Richard M.

Barnhart

THOUSAND

PAINTING
THREE THOUSAND
YEARS OF CHINESE
PAINTING
YANG XIN
RICHARD M. BARNHART f

NIE CHONGZHENG
JAMES CAHILL
LANG SHAOJUN
WU HUNG

From Neolithic painted petroglyphs,

early paintings on silk, and landscapes by
twelfth-century literati to the traditional
handscrolls being produced today, Chinese
painting has always had the power to
enthrall. This magnificent book, written by

BOSTON PUBUC UBRABY

a team of eminent international scholars, is

Copley Square
the first to recount the history of Chinese
painting over a span of some three thou¬
sand years. Drawing on museum collec¬
tions, archives, and archaeological sites in
China—including many resources never
before available to Western scholars — as
well as on collections in other countries,
the authors present and analyze the very
best examples of Chinese painting: more
than 300 of them are reproduced here in
color. Both accessible to the general reader
and revelatory for the scholar, the book
provides the most up-to-date and detailed
history of Chinas pictorial art available
today.

In this book the authors rewrite the

history of Chinese art wherever it is
found — in caves, temples, or museum
collections. They begin by grounding the
Western reader in Chinese traditions and
practices, showing in essence how to look at
a Chinese painting. They then shed light

Continued on back flap

The Culture & Civilisation of China

+ % X •ft 4 x H3 I:
Yale University Press Yang Xin
New Haven & London
Nie Chongzheng
Foreign Languages Press
Lang Shaojun
Beijing
 BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

Three
Thousand
Years of
Chinese
Painting
Richard M. Barnhart
James Cahill
Bosion public library
Wu Hung
Calligraphy for series title by Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Qi Kong president of the Chinese National Three thousand years of Chinese painting / Richard M. Barnhart

Calligraphers ’ Association. . . . [et al.].

p. cm. — (The culture & civilization of China)

Frontispiece: Lady Guoguo’s Spring Outing, Emperor Huizong’s copy of an Published simultaneously in Chinese.

8th-century painting by Zhang Xuan, Liaoning Provincial Museum, Includes bibliographical references and index.

Shenyang (fig. 72). isbn 0-300-07013-6 (cloth : alk. paper)

1. Painting, Chinese. I. Barnhart, Richard M., 1934— .

Copyright © 1997 by Yale University and II. Series.

Foreign Languages Press. ND1040.T48 1997

All rights reserved. 759.951—dc2i 97—11152

This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in

part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S.

Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and

press), without written permission from the publishers. durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book

Designed by Richard Hendel. Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

Set in Monotype Garamond

by G & S Typesetters, Inc. 10 987654321

Printed in Hong Kong by C&C Offset Printing Co., Ltd.

Yale University Press gratefully acknowledges A. special debt of gratitude is owed to

sirin phathanothai, who organised

the financial support given for this publication by
the Friends of The Culture & Civilisation of China

THE HENRY LUCE FOUNDATION, INC. in Europe and Asia, particularly in Thailand. The Press

acknowledges with appreciation the founding donors listed

and by the
below, whose additional support helped make possible the

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR publication of this volume.

mr. pongsak ruktapongpisal, President

THE HUMANITIES

Alpine Real Estate

MR. SOMCHAI KARUCHIT

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MR. ANANTACHAI KUNANANTAKUL

Siam Steel International Public Company

mr. krit r at a n a r A k , President

Bank of Ay udhya Public Company Eimited

BANGKOK BANK PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED

MRS. JEANIE LEE

Green Singapore Private Eimited

The Press also thanks Regents Hotel in Bangkok

for its support.

!j
THE CULTURECIVILIZATION OF CHINA

Each book in this series is the fruit of cooperation between Chinese and
Western scholars and publishers. Our goals are to illustrate the cultural riches
of China, to explain China to both interested general readers and specialists,
to present the best recent scholarship, and to make original and previously
inaccessible resources available for the first time. The books will all be
published in both English and Chinese.

The partners in this unprecedented joint undertaking are the China

International Publishing Group (cipg) and Yale University Press, which
together conceived the project under the auspices of the U.S.-China Book
Publication Project. The series is sponsored in the United States by the
American Council of Learned Societies. James Peck is director of the U.S.-
China Book Publication Project and executive editor of The Culture &
Civilization of China series.

Coordinating Committee, The Culture & Civilisation of China

Sirin Phathanothai, President

Yale Editorial Advisory Board

James Cahill, University of California, Berkeley
Mayching Kao, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Jonathan Spence, Yale University
James C. Y. Watt, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Anthony C. Yu, University of Chicago

Robert H. Ellsworth, Special Consultant

CIPG Editorial Advisory Board

Li Xueqin, Director, History Institute,
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing
Lin Wusun, Chairman, National Committee
for the Accreditation of Senior Translators, and Vice Chairman,
Translators’ Association of China
Yang Xin, Deputy Director, Palace Museum, Beijing
Zhang Dainian, Professor, Beijing University
 CONTENTS

Chronology and Reign Periods X XI

Map of China xii — xiii

APPROACHES TO CHINESE PAINTING

Part i, YangXin i
Part 11, James Cahill j

the origins of Chinese painting (Paleolithic Period to Tang Dynasty) ij

Wu Hung

THE FIVE DYNASTIES AND THE SONG PERIOD (907-1279) 8j

Richard M. Barnhart

THE YUAN DYNASTY (1271 —1368) 133

James Cahill

THE MING DYNASTY (1368-1644) I37

YangXin

THE QING DYNASTY (1644-191 i) 2/7

Nie Chong^heng

TRADITIONAL CHINESE PAINTING IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 233

Rang Shaojun

Notes 333

Glossary 363

Artists by Period 371

Further Readings 383

List of Contributors 383

Acknowledgments 330

Index 331
CHRONOLOGY

1,000,000 — 10,000 B.C. PALEOLITHIC PERIOD

10,000 —ca. 2100 B.C. NEOLITHIC PERIOD
Xia Dynasty ca. 2100 —ca. 1600 b.c.
ca. 1600 —ca. iioob.c. SHANG DYNASTY
ca. 1100—256 b.c. ZHOU DYNASTY
Western Zhou ca. 1100—771 b.c.
Eastern Zhou ca. 770—256 b.c.
Spring and Autumn Period 770 — 476 b.c.
Warring States Period 476—221 b.c.
221—206 b.c. QIN DYNASTY
206 B.C. —A.D. 220 HAN DYNASTY
Western (Former) Han Dynasty 206 b.c.-a.d. 9
Xin Dynasty (Wang Mang Interregnum) 9—23
Eastern (Later) Han Dynasty 25—220
220 — 265 THREE KINGDOMS
Wei 220 — 26 5
Shu 221—263
Wu 222—280
265—420 JIN DYNASTY*
Western Jin 265 — 317
Eastern Jin 317—420
317-589 SOUTHERN DYNASTIES*
Liu Song 421—479
Southern Qi 479—502
Liang 502-557
Chen 5 57—5 89
386—581 NORTHERN DYNASTIES
Northern Wei 386-535
Eastern Wei 534—550
Western Wei 535 — 556
Northern Qi 550 — 577
Northern Zhou 557—581
581 — 618 SUI DYNASTY
618—907 TANG DYNASTY
Great Zhou Dynasty (Wu Zetian Interregnum) 684—705
907—960 five dynasties (in the north)
Later Liang 907—923
Later Tang 923—936
Later J in 9 3 6—946
Later Han 947—950
Later Zhou 951—960
907-979 ten kingdoms (in the south)
Shu 907—925
Later Shu 934—965
Nanping or Jingnan 907—963
Chu 927—956
Wu 902—937
Southern Tang 937—975
Wu-Yue 907—978
Min 907^946
Southern Han 907-971
Northern Han 951—979
907—I125 LIAO DYNASTY
960 — 1279 SONG DYNASTY
Northern Song 960—1127
Southern Song 1127-1279
1115 —x234 JIN DYNASTY
1271—1368 YUAN DYNASTY
1368—1644 MING DYNASTY
1644—1911 QING DYNASTY *The Western and Eastern Jin dynasties together
1912-1949 REPUBLIC with the Southern Dynasties are frequendy referred
1949- people’s REPUBLIC to as the Six Dynasties.
EMPERORS OF THE SONG, YUAN, MING, AND QING DYNASTIES

Emperor’s Emperor’s
Posthumous Posthumous
Temple Name Reign Dates Temple Name Reign Title Reign Dates

NG DYNASTY MING DYNASTY

Taizu (Zhu Hongwu 1 368 — 1 398

Northern Song Yuanzhang)
Taizu (Zhao 960 — 976 Huidi* Jianwen 1399—1402
Kuangyin) Chengzu Yongle 1403-1424
Taizong 976-997 Renzong Hongxi 1425
Zhenzong 998 — 1022 Xuanzong Xuande 1426-1435
Renzong 1023—1063 (Zhu Zhanji)
Yingzong 1064 — 1067 Yingzong Zhengtong 1436-1449
Shenzong 1068 — 1085 Daizong Jingtai 1450-1456
Zhezong 1086 —1100 Yingzong Tianshun 1457—M64
Huizong 1101—1125 Xianzong Chenghua 1465-1487
Qinzong 1126-1127 Xiaozong Hongzhi 1488 — 1505
Wuzong Zhengde 1506—1521
Southern Song Shizong Jiajing 15 22 — 1566
Gaozong 1127—1162 Muzong Longqing 1567-1572
Xiaozong 1163—1189 Shenzong Wanli 1573—1620
Guangzong 1190—1194 Guangzong Taichang 1620
Ningzong 1195—1224 Xizong Tianqi 1621—1627
Lizong 1225—1264 Sizong* Chongzhen 1628-1644
Duzong 1265—1274
Gongdi 1275—1276 QING DYNASTY

Duanzong 1276—1278 Shizu Shunzhi 1644—1661

Di Bing* 1278—1279 Shengzu Kangxi 1662—1722
Shizong Yongzheng I723—J7 3 5
(AN DYNASTY Gaozong Qianlong 1736—t795
Shizu 1260—1294 Renzong Jiaqing 1796—1820
Chengzong 1295-1307 Xuanzong Daoguang 1821—1850
Wuzong 1308—x 311 Wenzong Xianfeng 1851—1861
Renzong 1312—13 20 Muzong Tongzhi 1862—1874
Dezong Guangxu
OO

OO

Yingzong 1321—1323
SO
t—l

Taiding huangdi* 1324—1328 Puyi* Xuantong 1909—191I

Tian Shundi 1328
Wenzong 1328—1329
Mingzong 1329 '
Wenzong 1330-1332
Ningzong :332
Shundi* 1333—1368

aOolUK PUBLIC LIBRARY

*No temple name; personal name or posthumous memorial title is listed instead.
MAP OF CHINA
 400

KILOMETERS

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C Hainan /
' ;■ j

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0 400

KILOMETERS j

Hama, • . . »
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Approaches to Chinese Painting

part i YangXin

Chinese painting can be traced back to decorations on associated largely with the literati-artists whose works
pottery and on the floors of thatched huts in the Neo¬ started to appear in significant numbers by the early
lithic period. In the Eastern Zhou dynasty, 2,500 years Song. The contrast is not a total one. Still, the depiction
ago, the use of brush and ink had already developed to of partly imagined likenesses, not strictly realistic ones, is
such a point that the basic brush-made shapes have at the heart of what most Chinese scholars see as distinc¬
changed little since then. Chinese artists, philosophers, tive about the Chinese painting tradition. “One should
and critics have constandy discussed the role and quali¬ learn from nature and paint the image in one’s mind,” as
ties of painting throughout its long and complex history. the painter Zhang Zao wrote in the eighth century.1
To this day, the work of most Chinese art historians In the early periods in the development of Chinese
reflects the distinctive interaction between the paint¬ painting, a prominent artistic goal was the realistic repre¬
ing tradition, on the one hand, and philosophy, poetry, sentation of the subject matter. Han Fei (280?—233 b.c.),

calligraphy, and other cultural forms, on the other. What a thinker of the Warring States period, argued that the
makes Chinese painting such an exquisite flower in the easiest subjects to paint were ghosts and devils; the most
garden of Chinese civilization is the way the arts of difficult, dogs, horses, and other real things. Why? Be¬
the brush — painting, calligraphy, and poetry— together cause people are familiar with dogs and horses, but no¬
with the related art of seal engraving, interact, sometimes body has ever seen a ghost or a devil, so they will not
directly, sometimes indirectly, in producing so many of know whether an exact likeness has been achieved. From
the masterpieces. the painted pottery of Neolithic times to the silk paint¬
A complex yet important distinction for Chinese ings of the Warring States (476—221 b.c.) and Western
scholars as they have examined their painting tradition is Han (206 b.c.—a.d. 9) periods, there was a developing
between the detailed and technically proficient represen¬ maturity in style, with successive painters trying to create
tation of a scene or object and the representation of its realistic likenesses in diverse ways. Murals in early tombs
objective and subjective likeness. The former approach and in the Dunhuang caves, painted during the Tang dy¬
is associated largely with court painters, whose facility nasty, attest to their great accomplishments.
with the brush and whose naturalistic style culminated in In line with this approach, Xie He, an art critic and
many fine works, particularly during the Tang (618-907) painter of the Southern Qi (479-502), argued that there
and Song (960—1279) dynasties; the latter approach is are “six principles of painting,” one of which is “fidelity

Detail, figure 115 (opposite)

to the object in portraying forms.”2 Zhang Yanyuan, an be depicted. By the end of the Tang dynasty in the tenth
art historian of the Tang dynasty, agreed. “The subject century, this approach to painting began to find its great
matter,” he said, “must be painted to its exact likeness.” 3 forms of expression.
But other critics, even early on, believed that paintings Works executed by court painters into the tenth cen¬
need not— should not — be judged solely by a standard tury before the establishment of the Song dynasty promi¬
of objective realism. Good paintings, they said, achieve nently featured human figures, the use of lines to define
the unity of the objective and the subjective, showing forms, rich and varied coloring, and realistic representa¬
both the image as it exists in reality and the image in the tion of the subject matter. This approach fit well with the
painter’s mind. social and cultural functions that the paintings were de¬
Here we see the emergence of xieji, or “sketching the signed to fulfill. During the Qin (221—206 b.c.) and Han
idea.” This, more than realistic depiction, is what many (206 b.c.—a.d. 220) dynasties, for example, the govern¬
critics have considered to be truly important in painting. ment used portraits to publicize and eulogize loyal minis¬
Deyi, “getting the idea” of the image in the artist’s mind, ters and martyrs and to denounce traitors. Later Xie He
becomes the chief point to grasp when looking at a paint¬ even remarked, “All paintings stand for poetic justice;
ing. The viewer has to see beyond the image to the im¬ lessons about the rise and fall of ministers over the course
plied meaning. Only by “comprehending the idea,” or of one thousand years can be drawn from paintings.”5
huiji, can one appreciate the best paintings in the Chinese Scholars and officials of the Tang dynasty went a step
art tradition. further and attempted to bring painting into line with
Artists taking this approach may highlight certain ar¬ Confucian ideology. In Lidai minghua ji (Record of fa¬
eas and leave large areas blank, except for certain details mous paintings of successive dynasties), Zhang Yanyuan
related to the theme. The spaces of various sizes and argued that the “art of painting exists to enlighten ethics,
shapes form a pattern in themselves, drawing attention to improve human relationships, divine the changes of na¬
the main subject matter while providing the viewer with ture, and explore hidden truths. It functions like the Six
room to imagine and wander in. Reality is implied, not [Confucian] Classics and works regardless of the chang¬
necessarily rendered with scrupulous accuracy. A moon¬ ing seasons.” The cataloguer of the court collection of
lit scene outdoors and a lamplit scene indoors may be paintings entitled Xuanhe huapu, compiled at the end of
painted like the same scene in daylight, with only a the Northern Song (960 — 1127), attempted to define the
moon in the sky or a bright lamp to signal nighttime. In social function of figure painting, even arguing that land¬
The Night Revels of Han Xi^ai, a scroll painting by Gu scape painting, bird-and-flower painting, and animal
Hongzhong of the Five Dynasties period (907—960), painting should fulfill a similar ethical function.
burning candles show that the scene is set at night (see In the Xuanhe huapu, paintings were divided into ten
fig. 103). categories according to subject: religious themes, figures,
Another example of this widespread approach to real¬ palace buildings, foreign people, dragons and fish, land¬
ity relates to the depiction of buildings. Chinese painters scapes, animals, birds and flowers, bamboo, and vege¬
tend to present buildings as seen straight on or from tables and fruit. These categories carefully reflected the
slightly above, seldom as seen from below. Li Cheng, an¬ official Confucian value system of the time. Landscape
other artist of the Five Dynasties period, once tried to paintings, for example, were prized for their portrayal of
paint pavilions, pagodas, and other structures atop hills the Five Sacred Mountains and the Four Great Rivers —
exactly as they appeared to him from below; that is, he places of imperial significance. The merit of birds and
did not paint the tiles on the roofs, just the woodwork flowers initially lay in their “metaphorical and allegorical
and frame below the eaves. His experiment was criticized meaning,” while that of vegetables and fruit lay in their
by Shen Kuo, a famous Song-dynasty scholar, who said use “as sacrifices to deities.” In short, paintings were
that Li did not understand how to “perceive smallness judged largely in terms of how well their subject matter
from largeness.”4 In succeeding dynasties no artist ever served the gods, the Buddha, sages, and emperors.
again took Li’s approach. The compiler of the Xuanhe huapu certainly knew that
Neither Shen nor other Chinese critics have argued birds and bamboo were not directly connected to human
that such works distort reality, however. The opposite is affairs, but they had to be made metaphorically relevant if
the case. Realistic copying can never show the innate they were to symbolize moral and ethical values. Thus,
meaning or true nature of a subject, they would say. Only pine trees, bamboo, plum blossoms, chrysanthemums,
with imaginative representation can the depths of reality gulls, egrets, geese, and ducks became symbols of hermits

Approaches to Chinese Painting

or men of noble character; peonies and peacocks became Another aspect of the shift from court painting to
symbols of wealth and rank; willow trees, symbols of literati painting was the growing emphasis on painting as
amorous sentiments; and tall pine trees and ancient cy¬ an enjoyable activity, intended to please oneself and one’s
presses, symbols of constancy and uprightness. In this friends. Su Shi, a poet, calligrapher, and painter of the
way, bird-and-flower paintings could serve an instruc¬ Song dynasty, was one advocate of enjoyment. He once
tional purpose. wrote a poem to a friend that read: “I asked why you
By the end of the Tang and during the Five Dynasties, painted a portrait of me; you said you are a portraitist to
before the Xuanhe huapu was written, landscape painting amuse yourself.” Ni Zan, one of the Four Great Masters
and bird-and-flower painting on silk achieved maturity, in of Yuan-dynasty painting, suggested that the pursuit of
the process changing the traditional, simplistic use of enjoyment gained in importance as the search for the
sketched lines to define forms. As landscapes came to “exact likeness” grew more desultory. This view was car¬
convey tranquillity or poetic melancholy and refinement, ried forward by Dong Qichang, the great painter and art
the tendency to use less color or even just water and ink historian of the late Ming dynasty, who explicitly advo¬
became prevalent. Painters also increasingly used scrolls cated “painting for fun” and “the painting of fun.”
as a medium. Throughout the Yuan (1271—1368), Ming (1368—1644),
In art circles in China it is believed that Wu Daozi (ac¬ and Qing (1644—1911) dynasties, particularly toward the
tive ca. 710—760) marked the peak of court painting. Un¬ close of each, when government power waned and
fortunately, none of his works have survived, but some corruption grew rife, the idea of using paintings to “en¬
copies are said to be based on his original drawings (see lighten ethics and improve human relationships” was
fig. 68). seldom mentioned by literati-artists.
A couple of centuries later, in the Northern Song pe¬ The practice of annotating a painting with a poem evi¬
riod, came the rise of the literatus-artist, whose influence dently originated among the literati of the Song period.
on the development of Chinese painting was formidable. The Tang poet Du Fu composed many poems about
The literati-artists were well trained in poetry and callig¬ paintings, some of which were comments on specific
raphy. Partly to distinguish themselves from professional works. Whether any of his poems were written directly
painters, they often looked at painting in terms of those on wall paintings or scrolls is unknown. A number of
arts, adopting many of the aesthetic conceptions set Song poets composed poems about paintings, however,
forth in Ershisi shipin (The twenty-four aspects of poetry) and some of these are found written on the mountings of
by Sikong Tu of the Tang dynasty, a milestone in the handscrolls. The earliest known pieces extant today are
history of poetry criticism. To elucidate such notions attributed to Emperor Huizong (r. 1101—1125), a cele¬
as vigor, thinness, primitive simplicity, elegance, natural¬ brated painter in his own right (see, for instance, fig. 113);
ness, and implicitness, Sikong Tu described natural set¬ among these is the earliest existing example of a painting
tings appropriate to each. Elegance, for instance, could inscribed with a poem composed by the artist himself.
be expressed by depicting scenes with “gentlemen listen¬ Later painters followed suit; the practice became popular
ing to the falling rain in a thatched cottage while drinking during the Yuan dynasty and common during the Ming
from a jade pot; seated gentlemen flanked by tall bamboo and Qing dynasties, when paintings were likely to bear
groves; or floating white clouds and a few birds chasing poetry or other inscriptions.
each other in a sky clearing after rain.”6 That Chinese characters developed from pictographs
Another theory of poetry that proved highly influen¬ led to a belief that painting and calligraphy had a
tial among literati-painters and art critics was set forth by common origin. Recent archaeological findings have es¬
Mei Yaochen, a Song poet who sought to achieve “depth tablished that in fact painting appeared before the inven¬
and primitive simplicity” in his works. Once he remarked tion of script. It remains true, however, that there is a
that poems “must be able to portray hard-to-catch scenes close connection between calligraphy and painting: both
as if they leap up before the eyes, and imply meaning be¬ involve brushwork, and inscribing a painting requires
tween the lines. A masterpiece is superior even to this.”7 knowing how to write beautiful script.
By “meaning between the lines” he referred to something Over time, literati, who were well versed in calligraphy,
the author had in mind and the reader could perceive employed in their paintings brushwork techniques af¬
only by intuition, that is, a meaning that could be appre¬ fected by their calligraphic style, and came to see the
hended but not expressed. The literati-artists saw the ap¬ form and content of the inscription as an integral part of

plicability of this idea to painting. the painting. Drawn to the art of calligraphy, they began

Approaches to Chinese Painting 3

 to pay close attention in painting to the aesthetic appeal Using seals, however practical, added aesthetic appeal
of lines and to the distinctive ways of doing brushwork, to the paintings, as literati-painters realized. The scarlet
instead of just employing lines to compose forms. Xie stamp could enliven a picture otherwise dull in color, and
He, in his Six Principles of painting, introduced terms to the choice of seal indicated certain interests and values of
evaluate brushwork.8 In the Yuan dynasty, Zhao Mengfu the painter, often with subtle cultural, personal, or politi¬
(1254-1322) inscribed a poem on a painting of rocks and cal implications. Qian Xuan (ca. 1235—before 1307), for
bamboo that concluded with the statement that calligra¬ example, had a seal that read “brush and ink game,” im¬
phy and painting are identical (see fig. 173). Later artists plying that his paintings were for self-amusement. Most
did not take this view but instead cultivated a distinctive painters had their seals carved or cast by artisans, but
personal calligraphic style that was naturally reflected in some made their own.
their paintings. Shen Zhou (1427—1509), for example, The incorporation of seals into pictures made Chinese
who modeled his calligraphy on Huang Tingjian’s, exe¬ painting into a comprehensive art that combines several
cuted paintings with the bold and vigorous brushstrokes others. A painting is often the joint product of a painter,
characteristic of Huang’s script (see fig. 203). Others a poet, a calligrapher, and a seal maker. In exceptional
whose painting style shows similarities with their calli¬ cases, as with Wu Changshuo and Qi Baishi (1864—1957),
graphic style are Wen Zhengming (1470—1559), Zhao the painters are well versed in all these arts themselves
Zhiqian (1829—1884), and Wu Changshuo (1844—1927) (see, for example, fig. 291). This bringing together of so
(see figs. 204, 282, 284). many art forms ultimately became the most characteristic
The inscription on a painting accentuates and comple¬ feature of Chinese painting and the reason why so many
ments the image. In the Song and Yuan periods, paint¬ works resonate with the culture and civilization of China.
ings were usually inscribed after completion to fill up any Just as Chinese paintings are enriched by the manifold
remaining space, but in the Ming and Qing periods, skills and vision of several artists, this book, too, is the
placement of the inscription was considered when an product of several minds, but in this case the contribu¬
artist planned the initial composition. In some works the tors come from varying cultural backgrounds. Readers
inscribed poem is essential to creating the perfect visual are thus introduced here to a greater diversity of view¬
effect. In Bamboo and Rock by Zheng Xie (1693—1766), for points and methods than they would receive from any
example, the gray lines and gradations of the calligraphy single author. Although scholars inside and outside China
look like the contour lines of the rock (see fig. 262). In working in many fields have learned a great deal from
Fish Swimming by Li Fangying (1695—1755), the poem each other’s approaches, their differences can be of great
hangs vertically like a riverbank. value in stimulating discussion, raising new questions,
Seals, which typically imprint characters engraved in and offering various ways to explore the same topic. In
an ancient calligraphic style, likewise enhance a painting. preparing the manuscript for this book, all of us authors
The practice of affixing seals possibly originated with contributed points of view. At the same time, through
collectors who stamped their seals on collections to des¬ meetings and reviews of each other’s work, we shaped
ignate ownership. According to the Xuanhe huapu, paint¬ our chapters to provide continuity and consistency in the
ings executed before the Tang dynasty were not stamped. book as a whole. The intensive collaboration was an es¬
The Tang emperor Taizong inaugurated the practice timable development in China-U.S. cultural and scholarly
by having his seals applied to paintings in the imperial exchanges, but our goal was to provide an understand¬
household. During the Northern Song, painters began to ing of the historical evolution of Chinese painting, along
stamp their own works, often to guard against forgery. with a bouquet of exquisite paintings to enjoy.

4 Approaches to Chinese Painting

Approaches to Chinese Painting

part ii James Cahill

The awesome antiquity and continuity of Chinese civi¬ the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., from Italian
lization, and the unmatched fullness of its written record, primitives to Picasso, and hearing him complain that
are generally recognized, and its painting tradition is of the paintings all looked more or less alike, besides not
a corresponding magnitude. It is the only tradition in exhibiting much variety in their brushwork. A book
world art that can rival the European painting tradition in like the present one aims, among other things, at carry¬
the sheer quantity and diversity of its output, the number ing its careful readers beyond that stage with Chinese
of recorded artists of note, and the complexity of aes¬ paintings, sensitizing them to qualities that may not
thetic issues attached to it, as well as the sophistication of be apparent to casual viewers but that differentiate the
the written literature that accompanies it through the paintings strongly, so that they no longer “all look alike.”
centuries. All this richness and diversity, however, may But viewers may also find it necessary to adjust their
not be immediately apparent to a newcomer who walks expectations and their vision, as one would in going from
unprepared through the Chinese painting galleries of a concert hall in which a Beethoven symphony is being
even a major museum with an excellent collection. I can performed to a smaller room where a string quartet is
recall the experience of emerging from a great loan exhi¬ playing Mozart.
bition of European oil paintings at the Metropolitan Even after we have made allowances for different con¬
Museum of Art to enter its Chinese painting galleries and ventions of representation, we must grant that Chinese
being shocked at how small and flat and hard to pene¬ painting techniques involve much less of the illusionistic,
trate the Chinese pictures suddenly appeared, even to of giving the viewer a sense of looking through a window
someone like myself who knew them well. (the picture frame) into a space coextensive with the
The truth is that Chinese painting, though not a con¬ viewer’s. The artists do not attempt to locate the viewer
noisseur’s art, does not, on the whole, present its imagery firmly through any such device as single-point perspec¬
with the same forcefulness and immediacy as European tive or, as is typical of many European painters, to render
paintings typically do. In part, this is a matter of immer¬ three-dimensional forms volumetrically on the flat sur¬
sion: an unfamiliar art is always likely to be difficult of ac¬ face through shading and indications of a consistent light
cess at first. I have sometimes recalled, in thinking about source. Chinese paintings are much more likely to read
this problem, the experience of taking a noted Chinese primarily as configurations of brushstrokes on the pic¬
artist and connoisseur who had recently arrived in the ture plane, without much opening back into depth. But
United States through the European painting galleries of the same can be said of most of the best twentieth-
 century Western paintings—or perhaps it would be truer much the way one interpretation of a piano piece differs

to say that in both, calculated tensions between surface from another. The truth is that an “imitation” can be very

and depth and between image and abstraction are what free, to the point where its relation to the claimed model

engage the viewer’s vision most powerfully. If Chinese is hard to discern; the creativity of the artist is in no sense

paintings seemed technically inept to Western viewers of compromised. The great late-Ming landscapist Dong

the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries because of their Qichang, for instance, if one only reads his pronounce¬

failings in illusionism, they can look all the more modern ments, could be misunderstood to be a conservative and

to us now. derivative master; in fact, he was a revolutionary, as inno¬

But that approach has its pitfalls, too. To those more vative as Cezanne or Picasso, and as complex and freely
seriously engaged with Chinese culture, seeing Chinese manipulative in his uses of the past. It is true enough, on
paintings as modern can seem a matter of trivializing the other hand, that studying and copying old masters
them, ignoring their original meanings. To appreciate the was essential to a Chinese artist’s early development—
paintings completely, they would argue, demands a lot of some reached middle age before they emerged from this
special knowledge and acquired visual skills. This is true, imitative stage to establish their own schools.
so far as it goes; and to list all the kinds of knowledge and That Chinese paintings were not intended to be read
skills demanded would surely discourage any neophyte illusionistically as windows into another space is empha¬
enthusiast from addressing the subject at all. Chinese sized by the artists themselves in their practice of writing
artists, to be sure, love to hark back to earlier painting in inscriptions prominently on them, as well as by contem¬
their styles, appealing to the knowing viewer with learned porary and later litterateurs who also inscribed poems
allusions, like the stylistic echoes of the past in poetry by and words of appreciation on the works themselves and
Pound and Eliot or in some paintings by Picasso. They by later collectors who impressed their seals on them in
can call on an assumed mastery in their cultivated audi¬ red. The seals and inscriptions can be a distraction for a
ence of an extensive store of esoteric references to their viewer unaccustomed to the presence of such extraneous
history and literature, as well as to the doctrines of Con¬ markings on a painting, for they tend to hold the atten¬
fucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Those of us who tion on the surface instead of allowing it to be drawn into
write about Chinese painting, including the six authors of the picture. The Chinese seem able to tune out the mark¬
this book, try to fill in these allusions and references as ings, much as theatergoers can become oblivious to the
best we can for the paintings we discuss; but it is some¬ proscenium arch and the surrounding audience when
times like explaining a pun or a joke — the discussion watching a play. One adjusts quickly to the conventions
turns academic and bogs down. What saves this situation of any art. For Chinese connoisseurs, in fact, seals and in¬
is the capacity of Chinese paintings to appeal on various scriptions provide added dimensions and depths to the
levels, including the more or less intuitive and purely aes¬ experience of viewing a painting.
thetic. Responses on this level are by no means trivial, The artist’s own inscription can be a poem, or a prose
nor are they simply an opening wedge to what lies be¬ account of the circumstances under which the work was
yond; they can be as intense and as true to the artist’s done, or some combination of these; it often includes
deepest purpose as anything that art affords. We special¬ a dedication to some designated recipient and a date,
ists have become accustomed to hearing from people sometimes with a note on what old master is being “imi¬
with no special background in Chinese culture who find, tated.” Informative and literary inscriptions of this kind
nonetheless, that a serious engagement with Chinese are more often written by literati or scholar-amateur
paintings has changed their lives. masters on their works; there are ordinarily shorter art¬
On the matter of the traditionalism of Chinese paint¬ ists’ inscriptions, sometimes only signatures and seals, on
ing, it is important not to take too literally the claims of paintings by professionals. Longer inscriptions, if written
Chinese artists that they are imitating the past—a claim in an elegant script, can demonstrate the cultivated art¬
that had the function of legitimizing their practice in the ist’s accomplishments in the so-called Three Perfections:
eyes of their original audiences. Nor should we slip, as poetry, calligraphy, and painting. These, again, are usually
even the best Western critics and theorists have some¬ the prerogative of the literati. When the painting is ac¬
times done (Ernest Gombrich; more recently, Arthur companied by, or inscribed with, a series of poems by the
Danto), into the belief that in later periods Chinese paint¬ painter’s contemporaries, we can usually assume that it
ing is basically a performance art, a playing out of varia¬ was team-produced as a composite work according to a
tions on set themes, one work differing from another preset program for presentation to a particular recipient,

6 Approaches to Chinese Painting

perhaps on a birthday or some other auspicious occasion. The distinction between the professional artists, for
When the later inscriptions are prose appreciations of the whom painting was a vocation and livelihood, and the
painting, on the other hand, they are often mounted apart cultivated amateurs who in theory painted as a leisure¬
from it—above or below it in a hanging scroll or follow¬ time activity with no thought of profit, giving their works
ing it in a handscroll — and are known as colophons. away freely to friends, is basic to Chinese discussions of
Seals are blocks or sculpted pieces of (usually) soft painting and reflects, however overneatly, a social and
stone with the text—the user’s name or studio name or a economic reality. All our attempts to blur it or ignore it
motto — carved in archaic characters (seal script) into do not make it go away. Much study has been done in re¬
one flattened end, either in relief or in intaglio. The seal cent years on this aspect of Chinese painting, and inter¬
stone is patted on a fibrous pad inked with vermilion pig¬ ested readers can find some of it conveniently assembled
ment in an oil base, and then impressed onto the surface in the collection of essays Artists and Patrons (1991), edited
of the painting. Seal impressions on paintings, if not the by Chu-tsing Li and others, or my own book The Painter’s
artist’s, ordinarily record ownership, and by identifying Practice (1994 — see Further Readings for both). The
them, the knowledgeable viewer can ascertain which col¬ class of learned Chinese known as literati (wenren) re¬
lections the painting has passed through. If these are well ceived a Confucian education in the Classics and were ex¬
known and distinguished (and judged to be genuine — pected to at least attempt the state examinations that led
seals are widely counterfeited), the value of the work is to bureaucratic careers as officials, careers that would en¬
correspondingly enhanced. On old and famous paintings rich and empower themselves and their families. But cir¬
seal impressions often seem to crowd the imagery of the cumstances often prevented the realization of this ideal:
picture. Collectors of good taste kept their seals small and failure in the examinations, disinclination to serve under
confined their use to the corners; arrogant collectors and an alien regime (as in the Mongol Yuan dynasty), and,
emperors impressed large, showy seals in all the available especially for the later periods when education became
spaces. All these together, poems and colophons and more widespread, a huge oversupply of educated and
artists’ inscriptions and seals, can make the full apprecia¬ qualified would-be officeholders, far more than the civil
tion of a Chinese painting, for the cognoscenti, a very service could absorb. Failed would-be officials, if they
rich and complex procedure, much more than simply en¬ could not rely on family wealth and landholdings, had
joying it as a picture or admiring the artist’s skill. to make their living in other ways, as teachers, as pro¬
Since the traditional Chinese critics who wrote the fessional writers, as doctors, diviners, scribes, or artists.
notes of appreciation and the theoretical texts were Those among them who became painters thus found
themselves literati, more or less by definition, and since themselves outside the traditional amateur-professional
virtually all of them practiced calligraphy, we should rec- pattern and had to create new social roles for themselves.
ogni2e their understandable bias in favor of literati paint¬ For the straightforward professional artists, in con¬
ing, their emphasis on brushwork and other features that trast— those who made this choice or had it thrust upon
painting shares with calligraphy (they love to tell us, quite them while young, without ever receiving a classical edu¬
misleadingly, that painting and calligraphy are a single cation or seriously aspiring to official rank— opportuni¬
art), their disdain for “form-likeness” and technical skills ties were more limited. They were trained through an
that can be learned instead of being innate or being apprenticeship, typically in the atelier of some local
produced by Confucian self-cultivation. We Western spe¬ master, and until they distinguished themselves and tran¬
cialists have frequenfly echoed these literati-biased views, scended that status through their individual achieve¬
consciously or unconsciously, failing to see how incom¬ ments, were regarded as “artisan-painters,” not unlike
patible they are with our own quite justified admiration lacquer workers or makers of furniture. If they attained
for the achievements of the great professional and acad¬ extraordinary recognition and acclaim in their native
emy masters of the Song period and later—achieve¬ places, they might be recommended to the court by some
ments that depend on exactly the painterly techniques official or minister from the same district and enter the
and breathtaking representational skills dismissed so Imperial Painting Academy (the term is used loosely to
lightly by the Chinese literati. Both Chinese and foreign designate groups of artists active at court), which was
specialists today are trying to reach more balanced judg¬ staffed in this way by painters from various locales. Short
ments of the different kinds and modes of Chinese paint¬ of achieving court status, professionals sought patronage
ing— professional or amateur, technically proficient or from the affluent elite in the cities, producing paintings

rough and spontaneous. on commission or ready-mades for sale from the studio,

Approaches to Chinese Painting 7

usually with seasonal and auspicious themes, to fill the the same scene (a river landscape with trees and distant
needs of special occasions or simply to hang as decora¬ hills) painted over and over again.
tive works. Landscape painting of this kind, however, was a later
Another of the literati’s prejudices was against func¬ and special phenomenon; in the great tradition of the
tionalism. Just as they themselves were generalists in early periods landscape painting in China was a very dif¬
their official careers, receiving little specialist training in ferent art, produced under very different premises and
administrative practice, they placed the highest value conditions. Landscape as a subject in itself, not just a set¬
on works of art that, in their view, rose above the ting or context for human activities or a background to
merely functional. The paintings they themselves pro¬ religious images and the like, begins its rise as a separate
duced were far narrower in theme than the repertoires genre around the ninth century and reaches what most
expected of capable professionals and included ink would consider the height of its development in the Five
monochrome paintings of bamboo, orchids, blossoming Dynasties and Song periods, in the tenth to thirteenth
plum branches, old trees, and other plant subjects, for centuries. While other subject categories, such as Bud¬
which the technical demands of representation were rela¬ dhist and Daoist paintings, secular figure painting, and
tively modest and easily within grasp for people who had bird-and-flower and animal paintings continued to be
already mastered the use of brush and ink through prac¬ produced on a high level by specialist artists and by the
ticing calligraphy. These subjects all carried symbolic versatile professionals, landscape dominated the critical
meanings, signifying especially the virtues attributed to discussions, ignited the passions of collectors, and ab¬
the scholar-gentleman: bamboo stood for uprightness, sorbed the creative energies of most of the best artists
simplicity, and “hollow-heartedness,” that is, freedom from that time on. The creation of the monumental land¬
from desires that muddled one’s consciousness; the Chi¬ scape mode in the Five Dynasties and Northern Song pe¬
nese orchid (lanhua), which grows in secluded places and riods in the hands of a succession of great masters and its
spreads a subtle fragrance, stood for modesty and some¬ transformation into a quieter, more lyrical imagery in the
times for the scholar-official neglected or undervalued Southern Song, especially within the court academy, are
by his ruler; the pine and other evergreen trees stood dealt with in the chapter on those periods in this book.
for steadfastness in adversity, and so forth. Accordingly, Some writers on the early history of Chinese landscape
paintings of these subjects were ideal as small gifts for painting like to locate its origins within particular reli¬
fellow literati, often carrying messages that pertained to gious and philosophical systems, especially Buddhist and
the recipient’s situation. They were given by artists as Daoist, and suggest that the mountains appearing in early
gifts in an intricate and very Chinese system of receiving paintings are, on the deepest level, sacred mountains.
and repaying favors or currying favor from superiors — a While many of them doubtless are, writers taking a
system that somewhat belies the literati insistence on the soberer view, truer to the surviving materials, see early
high-minded, disinterested creation of paintings. landscape imagery in China as polysemous and diverse in
Besides plants, the literati artists favored landscapes its roots. Trees and rocks in early pictorial art indicate
that similarly did not impose the requirement of long stu¬ an outdoor location; more tightly organized landscape
dio training on the painter. As done by the literati, land¬ settings are developed later for historical and legendary
scape paintings tended to be “pure,” without narrative narratives. In all these paintings, scenes that might be
themes or prominent and distinctive figural subjects. termed Confucian, moralistic and secular, are found at
Such figures and houses as were represented were of a least as commonly as those with Buddhist or Daoist
highly conventional character. In these paintings the themes. The truth is that landscape imagery in China,
viewer was expected to admire the brushwork, the from beginning to end, is an open signifier into which a
“touch” of the individual artist, which was taken to ex¬ diversity of meanings can be fitted, with appropriate al¬
press his personality and cultivation; sophisticated allu¬ terations and additions, often including inscriptions that
sions to the styles of old masters, meant to signify the clarify the particular purpose to which the nature imagery
upper-class status of both artist and viewer, for com¬ is being put on this particular occasion. Sweeping claims
moners had no access to antique paintings; and a degree about the nature and origin of Chinese landscape repre¬
of compositional inventiveness, which rescued from sentations, then, can be of only limited application with
dullness or true repetitiveness the oeuvres of artists like regard to actual works of art.
Ni Zan in the Yuan period and Dong Qichang in the late The basic media of Chinese painting are brush, ink,
Ming, which might otherwise be said to consist largely of pigments, and a ground, usually silk or paper. (The excel-

Approaches to Chinese Painting

lent book by Jerome Silbergeld titled Chinese Painting Style Dry brushwork is done by loading the brush lightly with
[1982] gives a full account of these aspects of the art and ink that has partly dried on the inkstone and applying it
is strongly recommended to any reader who wants to with a light touch, usually to paper (because of its tex¬
know more.) Chinese ink takes the form of solid cakes, tured surface), for an effect that can be like charcoal or
made by mixing soot with glue and pressing the mixture pencil drawing. For wet brushwork, the brush is loaded
into a mold. The soot comes from burning either wood, more heavily with liquid ink and applied so that the indi¬
especially pine wood, or oil and must be refined to re¬ vidual strokes, traces of the movement of the brush, can
move impurities, leaving only a fine carbon dust. The ink be obliterated. Silk is more suited to finer styles and to
cake is rubbed with a little water on a specially chosen heavily colored painting, since the mineral pigments ad¬
and shaped inkstone, which can be either stone or ce¬ here better to its surface, and repeatedly rolling up the
ramic, to produce the ink for writing and painting. The scroll is less likely to make the paint flake off. Accord¬
pigments are similarly made from powdered mineral or ingly, the masterworks of academy and professional
plant substances in a glue base. The Chinese brush is painters are more likely to be on silk, and the creations of
composed of carefully selected animal hairs formed into the literati masters on paper.
a conical clump and fixed into the end of a bamboo tube; The original style of Chinese painting, seen in the
the outer hairs are softer, since they hold the ink or pig¬ earliest examples that survive, combines fine-line de¬
ment, and the center ones stiffer, to give resilience to the lineation of forms—with an emphasis on contours but
tip. The papers used for painting and calligraphy are also some interior drawing—with washes of color.
made from a variety of fibers (not, as myth has it, from This outline-and-color mode persists through the Tang
rice) and, on the whole, combine the virtues of toughness dynasty, after which it slips into a conservative and some¬
and lustrousness with a capacity to age without much dis¬ times archaistic status, while the most innovative ten¬
coloration, especially if the scroll is kept rolled up most dencies in painting are developing in other directions.
of the time and not exposed to air and dust. Silk, when Around the tenth century, artists began to develop sys¬
the artist paints on it, is the buff or ivory tone of raw silk tems of repeated brushstrokes that render texture and
today; with the passage of time and exposure it darkens, tactile surfaces. In landscape painting, the cun, or texture
often to the point of making the image difficult to dis¬ strokes (literally, “wrinkles”), define geologically the vari¬
cern. Both silk and paper are usually sized with an alum ous rocky and earthy masses in landscape imagery; in
mixture to make their surfaces less absorbent, so that the bird-and-animal painting, fine strokes are patiently ap¬
ink will not soak into them and diffuse to blur the brush¬ plied to differentiate the special plumages of birds and
stroke. fur of animals. Uneven applications of such strokes also
The special qualities of the Chinese artists’ tools and serve as a kind of shading to give an effect of convexity to
materials have a lot to do with painting style. The reser¬ the forms.
voir in the brush can hold enough ink to allow the draw¬ Accompanying this shift—in fact, inseparable from
ing of long, continuous lines, which since the tip is so it—is a shift from the colorful styles either to the ink
fine and the brush is held perpendicular to the surface, monochrome mode or to ink painting with only light
can move in any direction without altering in breadth. washes of warm and cool colors. Here, again, the Chinese
The artist can also choose, however, to use a line that critics and theorists formulate a rhetoric about the su¬
fluctuates in breadth, thickening when the brush is periority of ink monochrome to colorful painting, just
pressed down, thinning when it is raised. A boundless as they do for the purported superiority of rough, spon¬
repertory of special brushstrokes can be achieved by taneous, amateurish styles to the technically finished.
varying the angle of brush to paper and the ways the These arguments tend to take on a moralistic tone: color¬
brush is inked and moved, applied and raised; a single ful painting is intended to please the eye and increase the
stroke can be made to render a bamboo leaf or a section attractiveness of the work and is thus meretricious; ink
of bamboo stalk, and at the hands of a master, a few monochrome reveals the inner structure of the thing de¬
seemingly casual strokes can produce a strikingly vivid picted instead of only the outer appearance, and so forth.
image of an old tree or a bird. Especially in the later peri¬ The formulations owe more to ready-made rhetorical po¬
ods, when the attention of both artists and viewers is of¬ sitions than to observation and evaluation of the paint¬
ten directed more toward the hand of the artist, the facture ings. Meanwhile, the artists made their choices (as always)
of the work, than toward its imagery, the distinction be¬ according to what suited their representational and ex¬
tween “dry” and “wet” brushwork becomes important. pressive purposes, with little regard, we can assume, for

Approaches to Chinese Painting 9

 those grand theoretical pronouncements in which light over the whole length. Because the pictorial materials in a
and dark in painting are equated with the cosmological handscroll are seen over a stretch of time and in an order
forces of yin and yang, or the rough-brush styles are seen dictated by the artist, temporal sequence can be joined to
as direct manifestations of a Chan (Zen) mode of experi¬ spatial extension in ways that cannot be matched in West¬
encing the world — even though, like artists today, they ern easel painting. Because the experience of viewing a
may well have repeated these when asked about what Chinese handscroll takes place over a demarcated stretch
they were up to. of time, it has frequently been likened to listening to
We know from texts and from some surviving ex¬ a piece of music or seeing a film; but since neither of
amples, mosdy fragmentary, that large compositions in these — at least until the advent of technology that dis¬
the form of wall and screen paintings were favored in the torts their character — accords the listener or viewer the
early stages of the art. The forms with which we are most options of pausing, speeding, or slowing, or going back¬
familiar in recent times, the hanging scroll and hand- ward and forward at will, a better analogy is probably
scroll, appear only in later centuries, along with album with reading a long poem. Long handscrolls present
leaves and small paintings of a distinctive shape made to problems for exhibition in museums, because the original
be mounted on flat fans. Early screens, which are de¬ and proper way of seeing them cannot easily be repro¬
picted in many old pictures, are mostly of the standing, duced there, and they are usually shown full-length or
horizontally rectangular kind, with the painting done on a with as much exposed as will fit into a case. The same
single surface; but the screen made up of a series of tall, problem arises in publications like this one, where repro¬
vertical panels usually forming a continuous composi¬ ducing the entire work as a narrow horizontal strip across
tion, like the Japanese folding screen that derived from it, the page means that each section is postage-stamp size.
is also of early origin in China. The folding fan, by con¬ Reproducing only a portion of the composition, large
trast, originated in Japan and appears in Chinese painting enough for details and brushwork to be read, is ordinarily
only from the fifteenth century. the best compromise, for the episodic nature of most
The hanging scroll is meant to be hung on the wall and handscroll compositions allows a part to stand effectively
viewed all at once and can remain on display for extended for the whole.
periods, simply as decoration or as a seasonal and auspi¬ As I noted at the beginning of this chapter, the huge
cious exhibit. The handscroll, by contrast, is opened — surviving corpus of Chinese paintings is accompanied
unrolled — only when someone means to view it and is by a correspondingly abundant and sophisticated critical,
rolled up again afterward, much as a book is opened, theoretical, and art-historical literature, which, if it were
read, and closed. It takes the form of a long, horizontal better known, would be envied by specialists in Western
roll, usually consisting of a succession of pieces of silk art. (For the periods through the fourteenth century, it is
and paper bearing passages of calligraphy and painting, conveniently and excellently excerpted and discussed in
all joined together by paste and a continuous paper back¬ Early Chinese Texts on Painting, compiled and edited by
ing. One views it at arm’s length on a table, holding the Susan Bush and Hsio-yen Shih [1985].) These Chinese
still-unseen rolled-up part in the left hand, pulling it out texts, properly interpreted, can take us a long way toward
and rerolling with the right hand, so that the writing and understanding and appreciating Chinese paintings in
painting move rightward beneath one’s gaze, and one something like the way their original audiences did. At
sees only what will fit between one’s extended hands, the same time, they do not answer all our questions, if
wherever one chooses to stop. A handscroll is obviously only because the questions they implicitly pose and ad¬
an ideal vehicle for a long text, since Chinese writing is dress are not the same as ours. Chinese writers on paint¬
done in vertical columns read from right to left, and it ing, then and now, concentrate on the individual master,
probably originated as that. In painting, it is especially his (seldom her) biography, his place in large stylistic
suited to illustrated texts, in which writing and picture al¬ lineages and other groupings, and the particular charac¬
ternate; to narratives, in which successive scenes of the teristics and strengths of his works. Books that can be
story appear as one unrolls; and to landscape panoramas, considered general histories of painting were composed
in which the viewer takes an imaginary journey through a from the ninth century through the twelfth but after
continuous terrain. that gave way to collections that provided information
The scroll form imposes certain spatial and other and opinions on individual painters and were organized
conventions on the artist, such as the moving vantage around such lists.
point—a single, located viewpoint cannot be sustained Larger issues continue to be discussed, often vehe-

xo Approaches to Chinese Painting

mently; but to chart these in detail it is necessary to cal or regional schools. Some of the schools are specific
draw together the contending voices from many written to cities — the Wu (Suzhou) School in the Ming, the
sources — collected literary works, miscellanies, and colo¬ Nanjing School in the early Qing. Others are regional,
phons still attached to paintings or recorded elsewhere. such as the Anhui School in the early Qing, which was
No single Ming or Qing writer or book even attempts to not located in any particular city and can even be seen as
comprehend them all or to present the different view¬ extending beyond the boundaries of Anhui Provinca
points fairly. Together, however, they provide us with proper. The Zhe School in the Ming is even less definable
clues to the controversies that increasingly characterized geographically—it is named after the homeplace of the
discussions of paintings in the later centuries, reflect¬ artist credited as its founder, Dai Jin, but the painters
ing the regional, socioeconomic, stylistic, and other alle¬ associated with it come from a diversity of centers. It
giances of the artists and writers. (The opening of my is easy enough to dismiss such groupings as ill defined
book The Distant Mountains [1982], pp. 3 — 30, outlines or even meaningless; but these formulations, like most
these controversies for the late Ming period.) Any partic¬ other formulations by the Chinese, have a real basis
ular writer states his argument as self-evident and un¬ in observed stylistic and art-historical phenomena and,
shakable, so it is only when they are brought together properly understood, can be useful in organizing the be-
that the dynamic pattern of tensions between opposing wilderingly huge and diverse corpus of Chinese painting.
views and factions emerges. Chinese scholars today, pur¬ The same is true of the numerical listings of artists which
suing the “harmonizing mode” that is traditionally valued Chinese writers are also fond of: the Eight Masters of
in their culture, are inclined to play down the tensions; Jinling (Nanjing), the Four Masters of Xin’an (Anhui),
Western scholars, seeing these as productive of a lively the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou, and the like. Again,
interplay of ideas, tend to bring them to the fore. these are easy to criticize — those who do so point out
Chinese writers on painting construct stylistic lineages that the artists included did not all know each other
into which artists and paintings are recognized to fit; a or did not all come from Yangzhou and that different
good connoisseur, along with judging authenticity, will writers do not include the same artists in their lists. The
typically identify a painting as “in the style of” a certain lists are primarily mnemonic devices; once memorized,
old master or declare the artist to have been so-and-so’s they allow one to recall who were the most prominent
follower. Such a stylistic lineage begins when some major painters active in mid-seventeenth-century Nanjing or
artist, after spending his early years copying and learning, eighteenth-century Yangzhou. As such, they are useful,
gives the inherited lineage “one turn” (jihian), sending provided one does not misunderstand the “school” (pai)
it off in a different direction and “establishing his own to be, like some schools in modern European painting,
house” (pichengjijia), what English speakers would call an association formed by the artists themselves with an
founding a school. Followers of the master would then agreed-on aesthetic and stylistic basis.
carry on this tradition with more or less fidelity or indi¬ Many of the matters touched on in this introduction
vidual contribution. The further the remove from the will be reintroduced in the chapters that follow, in refer¬
original master, the more the style tends to slip into a ence to particular periods, schools, artists, and paintings.
mannerist hardness and to lose in naturalism, because the But we can see from the discussion so far that there
successive generations of followers are imitating learned are some differences between traditional Chinese ap¬
forms instead of depicting visual forms of nature. This proaches to painting and the concerns and methods that
pattern is typical of the traditional masters and schools of characterize foreign scholarship on the subject. The dif¬
the early period but applies in some degree to later artists ferences have diminished somewhat in recent years as
and schools as well. On the whole, however, post-Song Chinese and foreign scholars have had more opportuni¬
painters and those who write about them put more stress ties for interaction and learning from each other, and will
on individuality of style and brushwork, largely in re¬ no doubt diminish still more in the future. But even
sponse to the growing dominance of the doctrines of though a proponent of any particular method or ap¬
literati painting, a dominance that operates even when proach on either side may be prone to see it as the “best”
the artists in question do not properly belong to the or “right” approach (much as Dong Qichang could iden¬
literati class. tify a “right” or “orthodox” way to depict landscape), a
Another kind of classification used by Chinese writers diversity of viewpoints on such an inexhaustible set of
on painting, this one horizontal rather than vertical, syn¬ problems is surely healthy, and we should not aim at any
chronic rather than diachronic, is the identification of lo¬ grand synthesis or overriding homogeneity of scholarly

Approaches to Chinese Painting 11

methods. The present book has the advantage of includ¬
ing sections that reflect the special ways Chinese and
non-Chinese scholars write about art and construct their
histories of it, besides reflecting the approaches and
styles of the six authors individually. Because of the spe¬
cial high-level U.S.-China cooperation that brought it
into being, we authors are also privileged to introduce
a great many works in Chinese collections to foreign
readers for whom they will be mostly unfamiliar and in
some cases exciting. I hope that this auspicious begin¬
ning will be followed by many more cooperative projects
of this kind.

Detail, figure 288 (opposite)

Approaches to Chinese Painting

 WU HUNG

The Origins of Chinese Painting

(Paleolithic Period to Tang Dynasty)

rt historians have had a persistent desire to trace the beginning of Chinese

/ m Painting- Writing in the ninth century, Zhang Yanyuan opened the first com-

/ ^prehensive history of Chinese painting with an account of a legendary era

JL when writing and painting were unified in pictographs. He contended

that the separation of image from word in early historical times initiated

painting as an independent art. But “not until the Qin [221—206 b.c.] and

Han [206 b.c.—a.d. 220] dynasties could one talk about the subtlety of

painting”; and only after great masters emerged during the Wei (220 — 265)

and Jin (265—420) dynasties did the art reach its maturity.1

This developmental sequence of early Chinese painting proposed more

than a millennium ago still basically holds true. A major difference, however,

is that modern archaeological excavations have accumulated considerable

evidence for prehistoric and early historical pictorial images and are contin¬

ually expanding our knowledge. A few years ago the oldest examples of pic¬

torial images in China were Neolithic flower and animal designs painted on

pottery vessels. Recently, “rock paintings” (yan hua) have been discovered in

many of China’s provinces, allowing historians to trace the origin of Chinese

pictorial art back to Paleolithic times. Chinese archaeologists use the term

yan hua for both engraved and painted petroglyphs, and the finds include

many figurative compositions, sometimes of astonishing dimensions. At

Detail, figure 73 (opposite.); full view, figure 51 (above)

 i. Plants with human faces, engraved petroglyphs in 2. The god of the sun and a sun-priest, painted petroglyphs in
Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, Paleolithic period. 280 X 400 cm. Cangyuan, Yunnan Province, Neolithic period. 60 X 200 cm.

one of the earliest sites, the Yin Mountains in Inner late dates of these pictures; not until Neolithic times were
Mongolia, a composition covers an entire mountain cliff such weapons employed in economic and social life. It is
70 meters high and 120 meters wide. Thousands of such no coincidence that these works show increasingly com¬
compositions, created over a period of ten thousand plex compositions. Now we see, not isolated, static icons,
years, connect and overlap to transform the mountain but juxtaposed figures in action. One interesting petro-
range into a painting gallery three hundred kilometers glyph seems to continue the tradition of depicting the
long from east to west.2 The enormous spatial and tem¬ worship of the sun (fig. 2).3 Instead of being a circle with
poral scale of the works implies the existence of religious rays, however, the heavenly body has an occupant: a
or shamanistic beliefs, which could have sustained the standing figure with a bow in one hand and a stick in the
painstaking effort of many generations of people to carve other. Nearby is a figure wearing a tall, featherlike head¬
millions of images onto stone mountains. Among the dress. This second figure, perhaps a shaman, holds an
earliest line engravings in the Yin Mountains is a round identical bow and stick but in different hands. He thus
face surrounded by rays of light that represents the sun. appears to mirror the figure in the sun and to embody the
Similar round forms exist at Lianyungang, a coastal site sun’s power.
where a primitive farming culture once flourished, but As the compositions increased in complexity, scenes
here they appear as fruits of plants (fig. 1). These and of daily life increased in number. Sometimes a picture il¬
other images seem to reflect a belief, shared over the cen¬ lustrates a single moment in the hunt: an archer with
turies by many prehistoric peoples around the world, that drawn bow aims at a buffalo, goat, deer, or tiger. At other
human beings are part of an animate universe whose times, the artist offers a panoramic view of social life*
components — animals, plants, rivers, mountains, and numerous figures in solid silhouette seem to represent
celestial bodies—all possess a living consciousness. They members of an entire village engaged in group activities.
believe that by transforming the visible world into pic¬ One of the best preserved Cangyuan pictures has a
tures, they can influence the natural processes of life. tripartite structure (fig. 3). The lower section shows a
Rock paintings found at Cangyuan, Yunnan Province, violent battle, the middle section, people’s peaceful co¬
depict human activities, including hunting, dancing, the existence with domestic animals; and the upper section, a
performance of ritual sacrifices, and war. The frequent ritual dance led by a principal figure, whose special status
representation of bows and arrows suggests the relatively is indicated by his or her central position, large size and

16 The Origins of Chinese Painting

unique headdress. The artist must have consciously orga¬
nized these scenes into a hierarchical structure; a short
horizontal line drawn in the middle of the picture indi¬
cates a “ground level” on which domestic fowl stand. Cu¬
riously, in terms of both content and composition, this
picture resembles a much later pictorial representation
on a sixth-century b.c. bronze vessel (see fig. io).
The study of rock paintings has just begun, and many
questions remain. The most serious difficulty lies in es¬
tablishing a reliable chronology. So far only the pigment
of painted scenes can be scientifically examined for dat¬
ing, and various evolutionary sequences largely reflect
each researcher’s aesthetic judgment. The relation be¬
tween these works and later Chinese painting is also un¬
certain. All known petroglyphs are scattered in remote
areas, not in the lower Yellow River and Yangzi River
regions, where the center of Chinese civilization lay.
The discovery of these works does close a huge gap in
the study of Chinese painting, however. These early
depictions, especially those from Paleolithic and early
Neolithic times, testify to a crucial period in artistic evo¬
lution during which great efforts were made to create pic¬
torial forms but when people had not yet developed the
concept of a well-defined picture surface and had very
3. Dancing, herding, and war, painted petroglyphs in Cangyuan,
little sense of the regularity of design. Pictures were exe¬
Yunnan Province, Neolithic period. 360 X 200 cm. (Reprinted
cuted on an unprepared and unlimited ground, and the
from Zhongguo meishu quanji \ZMQ; A comprehensive
artist worked on a field with no set boundaries. collection of Chinese art] [Shanghai and Beijing, 1984-],
The concept of a framed and prepared picture surface Painting, vol. 1, no. 24.)
emerged together with the invention of manufactured
forms — pottery vessels and timber-framed architecture. artist: who decorated a Banpo basin (fig. 5), in contrast,
Once such objects appeared, “the [artist’s] inventive divided the interior surface into quarters for two pairs
imagination recognized their value as grounds, and in of images and likewise divided the rim into eight equal
time gave to pictures and writing on smoothed and sym¬ parts, using alternate symbols to mark the divisions. The
metrical supports a corresponding regularity of direction, Banpo design is thus based, not on the principles of link¬
spacing and grouping, in harmony with the form of the ing and shifting, but on the principles of dividing and
object like the associated ornament of the neighboring echoing. With both styles, however, surface patterns cor¬
parts.” This theory, put forth by the art historian Meyer respond to the shape of the vessel and reinforce its three-
Schapiro, explains the appearance of the architectural dimensionality.
murals and painted pottery vessels of the Yangshao cul¬ A different and even reversed relation between deco¬
ture, a major Neolithic tradition that developed in the ration and shape is demonstrated by other Yangshao ex¬
Yellow River valley from the fifth to third millennia b.c.4 amples. In 1978 an imposing pottery vat almost half a
Scholars have examined the two types of Yangshao pot¬ meter tall was discovered in Linru, Henan Province. Two
tery called Banpo and Miaodigou. Although stratigraphi- principal images dominate the decoration: a huge ax
cal evidence suggests that Miaodigou immediately standing on its handle and a stork with a fish hanging
followed Banpo, their radically different decorative styles from its beak (fig. 6). Unlike most Yangshao decorations,
and design concepts testify to two divergent art tradi¬ these images are not just patterns; they are life drawings.
tions. On a Miaodigou pottery basin, for example, a se¬ The painting technique is also unusually sophisticated.
ries of spirals and arcs are painted in a broad horizontal The artist used the color white to draw the flat silhouette
band (fig. 4). The fluid and dynamic patterns lead the of each image, then outlined the ax and fish with black
viewer’s gaze to travel smoothly around the vessel. The ink and elaborated the ax, adding details and even creat-

The Origins of Chinese Painting 17

 4- Painted Miaodigou pottery basin, from Shanxian, Henan 5. Painted Banpo pottery basin with human face and fish
Province, 5th millennium b.c. 20 cm high, 33.3 cm in diameter at patterns, from Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, 5 th millennium b.c,

the mouth. (Reprinted from ZMQ, Ceramics, vol. 1, no. 16.) 19.3 cm high, 44 cm in diameter at the mouth. (Reprinted
from ZMQ, Ceramics, vol. 1, no. 4.)

ing some incised patterns on the handle. The stork, in

contrast, remains a pure white silhouette against the red¬
dish background. The stylistic contrast between the ax
and the succinct bird seems to attest to the artist’s for¬
mal concerns. Most significant, the artist placed all the
images on one side of the vessel and thus determined
a single angle for viewing. In this sense, the round vat
was treated as a flat picture surface. The images, strictly
speaking, are no longer decoration subordinate to the
three-dimensional object but the subject of a painting.
During the third and second millennia b.c., the focus
of Yangshao culture gradually shifted to the northwest,
where, in present-day Gansu and Qinghai Provinces,
three brilliant regional cultures arose: Majiayao, Machang,
and Banshan. The trademark of these cultures is a bulky
jar decorated with complex designs that integrate various
motifs — circles, waves, spirals, and even anthropomor¬
phic forms — into a highly organic whole. The old Yang¬
shao base in the central plain was now occupied by
branches of the Longshan culture, an eastern tradition
that favored monochromic vessels with impressed or re¬
lief patterns. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that
when bronze art developed in this area dominated by the
Longshan tradition, the main decorative elements were
impressed and relief zoomorphs, not painted designs.
Thousands of Shang (ca. 1600-ca. 1100 b.c.) and West¬
ern Zhou (ca. 1100-771 b.c.) bronzes have survived,
creating an impression that the art of painting was at a 6. Pottery vat with images of a stork, a fish, and a stone ax,
from Linru, Shanxian, Henan Province, 4th millennium b.c.
low ebb during the second and first millennia b.c. But a
47 cm high, 32.7 cm in diameter at the mouth. Henan Provincial
more plausible assumption may be that during this pe¬ Museum.
riod painting was no longer associated with vessels made
of solid clay or metal but with the perishable media of
wood and fabric.

18 The Origins of Chinese Painting

 7. Tiger, lacquer painting, from Tomb 1001 in Houjiazhuang, Anyang, Henan Province, 13th century b.c.
(Courtesy of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taibei.)

Traces of painted cloth and silk have been found are a figurative sketch from Dadiwan, Gansu Province,
at more than one Shang burial site. In Tomb 2 near and geometric patterns on the walls of a Neolithic house
Luoyang, Henan Province, a large piece of cotton cloth in Guyuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.7 Both are
three meters wide and four meters long originally cov¬ related to the painted pottery of the Yangshao culture,
ered the entire grave pit. The decoration consisted of which was absorbed into Shang-Zhou metropolitan art.
multicolored geometric patterns painted with a soft Archaeologists have found remains of wall paintings
brush. A piece of painted silk from nearby Tomb 15 9 was both above ground and underground in the capital areas
used as a wall hanging.5 But fewer painted textiles have of these two dynasties in the middle Yellow River region.8
been discovered so far than wooden objects decorated Like contemporary lacquer paintings, one Shang mural
with lacquer patterns. The excavations of Shang royal has images delineated in contrasting black and red. Its
mausoleums in Anyang in the 1920s and 1930s first en¬ unique value lies in the careful preparation of the surface:
abled scholars to identify and reconstruct some lacquered the wall was covered with a layer of clay mixed with
wood objects created on a grand scale, including a two- pieces of straw, then coated with sandy mortar, and finally
meter-long carrying stand from Tomb 1001 and a large plastered with white lime. This technique would be em¬
drum from Tomb 1027. Fragments of lacquer patterns on ployed by Chinese mural painters for the next two thou¬
walls and floors of burial chambers further suggest that sand years.
the graves of Shang kings originally had colorful wall
panels and that their huge coffins were covered with or¬
nate zoomorphic and geometric motifs (fig. 7). Since the
The Eastern Zhou, Qin,
Anyang excavations, remains of lacquer paintings have and Han Dynasties
been found in various regions — in Panlongcheng in the
south and Gaocheng in the north.6 Evidendy, lacquer en¬ All these early pictorial forms, styles, and media con¬
joyed great popularity as a painting medium at the time; tributed to the rapid development of painting during the
its two basic colors — black and red — create an in¬ Eastern Zhou (770—256 b.c.), often described as a pe¬
tense color contrast. Painted lacquerware and musical in¬ riod of cultural renaissance. Among the hundreds of ex¬
struments were originally displayed together with shining quisite objects from the famous tomb of Marquis Yi of
bronzes and white pottery vessels. Though decorated Zeng (fifth century b.c.) in Suixian, Hubei Province, one,
with similar motifs, these objects formed an assemblage a duck-shaped lacquer box, displays two miniature paint¬
of diverse materials, textures, and colors. ings on either side, a dance scene and a music recital
Paneling painted with lacquer designs may also have (fig. 8). The work demonstrates the artist’s awareness of
embellished royal palaces, but it was certainly not the the divergent functions and visual effects of representa¬
only form of architectural decoration; murals of mineral tion and decoration. The two scenes appear against an
and botanic colors on plastered walls had appeared dur¬ empty background within rectangular frames; dense pat¬
ing Neolithic times and continued to be painted through¬ terns cover the rest of the vessel. Each picture thus ap¬
out the Shang and Zhou dynasties. The two earliest pears as a window through which one glimpses an aspect
examples of this tradition, both found in the northwest, of court entertainment. In a more general sense, this

The Origins of Chinese Painting 19

 8. Duck-shaped lacquer box with dance and
music scenes, from Leigutun Tomb i in
Suixian, Hubei Province, 5 3 3 b.c. or earlier.
Hubei Provincial Museum.

