WU HUNG The TransparentStone: Inverted Vision and Binary Imagery in Medieval Chinese Art A CRUCIAL MOMENT DIVIDES the course of Chinese art into two broad periods. Before this moment,a ritual art traditiontransformed general political and religious concepts into material symbols.Forms that we now call worksof art were integralparts of largermonumental complexes such as temples and tombs,and theircreators were anonymouscraftsmen whose individualcrea- tivitywas generallysubordinated to largercultural conventions. From the fourth and fifthcenturies on, however,there appeared a group of individuals-scholar- artistsand art critics-who began to forge theirown history.Although the con- structionof religiousand politicalmonuments never stopped, these men of let- ters attempted to transformpublic art into their private possessions, either physically,artistically, or spiritually.They developed a strongsentiment toward ruins,accumulated collectionsof antiques,placed miniaturemonuments in their houses and gardens,and "refined"common calligraphicand pictorialidioms into individual styles.This paper discusses new modes of writingand paintingat this liminalpoint in Chinese art history. Reversed Image and Inverted Vision Near the modern cityof Nanjing in eastern China, some ten mauso- leums survivingfrom the early sixth centurybear witnessto the past glory of emperors and princes of the Liang Dynasty(502-57).' The mausoleums share a general design (fig. 1). Three pairs of stone monumentsare usually erected in frontof the tumulus: a pair of stone animals-lions or qilinunicorns according to the statusof the dead-are placed before a gate formedby two stone pillars; the name and titleof the deceased appear on the flatpanels beneath the pillars' capitals. Finallytwo opposing memorialstelae bear identicalepitaphs recording the career and meritsof the dead person. This sequence of paired stones defines a central axis or a ritual path leading to the tomb mound. As indicated by its ancient designationshendao, or "the spiritroad," this path was built not for the livingbut forthe departingsoul, which,it was commonlybelieved, traveled along 58 REPRESENTATIONS 46 * Spring 1994 ? THE REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Tomb stelae columns bixieorqfiin Directionsof axis depends on the lie ofthe land FIGURE 1. Standard layoutof a Liang royaltomb. AfterAnn Paludan,The Chinese Spirnt Road (New Haven, 1991), chart2b. Reproduced by permission. FIGURE 2. Stone sculpturesin Emperor Wen'sJianling mausoleum. Liang Dynasty,502 A.D.; Danyang,Jiangsu Province. AfterYao Qian and Gu Bing, Liuchaoyishu (Art of the Six Dynasties;Beijing, 1981), 35. the path fromits old home to itsnew abode, crossingthe pillar-gatethat marked out the boundary betweenthese two worlds.2 Fifteenhundred years have passed, and these mausoleums have turned into ruins. The stone animals stand in rice fields; the stelae are cracked and their inscriptionsblurred (fig. 2). But the "spiritroad," which never takes a material formbut is only definedby the shapes surroundingit, seems to have escaped the ravages of time.As long as the pairs of monuments-even theirruins-still exist in situ,a visitorrecognizes this "path" and he, or his gaze, travelsalong it. Like the ancients, he would firstmeet the twin stone animals, each with its body curving fromcrest to tail to forma smooth S-shaped contour.With their large round eyes and enormous gaping mouths,the mythicalbeasts seem to be in a state of alarm and amazement. Compared to the bulkyanimal statues created The TransparentStone 59 This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions threecenturies earlier during the Han Dynasty,these statuesexhibit new interest in psychologyrather than in pure physique, in momentaryexpression rather than in permanentexistence, in individualityrather than in anonymity,and in a complex combinationof fantasticand human elementsrather than in uniformity. The vividnessof the animals even seems at odds withthe solemn atmosphere of a graveyard.Standing in frontof the stone pillars,these strangecreatures seem to have just emerged fromthe other side of the gate and are astonishedby what theyare confronting. The powerfulimagery of these stone beasts must have contributedto the invention of abundant legends about them: people have repeatedly reported seeing themjumping up in the air.3In 546, the animals in frontof the Jianling mausoleum, the tomb of the dynasticfounder's father, reportedly suddenly got up and began to dance. They then foughtviolently with a huge serpent under the pillar-gate,and one beast was even injured by the evil reptile.4This event must have created a great sensationat the time: it was recorded