Photo source "The Last Emperor"
Sometimes, being sick is a beautiful thing.
When you are sick, everything is explained to yourself; In the face of others, everything can be forgiven. When people are unable to lock in other causes, the very idea of "sickness" is the best placebo.
However, the desire to express "disease" is not unique to modern times. As early as the Qing Dynasty, calligraphers and painters were keen to use "illness" to implicitly express political frustration and depression, and to express the anxiety, frustration, disappointment and brokenness of overlapping weights and overly complex in an era of "fickleness and inability to cope".
Bai Qianshen, a professor at the School of Art and Archaeology of Zhejiang University, wrote Selected Essays on Bai Qianshen's Calligraphy (Expanded Edition), which explores the "expression of disease", a whisper of the mind that naturally overflows when the artist is trapped in a turbulent society, and 21 other in-depth articles, which also explore the social and historical significance behind individual calligraphy activities under the dual perspectives of China and foreign countries, and present the cultural charm of calligraphy across time and space.
From the small corner of "calligraphy", the familiar mental picture in the strange era is gently pried up, and the vast history becomes clear.
(The following excerpt is from "Selected Essays on Bai Qianshen's Calligraphy", which has been deleted from the original text)
01 Introduction For centuries, the creation and appreciation of Chinese literati painting and calligraphy has been pleasant and elegant. Dong Qichang is a typical example of exquisite literati art. However, not long after Dong Qichang's death, that is, after the Manchus took control of the Central Plains, some changes took place in the creation of literati painting and calligraphy, the most striking of which was that some artists often disclosed their physical disabilities and illnesses in their signatures and seals, and sometimes even wrote in the inscriptions details of the illnesses that tormented them while creating these works. Obviously, the artists of this period were more willing to disclose their physical condition to the world than the artists of previous periods.
董其昌《行草书罗汉赞等书卷》（局部）。 东京国立博物馆藏，Image: TNM Image Archives
What is the context in which these health issues are stated? Why is this happening? What are the possible implications of these disease statements? What type of artistic expression or style corresponded to this phenomenon in the 17th century? The Ming and Qing dynasties were the most important historical events of that period, which violently changed the society and art of the time, leading to great social and political dislocation, psychological trauma, and a crisis of identity for the Han social elite. As I wish to reveal, a sense of loss and helplessness is an important factor behind the expression of physical ailment and general dissatisfaction, and this expression can also correspond to certain stylistic characteristics of 17th-century painting and calligraphy. All of this seems to indicate the alienation of the Han social elite after the Manchus came to dominate the Central Plains.
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02 Complaints about physical problemsDong Qichang's young friend Wang Duo was an official and famous calligrapher of the Ming and Qing dynasties. He was one of the first artists in the early Qing Dynasty to link the quality of his work with illness. In 1650, in an inscription on a calligraphy scroll made for his younger brother Wang Yan, Wang Duo wrote: "I am ugly in October, malaria is new, my head is dizzy, and my body is still in trouble. After the third brother of the Great Hidden Fast, a more ink book here. There is no good pen, and the squint under the torch is not evil. "When viewing this scroll, one inevitably takes note of Wang Duo's statement of his physical ailments. In another handscroll made the following year, Wang Duo again spoke of his physical condition. While complaining about physical exhaustion, Wang Duo's handscroll also truly reveals the living conditions of the Shiqing Han and retainer groups in that turbulent era. Xiaosheng is the word of Gong Dingyu, Beihai is the number of Sun Chengze, and they, like Wang Duo, are all former Ming officials who chose Shiqing after the dynasty Dingge. Qian Qianyi, a second minister of the same Shiqing, wrote in an epitaph for his friend Wang Duo: "Once you have entered the Northern Court, you will be depressed and let go." Fan Dai Heng Chen, 28 generations, according to the old songs, new songs, no distinction between joy and sorrow. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, a group of Han officials, including Wang Duo, Gong Dingyu and Sun Chengze, served the new dynasty in Beijing, and they often gathered together to indulge in wine. Wang Duo was often asked to write on such occasions. In a situation of distrust, tension between the Manchus and Han people, and deep guilt, psychological stress inevitably seeks an outlet for release—when the overworked Wang Duo complains loudly in calligraphy, the description of physical symptoms becomes a symbolic rhetoric. His complaint symbolizes the deep frustration shared by many Han Shiqing officials.
