Name: 八二五：劉詩怡《隱喻》。 (82nd & Fifth: "Metaphorical" by Shi-yee Liu)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T07:21:14.000Z
Duration: 2 min 30 s

This is a small fan painting by the painter Liang Kai

這幅小圓扇上的是梁凱的畫作，

done in the first half of the thirteenth century. Now it's mounted as an album leaf

成畫於十三世紀前半葉，目前收藏在畫冊內頁。

and depicts a poet strolling on the marshy land,

畫中是一位詩人於水澤之地步行，

and a few sketched lines of a distant peak.

It's a very light, very airy composition. The subject matter is quite conventional,

這幅畫構圖十分輕柔飄渺。這類主題在當時相當普遍，

but the way it is treated here is very unusual. Many paintings of this time used lots of empty space,

但是處理手法卻相當特別。當時一般畫作都採取大量留白，

but if you look at it closely, there's a diagonal across the middle of the composition.

但如果你仔細看，會發現畫中央的對角線。

The unpainted part is actually solid; it's not just mist, it's actually a massive boulder behind it.

留白的地方原來是實在的，不是霧，而是巨石。

I think that there's a metaphorical dimension to it,

of the stroller beneath it. This kind of composition

is very often associated with the poet Qu Yuan,

a major court minister very devoted to the nation and to the ruler, but because of some slander he was exiled

一位忠君愛國的朝臣，因流言被流放，

and he drowned himself in the river to show his loyalty.

above him to show his emotional state. Liang Kai

may feel some affinity with the ancient poet. He was

或許對這位古詩人的境遇感同身受。他曾是

briefly a court painter, and then something happened. He left his prestigious position at court

一位宮廷畫家，後來因為一些緣故，他離開這份優差，

and went to live in a Buddhist monastery and he painted there very much in the Buddhist idea

住到佛寺裏繼續作畫，大量加入佛家

of an illusory nature of a phenomenon. He's playing on the idea about the deceptive nature

萬物本無相的理念。他所要探索的是虛假的

and the reality may be behind the clouds, behind the mist.

而真相很可能隱藏在雲霧之間。