The Lyrical Resonance Between Chinese Poets and Painters: The Tra ...

of the pond and fanning himself with his robe sleeve to cool down in the presence of the emperor, his guests, and entourage, Yan could not help blushing with shame. He admonished his son afterward, saying, "I have had a fondness for reading and writing since I was young, but today I am known only for my painting. No disgrace is greater than doing the menial work of a painter-servant. You should take serious warning [from my experience] and not practice this art."⁴

For all the popular bias against painting, it gradually gained recognition as a liberal art capable of emulating and complementing poetry. Unlike the Six Dynasties period, in which most poets belonged to the aristocratic class, the Tang period welcomed the rise of a powerful group of talented, prolific poets mainly from the middle and lower strata of society. The plebeianization of poets not only made poetry a popular practice, but it also facilitated the interaction between poetry and painting. Generally considered applicable to poetry during the Tang, the Six Dynasties theories of painting exerted a great influence on Tang poets, whose attitude toward painters and their art became more congenial than condescending. The rising status of painting thus offered a timely impetus to the practice of tihuashi.

Strictly speaking, there was no imperial academy of painting in the Tang, but various official ranks-such as daizhao, gongfeng, and huazhi-were installed under the Hanlin Academy and Jixian Academy to meet the court's increasing demand for works of art.⁵ These ranks were conferred on professional court painters, which made painting more or less an institutionalized art as well as a career incentive. During this period, there emerged an influential group of nearly four hundred painters, who developed a variety of genres and interacted convivially with poets, many of whom were also painters or connoisseurs.⁶ According to Lidai minghua ji, the painter Zhang Yin (fl. ca. 742), the poet Li Qi (690-751), and the poet-painter Wang Wei (701-761) became friends through their practices of poetry and painting. Both Li Qi and Wang Wei wrote tihuashi about Zhang Yin's paintings.⁷ Similarly, the poet-painter Zheng Qian (685-764) made friends with Li Bai and Du Fu.⁸ The increasing contact between poets and painters cultivated a heightened level of resonance between the two arts.