Photo source "The Last Emperor"
Some artists of the early Qing Dynasty, such as the three outstanding painters of the Monk and the Bada Shanren and Shi Tao (Yuanji), had different ways of expressing physical problems and diseases. Unlike Wang Duo and Fu Shan, who described their physical problems in their inscriptions, the Bada Shanren, and Shi Tao incorporated some of their physical or psychological characteristics into their signatures and seals. Many of the paintings of the crippled have such names or seals: "The Crippled", "The Crippled", "The Crippled", "The Crippled", "The Crippled", "The Crippled". These names and seals are clear representations of the disabled person's own body. As a monk, his hair was shaved; But is he really a disabled person, as he claims to be? Can a bald head be considered disabled? There is no reliable material to corroborate this. Some of the seals and signatures of the Bada Shanren are a mixture of humor, self-deprecation, and bitterness. But his description of his physical problems is less impressive than that of his friend Shi Tao, another former prince who lived through the Ming and Qing dynasties. From about the 90s of the 17th century, Shi Tao, a genius painter, began to call himself "Blind Venerable", and he also gave himself the sensational name "Anointing the Baby", and engraved a seal "Anointing the Lady Ziji". In ancient medicine, the lower part of the heart was called "ointment" and the diaphragm was called "belly". People call very serious and incurable diseases terminal diseases.
If it is true that artists who lived through the Ming and Qing dynasties directly stated their physical conditions in their works, or used language related to the body to have other meanings, one might ask two questions: Why were artists of this period so willing to describe their physical problems? Is there a precedent for this in history? The second question is relatively simple to answer. Yes, there are historical precedents. After making a handscroll of calligraphy for his nephew Zhang Datong, Huang Tingjian, a calligrapher in the Northern Song Dynasty, wrote: Ding Youhui in the first month of the third year of Yuan Fu, nephew Zhang Datong of Yazhou will return to beg for books, and Yu Shi has a heart disease. It's a little leisure, try to write this article. …… When Fu Weng was fifty-six years old, he was sick enough to worship, and his henchmen were in the mustard, such as Huaiwa stone, and it was unknown whether he could make such a promise word in the future? It is clear that artists were already writing about their physical problems in their works before the 17th century. In Wong's case, however, the statement is concisely worded: it is simply a statement of fact, not an expression of personal misfortune or suffering. And Chen Xianzhang and Wen Zhengming mentioned in an elegant tone that they were holding Yongmei and tasting tea. Here, disease itself is not an independent problem, it is just an accidental environment of artistic creation. In contrast, 17th-century artists were more forthcoming in revealing their physical problems, often using physical illness as a metaphor for emotional problems.
03 Illness, Remorse, and Identity CrisisWhy are some artists of this period so willing to state physical illness in their artworks? To answer this question, we need to categorize the statements of these physical problems. The narratives of physical and mental illness discussed above can be broadly divided into two categories: real and symbolic. Despite these differences, the inscriptions and seals constitute a universal intent. Their statements of health seem to convey the guilt, disappointment, frustration, and identity crises experienced by many artists in the second half of the 17th century. The era in which these artists lived, in Ban Zonghua's words, was "one of the most turbulent in Chinese history" and "rarely has such a volatile and difficult era to deal with."
