Research Article
The Concept and Visualization of "Literary Fragrance" and "Scholarly Spirit"
Published: January 2003 · No. 237 · pp. 165-199
Full Text
Abstract
The two terms, wenzixiang and shujuanqi, were suggested as the essential factors of art by Kim Jung-hee (金正喜) and Cho hee-ryong (趙熙龍), the painters of early nineteenth century of Choson period. Although the two terms had been said as a proper expression for the character of the paintings of nineteenth century of Choson by Korean art historians by now, the meaning of the two terms were not examined. Now the purpose of this thesis is to look into the meanings of the two terms and to find the relationship of the terms and their paintings.*br* The two terms are too abstract to discuss, and Kim and Cho' s suggestions are so suggestive. "The way to draw orchids is most difficult and very near to the calligraphies style of li (隸). It must be equipped with wenzixing and shujianqi. The painters of orchid should avoid the conventional method to paint," said Kim. "How can we talk about poetry and paintings easily? Poem could be poem in that Shujian overflows from the inside of the poet, paintings could be paintings in that the spirit of wenzi expands to the ten fingers' tips of the painter." said Cho. But they've never showed the concrete idea of wenzixiang or shuiuanqi,*br* However literature records are useful to offer some facts about the meanings of the two terms. According to the records, the term 'wenzi' was uttered by Kim and Cho frequently as chinese letters in visual aspect. It let us know that the term 'wenzixiang', literally meaning 'fragrance of wenzi'. must mean the realization of the visual letters written by the famous ancient calligraphers. Im Other hand, the shujuanqi' was emphasized by many Chinese writers through all the Qing dynasty. meaning a kind of personality made through reading thousands of books and rising above the world. The Chinese said that the opposition to shujuanqi was vulgar sense. Kim and Cho seems to have received the Chinese term and the meaning as one principle of painting and calligraphy.*br* In this thesis, their paintings were treated as the evidences of their abstract words, wenzixiang and shujanqi, because Kim must try to visualize the two terms as a painter of orchid, and Cho, too, as a good painter of plum. First, they applied the compositions of letters to those of their paintings, and used the same brushwork to their own calligraphy style. So the paintings of orchid and plum by Kim and Cho looks non-realistic. Second they expressed the literature symbol and the spirit of Zen Buddhism with a superior air, painting flowering plants with such non-real images.*br* It could be look ironical that they used practically the style of paintings of by painters of eighteenth century at Yangzhou in China, expecially Zheng-xie (鄭燮) and Luo-pin (羅聘). who painted to sell their works for money. The ironical situation was possible because Kim and Cho admitted the styles of paintings by Yangzhou' s painters as good samples for their concept of the two terms.*br* In conclusion, Kim Jung-hee and Cho hee-ryong tried to work in pursuit to realize their suggestion the spirit of wenzi and shujian, with the broad knowledge and their own judgements about Chinese paintings and theories.
