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Introduction: The "Iconography" of Landscape Painting
The topic of this paper is based on a naïve idea: by exploring the daily experiences and knowledge systems of the Song people, can we capture their eyes and better understand Song Dynasty painting—for example, landscape painting, which became an important genre in the Song Dynasty?
People in the late Northern Song Dynasty were already confident that landscape painting was "not as ancient as it was recent", because the three masters of the early Song dynasty, Li Cheng, Guan Tong, and Fan Kuan, created a model style of landscape painting[1]. This view was expanded in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties and carried forward in the late Ming Dynasty, and became an important knowledge of modern art historiography, and it became an important topic to carefully outline the changes of landscape painting between the Tang and Song dynasties. Through the identification and dating of specific works, previous scholars have built a framework for the history of the style, and put forward the idea of looking at the transformation of landscape painting between the Tang and Song dynasties from the spirit of seclusion or "neo-Confucianism" [2]. On this basis, research in recent years has paid more attention to deepening the understanding of the history of style from the perspective of the meaning of images. Represented by Shi Shouqian, he discussed the important role of the audience in the formation of the meaning of landscape painting from the perspective of "painting" [3]. Foong Ping also discusses the socio-political reasons for the establishment of a powerful symbolic and metaphorical system in Northern Song Dynasty landscape painting by examining the court context and the civil and scholarly contexts of Northern Song Dynasty ink landscape paintings[4].
These important studies have initially established a historical context for Song Dynasty landscape painting that takes into account the change of style and the transformation of meaning, so that we can better face the research dilemma caused by the lack of relevant historical information such as author attribution, chronology, and bibliographic documents, and thus make it possible to re-examine the existing works and image materials. One of the major characteristics of Song Dynasty landscape painting is that there is an extremely rich image detail. To understand these pictorial factors, it is necessary to place them in the overall structure of Song Dynasty landscape images. On the other hand, if you don't have a good understanding of the basic image factors, it's hard to get a grasp of the image as a whole. It may be said that this involves the question of the "iconography" of landscape painting. Therefore, this paper attempts to put forward some views on the understanding of the image system of Song Dynasty landscape painting through the way of image close reading.
"You Chun Tu" volume, Sui, Zhanzi piety, silk, color, 43 cm long, 80.5 cm wide Photo source: The Palace Museum
Travel & Landscape Painting
The theme of traveling is one of the important motifs in the appearance of landscape painting in the Northern Song Dynasty, and some scholars call it "traveling landscape" [5]. This is partly due to the high frequency of travelers in Song Dynasty landscape paintings, and partly because the Northern Song Dynasty people often used the word "travel" or a similar meaning in the naming of landscape paintings[6].
In fact, judging from the surviving landscape images, the representation of travel and travelers is already prominent in the mural painting of Wutai Mountain in Cave 61 of Dunhuang, painted between 947 and 955. The murals depict the official missions and people who entered Mount Wutai from Shanxi and Hebei on the east-west route [7]. In the murals of the Tang Dynasty in Dunhuang, you can often see traveling merchants, who cross mountains and rivers, climb plank roads, and experience dangers.
Dunhuang Cave 61 "Wutai Mountain Map" mural
The "Elephant Riding Music" on the 8th-century pipa in the collection of Shosoin Temple is an important relic of Tang Dynasty landscape images. The Hu Ren Band singing and dancing on the white elephant in the foreground, marching in the landscape illuminated by the setting sun, is also related to travel in terms of theme. The Ming Emperor's Picture of Xingshu in the collection of the National Palace in Taipei is a Tang Dynasty painting subject that has been handed down from generation to generation, and it is also mainly traveling, and you can see travelers of different identities and genders [8]. The Spring Tour, which is said to be Zhan Ziqian, is also a work that may have an earlier ancestor, but was made no earlier than the Northern Song Dynasty, and there are also pedestrians on an outing [9]. It can be seen that travel was one of the constituent factors of landscape images in the Tang Dynasty.
However, travel has not yet reached the status of an important motif in Tang Dynasty landscape images. From the perspective of surviving documents, the Tang Dynasty almost did not explicitly name landscape paintings such as "travel", "early travel", and "river travel". With the flourishing of painting in the Song Dynasty, in the late Northern Song Dynasty, the name "Travel Map" has become a generally accepted concept. This also echoes the theory and practice of landscape painting. In the late Northern Song Dynasty, the Collected Works of Forests and Springs and the Complete Works of Landscapes and Landscapes were the most comprehensive "textbooks" of landscape painting, both of which were closely related to the artistic practices of important court painters, and explained the basic pictorial factors of landscape painting in a methodical and analytical manner. When listing the basic elements of landscape painting in the Complete Works of Shanshui Chun, "figures", "bridges", "Guancheng", "temple views", "mountain dwellings", "boats and cars" and the more general "scenery of the four seasons" are grouped into a major category. The details of these landscape paintings, including the figures and the configuration of the scenery, are all directly or indirectly related to travel, and should be configured according to the different times of the picture (one season and one day). Compared with Lucky Star Chinese Restaurant, it can be paired with "outing"; The summer scene can be matched with "travel and rest", "dawn and wading", and "wind and rain transition"; Autumn scenery can be paired with "climbing"; The winter scenery can be paired with "miserable eunuchs, snow hats, mules transporting grain, and snow river ferries" [10]. Except for the "outing" in the spring scenery and the "climbing" in the autumn scenery are short-distance trips, the other scenery is all showing medium- and long-distance travel. In addition to different times, the Complete Works of Shanshui Chun also points out that the characters should be configured according to different geographical spaces, that is, the mountains in the east, south, west, and north of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Dongshan is suitable for painting villages, cultivating hoes, hotels, mountain dwellings, traveling and so on. Xishan should be painted Guancheng, plank road, mule gang, pavilion view of the universe and the like. Beishan should be carried by carts, camels, woodcutters, etc. Nanshan should be painted with Jiangcun fishing market, water village mountain and so on [11].
