聲畫集

Shēnghuà jí 聲畫集

Anthology of Sound-and-Painting by 孫紹遠

About the work

An 8-juǎn topical anthology of Táng and Sòng tíhuà poetry 題畫詩 (poems written on or about paintings), compiled in Chúnxī 14 (1187) by Sūn Shàoyuǎn 孫素-yuǎn (zì Jīzhòng, hào Gǔqiáo). The title pairs the work with the formula “huà yǒu shēng, shī wú shēng — painting has voice, poetry no sound” — meaning that painting and poetry are inversions of one another, and the anthology unites them.

Organisation: 26 topical categories arranged in 8 juǎn:

1. gǔxián (ancient worthies), gùshì (old stories)
2. fóxiàng (Buddha images), shénxiān (immortals), xiānnǚ (immortal women), guǐshén (ghosts and spirits)
3. rénwù (figures), měirén (beauties), mányí (frontier peoples), zèng xiězhēnzhě (portrait gifts)
4. fēngyúnxuěyuè (wind-cloud-snow-moon), zhōujùn shānchuān (prefectural mountains and rivers), sìshí (four seasons), shānshuǐ (landscape)
5. línmù (forests and trees), zhú (bamboo), méi (plum-blossom), kēshí (rocks)
6. huāhuì (flowering plants — including zǎoméi and mòméi), wūshè qìyòng (architecture and utensils), píngshàn (screens and fans)
7. xùshòu (livestock), língmáo (birds), chóngyú (insects and fish)
8. guānhuà and tíhuà (viewing-and-inscribing), huàbì záhuà (wall-paintings and miscellaneous)

The compiler is identified by his self-preface, but the jí was confused in some Sòng transmissions: Qián Zēng’s Dúshū mǐnqiú jì notes that one juǎn-1 piece by Liú Shēnlǎo 劉莘老 (Liú Zhì) on Lǎozǐ caused some later copies to misattribute the compilation to Liú himself.

Tiyao

Your servants respectfully submit: the Shēnghuà jí in 8 juǎn — edited by Sòng’s Sūn Shàoyuǎn. Shàoyuǎn, zì Jīzhòng, self-styled “Gǔqiáo” — the location of Gǔqiáo is unknown. What is recorded are all tíhuà lines of Táng and Sòng men: gǔxián, gùshì, fóxiàng, shénxiān, xiānnǚ, guǐshén, rénwù, měirén, mányí, zèng xiězhēnzhě, fēngyún xuěyuè, zhōujùn shānchuān, sìshí, shānshuǐ, línmù, zhú, méi, kēshí, huāhuì, wūshè qìyòng, píngshàn, xùshòu, língmáo, chóngyú, guānhuà tíhuà, huàbì záhuà — divided into 26 mén (gates).

Qián Zēng’s Dúshū mǐnqiú jì says this book is without compiler attribution; later men, because the first piece in the book is by Liú Shēnlǎo on Lǎozǐ, mis-took it as Shēnlǎo’s compilation. The present copy has Shàoyuǎn’s self-preface of Chúnxī dīngwèi 10th month (1187): “Entering Guǎng in the second year, with the previous worthies’ poems brought along and those borrowed from colleagues, I selected what was made for painting and compiled them: named the Shēnghuà, using the idea that ‘painting has voice, poetry no sound.‘” — so Shàoyuǎn’s editorship is certainly established. Perhaps Qián Zēng’s copy happened to lose this preface.

The arrangement is somewhat suǒxiè (trivial-and-jumbled): juǎn 5 has a méi mén, but juǎn 6 (huāhuì mén) again contains zǎoméi and mòméi poems — quite lacking order. But the preface says: “Paintings differ in age and poems in date; with so much inconsistency, I cannot put it in proper sequence” — Shàoyuǎn admits it himself. The poems recorded are by Zhē Zhònggǔ, Xià Jūnfù, Xú Shīchuān, Chén Zǐgāo, Wáng Zǐsī, Liú Shūgàn, the monk Shìguī, Wáng Lǚdào, Liú Wáng MèngLín Zhīlái, Lǐ Yuányīng, Yú Dírǔ, Lǐ Chéngzhī, Pān Bīnlǎo, Cuī Défú, Wáng Zuǒcái, Zēng Zǐkāi, Cuī Zhèngyán, Lín Zǐrén, Wú Yuánzhōng, Zhāng Zǐwén, Wáng Chéngkě, Cáo Yuánxiàng, the monks Shànquán and Zǔkě, Wénrén Wǔdīng, Hán Zǐhuá, Cài Tiānqǐ, Chéng Shūyì, Lǐ Chéngnián, Zhào Yìruò, Xiè Mínshī, Lǐ Yīngzhòng, Ní Jùjì, Huá Shūshēn, Ōuyáng Pì — and others. Their collections are all lost; some men’s names cannot be even identified. It is thanks to this book that they survive in a glimpse: a resource for both the visual arts and for poetry. Reverently submitted, second month of Qiánlóng 45 (1780). Editor-in-Chief Jǐ Yún, Lù Xīxióng, Sūn Shìyì. General Collator Lù Fèichí.

Abstract

Date: anchored by Sūn Shàoyuǎn’s self-preface — Chúnxī dīngwèi (1187), 10th month, at Guǎngzhōu. The book is the earliest comprehensive Sòng-period topical anthology of tíhuà poetry, a generic category that becomes increasingly important in late-Sòng and YuánMíng practice as painting-poetry inscriptions become integral to the visual-arts tradition.

Significance:

(1) First topical tíhuà anthology. The 26-category structure — comprehensive across all major painting subjects of the Sòng pictorial tradition (Buddhist images, Daoist immortals, landscape, huāniǎo, zhúshí, portraits, architectural and utensil studies) — is the principal pre-Yuán documentary basis for the iconography of Sòng painting as reflected in literary inscription. Modern art-historical scholarship draws on the Shēnghuà jí for both the categories of Sòng pictorial subject and the poetic responses that document Sòng viewing practice.

(2) Preservation of secondary Sòng poets. The collection preserves verse by 30+ Sòng poets whose individual collections are lost; in many cases the Shēnghuà jí is the unique witness. The SKQS editors’ list (translated above) is the canonical inventory.

(3) Poetics of inter-art relations. The Shēnghuà title-formula (“painting has voice, poetry no sound”) is one of the most-cited Sòng critical aphorisms in subsequent Chinese aesthetic theory and is a foundational document for the shīhuà tóngyī 詩畫同一 (poetry-and-painting-are-one) thesis articulated by Sū Shì.

Translations and research

• Susan Bush, The Chinese Literati on Painting: Su Shih (1037–1101) to Tung Ch’i-ch’ang (1555–1636) (Harvard, 1971) — foundational treatment of the literati-painting tradition that the Shēng-huà jí documents.
• Ronald Egan, The Problem of Beauty: Aesthetic Thought and Pursuits in Northern Sòng China (Harvard Asia Center, 2006) — tí-huà poetry in Sòng aesthetic theory.
• James Cahill, The Lyric Journey: Poetic Painting in China and Japan (Harvard, 1996).
• Yán Xiǎo-yún 嚴小雲, “Shēng-huà jí yánjiū” 聲畫集研究, Wénxué yíchǎn 文學遺產 2005.5.
• Lèi Yìnghuá 雷英華, Shēng-huà jí jiào-jiān (Beijing: Rénmín wénxué, 2014).

Links

• Wilkinson, Chinese History: A New Manual §51 (Art and visual culture).
• ctext