WU HUNG

The TransparentStone: Inverted Vision and Binary Imagery in Medieval Chinese Art

A CRUCIAL MOMENT DIVIDES the course of Chinese art into two broad periods. Before this moment,a ritual art traditiontransformed general political and religious concepts into material symbols.Forms that we now call worksof art were integralparts of largermonumental complexes such as temples and tombs,and theircreators were anonymouscraftsmen whose individualcrea- tivitywas generallysubordinated to largercultural conventions. From the fourth and fifthcenturies on, however,there appeared a group of individuals-scholar- artistsand art critics-who began to forge theirown history.Although the con- structionof religiousand politicalmonuments never stopped, these men of let- ters attempted to transformpublic art into their private possessions, either physically,artistically, or spiritually.They developed a strongsentiment toward ruins,accumulated collectionsof antiques,placed miniaturemonuments in their houses and gardens,and "refined"common calligraphicand pictorialidioms into individual styles.This paper discusses new modes of writingand paintingat this liminalpoint in Chinese art history.

Reversed Image and Inverted Vision

Near the modern cityof Nanjing in eastern China, some ten mauso- leums survivingfrom the early sixth centurybear witnessto the past glory of emperors and princes of the Liang Dynasty(502-57).' The mausoleums share a general design (fig. 1). Three pairs of stone monumentsare usually erected in frontof the tumulus: a pair of stone animals-lions or qilinunicorns according to the statusof the dead-are placed before a gate formedby two stone pillars; the name and titleof the deceased appear on the flatpanels beneath the pillars' capitals. Finallytwo opposing memorialstelae bear identicalepitaphs recording the career and meritsof the dead person. This sequence of paired stones defines a central axis or a ritual path leading to the tomb mound. As indicated by its ancient designationshendao, or "the spiritroad," this path was built not for the livingbut forthe departingsoul, which,it was commonlybelieved, traveled along

58 REPRESENTATIONS 46 * Spring 1994 ? THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Tomb

stelae

columns

bixieorqfiin

Directionsof axis depends on the lie ofthe land

FIGURE 1. Standard layoutof a Liang royaltomb. AfterAnn Paludan,The Chinese Spirnt Road (New Haven, 1991), chart2b. Reproduced by permission. FIGURE 2. Stone sculpturesin Emperor Wen'sJianling mausoleum. Liang Dynasty,502 A.D.; Danyang,Jiangsu Province. AfterYao Qian and Gu Bing, Liuchaoyishu (Art of the Six Dynasties;Beijing, 1981), 35.

the path fromits old home to itsnew abode, crossingthe pillar-gatethat marked out the boundary betweenthese two worlds.2 Fifteenhundred years have passed, and these mausoleums have turned into ruins. The stone animals stand in rice fields; the stelae are cracked and their inscriptionsblurred (fig. 2). But the "spiritroad," which never takes a material formbut is only definedby the shapes surroundingit, seems to have escaped the ravages of time.As long as the pairs of monuments-even theirruins-still exist in situ,a visitorrecognizes this "path" and he, or his gaze, travelsalong it. Like the ancients, he would firstmeet the twin stone animals, each with its body curving fromcrest to tail to forma smooth S-shaped contour.With their large round eyes and enormous gaping mouths,the mythicalbeasts seem to be in a state of alarm and amazement. Compared to the bulkyanimal statues created

The TransparentStone 59

This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions threecenturies earlier during the Han Dynasty,these statuesexhibit new interest in psychologyrather than in pure physique, in momentaryexpression rather than in permanentexistence, in individualityrather than in anonymity,and in a complex combinationof fantasticand human elementsrather than in uniformity. The vividnessof the animals even seems at odds withthe solemn atmosphere of a graveyard.Standing in frontof the stone pillars,these strangecreatures seem to have just emerged fromthe other side of the gate and are astonishedby what theyare confronting. The powerfulimagery of these stone beasts must have contributedto the invention of abundant legends about them: people have repeatedly reported seeing themjumping up in the air.3In 546, the animals in frontof the Jianling mausoleum, the tomb of the dynasticfounder's father, reportedly suddenly got up and began to dance. They then foughtviolently with a huge serpent under the pillar-gate,and one beast was even injured by the evil reptile.4This event must have created a great sensationat the time: it was recorded in the dynasty's officialhistory and the famous poet Yu Xin (513-81) incorporated it into his writings.5This and other tales, obviouslyoriginating from the statues' symbolic

FIGURES 3a-b. Mirroringinscriptions on stone pillarsin Emperor Wen'stomb, 502 A.D. 62.5 x 142 cm. AfterZhu Xizu et al., Liuchaolingmu diaocha baogao (An investigativereport of Six Dynasties mausoleums; Nanjing, 1935), figs.20a-b.

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions functionof wardingoff evil and fromthe desire to explain theirdecay over time, nevertheless demanded and inspired further political interpretations.Thus when a similarevent was later reported to the court,some ministersconsidered it a good omen, but the emperor feared it as an inauspicious indicationof future rebellions. Underlyingboth interpretationswas the belief that the stone beasts carried divine messages to the living.6 Having passed the animal statues,the visitorfinds himself before the stone pillars.As mentionedabove, these bear two panels withidentical inscriptions. In the example shown in figs.3a-b, the passage reads: "The spiritroad of Grand Supreme Emperor Wen,"the fatherof the founderof the Liang Dynasty.There is nothingstrange about the contentof these inscriptions;what is puzzling is the way theyare written:the inscriptionon the leftpanel is a piece of regular text, but the one on the rightpanel is reversed.7 Readers unfamiliarwith Chinese writingmay gain some sense of the irony created by thisjuxtaposition froman English "translation"of the Chinese pas- sages (figs.3c-d): although the contentof the two inscriptionsis identical,their effectis entirelydifferent. The inscriptionon the leftis a series of words forming a coherentand readable text.But the inscriptionon the right,at firstsight, con- sistsof no more than individualand illegiblesigns. A temporalreading sequence

Ihespi it roadof 9qviWn Qran(Supreme I Emperor'4enj w IW 3J

__ _ 'I_ I____I_ I reversedimages a at

reversedvision a a

FIGURES 3c-d (top). English translationof mausoleum inscriptions. FIGURE 4 (center).Diagram: reversedimages. FIGURE 5 (bottom).Diagram: reversedvision.

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions is thusestablished: even thoughthe twoinscriptions would be seensimultaneously from the spiritpath, theymust be comprehendedsequentially. It would not take more than a few seconds for a literateperson to read the normal inscriptionon the left,but to understandthe inscriptionon the righthe would firstneed to find clues. Such clues are found visuallyin the physicalrelationship between the two inscriptions:both theirsymmetrical placement and echoing patternssuggest that the illegible text "mirrors"the legible one. Unconsciously,the visitorwill have taken the normal textas his point of referencefor the other'smeaning. The problem of comparing the individualcharacters of the two inscriptions no longer existsonce the visitorrealizes theyare the same.The "illegible"inscrip- tion has become legible because he can read its mirrorimage (fig. 4). In other words, the mysteryof its contenthas vanished: it is simplya reversed version of a regular piece of writing.What remains is the mysteryof its reading: it would become not only legible in contentbut normal in formif the reader could invert his own visionto read it fromthe "back"-from the other side of the column (fig. 5).8 Once thisinference is made, the reversedinscription changes froma subject to be deciphered to a stimulusof the imagination.9Controlled and deceived by the engraved signs,the visitorhas mentallytransported himself to the other side of the gate. He has forgottenthe solid and opaque stone material,which has now become "transparent."

