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Qing 情 en la cultura letrada del Ming tardío: Poesía y pintura de Xue Susu 薛素素

Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This article examines the relevance of qing 情, understood as feeling or an affective disposition shaped in relation to circumstances and other beings, for the study of the work of Xue Susu 薛素素 (ca. 1575–ca. 1652), a courtesan, poet, and painter of the late Ming period. Through a historical-cultural and comparative approach, it reconstructs the genealogy and semantic transformations of the concept and analyzes two of the artist’s works, the poem “Verses Composed While Inviting Censor He to Drink on an Autumn Day” and the 1633 Hanging Scroll of Plum Blossoms and Narcissi. The poem constructs the compatibility between Xue Susu and her guest through images of correspondence, conventions of literati writing, and a scene of hospitality. The analysis of the scroll examines its composition, pictorial procedures, floral motifs, and autograph inscription, together with the period’s literary and visual repertoire as reworked by Xue Susu. The results show that the relational dimension of qing provides a framework for interpreting the complementarity between the flowers, associated with purity and integrity, as well as the relationship between spontaneity and technical mastery visible in the brushwork. The growing appreciation of qing also fostered cultural conditions favorable to the recognition of courtesans’ talents. Both cases show how Xue Susu asserted her participation in literati culture through her command and reworking of its poetic and pictorial codes.
DOI: 10.5209/ecao.107670
Language: English
Subfield: History
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7225778162
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