Song Yu And His Friends - The Collection, Friendship And Image Of The Upper Class Literati During The Kangxi Period

This thesis discusses several issues about Song Luo and his contemporary peers,e.g.their artistic collections,their social relationship and their figure after death.The discussions aim to clarify the collection of Song,discuss the meaning of calligraphy and paintings to the elite literati in early Qing,and observe the gradual change of the literati’s artistic interest during the three hundred years of Qing.The thesis consists of three chapters.Chapter 1 is focused on Song Luo’s artistic collection.The quantity,source and scale of his collection will be specified.Then by this we can discuss the taste,preference and perception on painting history of the collectors in early Qing.The source of their knowledge framework and philosophy on true-false will be investigated.When appreciating paintings alone,collectors will not stick to the critical attitude during appraisal,but become tender and admiring instead.By using the newly discovered book Shou Yan Zhai Record of Appraisal and Collection,a more complete history of Song’s collections after his death can be unveiled.Chapter 2 discusses the meaning of antique and contemporary calligraphy and paintings in the social relationship between elite literati in early Qing.First we still take Song Luo as example and describe his friendship network among the painter community.By using rare materials such as personal letters,we can reveal the living status of the painters,their multiple identity and the common way that they conduct with high-order officials such as Song Luo.Next case is Wang Hui which can prove the importance of reputation for "contemporary artists" and can also show various motivations of people asking for paintings.Then our focus will move to antique calligraphy and paintings.By using first-hand materials such as letters and tale notes,we can deduce that in early Qing,it could be very possible that not only professionals,but also most literati have calligraphy and painting collections at hand.Calligraphy and paintings become common gifts and topics between literati,and may not have intentional purpose.In Chapter 3,Song Luo,Zhu Yizun,Wang Shizhen and Gao Shiqi receive the main focus.The changing of their figure among artistic community is characterized and induce that the understanding on earlier history of people in later era is affected by various intrinsic and extrinsic reasons.We also discuss how the specific figures are affected by each of these reasons.Then by studying the change of these figures,we can discuss the general position of the collecting activity in the life of elite literati in early Qing.Finally by the same line of discussion,we investigate the change of literati’s interest in Qing,including the dramatic arising of Han Li calligraphy,as well as the decline and persistence of calligraphy and painting collection,etc.There are also three appendices at the end of the thesis.The first is the Known Record of Song Luo’s Old Collections which compiles records in all kinds of materials.The second is the calligraphy and painting part of the Shou Yan Zhai Record of Appraisal and Collection which is copied from the microfilm stored in China National Library.The third is a to-be-published paper draft which aims to determine the date of Shou Yan Zhai Record of Appraisal and Collection.This thesis tries to approach the historical reality three hundred years ago by relying mostly on first-hand materials,including some drafts,hand copies and personal letters that are used in research for the first time ever.Some common literature is also used,especially the tale notes and compilations in the three hundred years of Qing which are normally ignored.In addition to the discussions on specific historical reality and conception,this thesis also wish to make use of different materials in different ways,so as to answer the question that has been asked frequently by previous researchers,i.e.,what can be a historical evidence.