Visual forms of canonical interpretation in Song China (960-1279)

Abstract

Scholars in the Song period (960–1279) used a variety of visual forms (tu 圖), including pictures, dot diagrams, maps, and word charts, to interpret classical texts and propose new understandings of them. These visual commentaries represented commentarial arguments and provided visual alternatives to verbal modes of canonical interpretation. Visual approaches to classics complement but also call into question certain long-held views of Chinese classical learning that rely heavily on textual sources. First, the concept of symbolic image (xiang 象) is deeply rooted in classical texts. In the Rites of Zhou, the visual aspect of rituals was reflected in early conceptions of governance and hierarchy. In the Book of Changes, the ‘Commentary on Images’, a parallel section to the ‘Commentary on Verdicts’, explains the plural symbolic images of each hexagram. Second, scholars in the Song extended their commentarial arguments by producing visual, rather than textual, commentaries. They shifted from the linear process of reading to incorporating simultaneous processes of viewing. Their visual commentaries directly convey the meanings attributed to canonical texts and represent commentarial treaties with immediacy and argumentative power. This study begins by establishing the intellectual background of visual commentaries in the Song period as well as the conceptual approaches required to read such commentaries. Four major cases of visual commentary are subsequently examined: pictures of the ‘Three Rites’, diagrams of the ‘Attached Statements’ to the Book of Changes, maps of the ‘Tribute of Yu’ in the Book of Documents, and word diagrams of the Doctrine of the Mean. Produced at different times and with different visual styles, each case contributes to our understanding of the uses of visual methods in Song canonical interpretation. These visual materials underscore the potential for a new line of inquiry into Chinese intellectual history: visual commentaries to canonical texts as a new way in which Song scholars engaged in debates on ideological and ethical issues.