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Art Illustrating Guqin Melodies Chu performance theme | 首頁 |
Scenes Illustrating Poems in "Poetic Feelings of Ancient Sages"1
Painting by Du Jin;2 calligraphy by Jin Cong3 |
古賢詩意圖 Gu Xian Shi Yi Tu Illustrations
明杜堇畫圖、金琮書詩 |
According to the postscript by Jin Cong this scroll, in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, includes 12 poems and 9 related images. The existing version, linked here in two parts with images going right to left, seems in fact to have only 11 poems. The last three poems are presumably considered to be a set and so have only one illustration.4
The standard complete entries are arranged with the poem title first, then the poem itself followed by the illustration (it is unclear why #s 1, 3 and 8 omit the title). Some entries, however, omit the title. What follows is an outline of the scroll as it actually exists today.
The poem by Li Bai as included here is as follows,5
右軍本清真,瀟灑在風塵。 Yòu jūn běn qīng zhēn, xiāo sǎ zài fēng chén.
山陰遇羽客,要此好鵝賓。 Shān yīn yù yǔ kè, yào cǐ hǎo é bīn.
掃素寫道經,筆精妙入神。 Sǎo sù xiě dào jīng, bǐ jīng miào rù shén.
書罷籠鵝去,何曾別主人。 Shū bà lóng é jŭ, hé céng bié zhǔ rén.
(Wang) Youjun was true and pure by nature, free and easy amidst the dust of this world.
Whenever in Shaoxing he met feathered guests, he would treat them as honored guest geese.
With brush in plain style he wrote out the Dao classic, the brushwork's beauty becoming spiritual
The calligraphy was finished and caged goose was in hand, how else could it have left its master?
The image here shows two men, one speaking to the other at a table; the one at the table, presumably Wang Xizhi himself, is holding a writing brush. On the table is an inkstick leaning on an inkstone, with two scrolls rolled up alongside. In the middle is a servant with a caged goose. This as well as the poem itself connects this entry to a story that says a man with a goose once asked Wang Xizhi to write out for him the text of the Dao De Jing; in return Wang asked for a goose (see also this other version). For another relevant image dating from perhaps a century later than Du Jin's see this image by 陳洪綬 Chen Hongshou (1598-1652; Wiki).6
Here is a translation largely based on this Google translation into modern Chinese:
There are no known qin settings of these lyrics. Could a song by made by creating a new melody following the traditional pairing formula described here with inspiration from the pattern of one or more of the melodies listed here (many are [7+7] but none is [7+7] x 19)?
There is further comment on this painting in this introduction by 商偉 Shang Wei to Volume 2 Issue 1 of the Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture, which has on its cover a copy of the painting here. Professor Shang's article concerns the "complex negotiations and interplay" between word and image, something very relevant to attempts on this site to show how the same literati might also bring guqin music into the mix.
The poem and illustration seem intended to express the reaction of Han Yu upon seeing a picture depicting the Peach Blossom Spring and recalling the poem about it written by Tao Yuanming. There are several stories connected to this mythical place, such as the one told with the melody Spring Dawn at Peach Blossom Spring of a fantasy trip by a fisherman to Wuling Spring (in Hunan, but compare it to the story of two medical plant gatherers going to 桃源 Peach Blossom Spring near 天台山 Tiantai Mountain, set for qin in the melody Tian Tai Yin). In addition there is the melody called Spring Dawn at Peach (Blossom) Garden (桃園春曉), as discussed here
古人今人若流水,共看明月皆如此;
唯願當歌對酒時,月光常照金樽裡。 (尊)
The poem is translated here together with its setting to a qin melody entitled Intonation on Listening to a Qin.
Following on this, the image shows a man in armor knocking on a gate while another person sleeps inside.
This translation with the complete poem can be found here (#2.1.) It has the form (7x17; compare the seven character-per-line lyrics here) and a strange non-standard tuning (raised 7th string).
The image on the scroll (see the first image on the second half of the scroll as shown above) shows these eight "immortals" drinking as one of them, on a horse, seems to be directing a laborer arriving with 麴車 a wheelbarrow carrying "qu", a substance used for fermenting wine. A person to the far left is presumably a servant pouring wine. The poem by Du Fu describes this, but the qin setting uses a strange tuning and I have not yet studied it.
The accompanying image shows three people (Du Fu, Yao Tongquan and Wang Shiyu?) sitting at a table, attended by a serving boy bringing wine. To the left a boat can be seen in the background, suggesting this is the boat on which they will take the evening ride Du Fu describes in the poem.
The three poems (then image) are as follows (title and first lines translated from the complete translation; the rest translated with help from Zhu Yuanhu; no specific guqin connections.
