Painted-horse Chanting Poems In The Song Dynasty

This paper discusses the overall appearance,specific content and the thought and aesthetic standard of the Song Dynasty people.This paper holds that the painted-horse chanting poems originated in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty.Painted-horse chanting poems became prosperous in the Song Dynasty,it is because of people’s addiction to collecting famous pictures of horses and the prosperity of responsory poetry.Painted-horse chanting poems in the Song Dynasty describe the appearance,action,ability and character of horses.They used horse-selecting standard to describe the painted-horses,focusing on the high spirits of painted horses,using words about immortal to describe painted horses,and preferring unrestrained horses can maintain their nature.When evaluating painters,they thought painters as the famous horse selector bole,believing that their wonderful painting skills gave life to painted horses and made real horses immortal.Moreover,they attached great importance to the self-cultivation of painters.They highly valued painters with noble moral,elegant aesthetic taste.They praised the famous horse painter Li Gonglin as "a painter and hermit",thinking he was the spiritual continuation of the painters in the Tang Dynasty.In terms of painting concept,poets writing painted-horse chanting poems in the Song Dynasty paid more attention to the artistic expression.They inherited Du Fu’s aesthetic concept that painting horses’bone is superior to painting their flesh.Poets positively expressed themselves in the painted-horse chanting poems.Sometimes they wrote about their own life experience,while sometimes they admired or encouraged their friends,and they also satirized current affairs through discussing historical affairs in the Tang Dynasty.Generally speaking,the painted-horse chanting poems in Song Dynasty show the reclusive feelings of Song people,the desire of expressing themselves,their artistic concept of focusing artistic expression,and their reminiscence of Tang Dynasty.