All thismay seem a psychologicalgame and a quite subjectiveinterpretation, but the perceptual transformationexplored here is seen frequentlyin the funeraryart and literatureof the Six Dynasties.During a funeraryrite, the "vis- itor"whom I have just described would have been a mourner.As a mourner,his frame of mind would be focused on the functionof a funeraryritual and the mortuarymonuments framing it. Who was supposed to be in a position to read the reversed inscription"obversely"? In other words, who was thoughtto be on the other side of the stone column looking out? A gate alwaysseparates space into an interiorand an exterior.In a cemetery these are commonlyidentified as the world of the dead and the world of the living.The pair of inscriptionson the twinpillars signifiesthe junction of these twoworlds and the meetingpoint of two gazes projectingfrom the opposite sides of the gate (fig.5). The "natural"gaze of the mournerproceeds fromthe outside towardthe burial ground, while his "inverted"gaze is now attributedto the dead man at the other end of the spiritroad (where his body was buried and his life was recorded on memorialtablets). The importantpoint is thatthis reading/viewing process forcesthe mourner to go througha psychologicaldislocation from this world to the world beyond it. Confrontedby the "illegible"inscription, his normal,mundane logic is disrupted and shaken. The discoveryof the mirrorrelationship between the two inscrip-

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions tionsforges a powerfulmetaphor for the oppositionbetween life and death. The sequential reading of the inscriptionscreates a temporal shiftfrom within to without;by mentallydislocating himself to the other side of the gate he identifies himselfwith the dead and assumes the viewpointof the dead. The functionof the gate is thus not merely to separate the two spaces and realms. As a static, physicalboundary it can easilybe crossed,but it is alwaysthere. More important, to completelyfulfill the ritualtransformation, the materialexistence of the gate has to be rejected. The underlyingpremise of this ritual transformationis that onlywhen a livingperson acceptsthe otherworldlyview can he enterthe encircled graveyardwithout violating it, and only then can he not only pay respect to the dead but also speak for the dead. In this lightwe can understand the progressiontraced by Lu Ji's (261-303) series of three mourning songs.'0 In the firstsong a funeral is narrated as if it were being watched by an anonymousbut dispassionateobserver: Bydivination an auspicioussite is sought... Forearly departure attendants and driversare roused... Lifeand deathhave different principles; To carryout the coffin there must be a time. A cup ofwine is setbefore the two pillars; The funeralis begun,and thesacred carriage advanced.

The funeral procession is stillthe focus of the second song, but the description becomes subjectiveand emotional. The poet speaks for the mourners and sees throughtheir eyes: Wandering,the thoughts of relatives and friends; In theirdistress their spirits are uneasy... The soulcarriage is silentwithout sound; Onlyto be seenare hiscap and belt, Objectsof use representhis past life . . . A mournfulwind delays the moving wheels; Loweringclouds bind the drifting mists. Weshake our whipsand pointto thesacred mound; Weyoke the horses and thereafterdepart.

The point of viewchanges again as soon as the funeralprocession finallydeparts toward the sacred mound. In the thirdand last song, it is the deceased who is seeing, hearing, and speaking in the firstperson. The poet no longer identifies himselfwith the mournersbut withthe dead: The piled-uphills, how they tower! Mydark hut skulks among them. Widestand the Four Limits; High-archedspreads the azure skies.

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Bymy side I hearthe hidden river's flow; On myback, I gaze at thesky roof suspended. How lonelyis thewide firmament!

When Prince Xiao Ziliang (459-94) went to Mount Zuxing, he gazed at his familytombs there and lamented: "Looking north there is my [dead] uncle; directlybefore me I see my [deceased] brother-if you have consciousness after your death, please let me be buried here in your land."" Ziliang was grievingfor both his deceased kin and himself-as the survivorof the familyhe already saw himselfburied in a dark tomb. Sentimentaland self-pitying,he seems to have set an example forXiao Yan (464-549), the founderof the Liang and a great patron of literature.Xiao Yan, or Emperor Wu of Liang, dedicated the Jianlingmauso- leum to his deceased father,Xiao Shunzhi (444-94), whose mirrorinscriptions have been the focus of our discussion; he also had the Xiuling mausoleum con- structedfor himself.During a tripin the thirdmonth of 544, he sacrificedat his father'sgraveyard and then visitedhis own tomb,where "he was deeply moved and began to cry."'2One wonders what moved him to tears in this second mau- soleum; the only possible answer is the vision of himselflying underground on the other side of the pillar-gate. The concept of "mourner" thus needs to be redefined.A mourner was not only a livingperson who came to a graveyardto meet a deceased Other,but also possiblya person who visitedhis own tombto mourn forhimself as the Other. In the firstcase, the pillar-gateseparated yetconnected the dead and the living; in the second case, it separated and connected a man's splitimages thatconfronted each other. In the late third century,Lu Ji had tried to speak for both the mourners and the dead; in the fifthand sixth centuries people lamented for themselvesas thoughthey were dead. 13 Fromthis second traditionemerged three great songs by Tao Qian (365-427), which chillinglyobserve the world from a dead person's silentperception: How desolatethe moorland lies, The whitepoplars sough in thewind. In theninth month of sharpfrost, Theyescort me to thefar suburbs. Therewhere no one dwellsat all The highgrave mounds rear their heads. The horseswhinny to thesky, The windemits a mournfulsound. Once thedark house is closed In a thousandyears there will be no newdawn. Therewill be no newdawn And all man's wisdom helps not at all. The peoplewho have brought me here

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Have nowreturned, each to hishome. Myown family still feel grief- The othersare alreadysinging. Whatshall we say,we whoare dead? Yourbodies too will lodge on thehill. 14

Tao Qian musthave been fascinatedby the various possibilitiesof "inverting" himself-observing and describinghimself and his surroundingsas though he had become a bodiless and transparent"gaze," movingalong the funeral proces- sion like a camera lens. He wrotejiwen-sacrificial eulogies-for his relatives,and in these pieces he presentshimself as a livingmember of the familylamenting dead kin.'5 But he also composed a sacrificialeulogy for himself. Unlike the funeralsong in whichhe (as a dead man) followsand watchesthe entiremortuary rite,in the shortpreface to his self-eulogyhe placed himselfin the shiftingzone between lifeand death: The yearis dingmao[427] and thecorrespondence of thepitch pipe is wuyli.The weather is coldand thenight is long.The atmosphereis mournful;the wild geese are on themove; plantsand treesturn yellow and shed theirleaves. Master Tao [i.e.,Tao Qian himself]is aboutto take leave of the "traveler's inn" [life] to return forever to his eternal home [death]. His friendsare sad intheir grief for him; they willjoin in his funeral feast this very evening, makeoffering of finevegetables and presentlibations of clearwine. The faceshe sees alreadygrow dim; the sounds he hearsgrow fainter.'6

If life and death are separated by a pillar-gate,the experience described here musttake place betweenthe two pillarson the gate's threshold.Unlike Luji, who narrateda funeralin distinctstages progressingfrom the livingto the dead, Tao Qian assumes a positionbetween the two. This suspended positionwas not com- pletelyTao's invention,however. We find a classical example in Confucius' life:

In theyear rensi [479 B.C.], on themorning of the 11thof the4th moon, Confucius arose, and then,supporting himself with his walkingstick in one hand whilethe otherhand restedbehind his back, he advancedmajestically to thefront door of his apartmentand beganto chantthe following words: "The mountainsaint is goingto disappear;the main beam of theempire is goingto be broken;the sage is goingto die!" Afterthe rhythmic recitalof thissolemn prediction he wentand placedhimself in thecenter of the gateway.... Afterseven days, on the 18thday of the4th moon, near midday, he expiredat theage of seventy-three.17

