The Pictorial Portrayal of Women and Didactic Messages in the Han And

_full_journalsubtitle: Men, Women and Gender in China _full_abbrevjournaltitle: NANU _full_ppubnumber: ISSN 1387-6805 (print version) _full_epubnumber: ISSN 1568-5268 (online version) _full_issue: 2 _full_issuetitle: 0 _full_alt_author_running_head (change var. to _alt_author_rh): 0 _full_alt_articletitle_running_head (change var. to _alt_arttitle_rh): The Pictorial Portrayal of Women and Didactic Messages _full_alt_articletitle_toc: 0 _full_is_advance_article: 0

NAN N Ü The Pictorial Portrayal OfNan Women Nü 19 (2017) And Didactic155-212 Messages 155

Contents The Pictorial Portrayal of Women and Didactic Messages in the Han and Six Dynasties 155 brill.com/nanu Wen-chien Cheng Chinese Women Go Global: Discursive and Visual Representations of the Foreign ‘Other’ in the Early Chinese Women’s Press and Media 213 Paul J. Bailey A Pictorial Autobiography by Zeng Jifen (1852-1942) and the Use of the “Exemplary” in China’s Modern Transformation 263 Binbin Yang Heroes, Hooligans, and Knights-Errant: Masculinities and Popular Media in the Early People’s Republic of China 316 Y. Yvon Wang The Pictorial Portrayal of Women and Didactic Gentlemen, Heroes, Real Men, Disabled Men: Explorations at the Intersections of Disability and Masculinity in Contemporary China 357 Sarah Dauncey Bret Hinsch 385 Messages in the Han and Six Dynasties Robin D.S. Yates Wilt Idema 394 Xiaorong Li Louise Edwards 398 Ying-kit Chan Zheng Wang 402 Nicola Spakowski Wen-chien Cheng Cui Shuqin 406 Elizabeth Parke Royal Ontario Museum Yang Hu 410 William Jankowiak [email protected] Corrigenda 415 Contents to Volume 19 (2017) 417

Abstract

This study examines the visual forms into which Liu Xiang’s (ca. 79-8 BCE) compilation Lienü zhuan (Categorized biographies of women) were translated during the Han (221 BCE-220 CE) and Six Dynasties (220-589) periods. After Liu Xiang’s work appeared, the images of lienü were established as a distinctive visual category, developed within a broader context of a didactic pictorial genre that engaged the use of images for both the living and the dead. They not only provided admonitory functions, but also were considered auspicious and visually pleasant. In addition to a body of excavated lienü images from these periods, I examine two later scrolls originally rooted in this pictorial genre of lienü, the Lienü renzhi tu (Sympathetic and wise women scroll) in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and the Nüshi zhen tu (Admonitions of the court instructress) in the British Museum. I argue that the two paintings epitomize an ideal female exemplar who is virtuous, graceful, and physically attractive – all these qualities and their textual associa- tions served as markers of the owner/viewer’s elite status.

Keywords

Han and Six Dynasties period – Lienü zhuan – lienü image – female exemplar – didactic image – Gu Kaizhi

Introduction

As the first literary work focused solely on women, Liu Xiang’s 劉向 (ca. 79- 8 BCE) Lienü zhuan 列女傳 (Categorized biographies of women),1 completed

1 The title of this work has commonly been translated as “Biographies of exemplary women” in past scholarship. The meaning of lie 列 in the compound lienü 列女 should not be confused

©Nan koninklijke Nü 19 (2017) brill 155-212 nv, leiden, 2017 | doi 10.1163/15685268-00192P01Downloaded from Brill.com10/08/2021 01:54:00AM via free access 156 Cheng in 34 BCE, has received extensive scholarly attention.2 Owing to its importance over the centuries, the book has been thoroughly studied as a literary genre dominating writing about women’s biography in Chinese history.3 The influence of Lienü zhuan, however, goes beyond literature. It has functioned as an inspiration for didactic illustrations throughout Chinese history. This paper in- vestigates the translation process whereby lienü narratives and other admonitory texts for women took visual form during the Han 漢 (221 BCE-220 CE) and Six Dynasties (220-589) periods. I explore the visual aesthetics of didactic female images, their pictorial conventions and functions, viewers’ perceptions and reactions, and the text-image relationship. The visual materials discussed in this paper include a body of excavated lienü images from the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220) and Six Dynasties, whose dating is relatively well established. I also examine two paintings that contain images of female exemplars, Lienü renzhi tu 列女仁智圖 (Sympathetic and wise women scroll) (Figure 1), and Nüshi zhen tu 女史箴圖 (Admonitions of the court instructress) traditionally attributed to Gu Kaizhi 顧愷之 (ca. 344- 405) (Figure 2). Although considered a copy made after the Tang 唐 era (618- 907), Lienü renzhi tu preserves a much earlier original composition and pictorial rendering of figures from the late Han to the Six Dynasties. It represents the earliest concentrated pictorial transformation of a chapter from the Lienü zhuan, which deserves greater attention than it has hitherto received. Compared with the Lienü renzhi tu, the Nüshi zhen tu illustrates a different genre of didactic text. I will argue in this paper, however, that the Nüshi zhen tu

with lie 烈 (illustrious). Instead, its usage corresponds to lie in liezhuan 列傳 (various biographies) and lieguo 列國 (various states). See Kinney’s more detailed discussion in her introduction to Exemplary Women of Early China: The Lienü zhuan of Liu Xiang (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014), xxxvii. 2 The bibliographical treatises of later dynastic histories attribute the authorship of Lienü zhuan to the Western Han scholar Liu Xiang. But there have been intense scholarly discussions concerning his authorship of the text, and its original version in relation to various later editions. For a good summary, see Bret Hinsch, “The Textual History of Liu Xiang’s Lienü zhuan,” Monumenta Serica 52 (2004): 95-112. See also Lisa Raphals, Sharing the Light: Representations of Women and Virtue in Early China (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1998): 105-12. 3 See the introduction in Joan Judge and Hu Ying, eds., Beyond Exemplar Tales: Women’s Biography in Chinese History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011), 1-14. See also Harriet Zurndorfer, “The Lienü zhuan Tradition and Wang Zhaoyuan’s (1763-1851) Production of the Lienü zhuan buzhu (1812),” in Judge and Hu, eds., Beyond Exemplar Tales, 55-69, and especially pages 55-59.

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a b

Nan Nü 19 (2017) 155-212 Downloaded from Brill.com10/08/2021 01:54:00AM via free access 158 Cheng ; ink and light colors on silk; handscroll; 25.8 × 470.3 cm; provided by the Palace Museum, Beijing. the Palace by cm; provided 25.8 × 470.3 tu 列女仁智圖 ; ink and light colors on silk; handscroll; , Lienü renzhi Anonymous

FIGURE 1 c d

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d FIGURE 2 Gu Kaizhi 顧愷之 (attributed), Nüshi zhen tu 女史箴圖; ink and colour on silk; handscroll mounted on a panel; 25 × 348.5 cm; provided by the British Museum, London. © The Trustees of the British Museum. follows closely the pictorial tradition of lienü images. Whether the Nüshi zhen tu presents a straightforward rendition of admonitions or is embedded with satirical implications in its portrayal of female images will also be investi gated.4

4 Kohara Hironobu 古原宏伸 was among the first scholars to view the painting as satirical because of a poor fit between the painting’s pictorial elements and its didactic message. See Shane McCausland, ed., and trans., The Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies

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Commentaries made during later dynasties often highlighted the didactic nature of pictorial art during the Han dynasty, resulting in a common view that Han authors tended not to appreciate pictorial images for their visual beauty alone.5 However, the actual dynamic of the pictorial and social functions of early art was more complicated. Through the examination of female exemplar images and of relevant literary texts, I argue that the visual aesthetics of didactic images established in the Han privileged text over image. In general, this primacy of text over image is the key to understanding how viewers at the time perceived these early didactic images. The viewer’s prior knowledge of the text is assumed, and the insertion of texts into these images signifies the literacy status of their original owners. Nevertheless, other evolving factors may condi- tion the viewer’s knowledge of earlier texts during the translation process of texts to images. The case of lienü images demonstrates that Liu Xiang’s initial politicized use of lienü changed when lienü stories and figures were trans- formed into visual form in various ways and contexts during the Eastern Han and the Six Dynasties. Although the viewers’ perception of the didactic essence of lienü figures may have remained the same, these images could carry specific didactic messages and provide other functions than those Liu Xiang intended. In addition, while there was some notion of the visual effectiveness in the functionality of images, the viewer was largely responsible for recognizing the supposed didactic message of pictures associated with moral stories during the Han and Six Dynasties period. With the two painted scrolls discussed in this paper as examples, I problematize the assumption of conflict or tension in interpreting female images depicted in earlier didactic genres. The representation of physical beauty was never intended to contradict the didactic mes sages. Instead, we should read the pictorial charm of female beauty, other

Scroll [revision of Kohara’s “Joshi shin zukan,” Kokka 國華 908, 909 (1967): 17-3.1: 13-27], published in Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art Occasional Papers 1 (London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 2000), 1-69, and see pp. 10-14. Recently, a number of scholars, including Julia Murray, Chen Pao-chen, and Wu Hung have argued, however, that the image is not at odds with the admonitory treatise. In contrast, Audrey Spiro and Shane McCausland continue to view the scroll’s aesthetic characteristics as “unusual” and as a type of satirical didacticism. See the essays included in Shane McCausland, ed., Gu Kaizhi and the Admonitions Scroll (London: British Museum Press, 2003); see also Shane McCausland, “The Admonitions Scroll: Ideals of Etiquette, Art and Empire from Early China,” Orientations 32:6 (2001):22-29, and especially page 24. I believe that the interpretation of the representation of attractive female figures is the key to this debate. 5 Wu Hung, The Double Screen: Medium and Representation in Chinese Painting (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), 89.

DownloadedNan from Nü Brill.com10/08/202119 (2017) 155-212 01:54:00AM via free access The Pictorial Portrayal Of Women And Didactic Messages 161 eye-pleasing qualities, and textual association in the painting as markers of status. In particular, the Six Dynasties era saw the increasing appreciation of the artistry of scroll paintings. In this context, the painted scroll developed as a new medium associated with named artists and the cultivated taste of the elite. The elite appreciated representational skills in portraying elegant ladies as well as the psychological aspects of human interaction. The comparative study of the two scrolls, along with excavated earlier visual materials, suggests that the appreciation of all these qualities was not detached from the earlier concept that virtue, etiquette, status, and beauty combined to mark the noble status of the viewer/owner.

Lienü zhuan and the Didactic Pictorial Genre of the Han Dynasty

The original Lienü zhuan consists of six chapters devoted to the stories of exemplary women according to six virtues, as well as one chapter on the stories of “evil women.” A surviving passage from Liu Xiang’s Bie lu 別錄 (Detached accounts) and Qi lüe 七略 (Seven epitomes) gives his explanation for compiling the book. He claimed that his reason was to demonstrate “the effects of disaster and blessing, honor and disgrace, and to differentiate right from wrong, and gain from loss.”6 The biography of Liu Xiang in the Hanshu 漢書 (History of the [former] Han) mentions that he observed the corruption and licentiousness of his time, and attributed these factors to transgressions of the ritual system. He therefore collected and edited stories of virtuous as well as evil ladies for the purpose of warning (jie 戒) the Son of Heaven, because he believed that “a ruler’s guidance proceeds from the inner to the outer and begins with what is nearby.”7 Liu Xiang made a selection of numerous stories edi- fying women, which were also painted on the four panels of a screen at the time the text was written.8 According to the “Yiwen zhi” 藝文志 in the Hanshu, Liu Xiang was also the author of a volume titled Lienü zhuan song tu 列女傳頌圖 (Categorized biographies of women with verse summaries and illustrations). Since the text was recorded in the “Yiwen zhi” along with his writings, it seems likely the Lienü zhuan song tu was in a portable format, perhaps a vol-

6 Qi lüe, as quoted in Li Fang 李昉, Taiping yulan 太平御覽 (reprint, 1983; Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1960), 701:4b. The translation is taken from Raphals, Sharing the Light, 107. 7 Ban Gu 班固, Hanshu 漢書 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1962), 1957-58. The entire paragraph is translated by Hinsch, “Textual History,” 97. 8 Xu Jian 徐堅 (659-729), Chuxueji 初學記, in Siku quanshu 四庫全書, vol. 890, 25:6b; see Wen yuan ge siku quanshu 文淵閣四庫全書, electronic edition, Digital Heritage.

