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

emperor of the Tang dynasty-Gaozu (566-635, reign 618-626),Emperor Taizong, Emperor Zhongzong (656-710, reign 684, 705-710), and Emperor Xuanzong (685-762, reign 712-756) were all virtuosos of calligraphy and painting.¹² In the tenth year of his reign of Zhenguan (627-649), Emperor Taizong issued a decree to have six pictures painted of his six prized warhorses and then six stone reliefs of those horses carved (later known as the Six Steeds of the Zhaoling [the imperial mausoleum in Shaanxi Province]).¹³ He himself composed the Liuma tuzan (Eulogies on the pictures of the six horses) and commissioned the master calligrapher Ouyang Xun (557-641) to inscribe his eulogies on the horse carvings.¹⁴ Such imperial participation in interartistic activities stimulated a popular interest in the interaction of poetry and painting.

In his Lidai minghua ji, Zhang Yanyuan also mentioned that in the seventeenth year of the reign of Zhenguan, Emperor Taizong commissioned Yan Liben to paint portraits of the twenty-four distinguished ministers and generals enshrined in the imperial hall of fame, Lingyange. The emperor himself wrote zan (eulogies) as a complement for Yan's portraits.¹⁵ The imperial patronization of painters at that time is vividly described by Du Fu in his poems. Du's close friend Zheng Qian (685-764)-an erudite scholar and multiartistic virtuoso-once presented to Emperor Xuanzong his painting Picture of Cangzhou (the legendary waterside abode of ancient hermits), which was inscribed with his own poem. Expressing his admiration of Zheng's versatility, the emperor inscribed Zheng's painting with his accolade: "Zheng Qian sanjue [literally, perfect in the three arts of poetry, calligraphy, and painting]."¹⁶ After Zheng died of old age in poverty and misery, Du Fu wrote a poem in memory of him. Entitled "The Late Director of the Imperial Bureau of Publication, Demoted to Municipal Supervisor of Residential Households in Taizhou [in Zhejiang Province], Master Zheng Qian From Xingyang [in Henan Province]," it describes that occasion as follows: