to move. Private boats are banned on the old canal in Wuxi, btw, which is firmly under the jurisdiction of a number of state agencies (well, it always was, but private boats made up the bulk of the local operations), the tourism board among them, which collects tourists at a matou (pier) downtown (at the Nanchan Si plaza, which needs a complete redesign in my view), and shuttles them along.
I selected this particular spot in dedicating its own gallery to it since it is a site of significance on account of the old Qingming Bridge, and on account of the various other characteristics and attractions mentioned above. All of which means that Mr. Li's fate is sealed. China is preparing an application for the Grand Canal to be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014 out of its Yangzhou office, and - in conjunction with the latest political slogan to create a "Beautiful China" - under-performing housing stock ("blighted neighborhoods" I guess in American Urban Renewal parlance from the 1960s) along the canal is being substituted with rather generic, high-income tourist attractions and consumer oriented canal-side streets, which, btw., for economic and other reasons, only extend half a block deep, they don't form a new grid at all, but remain as purely bi-directional corridors for the new money-spending, one-day-only masses.
References:
俞孔坚: 京杭大运河国家遗产与生态走廊 (2012/5, Beijing daxue chubanshe), pp.438-457;
无锡运河记忆 (Gu Wu xuan chubanshe, 2009/5)
Visited over four days in February 2013. Cameras used: Leica and Sony.
Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY
Visited early 1986, when the premises were still (or, again) under construction, and not yet open to the public. This is an eminently important site in the history of Daoism, specifically, Quanzhen Daoism 全真教. It is closely associated with Master Chongyang (Wang Chongyang 王重陽, ~1112-1170), who is generally regarded as the founder of this branch of Daoism.
This monastery was founded in the 12th century, and developed into one of the largest Daoist centers "under Heaven". It is said that its halls had over 5400 rooms, and that close to 10.000 monks and followers lived and practiced, learned and taught here. It was a city unto its own. Not much of it remains, but one important feature, the steles, seem to have been preserved, surely not all of them, but at least 38, some going as far back in time as the Yuan Dynasty, therefore constituting important primary source material for the study of this site and the imperial patronage it received throughout various emperors' reigns.
Photographs taken with a Minolta XM, on Chinese b/w film. Scanned with an Epson 4990 scanner to TIFF at 2400dpi, converted to JPG (at 100% quality). Individually adjusted for exposure and lens distortion.
Thomas H. Hahn, Ithaca, NY
Mt. Song 嵩山 (1494 m above sea level) is one of the Five Sacred Peaks of China. Located in Henan province, it harbors Shaolin Temple and a multitude of other famous Buddhist and Daoist sites. On display here is a series of photographs depicting for the most part the Great Temple dedicated to this, the Central Peak 中岳, a site which can be traced back to the early 6th century CE.
Please note that these photographs were taken as Kodak color film back in 1981/82, and therefore can only serve as a historical record. Present-day circumstances on the mountain and in the temples no doubt will differ considerably.
On November 29, 2001, Mt. Song has been submitted by the Chinese government to be inscribed as a World Heritage site. Previous to this application, Mt. Song was re-created (as so many other sacred peaks in China) as a national-level Geopark.
Buddhist monks from the Shaolin Temple may be the most prominent residents of the area, but Mt. Song was and still is home to many Daoist monks and masters; of old, the court-sponsored and court-financed Temple of the Central Peak was administered through Daoist auspices.
Scanned with an Epson 4990; post-processed in Photoshop for color and contrast adjustments; light sharpening applied.
Thomas H. Hahn, Ithaca, NY
October 12, 2007
All images taken within a short time span, maybe 4 weeks, in two countries (China and the USA). The equipment is always the same: The Fujifilm S5 and the Sigma 150mm Macro. On DX this lens gives enough reach for close-ups, portraits and candid shots (as well as of course macros, which are not included here). It preserves colors accurately, doesn't add or substract, which the S5 has a tendency to, in JPG at least. Most of these files were developed in Lightroom 3 (final version) from JPGs in fact. At present I prefer the Sigma over my Zeiss 100mm Macro, mainly I suppose because of its responsive, completely silent AF operation and its farther reach. Image quality wise, the Zeiss still pulls away, but both are close enough in terms of IQ to achieve completely satisfactory (or even inspriring) results.
Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY
Halsey Valley is a small hamlet in Tioga County, NY, smack in the middle between the villages of Tioga and Spencer. The area belongs to the so-called Southern Tier of New York State, an area with few privileges these days, and few opportunities compared to, say, the Capital Region or "downstate". It's fertile countryside, though, good farmland, and has been settled for a while, mostly it would appear by Finnish immigrants.
I passed through Halsey Valley one day at dusk and was struck by it's "ghost town" appearance. Many of the residencies are old, torn, bent, abandoned. Wayne Wirtanen, who grew up there in the 1940s and beyond, only recently described the hamlet with these words: "Beautiful downtown Halsey Valley had a dozen or so houses and a few farms in and around the "city limits". Well, regrettably, as these photographs of "downtown" Halsey Valley show, there is little beauty left. The damage may be due to neglect, or it may have occurred when superstorm Lee tore through the regions in 2011, but it doesn't seem sudden, more like a long-term decay and decline in property values and interest in the area's livelihood as such. Mr. Wirtanen's recollections of "Life on the Farm in Halsey Valley in the 1940s" (first published in 2003, revised 2010) are well worth reading, as it gives specificity and focus to life in a (now very rare) coherent Finnish community. One member of that community, a young woman by the name of Greta (maiden name Konen or Kukkonen), coincidentally married no other than the film star Gregory Peck, and would be known thereafter throughout Hollywood as Greta Peck. Mrs. Peck passed away in Beverly Hills in 2008.
Photographs taken in completely unflattering conditions at the beginning of February 2014. Leica M9 with Zeiss 28mm Biogon. Processing in Lightroom 5.3.
Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY
B/w photographs from Yandangshan, north of Wenzhou, in the southern part of Zhejiang province. The Yandang Mountains can be divided into three parts: a Southern range, a middle range, and the Northern range. The core area is about 186 square km. Geologically speaking, the mountains constitute a natural museum for rhyolitic volcanic (magmatic) rocks. Aesthetically speaking, these mountains (with the highest peak at 1056 meters) are one of the most striking environments I ever set foot in. They are easily on a par with the over-exposed Guilin limestone karst mountains and the Nine Turns of Mount Wuyi.
An application to include this region, an A-class scenic (=tourist) site or "World Geopark", on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, was submitted by the National Commission of the People's Republic of China in 2001. A decision is pending.
I traveled here (on foot and by small watercraft) in May 1987, searching for hidden Daoist caves, shrines and monasteries. As you can see, I found them.
Fuji color slide film, scanned with Epson 4990 as 1200 dpi TIF files. Converted to lossless JPG and to gray-scale (see the other gallery for color images).
Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY
A curious place, Mt. Weiyu. Not higher than 80 m, it was nevertheless a rather commanding elevation rising among the fields, about 45 min on foot outside of the town of Huangyan 黄岩. Today this area is almost in the middle of a new development project (委羽山新区). The grotto, ranked 2nd among the Ten Big Grottoes according to Du Guangting, was only navigable for 15 paces; in the late Qing era, a grave situated right above the Grotto had crashed through and blocked further access into the mountain. The altar (picture 3) was erected in 1982.
Two Taoist monks (Quanzhen branch / Longmen sect) were present: monk Shi (70 y old) and monk Zheng (63 y old). They tended to affairs in the Dayou Temple, and were called upon in cases of illness and for death rites. It is said that in its heyday, Mt. Weiyu and its immediate environment were home to over 300 Taoists. The township of Huangyan itself was home to 6 or 7 female Daoists at the time of my visit.
