An Exploration Of The Association Between Literature And Art In The Wei-Jin And Northern And Southern Dynasties Period

As Zong Baihua wrote, “The end of the Han and the Wei-Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties were the most politically chaotic periods, when people endured the most suffering of any period but the people of this time experienced great freedom and self-liberation on a psychological level. This era represented a time of wisdom and passion and it was a period that was full of artistic spirit.” The literature and art of produced at this time represented the spirit of the period. This thesis will focus on the literature and art that were produced in this period. It will explore the association between art and literature at this time. With the exception of the forward,which introduces the present state of affairs and the background to research on the Wei-Jin and Northern and Southern dynasties period, this thesis will be divided into several chapters. In the first chapter I discuss the appreciation of artistic works. The appreciation of art is associated with a particular technique that has much in common with the techniques employed in the study of literature. In this thesis I will discuss the origins of art appreciation and the similarities between the study of art and literature. The different forms of art appreciation include the following: I will explain the appreciation of art as it was understood in the Wei-Jin and Six dynasties period; I will differentiate between the interpretation and appreciation of art. I will discuss the issues of art appreciation and art that appears alongside a poem. In the second chapter I will focus mainly on Guo Pu's “On Reading the Mountains and Seas,” by mainly analyzing the creative ideas in the“The Mountains and the Seas,” the creative process involved in “The Appreciation of Art in the Mountains and Seas” and how it is artistically represented. In the third chapter I will describe the relationship between the Buddhist artworks in the Wei-Jin and Northern and Southern dynasties period and their association with the literature of the time. Buddhist art mainly draws its subject from the Buddhist paintings found in the Mogao grottos. I will the broadly analyze the reasons why Buddhism flourished at this time, and how Buddhist paintings are associated with tales of the supernatural. The Buddhist teaching of “the soul living for eternity” exerted an influence on art and literature and also permeated the art of the Wei-Jin and Northern and Southern dynasties period in general. In the fourth chapter I will provide an introduction to portrait painting. By developing on the foundations of portrait painting established in the Han dynasty, I will give a brief introduction to portrait painting in the Wei-Jin and Northern and Southern dynasties period and discuss the most important and representative portraits produced at this time. I will also discuss the art works and the creative process of the representative artists of this period and their association with the discussions of literature that took place during this time. In the fifth chapter Iwill focus on the link between the literature of the Wei-Jin and Six Dynasties period and portrait painting at this time. I will examine the artistic representations of women works of “Biographies of Virtuous Women” and of men of virtue in “Filial Sons” and “Poems of Wandering Immortals,”how the character of the Daoist immortal “Song Qiao” features in artworks from the pre-Tang period and will also examine the integral issue of the folding screen found in the tomb of Sima Jinlong of the Northern Dynasties period. In the sixth chapter I will I will analyze the association between the landscape painting and the landscape poetry of the Wei-Jin and Northern and Southern dynasties period. In the chapter seven I will summarize my findings on the associations and links between the art and literature of the Wei-Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties period and how this association exerted an influence on later periods. I will discuss the three points of view of art from the perspective of painting and poetry, from the perspective of poetry as it exists within a work of art and the use of art as a medium in dramas and novels.Although a significantly large proportion of poetry and prose produced in the Wei-Jin and Northern and Southern dynasties period has been passed down to us, the names of the most famous artists of this period and their art works from that same period that have been passed down to us are virtually negligible. What we see today of these artists and their works are reproductions that have been produced by later generations. The sparse amount of actual artistic material produced during this time being available to us today has made my research into this subject somewhat difficult. Fortunately, much Buddhist fresco art as well as the tomb paintings produced during the Wei-Jin and Northern and Southern dynasties period have not been totally destroyed and the paintings that existed in literary works followed the techniques employed in fresco and tomb paintings, which makes up, in some way, for the difficulty I experienced in the lack of artistic works surviving from this period.