The Art-Historical Art of Song China: Citation and Historicism in Tao Yuanming Returning to Seclusion

Unlike most post-Renaissance art, medieval painting-East and West-often juxtaposes elements of different styles in one work.In the absence of clear evidence of relevant period theorization, Occam's razor requires us to view such juxtapositions as the result of an indifference to art history, rather than a celebration of the historicity of styles.In China during the Song dynasty (960-1279), the development of naturalistic styles, along with relevant theories, meant that earlier, prenaturalistic styles came to be viewed as anachronistic.Yet in the painting of the literati of the Northern Song (960-1127) we find obsolete styles juxtaposed with more recent, naturalistic styles.Unlike the art of medieval China, these works were created on a foundation of two types of theory: the literary theory of citation and new, historically conscious theories of historical development.Not coincidentally, literary theories of citation first flourished in Song times.One of the earliest collections featuring such theories drew heavily on the writings of Northern Song literati such as Su Shi (1037-1101) and his admirers.Although these same men famously rejected naturalism in favor of personal expression, their painting has never been linked to citation theory.The reason for this might be that their rejection of naturalism was rooted in a new, historically conscious understanding of time, but the historicist writing of the Song period has attracted the attention of modern scholars only recently.It was not until 2010 that the historian Thomas Lee noted a heightened sense of "anachronism" among Song historians, while Peter Bol observed that Song statesmen no longer viewed the past as a repository of models but "as a period and set of texts from which to derive general principles . . .."In the same manner, literati artists, informed by a historicist view of time, saw themselves as conducting "imaginary conversations" (shenhui 神会) with an estranged past.This essay will survey new evidence for historical consciousness among Song literary critics, and will explore ways in which they applied these theories to painting.In recent years, the study of artistic repetition-copying, imitation, emulation-has inspired theorization in a range of fields from Renaissance painting to the art of the Incas. 1 In a variety of cultures, artists learned a style from their masters and continued working in that manner, passing it on to their apprentices.In traditions with written histories of art and a canon of