| Qiu Ying's painting of Romance of The West Chamber was of symbolic significance as“literati painting turn” in the history of Chinese painting.Attaching importance to painting values and the application of art techniques under this guidance,Qiu Ying broke through the tradition of valuing high-brow arts extolled by ancient literati painting,and attempted to adopt the traditional techniques of literati painting to creatively express the secular world,emotions and fate of common citizens.His unique drawing techniques exhibited an insightful method of“telling stories with images” for the public,created a new atmosphere by integrating “highbrow and low-brow arts” for the ancient Chinese literati painting in the late period of feudal society.This dissertation adopts Qiu Ying's Romance of The West Chamber as its research object,follows the basic principle of materialistic aesthetics of “social existence determines social consciousness”,explores the “social existence basis” of “literati painting turn” in that period by analyzing images,collecting historical documents and comparing graphics and written descriptions.Specifically,this dissertation placed Qiu Ying's painting of Romance of The West Chamber into the “context in which four types of arts occurred” composed by the tradition of picture stories since Yuan Dynasty,the tradition of literati painting since Tang and Song Dynasties,and the commercial society in Ming Dynasty in which Qiu Ying lived,and the literati painting trading network in the middle of the Ming Dynasty formed in this social background.This dissertation strives to explore the aesthetic trend and complex social factors in that period that showed influence on the transformation of literati painting style,attempts to understand Qiu Ying's choice of artistic path from the commercial society in Jiangnan in the middle of the Ming Dynasty,and studies the aesthetic world of scholars,businessmen and artists in the middle of the Ming Dynasty from the painting of Romance of The West Chamber.Qiu Ying's painting of Romance of The West Chamber is based on two Chinese painting traditions: the first is the inserted story tradition representing the low-brow art;the second is the literati painting tradition representing the high-brow art.Since the formation of civil society in the song and Yuan Dynasties,the tradition of inserted story has always shown vigorous vitality among people.The inserted stories and picture stories of Romance of The West Chamber before Qiu Ying fully demonstrated the charm of folk culture.However,this tradition has never been valued by literati painters before Qiu Ying.It was regarded as the “low-brow art” and not treated as creative resources of orthodox literati painting.The tradition of literati painting originated from Wang Wei living in Tang Dynasty and was limited to the circle of intellectuals and scholars before Ming Dynasty.Qiu Ying became one member of the circle of literati paintings in Ming Dynasty because of his achievement in painting.The two artistic traditions of the high-brow and low-brow arts provided him with artistic resources and opportunities for creation of “new literati paintings” represented by Romance of The West Chamber.The reason that Qiu Ying's painting of Romance of The West Chamber was of symbolic significance as “literati painting turn” is that it broke through the “parallel” of the two painting traditions of the high-brow and low-brow arts before Ming Dynasty,and achieved the artistic breakthrough of “the integration of high-brow and low-brow arts”.The integration of highbrow and low-brow arts was fundamentally pushed by the commercial and social atmosphere as well as new aesthetic needs in Jiangnan cities of Ming Dynasty in the 16 th century.The rising civil class in the commercial society,especially the urban businessmen who took the lead in expressing independent aesthetic needs and the scholars under their influence,showed the aesthetic interest of “materialization”.The creative group of new literati painters,represented by the Wumen School of painting,absorbed many folk painters,keenly captured the new aesthetic trend of “materialization”,and created new literati paintings feathered with subtle,elegant and popular style.During “materialization” transformation of economy,society and culture in Jiangnan in the middle of the Ming Dynasty,urban citizens,businessmen,scholars,literati and painters established the relationship of art consumption and supply.Qiu Ying's painting of Romance of The West Chamber was seen as an item of “literati painting transaction”in the art market in that period.Qiu Ying's painting of Romance of The West Chamber shows a unique legacy for later art creation and art production.From the perspective of art skills,Qiu Ying's painting of Romance of The West Chamber exhibits outstanding skills of “narrative with pictures”.The methods of narrating a lively story through the selective construction of “typical pictures” and the“compilation” of “a series of pictures” has been a core issue for art exploration in film and television animation.In this sense,“animation” cannot be treated as a unique western art.In the East before the industrial age,Qiu Ying showed the “Chinese animation skills” in the era of traditional hand painting.As a Chinese aesthetic heritage,Qiu Ying's “Chinese animation skills”has the potential value of being promoted and explored.From the perspective of artistic production,Qiu Ying's painting of Romance of The West Chamber enlightens future generations with its long-standing artistic influence: not only does the creation and evaluation of art works need to respect the internal dimension of aesthetics,but also it respects the external appeal from the real world.The implication of the common saying,“poetry and prose follows the trend of the world”,is that “literature and art are rooted in the land and life of local people as well as their minds”.In short,this dissertation holds the view that Qiu Ying's painting of Romance of The West Chamber shows his personal creativity as an outstanding painting artist.However,it is obvious that Qiu Ying's creation was rooted in the social environment and historical context in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.A painting can record an era and a person can be seen as miniatures of a group of people.Romance of The West Chamber painted by Qiu Ying reproduces the picture of urban life in Jiangnan in the middle of Ming Dynasty,and reflects the aesthetic trend of the integration of high and low brows among scholars and businessmen.Based on the idiom that “one can get more pictures and implications in one picture”.It is true that studying the historical context of Romance of The West Chamber helps fully understand the “ turn in Ming Dynasty” in the history of ancient Chinese literati painting. |
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