James Cahill dies at 87; scholar of Chinese art

Huang Xiao and Liu Shanshan: A Forthcoming Book on Chinese Paintings of Gardens

A Forthcoming Book on Chinese Paintings of Gardens

What follows is the text, in English translation and in the original Chinese, of a Postscript written by two young Chinese scholars: Huang Xiao who is a Beida (Peking U.) grad student working with his professor Cao Xun on the history of gardens, and Huang’s wife Liu Shanshan. It is a Postscript to a book we have “co-written” on Chinese paintings of gardens, which will be published soon. I have enjoyed working with them, and have learned more than my aged head can really absorb--their contributions have gone far beyond my own old academic interest in this kind of painting to give rich content to the book. I mean to devote one video-lecture in the second series, Gazing Into the Past, to Chinese paintings of gardens--based on an old lecture on the subject that will also be included (in Chinese) in the book, but using, of course, the much greater number and quality of visuals that this new medium allows. I should add that this new video-lecture series, subtitled Scenes from Later Chinese Painting (but also to include a few lectures on Japanese Nanga painting), will begin to be posted online, for free viewing again, after the first series (A Pure and Remote View), all twelve lectures plus a Postlude and two Addenda, have been finished and posted--and that should be quite soon. So, keep watching.

James Cahill, Jan. 2, 2012

Postscript

Co-authoring this book with Professor James Cahill is an adventure for us.

It all started in last spring when Professor Cao Xun(曹汛) mentioned that an album of a garden scenes published in Yuan Zong (園綜) is excellently rendered. According to a record on the garden represented in this album, he assumes that the fourteen leaves published in Yuan Zong could be part of a much more completing album. He asked us to help him search for the album. Not long after that, we came cross Professor Cahill’s The Distant Mountains in Sanlian bookstore in Beijing. When we came back and read the book, we found the album of Zhi Garden (止園)in it. Professor Cahill devoted a chapter to discuss the artist who painted this album, but the leaves in it are also not complete. Meanwhile, Professor Cao happened to read Cahill’s article about Zhi Garden in YiyuanDuoying(藝苑掇英). So he suggested us to contact with Professor Cahill directly about the album.

We wrote Professor Cahill an email in Chinese without much expectation of instant response. However, the next morning when we log in our email, we are thrilled about two emails from Professor Cahill, each of which is as long as four-or-five pages. He said that although both The Distant Mountains and The Compelling Image were written a long time ago, he has never stopped concerning on Zhi Garden. He tried to mail a Chinese expert a copy of several leaves of the album for advice, but unfortunately the expert could not found the answer to his questions. He was so excited by our discovery of the record and he would like to send us the pictures of the whole album if it is helpful for our research. The end of the emails made us ashamed, which said that he is looking forward to hearing from us again, but he prefer our writing in English to Chinese, even in poor English since English is much easier for him to read.

Our encounter with Professor Cahill started from the album of Zhi Garden. From then on, we corresponded frequently with him; his sharp mind and instant responses impressed us. But what touched us most is his generosity. Cahill said from beginning that he want to publish the whole album of Zhi Garden in China for further research. Moreover, he would like to provide us other pictures of garden paintings he collected for many years for publication, which would promote the research in this area. Maybe since then, he might have already thought about collaborating with us about a book. He encouraged us to contact with Yang Le, an editor he has been working with in SanLian publishing house. Merely Four days later, we met Yang Le to discuss this book project.

The proposal of co-authoring a book with Professor Cahill is far beyond our expectation while it is a great temptation for us to write a book about garden paintings. In the café located at the second floor of San Lian, Yang Le explained why Professor Cahill has paid so much attention to the album of Zhi Garden. He insists on the album of Zhi Garden is a master piece, but he has never convinced people successfully that the album is a representation of a real garden. What Yang Le said resonated with us. Most gardens remained in China changed dramatically from what they used to be. Even the gardens built in Ming Dynasty were rebuilt and changed in the late Qing Dynasty. If we want to see what the gardens looked like in their heyday, we could only tend to the paintings and literatures. However, to what degree that the representation of garden in paintings or literatures is truthful to the actual gardens? Are these garden paintings merely the imagination or exaggeration of the ancient people? To what degree? Chinese specialists of ancient architecture, even those familiar with the history of painting, are often confronted by foreign scholars at international conferences, “Does what you said ever exist?” “How reliable is old paintings?” “What is your evidence?”