Nan Nü 19 (2017) 155-212 Downloaded from Brill.com10/08/2021 01:54:00AM via free access 162 Cheng ume or scroll. There is no indication, however, that Liu Xiang illustrated the texts himself or commissioned artisans to accompany his song 頌 (a form of verse summary) for each story. Liu Xiang’s compilation of the Lienü zhuan was a product of his own historical/political circumstances. However, as pointed out by researchers, he combined elements of two earlier literary genres, and employed a rich source of raw materials from earlier texts. The result was the creation of a new genre – “lienü narratives about moral exemplars” – which became “the most copious genre of imperial writing about women,” according to Bret Hinsch.9 During the Eastern Han and Six Dynasties, a body of pictorial materials also existed illustrating stories from the Lienü zhuan – a pictorial genre of lienü. Similar to the literary genre of lienü, the pictorial genre of lienü had precedents, despite being predominantly a post-Liu phenomenon. What prompted Liu Xiang himself to create or commission the illustrations of his Lienü zhuan is inseparable from the didactic pictorial tradition of the Han period that manifests a close relationship between text and image. Most of the characters, both male and female, depicted on Han palaces are legend- ary or historical figures whose stories with didactic messages can be found in a variety of early texts. Some recorded the figures’ names on the walls.10 When commissioning paintings in his palace, Emperor Ming 明帝 (r. 58-75) was said to consult Ban Gu 班固 (32-92) and other scholars in order to select his sub- jects: stories from the classics and history books. These painted images clearly had their textual bases. The surviving visual materials of the Han period also provide ample evidence of the practice of inscribing texts next to the narrative images of exemplary portraits, whether to identify the depicted figures or to provide commentaries.11 We have textual evidence that, among these illustrations for didactic purposes, there are cases of female figures portrayed in Liu Xiang’s own time or before. In his “Lingguangdian fu” 靈光殿賦 (Rhapsody of the Hall of Numinous Light), the Eastern Han poet Wang Yanshou 王延壽 (active 140-165) gave an

9 The two earlier major models are the liezhuan (biography) narratives in Shiji 史記 and the poetic commentary of Hanshi waizhuan 韓詩外傳. See discussions by Bret Hinsch, “Cross-Genre Influence on the Fictional Aspects of Lienü Narratives,” Journal of Oriental Studies 41.1 (2006):41-66. 10 For example, see He Yan 何晏, “Jingfu dian fu” 景福殿賦, in Xiao Tong 蕭統, comp., with annotations by Li Shan 李善, Wenxuan 文選 (Taibei: Shijie shuju, 1962), Chapter 11, 155. 11 See discussions by Du Zhengsheng 杜正勝, “Xuanwu yu cunxing – Han Tang tuhua tiji xiao lun” 宣物與存形－漢唐圖畫題記小論, Gugong wenwu yuekan 故宮文物月刊 21.12 (2004): 4-29.

DownloadedNan from Nü Brill.com10/08/202119 (2017) 155-212 01:54:00AM via free access The Pictorial Portrayal Of Women And Didactic Messages 163 account of what was portrayed in the murals on the Hall of Numinous Light built by the Han Prince of Lu 魯 around the second century BCE:

Last come the Three Tyrants; depraved consorts, misguided rulers, Loyal statesmen, filial sons; heroic knights, chaste women, Worthies and fools, the failed and accomplished; none have gone un attested, The wicked are warnings to the world; the good are examples for posterity.

下及三后, 媱妃亂主, 忠臣孝子, 列士貞女, 賢愚成敗, 靡不載敘, 惡以戒世, 善以示後.12

Without recording the names of the actual historical figures, “depraved consorts” and “chaste women” were depicted alongside male figures to act as a contrast to these good exemplars and to serve as warning. Two other textual records, both from the Hanshu, mention images of consorts appearing in various court contexts. Lady Ban (Ban Jieyu 班婕妤; ca. 48 BCE-2 CE), the imperial concubine of Emperor Cheng 成帝 (r. 32-7 BCE) of the Western Han (202 BCE- CE 9), made the following speech when she refused the emperor’s request to ride with him in the imperial chariot to the harem: “If you observe the pictures of ancient times, sagely and worthy rulers all had celebrated ministers by their sides, and the final [unworthy] rulers of the Three Dynasties had their favored concubines” (Guan gu tuhua, xiansheng zhi jun jie you minchen zaice, sandai mozhu nai you binü. 觀古圖畫, 賢聖之君皆有名臣在側, 三代末主乃有嬖女).13 According to her account, the representation of the vicious consorts accompanying rulers in ancient times facilitated the idea of seeing these fe- males as agents of chaos for the rulers. The second record consists of the lines from a poem also by Lady Ban, which read, “Unrolling nütu [scrolls depicting an array of women], I take them as a mirror for self-reflection; Turning to nüshi [the court instructress], I ask questions about the Book of Odes” (Chen nütu yi jingjian, gu nüshi er wenshi 陳女圖以鏡鑑, 顧女史而問詩).14 The lines that follow mention both virtuous and vicious historical women. Here, images of

12 Xiao Tong, Wenxuan, Chapter 11, 154; trans. by David R. Knechtges, Wen Xuan or Selections of Refined Literature (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987), 275. 13 Ban Gu, Hanshu, 3983-84. All translations are mine unless otherwise noted. 14 Ban Gu, Hanshu, 3983-85.

Nan Nü 19 (2017) 155-212 Downloaded from Brill.com10/08/2021 01:54:00AM via free access 164 Cheng female figures, represented in the format of a scroll, served the role of providing the court lady with admonitions. Historically, the Eastern Han period witnessed the implantation of Confu- cian ideology which emphasized a person’s virtue, family values, and social order at large. While there was no lack of textual sources for pictorial representations of male exemplars in this period, Liu Xiang’s Lienü zhuan stood out as the first broad moral textual base for the portrayal of female behavior, with its systematic compilation of 104 biographies of women. During the Eastern Han and the Six Dynasties periods, Lienü zhuan naturally became a foundational source for the pictorial representation of historical female exemplars. In creat- ing Lienü zhuan and its illustrations, Liu Xiang advanced a specific political agenda in reaction to the context of the late Western Han court. It is important to note that intentions of subsequent patrons of pictorial lienü illustrations differed from his agenda. The next section examines the transformation of the extant pictorial genre of lienü.

Transformations in the Pictorial Genre of Lienü: From the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Six Dynasties

How lienü images were represented to their viewers was determined largely by their original contexts and purposes. I will discuss these images with respect to their patrons, functions, inscriptions, representational modes, and figural styles. Although none of Liu Xiang’s original illustrations of Lienü zhuan are extant, many lienü images have survived, from the mid-to-late Eastern Han to Six Dynasties periods in a wide geographic zone from Shandong 山東, Shaanxi 陝西, and Sichuan 四川 provinces to Inner Mongolia.15 These images include stone reliefs from shrines, murals decorating tomb chambers, sarcophagus carvings, and a screen found in a burial. A key point is that these later images were part of funeral practices. Liu Xiang, by contrast, created images for those who were alive. However, in ancient China, burials served as an inter- face between this world and the world beyond.16 The audience for funerary

15 For the study of visual and textual materials of lienü during these periods, I rely mainly on Lan Yu-chi 藍玉琦, “Dong Han huaxiang lienütu yanjiu” 東漢畫像列女圖研究 (M.A. thesis, Graduate Institute of Art History, Taipei National University of the Arts, 2009), 1-115. 16 Michael Loewe’s “Funerary Practice in Han Times” provides a good general survey of Han burial practices; see this essay in Cary Y. Liu, Michael Nylan, and Anthony Barbirei-Low, eds., Recarving China’s Past: Art, Archaeology, and Architecture of the ‘Wu Family Shrines’

DownloadedNan from Nü Brill.com10/08/202119 (2017) 155-212 01:54:00AM via free access The Pictorial Portrayal Of Women And Didactic Messages 165 images included both the living and/or those in the afterlife, depending on the specific burial contexts. In the case of extant lienü images, the range of their audience may have consisted of the deceased, surviving family members, and local visitors. The stone reliefs engraved on the interior surface walls of family shrines, such as the Wu Liang Shrine (Wu Liang ci 武梁祠) at Jiaxiang 嘉祥 and the Xiaoshi Shrine (Xiaoshi ci 小石祠) at Songshan 宋山 in Shandong province, likely included this range of audience. Such shrines functioned as residences for the deceased’s hun 魂 (spiritual soul).17 They also served as a worship space for surviving family members and local visitors.18 By contrast, the reliefs in the underground tomb chambers found in Suide 綏德 and Shenmu 神木 counties (Shaanxi), murals in the Horinger 和林格爾 (Inner Mongolia) tomb, and the surface carvings of a sarcophagus found in the Xinjin 新津 area (Sichuan), were likely mainly for private viewing, especially for the gaze of the dead. These tomb chambers, which sheltered the sarcophagi, were essentially the resting place of the deceased’s body and po 魄 (earthly soul). Some studies have suggested that during the Han period, surviving family members may have had a chance to behold such chambers before the burial and closure of the tomb.19 Nevertheless, the pictorial images and furnishings must have been predominantly for the dead because the viewing by the living was brief. The sole case of a movable object that contains lienü images, a screen excavated from a tomb in Datong 大同, was a burial object. Most likely, this screen was used during the tomb occupants’ (muzhu 墓主) lifetime and buried later as part of the funerary furnishings. Therefore, among all the surviving lienü images, it might reveal the closest affinity to Liu Xiang’s original lienü images. In- sofar as we know the social status of the tomb occupants discussed here, they were members of the nobility or local officials. While Liu Xiang’s original audience for lienü texts and images was living rulers, later lienü images reached out to the dead and encompassed a wider social spectrum as their audience.20

(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2005; distributed by Yale University Press), 99-118. 17 For the basic concept of hun and po, see Michael Loewe, Ways to Paradise: The Chinese Quest for Immortality (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1979), 9-10. 18 Martin Powers, “Pictorial Art and Its Public in Early Imperial China,” Art History 7.2 (1984): 135-64, and see page 144. 19 Zheng Yan, “Concerning the Viewers of Han Mortuary Art,” in Liu, Nylan, and Barbirei- Low, eds., Rethinking Recarving, 92-109. 20 This is pointed out also in Zhang Yushan 張毓珊, “Shixi Sima Jinlong qihua pingfeng zhi tuhui fengge de yuanliu” 試析司馬金龍漆畫屏風之圖繪風格的源流, Yishu luntan 藝術論壇 4 (2006): 129-155, and see page 137.

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Based on currently available evidence, the female images derived from Lienü zhuan were highly selective. Stories carved on stone reliefs in family shrines focus primarily on heroines whose histories deliver Confucian moral lessons aimed at commoners rather than women of the ruling class.21 A typical example is the Wu Liang Shrine, built in the Eastern Han period, when Confu- cianism had become a state ideology and its teaching was firmly established in local communities among the educated elite. Eight narratives of historical women selected from Lienü zhuan are carved alongside other stories originat- ing elsewhere. They all exemplify Confucian moral values such as a hierarchi- cal political order, family loyalty, and righteous and selfless behavior.22 The lienü images at the Wu Liang Shrine reveal narrative qualities by representing a highlight of the story within one structural frame – what can be termed the “mono-scenic mode of representation.”23 The majority of stories focus on dramatic events asserting women’s chastity and devotion to family.24 (Figure 3) This topical emphasis and relatively dramatic, story-like orientation facilitated expressing ideal conduct in visual form.25 Mural paintings found in an underground tomb dated to the Eastern Han at Horinger, near the border with Shanxi 山西 province, include a greater selection of stories from Lienü zhuan.26 Lienü are depicted in the middle chamber, the central place in the tomb complex. The pictorial decoration on the walls of this central chamber likely reflects the representative ideal life, images, and moral ideologies of the deceased, who was a local official.27 A large section on the northern wall is devoted to an elaborate scene of the “welcoming home the

21 These family shrines include: Dawenkou mu 大汶口墓 at Taishan 泰山; Xiaoshi ci 小石祠 at Songshan 宋山; Beizhai cun 北寨村 at Yinan 沂南; Dongjia cun 董家村 at Teng xian 藤縣; and Wu Liang ci 武梁祠 at Jiaxiang 嘉祥. 22 Wu Hung devotes a section to the representation of historical stories in the Wu Liang Shrine in his book The Wu Liang Shrine: The Ideology of Early Chinese Pictorial Art (Stan- ford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1989), 173-80. 23 Julia Murray defines the “mono-scenic mode of representation” as a composition that “represents a single moment within one structural frame.” See her Mirror of Morality: Chi- nese Narrative Illustration and Confucian Ideology (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2007), 16. 24 For a detailed discussion of lienü images at the Wu Liang shrine, see Wu Hung, Wu Liang Shrine, 170-80. 25 Wu Hung, Wu Liang Shrine, 218-30. 26 For a general study of this tomb, see Anneliese Gutkind Bulling, “The Eastern Han Tomb at Ho-Lin-Ko-êh (Holingol),” Archives of Asian Art 31 (1977/78): 79-103. See also Nei Menggu Zizhiqu bowuguan 內蒙古自治區博物館, comp., Helingeer Han mu bihua 和林格爾漢墓壁畫 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1978), 1-31. 27 Helingeer Han mu bihua, 10.

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FIGURE 3 Examples of lienü images at the Wu Liang Ci 武梁祠, Shandong province. a. Story of Liang Gaoxing 梁高行; ink rubbing (upper) and reconstruction (lower) of wall carving; Eastern Han. Image Source: Shi Suo 石索, 1821, vol.3, 3.1. Rare book collection at H.H. Mu Far Eastern Library, Royal Ontario Museum. b. Story of Qiu Hu’s wife 魯秋胡妻; ink rubbing (upper) and reconstruction (lower) of wall carving; Eastern Han. Image Source: Shi Suo, 1821, vol.3, 3.2.

