'Clouds and mists that emanate and sink away': Shitao's Waterfall on Mount Lu and practices of observation in the seventeenth century

Art History

Volumn 19, Issue 2, 1996, Pages 169-190

  Burkus Chasson, Anne ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 23044476793     PISSN: 01416790     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8365.1996.tb00662.x     Document Type: Article

References (57)

1. Liu Tongsheng, 'Lu shan san shi liang ji', in Xu Xinjie (ed.), Lu shan zhi, Kangxi period; rpt., Jiujiang, 1991, pp. 470-1. The 'Long River', or Chang jiang, is generally referred to as the Yangtze River
2. Zhu Tuiyuan (ed.), Li Bai ji jiaozhu; rpt., Taibei, 1984, vol. 1, juan 14, pp. 863-7
3. P.W. Kroll, 'Lexical Landscapes and Textual Mountains in the High Tang', paper presented at symposium, Mountains and the Cultures of Landscape in China, 14-16 January 1993, at the University of California, Santa Barbara, pp. 6-12, 14-16. I am grateful to Professor Kroll for permission to cite his unpublished work
4. Liu, 'Lu shan', p. 471
5. For the dating of this work, see J.S. Hay, 'Shitao's Late Work (1697-1707): A Thematic Map', Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1989, pp. 155-6
6. R. Edwards, The World Around the Chinese Artist, Ann Arbor, 1987, p. 122: 'He is at ease in presenting the physical world in a direct manner'
7. J. Cahill, The Compelling Image: Nature and Style in Seventeenth-Century Chinese Painting, Cambridge, MA and London, 1982, p. 208
8. Enlightening Remarks on Fainting by Shih-t'ao, trans. with intro. R.E. Strassberg, Pasadena, CA, 1989, p. 112, n. 86
9. See also J.C. Kuo, 'Word and Image in Watching the Waterfall at Mt. Lu by Shih-t'ao', National Palace Museum Bulletin, vol. 28, no. 5, November-December 1993, p. 6
10. Cahill, Compelling, pp. 187, 191, on Wang's 'antinaturalistic purpose'
11. Kuo, 'Word and Image', p. 4, where the relation between poem and painting is described as one of 'mutual enhancement'. Words, however, are privileged in this interaction, as Kuo's citation from the work of J. Chaves indicates
12. See M. Bal, Reading Rembrandt: Beyond the Word-Image Opposition, Cambridge, 1991, pp. 142-7, who pursues a similar argument
13. Shitao, Hua yulu, postscript dated 1728
14. rpt., Yu Anlan (ed.), Hualun congkan, 2 vols, Hong Kong, 1977, vol. 1, zhang 9, pp. 151-2
15. M. Bal, 'His Master's Eye', in D.M. Levin (ed.), Modernity and the Hegemony of Vision, Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, 1993, p. 384
16. See also Bal, Rembrandt, pp. 158-61
17. For another striking example from Shitao's oeuvre, see Landscapes of Mount Huang, an album of twenty-one paintings now in the Beijing Palace Museum, reproduced in Wai-kam Ho (ed.), The Century of Tung Ch'i-ch'ang 1555-1636, 2 vols, Kansas City, 1992, vol. 1, pp. 424-7
18. See, for example, Pei-yi Wu, 'An Ambivalent Pilgrim to Tai Shan in the Seventeenth Century', in S. Naquin and Chün-fang Yu (eds), Pilgrims and Sacred Sites in China, Berkeley, 1992, pp. 69, 81-2
19. The classical reference is to Zong Bing (375-443) and his essay Hua shanshui xu (Preface to Painting Landscape). For an annotated translation of the text, see L. Hurvitz, 'Tsung Ping's Comments on Landscape Painting', Artibus Asiae, vol. 32, 1970, pp. 146-56
20. P.W. Kroll, 'Li Po's Transcendent Diction', Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 106, no. 1, January-March 1986, p. 100
21. For a discussion of the Shangqing tradition, see I. Robinet, Taoist Meditation: The Mao-shan Tradition of Great Purity, trans. J.F. Pas and N.J. Girardot, Albany, NY, 1993
22. For a general review of the Lingbao tradition, see S. Bokenkamp, 'Taoist Literature', in W.H. Nienhauser, Jr. (ed. and comp.), The Indiana Companion to Traditional Chinese Literature, Bloomington, IN, 1986, pp. 142-3
23. Robinet, Taoist Meditation, p. 50
24. Kroll, 'Transcendent Diction', pp. 108-13
25. For a trenchant analysis of the political aspect of Lu shan yao, see E.O. Eide, 'On Li Po', in A.F. Wright and D. Twitchett (eds), Perspectives on the T'ang, New Haven, 1973, pp. 385-7. See app., p. 189, n. 2, for the 'madman of Chu'
26. For a discussion of the bipolar oppositions that inform poetic description in Chinese poetry, see Kang-i Sun Chang, Six Dynasties Poetry, Princeton, 1986, pp. 51-3. In Li Bai's Lu shan yao, the polarity of heaven and earth is complemented by the alternation between images of rock and water. For example, the mountain named Incense Burner (Xiang lu feng) faces the watery curtain of Sheet of Spray (Pu bu). I have followed Kroll in the translation of 'Pu bu'
27. See his 'Lexical Landscapes', p. 34, n. 14
28. E.H. Schafer, Pacing the Void: T'ang Approaches to the Stars, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1977, pp. 257-62
29. The conjunction in Chinese poetry between the ascent to a high place and the contemplation of the past is discussed by H.H. Frankel, 'The Contemplation of the Past in Tang Poetry', in Wright and Twitchett (eds), Perspectives, pp. 345-65
