Knowing And Seeing:Emperor Huizong’s The Five-Colored Parakeet And The Birds In The Painting Of Song China

Studies on the flower and bird painting of the Song China(960-1279) would benefit greatly from certain knowledge on flowers and birds, the subject which painters observe and depict. By comparing the species in nature with those depicted in paintings, I not only discovered critical facts that are valuable evidence for attribution of works, but also felt the power and potential of this as a method for studies on the flower and bird painting throughout the history of Chinese Art. Therefore, this dissertation will shed new light on the Song painting as one of the three isles of representational art, along with Ancient Greek sculpture and Italian Renaissance Art, in the world art.Combined with identifying and comparing of depicted species, the first part of the dissertation re-examined related literature of Song dynasty and made an assumption on Emperor Huizong’s possible working habit. The argument was mainly based on the Five-Colored Parakeet, a surviving scroll painting now in the collection of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts that mostly attributed to Emperor himself.The second part of the dissertation puts the method a step further by categorizing all the birds depicted in the extant paintings of Song China. I have endeavored to establish a basic data form, upon which the attribution of three important works by Emperor Huizong is reconsidered.