During Song Dynasty, literati painting that stresses on reflection of self-disciplining tendency, more than realistic depiction, emerged as a mainstream culture among the ruling elites. Literati painting that based on uniformity of poetry and painting...
During Song Dynasty, literati painting that stresses on reflection of self-disciplining tendency, more than realistic depiction, emerged as a mainstream culture among the ruling elites. Literati painting that based on uniformity of poetry and painting performed a role as an outlet for creators’ thoughts and values and for relatively liberal internal consideration; one of the leaders of this new cultural trend was Su Shi. In Su Shi’s opinion about painting creation that extensively considers matters of alikeness in spirit and similarity in appearance, the gist is realistic metaphors of intrinsic shape from understanding the existence principles of the objects, and it is supported by opinions on The complete bamboo in the breast. The complete bamboo in the breast is a motto that the whole figure of the objects to be pictured should be formed in mind first of all, and it is suggested in Wen yu ke hua yun dang gu yan zhu ji 文與可畵??穀偃竹記 for the first time. Su Shi depicted his emotions from Wen tong’s bamboo painting in this journal and systematically described objects and investigation into creation and its conception and expression as follows. Firstly, investigation into objects of creation should be done thoroughly and involved with consideration on its existence principles such as background of origin, history, and significances, rather than to simply end up in investigating appearance of objects, in addition, shapes depicted on a canvas should involve those attitudes. Secondly, the design for the objects of creation should be done through the empty mind and to calm soul, rather than to depend on accurate calculations and plans. It also should be expressed with speed through the mind and hands nerving and acting two in one alike. However, the emphasis on depiction on shape that emerges in a creator’s heart than on realistic appearance of objects cannot be consequentially interpreted as acknowledgement of absolute emphasis on alikeness in spirit that excludes similarity in appearance. As existence principles are emphasized to be reflected in canvases, Su Shi did not ignore both creation techniques and matters of learning and practicing them. It worked as a premise for opinion on The complete bamboo in the breast as well. Su Shi defined that no one can perfectly depict the vividness of the objects which are completed in one’s heart, without full-mastering of skills. Based on these premises, Su Shi’s The complete bamboo in the breast could more realistically metaphor intrinsic shapes that are derived from existence principles of objects.