Study Of Landscape Poetry Of The Song Dynasty

Brought by paintings and intervening between poems and paintings, poems for the paintings are the most representative embodiment for synthesizing the art of poems and paintings.Landscape paintings maturated in the end of Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, and they gained popularities till to Song Dynasty for they could serve the need of"knowing about the world without getting out"among literati. Poems for the landscape paintings became to be the mainstream along with the maturation of poems for the landscape paintings in Song Dynasty. In enjoying in the poems for the paintings, this thesis proposes that although poems for the paintings which synthesizing the art and beauty of poems and paintings, it still belong to a kind of crossed subject, however, they are poems in nature, their principal characteristics are literariness and poetics, so their literariness are our focus for attention. Specifically, we should pay attention to these aspects (which are also the standpoints of this article) in enjoying in the poems for the paintings: on the one hand, under such a specified era, how do poets enjoy the landscape paintings; their feelings in facing with the paintings; how do they express their feelings of enjoying the paintings through the carrier of poems; on the other hand, the common spirits in the represented art of the poems for the paintings among cotemporaries, and the continuities and changes compared with former dynasties. Accordingly, the article would be divided into five chapters.Chapter 1: An outline of the poems for the paintings in Song Dynasty. Firstly, from the viewpoint of numeric statistics, the importance of landscape paintings in artistic life and spiritual enjoyment of people in Song Dynasty as well as the dominant status of landscape paintings and poems could be testified by these points: the predominant percentage of the poems for the landscape paintings in the poems for the paintings, the large number of contemporary painters who have been chanted, the maturity of paintings, particularly, the abundant emergence of poems for the axial paintings. Secondly, from the viewpoint of the thematic patterns, we could find the thinking rules of poets in Song Dynasty in enjoying the landscape paintings. Generally speaking, the landscape paintings which containing a name would bring the poets'feelings consistently owing to their specific cultural characteristics; however, the nameless landscape paintings would deliver poets much more imagine exertion, so different people would have different feelings in facing with a painting. In facing with landscape paintings on the history, it is more likely that poets would ponder on the behaviours of characters or the historical matters than just to enjoy the paintings from an angle of aesthetic, thus they could express their admiration about these historical characters and their sensations about the historical matters. During enjoying a landscape painting on poetry, poets often realize the modal and emotional expressions from paintings, then they could cast back the poetic prototype from the paintings, realize the affection and matters in accordance with the original poems, and bring their realization to their own heart, thus the them of original poems could be expanded and sublimed. Thirdly, from the viewpoint of creative chances, the most prominent phenomenon of the poems for the landscape paintings is painters'own writing and composing a poem in response to one received. Self-writing landscape painting is the initiated application of painters who are also poets, and these paintings contain multiple circumstances, such as composing a poem to add the drawing, composing a poem to express affection, as well as composing a poem to send to others with the drawing, composing a poem in response to one received. Owing to the popularity of composing a poem in response to one received as well as the increase of poets'mass creativities, the phenomenon of composing a poem in response to one received in poems for landscape paintings became very prominent, among which, composing a poem in response to one received on landscape paintings in Palace in early Song Dynasty and among the scholars in the period of Yuanyou were the most prominent phenomena. The poets in early Song Dynasty occupied important posts, so their poems fully display their adoration and interests about humanistic elegance among literati in Song Dynasty. In spatial time, the poets free themselves from hustle and bustle by enjoying paintings, writing poems. However, from the poems of the scholars in the period of Yuanyou, we could find that poets often calling for"leaving", thus the poets'spiritual stress under the circumstance of clannish competition could be seen. In enjoying the poems for the paintings, the poets could relax themselves. They could quit from the reality and immerse themselves in the beautiful landscape temporarily, thus enjoying the poems is an effective relaxation though it could not be a permanent cure.Chapter 2: Social background of the poems for the landscape paintings in Song Dynasty. For one thing, this article would dissertate the social atmosphere of the poems in the following five aspects. Firstly, in point of the functions of paintings, paintings became a method for expressing one's feelings and enjoyment, not a political instrument any more. Thus, paintings became more sentiment, and they would bring a kind of poetic feeling to people. Secondly, the system of painting yard became consummate, which ameliorated the status for painters and also accelerated the communication between literati and painters; In addition, the painting yard attached importance to painters'culture, and it stick to some standards to evaluate paintings, such as"eloquent"and"high-toned", so as to reinforce literariness in paintings, and enhance the amalgamation between the art of poems and the art of paintings. Thirdly, dignitaries'fancy and participation to painting enhanced the status of paintings impersonally, so as to make painting becoming an elegant pleasure. Fourthly, the popularity of paintings of the literati and literati's participation to paintings in Song Dynasty would bring creative prosperity to the poems for the paintings. Fifthly, people in Song Dynasty like to collect and delight themselves in paintings, on the one hand, to be a kind of relief, literati's interests in paintings could enrich their life; on the other hand, literati also made some investigations in paintings which could also bring some poems for the paintings. Apart from the above attributes, the salient position of the poems for the landscape paintings necessarily owing to their special cultural attributes. Accordingly, this article will probe into three aspects: above all, the prevalence of ethos to hermit-ship promoted literati's favour to landscape paintings. Poets also express their feelings in poems during enjoying in landscape paintings, thus to make the poems for the landscape paintings gaining their popularity. And then, from the viewpoint of landscape paintings, the broad creation and propaganda for landscape paintings provided rich objects which could be intoned; the prosperity of landscape paintings testified the common interests to landscape paintings among