In addition, the road is the most important guarantee for travel. The Noble Collection of Forests and Springs places special emphasis on the representation of roads, proposing that "if there is no road, there is no life" [12], and that "the figures of the mountains mark the road...... Mizunotsu bridge to suffice personnel" [13]. These expositions can be found in the surviving Song Dynasty landscape paintings.
The Complete Works of Landscapes and Landscapes lists a special category of scenic images "boats and cars", which are the means of transportation for travel. However, in the Song Dynasty, it went beyond the limitations of landscape painting in the general sense, and became a category of painting that could be placed alongside landscape painting. In the Tang Dynasty, "boundary painting" was used as a separate type of painting, often referred to as "terrace" or "house wood". In the Northern Song Dynasty, "boats" joined them. In the "palace room" door of "Xuanhe Painting", there is a separate category of "boat and car". In the "Painting Succession" compiled by Deng Chun in the early Southern Song Dynasty, this painting department was officially named "House, Wood, Boat and Car". Boats and cars appear very frequently in Song Dynasty paintings. They are a means of transportation needed for long-distance travel, and unlike animals such as horses and donkeys that are used as means of transportation, they are artificial creations that condense technology.
In general, the landscape paintings of the Northern Song Dynasty formed a series of interrelated images around the underlying theme of travel, covering not only the landscape, the season, and the weather, but also the transportation facilities and means of transportation, as well as the travelers with different identities and purposes. Therefore, this article will examine the transportation system from the perspective of the transportation system that is directly related to travel.
Rethink the "Donkey Rider":
Are the poems and paintings the same?
The core element of travel is the traveler. The United States scholar Peter C. Sturman was the first to notice the peculiarity of the "donkey rider" figure in Northern Song landscape painting [14]. He believes that the prototype of the "donkey rider" is the Han scholar represented by the Tang Dynasty poet Meng Haoran, symbolizing the down-and-out but talented literati Gaoshi who is located outside the bureaucratic system. Since then, the view that the donkey rider who recurs in Song Dynasty landscape paintings is defined as an ideal "literati" has been widely accepted by researchers [15].
We can't find the Northern Song Dynasty painter's self-description of the image of the donkey rider depicted, and one material that can partially peek into the artist's intention comes from the "Pictorial Meaning" of the "Lin Quan Gaozhi Collection", which lists the poems that Guo Xi thought could be included in the painting, including the poem Lu Yanrang Yongxue by the poet of the late Tang Dynasty and the fifth dynasty: "The donkey crossing the water has straight ears, and the wind is shoulder-high." [16] The poetic approach to painting is discussed here, and although it does not involve the specific meaning of the image of the donkey rider, the lame "donkey", the emaciated "servant", and the cold wind and snow in the poetic tradition can indeed point to the image of the down-and-out and learned scribe. The use of poetry in painting in turn inspired poets. Li Zhiyi of the Northern Song Dynasty saw a fan by Guo Xi and wrote the poem "The donkey breaks his hat and shrugs his shoulders, and the long pine in the stone wants to reach the sky" [17]. "Shrugging the shoulders" describes the action of a donkey rider standing up his shoulders because of the cold. While inscribed a poem for another Li Cheng's landscape painting, Li Zhiyi also saw horseback riders and donkey riders, and he followed the poetic tradition of considering horses as "section horses", that is, inferior horses with slow movements, and donkeys as lame "donkeys": "Pedestrians first step on the road ahead of the mountain, and look back timidly on the cold and cold." The donkey is also happy to level the ground, and the ears are interesting. [18] Zhao Gan, who is said to be a court painter in the Southern Tang Dynasty, painted a "section horse" and two "donkeys" [19]. The man with his sleeves and shoulders frozen in the cold wind rode a thin horse, with protruding bone joints on the horse's hips, and the exaggerated eyes of the horse's eyes backwards did show the expression described by Li Zhiyi as "a cold and timid review". The two donkeys also painted rich expressions, one of which had both ears down, similar to what Li Zhiyi described as "Er".
It is precisely based on the view of "the unity of poetry and painting" since the Tang and Song dynasties that Shi Slow put forward the view that the "donkey rider" in the landscape paintings of the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty is based on the image of the poets of the Tang Dynasty who are searching for sentences. The key iconographic element is the accompanying scholars, either with horns or untied hair, carrying a poetry tube [20]. However, in the landscape paintings of the Northern Song Dynasty, not all the images of "donkey riders" are like this, and most of them do not have scholars or poems. Can they all be interpreted in terms of poetic themes?
