'Fishing Society at Hsi-sai Mountain' by Li Chieh (1124-before 1197): A study of scholar-official's art in the Southern Sung period.

摘要

The Fishing scroll had long been erroneously attributed to the Northern Sung painter Wang Shen (act. 1090), ever since the Ming painter and art critic Tung Ch'i-ch'ang (1555-1636) made such a statement in his colophon for this painting. This paper not only studies carefully the seven Southern Sung colophons attached to this painting--all of them point out the painter of the Fishing scroll being Li Chieh--but also attempts to reconstruct the socio-political and cultural context in which the Fishing scroll was created. As the paper proceeds, the authorship of the painting becomes self-evident. A couple of the most critical points include: Li's letter to his close friend Yang Kuan-ch'ing (1139-?) describing the scenery in the Fishing scroll, and Fan Ch'eng-ta's poems inscribed on other landscape paintings by Li that carry similar motifs to the Fishing scroll. In all, the Fishing scroll is the projection of Li's life and aesthetics. The paper will then interpret various ideas behind Li's vision of hsi-sai yu-she ("Fishing Society" at Hsi-sai Mountain)--his wish for a fishing reclusion to emulate Chang Chih-ho and Yuan Chieh, his literary activities in his poetry society, and his lyrical garden that alluded to literary and imagery antecedents in Chinese poetry and art. Finally, from the visual point of view, the representational principle of the Fishing scroll fits perfectly into the late twelfth century context, further attesting its authenticity as a Southern Sung rather than a Northern Sung work. Regarding its artistic expression and thematic treatment, Li's Fishing scroll, while absorbing the literati ideas and theories from the Northern Sung period, develops a unique style and content for the landscape painting of the literati in the Southern Sung, pioneering the literati art of the fourteenth century.; Chapter I discusses Li's life in Hangchow at the year of 1170 when his Fishing scroll was completed; it also introduces the political activities of the seven colophon writers during this time. Chapter two portrays the painter's family background, official career and process of requesting the colophons from his friends after retiring. Chapter 3 interprets the social and cultural significance of Li's yu-she--fishing reclusion and poetry society--in the Southern Sung. Chapter 4 explores the symbolic and imaginary quality of Li's garden retreat in the context of the Southern Sung garden culture. Chapter 5 analyzes the stylistic relationship between the Fishing scroll and Tung Yuan (act. 937-76) and Chao Ling-jang (act. 1070-1100) tradition. Chapter 6 investigates how the four long established landscape themes--scholar's villa, "Blue-and-Green", fisherman, and literary gathering--came to merge in the Fishing scroll and gain new meaning for the eremitic vision in the Southern Sung.