Huiping Pang, Journal of Song-Yuan Studies 39 (2009), pp.1-41

Strange Weather: Art, Politics, and Climate Change at the Court of Northern Song Emperor Huizong Huiping Pang Journal of Song-Yuan Studies, Volume 39, 2009, pp. 1-41 (Article) Published by The Society for Song, Yuan, and Conquest Dynasty Studies DOI: 10.1353/sys.0.0001 For additional information about this article Access Provided by Stanford University at 05/02/10 6:54PM GMT http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/sys/summary/v039/39.pang.html Journal of Song-Yuan Studies 39 (2009) S t r a n g e We at h e r : A r t , P o l i t i c s , a n d C l i m at e C h a n g e a t t h e C o u r t o f N o r t h e r n S o n g E m p e r o r H u i z o n g Huiping Pang* s t a n f o r d u n i v e r s i t y This study addresses aspects of culture and politics at the court of the Northern Song emperor Huizong 徽宗 (1082–1135, r. 1100–1125) during the middle years of his reign, particularly around 1110. It describes and analyzes the complex relationship between imperial court politics and the ways in which the arts, such as painting and calligraphy, and “auspiciousness report- ing” played crucial roles in determining the political fates of individuals in the imperial court. One particular relationship, between Huizong and his powerful grand councilor Cai Jing 蔡京 (1046–1126), is exceptionally revealing. Cai Jing was, in alternation, both a beneficiary and a victim of the vicissitudes of the court during an age in which climate change and a fatal disconnect between the emperor and his realm helped to seal the fate of the Northern Song dynasty. The common historical judgment on these two characters is that Emperor Huizong was an ineffectual aesthete who knew little of what was going on in his court or his empire. The emperor was manipulated constantly by self-serving, more experienced and able courtiers, such as his grand councilor Cai Jing, who used his influence for his own security and profit.1 This sterotyped portrait * I am very grateful for the assistance of Peter Sturman, Ronald Egan, Allan Langdale, Robert Williams, and Joseph Chang. The Smithsonian Institution’s Postdoctoral Fellowship supported my research in 2007–2008. 1. Wang Cheng 王偁 (?–ca.1200) commented that “Cai Jing was by nature crafty and deceit- ful.” See Wang Cheng, Dongdu shilue 東都事略 [Resume of Events in the Eastern Capital] (preface dated 1186; Taipei: Zhongyang tushuguan, 1991), 101.1560. The dynastic history classified Cai as a “treacherous minister” 姦臣. See Tuo Tuo 脫脫 (1313–1355) et al., Songshi 宋史 [History 2 h u i p i n g p a n g of the workings of the imperial court may be accurate in some respects, but it does not fully convey the complexity of the context and in some ways may even be misleading. This study joins other recent reappraisals of these two figures that challenge, or at least seek to complicate, the older paradigm.2 One way to reexamine the relationship between Huizong and Cai Jing is by considering the role that calligraphy and painting played as media through which the two found common interest. Both Huizong and Cai were connois- seurs and able practitioners of calligraphy and painting, and both seemed to have highly sophisticated knowledge, both historical and aesthetic, of these arts. Cai proved himself especially adept at using calligraphy and painting as a mode of communication between himself and the much younger emperor. Huizong, too, could participate in this game of signs, in which paintings and their attached colophons were used as a kind of secret language.3 An attendant stratagem in court communications was “auspiciousness” and “inauspiciousness” reporting and interpretation. Cai was an apt pupil of of Song; hereafter SS] (1345; Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1977), 472.13723; Lü Zhong 呂中 (jinshi 1240s), Song dashiji jiangyi 宋大事記講義 (preface dated 1247; Siku quanshu [SKQS] ed.), 21.394. 