她She&Her: On Women and Their Art in Chinese History
On a recent trip to the National Palace Museum 故宮博物館 in Taipei, we happened upon this exhibit which focused on women in ancient Chinese art. With over 70 exhibits to view, the pieces covered a vast period of Chinese history, spanning all the way back to the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period 五代十國 (907–979) up to the the Republic of China 中華民國 (1912–1949) and beyond. With the rather expansive theme of women and their art in Chinese history, the exhibition can be broken down into two more focused sub-themes: the beauty of the female form as presented by famous artists over time, and classical works created by female artists throughout Chinese history.
Despite their exquisite delicateness and subtle beauty, many of the pieces created by female artists were simply attributed to “unkown artist.” While at first the viewer may find this surprising, upon further reflection one must take into account that for much of China’s ancient history the views of women tended to skew more towards such statements as “men above and women below”(男尊女卑), “a girl’s beauty lies in her weakness”(女子以弱為美), and “a girl’s virtue is having no talent” (女子無才便是得). While a good lesson in ancient Chinese language and expressions, these slogans also teach the unbalanced reality of what it meant to grow up as a female in feudal China.
While there are many excellent pieces presented in this exhibition, including many done by unknown female talents, probably my favourite was the one pictured below entitled “Tao Gu Presenting a Verse: 陶穀贈詞圖”. Painted in the Ming Dynasty 明代 by the artist, Tang Yin 唐寅 , this painting tells the story of the downfall of an official from the Northern Song Dynasty named Tao Gu. Stories like those of Tao Gu are rife throughout history, and commonplace enough within Chinese history where men of great power are brought to their knees by the beauty and intelligence of a woman.
Sent as an emissary from the Northern Song Dynasty to its adversary, the Southern Tang, the Southern Tang sent a palace courtesan named Qin Ruolan to seduce Tao Gu. She disguised herself as a stationmaster’s daughter and met with Tao Gu on his travels. Tao Gu proved to be an easy catch for this classic beauty and fell for the bait in due time. Entranced by the courtesan, he wrote an indecent poetic verse for Qin Ruolan as she played the lute for him. What happened between them afterwards is left to the viewer’s imagination, but we know exactly what was on Tao Gu’s mind when we look at his eyes and the subtle gesture of his right hand in the painting as the artist seems to capture the moment that the official has fallen under Qin Ruolan’s spell.
Some time later, this naughty verse that he wrote for Qin Ruolan would come back to bite Tao Gu in the ass when he was invited to a banquet held by the Southern Tang ruler, Zhongzhu (Li Jing, 916–961). The banquet itself was attended by high officials and was an extravagant affair. It was just the type of occasion where you’d want to be on your best behaviour, especially if you were a government dignitary. During the banquet, however, Tao Gu drank a bit too much and acted overly righteous and arrogant. What he didn’t know at the time is that Li Jing had an ace up his sleeve. After the banquet, there would be performances for the guests, and who should Li Jing order to come out and perform for the entire banquet other than the exquisite beauty, Qin Ruolan. When she stepped onto the stage to perform in front of the distinguished guests, Tao Gu looked up aghast, bits of food still stuck in his whiskers, plum alcohol on his breath. As she opened her mouth to sing, the audience waited with baited breath. To Tao Gu’s horror, the verse that she sang was the exact verse he had written for Qin Ruolan some few nights earlier. Humiliated by his own words, Tao Gu excused himself from the table after the performance. This was the beginning of his downfall, at the hands of a talented, intelligent beautiful woman. It was not the first time in history this would be the case. It would not be the last.