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FIGURE 4 Portion of lienü 列女 images (the bottom row) depicted on the northern wall of the middle chamber; mural; Eastern Han. Holingol, Inner Mongolia. Image source: Helin’geer Han mu bihua 和林格爾墓壁畫, 139, Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1978. souls of the dead rite.”28 Spread out on the north, west, and south walls, lienü images appear to be part of larger representations of historical figures, including exemplars of filial piety, heroic male figures, disciples of Confucius, sages, and so forth (Figure 4). Of the more than eighty historical figures represented, lienü figures occupy a large proportion, roughly half.29 In many areas, the murals are severely damaged, making it hard to discern the details of images. However, with the inscribed names next to the images, researchers have identified forty-three lienü stories.30 Protagonists include both commoners and roy- alty. This group makes up the largest number of lienü illustrations in the Han period. The order of depicted lienü stories follows closely the order of textual

28 Bulling, “Eastern Han Tomb,” 87. 29 For a good reproduction of the mural images and the overall layout of mural pictorial design, see Chen Yongzhi 陳永志 and Akira Kuroda 黑田彰, eds., Helin’geer Han mu bi hua xiaozi zhuan tu ji lu 和林格爾漢墓壁畫孝子傳圖輯錄 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 2009). 30 Akira Kuroda, “Helin’geer Han bihuamuli de xiaozi zhuan tu, Kongzi dizitu yi ji lienü tu, lieshi tu” 和林格爾漢壁畫墓裡的孝子傳圖、孔子弟子圖以及列女圖、列士圖, in Chen Yongzhi and Akira Kuroda, eds, Helingeer Han mu bihua, 8-15, and see pages 11-13.

DownloadedNan from Nü Brill.com10/08/202119 (2017) 155-212 01:54:00AM via free access The Pictorial Portrayal Of Women And Didactic Messages 169 arrangement in Lienü zhuan. The mural portrayal of lienü, therefore, indicates a close link to what had likely become a well-known literary text. Unlike the aboveground shrines, whose visitors included surviving family members and the public, the underground tomb chamber at Horinger was an enclosed resting place for the dead, and thus relatively private. Compared to the images at the Wu Liang Shrine, which emphasize dramatic highlights of stories or storytelling visual effect, the majority of lienü images at the Horinger tomb present themselves more like portraits (in profile or three-quarter view). Although a few images appear in mono-scenic mode, rows of portraitesque lienü images appear in a quiescent manner. Such images functioned less to impart moral lessons to the survivors than to provide a statement or endorse- ment of the tomb occupant’s moral beliefs. The portraitesque lienü images may also exemplify the conventional practice of “portrait admonition” in painted representations of the Han period. Images of sage kings and ministers, wise imperial consorts, vicious concubines, and so forth deliver didactic messages to rulers. Instead of depicting historical figures in narrative scenes, many such images represent them as individual portraits.31 Whether in portraitesque or mono-scenic mode, lienü images carved in the Wu Liang Shrine and those depicted on Horinger tomb murals include a sim- ple name-type of inscription, or bangti 榜題 next to the images. Such a fashion demonstrates the attachment of images to textual sources, and the main purpose of the bangti was to identify the portrayed figures. Bangti was likely desirable in the portrait type of images in lieu of narrative elements. However, not all extant lienü images have accompanying inscriptions. The existence of many lienü images without bangti suggests a third way of representing them. For example, lienü images without bangti were engraved repeatedly on the surface of sarcophagi excavated from tombs in the Xinjin 新津 area in Sichuan province. One common motif is the story of the Chaste Wife of Qiu Hu of the state of Lu (Lu Qiu Hufu 魯秋胡婦). A heroine often depicted in shrines as well, her image is engraved among an array of other figural representations decorating two sides of the sarcophagus in the Pengshan Ya 彭山崖 tomb, Xinjin (Figure 5).

31 This is argued by Shih Shou-chien 石守謙, who observes that there are two types of representation in didactic painted images established since the early imperial dynasties, based on textual evidence. One is “huaxiang guijian tu” 畫像規諫圖 (portrait admonition images) and the other “gushi guijian tu” 故事規諫圖 (narrative admonition images). See Shih’s “Nan Song de liangzhong guijian hua” 南宋的兩種規諫畫, in Shih Shou- chien, Fengge yu shibian: Zhongguo huihua shi lunji 風格與世變: 中國繪畫史論集 (Tai- bei: Yuncheng wenhua shiye youxian gongsi, 1996), 89-129, and especially, pages 93-101.

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FIGURE 5 Story of Qiu Hu’s wife (two figures on the farthest left); ink rubbing from the carving of a sarcophagus; 74.5 × 213 cm; Eastern Han; excavated from the tomb at Pengshanya 彭山崖, Sichuan province; Sichuan University Museum. Image Source: Zhongguo huaxiang shi quanji 中國畫像石全集 vol. 7, pl. 202 (Jinan: Shandong meishu chubanshe, 2000).

FIGURE 6 Story of Qiu Hu’s wife (two figures on the farthest left); stone engraving, the façade of tomb gate; 27 × 168 cm; Eastern Han; excavated from the tomb at Daobaodang 大保當, Shenmu 神木, Shaanxi province. Archeology Institute of Shaanxi province. Image source: Zhongguo huaxiang shi quanji vol. 5, pl. 225.

The same story appears in the reliefs on the façade of gates (menmei 門楣) in several tombs from Suide and Shenmu counties (Figure 6). With no inscription, these lienü images were also connected to a larger group of figures carved in a row. Despite the lack of accompanying inscriptions, scholars have been able to identify the images as the story of the Chaste Wife of Qiu Hu based on the relatively fixed iconography, which is a mono-scenic representation.32 However, it seems that the repeated usage of the image without its bangti had reduced it to a decorative motif. It became a part of decorative graphic design, as also indicated by its location, such as on the upper border of the gate. The reliefs on the sarcophagi surfaces probably served similar decorative functions.

32 Lan Yu-chi studies in detail the iconography of the “Chaste Wife of Qiu Hu of the state of Lu,” in Lan Yu-chi, “Dong Han huaxiang,” 55-62.

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Because these images were on the closest surface enclosing the deceased body, they might also function as the reminder of the moral virtues the tomb master wished to proclaim, similar to the function that we find in the walls of shrines and tomb chambers. However, the pictorial familiarity of the depicted story and the omission of its bangti suggest that the moral claim was conveyed in a more general manner. In other words, no bangti was needed since there was no desire/need to identify the individual story. Instead the imagery functioned like a pictorial motif to symbolize a mode of moral conduct. Such generalized images of lienü surely became common only after both the stories and images of lienü had become popular and familiar to their patrons. Both the portraitesque and mono-scenic lienü images sometimes appear without bangti. In a funerary context, patrons might view lienü images in a general manner. Carved on the two columns framing a gate of the back chamber of an underground Eastern Han tomb in Suide county are several such non-specific lienü images along with other figural images. (Figure 7) Two paral- lel lines of inscriptions, one on each side, accompany the images. The left line reads:

Viewing the images of Fan Ji and other female exemplars, people can be inspired to behave humbly and respectfully and to honor noble virtues. Their children will then be blessed with official titles and prosperity.

覽樊姬，觀列女，崇禮讓，遵大雅，貴組綬，富支子。33

Instead of inserting bangti for specific identification, “Fan Ji 樊姬” (the consort of Duke Zhuang of Chu 楚莊王, r. 614-591 BCE), whose story is included in Lienü zhuan, and the term lienü (female exemplars) identify several portraitesque female figures depicted on the columns as characters from Lienü zhuan. The location of the entrance is clearly relevant to two verbs, lan 覽 (looking) and guan 觀 (viewing), used in the inscription, which suggest that the images appeared in viewers’ first sight at the gate of chamber. The summary nature of the inscription encourages the viewer to see the carvings also as symbolic imagery representing the principal beliefs and wishes of the deceased. They are supposed to inspire good deeds in general that will benefit posterity. The only extant portable object that includes a depiction of lienü images is a painted screen excavated from the tomb of Sima Jinlong 司馬金龍 (d. 484)

33 The translation is Zheng Yan’s with my minor modification; see Zheng Yan, “Concerning the Viewers of Han Mortuary Art,” 101.

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FIGURE 7 Lienü images with inscriptions; ink rubbings from the carving of a pair of stone columns; 138 × 45 cm (left) and 124 × 40 cm (right); Eastern Han; excavated from the tomb at Wuyan quan 嗚咽泉, Suide 綏德, Shaanxi Province. Suide County Museum. Image source: Zhongguo huaxiang shi quanji vol. 5, pls. 188, 189.

and his wife in Datong, Shanxi province.34 As mentioned previously, the screen might have been used during the couple’s lifetime before it was buried. If so, it is the only surviving visual evidence containing lienü images from this period originally made for the living and therefore closest to Liu Xiang’s original creation. Painted on both sides, the remains of this lacquer screen contain illustrations not only of lienü but also of filial sons and other historical moral exemplars (Figure 8). Lienü characters occupy a large portion of the screen panels. Some researchers have observed that the arrangement of images on the inner versus the outer surface of the screen represents the concept of private versus public. On the outer surface (or the front) of the screen, the images

34 For an archaeological report of the tomb, see “Shanxi Datong Shijiazai Beiwei Sima Jin- long mu” 山西大同石家寨北魏司馬金龍墓, Wenwu 文物 3 (1972):20-29.

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FIGURE 8 Sections of a painted screen (images of lienü on right panel); lacquer and pigments on wood; 81.5 × 40.5 cm; Northern Wei; excavated from the tomb of Sima Jinlong 司馬金龍 (d. 484) and his wife, Datong 大同, Shanxi province. With permission of the Shanxi Provincial Museum. other than lienü relate to stories conveying moral principles of rulers and officials, which concern public relationships. The inner (or the back) surface of the screen portrays the private realm of filial piety, family matters, and personal virtues. The selection of lienü stories on the two sides reflects this di- chotomy. Female characters on the outer surface are either mothers of rulers, wise empresses/consorts of rulers, or those who were in close contact with rulers. These didactic messages are appropriate to the public image of the elite family.35

35 Xie Zhenfa 謝振發, “Beiwei Sima Jinlong mu de qihua pingfeng shixi” 北魏司馬金龍墓的漆畫屏風試析, Meishushi yanjiu jikan 美術史研究集刊 11 (2001): 1-55, especially page 13.

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b FIGURE 9 Examples of lienü figures, portions from the mural at Holingol; Eastern Han. a. The righteous nurse of Duke Xiao of Lu 魯孝義保, King Zhao of Chu’s Lady of Yue 楚昭越姬, the wife of the General of Ge 蓋將之妻. Image source: Helin’geer Han mu bihua xiao zi zhuan tu ji lu 和林格爾漢墓壁畫孝子傳圖輯錄, p. 29, no. 19 (Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 2009). b. The woman of Qishi of Lu 魯漆室女. Image source: Helin’geer Han mu bihua xiao zi zhuan tu ji lu, p. 30, no. 22.

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Unlike stone reliefs from local officials’ family shrines, the screen features court ladies because of the elite status of the screen’s owners. Sima Jinlong was a Northern Wei (386-534) general, whose father was a member of the Jin 晉 royal house and whose mother was a Wei 魏 princess.36 The screen might have been a family heirloom. It was also a luxury item, colored in red and made of costly lacquered wood panels. Some of its lienü images include accompanying text that goes beyond simply listing names. Arranged in four rows, the content of these images corresponds to the selected stories, roughly following the order of chapters from Lienü zhuan. This arrangement clearly indicates the scenes’ role in illustrating Liu’s book.37 It is reminiscent of the didactic function of the illustrated screen Liu Xiang had made in the first place.38 The extensive texts inserted into the screen may also have functioned as markers of the patron’s literary sophistication. Moreover, we see a relatively greater importance of text in this object made for living people. The lienü images followed the two representational modes commonly found in other burial cases: the mono-scenic representation alternating with portraitesque figures rendered in three-quarter view. The refined painterly qualities of the screen provide us a better chance to discern more detailed depictions of the figures’ clothing style, compared to other extant lienü images. Although the figurative styles and craftsmanship of lienü images found in burial sites may vary from region to region, the artisans in general depicted women wearing heavy robes with long sleeves. Yet there is not much detailing in the engraved figures’ clothing, probably because of the nature of stone carvings. We can at most discern some emphasis on the figures’ billowing sleeves and the extended drape of long robes toward their feet. (Figures 5, 6, 7) Be- cause of the poor visibility of the flaked murals, it is hard to tell the clothing style of the images at Horinger as well. Only that the artisans’ application of thicker lines with different colors to the bottom of ladies’ long robes stands out. (Figure 9a and 9b) This feature becomes clear when we compare it with what is depicted in the painted Sima screen panels. In a rather stylized manner, the women’s robes in the Sima screen are depicted with thick hems on the bottom (Figure 10). Lienü images in the less

36 For a focused study of the screen, see Xie Zhenfa, “Beiwei Sima Jinlong,” 1-55. See also Wu Hung, Double Screen, 87-90. 37 There are variations in wording of the texts, which may result from transcriptions from different sources, as pointed out by Maxwell K. Hearn; see his China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 AD (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven, CT: Yale Univer- sity Press, 2004), 158. 38 The screen’s material, structure, and decoration all retain the known features of a Han screen. See Wu, Double Screen, 85-86.

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FIGURE 10 The three matriarchs of the House of Zhou 周室三母, illustrations of Lienü zhuan 列女傳; portion from the painted screen excavated at Sima Jinlong tomb; Shanxi Provincial Museum. (Figure 8) detailed Horinger murals apparently shared this feature. The outlining and more stylized drawing in the Sima screen made the hems look almost like a pattern of coiling snakes. Presumably, the purpose of adding this element was to create a sense of heaviness to the robes. We can describe the woman’s clothing style based on the well preserved images of the screen: she wears the spiral- shaped one-piece garment with billowing sleeves that appears layered, curved, and contracted toward the opening; her waistline is not high, her robe drapes heavily to the ground, and there are fluttering ribbons attached to her clothes. This clothing style, except the ribbons, matches the formal dress for women in the Han dynasty known as “the spiral-shaped one-piece garment” (shenyi 深衣).39 This female figural type, shared by most extant lienü images in burials, is commonly found in other Han period excavated burial materials, both two- dimensional images and tomb figurines (Figures 11, 12, 13). However, fluttering ribbons in the Sima screen are one element absent from all other images. As

39 For a discussion of Han shenyi and related robes, see Gao Chunming 高春明, Zhongguo fushi mingwu kao 中國服飾名物考 (Shanghai: Shanghai wenhua chubanshe, 2001), 522- 29.