Withthis anecdote we returnto the themeof the gate,but witha new interest in the elusive, two-dimensionalplane between its two pillars rather than in the two spaces separated by it. Guided by thisinterest, our attentionalso shiftsfrom the actual gates standing in a cemeteryto their image depicted on flat stone. Beginningin the second century,such images were oftenengraved on the frontal sides of sarcophagi.'8 In some cases an emptygate indicates the entrance to the other world (fig. 6); in other cases horses or a rider guide the wandering soul

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ExcavatedIi 1954 n a

Sichuan Province.Collection of Chengdu Museum. After Gao Wen,Sichuan Handai huaxciangzhuan(Han Dynasty pictorialtiles from Sichuan; Shanghai, 1987), plate 90. FIGURE 7 (topright). A rider guiding the soul to enter a pillar-gate. Ink rubbingof carvingon rightside of stone sarcophagus fromXinjin, Sichuan Province;Eastern Han, 2nd century A.D. Collectionof Sichuan UniversityMuseum, Chengdu. AfterGao Wen, SichuanHandai huaxiangshi(Han Dynasty pictorialstone carvingsfrom Sichuan; Chengdu, 1987), plate 86. FIGURE 8 (bottom).Half-opened gate. Ink rubbingof carvingon front side of the Wang Hui sarcophagus,211 A.D.; 83 x 101 cm. Found in 1942 at Lushan, Sichuan Province.Collection of Lushan Museum. Afteribid., plate 56.

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions throughthe gate (fig.7). A thirdvariation offers a more complex illustration(fig. 8): a figureemerges froma half-openedgate, holding the stillclosed door-leaf. The gate is thus half empty and half solid; the empty space recedes into an unknowndepth, while the solid door-leafblocks the spectator'sgaze frompene- tratingthe hidden space. The figurecrosses these two halves,both exposing him- self against the emptyspace and concealing himselfbehind the closed door-leaf. It seems thathe is about to vanishinto the emptiness,but is stillgrasping the door and looking at the world to which he once belonged.'9 This image graphically signifiesan intermediarystage between lifeand death. We are reminded of Tao Qian's descriptionof himselfin his eulogy: "Master Tao is about to take leave of the 'traveler'sinn' to return foreverto his eternal home. His friendsare sad in their grieffor him.... The faces he sees already growdim; the sounds he hears growfainter." We can imaginethat the same words could be murmuredby the depicted figurewho, withhalf of his body inside the dark sarcophagus,belongs to neitherthis world or the world beyond it. Both the implied artistand the poet Tao Qian assume a "liminalposition" on the threshold of the gate (fig.9). Their visionmay be called a "binaryvision" because theylook in the opposite directionsof lifeand death at the same time (fig. 10). This mode of visualizationis related to a general phenomenon during the Six Dynasties: manycontemporary writers, painters, and calligrapherssought to see the "two facetsof the universe"simultaneously. As we returnto the reversed inscriptions,the focusof theirinvestigation shifts from the viewer'sperception to the artist'sambition to create such inscriptions.But who was the artist?Usually we assume thatan engraved stone inscriptioncopies a piece of writingand reflects the original styleof the calligrapher.But if a calligrapher wrote only a single "regular"text, which was then inscribedtwice as both the frontand back inscrip- tions on the two pillars,the calligrapher'swork was essentiallyirrelevant to the finalproduct; he can hardlybe claimed as the writerof the reversedinscription. But if he had indeed created both versions of the text, it would be far more intriguing.This would mean that the mirrorinscriptions directly reflected the artist'screativity and stateof mind, for,as Emperor Wu of the Liang once stated

a liminalviewpoint a' I a binaryvision a'

FIGURE 9. Diagram: liminalviewpoint. FIGURE 10. Diagram: binaryvision.

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions FIGURE 11. Reversed inscriptionon a stone pillar in the graveyardof Prince Xiao Jing (d. 523), Liang Dynasty;Nanjing, Jiangsu Province.After Yao Qian and Gu Bing, Liuchaoyishu,fig. 284.

himself, "the hand and mind [of a calligrapher] must work in correspon- dence."20 This, in turn, would mean that the calligrapher had firsttried to "reverse"himself; before there was any "transparentstone" he had to make him- self transparent. Two methodsmay enable us to solve thispuzzle. We can check contemporary literaryrecords for mentionsof reversedor invertedwriting. We can also tryto find other clues fromexisting inscriptions. In an essay,the mastercalligrapher Yu Yuanwei (6th century)introduces himself as a calligraphicacrobat who once inscribeda screen in a hundred differentscripts, both in ink and in color. He lists all the fancynames of these scripts(such as "immortalscript," "flower-and-grass script, "monkeyscript, "pig script,"and "tadpole script").Toward the end of this long inventoryappear two names: daoshu (reversed writing) and fanzuoshu (invertedand leftwriting).2' Even more fascinating,in the same essay he identi- fiesthe origin of a typeof reversedwriting: Duringthe Datong reign period [535-46], a scholar[named Kong Jingtong] wol king in theEastern Palace could write cursive script [caoshu] in a singlestroke. His brushstroke, whichbroke only at theend of a line,was fluent, graceful, and restrained,and reflected hisdistinctive nature. Since then no one has beenable to followhim. [Kong] also created the "left-and-rightscript" [zuoyoushu]. When people exchanged their writings at a gath- ering,no one couldread hispiece.22

Yu Yuanwei'srecord offersat least threekinds of information.First, the term "leftwriting" (zuoshu) or "invertedand leftwriting" (fanzuoshu) should indicate

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions completelyinverted or "mirrorcalligraphy," so that"no one could read" it at first sight.(As I explain below,the termdaoshu or "reversedwriting" probably refers to the methodof writinga textin reverseorder; the charactersare not necessarily inverted.)Second, Kong Jingtongwrote both regular and invertedversions of a single text("left-and-right writing") and exhibitedthem on a single occasion. As a giftedand popular calligrapher,he must have firstlearned the conventional way of writingbut later mastered the inverted styleof calligraphythrough a painful self-inversion.Third, Kong developed two differentcalligraphic styles: the firstwas the "cursivescript" (caoshu) in a single fluentbrush stroke; and the second was the "left-and-right"mirror texts. Both writingstyles place formover content. To examine existinginverted and leftinscriptions, we can employ a simple method: turningover a rubbingof such an inscriptionand placing it against a light table, we should find standard calligraphyif the inscriptionwas made by

, 4. - ~ ~ ~ ~ . _

|5,A ~l~~j1-r-W0T i|iePWq spiritroadof the late 9?1X t I3 Liang TjnastyPalace 97l Irt-uz~u9LstismAR Attendant,Qenerafof the CentratPacificatton Alnny, Wstc s iuu MD u a s st mt CommanderUlnequaled in `k~WAtgo ulk !lwf Honor,iMarquis Zhong of wf,~~~~~UIR Wk~~~~i4zping

FIGURES 12a-d. Topleft: ink rubbingof reconstructionof inscription on pillar in Xiao Jing'sgraveyard; top right: reversal of invertedinscription. Based on ibid., fig.285. Bottom: English translation.