9. Lacquer box, from Baoshan Tomb 2 in Jingmen, Hubei Province, 316 b.c. or earlier: a, full view; b, procession and greeting scenes.
10.8 cm high, 27.9 cm in diameter. Hubei Provincial Museum.

work signifies two principal features of Eastern Zhou from Suixian, its decoration integrates both geometric
lacquer paintings in the southern Chu area (which was and pictorial elements. On the vertical side of the lid a se¬
centered on the middle Yangzi River region): the in¬ ries of lively human figures make up a complex spatial
terplay between various artistic styles and a fantastic design unlike any attempted before. The figures are
iconography. Here the two musicians are not human shown either in profile or from the rear; the latter are
figures but a bird and a beast. Such strange images and generally situated closer to the viewer, either on a chariot
scenes, found on many Chu artifacts—including Mar¬ to shield a male master or in the foreground to watch the
quis Zeng’s coffin and a zither (si) from Changtaiguan master walking in front of them. In both cases there is a
Tomb 1 in Xinyang — have led scholars to relate them to strong sense of depth, indicated by overlapping images,
the strong shamanistic tradition in Chu culture. This tra¬ varying sizes, and separated ground levels. The composi¬
dition is reflected in Qu Yuan’s vivid contemporary de¬ tion, which is 87.4 centimeters long but only 5.2 centime¬
scriptions of gods and goddesses, ancient legends, and ters tall, is further divided by five graceful trees; the five
bizarre creatures in Songs of the South (Chu ci). sections likely illustrate stages of a continuous narrative.
This fantastic art differs from other art, much of it also The only group of two trees seems to indicate the begin¬
produced in the south, that depicts scenes of daily life — ning (and end) of the picture-story. Reading from right to
entertainments, processions, and meetings. The most out¬ left (as is usual in Chinese art), we find that an official in a
standing example of this second tradition is a painted white robe is taking a tour in a horse-drawn chariot. The
lacquer box from Baoshan Tomb 2 in Jingmen, Hubei horses increase speed and attendants run ahead; then the
Province (fig. 9).9 As with the duck-shaped lacquer box chariot slows down, and the official is greeted by a kneel-

20 The Origins of Chinese Painting

io. Bronze hu vessel, 6th-5 th century b.c.: left, full view; right, drawing of the pictorial decoration. Palace Museum, Beijing.

ing figure. Meanwhile, a gentleman wearing a dark robe is which likely represent certain rituals. The impression of
on his way to meet the official. In the final scene, the the figures’ rhythmic movement is enhanced when we
official has descended from the chariot and is meeting shift our gaze over the round surface along the horizontal
the host, but somehow he is now dressed in a dark robe, baseline.
the host in a white one. Most paintings of the Eastern Zhou were the product
This work shows remarkable advances in both spatial of a collective effort. A fourth or third century b.c. text,
conception and temporal representation. Much like a the “Examination of Craftsmanship” (“Kaogong ji”), re¬
later handscroll painting, it must be viewed section by cords that the painting process consisted of at least five
section in sequential order. In fact, its various interpreta¬ stages from drawing the sketch to applying color done by
tions, including the one proposed above, are largely in¬ artisans with different specialties.10 Although specializa¬
spired by its horizontal, sectioned format, which invites tion may have been standard procedure in workshops,
the viewer to read figures and scenes as components of a some individual painters appeared and were appreciated
continuous narrative. This compositional style also char¬ for their independent spirit. This phenomenon, which
acterizes the designs of many pictorial bronzes, which may attest to the appearance of the individual artist, is
became fashionable among Eastern Zhou aristocrats suggested by a story from the writings of the Daoist
around the fifth century b.c. Figures are incised, cast, philosopher Zhuangzi. It is said that once the lord of
or inlaid on such vessels. Those shown in figure 10 are Song wanted to have a painting done, and many painters
engaged in various activities displayed along parallel reg¬ came for the job. They all paid respect to the patron and
isters — shooting arrows in a contest, picking mulberry obediendy demonstrated their skills. The painter who ar¬
leaves to feed silkworms, offering sacrifices, hunting rived last, however, ignored the official greeting and took
animals and birds, and battling on land and water — off his clothes as if no one else were present. The lord of

The Origins of Chinese Painting 21

 gentleman’s portrait had far better control of the brush.
Not only could that artist deal with more difficult tasks in
representing the subject—the depiction of the figures
round shoulder, delicate cap, and gende facial expression
are convincing and subtle — but the ink lines have an
independent aesthetic value and can be appreciated for
their smoothness, fluidity, dynamism, and harmonious
configuration. In fact, this painting provides a superb ex¬
ample of the drawing style called “floating silk threads
from antiquity” (gaogu yousi mao), which would be imi¬
tated and praised by artists and art critics of later ages.
All these examples of Eastern Zhou painting were
used to furnish tombs and decorate utensils and musical
instruments. Their function and location signified a pro¬
found transformation in art. During the earlier Western
Zhou, the ancestral temples of noble lineages had been
the primary art centers, housing all kinds of ritual para¬
phernalia, but during the Eastern Zhou, local hegemonies
competed for political dominance and overpowered the
Zhou king, and the political and religious centers, which
were also the centers of artistic creation and exhibition,
gradually shifted to palaces and mausoleums — the monu¬
ments of powerful individuals who were members of the
new social elite.11 This transformation explains two gen¬
eral artistic changes that strongly influenced the devel¬
n.A Woman, a Phoenix, and a Dragon, ink on silk, from opment of painting: palace and mortuary art replaced
Zhangjiadashan, Changsha, Hunan Province, 3d century b.c. ritual vessels, and figural representations replaced imagi¬
31.2 X 23.2 cm. Hunan Provincial Museum.
nary zoomorphs. This transformation was gready rein¬
forced by the unification of the country brought about by
Song recognized him as a true painter and gave him the the Qin and Han dynasties, beginning in the third century
assignment. No works from this period can be attributed b.c. The recent excavation of the Qin palaces in Xian-
to individual painters like him. But two silk banners, yang, a city north of present-day Xi’an, allows us, for the
both dating from the third century b.c. and found near first time, to recognize the brilliance of Qin palace paint¬
Changsha, south of the Yangzi River, allow us to see re¬ ing. A surviving section of the large murals found along a
markable differences in artistic achievement in Eastern corridor in Palace 3 shows a procession of seven chari¬
Zhou painting (figs. 11, 12). ots, each drawn by four galloping horses (fig. 13); another
Both paintings portray the deceased in whose grave fragment illustrates a well-proportioned court lady dressed
they were buried: one bears the image of a woman; the in a long skirt with a broad lower hem. These colorful im¬
other, a gentleman. The banners were probably used in ages, painted without the help of outlines, are considered
funerary rites to preserve the likeness of the dead. The the earliest examples of the “boneless” (meigu) technique
two paintings also share drawing techniques and a com¬ in Chinese painting.
positional formula: images are outlined in ink, and the If these Qin works attest to the achievement of palace
principal figures are shown in profile, accompanied by murals at the beginning of Chinese dynastic history,
mystical animals and birds (in figure 11 a phoenix is fight¬ paintings from the famous Mawangdui tombs in Chang¬
ing against a snakelike creature, conventionally desig¬ sha exemplify the development of funerary art in the
nated a dragon; in figure 12 the gentleman is riding on a early Han, the dynasty that ruled the country after the
dragon). The main difference between these works lies in Qin. Created half a century after the fall of the Qin in
the degree of artistry. The female figure appears as a sil¬ 206 b.c., the tombs contain layers of wooden caskets, as
houette; the outlines are rather coarse and uneven, appar¬ was traditional for burials of members of aristocratic
ently executed by an unassured hand. The painter of the families. But unlike in Eastern Zhou tombs, complex

22 The Origins of Chinese Painting

12. A Gentleman Riding on a Dragon, ink on silk, from Zidanku, Changsha, Hunan Province, 3d century b.c. 37.5 X 28 cm.

Hunan Provincial Museum.

 existence in the afterlife. Ancient ritual canons identify
these two stages as those of the shi (corpse) and the jiu
(literally, “the body in its eternal home”). In the painting,
family members are offering sacrifices to the shi, the jiu is
represented by the woman’s portrait.1- Compared with
the earlier funerary banners from the same region, this
banner shows many new artistic elements. Iconographi-
cally, it portrays the transformation from death to re¬
birth in a cosmological environment; stylistically, the two
middle scenes represent an attempt to depict three-
dimensional space—figures overlap, and the more dis¬
tant ones are smaller.
Painted works from the tomb of Lady Dai’s son
(Mawangdui Tomb 3) are less researched but are no less
important than those from Tomb 1. Most significant are
13 .A Horse-Drawn Chariot, detail of a mural in Palace 3 in
Xianyang, Shaanxi Province, late 3d century b.c. Shaanxi two groups of paintings on silk. Those in the first group,
Provincial Qin-Capital Cultural Relics Administrative made especially for the burial, include a funerary banner
Committee. and silk paintings that decorate the coffins (guati) and
the large wooden casket {guo) enclosing the coffins. The
pictorial images were widely used in the Mawangdui silk paintings in the second group consist of illustrated
tombs — not only on funerary banners but also on manuscripts, including manuals for physical exercise and
coffins and wall hangings. These images on different ob¬ divination, which were buried with the deceased together
jects constitute a coherent pictorial program pertaining with a huge collection of ancient texts. The funerary ban¬
to the function and symbolism of the burial structure. In ner in the first group resembles the one for Lady Dai, ex¬
Tomb 1 for Lady Dai four coffins of decreasing sizes en¬ cept that the central figure is a young gentleman. Two
closed one another (figs. 14, 15). The first and outermost other paintings in this group, however, are unlike any in
coffin is painted black, the color of death and the under¬ Tomb 1. They are works of considerable size; the less
world. All painted images sealed inside this coffin were damaged one, A Ritual Gathering (fig. 17), is nearly one
thus designed not for an outside viewer but for the meter wide and more than two meters long. The two
deceased and concern the themes of death and rebirth, paintings were originally hung on the long walls of the
protection in the afterlife, and immortality. The second casket that enclosed the set of coffins. In a burial of this
coffin has a black background but is painted with a pat¬ type, the guo replicates the household of the dead per¬
tern of stylized clouds and with protective deities and son.13 This architectural symbolism explains the subjects
auspicious animals roaming an empty universe. A tiny of the paintings — a large ritual procession and leisure
figure, the deceased woman, is emerging at the bottom activities, such as touring on land and water — which
center of the head end. Only her upper body is shown, represent various aspects of the formal life of the de¬
for Lady Dai is about to enter this mysterious world. The ceased. The paintings do not contain mystical or cosmo¬
third coffin exhibits a different color scheme and iconog¬ logical elements, which abound in the funerary banner,
raphy. It is shining red, the color of immortality, and the and they seem to employ a different pictorial language.
decorative motifs include divine animals and a winged The style of the funerary banner can be traced back to
immortal flanking three-peaked Mount Kunlun, which is the Eastern Zhou mortuary paintings on silk (see figs. 11,
a prime symbol of eternal happiness. 12) , whereas the wall hangings fall within the tradition of
Inside this tomb on top of the fourth and innermost depicting worldly events, exemplified previously by the
coffin the excavators found a painted silk banner about Chu painted lacquer box and the Qin murals (see figs. 9,
two meters long (fig. 16). Many theories have been pro¬ 13) . The artist of A Ritual Gathering employed and devel¬
posed to explain this painting. In my opinion, the three oped the conventions in this second genre to arrange
horizontal bars serve as ground levels to divide the verti¬ figures in three contrasting rows: those in the far ground
cal composition into four parts. The top and bottom sec¬ face the viewer; those in the middle ground show their
tions portray Heaven and the underworld, respectively, profiles; and those in the foreground are portrayed from
and the middle scenes represent two stages of Lady Dai’s the rear. Although neither foreshortening nor a coherent

24 The Origins of Chinese Painting

Hi iii 1

i4- Painted black lacquer coffin with cloud patterns, from

Mawangdui Tomb i in Changsha, Hunan Province, early
2d century b.c. 114 X 256 cm.

15. Painted red lacquer coffin with auspicious animals and

an immortal, also from Mawangdui Tomb 1. 92 X 230 cm.
(Both coffin illustrations are reprinted from Fu Juyou and
Chen Shongchang, Mawangdui Han mu wenwu [The cultural
relics unearthed from the Han tombs in Mawangdui]
[Changsha: Hunan Publishing House, 1992], 6, 13.)
16. Funerary banner with the
portrait of Lady Dai, ink and
color on silk, from Mawangdui
Tomb i in Changsha, Hunan
Province, early 2d century b.c.
205 X 92 cm (at top). (Reprinted
from Fu and Chen, Mawangdui
Han mu wenwu, 19.)
T7- H Ritual Gathering ink and color on silk, from Mawangdui Tomb 3 in Changsha, Hunan Province, early 2d century b.c. (Reprinted
from Fu and Chen, Mawangdui Han mu wenwu, 26 — 27.)

system of perspective is used, the juxtaposition of figures All these paintings on aboveground walls vanished
defines a space within the picture plane. when the timber-framed palaces collapsed, so until re¬
Following Qin precedents, all the rulers of the Han dy¬ cently any student of Han painting had to rely on stone
nasty had their palaces decorated with elaborate murals, carvings owing to the shortage of painted works. This sit¬
which fell into two thematic categories.14 One category uation has been altered by archaeological excavations
served a direct political and educational role: portraits of over the last forty years. In addition to an increasing
meritorious ministers and generals were painted in the number of painted objects — lacquerware, pottery ves¬
royal palace to inspire officials to follow their example. sels, and bronze mirrors — the most important evidence
Emperor Ming (r. a.d. 58—75) in particular established of Han painting consists of newly discovered murals in
a Hall of Paintings (Hua gong) and covered its walls tombs. Tomb murals were the result of a crucial change
with illustrations of the Confucian Classics and historical in mortuary structure. Most early Han tombs were “verti¬
stories accompanied by explanatory texts composed by cal burials,” sometimes with wooden caskets draped with
court scholars. The imperial promotion of Confucian silk and coffins covered with lacquer decorations. The
ideology inspired two related kinds of painting: illustra¬ “horizontal burials” that appeared in the second and first
tions of Confucian moral tales and iconic images of centuries b.c. more faithfully imitated actual dwellings.
Confucius and his disciples, which were both displayed in Often built of large and small bricks, tombs of this type
the palace and copied throughout the country. In con¬ have a main chamber, with a gate separating it from the
trast, works belonging to the second category had strong outside, and a number of side chambers for storing fu¬
religious themes. It is recorded that in a persistent search nerary goods. Murals usually do not cover all the walls
for immortality, Emperor Wu (r. 140-87 b.c.) took a but are applied to four distinct positions in the main
necromancer’s advice to decorate his palaces and para¬ chamber: the wall above the entrance, the partition lintel
phernalia with divine likenesses in order to attract deities. and gable, the central beam on the ceiling, and the upper
His religious center, the Palace of Sweet Springs (Gan- part of the rear wall.
quan gong), housed “images of the Heavenly Sovereign The earliest known tomb murals, in the tomb of Bo
[Tian Di], the Supreme One [Tai Yi], and a multitude Qianqiu and his wife near Luoyang, have been dated to

of gods.”15 the middle of the first century b.c.16 The demon queller

The Origins of Chinese Painting 27

 18. Partition gable with an illustration of “Two Peaches Kill Three Knights-Errant,” mural in Tomb 61 in Luoyang, Henan Province,
i st century b.c. 25 X 206 cm. Museum of Ancient Tombs at Luoyang.

Fangxiang and his companion animals, the White Tiger tection after death, immortality, and divine blessing. But
and the Blue Dragon, are portrayed on the back wall. The instead of being associated with individual coffins as in
opposite wall bears the image of a huge bird with a hu¬ the earlier tombs, these themes and images are now reor¬
man head — possibly an auspicious symbol or an im¬ ganized into an architectural space. The ceiling provides
mortal — above a magic mountain. The painting on the a logical location for images of celestial bodies and the
central beam of the ceiling is the most complex (it is heavenly journey, and the murals on the front and back
now in the Museum of Ancient Tombs at Luoyang). Two walls complement each other with their respective sub¬
groups of images frame the horizontal composition. At jects of divine blessing and demon quelling. The signifi¬
one end are the male deity Fuxi and the sun; at the other, cance of these wall paintings thus lies not only in the
the female deity Nuwa and the moon. Together these two pictures themselves but also in their transformation of
images symbolize the two opposing universal forces of the tomb into a symbolic structure for the dead.
yang and yin. Heavenly beasts, birds, and immortals fill Among the tombs in the Luoyang area dating back to
this cosmic structure. Most interesting, a scene close to the first century b.c., the Bo Qianqiu tomb is the one
the yang group at the far right illustrates the journey of that shows continuity and development in early Han fu¬
the deceased couple to the land of immortality. Riding on nerary art. A nearby tomb in Shaogou (Tomb 61) was
a three-headed phoenix and a snakelike creature, respec¬ built around the same time, but its wall paintings signify
tively, they are traveling to the abode of the Queen Mother another trend: the transplanting of contemporary build¬
of the West, a goddess in Han popular religion who is ing murals underground.17 The historical tales illustrated
shown here seated on wavelike clouds. The themes and in the tomb do not have an apparent correlation with the
images of these murals are not unfamiliar; paintings in search for immortality or the soul’s transformation but
the Mawangdui tombs expressed the same desire for pro¬ are recorded as popular subjects of Han palace paintings.

28 The Origins of Chinese Painting

19- The Celestial Sphere, detail of the ceiling mural in a tomb on the campus of the elementary school attached to the University
of Transportation, Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, ist century b.c. Preserved in situ. (Reprinted from ZMQ, Painting, vol. 12, no. 9.)

It is not difficult to understand why such tales were story line is what made it a popular subject of Han folk¬
painted on the tomb walls: this horizontal tomb repli¬ songs and funerary paintings.19
cated both the layout and decoration of a freestanding Instead of illustrating the entire story, the artist fo¬
building, which ordinarily had painted walls. cuses on a single dramatic moment: the fight between the
Three striking long, horizontal compositions are in the warriors before their suicides. Other characters — the Qi
tomb. The central beam of the ceiling bears images of lord and Minister Yan Ying — stand aside to witness the
the sun, the moon, and constellations. The painting on event. The selection of episode seems to disclose the
the back wall has been the subject of an intense debate; painter’s disinterest in the moral of the story, which re¬
some scholars consider it an illustration of an episode in quires the tragic ending. There is also a strong emphasis
Han history (the banquet at Hongmen), but others argue on the characterization of the warriors; painted as car¬
that the bearlike figure in the middle cannot be the story’s toonlike figures whose exaggerated gestures and facial
central character, Xiang Yu.18 We shall focus on the third expressions vividly reflect their arrogant and supercilious
composition, on the inner side of the partition lintel, personalities. Both this picture and the second scene on
whose content is more definite. Two historical stories are the lintel, which illustrates the visit of Confucius and
illustrated here. The one depicted on the right is called Laozi to the boy genius Xiang Tuo, entered the stock of
“Two Peaches Kill Three Knights-Errant” (fig. 18). It Eastern Han pictorial motifs, becoming standard com¬
is related that Gongsun Jie, Tian Kaijiang, and Gu Yezi positions among painters and stone carvers during the
were good friends and brave warriors of the kingdom of next two centuries.
Qi. As their fame grew, they became arrogant and con¬ It is still difficult to ascertain the role of patrons in cre¬
ceited; their ambition and violent behavior threatened the ating such murals. The wide variety of subjects and the
Qi lord. The clever minister Yan Ying planned a simple distinct decorative theme of each tomb suggest that
scheme to get rid of them: he presented the three men the family of the deceased could have selected favorite
with two peaches as a reward for being the bravest war¬ scenes from a large repertoire of motifs. The Bo Qianqiu
riors in the state. Gongsun Jie and Tian Kaijiang immedi¬ and Shaoguo tombs represent two variations, and a tomb
ately engaged in a fight for a peach, but then felt ashamed in Xi’an represents a third.20 Neither immortal realms nor
of their greediness and committed suicide; Gu Yezi killed historical tales are presented in this tomb. Instead, on the
himself to follow his friends. Although the story extols arched ceiling there is an amazingly detailed astronomical
the Confucian ethic of loyalty and good friendship, the diagram (fig. 19). The twenty-eight constellations and

The Origins of Chinese Painting 29

 rary bronze mirrors. A Xin tomb near Luoyang, which
manifests the same pattern, represents an abrupt break
in tomb design. Unlike earlier tombs in the area, it has
a highly schematic structure underlying its decoration.
Symbolic animals and birds associated with the four di¬
rections, as well as other mythical figures and creatures,
are painted in isolation on the walls of the rear chamber
(fig. 20), and celestial and directional symbols appear in
compartments on the ceiling. In the front chamber the
ceiling bears five round protrusions ringed with paint
which form the pattern of the five elements.
Another notable innovation during the first century
a.d. was in landscape style. We can date this change to
the early Eastern Han dynasty (25-220), which suc¬
20. Heavenly Beasts (Blue Dragon and Red Bird), mural in a tomb in ceeded the Xin. A mural found in a tomb in Pinglu,
Jinguyuan, Luoyang, Henan Province, Xin dynasty. 21 X 90 cm. Shanxi Province, for example, shows a panoramic land¬
Museum of Ancient Tombs at Luoyang.
scape depicted from a bird’s-eye view (fig. 21). Layers of
rolling hills with gentle contours and lush vegetation
symbols of the four directions are drawn in a broad cir¬ overlap toward the horizon. The hills and the adjacent
cular band surrounding an inner circle in which the sun fields provide an environment for such human activities
balances the moon, and cranes and wild geese fly among as farming and raising livestock. In both drawing style
drifting clouds. Huge wave patterns running horizontally and iconography the painted hills differ radically from
across three adjacent walls suggest a mountain range, and Han images of the mountains of the immortals, whose
lively animal images adorn the walls here and there. Simi¬ triadic or mushroom-shaped peaks deliberately violated
lar designs usually embellish Western Han incense burn¬ observable mountain forms. But generally speaking, few
ers and other portable objects, but they are employed painted tombs of the early Eastern Han are known; and
here on a grand scale for architectural decoration. Unlike even the Pinglu tomb is tiny, just 4.65 meters long and
the Luoyang tombs, in which murals appear only in lim¬ 2.25 meters wide.23
ited areas, this tomb has an interior covered with images Although we cannot rule out the possibility that large-
in brilliant red, blue, green, purple, and brown. scale tomb murals of this period may yet be found, it may
Collectively, these tomb murals signify the shifting be the case that the development of funerary painting
center of pictorial art. In retrospect, we realize that most was slowed down by the sudden popularity of stone carv¬
pictorial images created before the first century b.c. were ings, which became the major form of mortuary decora¬
from the south and were related to Chu culture, but most tion after the establishment of the Eastern Han dynasty.
painted tombs from the middle of the first century b.c. Not only did emperors begin to construct stone funerary
to the early first century a.d. were located in the Han shrines for themselves, but pictorial carvings appeared in
metropolitan areas of Xi’an and Luoyang in the north.21 large quantities in important political and cultural cen¬
This change seems to support the textual records about ters, most notably in present-day Henan and Shandong
the royal patronage of painting and also explains the im¬ Provinces.
mediate impact of changing official ideology on the style When pictorial carvings were first made, they imitated
and content of tomb murals. A painted tomb constructed either images stamped on tiles or murals painted on plas¬
during the Xin dynasty (9-23 a.d.) serves as an excellent ter walls.24 The latter are wonderfully exemplified by the
example.22 The Xin, which replaced the Western Han, feast scenes engraved on the famous Zhu Wei shrine in
was one of the shortest dynasties in Chinese history. Its Jinxiang, Shandong Province.25 Both the carving tech¬
founder, Wang Mang, relied heavily on omens and a mys¬ nique and the composition of the scenes reveal their
tical historiography modeled on the pattern of the five strong connection to painted murals. The stone carver
elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water) to legiti¬ used the chisel like a brush to delineate figures and ob¬
mate his mandate. The pattern of elements provided a jects in fluid lines and framed the scenes with forms that
blueprint for his political monument Bright Hall (Ming imitate the beams and poles of a wooden structure. Most
tang) and also appears in the decoration of contempo¬ significant, these scenes may be considered the first suc-

The Origins of Chinese Painting

cessful representations of a unified space in Chinese
pictorial art. In the carving, low couches and attached
screens enclose the area where banquets take place, and
separate the figures in front of and behind the screens.
The screens and couches even seem to recede diagonally
into the distance, suggesting a system of perspective. But
without foreshortening, the oblique outlines of these ob¬
jects never converge toward a vanishing point but meet at
an invisible central axis. Rather than creating an illusory
three-dimensional space, the symmetrical composition
defines a central viewpoint.
Funerary murals were revived around the middle of
the second century. This hypothesis is based not only on
the increasing number and wide distribution of excavated
painted tombs but also on their unusual scale and innova¬
tions in the style and subject of their pictorial decoration.
Often huge underground structures, these multicham-
bered tombs belonged to high officials and wealthy fami¬
lies. The occupant of Tomb 2 at Mixian, Henan Province,
for example, was probably related to the district magis¬
trate Zhang Boya. Among the tomb murals is a banquet
scene displayed in the central chamber. More than seven
meters wide, it depicts people at a party watching a color¬
ful acrobatic performance. Unlike contemporary stone
carvings, which often illustrate conventional images in a
fixed layout, murals in large tombs never repeat one an¬
other. It is possible that most carvings were made in
workshops according to certain copybooks. Tomb mu¬
rals, in contrast, could have been done by painters on
special commission. As a result, although carvings exist
in far greater numbers, they often demonstrate homoge¬
neous regional styles; tomb murals, on the other hand,
more clearly disclose patrons’ specific concerns and
artists’ individual styles. A quick look at three painted
Province, 1st century a.d. 88 cm high. (Reprinted from Michael D.
tombs, chosen from among more than twenty excavated Sullivan, Symbols of Eternity: The Art of Landscape Painting in China
examples, will demonstrate these features of late Eastern [Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1979], fig. 14. Used with the
flan funerary painting.26 permission of the publishers, Stanford University Press. © 1979
by Michael D. Sullivan. Photo: Courtesy of Michael D. Sullivan.)
Our first example is a tomb discovered in Anping,
Hebei Province, in 1971. An inscription on a wall dates
the tomb to 176 a.d. and the surname Zhao written near
the entrance provides a clue for speculating on the iden¬
tity of the deceased, who was probably a relative of Zhao
Zhong, the most powerful eunuch in Emperor Ling’s
reign (168-189) and a native of Anping.27 The enormous
scale of the tomb seems to confirm this identification:
ten connecting chambers form an underground structure
more than twenty-two meters long. Murals appear only in
the three chambers near the entrance, which are made in
imitation of the reception hall and adjacent rooms in a
household. Not coincidentally, they illustrate the pub-

The Origins of Chinese Painting 31

 22. Portrait of the Deceased, mural in a tomb in Anping, Hebei Province, a.d. 176. 180 X 260 cm.

lie life of the deceased man. In the central chamber, left. An architectural complex painted on the opposite
which is reminiscent of a reception hall, a large proces¬ wall must represent his former home, but it is more like a
sion is depicted in four parallel registers. It consists of no military camp than an ordinary dwelling, for it is sur¬
fewer than one hundred horsemen and foot soldiers and rounded by tall walls and overlooked by a watchtower
seventy-two chariots. Because the number of chariots (fig. 23). Plntering the third chamber of the tomb through
used by a Han official was strictly regulated according to another door, we find portraits of civil officials painted
his rank, this composition identifies the high social status on all four walls. Perhaps subordinates of the deceased,
of the dead. A door opening on the south wall of this they are seated on mats and conversing with one another.
chamber leads to a smaller chamber, where we find a por¬ The whole pictorial program in the Anping tomb is
trait of the deceased (fig. 22). He is presented as a man of apparently intended to capture the public grandeur of the
strong physique and dignified manner. Seated on a dais deceased official. This representational purpose must
under a canopy, he stares steadily at the void before him, have prompted the realistic painting style. The portrait of
ignoring the homage-paying officials illustrated to his the deceased, for example, exemplifies the best achieve -

32 The Origins of Chinese Painting

 the dead, and the birds and animals of good omen estab¬
lish his outstanding achievements and excellent moral
conduct. Figures and images in the Anping tomb are or¬
ganized in large units, but those in the Wangdu tomb fol¬
low a “cataloguing style”: individual images are painted
side by side and identified by cartouches beside them.29
Presented without much interaction or physical setting,
the figures appear as a series of portraits; the painter’s
achievement lies mainly in depicting self-contained three-
dimensional entities. The Keeper of Records (Zhuji shi)
portrayed in the tunnel connecting the front and central
chambers of the tomb is a good example (fig. 24). In the
portrait the official is seated on a low couch that recedes
into the distance and may have been drawn with the aid
of a ruler. Unlike earlier muralists, who employed a linear
drawing style, the artist who created this portrait com¬
bined lines with bold inkwash. This new style, most evi¬
dent in the treatment of the garment, creates a strong
sense of volume seldom seen in other Han murals.
In sharp contrast to the Wangdu tomb with its care¬
fully selected images of officials and its auspicious birds
and animals, a huge tomb excavated in Helingol, Inner
Mongolia, in 1972 has all sorts of figures and motifs inte¬
grated into an overall composition (fig. 25).30 The artist’s
21,. A Walled Compound with a Watchtower, mural in a tomb in
goal was not to execute convincing figures in a realistic
Anping, Hebei Province, a.d. 176. 230 X 135 cm.
style; rather, the rapidly drawn images make up an ency¬
ment of Eastern Han portraiture. Instead of depicting clopedic pictorial program. The tomb, which dates to
the deceased according to type, as we find in many stone the end of the second century, consists of six rooms:
carvings, the artist tried to reveal his physical likeness and three main chambers along the central axis and three side
personality. Unlike earlier profile portraits in silk paint¬ rooms opening off the front and middle chambers. Its
ings (see figs. 11, 12, 16), this portrait shows the occupant structure does not differ much from that of the An¬
of the tomb in a frontal view; he confronts the viewer ping tomb, but its interior — three tunnels in addition to
and demands full attention. The architectural complex, the six chambers — is covered with as many as fifty-
presented from an aerial point of view, is a mature work seven pictorial compositions. An “office gate” (mofu men)
in the ancient painting genre jiehua (architectural draw¬ guarded by armed soldiers is depicted in the entrance
ing). Surprisingly, the artist employed the technique of tunnel, which leads to the front chamber. The central
foreshortening; the converging lines of roofed corridors theme of the chamber is conveyed by paintings covering
produce a strong three-dimensional effect unusual in the four walls — depictions of chariot processions that

early Chinese art. indicate major events in the career of the deceased.
The emphasis on the dead person’s public image and Guided by inscriptions, we follow his gradual rise in the
social status also characterizes the murals in Wangdu official hierarchy from a “filial and uncorrupt [gentle¬
Tomb 1, in Hebei Province. Painted officials of various man]” ixiao liar) to secretary (,lang), to magistrate of Xihe,
ranks flank the entrance and front chamber of the tomb to commander of Shangjun, to district magistrate of
as if paying homage to an invisible master.28 But these Fanyang, and, finally, to colonel-protector of the Wu-
figures are accompanied by a series of strange but auspi¬ huang tribe. It is a pictorial biography, but one concerned
cious animals and birds — sent down by Heaven in re¬ only with the subject’s life as an official.
sponse to good human behavior — which are illustrated In the middle chamber the composition directly above

along the lower part of the walls in the front chamber. the doorway depicts a procession crossing a bridge with

The murals thus fulfill two complementary functions: the three figures in a boat floating underneath. A very similar

lines of subordinate officials consolidate the authority of scene that appears in a stone carving in a newly excavated

The Origins of Chinese Painting 33

 24- The Keeper of Records, mural in Wangdu Tomb i in Hebei 2 5. A Horse and Chariot Procession, mural in a tomb in Helingol,
Province, 2d century a.d. (Reprinted from Museum of History, Inner Mongolia, late 2d century a.d. (Reprinted from Helingol
Wangdu Han mu hihua [Murals in a Han tomb in Wangdu] [Beijing: Han mu bihua [Wall paintings in the Helingol tomb of the Han
Zhongguo gudian yishu, 1955], pi. 16.) dynasty] [Beijing: Wenwu, 1978], 83.)

Eastern Han tomb is identified by an accompanying in¬ them are a town and farmland, supposedly their other¬
scription as a funerary procession crossing the Wei River, worldly properties. The four directional symbols on the
a symbol of death.31 But in the Helingol picture, the ceiling further transform this chamber into a miniature
bridge is labeled Juyong Pass, the name of a famous gate realm of the dead. The afterlife represented in these last
station in the Great Wall. It is possible that the Great two chambers thus appears as an extension of life and,
Wall, which is not far from the tomb and which separated more important, as an idealized model of the secular
China from “barbarian lands,” was perceived metaphori¬ world; death would permit the deceased to enjoy a pros¬
cally as the boundary between life and the afterlife. This perous life forever and in an ideal society, realized after
interpretation helps explain the different symbolism of death.
the front chamber and the rest of the tomb. The pictures
in the front chamber glorify the worldly achievements of
the deceased, whereas those in the middle and rear cham¬
bers illustrate his existence in the afterlife. In the middle
The Three Kingdoms, Two Jin, and
chamber he and his wife are accompanied by ancient Northern and Southern Dynasties
sages, filial sons, virtuous women, and loyal ministers —
exemplars of the Confucian moral tradition in Chinese If the Helingol murals reflected people’s dream of an
history. There are also many auspicious omens, which de¬ ideal life and society at the end of the Eastern Han, this
note the distinguished conduct of the dead man and the dream receded after the fall of the dynasty in 220, for
practice of good government. The couple are portrayed the event terminated four hundred years of national
once more in the rear chamber, but here they are being unification. The next 360 years were one of the most
served by servant girls in their private domain. Flanking troubled periods in Chinese history, as the common

34 The Origins of Chinese Painting

designation of the period indicates: Three Kingdoms, mous artisans made them by working collectively, and
two Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties (Sanguo, major changes in subject matter and style were deter¬
liang Jin, Nanbeichao). Central authority virtually dis¬ mined at first by broad social and ideological movements.
appeared (except during the Western Jin, from 265 to This situation changed during the third and fourth cen¬
317). Many parts of the country were controlled by local turies. Educated artists appeared and began to render
powers, some native Chinese, some “barbarian” in ori¬ public art in their private idiom; art connoisseurs and
gin, which followed one another in bewildering succes¬ critics emerged; and among the social elite collecting
sion. The characteristics of the period, and hence the paintings became high fashion. Most important to us,
driving forces behind its cultural and artistic develop¬ portable scrolls became an important medium of paint¬
ment, were no longer unity, order, and hierarchy but dis¬ ing. In other words, painting was no longer attached ex¬
integration, variety, and individualism. clusively to functional architecture and objects; it had
Scholars often attribute two contemporary artistic become an independent art genre.
phenomena to this social context. First, chaos, confu¬ It would be misleading, however, to describe art of
sion, and profound psychological insecurity drove people this period as an entirely new departure. Not only did
to religion. It was during these turbulent years, that the Buddhist murals and scroll paintings often derive picto¬
Chinese embraced the doctrines of Buddhism and estab¬ rial elements from traditional art forms, but old tradi¬
lished their greatest Buddhist grottoes, including the tions, especially funerary art, continued to develop while
Caves of a Thousand Buddhas in Dunhuang, which are constantly absorbing motifs and styles from Buddhist
famous for their brilliant murals and painted sculptures. murals and scroll paintings. The complexity of the devel¬
The introduction of Buddhist art marked a new begin¬ opment of painting during this period was thus deter¬
ning for religious art in China. Unlike the earlier ritual art, mined by the country’s disunity, on the one hand, and by
which had mainly been associated with the private prac¬ the formation, continuation, and interaction of various
tice of ancestor worship and the cult of immortality, the art traditions, on the other. This development cannot
new religious art dwelled on the Buddha’s universal be usefully summarized in a unilinear narrative, because
teachings and linked people of different ethnic groups history itself followed a diverging course. This course
and social status into a single ideological network. Al¬ became explicit after the collapse of the Western Jin
though traces of Buddhist influence exist in Han murals in 317, when the country was separated into two broad
and carvings, religious art did not come into widespread geographical, ethnic, and cultural zones, roughly divided
use until the Northern and Southern Dynasties, when it by the Hui River. The north was governed by a host of
was patronized by imperial and local powers, supported sinicized foreign regimes (the Northern Dynasties, 3 86—
by organized churches, and nourished by millions of 581), the south by a line of Chinese dynasties (the South¬
people’s desire for salvation.32 The art demanded faith: ern Dynasties, 317-5 89). The development of painting in
by donating, making, and worshiping images of Buddhist these two areas followed separate paths, yet the constant
deities, a devotee could accumulate virtue and eventually diffusion, borrowing, and exchange of motifs and styles
find peace and happiness in the Buddhist paradise. The created a dialogue between various regions and prepared
introduction and spread of Buddhist art was associated the ground for the first peak of Chinese painting: during
with a mass movement, the result of a fervor rarely seen the Sui and Tang dynasties.
in early Chinese art history.
The North
Second, as orthodox Confucianism rapidly lost its ap¬
peal, many intellectuals sought spiritual refuge with Bud¬ The tradition of tomb murals continued in the north
dhist and Daoist sects that encouraged individual after the Han dynasty. The social turmoil that started
expression through philosophical discourse, poetry, cal¬ even before the fall of the Han, however, had turned the
ligraphy, and painting. The change in art brought about central plain into a vast ruin. The old capitals were de¬
by this new interest cannot be overemphasized; in a stroyed, the countryside devastated, and the population

sense, it divides Chinese art history into two broad robbed and massacred. Hardly any significant construc¬

stages. For thousands of years what we now call works of tion could have possibly taken place in this old heartland

art_bronze vessels and painted tombs alike — had of Chinese culture and art. Except for one example, all

served a direct function in people’s daily life. The cre¬ painted tombs built from the third to the early fourth

ation of these works was inspired by the general desire to centuries have been found in the northeast and north¬

make religious and political concepts tangible. Anony¬ west— two relatively peaceful corners of the country

The Origins of Chinese Painting 35

 26. Drawing Water from a Well, mural in Dong
Shou’s tomb (Tomb 3) in Anak, North Korea,
a.d. 357. (Reprinted from Koguryu kobun
pyokhwa [Murals of the Koguryo tumulus]
V-S’-fsW'

[Tokyo: Chosen gahosha, 1985], pi. 19.)

, -wc?
>■ tjA v

that became refuges for immigrants from the troubled Pacifying the East and Commander-Protector of the Bar¬
central area.33 Following a regional tradition, the tombs barians, and his death is dated according to the Chinese
near Liaoyang, seat of the Liaodong District during the official calendar then used in a Southern Dynasty. His
Flan dynasty, were made of stone and painted with famil¬ burial resembles a large stone tomb in Yi’nan, Shandong
iar Eastern Han motifs, including the frontal portrait of Province; his portrait follows the Eastern Han prototype
the deceased, chariot processions, musical performances, found in Anping (see fig. 22); and the grand procession
farming and hunting scenes, and astronomical and super¬ painted on his tomb has similarities with those in the
natural images on the ceiling.34 Although these murals are Helingol tomb. Created more than 150 years after these
generally ill preserved, a notable exception is a painted great Han tombs, however, the murals in Dong Shou’s
tomb at Anak (Tomb 3) in present-day Korea, which underground chambers exhibit significant changes in
should be carefully distinguished from the many tombs subject matter. Most important, Confucian themes, both
of the Koguryo kingdom found in the same area as didactic tales and auspicious omens, have disappeared.
well as in Ji’an, Jilin Province, in China.35 An inscription Instead, there is a keen interest in genre scenes and fe¬
identifies its occupant to be Marshal Dong Shou, the male imagery. The men portrayed in the tomb are all en¬
governor of Lelang (the former Han commandery in gaged in official duties and have rigid poses and severe
Anak), who died in the third year of the Yongping era of expressions, but the female figures are far more relaxed.
the Eastern Jin (357 a.d.). It is possible that after the Chi¬ Dong Shou’s wife, shown in a three-quarter view, is con¬
nese government lost control of Lelang to the Koguryo versing with a servant girl, and other women are cooking
king, Dong Shou remained in the former Chinese colony in a kitchen, drawing water from a well (fig. 26), or husk¬
either as an independent warlord or as an appointed offi¬ ing rice in a mortar.
cial of the Koguryo king.36 All aspects of Dong Shou’s The decline of Confucian influence is also evident in
tomb — structure, decoration, and inscription —- serve the northwestern tomb murals. Moral exemplars and aus¬
to identify his Chinese origin. In the inscription he is picious omen are likewise absent here, and most pictures
given a string of Chinese official tides, including General illustrate daily life on this Chinese frontier. But the build-

36 The Origins of Chinese Painting

 27- Interior of Tomb 6 at Jiayu Pass, Gansu
Province, showing painted bricks on the wall,
3d century, each 17X36 cm: a, full view;
b, detail, Herding a Camel.

ing techniques and decorative methods are quite unlike free and spontaneous style suggests the healthy influence
those used for tombs in the northeast and attest to of folk art.
an indigenous tradition. A group of third-century brick This kind of painted tomb continued in the north¬
tombs, discovered near Jiayu Pass at the western limit of west during the fourth century and was adopted in the
the Great Wall, have domed ceilings and are decorated Turpan area in present-day Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous
in a unique fashion.37 In each tomb numerous scenes Region. But the largest fourth- or fifth-century tomb
embellish individual bricks; viewing the pictures in discovered in the Jiayu region (Dingjiazha Tomb 5) be¬
succession is almost like looking at a series of cartoon longs to a different type.38 Located near Jiuquan, Gansu
frames. The bricks are covered with a thin wash of white Province, it has two chambers covered with murals in
plaster on which various images — domestic animals, large, continuous compositions. Objects painted in the
farming and hunting scenes, and episodes in soldiers’ rear chamber represent various grave furnishings. Im¬
lives — al-e painted with bright colors and sweeping ages in the front chamber, however, differ according to

brush lines (fig. 27). These works have been greatly ad¬ whether they appear on the ceiling or a wall. Principal

mired in China since their discovery, in part because their motifs on the four slopes of the ceiling — the Queen

The Origins of Chinese Painting 37

 28. Ascendingto Heaven, ceiling mural in Dingjiazha Tomb 5 in Jiuquan, Gansu Province, 4th—5 th century. 145 X 270 cm. (Reprinted
from ZMQ, Painting, vol. 12, no. 43.)

Mother of the West, the King Father of the East, a heav¬ thriving religious center three hundred kilometers to the
enly horse, a flying figure (fig. 28) — apparently represent northwest.
the supernatural realm. In scenes on the walls the de¬ The first Dunhuang cave-temple was built in 366, but
ceased is enjoying a musical performance and other as¬ the earliest surviving structures at the site are from the
pects of a prosperous afterlife. early fifth century. Not surprisingly, the murals and stat¬
We may well wonder why this tomb appeared in the ues in the early caves show dominant Indian and central
far northwest. It seems dissociated from local culture and Asian influences. A distinct Dunhuang style did not
seems to derive its decorative scheme from earlier Han emerge until the Northern Wei dynasty (386—535); and
murals in the central plain and contemporary paintings in Chinese elements increased during the following Western
northeastern tombs. This question is partially answered Wei (5 3 5 — 5 5 6) A Some of the most stirring pictures cre¬
by the special significance of the Jiuquan area, where the ated during these Northern Dynasties are narrative rep¬
tomb is located. An important settiement along the Silk resentations of Jataka Tales and stories of model monks
Road since Han times, Jiuquan was a meeting place of and nuns, both with strong Hinayana Buddhist overtones
peoples and cultural and artistic traditions from east and and an emphasis on self-sacrifice, monastic practice, and
west. It assumed a new role in cultural transmission after aloofness from society. King Sibi saves a pigeon by sac¬
the third century as the main entry point for Indian Bud¬ rificing his own flesh, Prince Mahasatta feeds hungry
dhism into China and as a melting pot for Buddhist and tigers with his own body, and Prince Sudata gives up
traditional Chinese art. Not coincidentally, Dingjiazha everything he has for charity, including his wife and chil¬
Tomb 5, which bears influences from the east, became a dren. Parallels are found between these stories and the
source for the sinicized Buddhist caves in Dunhuang, a abundant moral tales of chaste widows and filial sons in

38 The Origins of Chinese Painting

29- The Buddha, mural in Cave 249, Dunhuang, Gansu Province,
early 6th century.

Han murals and carvings, which likewise promote self- Although images of foreign origin dominate the walls,
sacrifice and unconditional devotion, but for a different the ceiling is in a Chinese style, like the one in Dingjiazhai

cause. Tomb 5. This kind of ceiling, with four sloping quad¬

Generally speaking, Dunhuang art during the North¬ rants, provided the artist with separate spaces to display
ern Dynasties period underwent a gradual sinification. art motifs from divergent sources (fig. 30). On the slope
Often motifs and styles of Indian, central Asian, and Chi¬ opposite the cave entrance, a powerful figure with four
nese origins are mixed in a single cave. The complexity of eyes and four arms stands holding the sun and the moon.
this art is exemplified by Cave 249, constructed toward Although this image may owe its origin to Hindu mythol¬
the end of the Northern Wei. On its two side walls, large ogy, it is embellished with Chinese pictorial elements. A
rectangular compositions present frontal images of the pair of Chinese dragons flank the figure, and this dragon
Buddha flanked by bodhisattvas and soaring heavenly ap- motif, as well as the juxtaposed sun and moon, can be
saras (fig. 29). The stylization of the Buddha figure and traced to a Mawangdui banner (see fig. 16). Such Chinese
the drawn-out winglike hem of his garment give the im¬ elements are accentuated on other sides of the ceiling.
age the appearance of a statue in bronze or stone, an There are hunting scenes, fantastic mountains, and the
impression reinforced by thick outlines and shading. Nu¬ gods of thunder, lightning, wind, and rain, all following
merous small icons called the Thousand Buddhas sur¬ traditional Chinese iconography. The linear and fluid

round the standing Buddha. Of equal size but varying drawing style differs radically from the style of the solid

colors, these small meditating Buddhas offer the charm icons on the walls. Perhaps most important, the painter

of hypnotic power. Above them are heavenly musicians organized individual images according to a basic struc¬

playing musical instruments in painted niches (see fig. 30). tural principle adopted from Chinese funerary art. Two

Close prototypes of these three groups of images — the flying chariots occupy the centers of the left and right

standing icon, the Thousand Buddhas, and the musi¬ slopes of the ceiling; some scholars have identified their

cians _are found in Buddhist caves in central Asia and occupants, who are dressed in Chinese royal costume, as

Chinese Turkestan. the Queen Mother of the West and the King Father of

The Origins of Chinese Painting 39

 the East, two principal deities in contemporary popular soleums of the Tang dynasty, built more than a hundred

Daoism. But the major point of the murals is probably years later.
not the exact identity of the figures — they are too tiny to The excavation of Lou Rui’s tomb in 1979 was a sen~
be clearly recognized — but the binary structure of yin sational archaeological event. Not only is the quantity of

and yang, which underlies ancient Chinese cosmology. wall paintings amazing— there are seventy-one composi¬

In the two paintings, dragons pull one chariot while tions covering more than two hundred square meters

phoenixes draw the other; these two mythical creatures but their quality surpasses that of all known earlier and

are among the oldest symbols of the yin and yang forces. contemporary funerary paintings. The entryway, which is

Other motifs surrounding the two chariots further sup¬ twenty-one meters long, is like a painting gallery, with im¬

port this interpretation; for example, the Earth Sovereign ages organized on three horizontal registers on each wall.

(Yin) follows the phoenix-drawn chariot, and the Heav¬ Horsemen and camel caravans are portrayed on the two

enly Sovereign (Yang) follows the dragon-drawn chariot. upper levels on both walls. On the left wall they are gal¬

We find a similar binary structure in the murals of the loping toward the opening of the tomb (fig. 31); on the

Dingjiazha tomb, whose ceiling is decorated on opposite right wall they have returned from outside — soldiers

sides with the Queen Mother of the West and the King have dismounted and are hesitantly reentering the under¬
Father of the blast. An additional image clinches the rela¬ ground chamber. On the bottom registers, groups of sol¬
tion between the Dingjiazha tomb and Cave 249. A diers are blowing long bugles beside unmounted horses
painted mountain range separates the walls and ceiling at (fig. 32). We are not sure about the meaning of these
both sites. On the walls are figures representing either the scenes. But whether they commemorate Lou Rui’s for¬
deceased or the Buddha while on the ceiling are clouds mal life or describe a tour he will take in the afterlife, their
and heavenly beings painted in a fluid, curvilinear style. chief value lies not in their ritual symbolism but in their
Among the forty-three early Dunhuang caves dated to pictorial representation.
the Northern Dynasties, seven are from before 439, nine To be sure, chariots, horsemen, and ceremonial guards
from the Northern Wei, twelve from the Western Wei, are frequently depicted in tomb murals from the North¬
and fifteen from the Northern Zhou (5 57— 5 81).40 About ern Dynasties, but nowhere do we find such lifelike im¬
two-thirds of these caves, therefore, were built between ages as in the Lou Rui tomb. Some animal forms, such as
5 30 and 5 80. Interestingly, there was an impressive devel¬ a team of loping camels, are depicted so accurately that
opment of funerary murals in the north during the same they could be models for anatomical drawing. But even in
fifty-year span. Many large painted tombs belonging to these scenes, realism is not taken as the ultimate goal of
royal members and officials of various regimes have been painting but as a stylistic mode that could be employed in
excavated recently. The most extraordinary and best- combination with other styles to produce complex visual
preserved ones include the tombs of Yuan Wei (526; effects. Shading is applied to certain images to contrast
Northern Wei dynasty; found at Luoyang, Henan Prov¬ them with nearby linear forms, and three-dimensional
ince), the Ruru Princess (550; Eastern Wei; Cixian, shapes are mixed with concise line drawings to produce a
Hebei), Cui Feng (551; Northern Qi; Linxu, Shandong), visual rhythm. The painter’s goal, if there was an over¬
Li Xian (569; Northern Zhou; Guyuan, Ningxia), Lou arching one, was apparendy to create a kind of disci¬
Rui (570; Northern Qi; Taiyuan, Shanxi), Dao Gui (571; plined dynamism by manipulating all available formal
Northern Qi; Ji’nan, Shandong), and Gao Run (575; means: shape, line, color, and movement. The people and
Northern Qi; Cixian, Hebei).41 These tombs together sig¬ horses never assume the same pose but always comple¬
nify an important change in funerary art: painting now ment one another in balanced clusters. Related to such
played a more important role than architecture in trans¬ formal concerns is a strong sense of abstraction. As we
forming an underground structure into a grandiose resi¬ can see in figure 31, for example, the slightly elongated
dence of the dead. Whereas a multichambered Eastern oval faces become the unifying elements of a complex
Han tomb imitated a large household in its architec¬ design. In figure 3 2 two groups of musicians stand face to
tural form, the Northern Dynasties tombs, even those of face blowing bugles; their straight and tighdy stretched
nobles and high officials, have a relatively simple design. bodies are the four trusses of the bridge formed by the
The majority have just a single chamber. The entryway, long horns.
however, is elongated, and its walls provide two huge tri¬ After the entryway comes a tunnel, then the burial
angular spaces for painting. This new style of architecture chamber. Murals in these two rear sections exemplify
and decoration provided the blueprint for the royal mau¬ other achievements of Northern Qi (5 50 — 577) painting.

40 The Origins of Chinese Painting

3 2. Soldiers Blowing Bugles, wall mural in Lou Rui’s tomb in
Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, 570. 160 X 202 cm.
 3 3 • Official, wall mural in Lou Rui’s
tomb in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province,
570. About 90 cm high.

The images of individual officials along the tunnel are the authorship. Many Chinese scholars link them to Yang Zi-
best works of portraiture surviving from pre-Tang times hua (active mid to late sixth century), a master painter in
(fig. 3 3). The ceiling of the burial chamber is painted with the Northern Qi court. They argue that Lou Rui was an
zoomorphic symbols of the twenty-eight constellations. extremely illustrious figure in that court (his aunt married
Like the horses and camels painted in the entryway, these the founder of the dynasty, and he and the next four em¬
are powerful, realistic drawings of animals, but their perors were in-laws; his many tides include Prince of
baimiao (line drawing) style highlights the calligraphic Dongan, Grand General, Grand Tutor, and Grand Min¬
quality of the brushwork (fig. 34). The tomb even sug¬ ister), so Yang may have been asked to decorate Lou Rui’s
gests a dynamic relation between funerary art and Bud¬ tomb. Records mentioning Yang’s realistic depictions of
dhist art. It is roughly contemporary with Dunhuang horses and figures offer further evidence for this con¬
Cave 249. We also know that Lou Rui was a famous tention, and, more important, so does a scroll (fig. 35)
patron of Buddhist establishments.42 It is thus not sur¬ that is possibly a Song copy of one of Yang’s original
prising to find Buddhist symbols—moni pearls and ap- paintings.43 The scroll, called Scholars of the Northern Qi
saras — in the tomb and identical images of the god of Collating Texts, illustrates an event in 556: the compilation
thunder on the ceilings of both the tomb and the cave. of standard versions of the Confucian Classics and dy¬
The unusually high quality of the murals in Lou Rui’s nastic chronicles ordered by Emperor Wenxuan. The
tomb has sparked a lively discussion about their possible figures in the scroll have elongated oval faces, which are

42 The Origins of Chinese Painting

34- Twenty-Eight Constellations, detail of ceiling mural in Lou Rui’s tomb in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, 570. 160 X 202 cm.

rarely seen in other early paintings but resemble those in where various Southern Dynasties founded their capitals.
Lou Rui’s tomb. Such speculations about the relation This development, and hence the emergence of painting
between the tomb murals and the scroll painting are as an independent art tradition, was closely related to the
significant, for they imply that famous court artists rapid growth of a literati culture with a strong emphasis
could have contributed to funerary art and that the on individualism. This movement started from a nihilistic
scroll may be the only surviving copy of a Northern Qi revolt in the third century, whose radical adherents, often

masterpiece. designated the Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove,

were educated men who rejected society and all its rules
and conventions but found personal freedom in self-
The South expression, wine, and unspoiled nature.45 By the fourth
When we shift our focus to south China, we find very century, however, this antisocial tendency had given way
different developments. Virtually no painted tombs were to a new intellectual atmosphere; the principal aim was

created here from the third to sixth centuries, and Bud¬ not so much to rebel against conventions as to forge new

dhist murals mainly embellished wooden temples, not conventions by finding legitimate places for individual

grottoes.44 But the most important difference between voices within society. Members of the aristocracy happily

the two regions was the development of scroll painting in espoused this aim, becoming patrons of literature and art,

the south, especially in the lower Yangzi River valley, or writers and artists themselves. To this educated elite,

The Origins of Chinese Painting 43

 3 5 • Attributed to Yang Zihua, section of Scholars of the Northern Qi Collating Texts, handscroll, ink and color on silk, Song-dynasty copy
of a 6th-century work (?). Denman Waldo Ross Collection. (Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.)

nature was no longer opposed to society; rather, it had scholarship or other achievements. Another new concept
become emblematic of a refined gentleman. “Pure talks” was the idea of an artistic lineage linking artists in
(qingtan)— conversations on philosophy, literature, art, teacher-student relationships. Wei Xie (mid-third to mid¬
character, and style — reached the point where attention fourth centuries), the Sage Painter of the Western Jin, for
was paid mainly to form, not meaning, indicating the rise instance, studied under Cao Buxing (third century), the
of a new aesthetic that verged on the appreciation of art most famous artist of the previous Wu kingdom, and Wei
for art’s sake. in turn became “a peerless master of the brush.”47
The development of painting and painting criticism A major change in the art scene took place in the early
was closely related to the second phase of this intellectual fourth century with the sudden emergence of a large
movement. Nihilists of the third century did not consider number of well-known artists. Most were men of letters,
painting an important vehicle for self-expression, and and some were members of aristocratic families. Among
this disinterest can be explained by the general conser¬ them, the calligrapher Wang Xizhi (307—ca. 365) and the
vatism of visual art at the time. The recorded tides of painter Gu Kaizhi (ca. 345 — ca. 406) were unsurpassed in
paintings from the Three Kingdoms period (220 — 280) their two branches of the visual arts. The earliest writings
and the Western Jin (265-317) indicate a continuation on painting also date back to the fourth century; these are
of the Han tradition of illustrating didactic stories, can¬ three essays, attributed to Gu Kaizhi, on the composition
onized texts, and omens.46 For the first time, however, of a projected work, evaluation of old and contemporary
individual artists became well known; men were distin¬ paintings, and techniques. It was not until the early fifth
guished for their artistic excellence, not necessarily for century that painting criticism began to focus on aes-

44 The Origins of Chinese Painting

thetic appreciation. Zong Bing (375-443) interpreted a Yanyuan (ca. 815-after 875) has left us a detailed report
painting as an intermediary between the viewer and a on painting collection and connoisseurship during the
profound philosophical or cosmological principle.48 For Southern Dynasties.50 He tells about the fanatic collect¬

Wang Wei (415-443), a scholar-artist with a keen interest ing of masterpieces by rulers as well as the fatal destruc¬
in landscape, a true painting “must come about through tion of their collections when the throne changed hands.

divine inspiration.” Half a century later, Xie He (active Emperor Gao (r. 479-482) of the Southern Qi, for ex¬

ca. 500?) developed Wang’s notion into the first of his fa¬ ample, gathered 348 scrolls by forty-two famous painters.

mous Six Principles (liu fa) of painting, which emphasizes He classified the works and “would enjoy them day or

the “spirit consonance” {qi yun) of painted forms; the night, whenever he had leisure.” His collection was

other five principles concern brushwork, shape, color, gready enriched by the emperors of the following Liang

composition, and copying as a means of training. Based dynasty. The last Liang ruler, however, ordered that the

on this theoretical formulation, Xie He was able to evalu¬ entire collection be burned before he surrendered him¬

ate and rank twenty-seven painters of the third to fifth self to the invading northern army. The scrolls were for¬

centuries in his Classified Record of y\ncient I ainters {Clu hua tunately recovered from the embers, more than four

pin lu). A sequel to Xie’s work by Yao Zui (ca. 5 57) intro¬ thousand in all, and taken north. The rulers ol the Chen,

duces twenty painters who were active during the South¬ the last Southern dynasty, started all over again. More

ern Qi and the Liang, the second and third Southern than eight hundred scrolls entered the royal collection
during the three decades of their reign. Zhang Yanyuan,
Dynasties.49
In a different vein, the Tang art historian Zhang while documenting the unprecedented royal patronage of

The Origins of Chinese Painting

 36. Fragments of a painted lacquer vessel, from Zhu Ran’s tomb in Ma’anshan, Anhui Province, 249. Anhui Provincial Museum.

painting and the fashion of collecting, thus partially ex¬ range or a screened wall — as a compositional enclosure.
plains why only a limited number of scrolls were handed The most interesting pictures are found on fragments of
down from that turbulent age. Almost all the paintings a lacquer vase. The top of the vessel is painted with zither
were lost during the following periods, however, and players. Some figures on the sides are holding or gazing
only some later copies have survived. To study the tradi¬ at wine containers; others are dancing or sobering up
tion of southern painting from the third to sixth cen¬ (fig. 36). The wine-drinking theme is further indicated
turies, we have to rely on excavated materials and later by cartouches containing descriptions like “a drunken
copies of earlier scrolls. woman” and “a gentleman wallowing in liquor.” Such
An assemblage of painted lacquerware recently discov¬ scenes seem indicative of the general fin-de-siecle mood
ered in Zhu Ran’s tomb in Ma’anshan, Anhui Province, when the Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove found
sheds much light on the state of southern pictorial art freedom in music and unrestrained drinking.
during the third century.51 Zhu Ran was a famous figure Images of the Seven Worthies themselves, however,
in Wu history. Born into one of the most illustrious fam¬ did not appear until more than a century later in an
ilies in the region, he became a close personal friend of Eastern Jin tomb near Nanjing (fig. 37). Their elegant
Sun Quan, the founder of the Wu kingdom. His military portraits, delineated in fluid lines stamped on bricks, are
accomplishments brought him the post of Grand Mar¬ on the two side walls of the burial chamber. We must
shall before his death in 249. Some lacquer objects from distinguish these relaxed and self-absorbed figures from
his tomb bear inscriptions of a workshop in Sichuan the historical Seven Worthies, for, as Audrey Spiro has
Province, which was then under the rule of the Shu king¬ demonstrated, by the fifth century the antisocial Seven
dom. But they may have been specially made for cus¬ Worthies had become popular subjects of the literary
tomers in Wu, for pictures and decorations on them imagination.52 A single feature of the Nanjing tomb re¬
illustrate Wu stories and reflect the prevailing taste of the veals that these men were no longer viewed as individuals
Wu elite. An important feature of the pictures is their var¬ but as cultural symbols: they are grouped with a much
ied subject matter, which, taken together, signifies an earlier figure named Rong Qiqi, who is said to have
eclectic tendency. There are typical Han motifs of filial achieved the status of an immortal. This new significance
sons and loyal ministers, as well as an increasing number of the Seven Worthies explains the continuing popularity
of apolitical scenes: children at play, ladies conversing, of their images during the Southern Dynasties. Cruder
and gatherings. All these motifs are represented in a versions of their portraits, now grouped with flying ap-
new fashion: the picture surface, whether rectangular or saras and mythical animals, appear in large graves in
round, is divided into parallel registers, with special atten¬ Danyang, Jiangsu Province, probably mausoleums of Qi
tion paid to the image in the background — a mountain emperors. Having replaced the filial sons and virtuous

46 The Origins of Chinese Painting

wives whose images filled Han tombs, the Seven Wor¬ ready colored by the legend that had grown up around his
thies became new cultural heroes and exemplified ideal name.54 These legends were absorbed and elaborated in
intellectuals in southern society. Gu’s first biography, in the History of Jin (Jin ship, written
Believing that these excellent linear images must have about four hundred years after the artist’s death. His
been based on a famous work of art, some scholars have fame grew over the course of time; pre-Tang critics dif¬
tried to trace the portraits to a scroll painting by Gu fered markedly in evaluating his paintings, but all Tang
Kaizhi or another fourth-century master. Evidence is writers praised him in the highest terms. His mounting
lacking, however, and it is probably more rewarding to reputation must have contributed to the free association
observe specific features of the portraits themselves. of his name with anonymous early paintings, including
One neglected topic of discussion is the marked stylistic the three scrolls mentioned above, which are absent even
difference between the panels on the two walls. The four from the Tang records of Gu’s works. Given the lack of
figures on the left panel form two groups, with the two reliable contemporary information, then, our initial ques¬
men in each group seemingly engaged in conversation, tion—Who was. Gu Kaizhi?—must be reformulated.
but on the right panel isolated figures are absorbed in We must ask instead: “What themes and styles are re¬
individual activities — playing a musical instrument, con¬ flected in the works attributed to Gu?” This new ques¬
templating a wine cup, or meditating. The two composi¬ tion enables us to utilize these three works to explore the
tions also reflect divergent spatial concepts. On the left complexity of early scroll painting.
panel, tree trunks overlap the figures’ robes and the mats Of the three scrolls, Wise and Benevolent Women demon¬
they are seated on, thus defining the foreground of the strates the persistence of Han pictorial style in a new
painting and indicating a space behind the trees. Vessels intellectual environment. The five-meter-long scroll con¬
scattered between the figures further suggest a tilting sists of ten sections (fig. 38). Figures in each section
ground. In contrast, the composition on the right is far form a tightly interrelated group with no connection to
more mechanical. There is very little sense of the third di¬ other groups. Short labels identify the figures; longer
mension, and the row of trees is used to demarcate spa¬ inscriptions, inserted between the sections, summarize
tial cells for the figures, much in the tradition of Han and stories and divide the long scroll into a series of frames.
even pre-Han pictorial art (see fig. 9). Such differences Neither the subject matter nor the compositional scheme
suggest that the panels were designed by two different is new.55 The innovative elements of the painting include
artists. Although the horizontal format and line-drawing a new interest in individual figures, a more realistic style,
techniques may reflect some influence from contempo¬ and a different selection of motifs. The artist was no
rary handscroll painting, these panels cannot be equated longer satisfied with the traditional schematic female im¬
to scroll paintings. Our chief source of information for ages, which were largely symbols rather than representa¬
scroll paintings in the south derives from a different tions. The figures in the scroll appear to be acting; their
source: copies of three well-known scrolls attributed to subtle expressions suggest inward contemplation. The
Gu Kaizhi, namely, Wise and Benevolent Women (Lienu ren- costumes are carefully drawn; the folds, emphasized by
%hi tu), Admonitions of the Court Instructress to Palace Ladies dark and light inkwash, are convincingly three-dimen¬
(Niishi ghen tu), and The Nymph of the Luo River (Luoshen sional. Although we cannot know the extent to which

fu tu)P such stylistic attributes belonged to the original work or

Every introduction to Chinese painting includes a sec¬ were supplemented by the Song-dynasty copier, we can
tion on Gu Kaizhi, but the answer to the question Who recognize the period character of the painting by the se¬
was Gu Kaizhi? still eludes us. Chinese civilization has lection of motifs. No single work could illustrate the
produced many semidivine figures — dynastic founders, more than one hundred stories in the Han compilation
heroes and heroines, painters and musicians—who are Biographies of Exemplary Women (Lienu ghuari), so each
half historical and half mythological. Many of the records painter had to choose among them. Thus the Han-
about them are from later ages, and it is difficult to distin¬ dynasty designer of the Wu Liang Shrine (151) portrayed
guish fact from fiction. Gu Kaizhi, whose name has be¬ only chaste and obedient women of the domestic type,
come almost synonymous with the origin of Chinese and the Han-influenced painter of the Sima Jinlong
scroll painting, represents one such case. The earliest screen (before 484; see fig. 42) focused on virtuous palace
records of his life, provided in Liu Yiqing’s New Account ladies.56 The subject of the scroll indicates, in contrast, a

of Tales of the World (Shishuo xinyu), which was compiled growing interest in women’s intellectual qualities, even in

around 430, a quarter of a century after Gu died, were al¬ this highly conservative tradition.

The Origins of Chinese Painting 47

 , •- ms i

135® It«i
' G l
_ ' -’P/ ‘
!««•« 3

■I T'/.J
*-/, I

mmfSM wmM^y « ■
. ; •f j - ’ V ■ ■ ■ ■ \' v ' ^ 'i —. - ‘stt ,.^, .

g» s.is.*siiMtiiP3
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37. The Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove and RongQiqi, molded-brick relief from a tomb in Xishanqiao, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province,
Eastern Jin dynasty: a, left panel; b, right panel. 8o cm high. Jiangsu Provincial Museum, Nanjing.