Fig.1 Biography of Li Cheng's "Maolin Yuanxiu" volume, detail, ink and color on silk, collection of Liaoning Provincial Museum
Coincidentally, in Li Cheng's "Picture of Maolin Yuanxiu", there is a donkey rider crossing the water in the center of the scroll, which seems to be able to partially show the poetry of "crossing the water and stepping on the donkey" that Guo Xi thinks can be used in the painting. [Fig. 1] This is a knee-deep river, although the silk surface is somewhat damaged, you can still see the donkey rider with four retinues, one leading the donkey, one carrying the luggage to protect the back, and two people wearing a hat on their heads are exploring the way, one of whom has already come ashore and is dragging the other ashore with a stick. Although the wading scene reflects the hardships of travel, it is not a winter scene, nor is it a cold scene. The figure is small, and the only thing clearly visible is the dark wide-brimmed hat on the donkey rider's head, with sharp front and rear brims.
The donkey rider who traveled with four minions seemed to have an unusual identity.
Was he a warrior, a poet, or a scribe in seclusion?
Is he riding a "donkey"?
Is the hat he wears a "broken hat"?
In the Northern Song Dynasty, did anyone wear a similar wide-brimmed hat, ride a donkey, and travel with a number of adult servants?
Since there is no direct description in the picture, in order to identify this character, it is necessary to first discuss the travelers of the Northern Song Dynasty.
"Donkey riders" with their retinue, ranging from one to several, should be a group of people with a certain social status and economic ability. In the official Zhen "Zuoyi Zizhen" written by Li Yuanbi, a grassroots official in the late Northern Song Dynasty, there is a volume of "The Innkeeper", which records the seven regulations of the county government for hotel operators, and several excerpts are as follows:
The magistrate restricts the inn tenants as follows:
First, the store is often sprinkled with three or two sweeping rooms, and the new net recommended seats and the like, waiting for officials and showmen to settle down.
1. Officials and showmen should not be noisy and rude when they come to the store.
1. Travelers who have been sleeping for many days, who are quite suspicious, and who are irrational about making money, who do not know the order, or who do not know their behavior, come to the official in secret, or report to the nearest arresting official.
First, the passenger travel sells and searches, and Yangzi elaborates on the edict, so that the people with brands can be traded. If there is no business travel, only the person who does not have a brand is ordered to trade, resulting in the leakage of money and goods and delays, the shop owner should be strictly punished.
1. Tell the travelers that if they sell the licensed goods that are taxed, they should go to the business to seal the tax before they can be sold, so as to prevent the unscrupulous people from intimidating the money and goods, and the tax paid by the tax should be ran. [21]
It can be seen that long-distance travelers staying in hotels are generally divided into three categories: officials, talents, and travelers. Religious monks, who often appear in Song Dynasty paintings, are not included. Officials and showmen belong to the special status group and need special treatment from the hotel. The "traveler" is more complex, and may even have thieves on the go. But the largest number of "travelers" are those who are allowed to sell goods, that is, "business travelers". In addition to restricting the responsibilities of hotels, the magistrate also stipulates the responsibilities of the township security managers, "elders" and "strong men", who are responsible for maintaining local law and order, as well as the maintenance of public facilities such as roads and bridges. One of them mentions that when maintaining the security of the hotel, it is forbidden to make loud noises: "There are officials, talents, and business travelers in the premises, and they are strictly instructed to patrol the neighborhood at night, regardless of the slightest negligence." [22] It can be seen that the three categories of officials, talents, and travelers (business travelers) are the overall understanding of the travel group in the Northern Song Dynasty. This understanding was still valid in the Southern Song Dynasty. The "Qing Yuan Tiao Legal Affairs" contains a number of official laws and regulations of the Southern Song Dynasty, among which the common name for travelers is also "Kelu", also known as "business travel" or "people's travel", which mainly refers to merchants or ordinary people who carry goods out with the intention of selling, which is completely different from officials. For example, in the fifth year of Chunxi (1178), there was a clear article that mentioned that when passing through the tax field, all "officials, passengers, and ships" should be inspected on board the ship[23]. In the eleventh year of Chunxi (1184), one article said, "Tell the traveler not to rely on officials and soldiers, carry goods, and wipe the field affairs." [24] The "scholars" here, along with the travelers and officials, should be equated with the "Xiucai" in the Zuoyi Zizhen, both of which refer to scribes who aimed at the imperial examination.
If the "donkey riders" in the paintings of the Northern Song Dynasty were not completely fictional, they should not be among the above three groups. Business travelers can be ruled out in the first place, because business travelers usually use donkeys to carry goods, not rides, and the picture of "donkey riders" has no performance of goods before and after. Officials and talents can be classified as "scholars" in the traditional classification of "four people". Officials and Xiucai usually have a transformational relationship, and the imperial examination is both their connection and their difference. Officials are scholars who have obtained official positions through the imperial examinations and belong to the state administrative system. "Xiucai" is an honorific title for scholars who are preparing for the imperial examination, they have not yet achieved fame, and most of them are students of government schools at all levels established by the state, so they also have a certain social status. Because the "donkey riders" in landscape paintings are usually painted very small and simple, there are no sufficient markers to judge the specific identity. So we might as well first sort out the images of traveling officials and scholars in other types of paintings.