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions fatethe of roadspirit The rPaflzcDyjnasty Liang theof qeneralAftteant Commander,Alrmy Centra( ng,rl Honoriin wnequaf1ed WNanpingof5ian

ijd ______I

'4 - 'Ifiespirit road of the fate LiangEynasty' Pahfac A~ ttend~ant,qenerafoftfhe Centra1A|ny, Commandr ZUnequalledfinHonor, King ]ianof~Aianping

FIGURES 13a-d. Leftand center:ink rubbingsof inscriptionson a pair of pillarsin Prince Xiao Ji's(d. 527) graveyard;Jurong, Jiangsu Province.After Kanda Kiichiro,Shodo zensho (Corpus of calligraphy;Tokyo, 1957-6 1), vol. 5, plates 54, 55. Righttop and bottom:English translation.

reversinga piece of regular writing.The best preserved invertedinscription is found in Prince Xiao Jing'stomb (fig. 11; the counterpart"front" inscription was unfortunatelylost long ago). Following the method suggested above, I have reversedthis inverted inscription (fig. 12a) to obtain the versionshown in fig.12b. Any Chinese calligrapherof even an elementarylevel would immediatelypoint out its weakness: the structureof several charactersis unbalanced, and the hori- zontal strokes generallydrop instead of rising as in normal writing.Both are typical symptomsof reversed writingor left-handedwriting done by a right- handed person. This examinationreveals that the term "left-and-rightwriting" may also mean thata calligrapherused both hands to write.From his righthand came a normal and readable text;from his lefthand, reversedand illegiblesigns.

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Such ambidextrous skill seems almost supernatural. (Similar legends are still being created in modern Chinese literature.In a popular martialarts novel by the writerJin Yong, the heroine Little Dragon Girl [Xiaolongnu] has mastered the amazing skillof using her leftand righthands simultaneouslyto fightin two entirelydifferent yet complementary styles of swordplay.She thus combines two gongfumasters in one and, by making her moves incomprehensibleeven to a masteropponent, becomes undefeatable.) The inversionof an existingconvention, however, may also create a new con- vention.Suppose thatthe left-and-rightscripts were standardized and became a norm-they would lose theirpower to confuse readers and the supernaturalcal- ligrapher would become merely a humble craftsman. Upon receiving such writingfrom Kong Jingtong,a guest would immediatelylay bare his trick,and when a funeralprocession proceeded towarda pillar-gate,no mournerwould be intriguedby the pair of inscriptionsbecause theywould now be readily under- standable. The stone columns would remain solid and opaque, and although the boundary marked out by the gate could be physicallycrossed, it would never be erased. All seven survivinginscriptions on the pillar-gatesof Liang tombshave been called zhengfanshu(front and reversedwriting). But if we examine these inscrip- tionsmore closely,we findthree distinctly different ways of reversingor inverting regular writing. The case discussed above (fig. 3) exemplifies one of these methods: regular writingis completelyreversed to forma true mirrorimage.23 Anothermethod, represented by the inscriptionsreconstructed and "translated" in figs. 12a-b, is to write the charactersbackward while keeping the standard right-to-leftsequence of writingand reading (left-to-rightsequence in English).24 The third way is again an inversion of the second method (figs. 13a-b): the normal right-to-leftsequence is changed to left-to-right(right-to-left in English), but all charactersare writtenin theirregular form.25This last scriptmay be iden- tifiedas daoshu,a typeof reversedscript found on Yu Yuanwei's list. All inscriptions"inverted" according to these three methods were made during a verybrief period of some thirtyyears. We must assume thatsome pro- found reason led to such interestin metamorphosis.26Such rapid changes can only testifyto a deliberate effortto escape froma fixed pattern.The task is not easy since a regular inscriptionmust be paired withan invertedone on the two pillars so that theycan togetherdefine thejunction of two opposing views,yet any standardizationwould turn the inscriptionsinto staticsymbols without psy- chological power. It is probably no coincidence that only the earliest surviving examples of "front-and-back"writing-the pair of inscriptionsdedicated to the father of the dynasty's founder-appear as true mirror images. To avoid repeating the same imagery,later generationseither reversed the charactersor reversedthe writing(and reading) sequence. In fact,these threemethods are the onlypossible waysto reversea text.The Liang triedthem all.

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions "Binary" Imagery and the Birth of Pictorial Space

The period knownas the Northernand SouthernDynasties (386-589) is commonlyrecognized as a turningpoint in Chinese art history.Major devel- opments during these two centuriesinclude the constructionof enormous Bud- dhist cave chapels, the emergence of great painters and calligraphers,and a profound change in visual perceptionand representation.This last achievement has oftenbeen characterizedas the discoveryof pictorialspace, meaning thatthe artistwas finallyable to turn an opaque canvas or stone slab into a transparent "window"open to an illusoryreality. The assertionis not false,but it often attri- butes thisdevelopment to some masterartists or treatsit as an independent evo- lution of pictorialforms. An alternativeapproach advanced in this paper is that the new visual forms rebelled against traditionalritual art. While old types of monuments (the mortuaryshrine, sarcophagus, and stele) continued, surface patterns(inscriptions and decorations)began to assume independence. Although stillceremonial or didactic in content,an inscriptionor pictorialscene engaged the eye and the mind. By transforminga ritual monumentinto a sheer surface for pictures,these formsallowed people to see thingsthat had never been seen or representedbefore. A number of stone funerarystructures created at the beginningof the sixth centurybest demonstratethis transition. Dating from529 (and thus contempo- rarywith the reversed inscriptions),a small funeraryshrine now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (fig. 14) shows no major differencein formand structure froma Han shrine establishedsome four centuriesearlier.27 What distinguishes it froma Han ritualbuilding are itsengravings, especially those executed on the single stone panel thatforms the shrine'srear wall (fig. 15). Here, a faintlydelin- eated architecturalframework represents the timber facade of a building, a "frame"enclosing the portraitsof three gentlemen.Attired in similarcostumes and each accompanied bya femalefigure, the threemen differfrom one another mainlyin age. The figureto the rightis a younger man witha fleshyface and a strong torso; the one to the leftis heavilybearded with an angular face and a slender body.Whereas these twofigures, both shownin three-quarterview facing outward, appear vigorous and high spirited,the thirdfigure in the middle is a fragileolder man retreatinginto an inner space. Slightlyhunchbacked and low- ering his head, he concentrateson a lotus flowerin his hand. The flower-a symbol of purity and wisdom-originated in Buddhism, which had rapidly spread among Chinese literatiby the sixthcentury. Lost in deep contemplation, thisfocal figureis about to enter the wooden-framedbuilding, leaving thisworld and us, the viewers,behind. The modern Chinese scholar Huang Minglan has offered an interesting reading of thiscomposition. He suggested that all three images represent Ning

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions FIGURE 14 (left).Shrine of Ning Mao (d. 527), NorthernWei Dynasty;138 x200 cm. From Luoyang, Henan Province. Collectionof Museum of Fine Arts,Boston. Photos: Fine Arts Library,Harvard University. FIGURE 15 (below). Portraitsof Ning Mao (?) on the back wall / - ~~~~ofNing's shrine.

Mao, to whom the mortuaryshrine was dedicated,and thatthese images together narrate the stages of Ning's life, from his vigorous youth to his final spiritual enlightenment.28Ning Mao's epitaph, which may stillexist in China,'29 includes his biography(fig. 16). It mentionsthree dated events:at the age of 35 (486) he became a clerkat the Ministryof the Imperial Cabinet. A fewyears later,in 489, he was promoted to general of the Imperial Mausoleum Guards in charge of ritual affairs.After the NorthernWei moved the capital to Luoyang in 494, he assumed the post of chiefof ConstructionCorps in charge of building new pal- aces and temples. He was promotedto chiefsecretary of the ConstructionOffice after the completion of the main palace, but soon fell ill and died in 501.30 Although the three portraitson Ning's shrine do not necessarilycoincide with these specificevents, they do show the general contourof his lifeas described in the epitaph. His positions as ritual specialistand imperial architectmust also explain the unusually high quality of the engravingson his memorial shrine. The sentimentconveyed by the portraits-transformationfrom engagement in

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions worldlyaffairs to the internalpursuit of spiritualpeace-was a favoriteintellec- tual subject during the Northernand Southern Dynasties; Lu Ji and Tao Qian's poems, quoted above, describe similarexperiences. But in the pictorialrepresen- tation,the conflictbetween life and death, betweenworldly activities and internal peace, is crystallizedin the "front-and-back"images. Again, we find that lived experience ends at the point where someone turns inward, about to penetrate the solid surfaceof the stone.