But stylistic and iconographical inventions in the self from a mere artisan, whose works, as exemplified

Wise and Benevolent Women scroll are still largely subordi¬ by the Sima Jinlong screen, preserve the tradition to a

nated to convention. Our second painting attributed to greater extent. One scene on the screen illustrates the

Gu Kaizhi, Admonitions of the Court Instructress to Palace story of Ban Zhao, a famous intellectual lady of the court

Ladies (figs. 39-41), emerged from the same Confucian who once refused to sit in the same sedan chair with

moralistic tradition, but the new elements now break the emperor in order to preserve the sexual proprieties

through the restrictions of the old ideology and pictorial (fig. 42). The picture clearly follows the conventions of

style. The painting illustrates Zhang Hua’s (232-300) traditional symbolic art: a figure’s size is determined by

text of the same tide. Unlike the narrative Biographies of social status or role, and the whole scene appears static

Exemplary Women, Zhang’s writing addresses abstract and schematic, like a pictorial index of the long inscrip¬

principles of female morality, which are difficult to trans¬ tion to its left. We are astonished by its transformation in

late into visual form. To resolve this problem, the artist the Admonitions scroll (see fig. 40). Although the basic

often depicts certain images or events regardless of their composition is preserved, the scene is now full of energy.

rhetorical context. Some pictures even contradict the se¬ The sedan carriers, who were stiff and mannequin-like on

vere moral tone of the original writing, which is inscribed the screen, are now animated. The concubine, whose gi¬
beside the pictures in the scroll. For example, a passage in ant size on the screen indicates her central role in the
the text begins with the sentence “Men and women know story, is reduced to normal proportions. Fler elegant
only how to adorn their faces;/None know how to profile contrasts with and balances the violent gestures
adorn their character.” Ignoring this criticism, which of the sedan carriers. The focus of representation has
leads to stern advice (“Correct your character as with an shifted from a literary, symbolic level to a pictorial, aes¬
ax, embellish it as with a chisel; strive to create holiness in thetic level.
your nature”), the artist focuses on the initial analogy. Admonitions of the Court Instructress to Palace Ladies, which
Portrayed here are an elegant palace lady who is looking is probably a Tang copy of an old work, also preserves
in a mirror and another lady who is having her maid some of the most beautiful figurative images created by
arrange her long hair (see fig. 39). The whole scene is so an early scroll painter. One of the palace ladies is por¬
pleasant and relaxed that no one would ever think there trayed as moving slowly to the left (see fig. 41). With her
could be harm in such natural behavior, despite the eyes half closed, she seems to be walking in a dream; her

writer’s warning. flowing scarf and streamers suggest a soft spring wind.
This painting also exhibits far more stylistic innova¬ Her black hair makes a contrast with the red blocks on
tion than the Wise and Benevolent Women scroll. Some of her skirt, but otherwise every form is a configuration of
the nine scenes are based on popular motifs, but the smooth lines that dissolve substance and transform ob¬
artist was able to transform traditional formulas into jects into rhythmic structures. We could hardly find a
something entirely new. In this way he distinguishes him¬ better example of the realization of two of Xie He’s artis-

48 The Origins of Chinese Painting

 • vn .’ '■ v-w- - •-
%' V ;v - : : x
:■■■■:x.: r NT -
■ '
t
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--’A - ' - >> y*
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tic goals: animation through spirit consonance and struc¬ that it preserves more attributes of the original painting.
tural method in the use of the brush. The significance of Other versions either omit the interpolated text or have
the painting lies not only in the depiction of individuals selected sentences inscribed in frames, thereby achiev¬
and scenes but also in the attempt to create a coherent ing a greater continuity of landscape and human action
composition in the handscroll format. Although individ¬ (fig. 43b). But we can probably attribute this more pleas¬
ual scenes can largely stand by themselves, the artist ends ant visual effect to the development of landscape art
the scroll with a portrait of the Court Instructress, who during the Song and Ming dynasties, when these copies
seems to be recording the previous events. This mode of were made.
representation is derived from a convention in ancient The Nymph of the Luo River signifies two important ad¬
Chinese historical writings, which often conclude with vances in Chinese painting. The first is the invention of
the historian’s autobiography.57 But the image of the in¬ a continuous pictorial narrative in which the same char¬
structress in the scroll also plays another role: it trans¬ acters reappear several times. The second is the devel¬
forms the idle act of closing the scroll into a viewing opment of landscape art — hills, trees, and streams are
experience. The scroll was read from right to left. Now, treated not as isolated entities (as in the Admonitions scroll)
to roll it back up, the viewer begins at the end, with the but as components of a coherent physical environment.
image of the Court Instructress. The scenes glimpsed in Indeed, the Liaoning version of the painting suggests that
reverse appear to illustrate the admonitions she has writ¬ landscape elements often served a double role as repre¬
ten on the piece of paper in her hand. sentation and visual metaphor. When the poet sees the
This narrative device achieves a more sophisticated nymph, for example, he describes her through a series of
form in our third and last example, The Nymph of the Luo analogies:
River, based on Cao Zhi’s (192-232) poetic description of
She moves with the lightness of wild geese in flight,
his romantic encounter with the nymph. The opening
With the sinuous grace of soaring dragons at play.
scene illustrates the poet, a prince of the Western Jin,
Her radiance outshines the autumn chrysanthemums;
standing on the bank of the river facing left (fig. 43a).
Her luxuriance is richer than the spring pines.
Following his gaze, the viewer unrolls the painting and
She floats as do wafting clouds to conceal the moon;
finds the nymph on the waves. Then come a series of
She flutters as do gusting winds to eddy snow.
episodes from the romance. Cao Zhi’s image also con¬
From afar she gleams like the sun rising from dawn
cludes the painting: seated in a departing chariot, he
mists;
looks back—a gesture that invites us to recall his van¬
At closer range she is luminous like a lotus rising
ished dream. Flere I am referring to the version in the
from clear waves.58
Liaoning Provincial Museum. Many other copies of the
painting exist, but only the Liaoning version intermingles The verbal metaphors — geese, dragons, chrysanthe¬
images with the poem. Most scholars therefore believe mums, pines, clouds, winds, sun, and lotus — are trans-

The Origins of Chinese Painting 49

38. Attributed to Gu Kaizhi, Wise and Benevolent Women, 39. Attributed to Gu Kaizhi, Adorning Oneself, detail from
handscroll, ink and slight color on silk, Song-dynasty copy Admonitions of the Court Instructress to Palace Ladies, handscroll, ink
of a 4th-century painting (?). 25.8 X 470.3 cm. Palace and color on silk, Tang-dynasty copy of a 4th- or 5 th-century
Museum, Beijing. painting (?). 24.8 X 348.2 cm. (© British Museum, London.)
opposite, above

40. Attributed to Gu Kaizhi, The Story of Ban Zhao, section of

Admonitions of the Court Instructress to Palace Ladies, handscroll, ink
and color on silk, Tang-dynasty copy of a 4th- or 5 th-century
painting (?). (© British Museum, London.) opposite, below
 41. Attributed to Gu Kaizhi, Palace Lady, detail from Admonitions
of the Court Instructress to Palace Ladies, handscroll, ink and color
on silk, Tang-dynasty copy of a 4th- or 5th-century painting (?).
(© British Museum, London.)

lated into pictures and woven into the landscape. Identified ear patterns of clothes and the rhythmic movement of
by textual excerpts, they are readily understandable as ref¬ the figures, immediately recalls the scene in the Nymph
erences to the nymph’s physical appearance. scroll. The Binyang cave-temple was constructed be¬
Here we find perhaps the most crucial significance of tween 5 00 and 5 2 3 by Emperor Xuanwu in memory of
this painting: it creates an artistic tradition rather than re¬ his father, Emperor Xiaowen. The relief thus likely com¬
vising an old one. Its theme is no longer woman’s virtue memorates Xiaowen’s promotion of Buddhist worship in
but her beauty as the subject of poetic inspiration, ro¬ the north. It is perhaps no coincidence that Emperor
mantic longing, and pictorial representation. In retro¬ Xiaowen, who is portrayed here in typical southern fash¬
spect, we realize that no matter how innovative the Wise ion, was a key figure in the integration of northern and
and Benevolent Women and Admonitions scrolls were, their southern cultures. He was responsible for moving the
creators remained faithful to their Han heritage. Only the Northern Wei capital to Luoyang, the ancient metropolis
painter who first composed The Nymph of the Luo River in central China, in 494. He fought tirelessly to promote
invented a female iconography. The path thus opened his regime as a civilized “Chinese” government, not a
would be followed by artists in the Tang dynasty. “barbarian” military power, and mobilized an official
The Nymph scroll also leads us to speculate on the campaign to adopt southern costumes, language, sur¬
artistic interaction between north and south. The image names, and rituals, as well as bureaucratic, legal, and edu¬
of Cao Zhi in the initial scene of the painting introduces cational systems.60 Pardy because of this reform and
a new iconography for portraying a royal figure.59 Two partly because of the old Chinese tradition in the Luo¬
attendants are holding the arms of the royal prince. Oth¬ yang area, Northern Wei Buddhist art underwent a dra¬
ers follow him, their gestures repeating one another and matic change after 494.
their draperies depicted in parallel, rhythmic lines. Similar This change is also reflected in funerary art. After the
representations exist in the relief carvings in Northern relocation of the dynastic capital, Northern Wei rulers
Wei Buddhist caves in Longmen and Gongxian. A large and officials were customarily buried in the vicinity of
panel in the central Binyang cave in Longmen shows a Luoyang. Their tombs were no longer decorated with
Northern Wei emperor coming to worship the Buddha colorful murals; instead, a traditional Chinese method was
(fig. 44). No trace of Indian or central Asian influence is used to engrave pictures on stone mortuary parapherna¬
discernible; the iconography, as well as the sweeping lin- lia, including sarcophagi, shrines, and “spirit couches”

52 The Origins of Chinese Painting

42. The Story of Ban Zhao, scene
at the bottom of a lacquer screen
from Sima Jinlong’s tomb in
Datong, Shanxi Province, before
484. Each panel of the screen is
about 80 X 20 cm. (Reprinted
from ZMO, Painting, vol. 1, no.
100.)
 &
& per
31*3^

43. Attributed to Gu Kaizhi, section of The Nymph of the Luo River, handscroll, ink and color on silk, Song-dynasty copies of
a 6th-century work (?): a, Liaoning Provincial Museum version, 26 X 646 cm; b, Palace Museum version, 27.1 X 572.8 cm.

44. Northern Wei Emperor

Worshiping the Buddha, relief
from the central Binyang
cave in Longmen, Henan
Province, early 6th century.
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York. (Fletcher Fund,
1935. [35-146].)

45. Stone sarcophagus, from Luoyang, Henan Province, early

6th century. Each side panel is 62.5 X 223.5 cm- Nelson-Atkins
Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. (Purchase: Nelson Trust.)
b

(ling chuang). The engravings attest to a desire to absorb ground. Tall trees further divide the composition into a
Chinese elements from different ideological traditions number of frames for individual stories, a composition
and historical periods. On the one hand, their content is style apparendy inspired by southern pictorial works,
overtly conservative. There is an emphasis on famous such as the portraits of The Seven Worthies of the Bamboo
filial sons and an exaggerated effort to embrace orthodox Grove and Rong Oiqi and The Nymph of the Luo River. We
Confucian morality, an effort marked by the general ne¬ are astonished by the naturalism of the scenes. Well-
glect of female images (virtuous mothers and wives). On proportioned and animated figures are now supported
the other hand, their compositional and figurative styles by a solid ground that recedes into the distance. Various
are extremely modern, even according to the standards of landscape elements — trees, rocks, and streams — con¬
southern literati culture. Two objects — a sarcophagus in struct a convincing environment. A mountain range and
the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City and a small floating clouds appear in the background; their greatly
shrine in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston — exem¬ reduced size indicates their remoteness. Framed by a
plify this fascinating combination. Stories of filial sons patterned band, each pictorial composition seems a trans¬
are depicted on the two long sides of the sarcophagus. lucent window onto an elusive world.
But these traditional icons have become integral compo¬ The strong sense of three-dimensionality in these pic¬
nents of a three-dimensional landscape (fig. 45). At the tures has enticed scholars to interpret them in light of
bottom of each composition, a hillock establishes a fore¬ standard criteria in a linear perspective system, such as

The Origins of Chinese Painting 5

 46. The Story of Wang Lin, detail of the carvings on the stone sarcophagus in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
(Purchase: Nelson Trust.)

the use of overlapping forms and foreshortening. But the has her back toward us; her face is reflected in the mirror.
pictures also signify another mode of representing space: The other lady faces us; her reflection in the mirror is
through front-and-back and mirror images. A detail on implicit. The concept of a mirror image is thus pre¬
the stone sarcophagus (fig. 46) shows the story of the sented literally. Each lady is presented as a pair of mirror
Confucian paragon Wang Lin, who saved his brother images, and the two images together form a reflecting
from bandits. A tall tree divides the scene into two double.
halves. In the left scene Wang Lin has thrown himself on Dating from 5 29, the shrine now in Boston was dedi¬
his knees and is begging the bandits to take him instead cated to Ning Mao, an official who was partially in charge
of his brother. In the right scene Wang Lin and his of building new palaces and temples after Emperor
brother have been released. What is most important here Xiaowen moved the capital to Luoyang. His profession
is not the subject matter (similar stories were abundantly as an imperial architect must explain the unusually high
illustrated during the Han) but the way the story is de¬ quality of the engravings on his memorial hall. Filial sto¬
picted and viewed. In the left scene the bandits have just ries, again the principal subjects of the decoration, are
emerged from a deep valley and are meeting Wang Lin. In illustrated in vertical panels. Each panel is a coherent
a more general sense, they are meeting us, the spectators. and complex pictorial space containing smaller spaces
In the right scene Wang Lin and his brother are leading defined by curtains, walls, corridors, and landscape ele¬
the bandits into another valley, and the whole procession ments (fig. 47). On the back wall of the shrine three men
has turned away from us. In viewing the left, frontal attired in similar costumes are each accompanied by a
scene, we take in the arriving figures, but when turning to woman (fig. 48). They differ from one another mainly in
the next scene, we cannot help but feel abruptly aban¬ age. The figure to the right is a younger man with a fleshy
doned. The figures are leaving us and are about to vanish, face and a strong torso; the one to the left is heavily
so to catch them our gaze follows them into the deep bearded and has an angular face and a slender body. Both,
valley. shown in three-quarter view facing outward, appear vig¬
The same representational mode occurs in the. Admoni¬ orous and high-spirited, but the figure in the middle is
tions scroll, a work supposedly from the south. The scene a fragile, withdrawn older man. Slightly humpbacked,
depicted in figure 39 is divided into two halves, each with he stands with lowered head, concentrating on a lotus
an elegant lady looking at herself in a mirror. One lady flower in his hand (the lotus is a Buddhist symbol of

56 The Origins of Chinese Painting

47- Figures in Landscape, ink rubbing of an engraving on Ning Mao’s shrine, from Luoyang, Henan Province, 5 29. 70 X 55 cm.
(Anna Mitchell Richards and Martha Silsbee Funds. Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.)
 48. Three Portraits ofNingMao (?), ink rubbing of an engraving
on Ning Mao’s shrine, from Luoyang, Henan Province, 529.
79 X 182 cm. (Anna Mitchell Richards and Martha Silsbee
Funds. Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.)

purity and wisdom that Chinese intellectuals adopted);

he seems to turn inward, as though he is leaving this
world and is about to enter the eternal darkness. Per¬
haps the series of images constitutes a pictorial biogra¬
phy of Ning Mao from vigorous youth to final spiritual
enlightenment.61
A tomb recently excavated in Linxu, Shandong Prov¬
ince, summarizes the fusion of southern and northern art
in the sixth century. It dates back to 550, the first year of
Northern Qi rule, but the deceased, Cui Fen, spent most
of his official life in the Eastern Wei court, which split off
from the Northern Wei in 534. Although a thorough ex¬
cavation report has not yet come out, photographs of
three murals have been published, and in them we can
49- Gentlemen in Landscape, mural in Cui Fen’s tomb in Linxu,
Shandong Province, 551.
see echoes of both northern and southern pictorial
formulas. The composition above the entrance closely
resembles the Northern Wei royal procession in the
Longmen relief shown in figure 44 and Cao Zhi’s portrait
at the opening of the Nymph scroll. A series of gendemen
in front of strange rocks and under trees (fig. 49) com¬
bine elements from the portraits in The Seven Worthies of the
Bamboo Grove and RongOiqi and landscape elements from
the scenes on the stone sarcophagus. Finally, the pictorial
symbol of the north — a snake twining around a turtle —
is almost identical with images found in a number of
Koguryo tombs in Anak. In an eclectic manner, these
motifs and styles are synthesized into a single setting.

58 The Origins of Chinese Painting

The Sui and Tang Dynasties Chinese painting — Zhang Yanyuan’s (847—874) Record of
Famous Paintings of Successive Dynasties (Lidai minghuaji) and
There has seldom been a time in Chinese history as cre¬ Zhu Jingxuan’s (ninth century) Celebrated Painters of the
ative, vigorous, and productive as the Sui-Tang period. Tang Dynasty (Tangchao minghua lu)—were both written in
After centuries of strife the country was at last reunified, the mid-ninth century.
and unification brought almost instant prosperity. Dur¬ Within this historical framework, the development of
ing the rule of Emperor Wendi (r. 581-604), the founder painting can be roughly divided into three periods — the
of the Sui dynasty and a man endowed with exceptional Sui and early Tang (581—712), the High Tang (712—765),
administrative ability, the Chinese population doubled. and the middle and late Tang (766 — 907) — each with
The Sui did not last long, however. Its second and last distinctive emphasis and characteristics. During the Sui
emperor, Yangdi (r. 604—6x8), built extravagant monu¬ and early Tang the central government promoted a
mental works, including the eastern capital, Luoyang, and highly politicized art in both religious and secular paint¬
the Grand Canal, opened to link north and south. Al¬ ing genres. Upon seizing imperial power, the Sui and
though these projects had lasting historical influence, Tang founders both immediately became powerful art
Yangdi’s unrestrained squandering of the empire’s re¬ patrons. Two pavilions, called Precious Brush Tracks
sources must have shortened the life of his regime. (Baoji) and Wonderful Calligraphy (Miaokai), were con¬
The early Tang emperors continued Wendi’s consoli¬ structed at the Sui palace to house masterpieces.62 The
dation of the country. Under their rule China finally grew court attracted famous artists from all over the country
into the largest and most powerful country in the me¬ and even from foreign lands. Painters in the capital in¬
dieval world. The person who contributed most to its su¬ cluded Zhan Ziqian from Hebei Province, Dong Boren
premacy was Li Shimin, or Emperor Taizong, whose from the south, Weichi Bazhina from Khotan (Hotan
ascension to the throne in 626 inaugurated more than a in present-day Xinjiang Uygur), and Sakyamuni from In¬
century of steady development in all social and cultural dia. Other well-known contemporary painters included
spheres. Territorial expansion brought central Asia into Zheng Fashi, Zheng Falun, Sun Shangzi, Yang Zihua,
the empire and protected caravan routes to the west. The Yang Qidan, Yan Bi, and Tian Sengliang, some of whom
capital, Chang’an (present-day Xi’an), became a cos¬ enjoyed the post of Grand Official (Dafu). Records of
mopolitan center with a population of more than a mil¬ their works reflect both artistic competition and assimila¬
lion. People of almost every ethnicity, color, and belief tion. It is said that Zhan Ziqian and Dong Boren, who
found their way to this city, sharing in and contributing came from divergent art traditions, started as rivals but
to the expanding economy, the enthusiastic acceptance ended as collaborators; their later paintings thus evince
of various religious and cultural traditions, and the highly mutual north-south influence.63 Cultural and regional dif¬
developed literature and art. The reign of Emperor ferences, which had often caused dissension during the
Minghuang (712—756) is generally considered the most previous historical period, now contributed to the forma¬
brilliant era in all Chinese history. Rarely have so many tion of a centralized metropolitan art tradition in the
great writers and artists lived at a single moment: the po¬ unified empire.
ets Wang Wei (699-759), Li Bai (Li Bo, 701-762), and Du Although a few extant scrolls attributed to the Sui and
Fu (jj 2-770); the painters Wu Daozi (active ca. early Tang have dominated the attention of modern art
7x0-760), Zhang Xuan (active 714-742), and Han Gan historians, artists of this period were primarily mural
(ca. 720-ca. 780); and the calligraphers Yan Zhenqing painters engaged in designing and decorating political
(709—785), Zhang Xu (active 714-742), and Huaisu and religious monuments. It is possible that the art tra¬

(725-785), among many others. dition of the Northern Dynasties, which had revolved
This golden age was brought to a sudden end when around such public works, continued into the Sui and
the powerful general An Lushan rebelled in 755. Em¬ Tang, whose rulers were themselves northerners and
peror Minghuang abandoned Chang’an, fled to Sichuan, even non-Chinese in origin. According to historical rec¬
and abdicated. The rebellion was finally crushed, but it ords, all famous Sui painters, whether Chinese or foreign,
had profoundly eroded the stability of the dynasty. Art devoted much time and energy to creating large-scale

during the second half of the Tang, though continuing temple murals, mostly in Chang’an and Luoyang.64 Their

to develop, never again approached its former greatness. scroll paintings, recorded as illustrations of Buddhist

Instead, historians looked back at the achievements of figures and tales, political events, historical exemplars,

previous generations. Two major historical works on and heavenly omens, had strong religious and political

The Origins of Chinese Painting 59

 achieved even greater official glory when he became one
of the two prime ministers — the other was a military
officer. A popular saying satirized this seemingly strange
combination: “The Minister on the Left proclaims au¬
thority in the desert; the Minister on the Right attains
fame through cinnabar and blue.” We wonder why Tai-
zong, an emperor famous for his ability to select per¬
sonnel, chose these two men as his chief officials. The
reason may be found in early Tang politics: representing
wu (military forces) and wen (literature and arts), respec¬
tively, they helped the Tang founder create History. In
Yan Liben’s case, his works recorded important court
events, commemorated key political figures, and illus¬
trated the way of rulership through historical exemplars.
Although his medium was painting, not writing, he was
50. A Battle Charger, stone carving originally in front of Emperor essentially a court historian.
Taizong’s tomb in Liquan, Shaanxi Province, possibly designed
A short handscroll called The Imperial Sedan Chair (Bun-
by Yan Lide and Yan Liben, 7th century. 176 X 207 cm. University
ian tu) in the Palace Museum in Beijing (fig. 51) exem¬
of Pennsylvania Art Museum, Philadelphia. (Neg. #58-62840.)
plifies a persistent theme of Yan Liben’s representations
implications. The more poetic and individual southern of important political events, especially diplomatic ac¬
art was not suppressed, but it was overshadowed by vi¬ tivities. Possibly a Song copy of Yan’s original work,
sual art utilized to legitimate the newly established regime. it depicts Taizong in a sedan chair greeting the Tibetan
The most celebrated painter of this period was Yan minister Ludongzan. The latter, accompanied by two
Liben (ca. 600-673). Not coincidentally, his background, officials, stands in front of the emperor in an obedient
career, and works exemplify some main features of early but dignified manner. A colophon records that the event
Tang court painting in terms of the role and status of took place in 641, when Ludongzan came to Chang’an to
artists, their relationship to the emperor, and the func¬ welcome Princess Wencheng, the bride-to-be of the Ti¬
tion of their art. Yan Liben was born into an aristocratic betan king. The language of the painting is very concise.
family. His father, Yan Bi, served Northern Zhou and Sui No physical environment is depicted; the focus of repre¬
rulers with his expertise in architecture, engineering, and sentation is the relationship between the two principal
the visual arts. It is said that Emperor Wu of the North¬ figures as representatives of China and Tibet. Taizong
ern Zhou, an admirer of Yan Bi’s paintings, married him and Ludongzan dominate the two halves of the picture,
to a princess and that when the Sui dynasty succeeded the and their different sizes, manner, facial expressions, and
Northern Zhou, Yan Bi made “intricate and elaborate physical appearance reinforce the dualism of the compo¬
objects” to please the notorious Yangdi. Yan Bi also de¬ sition. These differences, while highlighting the theme of
signed weapons, organized imperial processions, and su¬ the painting — the historical meeting between two na¬
pervised the construction of a section of the Great Wall; tions — emphasize Taizong’s political superiority.
such duties apparently exceeded those of a court painter Yan Liben’s most famous works, however, are two lost
as narrowly defined in later times.65 His two sons, Lide group portraits made at different stages in early Tang his¬
(d. 656) and Liben, both served in Taizong’s court. As the tory. Right before ascending the throne in 626, the future
designers of Tang imperial mausoleums, they were prob¬ Emperor Taizong commissioned him to portray eighteen
ably responsible for the six famous stone horses in front eminent scholars. The work, a mural, was widely publi¬
of Taizong’s tomb, which have survived as the best exam¬ cized, and the inscription accompanying the portraits,
ples of early Tang relief carving (fig. 50). Lide was less a written by one of the scholars, noted the crown prince’s
painter than an engineer and architect. Although he made intention of attracting public support through this art
some court portraits, it was other kinds of service — project. Twenty-two years later, Yan Liben received an
designing ceremonial costumes, constructing palace imperial commission to paint a second series of portraits
buildings, and building bridges and ships for military pur¬ known as The Twenty-Four Meritorious Officials in the Fingyan
poses — that won him the tide of grand duke.66 Liben’s Palace (Fingyan Ge ershisi gongchen). Taizong himself wrote
fame, on the other hand, rested mainly on his art, and he the encomium, asserting the significance of this mural

The Origins of Chinese Painting

51. Attributed to Yan Liben, detail of The Imperial Sedan Chair, handscroll, ink and color on silk, possibly a Song-dynasty copy.
38.5 X 129.6 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.

in commemorating the founding of the Tang Empire.67 only had emperors been portrayed in similar compo¬
Like the portraits of the eighteen scholars, these portraits sitions in Han and post-Han times, but this work con¬
of officials have long since vanished. But a rubbing of an tinued the old tradition of didactic art, with historical
engraving made in 1090 from a version of the painting figures serving as moral and political exemplars.70 The
on a stone stele may preserve some stylistic features of Last Ruler of the Chen (r. 5 83 - 5 89) and Emperor Wu of
the original work. It shows in smooth outlines four of the the Northern Zhou (r. 561-578), for example, face each
officials, each respectfully holding a ceremonial tablet other in the painting as if engaged in a posthumous con¬
(hu) as if attending a court audience (fig. 5 2).68 Their versation. Ruling the south and the north around the
nearly uniform poses notwithstanding, they have subtle same time, these two men represented two kinds of fail¬
differences in proportion and facial features. It seems ure that a ruler might meet with. The Chen emperor,
that the artist faced the double task of portraying these refined but weak, wallowed in sensual pleasures and wit¬
men both as individuals and as paragons of loyalty. nessed the fall of his dynasty; the Zhou emperor, cruel
These portraits also provide a bridge between two ex¬ and violent, persecuted Buddhists and lost his mandate.
isting handscrolls attributed to Yan Liben. The figural Thus the two portraits clearly served to convey political
representations are close to those in The Imperial Sedan messages. The painting as a whole, a series of such im¬
Chair (especially the three standing figures); in composi¬ ages, is a history of the rise and fall of previous dynasties,
tion the work resembles Emperors of the Successive Dynasties providing the Tang emperor with a mirror to reflect upon

(Lidai diwang tu), a painting of thirteen Chinese rulers his own moral and political conduct.
from the Han to the Sui dynasties (fig. 53). The physical A standard image in this painting — a ruler standing

condition of Emperors of the Successive Dynasties must have in a three-quarter view and flanked by his entourage —

been considerably altered over the centuries, and scholars reappears in a contemporary illustration of the Vimala-

have questioned its assigned authorship.69 But whether kirti Sutra in Dunhuang Cave 220 created in 642 (fig. 54).

or not it was created by Yan Liben himself, this scroll has (Interestingly, two of Yan Liben’s illustrations of the

some characteristics of other early Tang portraits made same sutra were still extant during the Song.)71 But

for political purposes. An important characteristic is the instead of representing past rulers, as in Emperors of the

strong conservatism in both subject matter and style. Not Successive Dynasties, here the artist depicts the present

The Origins of Chinese Painting 61

 52. Yan Liben, section of The Twenty-Four Meritorious Officials
in the Eingyan Palace, 648. This is an ink rubbing of a line
engraving on a stone stele copied from an existing version of the
painting in 1050. Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing.

53. Attributed to Yan Liben, section of Emperors of the Successive

Dynasties showing the last ruler of Chen and Emperor Wu of the
Zhou, handscroll, ink and color on silk. 51.3 X 531 cm. Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston.
 54- Emperors and Attendants, detail of an
illustration of the Vimalakirti Sutra, mural in
Cave 220, Dunhuang, Gansu Province, 642.

emperor of unified China facing a group of foreign kings. 228 in all — many were created during Wu Zetian’s reign
This example suggests that the rather rigid separation and relate directly to her struggle for imperial power. The
between religious and secular painting in the modern construction of a huge Great Cloud Temple (Dayun si) in
scholarship on Tang art should be questioned. Indeed, 69 5, for example, was part of her political campaign; it
the zealous construction of Buddhist temples during the was one of hundreds of such temples that Wu Zetian or¬
early Tang, as well as the new subjects and styles of their dered built throughout the country to disseminate the
murals, must be understood in the context of contempo¬ Great Cloud Sutra (Dayunjing), a scripture whose commen¬
rary politics. Many scholars have noted the elaborated ar¬ tary identifies the empress as the incarnation of the
chitectural settings in early Tang “paradise paintings,” for Maitreya bodhisattva. Even more straightforward is a
instance, but few have related them to the extensive con¬ Dunhuang illustration of the Sutra of Precious Rain (Baoyu
struction of imperial palaces at the time. In fact, there are jing) in Cave 321 (fig. 5 5) in which Wu Zetian is alluded
many structural similarities between the Darning Palace to as the Eastern Empress of Sunlight and Moonlight
built by Taizong in 634 and the elaborate halls in a par¬ (Dongfang riyueguang niiwang) and her personal name,
adise scene. It is likely that when the Buddha was situated Zhao (literally, “the sun and moon in the sky”), is trans¬
in a palace environment, religious and political authority lated into a pictorial image framing the upper border of
became fused in a single composition. Evidence for the the huge mural.73
political symbolism of Buddhist works is also found in Besides having political significance, the Dunhuang

a series of imperial monuments in Luoyang commis¬ mural of the Sutra of Precious Rain signifies an impressive

sioned by Wu Zetian, an empress of the Tang but the advance in landscape representation during the seventh

first and only emperor of the Great Zhou dynasty be¬ century. In the painting the Buddhist assemblage appears

tween 684 and 705. One of them, the Hall of Heaven at the center of a panorama depicted from a bird’s-eye

(Tian tang), the center of her palace, housed a colossal view. Layers of humped green hills intersect, forming nu¬

statue of Buddha reportedly three hundred meters in merous spatial cells in which various lively activities take
place. Unlike The Nymph of the Luo River and engravings
height.72
Among the astonishing number of painted caves in on the Northern Wei sarcophagus, where trees break the

Dunhuang dating from the Sui and early Tang periods — picture strips into simple discrete spaces, this mural is a

The Origins of Chinese Painting 63

 5 5- Illustration of the Sutra of Precious Rain, mural in Cave 321, Dunhuang, Gansu Province, early fang dynasty.

large rectangular composition in which landscape helps Zhaodao (ca. 675-741), became extremely popular after
unify and structure the space. The same development is Wu Zetian’s reign. Its growing influence was related to an
even better reflected in another early Tang mural, in Cave important change in court art toward the end of the early
323, which illustrates the legendary history of Chinese Tang: a gradual shift from heavy-handed political art to
Buddhism on an epic scale (fig. 56). The absence of a fo¬ apolitical works executed in a more pleasant and relaxed
cal icon allowed the painter to represent space freely as a manner. Examining records and works of art from the
continuous and harmonious unity. The section repro¬ early eighth century, we see a tendency toward aesthe¬
duced here depicts the miraculous arrival of two Bud¬ ticism and formalism as the royal patrons and court
dhist statues in China in 313. Round hills and vertical painters increasingly paid more attention to the mode of
mountain peaks, unified in a green haze, contrast dramat¬ visual representation than to subject matter.
ically with dark zigzagging riverbanks and remote moun¬ Unlike Yan Liben and other artists employed by the
tain ranges. This vast and open landscape stretches far emperor, the two Lis were themselves members of the
back into the distance; the diminishing size of figures and imperial clan. Although their noble status enhanced their
various landscape elements effectively establishes the potential artistic influence, as royal relatives they were ex¬
sense of depth. This colored mural is a “blue-and-green posed to the grave danger of court intrigues, and their
landscape” (qinglii shanshui) depicted with the boneless role in art was conditioned by the outcomes of political
method. A somewhat different style of blue-and-green struggles. Li Sixun, for one, spent years in hiding to avoid
landscape, one that combines color application with ink Wu Zetian’s persecution of the Tang royal house and did
outlines, is exemplified by Spring Outing (Youchun tu), a not return to court until after Wu’s abdication in 704. He
scroll attributed to the Sui artist Zhan Ziqian but more was immediately appointed Lord of the Court of Impe¬
likely to be a Song copy of an early Tang work (fig. 57).74 rial Family Affairs (Zongzheng qing); other posts and
As in the Dunhuang mural, there are round hills, vertical tides given to him thereafter include chief of Yizhou Pre¬
peaks, and travelers in a wide horizontal space. But the fecture, general of the Imperial Guard, and duke of Peng-
detailed execution and precise oudines attest to an effort guo. This sequence of events implies that if Li Sixun
to achieve formal regularity and surface ornamentation. really “perfected” landscape painting and influenced
The style of this second blue-and-green landscape, tradi¬ Tang art — as Zhang Yanyuan tells us — this must have
tionally associated with Li Sixun (651—716) and his son Li taken place after 704. It is difficult to imagine that he was

64 The Origins of Chinese Painting

 5 6. An Episode in the
History of Chinese
Buddhism, mural
in Cave 323,
Dunhuang, Gansu
Province, early
Tang dynasty.

57. Attributed to
Zhan Ziqian, Spring
Outing handscroll,
ink and color on
silk, probably a
Song-dynasty copy
of an early Tang-
dynasty work.
43 X 80.5 cm.
Palace Museum,
Beijing.

able to play such a prominent role while still in hiding. No authentic work by Li Sixun has survived. The only
It is conceivable, however, that his subject matter and possible attribution — a river landscape entided Sailing
style were widely imitated once he regained noble status Boats and a Riverside Mansion (Jiangfan louge; fig. 5 8) — ap¬
and became a prominent courtier.75 The growing political pears to be closely related to Spring Outing and may be an¬
power of his family must have contributed to the domi¬ other version of the same lost original.77 Fortunately,
nance of the Li style in court art. Zhang Yanyuan records landscape murals in Prince Yide’s (682—701) tomb out¬
that besides Li Sixun and Li’s son Zhaodao, three mem¬ side Chang’an provide reliable materials for studying Li

bers of the family (Li’s younger brother Sihui, Sihui’s son Sixun’s art and the early Tang blue-and-green landscapes.

Linfu, and Linfu’s nephew Cou) were also highly re¬ A number of factors link these murals with Li Sixun. Like

garded painters. Among them, Li Linfu, who continued Li, Prince Yide was a member of the Tang royal house and

the family tradition of painting blue-and-green land¬ a victim of Wu Zetian: he was put to death in 701 for crit¬

scapes, became Emperor Minghuang’s prime minister icizing his empress grandmother. Not until Wu Zetian

and the de facto dictator from 736 to Li’s death in 75 z.76 abdicated was he given the posthumous title of crown

The Origins of Chinese Painting 65

 rial Family Affairs, he would have had the responsibility
of arranging funerals for deceased royalty, especially for
someone like Prince Yide, whose second burial was of
extraordinary political significance at the time. Second, an
inscription on the ceiling of the antechamber of the tomb
states that a painter named Yang Bian (or Yang Biangui)
“wishes to offer his respects forever to the dead prince.
It has been proposed that this painter is listed in Zhang
Yanyuan’s Famous Paintings of Successive Dynasties under the
name Chang Bian; Chang was an artist who “excelled in
painting landscapes in the style of General Li [Sixun].
In the tomb, landscape scenes appear in two huge mu¬
rals more than twenty-six meters long that appear along
the sloping passageway. Each mural shows a grand cere¬
monial procession outside a walled city, an enormous
Blue Dragon or White Tiger soaring amid the clouds in
the distance. The backdrop to the imperial pageantry is a
mountainous landscape with rocky crags, deep ravines,
and scattered trees. The upper portion of the landscape is
damaged, but the surviving parts exhibit a distinctive
style (fig. 59). The painting is remarkable for its color
variation. The overall brownish wash is enriched by
subde tonal changes, reddish in some places and yellow¬
ish or greenish in others. Shading is used here and there
to emphasize volume, and the bright malachite green ap¬
plied along contours is typical of a blue-and-green land¬
scape. The unusual energy and intensity of the painting
are, however, largely due to the crisply drawn lines of ink.
Firm and wirelike, these lines or double lines delineate
angular rocks with sharp, crystalline facets.80
Interestingly, we find similar lines, color combinations,
and rock formations in a famous but problematic scroll
painting—Emperor Minghuang’s Journey into Shu (Minghuang
58. Attributed to Li Sixun, Sailing Boats and a Riverside Mansion, xingShu tu; fig. 60) — whose authenticity and dating have
handscroll, ink and color on silk. 101.9 X 54.7 cm. Collection long been the focus of scholarly debate. New evidence
of the National Palace Museum, Taibei.
from Prince Yide’s tomb seems to support the con¬
tention that the scroll, though of Song provenance, was
based on a Tang original created around 800 by a follower
prince — his name while he was alive was Li Chong- of the Li School.81 This relatively late date may explain
run — and not until the empress died in 705 were his re¬ some differences from the Prince Yide murals, including
mains exhumed and transferred to a newly constructed the more overtly decorative quality of the scroll painting
mausoleum near the tombs of his ancestors. For the sur¬ and the complete dominance of landscape elements. In
viving members of the Tang royal clan, including Li Sixun, the scroll the swirling clouds and broken rocks are now
Prince Yide’s death and posthumous rehabilitation must arranged in patterns and painted with glowing opaque
have typified their collective experience during those tur¬ colors. Mountains no longer serve as a backdrop to the
bulent years, and the construction of his tomb must have figures but rise majestically, images in their own right
symbolized the reestablishment of the Li clan’s political painted in imaginative shapes. Arrays of soaring crags
authority. Two additional facts suggest Li Sixun’s direct dominate the middle ground and are divided into a tri¬
involvement and influence in the construction and deco¬ partite structure by two deep ravines, which guide the
ration of the tomb. First, as Lord of the Court of Impe¬ viewer’s gaze into the distance. We find a similar spatial

66 The Origins of Chinese Painting

59. Guards of Honor,
mural in Prince
Yide’s tomb in
Qianxian, Shaanxi
Province, 706.
3 51 cm high.
 Go. Attributed to Li Zhaodao, Emperor Minghuang’sJourney into Shu, hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, probably a Song-dynasty
copy of a Tang-dynasty original created ca. 800 by a follower of the Li School. 5 5-9 ^ cm' Collection of the National Palace
Museum, Taibei.

arrangement in the scene painted on an early eighth- painted tombs of high officials and royalty discovered in
century biwa (pip a), or lute (fig. 61). But Emperor Ming¬ the Chang’an area have allowed Chinese scholars to spec¬
huang’s Journey into Shu is far more complex and sophisti¬ ulate on the changing subjects of Tang painting from
cated. The painter deliberately used landscape to enhance the early seventh to late ninth centuries. The tombs of
narrative content. The travelers form a winding stream Princess Changle and Zhishi Fengjie attest to the coexis¬
that moves through a series of linked spaces defined by tence of different painting schools during the seventh
mountains and ravines. Yet the mountains also punctuate century (figs. 62, 63); and murals in three imperial tombs,
this movement and create a strong sense of rhythm. The belonging to Prince Yide, Prince Zhanghuai (Li Xian,
travelers emerge from behind the cliffs to the right, rest 654—684), and Princess Yongtai (Li Xianhui, 684—701),
on open ground before the middle peaks, and then con¬ provide the best examples for studying stylistic variations
tinue their journey, vanishing behind the mountain to in early eighth-century court painting.82
the left. These three imperial tombs were constructed in a
Authentic, securely dated funerary murals found in single year (706) at nearby locations for the same reason.
recent years have become one of the most important Like Prince Yide, Prince Zhanghuai and Princess Yongtai
sources of our knowledge about Tang painting. In many were victims of Wu Zetian’s persecution of Tang descen¬
cases, these murals yield reliable evidence for identifying dants and were given formal burials only after Wu’s
and dating other paintings and styles. Their most crucial death. Wall paintings in Prince Yide’s and Princess Yong¬
significance, however, lies in providing a large group of tai’s tombs are closer in composition and style, perhaps
related paintings that demonstrate the development of because these two tombs were ranked as imperial mau¬
Tang painting over a long period as well as the complex¬ soleums (ling) at the time of their construction. Prince
ity of Tang painting at a given moment. Twenty-seven Zhanghuai’s tomb, which was not an imperial mau-

68 The Origins oj Chinese Painting

 62. Guards of Honor, mural in Princess Changle’s tomb in Liquan,
Shaanxi Province, 643. (Reprinted from ZMQ, Painting,
vol. 12, no. 93.)

soleum, seems to have been decorated by an entirely dif¬

ferent group of painters who favored a less formal and
more expressive style.83 Landscape scenes are also found
in this tomb along the entryway (fig. 64). But unlike in the
Prince Yide murals with their piled-up crags, here there is
an open expanse of space dotted with hills, rocks, and
horsemen. The ink lines, too, differ markedly from the
angular and wirelike brushwork in Prince Tide’s tomb.
61. Landscape with Musicians on an Elephant, painting on a They possess greater representational value in delineating
biwa, late 8th century. 5 3 cm high. (Courtesy of the Shoso-in shape and volume and, having been drawn freely and
Treasure House, Nara, Japan.)
speedily, share the quality of certain calligraphic styles,
such as xing (strolling) and cao (cursive). Stylistic varia¬
tions are again reflected in the representation of figures in
the different tombs. Prince Yide’s tomb has images of
stiff officials and soldiers covering the walls, but Prince
Zhanghuai’s tomb has figures in clusters, linked in dy-

The Origins of Chinese Painting 69

 Wu Daozi and Zhou Fang (ca. 730-ca. 800). Art his¬
tory now encompassed artistic lineages, not just individ¬
ual artists. As Zheng Yanyuan remarks: “In every case
there is a tradition from master to pupil, and all in turn
follow one another.”84 Competitions between schools,
workshops, and individual artists became increasingly
frequent, especially when a large building had to be
decorated by a number of painters, sometimes of great
renown. In some cases, artists working together tried to
keep their techniques secret; in other cases, competitions
between individual painters developed into conflicts be¬
tween regional factions.85
Several anecdotes relate that open contests were held
between painters asked to illustrate the same subject on
different walls in a hall. Two eighth-century murals in
Dunhuang Cave 172 prove that these stories are not en¬
tirely fictional. Covering the two side walls, they illustrate
the Amitayurdhyana Sutra in identical compositions, but
their divergent painting styles and visual impact betray
different hands. The mural on the south wall appears light,
airy, and gentle (fig. 66a); the one on the north wall is
heavy, solemn, and intense (fig. 66b). This impression
arises from the different color schemes and from the
painterly or linear qualities of the images. The central Ami-
tayus Buddha in the south mural, for example, is a typically
sinicized icon attired in a loose white robe; the drawing is
linear, and the painter lingered over the flowing drapery.
But the same Buddha depicted on the north wall adheres
to an Indian prototype. He wears a tight monastic robe
that bares one shoulder and reveals rather than conceals

63. Dancing Girl in Red, mural in Zhishi Fengjie’s tomb in the torso. There is a strong sense of volume: the Buddha
Chang’an, Shaanxi Province, 658. 116 X 70 cm. and the flanking bodhisattvas are round, solid figures; the
outlines are either omitted or merge into shading.86
namic movement. The painter of the clustered figures Such stylistic divergences had cultural and political
was also more conscious of constructing an illusory pic¬ significance. Underlying these two interpretations of a
torial space. In one place, a row of bold trees in the fore¬ standard composition were two radically different atti¬
ground separates figures and animals from the picture tudes toward Buddhist art, one a conservative, Indian ap¬
plane (fig. 65). In retrospect, we realize that this tree proach and the other a reformist, sinicizing approach.
motif, which occurs in pre-Han to post-Han pictorial art Given this line of thinking, we might wonder about
(see figs. 9b, 37, 45), has a changed function; instead of the implications of a contest between Li Sixun and Wu
structuring adjacent spatial cells, it differentiates layers Daozi, recounted in perhaps the most famous anecdote
of space. of this sort found in a Tang text. Zhu Jingxuan records
The existence of such stylistic variation was related to that in the Tianbao era (742-75 5), Emperor Minghuang
one of the most significant phenomena in Tang art: the ordered these two masters to execute their different ver¬
appearance of a number of influential painting traditions sions of the Jialing River scenery in Datong Hall. Wu, in a
each of whose adherents identified themselves as belong¬ burst of energy, “finished a landscape of three hundred
ing to a school following “So-and-so’s model” (X jia miles in a single day. . . . But it took Li Sixun several
yang). Some of these traditions traced their origin to an¬ months to complete his work.”87 Since Li Sixun was
cient masters like Cao Buxing and Zhang Sengyou (active about fifty years Wu Daozi’s senior and died long before
500 — 550); others followed contemporary masters like the Tianbao era, this record can only be read as a fable.

7° The Origins of Chinese Painting

 JajfljW.
i t'
iy
Ailjl
* Ik
IK

JpI ,■;*$ if : ' ..

\wjR

65. Playing Polo—Trees, mural in Prince Zhanghuai’s tomb in

Qianxian, Shaanxi Province, 706. 100-200 X 890 cm.

64. Playing Polo—Landscape, mural in Prince Zhanghuai’s tomb

in Qianxian, Shaanxi Province, 706.

Instead of being real historical personages, the masters [his] image already reflects [the object].” Zhang’s view
stand for art traditions or schools. Their competition was shared by Zhu Jingxuan, who “never found Wu’s
symbolizes the tension and conflict between these tra¬ works remarkable for their detailed ornamentation. It is,
ditions or schools in terms of style, medium, function, rather, the incomparable play of his brush [that is remark¬
artist, and audience. able]. In all cases [the brushwork] is profusely varied and
On an artistic level, the anecdote reflects the funda¬ full of untrammeled energy. In a number of instances, his
mental classification of the Tang painting styles that wall paintings were carried out in ink alone; no one in re¬
Zhang Yanyuan considered the basis of art criticism and cent times has been competent to add color to them.”88
appreciation: “Only when one realizes that there are Scholars have tried to match these descriptions with
these two painting styles, the shu [loose] and the mi images. A mid-eighth-century portrayal of Vimalakirti in
[dense], can one begin to talk about painting.” Our dis¬ Dunhuang (fig. 67) seems to reflect Wu’s monochrome
cussion of tomb murals has shown the coexistence of drawing style, and a stone engraving in the Northern Yue
these stylistic tendencies during the seventh and early Temple in Quyang (fig. 68) may show his vigorous and
eighth centuries (compare figs. 62 and 63, 59 and 64). By profusely varied brushwork. Said to have been copied
the mid-eighth century the “dense” style of the Li Sixun from a drawing by Wu Daozi, this second work depicts a

school seems to have passed its prime: Zhang Yanyuan devillike guardian gesturing wildly, screaming ferociously,
praised Li Sixun but criticized his son Li Zhaodao for and leaping through the air with a halberd on his shoul¬

“producing overcrowded and overcomplicated works.” der, his clothes and hair driven by the wind into long flut¬

Around this time Wu Daozi emerged as the most brilliant tering pennants. The figure’s tremendous power seems to

artist to fully realize the potential of the “loose” style. As arise from the tension in his body and from his move¬

Zhang Yanyuan writes: “With just one or two strokes, ment, as well as from the artist’s mixed use of broken

The Origins of Chinese Painting 71

66. Illustrations of th& Amitayurdhyana Sutra, mural in Cave 172, Dunhuang, Gansu Province, mid-8th century: a, south wall,
300 X 411 cm; b, north wall, 300 X 410 cm.
 68. Attributed to Wu Daozi, Flying Demon, rubbing of a stone
engraving in the Northern Yue Temple in Quyang, Hebei
Province. 97.5 cm high.

67. Vimalakirti, detail of a mural in Cave 103, Dunhuang, Gansu

Province, mid-8th century.

and smooth lines. An isolated figure against an empty- ion to a prince.91 The real world of Wu Daozi remained
background, the guardian does not seem a self-contained outside the imperial palace. In the city of Chang’an he
image but is, in Max Loehr’s words, “enmeshed in a had his own workshop and apprentices who often ap¬
larger unit that is all energy and movement. The demon plied colors to Wu’s temple decorations. In fact, as we
does not generate the forces here made visible; they act find in Zhang Yanyuan’s records, all painters associated

upon him.”89 with Wu lacked close ties with the court and painted ex¬
In all likelihood, Wu Daozi’s powerful representa¬ clusively Buddhist or Daoist subjects.92 The report that
tional art was not nurtured by the court, whose increas¬ Wu Daozi (more accurately, his workshop) created more
ingly refined taste was best realized in delicate and than three hundred bays of temple murals need not be an
colorful illustrations of landscapes, palace ladies, flowers, exaggeration. Writing after the great persecution of Bud¬
birds, insects, and horses. Rather, the main force behind dhists in 845, Zhang Yanyuan was still able to identify
the development of the style most likely consisted of the murals by Wu Daozi in at least twenty-one monasteries in
builders and decorators of numerous Buddhist and Chang’an and Luoyang — that is, in about one-third of
Daoist temples who found their representative in Wu the total surviving number of monasteries in the two
Daozi and finally promoted him to patron god of their capitals. It is clear that public murals were Wu Daozi’s
profession.90 In sharp contrast to the wealthy courtier Li major art medium, not portable scrolls for private enjoy¬
Sixun, Wu Daozi was from humble origins and occupied ment.93 His practice centered on Buddhist monasteries
no position in official history. We know little about his and found its primary sources in Tang popular urban

life except that he was orphaned at an early age, that he culture.

was poor and probably never received formal art training, Many anecdotes confirm Wu Daozi’s relations to pop¬

and that even after he became famous and was recruited ular culture. Most tellingly, he is often described as a

by Emperor Minghuang, his duties in the palace rarely street performer whose nearly supernatural skills, rather

extended beyond teaching court ladies or being compan¬ than his finished works, dazzled the eye.94 We are told

The Origins of Chinese Painting 73

 69. Court Ladies, detail of a mural in Princess Yongtai’s tomb in Qianxian, Shaanxi Province, 706. 177 X 198 cm. (Reprinted from
ZMQ, Painting, vol. 12, no. 119.)

how he painted a halo in a single stroke without the aid monastery were so terrified of their sins that they all
of a pair of compasses: “He raised his brush and swept changed their trade. Wu Daozi and his works were grad¬
it around with the force of a whirlwind, so that every¬ ually mythicized: he was believed to be a reincarnation of
one said a god was aiding him.” His audience included Zhang Sengyou and was thought to be able to remember
passersby of all kinds. An old man told Zhu Jingxuan that his former lives by reading the Vajra Sutra. Rumors circu¬
when Wu was painting a temple mural, “crowds streamed lated about his wonderful drawings of five dragons,
from the Chang’an marketplaces, old and young, gentry which were reputedly so lifelike that mist swirled around
and commoners, struggling with each other to watch them whenever it was about to rain. Instead of providing
him until they were like a wall round about.” Such scenes reliable biographical information, these stories were part
could be found at almost any temple fair in traditional of a dynamic oral tradition.95 Whereas Li Sixun’s life was
China. Wu’s religious paintings had their strongest im¬ documented in Tang official history, legends about Wu
pact on commoners. An old monk in the Xiangji Mon¬ Daozi spread from mouth to mouth. In the process, Wu
astery related in the ninth century that the butchers and became not only the inspiration but also the product of
fishmongers who saw Wu Daozi’s Hell paintings in that people’s imagination.

74 The Origins of Chinese Painting

 It has been suggested that eclecticism and polycen¬ ridor, which leads to the antechamber and then to the
trism account for the vitality and richness of Tang cul¬ burial chamber. The walls of the two chambers bear im¬
ture, that they contributed to a general atmosphere of ages of royal ladies and servants in domestic settings, as if
openness and tolerance in which contention between they were still accompanying their deceased master or
schools and styles never led to tyranny but to coexistence mistress (fig. 69).
and mutual influences.96 This situation became most ob¬ Grand ceremonial scenes gradually fell out of fashion
vious during the middle and late eighth century, a period in the High Tang. In some tombs, images of domestic
that was at once the culmination of established painting figures, mainly women, musicians, and servants, appear
traditions and an era of change and renewal. While public not only in the rear chambers but also along the entry¬
religious art flourished to an unprecedented degree, a way. The grandeur of the dead was apparently no longer
number of branches of court art — notably, the painting the patron’s main concern; a whole tomb was now con¬
of female images, birds and flowers, and horses — devel¬ ceived and designed as a private underground home. This
oped into independent genres and produced great mas¬ development reached its apex in the middle and late
ters. In the same period a third trend emerged; here, Tang, when depictions of official gatherings and ritual
individualism was taken as the main goal of artistic ex¬ processions completely disappeared, the walls along the
pression. None of these three traditions was isolated; entryway were sometimes left undecorated, and the rear
they stimulated one another, and all contributed to the burial chamber became the most decorated section. Here
development of Tang painting. the murals imitate multipaneled screens and transform
Artists who had close ties with the court (that is, the chamber into the private quarters of a household.
artists who were royalty, courtiers, or professional court By documenting such changes, funerary murals pro¬
painters) often worked in specific painting genres or sub¬ vide a general background against which we can better
genres. In addition to producing political paintings, court understand the historical position of individual artists
portraiture, and blue-and-green landscapes, some mem¬ and surviving scrolls. Most significant, the murals reveal
bers of the aristocracy during the early Tang developed a the radical departure of High Tang court art from early
passion for painting birds (especially eagles), animals (es¬ Tang court art, a transformation that involved depoliti¬
pecially horses), and insects. Zhang Yanyuan and Zhu cization. Images of public activities gave way to those of
Jingxuan list quite a few princes, high officials, and gener¬ private life, and solemn officials and generals were re¬
als as experts in such painting.97 An important change placed by lush palace ladies. To people living in the mid¬
during the High Tang was the increasing popularity of eighth century, Yan Liben and his meritorious ministers
images of court ladies, attested to by both textual and belonged to the remote past. The main appeal of the
archaeological evidence. It is recorded that Li Cou, a court was no longer its political insights and judgments
grandnephew of Li Sixun’s who lived in the mid-eighth but its luxury and glamor. From 745 to 756 the most
century, abandoned the family’s landscape tradition in fa¬ powerful figure in the country was Yang Guifei, Ming-
vor of female images. “He was most skilled at [rendering] huang’s celebrated consort and the most famous femme
variegated silks and gauzes,” writes Zhang Yanyuan, “and fatale in Chinese history. It is said that the fashion of por¬
his figures were the utmost marvel of his time.” Tomb traying portly women owed much to Yang’s well-known
murals found in the metropolitan area further demon¬ corpulence. Although this contention is questionable be¬
strate the vogue for such images. Created for deceased cause such figures had appeared in the early eighth cen¬
royalty, high officials, and their relatives, these pictorial tury and even before then, Yang Guifei did embody the
works generally reflected the taste of the aristocracy. very essence of this imagery and signify its culmination.
Once analyzed in chronological sequence, they show the As she came to dominate not only Chang’an high society

shifting interests of the elite.98 but also contemporary male fantasy, a stereotyped palace

Murals in at least fourteen early Tang tombs follow a lady developed into a cultural icon. Plump and full-faced,
standard pictorial program. Two mythical animals — the this image of an ideal beauty appeared in various media
White Tiger and the Blue Dragon — usually flank the en¬ throughout the country and even abroad — silk paint¬

trance to the tomb. Next come large pictures of official ings portraying such ladies are found in Japan (fig. 70) as

gatherings, pageants, and hunting scenes, which cover well as central Asia (fig. 71). This development explains

the triangular walls along the sloping passageway. Sym¬ the appearance of Zhang Xuan and Zhou Fang, two mas¬

bols of official status, ceremonial paraphernalia, and ters in this genre. Through their efforts the image of the

attendants are depicted in groups along the adjacent cor¬ court lady became a legitimate subject of high art.

The Origins of Chinese Painting 75

 70. Screen with Ladies Under Trees, ink, color, and bird feathers on
silk, 8th century. 136 X 56 cm. (Courtesy of the Shoso-in
Zhang Xuan, the elder, was less known during the
Treasure House, Nara, Japan.)
Tang. Zhang Yanyuan describes him in a single sentence:
“Zhang Xuan loved to paint women and babies.” Zhu
Jingxuan left a longer record but placed him in the sec¬
ond tier of a three-tier ranking system." Zhang Xuan be¬
came indispensable in later discussions of Tang painting
chiefly because of the existence of two famous copies of
his works, both attributed to the celebrated Song artist-
emperor Huizong (r. 1101—1126). The double authorship
of the scrolls poses questions about the extent to which
we can use them as evidence of Zhang Xuan’s artistry. In
my opinion, they are at best Song reinterpretations of
Zhang Xuan’s works. Their composition may follow the
originals, but the painting style — the opaque coloring,
flat images, and especially the meticulous neatness of
the ornamental details — reflects the distinctive taste of
Huizong’s Academy of Painting. One of the paintings de¬
picts Lady Guoguo — a younger sister of Yang Guifei’s
who was no less famous for her beauty and dissipation —
taking a spring outing on horseback (fig. 72).100 The other
painting focuses on a quite different aspect of imperial
harem life. Three groups of court ladies are engaged in
different stages of preparing newly woven silk (fig. 73),
71. A Woman Playing a Game of Chess, section of a fragmentary but we should not confuse this with real silk production
painted screen from Astana Tomb 187 in Turpan, Xinjiang or the day-to-day work of ordinary weavers. In the an¬
Uygur Autonomous Region, ink and color on silk, 8th century. cient Chinese court, silk weaving was primarily a ritual
63 cm high. (Reprinted from ZMQ, Painting, vol. 2, no. 9.)
activity; palace ladies were responsible for holding annual
ceremonies of picking mulberry leaves and preparing
silk. The tradition of illustrating such activities can be
traced back to the sixth or fifth century b.c. (see fig. 10).

These scenes, the subjects of bronze decorations, stone

reliefs, and scroll paintings, helped define the symbolic
status and roles of court ladies.
In composition the two works also follow different

76 The Origins of Chinese Painting

72. Lady Guoguo’s Spring Outing Emperor Huizong’s copy of an 8th-century painting by Zhang Xuan, section of a handscroll,
ink and color on silk, Northern Song dynasty. 52 X 148 cm. Liaoning Provincial Museum, Shenyang.

models. The painting of Lady Guoguo’s outing was ap¬ Fang imitated the painting of Zhang Xuan, but then he
parently an offspring of the time-honored tradition of became somewhat different. He reached the very utmost
depicting horsemen and chariot processions (see figs. 9, in stylish appearance, devoting his whole art to portray¬
25, 31). It recalls in particular a large hunting scene in Li ing people of wealth and prestige, and eschewing [any¬
Xian’s tomb which likewise begins with a few riders thing reminiscent of] rustic village life. His drawings of
ahead of a large royal party. Ladies Preparing Newly Woven costumes are simple but powerful, his coloration soft yet
Silk, on the other hand, continues the tradition of Admo¬ elaborate.”102 This statement, though placing the two
nitions of the Court Instructress to Palace Ladies, in which painters in a single genre, points to their different histori¬
figures construct self-contained spatial units within the cal positions: Zhang Xuan lived at a time when the im¬
painting (see fig. 39). Over the centuries viewers have agery of court ladies was yet to be further stylized; Zhou
been amazed by the highly sophisticated composition Fang, when figures represented the very utmost in styl¬
of Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk. Upon opening the ization. We can therefore understand why Zhang Xuan
scroll one finds four women, “like a sequence of four lu¬ remained rather shadowy during the Tang, whereas Zhou
nar phases,” surrounding a rectangular trough.101 Their Fang was ranked above all Tang masters (including Yan
subde gestures and movements balance one another; Liben, Li Sixun, and others) except Wu Daozi.103 Later

their standing poses and the pestles in their hands em¬ copies of Zhou’s works hardly support this lofty evalua¬
phasize verticality. In contrast, the second scene com¬ tion. Fortunately, a painting entitled Court Ladies Wearing

prises figures sitting on the ground. With one lady sewing Flowered Headdresses (Zanhua shinii tu; fig. 74) can be iden¬

and another spinning, the key image is now delicate silk tified with enough confidence as a genuine Tang work —

threads, not heavy pestles. The third and last picture by Zhou Fang himself or by one of his followers — to

echoes the first scene. It again contains four standing allow us to glimpse the amazing achievement of Tang fe¬

women, also arranged in a sequence of four lunar phases. male portraiture.104

But these women are stretching out a roll of white silk; Rare indeed is a Chinese painting so exquisite and sen¬

the tension of the silk roll along the horizontal dimension sual. The court ladies portrayed are themselves works of

becomes the focus of representation. The painting, then, art. Their heavily powdered white faces are painted with

is a typical tripartite composition, like works by Zhang tiny lips and fashionable “moth eyebrows,’ and their tall

Xuan’s follower Zhou Fang. coiffures are sculptural forms embellished with flowers

Zhang Yanyuan writes explicitly about the relationship and jewelry. Ironically, artificiality and anonymity here

between Zhang Xuan and Zhou Fang: “At first, Zhou serve to enhance the women’s sexuality. Although their

The Origins of Chinese Painting ~ji

 73 - Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk, Emperor Huizong’s copy of an 8th-century painting by Zhang Xuan, handscroll, ink and
color on silk, early 12th century. 37 X 147 cm. (Japanese and Chinese Special Fund. Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.)

faces are concealed and turned into uniform masks, their the ladies keep each other company and share each
bodies are suggested and revealed by the transparency of other’s loneliness. New archaeological evidence suggests
their clothes. Executed in rich colors in a subdued tone, prototypes for such images. Line engravings on an early
their thin gauze robes expose patterned underclothes, eighth-century imperial sarcophagus show female figures
inviting the viewer to discover the female body beneath. surrounded by clusters of “cut flowers” (p^hephi huahui),
This observation casts into doubt the contention that the flying swallows, and wild geese and contemplating birds
artist’s aim was purely aesthetic. Rather, aestheticism is and flowers they hold in their hands; an example is
another name for eroticism in this work. No stories or shown in figure 75.
actions are depicted. Instead, the painter conveys a par¬ The last important subject of court painting is animals,
ticular sense of femininity and a mood of languor and especially horses. Surprisingly, the development of horse
melancholy associated with court ladies. painting best demonstrates the transformation of court
This painting also offers a valuable clue for under¬ art from the early Tang to the High Tang. Horses, espe¬
standing bird-and-flower painting, which, in tandem with cially the tough, stocky kind from central Asia, had always
the depiction of court ladies, developed into an impor¬ been a passion of the Tang royal house. But the animal
tant tradition in the eighth century.105 In the scroll, court meant different things to different emperors and was de¬
ladies stand side by side but without casting their eyes on picted variously at different times. The six stone horses
one another. Their attention is absorbed by a second of the early Tang are realistic portrayals of Emperor
group of images: a tiny red flower, a blooming magnolia, Taizong’s battle chargers. Standing in front of the em¬
pugs, a crane, and a butterfly on a lady’s fingers. The in¬ peror’s mausoleum, they symbolize the founding of the
timacy between these human and nonhuman images empire. (This is most explicit in figure 50, which repre¬
indicates the painter’s intention to establish analogies be¬ sents General Qiu Xinggong removing an arrow from
tween them. The nonhuman images can be understood the chest of Autumn Dew.) A century later, Emperor
as representations, similes, or metaphors. As represen¬ Minghuang filled his stables with more than forty thou¬
tations, they are components of an imperial garden in¬ sand foreign steeds. Never having seen a battlefield, these
side the palace; as similes, they lend their delicacy to the horses were trained to dance in front of the Son of
ladies who are also fixtures of the imperial garden; and Heaven (fig. 76). No longer warriors, they became com¬
as metaphors, they are anthropomorphized — they and parable to the ladies kept in the imperial harem. Well-

78 The Origins of Chinese Painting

known court painters like Chen Hong (eighth century) the Imperial Painting Academy nor the tradition of lite¬
and Han Gan received imperial orders to portray the rati painting had yet appeared, so it would be very prob¬
most famous mounts. Their works betray the elements of lematic to classify Tang artists into “professional” and
the early Tang realistic tradition but reflect the High Tang “amateur” types, as later artists were. Records by Zhang
fashion of giving forms a round, fleshy appearance; Yanyuan and Zhu Jingxuan nevertheless do show certain
indeed, we find an unmistakable stylistic resemblance correlations between painting subject and style and
between images of horses and images of palace ladies artist’s social status and occupation. We have looked at
created in the eighth century. This is perhaps why Du Fu artists related to either court art or popular religious
criticized Han Gan for “merely painting the horses’ flesh art. Painters in a third group — men of letters — became
and not their bones.” Zang Yanyuan, however, defended known in the High Tang and played an increasing role in
Han (whom he considered “the supreme horse painter of the middle and late Tang. Although some of them had
all time”) for capturing the horse’s essential spirit.106 connections with the court, they are often admired for
Zhang’s argument is supported by the painting Shining their unworldliness, either as recluses who found pri¬
Light of Night {Zhaoyeho; fig. 77), which is attributed to the vate delight in landscape painting or as “untrammeled”
artist. Although the title identifies the subject as one of gentlemen whose eccentric style shocked the conven¬
the most beloved horses in Minghuang’s stable, the im¬ tional world.
age— a horse with a round torso and short skinny The famous poet and painter Wang Wei (699—7 5 9) and
legs — seems far from a naturalistic portrayal of a central the Daoist hermit Lu Hong (active early eighth century)
Asian steed. Rather, the animal’s clumsy physique contra¬ were two early and rather idealized representatives of this
dicts and thus reinforces the power of its spirit. Strug¬ group. Wang is intimately associated with Wangchuan,
gling violently for freedom, the horse stamps its hoofs his country villa in Lantian, south of Chang’an. His
and lifts its head, neighing. But the struggle is hope¬ poems frequently describe the peaceful local scenery—-
less: the horse is tethered to a thick iron pole, whose cen¬ hills, streams, and bamboo groves, lakeside pavilions
trality in the painting increases the impression of stability. and cottages — and he also illustrated the countryside
Tellingly, the horse turns its agonized eye to the spectator in more than one painting.107 But these pictures all dis¬
and appeals for sympathy. The animal is anthropomor¬ appeared even before the Northern Song dynasty (960 —
phized; but unlike the delicate flowers and insects, it 1127), leaving little evidence to confirm the belief that he

seems to allude to the tragic side of court life. was able to express in visual images the same tranquil
Tang painters did not fall into strict categories. Neither feeling that shines through his poetry. This belief was

The Origins of Chinese Painting 79

 74- Attributed to Zhou Fang, Court Ladies Wearing Flowered
Headdresses, handscroll, ink and color on silk, Tang dynasty.
46 X 180 cm. Liaoning Provincial Museum, Shenyang.

7 5. Palace Lady with Flowers in

Her Hand, ink rubbing of a
line engraving on the stone
sarcophagus of Princess
Yongtai, 706. 132 cm high. 76. Dancing Horse, jar, silver with
(Reprinted from ZMQ, Stone repousse gilt decoration, 8th century.
Engraving, vol. 2, no. 19.) Xi’an Museum.
77. Attributed to Han Gan, Shining Light of Night, handscroll, ink and color on paper. 30.8 X 33.5 cm.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. (Dillon Fund Gift, 1977.)

most likely a creation of Song and post-Song literati, for court art nor the tradition of popular art, could well have
Tang records of Wang Wei’s art, though vague, suggest adopted different styles.
at least two distinctive styles, one of colored depic¬ A Ming-period stone engraving of a panorama of

tions that “bridged the antique and the modern” and the Wangchuan Villa, based on a copy made by Guo Zhong-

other of strong, brisk monochromic renderings, some¬ shu (ca. 910-977) in the tenth century, possibly bears
times drawn with the “broken ink” or “inkwash” {porno) traces of Wang’s first and more conservative style. The

method. The first style reminds us of the blue-and-green composition is archaic, a series of sites — houses and

landscapes of the Li Sixun School, whereas the second gardens identified by labels — being connected into a

style was probably inspired by Wu Daozi.108 Wang Wei, a horizontal display (fig. 78). The Daoist hermit Lu Hong

learned man who belonged to neither the tradition of used the same composition in a painting of his country

The Origins of Chinese Painting

78. Wangchuan Villa, ink rubbing of a stone carving made after Wang Wei’s drawing, 15 th century. 31 cm high. Art Museum,
Princeton University. (On loan from the Far Eastern Seminar, Department of Art and Archaeology. Photo: Courtesy of the
Far Eastern Seminar.)
79- Lu Hong, view i of Ten Views from a Thatched Lodge, handscroll, ink on paper. National Palace Museum, Taibei.

retreat; though later preserved as an album, it was origi¬ an artist of someone else’s text (see figs. 39, 43), here im¬
nally a handscroll consisting of ten views. Like Wang Wei, ages and words were created by the same person. Each
Lu Hong was a “lofty scholar” who specialized in paint¬ section of the painting begins with an inscription that
ing mountains and water, trees and rocks. Wang Wei be¬ identifies a site and describes it (as well as the author’s re¬
came a devout Buddhist; Lu Hong, a Daoist recluse at sponses to it) in both prose and verse. The accompanying
Mount Song near Luoyang. Lu refused an appointment picture is as a visual counterpart of the words rather than
as Censor Counsellor, but instead of punishing him, Em¬ a direct representation of the place. Fourth, the mono¬
peror Minghuang gave him gifts, including the “thatched chrome scenes also develop a visual context in which the

lodge” on Mount Song where he spent the rest of his life inscriptions can be appreciated as calligraphy created by

giving private lessons.109 the same brush. It is possible that this kind of composite

Several copies of Lu Hong’s Ten Views from a Thatched painting existed in Lu Hong’s time. Zhang Yanyuan re¬

Lodge (Caotang shifn) exist; the set in the National Palace cords that Zheng Qian (ca. 690-764), another famous

Museum has the strongest archaic features, including the High Tang scholar-artist, once presented to Minghuang

stagelike setup of each scene and a naive sense of scale a scroll with his own verses, illustrations, and calligra¬

(fig. 79).110 The importance of this version is that if it in¬ phy. Delighted, the emperor inscribed it with the words

deed preserves the basic composition of Lu Hong’s orig¬ “Zheng Qian’s three perfections [sanfue\Tni

inal work, then Ten Views would be the first work in Except for some fragments from Turpan (fig. 80), no

Chinese art history that we could call a scholarly paint¬ ink landscape painting has survived from the middle or

ing, in a style that would dominate Chinese painting after late Tang; even copies are unknown. This situation is par¬

the Song, for its main features are all related to the self- ticularly unfortunate because these 140 years constitute a

identity of a scholar-artist. First, the painting depicts crucial period in the history of this art tradition. On the

neither a generic landscape nor a famous public site but one hand, texts from the ninth and tenth centuries record

a country estate owned by the painter. Second, the illus¬ an increasing number of scholars devoted to painting

trations of this private landscape are also a series of pines, rocks, and landscapes; on the other hand, the ma¬

self-portraits of the artist, who appears in most scenes, turity of monochrome landscapes in the tenth century—

listening to the sound of a stream, standing on top of a to wit, Jing Hao’s (ca. 855—915) writing and Li Chengs

small hill, conversing with a fellow hermit inside a cave, (919-967) painting (see figs. 92, 93) — imply a previous

or cultivating longevity techniques inside his thatched stage of intense development.11- Indeed, we may say that

hut. Third, unlike earlier works that were illustrations by this development was the single most important artistic

The Origins of Chinese Painting 83

 Bo. Pine and Cypress
Trees, fragment of a
Buddhist banner
found by the Otani
Expedition in
central Asia, ink on
silk, ca. 8 th century.
(Reprinted from
Sullivan, Symbols of
Eternity, fig. 30. Used
with the permission
of the publishers,
Stanford University
Press. © 1979 by
Michael D. Sullivan.
Photo: Courtesy of
Michael D. Sullivan.)

phenomenon in the second half of the Tang, and it was philosophy. A crucial difference between them and the
encouraged not by the prosperity of the state but by its Seven Worthies, however, was that painting had become

decline. a major vehicle for expressing individuality, and in the

Tang China never fully recovered from the An Lushan middle and late Tang individuality often verged on eccen¬
Rebellion of 755-763; gradually what had been a great tricity. Zhu Jingxuan puts some scholar-painters into an
empire shrank in both body and spirit. An anxious court “untrammeled class” (yipin) because in his opinion they
could hardly foster an inventive art style, and religious did not conform to any established rules and therefore
persecution struck a heavy blow against temple con¬ could not be judged by such rules. One of them, Wang
struction. Only scholars, whose art aimed to express in¬ Mo (Ink Wang; d. ca. 805), painted only when drunk. He
ner feelings, found troubles and even torment inspiring. would spatter ink on a piece of silk, laughing and singing
Many intellectuals returned to the old tradition of the all the while. “He would kick at it, smear it with his hands,
Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove for escape, finding sweep his brush about or scrub with it, here with pale ink,
personal freedom in wine, music, literature, religion, and there with dark. Then he would follow the configurations

84 The Origins of Chinese Painting

thus achieved, to make mountains or rocks, or clouds
or water.” The virtues of such a painting style lay in
the direct response of hand to thought; relying purely
on intuition, the artist created images “with a godlike
cunning. 11J
This trend toward nonconformity had already begun
in the mid-eighth century. Zhang Yanyuan summarizes
Zheng Qian’s bohemian life-style in a sentence: “Suffer¬
ing hardship, he loved the zither [qin\, wine, and chanting
poems.” Zheng’s student Zhang Zao (mid to late eighth
century) was considered the most accomplished scholar-
painter of the time; a number of famous Tang writers,
including Zhang Yanyuan, Zhu Jingxuan, Bai Juyi (772 —
846), Fu Zai (d. 813?), and Yuan Zhen (799—831), men¬
tion his enormous reputation. He was thought to have
surpassed all ancient and contemporary artists in painting
pines and rocks, and he was equally gifted in composing
large landscape scenes —“giving a luxuriant beauty to
both heights and lowlands, and superimposing depth on
depth within the space of an inch or two.” Fu Zai vividly
describes both his work and his manner of painting. He
reports that Zhang once walked into a banquet without
invitation. Roughly demanding fresh silk from the host,
he displayed his extraordinary art in front of twenty-four
guests.

Right in the middle of the room he sat down with his

legs spread out and took a deep breath, and his inspira¬
tion began to issue forth. Those present were as star-
ded as if lightning were shooting across the heavens or
a whirlwind were sweeping up into the sky. Ravaging
and pulling, spreading in all directions, the ink seemed
to be spitting from his dying brush. He clapped his
hands with a cracking sound. Dividing and drawing to¬
gether, suddenly strange shapes were born. When he
had finished, there stood pine trees, scaly and riven,
crags steep and precipitous, clear water and turbulent
clouds. He threw down his brush, got up, and looked
around in every direction. It seemed as if the sky had
cleared after a storm, to reveal the true essence of ten
thousand things.114
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 RICHARD M. BARNHART

The Five Dynasties (907-960)

and the Song Period (960-1279)

he political and military decline of the Tang dynasty extended over many

years until, by the beginning of the tenth century, not even the pretense of a

central dynasty remained. Rival powers across the old unified empire vied

for supremacy for more than half a century without decisive outcome. The

five successive states that ruled much of northern China at this time give the

period its name, but ten other kingdoms held on to power in other parts of

the former Tang realm, and this brief but artistically fertile era is properly

called the period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.

The three regions that produced the most distinctive artistic cultures were

Sichuan, where the Shu kingdom maintained many of the old imperial tradi¬

tions of the Tang, the Jiangnan state of the Southern Tang, with its capital in

Jinling (present-day Nanjing), where a quite different and highly sophisti¬

cated royal court created a new and influential form of the Jiangnan culture,

and the traditional northern heartland, centered in the former capitals

of Chang’an and Luoyang, and in Bianliang (present-day Kaifeng), which

would eventually become the capital of the unifying Song dynasty, beginning

in 960. These three regions constituted what we might today call the center,

and the periphery was also extraordinarily diverse and vital. China was inex¬

tricably involved with the surrounding non-Chinese peoples from the late

Tang through the Five Dynasties and the succeeding Song period, culminat-

Details, figure 114 (opposite) and figure 103 {above)

 mg in the Mongol conquest of the entire Chinese empire teen arhats preserved in the Japanese Imperial House¬
in the thirteenth century. Before that, the Liao, the Xixia, hold Collection (fig. 81) bears an inscription by the artist
and the Tartar Jin peoples all contributed to the rapidly dated 894, written in a distinctive seal script as archaic as
changing civilization of China. the images themselves. According to that inscription,
Guanxiu began the set in 880 while living in Lanxi, Zhe¬
jiang Province, his hometown, and finished it in 894,
The Five Dynasties while residing in Hubei Province.1 The grotesque, tor¬
mented faces of these holy men seem to hold more
With the collapse of the central government in 907, meanings than even their deep spiritual discipline could
artists and craftsmen lost their most powerful patron, the suggest. In the view of Max Loehr, Guanxiu’s arhats are
imperial court, which had inspired a true golden age of the visible embodiments of the destruction and suffering
art and literature in its heyday. The imperial court would of the terrible Buddhist persecutions of the ninth cen¬
not again rise to such heights as patron of the arts until tury, when the Buddhist Church was nearly obliterated in
near the end of the eleventh century, but now the re¬ China.2 They indeed seem ravaged by time and memories
gional courts each sought to achieve something that of death and are depicted by the artist as if they were an¬
might be regarded as continuing the Tang traditions in art cient, wasted survivors of a holocaust. In an age still cele¬
and culture, just as they claimed to maintain those tradi¬ brating the gracious classical figure traditions of the Tang
tions in government — and to make proper claim to the court, these images could only have struck deep chords
Mandate of Heaven. The Shu kingdom of Sichuan was of amazement and wonder, demanding to be under¬
fortunate in that so many had fled the Tang capital to stood in ways that human images in a postpersecution,
the traditional western sanctuary ever since Emperor Neo-Confucian world of order and restraint could not.
Minghuang himself had “journeyed to Shu” during the Guanxiu’s arhats, in other words, convey a form of reality
disastrous An Lushan Rebellion in 755. By the end of that addresses human truth, not aristocratic artifice. Gen¬
the Tang something like a miniature Tang court existed erally speaking, this form of intensified, expressionistic
in Chengdu, complete with poets, scholars, painters, representation—what might be termed psychological
and the other necessary representatives of a flourishing archaism — forms a minor, recurring theme in the long
culture. history of Chinese painting and is primarily associated
One of the most celebrated arrivals was the distin¬ with Buddhism. Pain, suffering, and death — the realities
guished Buddhist monk painter, poet, and calligrapher of human experience — are scarcely visible anywhere but
Guanxiu (832-912), who arrived in Chengdu in 901, just in Buddhist art, although occasionally they surface sur¬
a few years before the anticlimactic end of the Tang, and prisingly elsewhere as well, even in the realm of court-
remained there until his death. The king of Shu bestowed sponsored painting.
upon him the honorific name Great Master of the Chan The primary physical format of painting at the end of
Moon (Chanyue dashi), but he is known by his monk’s the Tang dynasty was still the wall surface, in all probabil¬
name, Guanxiu, which means “a string of blessings.” ity. Large wood-framed screens were also in common
Guanxiu is one of the first independent artists famed for use, and it was during the course of the tenth century that
his accomplishments in the three arts of painting, poetry, these traditional public formats were seriously challenged
and calligraphy. His art in all three forms is in fact still ex¬ by smaller, more portable forms of painting. As scale and
tant, which is even more extraordinary. The subject for function changed and the relation between object and
which he gained national fame as a painter was that of viewer narrowed and became more intimate, new nu¬
arhats, disciples of the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, ances of technique developed and became characteris¬
who lived harshly simple lives as ascetics in their single- tic of painting in general. By the end of the eleventh
minded devotion to the spirit of the Buddha’s teachings. century, the techniques of painting had been thoroughly
They are the Buddhist equivalent of the original disciples transformed from those used for broad, large-scale wall
of Jesus and occupy a high place in their spiritual appeal painting to those used for refined, precise, and elegant
to the masses of worshipers. Artists had been depicting miniatures.
them in painting and sculpture since the Six Dynasties Among the most important examples of tenth-century
period, often with great power and expressiveness, but it wall painting that still exist is a group of fragments ac¬
was only with Guanxiu that the image of the arhat took quired in 1923 by the dealer C. T. Loo and kept at his
on dimensions that seized the imagination. The set of six¬ house in Paris for many years until their publication in

88 The Five Dynasties and the Song Period

 from the mid-ninth to the late eleventh century, he ob¬
served that no one in his dynasty, the Song, had sur¬
passed the greatest Tang masters of figure painting and
narrative subjects. We can affirm this today by compar¬
ing the greatest accomplishments at Dunhuang with the
most celebrated examples of Song figure painting. Even
though not a single original work by any great master of
the Tang exists today, it is clear that the Tang achieve¬
ment in figure and narrative painting went far beyond the
Song in ambition, drama, dynamic energy, and narrative
power.
Guo also observed, however, that in the painting of
landscapes and bird-and-flower subjects the Tang mas¬
ters did not come up to the standards of the Five Dynas¬
ties and the Song. Of this, too, there is no doubt. The
differences in these assessments by a thoughtful scholar
of painting reflect the fact that subjects rooted in the nat¬
8i. Guanxiu, The Arhat Pindola, detail of a hanging scroll, ink ural world of flora and fauna, mountains and rivers, gar¬
on silk, 880 — 894. 90 X 45 cm. Japanese Imperial Household dens and lakes, had gained the interest of artists in the
Collection, Tokyo.
waning years of the Tang and the chaotic half-century of
the Five Dynasties. There were few human glories to
promote and probably very little satisfaction in the con¬
1949.3 They remain today among the finest examples ditions to which human endeavors had brought the once-
of Chinese wall painting outside the magnificent cave- mighty empire of China. Artists, of course, continued to
temples at Dunhuang. In one fragment in the Nelson- paint the familiar religious and historical narratives they
Atkins Museum (fig. 82), a strong and refined version of had been painting for many centuries. Judging from the
the old Tang (Wu Daozi) style of light color over tensile works of Guanxiu and the unknown wall painters we
lines is used to convey the images of two bodhisattvas noted, such work was done at a high level of originality
preparing incense. They probably occupied a large wall and quality, but it is interesting to observe that Guanxiu
together with numerous other saintly beings attending achieved his strange power by internalizing the spirit of
central Buddhas, while before them may well have stood his sainted subjects and grotesquely deforming their exte¬
sculpted images, also colorfully painted, in the manner rior, while the wall painters attained such a high level
still seen so vividly and dramatically at Dunhuang. Re¬ of quality by the sheer refinement of their techniques.
peated and disastrous persecutions of Buddhism (includ¬ Refinement of technique — drawing, brushwork, color
ing one in 9 5 5 that destroyed much of the art in north application, shading — and the pursuit of some inward
central China, where the present fragments somehow form of spirit or meaning are both characteristic of the
survived) have caused the loss of most such early wall highest achievements in Song painting, and we see those
painting in north China; but these bits and pieces testify elements beginning to appear in their work even though
to a high level of refinement and skill and allow us to both Guanxiu and the wall painters were essentially Tang
connect the great age of Tang wall painting through this artists who lived on after the end of the Tang.
period to the late thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,
The Development of Bird-and-Flower Painting
when it reappears in considerable numbers, maintaining a
still impressive level of quality. This unbroken tradition is Guo Ruoxu, in his comparison of the past and pres¬

the backbone of the profession of Chinese painting from ent, argued that if any of the Tang masters of bird-and-

the seventh century through the fourteenth, and it is to flower painting could be reborn in his own time they

be regretted that so little of it remains. would fall far short of the great tenth-century masters

When the distinguished scholar of the history of paint¬ Huang Quan (903—965), Huang Jucai (933-after 993),

ing Guo Ruoxu looked back from the year 1074, when he and Xu Xi (d. before 975), and their work would seem

wrote his Tuhua jianwen foi, or “Record of My Experi¬ primitive and dull. These three masters were the most

ences in Painting,” across the development of painting celebrated artists of the popular bird-and-flower subjects

The Five Dynasties and the Song Period 89

82. Two Bodhisattvas Preparing Incense,
mural, fragment of a wall painting
originally from the Cishengsi,
Wenxian, Henan Province, 952.
175.3 X 89 cm. Nelson-Atkins
Museum of Art, Kansas City,
Missouri. (Gift of Mr. C. T. Loo.)
 8 3. Huang Quan, Sketches of Birds
and Insects, handscroll, ink
and color on silk, ca. 960.
41.5 X 70 cm. Palace Museum,
Beijing.

who had ever lived, and their influence over the Song and painting believably attributed to the younger Huang is
later periods was incalculable. Xu and Huang Quan, in Pheasant and Small Birds by a Jujube Shrub (fig. 84). This
particular, seemed to the critics of their time to have worn and damaged silk scroll still bears most of the
seized the twin peaks of artistic expression, Huang in the documentation — seals, title inscription and attribution,
realm of the aristocratic and wealthy, Xu in the realm of mounting material — given to it in the early twelfth cen¬
the retired scholar. Xu Xi’s work unfortunately has not tury by Emperor Huizong (1082-11 3 5; r. 1101-1125). In
survived, but works plausibly associated with Huang a simple and rather limited composition, we can find
Quan and his younger son, Huang Jucai, give form to some of the motifs of Huang Quan’s nature studies trans¬
Guo Ruoxu’s words.4 Sketches of Birds and Insects (fig. 83), formed into a finished picture. This is probably typical of
in the Palace Museum, bears a signature of Huang Quan the practice of painting throughout most of the period
and a brief inscription presenting this picture to his old¬ from the tenth through the fifteenth centuries among
est son, Huang Jubao (d. ca. 960). Jubao, too, was an ac¬ professional masters. Workshops, or studios, employing
complished painter, and the Palace Museum painting was assistants and disciples (often sons, nephew, or grand¬
given to him by his father specifically for him to study. sons of the master) worked under the direction of the
The painting is a series of careful life studies of various master to produce his products using his models and
birds, insects, and other small creatures, each precisely, guidelines. Painters were craftsmen or artisans by social
realistically rendered and colored, a bit like the nature classification, and their profession was largely heredi¬
studies of Diirer. We must assume that one reason for the tary, a family trade. H^ang Quan transmitted his trade

newly realistic manner of such representations was that to his sons and they to theirs, presumably, and even

painters like Huang Quan were systematically drawing Xu Xi, the “retired scholar,” passed his art on to his two

from life. It is obvious, furthermore, that the same thing grandsons.

was being done by landscape painters and by portrait The Huang family, serving the Shu kingdom in

painters. In fact, there was no real differentiation be¬ Sichuan, established the classic bird-and-flower style of

tween the artists who were painting all of these subjects. painting and saw that style become the standard for the

Huang Quan, for example, was a painter of landscapes newly established Song court. Another Sichuan family of

and figures as well as bird-and-flower subjects, and he painters, named Gao, did the same thing for figure paint¬

probably represents the class of painter generally. ing and Buddhist and Daoist icons. Gao Daoxing, Gao

Huang Jubao died before reaching the age of forty, Congyu (ca. tenth century), and Gao Wenjin first served

and his works are not known today. His younger brother, the Shu kings for three generations, then, in the person of

Jucai, however, achieved great fame as a follower of their Gao Wenjin, accompanied the last Shu king to Bianliang

father and carried the family tradition to the new Song in 965 and became the founder of the Song figure style. A

court at Bianliang in 965, where it was established as the signed and dated (984) woodblock print found inside the

basis of the Song academic style of painting. The one Seiryoji Buddha a few years ago is the only document of

The Five Dynasties and the Song Period 91

 the Gao family tradition, but in a larger sense the entire
tradition of such painting in the Song can be said to de¬
rive from this Sichuan origin.5 Of course, the Gao man¬
ner was in turn based upon the classic Tang manners of
Buddhist representation, namely, those of Wu Daozi
(active ca. 710—760) and Cao Buxing, which, by the end
of the Tang dynasty, any self-respecting painter was ex¬
pected to have full command of.
By the early twelfth century the Song imperial govern¬
ment owned more bird-and-flower paintings than any
other subject. Because this was one of the most de¬
manding and difficult of subjects, requiring long and
painstaking study of natural forms and many years of
apprenticeship in order to acquire the depth and variety
of techniques and craftsmanship required for even per¬
functory representations of, say, kingfishers in autumn
bamboo, the sheer numbers of such works in the govern¬
ment’s hands must suggest that there was not only a great
and continuing demand for such paintings, but also a
great supply of painters specializing in them. The Huang
Quan and Huang Jucai paintings confirm the remarkably
high quality of such works and offer some evidence of
the nature of the central imperial style. A later work in
the tradition, Cui Bai’s (active ca. 1050-1080) Magpies and
Hare (see fig. 108), seems to indicate that the dominance
of the Huang style extended all the way down to the mid¬
eleventh century. At that point, we also know from texts,
a new generation of painter appeared, challenging the old
traditions and establishing the foundations for the later
academic manner.

The Early Development of Landscape Painting

in North China

Between about 900, in the waning years of the Tang dy¬

nasty, and the establishment of the new Song state in
960, an equally profound development took place in
landscape painting. At the beginning of that brief period,
there was no clear image of what landscape might be;
at its end, something like a national style of landscape
existed, and the later history of the subject had its
foundations.
Trying to understand what happened a thousand years
ago in an art form that even then was dependent upon
fragile pieces of silk is naturally controversial. Any paint¬
ing surviving from that period has been badly damaged
and often repaired and repainted. Its provenance will in-

84. Huang Jucai, Pheasant and Small Birds by a Jujube Shrub,

hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, ca. 975. 97 X 53.6 cm.
National Palace Museum, Taibei.

92 The Five Dynasties and the Song Period

evitably be substantially unknown, and it will be an al¬ to the mature landscape art of the Song. It is a grand,
most isolated example of its type. Replicas of old and confident image of a great range of sheer peaks rising
damaged paintings were regularly made, moreover, and it sharply row upon row from a steep river valley. Waterfalls
may have become impossible to distinguish them from plunge dramatically from the high peaks, and old pines
their models. On the other hand, the successive govern¬ grow ruggedly from the hills. One residence is built by
ment collections were systematically catalogued and doc¬ the river, another higher up, and a ferryboat plies the wa¬
umented, and many years of study of those collections ter. Painted in ink with only very slight touches of color
and of the documentation of early Chinese painting in on a large silk panel the size of a screen, this is an image
general allow us to think that at least we are protected of grandness —but also of comfort and invitation to the
from making the worst kinds of mistakes in writing about would-be traveler. The name of Jing Hao appears in the
the art of this period. Throughout the tenth and eleventh inscription written in the upper right corner by an em¬
centuries, however, it would be well to acknowledge that peror of the Yuan dynasty who also ordered two scholars
we are looking at the style of the master or school we are attending him to inscribe the scroll (later inscriptions
considering, not necessarily at authentic works from the were written by the Qianlong emperor in the eighteenth
master’s hand. century). Perhaps we should regard both the painting and
According to all textual sources, Jing Hao (ca. 855 — its inscriptions as a kind of homage to Jing Hao.
915), from Qinshui, Henan Province, was among the first Jing’s student Guan Tong typifies those all over China
distinctive masters of landscape. Born under the Tang in the early tenth century who were driven by the beck¬
and probably, like Guanxiu, active under the successive oning image of landscape to find ways to depict it believ¬
brief dynasties for only a short time before his death, Jing ably and compellingly. He achieved finally a distinctive
is recalled as a scholar and theorist as well as painter. His Guan style of landscape that attained great popularity in
\
treatise on the art of landscape painting was kept in the north China, testifying to the enormous appeal of the
imperial treasury of the Song government.6 According to new landscape painting. Several handsome pictures are
Guo Ruoxu, by the later tenth century Jing Hao’s art al¬ attributed to Guan Tong and preserve his style, but there
ready appeared primitive and had been far surpassed by are no signed works.8 Autumn Mountains at Dusk (fig. 86)
even his students, such as Guan Tong (early tenth cen¬ appears to be the pictorial equivalent of one of the cele¬
tury). Guo therefore lists Guan Tong among the great brated poems describing hard journeys, like Li Bai’s “The
landscape masters of the period but refers to Jing Hao Road to Shu is Hard” (Shudao nan). A barely visible steep
only as a predecessor of the great masters. path climbs the dark cliffs, and the top of a pagoda ap¬
For that reason, the two paintings attributed to Jing pears distantly over the tops of the highest peaks; there is,
Hao today both appear questionable. Both nonetheless then, a path here, but its way is difficult and its goal mys¬
offer pictorial evidence of the evolution or development terious. The style emphasizes hard rock surfaces and

of early landscape painting, and both bear the name of densely compact forms, as in the Mount Kuanglu attributed

Jing Hao. Together with the version of his essay on land¬ to Jing Hao, and it is likely that these two strong, rocky
scape that exists today, they define the art of Jing Hao as landscapes represent the early northern tradition in its

well as it can now be defined. One landscape, owned now most plausible form today. Interestingly, when a north¬

by the Nelson-Atkins Museum, was reportedly recovered ern tomb dating from the later tenth century was exca¬

from a tomb and appears almost too primitive and odd to vated a few years ago, the silk landscape scroll found in it

be the work of Jing Hao.7 It has suffered serious damage reserhbled this manner.9 It is a style particularly suited to

to much of its surface and has been crudely retouched. the representation of hard, high, sheer mountain peaks,

Nonetheless, its signature in seal script is oddly remindful narrow pathways, and difficult ascents, and it clearly re¬

of the seal script signature on Guanxiu’s almost exactly mained popular in the northern areas of China through

contemporary arhats, and there is a rather primitive char¬ the tenth century at least.

acter to the landscape itself that is also vaguely harmo¬

nious with Guanxiu. The Nelson-Atkins picture, in other
The Jiangnan Landscape Style
words, appears to be of the late Tang period and roughly
In the flourishing sphere around Jinling, the capital of
coterminous with Guanxiu.
MountKuanglu (fig. 8 5), on the other hand, is far too ad¬ the Southern Tang kingdom in these same years, a very

vanced and impressive an image of monumental land¬ different manner of landscape was emerging. Termed

scape to have ever been counted inferior or preliminary later the Jiangnan style — referring to the geographical

The Five Dynasties and the Song Period 93

 86. Guan Hong, Autumn Mountains at Dusk, hanging scroll, ink on
silk, ca. 925. 140.5 X 57.3 cm. Collection of the National Palace
Museum, Taibei.

8 5. Jing Hao, Mount Kuanglu, hanging scroll, ink and light color
ca. 900. 185.8 X 106.8 cm. National Palace Museum, Taibei.
87. Zhao Ga.r\, Along the River at First Snow, handscroll, ink and color on silk, ca. 950. 25.9 X 376.5 cm.
Nadonal Palace Museum, Taibei.

area south of the Huai River, centering in the area of Jin- 985). They had created a loose, wet technique of painting
ling, or present Nanjing, in Jiangsu Province — this dis¬ that must have been particularly appropriate to the mist-
tinctive southern landscape style would have tremendous filled river and lake country in which they lived. The style
influence over later artists, but for the present evolved is seen, for example, in Summer Mountains (fig. 88), a hand-
mainly as a localized regional manner. The Southern scroll attributed to Dong Yuan (and in two other very
Tang state achieved a remarkably high level of artistic cul¬ similar handscrolls),10 in Wintry Groves and Layered Banks
ture, inspired and patronized by the Li family that ruled (fig. 89), and in the two landscapes attributed to Juran
the kingdom, and would later be regarded as the standard that we illustrate here, Distant Mountain Forests (fig. 90)
the Song conquerors of Southern Tang would need to and Buddhist Retreat by Stream and Mountain (fig. 91).
emulate and surpass. Among the minor artists serving the Dong Yuan’s compositions are of broad, level river-
Southern Tang court was Zhao Gan (mid tenth century), ways and lakes, like the landscape around the lower
whose biographical notice in Guo Ruoxu’s Tuhua jianwen Yangzi near Nanjing, formed by the many waterways
%hi tells us only that he was skilled at the painting of river feeding the Yangzi and nearby Lake Dongting. This is
subjects and was employed at the Southern Tang court as fishing country and delta land, where deep, rich soil pro¬
a student in the Imperial Painting Academy (Huayuan duces dense growth, where water buffalo and sheep wan¬
xuesheng). Zhao’s long handscroll Along the River at First der at pasture, and over which wet mists settle in the
Snow (fig. 87) simply by its survival has become one of the evening. Formed from loose, wet inkdots and broad,
remarkable documents of Southern Tang art. Like a stu¬ flowing inkwashes mixed with tangled, ropy brush¬
dent of river life, Zhao depicts the activities of peasant strokes, Dong Yuan’s Summer Mountains is a placid river-
fishing families in the Nanjing area as the first snow falls scape that invites leisurely contemplation, a reflective
along the river. There is a quality of authenticity to this paradise that would attract the busy official to its endless,
portrayal of daily life in ancient China that owes much to placid reaches and its warm summer growth, to its fishing
the painter’s attention to details of material culture — streams and its shady paths. The contrast to any northern
nets, shelters, costume, fishing apparatus, boats — as landscape of the time is striking.
well as to his skill in describing gestures, movements, and Wintry Groves and Layered Banks extends the intimacy
nuances of human behavior. To approximate the appear¬ of a handscroll into monumental scale, becoming a win¬
ance of large, soft snowflakes he blew white pigment dow onto endless marshy waterlands literally filling the
through a screen of some kind, splattering it lightly over scope of our vision. The technique here is vigorous and
his silk surface. At the right edge — the beginning of the bold, as befits a large scroll, but almost impressionistic
scroll — an apparently royal hand inscribed the painter’s too in the broken, sketchy quality of representation.
name and rank and the title of the composition in a single Clearly, the Jiangnan landscape masters conceived land¬
vertical column. It is believed that the writer was the last scape itself in a way very different from their northern
Li prince, Li Yu, who was a great poet, calligrapher, and counterparts.

painter himself. The contrast may be most striking in the art of Juran,

The landscape elements in Zhao Gan’s handscroll, who was a Buddhist priest. How the doctrines of religion

loosely and broadly painted with few sharp contour and philosophy in China formed themselves in art is

lines_and hence quite different from the crisply drawn difficult to say, but we may conclude with some confi¬

northern landscape we considered above — are doubt¬ dence that the paintings associated with Juran (of which

less a reflection of the two great masters of Jiangnan there are only three that possess strong historical charac¬

landscape, Dong Yuan (d. 962) and Juran (active ca. 960- ter) refer somehow to the Buddhist view of existence."

The Five Dynasties and the Song Period 95

 In this mental cosmos, phenomenal matter has no fixed
The Northern Song
form or reality, no permanence, and all existence is in a
constant state of flux. Dong Yuan’s style of painting is
The Song state that emerged from the military campaigns
obviously perfectly suited to such a vision, even though
and intrigues of the Five Dynasties in north China to be¬
he himself had no known connection to Buddhism, and
gin reunifying the old empire in 960 would ultimately dif¬
Juran evidendy saw that capacity to convey his own
fer substantially from every dynasty in Chinese history. It
mind’s eye. Certainly, his Distant Mountain Forests and Bud¬
began, however, as did all dynasties, as a story of heroes
dhist Retreat by Stream and Mountain are perfect images of
and villains, alliances and sworn oaths, great batdes, vic¬
contemplation, images in which there are no fixed forms,
tories and defeats, and the leader who won the day and
no boundaries, no tactile substance, and no certainty at
became the first emperor of the new Song dynasty was
all as to the nature of existence or means by which we
Zhao Kuangyin (927-976). The government he estab¬
might pursue it. Pale ink and liquid brushstrokes create
lished became one of the most accomplished and decent
images of almost ethereal sublimity in which only de¬
in history, and its achievement in the realm of art would
serted pathways and empty huts offer any sense of hu¬
become the foundation for all later dynasties. From 960
man presence.
until the Tartar Jin invasion and conquest of north China
in 1127, the Song ruled most of the traditional empire of
China. This period is called the Northern Song. In the
interim between the Tartar onslaught in 1127 and the

96 The Five Dynasties and the Song Period

 89. Dong Yuan, Wintry Groves
and Layered Banks, hanging
scroll, ink and color on silk,
ca. 9 5 o. 181.5 X 116.5 cm-
Kurokawa Institute of
Ancient Cultures, Hyogo,
Japan.

Mongol occupation of all of China in 1279, the Song gov¬ written between about 1060 and 1167, and numerous

ernment succeeded in reestablishing itself in south cen¬ other biographical, theoretical, and investigative writings

tral China, in what is now the city of Hangzhou, and were compiled as well.12 Catalogues of the entire govern¬

maintained rule over most of southern China. This last ment collection of art and antiquities were compiled in

era of the Song is called the Southern Song. the early twelfth century, the first such undertaking ever

During this three-century reign of the Zhao Song published.13 Of paintings alone, 6,387 are recorded. The

dynasty, the art of painting flourished as it never had Song emperors, beginning with the founder, took a gen¬

before. The profession of painting had expanded so ex¬ uine interest in the arts, and the eighth emperor, Huizong,

plosively that four separate histories of painting were a poet, calligrapher, and painter, became the very model

The Five Dynasties and the Song Period 97

90. Juran, Distant Mountain Forests, hanging
scroll, ink on silk, ca. 980. 144.1 X 55.4 cm.
National Palace Museum, Taibei.

91. Juran,
Buddhist Retreat by
Stream and Mountain,
hanging scroll,
ink on silk, ca. 980.
185.4 X 57.5 cm.
(© Cleveland
Museum of Art,
1995. Gift of
Katherine Holden
Thayer, 59.348.)
opposite
of artist-emperor. Their court became the national center
for artistic activity of every kind, from porcelain to ritual
music.
Even writing about the art of painting became a chal¬
lenge because there were so many painters, so many
paintings, and so many subjects of nearly every imagin¬
able variety. Scholars of art now had to think about how
such a vast body of material could be organized. The
form they preferred, on the whole, was classification by
subject of specialization. This had not been necessary be¬
fore the Song, but it too quickly expanded, almost like a
miniature model of the profession of painting itself, from
the five categories of Guo Ruoxu and six of Liu Daochun
to the ten of the Song government catalogue. Even this
was inadequate to the varieties of subjects practiced regu¬
larly by Song artists. I shall, in any case, follow this pat¬
tern in exploring the range and variety of Northern Song
painting.

Landscape Painting in the Early Song

Li Cheng (919—967) was born into an aristocratic fam¬

ily that had fled the disruptions of late Tang to Yingqiu in
Shandong Province. His father and grandfather had both
distinguished themselves for their scholarship and their
official conduct, and Li Cheng was raised as a scholar and
artist. Later his own son, Jue, became a scholar on ap¬
pointment to the Hanlin Academy and was invited to lec¬
ture to the founding Song emperor on the Classics. Li
Cheng’s elevation to a position somehow comparable to
that of master to the Song nation — and creator of what
became the Song national landscape style — is a fascinat¬
ing story yet to be told. Surely, however, it was significant
that he represented both the Tang aristocracy—the old
elite — and the newly forming class of scholar-official —
the new elite.14 Li’s handsome and inviting landscape art
also represents a merging of the northern and southern
traditions, as if it were in microcosm the symbolic story
of the Song reunification of China. Using the dramatic
high mountain compositions of Jing Hao and Guan
Tong together with the “pale ink and light mists” of the
Jiangnan masters —whose art he obviously knew some¬
how, as Wai-kam Ho has suggested — Li fashioned a
harmonious, spacious, and enormously popular style of
landscape representation that attracted multitudes of ad¬
mirers and hundreds of followers, spawning a tradition
of landscape painting that dominated the art until the
very end of the Northern Song period in 1127.
Li Cheng’s classic landscape style is seen today most
clearly in two compositions, A Solitary Temple amid Clear-

The Five Dynasties and the Song Period 99

 ing Peaks (fig. 92) and Thick Forests and Distant Peaks conflict, tension, and competition among contending
(fig- 93). Both paintings are generally assumed to have states, to the process of reunification that established the
been painted by followers of Li sometime in the early Song, a process that in itself took fifteen years or more af¬
Song period, but there is no reason not to associate them ter 960. The beautiful and elegant world opened up for us
both directly with Li himself. They have much in com¬ by Li Cheng is the painter’s version of the new Song state,
mon with the works of near-contemporaries like Juran, a state that would become the most dynamic, cultivated,
Fan Kuan (active ca. 1023—1031), and Yan Wengui (ac¬ and richly accomplished in Chinese history.
tive 980—1010) (see fig. 95) and cannot be much later Li’s followers represent the canon of landscape paint¬
than tenth century in date. Within that context, however, ing. Fan Kuan, Yan Wengui, Xu Daoning (ca. 970—1051/
they are distinctive in their richness of tonality, density of 1052), Guo Xi (ca. 1001—ca. 1090), Li Gongnian (late
form, and harmony of shapes and relations. To describe eleventh, early twelfth century), and many others whose
them as elegant seems appropriate. Li’s Solitary Temple works are lost extend the Li Cheng tradition into the
amid Clearing Peaks and Juran’s Buddhist Retreat by Stream twelfth century. Each artist formed a personal manner
and Mountain have much in common and probably to¬ reflecting his own life and ideals but formed closely upon
gether represent the most; distinctive achievement of the structure established by Li Cheng.
early Song landscape painting. Juran, at the belated sur¬ Fan Kuan was a Daoist mountain man — not one of
render of his state and lord to the Song in 975 —fifteen the fashionably attired urban aesthetes who took the
years after the Song declared itself the national govern¬ name shanren (“hermit” or “mountain recluse”) in order
ment of China — accompanied Li Yu to the capital and to add a dollop of unconventionality to their quite civi¬
there entered the Kaibao Temple. Later he was invited to lized persona, but an actual mountain man who lived far
paint landscapes for the newly built halls of the Harilin from the cities of Luoyang and Bianliang, dressed in
Academy and is said to have imitated Li Cheng. The heavy, old-fashioned clothing, loved wine and the Way,
Cleveland painting is thought to reflect precisely this pe¬ and was an open, generous man of rough and rustic man¬
riod of Juran’s life and of the formation of a national Li ner. He could not have been more different from Li
Cheng style. Li Cheng’s own work is sharper, more linear, Cheng, the accomplished and elegant aristocrat. Once,
more densely layered, and more crystalline than Juran’s, when the great painter Wang Shen (ca. 1048-ca. 1103)
but the similarities between them are striking. tried to characterize the two great masters, he chose the
Li Cheng’s works contain rich human and architectural dichotomy of wen and wu, or, broadly, the civil and the
details — temples, villages, bridges, pagodas, wine shops, military. In China, from the Song period on, the military
pavilions, and pathways — and constitute deep miniature aesthetic held increasingly little attraction to the ruling
realms of imaginative construction, dream worlds that powers, and Fan Kuan may be among the last artists
one is invited to enter like a tray landscape, or pencai whose art was admired for its evocation of heroism, cour¬
(bonsai in Japanese). Their compositional structure, how¬ age, forthrightness, and directness. Surely not by chance,
ever, is the very structure of the new empire of Song, Wang Shen himself was born into a distinguished military
with the Son of Heaven represented in the dominant cen¬ family. He further noted this distinction: Li Cheng’s land¬
tral peak, his ministers and associates in the supportive scapes open like windows onto distant and attractive
ranges and hills around the central peak, and the entire vistas; Fan Kuan’s press close to us, blocking our view
vast structure as ordered, clear, and infinite as the great like walls.
empire of China itself. There is no dust or dirt, no vio¬ Fan Kuan’s sole extant work is one of the masterpieces
lence or disorder, nature is placid and benevolent, con¬ of landscape painting in the world. Travelers by Streams and
trolled by the power and wisdom of the enlightened Mountains (fig. 94) is about 1.8 meters high, two panels of
ruler who has brought humanity to this lofty condition silk joined at the center and mounted now as a hanging
through wise interaction with Heaven. scroll. Originally, perhaps, it was mounted on a large
Li Cheng’s image of the Song world was formed on screen or wall; it commands our view with the power of
the efforts of Jing Hao and Guan Tong in the north and a wall, setting before’us a citadel of rock cliffs. Like
of Dong Yuan and Juran in the south, but the entire
process of initial experiment to final culmination in the
evolution of this art did not take more than fifty years.
92. Li Cheng, A Solitary Temple amid Clearing Peaks, hanging scroll-;^
This dramatic span of time extended from the sad and
ink on silk, ca. 960. I11.4 X 56 cm. Nelson-Atkins Museum of
chaotic end of a great dynasty through fifty years of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. (Purchase: Nelson Trust.)

IOO The Five Dynasties and the Song Period

 age and reality. Yan Wengui was a contemporary of Fan
Kuan, active in the late tenth century. He too was associ¬
ated with the military and originally posted to army duty.
As a landscape master in the growing tradition of Li
Cheng he favored a distinctive manner, emphasizing ex¬
quisite detail and refinements of execution, and a kind of
miniature polish that was not only exceedingly popular
in its time, but that took root in the Imperial Painting
Academy loosely established in the early Song to become
the mainstay of academic landscape painting at Bianliang
for many years. Yan’s Pavilions and Mansions by the River
(fig. 95), a rare early handscroll on paper, exemplifies the
strengths and weaknesses of his art.

Architectural Subjects
93- Li Cheng, Thick Forests and Distant Peaks, section of a
handscroll, ink on silk, ca. 960. 45.4 X 141.8 cm. Liaoning This popular genre of Song painting was identified as a
Provincial Museum, Shebang. separate subject category only in the eleventh century.
Most professional painters no doubt painted architec¬
ture, carts, boats, and bridges as necessary to depict land¬
the Great Wall of China or the ancient walls of Beijing, scape and urban scenes, genre subjects, and so on, but
these powerful, massive forms permit no entry, extend there were also specialists in the subject, men who de¬
no invitation. The gates are permanently closed to casual voted themselves to an ambitious exploration of intricacy
travelers, although hardy mountaineers like the mule of detail and concreteness of illusion, as it was recog¬
train drivers in the foreground might pass through, and nized were required of true masters of this category. Guo
a few adventurous Daoist travelers like the one barely Ruoxu noted, “When one paints architectural construc¬
visible near the center of the picture occasionally pass tions, calculations should be fauldess and brush drawing
through seeking sanctuary. These are the mountains in of even strength. Deep distances penetrate into space
which Fan Kuan lived, we suppose, the mountains he and a hundred diagonals recede to a single point.”1'’
saw every day of his life, wandered through in all weather, Three paintings will illustrate some aspects of this genre.
slept in sometimes, hunted and fished in, and chose to Guo Zhongshu’s (ca. 910—977) Traveling on the River in
paint as he knew and loved. The indomitable will and am¬ Clearing Snow (fig. 96) was originally a very large horizon¬
bition of the early Song period is surely embodied in this tal composition, at least seventy-five centimeters high
image, its strength and its courage, its military might and and three times that length, an accurate copy of which is
confidence. Slowly the Song rulers withdrew from this owned by the Nelson-Atkins Museum.16 The present
position toward a suspicion of military strength that fragment bears an inscription by the Jin emperor Zhang-
brought its own fruits and its own failures, but for a time zong (r. 1190—1208) with the painter’s name and tide.
the image of the great Song was certainly and power¬ Two heavily loaded riverboats are being pulled along a
fully conveyed by Fan Kuan’s Travelers by Streams and frozen winter river, as the numerous figures on them are
Mountains — and we are still able to sense in his image glimpsed across the intricately rendered boat architec¬
those qualities and to remember a nation and a people at ture. Some huddle against the cold, others point and chat
a unique historical moment in time through it. about the towing process. The goal here is in the attain¬
Fan Kuan and Li Cheng were recognized almost in¬ ment of intricacy of detail and coherence of illusion in
stantly, it seems now, as the preeminent landscape artists the rendering of man-made things, achievements that
of the Song dynasty, and if their art is the combination of require knowledge and experience beyond the normal ex¬
wen and wu, then it was surely also seen as entirely appro¬ pectation of painters. Guo Zhongshu’s painting, accord¬
priate to the new age, a perfect merger of the two neces¬ ing to the Xuanhe huapu, was “lofty and antique and has
sary sides of statecraft. Many others explored the terrain never been easy for people to understand.”17 By the time
within these parameters, finding new and attractive ways that was written, of course, Guo had been dead for more
to convey the beauty of the natural world to a nation that than a century, and his art must have truly appeared an¬
had quite suddenly recognized that world as its own im¬ tique. In his own time, however, like so much else in the

102 The Five Dynasties and the Song Period

94- Fan Kuan, Travelers
by Streams and Mountains,
hanging scroll, ink
on silk, ca. 1000.
206.3 X 103.3 cm-
National Palace
Museum, Taibei.
 9 5 • Yan Wengui, Pavilions and Mansions by the River, handscroll, ink and color on paper, ca. i ooo. 26 X 135 cm. Osaka Municipal
Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan.

realm of art, his painting was a vivid and immediate evo¬

cation of present reality, as much so in its entirely differ¬
ent way as Guanxiu’s fiery and indomitable arhats were in
theirs.
Another important example of the genre of architec¬
tural painting is a short handscroll in the Shanghai Mu¬
seum (fig. 97) depicting in minute detail the structure and
mechanical operation of a waterwheel-driven flour mill.
The entire operation, from the arrival of raw grains to the
mill to the grinding of wheat into flour and the bagging
and carting away of the product, as well as the conduct¬
ing of business, is represented. It is as if the painting were
done as an illustrated treatise on the business of milling.
In the lower right corner is a newly built wine shop, ad¬
vertising the new wine of autumn, in which we can see
several customers. This little touch seems to extend the
\
commercial transactions into another dimension, as if the
money economy were the engine driving society. The
Song was indeed a commercially adventurous and rapidly
developing economic society. Since the Guo Zhongshu 96. Guo Zhongshu, Traveling on the River in Clearing Snow, hanging
composition is also about commercial river transport scroll, ink on silk, ca. 975. 74.1 X 69.2 cm. Collection of the
(the boats are heavily laden with cargo), we begin to see a National Palace Museum, Taibei.

connection between economic enterprise and the genre

of architectural renderings.
Perhaps then the masterpiece of such painting, Peace Bianliang (modern Kaifeng), which was built along the
Reigns over the River (fig. 98), can also best be understood as commercially active Bian River and joined to the Grand
a depiction of commercial activity in the flourishing Song Canal linking north and south China specifically for the
economy, as if it were a bid by the central government to purpose of commercial transportation. Almost as strik¬
attract investors to the great urban centers. It is difficult ing as the intricate, realistic detail and vast, extended
to imagine any other patron or purpose for this astonish¬ scope of this long handscroll is the fact that its author, a
ing representation of a great Song commercial city, prob¬ painter named Zhang Zeduan, is apparently unrecorded
ably meant generically to represent the Song capital, outside of the colophons attached to this painting itself.

104 The Five Dynasties and the Song Period

97- Anonymous (formerly attributed to Wei Xian), Flour Mill Powered by a Waterwheel, handscroll, ink and color on silk, late ioth
or early nth century. 5 3.3 X 119.2 cm. Shanghai Museum.

The first colophon writer, a man named Zhang Zhu, who The technical accomplishment of this work, further¬
lived in Beijing under the Tartar Jin dynasty and wrote his more, has little to do with the achievements in painting
note in 1186, sixty years after the destruction of the city esteemed by Huizong, but rather with the kinds of real¬
of Bianliang supposedly represented in the scroll, tells us ism associated with the early Song period and such mas¬
everything that is known about Zhang Zeduan: “The ters as Fan Kuan, Qi Xu, Yan Wengui, Huang Quan, Guo
Hanlin scholar Zhang Zeduan, styled Zhengdao, is/was Zhongshu, and Zhao Chang (ca. 960—d. after 1016). It
a native of Dongwu (Shandong). When young he trav¬ may well be, therefore, that Peace Reigns over the River will
eled to the capital for further study. Later he practiced prove to be a product of the intensive developmental age
painting things. He showed talent for fine-line architec¬ of early Song, when new cities, including the capital, were
tural drawing \jiehua], and especially liked boats and carts, being built and expanded, a powerful economic engine
markets and bridges, moats and paths. He is an expert in was being put in place, and the flourishing commercial
other types of painting as well.”18 Generally, later schol¬ enterprise was humming.20 Whatever its precise date of
ars assume that Zhang was active during the early twelfth execution and expected purpose, the scroll remains a
century, during the reign of Huizong, but there is no vivid image of daily life in eleventh-century China and
evidence to support this. The reference to Zhang as a a panorama across which one’s eyes pan like a moving
Hanlin scholar associates him not with members of the camera. If we could listen to it, the scroll would explode
Academy of Painting under Huizong, but with the ear¬ into the shouting voices of hawkers selling their wares,
lier eleventh century, during the long reign of Renzong boatmen yelling at each other, camel trains clattering

(r. 1023-1063), when such court masters as Gao Kerning through the streets, and pedestrians and vehicles hum¬

(active ca. 1008-105 3) and Yan Wengui were loosely ap¬ ming at the noise level of midtown Manhattan. It is above

pointed to the Hanlin Academy. The landscape elements all an image of commerce, and the virtual epitome of re¬

of Peace Reigns over the River also appear related to paintings alism in Chinese painting.
of this period rather than to those of the early twelfth
century, when one can find very little produced at the
court with which the present scroll can be compared.19

The Five Dynasties and the Song Period 1o5

 Buddhist and Daoist Images passionate perceptiveness.”21 This elegant, stylish image
Both the imperial court and the vast network of Bud¬ is quite possibly still in the Sichuan style of Buddhist rep¬
dhist and Daoist churches required the constant produc¬ resentation that was established at the Song court by Gao
tion of ritual and dedicatory images of the religious Wenjin and other court masters of Western Shu after 965.
pantheons. Temple and monastery walls were covered The distinctive Sichuan manner will continue down to
with paintings, and in the pattern of Guanxiu’s arhat the end of the Song dynasty, and we will observe it again
scrolls large sets of wall scrolls were made to be hung in the art of Muqi (thirteenth century).
across a wide wall surface on special occasions like the A Daoist image of similar type is the Boston Mu¬
birthday of the Buddha. The early twelfth-century gov¬ seum’s Daoist Deity of Earth Reviewing His Realm (fig. 100),
ernment collection owned 1,179 such paintings by a total one of a set of the three deities representing the powers
of forty-nine different painters, twenty-five of whom of heaven, earth, and water. Here, as is appropriate to the
lived in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Aside from controlling powers of the cosmos, the deities occupy
the set of scrolls by Guanxiu, a single woodblock print symbolic representations of their respective realms. The
made by the influential tenth-century Sichuan master lord of the earth emerges from beneath a cliff overhang
Gao Wenjin, and a rubbing taken from a stone engraving thickly grown with trees and shrubs. Autumn is the sea¬
after another Sichuan master, Sun Zhiwei (d. ca. 1020), son of the image. In the immediate foreground, along
no signed works of this popular category exist. China has a smaller pathway walks a parade of demons and gro¬
not been kind to its great heritage of portable religious tesques, so that the entire image vaguely evokes thoughts
painting, but fortunately a small number of such works of the demon queller Zhong Ivui. Like The Peacock King,
have been protected elsewhere, especially in Japanese the Boston composition is above all a painterly image.
temples, where the majority of such works are preserved Techniques such as the drawing, the brushwork, color ap¬
today. The Peacock King (fig. 99) makes exquisitely clear plication, compositional design, and so on are merely the
how much beauty has been lost. This too is a startling ex¬ necessary mechanical processes by which the image was
ample of Northern Song realism, now in the service of formed: they have no separate or independent interest.
Esoteric Buddhism. The fierce and beautiful Bright King Almost certainly, in fact, the painting was produced in a
sits meditatively on a flowering lotus throne on the back workshop or studio by a number of painters including
of a brilliant peacock, who in turn stands atop a lotus pod the master, but also his assistants and apprentices. The
in a sea of golden clouds. With mystical weapons in four silk surface would have been turned over and the back
of his six hands, the Peacock King gazes serenely and painted in places to provide a deeper color base; perhaps
confidently out at those who come to worship the Bud¬ the figures were done by one hand and the landscape by
dha he protects. He appears to us exacdy as the scholar of another, perhaps this and the other compositions in the
art Liu Daochun wrote that such images should: “In set were all done by worker-apprentices tracing a design
Buddhist images, one esteems grave sternness and com¬ done by the master. In any case, all such paintings are as

106 The Five Dynasties and the Song Period

98. Zhang Zeduan,
Peace Reigns over the River,
sections of a handscroll,
ink and color on silk,
11 th—12 th century.
24.8 X 5 28.7 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.

99. Anonymous, The Peacock King, hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, ca. 1125.
168.8 X 103 cm. Ninnaji, Kyoto. (Courtesy of the Yale University Slide and
Photograph Collection.)
 much craft as art, and the traditions of the craft were
passed on from master to pupil, father to son, over many
generations.

Secular Figure Painting

There was probably litde distinction between those
who painted religious images and those who painted sec¬
ular, or historical, images and portraits in the Song dy¬
nasty. The same masters and workshops could produce
one type of image for one patron, another for other
needs. Figure painting of every kind flourished through¬
out the Five Dynasties and Song periods, at a level of
professional craft as high as at any time or place in the
world. One of the most surprising facts about the con¬
cept of craft in the entire period is the frequency with
which members of the old traditional aristocracy devoted
themselves to the art of painting just as if— or almost as
if— they were professional painters. The great landscape
master Li Cheng, for example, was born into the old
Tang imperial clan, and Wang Shen, descended from one
of the dynastic founders, raised in the imperial palace,
and subsequently married to an imperial princess, was a
superb master craftsman. Of course, most notably, the
emperor Huizong ruled not only as emperor of all China
but as master painter to the empire. Yet another remark¬
able example of this type of artist is the early tenth-
century imperial son-in-law Zhao Yan (d. 922), who lived
in north China under the same Liang dynasty in which
both Jing Hao and Guan Tong had worked as landscape
masters. Zhao, who lived the high life of royal prince,
was a passionate scholar of art and a distinguished
painter.22 The only extant work still associated with him
is a classic Song composition of mounted horsemen on a
ioo. Anonymous, Daoist Deity of Earth Reviewing His Realm,
galloping spring outing (fig. 101), known as Eight Gentle¬
hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, ca. 115 o. 12 5.5 X 55.9 cm.
men on a Spring Outing. We have in fact no means by which
(Chinese and Japanese Special Fund. Courtesy of the Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston.) to date such paintings any more closely than to as broad a
period as the tenth to eleventh century. Zhao was ad¬
mired for his paintings of princely horsemen like himself,
however, and this is exactly such an image. The horses
are spirited and vigorous, their riders gay young blades of
a character perhaps typical of the blooded aristocracy
throughout much of the world in the medieval period.
Most impressive is the sheer skill and beauty of the craft
of painting in such works. The composition is sturdy and
architectonic, established by a strong structure of archi¬
tecture, trees, and garden rock: this is presumably a royal
101. Zhao Yan, Eight Gentlemen on a Spring Outing, hanging scroll,
park of imperial scale. Across the foreground the bril¬
ink and color on silk, 10th century. 161.9 X 102 cm. National liantly dressed riders pass in varied motion, like their
Palace Museum, Taibei. opposite horses, an impressive formation of figures and animals in

108 The Five Dynasties and the Song Period

 space. The colors of the costumes alone are breathtaking. rumors of his depraved and debauched behavior. He

One imagines the viewers of the time exclaiming in awe therefore dispatched two painters to secretly observe

at the depth of the sky blue, the intensity of the reds, and Han Xizai’s notorious parties and submit a report in the

the glow of greens and purples. This coloristic panorama form of just such a painting as this. According to more

extends throughout the composition, to the top of the objective accounts, Han Xizai was one of the most ac¬

furthest tree where jade green leaves appear and to the complished and upright of men, a true statesman, and the

mossy, earth-brown tones of the grass. Painters such as last Li prince was an artist and enlightened ruler, the

this “Zhao Yan” were attempting to create realistic, illu- model for the role of ruler-artist that Huizong later

sionistic windows onto the world exactly as the great usurped for himself at the expense of Li Yu. Evidently,

landscape masters of the time were. therefore, the present painting was done in order to im¬

Another classic figure narrative of this era is the dra¬ pugn the integrity of not only Li Yu and Han Xizai but

matic story of Breaking the Balustrade, an actual event that the entire Southern Tang state—which had the courage

took place in the Han dynasty (fig. 102). Made for the im¬ to withstand the Song until fifteen years after they an¬

perial court, no doubt, the painting proclaims the moral¬ nounced their new dynasty. Only in 97 5 did Li Yu submit

ity, justice, and rightness of the government to all who his kingdom and himself to the Zhao Song dynasty. Sev¬

might be needed to serve it. The events that are illus¬ eral modern scholars date The Night Revels of Han Xi\ai to

trated demonstrate the wisdom of the emperor, who the late twelfth century on the basis of what they regard

recognizes courage and rightness and both rewards and as Southern Song elements in the many landscape paint¬

punishes in accordance with strict justice. The villain ings painted within the scroll, on screens and on furni¬

stands cowering behind the stern seated figure of the em¬ ture. More likely the scroll is a product of the Northern

peror Chengdi (r. 46-45 b.c.), the main hero opposite Song period, probably not far in time or place of origin
and across from him, clinging stubbornly to the balus¬ from the court of Emperor Huizong, who had good
trade and demanding to be put to death on the spot. reason to propagate images such as this of his most
Another man of morality occupies the center, where he significant rival. The scroll is first mentioned, in any case,
bows and intercedes on behalf of our hero. A garden and in the catalogue of Huizong’s collection. The landscapes
architectural setting very similar to that of Zhao Yan’s within the picture are a good selection of the landscape
Eight Gentlemen on a Spring Outing sets the stage, and on it a styles prevalent in the late Northern Song period, and the
carefully planned choreography is played out. figure style is yet another rare example of Song realism.
It is certainly typical of such paintings to be set out¬ Many of the figures in the scroll are identifiable with his¬
side, as both of these aristocratic images are. Interior torical personages and are, in effect, portraits. It is known
scenes, like the Dutch later made so popular, were only that portraits of Han Xizai were very popular in the early
rarely painted in imperial China, and when they were it Northern Song period, another indication of the high es¬
was to specific effect, quite different from the European teem in which both he and the Southern Tang kingdom
interior. The most extraordinary example of such an inte¬ were held at that time, and presumably this famous hand-
rior setting is The Night Revels of Han Xigai, a handscroll scroll was based upon them.
traditionally attributed to a late tenth-century portrait
artist who served the last Li prince of the Southern Tang
Portraiture
state (fig. 103). Set in the palatial rooms of the statesman
Han Xizai, whose portrait figure is seen several times The Night Revels of Han Xigai is among the most impor¬
through the length of the scroll, the narrative purportedly tant examples of Song portraiture, a genre of painting
tells a tale of debauchery, immorality, and an unhealthy that has not been very well studied.23 Throughout the
mixing of the properly separate strata of society. The in¬ long Song era, in fact, portraiture remained a highly es¬
terior setting seems to function as a framework to the im¬ teemed art form and was a highly visible one as well. Art
pression we are given of looking on surreptitiously at historians like Guo Ruoxu compiled biographies of the
scandalous events we are not normally able to see at all. leading portrait artists, and the names of many of them
According to the later Song mythology upon which our are noted even though their art has become very rare.24
interpretation of this famous work is based, the ruling The imperial court depended upon their continual ser¬
Li prince was considering appointing the scholar-official vice for royal portraiture and diplomatic functions, the
Han Xizai to a ministerial post but was concerned about Buddhist and Daoist churches required portrait masters,

110 The Five Dynasties and the Song Period

 in gold has been added to the painting identifying the
figure as Priest Bukong, a famous Tang monk, and as¬
cribing the work to a well-known Southern Song special¬
ist in Buddhist subjects. In fact, it is a classic formal
portrait of a monk-teacher, seated in the traditional posi¬
tion for such portraits. The unknown monk, bearded and
shaven-headed, sits reflectively, hands in lap against a
spectacular piece of cloth, his empty slippers on the stool
in front of him. The face is rendered with close attention
to individual personality; we can have little doubt that
this plain, calm-looking monk has attained a level of
knowledge that would engross us if we were fortunate
enough to be able to converse with him. Especially beau¬
tiful in the rendering is the acute and loving attention
given to the drapery and its details of folds and patterns,
and these are details that speak for a date in the late
Northern Song period, around 1100.
Another incomparable series of portraits of both men
and horses was painted by a leading scholar-artist of the
same period, Li Gonglin (ca. 1041—1106). Li represents
another social class altogether, that of the scholar-gentry,
although Li claimed descent from the Southern Tang
royal family. His associations were closely with the
scholar-bureaucrats like the poet Su Shi (1036—1101) and
the calligrapher Huang Tingjian (1045 —1105), all of them
men who were beginning to seek ways to adapt the art of
painting to the uses of scholars who were not profes¬
sional craftsmen. Li Gonglin, however, more closely re¬
sembles the aristocratic painters like Zhao Yan and Wang
Shen in his devotion to the art and craft of painting. His

io2. Anonymous, Breaking the Balustrade, hanging scroll, ink

Five Tribute Horses (fig. 105), in any case, is a marvel of
and color on silk, ca. i ioo. 173.9 x I01-8 cm- National Palace portraiture, reduced to plain ink line, without color, with¬
Museum, Taibei. out setting, intense and microscopic in scrutiny, that
preserves the appearances and personalities of five gift
and both families and extended clans required their ser¬ horses presented to the Song court between 1086 and
vices at every level of society. Striking in Guo Ruoxu’s bi¬ 1089, and their five foreign grooms. Like Guanxiu, whose
ographies is the number of portrait masters who were arhats were based upon foreign physiognomies, Li Gong¬
Buddhist monks and the number who were specifically lin was apparently fascinated with foreigners. The extent
employed at the imperial courts. The Night Revels of Han to which the Song interacted constantly with foreign
Xigai was presumably done in part by a typical court peoples and cultures has perhaps not been sufficiently
master specializing in portraiture (as well as a landscape noted.
painter, and perhaps others). Official portraits of the
Nomadic Tribes
Song emperors and their empresses still exist and have
recently been brought to our attention as monuments of One of the new categories of subject matter defined in
Chinese portraiture by Wen Fong.25 A number of very the government catalogue of its collection, the Xuanhe

fine priest portraits also exist still, and we reproduce one huapu of 1120, is that of Nomadic Tribes, for example.
of them here as an example of the genre. Portrait of a Bud¬ The category is introduced with these words: “When

dhist Monk (fig. 104) is an undated and unidentified por¬ they sent their sons and younger brothers to study and
trait of an unknown priest. Oddly, a spurious inscription happily offered tribute and fulfilled obligations, then,

The Five Dynasties and the Song Period 111

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103. Gu Hongzhong, The Night Revels of Han Xi^ai, handscroll, ink and color on silk, ca. 970. 28.7 X 335.5 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.

although their strange regions were far away and their

Horses and Buffalo
customs, language, climate and ways different, the phi¬
losopher kings of old still never rejected them. That is Horses and buffalo were ever-popular subjects of
why the barbarian tribes are seen in the tradition of paint¬ painting and held basic associations with the imperial
ing.”26 Only five painters are included in this section, heavens (horses) and mundane earth (water buffalo).
all of them active in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Symbolically, horses — swift, intelligent, heroic—were
Li Gonglin is not mentioned, of course, since he was dis¬ commonly related to great scholars, distinguished offi¬
tinguished for his traditional figure painting, but it is in¬ cials, and aristocratic lords in the service of the state,
teresting that he chose to depict these foreign grooms so while water buffalo nearly always evoke thoughts of the
carefully, with exactly the same care he gave to the horses bucolic life of retirement and leisure. The great early mas¬
he loved so dearly. It has been suggested that in doing so ters of both types of subject lived in the Tang dynasty.
he deliberately drew attention to the essential humanity Han Gan, Cao Ba, and Wei Yan were notable masters of
of even central Asian tribal chieftains, forgetting the pop¬ horse painting, while Dai Song and Han Huang excelled
ular practice of demeaning foreigners by emphasizing at water buffalo. Among the most notable examples of
their oddness. Similarly, instead of depicting a colorful horse painting in the Song period is Li Gonglin’s Five
pageant of submission to the Son of Heaven, Li draws Tribute Horses, which comes closest to the kind of horse
our attention to the odd bonds of sympathy he sees be¬ portraiture associated with George Stubbs later in En¬
tween each horse and its groom, as if each were some¬ gland. Li was in fact widely regarded as the most accom¬
how a part of the other. Li Gonglin devoted much of his plished Song master of horse painting, and another of his
spiritual energy to Buddhism and was probably a very few extant works is his copy of a painting attributed to
devout believer. His Five Tribute Horses suggests that he Wei Yan called Pasturing Horses (fig. 106). This is a work
perceived deep spiritual connections among the various that reveals the most painstakingly craftsmanly side of
forms of life, almost as if in visualization of the Buddhist the distinguished scholar-painter. At imperial command,
concept of karma. according to his own inscription on the scroll, he care-

112 The Five Dynasties and the Song Period

fully copied this entire lengthy, intricately detailed com¬ reaucracy was the only powerful system of employment
position consisting of more than a thousand horses and open to men like Li Gonglin, and its pressures and harsh
hundreds of men. If most later practitioners of the schol¬ limitations must have sometimes seemed as inhibiting as
arly mode of artistic life would have been demeaned by the herded horses appear to be at the beginning of Li’s
the need for such a humbling, difficult, and painstaking handscroli.
task, it is evident that Li Gonglin did such careful copies The same vision of freedom that Li suggests at the end
of ancient paintings all of his life that he made such of Pasturing Horses is suggested in another handscroli in
works his virtual masters, and that he not only learned Beijing, Pasturing Water Buffalo (fig. 107). The painter to
from but remade and transformed these hallowed mod¬ whom this bucolic image is attributed, Qi Xu, was a na¬
els into new and challenging works of art that addressed tive of the Jiangnan region, active in the early Northern
the issues and circumstances of his own time.27 In the Song period, that is, probably the late tenth or the early
present instance he has transformed his antique model eleventh century. His reputation was made largely on the
into a very modern picture that is as much about the strength of his water buffalo compositions, although he
limits of control and the nature of human freedom and also painted birds and flowers more generally. The rare
happiness as it is about horses and grooms. The sheeplike Beijing handscroli, only recendy rediscovered, was in the
herd of horses, heads down, that is driven in from the collection of Emperor Huizong in the early twelfth cen¬
right by a tightly packed array of mounted horsemen is tury. Its carefully realistic details, strongly plastic drawing
allowed gradually to spread out, slow down, stop, wander of earth and rock forms, and dense, thick, leafy tree
away, feed, water, rest, and amble freely as their atten¬ growth are very similar to other early Song works, such as
dants disappear. By the end of the scroll, there is no con¬ those of Yan Wengui, Fan Kuan, and the anonymous
trol left in place, and the horses are scattered across the Shanghai Flour Mill Powered by a Waterwheel, while the
wide steppes like free men living in retirement. Li himself broad level river landscape remains the essential Jiangnan
lived in retirement from government service as long as he image of landscape. With Li Gongliris Pasturing Horses
could and later retired as early as possible. The Song bu¬ and Qi Xu’s Pasturing Water Buffalo, then, we have two

The Five Dynasties and the Song Period

 105. Li Gonglin, Five Tribute Horses, section of a handscroll, ink
on paper, ca. 1090. Collection unknown. (Courtesy of the Yale
University Slide and Photograph Collection.)