Fig.2 Detail of the Song Dynasty's "Recruiting People and Xiaofa", ink and color on silk, 25.2x25.6 cm, Collection of the Palace Museum
It is not easy to find a clear image of the traveling "Xiucai" in the images of the Northern Song Dynasty. Among the paintings of the Southern Song Dynasty, the "Portrait of Recruiting People and Xiaofa" in the collection of the Forbidden City in Beijing is an example. 【Picture 2】In a simple village inn, a gentleman wearing a hat is lying on the dining table and napping, waiting for the woman in the inn to prepare breakfast. At the gate of the courtyard, a burden-carrying attendant and a donkey were ready to go, suggesting that he was going on a journey to catch the exam[25]. Another example is the Southern Song Dynasty painter Chen Qingbo's "Spring Dawn of Lakes and Mountains". A man on a red tasseled horse with two retinues was marching on the shore of the lake. It is possible that he was a scholar who went to Lin'an to take the examination[26].
Fig.3: Anonymous Southern Song Dynasty "Spring Outing and Late Return", group fan, detail, ink and color on silk, collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing
In contrast, the image of traveling officials is more common, which can be seen in paintings such as "Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival" (Beijing Forbidden City), "Picture of Filial Piety" (Liaoning Provincial Museum), and "Spring Outing and Evening Return" (Beijing Forbidden City). There are several versions of the Book of Filial Piety, and each version has a section depicting an official going to work. The officials rode horses, with a number of retinues, and had already marched to the gate of the city where they were to be served, and were greeted by officials with bones in their hands. In the Southern Song Dynasty version in the collection of the Liaoning Provincial Museum, officials wear round-necked official uniforms, black heads, and silk whips. There were three attendants beside the horse, one of whom carried a burden, carrying two boxes, and a large hat hanging from one end. This hat is an important feature of official travel and is called "heavy wear". The picture shows the side of the hood of this large hat, and you can see the woven structure of light materials such as bamboo strips. The surface of the cap is dark black, indicating that the hat is covered with a layer of black fabric. The black fabric is cut and hangs down from the brim to form a fringed ornament. A clearer "re-wearing" appears in the Southern Song Dynasty's "Spring Outing and Late Return". [Fig. 3] The equestrian officer in the painting is of high status, with a larger pomp, with ten retinues, marching to the castle tower. [27] One of the attendants carried the "heavy wear" on his back. It can be seen that the crown of the "reworn" hat is an erect trapezoidal body, and the broad brim is divided into four pieces, almost a flat rectangle rather than a circle.
Fig.4 Zhang Zeduan's Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, detail, ink and color on silk, collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing
In earlier images of the Northern Song Dynasty, it is said that Zhang Zeduan's "Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival" also has an official traveling on horseback, accompanied by nine people wearing curved feet. [Fig. 4] Unlike several examples in the Southern Song Dynasty, this official did not wear an official uniform with wide cuffs, but a round-necked robe with narrow sleeves. The "heavy wear" was also not carried by the entourage, but was worn on the top of the head, clearly showing the scene of the official traveling with the "heavy wear". Several characteristics of "heavy wearing" are displayed, one is large, the length of the front and back is longer than half of the human body, the second is that the top of the hat is trapezoidal, and the third is that the surface of the hat is dark black, and the lining is light color, indicating that the surface of the hat is covered with black fabric.
Fig.5 Partial rubbings of the Northern Song Dynasty "Lushu Clock" in the collection of Liaoning Provincial Museum
The relationship between "Chongdai" and officials can be seen more clearly in the large bronze bell in the Liaoning Provincial Museum, which may have been cast in the Song Huizong period. In the honor guard of the traveling book, four horseback riders wearing wide-brimmed hats appeared. 【Fig.5】Among the entourage, there is a man who controls the horse on foot, and another person who holds an umbrella. This image should be the standard image of officials in the Northern Song Dynasty [28]. The "heavy wearing" of the official in the "Qingming Riverside Map" is quite similar, and one of the officials carries a folded umbrella on his shoulder, and judging from the size, it should also be an umbrella cover for officials to travel. The horsewhip he held in his hand also proved his identity. The whip is long and slightly curved, indicating a soft texture, with a tassel-like decoration hanging down at the tip. This is the "silk whip", or "silk whip", which, like "heavy wearing", is the symbol of middle- and high-ranking officials, and is more clearly expressed in the "Spring Outing and Late Return Map" [29].