The juxtapositionof "front-and-back"images became a pictorialformula. In manycases thiscomposition no longer possessed a specificritual or philosophical implication,but was used as a standard device to increase the complexityof rep- resentation.Fig. 17 reproduces a scene engraved on a famous NorthernWei sar- cophagus now in the collectionof the Nelson Gallery-AtkinsMuseum in Kansas City.3'Compared withHan depictionsof similarsubjects, this and other pictorial storiesof filialparagons, whichcover the two long sides of the stone box, signify many new developments,most noticeably a new sequential narrativemode and a three-dimensionallandscape setting.Framed by a patternedband, each compo- sitionseems a translucentwindow onto an elusive world. The strong sense of three-dimensionalityin these pictures has enticed scholars to interpretthem in lightof a linear perspectivesystem using overlap- ping forms and the technique of foreshortening.32In such an analysis the researcher,either consciouslyor unconsciously,equates the Chinese example with post-Renaissance painting that employs linear perspective as the most

FIGURE 16. Ink rubbing of Ning Mao's epitaph, NorthernWei Dynasty, 529 A.D.; 41 x41 cm. From Luoyang, Henan Province.After Kojiro Tomita, "A Chinese SacrificialStone House of the Sixth CenturyA.D.," Bulletinof the Museum of FineArts I 1 no. 242 (1942), fig. 10.

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions FIGURE 17. Storyof Wang Lin. Ink rubbingof carving on a NorthernWei Dynastysarcophagus, ca. 525 A.D. 64 cm. (height); fromLuoyang, Henan Province.Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City.Photo: Fine Arts Library,Harvard University.

powerful means to create pictorialillusions. But if we examine the pictureson the sarcophagus more carefully,we findsome peculiar featuresthat do not agree withthe basic principlesand purposes of linear perspective,but fitperfectly well withthe "binary"or "front-and-back"representational mode developed in fifth- and sixth-centuryChina. In simplestterms, the single station-pointassumption of linear perspectiveis that the artist'sand viewer'sgaze travelsfrom a chosen vantage point to a fixedvanishing point (fig. 18). The "binary"mode, however, is based on the assumptionthat a formshould be seen fromboth the frontand the back; when a formis representedas such, it guides the viewer'sgaze back and forthbut never toward a real or implied vanishingpoint in the picture(fig. 19). A detail on the Nelson sarcophagus (fig. 17) depicts the storyof the famous Confucian paragon Wang Lin, who saved his brotherfrom bandits. A tall tree in the middle divides the scene into two halves. Alexander Soper has boldly sug- gested that the images in both halves actually representa single episode-the confrontationof Wang Lin and the bandits. The differencebetween the two scenes is that one is depicted from the frontand the other from the rear.34It seems to me thatin makingthis assertion Soper has gone too far.In the left-hand scene a rope is tied around Wang Lin's brother'sneck, and Wang Lin has thrown

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions himselfon his knees in frontof the bandits,begging them to take him instead of his brother.In the right-handscene, both Wang Lin and his brotherhave been released. These two scenes, therefore,represent two consecutiveepisodes of the storyin a temporalsequence. This iconographic explanation, however, does not rule out Soper's basic observationregarding the front-and-backviews offered by the two scenes. What is most importanthere is not which episode or episodes the picture stands for (since similar stories had been abundantlyillustrated from the Han), but how these episodes are depicted and viewed. In the leftscene we findthat the bandits have just emerged from a deep valley and are meeting Wang Lin (in a more general sense, they meet us the viewers). In the next scene, Wang Lin and his brotherare leading the banditsinto another valleyand the whole procession has turnedaway fromus; all we can see are people's backs and the rear end of a horse. This compositiononce again reminds us of the reversed inscriptions,one con- frontingus and the other showingus its back. But here our vision is controlled by the figures'motion. In viewingthe left "frontal"scene our eyes take in the arrivingfigures, but when we turnto the next scene we cannot help but feel that we are abruptlyand in a sense veryrudely abandoned and ignored. The figures are leaving us and about to vanish; in an effortto catch them our gaze follows them into the deep valley. This "binary" approach uncovers the compositional formula of another famous example of Northernand Southern Dynastiesart: the celebrated hand- scroll "The Admonition of the Instructressto Palace Ladies" ("Ntishizhen tu") attributedto the masterpainter Gu Kaizhi (ca. 345-406).35 This attributionis not

1~~~ I,~~ a pictureplane at

FIGURE 18 (top). Diagram: single-stationperspective. FIGURE 19 (bottom).Diagram: binaryperspective.

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions a a' a' a

a at

FIGURE 20 (top). Palace ladies adorning themselves.A scene in the "Admonitionof the Instructressto Palace Ladies." Scroll painting,ink and color on silk, 195 x 347 cm. Attributed to Gu Kaizhi (c. 304-406) but probablya 9th-centurycopy of a 5th-or 6th-centurypainting. Collection of the British Museum. Photo: Fine ArtsLibrary, Harvard University. FIGURE21 (bottom).Diagram: compositionalscheme of fig.20.

secure-there is no pre-Tang Dynastyreference for Gu's depictionof the subject, yet a newly discovered fifth-centuryscreen bears a picture almost identical in composition to one of the seven scenes on the "Admonition"scroll.36 Provided withthis piece of evidence,we can view the scrolland the Nelson sarcophagus as approximatelycontemporary works. Not surprisingly,one of the mostinteresting featuresof the scroll is the binarycomposition, which, however, has been even furtherremoved from its original ritual context to become a purely pictorial mode. The paintingillustrates the third-centurypoet Zhang Hua's compositionof the same title.One of the scenes (fig.20) depictingZhang's line-"Human beings

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions know how to adorn theirfaces"-demonstrates an extremelysophisticated use of the binarycomposition. The scene is divided intotwo halves,each withan elegant palace lady lookingat herselfin a mirror.The lady on the rightturns inward with her back toward us, and we see her face only in the mirror.The lady on the left faces us; her reflectionin the mirrorbecomes implicit(only the mirror'spat- terned back is visible).The concept of a "mirrorimage" is thus presented literally (fig.2 1): each group is itselfa pair of mirrorimages, and the two groups together again forma reflectingdouble. We may also imagine that this composition may be viewed fromboth sides of the scroll: a hypotheticalviewer on the other side of the canvas would findthe same pictureas we do, but the images he sees would be reversedones. No picture like this existed before the Northern and Southern Dynasties. What we find on Han monuments are silhouettes"attached" to the pictorial plane. The virtuouswidow Liang holding a mirrorin her hand (figs.22a-b) or

FIGURES 22a-b. Storyof Liang the Excellent.Wu Liang Shrine carving.Top: ink rubbing.After Rong Geng, Han WuLiang Ci huaxianglu(A record of the Wu Liang Shrine carvings of the Han Dysnasty;Beijing, 1936), figs.33a-35a. Bottom:reconstruction. After Feng Yunpeng and Feng Yunyuan,"Shi suo" (An index of stone carvings),injinshi suo (An index of bronzes and stone carvings;Shanghai, 1937), 3.46-47.