2. See Patricia Ebrey, “Literati Culture and the Relationship between Huizong and Cai Jing,” Journal of Song-Yuan Studies 36 (2006), 2; Maggie Bickford, “Huizong’s Paintings: Art and the Art of Emperorship,” in Emperor Huizong and Late Northern Song China: The Politics of Culture and the Culture of Politics, ed. Patricia Buckley Ebrey and Maggie Bickford (Cambridge and London: Harvard University Asia Center, 2006), 454; Ari Daniel Levine, “Terms of Estrange- ment: Factional Discourse in the Early Huizong Reign,” in Emperor Huizong and Late Northern Song China, 158; Charles Hartman, “A Textual History of Cai Jing’s Biography in the Songshi,” in Emperor Huizong and Late Northern Song China, 549; and Patricia Ebrey, Accumulating Culture: The Collections of Emperor Huizong (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2008), 59–65. 3. Late in Huizong’s reign, ca. 1112–1125, thousands of auspicious paintings were commis- sioned, executed by court painters, and signed by Huizong. Examples include Albums for the Emperor’s Perusal in the Xuanhe Period 宣和瑞覽冊 (e.g., Cranes of Good Omen on 1112/1/16, Auspicious Dragon Rock, and Five-Colored Parakeet). See Peter Sturman, “Cranes above Kaifeng: The Auspicious Image at the Court of Huizong,” Ars Orientalis 20 (1990), 33–68; Ogawa Hiromitsu 小川裕充, “Auspicious Cranes, by Huizong,” Bijutsushi ronsō 12 (Tokyo: Tokyo University, 1996), 129–137; Masaaki Itakura 板倉聖哲 , “Kōtei no manazashi shi: Kisō zuitsuru zu o megutte” 皇帝 の眼差し : 徽宗瑞鶴図をめぐって, Ajia Yūgaku アジア遊學 64 (2004), 128–139; and Bickford, “Huizong’s Paintings,” Emperor Huizong and Late Northern Song China, 476. My purpose here is to investigate the origins of these images and the astrological interpretations that were appended to them. By examining the early-to-middle era of Huizong’s regency ca. 1100–1110, we are able to see the beginnings of inauspicious versus auspicious interpretive practices, which were elucidated by two combative political groups: the New and Old Policies factions. 3s t r a n g e w e a t h e r : a r t , p o l i t i c s , a n d c l i m a t e c h a n g e this Machiavellian practice: at first a victim of it, he later became an adept manipulator of auspiciousness reporting, using it viciously and effectively to maintain and further his position in court and also to marginalize his enemies. By examining these instances and their potent functions in determining court politics, we are provided with a singular portrait of a court where belief in the power of omens and signs in nature was endemic and was manipulated con- stantly by the political and moral interpretation of natural events such as the appearances of comets or sunspots or even uncommon weather phenomena. A central topic in this paper is the Cold Period, ca. 1100–1190s, a climatic event that had drastic consequences for the economy and environment of the late Northern Song. In a world where natural disasters were indicative of Heaven’s displeasure with the imperial court, strange weather could be a menacing sign. Contrasts are drawn between the Cold Period and the so- called Medieval Warm Period (ca. 800–1000) that preceded it. Various issues emerge from the contrast: an increase in the number of snow-related themes in painting, for example, and shifting attitudes towards snow and snowfalls. Here I have chosen a single painting, Returning Boat on a Snowy River 雪江 歸棹圖 (Figs. 1–3), with its colophon by Cai Jing, as an illuminating text for reevaluating these issues.4 Cai Jing’s colophon to Huizong’s Returning Boat on a Snowy River (Fig. 4) gives an artist [Huizong], the title of the painting, and the date of the colophon [1110/3/1],5 and includes a poem referring to the painting (for translation see 4. The painting, in the Beijing Palace Museum, is inscribed Xuejiang guizhou tu 雪江歸棹 圖 [Returning Boat on a Snowy River] in the upper right corner; “Produced by Xuanhe Palace” 宣和殿製 in the left margin with the cipher “The First Man Under Heaven” 天下一人 just below. The painting is also impressed with eight imperial seals: Xuanhe 宣龢, Zhenghe 政和, Double Dragons Square Seal 