Fig.6 Scroll of Li Cheng's "Picture of the Sunny Mountains and Xiao Temple", detail, ink on silk, light and color, collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Fig.7 Biography of Li Cheng, Picture of Qingluan Xiao Temple, scroll, ink and light color on silk, 111.8 x 56 cm, collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
The "heavy wearing" officials in the Qingming Riverside Picture and the Lushu Bell are quite similar to the donkey riders wearing wide-brimmed hats in the Northern Song Dynasty's Maolin Yuanxiu Map. If we take a closer look at the "donkey rider" in other Northern Song paintings, we can find more evidence that he was a person who "wore it again" to travel. The Picture of the Sunny Mountain Xiao Temple, which is said to be Li Cheng, is a well-preserved vertical scroll, and the depiction of the donkey rider reveals more detail. The key detail is the trapezoidal structure of the wide-brimmed crown, which clearly shows the sides of a square crown with a short line. This is the same as the structure of the hat of the re-worn official in the "Qingming Riverside Picture". It's just that the height is different. But the height of the hat should not be the main feature. The top of the heavy hat of the Lushu clock is shorter than that of the "Qingming Riverside Picture". The top of the heavy hat in the Southern Song Dynasty's "Spring Outing and Late Return" is shorter, but the style of the trapezoidal body is very clear, and the ratio of length, width and height is basically the same as that of the "Qingluan Xiao Temple". [Figs. 6 and 7]
Fig.8 (Biography) Yan Wengui's View of Xishan Tower, Detail, ink on silk, National Palace Museum, Taipei
Fig.9 Chuan Yan Wengui, View of Xishan Tower, scroll, ink and light color on silk, 103.9x47 cm, collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei
Several other landscape paintings of the Northern Song Dynasty depict the "donkey rider" relatively briefly, but from the perspective of the official's re-wearing, it is still possible to find a connection with each other. Among them, Yan Wengui's "View of Xishan Tower" (National Palace Museum, Taipei) is more interesting. Although the "Donkey Rider" black hat-shaped hat does not have a sense of volume, the shape is clearly drawn, and the top of the hat is trapezoidal and the brim is straight, which is in line with the characteristics of "heavy wear". [Figs. 8 & 9] It is worth noting that the mount of the "donkey rider" is a light-colored horse, and in front of it is a black donkey, short in body, with long ears, carrying luggage. In addition to having long ears and a short stature, donkeys also have characteristics such as short manes and thin tails. The mane of the horse is long and lounging on the neck, and the tail hair is fluffy [30]. Officials mostly traveled on horseback, and in addition to preparing their own horses, they could also use the stagecoaches equipped with government post stations. In Guo Xi's 1072 Early Spring, the donkey rider's mount is mostly blocked, the ears are not too long, and the horse's lodging mane is more likely from the dark lines on the top of the head to the neck.
Fig.10 Guo Xi's "Early Spring" axis, detail, ink on silk, light color, collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei
Fig.11 Guo Xi, Early Spring, scroll, ink and color on silk, 158.3×108.1 cm, Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei
Guo Xi's "Early Spring" depicts the rider and his entourage coming out from behind the rocks and towards the trestle. Most of his body was obscured by rocks, except for the dark, wide-brimmed hat on top of his head. This means that this hat is a hint of identity in the eyes of the viewers of the Northern Song Dynasty. Although it is brief, the basic characteristics of a long, straight brim and a square tip still conform to the style of "heavy wear". Under "Redon", a dark bandana can be seen wrapping around his head. [Figs. 10 and 11] "Qingluan Xiao Temple" is painted more clearly. Most of the head of the "donkey rider" was covered by a black turban, the hem hung down on the back, and only the face was exposed. The same outfit can also be identified on the head of the "donkey rider" in Song Huizong's "Picture of the Snow River Returning to the Tree". This is not required for rewearing. There are no such headscarves in the heavy wearing officials in the "Qingming Riverside Map", the Lushu Clock, the Southern Song Dynasty's "Spring Outing and Late Return Map", and "The Book of Filial Piety". This dark bandana is a hood used to keep warm in autumn and winter. In Song Dynasty images, it was a common attire for scribes, so it is understandable that it appears in the above-mentioned Northern Song Dynasty paintings with heavy wear, because most of the paintings are in the colder autumn and winter or early spring.
If the "donkey rider" in the landscape paintings of the Northern Song Dynasty is to show the "heavy wearing" of officials, is there a special purpose? This requires an examination of the system of "re-wearing".
"Re-wear" with a hat
"Heavy wearing" is a wide-brimmed hat transformed from a so-called "big cut hat" in the Tang Dynasty. "History of the Song Dynasty • Yufu Zhi" has a special description:
Heavy wearing, Tang Shi people are still up, the legacy of the ancient tailoring hat, and the clothes of Bennofu Yansuo. With soap Luo for it, the square and hanging eaves, purple, two purple silk groups for the tassels, hanging and knotting under the chin. The so-called heavy wearer folds the scarf and puts a hat. At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, the imperial history platform was re-worn, and the remaining officials either wore it or not. Later, the new jinshi also wore it, and it stopped until the brown was released. In the second year of Taizong's Chunhua, the imperial history platform said: "The old ceremony, the imperial history of the three academies is in Taiwan and the envoy, and it is worn again, and it has been abandoned for a long time." The imperial history of the promulgation of the provincial office and the service in Beijing, please still be honored, violators will be fined for one month. "From it. He also edicted that the two provinces and Shangshu Province were all re-worn with more than five grades, and the three privy envoys and deputies were not. After the revival of Zhongxing, the imperial history, the two systems, the official of Zhigong, and the new jinshi were allowed to obey it. [31]
This account illustrates that the heavy wear is a large hat with a wide brim, which has the following characteristics: first, the surface of the hat is made of black silk fabric; 2. The plane of the hat is square, not round; Third, there are eaves; Fourth, the lining of the hat is purple silk fabric; 5. There are two ties of purple silk fabric. Comparing the "heavy wearing" hats worn by officials in the paintings of the Northern and Southern Song Dynasty, it can be seen that its basic form is completely in line with the text description, but the specific materials and colors are not well represented. Even in the fine depictions of the Southern Song Dynasty's "Spring Outing and Late Return", we can only see the outside and top of the hat, but cannot see the inside of the hat. Only the heavy wear in "Qingming Riverside Picture" can see that the inside of the hat is light-colored. Therefore, there are two later paintings that have a certain reference value.
