Schematizing Plum Blossoms

Schematizing Plum Blossoms: Understanding Printed Images in Thirteenth-Century China By Mengge Cao B.A., McGill University, 2014 A Thesis Submitted to Department of the Art History and Communication Studies of McGill University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Department of Art History and Communication Studies McGill University Montreal, Quebec December 2016 © Mengge Cao 2016 ABSTRACT This thesis examines the significance of the printed images in the Register of Plum Blossom Portraits (Meihua xishen pu, d. 1238), the earliest extant book illustrating plum blossoms. In particular, it focuses primarily on the visual analogs in the Register, which consists of one hundred titled picture-poem sequences. Approaching the Register through the method of “period eye,” this thesis emphasizes on two factors that shaped the author’s compositional strategy: the potentiality of the print medium and the influence of the Learning of the Way (daoxue) conceptual framework. Section 1 offers factual information concerning the production and reception of the Register. Section 2 reveals the connection between the printed plum blossoms and their counterparts in the Song dynasty (960–1279) illustrated books. Section 3 investigates the conceptual foundation of the visual analogs in the Learning of the Way framework. ii RESUME Cette thèse examine l’impact historique des images imprimées dans la Chine du treizième siècle à travers l’étude du Registre des portraits de fleurs de prunier (Meihua xishen pu, d. 1238), le livre le plus ancien illustrant des fleurs de prunier. Elle concerne plus particulièrement les séquences de poèmes-images présents dans le Registre en tant qu’analog mot-image documenté par la circulation des livres ayant permis une nouvelle approche pour traiter les données visuelles. En approchant le Registre par la méthode du « period eye», cette thèse met l’emphase sur les deux facturs qui influent sur la stratégie de composition de l’auteur: l’agence d’impression et le principe central de l’Apprentissage de la Voie (daoxue). La première section présente les faits concernant la production et la réception du Registre. La seconde section révèle les liens entre les analogs mots-images dans le Registre et leur équivalent dans les livres illustrés contemporains. La troisième section explique l’importance de construire une analogie visuelle pour l’appréciation des prunes par le cadre de l’Apprentissage de la Voie. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES v ACKNLWEDGEMENTS vi INTRODUCTION 1 SECTION 1 9 Song Boren and His Plum Blossom Catalog SECTION 2 24 Plum Blossoms as Visual Analogs SECTION 3 35 Schematizing Plum Blossoms CONCLUSION 45 APPENDIX 48 BIBLIOGRAPHY 68 ILLUSTRATIONS 77 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Illustration of Butterfly Binding (hudie zhuang ). Figure 1.1 Tripod (ding ), facsimile of the Meihua xishen pu (Wanwei biecang edition), Figure 1.2 Tripod” (ding ), facsimile of the Meihua xishen pu (1261 edition), 45. Figure 2.1 Zhu , facsimile of the Meihua xishen pu (1261 edition), 26. Figure 2.2 Zhu , in the Xinding sanlitu, 1673 edition, 46. Figure 2.3 Zhu , facsimile of the Xinbian zuantu zenglei qunshu leiyao shilin guangji, 14th century edition, 132. Figure 3.1 Bian , facsimile of the Meihua xishen pu, 1261 edition, 27. Figure 3.2 Bian , in the Xinding sanlitu, 1673 edition, 101. Figure 3.3 Bian , facsimile of the Xinbian zuantu zenglei qunshu leiyao shilin guangji, 14th century edition, 113. Figure 4.1 Gui , facsimile of the Meihua xishen pu, 1261 edition, 33. Figure 4.2 Gui in the Xinding sanlitu, 1673 edition, 100. th Figure 4.3 Gui , facsimile of the Xinbian zuantu zenglei qunshu leiyao shilin guangji, 14 century edition, 113. Figure 4.4 Gui , facsimile of Shaoxi zhouxian shidian yitu, 18th century edition, 41. Figure 5.1 Pomegranate (Shiliu ), facsimile of the Meihua xishenpu , 1261 edition, 13. Figure 5.2 Pomegranate (An shiliu ), facsimile of the Chongxiu jingshi zhenglei zhenghe bencao, 1249 edition, 476. Figure 6.1 Clam Shell (Bangke ), facsimile of the Meihua xishenpu, 1261 edition, 23. Figure 6.2 Clam (bangge ) facsimile of the Chongxiu jingshi zhenglei zhenghe bencao, 1249 edition, 442. Figure 7.1 Gibbon’s arm (yuanbi ), facsimile of the Meihua xishenpu, 1261 edition, 48. Figure 7.2 Gibbon (yuan ), in the Xinbian xiangdui siyan, 1436 edition. Figure 8. Knicknack Peddler (huolang tu ), unidentifed artsit, formly attributed to Li Song (c. 1190–1260), fan mounted as an album leaf, ink and color on silk, 26.4 x 26.7 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art. v ACKNOLWEGEMENTS This thesis would not have been completed without the support of my teachers, friends, and family. First and foremost, I owe my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Professor. Jeffrey Moser, for guiding me through the scholarly research and professional development. I am also thankful to Professors Jeehee Hong, Grace Fong, Chriscinda Henry, Gwen Bennett, Matthew Hunter, Mary Hunter, Griet Vankeerberghen and Angela