Arts Criticism Transition In Southern Song (1127-1279)

Southern Song(1127-1279)Shih’s personal anthology contains a huge amount of critique and comment on arts.These texts,written by literati and scholars in their cultural,academic and social life,were included in the anthology along with the author’s other writings but were not deliberately compiled as a book of art,this could be the reason why many researchers omit them when writing the history of criticism.This research looks over300 Southern Song literati’s personal anthologies,extracts poems and essays evaluating and narrating art,constructs a criticism corpus of this period,and then investigates the transitions of criticisms.The criticism transition happened in Southern Song is of great significance for understanding and portraying the development process of the artistic spirit of intellectual groups in the Song,Yuan,Ming and Qing Dynasties.Southern Song Shih proffers various judgments on people and affairs in the artworld,their objects include heritage from previous generations,contemporary artists,and emperors who where keen on arts,thus a loose and changeable order of artistic value were built.Southern Song literati launched a long-lasting debate on whether Yuanyou(especially Sushi and Huang Tingjian)and Wei-Jin(especially Wang Xizhi)qualified as highest model.Their debates formulated a tendency to appraise art mainly based on the artists’ knowledge and moral level.Discussions on the highest model of art history influenced the evaluation of the contemporary artists,formed an overall orientation that emphasizes the artists’ social identity,excellent cultivation and moral knowledge rather than their artistic skills and expertise.In addition,under the discipline of monarchs,the imperial artworks were seen as sacred objects and became an exception for criticism,they were above the common order of art value.The tension of opinions between critics,between critics and art historians,reflects the historical process of canonization and declassification in art acceptance.The diversity of judgment opinions was caused by the changing ideas on artistic values.The mainstream artistic value types in the Southern Song include Chongwen(a canon values artists’ subjectivity and creativity in expression)and Zongdao(a canon values artists’ and artworks’ moral character and ethical function).With the internal change of the Shih group,these two paradigms conflict with each other and both evolved.On the one hand,through the inheritance by Nandu scholars,the advocacy by Zhongxing scholars and the promotion by Jianghu literati,the ideas of Chongwen spread widely and penetrated into the middle and lower social strata.On the other hand,Neo-Confucian scholars gradually formulated its own artistic value system from the spirit of“Tao-inquiry and respect for virtue”,they practice this idea in their criticism activities in order to regulate and adjust the trend of arts.However,with the officialization of Neo-Confucianism,the concept of Zongdao appears degenerations such as rigidity,extremeness and hatred of arts.In addition,the artistic concept of Zen were absorbed by the mainstreams,the monk’s criticisms appeared identical with literati and Neo-Confucians.The Southern Song arts criticism presents macro clues of both division and merger.From the perspective of“division”,the two paradigms,Chongwen and Zongdao,conflicted and each evolved along with the internal transition of the Shih group,this caused a rather odd criticism map at the end of the dynasty that two contradicted paradigms coexisted.From the perspective of “merger”,most Shih adopted the path,willingly or unconsciously,of restoring ancient artistic ideals.By defining ancient masterpieces and norms,critics gains the legitimacy of their own taste and propositions of arts.Under the general trend,Southern Song criticism showed a variety of symptoms such as underestimating creativity,underestimating skills,underestimating opponent and being injustice in judgment.As a result,criticisms alienated artistic creation and making,this restricted and weakened the actual power of criticism.It also leaves opportunities for the further development of later critics and criticisms.The Southern Song Art Criticism is embedded in the transition of Chinese art spirit in a long period started from Jin-Tang,brought another transition after the Tang-Song transition.The expansion of the intellectuals has led to a sharp increase in the number of critics,and the internal division of Shih group has made art criticism more identifiable and hierarchical.The art order shaped by the criticism is constantly fluctuating in the debate,and the ideas of artistic value are intricately coexisted.After the Southern Song,the development of the history of criticism has shifted from focusing on individuality creation to taking into account both aesthetic commonality and ethical functions.Southern Song commentary has been repeatedly edited by later generations,its artistic spirit of “respect for virtue” and its intermedial studies also brought enlightenment to the art theory of Yuan,Ming and Qing dynasties.