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Chen Hongshou's Laments

Chen Hongshou's Laments Historians of Chinese literature and philosophy have written extensively about the significance of emotion (qing 情) in late Ming times (1522–1644). But how did a pictorial image manifest emotion, and how were its visible signs of emotion conceptualized? This article considers the dilemma that painters faced in general when they represented an expressive body: How could the display of emotion in gesture and facial expression be contained within the bounds of propriety? The author examines, in particular, how Chen Hongshou 陳洪綬 (1598–1652) resolved this dilemma in two figural paintings, one of which represents a sorrowful woman, and the other, a worried drunkard. She argues that Chen's representation of sorrow and anxiety was inextricably tied to the pictorial conventions utilized by the print designers of his day to illustrate dramatic, emotionally charged moments in a story. Hence, Chen animated the actors in his paintings with emphatic gestures and poses, complementing their expressive bodies with more subtly shaped facial features. But Chen's incorporation into his painting of what was at the time readily identified as “print” disturbed his figural compositions. As much as the expressive figures aroused an empathetic response from his viewers, the juxtaposition of incompatible manners of representation also made his work seem strange and preposterous. However, Chen's visual laments were derived from poems and historical anecdotes. The author argues that the verbal texts to which he alluded not only enhanced and justified his viewers' empathetic response to his paintings but also enabled him to delineate emotions that were otherwise eschewed by the painters of his time. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture Duke University Press

Chen Hongshou's Laments

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Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by Duke University Press
ISSN
2329-0048
eISSN
2329-0056
DOI
10.1215/23290048-7496846
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Abstract

Historians of Chinese literature and philosophy have written extensively about the significance of emotion (qing 情) in late Ming times (1522–1644). But how did a pictorial image manifest emotion, and how were its visible signs of emotion conceptualized? This article considers the dilemma that painters faced in general when they represented an expressive body: How could the display of emotion in gesture and facial expression be contained within the bounds of propriety? The author examines, in particular, how Chen Hongshou 陳洪綬 (1598–1652) resolved this dilemma in two figural paintings, one of which represents a sorrowful woman, and the other, a worried drunkard. She argues that Chen's representation of sorrow and anxiety was inextricably tied to the pictorial conventions utilized by the print designers of his day to illustrate dramatic, emotionally charged moments in a story. Hence, Chen animated the actors in his paintings with emphatic gestures and poses, complementing their expressive bodies with more subtly shaped facial features. But Chen's incorporation into his painting of what was at the time readily identified as “print” disturbed his figural compositions. As much as the expressive figures aroused an empathetic response from his viewers, the juxtaposition of incompatible manners of representation also made his work seem strange and preposterous. However, Chen's visual laments were derived from poems and historical anecdotes. The author argues that the verbal texts to which he alluded not only enhanced and justified his viewers' empathetic response to his paintings but also enabled him to delineate emotions that were otherwise eschewed by the painters of his time.