P&* L\-v-- '-';-

- .

curred during the course of the eleventh century that

modified and advanced both modes of art. It is striking,
in fact, that so many of the most innovative and power¬
fully individualistic painters of the eleventh century
shared the experience of being particularly favored by the
vigorous, stern, and highly moralistic emperor Shenzong
(r. 1068-1085). The great landscape master Guo Xi was
Shenzong’s personal painter, and such diverse masters as
Cui Bai and Liu Cai (d. after 1123) received the benefit of
his patronage. These men are among the most adven¬
turous artists of their time, as was Emperor Shenzong’s
brother-in-law, the landscape painter Wang Shen. Clearly,
Shenzong’s keen intelligence extended into the realm of
art and set a high standard for his son, Zhao Ji, who later
became Emperor Huizong. The consistent patronage of
the arts by the Song emperors beginning with the foun¬
der, Zhao Kuangyin, is a rare and highly significant factor
104. Anonymous, Portrait of a Buddhist Monk, detail of a hanging in the overall achievement of Song art.
scroll, ink and color on silk, ca. 1100. 21.3 X 16 cm. Kozanji,
Cui Bai, a native of Haoliang in Anhui Province, is typ¬
Kyoto.
ical of the painters who came from all over China to the
flourishing capital, seeking appointment to the court. He
was an eccentric and erratic genius of art, inept at practi¬
classic Northern Song images of the early Song desire for cal matters, but so skilled and admired that Emperor
freedom, release, and bucolic tranquillity. Shenzong allowed him to hold a position in the Academy
of Painting with no duties or responsibilities except to
Bird- an d-Flower Painting paint at the emperor’s personal order. He was thus akin
The sturdy traditions established at the early Song to the great landscape master Guo Xi in the exclusiveness
court by the Huang family of Sichuan and the heirs of Xu of his appointment. His Magpies and Hare (fig. 108) bears
Xi from Jinling formed the basis for the entire Song tra¬ the Chinese title Shuangxi tu, or “Picture of Double Hap¬
dition of bird-and-flower painting, just as Li Cheng cre¬ piness.” This is a verbal play on the fact that the sound xi,
ated the enduring classic Song landscape style. In both pronounced almost like the English word “she,” may
great traditions, however, significant developments oc¬ mean both “magpie” and “happiness.” “Two magpies” is

114 The Five Dynasties and the Song Period

also, therefore, double happiness. The painting, then, be¬ magpies above chatter down at the hare, one of them
comes an appropriate pictorial metaphor expressing con¬ quickly circling in the air, while around him the grasses
gratulations, good wishes, hopes for the future, or other are swept by the breeze, and the branches and leaves
expressions of good will. Paintings of birds and flowers dance in the wind. These movements are held in balance
done for the imperial court — and presumably for other by the line of vision linking the unexcitable hare to the
patrons as well-—were often read, understood, and titled colorful birds who jabber at him. Like the earlier masters,
in this way, as verbal and visual puns on homophonic Cui Bai paints each motif realistically, but he sweeps in
sounds and interidentification.28 the upturning earthen forms broadly and loosely, like a
Cui Bai’s picture of two magpies jabbering in their landscape master, and he organizes his composition like a
mocking way at a phlegmatic hare who glances idly up at choreographer.
them has the relation to earlier compositions of this kind Within Cui Bai’s composition the stillness of the hare
(like Huang Jucai’s Pheasant and Small Birds by a Jujube is like the eye of the picture — literally, like the eye of a
Shrub, fig. 84) of motion pictures to still photography. It is storm. Around him swirl the forces of autumn, but he

as if the formerly motionless images had come to life. himself is still and silent. This quality of stillness is one
The golden autumn wind blows through this little corner that Song painters often pursued. Motion, however, of

of the world and fills it with movement and sound. The such visible character is rarely seen in Chinese painting

The Five Dynasties and the Song Period 115

 before this time. The date inscribed on the painting by
Cui Bai along with Inis signature corresponds to 1061 and
is the earliest such inscribed date on any Chinese paint¬
ing, which must suggest the approximate time the attain¬
ment of an illusion of motion became common. Guo Xi s
Early Spring of 1072 (fig. 109), discussed below, is another
dated monument of this stage, as is Liu Cai’s beautiful
handscroll Fish Swimming amid Falling Flowers (fig. no). So
similar to Cui Bai’s Magpies and Flare in its interior move¬
ment as to be unmistakably from the same period is the
large Monkeys in a Loquat Tree (fig. 111), a painting that
must be associated with the Hunan master Yi Yuanji,
who was the first to achieve fame for his depictions of
monkeys and gibbons. Yi was a versatile master of birds
and flowers, fruits and insects but wished to find new
subjects that would allow him to depart from the models
of his predecessors. This is a continuing pattern in Song
painting and is indicative of the rapid change and move¬
ment within the world of art from the beginning of the
dynasty to its end. Monkeys, apes, and gibbons are all
called yuan in Chinese, and that broad category of animal
was rich in symbolic meanings (like virtually every other
subject traditionally favored by Chinese painters and
poets). Every twelfth year is the year of the monkey, for
example, and therefore approximately one in twelve
Chinese is identified with the monkey. This alone would
account for the large number of paintings of monkeys
extant, but the animal also evoked romantic images of
remoteness and of the high, inaccessible cliffs among
which they lived. Their cries echo still from some of the
thickly overgrown gorges along the Yangzi River. The
monkey king associated with the quest for the Buddhist
canon is a popular figure in China, and as was once true
io8. Cm Bai, Magpies and Hare, hanging scroll, ink and color on in the West one could easily see small monkeys kept as
silk, 1061. 193.7 X 103.4 cm. National Palace Museum, Taibei.
pets or trained animals on the streets. Oddly, according
to such scholars as Guo Ruoxu, no one had specialized in
the painting of monkeys and gibbons before Yi Yuanji.
The anonymous Monkeys in a Loquat Tree depicts one ape
hanging from a branch and looking back at its compan¬
ion, who sits quietly on the powerfully twisting trunk and
looks up, as if exchanging casual remarks. All details,
from the fine fur of the animals and rough bark of the
tree to the overripe fruits and decaying leaves, are painted
with exquisite nuance, and a rich three-dimensional ef¬
fect, like a bas-relief, is created by leaving the silk sur¬
face blank except where all of the foreground motifs are

109. Guo Xi, Early Spring, hanging scroll, ink on silk, 1072.
158.3 X 108.1 cm. National Palace Museum, Taibei.

The Five Dynasties and the Song Period

 no. Liu Cai, Fish Swimming amid Falling Flowers, handscroll, ink and color on silk, ca. 1075. 26.4 X 25 2.2 cm. St. Louis Art Museum.
(Purchase: W. K. Bixby Oriental Art Fund.)

placed. As with Cui Bai, we feel that the painter was actu¬ in some important way, we are about to enter a realm
ally looking at and studying his motifs in the context of where time stands still. A small, school of slender fishes
the making of the painting. He knew how apes moved fights for the bits of pink blossoms that fall into the wa¬
and interacted, how leaves look when autumn comes, ter, and one fish swims quickly away with its prize while
and how the deep, rough bark of a loquat tree feels to the the others circle and fleetly follow. Below, we see the wa¬
hand, as it were, and he tried to convey his knowledge ter grasses that grow from the mud, and here and there a
through his painted forms. shrimp or other crustacean. The dense, sheltering thicket
of water plants that follows is a breeding ground for the
Fish and Dragons
large fish that surround it. Swarms of newborn fish are
In his detailed discussion of painting, Guo Ruoxu, visible, and above, on the surface of the water, flat, bril¬
around 1074, says little about the painting of fish. Drag¬ liant green lily pads appear. In the third section a garden
ons and water in general he analyzes with care, but the of water plants becomes the center of focus, a bouquet
greatest fish master of the period had only begun to paint formed of exquisitely subtle tonalities of inkwash and
around the time Guo wrote, and his work was apparently pale green and brown colors. Suddenly, a brilliant orange
not yet known to Guo. By the time the imperial catalogue goldfish appears, then jade green leaves and more gold¬
Xuanhe huapu was compiled in 1120, Liu Cai was acknowl¬ fish, as the composition comes to a close with the ap¬
edged as the artist who had changed depictions of dead pearance of the patriarchal figures in this watery world,
fish on the kitchen table into living, moving forms deep several huge carp who appear to the lesser fishes we have
beneath the surface of the water, and he headed the cate¬ seen as kings to their kingdom.
gory of Dragons and Fish. A tenth-century master from The Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi gave us the central
Piling named Dong Yu was widely acknowledged as the image of fish in Chinese thought when he spoke of “the
greatest master of dragon painting, but no pictures of pleasure of the fishes” attained by losing all memory of
dragons survive from before the thirteenth century.29 things deep in the waters of the rivers and lakes.30 This
Like his older contemporary Cui Bai, Liu was an ambi¬ became the always desired but rarely attained dream of
tious and erratic painter, obviously one who sought new the busy official. Before Liu Cai there was no visual cor¬
themes, new ideas, and new ways of representing, and respondence to this ideal, and it quickly became a popular
who sometimes succeeded and sometimes failed. Liu’s theme in painting. Thirty scrolls by Liu were in the gov¬
position in bringing a new’ sense of life to old forms of ernment collection by 1120, and fish subsequently ac¬
painting is very much like Cui’s (and like Guo Xi’s posi¬ quired many other symbolic forms and functions.
tion in landscape painting).
Fish Swimming amid Falling Flowers (see fig. 110) is a quiet Later Northern Song Landscape Painting
symphony of rhythm and movement, the effect of which The towering figures in mid and late eleventh-century
is attained precisely through the many ways the painter classical landscape painting are Xu Daoning and Guo Xi.
creates the impression of swimming, darting, drifting fish Xu was a natural virtuoso whose genius expanded the
and schools of fish. It opens with a branch of blossoming rules of art, and Guo Xi was a thoughtful professional
peach flowers that touches the water like the entrance to master who became personal painter to Emperor Shen-
the fabled “Peach Blossom Spring” and informs us that, zong. An important essay on landscape painting, Linquan

118 The Five Dynasties and the Song Period

gaosyhi, or “The Lofty Power of Forests and Streams,” form, to create this monument of the national landscape.
was compiled by Guo Xi’s son and submitted to the He honors Li Cheng with his composition and his space.
throne. It argues eloquendy that the purpose of land¬ Not surprisingly, given the identity of his patron, Guo’s
scape painting is, first, to faithfully recreate the actual ap¬ name is joined to that of Li Cheng to define the very tra¬
pearances and moods of the natural world, and, second, dition the two men created. The Li-Guo school is the
to glorify the imperial order, which is no less than the classical, imperially approved version of landscape paint¬
earthly form of cosmic order. Painting is necessary, he ing and constitutes the official canon.
says, because men can only too seldom actually look The complex, dense, and vigorous techniques of Guo
upon and experience the realities of nature—which is Xi were anticipated by the eccentric Xu Daoning, whose
vital to the nourishing of the human spirit. The man Fisherman on a Mountain Stream (fig. 112) must have been
Guo Xi served, the emperor Shenzong, only rarely in his painted just before midcentury. Xu, however, was a freer
life had occasion to directly enjoy the natural world out¬ spirit than Guo Xi and seems to have enjoyed painting
side of his imperial palaces and scarcely ever in the nor¬ while drinking wine, depending totally upon his talent
mal human way, without attendants, musicians, servants, and momentary inspiration. This, at least, was the pattern

guards, and the complete imperial entourage around him. of his mature years; earlier he is said to have been a care¬
His admiration for Guo Xi was no doubt based upon ful imitator of Li Cheng. Xu’s marvelous handscroll is a

the artist’s skill at recreating the great world glimpsed by visionary’s image of high mountain valleys in autumn. If

Shenzong so rarely.31 paintings of landscape reflect the actual appearances of

Like Cui Bai, who also painted only for Shenzong, the time, then Xu’s virtually denuded earthen slopes con¬

Guo Xi attempted to bring the music of nature to the firm the textual evidence indicating that most of north

emperor’s eyes and ears, as it were. More quiedy, Liu Cai China was already deforested by this time. Despite their

did the same. Somehow, these painters found new ways barrenness, a Mozartian elegance of line defines the

to please the all-powerful ruler who esteemed them for ranges of thin peaks, and only a magician could have

their genius. Certainly, the meeting of these extraordinary worked such a miracle of illusion by which ink is trans¬

individuals at the side of a gifted and intelligent emperor formed into pure space. At the center of Xu’s world is the

has much to do with the sheer brilliant creativity of their grass-cloaked fisherman of the title, who tries madly to

art. Emperor Huizong received most of the later atten¬ find a little peace and tranquillity in this remote para¬

tion, but Shenzong was an enlightened patron of the arts, dise— which, alas, is beset by hawkers, travelers, food

and one furthermore whose personal tastes were some¬ sellers, and braying asses. The irony seems in fact to be

what wider and more eclectic than his eleventh son’s. the very point of the human presence in this former

Guo Xi’s most powerful extant work, Early Spring (see wilderness.

fig. 109), dated 1072, is a vision of flux, growth, life, and

The Emperor and the Scholars
order precisely suited to the imperial gaze. Looking at
this deep and high vision of the world must have been a Zhao Ji (1082-1135) was the eleventh son of Emperor

little like looking at a dream of empire. Guo uses every Shenzong. This meant to the young man that there was

possible technique, with many brushes and many differ virtually no chance that he might ever become emperor,

ent inks and washes in a rich painterly building up of and he was free to devote himself to the true passions of

The Five Dynasties and the Song Period 119

112. Xu Daoning, Fisherman on a Mountain Stream, section of a handscroll, ink and color on silk, ca. 1050. 48.9 X 209.6 cm.
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. (Purchase: Nelson Trust.)

his life, literature, the arts, and Daoism. His family was became the emperor Huizong, it was not to matters of
highly cultivated, as we have remarked, and in the imper¬ state, about which he knew little, to which he turned, but
ial palaces of Bianliang came and went all of the most to art, about which he knew a great deal.
talented men of the country at one time or another. Un¬ Up until Huizong’s time, painters on appointment to

fortunately for both Zhao Ji and his country, despite all the court constituted a loosely defined academy of paint¬

odds he did succeed to the throne, and at the age of eigh¬ ing. This had been the practice in the important tenth-

teen was crowned emperor of China. His complete lack century states of Shu in Sichuan and Southern Tang at

of preparation, ability, and interest in that unwanted task Nanjing, and the first Song emperor deliberately set out

led to near bankruptcy of the country, corruption and to reconstruct such a system at the new Song capital.

abuses of every kind, and ultimately loss of half of China The leading court painters from all of the conquered or

to the Tartar Jin tribes. The emperor, captured by the surrendering states were invited to Bianliang, where they

Tartars at the age of forty-four, died as their prisoner, in established the foundations of the new Song academic

the northern steppe country, eight years later. traditions. Their organization was very flexible and never

Huizong, as he later became known, grew up heedless strongly institutionalized. Even as late as the time of

of that future, in the company of the glittering talents that Shenzong, as we have noted, the emperor could more or

gathered in the capital. His father, the emperor Shen- less personally offer terms of appointment to such mas¬

zong, as we have repeatedly noted, was himself an exem¬ ters as Guo Xi, Cut Bai, and Liu Cai, in the simple expec¬

plar of the generous and appreciative imperial patron. tation that their responsibilities were simply to paint as

He had chosen as his sons-in-law two distinguished the court saw fit. Such painters were sometimes ap¬

painters, Li Wei (active ca. 1050-ca. 1090) and Wang pointed to the Hanlin Academy and sometimes to other

Shen, who became in effect the young Huizong’s uncles offices that were held nominally.

and tutors in art. When, unexpectedly, the young Zhao Ji Huizong chose to reform this loose system, to put it in
order, on firm grounds, and furthermore to advance the
profession of painting to a higher state than other crafts,
hi. Anonymous, Monkeys in a Loquai Tree, hanging scroll, ink
making it comparable to such arts as calligraphy and
and color on silk, nth century. 165 X 107.9 cm- National Palace
poetry. The model for such artists was not hard to
Museum, Taibei.

The Five Dynasties and the Song Period 121

 find. Huizong himself personified it, as an accomplished
painter, calligrapher, and poet, and so did other members
of the imperial family, like his distinguished “uncles”
Wang Shen and Li Wei and like his cousins Zhao Lingrang
\fK (f ^ (Danian) (active ca. 1070—noo) and Zhao Shilei. The
fe n P Zhao family was in fact the most prominent family of
i$r ** '60 artists in China. The Painting Academy of this family
would necessarily reflect its ideals, and they had been
f -tv
formed on the basis of close association between mem¬
* t bers of the royal family and leading scholar-artists like
aL « n Wang Shen, Li Gonglin, and Mi Fu (1051-1107). Tradi¬
tional craft was the basis of the profession, and the Zhao
family admired and rewarded craft, but painting was ex¬
pected to assume higher qualities as well. To accomplish
this, Huizong himself took charge of the process, becom¬
ing in effect master painter to the empire. He introduced
new curricular requirements, including the study of callig¬
raphy and poetry, and codified some of the new interests
of the poet-painters like Su Shi by creating associations
between poetry and painting. What this accomplished is
difficult to say because the type of thoughtful, knowl¬
edgeable, and creative artist that Huizong sought to train
in this way already existed. Certainly, however, he at¬
tracted more widespread interest in painting itself than
had any emperor before him and probably brought more
painters to the capital than ever before. It is not likely,
however, that Fluizong’s court painters had a higher over¬
all achievement than those of his father or of the first
Song-emperors, Taizu (r. 960-976) and Taizong (r. 976-
997). Indeed, it could be reasonably argued that by his at¬
tentions to the art of painting Huizong limited more than
expanded its horizons in the long run. Or, perhaps, we
simply know more about the limitations imposed by Ilui-
zong than about those imposed in their own ways by his
predecessors. The power of the emperor of China was of
an absolute immensity that we can scarcely comprehend
today.
Huizong emphasized three aspects of painting. First
was realism, rooted, he insisted, in the careful, direct
study of nature. His own carefully studied, realistic ren¬
derings of small birds, flowers, and rocks always demon¬
strate this requirement and became a legacy to the later
Song academy to which we shall refer.32 Huizong also in¬
sisted, second, upon a systematic study of the classical

113. Emperor Huizong, Listening to the Qin, hanging scroll, ink

and color on silk, ca. 1102. 147.2 X 51.3 cm. Palace Museum,
Beijing.

122 The Five Dynasties and the Song Period

114- Emperor Huizong, Auspicious Cranes, section of a hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, 1112. 51 X 138.2 cm. Liaoning Provincial

Museum, Shebang.

painting traditions of the past. His own government col¬ position to the front. The simple clarity and limitation of

lection of painting and calligraphy was the largest ever elements is derived from Tang court art of the kind as¬

formed, and its catalogue, the Xuanhe huapu, is a major sociated with Yan Liben, Zhang Xuan, and Zhou Fang,

document in the process of canonization. It proclaimed and, in general, a strong impression of a classic, high art is

Li Cheng the first master of landscape painting, Li Gong- achieved. No doubt the picture performs several sym¬

lin the foremost master of figure painting, and Xu Xi bolic functions, although it is hard not to remember the

and Huang Quan the fathers of bird-and-flower painting. extent to which the artistic emperor was coddled and in¬

Other masters in each tradition were ranked and ordered dulged by his more rapacious officials as they encouraged

more or less accordingly, so that for the first time since him to devote himself to his private artistic passions

Zhang Yanyuan’s Lidai minghuaji of the ninth century the while they in turn plundered the treasury and led the

entire historical panoply of painting and painters was laid country to near ruin and disgrace.

out clearly. Again, Huizong himself best demonstrated Huizong’s third requirement was the attainment of

the utility of his insistence on mastering the past. His a “poetic idea,” or shiyi, in painting. His painters were

copies of earlier figure paintings from his collection are tested for their imaginative capacities in visualizing Tang

the very measure of this practice. poems, for example, and it was the emperor himself

Listening to the Qin (fig. 113) has been shown to depict who first popularized the actual physical combination of

the emperor himself playing the classic scholar s zither, painting, poetry, and calligraphy in a single work. This

or qin, to an attentive and reflective audience of two high combination, known as the Three Perfections, or sanjue,

officials, one of whom is the prime minister, Cai Jing, would become the favored mode of later scholar-artists.

who later wrote a poetic inscription at the top of the It would be wrong to cite Huizong’s Auspicious Cranes

scroll. A jadelike pine towers above them, and an elegant (fig. 114) as a perfect demonstration of the poetic idea,

garden rock forms a kind of repoussoir framing the com¬ given that the painting functions above all as a kind of

The Five Dynasties and the Song Period 12 3

 propagandistic auspicious image certifying by the obser¬ in the official Li Cheng style.34 Not less impressive is
vation and representation of certain natural phenomena the sole extant work of one of the emperor’s young,
the virtues of Huizong’s beneficent reign. Nonetheless, talented proteges, the otherwise unknown Wang Xi¬
there is poetry in the elegance and calligraphic beauty of meng (1096-1119). A Thousand Li of River and Mountains
the picture, and it does indeed represent a new concept (fig. 115) is a breath takingly beautiful blue-and-green
of painting that is not seen before. All of Huizong’s landscape panorama painted for the emperor by a bril¬
paintings, in fact, attain a classic beauty rooted in the liant young artist who arrived at court in his teens and
past, in realistic observation, and in poetic ideals, which unfortunately died only a few years later. The young man
together constitute the artistic image of his reign. No received the gift of direct instruction in the art of paint¬
ruler before him had ever devoted so much talent and en¬ ing from Huizong, and the present picture must have
ergy to the shaping, defining, and propagation of the vi¬ been something like a graduate examination. It bears a
sual embodiment of his own era. After Huizong, many colophon by the prime minister, Caijing, which provides
emperors understood the effects of such an image and the only information known about Wang Ximeng. This
endeavored to create one themselves, beginning with brilliant coloristic manner had an old history, going back
the first emperor of the later Southern Song period, to the Tang court and to the Li family of court officials,
Gaozong (r. 1127—1162), who was one of Huizong’s sons who are said to have invented it. It was adopted by the
and understood perfectly the need for a powerful visual Song imperial family as an appropriate emblem of their
propaganda.33 reign and was used widely throughout the Song period.
Huizong’s contributions to the development of land¬ Members of the imperial family continued to prefer the
scape painting are also distinctive. He himself was a blue-and-green landscape style and technique, and it was
master of the subject, and his handscroll Rowing Home later utilized by Zhao Mengfu (1254—1322), whose life as
on a Snowy River in Liaoning is an accomplished work perhaps the last significant member of the Song imperial

x 15. Wang Ximeng, A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains, section of a handscroll, ink and color on silk, 1113. 51.5 X 1191.5 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.

124 The Five Dynasties and the Song Period

family lends a particular poignancy to its use in the period snow in the deep mountains, like one of Caspar David
of Mongol rule. As if painted under Huizong’s instruc¬ Friedrich’s heavily cloaked German scholars gazing at the
tions, Wang Ximeng’s landscape combines classical roots moon. This is something akin to the romantic landscape
in the blue-and-green tradition, elegant and realistic draw¬ art of nineteenth-century Europe, a vision of landscape
ing, and a glowing, golden atmosphere that is a kind of clearly and frankly seen through the eyes of an individual
visual poetry. who shapes it into his own image. Wang Shen created a
Another great practitioner of the manner was Hui¬ landscape of exile, in which the alienated artist finds his
zong’s “uncle,” Wang Shen — actually, they were only re¬ place amid a landscape that had been until now an im¬
lated by marriage, although Wang Shen, like Huizong, perial realm, shaped by the imperial gaze and power.
was raised in the imperial palaces and was for all practical In this same remote world of exile, the poet Su Shi
purposes a member of the imperial family by virtue of his wrote his most introspective poetry, and the calligrapher
descent from one of the military heroes of the founding Huang Tingjian created his most powerfully individualis¬
of the dynasty. A poet, scholar, connoisseur, calligrapher, tic works.
and hereditary military official — born into “the race of Perhaps the perfect embodiment of this new land¬
generals,” according to his friend Su Shi —Wang fell into scape of exile is Wang Shen’s famed composition Serried
the net of political intrigue surrounding the reformer Hills over a Misty River (Yanjiang die^hang tu), the best ver¬
Wang Anshi and Emperor Shenzong and was exiled for a sion of which is in the Shanghai Museum (fig. 117). Open¬
number of years before being allowed to return to his ing the scroll at the right, we can see almost nothing for
palace in Kaifeng. It is odd that we do not even know the nearly half the length of the scroll. Only empty mist and
dates of Wang Shen’s birth or death because he was one two pale, almost invisible small boats are glimpsed. The
of the great landscape masters of his time and a distin¬ effect of this emptiness is to dislocate the viewer, who
guished member of the imperial family. He was still alive must ask where the landscape is and wonder where he
when Huizong ascended the throne, but for how long we is being taken. Then, across the water, islands of blue
do not know. He had fundamentally influenced the and green appear, shimmering, like a mirage: the glowing
young emperor. Wang must have acquired his basic world of exile far from the imperial power, where, unex¬
knowledge of painting from Guo Xi, whose style his pectedly, so many artists of the time found new inspira¬

closely reflects. Light Snow over a Fishing Village (fig. 116), tion for their art. This is the beginning of the powerful

however, takes the balanced and ordered elements of the tradition of the scholar-painters of China, men who stood

Guo Xi manner and subjects them to a powerful reorien¬ just beside the imperial structure — sometimes in fact

tation, drawing them out of balance, opening them up, just within it—and found the authority to comment

stretching and pulling them into a new configuration that upon it, to look at it from their separate place, and to at¬

is entirely personal and almost radically individualistic. tempt to shape it into a form closer to their interests and

For the first time, in his art we encounter the figure of the values. Such men were in fact never very far from the.

wandering scholar, dark-hooded, walking through the center of imperial power, were indeed essential parts of

116. Wang Shen, Light

Snow over a Fishing Village,
handscroll, ink and color
on silk, ca. 1085. 44.4 X
219.7 cm. Palace Museum,
Beijing.

The Five Dynasties and the Song Period 12 5

 The Southern Song

that power, but were also closer to the common reality of The inevitable end of Huizong’s inept and massively cor¬
their times, closer sometimes to the interests of the great rupt political reign came with the victory of Tartar Jin
landholders, whom they embodied and represented, and armies over the Song military in north China in 1127.
even in some important ways closer to the interests of the Huizong first abdicated in favor of his eldest son, then
common people, u|on whom they depended for their submitted himself and his family as prisoners to the jin
wealth. conquerors of the Song capital. During the following
Li Gonglin was one of them, and we have already con¬ decade, as Huizong, his emperor-son, and their families
sidered his art. A very rare work by one of his immediate were taken ignominiously from one nomadic encamp-
followers, Qiao Zhongchang (active early twelfth cen¬ ment to another, Chinese and Tartar armies continued
tury), illustrates better than anything else extant the radi¬ to battle over the fate of China. Huizong’s sixth son
cal redirections they brought in so many ways to the art took the vacated imperial throne and reigned over these
of painting (fig. 118). Qiao’s Red Cliff is an extended illus¬ chaotic conditions as Emperor Gaozong, eventually es¬
tration of Su Shi’s second prose poem on the theme of tablishing a new capital in the southern coastal city of
the Red Cliff and an inventive, calligraphic exploration of Hangzhou and an uneasy peace with the Jin rulers of
a new pictorial mode of representing. Li Gonglin’s land¬ north China. This new, severed China is known as South-
scape painting is the stylistic prototype, and Li surely ern Song. T he great events that occurred during this pe¬
painted numerous narratives of this type himself.35 What riod of transition — “crossing to the south,” as it is
is perhaps most surprising about such works is the fact sometimes referred to — constitute a dramatic, fascinat-
that their heroes are living men of the time, men whose ing story, and one of course in which art and artists are
lives were locked into the political and social realities of a inextricably bound up. The vast imperial collections of
complicated and unpredictable world. Su Shi’s calligraphy art amassed by Huizong now suffered destruction, loss,
was banned from the court of Huizong, and his name
and damage only one of the many times the artistic
posted in an official list of enemies of the court. Yet, here
heritage of the Chinese people has been nearly destroyed.
he is before us, the hero of his own narrative of the
All systematic structures and organizations sustaining
meanings of life, a serene, Daoist view of cosmic exis¬
artistic production were temporarily disrupted, and a new
tence the center of which is far from the colorful rituals
order had to be established following the declaration of a
of the imperial court.
new capital in Hangzhou. Once a fragile stability was es-

126 The Five Dynasties and the Song Period

118. Qiao Zhongchang, The Red Cliff, section of a handscroll, ink on paper, ca. 1123. 29.5 X 560 cm. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,
Kansas City, Missouri. (Purchase.)

tablished, Gaozong quickly set about restoring the old Academy. It is difficult to account for such a dramatic
order. The Painting Academy was newly reconstituted change in the imperial image of landscape, in fact, unless
along with the other orders of imperial government, and, we assume that court painters like Li Tang had consider¬
in fact, Gaozong, the astute son of an artistically accom¬ able freedom to experiment with styles and techniques;
plished father, quickly realized the important roles that after all, the semiofficial imperial style of painting pro¬
art could play for his regime. Dynastic revival became a moted by Huizong was based upon Li Cheng on the one
central theme of his new government, and artists became hand and the imperial blue-and-green landscape style on
important components in the propagation of the national the other. It may well be that Wind Through the Pine Valleys

image.36 was originally a blue-and-green landscape from which the

No new changes of style are visible as a result of the mineral pigments have now mostiy disappeared (traces

dramatic events of the time, however, only new subject are visible, as Suzuki Kei has pointed out).37 The sharp,

matter appropriate to the new policies and propaganda rocky spires of that old image associated with the Tang

efforts of the court. Li Tang (ca. 1050-after 1130) is the imperial masters Li Sixun and Li Zhaodao are joined by

most significant painter of the period, and judging from Li Tang to the rugged monumentality of Fan Kuan to

datable works by him from the late Northern Song and create what now looks like a new landscape style, and al¬

early Southern Song periods, respectively, he went on most a reaction against the serene Li Cheng manner. This

painting as before in spite of the high adventures he is re¬ would become the basis for the later Southern Song aca¬

ported to have experienced during the dangerously un¬ demic style of landscape painting, and its techniques of

settled years of the transition (when he is said to have ax-cut brushstrokes, sharp-edged rocks and cliffs, and

been captured by bandits, one of whom was a young twisting, angled trees would constitute the essential artis¬

painter named Xiao Zhao [active ca. 1130—1160], who tic vocabulary of the leading Southern Song masters.

became a major follower). Wind through the Pine Valleys A few (or many—we do not have a clear chronology)

(fig. 119) bears Li Tang’s signature and a date correspond¬ years later, at the tentative and uncertain court of Gao¬

ing to 1124. It is one of the major dated monuments of zong, Li Tang continued to paint such landscapes, as his

Song landscape painting and a work of great originality River Temple in the Tong Summer (fig. 120) indicates. Nearly

and apparent redirection within the Imperial Painting black with chemical deterioration and damage, this once

The Five Dynasties and the Song Period 127

119. Li Tang, Wind Through the Pine Valleys, hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, 1124. 188.7 X 139.8 cm. Collection of the National
Palace Museum, Taibei.
blue-and-green river landscape bears a bold inscription into the sea, Hangzhou is one of the most attractive cities
by the emperor declaring Li Tang to be the Li Sixun of in the world and became perhaps the most flourishing
the present-day, a nice verbal play on Li Tang and Tang Li economic center of the world during the twelfth and thir¬
(Sixun). Apparently, therefore, under the imperial gaze, teenth centuries.
such paintings as Wind Through the Pine Valleys and River The painting that evolved and flourished there was pa¬
Temple in the Tong Summer were essentially new versions of tronized by members of the imperial family first, espe¬
the old imperial manner. cially by the succession of powerful empresses and their
A different aspect of the evolving imperial landscape families, including several emperors who were especially
was painted by a leading member of the old Song imper¬ attentive to the powers of art. High officials followed the
ial family, fittingly enough, a gifted painter named Zhao imperial pattern and played a similar role in patronizing
Boju (d. ca. 1162), who was one of the many members of the glittering array of artistic talents who gathered in
his family who attained distinction in art. Zhao’s Autumn Hangzhou. The art they preferred was miniature and
Colors over Streams and Mountains (fig. 121) echoes such ear¬ portable, easily accessible for the casual writing of poems
lier imperial images as those of Wang Shen and Wang Xi- and couplets and used quite casually as a form of com¬
meng, as well as Huizong’s own landscape painting, but munication. The most popular format may have been the
achieves a striking substance and tactile presence that fan or single album leaf, beside or on the back of which
has led some scholars to think that the painting must one'Could inscribe a few lines.41 This miniature format is
have been painted by a Northern Song artist closer to Li especially suitable for the quality of concentration and in¬
Cheng and Fan Kuan than to Li Tang. Indicative of both tensity that is so characteristic of Southern Song art as a
the uncertainty of such matters and the nearly pure acci¬ whole. A sense of layered depths and invisible dimen¬
dent by which such works survive at all is the fact that the sions is suggested by much Southern Song art, paintings
present painting has no known history before it was pre¬ and ceramics alike, both of which were of course patron¬
sented to the first emperor of the Ming dynasty, Zhu ized preeminently by the imperial court.
Yuanzhang, by an official who acquired it from an an¬ Li Di’s (ca. 1100—after 1197) Shrike on a Winter Tree (fig.
tique dealer. The emperor, apparently, decided that it was 122) personifies these qualities, as if it were a crystalliza¬
by Zhao Boju and declared it to be an autumn landscape. tion of frozen intensity and concentration itself. There
In fact, the season of the scroll is not autumn, but spring, is an almost European quality to the drawing of the
and the actual original identity of the painting is com¬ branches and trunk of the tree — a three-dimensionality
pletely unknown. It could well be a version of the cele¬ often found in Song court art — and a realistic, nearly
brated story of paradise gained and lost, “Peach Blossom scientific accuracy to the drawing of the bird, both of
Spring.” It belongs, in any case, with Wang Ximeng’s which are perhaps the legacy of Huizong and his reforms.
long blue-and-green landscape style handscroll among Between 1174 and 1197, Li Di served three successive
the finest extant examples of the Song imperial manner emperors as court master and is representative of the

of landscape painting. profession of painting in his time. Painting was essen¬

tially a craft or artisan tradition and was maintained suc¬
The Southern Song Painting Academy cessfully over long periods by families of artisans like
All of the old subjects were revived under the new Li Di, whose son, Li Demao (active ca. 1241-12 5 2), also
government, and many new ones appropriate to the new served as a court painter. Their contemporary Li Song
image of dynastic revival. Old historical narratives telling (active xi90-1230) was originally a carpenter but was
of imperial hardship, survival, and rebirth especially adopted by a court master named Li Congxun (active
flourished, including the popular “Eighteen Songs of a twelfth century) and trained by him as a painter to suc¬
Nomad Flute,”38 the story of Duke Wen’s return to ceed him. Later, Li Song trained his nephew Li Yongnian

power in the state of Jin,39 and new stories of auspicious (active ca. 1265—1274) and others, who then “continued
omens and miraculous events surrounding the divine his tradition,” as the biographies always say. That is, they
reign of Gaozong.40 Apparendy, Id Tang was returned to continued to produce the product for which the family
a position of leadership within the newly reestablished was employed. The most famous such family in the Song
Imperial Academy of Painting, along with other sur¬ period was the Ma family of Hezhong, Shanxi Province.

vivors of the transition, and new talents were drawn to Beginning with Ma Ben (Fen) (early twelfth century) in

the beautiful, flourishing capital in Hangzhou. Set be¬ the late Northern Song period, the Ma family served the

tween West Lake and the Qiantang River, which flows emperors of China for five generations. Judging from

The Five Dynasties and the Song Period 129

 120. Li Tang, River Temple in the Long Summer, section of a handscroll, ink and color on silk, ca. 1150. 44 X 249 cm. Palace Museum,
Beijing.

the many extant works by three members of the family, court), mounters, and so on. A master painter probably
Ma Yuan (active before 1189—after 1225), Ma Gongxian held title to the position and salary that represented the
(twelfth century), and Ma Lin (active early to mid thir¬ family’s fortune, and all other family members contrib¬
teenth century), their enterprise was the very model of a uted in some manner to their common enterprise, that is,
typical artisanal occupation. It continued for a century the production of paintings bearing the mark, craft, and
and a half with at least one painter in each generation re¬ quality of the famous Ma family. Always perfect speci¬
ceiving official appointment to the academy and thus per¬ mens of artful craft, these paintings are literally imperial
petuating the family’s financial well-being. Probably the objects, made so as to be worthy of receiving the imperial
family’s very life and welfare depended upon that contin¬ gaze, touch, and brush. Typically, an emperor or empress
uing appointment, and their enterprise was a communal inscribed a poem or poetic couplet and personal imperial
one whose survival they all worked to insure. We must dedication directly on the surface of such a painting or on
imagine a major studio or workshop run by the family and a facing page or on the reverse of a fan, for example. The
employing assistants, apprentices, managers or agents, example we illustrate, Banquet by Lantern Light (fig. 123),
pigment and ink makers possibly (although these and bears no signature of the artist but a long poem in the
other materials may have been regularly supplied by the center top written by an imperial hand. The poem refers

121. Zhao Boju, Autumn Colors over Streams and Mountains, handscroll, ink and color on silk, ca. 1160. 56-6 X 323.2 cm. Palace Museum,
Beijing.

130 The Five Dynasties and the Song Period

 to a banquet that had taken place one evening (the paint¬
ing was probably done in the days just following) at
which Emperor Ningzong (r. 1195-1224), his empress,
and three members of the empress’s family had been
present. Just inside the drawn blind we can see the three
guests approaching their unseen hosts, who are hidden
behind the screen. Outside, musicians and dancers per¬
form for the company. It is apparently an early spring
evening because the heavily pruned and dramatically
shaped plum trees in the foreground are blossoming and
a rainy mist fills the air, according to the poem.
Evidently the major purpose of the banquet and the
painting recording it was to make widely known the ele¬
vation of Empress Yang’s brother and his sons to such
eminence that the emperor invited them to elegant ban¬
quets — and then furthermore had the most celebrated
family of court artists depict the event in their expected
elegant fashion. The poem was probably written by Em¬
press Yang herself, although some believe that Emperor
Ningzong was the composer if not the calligrapher. All of
the expected features of the Ma style are present. In a
carefully constructed composition, the imperial presence
is sheltered in a lower corner, tighdy buttressed by the
architectural and landscape elements around it, and the
entire composition could be marked off by a straight di¬
agonal line drawn from the lower left corner to the upper
right. Necessary motifs of the Ma style are the sharp, an¬
gular plum trees, the tall, dramatic pines rising into the
night sky, the pale silhouette of distant mountaintops,
and the dense mist that lies in heavy banks over the
scene. The strongly defined interior space is an invitation
V,'

122. Li Di, Shrike on a Winter Tree, hanging scroll, ink and color
on silk, 1187. 115.2 X 52.8 cm. Shanghai Museum, above

The Five Dynasties and the Song Period 131

123. Ma Yuan, Banquet by Lantern Light, hanging scroll, ink
and color on silk, ca. 1200. 111.9 X 53.5 cm. National Palace
Museum, Taibei.
to the imperial gaze that literally owns this palatial vista Xia Gui’s second great handscroll is the enigmatic
and whose presence is always somehow near at hand in Twelve Landscape Views (fig. 126), of which there are many
all of the paintings of the Ma family. copies. Taken at evening, each brief view passes before
The last of the family to paint for the Song emperors our eyes in the settling darkness as if we watched a film in
was Ma Lin, whose life may have extended until the final slow motion recording the end of the day. Here are “wild
Mongol destruction of the Song. His touching Sunset geese over distant mountains,” “a ferryboat returning to
Landscape (fig. 124) seems almost to be an elegy for his dy¬ a misty village,” “the clear and lonely sound of a fisher¬
nasty, so preoccupied is it with the end of light and vi¬ man’s flute,” and “misty bank at evening mooring.” Pale,
sion. Illustrating a couplet by the Tang poet Wang Wei distant landscape forms give way to the darkening shapes
that can be translated “Mountains hold the autumn col¬ of night as the light slowly disappears and the scroll
ors near, / Swallows cross the evening sun slowly,” Ma comes to an end. The twelve views in the original hand-
Lin very simply depicts a lake or river at twilight as a few scroll moved casually through the hours of the day, from
swallows flit across the water toward the setting sun. The morning to night. Time is of course central to the Chi¬
familiar mountain silhouettes also carry the eye into the nese concept of space, but nowhere except perhaps in
glowing sky beyond. film and music have time and space been so seamlessly
Oddly, many scholars have noted a quality of melan¬ and artfully interwoven as in such works of art as this.
choly in the art of Ma Lin. He often seems to focus his art
upon a moment of intense beauty in the very process of
disappearing as we see it with him. But, of course, it was
Chan Painting and the End of the Song
probably not Ma Lin who chose those poignant mo¬
ments but his patrons, Emperor Lizong (r. 1225-1264), The final brief chapter of Song painting was written
whose sharp, elegant calligraphic hand inscribed the cou¬ in the Buddhist monasteries around West Lake in the
plet above, and the emperor’s ladies. In Ma Lin, they decades just prior to the Mongol invasion of China in the
found the perfect voice to sing their sad songs for them 1270s — and, in fact, probably continued for a time in
as they presided over the end of a great empire. those same monasteries after the Mongol victory over
The academy master with the boldest vision was a con¬ the Song and the establishment of a “barbarian” dynasty.
temporary of Ma Yuan named Xia Gui (active early thir¬ Buddhism played a significant role in the history of Song
teenth century). Their names together — Ma-Xia — have painting, from the beginnings of the landscape tradition
come to represent the typical achievement of the South¬ to the origins of literati art and theory in the late North¬
ern Song academy. Xia may have been somewhat older ern Song. Still, it has proven difficult to isolate any dis-
than Ma Yuan, but they were certainly active at court to¬ tinctiy Buddhist elements in painting aside from subject
gether and must have known each other as rivals for the matter, and it has been questioned even whether there

imperial favor. There were, in fact, so many active and of¬ was anything that should be termed a purely Buddhist
ten competing members of the imperial family that there manner of painting at all. The late Song flowering of

was surely room for a dozen leading masters at the South¬ Chan painting, however, is a striking instance of a clearly

ern Song palace. Xia Gui, like the Mas, has left us many Chan Buddhist — or, at any rate, Buddhist (the distinc¬

small pictures done for the imperial brush, but also two tions between Chan and, say, Tiantai Buddhism need not

classic landscape handscrolls that still grow in fresh and concern us)— artistic phenomenon.

interesting ways from the achievements of Li Cheng and Certain subjects and techniques of painting were asso¬

Juran at the beginning of the dynasty. Pure and Remote Views ciated with Buddhist subjects and forms of expression

of Streams and Mountains (fig. 125) could almost be a demon¬ even within the Imperial Painting Academy. Liang Kai, a

stration of the formal characteristics of Song landscape leading thirteenth-century academic master, painted in a

painting, with its clear structure of near, middle, and far wide variety of styles, unlike the Ma family heirs or Xia

distance, its few and carefully alternating motifs, and its Gui and his son, for example, and must represent a dif-

beautifully swift, nuanced depiction of rocks and foliage,. - ferent type of artistic personality, perhaps even a differ¬
Almost effortlessly, it seems, Xia Gui creates a landscape ent sociological model. If the traditional painting families

without end, as if no scroll could be long enough to hold had every reason to conservatively continue producing a

his vision. Here is the final form of Li Tang s ax-cut brush¬ predictable product, why did Liang Kai not produce such

strokes, now icy, wet chips of the brush sculpting moun¬ a product? Why is nearly every painting by him different?

tains from the empty air that the paper surface has become. Possibly his art was always somehow rooted in Buddhist

The Five Dynasties and the Song Period 13 3

125. Xia Gui, Pure and Remote Views of Streams and Mountains, handscroll, ink on paper, ca. 1200. 46.5 X 889 cm. Collection of the
National Palace Museum, Taibei.

126. Xia Gui, Twelve Landscape Views, section of a handscroll, ink on paper, ca. 1225. 28 X 230.8 cm. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Kansas City, Missouri. (Purchase: Nelson Trust.)
127. Liang Kai, Shakyamuni
Emergingfrom the Mountains,
hanging scroll, ink and color on
silk, 13 th century. 117.6 X 51.9 cm.
Tokyo National Museum.
(Preserved by the Agency
for Cultural Affairs [Bunkacho]
of Japan.)
 n8. Muqi, White-Robed Guanyin, Crane, and Gibbons, hanging scrolls, ink on silk, 13th century. 173.9 9^ cm. Daitokuji, Kyoto.

traditions. The great temples probably maintained con¬ easy way that it bears no academic air whatever. The
tinuous traditions of hereditary painters who were highly swiftly and boldly drawn branches and rocks are even less
trained like academic and independent professional mas¬ academic, so that we want to conclude that Liang Kai was
ters, but who also lived within a rougher, freer commu¬ painting for the imperial court a kind of identifiably Bud¬
nity that often prided itself on its unconventionality and dhist image in a manner known to be a Buddhist one.
eccentricity. Muqi, whom I shall turn to, perfectly em¬ Liang Kai here obviously wanted to impart a sense of the
bodies such a tradition because he appears to have been ineffable, unconquerable inner spirit of the Buddha, who
both a Buddhist monk of some stature and a professional emerges from long ascetic meditation wasted and gaunt
painter, but one who also painted in a simple, terse, swift but holding within himself now the seed of knowledge of
style of ink drawing that appears to be typical of Chan the meaning of existence that would soon emerge at Vul¬
artists generally. ture Peak as the dharma law. Like Shakyamuni, Liang Kai
Some of Liang Kai’s extant paintings were done for is said to have renounced his secular positions, resigning
the imperial court in a manner designed to suggest a dis¬ his position in the academy, and is thought to have spent
tinctly untrammeled Buddhist flavor, others in a refined the latter part of his life in the environs of the monastic
and accomplished detailed baimiao, or plain line, style de¬ communities around West Lake. The more extremely ab¬
rived from Li Gonglin — who can also be regarded as a breviated and cursive images bearing his name presum¬
Buddhist painter in some fundamental sense — and still ably date from this period.42
others in the sketchy, abbreviated, rough style that the Muqi s White-Robed Guanyin, Crane, and Gibbons (fig. 128)
Buddhist painters must have thought of as their own. is a contemporary Buddhist icon of a type similar to Liang
Liang’s Shakyamuni Emerging from the Mountains (fig. 127) Kai’s Shakyamuni Emerging from the Mountains, painted by a
was painted for the court, according to the signature, but Chan artist who signs himself “Monk frofii Shu,” Shuseng.
can scarcely be described as academic in any way. The Muqi, together with Liang Kai and another monk named
figure style is an old one, to be sure, related ultimately to h ujian Ruofen, represent late Song Buddhist ink painting
the “flowing water and scudding clouds” drapery manner in China in its clearest form. Like Liang Kai, Muqi ap¬
of the Tang giant Wu Daozi but is done in such a free and pears to have been a professional painter. His White-Robed

136 The Five Dynasties and the Song Period

Guanyin is the centerpiece of a triptych that has been kept message: the infinite compassion of Guanyin is as real yet
at the Daitokuji temple in Kyoto for many centuries. The intangible, as mysterious yet accessible to all men as the
two flanking scrolls, a gibbon and baby resting on the cry of a crane from the misty bamboo or the shriek of a
branch of an old pine tree on the right and a crane crying gibbon from the high trees.
out from a misty bamboo grove on the left, were presum¬ Scholars will argue about the nature of Chan painting,
ably intended to provide expanded visual dimensions but it is likely that the central fact of Buddhist art is its
and mysterious spiritual reverberations to the central consistent effort to illuminate spiritual values through
Guanyin, whose image represents supreme compassion. pictorial images. This is different from the illustration of
Gibbons and cranes were traditional symbols of human Confucian ideas through stories of human action, or the
life and folly on the one hand and longevity or even im¬ suggestion of Daoist immortality through the depiction
mortality on the other, so they would seem to be appro¬ of odd Daoist eccentrics in odd ways. It is more subtle
priate counterbalances to a spiritual icon addressing the and more difficult because it puts art to a different kind
faithful as savior and hope for redemption. In any case, of use, a use closer to the expression of meaning in land¬
what signifies beyond the routine in this case is the way scape painting than to other subjects. If style itself, and
Muqi painted the familiar images. His mother gibbon techniques as well as subject matter are always considered
looks out directly at us in a way we could rarely see under to have the capacity to convey spiritual meanings, then
normal circumstances, and she is tightly holding her we would have to look more closely at the use of these
baby, who also stares at us. This creates a surprising con¬ elements in Buddhist art than in any other mode of art —
frontation, and leaves us with an unsettled feeling: what except that of the literati masters. It is in any case hardly
are we to think when we look into the eyes of two gib¬ surprising that the late Song period is filled with images
bons sitting in a high tree beside the sainted Guanyin? As of the sacred and the spiritual, both inside the imperial
if in direct opposition to the still and silent gibbons, court and outside. As Song China neared its eventual de¬
Muqi’s crane gallops loudly through the bamboo, head struction by the Mongols, many must have realized — or
raised and beak open as if crying out in that startlingly feared ■— that the physical and human world they knew
human voice of the crane. On either side of the white- could not long endure. At such times throughout the
robed, meditating Guanyin, seated in a grotto in her leg¬ world, the sacred realm beckons with renewed power.
endary island home, these images appear to convey this

The Five Dynasties and the Song Period 137

 JAMES CAEIILL

The Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368)

Southern Song period, for all its cultural glories, is seen by historians as

|| an age of weakness in the Chinese state, characterized by retrenchment in

f|! area and influence, humiliating military impotence, and a mood of nostalgia

bordering on escapism. The conquest of China by the Mongols in the third

quarter of the thirteenth century ended even this fragile peace, putting

China for the first time completely under foreign rule. Educated Chinese

who normally would have attempted careers in public service found them¬

selves mosdy disenfranchised, since the Mongols had no tradition of recruit¬

ing scholars as administrators and preferred to employ members of other

conquered races, central Asians and Jurchens, in ruling China. Those Chi¬

nese who were invited to serve faced a painful dilemma: If they joined the

new Yuan administration, they could be branded turncoats and their posi¬

tions could be made insecure and unrewarding. If they withdrew out of loy-

alism to the vanquished Song and finished their lives in reclusion as yimin

(literally, “leftover subjects”), they would forsake the traditional rewards of

scholarship and be forced to support themselves and their families as best

they could with their talents. Moral grounds could be found for either

course; those who chose service argued that China still needed good native

administrators to temper the harshness of rule by people unfamiliar with

Chinese ways. The new directions that painting took in the early Yuan were

pursued mostly by artists who were in one way or another involved in these

Details, figure 15 5 (opposite) and figure 137

 issues and responded to them in the subjects and styles of it most effectively in paintings of this kind, which were
their works. Much early Yuan painting thus can be said technically untaxing and did not require the specialist
to have a political dimension, along with other kinds of skills of the studio-trained professional masters. The
meaning and expression. symbolic meanings attached to plant subjects made them
The central phenomenon in painting of the period, at ideal for carrying congratulatory and other messages be¬
least in art-historical retrospect, is the emergence of the tween literati, and for strengthening their sense of com¬
literati-amateur movement as the dominant force. Several munity at a time when these common values seemed
factors underlie this development. The Imperial Painting threatened. The yimin artist Zheng Sixiao (1241—1318)
Academy, which throughout the Southern Song had fol¬ painted lanhua, the Chinese orchid, in pictures that con¬
lowed the aesthetic directions established by Emperor veyed the idea of modest reclusion both formally, in
Huizong, joining high technique with poetic or other lit¬ their simple clusters of unassuming brushstrokes, and as
erary content, did not survive the dynastic change; artists images — the orchid had long served in poetry as a meta¬
who continued in this vein in the Yuan were, on the phor for the sensitive man who had withdrawn from the
whole, minor figures. The political unification of south world.1 In the generation before him, Zhao Mengjian
and north made it possible for the southern literati, no¬ (1199—before 1267), a member of the Song imperial fam¬
tably those of the Jiangnan, or Yangzi delta, region, to re¬ ily, sometimes depicted a theme even more apposite to
join the scholar-amateur tradition of painting as active the situation in which the cultivated Chinese scholar-
participants. Inaugurated in the late Northern Song pe¬ gentlemen found themselves: the “Three Friends of
riod by artists such as Su Shi, Mi Fu, and Li Gonglin, that the Cold Season.” The Three Friends — pine, bamboo,
tradition had been kept alive in the north under the Jin and blossoming plum—symbolized, as survivors of the
dynasty by masters such as Wang Tingyun. The with¬ harshness of winter, the Confucian virtue of maintaining
drawal of loyalist scholars from public life obliged them one’s integrity in trying times.2 A fan painting of this
to seek other pursuits, among which painting was promi¬ theme bearing Zhao’s seal (fig. 129) derives some poi¬
nent, for both self-fulfillment and survival. Under the gnancy from presumably having been painted during the
harsh political and economic conditions of the Yuan oc¬ years when the Song was suffering defeat. It presents
cupation, educated people formed networks of mutual overlapping branches of the three plants in a precise,
support, coteries within which traditional Chinese cul¬ controlled way not out of harmony with the Song aca¬
tural practices were perpetuated. The more affluent mem¬ demic mode; none of the rough-brush effects or marks of
bers helped those who were impoverished, in a kind spontaneity that would characterize so much Yuan paint¬
of gentlemanly patronage system. Much Yuan painting, ing are to be seen here, and the work seems to affirm the
calligraphy, and poetry was produced under these condi¬ persistence of order under stress.
tions and was intended for presentation to others of the An yimin artist especially fervent in his loyalism was
artist’s or poet’s group, with some expectation of recom¬ Gong Kai (1222-1307), who had held a minor office
pense, usually nonmonetary (judging from the evidence under the Song. After the Yuan conquest he lived in
we have for later periods). Such networks were by no extreme poverty, supporting himself and his family by
means made up exclusively of yimin, or loyalists, nor was occasionally selling his paintings and calligraphy, or ex¬
the practice of scholar-amateur painting in the early Yuan changing them for food and other necessities. Lacking
confined to them. It flourished as strongly among those even a table, we are told, he would have his son kneel and
who sought or accepted official service; in fact, as we shall use his back as a support for the paper as he worked.
see, one of its preeminent practitioners, Zhao Mengfu, Two of Gong’s paintings are extant: Emaciated Horse,3 in
belonged to this group. which he uses the long-established image of the mis¬
treated but still noble animal to protest the plight of
China in extreme adversity, and a handscroll entided
Loyalist Painters of the Early Yuan Zhong Kai Traveling (fig. 130). Zhong Kui was a legendary
demon queller who had manifested himself in a dream to
Plant subjects such as bamboo and blossoming plum, the eighth-century emperor Minghuang. The emperor
usually rendered in ink monochrome, had been favorites described his dream to his court artist, Wu Daozi, who
of amateur painters from the time of Su Shi and his thereupon painted the first of thousands of portrayals of
friend Wen Tong. Artists who had gained their facility the hero. Zhong Kui pictures could serve apotropaic
with brush and ink by practicing calligraphy could display functions, protecting houses from baleful influences, but

140 The Yuan Dynasty

 the dispersal of the Imperial Painting Academy at Hang¬
zhou, other centers, Wuxing prominent among them, be¬
came gathering places for scholarship and art. Qian Xuan
was one of a group of poets and cultivated scholars ac¬
tive there in the late Song and early Yuan known as the
Eight Talents of Wuxing. In 1286 the first Yuan emperor,
Kublai Khan, sent an emissary to invite more than twenty
Wuxing scholars into service in the new northern capital
of Dadu (present-day Beijing). It is unclear whether Qian
Xuan, then in his early forties, was among those invited;
in any case, he stayed behind. The leading figure among
those who accepted the invitation and went north was
Qian’s younger colleague, and probably in some sense
his student, Zhao Mengfu (1254—1322). Qian was ac¬
cordingly praised for preserving his principles, and Zhao
criticized for compromising his, especially in view of
his position as a descendant of the Song imperial family
(Zhao Mengjian was his uncle). But the issue, polarized in

129. Zhao Mengjian, Three Friends of the Cold Season, fan-shaped

later arguments, was not so clear-cut in their time; the
album leaf, ink on silk, Yuan dynasty. 24.3 X 23.3 cm. Shanghai two remained good friends, and Zhao went on to be¬
Museum. come one of the most accomplished and highly respected
figures of the Yuan. In any case, Qian Xuan gave up his
they could also carry sophisticated political messages. status as a scholar and became, in effect, a professional
Gong Kai’s, although it depicts the seemingly innocuous painter, earning his living by producing paintings of flow¬
subject of Zhong Kui setting off with his sister on a hunt, ers, figures, and landscapes.
is probably an example of the latter: it may represent a Qian Xuan’s flower paintings survive in some number
desire for some force that could rid the country of “de¬ and have been well studied. They were reportedly so pop¬
mons,” that is, foreigners. The inscriptions that accom¬ ular that by his late years forgeries were appearing in
pany the scroll hint at this message without stating it quantity, and he is said to have changed his style and in¬
directly; potentially seditious sentiments could only be scribed all his later works to identify them as his own. A
stated obliquely, even cryptically, whether in images or in remarkable archaeological discovery made in 1971 — a

words. Qian Xuan painting of lotuses found in the tomb of

The blunt inelegance of Gong Kai’s brush drawing an early Ming prince named Zhu Tan, who died in 1389
was deliberately cultivated as signifying both amateurism (fig. 131)— seems to confirm this practice: Qian states in
and sincerity. The most famous loyalist painter of the his inscription that he has changed his hao (sobriquet)
early Yuan, Qian Xuan (ca. 1235-before 1307), was no and “put forth some new ideas” in recent years to con¬
less sincere and in principle an amateur. In contrast to found the forgers. The painting, like Qian’s others of
Gong Kai, however, he preferred a fastidious fine-line plant subjects, is executed in fine, even line and washes of
mode with flat washes of color. Implicated in this style is light color, a reserved, even fastidious mode that might

the practice of archaism: reference to the distant past, es¬ seem at odds with the colorfulness and decorative beauty

pecially the Tang dynasty, which from the Yuan vantage of the subject. Other, lesser artists were continuing the

point could be viewed as China’s golden age, a time of Song tradition of decorative, richly colored flower paint¬

^xpansiveness and power. It also implied the rejection ings; Qian Xuan is at pains to dissociate his art from

of the styles — and by extension the political weak¬ theirs. His avoidance of all strong appeal to the senses

ness — of the Southern Song. Qian Xuan’s paintings are can be read as an expression of his temperament and

often accompanied by poems that subtly express sadness subtler taste, but also as a rejection of any hint of com¬

over the fall of the native dynasty and the “coming of mercialism. Lotus plants conventionally evoked the idea
of purity, since they rise from the mud but remain pris¬
darkness.”
Qian Xuan lived in Wuxing, a town north of tine; Qian’s poem, written after the painting, adds an¬

Hangzhou and south of the Taihu, or Great Lake. With other dimension of meaning by mentioning a recluse,

The Yuan Dynasty 141

 M

130. Gong Kai, Zhong Kui Traveling, section of a handscroll, ink on paper, Yuan dynasty. 32.8 X 169.5 cm. (Courtesy of the Freer
Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.)