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FIGURE 11 Female burial figure; moulded earthenware; Ht: 44.4 W:17.9 D:18.5 cm; Western Han. Royal Ontario Musem. With permission of the Royal Ontario Museum © ROM.

FIGURE 12 Female figure; ink rubbing of a stone engraving; 111 × 107 cm; Eastern Han; excavated from a Han tomb at Qilin gang 麒麟崗, Nanyang 南陽, Henan province. Nanyang hanhu museum. Image source: Zhongguo huaxiang shi quanji, vol. 6, pl. 134.

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FIGURE 13 Female figure, detail from an array of mythical animals and human figures; mural; Eastern Han; unearthed from a Han tomb at Xiangyang city, Henan province; preserved on the original site. Image source: Zhongguo chutu bihua quanji 中國出土壁畫全集, vol. 5, pl. 89. Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, 2012. the ribbons float in the air with the same kind of turning and twisting bends and folds, they look rather prominent and stylized (Figure 10). In fact, the pos- tures of all the ladies appear standardized as well: in a standing position, she either conceals her two hands beneath her sleeves or holds them tightly in front of her chest. I suspect that the overall stylized appearance of the ladies was a result of modeling on a well-established stereotype in the post-Han period. This stereotype not only preserves Han fashion, but also reflects some post-Han elements found in the Eastern Jin (317-420) dynasty, the flying ribbons being one of the later elements.40 It is interesting to note that although the majority of lienü characters were historical figures from the pre-Han period, the clothing style in their pictorial representation was no different from non-historical female images represented in scenes of daily life, entertainment, working, and so forth, all of which reflect Han dynasty fashion. In other words, there is no obvious effort to distinguish the historical exemplars from others through any pictorial means. The patterned lienü figures carved on stones decorating the walls of shrines and tombs are illuminating in this aspect. One example is the set of columns con-

40 The Sima family was originally part of the Han elite class from the south. Refer to Xie Zhenfa, “Beiwei Sima Jinlong,” 20.

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FIGURE 14 Female figures; ink rubbing from a carving on a stone column; 130 × 50 cm; Eastern Han; excavated from the tomb at Suide, Shaanxi Province. Suide County Museum. Image Source: Zhongguo huaxiang shi quanji, vol. 5, pl. 142. taining lienü figures next to the gate at the tomb in Suide discussed earlier. The artisans repeatedly carved a female image wearing a draped robe with long flying sleeves and mixed them with other non-specific images to go with the inscription. (Figure 7) This repetitive design also represented performing women, such as dancers in entertainment scenes, as decorative motifs found in other parts of the tomb and in a different tomb. (Figures 14, 15) Presumably, the repetition was a result of using a system of model block/design for more economical and faster production. Other than this practical consideration, such a mixture of entertaining and didactic figures also suggests that Han patrons did not discern conflict between the two types from the perspective of pictorial representation. Visual images alone were not the sole vehicle for conveying moral messages. To sum up, the function of lienü stories underwent a small but significant shift manifested in visual forms. Delivering didactic messages or moral

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FIGURE 15 Female Figures; ink rubbing from a carving on a horizontal beam (portion); 38 × 231 cm; Eastern Han; excavated from the tomb at Zizhou Huaining wan 子洲淮寧灣, Shaanxi province. Image source: Zhongguo huaxiang shi quanji vol. 5, pl. 193. instructions was no longer their sole purpose. In the context of burials, lienü images along with other stories of sages, historical figures, and male exemplars of filial sons were pictorial statements that signified the tomb occupants’s moral beliefs and public image. These stock figures constituted a set of standardized motifs decorating walls of tombs and shrines. Lienü images were also considered auspicious themes that would provide blessings to the deceased and his or her descendants. The notion of the auspicious qualities of female exemplars was a religious extension of the original function of Lienü zhuan. Despite the inclusion of negative female models in Liu Xiang’s texts, the pictorial lienü models seem to include only the positive examples, at least as far as the extant evidence reveals. This exclusive focus on the positive probably re- flected the expanded audience. The vicious women recorded in the last chapter, “Niebi” 孽嬖 (Depraved and favored), are mainly consorts and concubines of rulers. The admonition messages behind their stories are for rulers and thus are not effective didactic models for an audience such as local officials.41 An- other possibility is that in the burial context, the function of admonishing is less important than the blessing of the status and prosperity of a family line. The good exemplars among historical female figures could serve to inspire, prompting their viewers to endorse the good qualities they suggested. Ulti- mately, embracing these good models reinforced a promising future.42

41 Zhang Yushan, “Shixi Sima Jinlong,” 137-38. 42 Lan Yu-chi also points out the auspicious function of lienü images in burial contexts; see her “Dong Han huanxiang,” 89-91.

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When translated into pictorial forms, the extant lienü stories were represented mainly in two modes – the mono-scenic and the portraitesque modes, which correspond to the two major types of didactic representations described in early periods of Chinese history. Although inscriptions often identified these images, a generalized or patterned type of lienü image also existed without inscriptions. The former exemplifies a close image-and-text relationship, and the latter suggests the patrons’ familiarity with lienü stories and the decorative role of images. No artistic or pictorial effort seems to distinguish the didactic roles of lienü figures from other roles of female figures depicted in more general scenes of daily activities or entertainment.

The Viewers and Visual Effectiveness of the Didactic Images

In both textual evidence of the Han didactic pictorial genre and the extant visual material of lienü images discussed earlier, the textual references existed prior to the images. In other words, such images are essentially illustrative. On one level, their existence was to complement texts, which was probably Liu Xiang’s goal in his illustrations of the Lienü zhuan. However, pictorial images have their own visual appeal and effect, which the ancient Chinese had long recognized. Extensive paintings covered the chamber walls in the tombs of the Han elite, such as the Horinger tomb. The basic idea here was that these pictorial representations would benefit the spirits of the dead and perpetuate their powers for eternity. As we have seen, however, no specific visual strategies differentiate functions through depictions of figures in diverse contexts. Was the visual effectiveness of images for didactic messages ever a concern for Han and Six Dynasties viewers? This question is relevant to our perceptions of the pictorial convention of the lienü genre and how it functioned didactically. The general expectation of early renderings of exemplary scenes was that they be capable of influencing conduct.43 The Eastern Han scholar He Yan 何晏 (d. 249) described such painted images as serving the purpose of “warning and admonition” in his rhapsody on the Jingfu dian 景福殿 (Palace of great blessings) built sometime after 232 CE in the city of Wei 魏 in Xuchang 許昌. He listed a range of female exemplars derived from the Lienü zhuan painted on the wall of the palace hall:

By viewing the comportment of Lady Yu, They understand how a fawning minister governs a state.

43 See the discussion in Murray, Mirror of Morality, 27.

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After seeing how Queen Jiang removed her girdle pendants, They realize what was honoured in ages past. They deem worthy the forthright words of Zhongli, Admire the self-abnegation of Lady Fan, Extol Lady Ban for declining the cart, Praise Mother Meng’s choice of neighbourhood. Thus, if one would broaden his wisdom, He first must listen much. ... Looking by day, viewing by night – how could writing on the sash be comparable? [emphasis added]

椒房之列，是準是儀。觀虞姬之容止，知治國之佞臣。見姜后之解珮，晤前世之所遵。賢鍾離之讜言，懿楚樊之退身。嘉班妾之辭輦，偉孟母之擇鄰。故將廣智，必先多聞。 ... 朝觀夕覽，何與書紳。44

He Yan used verbs such as zhi 知 (understand), wu 晤 (realize), and yi 懿 (admire) to describe the expected reaction of viewers in encountering these images. His concluding line, “Thus, if one would broaden his wisdom, he first must listen much,” emphasizes learning – the textual knowledge required to understand all these exemplars’ stories. However, he added another line: “Looking by day, viewing by night – how could writing on the sash be comparable?” “Writing on the sash” refers to the story of a disciple of Confucius named Zi Zhang 子張, who diligently wrote down Confucius’s teaching on the sash he wore. By referring to this anecdote, He Yan is comparing the power of writing with that of pictures. He implies that in the case of a person surround- ed by pictures day and night like those in the Jingfu dian, the effectiveness of images is as powerful as that of texts. Unlike He Yan, Wang Chong 王充 (27-97), the early Eastern Han Confucian scholar, was sceptical about the adequacy of images to inspire moral cultivation and believed texts were far more effective in this respect:

44 “Jianfu dian fu,” in Xiao Tong, Wenxuan, Chapter 11, 155; translated by Knechtges (with my modifications), Wen Xuan or Selections of Refined Literature, 291.

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People enjoy looking at paintings because exemplary men of old are represented in the pictures. But how can seeing the faces of these men be compared with contemplating their words and deeds? Painted on the bare wall, their figures and faces are preserved in detail, but people are not inspired because they do not see the words and deeds. The writings left by the ancient sages are borne brilliantly on bamboo and silk. Why [emphasize] only paintings on walls?

人好觀圖畫者，圖上所畫古之列人也。見列人之面，熟與觀其言行。置之空壁，形容具存。人不激勸者，不見言行也。古賢之遺文, 竹帛之所載燦然, 豈徒牆壁之畫哉 !45

Wang Chong’s critique suggests that his contemporaries attributed moral power to images of exemplary people, similar to the view held by He Yan. Wang Chong considered the fundamental difference between visual appearances (xingrong 形容) and texts of words and deeds (yanxing 言行). Pictorial por- trayals alone lacked the power to convey the moral messages embedded in the stories they illustrated. Because writings record the deeds and thoughts of an- cients in straightforward detail, it was more didactically effective medium. Those who commissioned these pictures of exemplars expected to promote moral awareness. However, there were gaps between the intended meaning of the didactic image and its effect on the viewer. This effectiveness gap was surely one reason that a sceptical thinker like Wang Chong questioned the effectiveness of exemplar images. Well-known apocryphal stories suggest a wider awareness of such a gap. Emperor Cheng of the Western Han once viewed a screen of a late-night drinking party of the last Shang 商 ruler King Zhou 紂 and his notorious consort Daji 妲姬, which supposedly served as a moral warning to the ruler. Emperor Cheng, who likely was puzzled, posed a question about the king’s behavior, and his minister replied that the king’s excessive drinking and the bad influence of Daji caused the loss of his kingdom. After hearing this explanation, the emperor commented, “Without an explanation like what you have given, what warning can this picture provide?” (Goubu

45 Wang Chong, “Bie tong” 別通, Lunheng jijie 論衡集解 (Beijing: Guji chubanshe, 1957), Chapter 13, 274-75. Translation is Murray’s with my minor modification; see Murray, Mir- ror of Morality, 28. Zhang Yanyuan 張彥遠 (815–?) also cited the statement in his Lidai minghua ji 歷代名畫記. However, the citation in Zhang’s book was altered to include the phrase “gazing upon painted worthies of ancient times is like looking at dead men” (Shi hua guren ru shi siren 視畫古人如視死人). See Zhang Yanyuan, Lidai minghua ji, Chap- ter 1, in Yu Anlan 余安瀾, ed., Huashi congshu 畫史叢書 (reprint; Taibei: Wenshizhe chubanshe, 1983), 7.

Nan Nü 19 (2017) 155-212 Downloaded from Brill.com10/08/2021 01:54:00AM via free access 184 Cheng ruoci, citu hejie 苟不若此，此圖何戒).46 This statement suggests that the visual appearance of the screen presumably looks no different from one of the entertainment scenes of the time (similar to what was commonly found in tomb murals of the Han elite). In another famous anecdote, during a court audience, Emperor Guangwu 光武帝 (r. 25-27) constantly gazed at a newly made screen painted with “exemplary women” near his throne. Noticing the emperor’s distraction, Chief Minister Song Hong 宋弘 admonished him by citing Confucius’s teaching, “It is rare to find a person who likes virtue as much as physical beauty” (Wei jian haode ru haose 未見好德如好色). The emperor had the screen removed.47 A similar story from the Six Dynasties records that Prince Wenxuan 文宣王 (460-94) decorated his mountainside villa with an array of worthies of old times and added “a selection [of portraits] of commoners’ virtuous wives.” Nevertheless, the prince eventually had to order these female portraits scraped off after a visitor questioned the prince’s “love of virtue.”48 In all these stories, a wise third party such as a minister played a crucial role in revealing the gap between the presumed moral purpose of images and their actual effect on the ruler. These accounts suggest that it was the viewer’s responsibility to understand properly the images, not the responsibility of the images themselves. Painted didactic images depict visual beauty or entertainment, making them similar to other representations of daily life or amuse- ment. It was the viewer’s job to see beyond the surface. In the cases here, the emperor’s knowledge of the historical circumstances was required for recognizing the didactic message. In other words, the capacity of the viewer, not the manner in which images were rendered, was the key to the functionality of didactic images in early imperial China. In the immediate post-Han period, there were cases indicating some awareness of the “mental impact” brought by the visual effect of images on a viewer. A famous poet of the Wei dynasty of the Three Kingdoms (220-80), Cao Zhi 曹植 (192-232), once composed a set of eulogies (zan 贊) that commented on the images commissioned by Eastern Han Emperor Ming to decorate the walls of his palace. Those images were derived from historical stories and Confucian classics. Some thirty titles of Cao Zhi’s eulogies survive in various texts. He also wrote a preface, Huazan xu 畫贊序, summarizing what he expected from the viewer in seeing those images:

46 Ban Gu, Hanshu, 4200-201. 47 Fan Ye 范曄, Hou Hanshu 後漢書 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1965), 904-5. 48 Ren Fang 任昉 (460-508), “Qi Jingling Wenxuan wang xingzhuang” 齊竟陵文宣王行狀, in Xiao Tong, Wenxuan, Chapter 60, 832.