Note: The mention of Shanyin County alludes to the story of Shanyin resident 王子猷 Wang Ziyou visiting a friend in winter .
Goes with image at end.
Note:① Crows fly at dawn, so “至昏鴉” means at dawn.
Goes with image at end.
Goes with image at end.
Closing postscript by the calligrapher Jin Cong (5 lines; see below, with translation.)
Image at the end of the scroll "Poetic Feelings of Ancient Sages"
This shows Jin Cong's postscript and a view of Du Fu huddling under cover on a small boat, an image appropriate to the final three poems.
The three closing poems by Du Fu have only this one image, bringing the number of images to 9 and, as can be seen above, 11 poems. It is thus not clear why the Postscript by Jin Cong says there are "古詩十二首 12 ancient poems".
It is also intended that further commentary will be added here connecting all these poems and illustrations to existing qin melodies. However, I have not as yet studied the images and text of the scroll carefully enough to do so, particularly with regard to the seventh to eleventh poems.
Footnotes (Shorthand references are explained on a
separate page)
1.
Commentary on Poetic Feelings of Ancient Sages (古賢詩意圖 Gu Xian Shi Yi Tu)
3308.xxx.
Much of the detail given here comes from online sources, in particular 360doc.com and
shuge.org.
The typical online commentary that I have found so far gives the following details about the whole scroll:
《古賢詩意圖》
明杜堇紙本墨色縱28釐米橫1079.5釐米北京故宮博物院藏。本幅無款印。共九段,每段有金琮書詩,卷未金琮跋云:
「□□索僕書古詩十二首,將往要杜檉居為圖其事,檉居無訝僕書敢佔其左,以漬痕在耳,他玉圖成必有謂珠玉在側,覺我形穢者,僕奚辭焉。弘治庚申六月廿八日,金琮記事。」
全卷畫幅,杜堇細心體會詩意,作出巧妙構思,人物突出,情景交融。人物用白描法,線條流暢,稍有輕重提按,含蓄秀雅。山石樹木安排簡潔而自然,山石用側鋒斧劈皴,近馬遠、夏圭,但用筆卻縝密透逸,具元人韻致。此圖為其白描巨構佳作。Poetic feelings of Ancient Sages (Tentative translation)
Ming Dynasty Du Jin, ink on paper, 28 cm in height and 1079.5 cm in width, in the collection of the Palace Museum in Beijing.
This scroll has no signature or seal. There are nine sections in total, each with a poem written in calligraphy by Jin Cong (41049.689).
Jin Cong's postscript at the end of the scroll says:"□□ asked me to write (calligraphy for) twelve ancient poems, and was about to ask Du Fuju (Du Jin) to illustrate the matter. Fuju was not surprised that I dared to write on the left, because there were stains on the side (?). Other jade (?) images must have been completed, and they would have felt that my figures were obscure. What could I say? Jin Cong recorded this on the 28th day of the 6th month in the gengshen year of Hongzhi." Throughout the scroll, Du Jin carefully understood the meaning of the poems and made clever ideas, with prominent characters and a fusion of scenes. The figures are drawn in line drawing, with smooth lines and slight weight, making it subtle and elegant. The arrangement of mountains, rocks and trees is simple and natural, and the rocks are drawn with side-edge axe-chopping texture, similar to Ma Yuan and Xia Gui, but the brushwork is dense and free, with the charm of Yuan Dynasty painters. This painting is a masterpiece of his large-scale line drawings.
The "□□" in online copies of this and similar commentary (usually written "金琮跋云□□索僕") is puzzling. As can be seen above by comparing
this text with the right side of this image, it comes just before the quotation of Jin Cong's postscript. Was the "□□" added simply because the opening of the postscript is indented, or does it mean that something (two characters?) were cut out or indecipherable in the original. (All online versions do this without explanation, leaving the suspicion they were just copying each other without trying to understand why).
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2.
Du Jin 杜堇 (ca. 1465–1509;
Wiki)
See also his Lin Bu in the Moonlight as well as this reproduction of his 梅下橫琴圖 Playing the Qin Underneath a Plum Tree.
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3.
Jin Cong 金琮 (1449-1501;
Baidu)
Noted calligrapher.
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4.
Incomplete scroll?
Am I missing one? As yet I have not found a study of this.
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5.
Youjun and a Caged Goose (右軍籠鵝 Youjun Long E)
I have not yet found a translation.
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6.
Painting by Chen Hongshou
Reproductions are sold by Rong Bao Zhai. I do not know the location of the original.
The following translation of the poem into modern Chinese was copied from www.27on.com:
My editing of the Google English version is incomplete.
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