The picture screen is also illusory and real

Jie Bao (engraved illustration) Wu Xingmin Yu five copies of "Hui Zhen Tu"

Provincial Jane (engraved illustration) Wu Xingmin Yu five copies of "HuiZhen Tu"

Donzen Qiao debate (engraved illustration)

Min Jianshu Lin Qiao Shan Tang Liu Longtian Ben "Re-engraving Yuan Ben Title Commentary Interpretation of the Western Chamber"

Peeping Jian (engraved illustration) Chen Hongshou and Xiang Nanzhou ben "Zhang Shenzhi Zhengbei West Chamber Secret Book"

【Scholar Talk】

The Ming Dynasty was the golden age of ancient Chinese book publishing, and many exquisite engraving illustrations were born along with the publication of books, of which the illustrations of the "West Chamber" occupied an important position and were enshrined as the standard. The reasons for this: On the one hand, the illustrations of the Ming Magazine "Xi Xiang Ji" have a large number of literati painters involved in painting, they imitate the ancient and seek innovation, so that the works present a simple and elegant artistic appearance; on the other hand, its style style almost covers all genres of ancient Chinese printmaking, which is of great value for studying the development of ancient Chinese printmaking. From the "New Compilation and Correction of the West Chamber" at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty to the "Huizhen Tu" engraved by Wu Xing min Yuwu organization in the thirteenth year of Ming Chongzhen, in the history of more than 200 years, the illustrations of the Ming Magazine "West Chamber" have brought together the stylistic characteristics of different genres such as the Jian'an School, the Jinling School, the Xin'an School, the Wulin School, and the Wu xing School. In these illustrations of these different periods, different regions, and different versions of "West Chamber", there is always an important visual element - the screen.

Pursuing novelty and seeking differences is a common spiritual trend and aesthetic trend in the society of the Ming Dynasty, and it is in the context of this era that the creative expression of the object of the screen by illustrators has been born. In ancient Chinese, "screen" has the meaning of "shielding" and "shielding", and the word "screen" originally means "screen its wind", and its main role is to divide the space. Therefore, whether in terms of practicality or symbolism, screens are closely related to the concept of space.

In the book "Heavy Screen- Media and Reproduction in Chinese Painting", the well-known art historian Wu Hong once proposed: "People can treat a screen as a physical object, a painting medium, a painting image, or both." That is to say, depending on the use, the screen plays a different role and has multiple meanings.

The division and integration of space

When the screen is used as furniture, it must occupy a certain three-dimensional space and automatically divide the space in which it is located. Whether it is an independent single-fan screen or a multi-fold screen combined together, there is a front and back point. The original overall, chaotic space is divided into two parts, the screen in front of the screen and behind the screen, at the same time, the two areas in front of the screen and behind the screen are given completely different spatial properties.

In the thirteenth year of Ming Chongzhen, Wu Xingmin's five copies of "Huizhen Tu" were six-color overprints, with a total of 21 copies. In this illustration, the visual element of the screen appears several times, and the use is different. The author cleverly uses the screen to divide the interior space, so that the picture is interesting. Try to see the picture of "Provincial Jane", the author has a screen, a table, a round mirror in the center of the picture, as well as a warbler and a red lady, in addition to all of which are left blank. In such a closed and intimate space, the illustrator makes full use of the spatial division function of the screen: the warbler obscured by the screen is intently reading Zhang Sheng's letters, and the red lady on the other side of the screen is leaning out to observe the warbler's reaction. Judging from the virtual image of the warbler reflected in the round mirror on the table, she is facing the screen with her back, and the screen behind her divides a semi-enclosed private space for her, and she becomes the only reader of the letterhead. That is, with the help of this screen, the illustrator constructs a field dedicated to the warblers. Similarly, a similar performance can be seen in the "Jade Peeping Jane" of Liu Longtianben of the Min Jianshu Lin Qiao Shan Tang during the Wanli Dynasty. The illustrator arranges a vertical screen in a compact picture, and divides the slightly chaotic picture into two through the screen and the standing position of the characters, highlighting the main line of the plot while dividing the space.