Then, we started our journey of pinning down the gardens according to the paintings and literatures. It is a joyful journey full of thoughtful surprises. We are new to the field of art history; but fortunately our guide, Professor Cahill, is the best scholar in this field. He selected almost all the paintings discussed in this book. For some of them, he didn’t say much, but every hint he gave us opens a window, leading us to see the world we had been blind to. We have learned a lot from his keen insight of Chinese paintings. Under his guidance, the paintings reveal more and more information, as if all the painters are his old friends, and he is already familiar with every move of them, and understand what they meant. On the other hand, the research methods we learned from Professor Cao Xun—Source of History&Chronology textual study is a useful tool to study Chinese garden history. We worked very hard to find textual evidences of every garden we were writing about. This process is as interesting as the detectives investigate cases. Whenever finding a new clue, we were excited and felt that we were a step closer to the truth. For many times, we dig into the ancient books, looked up google earth, and searched for traces of the gardens from the paintings. Every time when we walked through grassy wild field scattered with stink garbage, stood by the ruins of gardens, deciphered discernibility of the lotus pools , or the ancient trees which should not grow in the fields, we can still feel the sense of the gardens used to stand there.

Yet when we come back to the paintings, we are confused again. They seemed to laugh at us. Are the paintings more reliable to reflect the appearance of garden than a piece of ruined wall or a deserted pond? Doesn’t the painter’s representation of a garden precisely reflect the image of the garden in the mind of its owner? Is there something more revealing than inscribed title and poems on the paintings that could display the moods of the gardens? Just as the representation eyes and brows of beauties in paintings of beauty transcend the beauties themselves and became the abstract embodiment of them, doesn’t the spirit of garden lie in the representation of garden paintings that were reproduced again and again? However, did the beauty and spirit ever exist? What are the evidences?

Just before we are about to finish this book, we found the location of Zhi Garden at the satellite imagery of Google Earth, which we have dreamed about for so many times. We are astonished by high buildings and shopping mall stood at the site of Zhi Garden. But the painting of Zhi Garden reminds us of its former days. There seem boats sailing again along the river bank, which were transformed into modern road. The misty lakes and dreamlike pavilions seems as if emerging again above the treetops , hailing us cordially: “Look, we are still here! We did exist, and will always survive in the painting and as well as on the over-changing earth!”

When Professor Cahill heard that we have sought out the site of Zhi Garden, he laughed and said, “I always know it exists.” Forests and springs can be imperishable because of the spirit of brush and ink, and gardens can be handed down only in paintings. This is exactly the case.

Huangxiao and Liu Shanshan

Sep. 25th, 2011in Tsinghua Garden

跋

與高居翰先生共同寫作本書的經歷堪稱一次奇遇。

事情起於去年年初，有天曹汛先生在聊天時提起《園綜》書前的一套園林冊頁，說這套繪畫水準相當高，他已經找到了園記，感覺全圖遠不止書中收的那14幅，很希望能看到全部作品，囑我們幫忙留意。不久，我們在書店閒逛，看到三聯新出版的高居翰作品系列，買了本《山外山》回去一翻，《止園圖》赫然正在其中，書中專辟一章對冊頁作者加以評述，不過所收繪畫仍然不全。後來曹先生又在《藝苑掇英》上看到高居翰對《止園圖》的介紹，便提議與高居翰先生直接聯繫，詢問圖冊的訊息。 

我們對此事的可行性半信半疑，便很偷懶地用中文給書上的郵箱發了一封信，並未抱太大希望。不料第二天一看郵箱，竟接連收到兩封回信，長達四、五頁之多！高居翰在信中說，雖然《山外山》和《氣勢撼人》是很多年前寫的，但他從未停止對止園的關注，他曾將部分圖片送給中國的園林專家，向他們請教，可惜一直未果，園記的發現實在是一件令他興奮的事，如果有研究需要，他很願意提供完整圖冊的電子檔。信的結尾頗令我們汗顏，高居翰說，我期待著你們的回復，不過下次請千萬用英文給我寫信，哪怕是蹩腳的英文也行，我讀中文實在太吃力了。 

