The Livelihood Of An Old Scholar-Painter

The present thesis constitutes an attempt to gain a better understanding of certain aspects of Huang Binhong’s system of thought,not as a painter,but as a traditional scholar and a thinker.The thesis concentrates on the views and ideas that Huang Binhong treated and developed in the many letters he addressed to his patron Huang Jusu黄居素 and his student Zhu Yanying 朱砚英.Comparing Huang’s correspondence and essays,and by pitting these texts against their historical and ideological backgrounds,the author came to develop a particular understanding of certain aspects of Huang Binhong’s unique system of thought,which can be regarded as the lifelong response of an’old’ Chinese scholar to the unprecedented ideological crisis faced by a New China throughout its period of transition.A unique feature of Huang Binhong’s contributions to certain ideological debates of his time has been his approaching and treating various contemporary issues—such as the introduction of industrialisation,the spreading of excessive consumerism,the heightened commodification of Chinese painting,the general tendency of Chinese society to move towards materialism,and the irreversible changes that redefined the entire Chinese social system—from a purely artistic perspective.In truth,while discussing Chinese painting in writing,Huang Binhong was in fact discussing the fate of the Chinese nation and of Chinese civilisation.Aware of the far-reaching and irreversible changes that were rapidly pervading the social Chinese fabric in his time,Huang Binhong finally came to project upon Chinese painting a new social function in line with the new sociological environment of his time.Idealistically speaking,it is the author’s view that Huang Binhong saw in Chinese painting a viable means to ’save the country’,id est,to ensure the survival of Chinese civilisation by preserving and guaranteeing the perpetuation of China’s spiritual essence.Through the present research,the author has come to perceive Huang Binhong’s idea as a development of Gao Jianfu’s initial concept,’art saves the country’(yishu jiu guo艺术救国).The present thesis’ argumentation rests on the textual analysis of Huang Binhong’s correspondence with his student Zhu Yanying and his patrons Huang Jusu(treated as a primary source),Wu Ming 吴鸣,and Liu Zuochou 刘作筹(treated as secondary sources),as well as on a selection of Huang Binhong’s essays.Particular emphasis has been laid on Huang Binhong’s correspondence with Zhu Yanying,and on two essays,Spirit Stands Over Substance(Jingshen Zhong yu Wuzhi Shuo精神重于物质说,1934)and The Way to Lougevity(Yangsheng zhi Dao养生之道,1948),which have been treated as ’major’ textual sources,while Pictures and Paintings Are not Useless(Tu Hua Fei Wuyi 图画非无益,1934),Review on the Improvement of Chinese Painting(Gailiang Guohua Wentin zhi Jiantao改良国画问题之检讨,1944),Survey of Chinese Painting at Home and Abroad(Guohua Zhongwai zhi Guance国画中外之观测,undated),and My Views on Art Museums(Meishuguan zhi Wo Jian美术馆之我见,1946)have been examined as ’minor’(id est,’supporting’)textual sources.The Introduction offers an overview of past and ongoing trends in the field of academic studies on Huang Binhong,as well as a summary of major existing papers and publications,with special attention brought to research conducted on Huang Binhong outside of mainland China.In this chapter,the author established the thesis’ aim,scope,and main points of interest.He further presented recent literature that played a decisive role in informing his research,and thus defined the thesis’ predominantly sociological approach.In the Introduction,the author did also conduct a preliminary discussion on the case of Huang Binhong’s social and spiritual identity,which has been treated as the foundation of his system of thought and of the subsequent exploration thereof(this particular discussion was picked up again and further developed in the Conclusion).The first chapter functions as an entrée en matière.It explores China’s ideological situation at the turn of the twentieth century and defines Huang Binhong’s social,educational,and ideological background prior to his moving to Shanghai in 1909.The chapter then concentrates its attention on Huang Binhong’s "Shanghai period"(1909-37),which the author regards as crucial for Huang’s intellectual and ideological development,and explores the role Huang Binhong came to attribute to Chinese painting within China’s new social and ideological context.The first chapter then identifies and presents the two concepts that the author has identified as central to Huang Binhong’s system of thought:"to save Chinese painting" and "to save the nation through Chinese painting".The second chapter is an in-depth analysis of Huang Binhong’s correspondence with his student Zhu Yanying.Through the textual analysis of this particular correspondence,the author has been able to delineate Huang Binhong’s system of thought,built around his two fundamental concepts,id est,"to save Chinese painting" and "to save the nation through Chinese painting".Huang’s thoughts with regard to these two ideals have been examined through a series of different topics he discussed in his letters to Zhu Yanying.The third chapter presents an in-depth analysis of Huang Binhong’s correspondence with his patron Huang Jusu.Remarks found throughout Huang Binhong’s correspondences with other two patrons,Wu Ming and Liu Zuochou,are included as complementary evidence.This chapter focuses primarily on Huang Binhong’s stance vis-avis the pragmatic concept of painting to earn one’s living(hua wei sheng画为生)as opposed to the ideal of living for the sake of painting(sheng wei hua生为画).This analysis of Huang’s correspondence with his patron has allowed the author to discover a new facet of Huang Binhong’s character,quite different from the one he uncovered through his study of the scholar’s correspondence with his student Zhu Yanying.While Huang’s correspondence with Zhu Yanying reveals the mindset of an erudite that was alert and attentive to all that happened around him,his correspondence with Huang Jusu reveals a seemingly more intimate side of the scholar’s character,marked among other things by insecurity and conflicting ideals.Central to Huang Binhong’s written dialogue with his patron was his constant conflict with regard to the practice of selling his paintings as a way to earn his living.Ideally,Huang Binhong saw painting as a means for self-cultivation and to ’save the country’.As such,he did everything he could to dissociate it from any commercial and monetary matters.At the same time,his own material needs and those of his family often forced him to face a reality in which the sale of his paintings became a means of securing the basic necessities of everyday life.The fourth chapter retakes Huang Binhong’s system of thought as it was first delineated in the preceding chapters and develops it through an in-depth analysis of a selection of Huang Binhong’s essays.Spirit Stands Over Substance and The Way to Longevity are treated as primary textual sources,while Pictures and Paintings Are not Useless(1934),Review on the Improvement of Chinese Painting(1944),Survey of Chinese Painting at Home and Abroad(undated),and My Views on Art Museums(1946)have been treated as complementary textual sources.The chapter’s argumentation draws simultaneously on its textual analyses and on the conclusions reached through the thesis’ previous three chapters.