「形」と氣象

Abstract

This article examines following two issues to appreciate the concepts of xing and qixiang : the first issue is about the concept of 'xiongzhongqiuhe 胸中丘壑' in the theory of Chinese shanshui 山水 painting, and the second is about Guoxi 郭煕, a painter in Song 宋 era, and his work of "Zaochuntu 早春圖" Dao 道 is an invisible concept. In contrast, qi 器 is a visible entity. Xing is a visible entity in the same way as qi is, because xing has its physical object. On the other hand, qixiang is an invisible but perceptible entity, and the only painters who truly appreciate dao could draw qixiang. For premodern Chinese people, the invisible concept of dao was much more important than the visible entity of qi. This thought has strongly affected the Chinese painting from ancient periods. For this reason, traditionally, Chinese painters attempted to draw essential images of xing without being concerned to particular visible forms of xing, even though painting is certainly the visual art. The Chinese painting of shanshui is also affected by the traditional thought. 'Xiongzhongqiuhe' has been a very important issue of Chinese painting theory, and it is related to essential images of landscape beyond the reality of xing. Many theorists have been discussing about what should be landscape images idealized by painters in their mind. This article demonstrates that 'xiongzhongqiuhe' has another meaning of optimum and supreme mental attitudes with which painters draw their ideal landscapes. Regardless of these theoretical discussion, Guoxi, an outstanding shanshui painter in Song era, succeeded in presenting his own ideal landscape images. "Zaochuntu" is one of his greatest masterpeaces. He pursued to draw his ideal landscape images that were faint, vague and without clear visible forms. His "Zaochuntu" is quite different from realistic pictures of xing. It seems to present Guoxi's ideal landscape which is very close to the concept of qixiang, even if not the very qixiang.