Fig.12 Anonymous Ming Dynasty "Seven Sons Passing the Customs" volume, detail, ink and color on silk, collection of the Freer Museum of Art
The first is "A Trip to Zhongshan" (Freer Museum) by Gong Kai, a painter in the late Song and early Yuan dynasties, depicting the travels of Zhong Kui, the god of ghost hunting. Zhong Kui sat on the chariot, dressed as an official. Behind him was a little ghost carrying his big hat. It can be seen that the imp is pulling the black strap of the big hat behind him. The hat is surrounded by a black curtain about half the length of the face, which is undoubtedly the "hanging brim". This hat is very similar to Zhong Kui's hat in the 12th-century "Hell Straw Paper" in Japan. The other is the "Seven Sons Crossing Map" in the collection of the Freer Art Museum. [Fig. 12] Although this painting is a Ming Dynasty painting, there may be an early source of imagery, and there are similar paintings in the Forbidden City in Beijing and the Forbidden City in Taipei.
Judging from the literature, the painting theme of "Seven Sons Passing the Pass" has appeared in the Yuan Dynasty at the latest. Regarding the identity of the "Seven Sons", there have always been different theories, some say that they are the "Seven Sons of Jian'an", and some say that they are the seven talented sons of the Tang Dynasty. In the painting, one of the seven sons rides a horse, one rides a bull, and five rides a donkey. The horseman wears a round-necked purple robe, dressed as a civil official, and his retinue behind him holds his "heavy-wearing" cap. The other six were uniformly dressed, all wearing light-colored robes, dark hoods wrapped around their heads, and "heavy-wearing" hats. The seven "heavy-wearn" hats in the painting are at different angles, fully showing the structure of the hats. The rectangular shape of the hat plane is very clear. The inside of the hat is woven from rattan grass, and the pullover part is lined with purple silk fabric. The front and rear brim also have cross-shaped purple silk ribbons. In addition, two purple silk ribbons are tied around the ears of the hat sleeve, similar to the "Purple Li, two purple silk groups are tassels" in the "History of the Song Dynasty".
The name "re-wearing" appeared in the late Tang Dynasty [32]. As for the meaning of "heavy", the Song Dynasty people had two sayings. One is to wear a hat on the head, so it is weighed "heavy"; One said that he wore both a hat and an umbrella cover, so it was "heavy". The main reason for the controversy is that this is an institutionalized transformation of the scarf hat since the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, so the traceability is not clear. In short, as a kind of clothing that was gradually institutionalized in the Northern Song Dynasty, "heavy wearing" was associated with the central civil officials with specific identities, and played a role in rectifying the official style and appearance and strengthening the status of civil officials. Combined with the History of the Song Dynasty and other documents of the Song Dynasty that record the "heavy wearing", it can be seen that the "heavy wearing" system was derived from the old system of the five dynasties in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty [33].
Beginning in the second year of the Chunhua reign of Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty (991), the imperial court officially established "heavy wearing" as a special uniform for officials of the Northern Song Dynasty, and stipulated that all officials of the Imperial History Observatory needed to be "re-worn" when they went out on daily trips or traveled on official business. This should be done with the aim of strengthening the civilian status of the surveillance system. Soon after, the scope of application of this provision was extended to almost all "Qingwang officials", who were middle- and high-ranking civil officials of Jinshi origin, who usually had literary talent and moral fame[34]. The relevant system stipulates that officials from Zhongshu and Menxia provinces, officials with five grades or above in Shangshu Province, and bachelors of Hanlin Academy must wear "heavy wear" when entering and leaving. In addition, the new science and technology jinshi can also obtain the qualification of "re-wearing" from the examination to the official position. After the Southern Song Dynasty, the scope was greatly reduced, and the officials of the three provinces were no longer included, and the new science and technology scholars were only limited to the top three. It can be seen that "heavy wearing" has always been a clothing system for civil officials in the Song Dynasty, which was dominated by the "Imperial Historical Observatory" and the "Imperial Academy", while there were no clear regulations and requirements for other central civil officials [35].
It is worth noting that there is some confusion between the "heavy wearing", which seems clear in terms of the system, and the "Xi hat", another popular in the Song Dynasty. For example, when Wu Chuhou's "Green Box Miscellaneous Records" in the Northern Song Dynasty told the story of Li Xun's participation in the imperial examination in the early Song Dynasty, he said: "At the beginning of the country, the Tang Dynasty was still attacked, and the scholars all wore heavy robes, and they followed themselves with their hats. [36] This reflects the system in which a new member of the Sci-jinjin can "re-wear" before obtaining an official position, but it does not make it clear that the "hat" is equated with "re-wearing". There is also a story in Hongmai's Yi Jianzhi of the Southern Song Dynasty, which tells the story of a scholar who was about to take the imperial examination and dreamed that someone was "holding a hat and covering his head", and when he woke up, he was overjoyed because "a scholar wears a hat when he ascends to the top"[37]. This also reflects the system that can be "re-worn" by the new science and technology practitioners, but it also equates the "mat hat" with "re-wearing".