Journal

Journal of Chinese Literature and Culture – Duke University Press

Published: Apr 1, 2019

References

  • Chinese Letters: Private Words Made Public
    Bai, Qianshen Robert E. Harrist Jr. Wen C. Fong
  • Authenticity and the Expanding Market in Chen Hongshou's Seventeenth-Century Printed Playing Cards
    Bentley, Tamara Heimarck
  • Miss Emotion: Women, Books, and Culture in Seventeenth-Century Jiangnan
    Berg, Daria Paolo Santangelo Donatella Guida
  • Huizong's New Clothes: Desire and Allegory in Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk
    Blanchard, Lara C. W.
  • A Matter of Choice: Printed Design, Proposals, and the Nature of Selection, 1470–1610
    Brisman, Shira
  • Is There a Cultural History of Emotion?
    Burke, Peter Penelope Gouk Helen Hills
  • The Artefacts of Biography in Ch'en Hung-shou's Pao-lun-t'ang chi
    Burkus, Anne
  • Qi Biaojia's ‘Footnotes to Allegory Mountain’: Introduction and Translation
    Campbell, Duncan
  • Passion and Chastity: Meng Chengshun and the Fall of the Ming
    Carlitz, Katherine Maghiel van Crevel Tian Yuan Tan Michel Hockx
  • Passion and Personhood in Yingying zhuan 鶯鶯傳, Xixiang ji 西廂記, and Jiao hong ji 嬌紅記
    Carlitz, Katherine Paolo Santangelo Donatella Guida
  • Feelings on Faces: From Physiognomics to Neuroscience
    Freedberg, David Rüdiger Campe Julia Weber
  • Sentiments of Desire: Thoughts on the Cult of Qing in Ming Qing Literature
    Huang, Martin
  • Thinking about Copulating: An Early Qing Confucian Thinker's Problem with Emotion and Words
    Ko, Dorothy Gail Hershatter et al
  • “Chin Kōju no hanga katsudō” 陳洪綬の版畫活動
    Kobayashi Hiromitsu 小林宏光
  • What Does It Mean to Feel ‘Melancholic’ in Imperial China?
    Kubin, Wolfgang Paolo Santangelo Donatella Guida
  • Erotic Themes and Romantic Heroines Depicted by Ch'iu Ying
    Laing, Ellen Johnston
  • Languages of Love and Parameters of Culture in Peony Pavilion and The Story of the Stone
    Li, Wai-yee Halvor Eifring
  • Emotion, Thought, and Estrangement: Emotion as a Cultural Category
    Lutz, Catherine
  • Making Sense of Signs: Emotions in Chinese Medical Texts
    Messner, Angelika Paolo Santangelo Donatella Guida
  • The Disentangling of the Silk-Knot: A Chinese-Western ‘Anatomy of Melancholy.’
    Motsch, Monika Wolfgang Kubin
  • Making Faces: Physiognomy and Fashion in Eighteenth-Century England
    Porter, Roy
  • Scopic Frames: Devices for Seeing China c. 1640
    Purtle, Jennifer
  • The Cult of Qing: Romanticism in the Late Ming Period and in the Novel Jiao Hong Ji
    Wang, Richard G
  • An Inquiry in ‘Sadness’ in Chinese
    Ye, Zhengdao Jean Harkins Anna Wierzbicka
  • Chinese Letters: Private Words Made Public
    Bai, Qianshen Robert E. Harrist Jr. Wen C. Fong
  • Authenticity and the Expanding Market in Chen Hongshou's Seventeenth-Century Printed Playing Cards
    Bentley, Tamara Heimarck
  • Miss Emotion: Women, Books, and Culture in Seventeenth-Century Jiangnan
    Berg, Daria Paolo Santangelo Donatella Guida
  • Huizong's New Clothes: Desire and Allegory in Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk
    Blanchard, Lara C. W.
  • A Matter of Choice: Printed Design, Proposals, and the Nature of Selection, 1470–1610
    Brisman, Shira
  • Is There a Cultural History of Emotion?
    Burke, Peter Penelope Gouk Helen Hills
  • The Artefacts of Biography in Ch'en Hung-shou's Pao-lun-t'ang chi
    Burkus, Anne
  • Qi Biaojia's ‘Footnotes to Allegory Mountain’: Introduction and Translation
    Campbell, Duncan
  • Passion and Chastity: Meng Chengshun and the Fall of the Ming
    Carlitz, Katherine Maghiel van Crevel Tian Yuan Tan Michel Hockx
  • Passion and Personhood in Yingying zhuan 鶯鶯傳, Xixiang ji 西廂記, and Jiao hong ji 嬌紅記
    Carlitz, Katherine Paolo Santangelo Donatella Guida
  • Feelings on Faces: From Physiognomics to Neuroscience
    Freedberg, David Rüdiger Campe Julia Weber
  • Sentiments of Desire: Thoughts on the Cult of Qing in Ming Qing Literature
    Huang, Martin
  • Thinking about Copulating: An Early Qing Confucian Thinker's Problem with Emotion and Words
    Ko, Dorothy Gail Hershatter et al
  • “Chin Kōju no hanga katsudō” 陳洪綬の版畫活動
    Kobayashi Hiromitsu 小林宏光
  • What Does It Mean to Feel ‘Melancholic’ in Imperial China?
    Kubin, Wolfgang Paolo Santangelo Donatella Guida
  • Erotic Themes and Romantic Heroines Depicted by Ch'iu Ying
    Laing, Ellen Johnston
  • Languages of Love and Parameters of Culture in Peony Pavilion and The Story of the Stone
    Li, Wai-yee Halvor Eifring
  • Emotion, Thought, and Estrangement: Emotion as a Cultural Category
    Lutz, Catherine
  • Making Sense of Signs: Emotions in Chinese Medical Texts
    Messner, Angelika Paolo Santangelo Donatella Guida
  • The Disentangling of the Silk-Knot: A Chinese-Western ‘Anatomy of Melancholy.’
    Motsch, Monika Wolfgang Kubin
  • Making Faces: Physiognomy and Fashion in Eighteenth-Century England
    Porter, Roy
  • Scopic Frames: Devices for Seeing China c. 1640
    Purtle, Jennifer
  • The Cult of Qing: Romanticism in the Late Ming Period and in the Novel Jiao Hong Ji
    Wang, Richard G
  • An Inquiry in ‘Sadness’ in Chinese
    Ye, Zhengdao Jean Harkins Anna Wierzbicka