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Of those who look at pictures, there is not one who beholding the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors would not look up in reverence, nor any who before [a painting of] the degenerate rulers of the three evil last rulers [of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou] would not be moved to sadness. Seeing usurping ministers who stole the throne, no one would not grind his teeth. Seeing a fine scholar of high principles, no one would not forget to eat. Seeing the loyal vassals dying for their principles, no one would not harden his resolve. Seeing banished ministers and persecuted sons, no one would not heave a sigh. Seeing a licentious husband or a jealous wife, no one would not avert his eyes. Seeing a virtuous consort or an obedient empress, no one would not praise and value them. Thereby we may know that pictures preserve models [of good] and provide warnings [against evil].

觀畫者，見三皇五帝，莫不仰戴；見三季異主，莫不悲惋；見篡臣賊嗣，莫不切齒；見高節妙士，莫不忘食，見忠臣死難，莫不抗節；見放臣逐子，莫不歎息；見淫夫妒婦，莫不側目；見令妃順后，莫不嘉貴。是知存乎鑒戒者，圖畫也。49

Cao Zhi pointed out a range of visual effects on viewers – presumably, the rea- sons these pictures could function didactically. In his slightly exaggerated lyri- cal writing, the impact of seeing these illustrations included not only the viewers’ emotional reactions but also their physical responses, such as their “grinding their teeth” and “forgetting to eat,” and other visually astonishing effects that would cause the viewer to “avert his eyes.” However, Cao Zhi did not address how, in pictorial term, these images were able to evoke such reactions on viewers. Rather, he focused on pointing out the correct emotional reactions of viewers. His observation resonated with the viewer-oriented Han view. In the Six Dynasties, writer Lu Ji 陸機 (261-303) began to assign different roles to images and text by stating, “For clarifying things, nothing is greater than speech (language); for preserving the appearances there is nothing better than pictures” (Xuanwu mo dayu yan, cunxing mo shanyu hua 宣物莫大於言，存形莫善於畫).50 In his opinion, texts and images were ideally suited for

49 Four versions of this piece survive. The version translated here is quoted in Lidai minghua ji, Chapter 1, 2; translation based on William Acker, Some T’ang and Pre-T’ang Texts on Chinese Painting, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1954), vol.1, 74-75, and Murray, Mirror of Morality, 29. Cao’s text is also included in Zhang Fu 張溥 (Ming dynasty), ed., Hanwei Liuchao bai- san mingjia ji 漢魏六朝百三名家集 (Nanjing: Jiangsu guji chubanshe, 2002), 2:53. 50 Lu’s statement is cited in Zhang Yanyuan, Lidai minghua ji, Chapter 1, 6.

Nan Nü 19 (2017) 155-212 Downloaded from Brill.com10/08/2021 01:54:00AM via free access 186 Cheng different functions. Like Wang Chong, Lu Ji acknowledged the power of language to convey the meanings embedded in phenomena (things). Unlike Wang Chong, however, Lu Ji recognized a useful role for images in the concrete visu- alization of forms of phenomena. Such appreciation saw the benefit of the in- dependence of images from texts. During this period, we find more textual evidence of the emphasis on the visual impact of images alone. The new devel- opment in part was a result of the increasing number of known artists responsible for producing images from the Six Dynasties onward. By contrast, during the Han dynasty, it was mainly anonymous artisans who generated those images on murals. These artisans were judged by their craftsmanship, which mainly showcased the material wealth of patrons. Their works might also follow certain representational patterns or modes established in the practice of largely relying on inscribed texts. There was probably little demand for Han artisans to develop specific visual strategies that would reinforce the visual effectiveness of images. On the other hand, in the Six Dynasties literature about painting theories, we see that serious artists were concerned with how to capture the spirit of depicted figures. They strove for more than portraying those stock images commonly produced by the artisan tradition. For example, Gu Kaizhi once pointed out that, when depicting a figure who is bowing, if that figure’s gaze is lost in the distance rather than fixed on a designated object in front of him, there would be no spirit of the figure.51 What Gu Kaizhi was criti- cizing here – the stereotypical images of bowing figures – actually reminds us of typical Han figures found in many murals and stone reliefs. Perhaps this lack of “spirit” was one reason Wang Chong stated that, even though figures’ appearances were preserved in detail (xingrong jucun 形容具存) in murals, they lacked inspirational effect on viewers. There are also examples of artists who were rather conscious of the visual effectiveness of their paintings for different purposes. The following interesting anecdote recorded in the Nanshi 南史 (History of the Southern dynasties) involves a Southern Qi dynasty (479-501) painter, Liu Zhen 劉瑱 (460-501), who was said to be an expert at painting women:

Zhen’s sister was the wife of the Qi Prince of Boyang. They were a devoted couple; so when the prince was executed by Ming Di [r. 494-498], she was so grieved that she became chronically ill, beyond the doctor’s power to cure. A certain Yin Qian of Chen County was an expert on portraiture. His portraits resemble real people. Zhen commissioned him to do the prince’s portrait, and he added the images of the concubine to whom the prince

51 “Weijin shengliu huazan” 魏晉勝流畫贊, cited in Lidai minghua ji, Chapter 5, 75.

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had shown favour day after day, showing them looking at a mirror with him as if they were about to go into the bedchamber. Zhen then secretly got an old maidservant to show this to the princess. After looking at it, she spat on the pictures, scolding harshly, “For that he deserved his early death!” At once, both her affection and her illness ended. She banished her husband’s favorite concubine, and the cause of her suffering instantly ended through the burning of the painting!

瑱妹為齊鄱陽王妃, 伉儷甚篤. 王為齊明帝所誅, 妃追傷遂成痼疾, 醫所不療, 有陳郡殷蒨善寫人面, 與真不別, 瑱令蒨畫王形像, 并圖王日所寵姬共照鏡狀, 如欲偶寢, 瑱乃密使媼嬭示妃, 妃視畢仍唾之, 因罵云: 故宜其早死. 於是恩情即歇, 病亦除差, 寵姬亦被廢, 苦因即以此畫焚之!52

Liu Zhen, as a skilful painter himself, knew well how to manipulate images to get the result he wished. Despite the exaggerated nature of this account, it demonstrates nicely people’s belief in the capability of images alone to pro- voke strong emotions. The eras in which Wang Chong, He Yan, Cao Zhi, Lu Ji, and Liu Zhen flour- ished constitute a timeline from the early Eastern Han to the Six Dynasties. These writers were concerned with the efficacy of images and their relationship or status vis-à-vis texts. During the Han period, the effectiveness of an image depended on the viewer’s understanding of the literary references behind it – not on the power of the image itself. This view carried over into the Six Dynasties, but we also find increasing recognition that texts and images functioned differently. This view also acknowledged the power of effective visual images and gave greater weight to this possibility. Bearing this point in mind, let us turn to the two scrolls in question.

The Sympathetic and Wise Women Scroll

The earliest painted scroll titled Lienü tu 列女圖 is traditionally attributed to Cai Yong 蔡邕 (133-92) of the Eastern Han – the only record found in the Han period.53 During the Six Dynasties, as more artists were using the scroll format, a list of known painters became associated with various types of Lienü tu re-

52 Li Yanshou 李延壽 Nanshi 南史, in Ershi wu shi kanxing wei yuanhui 二十五史刊行委員會, Ershi wu shi 二十五史 (Taibei: Ershiwu shi bian kan guan, 1955), vol. 19, 471. 53 Zhu Mouyin 朱謀垔, Huashi huiyao 畫史會要, in Lu Fusheng 盧甫聖, Zhongguo shuhua quanshu 中國書畫全書 (reprint; Shanghai: Shanghai shuhua chubanshe, 2009), 6:113.

Nan Nü 19 (2017) 155-212 Downloaded from Brill.com10/08/2021 01:54:00AM via free access 188 Cheng corded in traditional painting catalogues.54 However, no such scrolls are extant, nor is there much textual information available that might suggest visual clues. Judging from their titles, the illustrations may include different types: da 大 (big) and xiao 小 (small) are attached to the titles of some paintings, such as the Da lienü tu 大列女圖 or Xiao lienü tu 小列女圖. They might suggest a larger or smaller version of illustrations, since Lienü zhuan itself contains multiple chapters. Other titles correspond to specific chapters from Lienü zhuan, such as Lienü zhenjie tu 列女貞節圖 (Chaste and righteous), Lienü muyi tu 列女母儀圖 (Maternal rectitude), and Lienü xianming tu 列女賢明圖 (Worthy and enlightened).55 The extant Beijing scroll, Lienü renzhi tu, here translated as the ‘Sympathetic and Wise Women Scroll’, belongs in this category.56 The scroll illustrates the chapter recording those women who demonstrate sympathetic understanding of others, and awareness of the details of people’s behaviour. Such women are often able correctly to predict the future. Scholars generally agree that Lienü renzhi tu is a post-Tang copy based on an earlier original. Some experts suggest that the scroll consists of at least two works done by copyists from different periods and dated no later than the elev- enth century.57 Others attribute the scroll to the Southern Song 宋 (1127-1279) dynasty, or see it as a work exemplifying the continuous practices of copying throughout the dynasties from the Han to the Southern Song.58 The current sections miss the first story from Liu Xiang’s chapter and include the next seven stories, following the original text. The order of the last three stories in the painting, however, is different from the text, and four stories are missing. More-

54 Zhang Yanyuan, in his Lidai minghua ji (69-77), lists at least six painters from the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties who painted the lienü subject. 55 Zhang Yanyuan, Lidai minghua ji, 69-77. 56 We cannot be certain whether every chapter from Lienü zhuan was illustrated in such a format since the available textual evidence does not mention all seven chapters. However, according to Huang Bosi 黃伯思 (1079-1118) all seven chapters have been illustrated in paintings in ancient times, but by his time only paintings showing “Maternal Models,” “Worthy and Enlightened,” and “Sympathetic and Wise” survived. We have no way to vali- date his claim. See Huang Bosi, Dongguan yulun 東觀餘論, in Lu Fusheng, Zhongguo shuhua quanshu, 2:150. 57 This is proposed by Tung Wen-e 童文娥, “Chuan Gu Kaizhi Lienü renzhi tu de duandai yanjiu” 傳顧愷之列女仁智圖的斷代研究, Gugong xueshu jikan 故宮學術季刊 26:2 (2008):47-88, and see especially pages 48-73. 58 Yang Xin 楊新, “Dui Lienü renzhi tu de xin renshi” 對列女仁智圖的新認識, in Xue Yongnian 薛永年 and Luo Shiping 羅世平, eds., Zhongguo Meishu shi lunwen ji 中國美術史論文集 (Beijing: Zijingcheng chubanshe, 2006), 135-51; and Du Jinghui 杜京徽, “Chuan Gu Kaizhi lienü renzhi tu yanjiu” 傳顧愷之列女仁智圖研究 (M.A. thesis, Zhongguo Meishu xueyuan, Yishu renwen xueyuan, 2011), 1-119.

DownloadedNan from Nü Brill.com10/08/202119 (2017) 155-212 01:54:00AM via free access The Pictorial Portrayal Of Women And Didactic Messages 189 over, there is a mix-up of characters in the eighth scene, the story of the woman Lu Qishi 魯漆氏 (Qishi of Lu), possibly owing to a later cut-and-paste of different scenes.59 All these features indicate that the scroll went through a long history of transmission from one collector’s hand to another and was repaired, removed, or remounted in this process. The painting eventually entered the Qing 清 dynasty imperial collection (Shiqu baoji 石渠寶笈). Despite different dating and the confusion of some sections, Lienü renzhi tu is a copy based on a much earlier original, and the scroll preserves many features of Han fashion (e.g., clothes, hairstyles, hats, etc.) for men and women. Its accuracy in terms of depicting fashions or objects of early periods suggests that the artist was familiar with the pictorial repertoire of early images. Com- parative study of it vis-à-vis other extant lienü images will benefit our understanding of the iconographic, stylistic, and ideological features of didactic paintings of women from the Han to the Six Dynasties. The mode of figural portrayal in Lienü renzhi tu clearly follows those extant lienü images discussed earlier. The representation is basically mono-scenic mode. However, because all the figures, whether in profile or three-quarter view, appear in a row with an empty background and little furnishing, individual characters stand out as the main components in the composition. This “character” emphasis makes the representation of figures appear portraitesque, another prominent representational mode found elsewhere, such as the Horinger murals. The scroll shares more affinity with the painted-lacquer Sima Jinlong screen in some of its pictorial conventions, as both are painted images and an object that was more of a personal belonging than a funerary piece. One example is the similar composition of the story of the Weiling furen 衛靈夫人 (Wife of Duke Ling of Wei), which reports the conversation between Weiling gong 衛靈公 (Duke Lind of Wei) and his wife about the country’s wise statesman Qu Boyu 璩伯玉. The scroll painting presents Duke Ling in a three-quarter front view, seated inside an enclosed screen with his wife facing him as she kneels to offer him a dish. A candleholder with three candles suggests a night scene. The Sima screen panels feature the story with the same type of three-folded screen and a candleholder in the same composition (Figures 16 and 17). Certain pictorial conventions must have been established as typical elements in representation.60 The scroll’s image-and-text placement resembles also most closely that found in the painted screen, where an extensive text from Lienü zhuan was

59 For a more detailed discussion, see Tung Wen-e, “Chuan Gu Kaizhi,” 48-73. Yang Xin points out in particular the mismatching in his “Dui Lienü renzhi tu,” 146-47. 60 A Song dynasty printed version of an illustrated Xinkan gu lienü zhuan 新刊古列女傳

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FIGURE 16 The Wife of Duke Ling of Wei 衛靈夫人, section from Lienü renzhi tu (Figure 1).