與高居翰的相遇就自《止園圖》開始。起初每天都要往返許多次信件，我們對老先生的思維之敏捷、反應之迅速歎為觀止，然而最讓我們感動的還是他對於研究資料的慷慨無私。從一開始，高居翰就說過，希望可以把《止園圖》在中國完整發表，以供學者研究之用；後來他又提出，既然要給我們郵寄資料，他還有些多年搜集所得的園林繪畫，也願意一併寄給我們，將它們公諸於世，以推動該領域的研究。大概就在此時，老先生已開始醞釀一起寫作的計畫，並安排我們與三聯的編輯聯繫。從初次寫信到我們前去三聯，見到一直與他合作的楊樂編輯，只有短短四天時間。 

合作的提議是我們始料未及的，然而寫一本關於園林繪畫的書，卻對我們具有極大的誘惑力。在三聯書店二樓的咖啡廳裡，楊樂向我們解釋了高居翰對止園的情結。對《止園圖》的過分推崇使他頗受到一些非議，畢竟其中部分冊頁是他本人的藏品，而他始終沒能讓人們相信畫中所繪是一座真實的園林。楊樂的話也引起了我們的共鳴，目前所能見到的園林，即使始建年代很早，也都在晚清有過重修或重建，其中大部分已經面目全非，若要追尋園林早期的鼎盛景象，便不得不求助於圖像、文字等作品。但其中有多少是真實？又有多少僅是古人的想像和誇張？即使是對古代圖像有深入研究的中國古建築專家，也常在國際會議上受到外國學生的詰問：“你所說的這些真的存在過嗎？繪畫到底有多大的可信度？證據在哪裡？” 

於是我們開始了尋找畫中園林之旅，這一旅程充滿了愉悅和驚喜。我們對於藝術史這一廣博的領域僅是剛剛涉足，幸好為我們充當導遊的是這一領域最棒的學者。本書選用的繪畫作品基本都是高居翰推薦確定的，他對於畫作的提示有時不多，但每一句都能在我們眼前打開一扇門，引導我們看到以前一直視而不見的世界。他對於繪畫作品的精准把握與敏銳洞察，更是令我們受益匪淺，在他的指引下，畫作揭示出越來越多的訊息，仿佛那些畫家都是他的老友，而他早已熟悉友人的一舉一動，能從中讀出豐富的含義。同時，曹汛先生力倡的史源學、年代學研究方法提供了一把利器，我們努力為書中的每座園林尋找相關的文獻證據，這個過程也如同偵探破案一樣有趣。每當發現一條新線索，都讓我們興奮異常，感到距離苦苦追尋的真相又近了一步。無數次在古籍中爬梳思索，在穀歌地圖上細密搜查，尋找著那些畫中園林的痕跡。每次踏著令人掩鼻的垃圾，穿過野草齊肩的荒郊，站在廢棄的園林遺址上，看到那些依稀可辨的蓮花池，或本不該出現在田間地頭的古樹，仍能讓我們真切的感覺到那些園林依稀尚存的氣息。 

而當我們回到畫作本身，我們時常又迷惑了。那筆墨間流轉的意韻似乎在嘲笑著我們的努力，難道繪畫不是比一截殘牆、一泓廢池更接近真實的園林嗎？難道畫家所描繪的，不正是主人心目中園林的樣子嗎？難道畫面上耐人尋味的題款與詩文，不是更能揭示出園林的意境嗎？就如同在美人圖中被反復描繪的相似的眉眼已經超越了美人本身，成為抽象的美的存在，園林的精神，不也正在這些被反復描繪的園林繪畫之中嗎？但是，這些精神和美真的曾經存在過嗎？證據，證據又在哪裡？ 

在本書即將完稿之際，我們終於在衛星地圖上找到了讓我們魂牽夢縈的止園。那些拔地而起的高樓和摩登時髦的購物中心讓我們面面相覷，瞠目結舌。然而止園的繪畫讓我們又看見這裡昔日的風景，那如今已被填平為通途大道的河岸上仿佛又有帆船在遊動，縹緲的湖水，夢境般的樓閣又從樹梢間浮現出來，向我們大聲叫著：“看，我們仍在這裡，我們一直存在著，在畫上，也在這滄海桑田的國土上！” 

而高居翰聞訊則笑著說：“我早就知道。”翰墨精靈，林泉藉以不朽，園以圖傳，正此謂耶。 

黃曉 劉珊珊 

2011 年9月25日晚于清華園 

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