Deities in the Dayou Temple included Laozi, Yuanshi huangdi 元始皇帝, the Jade Emperor, Lu Dongbin, God of Thunder, Lingbao 靈寶 etc. (rather a fair mix of Daoist worthies from a variety of schools and backgrounds).
Visited Nov. 19-20, 1984. Full written record of visit preserved.
Photographs scanned with Epson scanner 4990 to TIFF, converted to lossless (least compression) JPGs.
Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, October 2007
Simply entitled "DEUTSCHLAND", this album was produced by Ferdinand Hirt and Sons in Leipzig around 1906. Its production appears to be in close relation with Viceroy Duan Fang 端方 and his delegation's visit to Germany in the spring of that year (五大臣出洋). This delegation comprised around 33 members, and it is entirely plausible that less than 50 copies of this albums were ever produced. It is therefore extremely rare. I don't believe this was a mass-produced, commercial type of publication. It lacks a proper impressum, a foreword, postscript, table of contents, date, pagination, anything that would constitute the usual structure of a regular publication. Pending further research, I therefore conclude that it must have been a gift or presentation album to members of Duan Fang's delegation.
A few facts about this album:
Photographs taken during the month of October 2014 in various townships and locations in China:
- Beijing
- Shaoxing
- Yinchuan
- Chengdu
- Tangqi
- Hangzhou
Processed in Adobe Lightroom 5.5 from Canon JPGs only (except #35). B/W conversions with contrast dialed back, some shadow enhancement, very little sharpening, some noise reduction engaged (for the ISO 3200 files). Color images mostly OOC, cropping applied as befitting the composition.
Thomas H. Hahn
Oakland, CA
October 30, 2014
Photographs of the fishing village Chongwu 崇武镇 dated to early 1986. While visiting with puppet play troupes in Quanzhou at the behest of my friend Dr. Rainald Simon (one of these troupes I later brought to Beijing to perform at the German school there), local colleagues recommended a visit to this village. Sitting right on the Fujian coast, Chongwu has historically been a very prominent place, famed for example for its masonry - it is a village almost entirely constructed of stone, as can be seen in many of the images. It is - not surprisingly -protected by a solid, 2567 meter long wall dating back (in parts) to the Ming dynasty, complete with gates, gate towers, and the shrines to see wayfarers off with good-luck wishes.
Another important characteristic of Chongwu are the women. Although ethnically Han, they dress atypically, and have preserved many customs not found elsewhere. They are also described as very hard-working, and are employed in road and other construction enterprises.
One custom that I only saw in Chongwu relates to cats which appear to be used as messengers to communicate with wish-granting deities. This practice may no longer be legal these days, and maybe it wasn't legal when I visited in 1986, but the cats strung from the city wall certainly carried messages around their necks (as can be seen in #24 and 25)
Kodak CP100 color negative film, scanned at 1200 dpi as TIF files with a Canon 8600F, converted to JPG, and individually post-processed for sharpness and color fading. Some images cropped.
Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY
Nora Dillenbeck was a missionary in Shandong, China. She arrived in the country just two years after the 1911 revolution. This unique and well annotated album chronicles her departure from Seattle and her living and working environment at the Chinese mission station. It also includes pictures of an excursion to Taishan (Mt. Tai).
According to the preface of this album, she was a member of the First M. E. Church in Ithaca, NY.
Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY
March 1, 2010
A series of panoramic and other views of Xiamen (Amoy) in around 1880. The views include the harbor, the British and German Consulates, the Pasedag House, various western-style mansions, and a variety of peaks and scenic spots.
The photographs are attributed to the local (Gulangyu) Chinese studio by the name of Rui Sheng 瑞生 (Jui Shan) and Yi Fang 宜芳 (E-Fong), "Photographer, Portrait and Ship Painters". Nothing much is known about thiis studio except as is advertised in the paper in image 8. The images displayed in this gallery may count among the earliest of Fuzhou (Foochow) and environs. They are of high quality, attributed with fine tonality and demonstrate excellent mastery of the medium.
Thomas H. Hahn
Ithaca, NY