The Types and Meanings of T Ang Yin S Paintings of Women

The Types and Meanings of T’ang Yin’s Paintings of Women:

The Immemorial Sorrow of the Southland’s Greatest Romantic Genius

Feng You-heng

Department of Art History

Tainan University of the Arts

Abstract

T’ang Yin (1470-1523) went by the style names Po Hu and Tzu Wei, and such sobriquets at Liu-ju chü-shih, T’ao-hua an-chu, and T’ao-ch’an hsien-li. A native of Suchow’s Wu-ch’ü district, he is remembered along with Shen Chou, Wen Cheng-ming, and Ch’iu Ying as one of the Four Masters of the Ming. In 1498, T’ang Yin placed first in the provincial official examination. In the following year, he traveled together with the Chiang-yin native Hsü Ching to Peking to participate in the triennial metropolitan examination. Unfortunately, he became embroiled in an examination scandal that stemmed from the factional strife in the court. Implicated in the irregularities, T’ang Yin was dismissed from the exam. The scandal marked the end of T’ang Yin’s pursuit of an official career. From that point on, he dedicated himself to painting and earned his living as a professional painter.

A passionate poet and drinker, T’ang Yin lived an uninhibited, hedonistic life, carving for himself a seal that read “The Greatest Romantic Genius of the Southland.” His frequent patronage of courtesans possibly contributed to his skill at painting women, which rivaled his skill at landscapes. T’ang Yin was also influenced by his contemporary Wu Wei, who also excelled at painting courtesans. Yet in the end T’ang developed his own, diverse approach to the female subject. Both his carefully rendered kung-pi style treatments and more sketchy, freehand hsieh-i paintings reveal richly textured layers of meaning. His kung-pi works are powerfully historic and argumentative, surreptitiously embodying the shadow of the artist’s presence. They oscillate between classical and contemporary visions, truth and fantasy, satire and self-mockery. Although they convey a playful irreverence, the brushwork is nonetheless exquisitely meticulous. The hsieh-i paintings are more creative, and signify the beginning of a new trend in the history of Chinese painting whereby the tradition of female grievance poetry was introduced into the painting of female subjects. T’ang Yin turns the women in his paintings into mouthpieces for the bitter experiences of his life. His literary training and imagination transformed paintings of women from mere objects of decoration and sensual amusement into vehicles for the consignment of literati feeling. In this, we see the T’ang Yin’s true historic achievement.

Key words: Kung-pi, hsieh-i, pai-miao, poetics of female grievance, poems on history, the Other