Three Representational Modes for Text/Image Relationships in Early Chinese Pictorial Art

This paper focuses on the representational development of relationships between text and image prior to the Sung 宋 (960-1279) period. The author points out that the early evolution included three stages, each characterized by a representational mode for a specific literary style. In chronological sequence, they are: 1) the Han 漢 mode for illustrating prose, 2) the Six Dynasties 六朝 mode for illustrating prose-poems, and 3) the T'ang-Sung 唐宋 mode for representing poetry. These three modes served as archetypes throughout the later development of text/image relationships in Chinese art. In the Han period, text and images both serve as signifier and signified in mutual reference to each other. This mode was appropriate for illustrating prose, as seen in the Ancient Emperors and the didactic narratives in the Wu Liang Shrine of the Eastern Han period. Artists of the Six Dynasties tried to represent the musicality of a prose-poem and structured text and images harmoniously in a rhythmic layout. This mode is best represented in The Goddess of the Lo River. However, their artistic pursuit changed. Trying to convert poetry into painting, T'ang and Sung artists experimented with poetic paintings, with an emphasis on the representation of the aesthetic quality of the poem into the painting. Furthermore, they created works of "three-perfections": a combination of poetry, painting, and calligraphy. It is the "three-perfection" mode, which became the leading aesthetic principle for literati painting of later periods.