Encyclopedia as Interpreter: How the Erru Catalogue of Flowers Sustains an Ecologically Aware Poetic Experience

• In Event: Crafting Knowledge in the History of Art

English Abstract

This paper explores how a botanical encyclopedia, as a taxonomic practice and scientific documentation, sustains an ecologically aware poetic experience. The painter and poet Wang Mian (1287-1359), renowned for his ink plum paintings, has a celebrated poem: "The tree beside my inkstone-washing pool/ Its flowers bloom with faint traces of ink/ They seek no praise for fine colors/ Only to leave pure fragrance filling the universe." Readers may assume that it is talking about Wang Mian’s own craft of ink plum painting, because most plum blossoms in reality are either pink or white, instead of ink colored. However, the late Ming encyclopedia Erru Catalogue of Flowers, compiled by scholar Wang Xiangjin (1561-1653) documented an actual “ink plum” variety with flowers “black as ink,” and it records that the variety is possibly created through grafting techniques with Chinaberry trees. This taxonomic record disrupts the conventional literary analysis of the ink plum poem as a piece of writing dedicated to art. The encyclopedia itself, incorporating numerous poetic entries alongside botanical information, represents an ecological approach to knowledge where literary and scientific understandings coexist and mutually enrich each other. While it is impossible to know whether the painter was describing the botanical reality or an artistic work, the encyclopedia entry complicates the layers of the poetry, making it closer to the material reality. Furthermore, this case suggests a reciprocal influence: the grafting techniques may have been developed specifically to manifest the ink plum painting genre in botanical form. This study illuminates how premodern Chinese scientific documentation practices not only preserved botanical knowledge but also produce alternative interpretive frameworks that continue to transform our understanding of texts and contexts.

Author

• Siyu Xie, Johns Hopkins University