30. Xie Lingyun, 'Entering the Mouth of Lake Pengli', Xie Kangle ji, in Wang Yunwu (ed.), Guoxue jiben congshu, Taibei, 1968, juan 3, pp. 37-8. 'Pengli' is an archaic name for Lake Poyang
31. For a translation of the poem, see J.D. Frodsham, The Murmuring Stream, 2 vols, Kuala Lumpur, vol. 1, p. 154
32. See the preface to the annotated text of the neijing in Yunqi qijian, in Dao zang, comp. 15th-16th century; rpt., Shanghai, 1923-26, and Taibei, 1962, no. 679, juan 11, 10b-11a
33. See also K. Schipper, The Taoist Body, Paris, 1982; trans. K.C. Duval, Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, 1993, pp. 130-59
34. I owe the translation of these lines to Kroll, 'Transcendent Diction', p. 107. The identification of the 'Jade Capital' (yu jing), which was located at the exact centre of the highest Heaven in the Shangqing cosmology, appears on pp. 107-8
35. P.W. Kroll, 'Li Po's Rhapsody on the Great P'eng-Bird', Journal of Chinese Religions, vol. 12, 1984, p. 8
36. I. Robinet, 'The Taoist Immortal: Jesters of Light and Shadow, Heaven and Earth', Journal of Chinese Religions, vols 13-14, Fall 1985-86, p. 94
37. Shitao may have cited the words of the connoisseur Xia Wenyan (active 14th century) to define the artistic accomplishment of Guo Xi. The entry on Guo registered in Xia's Tuhui bao jian is almost identical with Shitao's commentary. Missing are the brief biographical statement that begins the entry, an acknowledgement that Guo was 'good at rendering landscapes and wintry forests', and a short phrase that singles out 'compositional structure and brush technique' as Guo's unique talent. See Xia Wenyan, Tuhui bao jian, 1365; rpt., Yu Anlan (ed.), Huashi congshu, Shanghai, 1962, juan 3, p. 49
38. Hin-cheung Lovell noted the popularity of Tuhui bao jian among Ming and Qing writers in An Annotated Bibliography of Chinese Painting Catalogues and Related Texts, Ann Arbor, 1993, p. 107
39. Hay cited the earlier connoisseur Tang Hou (active c. 1320-1330) as the source of Shitao's citation in 'Thematic Map', pp. 563-4
40. See, for example, G. Dudbridge, 'Women Pilgrims to Tai Shan: Some Pages from a Seventeenth-Century Novel', in Naquin and Yu (eds), Pilgrims, pp. 39-64
41. See Hay, 'Thematic Map', pp. 249, 559-62, for an insightful study of the relationships between Shitao and contemporary Yangzhou painters
42. Translated by J. Cahill, 'Yuan Chiang and His School', part 1, Ars Orientalis, vol. 5, 1963, p. 269
43. With the word 'visuality', I refer to the researches into visual culture made by scholars such as Martin Jay. 'Scopic regime' is another term that has gained some currency in this arena; see, for example, H. Foster (ed.), Vision and Visuality, Seattle, 1988
44. Instructions for Practical Living by Wang Yang-Ming and Other Neo-Confucian Writings, trans. with notes Wing-tsit Chan, New York, 1963, p. 685
45. Fang Yizhi, Wu li xiao zhi, 1664; rpt., Wenyuange siku quanshu, Taibei, 1988-, juan 1, 9a
46. Shitao, Hua yulu, zhang 8, p. 151
47. R.J. Lynn, 'The Sudden and the Gradual in Chinese Poetry Criticism: An Examination of the Ch'an-Poetry Analogy', in P.N. Gregory (ed.), Sudden and Gradual: Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought, Honolulu, 1987, pp. 386-7
48. Shitao, Hua yulu, zhang 14, p. 155
49. See Xu Bochun, Jiangsu gudai kexuejia, Nanjing, 1983, pp. 144-8, 153-6, on opticians
50. J. Needham and Lu Gwei-djen, 'The Optick Artists of Chiangsu', in S. Bradbury and G.L'E. Turner (eds), Historical Aspects of Microscopy, Cambridge, 1967, pp. 113-38
51. J. Needham et al., Science and Civilisation in China, Cambridge, 1962, vol. 4, part 1, pp. 97-9
52. See the masterful discussion of the camera obscura by J. Crary, Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century, Cambridge, MA and London, 1992, pp. 25-66
53. For a translation of the entire passage, see W.J. Peterson, 'Fang I-chih: Western Learning and the "Investigation of Things"', in W.T. deBary (ed.), The Unfolding of Neo-Confucianism, New York, 1975, p. 391
54. For the military use of the telescope, see Zou Yi, Qi Zhen yesheng, 1666, 1679; rpt., Beijing, 1936, juan 6, 15b. The telescope is featured in an erotic short story by Li Yu (1610 or 1611-1680). The protagonist of A Tower for the Summer Heat (Xiayi lou) discovers the instrument, which Li Yu referred to as a curio sought by lovers of strange things, in an antique shop
55. Scanning the women's quarters of the city with his glass, he discovers a beauty for marriage and acquires the nicknames of 'phony transcendent' and 'Master Thievish Eyes' for his magical powers of vision: see Li Yu, A Tower for the Summer Heat, trans. with notes P. Hanan, New York, 1992, pp. 3-39
56. A version of the Chinese text, probably written in 1657 or 1658, appears in Li Yu, Shi'er lou (Twelve Structures), annot. Xiao Rong, Shanghai, 1986, pp. 62-85. I am grateful to Judith Zeitlin for bringing this story to my attention
57. N. Sivin, 'On the Limits of Empirical Knowledge in the Traditional Chinese Sciences', in J.T. Fraser et al. (eds), Time, Science and Society in China and the West, Amherst, 1986, pp. 151-69, esp. 163-7