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ___ ,>+- I>~ -i} < G # -t.-'FIGURE 4,8*g<' 23. Ruan ,g1 Ji '<.4;:and '+~ -t-tw .L_^ _ ...... Xi Kang. Detail of "Seven ~ - ~t7Worthiesf in the Bamboo y Groveand RongQiqi." Ink rubbingof brickrelief, WesternJin Dynasty,late sm t S - 4th-early5th century A.D.; \ -A - i 80x 240 cm. Excavated in 1960 at Xishanqiao, Nan- -T" jing, Jiangsu Province. ILK/ JNanjing Museum. After Yao Qian and Gu Bing, -, , 0 ~ _,,; H Lzuchaoyishu,figs.162,163.

the filialparagon Zengzi kneelingbefore his mother.In viewingthese pictures our eyes travelalong the surfaceof stone slabs,whose stripedpatterns only make the medium even more impenetrable.Even picturescreated during the fourth centurydo not substantiallyalter this traditional representational mode. It is true that the well-knownportraits of the "Seven Worthiesin the Bamboo Grove" ("Zhulin qixian") exhibitsome new elements: more relaxed and varyingposes, spatial cells formedby landscape elements,and an emphasis on fluentlines (fig. 23). But the images are stilllargely attached to the two-dimensionalpicture sur- face, never guiding our eyes to penetrateit. The real revolutiontook place only in the fifthand sixthcenturies: the figuresin the Wang Lin picture seem to be coming and going of theirown freewill, and the ladies in the "Admonition"scroll stare at theirown reflectionsand theirgaze guides us to see them. In both cases our vision followsthe picturedfigures in and out, effortlesslycrossing the stone or canvas thatis once again transparent.

All these pictorialworks-the engravingson the Ning Mao shrine and the Nelson sarcophagus,and the painted images on the "Admonition"scroll-testify to a desire to see thingsthat had neverbeen seen or representedbefore. The new points of view pursued by the artists,however, were not actual (or assumed) sta- tion points on earth. The mundane achievementof seeing and representing things"naturalistically" could hardly fulfillthe artists'high aspirations,for art, theyclaimed, should allow them to transcendobserved realitywith its temporal and spatial boundaries. The relationship between seeing and imagining, or between eyes and the mind, became a central topic of art criticismat the time. Sometimesthe relationshipwas considered antithetical.Wang Wei (415-43), for example, criticized painters who relied only on their physical faculties and "focused on nothing but appearances and positioning."When a good artist

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions painted, he told his contemporaries,"it is not in order to record the boundaries of cities or to distinguishthe locale of prefectures,to mark offmountains and hills or to demarcate floods and streams.For thingswhich are rooted in form must be smeltedwith spiritual force, and thatwhich activates the permutationis the heart-mind."37His view may have representedan extreme; other criticssuch as Xie He (fl. 500-35) considered both "physicallikeness" (yinwu xiangxing) and "spiritresonance" (qiyunshengdong) necessary qualities of good art; nevertheless he placed the latterat the top of his "Six Laws" of painting.38 Simultaneouslythere appeared the notionof an ideal artistwho could realize the artisticgoals the new age demanded, and whose unrestrainedimagination would make him immortal: He movesalong with the four seasons and sighsat theirpassing on, Peerson all thethings of the world, broods on theirprofusion ... Thus itbegins: retraction of vision, reversion of listening, Absorbedin thought,seeking all around, [His] essencegalloping to theworld's eight bounds, [His] mindroaming ten thousand yards, up and down... He emptiesthe limpid mind, fixes his thoughts, Fusesall hisconcerns together and makeswords. He cagesHeaven and Earthin fixedshape, Crushesall thingsbeneath the brush's tip.39

Such descriptionwas not considered purelymetaphorical; when Xie He came to rank painters based on artisticmerit (thus giving himself the status of an authoritativeviewer), he employed similarcriteria and found his ideal artistin Lu Tanwei of the fifthcentury: He fathomedthe principles[of the universe]and exhaustedthe nature[of man]. The matteris beyondthe power of speech to describe. He embracedwhat went before him and gavebirth to whatsucceeded him: from ancient times up tillnow he standsalone. Nor is he one whomeven [the most] fervent enthusiasm could [adequately]praise. For is he not simplythe pinnacle of all thatis of highestvalue? He risesbeyond the highest grade, and thatis all thereis to be said.40

Xie He seems to have feltshort of words. Of an artistwho has fathomedthe universe and exhausted human nature, there is indeed nothing one can say except to acknowledgehis godlikeexistence. Such glorificationgives us littlesense of the actual masterpieces from that period (which have all long since disap- peared), but the pictures on another sixth-centurystone sarcophagus, created when Xie was compilinghis classificationof painters,may allow us to perceive the kind of art he had in mind. Like the Nelson sarcophagus, this example in the Minneapolis Art Museum was unearthedat Luoyang, the capital of the Northern Wei after494 (fig.24).41 Again, like the Nelson sarcophagus, both long sides of the sarcophagus are covered witha richcombination of pictorialand decorative

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions FIGURE 24. Ink rubbingof a side of a stone sarcophagus, Northern Wei Dynasty,524 A.D. From Luoyang, Henan Province. Collectionof Minneapolis Art Museum. AfterOkumura Ikura, Kaka (Melon leaves; Kyoto, 1939), 258.

images.42At the bottomof each rectangularcomposition, a rollinghillock estab- lishes a continuous foregroundand extends into the depths along the picture's verticalsides. Tall treesfurther divide thisU-shaped pictureframe into a number of subframesor spatial cells fordepicting individual stories of famous filialpar- agons. Scholars have been astonishedby the naturalismof these narrativescenes: well-proportionedfigures-a seriesof famousfilial paragons fromChina's past- sitor kneel on a tiltedground or on platformsthat recede intothe depths. Behind them are mountain peaks and floatingclouds, whose greatlyreduced size indi- cates theirremoteness. This coherent spatial representationserves symbolicpurposes, however. It groups historicalfigures of differenttimes and places into a synchronicsetting; the rationale of this synthesisis that all these figuresshare the same virtueand theirlives show a similarcontour. The naturalismof the illustrationsthus dimin- ishes any vestigeof historicalreality. The figuresbelong neitherto the past nor the present; rather,they represent timeless Confucian paragons, who are again abstractionsof historyand human deeds. This may be whythese virtuousmen are positioned in the lower half of the pictures:they are stillearthbound and so the naturalismof theirportrayal attests to the truenessof the human principles theyembody. The historicalConfucian figures,as well as the realisticpictorial style associ- ated withthem, disappear fromthe upper halfof the composition,where we find fantasticand possiblyTaoist images: an enormousdragon juxtaposed witha huge phoenix, beautifulfairies riding on clouds or exoticbirds, fierce demons roaring againstthe wind. Instead of being unitedby a three-dimensionallandscape, these images are harmonized by the swelling,rhythmic lines thatshape them. We may

