Image, Words, Concept - Research On "Nine Songs

In Pre-Qin literature,Nine Songs’ Poems written by Qu Yuan,the founder of Ci Fu,is the one which has been interpreted most by painting.Other ancient Chinese figure paintings can hardly surpassed the Nine Songs handscrolls owing to its’ great number,varieties of schematism and profound ideas,forming a distinctive creation tradition.It is by no means an easy thing to study the Nine Songs handscrolls on account of the distant epoch,absence of the masterpiece,numerous counterfeits,varieties of schematism and scattering paintings.Now that contemporary studies of the Songs of the South [Chu Ci]lays much emphasis on images,the research of the Nine Songs handscrolls is of great significance to Chinese ancient figure painting and the Songs of the South.Regarding the Nine Songs handscrolls in each period as a whole,this dissertation explores internal structure of images,inscriptions and concepts,by attaching importance to changes of schematism,inscriptions of the paintings,and the underlying relations among books of the Songs of the South with notes.Centering around origins of the Nine Songs handscrolls and the image of Qu Yuan,the first chapter probes into the reasons why the Nine Songs handscrolls initially appeared and became widespread in Song Dynasty and the iconography significance of its artistic conception,the magic of the Songs of the South and Qu Yuan’s inward emotions through a careful study of works by Li Gonglin.Chapter two of the thesis explores the relationship between appearance and changes of schematism of the Nine Songs handscrolls and the studies of the Songs of the South since Song Dynasty.Studies demonstrate one pattern of the Nine Songs handscrolls is created in accordance with one type of the Songs of the South with notes.Three patterns of handscrolls are based on three versions of the Songs of the South.The Nine Songs hand scrolls creates diversified aesthetic concepts.The following four chapters make a study of three patterns of the Nine Songs handscrolls in Song and Yuan Dynasties.By making a thorough investigation of the time sequence and the change of the style in Zhang Wo’s paintings,The thesis then concludes that the old Mountain Goddess in later paintings symbolizes Qu Yuan.It makes a further study of the interactive effects between scroll paintings and woodcut paintings.