DE LA CIUDAD DE HERMOSILLO

Parallel to the development in literature, the poetry on painting of the Southern-Song period is considered conservative or even in decline.39 _{If the quality of Southern-Song poetry on}

painting is up for scholarly debate, the Southern-Song literati’s enthusiasm for inscribing painting certainly is not. For example, the first anthology of poetry on painting, Huashengji 畫聲 集, was edited by the Southern-Song scholar Sun Shaoyuan (fl. 1180s) and published around 1187.40 _{The publication of Huashengji reflects a growing interest in poetry on painting as an}

independent genre and the demand for earlier examples of the genre.

Nevertheless, there are significant differences in the format and content compared to Northern-Song works. Generally speaking, Southern-Song poetry on painting is shorter in format and more romantic in style.41 _{Furthermore, as observed by Feng You-heng, the}

Southern-Song literati, compared to their Northern-Song counterparts, showed little interest in discussing the artistic merits of the painted imagery.42 _{Most intriguingly, social relationships}

39 _{Li Qi, Liang Song tihuashi, 127.}

40 _{For discussions on Huashengji, see Li Qi, Liang Song tihuashi, 322-350} 41 _{Li Qi, Liang Song tihuashi, 124-126.}

42 _{Feng You-heng, “Cong xisai wushe tu de tiba kan Li Jie shengping yu nan Song shidaifu de shufa 從}

〈西塞漁社圖〉的題跋看李結生平與南宋士大夫的書法,” Gugong xueshu jikan, vol. 17, no. 2 (Winter 1999), 67.

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emerged as a vital part of painting inscriptions; the recording of personal relationships and the circumstances that led to the inscription became almost a mandatory part of inscribing

paintings. The Southern-Song inscribers recorded their personal relationships not necessarily in poetic forms, however. Another notable development of the period is the rise of prose as a major format of painting inscriptions. By contrast to the suggestiveness of poetry, prose inscriptions tend to be more specific and narrative. Therefore, they often serve as a preface to poetic inscriptions or at times stand alone, recording the circumstances that led to their composition.

Prose inscriptions are the ideal platform for recording and honoring personal relationships, none so evidently as the inscriptions following Li Jie’s (1124-before 1197) Fishing Society at Xisai Mountain, now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.43 _{Li Jie painted}

Fishing Society at Xisai Mountain in 1170, depicting his ideal place of retirement. For about twenty years he carried the painting with him while still serving office, and requested

inscriptions from eight friends: Wu Renjie (fl. late twelfth century), Fan Chengda (1126-1193), Hong Mai (1123-1202), Zhou Bida (1126-1204), Wang Lin (1128-1192), Zhao Xiong (1129-1193), Yan Cangshu (fl. 1157), and You Mao (1124-1193), all of them eminent Southern-Song scholar officials.44 _{They were the first generation of Southern-Song scholar officials who personally}

experienced the traumatic dynastic transition and the drastic change in political atmosphere in the early years of the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279).45 _{All of the extant colophons are in}

43 _{The painting and its inscriptions are reproduced in Nakata Yūjirō, and Fu Shen eds., Ō-Bei shūzō}

Chūgoku hōsho meisekishū (Tokyo: Chūō Kōronsha, 1981-1982), vol. 2, 44-53.

44 _{According to Ming collector Zhang Chou (1577-1643), there were nine inscriptions attached to the}

scroll. The last of the Southern-Song inscriptions, dated 1275, was by Wong Ye (dates unknown), who was not a contemporary of Li Jie. Of the nine Southern-Song inscriptions, only eight survive today: the inscription by Wu Renjie is lost. See Zhang Chou 張丑 (1577-1643), Zhenji rilu 真跡日錄, juan 4, 13.

45 _{The painting and the series of inscriptions are discussed in Feng You-heng, “Cong xisai wushe tu de}

tiba kan Li Jie sheng ping yu Nan Song shidaifude shufa,” Gugong xueshu jikan, vol. 17, no. 2 (Winter 1999), 65-122. The article in Chinese is a summary of Feng’s doctoral dissertation, “Fishing Society at

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fairly lengthy prose format.

As discussed by Feng You-heng, the series of inscriptions reflects the relatively passive role played by these Southern-Song scholar officials and their internal conflicts of the choice

between an official career and reclusion. Their colophons follow a similar pattern: first they recount how they knew Li Jie and when and where their inscribing the scroll took place, and then they comment on the subject, especially on the idea of eremitism.46 _{For example, Fan}

Chengda’s colophon, inscribed in early 1185, started with an account of his thirty-year long friendship with Li Jie:

When I first served as an official in Shexian (southern Anhui), my desire for officialdom was already slackened, and I was always thinking of my native land. Cishan (Li Jie), who was serving as the Assistant Magistrate in Xiuning (southern Anhui), often heard this from me. Ten years later, I resigned from my post as an Assistant Minister and returned home to build a villa at Stone Lake (near Suzhou). Cishan, who was then Magistrate of Kunshan (near Suzhou), so much envied my retirement that he said, “I will also build my retreat between the Tiao and Zha Rivers.” Another twenty years passed, and now he brought me the Picture of the Fishing Society.47

始余筮仕歙掾，宦情便薄，日思故林；次山時主薄休寧，蓋屢聞此語。後十年，自尚 書郎歸故郡，遂卜築石湖；次山適為昆山宰，極相健羨，且云︰亦將經營苕霅間。又 二十年，始以《漁社圖》來。