Photo source: "A Generation of Demon Queens"
The turbulent Ming and Qing dynasties caused great social dislocation. Wang Duo, a respected important minister of the Ming Dynasty, became an upstart in the Qing Dynasty due to the change of generation, and he will be recorded in history as a disgraceful second minister. Fu Shan, who came from a wealthy family of eunuchs, lost most of his property in the war, and became a Taoist priest at this time, making a living by practicing medicine and selling calligraphy and paintings. The Ming royal family in Jiangxi (Ning Domain) Wang Sun Bada Shanren, escaped into the mountains, monks. His distant relative, Shi Tao, had a similar experience after the death of his father and brother. Although he had become a monk before the collapse of the Ming Dynasty, the wounds of war must have been deeply engraved in his heart. These narrative and symbolic uses of illness and disability took place during and after these turbulent times. Apart from "death," there are no words more expressive of a turbulent time than "disease" and "disability." During the wars of the dynasty, the artists witnessed a large number of killings, the pain of the wounded, the groans of disease, and the cries of hunger. After such turmoil, they are likely to become very sensitive to their bodies. Wang Duo, who had long been exhausted by the war, still lived in a devastating environment in the early years of the Qing Dynasty. His two close friends, Huang Daozhou and Ni Yuanlu, who were both high-ranking officials of the Ming Dynasty, had a completely different experience from him in this dynastic revolution. Huang Daozhou was executed by the Qing court for leading military activities to restore the Ming Dynasty; Ni Yuanlu committed suicide to protect his moral integrity when Li Zicheng invaded the city of Beijing. Thinking of his dead best friend, wouldn't Wang Duo feel deeply guilty for his surrender to Qing and Shiqing? It was this guilt that led the genius calligrapher to indulge in a life of debauchery and self-destruction after the death of the Ming Dynasty.
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04 To what extent and by what means are the physical disabilities, defects, and diseases recorded in the artwork related to the creation and appreciation of the artwork? Is there some correspondence between the style of art of this period and the presentation of physical problems? To answer these questions, we will start with some critical terms of Ming relict artists. Fu Shan left behind many commentaries on the art of calligraphy, among which he is widely known and often quoted as his "Four Nings and Four Nos" theory. He claimed: "It is better to be clumsy than clever, rather ugly than flattering, rather fragmented than slippery, and rather honest than arranged." The word "fragmentation" can be applied to both artistic features and mutilation. The word first appears in the chapter "The Human World" in the Zhuangzi, where "fragmentation" is the name of a person with a physical disability. There is no doubt that the "fragmentation" in the Zhuangzi has a political connotation. Living in turbulent times, the "fragmentation" of limbs has become a way of survival that is "enough to support one's body and live all its days". "Fragmentation" thus implies an escape from contemporary politics, and can be further extended to withdrawal and passive resistance to the current regime. In some cases, Fu Shan treats "fragmentation" as an aesthetic quality.
Shi Tao "Plum". Collection of the Princeton University Art Museum
Fu Shan was not the only one in the early Qing Dynasty who advocated the aesthetics of "fragmentation" and "ugliness". Shi Tao also used the word "fragmentation" in the inscription poem on a plum blossom album. He inscribed on the first page of the album: If the ancient flowers are like the ancient relics, who will send the flowers and branches to follow the ancients? The experience of the six dynasties is only secluded, and the spirit of fragmentation is repeated. It is worth noting that, like Fu Shan, Shi Tao uses "fragmentation" to convey the meaning of "broken". The plum blossom in the poem unmistakably refers to the remnants, and we once again get a glimpse of the political intention implied by "fragmentation".
05 EpilogueFoucault, in his outstanding study of the archaeology of the humanities, wrote: "Whoever considers that disease is both a state of chaos (i.e., a dangerous outlier that exists within the core of life) and a natural phenomenon with its own constants, similarities and types, can see the scope of medical archaeology." Foucault's observations are instructive for understanding the phenomena discussed in this article, because microcosmic individual conditions can sometimes reflect a larger world. If disease is a "dangerous anomaly" that exists in the human body, then the heterogeneity in 17th-century China is twofold. At the macro level, as the literati perceived, the "dangerous outlier" was the invasion of the Qing regime in the Central Plains, which was the political reality faced by Han artists at the time. On an individual level, Han Chinese artists who claimed to have "illness" and "disability" constructed an "alienation" that they themselves proposed and defined, an internal "alienation" that reflected their psychological alienation from the new political and economic realities of the Qing regime. In an environment of frustration, guilt, regret and disappointment, physical and psychological problems are transformed into symbols that may be politically charged (including the stylistic appearance of the artwork). Even though the statements of physical problems in 17th-century art were primarily symbolic, every artist with alienation tendencies knew that their deep wounds were incurable, as Shi Tao's seal might suggest, a "terminal disease" in another sense.
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