The Types and Meanings of T’ang Yin’s Paintings of Women:
The Immemorial Sorrow of the Southland’s Greatest Romantic Genius
Feng You-heng
Department of Art History
Tainan University of the Arts
Abstract
T’ang Yin (1470-1523) went by the style names Po Hu and Tzu Wei, and such
sobriquets at Liu-ju chü-shih, T’ao-hua an-chu, and T’ao-ch’an hsien-li. A native of
Suchow’s Wu-ch’ü district, he is remembered along with Shen Chou, Wen
Cheng-ming, and Ch’iu Ying as one of the Four Masters of the Ming. In 1498, T’ang
Yin placed first in the provincial official examination. In the following year, he
traveled together with the Chiang-yin native Hsü Ching to Peking to participate in the
triennial metropolitan examination. Unfortunately, he became embroiled in an
examination scandal that stemmed from the factional strife in the court. Implicated in
the irregularities, T’ang Yin was dismissed from the exam. The scandal marked the
end of T’ang Yin’s pursuit of an official career. From that point on, he dedicated
himself to painting and earned his living as a professional painter.
A passionate poet and drinker, T’ang Yin lived an uninhibited, hedonistic life,
carving for himself a seal that read “The Greatest Romantic Genius of the Southland.”
His frequent patronage of courtesans possibly contributed to his skill at painting
women, which rivaled his skill at landscapes. T’ang Yin was also influenced by his
contemporary Wu Wei, who also excelled at painting courtesans. Yet in the end T’ang
developed his own, diverse approach to the female subject. Both his carefully
rendered kung-pi style treatments and more sketchy, freehand hsieh-i paintings reveal
richly textured layers of meaning. His kung-pi works are powerfully historic and
argumentative, surreptitiously embodying the shadow of the artist’s presence. They
oscillate between classical and contemporary visions, truth and fantasy, satire and
self-mockery. Although they convey a playful irreverence, the brushwork is
nonetheless exquisitely meticulous. The hsieh-i paintings are more creative, and
signify the beginning of a new trend in the history of Chinese painting whereby the
tradition of female grievance poetry was introduced into the painting of female
subjects. T’ang Yin turns the women in his paintings into mouthpieces for the bitter
experiences of his life. His literary training and imagination transformed paintings of
women from mere objects of decoration and sensual amusement into vehicles for the
consignment of literati feeling. In this, we see the T’ang Yin’s true historic
achievement.
Key words: Kung-pi, hsieh-i, pai-miao, poetics of female grievance, poems on history,
the Other