The Chinese were always famous for their fine products made by artisans, such as the beautiful jades, porcelains, bronze, and textiles. However, while serving and entertaining the higher class with their exquisite products, craftsmen had a surprisingly low social status. As the Han Chinese thought, the craftsmen “worked with their hands, not their minds.” But the Mongols in the steppes barely had any artisans because of their conquering along with frequent migration, and their lack of technology to transport the heavy tools and equipment required for the artisans’ production. Being ardent for artistically valuable collections in order to demonstrate wealth and nobility, the Great Khan gave prodigiously patronage to artisans and merchant. Getting benefits from Mongols’ support, artisans in Yuan could get corvée, or unpaid labor, which meant artisans could enjoy services from other lower class people. Also, …show more content…
Negatively, the painting could be a political weapon, expressing the discontent against the Mongol’s ruling, appealing to the nationalism and nativism. In the painting of one of the masters, Wang Meng, for example, the Orchid Chamber (See Appendix I), the scenes of scholars in caves represented the escape from the dissatisfaction of reality, and the caves also resonated with the Taoist idea of hidden realities. The allusion in the painting was used to make political statements. This type of painting greatly impacted the painting of the Ming and Qing Dynasties permanently, as a result of the social class segregation between the general Mongols and the Han, and among the scholars in the government. “divorce which occurred under the Mongols between the court and its patronage on the one hand and the scholar painters on the