The Poetic Structure of a Twelfth-Century Chinese Pictorial Dream Journey Valérie Malenfer Ortiz In memary of Odette Sterekx (1905-1993) The painters whom the invading Jurchens pushed to the Yangri River Valley by the twelfth century were fascinated by the southern vistas of lakes and misty hills. They found there the visual inspiration not only to depict a tangible atmo- spheric space receding to infinity but also to suggest emo- tions and dreams through the veiling and landscape. In adition to vaunting their technical mastery of pictorial space, painters viewed their work not merely as a eral, intellectual endeavor not unlike poetry.! [tis in the Southern Song (1127-1279) that landscape painters began to borrow from the structure of poems in arder to enrich painting with a lyrical quality. As painters took inspiration from poetry, poets, such as Lu You (1125-1209) and Yang Wanli (1127-1206), viewed the natural world as if it were brushed in ink on paper or silk, and they filled their poems with precise visual images. For instance, Lu You noted in his Diary on the twenty-second day of the seventh month of 1170, "Wind and sun clear and beautiful, with waves flat as a mat, white clouds and green peaks, bright bands into the distance. All day was like traveling through a painting. Truly forgotten wer ils of travel.” The poet has described his own response to the images that pass before his eyes. This vision of nature, modified by selection, focus, concealment, and shifting views, encouraged in paint- rsa predilection not only for the keen observation oft and their spatial articulation, but also for th viewing, As will be seen, the converges veiling of the but asa etic space,” the most significant t nent of Southern Song lanclscape painting.® ‘The generated did not merely illustrate a poem; its spatial structure was, like that of a poem, a vehicle for carrying the imagination beyond the boundaries of its own particular form into the realm of dream; it beguiled the viewer's perception as it reconciled the real and the illusory the end, it achieved a perfect balance between visual reality Words and rng tse objectivity in Song panting, see tem, Wie in Lave Sung Landscape,” am. Provrings ofthe International Canfeence on Sina: History of Art Section, Tai, 1980, 37-72. Yam alse particularly gratefil to Richard Barnhart, Jonathan Tay. Ecabeth Horton Shart David Sensabsaugh, and A Richard Tine ‘eu Shu js Diary of Trip to Sichuan) in Sichuan (1776), Shans, 1980, HC, fo. 3. South China onthe Toefl Cenniy, eas. Sapte ad C-S, Chang, Hongkong, 1981, 90-91 ings by Qian Xuan (ea. 12 John Hay fas ase th Xl inscriptions om the pai Seater 1301) and lyrical suggestion in the representation of the outside world One of the accepted masterpieces that reflects the poetic ‘vision of Southern Song landscape painters is a handseroll ied 1170, preserved in the Tokyo National Muscum, and lec Dream Journey on the Xiao and Xiang (Xiao Xiang weyow ‘u) (Figs. 1-6). Because it is dated and of high technical and artistic quality, it occupies a central position in the history of chinese painting.* Its author, a certain Li, is unknown, hough he may be a relative of Li Gonglin (ca. 1049-1106). He came from Shucheng in modern Anhui Provinee, in the Jower Yangzi region, also known as Jiangnan. As indicated in the colophons written after the painting in 1170-71, Dream Journey offers an accurate vision of the area of lakes and ‘marshes that unite the well-known Xiao and Xiang rivers, The region had considerable appeal not only forts luxuriant beauty, famous for its waterland of clouds and mist, but also for its literary and artistic importance, because some of China’s most celebrated poets, painters, and critics had sought seclusion there since antiquity. Paintings and po a the Xiao Xiang have always been admired both as vehicles mnaginary journeys and as tistic adition of the South. ‘The late Northern Song scholar Mi Fu (1052-1 107) and his family contributed to the creation of the Jiangnan, or Southern, tradition of painting as an indepe dent artistic movement and especially praised the depictions of the Xiao Xiang.* From the Southern Song onwards, onee the elite of China found itself confined to the Yangzi area, the Xiao Xiang became a renewed place of mental and pe. After he had come to the Jin as a Song for example, Mi Fu’s son-in-law, Wu Li (. 1142), put under arrest and became Edict Attendant in the Jin Hanlin Academy. Ina seyen-characters quatrain, titled “Or Painting of the Xiao Xiang, life under the Song and his present circumstances fo from a theoretical point of view. See "Poetic Space: GHvien Hin and the Associaton of Printing and Poetry,” in Word and Images, 178-108, "See V. Malenfer, "Dream Journey woer the Xiew and Xiang: Schol Amateur Landscape Painting in Southern Song China.” PhD iss Harvard Universit 190. The sige of the painting as en the sabjert fof a study by K. Sisuhi in "Shoah gave ni tuite” Toys digo 1g bk Bekok, UX, 1073, 03, and xe, 1970, 8 Mi Fu traveled many times along the Yanga River and fved in gra, located at the coniluence of the Xiao and the Xiang, between 175d 1081, betore hi argzhens, See Sing sori, comp. Chang Bide af, Fabel: Dingeen Shullasic ydeaSioroyg HY ueIsy :0104d) un uO ODIX) Suony pu oDry. 24) wo Ku eee ine see U Sree Seoeteeise :AcTWELFTILCENTURY CHINESE FICTORIAL DREAM JOURNEY 959 2 Anonymous, Dream Jowney on the Xiao andl Xiang (Xiao Xiang woyou tu), central section, handseroll, ink on paper. Tokyo, National Museum (photo: Téyé bunka kenkyé-j6, Tokyo University) Wanderers ply back and forth, boats for their home, Sucldenly seeing this painting, it seems but a dream, For now, on saddled horse Lage in windswept sands.° Wo Li dreams about his homeland in the South where be feels suddenly transported as he views a painting of the Xi Xiang. The poetic avor of the Xiao Xiang was what painters sought to capture in order to transport the mind of the viewer to the coveted place. For instance, Mi Fu’s son, the early Southern Song painter Mi Youren (¢a. 1072-1151), explained, “all my lie I have known the exceptional sights of the Xiao Xiang region. Each time I climbed and reached the beautiful spots 1 always. sketched their true favor (gt) ‘making a long scroll to delight the cyes."? A first-hand experience of the landscape enabled Mito fill his painting with the poetic lavor suitable to lead the imagination of an educated viewer into the mythical region, Dream Journey on the Xiao and Xiang also illustrates the more specific poetic theme of the Eight Views of the Xiao and wted in K. Yoshikawa For Hunured Yous of Chinese Pet 1630: The Chin, Yuan, and ing Dynasties, ans. J.T. Wisted, 14¥9, 25 * Quoted in ZGHLLE, 684 1130- 3 Anonymous, Dream Jowney on the Xiao and Xiang (Niao Xiang ‘woyou fu), detail of pavilion, central section, handscrol, ink om paper. Tokyo, National Museum (photo: Malenfer Ortiz) Xiang The Fight V invented at the end of the Northern Song, around 1060, by Song Di (ca. 1015-80), who first painted them on the walls of a terrace over- ooking Changsha where he was serving as vice director of