圖中物色：明清“三好”／“郎與麗”類型畫像文本之隱喻觀看與抒情演繹

The Object and the Beauty in Painting: the Metaphorical Viewing and Lyrical Interpretations of Portrait Texts in the Modes of “Three Good Things” and “The Gentleman and the Beauty” of Ming-Qing Times

Abstract

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.

明清文人留有許多畫像文本，像主旁襯雅物或麗色的類型畫像，十分引人矚目。取源於南朝蕭琛典故以書、酒、樂三樣雅物擺置畫面、藴含人生快意的“三好”圖式畫像，或像主旁侍一或多名艷姝而敷演風流情境的“郎與麗”圖式畫像，二者相互取資，異曲同工，率爲文人勾勒了功業或倫理等主流價值外逸樂生活的側影。一幅明清“三好”或“郎與麗”圖式的類型畫像，總以像主作爲核心，據而構築一個以物、色襯景元素演繹的情境畫面，引導題詠者定向思維與對話：具像的物品依其形狀、顔色、質地、功能等特性各自延伸出視覺觀看的符號性意義，而像主旁侍的麗姝美色更爲文人寫照凝塑艷情氣氛。畫家採取隱性手段以佈設畫面，俾書、酒、樂、麗姝等視覺符碼經常性出現於圖式中，藉以熏染畫面現場的快意氛圍：“書册”擺於雅會桌几，隱含聚會吟誦的文學特質；“酒罈”立於一旁，喻指畫中人鬆解陶醉的精神狀態；“弦歌作樂”，以彈奏樂器的畫面轉譯現場愉悅的聽覺經驗；“麗姝”陪侍，則爲畫像沾染艷情享樂的色調。這些物／色是作爲創造隱喻的媒介符碼，“三好”或“郎與麗”之圖式則爲文本創建者互文間性及套語結構之修辭産物，筆者將連結諸多題詠用以譯解文本，探索畫家／觀者形塑像主的隱秘意向，逆溯重建繪像當時的意義系統。本文擬對焦於明清“三好”／“郎與麗”圖式之類型畫像文本，考察文本的集體創建者如何透過符號關係與隱喻思維，游移於物／色兩端之層層交織與演繹，爲形塑一位文人形象而展開雅物觀看與麗色抒情兩相交融的近世性意涵。

Among the extant portrait texts by artists of Ming-Qing China, the most eye-catching are those in which the main character has one or more beauties in attendance. Two modes of this type of work were particularly popular: “three good things” and “the gentleman and the beauties.” The former is a representation of the happiness of life. The idea was derived from the anecdotes of Xiao Chen of the Southern dynasties: the painter would place three elegant objects, namely a book, a bottle of wine, and a beautiful singing girl beside the main character in the portrait. The second mode, “the gentleman and the beauty,” is a romantic scene in which the main character is situated in the center of the picture, with one or more beauties beside him. These two modes have a reciprocal relationship with the common effect of outlining a picture of the intellectuals’ life of leisure rather than their general values, such as deeds and ethics.

In a Ming-Qing Dynasty portrait of “the three good things” or “the gentleman and the beauty,” the main character is customarily placed at the center point, and on that basis the painter constructs a scene that is enhanced by the elements of objects and beauty. The poet (who would inscribe some verse beside the portrait) is guided to express direct thoughts and conduct conversations: those substantial objects would lead one to extended symbolic meanings according to their shapes, textures, colors and functions. The effect of the beauties beside the main character is an erotic atmosphere and visual experience, which depicts the leisurely life of the literati.

Focusing on the portrait texts of these two modes, the present essay examines how the artists collaborated in using the “objects” and the “beauty” in a metaphorical sense, and, through a comprehensive survey of a variety of inscriptions, argues that these portrait templates are rhetoric products of the creators’ intertextuality and language structures. It discusses how the collaborating creators of the artwork play with the interrelation and deduction of the two ends of “object” and “beauty” via the symbolic relations and metaphorical thoughts in their creation of an image of an intellectual who is deemed to have an elegant appreciation of objects and beauties, which represents the vogue of the time.