Three Canons of Chinese Painting and Virginia Woolf’s Painting Words in To the Lighthouse
Abstract
Virginia Woolf has been writing with painting words. Based on the previous studies on Woolf’s relationship with Chinese art and aesthetics, great similarities between Virginia Woolf’s writing techniques and Chinese painting techniques are able to be identified. Her masterpiece To the Lighthouse has shown a strong resonance with the first three of the Six Canons of Chinese Painting --”Qi Yun Sheng Dong”, “Gu Fa Yong Bi” and “Ying Wu Xiang Xing”. This parallel research aims to further establish the resonances between these three canons and Woolf’s way of writing in To the Lighthouse. “Qi Yun Sheng Dong” (rhythmic vitality) has found an echo in Woolf’s rhythmic sentence pattern, rhythmic words and rhythmic images. The second canon, “Gu Fa Yong Bi” (bone-manner brushwork) finds similarities in the novel’s long-short-long chapter organization and how each chapter is unfolded. “Ying Wu Xiang Xing” (conformity with nature in portraying forms) shows great resonances with Lily Briscoe’s creative process and her final art creation. Surprisingly, Chinese painting aesthetics has found its resonance in Virginia Woolf’s writing and a new critical perspective has come into being.
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