| Chapter 1: | The Tang Tradition |
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poetry) and the Chu ci (Lyrics of Chu). Endowed with a rich lyrical legacy, Tang poets advanced their art to its ultimate refinement and sophisti-cation through constant experimentation and innovation. By that time, guti (literally, ancient style) poetry in the wuyan (literally, five-character-per-line) and the qiyan (literally, seven-character-per-line) forms had matured, and lüshi (literally, regulated poetry) and jueju (quatrain) had also passed their experimental stage.1 In his "Postscript to a Painting by Wu Daozi [Wu Daoxuan (ca. 685-ca. 758)]," the Song poet Su Shi thus wrote of the achievement of literature and art during the Tang dynasty:
From a protogenre in the Six Dynasties period, tihuashi evolved into a burgeoning genre at the time. In the meantime, painting attracted more and more critical attention in its slow and belated progress toward the dignified status of a poetic art. The Confucian utilitarian view of painting did persist into the Tang dynasty, along with the traditional bias against this art. In his Lidai minghua ji, Zhang Yanyuan cited the Guo shi (A history of the dynasties) while describing the attitude of the Tang painter Yan Liben (?-673) toward painting.3 Yan held various high-ranking positions at court, including that of prime minister. Once, on a pleasure boat excursion to the imperial garden, Emperor Taizong (599-649, reign 627-649) was fascinated by the rare water birds swimming in the pond and immediately summoned Yan to paint the birds from life. Crouching on the side