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The First Two Laws of Hsieh Ho

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Alexander C. Soper
Alexander C. Soper
Affiliation:
Bryn Mawr College
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Extract

The six conditions for good painting set by Hsieh Ho in the fifth century a.d. were apparently the first Chinese attempt at a systematic approach to the theory of the art. Their primacy ensured them the respect of later centuries; and since they satisfied the general requirements of classical lore by being at once ancient, terse, and superficially simple about a core of mystery, they came as early as T'ang to acquire a unique weight of authority. The emphasis given them, by quotation and long discussion, in the theoretical sections of the first two grand histories of Chinese painting–Chang Yen-yüan's in the ninth century and Kuo Jo-hsü's in the eleventh–is an obvious sign of high esteem. To these instances might be added countless others, throughout the later literature of the art, in which the Six Laws or the name of their author appear in a place of honor.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , August 1949 , pp. 412 - 423
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1949

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References

1 In the preface to his Ku hua p'in lu the “old” record of the classification of painters (“old” in contrast to the several sequels compiled by later men). A translation of the whole work is in preparation by W. R. Acker. The preface has been translated by Shio Sakanishi, The spirit of the brush (London, 1939), 50–51;Google Scholar and by Siren, O., The Chinese on the art of painting (Peking, 1936), 219–20.Google Scholar The Record, in a single chiian, is a critical evaluation of painters of the third to fifth centuries, divided by quality into six numbered grades.

2 Li-tai ming-hua chi , completed in 847. Its ten chüan comprise: introduction in fifteen sections (discussing the history and principles of painting; notes on mounting, seals, prices, etc.; and lists of works executed for the Buddhist and Taoist temples in the two T'ang capitals, or preserved in the Imperial collections); and critical evaluation plus biographical data for 322 painters, dating from the age of myth to mid-T'ang. A translation of the whole work is in preparation by Acker. The chapter on the Six Laws has been translated by Sakanishi, 77 ff.; and by Siren, 219 ft. Chang Yen-yüan seems to have been the first to give such high honor to Hsieh Ho's theories. The writers of the intervening period sometimes show scant respect for him either as a painter or a critic, objecting most strenuously to his failure to appreciate the genius of Ku K'ai-chih.

3 T'u-hua chien-wen chih , containing material datable as late as 1080, though the author's preface sets a terminus of 1074. Its 6 chüan comprise: introduction in 16 sections, discussing a variety of topics from aesthetic criteria to the need of accuracy in rendering details of costume; and critical evaluation plus biographical data for a total of 292 painters, dating from the mid-nineth century to 1074; plus two final chapters devoted to anecdotes about paintings or painters. I have prepared a translation of the whole work, which awaits publication.

4 An excellent account (in Japanese) of the changing interpretations placed on ch'i yün in Chinese painting theory is given by Harada Bizan , Shina gagaku sōron (Tokyo, 1938), 50 ff.Google Scholar Excerpts from typical texts have been assembled bv Fu Pao-shih in his Chung-kuo hui-hua li lun (Shanghai, 1935).

5 Giles, H. A., An introduction to the history of Chinese pictorial art (Shanghai, 1918), 29.Google Scholar

6 Hirth, F., Scraps from a collector's note book (Leiden and London, New York, 1905), 58.Google Scholar

7 Petrucci, R., La philosophic de la nature dans l'art d'Extrème Orient (Paris, 1911), 89.Google Scholar

8 Sakanishi, 50.

9 Siren, 219. Here “Vibration of vitality” is given as an alternative for ch'i yün.

10 Seiichi, Taki“The principles ch'i yün and ch'uan shen” (in English), Kokka, 244 (1910)Google Scholar, and “The 'Ku hua p'in lu' and the 'Hsü hua p'in lu'” (in Japanese), Ibid., 338 (1918). See note 27.

11 Waley, A., An introduction to the study of Chinese painting, (New York, 1923), 72–73.Google Scholar

12 See, for example, the quotation from the calligraphy classic “Battle Array of the Brush," given in Driscoll, L. and Toda, K., Chinese calligraphy (Chicago, 1935), 45.Google Scholar

13 Chüan 28; work by the sixth-century critic Liu Hsieh .

14 From his “Critique of calligraphy,” P'ing shu in the Yüan anthology of writings on that art, Shu ja kou hsüan , i.

15 His source is the seventeenth-century “Mustard-Seed Garden” encyclopedia of painting, Chieh-tzu yüan-hua chuan , translated by him in Encyclopédie de la peinture Chinoise (Paris, 1918).Google Scholar

16 See note 4.

17 T'u-hua chien-wen chih, ch. 1, “On the impossibility of teaching ch'i yün.” The important material in this section has been translated by Taki in Kokka, 244 (1910).

18 Li-tai ming-hua chi, ch. 1, “On the Six Laws.” See note 2.

19 An excellent discussion (in Japanese) of the various early meanings acquired by ch'i in China is given by Kurita Naomi , “Jōdai Shina no tenseki ni mietaru (ch'i) no kannen” (On the concept ch'i as seen in ancient Chinese texts), Tōyō shisō kenkyū (Tokyo, 1937), ch. 1.Google Scholar

20 Compiled by Liu I-ch'ing of the Liu Sung dynasty.

21 Shih shuo hsin yü, ch. 1:1, section on “Yen yu” the story is told of the famous patriarch Chih-tun

22 Ibid., ch. 2:1, section on “P'in tsao” in anecdote beginning “Chi-chou tz'u-shih (kao yün); ch. 3:1, section on “Jen tan” in anecdote beginning “Hsiangyang lo yu” (ta yün); same section, in anecdote beginning “Yüan hun” (jeng ch'i, etc.).

23 Meng hsi pi t'an, ch. 10, section on “Jen shih” anecdote beginning “Sheng Wen-su

24 Thus the first entry under ch'i yün in P'ei-wen yün-fu is from the Men tsao hsin hua by Ch'en Shan, a collection of essays on literature and other topics. The statement is an obvious crib from painting theory. “In an essay, spirit, ch'i, is paramount. If there be an insufficiency of ch'i yün, no amount of fine language can make the work a firstclass one.”

25 See the translation by Sung, Z. D., The Text of Yi King (Shanghai, 1935). 9;Google Scholar or J. Lcgge, in Sacred books of the East, 16, appendix 4 p,. 411.

26 The so-called Cheng i by K'ung Ying-t'a of T'ang on the basis of work by scholars of the Wei kingdom and Chin.

27 The later of the two Kokka articles by Taki cited in note 10 also finds in the I ching the general background for Hsieh Ho's ideas. From Taki this theory spread to Waley (p. 73), and eventually to Siren (A history of early Chinese painting [London and New York, 1933], 33).Google Scholar The Japanese critic draws only the most general analogies, however. His chief interest is in showing the vacillations of the Chinese search for the true meaning of ch'i yün between the poles of subjectivism and objectivism. In attempting to reconstruct Hsieh's original intention, he uses a method that I believe dangerous, to reach a conclusion that I have rejected (see above, pp. 414 ff.). He finds in the rest of Hsieh's text a number of two-character compounds like shen yün , vague in meaning but certainly laudatory in intention, as is the case with ch'i yün, and concludes that they are all virtual synonyms. Since many of these other phrases occur in descriptions of gentlemen of the sort cited on p. 420 above, he states that ch'i yün, being their equivalent, might also be employed in descriptions of gentlemen. Hence it is to be interpreted as a property of the figures in the picture, which the artist should bring out. Boiled down, this method of commentary seems to proceed on the premise that a character of whose precise meaning one is ignorant possesses a kind of natural affinity with other characters if one is also uncertain of their precise meanings, and so may properly be equated with them.

28 Preface to his Hou hua p'in lu a work of the mid-sixth century closely resembling Hsieh's in form. The preface has been translated by Sakanishi, 60–65, and by Siren, Art of painting, 221–23. Both renderings are uneven; Siren is preferable for the first three paragraphs, Sakanishi for the rest.

29 I.e., the choice of good models to study, in formulating one's own style, rather than current fashions.