• (The)Study of the Eastern Classic
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• no.35
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• pp.471-498
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• 2009

The aim of this study is to see how bamboo paintings developed and what is the iconographical meaning of them through bamboo Ti-hua-shi(poems on paintings) found in Sheng-Hua-Ji, a leading compilation of Ti-hua-shi(poems on paintings) of Song Dynasty. Bamboo paintings give shapes in a simpler and more direct way in drawing, which means bamboo paintings reveal concretely more characteristics of Ti-hua-shi (poems on paintings). Bamboo paintings, which flourished during Northern Song Dynasty, often had the image of the dragon, specially a lying dragon or a winding dragon, which suggests a great man in obscurity. Snow-laden bamboos were also a symbol of a great man, very wise man in Confucian tradition. This shows Confucian ideal examples were embodied through bamboo paintings. Another aspect of bamboo paintings is that bamboo paintings were regarded as a means of self-expression, which identified Confucian sadaebu (scholar-officials) who advocated simplicity and austerity in their life. Contrary to professional painters, who added color and decoration to their paintings, Confucian scholars of Song Dynasty reduced color and embellishment in their bamboo paintings in black-and-white to reveal their own identity, focusing on spirituality rather than the image itself. Therefore, drawing and appreciating bamboo paintings were highly respectable pastime among the literati of Song Dynasty. In short, Bamboo paintings in Song Dynasty were not only a Confucian symbol of a wise and virtuous man but also reflected the taste of Song sadaebu class who thought of bamboo as a symbol for moral and cultural responsibility of Confucian society.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.65-75
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• 2015

The findings of basic study on the awareness of falls in terms of Gwanpokdo(Paintings of Viewing Falls) were drawn as follows. First, there is a difference in an esthetic sense that water brings depending on the ratio of falls, and Gwanpokdo(Fall Landscape) in which falls take up more than 20% of the canvas focuses more on falls so that it brings about the awareness of landscape through direct communication with nature. Second, the diagonal composition of the canvas has symmetry between falls and a person viewing the falls, which makes view point even clear. In addition, margins of the canvas were missing due to the effect of True-View Landscape Painting during the late Joseon Dynasty, and overall composition of using the entire canvas became popular. This overall composition is stable and disposed with lopsided composition, so this heightens sense of balance and the meaning of falls. Third, Gwanpokdo(Paintings of Viewing Falls) of Josoen Dynasty showed various types of viewing falls in distant view, but as the distance between falls and persons got closer in the latter part of Joseon Dynasty, falls were no longer utopia but it expressed a sense of beauty and aesthetic contemplation through direct communication with real nature. Fourth, Gwanpokdo(Paintings of Viewing Falls) of Joseon Dynast had many drawings of a person viewing falls and viewing behaviors such as Supyeong gyeong(level landscape), Amgang gyeong(lower landscape), Bugam Gyeong(higher landscape), and glimpse viewing. Fifth, rocks out of landscape elements make falls vivid and are so expressed as yin and yang that falls and rocks are well contrasted with each other, maximizing beautiful scenery of falls. Sixth, woody plant of Gwanpokdo(Paintings of Viewing Falls) was mostly pine trees which symbolized the literati's fidelity and integrity at that time and emphasized the firm meaning of transcending the nature, matching with symbolization of falls.