FIGURE 17 The Wife of Duke Ling of Wei, section from painted screen, Sima Jinlong tomb; Shanxi Provincial Museum (Figure 8). inscribed to the left of each depicted story, in addition to the name-type inscription inscribed alongside the figures. Lienü renzhi tu includes a song, or

actually keeps unchanged the composition for this scene. A Qing dynasty reprint of this edition is currently in the rare book collection at the National Palace Museum, Taipei.

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FIGURE 18 The tutor matron of the wife of Duke Mu of Xu 許穆夫人, detail from Lienü renzhi tu (Figure 1). verse summary, for each story from Lienü zhuan, inscribed to the left of each image group – presumably the end of each session, as the scroll is unrolled from right to left. The greater proportion of texts seems to draw more attention to the illustrative nature of Lienü images. In my opinion, the insertion of texts might not be meant to aid in telling the stories. Rather, it speaks to the closer affinity of the painted images to Liu Xiang’s text. A scroll that is said to be originally produced by Liu Xiang illustrates precisely the verse summaries of his book. Both the handscroll and screen were more personal objects exclusively belonging to highly cultivated elites who would have studied Liu Xiang’s text and expected to appreciate the inscribed texts in addition to the images. The figural type of female images represented in Lienü renzhi tu is similar to those found in dateable lienü images – the Horinger murals and the Sima screen in particular as painted images. The ladies are depicted in the icono- graphically correct Eastern Han fashion, wearing a long robe with billowing sleeves that contracted in the opening, clearly comparable to other typical female images of the Han period introduced earlier (Figure 18). In all these images, women’s robes look distinctively heavy, with wide-flaring hems. Some

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FIGURE 19 The wife of Bo Zong of Jin 伯州黎妻, detail from Lienü renzhi tu (Figure 1). ladies in Lienü renzhi tu are depicted with fluttering ribbons, which resonate more with the ladies in the Sima screen panels. (Figures 19, 20) The depiction of women’s hairstyles – which I have not discussed in other lienü images since they were not distinctive elements as they are in Lienü renzhi tu – resembles closely other typical female images dressed in heavy robes found in the murals dated to the Eastern Han. Each woman wears a high coiffure, or gaoji 高髻, that has a suspended tail on the back called chuishao 垂髾 (Figures 21, 22). She also wears a stylish lock of hair near each ear (known as bin 鬢).61 Some women’s high coiffures are decorated with a pair of flower- shaped hairpins. However, the bin worn by the ladies in Lienü renzhi tu had a unique feature: they twist in the middle and their lower section is only outlined, without being filled in with black ink unlike the rest of the hair (Figure 21). My speculation is that they represent the ear lock style typically known as chanbin 蟬鬢 or yunbin 雲鬢, which was more the fashion during the Six Dy- nasties rather than the Han period. Poetry from the period commonly describes attractive beauties wearing layers of ear locks that appear as thin as the wings of cicada or as light as clouds. The reason the artist depicts them only with outlines might have been to indicate their transparency or lightness.

61 For references on hairstyles, see Zhou Xun 周汛 and Gao Chunming, Zhongguo lidai funü zhuangshi 中國歷代婦女裝飾 (Hong Kong: Joint Publishing, 1988), 42-45; Gao Chun- ming, Zhongguo fushi, 18-29, 64-69.

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FIGURE 20 Tushan, Mother of Qi 啟母塗山, detail from the painted screen, Sima Jinlong tomb; Shanxi Provincial Museum (Figure 8).

FIGURE 21 The wife of Xi of Cao 曹僖氏妻, detail from Lienü renzhi tu (Figure 1).

FIGURE 22 Woman with chuishao 垂髾 hairstyle. Detail of Figure 12c.

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FIGURE 23 Women with red color shade of eyebrows: The tutor matron of the wife of Duke Mu of Xu, the wife of Xi of Cao, the wife of Bo Zong of Jin (from left to right), details from Lienü renzhi tu (Figure 1).

The faces of women are nicely drawn, emphasizing long and genteelly arched eyebrows. In this monochrome scroll, the artist, however, applied light- ly the color red in some women’s eyebrows (Figure 23). Since the more commonly seen eyebrow color was daimei 黛眉 or cuimei 翠眉, which refers to a black or dark blue eyebrow, it is uncertain why the artist added this red color. Some have suggested it was a new makeup fashion created by Emperor Cheng’s favourite consort, Zhao Feiyan 趙飛燕 (45 BCE-1 CE).62 Adding the red to eyebrows indicates the artist’s emphasis on the women’s exquisite makeup. Despite some added later-period elements, the imagery of women in the scroll in general speaks to the desirable Han dynasty female fashions, summa- rized in the following folk song of the period:

In the city she likes a tall coiffure – The country girl goes one foot high! In the city she likes long eyebrows – The country girl goes half across her forehead! In the city she likes wide sleeves – The country girl goes the whole bolt!

城中好高髻，四方高一尺。城中好大眉，四方眉半額。城中好廣袖，四方用匹帛。63

62 Yang Xin, “Dui Lienü renzhi tu,” 150. One scholar, however, suspects that painting red eyebrows was the practice of nomads outside the Central Plain, which was not introduced to China until the Tang dynasty. See Du Jinghui, “Chuan Gu Kaizhi,” 24-25. 63 The folk song from the Han dynasty is included in Yutai xinyong 玉臺新詠, compiled by

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In this humorous and somewhat exaggerating verse, the poet vividly describes how country girls go crazy about following or even competing in fashion with the city girls. The high coiffure, long eyebrows, and wide sleeves together present the pictorial profile of women that is unmistakably depicted in Lienü renzhi tu. We may conclude that the original Lienü renzhi tu was likely produced around the late fifth century, since its female figural type exhibits some new pictorial elements and fashion occurring in the Western and Eastern Jin periods – corresponding well to the era when the creation of lienü scroll paintings was attributed to many known artists in painting catalogues. However, the pictorial convention of the ladies is no doubt derived from the female figural type of the Eastern Han period, when the pictorial genre of lienü images developed. We do not know for certain whether this indicates that a scroll painting of lienü like the Lienü renzhi tu once existed in the Eastern Han period (thus a fifth-century copy of Lienü renzhi tu would preserve this pictorial convention). Overall, there was no hesitation in presenting women in their most fashionable and elegant manner. Such female images were generally welcome in Han pictorial tradition, regardless of whether the images were didactic in nature. The figures’ long robes with layered drapery, billowing sleeves, and flying ribbons are also indicators of their higher social status, as noted by many scholars.64 Toward the Six Dynasties period, there was an evident tendency to make female images more delicate with winged ribbons and curving, elongated body lines. While Lienü renzhi tu may reveal some of this tendency, it becomes more evident in Nüshi zhen tu, which will be discussed next.

The Admonitions of the Court Instructress Scroll

The scroll Nüshi zhen tu at the British Museum serves here as another example of transforming an admonitory text for women into visual form. Although the scroll illustrates a different text, Zhang Hua’s 張華 (232-300) Nüshi zhen, here I argue that the illustrated painting is detached from its rather abstract original

Xu Ling 徐陵 (Beijing: Huaxia chubanshe, 1998), 26. English translation is from Anne Birrell, New Songs from a Jade Terrace: An Anthology of Early Chinese Love Poetry, Trans- lated with Annotations and an Introduction (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1982), 44. 64 Not only the women but also the men in the scroll exhibit features of the well-educated upper class. Yang Xin identifies the hat worn by seven male figures in the scroll as a jinxian guan 進賢冠, a type of hat commonly depicted on male figures of official status in Han relief images. Another important status marker for male figures is the sash (shoudai 綬帶). See Yang Xin’s “Dui Lienü renzhi tu,” 139-40.

Nan Nü 19 (2017) 155-212 Downloaded from Brill.com10/08/2021 01:54:00AM via free access 196 Cheng text. Instead, the scroll identifies itself as part of the didactic pictorial genre of lienü, well established by the time of the Six Dynasties. The Western Jin 晉 Confucian scholar-courtier Zhang Hua wrote his work in 292, some three hundred years after Lienü zhuan. In the voice of the nüshi 女史 (lady instructor or literate woman), the text describes both desirable and un- desirable female modes of conduct, serving as models and warnings to ladies of the inner palace. According to his biography in the Jinshu 晉書 (History of the Jin dynasty), Zhang Hua feared the increasing power of Empress Jia’s 賈后 clan in the Western Jin (265-316) and thus wrote the text to admonish. The story reminds us of Liu Xiang’s aim in compiling his Lienü zhuan – to warn rulers. Indeed, the only four female historical models mentioned in Zhang Hua’s text were all included in Lienü zhuan. However, Zhang Hua’s direct model is likely not to be the Lienü zhuan. After Liu Xiang’s text was written, the Eastern Han period witnessed a flourishing of admonition texts intended for providing women moral instructions.65 These texts were not structured as categorized biographies, nor were they storytelling-oriented like Lienü zhuan. Xun 訓 (to lecture), jie 誡 (to warn), or zhen 箴 (to admonish) are commonly included in the titles of these writings, suggest- ing a genre of more precise admonition that aimed at inculcating specific moral concepts and ideal behavior. Zhang Hua’s Nüshi zhen follows this tradition. An earlier work also entitled Nüshi zhen 女師箴 (Admonitions of the court instructress) written by Huangfu Gui 皇甫規 (104-74) of the Eastern Han dynasty may well be the direct model of Zhang Hua’s writing. Huangfu Gui’s Nüshi zhen is a rhymed poem with mainly four-character lines (occasionally six-character) in a total of thirty-eight lines.66 The work begins with a proclamation exhort- ing the value of teaching from the human perspective in the universe derived from the Yijing 易經 (Book of changes) and retracing the ancient models of sage kings and queens. Keeping the same title (the characters shi 師 and shi 史 were interchangeable in this case, meaning “instructor”), Zhang Hua’s Nüshi zhen follows the same compositional formula and further expands its content into eighty lines. Instead of citing concrete exemplars, both texts elucidate relatively abstract concepts. As the title suggests, such a work belongs to a different genre – the literature of admonition or the form of zhen 箴. Julia Murray

65 These writings include Ban Zhao’s Nüjie 女誡, Huangfu Gui’s 皇甫規 Nüshi zhen 女師箴, Xun Shuang’s 荀爽 (128-190) Nüjie 女誡, and Cai Yong’s Nüxun 女訓 and Nüjie 女誡. See a brief discussion of these works by Lan Yu-chi, “Dong Han huaxiang,” 25-29. 66 The work is transcribed in Yan Kejun 嚴可均, Quan Hou Han wen 全後漢文, Chapter 61, in Yan Kejun, comp., Quan shanggu sandai Qin Han Sanguo Liuchao wen 全上古三代秦漢三國六朝文 (Taibei: Shijie shuju, 1982), 808.

DownloadedNan from Nü Brill.com10/08/202119 (2017) 155-212 01:54:00AM via free access The Pictorial Portrayal Of Women And Didactic Messages 197 points out that this genre seeks to address potential faults and dangers. In Wenxin diaolong 文心雕龍 (The literary mind and the carving of dragons), Liu Xie 劉勰 (ca. 465-ca. 520) summarizes the function and meaning of the expression zhen as the ability “to attack ill and prevent disaster” (gongji fanghuan 攻疾防患) and “to admonish for perfection and to overcome flaws” (zhenquan yuguo 箴全御過).67 Unlike the case of Lienü zhuan, there is no record indicating that any pictorial illustration of Zhang Huang’s text was produced at the time when the text was first written. The earliest textual record that mentions the illustration of Nüshi zhen is the Suishu 隋書 (History of the Sui dynasty), which records several literary volumes of the genre of zhen during the Liang 梁 dynasty (502-57) of the Six Dynasties period. Among them, there is a record of Nüshi zhen tu yijuan 女史箴圖一卷 (A scroll of illustrations of the ‘Admonition of the court instructress’).68 However, there is no mention of the painter. Other than Nüshi zhen tu at British the Museum, there is no early extant visual material illustrating this text with lienü images. The earliest text that connects the illustration of the Nüshi zhen with Gu Kaizhi came several hundred years later – Mi Fu’s 米芾 (1015-1107) Huashi 畫史 (History of painting; 1103).69 Some scholars believe that this recorded painting might be the one currently held in the British Museum.70 Formerly part of the Qing imperial collection, the British Museum’s Nüshi zhen tu bears a signature of Gu Kaizhi and survives in nine sections (the first three sections were lost).71 The scholarly discussion of the scroll’s dating has been a complex matter and has not reached any consensus simply because of the dearth of evidence to prove or disprove various dates for the scroll.72 We

