圖文閱讀:顧愷之－責妻

Some of the great teachers of China appear to have had a similar view of the value of art to that held by Pope Gregory the Great. They thought of art as a means of reminding people of the great examples of virtue in the golden ages of the of the earliest illustrated Chinese bookscrolls that have been preserved is a collection of great examples of virtuous ladies, written in the spirit of Confucius. It is said to go back to the painter Ku K'ai-chi, who lived in the fourth century AD.

中國有些偉大的賢哲對於藝術的價值觀似乎跟羅馬教皇格里高裏所堅持的看法相似。他們把藝術看成一種工具，用以提醒人們回憶過去黃金盛世的美德典範。現存最早的中國畫卷有一卷是根據儒家思想選編的貞婦淑女事蹟；據說原本出自公元4世紀的畫家顧愷之的手筆。

The illustration shows a husband unjustly accusing his wife, and it has all the dignity and grace we connect with Chinese art. It is as clear in its gestures and arrangement as one might expect from a picture which also aims at driving home a lesson. It shows, moreover, that the Chinese artist had mastered the difficult art of representing movement. There is nothing rigid in this early Chinese work, because the predilection for undulating lines imparts a sense of movement to the whole picture.

本頁面的附圖，畫着一個丈夫無端地責怪他的妻子，此畫卷具有我們所稱道的中國藝術的全部高貴和優雅之處。畫中的姿勢和佈置十分清楚，人們對一幅闡明事理的圖畫所可期待的能事已盡。此外，它也表明當時的中國藝術家已經掌握了表現運動的複雜技藝。這幅中國早期作品中絲毫沒有生硬之處，因爲畫中特別喜歡使用起伏的線條，這就賦予了整個畫面一種運動感。