131. Qian Xuan, Lotuses, handscroll, ink and light color on paper, Yuan dynasty. 42 X 90.3 cm. Shandong Provincial Museum.
132. Qian Xuan, Dwelling in the Floating Jade Mountains, section of a handscroll, ink and light color on paper, Yuan dynasty.
29.6 X 98.7 cm. Shanghai Museum.

thus turning the flowers into objects of that person’s for instance, the paintings of Xia Gui. No doubt it was
contemplation. intended to be just that: a reversion to a more primitive
Most of Qian Xuan’s landscape paintings are exe¬ stage of landscape that Qian knew from old paintings,
cuted in another line-and-color-wash manner, the ar- combined with imitations of more recent vintage —
chaistic “blue-and-green” landscape style using heavy Dwelling in the Floating Jade Mountains resembles in some
mineral pigments. An exception is the handscroll titled respects late Song and Yuan works by retardataire mas¬
by the artist himself Dwelling in the Floating Jade Mountains ters following Northern Song or earlier traditions. But
(fig. 132) and representing, he tells us, his own mountain some acquaintance with genuine old works also underlies
retreat, located to the west of Wuxing. It is a famous Qian’s style: when Zhao Mengfu returned to Wuxing in
work, with laudatory colophons written by some of the 1295, he brought a collection of old paintings that he had
leading Yuan and later artists and literati. But to any acquired in the north; and if Dwelling in the Floating Jade
reader familiar with the naturalistic portrayal of enchant¬ Mountains belongs to Qian Xuan’s late years, as it is be¬

ing scenery in the Song dynasty, with its atmospheric lieved to, it must reflect the impact of this renewed con¬
treatment of distance, textural differentiation of rock and tact with pre—Southern Song traditions.
eatth surfaces, and so on, Qian Xuan’s picture will surely Archaistic is the locating of the land masses more or

seem stiff and graceless, a “great leap backward” from, less evenly across the middle ground; the viewer is given

The Yuan Dynasty 143

 no easy access to them, a compositional feature that also served as division chief in the Ministry of War, using his
enhances the theme of reclusion. The fine-line texture position, as those who made this choice always claimed
strokes are uniform and undescriptive, as is the pale to do, to benefit his own people: first by opposing a
green coloring; the rock formations are flattened, geo- powerful Uighur minister whose economic policies were
metricized, and in some places oddly striped; the scale is harmful to the Chinese, and later by working to reinsti¬
unnatural — the trees diminish markedly, for instance, as tute the civil service examination system, which would
the composition develops leftward, making the furthest- give them a fairer chance at employment in the adminis¬
left parts read as more distant, even while their location tration. The anti-Chinese minister was condemned to
with respect to the baseline of the painting prevents them death in 1291, and the examination system was reinstated
from receding properly. The effect is visually unsettling, in 1315. Zhao went on to serve under four more emper¬
an aspect of the picture’s primitivism. Tree foliage and ors, govern two provinces, and hold a number of other
the tipped-up upper surface of the large bluff left of cen¬ high posts, including the directorship of the Hanlin
ter, an allusion to the landscape style of Fan Kuan (see Academy, the court academy for historical compilation
fig. 94), are dense areas of abstract dotting. The picture and other imperially sponsored scholarship. He recon¬
as a whole is more evocative of diverse artistic manners ciled his career with his conscience by adopting the
and traditions than descriptive of a particular place; like stance of chaoyin, “recluse at court,” and expressing it in
other Yuan landscapes we will consider, notably Zhao poems and paintings. The concept of chaoyin was based
Mengfu’s Autumn Colors on the Qiao and Hua Mountains (see on the belief that someone could be engaged in a political
fig. 134), this is a work of pseudotopography. And yet in career in the outside world while preserving internally the
one feature the composition responds to its subject: the mentality of the recluse, spiritually remote from the con¬
cluster of houses in the left section, representing Qian tamination of public fife. Similarly, the shiyin, or “recluse
Xuan’s country villa, is set among trees and enclosed in the marketplace,” remained aloof in his mind from the
by curving ridges to convey a sense of security and isola¬ commerce in which he necessarily engaged.
tion from the outside world. Portrayals of people’s re¬ The earliest of Zhao Mengfu’s landscape paintings
treats and “secluded dwellings” make up a major part of that survives. The Mind Landscape of Xie Youyu (fig. 13 3), is
Yuan landscape painting and often use this composi¬ a pictorial statement of the chaoyin ideal. It bears only a
tional device. seal of the artist, but a colophon by his son Zhao Yong
Three of the writers of colophons on the scroll, Huang certifies it as an early work by his father, and other
Gongwang, Zhang Yu, and the early Ming artist Yao colophons by Yuan writers indicate that it was painted
Shou, remark on Zhao Mengfu’s indebtedness to Qian while Zhao Mengfu was in service; the evidence thus sug¬
Xuan as a painter; Zhang reports that Zhao “in his early gests a date shortly after 1286.4 Xie Youyu or Xie Kun
years received his painting methods” from Qian. Zhao (a.d. 280-322) was a scholar-official of the Eastern Jin
Mengfu, however, was in the end by far the greater mas¬ period who, asked to compare himself with another
ter, the one who more than anyone else set the course official, replied that although the other was his superior
that later Yuan landscape painting would follow. in court observances, he himself excelled in “a single hill,
a single stream,” that is, in his imagined persona as a
recluse living in the wilds. Some decades later, the great
Artists in Officialdom and at Court painter Gu Kaizhi had portrayed Xie among peaks and
rocks; asked to explain this innovative use of a natu¬
Zhao Mengfu’s family, descendants of one of the Song ral setting, Gu quoted Xie’s own remark, adding, “This
emperors, had settled in Wuxing in the twelfth century gentleman should be placed among hills and streams.” In
and had enjoyed the privileges of members of the impe¬ painting the picture, Zhao was of course likening his own
rial clan. Zhao’s acceptance of Kublai Khan’s offer of situation and attitude to those of Xie Youyu. But he may
an official post, then, was regarded by some as dishonor¬ also have painted it for presentation to some other new
able collaboration. An anecdote was even told in which official in the same situation, as an expression of sympa¬
he visited his uncle Zhao Mengjian, who afterwards di¬ thy and support.
rected his servant to wash the seat in which Mengfu Zhao Mengfu’s picture might be based on some ver¬
had sat; but since Zhao Mengjian had been dead nearly sion of Gu Kaizhi’s that had survived to his time (but is
twenty years by the time Zhao accepted the post, the unknown today), or it might be simply an imaginative re¬
story is obviously apocryphal. At the Mongol court Zhao creation. In either case, it agrees with landscape settings

144 The Yuan Dynasty

i33- ZhaoMengfu, The Mind Landscape ofXie Youyu, section of a handscroll, ink and color on silk, Yuan dynasty. 27.4 X 116.3 cm-
Art Museum, Princeton University. (Edward L. Elliott Family Collection. Museum purchase: Fowler McCormick, Class of 1921,
fund. Photo credit: Clem Fiori.)

in works ascribed to Gu (such as The Nymph of the Luo bitious work, and more forward-looking: it has been one
River, see fig. 43) in the fine outlines and heavy color of the most controversial and influential of Chinese
washes, principally mineral green, with which the hills paintings.5 It was painted for Zhao’s friend Zhou Mi
are depicted, and in the regular spacing of the landscape (1232—1298), whose ancestral homeland in Shandong
elements, which are arrayed laterally across the middle Province it schematically represents. Zhao Mengfu was
ground, with only a brief opening into distance at the able to visit the place on his northern travels and por¬
end. Xie Youyu is seen between trees, seated on the trayed it from memory shortly after his return to the
sharply tilted bank, located by the painter in what art his¬ south. The painting is far from being a visual report,
torians writing about early modes of composition call a however, having more the character of a picture-map
“space cell.” Like Qian Xuan’s Dwelling in the Floating Jade rendered in an archaistic manner. Among the old paint¬
Mountains handscroll, this is an allusive work, displaying ings Zhao had acquired in the north were works by the
the artist’s understanding of antique style and evoking tenth-century landscapist Dong Yuan (see figs. 88, 89),
corresponding memories and associations in the mind of and it is Dong’s style, whether studied in originals or
the cultivated viewer. With these virtues, the painting can transmitted through copies and imitations, that underlies
afford a certain naivete, a degree of impoverishment in the basic organization of the picture on the pingyuan, or
conventional values of technique and spatial organiza¬ “level-distance,” plan. A strict symmetry prevails: the
tion. The scholar-amateur artist could count on his style¬ two “mountains,” depicted as conical and breadloaf¬

conscious viewers — the only audience he professed to shaped protrusions from the flat plain, stand in far
address — to be unwilling (and frequently unable) to dis¬ middle distance at right and left; further and nearer tree

tinguish real technical deficiencies from deliberate ar- groups in front of them mark stages of recession; and a

chaistic awkwardness. larger tree group occupies the center, upsetting the scale
Zhao Mengfu’s famous Autumn Colors on the Qiao and and spatial continuity of the rest. Houses, reeds, trees,

Hua Mountains (fig. 134), painted in 1296, is a more am¬ and other elements are not made to diminish in size

The Yuan Dynasty 145

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134. Zhao Mengfu, Colors on the Qiao and Hua Mountains, section of a handscroll, ink and color on paper, 1296. 28.4 X 93. 2 cm.
Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taibei.

with distance, and the wavering groundlines fail to mesh may seem to be quite simply and carelessly done, but the
convincingly into a continuous plane. These anomalies, true connoisseur will recognize that they adhere to old
which would be faults in a conventional painting, here models and are thus deserving of approval. I say this for
signify a calculated rejection of the skillful devices of “re¬ connoisseurs and not for ignoramuses.”
cent painting” (a term always used disparagingly in Chi¬ Allusions to old styles, however, account for only part
nese writings) and an evocation of an earlier stage when of the painting’s effects and achievements; in other re¬
landscapists were still engaged with large problems of spects, Autumn Colors on the Qiao and Hua Mountains is
rendering distance and achieving spatial cohesiveness, a strikingly innovative work. The ropy brushstrokes
short of full mastery. In an often-quoted inscription for with which much of it is drawn, and the interweaving of
another painting, Zhao wrote: “The most precious qual¬ these to constitute the forms as tactile entities (replacing
ity in painting is the antique spirit. . . . My own paintings the older outline-and-color or outline-and-texture-stroke

146 The Yuan Dynasty

13 5- Zhao Mengfu, Villa by the Water, section of a handscroll, ink on paper, 1302. 24.9 X 120.5 cm- Palace Museum, Beijing.

methods), offered a model for rendering forms that many and valued by my friend.” But this work, too, was to be
later Yuan landscapists would adopt. And the decisive extremely admired and influential: it bears colophons of
move away from both naturalism and Southern Song ide¬ praise by no fewer than forty-eight writers, and its mode
alization was to prove equally persuasive to many of the of dry-brush drawing without washes or strong tonal
artists who followed. contrasts must underlie the similar effects in works by
A late landscape by Zhao Mengfu, painted in 1302, is such later Yuan masters as Huang Gongwang and Ni
tided Villa by the Water (fig. 135). The word cun in the Chi¬ Zan. Most of all it demonstrated, perhaps more than any
nese tide is sometimes rendered as “village” but can previous work, how a personal style, developed within
mean simply a cluster of houses; here it refers to the the new means of literati painting, could effectively con¬
country villa of the person for whom Zhao painted the vey a state of mind, in this case one of tranquillity and es¬
landscape, one Qian Dejun. The villa is certainly not con¬ cape from worldly attachments.
spicuous in the picture — it is not even clear which of the Besides landscapes, Zhao Mengfu painted many other
several groups of low buildings is to be identified as Qian subjects: religious and secular figures, birds and flowers, a
Dejun’s retreat. Here, even more than in Qian Xuan’s goat and sheep.6 His paintings of bamboo, old trees, and
Dwelling in the Floating Jade Mountains (see fig. 132), a state rocks will be considered below. He was especially re¬
of untroubled reclusion is conveyed in the plain, un¬ nowned in his time and later as a painter of horses; curi¬
impressive scenery—nothing even so dramatic as the ously, this is the side of his painting that has proved most
mountains and trees of Autumn Colors on the Qiao andHua difficult for recent scholars to deal with, partly because so
Mountains is to be seen — and the extreme reserve of the many forgeries exist (along with genuine old horse paint¬
brushwork, which rejects all that is gestural and overtly ings by lesser masters to which Zhao’s name was added
expressive in its sensitive, dry strokes and sparse dotting. to enhance their value), and partly because the practice of
Archaistic references have been absorbed into a fully archaistic awkwardness in paintings of horses, even more
formed personal style. The composition, again of the than in landscape paintings, is hard to distinguish from
pingyuan type, develops quietly from its opening with a real failings of painterly technique. The horses in Zhao’s
grove of leafy and bare trees (a favorite motif of Zhao’s) paintings often appear balloonlike; we are meant to read
through an extended middle section in which the houses, them as playing on the old practice of foreshortening, but
bridges, a boat, and a few tiny figures are set among that is a cultivated response; it contends with the simpler
scrubbyYvillows and other trees on the spits of marshy one of seeing them as the product of sheer awkwardness.

ground. Two rows of low hills close off the recession. Zhao had painted horses from childhood but turned
The modesty of the work did not diminish Qian Dejun’s to them with special enthusiasm during his period in the

regard for it; in a second inscription, Zhao Mengfu re¬ court of Kublai Khan, where he became well known

lates that Qian brought it back to show him a month among other officials for this genre.7 Although in some

later, already mounted in scroll form. Zhao adds, with the part painted for his own pleasure, his horse pictures must

characteristic self-disparagement of the literatus artist, “I also have been done for presentation to other officials;

am very much embarrassed that something that was only portrayals of horses had served for centuries as picto¬

a free play of my brush should now be so much cherished rial metaphors for the character and special concerns of

The Yuan Dynasty 147

 the scholar-official, and, like other subjects noted earlier, world with the great vision [to recognize this].”9 What¬
could carry a variety of auspicious wishes and other mes¬ ever skill the painting reveals, however, is of a special
sages. The early twelfth-century catalogue of Emperor kind, more a matter of taste or sensibility than of tech¬
Huizong’s collection, Xuanhe huapu, has this to say about nique; divorced from its antique references and seen as a
horse paintings: “It has been said that literati gentlemen picture, it seems stiff and insufficiently animated. Figure
were often fond of painting horses, because they served paintings by literati artists often occupy this aesthetically
them as an analogy for all sorts of careers the gentlemen tenuous ground, needing verbal argument to compensate
might have in the world, through being innately a worn- for deficiencies in self-evident values.
out nag or a thoroughbred, slow or quick, retiring or dis¬ Although Kublai Khan called on Zhao Mengfu to
tinguished, fortunate or unlucky in their encounters.”8 paint on at least one occasion (in 1309, when he was or¬
Zhao Mengfu’s Mounted Official (fig. 136), painted in dered to do a picture of auspicious grain), he was never
1296, depicts a red-coated man wearing an official’s hat. properly a court painter; his rank as an official placed him
Zhao has written the tide and date on the painting, and far above that status. Proper court painters were em¬
on the mounting a short inscription: “From my child¬ ployed in the Mongol court, although there was no orga¬
hood days I loved painting horses. Recently I have been nized court academy such as had existed under Emperor
able to see three authentic scrolls by Han Gan. Now I am Huizong and later emperors in the Song.10 Other artists,
beginning to understand some of his ideas.” The paint¬ such as Zhao Mengfu’s follower Ren Renfa, might be in
ing, then, is among other things a demonstration of ambiguous situations, holding official rank but neverthe¬
Zhao’s new, deeper grasp of the style of this great Tang less sometimes being required to do paintings for the
period master (see fig. 77), and a part of Zhao’s project of court. Among the true court painters active early in the
recovering the past of painting and using it as a basis for dynasty was He Cheng (1224-after 1315), an artist from
exploring new styles. Zhao expresses his own conviction the Beijing region who specialized in historical scenes,
of success in this enterprise in another inscription written architectural subjects, and horses. His major surviving
on the picture in 1299: “It is not only difficult to paint, it work (fig. 137) is a long handscroll in the Jilin Provincial
is even more difficult to understand painting. I like paint¬ Museum illustrating the “Homecoming” (“Guiqulai”)
ing horses, because I have talent and can depict them ode of Tao Yuanming, or Tao Qian (365-427). Because
with the greatest skill. In this painting I do feel that I can this poem celebrates the practice (for which Tao Yuan¬
match the Tang masters. There must be people in the ming was the classical exemplar) of leaving a government

148 The Yuan Dynasty

137- He Cheng, Tao Yuanmings Homecoming Ode, section of a handscroll, ink on paper, Yuan dynasty. 41 X 723.8 cm. Jilin Provincial
Museum, Changchun.

post to live in the country, a copy of the text by some welcome him home. Their varied postures contrast with
distinguished calligrapher, accompanied by a painting il¬ the dignified stance of the poet, the largest and most up¬
lustrating it and laudatory colophons by others, was a right figure, who thus dominates the scene. This weight¬
suitable gift for some high official on his retirement. The ing of roles, and the individualization of figures within
project would be organized, typically, by a fellow official, the group, is the heritage of Song academic historical
who would engage the calligrapher and painter and in¬ and genre paintings, linking He Cheng with the recent
vite others to contribute inscriptions.11 In the case of the past and separating him from the new tendencies seen
Jilin scroll, the “Homecoming” ode and three accom¬ in works by Zhao Mengfu, his associates, and their
panying inscriptions were written in 1309; He Cheng’s followers.
painting was added several years later. Zhao Mengfu Painting in the Mongol court flourished especially
added a colophon in 1 315 recording this coming together under Emperor Renzong (r. 1312-1320), whose sister,

of the work. Princess Sengge, was an avid collector, and Emperor

The painting, over seven meters long and executed Wenzong (r. 1328-1332), who established a prestigious
in ink on paper, is in an eclectic manner, employing literary academy called the Kuizhangge, or Pavilion of
the baimiao line drawing associated with Li Gonglin the Star of Literature, where paintings were appreci¬
for the figures and elements of the Guo Xi and Li Tang ated and inscribed. Active in the period spanning these
styles for the landscape. The rendering of this setting in reigns was the official and court artist Wang Zhenpeng
bold, broad, sometimes rough brushstrokes made one (fl. ca. 1280—1329), who came from Zhejiang Province
seventeenth-century critic wonder why the painting had and specialized in the fine-line, highly detailed architec¬
been so highly praised, despite what he viewed as its tural drawing called jiehua. Best known among his works
sloppy execution. We might see the same roughness as a of this kind are handscrolls representing the Dragon Boat
strength, a relief from the overneatness, even prissiness, Regatta on Jinming Lake, an annual spectacle that Em¬
of most works by Li Gonglin followers in the late Song peror Huizong had sponsored on a lake near his palace.

and Yuan. He Cheng, unconstrained by literati reserve or Wang presented a painting of this subject to Renzong in

refinements of archaistic taste, responds to Tao Yuan- 1310 and did another in 1323 for Princess Sengge at her

ming’s vivid poem with richly narrative, if somewhat request. The appeal of these scrolls to the emperor and

prolix and prosy, pictures. Near the beginning of the his sister must have lain partly in their subject, which

scroll, the poet is seen standing in a boat approaching the offered lively entertainment in addition to evoking the

shore, where his family and a crowd of servants wait to imperial splendor of a past dynasty, and partly in the tour-

Tbe Yuan Dynasty 149

 138. Wang Zhenpeng (?), Dragon Boat
Festival, section of a handscroll, ink
on silk, Yuan dynasty. 25 X 114.6 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.

de-force technique, which could be admired as sheer Figure Painting in the Yuan
craftsmanship. The sinicization of the Mongol rulers, al¬
though by this time advanced, probably still fell short of Ren Renfa (1255-1328), like Zhao Mengfu, followed a
permitting them to share fully the high literati taste and career of official service under the Mongols and as a
inverted aesthetic that valued awkwardness over skill, painter specialized in portrayals of horses. His daughter
plainness over decorative beauty. That aesthetic was as¬ married a central Asian official, a member of the Kangli
sociated, in any case, with the scholar-official class, not family that had accompanied the Mongols to China to
with the aristocracy. help staff the administration; Ren himself, a specialist in
“Dragon Boat Regatta” scrolls ascribed to Wang hydraulic engineering, rose to the post of assistant con¬
Zhenpeng or bearing his signature exist in several collec¬ troller for irrigation. One of his most famous paintings,
tions; the best may be in the Metropolitan Museum of a handscroll entided Fat and Fean FLorses, offers a piece
Art, New York.12 An unsigned Yuan-period handscroll of pictorial rhetoric in defense of his choice: the fat
painting of the same subject (fig. 138), a work devoid of horse, as he relates in his inscription, represents the pros¬
old seals or colophons, closely resembles the style of perous official who uses his position to enrich himself,
Wang Zhenpeng and may well be his work, but it is looser while the lean horse, with which Ren clearly identifies, is
and more lively in its drawing than any of the others. One the self-sacrificing official who expends his own sub¬
theory is that it is a huagao, or preparatory sketch, by stance for the welfare of the people and grows thin in
Wang, which later would have been redone in a tighter service.13 These and others of Ren’s horse paintings differ
and more polished version. Although this may be true, markedly from Zhao Mengfu’s in using a conservative
we should also note some points in which it is represen- style firmly based in Song painting, devoid of archaistic
tationally more convincing than the others, in ways that references or cultivated gaucheries. The same highly fin¬
frequently distinguish originals from copies: the architec¬ ished style, drawing in fine outlines with shaded washes
ture reads more volumetrically, not (as in the others) of color, is seen at its best in Ren’s only preserved figure
simply as flat pattern; verandahs and palace rooms are vi¬ painting (apart from grooms in the scrolls of horses),
sually penetrable, with figures and furniture seen inside; Zhang Guo Having an Audience with Emperor Minghuang (fig.
the figures are characterized slightly by posture; and the 139). Zhang Guo was a Daoist magician who could ride
recession and diminution of forms along the water plane vast distances on a magical mule; when he stopped to
are handled with greater skill. These are, of course, rela¬ rest, he would fold it up like paper and put it in his hat-
tive matters, and the work cannot compare in these re¬ box. He could bring it back to life when needed by spray¬
spects with, for instance, the great Peace Reigns over the River, ing it with water from his mouth. In Ren Renfa’s painting,
also known as Spring Festival on the River (see fig. 98). But he is seen demonstrating his magic powers before the
for all its tour-de-force character, the painting preserves Tang emperor Minghuang. As the old magician looks on
enough directness and vitality in its depiction of the festi¬ with a crafty smile, a boy releases the miniature mule,
val to permit the viewer to enjoy such details as the acro¬ which flies toward the emperor; Minghuang leans for¬
batics being performed on some of the boats, with figures ward, credulous but reserved, while a courtier standing
swinging high in the air or flying off into the water. nearby clasps his hand and opens his mouth in wonder¬
ment. The richly colored figures are animated and full-
bodied, representing a taste and tradition very different

15 o The Yuan Dynasty

139. Ren Renfa, Zhang Guo Having an Audience with Emperor Minghuang, section of a handscroll, ink and color on silk, Yuan dynasty.
41.5 X 107.3 cm- Palace Museum, Beijing.

from Qian Xuan’s fastidious paleness or Zhao Mengfu’s

antiquarian stiffness.
Still another mode of figure painting is represented by
the works of Zhang Wu (fl. ca. 1340—1365), a follower of
Li Gonglin best known for his several sets of illustrations
to the “Nine Songs,” shamanistic odes from the Chu
state in the fourth century b.c. that are sometimes as¬
cribed to the poet Qu Yuan. The classical model for these
was the set painted by Li Gonglin himself in the baimiao
manner, and Zhang Wu’s pictures, of which three scrolls
survive, are based loosely on Li Gonglin’s.14 The earliest
140. Zhang Wu, Lady of the Xiang River, section of a handscroll,
of Zhang’s extant scrolls, painted in 1346, is in the Jilin ink on paper, 1346. 29 X 523.5 cm. Jilin Provincial Museum,
Museum; Lady of the Xiang River (fig. 140) is one of the Changchun.

figures. Like the Nymph of the Luo River in the painting

ascribed to Gu Kaizhi (see fig. 43), the Lady of the Xiang Zhang Wu came from Hangzhou and had a brief ca¬
is presented by the poet as an object of desire who “turns reer in the bureaucracy but quit out of disappointment,
on me her eyes that are dark with longing,” and with perhaps the victim of discrimination against Chinese
whom he has made a tryst for an erotic encounter that from the south. He was a friend of the literatus and cal¬
evening.15 But, again like the Nymph of the Luo, she ap¬ ligrapher Yang Weizhen (1296—1370), and also of the rich
pears in paintings as a sylphlike figure with no taint of patron Gu Dehui (1310—1369); in 1348 he painted for
corporeality, flitting over the waves with long scarves the latter a Picture of the Elegant Gathering atJade Mountain.16
swirling around her. Zhang Wu’s painting further re¬ We can assume that, like other Yuan literati we will en¬

moves the figure from any realm of sensuality, as Li counter, he made his living largely through turning his

Gonglin’s original must have done, with a cool, pure lin¬ painting somehow to profit and enjoying the hospitality

ear drawing that might be termed neoclassical. and favor of patrons such as Gu Dehui.

The Yuan Dynasty 151

 The popularity of paintings of Daoist immortals,
shamanistic deities, and similar subjects in the Yuan, both
among the literati and in the court, is part of a larger phe¬
nomenon, an upsurge in religious belief and practice that
spread through all levels of society, taking more intellec¬
tual forms among the elite and simpler ones among the
masses. Popular sects of Daoism flourished, especially
in the north; the Mongols and other foreigners prac¬
ticed esoteric Buddhism or the lamaist religion of Tibet;
Chan Buddhism continued strong; and syncretic sects
appeared, combining elements of these with Confucian
moralism. Some of the artists we will consider below
were deeply involved with the Daoist and syncretic sects.
Involvement with religion could also be motivated by
practical considerations, as families donated their prop¬
erty to temples in an effort to escape heavy taxation and
survive in perilous times.
The unassertive modes of painting favored by the
literati, such as Zhang Wu’s thin baimiao drawing, with
its distant allusions to antiquity, were for obvious reasons
unsuitable for religious images to be hung in temples and
viewed by crowds of commoners; these had to be bolder
in visual effect and stronger in emotional impact. A mas¬
ter of this kind of painting was Yan Hui, who came from
Zhejiang Province and must have received a professional
studio training in that stronghold of Song traditions. A
record of his having done wall paintings for a palace build¬
ing in the period 1297—1307 suggests some involvement
with the court. A book written in 1298, Huaji buyi, speaks
of him as having been already active as a painter in the
late Song, and as an artist respected by scholar-officials.
Chinese critics of later times, by contrast, held him in low
regard, and some of his best surviving works have been
preserved in Japan, notably a pair of large hanging scrolls
portraying Daoist immortals kept in a Kyoto temple.17
Among the few known Yan Hui works still in China is a
darkly imposing picture of Li Tieguai (fig. 141). This
141. Yan Hui, Li Tieguai, hanging scroll, ink on silk. Yuan dynasty.
Daoist transcendent — who, like Zhang Guo, later came
146.5 X 72.5 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.
to be included among the Eight Immortals of popular
Daoism — is always depicted as a lame beggar with a
crutch. He was able to send forth his animus, or soul, to his iron crutch, his demeanor more that of a burly tough
roam the heavens, leaving his physical self behind; during than of a beggar. Heavy shading on both the clothing and
one such excursion his disciples burned the body, think¬ the fleshy parts heightens the effect of massiveness and
ing him dead, and on his return he was forced to occupy power. The strengths of Yan Hui’s art, as eminendy ex¬
the corpse of a recently deceased beggar. emplified here, were exactly the qualities that made the
In Yan Hui’s picture Li Tieguai sits on a rock beneath literati writers belittle him; their critical dogma prevented
an overhanging cliff by a waterfall — the iconography is them from admiring strong emotional expression and
shared with, and probably borrowed from, the many rep¬ bold effects of all kinds. But Yan Hui’s figure style was to
resentations of the White-Robed Guanyin in this set¬ be taken up by Ming dynasty (1368-1644) Zhe School
ting— looking balefully outward, his leg hooked around masters such as Wu Wei.

15 2 The Yuan Dynasty

142. Anonymous, The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, detail from a wall painting in the Chunyang Hall, Yongle Gong, Shanxi Province,

mid-14th century.

None of the paintings done on the walls of temples by immortal Lu Dongbin was supposed to have lived, and a

masters as famous as Yan Hui survive, but Yuan-period temple dedicated to him had been there for centuries. It

wall paintings by lesser artists, some identified by name burned in 1262 and was rebuilt; the wall paintings date

in inscriptions, exist in some number, either in situ or re¬ from the first half of the fourteenth century. The Chun¬

moved to museums. They continue the great tradition of yang Hall, on the walls of which the legends about Lii

religious mural painting from the Northern Song period, Dongbin are represented, bears a date corresponding to

as it had continued under the Jin dynasty in the north. 1358 and the names of eight disciples of a mural painter

The best-preserved and finest group is in the Yongle of the early Yuan, Zhu Haogu. Zhu’s name is mentioned

Gong, a Daoist temple located near Yonglezhen in in local records and appears in signatures on wall paint¬

Shanxi Province. This was where the legendary Daoist ings, but it is never included in books on artists; no

The Yuan Dynasty 15 3

 specialists in religious wall painting are given individual expressionless — but, as usual in Chinese portraits, by
treatment in writings on artists after the Northern Song.18 stance, attributes, and setting, all of which function as
Among the paintings in the Chunyang Hall is The Eight signs to be read by the knowing viewer. The two painters,
Immortals Crossing the Sea; we reproduce the left half of the that is, attribute certain qualities to Yang by the guise in
composition, including the three best-known of the eight which they portray him and the objects with which they
(fig. 142). The white-robed figure, second from left, with surround him — rocks and pine trees, which stand for in¬
scholar’s hat is Lii Dongbin; to his left is his teacher, tegrity. The sparseness of the setting and the thinness of
Zhongli Quan; to their right is Li Tieguai, seen here Ni Zan’s rendering similarly invest the subject with corre¬
blowing out his animus in a cloud of breath, his tattered sponding qualities, pure-mindedness and reserve.
robe heavily shaded, as in Yan Hui’s picture. The fourth Wang Yi, another painter who came from Zhejiang
immortal is Cao Guojiu, shown as a court official and and presumably inherited some tradition of portraiture
identified by wooden clappers. The figures are bulky, from the Song, is the author of an essay on this genre of
strongly differentiated in posture and aspect, animated by painting — the earliest such essay known in China —
swinging sleeves and gesturing hands. Like Yan Hui’s that has been preserved and translated.22 Like later
painting, Eight Immortals represents a public art that was discussions, it concentrates on the art of transmitting
obliged to communicate its message forcefully and could character through facial depiction, besides giving infor¬
not indulge in the stylistic nuances of Zhao Mengfu or mation and advice on pigments and other matters of ma¬
Zhang Wu. terials and technique, while saying nothing about what
A major area of Yuan figure painting still little studied were in fact the portraitist’s principal means of investing
is portraiture. Until a relatively late period, the seven¬ his sitter with particular attributes. Such a gap between
teenth century and after, it was considered a functional the writer’s concerns and those of the painter is common
art by Chinese connoisseurs and placed outside the cate¬ in Chinese painting and its literature, even when the
gories of painting “worthy of refined appreciation,” as painter and writer were the same person.
they put it. Accordingly, portraiture has suffered critical
neglect and stood poor chances of survival. A few Yuan-
period priest portraits have been transmitted in Japan,
notably portraits of the great priest-calligrapher Zhong-
Landscapists of the Early
feng Mingben (1263 — 1325), who was a respected friend and Middle Yuan
of Zhao Mengfu and other scholar-officials.19 From the
time of Kublai Khan on, portraits of the Yuan emper¬ After we have given due weight to Yuan figure and horse
ors and their relatives were made by court artists; two painting, portraiture, religious images, and the large cate¬
early sets of these in album form exist, in the Palace Mu¬ gory (to be considered below) of birds and flowers, bam¬
seum, Beijing, and the National Palace Museum, Taibei.20 boo, and blossoming plum, it remains beyond question
For portraiture outside the court and the clergy we have that the major achievement of Yuan painters was in land¬
less evidence, but a single work by the leading portraitist scape. It was landscape painting that occupied the great¬
of the late Yuan, Wang Yi, provides a clue to its nature, est masters, occasioned the most fruitful critical and
together with an anonymous portrait of the landscapist theoretical writing, and passed on most of value to artists
Ni Zan, to whose paintings we will turn later.21 Wang Yi’s of later centuries. The shaping of landscape painting into
portrait was in fact done in collaboration with Ni Zan, a medium for the expression of an artist’s individual na¬
whose inscription on it is dated 1363 (fig. 143). It repre¬ ture and feelings, a development that begins in Zhao
sents the scholar-poet Yang Qian, or Yang Zhuxi (his stu¬ Mengfu’s works and culminates in those of Huang Gong-
dio name, “Bamboo-west”), strolling alone with a staff, wang, Ni Zan, and Wang Meng, was a major triumph for
wearing a cap and robe. Wang Yi painted the portrait the whole literati school, serving to place it at the fore¬
figure, and Ni Zan the rocks and pine. Chinese descrip¬ front of painting for later collectors and critics.
tions of the painting praise the portraitist’s capturing The momentum imparted by Zhao Mengfu, both in
of Yang Zhuxi’s “uprightness and respectfulness.” Al¬ reviving old styles and in opening new forms and types in
though this is true, we should note also that the char¬ landscape pictures, continued through the dynasty. The
acterization is not accomplished (as Chinese theorists archaistic blue-and-green landscape style practiced by
insist) by some penetrating portrayal of the face that re¬ him and by Qian Xuan had little following, at least until
veals the subject’s inner nature — the face is bland and the middle Ming; but his revitalization of the Dong Yuan

15 4 The Yuan Dynasty

143- Wang Yi and Ni Zan, Portrait of Yang Zhuxi [YangQian], handscroll, ink on paper, 1363. 27.7 X 86.8 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.

tradition, and also the northern landscape tradition of Li sacked. The surviving parts bear no signature or seal of
Cheng and Guo Xi (see figs. 125, 126), which Zhao took the artist, but only an inscription by a high official, Deng
up in his late years, set the main directions that later Yuan Wenyuan (1258-1328). Abrasion has obscured some
landscapists followed.23 They all worked within stylistic brushwork and removed some color, although enough of
ranges that were narrower than Zhao’s, and none at¬ the warm washes and mineral green remains to suggest
tempted to draw on such a diversity of traditions and its original appearance. The conical peaks, the rustic
sources. houses half-hidden among trees, and the rendering of fog
A lesser current that had some popularity in the Yuan with curling contours relate the painting closely to MI
was the so-called Mi family manner of landscape prac¬ Youren’s 1130 handscroll in the Cleveland Museum of
ticed by followers of Mi Fu (1051—1107) and his son Mi Art25 and to other Song-period works associated with the
Youren (1075—1151). It was from its inception associated two Mis. The derivation is so close that one would be
with government circles (where the Mis themselves had hard put to define what is distinctively Yuan in the style
been active), since its subject matter — hills in fog or hills of Gao Kegong’s painting; perhaps it is the drier, softer
before rain — carried an auspicious message — a pros¬ brushwork and the more insistent repetitiveness in the
perous terrain, well nourished and by extension well ad¬ shapes of the hills.
ministered— that could make such pictures suitable As Zhao Mengfu’s new mode of landscape spread
for presentation to scholar-officials. In the early Yuan, among his followers and gained popularity, it was
the leading exponent of the Mi-style landscape was Gao adopted also by some artists who were not aspirants to
Kegong (1248-1310), an older contemporary of Zhao scholar-official status but acknowledged professional
Mengfu who, like Zhao, held high rank in the Mongol painters. One of these who had the honor of studying di¬
administration, serving as governor of two provinces. His rectly with Zhao, a minor master named Chen Lin, was in
family had come from east Turkestan, present-day Xin¬ turn the teacher of a much better painter, Sheng Mao.
jiang Uygur Autonomous Region, but Gao Kegong him¬ Sheng’s birth and death dates are unknown, but he was
self received a classical Chinese education. In some of his active around 1320-1360. He had learned painting first
works, such as the often-published Clouds Encircling Lux¬ from his father, a Hangzhou artist who presumably fol¬
uriant Peaks of 1309,24 he combines several old traditions, lowed the local, Song-derived tradition; Chen Lin must
those of Dong Yuan and Zhao Lingrang along with that have helped him break free from this unfashionable and
of Mi Fu. Another, recendy rediscovered major work perhaps stultifying background. Sheng Mao was a pro¬
by Gao Kegong, Evening Clouds on Autumn Mountains lific, versatile master whose works range in style from

(fig. 144), preserves the Mi style, particularly that of Mi simple, spontaneous-looking pictures not unlike the

Youren, in purer form. A famous recorded work, it sur¬ “ink-plays” of the literati to large, elaborate compositions

vives now only in fragments; it was one of the paintings that demonstrate his formidable technical proficiency.

taken by the last emperor, Puyi, to his palace in Shenyang, We can assume that this diversity of styles corresponds to\^

and was torn into several pieces when the palace was a diversity of tastes and situations among his patrons; he^.

The Yuan Dynasty 15 5

 144- Gao Kegong, Evening Clouds on Autumn Mountains, fragmentary handscroll, ink and light color on paper, 1300. 49.5 X 84 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.

was the kind of artist who could accommodate a great per right. What the implications of this familiar scene
range of demands. Such versatility was not seen positively might have been, and why it was done for Xibo, are ques¬
by literati writers, for whom professionalism was a stigma tions still to be answered as we belatedly explore the the-
rather than a strength, and Sheng Mao receives little praise matics and contexts of creation for Chinese painting.
from them. They write poetic inscriptions on his works, Sheng Mao’s rendition, while preserving elements of the
but more to honor the recipient than to praise the artist. Zhao Mengfu model, is more spacious, more naturalistic,
An example is his Waiting for the Ferry on an Autumn more Song-like than similar works by literati artists. His
River, painted in 1351 (fig. 145). Five writers, contempo¬ characteristic brushwork, with sharp-ended, fluctuating
raries of the artist, have inscribed quatrains at the top in strokes interwoven for a restiess effect, is seen on the
different calligraphic manners; Sheng Mao’s inscription foreground earth surfaces.
at far left is in a square, undistinguished script and sup¬ A large, impressive work painted in colors on silk, with
plies the date, title, and a dedication to one Xibo, in addi¬ a spurious signature and seals of Zhao Mengfu but at¬
tion to his signature. Whether Sheng Mao was himself tributable by style to Sheng Mao or a close follower, is
capable of poetry and calligraphy we have no way of Villa in the Mountains (fig. 146). Sheng’s style was pop¬
knowing; that he does not demonstrate proficiency in ei¬ ular in court circles during the Yuan-Ming transition;
ther art in any surviving work may be only because the a nephew of his named Sheng Zhu served under the
practice of these by professional painters was not encour¬ Hongwu emperor. One can imagine a painting of this
aged by their patrons. We can assume from similar cases kind being done for presentation to some great minister,
that the picture was commissioned from Sheng by some¬ flattering him by portraying in idealized form his moun¬
one for presentation to Xibo, and the five others were in¬ tain villa, the elegant hospitality it could offer to his
vited to inscribe it. The scene is conventional: in the guests, and the social position and power that all this in¬
lower left a traveler, identified as a cultured man by the dicated. The composition incorporates an implicit narra¬
qin, or scholar’s zither, carried by his servant, has reached tive, laid out, as it might be in a handscroll, in a series of
the place where his road ends at the riverside and sits be¬ linked spaces for the viewer to read as a temporal se¬
neath trees waiting for the ferry, which is seen in the up¬ quence. The event is a visit to the villa by the trio of high

156 The Yuan Dynasty

 officials seen at the bottom — the one in front may be
the emperor himself (fig. 147). The narrative begins in
the lower left corner with a bridge that the three guests
have just crossed, and on which their horses and grooms
still wait. Then it moves to the open space outside the
gate at the lower right, where they stand with their atten¬
dants. Passing through into the courtyard, they will be
greeted by beautiful female musicians and dancers who
will entertain them at a banquet inside the house. Later
they will make their way up the path to a pavilion located
on a ledge commanding an expansive view over the
owner’s estate and the surrounding terrain. Servants are
seen ascending the path carrying a qin and other appurte¬
nances of a scholarly gathering; inside the pavilion an¬
tique bronzes and ceramics are arranged on a table for
their appreciation. This narrative line, which curves from
lower left to upper right, is balanced by a beautifully real¬
ized recession up the left side along the river valley into
the fog-filled ravine, above which are a waterfall and dis¬
tant peaks. Comparison with signed works of Sheng
Mao, such as the well-known Pleasant Summer in a Moun¬
tain Retreat,26 suggests that the painting may well be his;
but determining its authorship is of smaller concern than
recognizing its quality. Such a work stands apart from
the style-oriented paintings of the literati artists and
those who imitated them, including sometimes Sheng
Mao himself; it recalls the scope and grandeur of North¬
ern Song landscapes, in which idealized narratives were
similarly embedded in spatially complex but clearly read¬
able landscape structures.
The negative appraisal of Sheng Mao by later crit¬
ics underlies a well-known anecdote, which is probably
apocryphal since it appears in writing only in the late
Ming. It is designed to praise Sheng’s contemporary and
fellow townsman Wu Zhen for the purity and depth of
his paintings by contrasting them with the alleged mer¬
etriciousness of Sheng’s. In the story, the two artists live
close to each other (as in fact they did) near Jiaxing, a
town east of Wuxing. Wu’s wife and children, observing
crowds of people going past their gate toward Sheng’s
house carrying gifts of money and silk to commission
paintings, deride Wu for not attracting the same kind
of clientele; Wu replies that in twenty years it will be
145-Sheng Mao, Waiting for the Ferry on an Autumn River, otherwise. And so it proved, the anecdote concludes;
hanging scroll, ink on paper, 1351. n2.5 X 46.3 cm. Palace Sheng’s paintings, although skillful, came to be recog¬
Museum, Beijing. nized as inferior to the “richness and depth” of Wu’s.
Wu Zhen was eventually numbered among the Four
Great Masters of Yuan painting (replacing, rather un¬
fairly, Zhao Mengfu, who had been included in an earlier
grouping).

The Yuan Dynasty 15 7

i47- Detail of figure 146.

Wu Zhen (1280-1354), unlike other Yuan “recluses” Wu Zhen painted both landscapes and bamboo; his
who were really quite gregarious, was a true hermit, well landscapes are typically river scenes with fishermen, a
educated but never attempting official service, never genre well suited to the temper of the time, expressing
traveling far outside his hometown except for trips to as it did a longing for security and escape from the
Hangzhou, making a meager living by practicing divina¬ unpleasant realities of human society. Their distinctive
tion in the marketplace and selling his paintings. He is character can be stated most easily in terms of what is ex¬
said to have been unsociable, a trait confirmed by the fact cluded from them: dramatic effects, expressive figures,

that his works are virtually never inscribed by others. He striking scenery, agitation of the kind created by Sheng

was little noticed by other artists in his time and only be¬ Mao’s more dynamic forms and brushwork. Like Zhao

gins to loom large among Yuan painters when Shen Mengfu’s Villa by the Water, Wu Zhen’s landscapes convey

Zhou and others in the Ming dynasty learn from him and a mood of tranquillity, a quality for which Chinese writers

appreciate him. use the term pingdan, literally, “blandness,” close to what
we call reserve. An ideal example is his Fisherman, painted
in 1342 (fig. 148). The poem inscribed by the artist at the
top is about fishing, but the painting is not; the man seen
146. Sheng Mao or follower (spurious signature of Zhao
in a boat near the foreground bank gazes abstractedly at
Mengfu), Villa in the Mountains, hanging scroll, ink and color
on silk. 209 X 116 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing. the moonlit expanse of water and low hills, while the

The Yuan Dynasty 15 9

 call this “round” brushwork, distinguishing it from the
“pointed” kind used by Sheng Mao, for example, in
which varying pressure is applied to a brush held mostly
in a slanting position, for an effect more nervous and
energizing.
Wu Zhen’s famous handscroll Fishermen, based on a
painting ascribed to the tenth-century landscapist Jing
Hao which Wu himself owned, exists in two versions.
One, now in the Freer Gallery of Art, was painted around
1340;27 the other version, in the Shanghai Museum
(fig. 149), is undated by the artist but accompanied by a
colophon written in 1345 by Wu Zhen’s fellow towns¬
man Wu Guan, for whom the painting was probably
done, since his seals are impressed on it. Wu Guan was
a rich collector and amateur painter who admired Wu
Zhen’s work, as his colophon makes clear; we can imag¬
ine him seeing Wu’s earlier version and requesting one
for himself, as Princess Sengge had requested another
Dragon Boat Festival scroll from Wang Zhenpeng. The two
Fishermen scrolls are not identical in composition, and the
earlier one shows traces of improvisation and correction
that are smoothed over in the second version. Both pre¬
sent a succession of fishermen in boats, each accompa¬
nied by a four-line poem in “fishermen’s song” meter.
Fishing, in Yuan paintings and poetry, became a meta¬
phor for the reclusive life and escape from worldly en¬
tanglements. The figures are in fact scholar-anglers and
reveal in their postures and demeanor that they are not
on the river primarily to catch fish: they sleep, gaze at the
scenery, hail each other, row their boats. Only one, seen
in a section near the end (fig. 149 top), is actually making
a catch; the viewer is prepared for this climactic event by
encountering three twisting trees, uncharacteristically an¬
imated, on the bank just before this boat appears, the
148. Wu Zhen, Fisherman, hanging scroll, ink on silk, 1342.
176.1 X 95.6 cm. National Palace Museum, Taibei. branches of the leftmost one arched and reaching out like
the fisherman’s arm holding the pole. A bit further on, at
boatman rests his oar. The composition of the painting is the end, the buildings of a riverside villa are drawn in
based on stabilizing horizontals, countered only by the Wu’s engaging parallel-line manner, which reduces them
vertical trees; the ground forms swell moderately into to flat pattern, enhanced by whimsical tiltings of roofs
low mounds, with only the triangular hill in the upper and warped perspective.
right, one of Wu’s favorite forms, rising to greater emi¬ The dominant tradition of landscape painting in north
nence and echoing the treetops in its shape. Houses in China had for centuries been the so-called Li-Guo
the upper right similarly echo a rest shelter in the lower School, inaugurated by Li Cheng in the tenth century and
left. These relationships of forms, stretched diagonally developed by Guo Xi and others in the eleventh. Zhao
across the picture surface, project a sense of separation Mengfu and other Yuan landscapists who practiced this
and loneliness; this is another aspect of the appeal of this mode were not so much revivers of it as revitalizers, since
river-landscape type to Yuan people. Wu Zhen’s brush- it had been carried on by conservative lesser masters
work is limited to a few types of strokes, all characteristi¬ under the Jin. Artists of this school portrayed the expan¬
cally broad and blunt, done with the brushtip centered sive, sparsely vegetated river valleys of the north, with
within the stroke and pressure applied evenly; Chinese hills eroded into strange shapes and clumps of bare or

160 The Yuan Dynasty

149- Wu Zhen, Fishermen, section of a handscroll, ink on paper, ca. 1345. 35.2 X 332 cm. Shanghai Museum.

coniferous trees. Paintings from the early phases of the entire class of scholars living out the winter of Mongol
school conveyed a bleak grandeur and a sense of rigor occupation.”28 Luo Zhichuan, about whom very little is
in the struggle of living things for survival under harsh known, was evidently himself a scholar living in retire¬

conditions. ment. That he was born in Jiangsu Province, not in the

Luo Zhichuan, an artist active in the early Yuan who is north, suggests that he may have belonged to some circle
virtually forgotten in China but represented by several in which the Li-Guo-manner paintings newly brought
works in Japanese and American collections, practiced from the north by Zhao Mengfu and others in the late
the Li-Guo manner in relatively pure form, keeping its thirteenth century could be viewed and appreciated. But
moodiness and depths of dark expression. His finest sur¬ there is no indication that he knew Zhao, nor do his
viving work, Jackdaws in Old Trees (fig. 150), in fact bears paintings reveal any contact with the transformations of
an old attribution to Li Cheng, along with two of Luo’s the Li-Guo tradition that Zhao and his followers were
seals identifying him as the true artist. It is a wintry river carrying out.
scene, with near and far points in the smooth passage That transformation is well exemplified by the works
into depth marked by groups of twisted trees, and low, of Tang Di (1296-1364), who was from Wuxing and
snow-covered hills in the distance. The jackdaws are re¬ spent some time in Zhao Mengfu’s household, where he

turning to roost at evening, a motif that ordinarily evokes learned poetry and painting from the master. He entered

nostalgia for homecoming but here may have deeper the Yuan administration and held official posts both in

meaning. Richard Barnhart, writing about this painting, the capital and as prefect of Xiuning in Anhui Province,

quotes an inscription by Zhao Mengfu on a similar work besides serving as a court painter and receiving the favor

that includes the lines: “The flock of circling birds has of Emperor Renzong for his participation in the decora¬

the appearance of hunger and cold, and they seem to be tion of the Yuan palaces. His extant paintings are mostly

weeping sadly.” Barnhart comments: “Under the circum¬ hanging scrolls painted on silk and typically set a group of

stances, it requires no great effort of the imagination to tall foreground trees against a broad expanse of river and

believe that this subject held symbolic meaning for the shore, marked by tree clusters of diminishing size and

The Yuan Dynasty 161

 the rustic thatched houses seen behind them and across
the river. Pictures of such subjects, painted for men in or
out of official service, embodied the idea of escaping
from the trammels of government to commune with
fishermen and farmers, who are sometimes also seen in
Tang Di’s pictures. Both the artist and his audience, that
is, observe nature from an outsider’s position, overlaying
it with human values instead of, like Luo Zhichuan and
his Song predecessors, according it a fully inherent, un¬
contingent value.
Another of Zhao Mengfu’s proteges who painted
landscapes in the Li-Guo manner was Zhu Derun (1294—
1365). Like the others, he came from the south and
served in the north. For a time, on Zhao’s recommenda¬
tion, he held a post as historian in the Hanlin Academy,
and later he served as a professor of Confucian studies in
Manchuria. After retiring to Suzhou for nearly thirty
years, he reemerged in 1352, during the turmoil of the
late Yuan, as a military adviser to a provincial governor.
His paintings, like Tang Di’s, present a relatively narrow

151. Tang Di, Drinking Party in the Shade of Pines, hanging scroll,
ink and color on silk, 1334. 141.1 X 97.1 cm. Shanghai Museum.

150. Luo Zhichuan, Jackdaws in Old Trees, hanging scroll, ink

and color on silk, Yuan dynasty. 131.5 X 80 cm. Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York. (Purchase, Gift of J. Pierpont
Morgan, by exchange, 1973 [1973.121.6].)

ending in low hills. This much he has in common with

Luo Zhichuan, but in other respects the two artists di¬
verge: where in Luo’s paintings the emotional tone of the
imagery is the basis of expressiveness, in Tang’s it is vig¬
orous brushwork and expressive distortions that create
the effects. Luo’s naturalism is not to Tang’s taste. The
trees in his paintings, with their crab-claw branches and
spidery patterns of twigs, along with the scalloped con¬
tours of earth masses, give a rococolike decorative quality
to his style. The greater sense of animation in Tang Di’s
pictures is typically accentuated by figures engaged in
some seminarrative activity. In Drinking Party in the Shade
of Pines, painted in 1334 (fig. 151), four gentlemen sit on
the ground, with their servants standing nearby; that they
are probably scholars living in retirement is indicated by

162 The Yuan Dynasty

15 2. Zhu Derun, Hunlun tu [Primordial Chaos], handscroll, ink on paper, 1349. 29.7 X 86.2 cm. Shanghai Museum.

range of motifs, which are repeated from one to another. in the Palace Museum, Beijing, where the simple addition
A painting that both confirms and belies this observation of a boat with figures and loose strokes representing dis¬
is the short handscroll that Zhu Derun painted in 1349 tant hills makes them into elements of a spacious river
entitled Hunlun tu, or Primordial Chaos (fig. 152). Hunlun scene.29 To generalize from this work and a few others
refers to the great undifferentiated matter out of which that Yuan painting as a whole assumed the character
the cosmos was formed, and the philosophical intent of of calligraphy would be a mistake, as the other illustra¬
the work is stated in Zhu’s inscription, which takes the tions in this chapter make obvious; but it is true that
form of a brief essay on this Daoist cosmological con¬ a “calligraphic” rendering of forms, “written” rather than
cept. Hunlun, he writes, is not square but round, not “painted,” had become an option for artists, who could
round but square. Before the appearance of heaven and use it for works that are often, like Zhu Derun’s, more in¬
earth there were no forms, and yet forms existed; after tellectual and philosophical than pictorial.
the appearance of heaven and earth forms existed, but By the late Yuan, the Li-Guo manner was being prac¬
their constant expansion and contraction, or unfurling ticed less as a distinct style than as a component of more
and furling, makes them beyond measuring. or less eclectic blends of elements from various old land¬
The work, in keeping with this theme, is part picture, scape traditions. The great landscapist Huang Gongwang
part cosmic diagram. The objects in it represent, among states at the beginning of his essay on landscape painting
other things, states of transformation, or rates of growth that “the brushwork, the trees and rocks, of these two
and decay: very slow in the earth and rock, somewhat [schools — those of Dong Yuan and Li Cheng] are not
faster in the pine, faster still in the wind-blown, “unfurl¬ alike, and students should give exhaustive attention to
ing” vines. One might be tempted to read the circle at the the distinction,” implying that they should not be mixed
right as another symbol of change, the inconstant moon, lightly. But in fact artists were by then combining them
or its reflection in the water, but it is too large and too ab¬ into new syntheses that, in the cases of such major
stract to encourage that reading and must in some way masters as Huang and Wang Meng, drew so freely and
represent the circular hunlun itself. (Moreover, the paint¬ unselfconsciously on the past, avoiding overt archaistic
ing was done on the twenty-sixth day of the lunar month, references, as to be essentially new styles. In the hands of
when the moon was waning, not full.) Close examination lesser masters, such eclectic blends could produce pic¬
indicates that the circle was drawn with some kind of tures that were pleasant and accomplished without being
compass, perhaps with the brush anchored to the center especially innovative. Such a work is Farewell at Fake
by a string; it was certainly not done freehand. The Dianshan by Li Sheng (fig. 15 3). It is sometimes described
drawing of the swirling vines seems also to have loosened as a Li-Guo—manner painting, and there are indeed traits
itself from representation and entered the realm of of that tradition, but they do not dominate the composi¬
the abstract and diagrammatic. One could also see Zhu tion. According to the artist’s inscription, dated 1346, it
Derun’s rendering of the bank, rock, pine, and grasses as was done for a friend named Cai Xiawai, who was leaving
similarly driven more by brush momentum than by atten¬ to become abbot of a Daoist temple in Nanchang in
tion to defining forms; and yet these recur almost exactly, Jiangxi Province, and was probably presented to him at a
only mirror-reversed, in another short handscroll by Zhu farewell gathering at which Li Sheng and others wrote

The Yuan Dynasty 163

section of a handscroll, ink and light color on paper, 1346. 23 X 68.4 cm. Shanghai Museum.
 parting poems, originally attached to the scroll but now
lost. The scenery depicted on the scroll, and where the
gathering took place, may well be Dianshan Lake in
Jiangsu Province. Li Sheng lived there in his late years; his
birthplace was in northern Anhui Province. If we see
some affinities with the great Dream-Journey on the Xiao and
Xiang Rivers, painted two centuries earlier by “Mr. Li”
from another part of Anhui — the earthy hills rising out
of fog, the use of gradations of ink tone in rendering
groves of leafy trees blurred by atmosphere — we may
dimly be discerning an unrecognized regional tradition.
This atmospheric rendering, Li Sheng’s extraordinarily
delicate brushwork, and the overall painterly effect distin¬
guish the picture from most landscapes of its time. Two
figures seen on a bluff near the center of the scroll may
emblematize the idea of parting: the lower one stands
with head tilted upward while the other moves away, to¬
ward a valley in which the roofs of a temple are seen, per¬
haps representing the one where Cai Xiawai will become
abbot.
The transformation of the Li-Guo manner in the late
Yuan, and its disassociation from the circle of Zhao
Mengfu and officialdom, is best represented by the late
works of Cao Zhibai (1271—1355). Cao was a successful
man with a talent for engineering who devised projects
for creating arable land by diking and filling marshy or in¬
undated ground; part of his wealth came from these proj¬
ects, and his own landholdings at Songjiang, a town
southwest of present-day Shanghai, were probably aug¬
mented in this way, making him one of the richest men of
his time. He visited Beijing and was offered government
positions but refused them, preferring to live on his
estate, where he built pavilions, studios, libraries, and
towers. He entertained some of the notables of the age,
including the artists Huang Gongwang and Ni Zan. His
earlier works, as represented by three paintings from the
13 20s,30 are sensitive portrayals of pines and other trees
in groupings that suggest social hierarchies, an analogical
significance that is confirmed by writings about this
theme from Guo Xi’s essay onward. From Cao Zhibai’s
late period, two landscapes survive, dated 135031 and
13 51; to his signature on the latter (fig. 154), he proudly
adds his age, “eighty years,” and two congratulatory po¬
ems by contemporaries written on the painting also refer
to his octogenarian status. The foreground tree group,
dominated by two long-trunked pines, resembles those in

154. Cao Zhibai, Sparse Pines and Secluded Cliffs, hanging scroll, ink the earlier works and must have the same anthropomor¬
on paper, 13 51. 74.5 X 27.8 cm. National Palace Museum, Taibei. phic implications, making one read the expressive “pos¬
tures” of the trees in terms of human feelings, apart from
their poignancy as pure images. Beyond, the rounded

166 The Yuan Dynasty

hills rise, to fill the upper part of the scroll, giving the
composition an austere monumentality uncommon in
Li-Guo School works of the Yuan period. The construc¬
tion of the highest peak, partly flattened, pardy lumpy (a
feature of the Dong-Ju landscape tradition), along with
the dry brushwork and sparsity of washes, relate the
painting stylistically to the works of Cao Zhibai’s close
friend Huang Gongwang, whose masterwork, Dwelling
in the Fuchun Mountains, had been completed just the year
before.

Three of the Four Great Masters,

and Others: Late Yuan Landscape

Most of what we have been looking at in landscape paint¬

ing of the middle Yuan can be regarded as a working out
of stylistic implications in landscapes by Zhao Mengfu,
and the absorption of his new ideas into the mainstream
of landscape. The next truly innovative landscapist after
Zhao was Huang Gongwang (1269—1354). He and two
younger masters, Ni Zan and Wang Meng, along with
Wu Zhen, were designated by Dong Qichang in the late
Ming as the Four Great Masters of Yuan painting; earlier
groupings had included Zhao Mengfu and Gao Kegong,
but it was Dong’s that prevailed and is still followed to¬
day. Of the four, it was Huang Gongwang who most
decisively altered the course of landscape painting, creat¬
ing models that would have a profound effect on land¬
scapists of later centuries.
Huang Gongwang was born in Changshu, near
Suzhou, to a family named Lu, but was adopted as a child
by a Mr. Huang of Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province, who
raised and educated him. A child prodigy, he passed the
examinations for a civil service career and held a minor
post as a legal clerk for several years, but resigned after
being implicated in a charge of tax irregularities and im¬
prisoned briefly. He lived for a time as a professional di¬
viner and as a teacher of Daoist doctrine; later he retired
to a place near the West Lake in Hangzhou, where he
taught philosophy to disciples. He is the author of an es¬
say, really a series of short notes, titled “Secrets of Land¬
scape Painting,” published shortly after his death and
probably written down originally for the tutelage of his
students, since it provides practical advice on matters of
technique as well as theoretical pronouncements.32 His

155. Huang Gongwang, Stone Cliff at the Pond of Heaven, hanging

scroll, ink and color on silk, 1341 • I39-4 ^ 57-3 cm- Palace
Museum, Beijing.
 last years were spent in retirement in the Fuchun Moun¬ Mengfu’s Autumn Colors on the Qiao and Hua Mountains of
tains west of Hangzhou, where he painted, between 1347 1296 (see fig. 134), but no one before had so successfully
and 13 50, his famous handscroll representing the scenery reconciled the creation of substantial, well-constructed
of that region (see fig. 156). landscape forms with an effect of semi-improvisation.
Huang Gongwang’s Stone Cliff at the Pond of Heaven, Huang Gongwang understood and utilized Zhao’s
painted in 1341 (fig. 15 5), has not been published so of¬ method of interweaving thick, dry brushstrokes to create
ten or praised so much as Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains visually tangible forms. Some of the thinner passages,
(it is a more austere work, and the silk on which it was along with the determined plainness of the scenery, may
painted has darkened, making it harder to appreciate), recall Zhao’s Villa bj the Water of 1302 (see fig. 135), but
but it has been scarcely less influential. It is the earliest Huang Gongwang’s compound brushwork, overlaying
extant painting in which the landscape masses are com¬ darker over lighter, drier over wetter — reflecting the
posites of dynamically interacting parts; their shapes tend scroll’s long gestation — provides much richer textures
to geometricism or to simple ovoids and arcs, repeating and a stronger sense of tactile surface. It allows Huang to
one another enough that Huang’s method can be termed build dynamically complex masses like those in his Stone
modular construction. The abstract character of the pic¬ Cliff at the Pond of Heaven without resorting to the firm
ture arises from this method, and from the subordination outlines and graded washes of that picture. (The modes
of variety in the individual forms, which are made rigor¬ of viewing hanging scrolls and handscrolls more or less
ously to perform their compositional functions at some dictated bolder definition of form and more stable struc¬
sacrifice of pictorial or descriptive values. Artists of later tures in the hanging scroll, which was viewed from a dis¬
times, including Dong Qichang and the Four Wangs of tance and for longer periods; the handscroll, which was
the early Qing dynasty, revered this work and devoted seen at arm’s length and more briefly as it passed before
themselves to working out the implications of its dy¬ the viewer’s eyes, lent itself to softer renderings and often
namic formalism. The painting depicts a real place, lo¬ more daring compositional devices.)
cated on Mt. Hua west of Suzhou, but is very different There is little of atmospheric dimming in Huang’s
from pictures of the kind that aim at “making the viewer scroll (or in Stone Cliff at the Pond of Heaven)-, romantic
feel as though he were in the actual place.” The pond and mists would have eroded the structural clarity of his
cliff of the title are at the head of the valley ascending to work. A few patches of fog appear, but they play no ma¬
the right; this and a deeper recession on the left enclose a jor role in his treatment of space, which, as in Northern
long ridge, which the gaze of the viewer follows upward Song landscape, is rendered as intervals between clearly
on a cadenced progress, with dark clumps of trees and defined masses. In the passage reproduced here, for in¬
small rocks marking stages in it. A few houses are seen stance, a ridge curving into depth — a simplified form
under tall pines at the bottom, but, as usual with build¬ of the one in Stone Cliff, defined in a softer, earthier
ings in Huang’s paintings, they are drawn so schemati¬ manner — creates on its concave side an enclosure into
cally as to be almost devoid of narrative import. which a smaller hillock located some distance from it to
Huang Gongwang’s Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains the right seems almost to fit; the two masses thus define
(fig. 156) was painted between 1347 and 1350; according between them a curving space within which houses,
to the artist’s inscription at the end, he sketched out the trees, and a stream are located. Huang Gongwang’s en¬
entire composition in one sitting, then carried the scroll gagingly loose brush drawing, giving the scenery a slightly
with him when he traveled, adding to and going over it unkempt look, diverts our attention from the calculated
when his mood was right, without quite finishing it. The construction of the scroll; later imitators were mostly to
intended recipient, a certain Wu-yung, or “Worthless” (a lose this effect of spontaneity in their neater, more sche¬
facetiously self-deprecating sobriquet), was worried that matic, and less natural-looking versions of Huang’s com¬
someone else would get it; he made Huang “inscribe it in positional formulae.
advance”—and, presumably, finish it off hurriedly, as An unusual work by Huang Gongwang that has gone
the quick brushwork and improvised forms of the begin¬ virtually unpublished is Clearing After Sudden Snow, a short
ning and ending sections betray. The remainder is done handscroll painted as an appendage to a work of calligra¬
with more care but similarly records the process of its phy by Zhao Mengfu (fig. 157).33 Zhao had written for
making by displaying the traces of the painter’s hand Huang four large characters, “Clearing After Sudden
instead of concealing them. The same had been true Snow,” copied loosely from the same four characters in a
of most progressive Yuan painting at least since Zhao letter, preserved in copies, by the great fourth-century

168 The Yuan Dynasty

calligrapher Wang Xizhi. Some time later, probably in the vout Daoist, probably used the latter expedient, although
1340s (one colophon is dated 1345), Huang presented the standard, idealized accounts tell of his having foreseen
scroll to a certain Mo Jingxing, adding a painting to illus¬ the disorder of the coming dynastic change and distrib¬
trate this brief text. The painting is unsigned and bears no uted his property among relatives and friends.
seal but can safely be taken as Huang’s work because Peasant revolts were widespread during the 1340s, and
of its style and its position in the scroll. With the excep¬ the biggest of them, the Red Turbans revolt, began in
tion of a red, wintry sun, it is done in ink and depicts a 1351, further devastating the region. Shordy after that, Ni
large house overlooking a mountain valley surrounded by Zan set off with his family on what would be twenty years
cliffs. Inside the house is a Buddhist sculpture, of which of wandering, mostly around the lakes and watercourses
only the lower part and the lotus seat are visible, with an between Suzhou and Songjiang, living in a houseboat
incense burner set before it. Groves of bare trees en¬ much of the time and staying with friends and acquain¬
hance the wintry moon, and, standing before and behind tances, whose hospitality he often repaid with his paint¬
the house in dark and pale ink, mark stages of depth. The ings. Zhang Shicheng, the pretender to the throne who
brushwork is feathery-soft throughout the picture; what occupied Suzhou from 1356 to 1367, repeatedly invited
is remarkable is that Huang Gongwang, while confining Ni Zan to join his “court,” but Ni always refused, avoid¬
his drawing to this extreme softness of touch, can build ing all involvement in political and military conflicts. Af¬
such monumental rock constructions, making them both ter the final collapse of the Yuan government and the
substantial and intelligible. By exposing their flattened establishment of the Ming dynasty in 1368, he emerged
tops and indicating their receding sides with successions from hiding; since his wife had died and his children had
of angular strokes, the artist allows the viewer to read left him, he wandered alone as a recluse, ultimately re¬
their volume. Others of Huang’s paintings, those using turning to Wuxi, where he fell ill and died at the home of
systems of insistently repeated brushstrokes and forms, a relative.
lay the foundation for the styles of the Orthodox School Paintings by scholar-amateur artists had always been
masters of the early Qing (see chapter 5); this one seems taken to be expressive of their personal situations and
similarly to supply the essentials of the style that, partly feelings, but this basic tenet of literati painting theory had
by way of Huang’s young friend Ni Zan, would deeply af¬ proved problematic in practice. For example, attempts to
fect the Anhui School artists of that same period, such as base negative judgments of Zhao Mengfu’s paintings on
Hongren and Zha Shibiao. disapproval of his “collaborationist” politics are uncon¬
Ni Zan (1301—1374; some recent scholarship indicates vincing. With Ni Zan we have perhaps the first case in
instead a birthdate of 1306) was born into a rich land¬ which the association of the man and his paintings seems
owning family of Wuxi in Jiangsu Province and lived in clear and obvious, so that he becomes the paradigmatic
comfort until middle age, engaged in scholarship and self-expressive artist. His landscapes, in their unpeopled
artistic pursuits. He built a Qingbige, or “Pure and Se¬ thinness and plainness, can be seen as emblems of high-
cluded Pavilion,” where he kept a great library and his minded disengagement from society and longing for a
ever-growing collection of antiquities, calligraphy, and cleaner, simpler, peaceable world. Recent studies have
paintings. Famous scholars and poets from all over the called even that seemingly self-evident correspondence
country were entertained there; Ni was by nature aloof into question; like Dong Qichang in the late Ming, Ni

and arrogant but enjoyed the company of people whom Zan is increasingly undergoing revisionist readings of his

he judged to be of sufficiently refined tastes. He was ob¬ character and relationship to the conditions of his age, in
sessive about cleanliness, insisting that everything with which his reputed “pure loftiness” of spirit is regarded

which he came in contact be immaculate and washing his more as a rhetorical projection than as an inner truth.34

hands frequently. Already by the 1330s, however, this This is not the place to engage in that argument, how¬

ideal existence was going wrong: a series of natural di¬ ever; my treatment of Ni Zan’s paintings will follow con¬

sasters, floods and droughts, brought about widespread ventional assumptions.

famine and homelessness in the Jiangnan region, agricul¬ The landscape type associated with Ni Zan — ink-

turally the richest in China, and the Mongol government monochrome paintings of widely separated riverbanks

imposed oppressive taxes on the wealthy families to raise rendered in sketchy brushwork, and foreground trees sil¬

revenue. Many were forced to sell their holdings or es¬ houetted against the expanse of water — appears to have

caped taxation by giving their land to Buddhist and developed only midway in his career. In his earliest extant

Daoist churches. Ni Zan, whose older brother was a de¬ work, painted in 1339, the horizon is low, the forms

The Yuan Dynasty 169

15 6. Huang Gongwang, Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains, section of a handscroll, ink on paper, 1347-1350. 33 X 636.9 cm.
National Palace Museum, Taibei.
 - •VTb <
. yH*'
' Vs *
■ ym>. _'' .'..JuiL;-’*

miters ‘ "-i ' C

157. Huang Gongwang, Clearing After Sudden Snow, handscroll,

ink and light color on paper, ca. 1340s. 104.6 cm long. Palace
Museum, Beijing.

158. Ni Zan, Water and Bamboo Dwelling, hanging scroll, ink

and color on paper, 1343. 53.5 X 28.2 cm. Museum of Chinese
History, Beijing. (Former DengTuo Collection.)

strongly shaded, the trees set against sky; even a figure is

included, as in none of his other surviving paintings.35
Ni’s Water and Bamboo Dwelling of 1343 (fig. 158) has no
figure, but it also differs from the familiar “minimalist”
landscapes of his later period in depicting thatched
houses, a fence, and a bridge, in including a profusion of
leafy trees, and in adding washes of color to the strongly
defined and textured forms. His style as seen here is in
fact not so markedly different from that of Sheng Mao in
the same period. The horizontal banks and modest hills,
however, already betray the taste for plainness and tran¬
quillity that will characterize the later works. The paint¬
ing was done, he relates in his inscription, for a certain
Jindao, who came to visit and told him that he was rent¬
ing a place to live east of Suzhou, in an area noted for
water (streams) and bamboo. Ni Zan makes his picture
by imagining how this dwelling will look.
Six Gentlemen (fig. 159), done only two years later, al¬
ready displays the landscape formula that Ni Zan was to
follow in most of his later works, with the high horizon
ending a broad expanse of river and .the tops of the fore¬
ground trees stopping somewhat short of this, without
encroaching on the further landmass. Not even the famil¬
iar ting^i, or rest shelter, appears; the painting is an ex¬
treme example of the Yuan practice of portraying the
plainest of unremarkable scenery and making it seem

172 The Yuan Dynasty

 159. Ni Zan, Six Gentlemen, hanging scroll, ink on paper, 1345.
61.9 X 33.3 cm. Shanghai Museum.

Ni Zan’s Remote Stream and Cold Pines (fig. 160) — the

title was provided by the artist in his inscription—was
done as a present for a friend who was leaving to take an
official post; Ni writes that he means it to suggest the idea
of “calling to reclusion,” to convey the attractions of un¬
troubled retirement after the man’s period of service was
over. The end of the Yuan or the beginning of the Ming
dynasty, when the painting must have been done (it is un¬
dated), was indeed a perilous time to be involved in pub¬
lic life, whatever one’s political commitments, and one
might choose reclusion out of a desire for security as
much as for lofty Confucian ideals. Ni Zan’s composi¬
tions represent this aspect of withdrawal from society in
their stabilizing horizontals and verticals as well as in the
absence of buildings, figures, or distractions of any kind.
The nearly square shape of Remote Stream and Cold Pines
and the adoption of a more level line of view oblige the
artist to arrange the scene in an untypical way, compress¬
ing what would usually be nearer and further shores into
a single, continuous passage of terrain, through which the
stream flows leisurely into the foreground. But the device
of having elements of the picture echo each other diago¬
nally across the intervening space, used in most of his
landscapes, is seen here too, and his rendering of cubic
volume in the earth forms by bent brushstrokes and
subtle defining of upper and side planes, typical of his
late works, is exemplified at its best. This is a cool vision
of the world as Ni Zan wanted it to be: orderly, unclut¬
tered, undemanding of anything but the simplest sensory
engagement.
The RongxiStudio of 1372 (fig. i6x) is generally regarded
as Ni Zan’s masterwork among his surviving paintings.
somehow significant. The sparse drawing, mostly in dry He inscribed it twice, once with a simple date and signa¬
brushwork, has the effect of dematerializing the materials ture, and again two years later in 1374 when, he writes,
of the painting, purging them of ponderousness; this was, the original recipient brought it back to him with the re¬

of course, a mode learned from Zhao Mengfu, and even quest that he rededicate it for presentation to another,

more from Huang Gongwang. Huang was in fact present “the medical doctor Renzhong.” This doctor was the

at the gathering when the painting was done and in¬ master of the Rongxi Studio from which the painting

scribed a quatrain that supplied its title, presumably a took its name — it means “Room for the Knees” and

metaphor for six upright friends. Ni Zan’s own inscrip¬ must refer facetiously to its cramped dimensions. It was

tion relates how he had just docked his boat when his located in Wuxi, Ni Zan’s hometown, and Ni ends his in¬

host met him with a lamp and a piece of paper, insisting scription with a wistful hope that he can return and see

that he paint a picture; tired as he was, he complied. His his painting once more. He did indeed return to Wuxi

inscription partly accounts for, and partly serves to ex¬ shortly afterwards, and perhaps realized his wish before

cuse, the minimalist character of the picture, which must his death in the eighth month of that year. What is re¬

have seemed radical even in an age of innovative land¬ markable, however, is that a single conventional river
landscape with tingzi could be made to “represent, in
scape.

The Yuan Dynasty 173

160. Ni Zan, Remote Stream and Cold Pines, hanging scroll, ink on paper, late Yuan /early Ming dynasty. 59.7 X 5 0.4 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.
 contrast, was to invest it with the values of literati culture
in its highest, even most rarefied, manifestation. Already
shortly after Ni Zan’s death, we read, the cultural level of
Jiangnan families — their “elegance” (yd) or “vulgarity”
(su)—was judged according to whether or not they
owned one of his works.
The well-deserved eminence of The Rongxi Studio
among Ni’s works is based on its ideal realization of the
aim implicit in his whole artistic enterprise: to achieve the
formal substance and spatial readability of conventional
landscape painting within the limitations imposed by his
expressive purpose. The brushwork is as hesitant and
unassertive as ever, the ink tone as pale (except for the
few sparsely distributed dark accents), the scenery as
plain. The drawing is done with a slanting brush that
turns abrupdy downward in midstroke to delineate the
earthy forms, which are self-contained and placid. Noth¬
ing intrudes forcibly on the consciousness of the viewer;
the painting, like Ni Zan’s others, embodies the artist’s
longing for disengagement from a contaminated world.
Frequently paired with Ni Zan in art-historical writ¬
ings, in a relationship more of contrast than of similarity,
is his younger contemporary Wang Meng (ca. 1308 —
1385). He was the son of Zhao Mengfu’s daughter and
may have received some early instruction in painting
from his grandfather. He followed the family tradition of
involvement in official service, holding a minor post dur¬
ing the 1340s. But the Red Turbans revolt and the col¬
lapse of Mongol control in the Jiangnan region brought
his career to a halt, and he withdrew to a “hermitage” in
the Yellow Crane Mountain north of Hangzhou, from
which he took the studio-name Firewood Gatherer of
the Yellow Crane Mountain (Huanghao Shanqiao). He
spent some years in Suzhou while it was under the con¬
trol of Zhang Shicheng and was a prominent figure in
the group of poets and artists gathered there. After the
founding of the Ming dynasty in 1368, when it appeared
that the restoration of native Chinese rule would bring a
161. Ni Zan, The Rongxi Studio, hanging scroll, ink on paper, 1372. return of the old Confucian system of appointment and
74.7 X 35.5 cm. National Palace Museum, Taibei.
advancement through merit, he accepted a post as pre¬
fect in Shandong Province. But, like many others, he fell

some sense, both the retreat of the person for whom the victim to the harrowing of educated men by the first

painting was originally done and then, by the simple act Ming emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang, who, as a former Red

of reinscribing it, Renzhong’s studio. Paintings of this Turban bandit of low-class origins, mistrusted them and

kind were certainly not intended to be descriptive — if had many put to death on charges of sedition. Wang

that were the purpose, a technically proficient profes¬ Meng was one of a group of people who met in 1379 at

sional master would have been engaged, and the picture the home of the prime minister, Hu Weiyong, to look at

would, at least in theory, have been more functional than paintings; when in the following year Hu was accused of

aesthetically engaging. To have one’s house or studio treason and executed, Wang was implicated, probably

“portrayed” by such a prestigious master as Ni Zan, by wrongly, and died in prison.

