The Research Of Relationship Between Language And Picture In The Chinese Paining History

The ancient Chinese painting innately bears a tight relationship with Chinese language, which is prominently represented in contents as well as in forms in the literati paintings. This dissertation attempts to explore the theories of the attachment between the picture and written characters in the history of Chinese ancient paintings. Along with the description of the procession of the painting history, the relationship between the picture and the characters attached is theoretically explored and summarized. Based on the historical and logical principles, this dissertation morphologically studies the diachronic evolution of the relationship between pictures and words attached in ancient Chinese paintings. From the study, three forms of relationships are revealed——the wholeness of Chinese language and picture in the primitive"rock paintings"; from the early Qin dynasity to the dynasities of Sui and Tang; the seperation between the picture and the Chinese language; from the dynasities of Song and Yuan, the combination of pictures and written language.The primitive"rock paintings"bears both the qualities and the functions of language and picture. In some senses, language is picture, picture——language, no discrimination but wholeness of the two. The invention of calligraphy seals the end of the wholeness. Pictures become the functional carrier of documenting and narration. However, serving the ruling class and the monk groups'purposes of instruction and dessemintion over the lower classes, painting has been restrained within the function of language. With the mimesis of the narrative function of language, paintings illustrate the texts so that the written words could be picturized and conveying. From the early Qin dynasity to the dynasities of Sui and Tang, paintings play the role of mimesis of the Confusian classics of history, philosophy, and literature which are represented by the timely description in pictures. Although such a mimesis fosters the cultivation and maturity of the painting forms, yet the picture descends to the attachment or footnote of language. In this period, paintings and language are isolated——language controlling, pictures following. The changes of the unequal relationship between paintings and language occur in the dynasities of Song and Yuan with the popularity of literati paintings, poetic paintings, picturized poetry and figured books. Paintings and languages commence a benign and organic blending, conversing liberally with each other, inspiring each other——poets singing pictures, painters picturing poems. The relationship of"combination"between pictures and language dominates in Song, Yuan and the following dynasities. Since the form of"combination"carries weight in Chinese painting history, it is vitally explored in this dissertation.Besides the morphological study of the relationship between the mainstreaming paintings and language, other independent questions are also analysed——the relationship between the picture and language in folk paintings, the influence upon the relationship between pictures and language from the change of ideas in different periods, the variation of material media, and the pictographic characters of Chinese.