the quintessence of the visual arts and seeks to transcend mediumistic boundaries, but differences exist between tihuashi and ekphrastic poetry in the poetry-painting relationship underlying each genre. Although in bothtihuashi and ekphrastic poetry painterly sights are filtered through and conjured by poetic insights, the poetics of tihuashi can hardly be analyzed or understood in terms of ekphrasis or ut pictura poesis unless it is done so in the context of classical Chinese aesthetics.14 This being the case, a study of tihuashi will not only contribute toward a better understanding of ekphrastic poetry but will also pave the way for a comparative study of these two poetic genres, which will open up new horizons and thus spur new expeditions in cross-cultural and interartistic studies.
The first book-length study in English that addresses Chinese tihuashi exclusively through inquiries of historical and critical synthesis, this book examines the various historical and sociocultural factors contributing to the formation and flourishing of this genre, focusing primarily on the Tang and Song periods as the two crucial phases of its growth. It also explores the theoretical underpinnings and cultural values underlying the practice oftihuashiin relation to Chinese painting. This book includes an introduction followed by two parts of three chapters each. The introduction traces the evolutionary or prototypical practices oftihuashifrom the Warring States period (475–221 BC) through the Six Dynasties period (220–589). Part I focuses on the tradition oftihuashi, part II on its poetics. In part I, chapter 1 observes the continuous burgeoning of tihuashi in each phase of the Tang period and especially the High Tang and the mid-Tang, when its status as an actual genre was established through the trendsetting contributions of such leading poets as Li Bai (701–762), Du Fu, and Bai Juyi (772–846). Chapter 2 examines the further blossoming of tihuashi during the Song period, when its practice was eagerly pursued by literati amidst the flourishing of painting. Chapter 3 discusses the sustained growth of tihuashi throughout the three successive periods of the Yuan (1260–1368), the Ming (1368–1644), and the Qing (1644–1911)—when it was further integrated into the painterly space as a signifying and compositional component, bringing about a heightened resonance between poetry and painting. In part II, chapter 4 focuses on Du Fu’s