The Yuan Dynasty 17 5

A.f Hr #4Lf *
« * i « I ^to pjt
»* n n 'f V
1 A recent study of Wang Meng’s masterwork, Dwelling

* in the Qingbian Mountains of 1366 (fig. 162), reads it in the

* context of the artist’s life and circumstances.36 It was
4
ft-
probably painted for Zhao Lin, paternal grandson of
z-~
4 % Zhao Mengfu and thus Wang Meng’s cousin, and repre¬
sents the Zhao family villa in the Qingbian Mountains, lo¬
cated north of their home in Wuxing. In type, then, the
painting belongs with such works as Qian Xuan’s Dwelling
in the Floatingjade Mountains (see fig. 132) as a landscape of
eremitism; Wang had painted several of these earlier and
here follows the compositional convention of compart¬
mentalizing the picture, with the retreat (seen as a cluster
of houses in far middle left) situated in the enclosed part
and access to the outer world represented in the lower
part by water and by a path on which a man is walking
with a staff. But the usual implications of comfortable se¬
curity that such pictures carried were inapplicable to the
time and place: when the painting was done, the armies
of Zhang Shicheng and Zhu Yuanzhang were fighting in
this vicinity, destroying whatever exemption from tur¬
moil the gentry families had enjoyed. It must be this
sense of loss of an ideal way of life that Wang Meng’s
painting conveys in its turbulence. Works of the kind that
distandy underlay it — paintings by Dong Yuan in the
tenth century and Guo Xi in the eleventh, or the North¬
ern Song monumental landscape type more generally —
allowed the viewer to participate visually in an ordered
universe, organized coherendy so as to be readable and
traversable. By retaining so many features of that type,
Wang Meng raises corresponding expectations, which he
thereupon violates radically with his unnatural shifts of
light and shadow, his spatial ambiguities or distortions,
and his powerful destabilizing of the whole terrain. His
brushwork has exactly the opposite effect from Ni Zan’s:
a diversity of brushstroke types are close-packed or over¬
laid for tactile richness; curling strokes impart a resdess
flow to the surfaces, besides transmitting the nervous en¬
ergy of the artist’s hand.
Wang Meng’s Ge Zhichuan Moving His Dwelling (fig. 163)
is undated but would appear from its style to belong to
the same middle period, the 1360s. From Wang’s inscrip¬
tion, added to the picture some years later, we learn that
it was done for a certain Rizhang, probably the same per¬
son for whom the well-known Forest Grottoes at Juqu was
painted.17 He is believed to have been a Buddhist monk
named Zucheng Rizhang; why Wang would paint a Dao-

162. Wang Meng, Dwelling in the Qingbian Mountains, hanging

scroll, ink on paper, 1366. 141 X 42.2 cm. Shanghai Museum.
 ist subject for him is unclear. Ge Zhichuan, or Ge Hong
(283 — 343), was a historical personage, the author of the
earliest Daoist alchemical text, the Baopusyi neibian, who
later was numbered among the transcendents or immor¬
tals of Daoism. The “moving his dwelling” depicted here
must be the episode in his life when he traveled to
Guangzhou, intending to continue south in search of
cinnabar for refining the elixir of immortality; prevented
from going on by the local governor, he ascended nearby
Mt. Luofu and prepared the elixir there. The valley with
thatch-roofed houses in the upper left, where servant
figures are seen awaiting their arrival, must represent his
destination. On another level, the composition echoes
pictures in which the Daoist transcendent ascends to
heaven with his entire family—the late third-century
adept Xu Sun, or Xu Jingyang, is one who did this, and
thematically similar pictures are sometimes identified as
representations of him. In that reading, the hidden valley,
difficult of access and hemmed in by mountains, would
stand for the attainment of paradise.
The procession of family members, mosdy on foot but
with his wife and child riding an ox, moves across the
foreground; Ge Zhichuan himself stands on the bridge
looking back at them, holding a feather fan in one hand
and resting the other on the back of a deer that carries a
bundle of scrolls, presumably Daoist holy texts (fig. 164).
Above him, beyond two resting porters, the path disap¬
pears, to reemerge far above and lead into the valley. Like
Sheng Mao in his Villa in the Mountains (see fig. 146),
Wang Meng employs with great skill a Five Dynasties
and Northern Song mode of landscape to lead the
viewer’s eye through a succession of spaces in which a
temporal narrative is embedded. In keeping with this
purpose, he draws his pictorial materials —figures, trees,
rocky masses—with extraordinary finesse, using dry,
precise brushstrokes and avoiding all that is gestural,
calligraphic, or indicative of spontaneity. Such a techni¬
cal feat, which in some respects is beyond anything at¬
tempted in Wang’s other works, enlarges our esteem for
the artist.
Because no Wang Meng painting dated later than 1368
is known, identification of works of his late period can
only be circumstantial and speculative. A group of un¬
163. Wang Meng, Ge Zhichuan Moving His Dwelling, hanging
dated paintings that share certain characteristics can pro¬
scroll, ink and color on paper, ca. 1360s. 139 X 58 cm. Palace
Museum, Beijing. visionally be placed there: they are loose in brushwork,
rich in color, and confined largely to the picture surface,
avoiding pulls into depth, careful definitions of space,
and illusionistic light-and-shadow effects. The Temple at
Mt. Taibai handscroll (fig. 165) is so striking in these fea¬
tures that foreign scholars, at least, would have had

The Yuan Dynasty 177

 164. Detail of figure 163.

difficulty until recently accepting it as a work of the same highly inventive use of landscape composition to repre¬
hand, or even the same period, that produced Dwelling in sent a narrative theme. It may well be that paintings of
the Qinghian Mountains of 1366 or Ge Zhichuan Moving His this type were done frequendy for temples and kept
Dwelling. Ming masters, such as Shen Zhou (who in fact among their treasures; that more have not survived may
owned this painting), imitated these aspects of the late be due to the destruction of temple holdings in late-
Wang Meng manner so closely that a painting like this period China, in contrast to Japan, where they have been
one could easily be mistaken for a work of theirs. But it passed down over centuries. Colophons to the scroll in¬
now occupies a secure place, and a high one, in Wang clude several by Yuan and early Ming monks, the earliest
Meng’s oeuvre. The temple portrayed in it is the Tian- dated 1388. Wang Meng has written a tide at the begin¬
tong Si at Mt. Taibai near Ningpo in eastern Zhejiang. ning and presumably wrote a signature at the end, but at
The twenty-li (roughly ten-kilometer) approach to the present only his seals appear there on a separate piece of
temple occupies most of the 2.6 5-meter length of the paper. Speculation is that evidence of his authorship may
scroll, with Buddhist pilgrims and others seen making have been removed by the temple at the time of his polit¬
their way through a forest of pines and over bridges; the ical trouble, when association with him was perilous, and
temple itself is reached only at the end, so that the experi¬ partially restored later.
ence of unrolling the scroll is structurally similar to a reli¬ At the right of the section reproduced here, a mounted
gious pilgrimage — another example of Wang Meng’s party including two red-coated government officials

178 The Yuan Dynasty

nears the temple. Other visitors and monks stand around spatial order emerges, along with a minimal narrative
the ponds in front of the mam hall; the lower part of a structure: in the lower left a man sits in a tingzi gazing at
Buddhist sculpture is seen through the curtained open¬ a waterfall; another walks on the path at the right, making
ing, and members of the monastic community are visible his way upward to where the path ends at a thatched hut,
through other doors and windows. This way of permit¬ inside which a monk sits in meditation. The picture thus
ting the viewer to see into the building, and the setting of recalls the “visiting the holy man” or even “searching for
galleries and courtyards beyond the main hall at an angle enlightenment” themes of earlier paintings. Even the
so that one seems to look down into them, is unusual for brushwork textures, seen in the original work, prove to
this period and follows a system used in tenth-century contain nuances of touch and ink tone that make the
and earlier architectural paintings, notably the great Flour painting both richer and more readable than it may seem
Mill, formerly attributed to Wei Xian, in the Shanghai at first, especially in reproduction.
Museum (see fig. 97). It seems likely that Wang Meng, The examples of Ni Zan and Wang Meng demon¬
here as elsewhere in his works, is adopting features of strate, among other things, the wide range of expressive
style from old paintings he was able to view, incor¬ and descriptive effects that could be accomplished in
porating them into a fundamentally new mode of landscape painting by the late Yuan period, which al¬
landscape. lowed it to be turned to a corresponding diversity of uses:
Wang Meng’s deep engagement with the. rendering self-expressive, political, philosophical, religious. It could
of spaces and substantial forms, and his uses of these reproduce, like Wang Meng’s Temple atMt. Taibai, the expe¬
in building complex, never-repeated compositions, have rience of a Buddhist pilgrimage; it could also convey, as
been demonstrated in all the works considered thus far do some of the works of Fang Congyi, a Daoist version
and could be exemplified by quite a few others. It is all of the world. Fang (ca. 1301—after 1380) was a Daoist
the more remarkable that he also, probably in his late pe¬ cleric who entered the order while young and from the
riod, explored a flattening mode that had the effect of re¬ x 3 50s served as a priest in a Daoist temple in Jiangxi. Fie
ducing the picture to a configuration of brushstrokes on used the name Fanghu, or “Square Pot,” the name of one
the paper surface. A radical excursion in that direction of the legendary Isles of Immortals. His most impressive
is the small ink-on-paper Landscape (fig. 166). Neither surviving work was painted in 1365 and is titled Divine
Wang’s brief inscription (only his sobriquet and signa¬ Mountains and Luminous Woods (fig. 167). In composition

ture) nor the poems written on it by two contemporaries the painting follows established models such as Gao Ke-
reveal anything about the circumstances of its making. In gong and the Song traditions on which Gao’s style was

the case of Ni Zan, the relative looseness and flatness of based — Fang is classified in Chinese writings as a fol¬

some of his late works, especially his bamboo pictures, lower of Gao Kegong and Mi Fu. In other respects, how¬

are attributed to his having “responded to obligations” ever, it agrees better with the new expressionist mode

(yingchou) too frequently in his last years; one writer of exemplified supremely by Wang Meng. There is no rec¬

the time, Xia Wenyan, comments that these and his ear¬ ord of the two artists having been acquainted, but

lier works look as though they came from two different because Fang moved in literary circles while Wang fre¬

hands. The same situation may account in part for this quented Buddhist and Daoist temples, and because they

same tendency in the late period of Wang Meng, although had friends in common, the likelihood is strong that they

in an artist of such stature it must also have been a matter knew each other’s works. Fang Congyi destabilizes his

of aesthetic decision. landscape forms here with resdess, fluctuating brush-

Whatever lies behind it, the work is painted entirely in work, as Wang Meng does in Dwelling in the Oingbian Moun¬

short, dry, mosdy curling strokes of ink, without the tains of the following year; if Wang is expressing in this

washes and rich texturing that Wang Meng usually em¬ a private turbulence and Fang a Daoist vision, it only

ploys. One could liken the effect to the thinness and underscores the truth that forms and styles in art do not

transparency of Ni Zan’s pictorial fabric, but Wang’s carry fixed meanings. Fang’s mountain peaks heave up¬

composition differs from one of Ni’s in filling most of ward and lean sideward; the trees below engage in an en¬

the space, allowing no restful intervals; one’s first impres¬ ergetic dance; the insistent application of the slanting

sion of it is of a flat, evenly textured shape occupying all dian, or dotting, makes it seem to vibrate apart from the

but a small part of the frame. Examined more closely, this masses instead of adhering to them. In the Daoist cos¬

shape separates along diagonal divisions into large, heav¬ mology, matter exists only in a state of flux or process, as

ily eroded landforms topped by rows of trees, and some the basic amorphous stuff of the universe (qi) coalesces

The Yuan Dynasty 179

165. Wang Meng, Temple at Mt. Taibai, sections of a handscroli, ink and color on paper, Yuan dynasty. 27.6 X 238 cm.
Liaoning Provincial Museum, Shenyang.
 caoshu manner, in cursive, running brushwork, and that
is a good characterization of Fang’s extraordinary mode
of depiction. The brush does not pause anywhere to
dwell on differentiation of texture or detail, but concen¬
trates on transforming mass into movement, creating
riverbanks and trees as tangles of raveled strokes. The
enormous cliff rises sheer to splay out at the top in an

167. Fang Congyi, Divine Mountains and Luminous Woods, hanging

scroll, ink and color on paper, 1365. 120.3 X 5 5.7 cm. National
Palace Museum, Taibei.

166. Wang Meng, Landscape, small hanging scroll, ink on paper,

Yuan dynasty. 54.4 X 28.3 cm. Shanghai Museum.

and dissolves, and such a conception would seem to un¬

derlie Fang Congyi’s painting.
Rowing by Mt. Wuyi (fig. 168) of 1359 is Fang Congyi’s
earliest surviving dated work, but also one of his most
radical in style. It was painted for a Mr. Zhou, who had
recently made the spectacular trip by boat down the Nine
Bends River past Mt. Wuyi in eastern Fujian Province. A
year had passed since they parted; Fang was concerned
about him and painted this picture “in the manner of Ju-
ran” as a reminder of the trip, writing the title in archaic
script in the upper right and a dedicatory inscription at
the left in his elegant caoshu, or draft script. Chinese ap¬
praisals of the painting state that it, too, was done in the

182 The Yuan Dynasty

explosion of energy like windblown grasses, its shape
recalling the mushroom of Daoist lore but also the que
(pillars) of Han and Six Dynasties religious cosmology
that marked the presence of divinity in a landscape. The
scattered dotting creates an even more powerful agitation
than that in Divine Mountains and Luminous Woods. Yet the
impression of complete spontaneity belies the care with
which the artist has constructed his scene, setting the
darker, more fully defined foreground bank against the
paler distant one, handling matters of scale and atmos¬
phere almost like a Northern Song master.
In addition to these late Yuan landscapists who dis¬
play strongly individual styles, there were others whose
achievements were more modest but still respectable,
and who consolidated the stylistic innovations of the pe¬
riod into a coherent, manageable landscape mode that
literati artists in the early Ming would continue. One of
these was Zhao Yuan, a native of Shandong Province
who was active mainly in Suzhou, where he served as a
military adviser to Zhang Shicheng during his occupation
of the city. He was a friend of Ni Zan and Wang Meng,
and in 1373 collaborated with Ni on a handscroll (the
whereabouts of which are now unknown) depicting the
Lion Grove Garden (Shizi Lin) in Suzhou with its fa¬
mous rockeries. His end was tragic: at the beginning of
the Ming he was summoned to court to serve as a court
painter and given the task of painting portraits of ancient
worthies — a time-honored way for the new dynasty to
establish its Confucian credentials by setting up models
for emulation. Zhao, who had no professional training
and must have been an amateurish figure painter at best,
failed to please the Hongwu emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang,
and was executed.
A work from his happier days is A Thatched Hall at
Hexi (fig. 169), painted in 1363 for Gu Dehui, or Gu
Aying (1310-1369), a rich literatus and patron of letters
who had hosted many notable gatherings of poets and
artists at his Jade Mountain villa at Kunshan. In 13 5 6 Gu
moved to a more remote and secluded retreat at Hexi,
near Wuxing, to avoid being drawn into the Suzhou
regime of Zhang Shicheng, who had offered him a pre-
fectural post. It is this Hexi retreat that Zhao Yuan por¬
trays in his deliberately placid picture, writing the title
and his signature in the upper right in archaic seal script
characters. The longer inscription is by Gu Dehui him¬
self, who writes that he loves this place because of its in¬
accessibility— it is reachable only by boat and hard to
168. Fang Congyi, Rowing by Mt. Wuyi, hanging scroll, ink
find, a refuge from tax collectors. Zhao Yuan stresses the
on paper, 1359. 744 X 27.8 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.
remoteness of the place by creating a long recession
across the water and making Gu’s “thatched hall” the

The Yuan Dynasty 18 3

 only human habitation visible, apart from a roof dimly
Jt
seen behind trees on the further bank. The master of the t **.&**£**
$
£3
retreat is seen inside it, approached by a new arrival with A *c £
a staff; two others stroll outside beneath the trees, indi¬ ft? Si II*
» 4 *****
:& & 4 uj m
cating that Gu is no true recluse but is continuing his A. ^
practice of entertaining literary friends. Three fishermen
* * n
2* Mr
in boats at middle left look as if they had drifted in from
pf C %■
a Zhao Mengfu painting. The scenery, which appears so
generalized to us, is praised in Gu Dehui’s inscription for
its resemblance to the real place; and no doubt it was in¬
deed successful in evoking, in a cultivated mind attuned
to the scholar-artist conventions of the time, the am¬
biance of Gu’s lakeside villa, a temporary haven from the
political and military turmoil of the outside world.
Chen Ruyan (ca. 1331—before 1371), a native of Su¬
zhou, was another member of this circle. A friend of
Ni Zan and Wang Meng, he too held office in Zhang
Shicheng’s short-lived government. He accepted a pro¬
vincial post under the new Ming government and met the
same fate as the others, execution for some unspecified
transgression. His Realms of Immortals handscroll (fig. 170)
was probably painted while he was serving under Zhang
Shicheng; according to an inscription by Ni Zan written
in 1371, in which he mentions that the artist was already
dead by then, it was done as a birthday gift to a Mr. Pan,
who was Zhang Shicheng’s brother-in-law. It was, then,
among other things a counter in an elegant and intricate
pattern of social intercourse, set against the more practi¬
cal ground of winning favor with highly placed person¬
ages, incurring and discharging obligations, repaying gifts
and hospitality, which underlay a significant part of the
production of paintings in scholar-amateur circles. It was
a pattern in no way incompatible with the freest of aes¬
thetic impulses: a commonality of taste and assumptions
ensured that an artist following his own preferences in
style and subject usually would please the recipient as
well; and since such paintings were read as expressions of 169. Zhao Yuan, A. Thatched Hall at Hexi, hanging scroll, ink and
personal feeling, these choices of the artist’s were integral light color on paper, 1363. 84.3 X 40.8 cm. Shanghai Museum.

to the very content of the work. Still, some aspects of

Chen’s painting are as if predetermined, the given as op¬
posed to the chosen: the Daoist paradise with pines and transcendent appears in the sky between mountaintops,

cranes stood for longevity and was thus appropriate for arriving on the back of another crane.

birthdays; the fine-line drawing and heavy green color,

besides having the same paradisiacal reference, recalled
the archaistic works of Zhao Mengfu (see fig. 133); the Birds and Flowers, Bamboo
sheer peaks, mushrooming at the top, also alluded to an¬ and Blossoming Plum
tique landscape and were common currency in the late
Yuan. Chen executes all this with a faux naif charm: in the The previous chapters, devoted to the pre-Song and
section reproduced here, a boy dances with two cranes, Song periods, have traced the development of three large
observed by two of the transcendents, while another subject categories of Chinese painting: figures, landscape,

184 The Yuan Dynasty

170. Chen Ruyan, Realms of Immortals, section of a handscroll, ink and color on silk, Yuan dynasty. 33 X 102.9 cm.
(© 1996. Intended gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. Dean A. Perry.)

and a third category consisting of various subjects from them are carefully arranged set pieces based on a compo¬
nature — animals and birds, insects and plants. Paintings sition type adopted from tenth-century painting—Wang
of birds, flowers, and animals by Song masters had at¬ Yuan is said to have imitated the Five Dynasties master
tained heights of understanding and technical refinement Huang Quan. They tend to be somewhat stiff, as revival¬
that were never to be reached again. Yuan bird-and- ist art is likely to be, lacking the animation and naturalism
flower paintings by conservative artists survive in some of their early models.
number, especially in Japanese collections; they are A good example, less stiff than most, is his Pheasants
mostly the works of artists still working in Song tradi¬ and Small Bird with Peach and Bamboo of 1349 (fig. 171).
tions in the region of Hangzhou, or the products of local The season is spring, as indicated by the blossoming of

schools elsewhere that specialized in decorative and sym¬ the peach tree and the rivulet at the left that flows from
bolic pictures of particular subjects, such as the Piling spring rains or melting snows. The male pheasant
School located southeast of Nanjing, which specialized in perches on a rock by the river, preening his breast feath¬

pictures of plants and insects.38 Attractive though some ers, self-absorbed; the female appears inconspicuously

of them may be, as a group they add little to what the below, looking up. For such a colorful subject, Wang

Song had accomplished. Yuan’s choice of ink monochrome over the colored style

The practice of bird-and-flower painting by literati may seem anomalous; it reflects, presumably, an intent to

artists might seem to have been given a promising start in separate himself from the straightforward professional

the early Yuan by Qian Xuan, but he had little following masters and an appeal to the more reserved literati taste.

in the fine-outline-and-color manner. Among the follow¬ But in other respects, especially its polished execution,

ers of Zhao Mengfu were a few who tried to create bird- the picture exhibits the quasiprofessional standards that

and-flower works that met his new aesthetic principles by Zhao Mengfu seems to have encouraged in the artists

referring back to antique models while introducing new who followed him, such as Tang Di in landscape and Ren

features of style. One of them was Wang Yuan, who came Renfa in figures and horses.
from Hangzhou and learned painting directly from Zhao The practice by scholar-amateur artists of making ink

Mengfu. He is reported to have executed mural paintings monochrome paintings of a limited group of symbolic

in a palace building and a Buddhist temple around 1328; subjects — bamboo, rocks, old trees, pines and orchids,

his extant dated works all fall into the 1340s. Most of narcissus and blossoming plum —was noted early in this

The Yuan Dynasty 18 5

171 • Wang "Yuan, Pheasants and Small Bird with Peach and Bamboo, hanging scroll, ink on
paper, 1349. 111.9 X 5 5.7 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.
chapter. Among this group, bamboo was easily the fa¬
vorite. Inaugurated by Su Shi, Wen Tong, and other pio¬
neer literati artists in the late Northern Song and carried
on by some artists working in the north under the Jin
dynasty, the genre of ink bamboo had apparently been
taken up by so many enthusiastic and largely self-taught
amateurs in the early Yuan that the leading bamboo
painter of the age, Li Kan (1245 —1320), directs his scorn
at them in his Zhupu, or “Treatise on Bamboo.” He
writes that they “aim too high and leap over the steps be¬
tween, releasing momentary feelings and smearing and
daubing about. Then they think that by obtaining release
from step-by-step craftsmanship they have attained [art]
through naturalness.”39 Li Kan’s essay, one of several on
the painting of special subjects composed in the Yuan —
others include Wang Yi’s on portraiture, Huang Gong-
wang’s on landscape, and one on blossoming plum by
Wu Taisu — lays out just the kind of step-by-step in¬
struction that, in Li’s view, the dabblers scorned but
needed.
Li Kan, like his friend Zhao Mengfu, held a series of
posts in the Mongol administration, culminating in his 172. Li Kan, Bamboo and Rocks, hanging scroll, ink and color on
appointment as president of the Board of Civil Service. silk, Yuan dynasty. 185.5 x 15 3-7 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.
His paintings of bamboo were done in two distinct man¬
ners. One was thc goule or shuanggou manner, in which the
stalks and leaves were drawn in ink outline and filled in
with color; the other was the ink monochrome manner, with conveying the properties of their subject than with
following the tradition of Wen Tong, in which broad, manifesting their cultivation and individuality through
shaped brushstrokes depicted the sections of stalk, twigs, brushwork and other features of style.
and leaves, and were done in varying ink tones to render The genre of ink bamboo — or, more properly, of
the back and front sides of the leaves and the cylindrical- rocks, old trees, and bamboo — is seen at its highest level
ity of the stalks, as well as to distinguish nearer and fur¬ of achievement in Zhao Mengfu’s Elegant Rocks and Sparse
ther planes of depth. Bamboo and Rocks (fig. 172) is an Trees (fig. 173). It bears only his signature and seals but is
excellent example of the former. It bears no signature, accompanied by an equally famous piece of his writing,
only two seals of the artist. As with Pheasants and Other a quatrain that argues for the close affinity, or near¬
Birds with Peach and Bamboo, its large size and nearly square identity, of painting and calligraphy. It reads (as translated
shape suggest that it was painted for a screen, and it by Wen Fong):
would have made a handsome addition to any room,
Rocks as in flying white [script], trees as in seal script,
opening up space in addition to presenting its symbolic
When painting bamboo one applies the spreading-
materials. Two dark outcroppings of earth or rock, and a
eight [late clerical] method.
bank extending back, define the space of the picture, to¬
Those who understand this thoroughly
gether with the placement of the plants. Clumps of grass
Will realize that calligraphy and painting have always
and shrubs grow beneath the tall stalks of bamboo. Li
been the same.40
Kan’s systematic study of the real growth of bamboo, as
well as paintings of it, carried out on his official travels, The dubiousness of this last claim — it applies only in

underlies his meticulous depiction of the shoots, the clus¬ the loosest way to a minor segment of Chinese paint¬

ters of overlapping leafage, and the shaded green of the ing— has not prevented it from being widely repeated

leaves. No picture could be further from the abstract and and inspiring countless calligraphers to attempt to turn

flattened character of typical ink bamboo as practiced by their skills to painting, usually with very limited success.

most scholar-amateur artists, who were less concerned What we admire in Elegant Rocks and Sparse Trees is not

The Yuan Dynasty 187

II
E'.'-rr*
i
mm

173- Zhao Mengfu, Elegant Rocks and Sparse Trees, section of a handscroll, ink on paper, Yuan dynasty. 27.5 X 62.8 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.

Zhao the master calligrapher but Zhao the highly accom¬ depict the bamboo leafage. The affinities of the brush¬
plished painter; not the “calligraphic” brushstrokes in strokes to those of calligraphy are nonetheless real and
themselves but the way they are made to function repre- justify the use of the term “calligraphic” for paintings
sentationally. Broad, broken strokes (the “flying white”) such as this. Tang Hou, a connoisseur and art theorist
shape the rocks and give them surface roughness and who adopted and expanded the ideas of Zhao Mengfu,
volume; firm, blunt strokes in black ink (the “seal script”) observes that “painting plum blossoms [in ink] is called
convey the stiffness of the branches and twigs of trees; writing [xie] plum blossoms; painting bamboo is called
spiky clumps of tapered strokes (the “late clerical” script) writing bamboo; painting orchids is called writing or-

18 8 The Yuan Dynasty

chids.” Tang goes on to quote a line from a Song-period of bamboo than Zhao Mengfu’s. The visual excitement

poet: “If the idea is adequate, do not seek for outward generated in the viewer by a painting like Zhao’s comes

likeness.”41 But this association of “capturing the idea” from the experience of reading the brushstrokes simulta¬

with the spontaneous ink monochrome mode of painting neously as elements of an image and as expressive traces

and “seeking for outward likeness” with the careful, con¬ of the artist’s hand.
servative styles is also of limited validity; it would be Another leading bamboo painter of the time was

difficult to argue that Li Kan’s painting (see fig. 172) is Zhao Mengfu’s wife, Guan Daosheng (1262-1319). The

less successful in conveying the “idea” or the “principle” daughter of an old Wuxing family and well educated, she

The Yuan Dynasty 189

 i74- Guan Daosheng, Bamboo Groves in Mist and Rain, section of a handscroll, ink on paper, 1308. 23.1 X 113.7 cm.
National Palace Museum, Taibei.

married Zhao in 1269, after the death of his first wife. turn have inspired some of them. Bamboo painting of
She bore him two daughters and two sons, one of whom, this genre is less a calligraphic exercise than the flat,
Zhao Yong, became a successful official and painter him¬ single-branch kind, more a matter of sensitive observa¬
self. Guan Daosheng was a calligrapher and poet as well tion and sympathetic portrayal. In Guan’s picture the
as a painter; besides bamboo, she painted blossoming range of ink tonality is kept narrow, in keeping with the
plum, orchids, landscapes, and Buddhist figures, some¬ misty atmosphere; separation in depth is accomplished
times even doing wall paintings in temples. Later critics by overlapping earthbanks, and by a layer of fog that in¬
who praise her paintings almost invariably add a back- tervenes between near and far. The bamboo stalks are
handed compliment to the effect that they were not at drawn with supple, continuous strokes, and the leafage
all like the frail, delicate brushwork of gentlewoman- with feather-soft touches.
painters. Among the scholar-officials in the Yuan court who
Among the few surviving works reliably from her practiced ink bamboo painting was Ke Jiusi (1290—1343).
hand are several ink bamboo pictures close to her hus¬ His father was a friend of Li Kan, and he may have
band’s in style. More interesting and distinctive is the learned bamboo painting direcdy from Li. Through his
short handscroll painted in 1308, Bamboo Groves in Mist scholarship and artistic talents, he came to the attention
and Rain (fig. 174). She dedicates it to another noble¬ of Emperor Wenzong, who appointed him director of
woman, whom she addresses as “Lady Chuguo,” and painting and calligraphy in the Kuizhangge, where he
adds that she painted it “in a boat on the green waves served as a court connoisseur and curator of the imperial
of the lake.” The picture can in fact be taken as a view collection. In his late years he retired to Suzhou. Far less
from a boat of groves of bamboo growing on the lake- versatile as a painter than Zhao Mengfu or even Li Kan,
shore. Guan Daosheng is said to have specialized in de¬ he limited himself largely to modest compositions of
picting thickets of bamboo, in contrast to the individual bamboo stalks and branches, occasionally adding other
branches or stalks painted by most other artists. In this plants and garden stones. Ink Bamboo for the Qingbige, dated
preference she may be following a local Zhejiang tradi¬ 1338, represents him at his best (fig. 175). The Qingbige
tion, as represented in small paintings of misty bamboo (pavilion) was on the estate of Ni Zan, and Ke Jiusi was
groves preserved in Japan under the name of Tan Zhirui, staying with that wealthy young aesthete at the time he
an artist unrecorded in China who was active in the early painted the picture; its orderly, uncluttered look must
Yuan. Since these paintings were brought to Japan by have pleased Ni’s austere taste. Ke’s elegant employment
Chan Buddhist monks who had studied in northern Zhe¬ of shifting ink values in the leaf clusters and on the stalks
jiang, some of them with the great priest Zhongfeng answers dictates of taste more than representation, al¬
Mingben, who was a close friend of Zhao Mengfu and though it does serve, along with the simple shaping of the
Guan Daosheng, it is reasonable to assume that she knew rock, to give a minimal depth to the work. Ke Jiusi’s pur¬
the artists who produced these pictures; her work may in pose is at a further extreme from Guan Daosheng’s; his

190 The Yuan Dynasty

 painted landscapes in the Mi family manner, and pictures
of bamboo and old trees. A diary by him has survived,
covering the period 1308—1309; it records his travels,
mostly in the region of Hangzhou; comments on private
collections of paintings and calligraphy, as well as wall
paintings in temples that he visited; and notes on paint¬
ings and calligraphy that he executed on his travels, usu¬
ally at the request of hosts, or in return for gifts of food
and wine.42 Lonely Bamboo and Bare Tree (fig. 176), dedi¬
cated in his inscription to a certain “Priest Wuwen,” must
represent the kind of spontaneous work he produced on
such occasions. In subject and composition it resembles
the better-known work of the Jin artist Wang Tingyun
(1151—1202), painted about a half-century earlier.43 The
composition, like Wang Tingyun’s, centers on a segment
of old tree trunk rendered in broken, dragged brush¬
strokes; a branch projects to one side, and sprigs of grow¬
ing bamboo occupy the other. The brushwork seems
deliberately harsh and inelegant, modulating suddenly
from light to dark, dry to wet, to characterize its unideal¬
ized, unbeautiful subject. Both brushwork and image
convey, within the code of values in literati painting, the
idea of uncompromising integrity.
The best bamboo painter of the late Yuan, and per¬
haps of the whole dynasty, was Wu Zhen, whom we
considered earlier as a landscapist. A major portion of
his surviving oeuvre is made up of pictures of bamboo,
mosdy represented as isolated branches, the “shadow
bamboo” supposed to have been inaugurated when
someone traced in ink on a paper window the shadow of
bamboo branches cast by the moon. In his prose inscrip¬
tion on an uncharacteristic but deeply-affecting work,
Stalks of Bamboo by a Rock, painted in 1347 (fig. 177), the
artist writes of having studied bamboo painting half his
life, and of now being old. He has seen many works pur¬
porting to be by Wen Tong and Su Shi, but genuine ones
were rare among them. One exception, a work by Wen
Tong “quite beyond comparison with the vulgar manner¬
isms [of the forgeries],” he had seen in the collection of
the Xianyu family, possibly relatives of the calligrapher
and scholar Xianyu Shu (1257?—1302), who had spent
175- Ke Jiusi, Ink Bamboo for the Oingbige, hanging scroll, ink
on paper, 1338. 58.5 X 32.8 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing. some years in Hangzhou and was a noted collector. But
despite his efforts to imitate it, Wu Zhen could not attain
“one ten-thousandth” of its quality, because his brush
work is a highly disciplined performance in an estab¬ force was not yet mature, “as can be seen from this
lished style, an expression of homage to the Wen Tong [painting].” This is the conventional modesty of the liter¬
tradition and the literati values it had come to stand for. atus and seems especially unwarranted here: what Wu
Guo Bi (1280-ca. 1335) was the son of a prominent Zhen accomplishes in his picture is not anticipated in any

official and a scholar of some standing. Failing to pass the work associated with Wen Tong or any other Song artist.

examinations, however, he held only minor posts. He The expressive capacity of bamboo, like that of land-

The Yuan Dynasty \ 91

 scape, had been expanded in the hands of the Yuan mas¬ vitality, as that in Ni’s Rongxi Studio (see fig. 161). Ni Zan’s
ters, and images of it could evoke a broad range of feel¬ own inscription, a quatrain, is answered by two others by
ings or ideas, from aggressive ardor to loneliness and contemporaries in the upper left; a certain Lu Zhixue, us¬
melancholy. The mood of Wu Zhen’s painting is certainly ing a script style close to Ni Zan’s, adds a fourth, along
at the latter end of this spectrum, with the few unassum¬ with a prose note in which he writes of having been with
ing stalks drawn in pale ink and revealing the effects of the artist for more than ten years on the Songling River,
season and weather in their bare twigs and few drooping “burning incense, playing with the brush, toasting each
leaves. A shallow space is opened behind the loaf-shaped other with wine, composing poems.” He dates his in¬
rock by groundlines brushed in dilute ink; the composi¬ scription 1384, ten years after Ni Zan’s death.
tion stands midway between the kind that situates the The blossoming plum tree, another favorite theme for
bamboo in a real-world setting, pervaded by space and literati painters, had a somewhat different place in Chi¬
blown by wind, and the flat “shadow bamboo” type that nese culture from that of bamboo. Enthusiasm for the
gives it only an abstract, ink-on-paper existence. The ef¬ blossoming plum had developed into a cult in the South¬
fect is of isolation and impoverishment, and bespeaks the ern Song period, with poets expressing almost erotic at¬
same sensitive observation, even a kind of compassion, tachment to its sensuous beauty, and painters both in
that one feels in Guan Daosheng’s very different picture. the Imperial Painting Academy and among the scholar-
Ni Zan also painted bamboo, old tree, and rock pic¬ amateurs creating ravishing images of it. Masterworks by
tures; an excellent example is his undated Autumn Wind in Ma Yuan and Ma Lin in the academy, and of Yang Wujiu
Gemstone Trees (fig. 178). Although the style indicates that and other scholar-artists, would seem to have left litde
it must be late in his oeuvre, it is by no means one of the space for development by painters of later times, and the
loose, sloppily executed pictures that his contemporary genre of ink plum became increasingly conventionalized,
Xia Wenyan, as mentioned earlier, writes of as having especially after the Yuan. But this does not appear to
been done to respond to obligations. This one may well have lessened its popularity. Around the middle of the
have served that function for Ni, but it is a disciplined, fourteenth century, a litde-known artist named Wu Taisu
lucidly organized picture with no wasted brushstrokes, composed a treatise that codified the painting of ink
no excess flourishes meant to signify spontaneity. The plum as Li Kan had done for bamboo; Song^hai meipu sur¬
dry, careful delineation of the rock, with a few dark dian vives only in four incomplete copies in Japan, where Wu
(dots) as accents, permits an unambiguous reading of its Taisu’s only extant paintings are also preserved.44
shape, as the springy stalks and sharp-pointed leaves of The best-known painter of flowering plum in the Yuan
the bamboo and the more varied brushstrokes of the dynasty was Wang Mian (1287-1359). Like Wu Taisu, he
tree describe the different materials of these plants and came from Kuaiji in Zhejiang Province. Failing in his as¬
transmit their growing life. The brushwork in the tree, in pirations toward a career either as an official in the civil
particular, is as constandy modulating, as charged with service or as a military adviser to the powerful, he re-

192 The Yuan Dynasty

 signed himself to making his living by painting; in this, at
least, he was successful. His contemporary Song Lian
writes: “Those who sought [his paintings] came in
crowds, [and stood] back to shoulder to watch. He used
[paintings on] long and short lengths of silk in order to
earn what he needed for rice. When people mocked him,
Mian said, ‘I depend on this for my livelihood. Why [oth¬
erwise] would I want to be a painting master working for
others?”’ Wang Mian exemplifies, in fact, along with Wu
Zhen and others, a phenomenon that was increasingly
common in the Yuan: artists who possessed the creden¬
tials for scholar-amateur status but who chose, or were
forced by circumstance, to make their living by painting.
We might see this as the beginnings of the practice in
later Chinese painting of turning literatus-artist status
into a marketable commodity. The diversity of sizes, ma¬
terials, and styles in Wang Mian’s oeuvre — large, decora¬
tive hanging scrolls on silk, short handscrolls or album
leaves featuring single branches and painted on paper —
are best understood as the artist’s response to a corre¬
sponding diversity of clients and patronage situations, as
well as to his inner artistic impulses.
An excellent example of Wang Mian’s late style,
painted in 1 3 5 5, is his Branches of Blossoming Plum, a rela¬
tively small work on paper (fig. 179). The artist himself
has inscribed six quatrains on it, and others have been
added by four contemporaries; moreover, the paper shi-
tang above the painting and even the space on the mount¬
ing silk surrounding it are filled with inscriptions by such
illustrious Ming writers as the calligraphers Zhu Yun-
ming and Wang Chong and the painter Tang Yin. The
painting might seem a frail support for all these effusions
of praise, but it holds its own with a delicate richness, the
profusion of blossoms filling the available space. The
conventional S-shaped curve around which plum branch
paintings are usually organized is preserved in one branch
that extends from near the upper right corner to the
lowest point at left, but other branches and twigs partiy
obscure this, giving the composition some measure of
177- Wu Zhen, Stalks of Bamboo by a Rock, hanging scroll, ink on
paper, 1347. 90.6 X 42.5 cm. National Palace Museum, Taibei.
freshness. The painting conveys something of the spring¬
time experience of being enveloped in a cloud of fragrant
blossoms, one of the many ways to enjoy flowering plum.
The famous Breath of Spring by Zou Fulei (fig. 180) is
the only extant work of a less-known but extremely ac¬
complished master of ink plum painting. Nothing is
known about him beyond what is contained in the in¬
scriptions on the painting, according to which he was a
Daoist physician and painter of blossoming-plum pic¬
tures. He lived in seclusion with his elder brother, also an
artist, who specialized in bamboo. The painting is dated

The Yuan Dynasty 19 3

 178. Ni Zan, Autumn Wind in Gemstone Trees,
hanging scroll, ink on paper, Yuan dynasty.
62 X 43.4 cm. Shanghai Museum, left

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hanging scroll, ink on paper, 1355.
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 1360. Zou Fulei must have been one of the many edu¬
cated men who became “hermits” during the disorders of
the late Yuan, living by their learning and artistic talents.
In his poem on the painting, he writes of sitting on an au¬
tumn night wishing for the return of spring, with the
moon shining on the bare plum tree; his painting, he says,
will preserve for him the shadows that the blossoming
branches had cast on his paper window in spring. We can
take this as a veiled expression of longing for the return
of peace and stable rule. Zou’s plum branch is one of the
most perfectly controlled performances in brush and ink
in all Chinese painting. Like Zhao Mengfu’s Elegant Rocks
and Sparse Trees (see fig. 173), it exemplifies how seemingly
spontaneous, “calligraphic” brushstrokes can be made to
function representationally within the structure of an im¬
age, rendering light and shadow, the roughness of bark,
the springiness of twigs, and a sense of vigorous growth
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1.7
 YANG XIN

A
The Ming Dynasty (i 368-1644)

fter more than a decade of brutal war, in 1368 Zhu Yuanzhang emerged

as the victorious general of the warring factions of south China, eliminated

the separatist forces, chased Emperor Shundi of the Yuan dynasty out of

^ Beijing, and established the Ming dynasty, which ruled until 1644. Not

since about 1127 had a native, Han Chinese dynasty ruled over the entire

empire. There did not appear during the early Ming, as during the Yuan

dynasty and the later Qing dynasty, large numbers ofyimin— “leftover sub¬

jects,” loyalists to the fallen dynasty — including loyalist artists. Initially Con¬

fucianism again had great influence among Chinese scholars and painters.

What Ming artists faced from the very beginning, however, was the ques¬

tion of how to draw on and develop two existing artistic traditions: that of

the professional artists (a category that includes artisans, craftsmen, and

court painters) and that of the literati artists. The Ming court was a major

supporter and sponsor of professional artists. The early Ming emperors de¬

sired to revive and restore the cultural and artistic supremacy of the past, es¬

pecially the Song dynasty. During the Xuande reign in particular, with the

ruler himself an active and talented poet, there was a golden age in landscape

painting, bird-and-flower composition, poetry, and calligraphy patronized

by the court. Literati painting, further developed by the Wu School masters

centered in Suzhou, flourished. Drawing on both literati and professional

painting traditions, other Ming painters cloaked their references to the past

Details, figure 183 (opposite) and figure 204 {above)

 in very personalized, individualistic modes of painting. Instead, it continued the Yuan system, which enlisted
The imperial family often requested the services of the artists to serve the court. During the Hongwu reign
most accomplished artists. Thus the individual styles of period (1368-1398), artists were commissioned by the

the professional painters and the artistic demands of the court and given various official titles. The main task of
imperial family became the leading factors determining such professional painters as Sun Wenzong (active ca.
the artistic trends of an era. However, since the Northern 1360-1370) and Chen Hui (early fifteenth century) was
Song dynasty, and especially during the Yuan, scholar to paint the emperor’s portrait. Shen Xiyuan (fourteenth
painting had developed, forming a distinct theory and century) and Chen Yuan were granted the titles of Clerk
particular technical methods, challenging the status and at the Secretariat of the Cabinet, and Official at Large
artistic style of the professional artist. at the Wenyuange (Pavilion of the Source of Literature),
The consolidation, rise, and decline of the dynasty respectively, because Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang liked
not only coincided with the rise and fall of court paint¬ their portraits of him. Zhou Wei (active ca. 1368-1390),
ing; it also affected the status of professional artists be¬ Sheng Zhu (active second half of fourteenth century),
yond the palace walls. In contrast, literati painting, which Zhuo Di (active early fifteenth century), and Shangguan
had gained prominence during the Yuan, declined dur¬ Boda (active ca. early fifteenth century) were among
ing the early Ming for political and other reasons. By those responsible for creating murals for the palace and
the middle of the Ming, however, with the emergence imperial temples. Most of these artists came from Jiangsu
of such scholar-painters as Shen Zhou (1427-1509) and and Zhejiang Provinces and had their own distinctive
Wen Zhengming (1470 —15 59), scholar painting began to painting styles.
flourish as imperial power began to weaken. The decline Yet the reign of Zhu Yuanzhang cast a shadow on
of professional painting and the rise of scholar painting Ming court painting. The emperor was by nature sus¬
gave Mang painting its dazzling colors. picious and jealous. Exhausted by the tasks of unifying
Continual internal strife weakened Ming rule and en¬ the country and cleansing his court of opponents, he be¬
feebled its ideological control. Beginning in the middle came increasingly paranoid. To strengthen his rule, he
of the Ming period, many scholars lost interest in clas¬ frequently sentenced artists and others to death. Among
sical Confucian teachings, which were seen as ossified them were Zhao Yuan (active late fourteenth century),
and dogmatic. There was dissatisfaction with the “eight¬ who, “by order of the emperor, was asked to paint por¬
legged essays,” the required style of writing for the civil traits of the famous in history and did not live up to the
service examinations. People ridiculed the “fake moral¬ expectation of the emperor. He was thus punished.”1 No
ists” demanding a transformation of society. Such senti¬ document records how Zhao Yuan so dissatisfied him.
ments were reflected in painting through the pursuit of Sheng Zhu, who “served as the household attendant of
the new and unorthodox and of sensuality in the form of the emperor during the Hongwu reign period, was re¬
aesthetic pleasures. This tendency received additional im¬ warded. Later, when he painted the mural of the Tianjie
petus from the growth of the urban economy, the result¬ Temple, he offended the emperor by painting a jellyfish
ing taste for luxuries, and the unprecedented collecting of on the back of a dragon. He was therefore executed.”2
art objects by merchants. By the late Mflng, many schools Even Zhou Wei, by nature a very cautious man, was
of painting had appeared in various cities and regions, framed and later put to death. Wang Meng, who was in¬
including the Wu, Zhe, Jiangxia, Huating, and Bochen volved in a notorious frame-up of a high official, “lan¬
Schools. The unique colors of Xu Wei, Wu Bin, Chen guished in prison and finally died.” That so many artists
Hongshou, and others, the sudden increase in the num¬ were put to death in such a short period of time is rare in
ber of female artists, and the semipublic dissemination of Chinese history.
erotic paintings were ways in which Ming painting broke During the Xuande (1426-1435) and Hongzhi (1488-
with the past. 1505) reigns, however, Ming imperial power was consoli¬
dated, and the crown appreciated and supported the arts.
Court Painting and Painters Court painting flourished, particularly under Emper¬
ors Xuanzong (r. 1426-1435), Xianzong (r. 1465-1487),
The Ming court did not restore in toto the practices of and Xiaozong (r. 1488—1505), all painters in their own
Han Chinese officialdom nor did it re-create the Hanlin right. During these years, painters were housed in the
Academy that had been established in the Song dynasty. Forbidden City in the Hall of Benevolence and Wis-

198 The Ming Dynasty

dom (Renzhi dian), Hall of Military Valor (Wuying dian),
Court Portraiture
where emperors received military leaders, and the Em¬
peror’s Canopy (Huagai) so that they could be sum¬ For convenience, the court artists are examined here
moned at any time. In accordance with a regulation set according to the three main categories of figure, land¬
by Emperor Chengzu (r. 1403—1424), the emperor gave scape, and bird-and-flower painting. Court figure paint¬
artists various military titles in the Embroidered Uniform ing during the Ming bears the heavy stamp of politics, for
Guards and promotions at will.3 The Imperial Guards — the main task of the painters was to draw portraits of
soon notorious for monitoring the behavior of court the emperor and his concubines. An almost complete set
officials —- looked askance at court painters, even though of portraits of Ming emperors exists. Portraits of Zhu
the artists’ tides were often honorary, granted only to fa¬ Yuanzhang by the court painters show a benevolent-
cilitate the payment of stipends and keep them close to looking old man with gray hair and white beard, whereas
the emperor. After the death of Emperor Xiaozong, the those done by local professional specialists often depict
head of the cabinet, Liu Jian, proposed to “streamline an ugly emperor. There are also two portraits of Emperor
the surplus officials,” charging that “hundreds of painters Chengzu: one was once kept in the palace (it is now in the
were given official titles indiscriminately. Shouldn’t they National Palace Museum, Taibei), and the other was a
be dismissed from office?”4 With the decline of imperial copy of the first and a gift to a lamasery in Tibet (Potala
power after the Jiajing reign period (1522-1566) and the Palace, Lhasa). The copy shows a larger-than-life figure
lack of interest on the part of the emperors, court paint¬ with a long black beard and a dark-reddish face with a
ing of the Ming dynasty lost its luster. unique character and a dignified expression. For portraits
Ming court painting inherited the Song academic style, of later emperors, only the face is drawn from life. The
but with variations. Court painters of the Ming dynasty crown, costume, throne, carpet, and posture are all por¬
were all experienced career painters recruited from the trayed conventionally. The sequence of the emperors’
common people. Most of them came from Jiangsu and facial expressions reveals the decline of the empire. The
Zhejiang Provinces, the political and cultural center of portrait of Emperor Xizong (r. 1621—1627), for example
the Southern Song dynasty. (Palace Museum, Beijing), shows only a blank expression,
Literati painting, though it flourished in the Yuan, was his face lacking the early vividness of his ancestors. Por¬
not yet widely accepted in the Ming. Literati painting has trait painters also depicted entertainment at the impe¬
inherent shortcomings. Painting was a hobby for the rial court, as in Xuan^ong Playing in the Court and Xuan^ong
scholars, not a formal profession. They received no rigor¬ Going Hunting (both in the Palace Museum, Beijing). The
ous training in painting techniques. They stressed con¬ painters ShangXi (active ca. 1430—1440) and Zhou Quan
veying the idea behind the image rather than accurately painted works of this kind, too.
depicting reality. By emphasizing spontaneity, artistic in¬ Portraits also could serve educational purposes, por¬
tuition, and the direct expression of feelings in the tech¬ traying wise and virtuous rulers and ministers of the past.

nical application of the brush and ink, they precluded Emperor Taispt Calling on Zhao Pu on a Snowy Night (fig. 181)
the development of a wide range of subjects. In portrait by Liu Jun (active ca. 1500) depicts Zhao Kuangyin,

painting, for example, because of the standards for founding emperor of the Northern Song dynasty, calling

portraying figures, strict training is required to obtain on Zhao Pu one snowy night to discuss affairs of state.

the necessary skills of representation. Thus scholar- Zhao Pu was subsequently promoted to prime minister

painters rarely ventured into portraiture. Instead, Ming and became known for bringing peace and prosperity to

literati works are overwhelmingly landscapes and bird- the country by applying the teachings of Confucius to

and-flower paintings. An example of the genre’s com¬ statecraft. As usual, the emperor is portrayed as a man of

parative popularity can be found in the example of the powerful build, seated in a frontal position and with a

professional painter Sheng Mao (active ca. 1320-1360) dignified air. Zhao Pu, wearing the plain clothing of an

and the scholar-painter Wu Zhen (1280-1354), who both ordinary person, sits in profile presenting his views to the

supported themselves by selling their works from their emperor. The carpet of white snow, the flaming red of

houses. Although they lived next door to each other, the charcoal fire, and the guard outside the gate are all im¬

people constantly streamed to Sheng for his paintings, ages of security, order, and comfort that enhance the har¬

whereas not many went to Wu. There was as yet little monious atmosphere between the two on this long, cold

market for literati paintings. night.

The Ming Dynasty 199

181. Liu J un, Emperor Tai^u
Calling on Zhao Pu on a Snowy
Night, hanging scroll, ink and
color on silk, Ming dynasty.
143.2 X 75.1 cm. Palace
Museum, Beijing.
 18 2. Ni Duan, Inviting Pang Degong, hanging
scroll, ink and color on silk, Ming dynasty.
163.8 X 92.7 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.

Another portrayal of a worthy official, Inviting Pang trol, even during the wartime years. Flight of the Tigers at
Degong (fig. 182) by Ni Duan (active early fifteenth cen¬ Hongnong (Palace Museum, Beijing) by Zhu Duan (active
tury), is based on the story of Liu Biao, governor of ca. 1506—1521) similarly depicts the story of the gover¬
Jingzhou Prefecture during the Three Kingdoms period. nor of Hongnong Prefecture, Liu Kun of the Eastern

In this picture, Liu Biao, a distant relative of the im¬ Han, who managed public affairs so successfully that all
perial family of the Eastern Han, is seeking the help of the tigers, long a symbol of disaster, fled across the river

the recluse Pang Degong. Thanks to his willingness to when they heard his name. Although the political theme
honor the wise whatever their social status, Liu was of these works is clear, the figures are small, leaving more

able to bring peace and stability to the area under his con¬ space for the mountains, rivers, and houses.

The Ming Dynasty 201

 183. Shang Xi, Guan Yu Capturing His Enemy Pang De, hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, Ming dynasty. 200 X 237 cm. Palace
Museum, Beijing.

Shang Xi’s Guan Yu Capturing His Enemy Pang De (fig. Another of Shang Xi’s works, Emperor Xuanpong and
18 3) depicts the capture of Pang De, then a general of the His Retinue (Palace Museum, Beijing), is also on a large
state of Wei, by Guan Yu, a noted general of the state of scale. Dominated by many figures, in breadth and the
Shu. The hanging scroll is bigger than usual, with figures techniques used to paint the trees and rocks in the back¬
looming large in the foreground and pines and rocks ex¬ ground it is reminiscent of the styles of Li Tang and Ma
tending to the hori2on. Shang Xi, a skilled mural painter Yuan, both court painters during the Southern Song.
probably recruited from the common people, was a na¬ Shang Xi was constantly trying to change his style to
tive of Puyang in present-day Henan Province. The por¬ cater more to the imperial taste. In appreciation of his
trayal of the characters and the brushwork reveal a close artistry the emperor awarded him the title Commander
link between this work and the murals in the Chunyang of the Imperial Guards.
Hall of the Yongle Palace, Ruicheng County, Shanxi Although the works of Xie Huan (active 1426-1452),
Province, built during the Yuan dynasty (see fig. 142). another professional figure painter, are less well known,
There were quite a few local specialized mural paint¬ his Literary Gathering in the Apricot Garden (Museum of
ers like Shang Xii in the palace; the murals in the Fahai Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province) is notable. The paint¬
Temple in the western suburbs of Beijing were the works ing depicts three important court officials (Yang Rong,
of these anonymous artists. Yang Shiqi, and Yang Pu, known as the Three Yangs) in

202 The Ming Dynasty

an apricot garden, where they are writing poetry and to be the work of Yan Wengui of the Northern Song.
drinking wine. This is a group portrait of a commemora¬ Similarly, some works of Zhu Duan, who followed the
tive nature. The artist depicts the garden’s beauty in a style of Guo Xi, were mistaken for Guo Xi’s. Literati
style influenced by the Southern Song tradition. The painting was on the rise during the latter period of the
painter has even included himself in the picture, as a Ming dynasty, pushing court painters out of the limelight.
figure placed at a distance from the center. Court artists The works of Li Zai are somewhat similar to those of
rarely included themselves in their pictures. Sheng Mao of the Yuan. Li Zai’s painting Qingdao Riding a
Carp (Shanghai Museum) is a depiction of a fairy tale.
Court Landscape Painting
Gasfng at a Distant Viewfrom a Riverside Pavilion (fig. 185) is
The painting styles of prominent academic landscape a representative work by Wang E, whom Emperor Xiao-
painters of the Ming dynasty, which include Guo Chun zong acclaimed as the “present-day Ma Yuan.” The long,
(1370—1444), Shi Rui (active early fifteenth century), Li ax-cut brushstrokes of his mountains and rocks and the
Zai (active mid-fifteenth century), Wang E (active ca. angular twists and turns of his pine branches all retain
1488—1501), and Zhu Duan, differed markedly depend¬ features of Ma Yuan’s brushwork and modeling tech¬
ing on the degree to which they pursued the styles of nique. Wang E’s composition is more balanced than Ma
the Northern and Southern Song and Yuan dynasties. Yuan’s, however, and his brushwork is finer.
Guo Chun’s Blue-and-Green Landscape (Beijing Municipal
Court Bird-and-Flomr Paintings
Cultural Relics Store) evokes the Northern Song land¬
scape painting style which had permeated Yuan-dynasty Although landscape was a predominant theme, a
works, whereas the brushwork used in painting the trees period of acclaimed decorative and dramatic bird-and-
and shrubs is reminiscent of that of Guo Xi, also of the flower paintings was initiated by Bian Jingzhao, Lin
Northern Song. Liang, and Lii Ji. Bian Jingzhao, also known as Wenjin
Shi Rui, recruited during the reign of Xuanzong, was a (active ca. 1426-1435), a court artist during the reign of
low-ranking official at the Hall of Benevolence and Wis¬ Chengzu who also served in the Hall of Military Valor,
dom. His landscape painting was influenced by the blue- was a noted artist in this area. He inherited the themes
and-green landscape style of the Sui and Tang dynasties. and techniques of the Huang Quan tradition of the Five
Of Shi Rui’s works, Admiring Flowers, Greeting the New Year, Dynasties, and his works are characterized by realism,
and Fisherman’s Delight in a Riverside Village are worthy of precise oudines, and bright colors. Three Friends and One
mention. Admiring Flowers (Shoto Museum, Tokyo) was Hundred Birds (National Palace Museum, Taibei), painted
painted for a man named Gu who had ranked third [tan- in 1413, shows the pine, bamboo, and blossoming plum,
hud) in the civil service examinations presided over by the which were known as the Three Friends of the Cold Sea¬

emperor. In the Tang dynasty, a flower-admiring party son. The one hundred birds, singing together, auspi¬

(known as a tanhua party) would usually be held in an ciously symbolize peace in the world. According to the

apricot garden to celebrate a candidate’s success in the eighteenth chapter of the Xuanhe huapu (The Xuanhe

examinations. painting catalogue), the Song court painter Yi Yuanji had

The clear and neat structure of Shi Rui’s works re¬ done four paintings named One Hundred Birds. “Poets

sembles the typical style of the early Northern Song. In have six skills, and they have a rich knowledge of birds,

Greeting the New Year (fig. 184) people roam in magnificent animals, plants, and woods. Nature records the moment

halls and pavilions that look like royal houses and that of their blossoming, withering, singing, and silence. What

stand amid overlapping rolling hills that stretch all the is wonderful about painting is that an artist can express

way to the riverside, where there are many boats. On the the beauty of nature with his brush. Together with poets,

other side of the river, hills dotted with villages and they create beautiful scenes.”5 To this painting Bian at¬

towns seem to disappear in the distance. The artist’s tached four of his seals. The four Chinese characters on

meticulous brushwork allows him to depict many small one seal read, “Spiritual cultivation through nature,” and

scenes, yet the painting still presents a sweeping view of a another reads, “A rich knowledge of plants, woods, birds,

landscape. During the later Ming and early Qing period, and animals.”
Greeting the New Year was mistaken for the work of Li Another of Bian Jingzhao’s works, Bamboo and Cranes

Zhaodao of the much earlier Tang dynasty, whereas Shi (fig. 186), depicts two red-crowned cranes walking lei¬

Rui’s Fisherman’s Delight in a Riverside Village (private col¬ surely in a bamboo grove. Cranes and bamboo generally

lection) was deliberately tampered with so that it seemed symbolize noble and pure qualities and represent hermits

The Ming Dynasty 203

 184. Shi Rui, Greeting the New Year, handscroll, ink, color, and gold on silk, Ming dynasty. (© Cleveland Museum of Art, 1997,
John L. Severance Fund, 1973.72.)

185. Wang E, Gaging at a Distant View from a Riverside Pavilion, hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, Ming dynasty. 143.2 X 2 29 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.
secluded in mountains. Imperial power was not opposed Emperor Xuanzong was a painter in his own right and
to such “secluded hermits”; on the contrary, it sometimes often gave his works to his ministers to show his favor.
even commended them and considered them attributes His paintings show different styles, and some were prob¬
of a “tranquil world.” Using translucent white powder ably painted by court painters in his name. However,
and thick black ink, Bian Jingzhao painted the cranes’ his Balsam Pear and Mouse (fig. 188), with his inscription
feathers to show a sharp contrast between black and “painted by the emperor,” was in his own hand, though
white. The bamboo grove, stream, and riverbank were the few strokes of the grass and the mouse resemble Sun
delineated with only a few clear, crisp strokes. Though Long’s in technique. What is different, however, is that
the artist intended to convey a sense of purity, there are the emperor used ink more than colors, and his brush-
traces of overembellishment that make the cranes look work, in contrast to Sun Long’s bold and confident style,
like birds raised in the imperial garden, a hazard that may appears rather weak and hesitant. Zhuge Liang Living as a
have been difficult for court painters to avoid. Hermit in Seclusion, painted in 1428 (Palace Museum, Bei¬
Also noted for his bird-and-flower paintings was Sun jing), was a work “done by the Emperor for Lord Chen
Long (fifteenth century), grandson of Sun Xingzu (the Xuan of Pingjiang.” The characters “for Lord Chen Xuan
marquis of Zhongmin at the time of the founding of of Pingjiang” were added later when this painting, origi¬
the Ming dynasty) and a low-ranking official in the nally created for the emperor himself, was given to Chen
Hanlin Academy during the Xuande reign period. Be¬ Xuan. Emperor Xuanzong gave it to recognize his nu¬
cause he was born into an aristocratic family, he of¬ merous battle achievements in subduing the minorities in
ten accompanied Emperor Xuanzong while the latter the south and to honor his accomplishments as the lead¬
worked on his paintings. Sun Long was especially good ing official in charge of shipping and several water con¬
at painting grass and insects. His works lacked other servancy projects.
court painters’ expression of their self-indulgence and Two outstanding Ming palace painters of birds and
self-admiration. His works were not considered suitable flowers who are always mentioned together as “incompa¬
as wall decorations because people of the court did not ap¬ rable” are Lin Liang and Lii Ji. Lin Liang (active ca.
preciate his freehand brushwork, characterized by vivid 1488—1505) was from Nanhai, Guangdong Province. Be¬
expression. Rather than contrive to imitate the tradi¬ cause his family was poor, he earned a living as a messen¬
tion of professional painters, he drew on works show¬ ger when still quite young. Gradually he gained some
ing scholars’ self-admiration from the Southern Song to fame for his paintings. During the Tianshun reign period
the Yuan dynasties. Unlike most scholar-painters, who (1457—1464) he was recruited to the imperial palace, first
used black ink to convey a sense of loneliness, Sun Long as an official in the Construction Ministry, and he lived in
applied various colors to the paper to create cheerful the Hall of Benevolence and Wisdom. He was promoted

paintings. and eventually became a commander in the Imperial

In Yiis Album of Flowers, Birds, Grass, and Insects (Shanghai Guards.
Museum), Sun Long used only a few brushstrokes to de¬ Lin Liang’s bird-and-flower paintings are utterly unlike

pict vividly different kinds of grass, insects, birds, plants, other court paintings. Using only water and ink, in gen¬
and flowers. The seemingly scattered brushwork and the eral, he applied his brush as in freehand-style calligraphy,

bright colors suggest the lively and bustling atmosphere giving an impression of lack of restraint. His favorite sub¬

in the countryside on a sunny autumn day. In his hand- ject, a powerful eagle or falcon, appears in Eagle and Wild

scroll Flowers, Birds, Grass, and Insects (Jilin Provincial Mu¬ Goose (fig. 189). Birds in Bushes (fig. 190) is a rare example
seum), Sun depicts a mouse trying to eat a watermelon of one of his handscrolls. Painted in monochrome ink

while a frog on top of duckweed attempts to catch a on paper, with light washes of color added, the scroll

dragonfly gliding over its head. Though Sun Long’s tech¬ depicts a gathering of birds by a pond surrounded by

nique and the painting’s composition show a clear debt shrubs and grasses. Some are flying, some are hopping

to Song artists, who paid meticulous attention to their around, chasing after each other; the waving branches

subjects, his style of using colors instead of black ink and leaves seem to be in rapport with the birds, suggest¬

was dubbed the “bone-immersing” method (though it ing a nourishing and friendly natural world. Equally suc¬

had nothing to do with the bone-immersing method of cessful is the artist’s combination of simple brushstrokes

Xu Chongsi of the Song dynasty). Swimming Goose by and a kind of willfulness that gives a carefree feeling. This

Flowers and Rocks (fig. 187) conveys a sense of his excel¬ style of art, formed after Liang Kai and Muqi, was the
ideal pursued by scholar-painters. To the Chinese, one
lent painting skills.

The Ming Dynasty 20 5

186. Bian Jingzhao, Bamboo
and Cranes, hanging scroll,
ink and color on silk, 15 th
century. 180.4 X 118 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.
 nm
ir- Cr

188. Zhu Zhanji [Emperor Xuanzong], Balsam Pear and Mouse,

handscroll, ink and light color on paper, 1427. 28.2 X 38.5 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.

i %i. Sun Long, Swimming Goose by Flowers and Rocks, hanging

scroll, ink and color on silk, Ming dynasty. 159.3 X 84.2 cm.
Palace .Museum, Beijing.

189. Lin Liang, Eagle and Wild Goose, hanging scroll, ink on silk,
Ming dynasty. 170 X 103.5 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.
 190. Lin Liang, Birds in Bushes, section of a handscroll, ink and light color on paper, Ming dynasty. 34 X 1211.2 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.

way of returning to nature is via the pursuit of artistic ef¬ Lin Liang’s freehand sketch—style brushwork. It is said
fect achieved by chance in the course of unrestrained cre¬ that in his early years he counterfeited Lin Liang’s works
ation and via the aesthetic fulfillment gained as a result. and sold them. Typical of this style is Egret, Eagle, and
This casual effect promoted the development of the Falling Lotus Flowers (fig. 192), which depicts an amusing
uniquely Chinese monochrome ink freehand brushwork, scene of an eagle disturbing the peace of a lotus pond on
to which Lin Liang contributed. Critics often fail to give an autumn day. The flapping of the eagle’s wings, the
him full credit, partly because his brushwork was overly panicked flight of the other birds, together with the sway¬
expressive and lacked subtlety and pardy because of the ing of reeds swept by the wind and the toss and turn of
prejudice against professional court painters. the faded lotus blossoms, are vividly portrayed. This
Lii Ji (active ca. 1500), a native of Ningbo, Zhejiang method of depicting an animated scene with animals and
Province, served in the Hall of Benevolence and Wisdom plants originated during the Northern Song; Cui Bai’s
and was promoted to commander in the Imperial Guards Magpies and Hare (see fig. 108) is a good example.
during the Hongzhi reign period. Faithfully abiding by
the rules and rituals of the court, he established good
relationships with officials. He was so highly thought The Zhe and Jiangxia
of by Emperor Xiaozong that when Lii was terminally ill, Schools of Painting
a continual flow of nobles and ministers called at his
deathbed. As Ming court painting flourished, two schools of paint¬
Lii Ji’s bird-and-flower paintings fall into two cate¬ ing rose to prominence outside of the palace: the Zhe
gories. One includes works in a meticulous style, using School, led by Dai Jin, and the Jiangxia School, led by
firm outlines and thick coloring, which he learned from Wu Wei. Both Dai Jin and Wu Wei were professional
Bian Jingzhao. Examples are Cassia, Chrysanthemums, and painters, and their styles derived from the same sources
Mountain Birds (fig. 191) and Camellia and Silver Pheasant as did the styles of the court painters. They are often in¬
(Palace Museum, Beijing). Lii Ji’s works of this type were cluded loosely in the Zhe School and the Academy. With
deeply influenced by Ma Yuan and Xia Gui in overall the fall of the Southern Song, a large number of court
composition and treatment of the rocks and trees in the painters scattered about in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Fujian
background. Gradually, he evolved a style of his own Provinces. This was one of the reasons for the dissemina¬
which exerted a widespread influence on bird-and-flower tion of the academic painting style and gradually gave rise
painters inside and outside the palace and which has of¬ to professional painters and local specialists. The multi¬
ten been described as typical of Ming-dynasty academic leaf album Mount Hua (fig. 193), painted by Wang Lii
bird-and-flower paintings. (fourteenth century) during the early Ming, is a continua¬
Lii Ji’s other painting style was borrowed directly from tion of this tradition, as are Dai Jin’s works.

208 The Ming Dynasty

 Daijin (1388—1462) was a native of Qian tang (present-
day Hangzhou), and as a young man, he was a goldsmith
and silversmith. During the Xuande reign period, he
was recommended to serve in the palace, but reportedly
other palace painters, out of jealousy, made false charges
against him before the emperor, whereupon he was
driven out of the palace. After returning home, he made a
living by selling his paintings and became famous near
and far. Some described his paintings as the best of that
dynasty.6 He was widely acclaimed by society, and his re¬
jection by the court aroused much sympathy and resent¬
ment among people. Stories about his experiences in the
capital became more and more complex and absurd, and
the affairs involved many court painters, including Xie
Huan, Ni Duan, Shi Rui, Li Zai, and Dai Jin’s student Xia
Zhi (fifteenth century). Though the exact time of Dai
Jin’s stay in Beijing cannot be determined, he was still
there in 1441, when a hometown friend, a procurator by
the name of Chen, was dismissed from office and was
about to leave for home. Other officials from the same
town gathered to give Chen a farewell party, and Dai Jin
painted Returning Home by Boat (Suzhou Museum) as a
parting gift for Chen.
During these years, specialization was becoming more
and more widespread, and an increasing number of

191. Liiji, Cassia, Chrysanthemums, and Mountain Birds, hanging

scroll, ink and color on silk, Ming dynasty. 190 X 106 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing, overleaf

192. Liiji, Egret, Eagle, and Falling Lotus Flowers, hanging scroll,
ink and light color on silk, Ming dynasty. 190 X 105.2 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.

