Organizer: Robert Hymes, Columbia University
Chair: Pauline R. Yu, University of California, Los Angeles
Da'an Pan, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
This paper explores the interartistic poetics of a unique genre of Chinese poetry known as ti-hua-shi (poetry that comments on and/or represents painting), arguing that it was the Tang poet Du Fu who formulated such poetics through his exemplary style despite the fact that he was not the first to write poetry of this genre.
This paper argues that the poetics of the Tang dynasty ti hua shi registers the influences of the Six Dynasties painter Gu Kaizhi's theory of yi xing xie shen ("portraying spirit through the portrayal of appearance") and critic Xie He's theory of qi yun ("spiritual consonance"). While appreciating the painter's capability to portray the inner quintessence of things the ti hua shi poet tends to valorize more the lifelikeness of the painting through hyperbolization, which suggests the mimetic tendency of his poetics. The poetics of the Song dynasty ti hua shi formulated mainly through the poet Su Shi's work indicates a change in such tendency due to the influence of literati esthetics which privileges the non lifelikeness of works of art over their formal verisimilitude. When ti hua-shi is inscribed on ti shi hua (painting inscribed with poetry) or shi yi tu (painting that renders the idea or theme of poetry) poetic calligraphy and painterly brushwork are blended into an ideogramic and intertextual whole. Such a blending not only enhances the visual appeal of painting but also imparts greater signifying power to it, thus adding a new dimension to the interartistic poetics of the literati school.
This paper argues that in terms of thematic concerns Chinese ti hua shi differs from its Western counterpart of ekphrasic poetry in going beyond the mimetic representation of the painterly scene to present the poet's re creation of the painting and to develop discourses on artists and art, and life and society. In terms of signifying mode the text of ti hua shi integrates the descriptive with the discursive to form a thematic and structural whole. The poetics of ti hua shi is an essential component of the affective expressive tradition of classical Chinese poetics and therefore can hardly be analyzed in terms of the concepts of ut pictura poesis and ekphrasis from Western mimesis.
This paper further argues that there should be no confusion that every piece of ti hua shi necessarily embodies the poetic concept of "'painting' in poetry" simply because it is to some extent a verbal equivalent for painting. In literati poetics "'painting' in poetry" is historically and semiotically associated with the image idea dialectic of the Yi jing (Classic of Changes) and the word meaning dialectic of Taoism. It refers to nonmimetic and open ended signification to be realized through the workings of pictorial imagery carrying expressive messages. There can be no "painting" in a piece of ti hua shi unless it is capable of signifying ad infinitum beyond mimetic pictorialism.
This paper concludes that it is the authorial intention of the ti hua shi poet to present his shi qing (poetic sentiments) inspired by hua yi (painterly ideas) and evoked through the viewing process rather than merely represent the painting as it is. As an interartistic as well as intertextual system the poetics of ti hua shi underlies the sisterly communion between shi qing and hua yi and helps shape the unique Chinese tradition of poetry painting analogy.
Hua Laura Wu, University of Toronto
In the critical discourses and casual notes of Ming Chinese scholars the term xiaoshuo had a vague and fluid meaning, because it could designate generically different forms of writing. Philosophical expostulations of non Confucian schools, exhortative sayings by wise and noble gentlemen, unofficial historical discourses, miscellaneous notes on matters all and sundry, anecdotes and parables, as well as various forms of fictional narrative could be, and were labeled xiaoshuo. Conversely, the genre which is now called xiaoshuo or fiction lacked a specific generic term. This paradox of the absence of a generic term vis-à-vis the presence of multifarious nomenclatures clearly indicates a deficient understanding of the nature of fictional narrative, perhaps due to the nascent stage of the genre. A generic study of fiction remained an untackled task until the late Ming.
Hu Yinglin (1551-1602), though better known as a prominent poet and poetician, was also one of the late Ming literati who pioneered the generic study of fiction. In his biji collection Shaoshi shanfang bicong (Notes from the Shaoshi shanfang Studio) which is an impressive work covering discussions on a vast range of matters, Hu gave the first systematic classification of the xiaoshuo forms. Although Hu's classification is a favorite subject of discussion among modern historians and critics of Chinese fiction, in depth studies of the rationale behind Hu's categorization and seminal ideas in Hu's understanding of the xiaoshuo genre have been long overdue.
This paper will redress the oversight through a close scrutiny of Hu Yinglin's explorations into the field of xiaoshuo. In the paper, I will first discuss how Hu identified the source of the misperception of xiaoshuo in the indiscriminate use of the term for different genres and then continue with a description of how Hu systematically resolved the confusion. According to my observation, Hu's strategy consisted of tackling the following tasks: tracing the origin of the xiaoshuo genre; explaining the generic term; and classifying the vast corpus of writings conventionally designated as xiaoshuo. He concluded his exposition by identifying those traits which were in his opinion the common denominators of the xiaoshuo fiction: narrativity, poeticity and fictionality.
Hu Yinglin's generic study of the xiaoshuo laid down an important cornerstone for a systematic theory of fiction to emerge in the seventeenth century.
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