in the dynasty's officialhistory and the famous poet Yu Xin (513-81) incorporated it into his writings.5This and other tales, obviouslyoriginating from the statues' symbolic FIGURES 3a-b. Mirroringinscriptions on stone pillarsin Emperor Wen'stomb, 502 A.D. 62.5 x 142 cm. AfterZhu Xizu et al., Liuchaolingmu diaocha baogao (An investigativereport of Six Dynasties mausoleums; Nanjing, 1935), figs.20a-b. 60 REPRESENTATIONS This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions functionof wardingoff evil and fromthe desire to explain theirdecay over time, nevertheless demanded and inspired further political interpretations.Thus when a similarevent was later reported to the court,some ministersconsidered it a good omen, but the emperor feared it as an inauspicious indicationof future rebellions. Underlyingboth interpretationswas the belief that the stone beasts carried divine messages to the living.6 Having passed the animal statues,the visitorfinds himself before the stone pillars.As mentionedabove, these bear two panels withidentical inscriptions. In the example shown in figs.3a-b, the passage reads: "The spiritroad of Grand Supreme Emperor Wen,"the fatherof the founderof the Liang Dynasty.There is nothingstrange about the contentof these inscriptions;what is puzzling is the way theyare written:the inscriptionon the leftpanel is a piece of regular text, but the one on the rightpanel is reversed.7 Readers unfamiliarwith Chinese writingmay gain some sense of the irony created by thisjuxtaposition froman English "translation"of the Chinese pas- sages (figs.3c-d): although the contentof the two inscriptionsis identical,their effectis entirelydifferent. The inscriptionon the leftis a series of words forming a coherentand readable text.But the inscriptionon the right,at firstsight, con- sistsof no more than individualand illegiblesigns. A temporalreading sequence Ihespi it roadof 9qviWn Qran(Supreme I Emperor'4enj w IW 3J __ _ 'I_ I____I_ I reversedimages a at reversedvision a a FIGURES 3c-d (top). English translationof mausoleum inscriptions. FIGURE 4 (center).Diagram: reversedimages. FIGURE 5 (bottom).Diagram: reversedvision. The TransparentStone 61 This content downloaded on Tue, 15 Jan 2013 00:30:26 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions is thusestablished: even thoughthe twoinscriptions would be seensimultaneously from the spiritpath, theymust be comprehendedsequentially. It would not take more than a few seconds for a literateperson to read the normal inscriptionon the left,but to understandthe inscriptionon the righthe would firstneed to find clues. Such clues are found visuallyin the physicalrelationship between the two inscriptions:both theirsymmetrical placement and echoing patternssuggest that the illegible text "mirrors"the legible one. Unconsciously,the visitorwill have taken the normal textas his point of referencefor the other'smeaning. The problem of comparing the individualcharacters of the two inscriptions no longer existsonce the visitorrealizes theyare the same.The "illegible"inscrip- tion has become legible because he can read its mirrorimage (fig. 4). In other words, the mysteryof its contenthas vanished: it is simplya reversed version of a regular piece of writing.What remains is the mysteryof its reading: it would become not only legible in contentbut normal in formif the reader could invert his own visionto read it fromthe "back"-from the other side of the column (fig. 5).8 Once thisinference is made, the reversedinscription changes froma subject to be deciphered to a stimulusof the imagination.9Controlled and deceived by the engraved signs,the visitorhas mentallytransported himself to the other side of the gate. He has forgottenthe solid and opaque stone material,which has now become "transparent." All thismay seem a psychologicalgame and a quite subjectiveinterpretation, but the perceptual transformationexplored here is seen frequentlyin the funeraryart and literatureof the Six Dynasties.During a funeraryrite, the "vis- itor"whom I have just described would have been a mourner.As a mourner,his frame of mind would be focused on the functionof a funeraryritual and the mortuarymonuments framing it. Who was supposed to be in a position to read the reversed inscription"obversely"? In other words, who was thoughtto be on the other side of the stone column looking out? A gate alwaysseparates space into an interiorand an exterior.In a cemetery these are commonlyidentified as the world of the dead and the world of the living.The pair of inscriptionson the twinpillars signifiesthe junction of these twoworlds and the meetingpoint of two gazes projectingfrom the opposite sides of the gate (fig.5). The