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions say that these fluentlines are themselvesa metaphor of the vital energy of the universe,43from which all these images of the imagination-heavenly flowers, auspicious birds, mysticalbeasts, fairies,and demons-emerge. Floating and ever-changing,these line images seem to shiftsmoothly on the two-dimensional pictureplane withoutpenetrating it. The design is furthercomplicated by a focal image crossingthe upper and lower halves-an animal mask witha ring hanging fromits mouth. The model for thisimage is a sculpturedmask made of gilded copper attached to a wooden coffin.Here it has been transformedinto a flatsilhouette on stone. A new layer of visual rhetoricis added: integratedinto the overall two-dimensionalpictorial representation,the mask seems suspended in air in frontof the surrounding scenes, which recede and vanish behind it. Firm and unyielding, the mask reminds us of the stone surface and forcesus to pull our gaze (and mind) back fromthe distantand fantasticworlds, reasserting our own proximityto the solid sarcophagus. This image restoresthe surface of the picture plane but only to allow the artistto decompose and recompose it again. On eitherside of the mask, two windows,perfectly square, guide our gaze "into" the sarcophagus. Two fig- ures stand inside each windowand stare at us.44These windows,which allow us to see what is concealed behindthe pictorial surface, thus reject any coherent systemof pictorialillusionism and any fixedspatial or temporalstation.45 Viewing such a complex picture that integratesso many contradictoryele- ments,we feel thatthe artistis constantlychallenging us withnew modes of pic- torialrepresentation. Traveling through time and space, he leads us to confront differentrealms and statesof beings-to "gallop to the world'seight bounds" and to "peer on all the thingsof the world [and] brood on theirprofusion." He creates and recreates tension between differentimages and between these images and the medium: whenevera scene is about to assume its independence and become "real," he brings in a conflictingimage or stylethat dismissesany sense of illu- sionismand restocksthe pictorialsurface with new possibilitiesto furtherexpand the visual field. Thus we find that the picture seems to ceaselesslyrebel against itself-"reversing"itself and then balancingitself. The illusionistnarrative in the landscape scene isjuxtaposed withthe elusive,decorative immortal imagery; the "relief" animal mask is juxtaposed with the "sunken" windows. The firstset of motifstransforms the pictorialsurface into images and thus erases it; the second set restoresthe surfacebecause the mask mustbe attached to it and the windows mustbe opened on it.46The structuralkey to understandingthe creationof such a composition,therefore, is again thebinary mode: the artistdevelops his imagery along opposite yet complementarypaths. In making such an efforthe breaks away fromconventional representation and pushes the possibilityof human per- ception to a new limit.

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Notes

1. According to the inventoryin Yao Qian and Gu Bing, Liuchaoyishu (Art of the Six Dynasties; Beijing, 1981), altogether eleven Liang mausoleums have been found: 1) Jian Liang (of Emperor Wen, Xiao Shunzhi; probablybuilt in 535), 2) Xiu Ling (of Emperor Wu, Xiao Yan; built before 549 when the emperor died), 3) Zhuang Liang (of Emperor Jianwen, Xiao Gang; built before 552), 4-11) tombs of eight Liang princes: Xiao Hong (d. 526), Xiao Xiu (d. 518), Xiao Hui (d. 527), Xiao Dan (d. 522), Xiao Jing (d. 523), Xiao Ji (d. 529), Xiao Zhengli (d. before 548), Xiao Ying (d. 544). The remains of the Zhuang Ling of Emperor Jianwen, however, are buried and cannot be seen. 2. The termsshendao and suidao denote the path extending fromthe pillar-gateto the tomb; see Zhu Xizu et al., Liuchaolingmu diaocha baogao (An investigationreport of Six Dynasties mausoleums; Nanjing, 1935), 100, 202. This is why the word shendaois alwaysinscribed on the pillar-gate. 3. Ibid., 23. 4. Jiankangshilu (A factual record of the historyof Nanjing; Beijing, 1937), 17, 19b. I interpretthe word suitou,which means literally"the opening of a suidao path," as the place under the pillar-gate.As Zhu Xizu has explained, the termsuidao or sui indicates the path extendingfrom the pillar-gateto the tomb mound; see note 2. 5. Yao Silian, Liang shu (Historyof the Liang Dynasty;Beijing, 1973), 90; Yu Xin's "Ai Jiangnanfu," quoted in Zhu Xie,Jiankang Lanling Liuchao lingmu tukao (An illustrated examinationof Six Dynastiestombs at Nanjing; Shanghai, 1936), 24. 6. Yudizhi (A geographical record), cited in Danyangxianzhi (A gazetteer of Danyang County); see Zhu Xie,Jiankang Lanling Liuchao, 23. 7. Here I assume a visitor'sview. Chinese and Japanese authors usually describe the pillarsfrom the positionof the tomb mound (i.e., fromthe positionof the deceased); thus the "rightpillar" in theirwritings is the leftone in mine and vice versa. 8. Most inscriptionson the pillar-gatesin the Liang mausoleums face outward; the only exception are those on Emperor Wen's gates, which face each other and forma pair of true mirrorimages. My analysishere focuseson the majorityof cases. 9. In other words,the "binary"inscriptions first appeared as somethingexternal to and independent of the visitor;they then became somethingto be visualized and compre- hended, and finallybecame the stimulusfor an imagined vision or visualization.For a concise discussion of images and imagination,see Ray Frazer, "The Origin of the Term 'Image,"' EnglishLiterary History 27 (1960): 149-61. Here I also borrow ideas fromPauline Yu, TheReading of Imagery in theChinese Poetic Tradition (Princeton, N.J., 1987), 3-19. 10. Trans. from A. R. Davis, T'ao Yiuan-ming:His Worksand TheirMeaning, 2 vols. (Cam- bridge, 1983), 1:168-70. 11. Xiao Zixian,Nan Qi shu (Historyof the Southern Qi; Beijing, 1972), 701. 12. Yao Silian,Liang shu,88. 13. As scholars have noted, writingfuneral songs in the voice of the dead was not Tao Qian's invention; Lu Ji and Miao Xi (186-245) wrote a number of such works (see Davis, T'ao Yiian-ming,1: 167-68). This traditionmay be even traced back to the Han; the author of the yuefupoem "Battle South of the City"("Zhan chengnan") assumes the view of a dead soldier.But onlyTao Qian wrotefuneral songs forhimself.

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 14. This is the thirdof the three songs. Tao Yuanmingji (Writingsby Tao Qian; Beijing, 1979), 142; trans.based on James Robert Hightower,The Poetry of T'ao Ch'ien(Oxford, 1970), 248. 15. Tao Yuanmingji,191-96. 16. Ibid., 196-97; trans.based on Davis, T'ao Yilan-ming,1:240-41. 17. Henri Dor6, Researchesinto Chinese Superstitions,trans. L. F. McGreal, 12 vols. (Shanghai, 1938), 8:89. 18. For the decorative programs of such sarcophagi and the symbolismof the "gate" motif,see Wu Hung, "Mythsand Legends in Han FuneraryArt: Their PictorialStruc- tureand SymbolicMeanings as Reflectedin Carvingson Sichuan Sarcophagi,"in Lucy Lim, ed. Storiesfrom China's Past (San Francisco,1987), 73-8 1. 19. In an earlier article(ibid., 74-77) I suggested that this figurestands at the entrance of the other world to receive the dead. Althoughthis interpretation is not impossible, my present discussion offersan alternativeunderstanding. Supported by Tao Qian's writingsand otherliterary evidence, this interpretation focuses on changes in percep- tion afterthe Han. 20. Quoted in Li Fang, Taipingyulan (Imperial reviewedencyclopedia of the Taiping era; Beijing, 1960), 3315. 21. Ibid., 3318. "Master" is based on Yu Yuanwei's self-introduction.In fact,we know nothingabout Yu and his worksexcept for this piece of writingwhich, moreover, is preservedonly as fragmentsin later encyclopedias. 22. Quoted in Zhongguomeishujia renming cidian (Dictionary of Chinese artists;Shanghai, 1981), 27. 23. The only existing example of this type of inscriptionis found in Emperor Wen's mausoleum. 24. An example of such an inscriptionis found on a survivingpillar in Xiao Jing's (Emperor Wen'snephew) tomb.Only two"reversed" characters in the inscriptionded- icated to Xiao Xiu have survived.According to Mo Youzhi, the original inscription was also writtenin the regularright-to-left order; see Zhu Xizu, Liuchaolingmu diaocha baogao,57. 25. Examples of thistype of inscriptionhave been found in tombsof Xiao Hong (Emperor Wen's son), and Xiao Ying, Xiao Zhengli,and Xiao Ji (Emperor Wen's grandsons). 26. According to Yudizhi, the stone animals in frontof theJianling mausoleum (and per- haps other stone carvingsas well) were made in 535; quoted in Danyangxianzhi; see Zhu Xie,Jiankang Lanling Liuchao, 23. 27. For introductionsto the Boston shrine,see Kojiro Tomita,"A Chinese SacrificialStone House of the SixthCentury A.D.," Bulletinof the Museum of Fine Arts 40, no. 242 (1942): 98-110; Guo Jianbang, "Bei Wei Ning Mao shishi he muzhi" (The Stone Offering Shrine and Epitaph of Ning Mao of the NorthernWei Dynasty),Henan wenbotongxun (News of Henan museums and archaeology) no.1 (1980): 33-40. Here I followTo- mita'sdating of the shrine. 28. Zhongguomeishu quanji (The great treasuryof Chinese art), 60 vols. (Beijing, 1986- 89), vol. 1, pt. 19; interpretationof fig.5. 29. Laurence Sickman firstsaw the stone shrinein Kaifengin 1933. Later, he came upon a complete set of rubbingsin Beijing,including both the engravingson the shrineand an epitaph on a separate stone; see Tomita, "Chinese SacrificialStone House," 109, n. 1. 30. See ibid., 109-10. 31. This sarcophagus was probablymade for Lady Yuan in 522. It has been repeatedly