Fig.13 Zhang Zeduan's Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, detail, ink and color on silk, collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing
The reason for the above confusion is that the "Xi hat", as a popular hat style in the Song Dynasty, has no obvious identity difference. And because of the popularity, there are more changes. Guo Ruoxu said in the section "On the Different Clothes and Crowns" in "Pictures and Stories": "The hat is now a hat, and the net is also hung back every week. [38] This kind of Northern Song Dynasty hat, which resembles a Tang Dynasty hat, can be seen in the "Qingming Riverside Map". There are 5 travelers wearing hats. They rode horses, donkeys or mules, and their hats were of the same style, with a very wide crown and a narrow brim, and the top of the hat was covered with a dark black tulle that could be drooped. Among them, the donkey or mule rider has the longest tulle, hanging down to the waist, similar to the Tang Dynasty hat. [Fig. 13] A traveler with his back to the viewer and a large part of the eaves is obscured by the eaves of the back, and the tulle also hangs down below the shoulder blades of his back. Another person appears in the distance on a donkey, as does his back. The tulle of the remaining two had a shorter sag, only about half a palm-length drape around the brim. The hats of these 5 travelers are supposed to be "mat hats". [39]
Fig.14 Zhang Zeduan's Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, detail, ink and color on silk, collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing
In addition to the hats worn by the five travelers, there is another similar hat, except that the latter has a high, rounded crown. It appears twice, one of which is worn on the head of a horse rider at the beginning of the scroll. Another hat hung on a burden carried by an attendant behind a horseman. The inside of the hat is facing the viewer, clearly showing radial lines to explain the structure of the crown. [Fig. 14] There is reason to believe that this is also a type of "mat hat". There may be more variations of the "mat hat", and it is said that Li Cheng's "Reading the Stone Tablet" (Osaka City Museum of Art) contains a scribe riding a white donkey, who is supposed to be a reclusive master. The hat he wears has a distinctly concentric pattern on it, suggesting that the hat may have been woven from rattan and grass, and should also be a type of "mat hat"[40].
The changes of hats are inseparable, and they are nothing more than making a fuss about materials and decorative patterns. The name of "Xi Hat" already existed in the Tang Dynasty. Li Kuangyi, a late Tang dynasty scholar, was the first to introduce the "Xi Mao" [41]. According to Lee's records, the difference between the "mat hat" and the "felt hat" is mainly reflected in the different materials of the hat surface. The so-called "mat" should refer to the skeleton of the hat made of straw and rattan, and if it is replaced with wool, it is a "felt hat". According to Sun Ji's research, the mat hats of the Tang Dynasty were often covered with oil, becoming waterproof "oil hats", and even the "hats" were mainly mat hats, and there was no essential difference between the two [42].
At this point, we can summarize the relationship between "rewearing" and "hatting". The "heavy wearing" of officials in the Song Dynasty was a kind of public opinion uniform system, and the direct source was a wide-brimmed hat since the Tang Dynasty. Due to the similarity between the form and the "mat hat", and the "mat hat" is widely used by the people, the two are sometimes confused, and "rewearing" is regarded as a special style of "mat hat". However, the painted images of the Northern Song Dynasty tell us that they have clear boundaries in the world of images and are hardly confused.
In addition to "Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival", Guo Xi's "Early Spring" actually depicts the coexistence of "heavy wearing" and mat hats. Going up the line of the "heavy wearing" officer and his entourage crossing the trestle, one of them wears a dark brimmed hat with a large round crown and a small brim. The shape is similar to several of the hats in the Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, suggesting that the artist deliberately created a contrast between the official who re-wears the hat and the ordinary traveler who wears the hat.
At this point, we can discuss the significance of "re-wearing" the image of officials in the landscape paintings of the Northern Song Dynasty. If the system of "heavy wearing" is strictly followed in the Northern Song Dynasty, the officials who have to "wear heavy" hats and maintain official style during long-distance travel are all middle- and high-level civil officials who are sent by the central government to serve in local areas and are from Jinshi. In particular, the officials of the Taiwan system are the mainstream, because this system was originally set up for them. They were the central supervisory organs, from the emperor to the hundred officials, all within their purview, with high status, and were often sent to local posts. Of course, painting is not a mirror image of reality after all. The extent to which painting can be compared with the system of reality is something to be carefully considered. The works in Song Dynasty paintings that show a relatively clear image of "heavy wearing" have a certain relationship with the government, and most of their creators are painters who serve the court and the government, and they should have a certain understanding of the state system. At the same time, in the painting evaluation system of the Northern Song Dynasty, great importance was also attached to the correct expression of "clothing" clothing [43].
Judging from the "heavy wearing" officials in the image, the image on the bell of the Northern Song Dynasty is obviously not ordinary. The officials in the "Qingming Riverside Map" with nine retinues should also have a higher status. The status of the old man in the Southern Song Dynasty's "Spring Outing and Late Return" is also quite unusual. These three images do not depict long-distance travel, but travel in or near the capital. As for the riding figures in several Northern Song Dynasty landscape paintings, they are all on long journeys, and their mounts are not only changed to donkeys, but the number of people accompanying them has also been greatly reduced, usually only one or two. This difference shows that the image of "heavy wearing" in landscape painting has a special meaning.
