Two Twelfth Century Texts on Chinese Painting by Robert J. Maeda

Author:Robert J. Maeda
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kenneth G. Lieberthal and Richard H. Rogel Center for Chinese Studies
Published: 2020-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Notes

1. The Preface sets the high moral tone for the text. While obligatory and heavily dependent on past writers, particularly Chang Yen-yüan, it nonetheless leaves no doubt about the author’s predilection for landscape painting.

2. Fu Hsi: a legendary emperor said to have had the body of a snake and the head of a man. Chang Yen-yüan is Li-tai ming-hua chi (hereafter referred to as LTMHC), Chapter I, Sect. I, says: “When P’ao Hsi [another name for Fu Hsi], made his discovery [a reference to the Dragon-horse with the trigrams on his back] at the shining (Yellow) River, this was the germ of all tablets and books, charts and paintings.” See Wm. R. B. Acker translation in Some T’ang and Pre-T’ang Texts on Chinese Painting (hereafter referred to as Some T’ang), Leiden, 1954, p. 62. Fu Hsi was thought to be a literary and artistic primogenitor which explains his high ranking in both these texts. Further information on Fu Hsi is to be found in ibid., pp. 87–89.

3. Shih Huang and Ts’ang Chieh are legendary figures difficult to identify as they are sometimes considered as one person. However, in the present context, they seem to be separated. Acker gives information on them but does not come to any definite conclusion although he considers them as two figures. Ibid., p. 93f.

4. Han Cho is paraphrasing Chang Yen-yüan; see Acker, op. cit., Chapter I, Sect. I, p. 62f.

5. Quoted from Ching Hao: Pi-fa chi. See Shio Sakanishi translation in The Spirit of the Brush (hereafter referred to as Spirit), London, 1948, p. 87, “Painting is delimitation.” The entire paragraph containing the Ching Hao quotation is a paraphrase of a passage in the Preface of T’ang-ch’ao ming-hua lu (herafter referred to as TCMHL) by Chu Ching-hsüan. See A. Soper tr. in Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America, IV, 1950, p. 8.

6. This is quoted from Kuo Jo-hsü, T’u-hua chien-wen chih (hereafter referred to as THCWC), ch. 5. See Soper translation in Kuo Jo-hsü’s Experiences in Painting (hereafter referred to as Experiences), p. 79. “In this life I tarry among nonsensical words; In my former body I must have been a master-painter, . . . “ The quotation is also to be found in the earlier TCMHL. See Soper tr., Archives, p. 14.

7. Although Han Cho mentions ten chapters there is general agreement that one of these chapters is missing in the text as it now stands. The Shuo-fu edition and the MSTS, IV edition have a “Chapter Ten” titled “Lun san ku chih hua kuo yü pu chi” but its inclusion as part of the original text is disputed. The chapter, as Aoki observes, is of slight interest and adds little to the preceding chapters. Another opinion is expressed by Yü Shao-sung in Shu-hua shu-lu chieh-t’i: “My opinion is that [the section called] “Scenery of the Four Seasons” in Chapter 6 was [originally] considered as a separate chapter since the sentences are unconnected [with what precedes] and there is also no connection with the subject of figure painting, etc.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.