| Chapter : | Introduction |
In her poem, Princess Dayi, who was married against her will to the khan of the Turks, compares her own fate to that of Wang Zhaojun (52-19 BC). Wang was a palace lady-in-waiting in the harem of Emperor Yuan (76-33 BC, reign 48-33 BC) of the Western Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 8), who was neglected by the emperor and later was married to the khan of the Huns. This poem reveals the princess's disillusion about life and her detachment from the world.
With the gradual elevation of painting to a liberal art, a genre known as shiyitu (painting rendering the ideas or themes of poetry) came into being, reflecting the painter's attempt to poeticize painting by creating aesthetic parity and interactivity between poetry and painting. In his treatise Lun hua (On painting), Gu Kaizhi mentioned a painting by the Western Jin (265-316) painter Wei Xie entitled “Poem About the North Wind,” which was meant to render the theme of the poem bearing the same title in the Classic of Poetry. Gu described this painting as “a famous work, ingenious and careful in its refined conception.”41 Gu also mentioned another painting, "The Light Chariot"-titled after a poem by Xi Kang (223-262)-praising the painter for his excellent conception and treatment of the subject matter.42 Gu himself made a similar attempt at such interartistic conversion. He "thought highly of Xi Kang's siyanshi [poems in the four-character-per-line form], and illustrated for them."43 Among Xi Kang's poems that Gu converted into shiyitu is "Presented to Elder Brother Xiucai [imperial candidate for government offices] Joining the Army," one of Xi's most famous pieces:
My hand sweeps across the five strings on the lute.
Looking up and down, I feel at home;
My heart roaming the Taixuan [literally, Primeval Darkness]