In addition, in the above two illustrations, the use of screens also shows the efforts of the illustrators to integrate private space and public space. The description of the peeping action in the original text of the "West Chamber" is not exhaustive, different from the text narrative, the two illustrations show the state of the peeper and the voyeur in an all-knowing way, and the environment and behavior actions omitted from the text are intuitively reproduced through the image language. At the same time, the subject and object identities of the voyeur and the voyeur are redefined. In the text narrative, the voyeur and the voyeur are the relationship between the supporting role and the protagonist, which is a one-way narrative, and the visual image makes the two achieve two-way presentation at the same time. At the same time, the illustrator deliberately chooses in the two-way image narrative, looking at the placement of its screen, the space where the peeper is located is highlighted, and it also receives the attention of the reader. This change implies the subject choice made by the visual medium, i.e., to make the voyeur and the voyeur become the subject of the image together with the person being spied on. Under the elaborate design of the illustrator, the public and private, subject and object in the visual space are merged and intertwined while opposing.

The construction of multiple spaces

In addition to being a furniture entity, the screen can also be a carrier that carries visual images and is presented as a separate flat space in the painting. If we look back at the illustrations of the Ming Dynasty's "West Chamber" from this perspective, we will find that the screen images in many of the illustrations constitute the second layer of the whole picture, and the engraved illustrations of many versions of the "West Chamber" in the late Ming Dynasty are designed based on this concept.

Take Ming Chongzhen's twelve-year-old painting of Chen Hongshou and Xiang Nanzhou's engraving of "Zhang Shenzhi's True North West Chamber Secret Book" and a picture of "Jie Bao" of Yu Wu as an example. In the former, Chen Hongshou ingeniously set up a huge four-fold screen in the picture, and each folded screen depicted a different pattern. The author constructs the second frame of the illustration through the screen image, realizing the construction of a dual image space - that is, the real space where the character is located and the virtual space depicted on the screen. This effect is even more evident in the picture of the "Good News" in Yu Wuben. Unlike any previous edition of the "West Chamber" illustration for this fold, Min Yuwu set up two surrounding screens in the painting, depicting the main storyline on the cyan screen, and seeing another screen inside the outer screen. The author takes a long-range and overlook perspective, depicting a view of a mansion within the frame of the outer screen. This kind of "heavy screen" composition with screen in screen and painting in painting creates an interesting spatial relationship, and the screen leads the viewer's line of sight to depth.

Mei Yaochen of the Northern Song Dynasty wrote in the poem "Twenty-four Days of Jiang Lin's Invitation to See the Three Pavilions of Calligraphy and Painting Record Of What They Saw": "In the painting, I see the painting triple shop, and this painting is very interesting. True or false Dan Qingmo, if this is the case in the world, it can still be called. The form of "heavy screen" not only constructs a double image, but also brings the visual effect of "seeing the painting in the painting triple shop". In the picture of the "Jie Bao" of Yu Wuben, the first space is the picture outside the frame of the screen, that is, the blank part outside the outer screen; the second space is the image depicted on the cyan outer screen, in the winding courtyard, Yingying and others received the good news of Zhang Sheng's high school; the third space is the landscape picture painted on the inner screen. Here, people can't help but have a question: in the painting of the triple space, which is real and which is illusory?

In addition, there are many wonderful performances of the screen elements in the illustrations of the various editions of the Ming Magazine "Xi Xiang Ji", such as Liu Longtianben's "Qiaoqiao Debate before the Hall", in which the author uses the progression of different scenes, so that the viewer has the psychological effect of "separation" in stage art, and fully mobilizes the viewer to think calmly and rationally about the plot.

The illustrations of the Ming Dynasty "West Chamber" present a unique aesthetic taste because of their simple and elegant appearance, as well as the wonderful use of many elements such as screens. From the functional images that supplement the text to the artworks that can be used for desk play, the illustrations of the Ming Magazine "West Chamber" can be regarded as a microcosm of the development history of ancient Chinese engraving illustrations to a certain extent, leaving a wealth of artistic resources and cultural heritage for future generations.

(The author Zhou Ju is an associate professor at the Faculty of Arts of Shenzhen University; Chen Yating is a scholar of printmaking)

Source: Guangming Daily