In this article I seek out connections between Liu Xie's 劉勰 views on literature, Zhang Huaiguan's 張懷瓘 views on calligraphy, and Zhang Yanyuan's 張彦遠 views on painting and thereby attempt to highlight the way in which connections were forged between literature, calligraphy, and painting from the Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties through to the Tang.
First, a certain aesthetic is shared by these three men. The aesthetic concept of
fenggu 風骨 (lit. "wind and bone") proposed by Liu Xie represented an idea intended to criticize the rhetorical tendencies of contemporary literature and advocate a return to the Five Classics of Confucianism. About two hundred years later, Zhang Huaiguan of the high Tang adopted the term
fenggu in an attempt to relativize the view of calligraphy culminating in Wang Xizhi 王羲之 that had become established since the reign of Taizong 太宗 in the early Tang. Furthermore, a fragment of Zhang Huaiguan's
Huaduan 畫斷, in which he applies the term
fenggu to painting theory, is quoted in Zhang Yanyuan's
Lidai minghua ji 歷代名畫記. They all employed the aesthetic concept of
fenggu to give expression to an idea that embodied an aspiration for what was simple and powerful rather than what was ornate and elegant.
In addition, Liu Xie, Zhang Huaiguan, and Zhang Yanyuan were also interconnected in terms of ontology insofar that they each questioned what "writing," "calligraphy" or "painting" is. Liu Xie, basing himself on the
Yijing 易經, argued that "writing" (
wen 文) is a manifestation of the Way (
dao 道) and formulated a theory of the universal value of "writing" qua literature. Following on from this, Zhang Huaiguan, while recognizing that "writing" and "calligraphy" exist as a single entity, discovered the unique position of "calligraphy" as something that has a different function from "writing." Lastly, Zhang Yanyuan argued for the unity of calligraphy and painting and found the essence of painting, like that of calligraphy, in the vitality of the brushwork.
In this fashion, there can be found in Liu Xie, Zhang Huaiguan, and Zhang Yanyuan a theoretical process in which literature, calligraphy, and painting became interconnected as if to form a trinity.
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