people. The communication between painters and scholars also stimulated the composition of the poems for landscape paintings.Chapter 3: Expatiation for the content of the poems for landscape paintings in Song Dynasty. There are three main aspects of the emotional content, which expressed in the poems for the landscape paintings among people in Song Dynasty. Firstly, the most familiar emotion in the poems is the wish of hermit-ship, and it could be divided into three layers: the first layer—"adoration", that's to say, the poets adored and fancied to be buried alive, thought they knew it was not attainable; the second layer—"estrangement", the estrangement between"I"and landscape, the poets clearly notified that they could not live a eremitic life; the third layer—"expectation", the poets anticipated to live in the beautiful sceneries, and they wish that there would be someone guiding them to the fairyland. Secondly, taking landscape as a ligament, the landscape paintings often became an accelerant for poets'homesickness: whatever landscape paintings the poets enjoyed themselves in, they would associate to the landscape in their homeland, or even, they would assume the landscape in the paintings to be the landscape in their homeland, thus their homesickness would arise spontaneously. Therefore, during enjoying in landscape paintings, poets usually got the feeling that"I'm just a traveller", and personally endow the paintings a feeling of homesickness, so the imago in the paintings have gained specified meanings. Thirdly, attention to national condition and thinking to social life, the broad visual and imaginary space in the paintings provide a wide stage for poets'imagination. Poets expressed their feelings to the nation and to the social life, thus to add profound idealistic content to the poems for the paintings.Chapter Four: the expression way of the poems for landscape paintings in Song Dynasty. This chapter would be unfolded in three aspects. First, in enjoying the poems for the painting, poets brought themselves to the paintings, and they put up the sensation that"I am in the picture",and then they arise the feeling of getting into the paintings and leave out the paintings. This phenomenon result from a kind of strong artistic communication in paintings, as well as poets'own aesthetic sentiment and romantic affection. From this kind of phenomenon, it could be found that, in the Song Dynasty, people who are indulged in enjoying arts still have a free heart: they wish to abandon the hustle and bustle, and they are longing for the fresh and quiet life in the landscape. Second, the style of poems is in harmony with the style of the original paintings, that's to say, if the paintings are large, the poems would be long; if the paintings are small, the poems would be short. And if the paintings are coloured, the poems would be showy, if the paintings are colourless, the poems would be light. This kind of harmony fully shows the artistic insight in people in Song Dynasty. Third, the poets in Song Dynasty are skilled in making use of various rhetorical devices. This chapter demonstrates on some devices, such as imagination, symbolization, synesthesia, illusion and so on, it points out that poets in Song Dynasty are specialized in developing the characteristic that poems could arise imagination, thus they turned the painting conception to poetic sensation and poetic conception, made creative complementation, exertion and explication to the images in paintings. It is a general habit to turn natural substances to cultural matters, so it is easy for people making comparisons and arising association in enjoying landscape paintings. Apart from this, the strong literary spirit in paintings provide the poets with a precondition for their imagination, so it is a common method that not concretely describing the images in the paintings in writing a poem for landscape paining, but lay emphasis on making symbolization and comparison to the scenery in landscape paintings. Poets often attracted by the beautiful scenery as they are enjoying in the landscape paintings, so they might arise the illusion that the paintings were in the real world. To start with enjoying paintings by eyesight, poets would also use other senses, fully devoted themselves into the enjoyment for art, thus they could gain the omni-directional sensory enjoyment. Therefore, poets usually made use of synesthesia and illusion in representing the poems for the landscape, so they could turn imaginary things seeming to be real, thus the vitality of paintings could be conveyed skilfully. Painters made the landscape vivid, and poets in turn made the landscape paintings vivid, they revert the landscape to be immortal, thus the poems for the landscape paintings could be regard as the common creation for both poets and painters.Chapter 5: inherits and innovations for the poems for landscape paintings between Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty. The poems for landscape paintings in Tang Dynasty brought profound influence to poems for after-world, not only in the style for the poems but also in the content and tone in writing. For example, the poems for the landscape in Song Dynasty entirely inherited some traditions for the poems in Tang Dynasty, such as to express the idealistic sensation which contains social significance, to evaluate the paintings, as well as to clarify the senses for the paintings. Additionally, poets in Tang Dynasty created some tones of writing, such as composing according to the subjects and expressing sensation through paintings, which set artistic examples to the poems for the paintings in Song Dynasty. On the basis of inheriting, the poems in Song Dynasty also presented a trend for change. This chapter lays emphasis in discussing the poetic idea of adoring abstraction in the poems for the landscape paintings in Song Dynasty. Adoring sentiment is the theoretic core for the poems and paintings in Song Dynasty. The poems for the landscape paintings generally get rid of the tradition to draw in the reality. The poets turned their attention from depicting sceneries to annotate painters'inner-heart, they wish to pursuit the significance and get enjoyment alongside the images in the paintings, as what is called"I know you have intention, so I look for it carefully"(in Su Shi) ,"Poets should seek the painters'sensation"(in Liu Zai). In enjoying the poems for the landscape paintings, there are three aspects in"intention"which the poets pay attention to: The first one is for the aesthetic originator—the painters'intention, that's to say, the painters'"conception"and"intention"before drawing a painting, and the"sensation"during the painters drawing a painting; The second one is for the aesthetic object—the"intention"in the paintings, that's to say,"symbol","meaning","conception"and"sensation"revealed in the landscape paintings. The third one, the aesthetic subject—the"intention"for the spectators. The spectators forget the authentic sceneries in the paintings, and they are in the pursuit of"conception alongside sceneries". Apparently, taking place of the"verisimilitude","abstraction"became an appreciating principle in enjoying landscape paintings. This trend interacted with adoring abstraction in the landscape paintings in Song Dynasty.