郭熙與小景

Small Matters:Guo Xi and Xiaojing

小景一詞,於多數的宋畫論者,向來是一個撲朔迷離的名詞與畫科。截至目前爲止,小景的'小'字,一般多作形容詞解,通常指'小而簡逸'之景,如北宋文人傳誦中僧惠崇所創始,狀寫荒寒閑暇的江汀坡渚景象並含蕴著詩意之致的山水小景畫而言。此外也有作精雅一路筆致的'小筆',或尺幅較小的小品山水與花鳥等來解説的。總而言之,論述的範疇包含了繪畫的視覺模式、構圖、筆墨風格、審美取尚,到實際上的尺幅大小等等。果若如此,郭熙的'小景'究竟何解?又何關宏旨?本文擬以郭熙個人在《林泉高致》文本中對小景的申述來解析與提問,並對照存世歸於李成與郭熙名下的相關畫迹來重新審視此一課題。考量郭熙在《林泉高致·畫題》篇中,所擬出的'怪石平遠'與'松石濺撲'兩則'小景'實例,並檢索著録中郭熙同類題材的大量障壁畫與存世歸其名下的相關畫迹;筆者以爲郭熙的'小景'理念,隱約地唤起了唐宋以來山水構圖上常見的一種原型(prototype)與視覺記憶(visual memory),因或别有所指,而有重新審視的空間。要之,郭熙的'小景'確切關乎宏旨,因爲它不但有助於深化瞭解郭熙宏觀與微觀相互引發變通的宇宙山水觀,以及其山水創作的跨度;並且對於唐朝以來的樹石、松石山水障壁畫傳統,過渡到北宋障壁畫與卷軸山水畫的變革,提供了另一個思考的角度。

For scholars of Song painting, the term xiaojing 小景 has long been perplexing. To date,xiaojing has been interpreted in various ways—as 'small scene,' 'intimate scene or mode,' 'refined brush'(akin to xiaobi小筆),and 'small format or size'(xiaohua 小畫). These range in meaning from pictorial mode in composition, aesthetic aura, and brushwork, to painting size.Interestingly, the celebrated landscape painter Guo Xi also employed the term xiaojing in his treatise Linquan gaozi, as a binary pair with hongtu宏圖, or grand scale with regard to the 'way' or method of making landscape. Nevertheless, whereas hongtu can be easily linked to his Early Spring and the hallmark monumental landscapes of the Northern Song, xiaojing has been less clear to later scholars. Guo Xi further detailed xiaojing with two concrete examples in the section of Linquan gaozhi titled 'Huati'畫題,or Painting Topics: Strange Rocks and Level Distance and Pines and Rocks by Splashing Cascades. With a close examination of Guo’s articulation of this term against his landscape production, especially his murals for designated locations,one finds that Guo’s xiaojing seems to denote something different because overall it recalls a visual memory prominently embedded in landscape compositions from the Tang to the Song.By illuminating Guo Xi’s xiaojing in the context of the Northern Song and TangSong transition, I hope to demonstrate that the relative and paradoxical term xiao, or'small,' actually matters: it was not only an integral part of Guo Xi’s cosmic landscape,but signified as well an alternative virtual vision of pictorial framing and spatial rendering that preserved an enduring landscape prototype that dated back to the major genre of shushi shanshui 樹石山水, or 'landscape with tree and rock,' that was prevalent during the Tang, and its gradual evolution into the Song along with the change of format from the wall mural and screen to scrolls.