Transmission of the Gods

Japanese: 伝神 - でんしん

A term referring to the essence of portrait painting in Chinese painting. It can be found in Gu Kaizhi's Treatise on Paintings of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, where he discusses copying portraits, stating that when copying a god through form, if one loses the sense of actually facing the person, one cannot capture life and cannot convey the gods well, and that the essence of portraiture is to actually face the person and to communicate the gods. Communicating the gods means capturing not only the person's form but also their spirit through realism. The Records of Famous Paintings of All Ages quotes Gu Kaizhi as saying, "The ability to communicate the gods is precisely in the eyes, and the expression of the eyes is the most important element in achieving communion."

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

中国絵画における肖像画の本質をいう用語。東晋の顧愷之（こがいし）の〈論画〉にみられ，人物画の模写を論じて，形をもって神を写すとき，実対すなわち実際にその人物と向きあっているという感じを失うと生をとらえることができず，伝神もうまくゆかぬ，実対し通神することが人物画の要諦だという。伝神とは写実によってその人物の形姿のみならず精神までもとらえることである。《歴代名画記》は，〈伝神写照はまさに阿堵（あと）(そのところ，つまり瞳)の中に在り，伝神を実現するには眼の表現が一番大切だ〉という顧愷之のことばを載せている。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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