Vanhaelen, who collectively broaden my horizon in terms of research material and methodology. The major part of this thesis was written during my Visiting Research Fellowship at Brown University. I have benefitted greatly from the library collection and the conversation with many scholars and students there. My thanks are also due to the scholars I met at the workshop organized by the Graduate Institute of Art History, National Taiwan University, who helped me raise certain key questions in the initial stage of the research. Lastly, I would like to thank my parents, whose unconditional support have allowed me come this far. vi INTRODUCTION The Register of Plum Blossom Portraits (Meihua xishenpu , hereafter the Register), initially printed in 1238, is the earliest illustrated book on the subject of plum blossom appreciation.1 The earliest extant Register was a reprint made in 1261 and it had been endowed with great significance since its rediscovery in the late eighteenth century. Not only did the surviving copy reinforce the status of plum blossom as an important subject in the pictorial tradition, but it also offered an opportunity to explore the historical impacts of woodblock printing during the Song Dynasty (960–1269). The Register presented one hundred plum blossom pictures, all titled and inscribed with five-character quatrains (wuyan lüshi ) composed by the artist and author, Song Boren (b. 1199, courtesy name Qizhi , studio name Xueyan ). Noticeably, the juxtaposition of image and text suggested a particular mode of viewing printed plum blossoms as visual analogs, through which the flower’s formal character was highlighted and integrated into a larger visual environment. The Register’s unique design principle raises several questions. Why did Song Boren adopt this compositional strategy and what kind of meaning did he intend to generate for the historical viewers? What role did the print medium play in the making of the Register? What was the point of associating plum blossoms with other things based on their formal resemblance? Attempting to answer these questions, this thesis examines the Register as a designed artifact, a physical embodiment of the convergence of authorial, technological, and conceptual agencies. Particular attention will be paid to the making of the plum blossom visual analogs, which marked an important shift in the Song dynasty visual culture. 1 The 1238 edition of the Register did not survive. The earliest extant copy is a re-print made in 1261, collected by the Shanghai Museum. The textual history and material condition of the 1261 imprint will be discussed in “Section 1” of this thesis. 1 Literature Review Using the method of evidential research (kaoju ), scholars in the Qing dynasty (1644–1912) compiled factual information to reconstruct the textual history of the book and Song Boren’s biography. Recorded in the postscript of the Register, Qian Daxin (1728– 1804) and Ruan Yuan (1764–1849) explained the term xishen in the book’s title as the Song dynasty vernacular expression of “sketching a portrait” (xiexiang ).2 Influenced by the pictorial implication of xishen, the Register had been studied primarily in the context of painting rather than the print culture. Tanaka Toyozo (1881–1948) was the first scholar who identified the Register as the progenitor of the painting manual (huapu ) tradition.3 Shimada Shūjirō (1907–1994) associated the printed plum blossoms with “ink plum” (momei ), a literati painting genre formed during the Song Dynasty.4 Building upon Shimada’s thesis, art historian Maggie Bickford combined stylistic and textual analysis to reveal the embedded political meaning in the Register. Mainly focusing on the historical allusions in the matching poem, Bickford argued that the book was intended to convey the author’s political opinions. 5 Also based on the close reading of Song Boren’s published poems, Chen Te-hsin proposed that the Register served more utilitarian purpose of finding its author a government job.6 2 Qian Daxin , “Ba” , in Meihua xishenpu , ed. Yin Shoushi , vol. 1 of Zhongguo guhuapu jicheng (Jinan: Shandong meishu chubanshe, 2000), 149. 3 Tanaka Toyozo , “Sohon baika kishinfu” , in Chugoku bijustu no kenkyu (Tokyo: Nigensha, 1964), 209. 4 Shimada Shūjirō , “Shosai baifu teiyo” , Bunka 20, no. 2 (1956): 96–118. 5 Maggie Bickford, Ink Plum: The Making of a Chinese Scholar Painting Genre (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 183–184; Bickford, “Stirring the Pot of State: The Sung Picture-Book Meihua Hsi-Shen P’u and Its Implication on Yuan Scholar Painting,” Asia Major 6 (1993): 219–223. 6 Chen Te-hsin , “Meihua xishenpu song boren de ziwo tuijianshu” , Guoli Taiwan 2 The medium specificity of the Register has received less attention in the aforementioned case studies. The modern Chinese terms for woodcut, banhua or muke hua , was firstly used by the early twentieth century scholars to incorporate the age-old tradition into an art historical narrative modeled after the western counterpart.

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