Shitao’s Hua-yulu And Theory Of Qi

Shitao’s Hua-yulu（Words On Painting） is an extraordinary piece of work inChinese painting history. The work aroused countless debates in history on its uniquestyle and enigmatic wording, the concept of Yi-hua（One-Stroke）is also a subject ofconstant studies by famous scholars. Why is Hua-yulu finished in a time when TwoDynasties joins(The late Ming Dynasty and Early Qing Dynasty)? Why does theauthor apply such uncommon style in the verses? This dissertation aims at finding theprofound nature of Hua-yulu’s texts by entering the context of the verses, using TextAnalysis and Keywords Study as the research instruments.In respect of overall structure, Hua-yulu shares amazing resemblance withZhangzai’s Zhengmeng, both demonstrate the idea of harmony between man andnature. In the terms of concept scope and levels, yi-hua holds the highestphilosophical rank in Hua-yulu, just as Qi in Chinese classical philosophy theory. Theconcept of “Zun-Shou” is the technique body of Hua-yulu, the key to understand thecontradiction between Shi and Shou is to understand the dialectical definition Shitaoassumed to Shou. Meng-Yang and Sheng-Huo is the embodiment of Zun-Shoutechnique, surrounding the topic of artist ethic code. The key to understand theconcept of “Zi-Ren” lies in the concept of Ren, Ren is a philosophical concept ratherthan a literal concept, the meaning of Ren in different context varies according todifferent philosophical objects it projects.Hua-yulu upholds2ideas. One is the harmony between man and nature. The18-character structure, the whole serie of concepts surrounding yi-hua, and evensome text structures all demonstrates the inherent and cyclic nature of harmonybetween man and nature. The other one is the idea of Yin and Yang. Shitao sees allthings through the perspective of Yin and Yang, the most obvious example is that thetopics in Hua-Yulu exist in contradicting couples.In respect of layers of topics, Hua-Yulu consists of three threads. First one is idea,second one is perception, the third is creation. These three strings connect chaptersand concepts, and always links to the concept of heaven, earth and man.The reason behind Hua-Yulu’s abstruseness is that when Shitao transcends fromphilosophy to art some gaps between conceptual scopes are missed out, or the objectsof discussion fail to align between chapters. The lack of consistency results indifficulty in catching up with the author’s thoughts.Hua-Yulu left subtle influence on Qing Dynasty’s painting study, and broughtQing Dynasty’s painting theory to a new level. By studying Hua-Yulu, the differencebetween Hua-Yulu’s idea and orthodox painting theory can be observed. Study on thiswork also shows that a gap in understanding the work occurred after Qing Dynasty.