作為美人畫家中的翹楚，唐寅的美人畫在學界得到了廣泛的關注。以往的研究重在尋找唐寅的自我表達，不過除了文人性的面向，唐寅還有職業性的一面，而且美人畫又要面對高度不確定的觀眾，這是唐寅必須面對的課題。本文以唐寅的美人畫為主要研究對象，來討論他如何巧妙地對畫面和題詩進行操作，以應對他所處的微妙社會環境。
本文會將唐寅美人畫分為男女混合和只有女性兩大類型。在畫面和題詩的「內在」層面，唐寅在男女混合類型中廣泛選取野史筆記和流行戲曲中的素材，並轉化為一組由女性發動、並愛上一個弱勢男性文人的浪漫關係。在畫面的處理上，唐寅則將古代和明代當代進行混合，消弭古今。在《陶榖贈詞圖》中，唐寅進一步添加多重視覺索引，並將男女關係置於君臣關係之上，為己自辯。在只有女性的類型中，畫中女性被設置在一個疏離的環境中，與觀眾拉開距離，而在題詩上，唐寅要麼以閨怨詩來架構一組男女關係，要麼將自己人生的不同境遇投射到畫中女性以發聲。在《王蜀宮妓圖》中，唐寅同樣添加了多重歷史和視覺索引，並以女性的姿態挑戰男女和君臣雙重儒家秩序。
在掛畫空間和觀眾的「外在」層面，唐寅的男女混合類型美人畫多在青樓進行展示，他的作品能夠複述多層次的男女關係，進而讓不同受教育程度的男性觀眾獲得理解。至於只有女性的類型，由於降低了畫面的情色意味，這類作品可以展示在更多樣的空間中。在大量文人無法出仕以及城市經濟蓬勃發展的明代中期，唐寅需要兼顧市場與自我，他以疊加的方式來搭建作品的意涵，創造出對作品理解的多種可能性。這種特性兼顧了自我表達與觀者詮釋，也讓唐寅在自我和多重觀眾之間取得了協商。

An outstanding figure among painters of beautiful women (meiren hua), Tang Yin’s work has received widespread scholarly attention. Previous studies mainly focused on revealing the rich meanings of his works and discovering his voice of self-expression; however, besides this literatus aspect, Tang Yin also had a professional dimension. Furthermore, paintings of beautiful women, as a genre for use and pleasure, were often on display before various audiences, which presented another challenge with which Tang Yin, as a professional artist, had to grapple. This article focuses on Tang Yin’s paintings of beautiful women to discuss how Tang Yin manipulated the imagery and poetry on paintings to adapt to the subtle social environment of the middle Ming Dynasty.
Tang Yin’s paintings of beautiful women can be categorized into two major types: mixed-gender and female-only. In terms of the “internal” aspect of painting and poem, Tang Yin extensively drew from materials found in historical records and popular operas for the mixed-gender type, transforming the subject matter into romantic relationships initiated by women falling in love with male literati. In handling the images, Tang Yin blended ancient and contemporary settings to bridge the gap between past and present. In his masterpiece, Tao Gu Presenting a Lyric, Tang Yin went further, adding multiple visual references and placing the male-female relationship above the lord-subject relationship to defend himself from criticism of his deviant behavior in contemporary eyes. In the female-only type, women in the paintings are often placed in an elegant but isolated setting, creating a distance between them and the audience. In his poems on the paintings, Tang Yin either constructed a set of male-female relationships in the tradition of feminine querimony poetry guiyuan shi, which associated such works with mixed-gender types except that male characters are missing from the image, or projected his own life experiences onto female figures to express different aspects of himself. In the masterpiece Court Ladies of the Former Shu, Tang Yin similarly added multiple historical and visual references while challenging the dual Confucian orders of male-female and lord-subject.
As for the “external” aspect of Tang Yin’s paintings of beautiful women, i.e., the spaces where these paintings were hung and the corresponding audience, Tang Yin’s mixed-gender type was often displayed in brothels, where the audience was mostly males of various social classes. These works could demonstrate multi-layered romantic relationships between men and women, thereby helping male viewers with different educational backgrounds better understand them. As for the female-only type, these works, with reduced erotic implications, could be displayed in a wider range of spaces. The props held by the female characters effectively enhanced diversity to the composition and indicated their historical identities, making it easier for the viewers to understand. Whether it was through feminine querimony poetry or poems with historical allusions, Tang Yin provided well-educated male and female elite audiences with the possibilities of reading and understanding his works. In the middle Ming Dynasty, when many literati failed to obtain government positions through imperial examination, they had to find alternative career paths without sacrificing their identities as scholars. Tang Yin, as a professional literati painter, needed to achieve balance between market demand and self-image. His solution was to construct layered meanings in his works, creating multiple possibilities for understanding them. This characteristic, compatible with both self-expression and audience interpretation, allowed Tang Yin to negotiate the space between self and multiple audiences.