Abstract:

Taking intersemiotic intertextual play in the drawing of Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove as an example, this article investigates the intertwinement between language and image, a research topic worth a theoretical discussion, too, in the area of contemporary literary theory. This drawing generated with reference to the anecdotes of "Seven Sages" in ancient China is more a cultural marker of literature and art developed during the dynasties of Wei and Jin and thereafter than the epitome of unruly and indulged refined scholars. Apart from the verbal-dependent visual intertextuality, found within the drawing is the verbal-independent transcendence of the visual, an enrichment or transgression in meaning or other possible aspects of the latter independent of the former. Labelled as a self-developmental model, this verbal-independent transcendent process lends itself well to suggesting treating the visual component per se as a useful meaning producer and transmitter, which helps direct our attention to a new important research topic in the study of literary theory and criticism.

Key words: Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, verbal-dependent visual intertextuality, verbal-independent visual transcendence, the "language" of image, visual criticism