現藏 The Nelson-Atkins Museum 的喬仲常之白描《後赤壁賦手卷》在過去四十年間引起學界的多方論述。雖然將之歸屬喬仲常所作，至今無能釐清，但歸屬李公麟的追隨者之手是無存疑的。作者以一特殊手法來顯現複雜的詩文，此手法綜合了老練的圖像運用及熟巧的題字佈局，此法在過去已有文獻論述，此文將給予更透徹，詳盡的探討。過去對此畫或是對北宋所興起的白描所作的文獻論述中，有一方面皆不曾論及，即：此種風格形式所具有的溝通功能，相當類似於易經裏“卦”的形象。北宋知識界對易經之研究暸若指掌，而且普遍認為卦的形狀，對熟習易經者而言，顯示出基本實質的圖形。或出於對易經的深刻了解，北宋文人如蘇軾及其知識圈皆持有同樣的信奉，即：對於具備自我修養的畫家和觀者而言，繪畫具有知識傳遞的功能。白描，因與書法相通，尤其被文人們視為一種展示主題的視覺方式，包括詩文的形象化。從易經的範疇來看，吾人更能了解何以北宋文人對白描畫如此推崇。

Ch'iao Chung-ch'ang's pai-miao Illustration of Su Shih's "Latter Prose Poem on the Red Cliff" in the Nelson-Atkins Museum has occasioned commentary by art historians over the last forty years. The painting is usually viewed as a reliable work by one of Li Kung-lin's close followers, though the attribution to Ch'iao Chung-ch'ang cannot be indisputably verified. The distinctive manner in which the artist has illustrated a complex poetic text by combining sophisticated pictorial strategy with an adroit placement of calligraphic inscription has been remarked on in the past but not as thoroughly as what is offered in the present discussion. What has not been considered in past commentary on this painting, and on pai-mido in general as it arose during the Northern Sung period, is the communicative functioning of this stylistic mode in ways analogous to the images (hsiang) formed by the hexagrams of the I Ching. Northern Sung intellectual culture was deeply informed by the study of this text and by the presupposition that its hexagrams provided configurations that, to the prepared mind, revealed elemental patterns. Conditioned perhaps by extensive study of this classic, Northern Sung literati like Su Shih and others espoused a similar faith in the epistemological efficacy of painting when executed and viewed by those possessing the requisite self-cultivation; pai-mido, with its close connection to calligraphy, they especially regarded as a visual means that could yield revelations of subject matter, including its use in illustrating poetic texts. The elevated place accorded to pai-miao painting in Northern Sung scholarly culture may be understood better when seen in relation to tenets concerning the I Ching.

喬仲常; 赤壁賦; 白描畫; 詩文的形象化

Ch'iao Chung-ch'ang; Red Cliff Ode; pai-miao; illustration of poetic narrative