67 Julia Murray, “Who Was Zhang Hua’s ‘Instructress’?,” in McCausland, ed., Gu Kaizhi and the Admonitions Scroll, 100-7, and see especially page 101. 68 Listed under “Gujin zhenming ji shisi juan” 古今箴銘集十四卷, Jingji 經籍 4, Suishu, Chapter 35, in Ershi wushi, 18:532. 69 Hua shi 畫史, in Shen Zicheng 沈子丞, ed., Lidai lunhua mingzhu huibian 歷代論畫名著匯編 (reprint; Taibei: Shijie shuju, 1974), 92. Alfreda Murck discusses in detail Mi Fu’s attribution to Gu Kaizhi and translates the text from the Hua shi. See her essay “The Con- vergence of Gu Kaizhi and Admonitions in the Literary Record,” in McCausland, ed., Gu Kaizhi and The Admonitions Scroll, 138-45. 70 Jan Stuart, The Admonitions Scroll (London: The British Museum, 2014) offers a concise study of the scroll, summarizing various aspects of research that have been done to date. See also Shane McCausland’s focused study of the scroll, First Masterpiece of Chinese Painting: The Admonitions Scroll (London: British Museum Press, 2003). 71 Researchers have generally regarded this signature as a later interpolation. 72 Chen Pao-chen best summarizes the pre-2001 research regarding the dating issues in “The Admonitions Scroll in the British Museum,” in McCausland, ed, Gu Kaizhi and The Admo- nitions Scroll, 126-137, and see pp. 131-32. For a good summary of the scholarship in

Nan Nü 19 (2017) 155-212 Downloaded from Brill.com10/08/2021 01:54:00AM via free access 198 Cheng may divide scholars’ opinions into two groups. On the one hand, some con- sider the painting as an early work produced during the Six Dynasties period, despite it likely not being an original piece by Gu Kaizhi. Others regard the work as a much later (post-Tang) copy based on an early original work. I agree with those who regard the scroll as “original” in terms of its unquestionably high artistic quality and how its style/iconography speaks to a production toward the late Six Dynasties period.73 While Zhang Hua’s Nüshi zhen belongs to a different literary genre than Liu Xiang’s Lienü zhuan, its illustrative painting Nüshi zhen tu, which came much later (the sixth century as the earliest written record), seems to follow closely the tradition of illustrating Lienü zhuan. To point out just a few very clear sim- ilarities here: Nüshi zhen tu takes a figure-centered representational approach similar to that of Lienü renzhi tu, even though the illustrated text does not focus on telling character-centered stories like Lienü zhuan.74 The artist takes every opportunity to highlight characters, whether historical persons or ge- neric ones. They either receive a spotlight-like treatment, or they are represented as characters which facilitate story-like plots, even though in many cases there may be no stories at all after close examination of the texts. Both kinds of presentation are found in Lienü renzhi tu except that in the second kind of presentation there are stories of historical characters. Moreover, despite Nüshi zhen tu illustrating a newer text written in the Western Jin dynasty, its figurative type, composition, artistic genre, and narrative scheme may all be associated with the pictorial tradition of the Han period.75 This point is not to imply that the scroll features no innovation in its representing an original era. Similar to the women in Lienü renzhi tu, the standing lady in Nüshi zhen tu is represented in profile or three-quarter view and in a curving shape with an erect upper torso, revealing both a strong sense of nobility and feminine beauty. All the ladies are dressed in long robes that extend into large hems. The Han

Chinese and Japanese, see Yuan Yougen 袁有根, Su Han 蘇涵, and Li Xiaoan 李曉庵, Gu Kaizhi yanjiu 顧愷之研究 (Beijing: Minzu chubanshe, 2005), 55-77. 73 I would like to thank Jan Stuart, the former keeper of the Department of Asia, British Museum, for arranging my viewing of the scroll in 2012. 74 The inclusion of four historical figures’ concise accounts in the first section of the text appears to be more like citations of, or allusions to, well-known stories. 75 This view is well presented in Wu Hung’s essay, “The Admonitions Scroll Revisited: Iconol- ogy, Narratology, Style, Dating,” in McCausland, ed., Gu Kaizhi and the Admonitions Scroll, 89-99. Wu approaches the dating issue of the scroll from a wide range of aspects, sur- rounding the scroll’s style, genre, iconography, narrative structure, and composition.

DownloadedNan from Nü Brill.com10/08/202119 (2017) 155-212 01:54:00AM via free access The Pictorial Portrayal Of Women And Didactic Messages 199 robe, “the spiral-shaped one-piece garment,” is unmistakable.76 Their body type looks more slender, light, and attenuated, mainly due to the distinctively thin line drawings applied to the clothing (known as gaogu yousi miao 高古游絲描), in contrast to the extensive shading used in Lienü renzhi tu. Therefore, scholars often compare them to the typical elongated female figural type of the Six Dynasties. However, upon a closer examination, the female figural stereotype they are meant to represent is clearly associated with the Han rather than the Six Dynasties (Figure 24a-24c). The features of Han dressing style are evident in the ladies’ rounder-shaped large sleeves that are contracted instead of wide open at the end; the low instead of high waistline; and necklines covered with V-shaped collars instead of being exposed. The only added feature is the many ribbons attached to their robes drawn in curving lines and in red color (Figure 25). Fluttering up in the air, with some above the waistline, the ribbons are eye catching and remind us of those in the Sima Jinlong Lienü screen (Fig- ure 20) – they present a new element that we find more frequently in other surviving female images from the Six Dynasties.77 The inclusion of rather elaborate fluttering ribbons makes the ladies look like weightless floating figures, inevitably enhancing their gracefulness. This may be another reason, though they wear the typical Han robes, that they do not appear as heavy-looking as the ladies in Lienü renzhi tu. The artist paid great attention to the women’s hairdos and faces. There are two styles of hairdos – both represent the Han fashion: one is the typical top- knotted hairdo with a suspended tail – a style found consistent with that in Lienü renzhi tu discussed earlier (Figures 26 and 27); the other consists of trail- ing loops tied on the back. Although the latter style is seen less frequently in extant Han visual materials, it is identifiable as a type of double-loop braid found in female figurines from the Han tombs (Figures 28a and 28b). Shen Congwen 沈從文 (1902-88) pointed out that this style was found only during the Han and became unfashionable in the immediate post-Han period.78 Large and ornate hairpins, in the form of standing golden birds, decorate the top of both hairdos. These illustrations might represent what is called a buyao 步搖 (step-shake), a delicate hairpin whose elements move with a woman’s each

76 Chen Pao-chen’s essay provides the most detailed discussion of the women’s clothing, hairstyles, and the like. See Chen, “The Admonitions Scroll,” 132-34. 77 But unlike the very standardized ribbons depicted in the Sima screen, most of these ribbons appear structurally unclear, as noted by Chen, “The Admonitions Scroll,” 133-34. 78 Shen Congwen 沈從文, Zhongguo gudai fushi yanjiu 中國古代服飾研究 (reprint; Shanghai: Shanghai shudian chubanshe, 2006), 65.

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a b

FIGURE 24 Comparison of female figures. a. Han female figure (FIGURE 13). b. Lady from Nüshi zhen tu (Figure 2). c. Lady from the section of the Shun 舜 story (Stories of filial piety), detail from an engraving on the left side of a stone sarcophagus; Northern Wei. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City. Purchase: William Rockhill Nelson trust, 33-1543/2. c

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FIGURE 25 Lady with flying ribbons from Nüshi zhen tu (Figure 2). walking step, which was fashionable in the Han period.79 Each lady possesses a neatly outlined oval face with a sculpted nose, a full lip, and a pair of gently arching eyebrows. All the faces, outlined in consistent and precise drawings, thus look standardized and almost identical. While evoking the female clothing and hairstyles of the Han, their idealized type also aligns to the image of beauty admired in the gongti shi 宮體詩, or palace-style poetry, of the Six Dy- nasties poetry, such as, “Her eyes and eyebrows are distinctively clear; [you

79 An earlier depiction of such a buyao can be seen on the image of Lady Licang 利蒼, represented in the banner excavated from Mawangdui 馬王堆 tomb no. 1, Changsha 長沙, Hunan province. See the reproduction of the image and discussion in Zhou Xun and Gao Chuming, Zhongguo lidai funü, 57, 67.

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FIGURE 26 Detail of a woman’s top-knotted hairdo with a suspended tail, from Nüshi zhen tu (Figure 2).

FIGURE 27 Detail of a woman’s top-knotted hairdo with a suspended tail, from Lienü renzhi tu (Figure 1).

only see] one type of slim-waisted body” (Fenming jing meimu, yizhong xi yao shen 分明淨眉目，一種細腰身).80 Palace-style poetry is a distinctive genre of romantic love poem patronized by aristocrats and popularized during the Six Dynasties.81 The previously cited lines indeed were written by Xiao Gang 蕭綱, the Emperor Jianwen 建文帝 (r. 504-51) of the Liang dynasty, to describe the imagery of a goddess and a court beauty. The female attractiveness of noble beauties and their longing for

80 “Yong meiren guanhua” 詠美人觀畫, in Xu Ling, Yutai xinyong, chap. 3, 328. 81 For a concise discussion of this genre, see Birrell, New Songs from a Jade Terrace, 1-28.

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FIGURE 28 Women with double-loop hairdo. a. Drawings of the hairdos of figurines from the Han dynasty tombs. Image source: Shen Congwen 沈從文, Zhongguo gudai fushi yanjiu 中國古代服飾研究 (Shanghai: Shanghai shudian chubanshe, 2006), 65. b. Detail of a woman’s hairsdo from Nüshi zhen tu (Figure 2). b love are the typical subject for this genre, which is certainly not the intended subject of Nüshi zhen tu. However, Nüshi zhen tu does represent court ladies since the illustrated text is positioned to admonish court ladies and includes only the historical noble women as exemplars. Different from Lienü renzhi tu, Nüshi zhen tu strongly bears a courtly status. As already mentioned, the audience of lienü images had expanded to a broader spectrum of social members that included not only nobles but also local officials since the late Eastern Han. A scroll like Lienü renzhi tu and other lienü images were not produced exclusively for members of the royal family. If lienü images were made for a wider audience, illustrations of another didactic text specifically targeted to the court audience could have become desirable during the Six Dynasties. Zhang Huang’s text, written in the voice of a court instructress, expressed exactly its courtly nature in its original context in addition to its moral essence.82 Some

82 Several scholars have offered their opinions on the original making of Nüshi zhen tu. Although their conclusions might not be the same, they all point to a likely courtly

Nan Nü 19 (2017) 155-212 Downloaded from Brill.com10/08/2021 01:54:00AM via free access 204 Cheng scholars also point out that because of the admonishing nature of the text, which aims at pointing out the flaws of those who are in power, it would have been a poor candidate for illustration unless it was a courtly commission much needed under historical circumstance. I suspect that the intended audience of the illustrated Nüshi zhen was limited to members of the court for whom the new illustrations were substituted for the earlier lienü images situated in the tradition of the didactic genre. The limited audience might also explain why this new painting subject was never widely circulated or highly demanded. This is not to deny the significance of the scroll in connection with the study of Gu Kaizhi and its relevance to the developments of Chinese painting history. But, notably, paintings titled Nüshi zhen tu recorded in the traditional Chinese painting catalogues are almost exclusively attributed either to Gu Kaizhi or to an anonymous “Jin” painter. This limited attribution contrasts to the record of lienü paintings, which were reportedly painted by a variety of artists since the Jin dynasty. Compared to the lienü subject, which was made into printed illustrations that eventually reached a much wider general audience in later dynasties, there seems to be narrow interest in the subject of Nüshi zhen tu in later dynasties.83 The royal appearance of female exemplars in Nüshi zhen tu was made obvious. Their subdued facial expressions and elegant movements are the features of the noble class.84 Women’s attractive appearance and stylish adornments go hand in hand with the emphasis on their decorous manners. Such a female type reflects both accepted ideas of fashionable female beauty as well as what had become established as the iconography for representing noble ladies and

context of the commission of the scroll. See McCausland, First Masterpiece of Chinese Painting, 22-24; see also discussions by Yang Xin and Chen Pao-chen, in McCausland, ed., Gu Kaizhi and the Admonitions Scroll, 47-48, and 134-36, respectively. 83 With the rise of woodblock printing, Lienü zhuan texts were illustrated in prints as early as the Song dynasty – the famed Song edition of Yushi wanjuan tang 余氏萬卷堂 was published in 1063. See Hinsch, “The Textual History,” 110-11. Various versions of illustrated Lienü zhuan editions, ranging from the Song to the Qing dynasty, have survived. See for example the discussion of three versions collected in the National Palace Museum, Tai- pei, by Ye Shuhui 葉淑慧, “Yuan cang Lienü zhuan futu shangxi,” 院藏列女傳附圖賞析, Gugong wenwu yuekan 312 (2009): 110-18. See also Michela Bussotti, “Images of Women in Late Ming Huizhou-Printed Editions of the Lienü zhuan,” Nan Nü: Men, Women and Gen- der in China 17 (2015):54-116. 84 The same treatment is applied to male figures as well. Their robed dress, headgear, subdued expression, and demeanor all suggest their royal status. By contrast, the artist uses rougher body language and more exaggerated faces to depict lower-status people, such as the guards and the palanquin-bearers.