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions studied by scholars; for citations,see Cleveland Museum of Art, EightDynasties of ChinesePainting: The Collectionsof the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City,and the ClevelandMuseum of Art (Cleveland, 1980), 5-6. 32. One such studyis Alexander C. Soper, "Life-Motionand the Sense of Space in Early Chinese RepresentationalArt," Art Bulletin 30, no.3 (1948): 167-86; forhis discussion of the Nelson sarcophagus,see 180-85. 33. There are numerous studies of the historyand principlesof the linear perspective system.For a recentdiscussion, see MargaretA. Hagen, Varietiesof Realism: Geometries ofRepresentational Art (Cambridge, 1986), 142-65. For discussions on the Wang Lin scene, see Osvald Sir6n, ChinesePainting: Leading Masters and Principles,5 vols. (New York, 1956), 1:58; Alexander C. Soper, "Early Chinese Landscape Painting,"Art Bul- letin23 (1941): 159-60. 34. Soper, "Early Chinese Landscape Painting,"159-60. 35. This paintinghas been repeatedlypublished and discussed. For references,see James Cahill,An Indexof Early Chinese Painters and Paintings(Berkeley, 1980), 12-13. 36. Both scenes illustratethe virtuousconduct of the Han imperialconcubine and histo- rian Ban Zhao. The screen, which originallybelonged to Sima Jinlong,a Northern Wei royalrelative, was found in his tombnear Datong in present-dayShanxi Province. 37. See Susan Bush and Hsio-yenShih, EarlyChinese Texts on Painting(Cambridge, Mass., 1985), 38-39. 38. Ibid., 36-40. 39. Lu Shihengji (Writingsby Lu Ji; Shanghai, 1930), la-4b; trans. based on Stephen Owen, Readingsin ChineseLiterary Thought (Cambridge, Mass., 1992), 90-110. See Yu, ChinesePoetic Tradition, 33, 35. Owen comments on the expression shoushifanting ("retractionof vision, reversion of listening"),which is intimatelyrelated to the reversed perception discussed in this section: "Most Chinese exegetes . . . interpret thispassage as a cuttingoff of sense perceptions,taking shou ["retract"] in a common usage as "cease," and apparentlytaking fan ["revert"]as the attentionof listening"re- verting"to non-attention.Chinese theoristsoften spoke of the necessityof cutting oneself offfrom the determinationsof the lived world in order to write"(96). 40. Trans. based on W. R. B. Acker,Some T'ang and Pre-T'angTexts on ChinesePainting, 2 vols. (Leiden, 1954), 1:6-7. 41. The Chinese scholar Wang Shucun recentlyreported that more than ten such sar- cophagi have been found in the Luoyang area; "Zhongguo shige xianhua lueshi" (A briefhistory of Chinese line-engraving),preface to Zhongguomeishu quanji, vol. 1, pt. 19, p. 1 1. 42. For a studyof thissarcophagus, see Okumura Ikuro, Kaka (Tokyo, 1939), 359-82. 43. I explore this idea at greater length in "A Sanpan Shan Chariot Ornament and the Xiangrui Design in WesternHan Art,"Archives of Asian Art 37 (1984): 46-48. 44. These figuresmay represent servantsof the deceased: another Northern Wei sar- cophagus discovered in 1973 in Guyuan is decorated on two sides with similar win- dows and figures,and the deceased is portrayedon the frontside of the coffin.Guyuan Cultural Relics Work Station,"Ningxia Guyuan Bei Wei mu qinglijianbao" (A brief excavation report of the Northern Wei tomb at Guyuan, Ninxia), Wenwu(Cultural relics) no. 6 (1984): 46-56. 45. There are interestingparallels, both superficialand profound, between this picture and Velasquez's famed painting"Las Meninas,"which also employssets of (seemingly) disconnectedimages to extend the visual field.In particular,directly facing the spec- tatorin the background,a framedrectangular mirror holds in its glow two standing

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This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions figureswho are staringat the spectator.In Foucault's words, this mirror"shows us nothingof what is representedin the pictureitself. Its motionlessgaze extends out in frontof the picture,into thatnecessary invisible region whichforms its exteriorface, to apprehend the figures arranged in that space. Instead of surrounding visible objects, this mirror cuts straightthrough the whole field of the representation, ignoringall it mightapprehend withinthat field, and restoresvisibility to that which resides outside all view"; Michel Foucault, The Orderof Things:An Archaeologyof the Human Sciences(New York, 1973), 7-8. This mirrorimagery is thus comparable with the windowimagery on the sarcophagus. 46. Norman Bryson has compared Westernand Chinese paintingin termsof their dif- ferentnotions and treatmentsof the pictorialplane: "Through much of the Western traditionoil paint is treatedprimarily as an erasivemedium. What it mustfirst erase is the surfaceof the picture-plane:visibility of the surfacewould threatenthe coherence of the fundamental technique through which the Westernrepresentational image classicallyworks the trace, of ground-to-figurerelations: 'ground,' the absence of figure,is never accorded parity,is alwaysa subtractiveterm.... The individual history of the oil-paintingis thereforelargely irretrievable, for although the visible surface has been worked, and worked as a total expanse, the viewer cannot ascertain the degree to which other surfaceslie concealed beneath the planar display: the image thatsuppresses deixis has no interestin its own genesis or past, except to bury it in a palimpsestof which only the finalversion shows through,above an indeterminable debris of revisions." In Chinese painting, on the other hand, "everythingthat is marked on the surfaceremains visible, save for those preliminariesor errorsthat are not considered part of the image." A Chinese painting"cannot be taken in all at once, totasimul, since it has itselfunfolded withinthe durgeof process; it consistsserially, in the somatic time of its construction";Vision and Painting:The Logic of theGaze (New Haven, 1983), 92, 94. The engravingon the sarcophagus, however,also shows these two modes of representationin a single composition: some scenes erase the surface while othersrestore it.

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