雙龍方印, Xuanhe 宣和, Daguan 大觀, Imperial Writing 御 書, Zhenghe 政龢, and Seal of the Inner Treasury’s Paintings and Calligraphy 內府圖書之 印. Whether the painting was rendered by Huizong’s own hand or his ghostpainter is beyond the scope of this article. My subject focuses on Cai Jing’s colophon, his political situation, and snow disasters. For a recent study of the ghostpainter problem and Huizong, see Xu Bangda 徐 邦達, “Song Huizong Zhao Ji qinbihua yu daibi de kaobian” 宋徽宗趙佶親筆畫與代筆的考 辯, Gugong bowuyuan yuankan 故宮博物院院刊 1 (1979), 62–67; Xu Bangda, Gushuhua wei’e kaobian 古書畫偽訛考辨 [Studies in the authentication of ancient calligraphy and painting] (Yangzhou: Jiangsu guji chubanshe, 1984), 228–229; Maggie Bickford, “Emperor Huizong and the Aesthetic of Agency,” Archives of Asian Art 53 (2002–2003), 71–104; and Maggie Bickford, “Huizong’s Paintings,” Emperor Huizong and Late Northern Song China, 490–496. 5. For the sake of consistency, I will render dates here according to the Chinese lunar calendar in the following form: “year/month/day.” My reading of the date Jichun shuo 季春朔, 4 h u i p i n g p a n g Appendix I).6 Huizong’s painting creates an image of a peculiar world: a pure, remote, and inaccessible landscape firmly in the grip of winter. The silvery sky seems boundless and free of mist and clouds. Majestic mountains, precipitous cliffs, and calmly flowing rivers are complemented by the various undulating forms of the valleys. The layered mountain range and the deep perspective keep spectators segregated from the idealistic landscape, even though signs of daily human activities—including fishermen, travelers, boats, riverside dwellings, and temple buildings—are all visible. The viewer is not invited to enter this secluded, utopian snowscape, rather, it proffers an idyllic, distant world, an intangible dream of nature (Fig. 6). In contrast to traditional fishing paintings of the Northern Song dynasty, such as Xu Daoning’s 許道寧 (ca. 1000–1066) Fishermen’s Evening Song 漁舟 唱晚圖卷 (ca. 1049; Fig. 7) and Wang Shen’s 王詵 (ca. 1048–ca. 1103) Light Snow Over a Fishing Village 漁村小雪圖卷 (Fig. 8), Huizong’s painting instead emphasizes a single, lonely fisherman rowing the boat in the middle of the river. Loneliness and longing seem to replace the rowdy laborers and the clamor and camaraderie of the earlier paintings. The mood is thus entirely different in Returning Boat on a Snowy River, strongly suggesting a different which literally means the first day of the third month of spring, as 1110/3/1 is justified by the fact that spring was considered to begin in January and end in March, a fact confirmed by at least four Song dynasty sources: 1) Li Tao 李燾 (1115–1184), Xu zizhi tongjian changbian 續資治通鑑 長編 [Comprehensive mirror for aid in government, continued; hereafter Changbian] (preface dated 1174; Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1986), 408.9928: “(In 1088) 詔以常平錢穀給在京乞丐 人, 至季春止…候三月五住, 以雪寒故也;” 2) SS, 102.2495: “宣和元年三月, 皇后親蠶. 即 延福宮行禮 . 其儀: 季春之月, 太史擇日, 皇后親蠶;” 3) Hu Hong 胡宏 (1105–1161), Huang- wang daji 皇王大紀 (preface dated 1141; SKQS ed.) “三月季春” 2.22 (see Fig. 5); 4) Zhang Lu 張慮 (jinshi 1196), Yueling jie 月令解 (Congshu jicheng xubian 叢書集成續編 ed.; Taipei: Xinwenfeng chubanshe, 1989), 3.785: “季春之月: 季春者…正為三月.” For earlier sources, see Zheng Xuan 鄭玄 (127–200), Liji zhengyi 禮記正義 (Shisanjing zhushu 十三經注疏 ed.; Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1980), 15.135: “季春之月: 按三統曆云: 三月之節.” 6. Cai Jing’s colophon has been admired through history. In 1630 Chen Yuanrui 陳元瑞 (active 17th century) carved Cai’s colophon onto the Bohai cangzhen tie 渤海藏真帖. The early Qing commentator Wu Qizhen 吳其貞 (1607–ca. 1677) regarded this colophon as magnificent, elegant, and undoubtedly as genuine as Cai’s Letter to Jiefu 節夫帖 (ca. 1104). See Wu Qizhen, Shuhua ji 書畫記 [Notes on Painting and Calligraphy] (preface dated 1678; Shenyang: Liaoning jiaoyu chubanshe, 2000), 5.204. Certainly, compared with Cai’s calligraphy in Letter to Jiefu and his colophons to Wang Ximeng’s 王希孟 (1096–1119) A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains 千里江山圖 of 1113, Xuanzong’s 唐玄宗 (r. 712–756) Ode to the Pied Wagtails 鶺鴒頌 of 1115, and Listening to the Qin 聽琴圖, Cai’s colophon to Returning Boat on a Snowy River presented a typical example of Cai’s distinguished calligraphy style. Fig. 1 Emperor Huizong’s 徽宗 (r. 1100–1125) painting, Returning Boat on a Snowy River 雪江歸棹圖. Handscroll, 30.3 × 190.8 cm, ink on silk. Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing. Courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing. 6 h u i p i n g p a n g Fig. 2 Detail of Fig. 1, Returning Boat on a Snowy River. Huizong’s inscription. Courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing. Fig. 3 Detail of Fig. 1, Returning Boat on a Snowy River. Huizong’s signature. Courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing. Fig. 4 Cai Jing’s colophon to Returning Boat on a Snowy River. Handscroll, ink on paper. Courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing. Fig. 6 Detail of Fig. 1, Returning Boat on a Snowy River. Courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing. Fig. 5 Hu Hong 胡宏 (1105–1161), Huangwang daji 皇王大紀 (preface dated 1141; SKQS ed.), 2.22. • • • • 8 h u i p i n g p a n g Fig. 8 Detail of Wang Shen’s 王詵 (ca. 1048-ca. 1103), Light Snow Over a Fishing Village 漁村小雪圖. Handscroll, ink and color on silk, 44.4 × 219.7cm. The Palace Museum, Beijing. Courtesy of the Palace Museum, Beijing. Fig. 7 Detail of Xu Daoning’s 許道寧 (ca. 1000–1066) Fishermen’s Evening Song 漁 舟唱晚圖卷 (ca. 1049). Handscroll, ink and slight color on silk, 48.3 × 209.6 cm. Courtesy of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. Purchase: Wil- liam Rockhill Nelson Trust, 33–1559. Photograph by John Lamerton. 9s t r a n g e w e a t h e r : a r t , p o l i t i c s , a n d c l i m a t e c h a n g e signification for ‘the fisherman’ in this work. Further, while conventional fisherman paintings normally portray the cottages and huts of the common- ers as quaint backdrops for their activity, Huizong’s snowscape is decorated, uniquely, with inviting buildings and a returning boat at the left side. One of the ways that we might consider new readings of snowscapes in this era, including this one, is to attempt to imagine how Northern Song dynasty painters, patrons, and spectators may have understood the significa- tion of winter itself. Interestingly, during the late Northern Song period, the effects of winters were emphatically pronounced, and this was accompanied by a dramatic increase in the proportion of winter-related scenes compared to other seasonal subjects. The master painters of the late Northern Song were particularly fond of depicting snowscapes, including the imperial-clan painter Wang Shen (Fig. 8), the literati official Wang Gu 王穀 (ca. 1100s), Li Gongnian 李公年 (active ca. 1120), Liang Shimin 梁師閔 (early 12th century) and other artists. According to the Xuanhe huapu [Painting catalogue of the Xuanhe period] (Table 1), among Yan Su’s 燕肅 (961–1040) 27 landscape paintings, 19 are snowscapes.7 Of Xu Daoning’s and Song Di’s 宋迪 (ca. 1015–ca. 1080) works, 50% are snowscapes. Of Guo Xi’s 郭熙 (ca. 1010–ca. 1090), Wang Shen’s, and Zhao Xiaoyin’s 趙孝穎 (ca. 1119) landscapes, 75% are snowscapes. And all the identifiable paintings of Wang Gu and Zhao Shitian 趙士腆 (ca. 1110s) are winter scenes.8 Moreover, Northern Song calligraphers such as Huang Tingjian 黃庭堅 (1045–1105) and Chen Guan 陳瓘 (1057–1122) recorded how cold it was in winter, in both their imagery and their inscriptions.9 These artists came from various regions, differed in religious preferences, and belonged to diverse social levels. Taken together, 7. For Yan Su’s case, see Xuanhe huapu 宣和畫譜 (Taipei: Shijie shuju, 1962), 11.314–315. Titles of the paintings discussed here were clearly identified with the terms: spring 春, summer 夏, hot 熱, scorching 暑, fall 秋, winter 冬, snow 雪, or wintery 寒. See Table 1. I did not count the painters if their painting samples were too small. For instance, Chen Yongzhi 陳用志 and Qu Ding 屈鼎 only had one catalogued by the Xuanhe huapu. 