DownloadedNan from Nü Brill.com10/08/202119 (2017) 155-212 01:54:00AM via free access The Pictorial Portrayal Of Women And Didactic Messages 205 female deities by the Six Dynasties period. We may view this type of elegant, attractive, self-possessed beauty as the ideal female image that embodied not conflicting qualities but, rather, three qualities combined: virtue, status, and beauty.85 Such a beauty type matches the scroll’s exquisite artistic taste and style that were associated with the court audience. The prominent use of bright, brick-red colors applied to women’s clothes, adornments, belongings, and so forth, for example, is a strong feature that greatly enhances the eye- pleasing picturesque quality of the scroll in addition to its primary element of linear drawings. This method of coloration is shared by images found in royal tombs from both the Han and Six Dynasties periods.86 Nüshi zhen tu demonstrates a close image-and-text relationship that expects the viewer’s appreciation of not only the image but also the text. As previously mentioned, Zhang Hua’s text takes a concise, rhyming form of mainly four- character lines like a poem, which could be recited. Apparently, it was manage- able and desirable to insert the full text, a total of 335 characters. Inscribed in nicely written standard-script calligraphy, the text is divided by sections to accompany illustrations. Each section is inserted to the right of the image illustrated. As one unrolls the scroll from right to left, one would read the text first, then view the image. This order and the fact that the whole text is inscribed signify the importance of text in the painting and the literacy status of the viewers. Unlike Lienü renzhi tu and the Sima Jinlong screen, Nüshi zhen tu does not include any name-type inscription that identifies depicted characters. In part, there are not many named characters represented in the scroll because of the relative conceptual nature of the original text. The illustrated text is mainly concerned with abstract moral concepts. The representation of abstract concepts of such a text in images was a challenge. It likely this caused the painter of Nüshi zhen tu to favor concrete images, which resonated with the Six Dynasties contemporary idea that pictures were meant to preserve the appearance of things, as claimed by Lu Ji. This ideal made artists focus on representing xing 形 (concrete forms). In light of this view, many supposedly ambiguous scenes considered by recent scholars should be simply understood as literal representations, concretely drawing

85 I very much agree with Michael Nylan’s idea that beauty, pleasure, and possessions were fundamentally not in conflict with virtue and high rank, but rather, were considered to be the reward for virtuous acts in ancient China. See her “Remarks of a Later Female Histo- rian,” in McCausland, ed., Gu Kaizhi and the Admonitions Scroll, 122-124, and see page 123. 86 Wu, “The Admonitions Scroll Revisited,” 97.

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FIGURE 29 Detail of “the toiletry scene,” section from Nüshi zhen tu (Figure 2).

on the visual stimulus provided by the text.87 If one reads closely the text next to each scene in sections such as the bedroom scene, the toiletry scene, the mountain scene, and the instructress scene, one can detect that the artist apparently selected the most concrete image to represent. Most commonly cited for tension between the image and the text is the toiletry scene (Figure 29), because the text emphasizes the cultivation of one’s mind over that of one’s appearance. The painter depicted three women attending to their beauty. However, adorning one’s physical appearance is something far more concrete to depict than the cultivation of mind.88 Indeed, such a depiction represents what one should not be doing according to the admonition. Nevertheless, we should not view such a depiction of improper conduct and attitudes as a rebel- lion against the text, considering the dual nature of early didactic images (both

87 Julia Murray also discusses in detail some of the “disjunctures” of the scroll and makes similar observations. See her “Who Was Zhang Hua’s ‘Instructress’?,” 104-5. 88 Murray, “Who was Zhang Hua’s ‘Instructress’?,” 104-5.

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FIGURE 30 Detail from “the toiletry scene,” section from Nüshi zhen tu (Figure 2). good and bad models are depicted) and the function of zhen (the genre of admonition) for pointing out flaws, as discussed earlier. After closer examination of the scene, one finds that the face of the lady sitting on the left, having her hair combed by another lady, looks worried or unhappy; her eyebrows are contracted in a frown (Figure 30). This subtle facial expression suggests that she is probably overly concerned with her appearance – precisely what one should not be doing. Finally, the creator of Nüshi zhen tu showed a great level of interest in representing the psychological nuances of figures, which were unseen in the early lienü images. In a seeming contradiction, the scroll depicts nearly identical women, portrayed without individual personalities or characteristics. Never- theless, the revelation of subtle psychological aspects of human relationships based on the illustrated text imparts individuality. While interactions of figures appeared in some Han images, this artist was able to capture far more complex psychological nuances. How to interpret this psychological aspect of human interaction in the painting, however, often proves to be problematic for modern viewers. The bedroom scene (Figure 31) is one example that depicts an ambiguous picture criticized by one scholar as “a very inadequate illustration to the text.”89 The text explains how proper or improper words of a woman can affect her relationship with her husband – the person with whom she shares her bedchamber in the most intimate manner. To visualize “your bedfellow will distrust you” in a rather concrete manner, the painter thus depicts an en- counter of a court lady and an emperor set in a bedchamber. Their gestures and facial expressions however are ambiguous, according to some: is the em-

89 Arthur Waley, Chinese Painting (London: Ernest Benn; New York: Grove Press and Charles Scribner, 1923; reprint, New York: Grove Press, 1958), 51.

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FIGURE 31 “The bedroom scene,” section from Nüshi zhen tu (Figure 2).

peror coming or going? This ambiguity leaves the viewer to imagine the couple’s intimate bedside conversations. In my opinion, the gestures of the emperor clearly indicate that he is leaving: his body faces out with one leg bent, leaving his left shoe empty on the ground, which implies that he was in the bed before. Now, as he is about to depart, his right foot is sliding into its shoe. However, the turning of his face with a concerned or slightly hesitating expression toward the woman in bed is a sophisticated design that was probably meant to create some sort of tension between the two figures. This expression implies the complex psychological aspect of the emperor – he obviously dislikes that circumstances have jeopar- dized his supposed intimate relationship with his court lady. The woman, on the contrary, looks like a standardized beauty with her eyes directly meeting the emperor’s to indicate, perhaps, her wish for him to stay. This level of psychological nuance surely indicates the artist’s intentional effort to go beyond representing merely the appearances of figures. However, it should not be a surprise if we read other accounts on the practice of the artists

DownloadedNan from Nü Brill.com10/08/202119 (2017) 155-212 01:54:00AM via free access The Pictorial Portrayal Of Women And Didactic Messages 209 from the Six Dynasties period. For example, Yao Zui 姚最 (536-603) made an interesting comment on a painter named Shen Can 沈粲 from the Southern Qi 齊 dynasty who was said to specialize in female figures:

His brushwork is harmonious and charming. He specializes in qiluo (elite women).90 The scene of bedchamber/screen curtains he depicts is capable of arousing an intimate mood.

筆迹調媚，專工綺羅。屏幛所圖，頗有情趣。91

The terms tiaomei 調媚 and qingqu 情趣, rendered here as “harmonious and charming” and “intimate mood,” could imply various connotations, and are no doubt related to provoking viewers’ romantic feelings and imagination. The comment does not tell us how the artist was able to achieve these effects. As discussed earlier, however, there was an increasing awareness of the mental effectiveness evoked by painted figures and artists’ interest in achieving this effect during the Six Dynasties period. One could almost visualize Shen Can’s picture of a bedchamber scene in the “bedroom scene” of Nüshi zhen tu by changing the facial expressions, body gestures, and interactions of the figures presented. Now we can begin to realize how it had become desirable for the artist of Nüshi zhen tu to embellish his scenes by paying attention to the psychological aspects of the figures – a feature not seen only in the “bedroom scene” but in many others. This tendency corresponded to what we understand to be the more accomplished feature of figural painting proposed by painters like Gu Kaizhi in the period. The artist was simply interested in whatever mental effect these new elements could produce. As we have seen, Nüshi zhen tu clearly situated itself in the pictorial didactic genre of lienü. Therefore, I do not think that subverting the didactic message of the text was one of the artist’s intents.

90 Qiluo 綺羅 literally means patterned gauzes and silks – the kind of luxury silks used for elite women’s clothes. Thus, the term here really stands for elegant elite women. Liu Fangrü 劉芳如 briefly discusses the alternative terms for representing women in paintings, and qiluo is one of them. See her “Zhongguo shinü hua zhi mei” 中國仕女畫之美, Gugong wenwu yuekan 62 (1988): 20-35, especially pages 22-23. 91 Xu huapin 續畫品, in Shen Zicheng, Lidai lunhua, 24.

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Conclusion

This paper examined the visual forms into which Liu Xiang’s focused portray- als of women were translated during the Han and Six Dynasties. The images of lienü became established as a distinctive visual category, developed within a broader context of a didactic pictorial genre that engaged the power of images for both the dead and the living. During these periods, an image’s literary refer- ence largely predetermined its didactic or other functions. Such images were predicated on an expectation of the viewer’s textual knowledge. Liu Xiang’s original book was written for a narrow audience of rulers, with a political agenda in mind. Its subsequent visual translation, however, reached a wider range of patrons and viewers and was produced largely in burial contexts. This situa- tion encouraged the selection of lienü images which fit specific needs of patrons. Pictorial lienü were considered auspicious and pleasant to look at in general. They not only functioned didactically, but also served as moral statements endorsed by their patrons. This focus on the viewer gave leeway for the representation of visually appealing images in the pictorial didactic genre. Therefore, lienü images often signified decorative, eye-pleasing qualities that purposefully served to mark the privileged status of their noble and educated viewers. Fundamentally, the didactic function and the visual pleasure of a pictorial image were not considered conflicting elements. Rooted in the pictorial genre of lienü, two painted scrolls, Lienü renzhi tu and Nüshi zhen tu, represent an established female figural type. Elegant and attractive, this type mainly reflects Han fashion and notions of beauty. The fact that there was no new pictorial genre created for Nüshi zhen tu, which illustrates a different admonitory literature than Lienü zhuan, may suggest the dominance of lienü images in the post-Han didactic pictorial genre. The well- recognized didactic status of lienü images and the acceptance of their visual appeal allowed the viewer of such paintings to focus on the representation of the female figural type by the time of Gu Kaizhi. Undoubtedly, the new media of painted scrolls and new painting theories also encouraged more sophisticated applications of artistic skills, which could enhance the representational qualities of such images. Nüshi zhen tu exemplifies the artist’s interest in adding psychological aspects of figures to create a level of nuance in character interaction, not found in previous representations of lienü stories. The following comment, on a now lost smaller version of a lienü painting produced between the late Eastern Han and the Six Dynasties, serves as a useful summary of the points made in this paper. The writing is conventionally attributed to Gu Kaizhi:

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[On] the Smaller Version of Lienü: Their faces seem to be × [missing character]; it is regrettable that their appearances were shaped by calculation, so that they do not fully express the breath of life.92 Also, male bodies were inserted, which did not appear so natural. Nevertheless, the clothing, ornaments, and various other objects look most marvelous. The rendering of women’s robes and coiffures is especially beautiful. In their moving gestures, each dot and stroke combined to perfect their alluring loveliness. Moreover, the appearances of relative status and rank are distinguishable and easily understood. It would be difficult [for later artists] to surpass [these aspects]. [Emphasis added.]

小列女：面如 x ，恨刻削為容儀，不盡生氣。又插置丈夫肢體，不以自然。然服飾與眾物既甚奇，作女子尤麗衣髻，俯仰中一點一畫，皆成豔姿。且尊卑貴賤之形，覺然易了，難可遠過之也。93

Gu Kaizhi’s appreciation of the artistic representation of the figures and their feminine loveliness is unmistakable. Indeed, according to him, this painter might have paid too much attention to the detailed representation of women’s appearances at the cost of their liveliness – a new concern of his time. He also criticized the interruption caused by the insertion of male characters, which probably distracted viewers from enjoying the female images. Most important- ly, he did not find it problematic to characterize the ladies in this didactic scroll as having yanzi 豔姿. Yan 豔 has the connotation of alluring, glamorous, and sensational, and zi 姿 refers to posture and look. Such an alluring, glamorous female look was embodied through two major elements: the particularly beautiful “dresses and coiffures” (yiji 衣髻) of women and “women’s gestures” while fuyang 俯仰 literally refers to the lowering and raising of one’s head and likely

92 There are diverse opinions with regard to the reading of the sentence. Conventionally, the sentence is read as Mian ru hen, kexiao wei rongyi 面如恨, 刻削為容儀. Thus, the translation of it is: “their faces seem to be grieving; [thought] carved in detail to express their attitudes, they do not fully attain the breath of life.” However, it does not make much sense that they appear “grieving.” This interpretation is challenged by Li Xianglin 李祥林, who proposes to read the character 恨 as the beginning part of the second line (hen kexue wei rongyi 恨刻削為容儀) and suspects that there is a missing character after mianru 面如. My modified translation is based on this new reading. See Li Xianglin, Zhongguo shuhua mingjia huayu tujie: Gu Kaizhi 中國書畫名家畫語圖解：顧愷之 (Beijing: Renmin daxue chubanshe, 2004), 23-24. 93 “Lunhua” 論畫, in Zhang Yanyuan, Lidai minghua ji, chap. 5, 74. I modified the translation from Susan Bush and Hsio-yen Shih, Early Chinese Texts on Painting (Cambridge, MA: Har- vard University Press, 1985), 28.

Nan Nü 19 (2017) 155-212 Downloaded from Brill.com10/08/2021 01:54:00AM via free access 212 Cheng suggests women’s interactive gestures. These two elements seem to correspond well to what we observe in the ladies from both Lienü renzhi tu and Nüshi zhen tu. One other important element he pointed out is “the appearances of relative status and rank” of the figures, which were likely achieved through the rendering of figures’ clothing, headgear, ornaments, demeanor, and so forth. All of these status-marking elements are present in the Sima screen, Lienü renzhi tu, and Nüshi zhen tu. In short, Gu Kaizhi’s comment on the smaller version of the Lienü painting as well as our current available visual references confirm the representation of a noble ideal of femininity in the service of both didacticism and visual enjoy- ment. It is an image of female exemplars embodying virtue, gracefulness, and physical loveliness.

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