"Spring Outing and Late Homecoming", volume, detail, ink and color on silk, collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei
The image of the rider is an ambivalent image. "Re-wearing" is a system, but riding a donkey is not a system; It is a system for central civil officials to be appointed by the imperial court to serve in local posts, but the number of people accompanying them is not a system at least. The significance of donkeys has been studied much [44]. First of all, donkeys are the daily means of transportation and transportation of ordinary people, and many people riding donkeys can be seen in the "Qingming Riverside Map", which is a symbol of civilian life. Second, the donkey was also the favorite mount of the hermit and the maverick scribe in the literary tradition, symbolizing their reclusive aspirations, their lofty sentiments, or "the weariness of worldly success, and the yearning for nature and a carefree state of life." In addition, in the poetry of the Song Dynasty, there were some literati and bureaucrats who liked to use the image of riding a donkey, creating "the image of a sophisticated bureaucrat who was frustrated in his career"[45].
In the landscape paintings of the Northern Song Dynasty, although not all of the riders of the "heavy wear" ride donkeys or horses, they are not ostentatious images with many retinues. As a middle- and high-ranking civil servant who travels between the central and local governments on official business, such a simple way of travel means a simple, people-friendly, honest and self-disciplined quality. In particular, considering that the civil servants of the Taiwan admonition system are the main group of the "heavy wearing" system, it is all the more necessary to consider the implicit implication of clean government. An example that can be compared is Sima Guang. Sima Guang was an extremely incorruptible official, and his family motto "Discipline and Frugality and Prosperity" is a famous article about honesty and frugality, and his story of incorruptibility had begun to circulate widely in the Southern Song Dynasty. One of them is that during his tenure as the prefect of the "Xijing Liusi Yushitai" in Luoyang, every time he traveled back and forth between Chang'an and Luoyang on official business, he only rode a donkey and only brought two or three retinues. [46] He kept a low profile and never alarmed the magistrates, and refused gifts of any kind[46]. If this story is true, it is conceivable that Sima Guang, as a scholar of Hanlin and an official of Taiwan, will definitely strictly abide by the system and "re-wear" to travel. In this way, he is almost identical to the image of the rider in the landscape paintings of the Northern Song Dynasty. Sima Guang's literary image of honesty and frugality is not so much a copy of the official system of the Song Dynasty as it is the result of the interweaving of reality and imagination, as well as the art of painting.
This image of an honest and thrifty official can be used to a certain extent to illustrate the image arrangement in the foreground in the "Qingluan Xiao Temple". In the lower part of the picture, a "heavy-wearing" donkey-riding official with only two retinues is about to cross a rudimentary broken wooden bridge to the village at the foot of the mountain. There are only two kinds of buildings painted in the village, which are juxtaposed to the left and right: one is a simple thatched-roofed country tavern, marked by a wooden scoop hanging under the thatched eaves and a long table and chairs placed in the house; The other is a large official restaurant, which is marked by a prominent wine flag and ornate official-style buildings [47]. The people who dine in both types of hotels are also completely different. The people in the village taverns were dressed in the same way as the retinue of donkey-riding officials, while the people in the large taverns sat in front of calligraphy screens in their hats. What does this obvious contrast illustrate in the painting? The biggest possibility should be the contrast between "luxury" and "frugality". From the simple image of the official who "re-wears" the donkey, it can be inferred that he will definitely choose a country tavern rather than a restaurant with a beautiful view.
"Qingluan Xiao Temple" volume Detail ink and color on silk Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, United States
The "heavy dai" official has a specific reference rather than an abstract representation of all officials, because it is not the whole image of officials in Song Dynasty landscape paintings. The old biography of Wang Wei's "Journey to the Snow Mountain" (Palace Museum) may be a Southern Song Dynasty painting in the style of Guan Tong, which is very similar to Guan Tong's "Journey to Guan Mountain" by the National Palace Museum in Taipei. [48] At the center of the procession in the lower right corner of the painting is a standard Song Dynasty official, dressed in a round-necked official uniform and wearing the "curved winged head" common to officials[48]. Although he only brought three people with him, not only did he ride a horse, but another riding officer with a small flag led the way. There were also people carrying honor guard weapons "Guduo" in the footsteps, and the whole team looked formal and serious.
The Mountain Village, which is in the possession of Guo Xi at Nanjing University, is a good example, further revealing the deliberate creation of two different official images of "luxury" and "frugality" in Song Dynasty landscape painting. This is an interesting painting that magnifies a lot of the features of Guo Xi's "Early Spring". On the right side of the picture, an official on horseback appeared, wearing a hood, and the entourage behind him held a Qingluo umbrella cover for him, which can only be used by officials. He was accompanied by nine retinues in front of him, including the horse controller and the chair bearer, which was the standard image of an official who was in front of him and behind him. And on the way up the mountain, there is also an image of a donkey riding a donkey, who seems to have only one attendant, and is trekking along the hillside. It is self-evident which of the two kinds of officials is "extravagant" and which is "thrifty."
In addition to conveying the official style of honesty and frugality, the image of "re-wearing" officials in landscape paintings can also reflect the general importance that the state attaches to the civil service class from Jinshi. The Northern Song dynasty explicitly associated "heavy dai" officials with the imperial court "Qingwang officials", which distinguished them from military attachés and various technical bureaucrats. As civil servants with a general literary talent, they are adept at conveying various emotions and experiences, including travel, through poetry and writing, and are among the most frequent people who sing about natural landscapes. Therefore, their images in landscape painting are not just a point of view, but also have the role of "eye-catching".