8. For Xu Daoning’s case, see Xuanhe huapu, 11.294–298. For Song Di, see 12.321; for Guo Xi, see 11.306; for Wang Shen, see 12.332; for Zhao Xiaoyin, see 16.447–449; for Wang Gu, see 12.322; for Zhao Shitian, see 16.453. 9. For instance, Huang Tingjian, “Letter to Mingshu” 致明叔少府同年尺牘. Ink on paper, 28.8 × 17.5cm. National Palace Museum, Taipei. Chen Guan 陳瓘 (1057–1122), “Letter to Siji’s relative” 致思濟使君大夫十三姐縣君尺牘. Ink on paper, 28.2 × 43.7cm. National Palace Museum, Taipei. Huang’s letter mentioned the “snowy cold” 雪寒, and Chen Guan’s referred to “severe cold in the mid-winter” 仲冬嚴寒. 10 h u i p i n g p a n g their work suggests that climate change was a factor in the increased produc- tion of snowscapes. A period of exceptionally cold winters, extending almost a century, from the late Northern Song to the early Southern Song, severely affected aspects of China’s ecology, economy, and environment. Low temperatures during this era were all the more dramatic because the two preceding centuries had been uncommonly warm. Based on the evidence of tree-ring variations and other scientific measurements, paleometeorologists have been able to identify an earlier period of relatively high temperatures, which they refer to as the Medieval Warm Period.10 Snowfalls during the Warm Period were regarded 10. See Zhu Kezhen 竺可楨, “Zhongguo jin wuqiannianlai qihou bianqian de chubu yan- jiu” 中國近五千年來氣候變遷的初步研究 [A preliminary study on the climate fluctuations during the past 5000 years in China], Kaogu xuebao 考古學報 1 (1972), 22–23; Xu Shenyi 徐勝 Table 1: Identifiable seasons of paintings in Xuanhe huapu. Painter Spring Summer Fall Winter / Snow Total Five Dynasties Zhao Gan (active 937–978) 1 (11%) 5 (56%) 1 (11%) 2 (22%) 9 Dong Yuan (ca. 962–) 2 (7%) 8 (30%) 1 (4%) 16 (59%) 27 Ju Ran (act. after 975) 0 (0%) 14 (45%) 8 (26%) 9 (29%) 31 Northern Song Li Cheng (919–967) 8 (12.3%) 8 (12.3%) 8 (12.3%) 41 (63.1%) 65 Fan Kuan (active 1023–1031) 7 (14%) 16 (12%) 8 (16%) 19 (38%) 50 Yan Su (961–1040) 5 (19%) 2 (7%) 1 (4%) 19 (70%) 27 Xu Daoning (ca.1000–1066) 8 (10%) 15 (18%) 18 (22%) 41 (50%) 82 Cui Bai (active 1068–1077) 1 (1%) 0 (0%) 30 (37%) 51 (62%) 82 Guo Xi (ca. 1010–1090) 1 (25%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 3 (75%) 4 Song Di (ca. 1015–1080) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 2 (50%) 2 (50%) 4 Wang Shen (ca. 1048–1103) 1 (25%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 3 (75%) 4 Wu Yuanyu (active 1110s) 4 (9%) 2 (5%) 8 (19%) 28 (67%) 42 Wang Gu 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 2 (100%) 2 Zhao Xiaoyin (ca. 1119) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 1 (25%) 3 (75%) 4 Zhao Shitian (active 1110s) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 0 (0%) 2 (100%) 2 Zhao Shilei (active 1110s) 5 (18%) 6 (21.4%) 6 (21.4%) 11 (39.2%) 28 11s t r a n g e w e a t h e r : a r t , p o l i t i c s , a n d c l i m a t e c h a n g e as “Auspicious Snows” and, in fact, emperors frequently assembled their ministers to pray for snow or ordered landscape paintings on the theme of Appreciating the Snowfalls.11 With the especially severe dip in temperatures around 1100–1127, heavy snowfalls and snow-related catastrophes caused conspicuous damage to crops throughout the empire, initiating a crisis in agriculture, food supply, transporta- tion, and, as a result, the social order.12 According to the Dongjing menghualu 一, Zhongguo lishishiqi qihou bianqian ziliao 中國歷史時期氣候變遷資料 (Taipei: National Taiwan Normal University, 1996); Thomas J. Crowley et al., “How Warm was the Medieval Warm?” Ambio 29.1 (2000), 51–53; Jie Fei, “The Possible Climatic Impact in China of Iceland’s Eldgjá Eruption Inferred from Historical Sources,” Climatic Change 76 (2006), 443–457; and Zhang Quanming 張全明, “Lun beisong Kaifeng diqu qihou bianqian jiqi tedian” 論北宋 開封地區氣候變遷及其特點 [The Climate Changes in Kaifeng District in Northern Song Dynasty], Shixue yuekan 史學月刊 1 (