The Ming Dynasty 209

painters modeled their work on the various styles of ear¬ Yuan-dynasty man of letters Yang Weizhen and his friend
lier painters. Dai Jin’s talent lay not only in his superb Mo Jingxing at Xinghua Zhuang (Apricot blossom vil¬
skills and techniques but also in his versatility in handling lage). Dai Jin painted this picture at the request of Mo Ju,
figures, landscapes, and bird-and-flower themes, as well one of Mo Jingxing’s descendants. Xinghua Zhuang was
as his extensive use of the historical legacy of Chinese the private garden of the Mo family, situated on the bank
painting. Spring Mountains Cloaked in Green (Shanghai of the famous West Lake in Hangzhou. Green willows
Museum), on the one hand, reflects Ma Yuan’s style, in line the shore of the lake, and painted boats frolic on the
the rendering of the pines in particular. Travelers Through water. In the distance towers Nanping Mountain. Com¬
Mountain Passes (fig. 194), on the other hand, was in¬ memorative works of this kind recalling an event of by¬
fluenced by the style of Li Tang and Liu Songnian, only gone days were a long-standing artistic tradition.
the brushstrokes are more relaxed and seem to have been There are few remaining bird-and-flower paintings by
executed in an offhand manner. The pines in Seeking the Dai Jin. Three Egrets (Palace Museum, Beijing) is sugges¬
Dao at Dongtian (Palace Museum, Beijing) are reminiscent tive of his early style, a continuation of the style of Ma
of murals by local artisans. In his landscape After Yan Wen- Yuan. Hollyhock, Rock, and Butterflies (fig. 196), in contrast,
gui (Shanghai Museum), the hazy atmosphere created by represents Dai Jin’s later style. The surface texture of the
his inkwash and dotting was apparently influenced by the rocks seems to have been painted with rough, ax-cut tex¬
Mi family landscape paintings. Even the most ruthless ture strokes, while the hollyhock and butterflies are finely
critic of the Zhe School, Dong Qichang, was astonished and elegantly executed, in a style reminiscent of the
by the conception and skill revealed in this work: “In the Northern Song and with strokes entirely different from
history of painting in this dynasty, Dai Jin stands out his earlier, swift brushwork. The many painters who imi¬
prominently. What is most unique in this imitation of Yan tated Dai Jin’s original style were called the Zhe School
Wengui is that it is imbued with a light, clear touch and because he was a native of Zhejiang Province.
devoid of the original colors.” Whereas Dai Jin was rejected by the palace, Wu Wei
Dai Jin’s figure paintings are mostly portrayals of (1459-1509) left the palace of his own accord. Also called
Daoist and Buddhist priests and the secluded lives of ear¬ Small Immortal, he was born of a poor family; his father
lier sages and men of virtue. The Night Excursion of Zhong died when he was very young, and he worked as a house

Kui (fig. 195) deals with a traditional subject, the ghost servant to make ends meet. At seventeen he went to

catcher, who, according to Chinese mythology, comes Nanjing, and there he became famous, thanks to the pa¬

out at night to capture evil spirits. Gong Kai of the Yuan tronage and financial support of Zhu Yi, the duke of

dynasty painted the same subject (see fig. 130), but Dai Chengguo. He was twice called to serve in the palace dur¬

Jin’s treatment is completely different. Here the image of ing the Hongzhi reign period, and in the Hall of Benevo¬

Zhong Kui fills almost the entire frame width, and partic¬ lence and Wisdom he became a favorite of Emperor

ular prominence is given to his eyes. He sits in a sedan Xianzong. Wu Wei was granted a seal carved with the

chair carried by four small devils. Two other demons are words “Number One Painter” and was often summoned

carrying his luggage and umbrella. In the hazy moonlight, to the palace to paint. Though he was by nature honest

they seem to be in a hurry. Perhaps Zhong Kui is out on and straightforward, he loved to drink and lost his tem¬

inspection, searching for more devils hidden among men. per easily. His air of disdain for high officials and nobles

One can tell from the modeling of the figures and the enraged them, and twice he was forced to leave the

brushwork that the artist had assimilated certain tradi¬ palace. In 1506, after Emperor Wuzong ascended the

tions of local professional and mural painting, both of throne, Wu Wei was once again summoned, but he died

which had gradually diminished during the post-Song from complications resulting from his excessive drinking

and Yuan periods. before he could set out for the capital.

Six Patriarchs of Chan (Liaoning Provincial Museum) Wu Wei learned from Dai Jin’s paintings and from ear¬

represents another of Dai Jin’s figure painting styles. Char¬ lier painters. However, Wu Wei’s use of brush and ink

acterized by close attention to composition and detail, it was even more unrestrained than his predecessors’. His

is regarded as one of his earlier works. In Elegant Gathering Fishing Boats at Xishan (Palace Museum, Beijing) depicts

at Nanping (Palace Museum, Beijing), however, which aged trees and scattered rocks in the foreground and tall,

was painted in 1460, during the last years of his life, his precipitous mountains in the distance. Fishermen on the

brushwork and composition appear to be much lighter river are either casting or hauling in their nets, and boats

and freer. The painting depicts a meeting between the are sailing out or coming in, all painted in a free and

The Ming Dynasty 211

 teg

i93' Wang Lii, Mount Hua, album leaf, ink and light color
on paper, Ming dynasty. 34.5 X 50.5 cm. Shanghai Museum
and Palace Museum, Beijing.

194. Dai Jin, Travelers Through Mountain Passes, hanging scroll,

ink and color on paper, Ming dynasty. 61.8 X 29.7 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.
195- Dai Jin,
The Night
Excursion of
Zhong Kui,
hanging scroll,
ink and color
on silk,
Ming dynasty.
189.7 X 120.2
cm. Palace
Museum,
Beijing.
 leisurely manner. Compared with the brushwork of
scholar-painters, however, Wu Wei’s is undisciplined and
lacks subtlety; his landscapes look plain and naked and
lack depth. Rather than depicting a spiritual world with
political implications in sophisticated and elegant images,
his works are closer to real life. Ten Thousand Ti of the
Yangyi River (fig. 197), painted in Wuchang in 1505, a few
years before Wu Wei died, is a handscroll nearly ten me¬
ters in length. With a lively style, the artist presents seem¬
ingly endless mountain ranges and peaks, rivers and
shoals veiled in mist, bustling towns and cities one after
another, and boats sailing with the wind. The painting
has enormous force, manifesting both a boundless en¬
ergy and great technical maturity.
Wu Wei’s figure paintings appear in two styles — the
meticulous, and the vigorous and unrestrained. Examples
of the first type include Spring at Wu Tin (Palace Museum,
Beijing), Asking for the Ferry (fig. 198), and The Iron Flute
(Shanghai Museum); and Reading in the Shade of the Wil¬
low Tree (Palace Museum, Beijing) exemplifies the sec¬
ond type. The Iron Flute is based on a story about Yang
Weizhen, a scholar of the Yuan dynasty, who once had an
old iron sword made into a flute with a remarkably beau¬
tiful sound. From then on, he called himself the Iron
Flute Daoist;. Neglected by officialdom, he spent his days
playing his flute, accompanied by singing and dancing
girls and boys. In this painting, Yang sits leaning against a
rock amid intertwining pines. A servant girl stands by his
side holding the flute. Across from him sit two servant
girls, one putting a flower in her hair and the other hiding
her face behind a fan, both carefully delineated. The girl
with the fan is particularly touching; one can vaguely dis¬
cern her beauty through the thin gauze of the fan — a re¬
markable display of Wu Wei’s skill. The work reveals a
more controlled side of the artist’s style and character as
well as that part of his life in which he had to socialize
with aristocrats and nobles.
Several other artists whose unrestrained styles were
similar to Wu Wei’s are Zhang Lu (ca. 1464-ca. 1538),
Jiang Song (fl. ca. 1500), and Wang Zhao (fl. ca. 1500). In
his Hurrying Home Before the Rain (fig. 199), Zhang Lu uses
inksplash to depict the dark mountain peaks. With unruly
strokes, he portrays the forest swept by the wind, pre¬
senting the viewer with a fascinating scene of that mo¬
ment just before a storm.

196. Dai Jin, Hollyhock, Rock, and Butterflies, hanging scroll, ink and
color on paper, Ming dynasty. 115 X 39.6 cm. Palace Museum,
Beijing.

214 The Ming Dynasty

 The Zhe School, headed by Dai Jin, and the Jiangxia
School, a regional group of artists whose style was based
on that of Wu Wei, along with the court artists, domi¬
nated the scene during the early and middle periods of
the Ming dynasty. However, their favored status was
challenged by literati painters with the rise of the Wu
School of painting. The professional painters’ styles came
under constant criticism, the sharpest coming from
Dong Qichang, who essentially argued that there were
two shortcomings. First, the brushwork was overly ex¬
197. Wu Wei, Ten Thousand Li of the Yangzi River, section
pressive and lacked subtlety. The works of later artists, in
of a handscroll, ink and color on silk, 1505. 27.8 X 976.2 cm.
particular, were considered slipshod and unoriginal. Sec¬ Palace Museum, Beijing.
ond, these professional artists came from humble social
backgrounds, in contrast to the well-bred literati. Under 198. Wu \/Jei\,Askingfor the Ferry, handscroll, ink on gold-leaf
paper, Ming dynasty. 46.5 X 118.5 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.
the onslaught of such criticism, the professional painters
gradually lost their market and were left without the
means of earning a livelihood. In order to survive, some,
like Lan Ying, changed their painting style, moving closer
to the style of the scholar-painters. Others turned to the
masses, searching for fresh outlets, which led to the rise
of the popular New Year’s paintings and woodblock
prints toward the end of the Ming dynasty.

fighting for the throne and, later, when his son Emperor
The Four Great Artists of Wu Chengzu was struggling to consolidate power, Suzhou

and the Wu School and the surrounding area were under the control of their
opponents. Punitive reprisals by the throne after the war

The Wu School of painting is so called after Wu, the an¬ resulted in long-term economic depression, and the local

cient name of Suzhou, a city in the Yangzi delta region literati suffered political persecution. In Suzhou, Gao Qi

where literati artists flourished during the Ming; it is fa¬ (1336—1374) was savagely executed in public, and Xu

mous for its beautiful landscape and highly developed Ben (1335—1380) and Chen Ruyan were both sentenced

culture. Toward the end of the Yuan dynasty, Suzhou was to death. Elsewhere, Zhao Yuan (active late fourteenth

frequented by many artists, including Ni Zan and Wang century) was ordered to take his own life, Zhang Yu

Meng. Zhu Derun, a native of the city, lived in seclusion (1323-1385) was forced to drown himself, and Wang

there for thirty years. Together these three artists sowed Meng was tortured to death in prison. The effect of this

the seeds of literati painting. Had art been left to develop series of political persecutions went far beyond the psy¬

freely, there would have been an upsurge of scholar- chological intimidation of the southern scholars.

amateur painting in and around Suzhou after the \uan. It was not until the middle of Ming rule, when the area

However, during the years when Emperor Taizu was no longer posed a threat to the emperor, that conditions

The Ming Dynasty 215

for artists began to improve. After repeated requests by
local officials, the court finally reduced the taxes on
Suzhou and the surrounding area and allowed more appli¬
cants to take the civil service examinations, which helped
revive the economy and rejuvenate cultural life. The first
scholar-painters to emerge in the more open era were Xie
Jin (fl. ca. 1560), Liu Jue (1410—1472), Du Qiong (1396—
1474), and Zhao Tonglu (1423—1503). They passed on to
Shen Zhou and Wen Zhengming the literati painting style
of the Yuan dynasty and thus founded the Wu School
of painting. Also worthy of mention are painters from
nearby areas, such as Wang Fu (1362—1416), Xia Chang
(1388—1470), and Yao Shou (1423—1495), who were
officials but were better known for their paintings.
At the same time, professional painters in Suzhou also
became active. Zhou Chen (active ca. 1472—15 3 5), in ad¬
dition to creating many new works himself, taught Tang
Yin and Qiu Ying, who were to win great fame and who,
together with Shen Zhou and Wen Zhengming, came to
be known as the Four Great Artists of Wu.
Shen Zhou (1427—1509) was born into a scholars’ fam¬
ily and received a good education. His teachers — Chen
Kuan, Liu Jue, and Zhao Tonglu—were all noted Su¬
zhou scholars and were well versed in painting. His
father, Shen Heng (1407-1477), and his uncle Shen
Zhen (b. 1400) were painters as well as scholars. The
family code set down by his grandfather Shen Cheng
(1376-1463) may have kept him from following in the
footsteps of other intellectuals and seeking a government
post. Although recommended by local officials, Shen
Zhou gracefully declined the offer of government ser¬
vice. He kept himself aloof from worldly affairs, spending
his time traveling, writing poetry, and painting. His plain
and unsentimental poems were free from passionate out¬
pourings. His greatest wish was for the court to employ 200. Shen Zhou, Lofty Mount Lu, hanging scroll, ink and color on
more just officials so as to ensure a peaceful life for the paper, 1467. 193.8 X 98.1 cm. National Palace Museum, Taibei.

common folk. Shen Zhou enjoyed considerable prestige

in the Suzhou area and was respected by local officials. Lofty Mount Lu follows the manner of Wang Meng in

His name was known even in the capital. both composition and brushwork. It was painted as a

Starting with his teachers, his father, and his uncle, birthday gift for Shen Zhou’s teacher Chen Kuan, hence

Shen Zhou was influenced by scholar-painters, especially the long poem inscribed on the hanging scroll and the

the Four Great Masters of Yuan painting (Huang Gong- meticulous attention paid to detail. Mount Lu is located

wang, Ni Zan, Wang Meng, and Wu Zhen). In the years in the northern part of Jiangxi Province, and from it one

before he reached forty, he made a detailed study of all can see the Yangzi River. Shen Zhou had never been

four, imitating their brushwork until he felt at ease with there. The hanging scroll represents an attempt to de¬

it. His Lofty Mount Lu (fig. 200), from 1467, and Returning scribe the strong character and virtues of his teacher by

Kindness with Fame (Palace Museum, Beijing), painted in depicting the height and grandeur of the mountain. He

1469, represent the fruits of his study. cleverly places the figure admiring the scenery at the very
bottom of the picture, bringing it into relief against the
199. Zhang Lu, Hurrying Home Before the Rain, hanging scroll,
rocky cliffs and the blank space that represents water.
ink and color on silk, Ming dynasty. 183.5 X 110.5 cm.

Palace Museum, Beijing. The Ming Dynasty 217

 The eye then follows the waterfall and the mountain
ridge, reminiscent of the back of a fish, until it reaches
the peak. Only then does the whole picture convey the
feeling described in the Shijing (Book of songs), “I lift my
eyes to admire the mountain so high; I halt my steps to
drink in the beauty of this land.” The close attention to
minute details in the brushwork and the rich variation in
the composition of the rocks and trees are rarely seen in
Shen Zhou’s other works.
The handscroll Returning Kindness with Fame, a land¬
scape painted at the request of a friend as an expression
of gratitude to a doctor, consists of three sections. The
section painted by Shen Zhou reveals his pursuit and im¬
itation of Wu Zhen’s composition and brushwork.
Shen Zhou initiated the practice of employing the
brushwork and modeling methods of the Four Great
Masters of Yuan painting, as well as those of Mi Fu and
his son, Mi Youren, Dong Yuan, and Juran, to express the
artist’s sentiments in inscriptions on the paintings. The
combination of the brush-and-ink landscapes, the callig¬
raphy, and the artist’s sentiment enhanced both these
paintings and the role of those earlier artists in the history
of Chinese painting. From the age of forty to sixty, Shen
Zhou continued to use the brushwork manner of the pre¬
vious generations’ artists, yet he transformed their tech¬
niques into his own style. Examples include Landscape in
the Manner of Dong andJu (Palace Museum, Beijing), refer¬
ring to Dong Yuan and Juran, from 1473, Landscape in the
Manner of Ni Zan (fig. 201) from 1479, and his Copy of
Huang Gongwang’s Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains (Palace
Museum, Beijing), completed in 1487. In the long hand-
scroll Scenerj of Cang^hou (fig. 202), one of Shen Zhou’s
later works, he employed the brushwork styles of all Four
Great Masters of Yuan painting in a seamless combina¬
tion that indicates that he must have been well versed in
them all. Perhaps he did this to give the scroll more vari¬
ation and visual interest, but the result is that patterns
created by the play of the brush and ink overpower the
landscape. In his inscription on the scroll, he criticizes
those of his generation who studied Dong Yuan and
juran to the point of abandoning true landscape repre¬
sentation. Shen Zhou’s efforts to master the various
brushwork manners of earlier landscape painters led to
the pursuit of form at the expense of content by artists of
the late Ming.
By the time he was about fifty, Shen Zhou’s landscape
painting had reached maturity and his style was charac¬
terized by quick, bold strokes and simple, clear composi¬
tions. Skillfully combining poetry, essays, calligraphy, and
painting, he depicted the mountains and rivers of his

218 The Ming Dynasty

202. Shen Zhou, Scenery of Cangjou, section of a handscroll, ink and color on paper, Ming dynasty. 29.7 X 885 cm. Palace Museum,
Beijing.

hometown, the gardens of his friends and relatives, the

gatherings and partings with his friends, and his per¬
sonal feelings about various aspects of life. These works
were not naturalistic recordings of events but, rather, ex¬
pressed the artist’s thoughts and feelings, in the tradition
of literati painting. Thanks to Shen Zhou’s efforts, literati
painting gradually came to be enjoyed by a much wider
audience than before.
Shen Zhou was also a bird-and-flower painter, and
he occupies an important place in the development of
literati paintings in this genre. Dream Journey (fig. 203),
an album of seventeen paintings, consists of seven
landscapes and images of cape jasmine, apricot, hibis¬
cus, hollyhock, and rape flowers, loquats, pomegranates, 203. Shen Zhou, Dream Journey, album leaf, ink and color on
chicks, cicadas singing in the willows in autumn, and ani¬ paper, Ming dynasty. 27.8 X 37.3 cm. each. Palace Museum,
mals grazing on rolling hills. The flowers are painted in Beijing.

light colors, some with and some without outiines. Shen’s

style is characterized by a suavity quite different from death, Wen Zhengming carried on with his legacy and
both Sun Long’s simplicity and ease and Lin Liang’s bold¬ gathered around him a large number of students, includ¬
ness and unrestraint. Shen Zhou places more emphasis ing his son and nephew. All born in Suzhou, the birth¬
on conveying thoughts and feelings, and a poem or in¬ place of the Wu School of painting, they were responsible
scription accompanies each painting. For instance, on for a new upsurge in the popularity of literati painting.
the pomegranate painting he wrote these lines: “Who The young Wen Zhengming did not appear intelligent
split open the pomegranate to reveal the ruby fruits in¬ at first. However, his father, Wen Lin, a local administra¬
side? I don’t want to hide anything. All of my life I’ve tor, was very strict and sought out the best-known teach¬
feared deceit.” The poem enlarged the painting’s theme, ers among the Suzhou literati for his son. At the age of
introducing various overtones, which is a unique feature nine, Wen Zhengming studied the Classics under Chen
of literati paintings. Shen Zhou liked to paint individual Kuan; at nineteen, he learned calligraphy from Li Ying-
flowers or birds rather than a group of them, to keep his zhen and at twenty, painting from Shen Zhou. Wen
paintings clean and simple, with few layers, giving promi¬ Zhengming was also able to exchange ideas with a num¬
nence to the brush and ink. Adding poetry to the painting ber of fellow students and friends, such as Zhu Yunming
thus enriched the content. These inscriptions distinguish (1461-1527), Du Mu (1459-1525), and Tang Yin, and the

literati painters from artisans. young scholars learned from each other. Moreover, Wen
With respect to the combination of poetry, calligra¬ was quiet and calm by nature and very diligent in his stud¬

phy, and painting, Shen Zhou’s influence on later genera¬ ies, and he soon became known in the Suzhou area for

tions is profound indeed. Wen Zhengming was Shen his learning. His father sought to mold his son in his own

Zhou’s most distinguished student. Following Shen’s image, hoping that he, too, would one day pass the civil
service examinations and rise in officialdom to win honor
for his ancestors. But Wen Zhengming was ill fated and
201. Shen Zhou, Landscape in the Manner of Ni Zan, hanging scroll,
ink on paper, 1479. I2°-5 x Z9A cm- Palace Museum, Beijing.
failed the local examination ten times. In 15 23, at the age

The Ming Dynasty 219

 204- Wen Zhengming, Landscape in the Mi Family Cloudy Mountain Style, section of a handscroll, ink on paper, ca. 1533—1535.
24.8 X 60.2 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.

of fifty-four, he was recommended by the governor of Mengfu. The green hills and waters of Tang and Song
Jiangsu to attend the Imperial College in the capital, and painting, with their heavy coloring and strong color con¬
later he served in the Hanlin Academy in a low-ranking trasts, give way to a light-colored setting with touches
secretarial job. He was not happy in this high-pressure of mineral green and azurite blue plus some cinnabar
post and resigned after four years and returned home. red which create a gentle, harmonious atmosphere. This
From then on, his sole interests were writing poetry and method complements the monochrome ink freehand
essays, painting, and doing calligraphy. He was writing a sketch style of earlier literati paintings; other examples
tomb inscription for someone just before he died at the are Sacrificial Ceremony at Eanting and Tea Party at Huishan
age of ninety. (both in the Palace Museum, Beijing). Because Wen
It is difficult to single out characteristic paintings from Zhengming greatly respected Zhao Mengfu’s character,
Wen Zhengming’s vast number of works. This is owing as well as his calligraphy and paintings, he often took him
pardy to his serious temperament and discipline and as his model. Many of Wen’s painted orchids, bamboo,
pardy to his strict creative style. His works are noted for and rocks closely resemble those by Zhao.
their well-balanced composition, meticulous brushwork, Old Trees by a Cold Waterfall (fig. 206) is rather special
and elegant colors, best illustrated in Landscape in the Mi among Wen Zhengming’s works. On this long, narrow
Family Cloudy Mountain Style (fig. 204), created between hanging scroll, ancient pines and cypresses reach toward
1533 and 1535. The original Mi family painting was an the sky while a waterfall plunges down a cliff. The layout
impromptu production, a simple impression of a scene seems crowded at first, but a slit of sky visible at the top
created with thick ink and bold strokes, almost a mockery of the scroll and the reflecting springwater at the bottom
of the traditional landscape painting of pre-Song days. lead the viewer’s imagination to a wider world. The com¬
However, in the hands of Wen Zhengming, this kind of position displays a cleverness behind the apparent clum¬
antitraditionalism became like a tamed wild horse. In this siness, and one feels a peace and calm in a hazardous
painting, the composition of the mountains is complex, situation. The crude, rugged brushstrokes convey a sense
the perspectives are varied, but the brushstrokes are of force, quite different from Wen Zhengming’s usual
gentle and mild, neither quick nor slow. Wen took nearly subtle elegance. The impression is very much like that
three years to complete this work, yet it appears to have of Shen Zhou’s Lofty Mount Lu, except that the latter
been done all at once. presents a distant panoramic view while the former is a
The East Garden (fig. 205) depicts a literary gathering in partial close-up. Wen Zhengming was eighty years old
the private garden of Xu Shen. The ancient pines and when he created Old Trees by a Cold Waterfall, but as is evi¬
other trees, the rocks by the lake, and the pavilion are all dent from the painting, he was mentally still very active
tightly knit in a picture of elegant beauty. In this portrayal and his brushwork was full of vitality. Had he been more
of the typical pastimes of men of letters not m official of a rebel, as was Tang Yin, his art might have been even
positions, scholars, with servant boys at their side, are more brilliant.
reciting poetry, admiring paintings, or playing chess. This Wen Zhengming’s figure painting did not follow one
leisurely life, free of political interference and official re¬ consistent style throughout his career. Goddess and Lady of
sponsibilities, began with men like Du Qiong, Liu Jue, the Xiang River (Palace Museum, Beijing), from 1517, for
and Xie Jin and became a legacy for scholars south of the example, shows two beautiful women, one behind the
Yangzi River. other, surrounded by empty space. The figures, clothing,
The brushwork in The East Garden is meticulous, done decorations, and colors all suggest an imitation of the style
in a method that Wen Zhengming learned from Zhao of the Six Dynasties (that is, the Western and Eastern Jin

220 The Ming Dynasty

205. Wen Zhengming, The East Garden, handscroll, ink and color on silk, 15 30. 30.2 X 126.4 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.

206. Wen and Southern Dynasties, 265-5 89). But in his inscription
Zhengming, on the painting, Wen claimed that he was following in the
Old Trees bj a
footsteps of Zhao Mengfu and Qian Xuan to counter the
Cold Waterfall,
hanging scroll,
trend of painting women in Tang clothing and to pursue
ink and color a still older tradition. Wen was attempting to oppose vul¬
on silk, 1549. garity by upholding the grace and elegance of the literati
Nadonal Palace
legacy and to replace direct sensual enjoyment with intel¬
Museum, Taibei.
lectual and spiritual fulfillment. Wen Zhengming, forty-
seven years old when he painted this picture, did not
maintain his interest in this goal. His return to the an¬
cient style of figure painting, in fact, contributed to
Chen Hongshou’s grotesque style in the late Ming.
The Suzhou professional painter Zhou Chen is sig¬
nificant in the history of Chinese painting for his own
artistic achievement as well as his training of Tang Yin
and Qiu Ying, two students who later became famous
as members of the Wu School. Zhou Chen was accorded
little respect by scholars, in part because they considered
him a poorly educated man, and he did not achieve the
fame and position he may have deserved. As Zhou Liang-
gong later wrote, “Tang Yin, who learned painting from
Zhou Chen, turned out to be a better painter. This is be¬
cause Tang Yin had read extensively.”7 Nevertheless, it
was an open secret that Tang Yin often asked Zhou Chen
to paint for him when Tang could not produce enough
work to meet the needs of the art dealers. As long as
Tang Yin signed the painting, people did not care; they
paid more attention to the artist’s name than to the work
of art.
Born to a poor family, Zhou Chen learned painting as
an apprentice in a workshop where styles created by
court painters from the Southern Song dynasty onward
were popular. Zhou Chen’s style was highly influenced by
the works of Li Tang and Ma Yuan, especially the shad¬
ing and texturing method used for mountains and rocks
and the stance of the trees. Though he was a professional
painter, his themes and subjects often depicted the life of
scholars. His Chunquan (Spring River) in Seclusion (Palace
Museum, Beijing), painted for a scholar named Pei Chun-

The Ming Dynasty 211

quan, shows a river flowing by several thatched houses by all the vivid figures,” and Zhang Fengyi said, “Those
set off by trees. Across the river, mountains appear indis¬ who don’t feel sad after seeing the painting would not be
tinctly in the distance. Located far from the city, this human.” In his epilogue, Wen Jia writes in a colophon,
beautiful place appears to be an ideal spot for scholars to “whenever Tang Liuru [Tang Yin] saw Zhou’s work, he
live and study. Tang Yin’s Serving Tea (Palace Museum, would speak of him as Master Zhou. He admired his
Beijing) was composed in a similar way, although Tang works so much that he said he could never be as good as
Yin’s main figure entertains his guests by offering them Zhou in ingeniousness of brushwork.” Most Ming literati
tea to express a sense of leisure, whereas Zhou Chen’s is painters did not concern themselves with portraying real¬
asleep by the table, showing the secluded man’s indiffer¬ ity accurately, and works showing a keen awareness of so¬
ence to the outside world. cial problems were rare.
The Northern Sea (Cleveland Museum of Art) is adopted Although Tang Yin (1470-1523) was a student of
from “The Happy Excursion” in Zhuangzi. In this imagi¬ Zhou Chen’s, he was more of a literati painter. He was
nary sea lived a large fish named Kun. When the wind the same age as Wen Zhengming and was his fellow stu¬
blew and the waves rose high, this fish metamorphosed dent and friend. As a child, Tang Yin was clever but cared
into a huge bird by the name of Peng, which then flew to little for study or work. Urged by his friends, he took a lo¬
the Southern Sea. This romantic story implies that one cal civil service examination in 1498 in Nanjing and came
must wait for the opportunity to realize one’s ambitions. out at the top of the list. This surprising success whetted
Zhuangzi’s philosophy of relativity and pursuit of abso¬ his thirst for wealth and fame. Soon he went to Beijing
lute intellectual freedom was popular among Confucian for the national examination. He was implicated in a case
scholars who had failed in their efforts to become gov¬ of bribery and was imprisoned, tortured, and banned for
ernment officials. A large number of scholars who had life from taking the civil service examinations. This blow
lost their jobs in the government owing to political almost shattered Tang Yin mentally, and he turned to
struggles often found comfort in discussing Daoism and Chan Buddhism for solace. He began to regard every¬
Chan Buddhism. On one side of the sea are rocks and thing as void and adopted an alias, the Liuru Lay Bud¬
a man sitting by the window of a house overlooking dhist.8 In order to make a living he had to sell his
the water. Below, visitors are approaching on the high paintings. Full of indignation, he once lamented, “When
bridge. The turbulent breakers send up fountains of not even the best lakeshore land can attract a buyer, who
spray, as if dragons and snakes are playing together. Sea will buy the mountains in my paintings?” and “I would
and sky merge into one boundless universe; rocks appear paint a fresh bamboo to sell, but the bamboo shoots on
solid and robust; the mountains, whose summits cannot the market are worth no more than mud.” Poverty-
be seen, are dotted with cascades and springs, present¬ stricken and ill, Tang Yin died at the age of fifty-four.
ing a scene of tranquillity. The hardy and twisted pines Although Tang Yin’s life was a tragic one, his art shows
standing against the wind contrast sharply with the surg¬ real genius. In addition to learning painting from Zhou
ing waves. Unlike Tang Yin’s Whispering Pines on a Moun¬ Chen, he had been advised by Shen Zhou. Through
tain Path (see fig. 207), which expresses the painter’s Zhou Chen he inherited the technical legacies of profes¬
emotion by trying to depict sound, Zhou Chen’s work sional artists from Li Cheng and Guo Xi to Li Tang, while
presents the beauty of grandeur and robustness. in spiritual and artistic conception, he had the qualities of
Zhou Chen’s Beggars and Street Characters (Cleveland a literati painter. His Whispering Pines on a Mountain Path
Museum of Art and Honolulu Museum of Art) is an un¬ (fig. 207) is one of the most vigorous of his many land¬
usual collection of album leaves. The twenty-four figures scapes. The rhythmically arranged towering peaks, water¬
depicted include men and women, young and old, all in falls, and swaying pines, together with the motion of the
rags. Some are blind or crippled; some are performing in figures crossing the small bridge, produce a lyrical illu¬
return for money; others are playing with monkeys and sion that rivals Li Tang’s Wind Through the Pine Valleys (see
snakes. Zhou Chen said that he had seen these people fig- 119)- Tang Yin’s Sunset and Tonely Ducks (Shanghai
on the street and that he painted them for “educational Museum) takes its theme from “Preface to Tengwangge
purposes.” Though the figures are somewhat exagger¬ Pavilion’ by the Tang poet Wang Bo. In this imaginary
ated, the execution is not undisciplined and shows the rendition (a reconstructed pavilion built on the original
painter’s mastery. Then-celebrated scholars of the time ruins can be found today in Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province),
praised the convincing power of Zhou Chen’s works. willows sway in the breeze as the setting sun casts its
Huang Jishui commented, “Viewers were overwhelmed glow on the mountain cliff. The freshness of the scene is

The Ming Dynasty

 duan Requesting a Poem (National Palace Museum, Taibei)
are some of his best in this genre. Through these paint¬
ings, he mocks life and worldly matters, lashes out at the
hypocrisy of moralists, and expresses his sympathy for
courtesans and prostitutes. Silk Fan in the Autumn Breeze
depicts a beautiful maiden whose facial expression con¬
veys sadness and loneliness. In his accompanying poem,
Tang borrowed an ancient allusion and personified the
fan to show his disapproval of human relations based
purely on individual interests, and satirized those who
curried favor with people in power.
A strikingly different kind of figure painting is Dream¬
ing in the Shade of a Tong Tree (fig. 210), which shows a
scholar reclining in a rattan chair under a tree, eyes closed
in meditation. In the accompanying poem, Tang Yin
writes, “Gone for life all thoughts of fame, not even in
my dreams under the old locust tree.” No doubt this is
both a self-portrait and a self-consolation, and it reflects
the sentiment of many neglected men of letters. The
Qing-dynasty painting Master Dongxin [ Jin Nong] Noon-
Napping Under a Banana Tree by Luo Pin (Shanghai Mu¬
seum), done in 1760, was inspired by this work in both
composition and theme.
Reminiscing with Xiphou (National Palace Museum, Tai¬
bei), from 15x9, was Tang Yin’s last masterpiece. He was
sick, and when friends came to visit, together they re¬
called the past with all its vicissitudes. To express his feel¬
ings, Tang Yin painted this picture, using a hand
weakened by illness. It shows numerous disorderly trees
and rocks, a shabby straw hut, and two men sitting across
from each other recollecting times past, conveying a
sense of bleak loneliness. The scene occupies the lower
part of the painting, with a poem above, which adds to
the oppressive atmosphere. The poem reads,
207• Tang Yin, Whispering Pines on a Mountain Path, hanging scroll,
For fifty years
ink and color on silk, Ming dynasty. 194-5 X 102.8 cm. National
I have been singing and dancing;
Palace Museum, Taibei.
I have had pleasure among flowers and slept under
the moon.
depicted with long, thin brushstrokes, fluent yet firm.
My name is known far and near;
Then there is the serenity of The Yi-an (Palace Museum,
Who would have believed I lacked the money for a
Beijing) and the splendor of the landscape in Serving Tea
drink?
(Palace Museum, Beijing). Tang Yin’s landscapes are
I feel ashamed to call myself a scholar;
fairly close to nature in composition, scenery, and model¬
Yet people think I am an immortal.
ing. Furthermore, they embody the artist’s personal ap¬
I have been working hard
preciation of rural scenes, as is evident in Small View of the
So that I can live up to my name.
Yellow Thatched Hut (Shanghai Museum).
Tang Yin was one of the few successful figure painters At around the same time he painted Reminiscing with Xi-

of the Ming dynasty. He loved to paint beautiful women qhou, Tang Yin wrote eight poems (Shanghai Museum)

and, above all, prostitutes. Silk Fan in the Autumn Breeze that offer a summary of the artist’s life, with honors as

(fig. 208), Tao Gu Presents a Poem (fig. 209), and Li Duan- well as humiliations. In the painting one senses these two

The Ming Dynasty 223

 208. Tang Yin, Silk Fan in the Autumn
Breeze, hanging scroll, ink and color on
paper, Ming dynasty. 77.1 X 39.3 cm.
Shanghai Museum.
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conflicting emotions—an outward calm and ease and an

Yuanbian and Chen Guanyan and asked to copy and re¬
inward pain.
store ancient paintings, as well as to create new ones. An
Like Tang Yin, Qiu Ying was a student of Zhou Chen’s
intellectually brilliant and hard-working man, Qiu Ying
and an artistic genius who died young. Born to a poor
was able to assimilate much of the experience and tech¬
family, he worked as a painter of scenes on walls and
niques of previous masters in the course of copying their
doors when he was young. Later, he studied with Zhou
works, gradually forming his own distinct style, which
Chen and was once tutored by Wen Zhengming and his
won much praise from the literati. In Suzhou, where
son. The epilogue by Wang Zhideng on Wen Zheng-
many men oi letters worked in a hierarchical society, a
ming s Goddess and Fady of the Xiang River recounts that af¬
worker of Qiu Ying’s humble background would never
ter Wen Zhengming drew the sketch, he twice asked Qiu
have been ranked with Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, and
Ying to apply the colors, but Wen Zhengming was not
Tang Yin had it not been for his convincing accomplish¬
satisfied. Qiu Ying could copy ancient paintings so that
ments in the realm of art. Qiu Ying died around the age
the imitations passed as genuine. At one time, he was in¬
of fifty, leaving behind a large number of works.
vited to the homes of the famous art connoisseurs Xiang
Qiu Ying’s artistic achievement lay in his ability to
224 The Ming Dynasty
 image depicts a realistic scene, whereas the other two
are imaginings of an earthly paradise. Thatched Houses in
the Peach Blossom Village was painted for the art connois¬
seur Xiang Yuanqi, the elder brother of Xiang Yuanbian,
also a connoisseur. Collector’s seals of Xiang Yuanbian
are impressed on the four corners of the painting. As Xu
Zonghao indicated in his colophon on the side, some
speculated that this was a portrait of Xiang Yuanqi, who
m is portrayed as a recluse of high moral integrity, the
lr\ supreme praise for a scholar at that time. Dong Qichang

210. Tang Yin, Dreaming in the Shade of a Tong Tree, hanging

scroll, ink and color on paper, Ming dynasty. 62 X 30.8 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.

209. Tang Yin, Tao Gu Presents a Poem, hanging scroll, ink

and color on silk, ca. 1515. 168.8 X 102.1 cm. National
Palace Museum, Taibei.

adapt meticulously executed and heavily colored figure

paintings and blue-and-green landscape paintings, both
of which in the hands of other artists of the time tended
toward the commonplace. Literati painters saw them¬
selves as embodying a classic simplicity against the cur¬
rent delicacy, the elegance of monochrome ink against
the vulgarity of bright colors, and the profundity of con¬
notation against superficiality. Qiu aptly drew on such
literati opinions and yet preserved his original artisan
flavor, thus allowing for a touch of elegance without sac¬
rificing his delicateness and splendor. His artistic skills
far exceeded those of the literati painters; even Dong
Qichang acknowledged his supremacy.
One of Qiu Ying’s landscape styles derives from the
blue-and-green landscapes of Zhao Boju of the Song dy¬
nasty. Thatched Houses in the Peach Blossom Village (fig. 211),
Jade Cave Fairyland (fig. 212), and Peach Blossom Spring
(Tianjin Art Museum) are examples of this type. The first

The Ming Dynasty 22 5

 gave the work his highest accolade, saying in his colo¬
phon, “All of Qiu Ying’s imitations of Song paintings,
without exception, can be confused with the originals.
Those among them in which he studies Zhao Boju, in
particular, show his ability to surpass his models. Not
even Wen Zhengming can compete with him, as this
painting testifies.” Although the halls and pavilions vary
from picture to picture, there seems to be no difference
in the rocks, mountains, bushes, and trees, or in the way
the figures in the paintings are dressed. In composing the
paintings, Qiu Ying used a peculiar landscape to highlight
the mortals and a realistic landscape to create the imagi¬
nary surroundings of the gods. The scholar in Thatched
Houses is dressed in a long gown with wide sleeves. He is
portrayed strolling in a pine forest. In the background are
several huts. Steps lead up the mountain slope to a plat¬
form where a pavilion stands amid a cluster of peach
blossoms. Next to the pavilion, a gurgling stream winds
its way into the distance. Further up the slope is a sea of
pines and cypresses, with white clouds floating in and
out, while all around, towering peaks pierce the sky.
Qiu Ying’s Fisherman Hermit at Fotus Valley (fig. 213)
and Waiting for the Ferry in Autumn (National Palace Mu¬
seum, Taibei) represent another of his landscape styles,
which is based on the work of the Song painters Li Tang,
Xiao Zhao, and Liu Songnian. However, Qiu is more me¬
ticulous and pays more attention to details in composi¬
tion and brushwork. Both paintings depict scenes south
of the Yangzi River. From the rivers and lakes to the dis¬
tant hills, from the fields and village homes to the fishing
boats and nets, as well as the people traveling to and fro,
everything is placed in harmonious balance and exqui¬
sitely delineated to create an enchanting scene of idyllic
beauty.
Some of Qiu Ying’s figural illustrations are copies of
ancient works, such as Sericulture and Agriculture and Copy of
Xiao Zhao’s Illustration for Zhongxing Ruiying (both in the
Palace Museum, Beijing). Others are his own creations,
such as Garden for Solitary Pleasure (Cleveland Museum
of Art) and Evening Banquet in the Peach and Plum Garden
(Chionin, Kyoto), which are meticulously executed gar¬
den scenes with figures, done in ink and color on silk. The
211. Qiu Ying, Thatched Houses in the Peach Blossom Village, figures, especially the young men and women, appear
hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, Ming dynasty. very much like those described in the popular novels
150 X 53 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.
and dramas of the time. The men have oval faces, are deli¬
cately featured, and carry themselves in a courteous man¬
ner. The women, who seem gentle and attractive, have
dainty brows and lips, slender silhouettes, and small white
hands. The figures that Qiu Ying created with his brush
follow the aesthetic ideals of the era in which he lived.

226 The Ming Dynasty

 In addition to painting in the meticulous style and us¬
ing bright colors, Qiu Ying also worked with mono¬
chrome ink in the freehand sketch style. The strokes of
the brush are simple and crude yet convey elegance. Lis¬
tening to the Qin Beneath the Willow (Palace Museum, Bei¬
jing) and WangXi^hi Writing on a Fan (Shanghai Museum)
are two examples.
Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, Tang Yin, and Qiu Ying,
despite their disparate experiences in life, together domi¬
nated Suzhou art circles for more than one hundred
years. Their students and descendants continued their
tradition until the Qing dynasty.9

Impressionist Bird-and-Flower Paintings

by Chen Chun and Xu Wei

Chinese use of monochrome ink in the bird-and-flower

paintings developed to an unprecedented height during
the Ming in the works of Lin Liang, Shen Zhou, and Tang
Yin. These artists were followed by Chen Chun and Xu
Wei, who made fresh contributions to this genre. In par¬
ticular, Xu Wei’s inksplash freehand sketch style had a
profound influence on subsequent painters.
Chen Chun (1483-1544) was from Suzhou and was
fond of painting from childhood. As his father was a
close friend of Wen Zhengming’s, Chen Chun became
Wen’s student. Chen was the eldest of Wen’s students. Al¬
though he was admitted to the Imperial College, he re¬
fused to serve at court and voluntarily returned home to
lead a secluded life. Although he studied under Wen
Zhengming, his paintings were not in the least like his
teacher’s. In his preface to a collection of Chen Chun’s
works, Qian Yunzhi compared the works of the two
artists. “Wen’s paintings are standard, Chen’s are singular;
Wen’s paintings are elegant, Chen’s are brilliant. Both
have reached the zenith.” To encourage the student to
outdo his teacher, in writing and academic pursuits, the
Chinese use the analogy “Indigo blue is bluer than the in¬
digo plant it is extracted from.” In art, there is the similar
maxim “The point of learning from the teacher is not to
achieve a resemblance but to inherit the spirit,” which
encourages innovations in style. The differences between 212. Qiu Ying, Jade Cave Fairyland, hanging scroll, ink and color
on silk, Ming dynasty. 169 X 65.5 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.
standardness and singularity and between elegance and
brilliance represent variations in artistic style. The fact that
Chen Chun did not strictly follow in the footsteps of his
teacher Wen Zhengming explains why his achievement in

The Ming Dynasty 227

213. Qiu Ying, Fisherman Hermit
at Lotus Valley, hanging scroll, ink
and color on silk, Ming dynasty.
167.5 X 66.2 cm. Palace Museum,
Beijing.
 .. m— •'

' " <•

'<#%.
*V
dfei^ulfc ' Vi 4lli
214. Chen Chun, Ink Flowers and Fishing Boat, section of a handscroll, ink on paper, 15 34. 26.2 X 566 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.

art and his position in art history are greater than those of There is little snow on the river,
Wen’s other pupils, who were more strictly imitative. The water is so cold the fish would not bite.
Chen was unwilling to be bound by tradition. Techni¬ May I ask the fisherman, Are you out to catch fish
cally, he was mainly influenced by Shen Zhou, but he far Or are you just in the fishing mood?
surpassed Shen in his lively use of the brush and his
Here the artist is making an analogy to the story of Wang
outpouring of emotions. This is evident when one com¬
Huizhi of the Eastern Jin paying a visit to Dai Kui on a
pares Chen’s crabs in Flowers and Grasses (Shanghai Mu¬
snowy night. Wang went to Dai’s house but did not go in;
seum) with Shen’s in Sketches from Fife (National Palace
instead, he turned around and went home. Asked why, he
Museum, Taibei). Chen’s bird-and-flower paintings are
said, “I went there because I was just in the mood. Since
mostly sketches of flowers and grasses growing in the
the mood had gone, what was the point of entering the
courtyard or vegetables and fruits in the fields, which are
house?” Chen’s painting of the fisherman was an attempt
given character and ideals that transcend the worldly. In
to show that the fisherman’s interest lay not in the fish
his handscroll Ink Flowers and Fishing Boat (fig. 214), done
but in the enjoyment of fishing. This is also suggestive of
in 1534, he painted plum blossoms, bamboo, orchids,
his own aesthetic philosophy: the point is not in the
chrysanthemums, hollyhocks, narcissus, camellias, a spar¬
painting itself but rather in the thought it conveys. From
row, and pines, as well as a landscape. Drawing different
this derived the monochrome ink sketching of ideas or
kinds of flowers on a single scroll had been a means of
the freehand sketch style.
expression since the beginning of the Southern Song dy¬
Mi Family Style Landscape (fig. 215) is a major work by
nasty, but to add a landscape at the end was rare, which
Chen Chun completed not long before he died in 15 44,
shows Chen’s defiance of tradition. He used light ink for
while he was traveling in Jingxi (in Yixing County, Jiangsu
the simple brushwork in this depiction of a snow scene.
Province). From the Fazang Temple where he lodged, he
A boat floating on the river carries a fisherman with a
looked out on the distant hills and was moved to paint
fishing rod on his shoulder. An inscription reads:
this picture, imitating Mi Youren’s brushwork. Chen
Chun’s ties with Mi family landscapes stem not only from
their compatible spiritual quality but also from the two

The Ming Dynasty 229

 215. Chen Chun, Mi Family Style
Landscape, handscroll, ink on
paper, 1544. 55 X 498.5 cm.
Tianjin Art Museum.

paintings by the Mis in his family collection — Cloudy while in prison. The mental strain that this incident
Mountains and Dayao Village. Although these works had caused Xu Wei resulted in a recurrence of schizophrenia,
also influenced Shen Zhou and Wen Zhengming, in his and he killed his second wife. For this he was thrown into
imitations of Mi family landscapes Chen Chun did not jail to await execution, but after seven years, owing to the
simply copy their method of shading. Chen used the Mi efforts of his friends, Xu was released from jail. Plagued
family method as the basis for his work but applied a by poverty, illness, and loneliness, he died in solitude.
variety of techniques, including cun (texture strokes), to Owing to the reverses and frustrations of his life, Xu
show the shading and textures of rocks and mountains, ca Wei’s talents were never fully displayed. Thus the pre¬
(rubbing with a very dry brush), dian (dotting), and ran dominant theme of his works, whether in poetry, calligra¬
(adding a wash or a tint of color). In particular, he was phy, or painting, was his resentment at the injustices
much more versatile in his methods of depicting the size of life, at not being recognized for his talents and having
and layers of his landscape motifs. For instance, one of nowhere to turn for help. His Grapes (fig. 216) includes
his daring experiments was to leave a blank space along this poem:
the contour of the trees to give a sense of the trans¬
Half my life wasted, now an oldster am I;
parency of sunlight after rain.
Alone I stand in the study as the night wind howls.
After Chen’s death Xu Wei (15 21-1593) carried on his
Pearls from my pen can find no buyer;
experimental approach. Xu Wei, who called himself the
Then let them scatter amidst the vines.
Qingteng Lay Buddhist and the Tianchi Mountain Her¬
mit, was a native of Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province. He His Pomegranate (National Palace Museum, Taibei) mani¬
was a man of great achievement not only in painting but fests a similar oudook.
also in literature, drama, and calligraphy. His father died However, in Yellow Armor (fig. 217), he went beyond
shordy after his birth, and he was brought up by his step¬ lamentation in the accompanying poem:
mother and elder brother. At the age of twenty, he passed
The village rice has ripened, the crabs are in season;
the county civil service examination and was accredited
With their pincers like halberds, they swagger
as a scholar, but from then on, he failed all eight exami¬
in the mud.
nations he took at the provincial level. He subsisted on
If you turn one over on a piece of paper,
the meager pay he received from teaching until he was
You will see before you Dong Zhuo’s navel.
invited to be an aide to a regional viceroy and thus came
to participate in affairs involving military secrets. Later, Dong Zhuo was a sinister and powerful minister during
the viceroy was arrested for having been the friend of a the Eastern Han. It is said his belly had so much fat that
notoriously corrupt high official and committed suicide after he died, people lit lamps with the fat from his navel.

230 The Ming Dynasty

 217. Xu Wei, Yellow Armor, hanging scroll,
ink on paper, Ming dynasty. 114.6 X 29.7 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.

f \ 7L

n it #
^ V, *

It
%a

216. Xu Wei, Grapes, hanging scroll, ink on paper, Ming dynasty.

166.3 X 64.5 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.
 By comparing Dong Zhuo to a domineering crab, Xu born in Huating (present-day Songjiang, a part of Shang¬
Wei lashed out against the vicious officials who pros¬ hai), he and the group of painters gathered around him
pered from the suffering of the common people. came to be known as the Huating or Songjiang School of
In his inscription for Ink Flowers (Palace Museum, Bei¬ painting.
jing) he wrote: During the Ming dynasty, Huating, the site of the
Songjiang prefectural government, was a newly emerging
In my performance the ink is dripping wet.
industrial and commercial city. With a population of
The flowers and grasses are confused about the
200,000 during the fifteenth century, it was best known
season.
for the cotton cloth it produced and marketed. Beginning
Do not complain that this painting lacks several
in the Yuan dynasty, Huating had become a center of the
strokes,
arts. The city was the birthplace of the well-known
For recendy the Way of Heaven is full of misdeeds.
painter and art patron Cao Zhibai, and the family of
Here the Way of Heaven is not a reference to nature’s Song-Yuan painter Gao Kegong made it their home dur¬
changing seasons. Rather, it is an insinuation directed ing the war-torn years. Gao was the great-great-grand¬
against the entire feudal regime. Initially dissatisfied, Xu father of Dong Qichang’s great-grandmother. Ren Renfa,
Wei was now full of indignation. He cursed not only the Yang Weizhen, Huang Gongwang, Ni Zan, and Wang
evil ministers but the emperor himself. He once reminded Meng had been officials, teachers, or residents there, and
his colleagues, “Do not take painting too lightly. There is their presence in Huating boosted the city’s cultural de¬
the judgment of history written in the silent poems.” velopment. During the Ming dynasty, Huating became
More than once, Xu Wei spoke of his painting career known for several famous calligraphers and painters, in¬
as a kind of game. “At this old age, painting is but child’s cluding Shen Du (1357-1434), Shen Can (1379-1453),
play.” Guided by such an approach, he was able to take Zhang Bi (1425-1487), Mo Shilong (active ca. 1567—
bold steps with regard to form. In his paintings of grapes 1600), Gu Zhengyi (fl. ca. 15 80), and Sun Kehong (1532 —
and melons, for example, one often finds it difficult to 1610). So it was not accidental that Huating eventually
distinguish the fruit from the leaf, and his palm leaves replaced Suzhou as the most important city for Chinese
and peonies appear to be wavering shadows in the moon¬ painting.
light. The ink seems to have been splashed on the paper Dong Qichang passed the highest imperial court ex¬
at will, in an impassioned and forceful manner. Such di¬ amination and rose in the hierarchy to the top civilian
rect expression of feeling through the brush and ink can post, in charge of imperial family affairs in the Ministry
be achieved only when the painter is liberated from hav¬ of Rites. His success in officialdom put him in a position
ing to depict the portrayed object’s physical image. Play far superior to Wen Zhengming’s. However, the Ming
was a key to achieving this freedom. Xu Wei was a true dynasty was in decline, and social conflicts and contradic¬
practitioner of Ni Zan’s motto, “Use the brush leisurely. tions within the ruling circles were acute. To avoid being
Do not go after superficial identity but simply express drawn into the political vortex, Dong Qichang frequently
what is in your heart.”
found pretexts to return to his hometown, where he was
Xu’s extraordinary art was not appreciated by his con¬ able to socialize with his friends, to collect, appraise, and
temporaries, but after his death his work profoundly admire works of earlier calligraphers and painters, and to
influenced later painters, from Bada Shanren and the create his own poetry, calligraphy, and painting. He be¬
Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou in the eighteenth century came one of the few talented intellectuals who was at
to Qi Baishi in the twentieth. Also influential at this once a book collector, artist, connoisseur, and writer.
time was bird-and-flower painter Zhou Zhimian (fl. Among Dong Qichang’s literati friends were Mo Shi¬
ca. 1580-1610), a contemporary of Xu Wei’s. A native of long, who was older than he, and Chenjiru (1558-1639),
Suzhou, Zhou introduced the method known as “outlin¬ who was near his age. The three men shared many inter¬
ing the flowers, dotting the leaves.”
ests, frequendy meeting to discuss antique books and
paintings. They inspired each other, and out of their dis¬
cussions Dong Qichang developed his theory of paint¬
D°ng Qichang and the Huating School ing, recorded in Hua^hi (The principles of painting), a
book compiled by later painters in the sixteenth century.
Dong Qichang (1555-1636) was the most influential
In Dong’s opinion, “temperament and charm,” listed
literati painter after Wen Zhengming. Because he was
among Xie He s Six Principles of painting, were bestowed

232 The Ming Dynasty

by nature and could not be learned; and yet he also said scholars went to live in seclusion and found spiritual
that one could achieve them only by “reading thousands comfort in Chan Buddhism.
of books and by traveling thousands of /£” Reading was Inspired by this phenomenon, Mo Shilong and Dong
for the self-cultivation of the artist, whereas traveling Qichang used the theory and viewpoint of Chan in their
could broaden one’s inspiration from nature. In learning study of the historical development of painting styles. In
to paint, he stressed that one must first learn from the an¬ order to connect Chan and painting, they argued that the
cients and then from nature, and he was particularly op¬ two schools of painting — Northern and Southern —
posed to “asking the way from people around.” In other also emerged during the Tang.
words, nature was more important than the ancients; he
Li Sixun and his son of the Northern School did land¬
was not one of those who believed in the doctrine of
scape painting, and it was carried on in the Song dy¬
“returning to the ancients.” In addition, he thought that
nasty by Zhao Gan, Zhao Boju, Zhao Bosu, Ma \uan,
painting should be an entertaining activity, and beneficial
and Xia Gui. Wang Wei of the Southern School
to one’s physical and mental health, rather than a source
painted with light ink, thus changing the way of doing
of mental strain, claiming that excessive diligence was
certain strokes. His method was inherited by Zhang
detrimental to one’s health. To prove his point, he gave
Zao, Jing Hao, Guan Tong, Dong Yuan, Juran, Guo
as examples Huang Gongwang, Shen Zhou, and Wen
Zhongshu, Mi Fu, and his son Mi Youren, as well as by
Zhengming, men who because they did not exert them¬
the Four Masters of Yuan painting [Huang Gong¬
selves too much enjoyed long lives, and Zhao Mengfu
wang, Wu Zhen, Ni Zan, and Wang Meng]. During the
and Qiu Ying, who lived intensely and died young. From
same period in Buddhism many of the followers of
the point of view of “finding enjoyment in painting,” he Huineng, the Sixth Master of Chan, including Maju,
advocated that a painting should satisfy “scholarly taste” Yunmen, and Linji, belonged to the Southern School
and not “the taste of an artisan,” which was a further of Chan. While many flourished, the Northern School
elaboration of the viewpoint put forward by Su Shi and
declined.
Qian Xuan of the Song. Scholarly taste and artisan taste
were considered as opposite as elegance and vulgarity. Here, Dong Qichang’s overview of the development of

Thus, the artist had to paint the way he wrote, if he was literati painting tries to identify it with the Southern

to prevent his work from falling into the category of School. At the same time, however, he contradicted him¬

“sweet vulgarity.” Dong Qichang advocated the literati self and blurred his key concepts when he attempted to

painting that had become popular during the Song and link the form of painting (monochrome ink or blue-and-

Yuan dynasties, and he rejected the paintings of profes¬ green landscape painting) and the method of creation

sional artists represented mainly by the Zhe School and (strict training or painting as a game learned through

the court painters of the Ming dynasty. self-instruction) with the background of scholars. Never¬

In an attempt to find a historical basis for his the¬ theless, Dong’s theory influenced Chinese art circles for

ory, Dong Qichang distinguished between the Northern nearly three centuries.

and Southern Schools. Dong explained that “the Chan Dong Qichang’s landscape paintings exemplify his

sect of Buddhism was divided into Northern and South¬ theories. For instance, the many similarities to ancient

ern schools in the Tang dynasty. The Northern and paintings implement his idea that one should first learn

Southern schools in painting also appeared at the same from the ancients. Of course, there are works in which

time.” Introduced by an Indian monk named Bodhi- his inscriptions do not correspond to the brushwork. For

dharma, the Chan sect in Chinese Buddhism was divided example, in his Mountain Passes Clearing After Snow, done

during the Tang dynasty into the Northern School, in 1635 (Palace Museum, Beijing), an outstanding work

headed by Shenxiu, and the Southern School, headed by from the last years of his life, the seemingly endless

Huineng. The Northern School stressed “gradual awak¬ mountains and valleys covered with trees are painted

ening,” whereas the Southern School emphasized “sud¬ with rough and awkward strokes in fresh ink. In the in¬

den awakening.” Simple and unrestrained, Huineng’s scription, Dong says that it is in imitation of Guan Tong,

method was well received by Buddhists. After the Song but there is no resemblance between the two. Similarly,

dynasty, the Southern School developed rapidly, whereas the inscription for The Qinghian Mountains (fig. 218) says

the Northern School gradually declined. The Southern that it was in imitation of Dong Yuan, when in fact it had

School reached its prime by the end of the Ming dynasty, been inspired by Wang Meng’s Dwelling in the Qinghian

when, in order to escape political conflicts at court, many Mountains (see fig. 162). This large landscape looks like a

The Ming Dynasty 233

 view from the back of Wang Meng’s depiction of the
same subject. Over the towering mountain peak, one can
see the river flowing into the distance with more moun¬
tains shrouded by clouds. It is an awe-inspiring picture,
yet it lacks the lifelike naturalness of Wang’s painting,
which conveys so well the bulk and profundity of the
mountain mass.
What Dong Qichang’s paintings sought to convey
through the brush and ink was not nature itself but a
mood. The alternate application of a dry brush for shad¬
ing and rubbing and a wet brush for contrast results in
filling every part of the painting with contradictions. The
juxtaposition is inherent in the effort to unite subject and
technique: “In uniqueness of scenery, a painting can in
no way compare with the landscape [of nature]. On the
other hand, when you think of the remarkable power of
the brush and ink, the [natural] landscape is definitely
inferior to a painting.”10 In addition, one can trace the
styles of many earlier painters in his constantly changing
brushwork. Thus, Dong Qichang’s landscapes are not
views of the natural countryside that one might visit or
where one might live. They are drawn from an intellec¬
tual perspective, borrowing from nature and the histori¬
cal legacy of artists.
The album Eight Scenes in Autumn (fig. 219), painted in
1620, is a series of imitations of ancient artists. Those
mentioned by Dong himself include Mi Fu, Fang Congyi,
Huang Gongwang, Dong Yuan, and Zhao Gan. By imita¬
tion, he meant similarity in structural design, modeling,
and brushwork. Instead of evaluating the series by how
truthfully the scenes reflect nature, one should judge it by
the versatility and maturity of the brushwork, for it
reflects the unequaled ingenuity of the artist. In his imita¬
tion of The Magnificent Huyun Mountain, for example, the
composition is extremely simple, and the slopes and
mountain peaks are not true to life and lack variation. But
the sharp, forthright strokes of the brush, the fresh,
moist ink, the contrasts of color, and the contrast be¬
tween the solid and the void give one a sense of innocent
beauty. Dong Qichang completed this painting while
traveling along the Yangzi River on his way to Suzhou.
The scenery on the trip and the time he spent appreciat¬
ing ancient paintings with friends so delighted him that
both his brushwork and his colors reflect that cheerful
mood. Reading the accompanying poem first and then
examining the painting leads the viewer into a realm
beyond the scene itself. The intellectual dimension or

218. Dong Qichang, TheQingbian Mountains, hanging scroll,

ink on paper, 1617. (© Cleveland Museum of Art, 1997,
Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Bequest, 1980.10.)
 exaggerated account, Lan Ying was a prodigy. Because his
family were poor they sent him to a local art studio where
he could learn painting as an apprentice. There, at the be¬
ginning of his career, he made paintings of architectural
features and beautiful women, using meticulous brush¬
strokes. As he grew up, he realized that if he wanted to be
an artist of high social status, he must associate with
scholars and learn the techniques of literati painting. To¬
ward this end he began to travel extensively, visiting dis¬
tinguished artists of the time. In addition to seeing local
scholars, he went to Songjiang and Nanjing to call upon
Dong Qichang, Chen Jiru, Sun Kehong, and Yang Wen-
cong (1597-1645). He had two purposes in mind — to
ask for instruction and to seek their approval — and he
got what he wanted. In the inscription to Landscape in the
Manner of Huang Gongwang (National Palace Museum,
Taibei), Chen Jiru wrote, “There is simplicity and vigor in
the mountains, and vitality and richness in the plants.
This is Zhang Boyu’s [Zhang Yu’s] comment on Zijiu’s
[Huang Gongwang’s] paintings. If he should see this
painting by Tianshu [Lan Ying], even as the scroll began
to unfurl he would know that a great talent had been
born, and would store the painting lest it be lost to the
winds.” A reference to the Jin-dynasty painter Gu Kaizhi
shows that Chen Jiru thought highly of Lan Ying.
It was fashionable for literati painters of that time to
imitate artists of earlier generations, indicating that their
219. Dong Qichang, Eight Scenes in Autumn, album leaf, ink and paintings were “after so-and-so” to show off how cul¬
color on paper, 1620. 53.8 X 37.7 cm. each. Shanghai Museum. tured they were. Lan Ying was no exception, and he often
wrote on his paintings, “This painting is done in imita¬

perspective is very similar in Ming poems; unlike Tang tion of so-and-so.” He imitated more than twenty artists,

poems, which prefer the simple, straightforward style, some of whom lived as early as the Tang dynasty, includ¬

these are particular about the source of every word. They ing the most prominent artists of both the Southern and

frequendy contain allusions and are forceful and sonorous Northern Schools. However, unlike many of his contem¬

in rhyme, rhythm, and tone. The content is rich and pro¬ poraries, he would not label his paintings as done in imi¬

found, though increasingly removed from real life. This tation of some ancient artist. For these works he took

rarifying trend is the outcome of the pursuit of Dong pains to study the brushwork of his model artist. Al¬

Qichang’s intellectual perspective — hence the call by though there is doubt about the authenticity of the works

Shitao during the Qing dynasty for a “return to nature.”11 of some of the earlier artists he imitated, Lan Ying was

At almost at the same time as the Huating School making every effort to learn from the ancients. With that

of Dong Qichang, the professional artist Lan Ying solid foundation and his masterful skill, he was able to

(r 585-r664) and his students were active in Hangzhou, produce accomplished paintings with a brandish of the

in Zhejiang Province. These artists are referred to as the brush. The works he did during middle age were meticu¬

Wuling School because Hangzhou was called Wuling in lous; his style became more casual in later years. But the

ancient times, but they were also known as the Later Zhe skills he learned during his early years as a professional

School because Lan Ying was from Zhejiang. When Lan artist were always present, which differentiates him from

Ying was eight years old, “he participated in a sacrifice- other painters.

offering ceremony and painted a landscape on the Lan Ying’s Landscape in the Manner of Li Tang (Shanghai

ground with the ashes. The painting was small, but it had Museum), painted in 1631, was executed deftly because

the breadth of a giant landscape.”12 Notwithstanding this Li Tang’s style was so similar to his. The painting depicts

The Ming Dynasty 23 5

 two scholars reveling in the landscape, illustrating the receded in importance until the late Ming. A small renais¬
idea of aloofness. In the foreground is an autumn forest, sance occurred with the emergence of figure and portrait
with overlapping age-old trees in a variety of colors. In painters such as Ding Yunpeng, Wu Bin, Chen Hong-
the forest there are houses and a pavilion in which the shou, Cui Zizhong, Zengjing, and Xie Bin.
scholars sit chatting. In the background mountains rise Ding Yunpeng (1547—1621), a native of Xiuning in
straight up, with cataracts pouring down the slopes. The Anhui Province, excelled in painting religious figures. Flis
skillful technique and composition are far beyond the most representative works are Five Forms of the Bodhisattva
reach of most literati painters. Although Lan Ying in¬ Guanyin (fig. 220), Guanyin (Palace Museum, Beijing), and
tended to depict the life and ideas of scholars, most of his Masters of the Three Religions (fig. 221). In the first painting,
scenes are superficial rather than thought-provoking. the five Guanyins, each looking different from the oth¬
In White Clouds and Red Trees (Palace Museum, Beijing), ers, are meticulously executed. The composition gives
painted in 1658, the artist’s inscription says that he was one a feeling of spaciousness, for the blue in the back¬
“imitating Zhang Sengyou’s bone-immersing technique.” ground sets off the white robes of the Guanyins, accentu¬
The works of Zhang Sengyou, an artist of the Southern ating the grace and splendor of each. During the latter
Liang dynasty in the first half of the sixth century, were years of his life, Ding Yunpeng used bolder brushwork.
no longer in existence by the Ming dynasty, but Ming His Guanyin shows the bodhisattva holding a little boy in
artists believed that alternating red and green in paint¬ her arms, resembling a Western Madonna and Child,
ing landscapes was the style of the Six Dynasties. Dong which is unprecedented in the traditional portraits of
Qichang also imitated paintings of this type. In Lan Guanyin. The twisting parallel folds of her robe also bear
Ying’s painting, the rows of mountains were painted with a close resemblance to the folds in a Western Madonna’s
azurite and mineral green, and ancient trees on the moun¬ robe. One factor that may be responsible for this is that
tain slopes and at the foot of the mountains were dotted when the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci came to China
with red, white, light blue, and light green leaves. He used in the mid-sixteenth century, he visited the Nanjing area
a white powder for the clouds, and, indeed, the entire several times, bringing with him copperplate engravings
painting has a bright tone. The artist could have blurred of Madonnas. Ding Yunpeng may have seen the engrav¬
the oudines for a more impressionistic effect, but he re¬ ings; if so, this work would represent the earliest Western
stricted himself to the techniques of professional artists, influence on Chinese painting.
who inevitably left their imprint on his work. The landscape paintings of Wu Bin (active ca. 1573 —
The earlier artist whose works Lan Ying studied most 1620), a native of Putian in Fujian Province, are some¬
was Huang Gongwang, for Huang was the model artist what bizarre. His grotesque rocks create a fantastical
for the Ming literati painters whom Lan Ying aspired to image which is purely from the artist’s imagination. Yet
join. His Landscape in the Manner of Huang Gongwang shows Wu Bin was also a painter of religious figures, as in Five
why Lan Ying’s paintings were noted for their careful Hundred Arhats (fig. 222), which portrays an enormous
composition and balanced spatial structure and were number of Buddhist disciples in a variety of postures and
popular at the time. But his brushwork, at once vigorous gestures. The arhats have facial expressions that are al¬
and unrestrained, invited criticism as well as acclaim. Qin most comical, in contrast to the arhats of the Tang and
Zuyong apdy commented in his Tongyin lunhua: “The skill Song dynasties, which exuded solemnity and wisdom.
of this artist is indeed superb. The trees and rocks look Portrait ofthe Buddha (fig. 223) features the Buddha Shakya-
rustic and unrestrained. If he had moderated his brush¬ muni sitting cross-legged on a rush mat on top of a huge
strokes he might well have rivaled Wen Zhengming and rock. The folds of his garment, drawn with stiff, hard,
Shen Zhou.”13 regular lines create an impression of childlike innocence.
The wave and whirlpool designs on the rock platform are
produced by rubbing, the same method used to create his
Portrait and Figure Painting
fantastic mountains and rivers. Ding Yunpeng’s and Wu
in the Late Ming Bin’s portraits of religious figures were no longer primar¬
ily for reverential purposed; these works were increasingly
Following the fall of the Song dynasty, religious fervor intended for aesthetic appreciation.
gradually died down, and fewer and smaller cave grottoes Among the figure and portrait painters of the late Ming,
and temples were made or built. With the decline of Chen Hongshou and Cui Zizhong stand out. As they were
religion, Ming figure painting lost its biggest patron and born in different regions, they were known as “Chen in

236 The Ming Dynasty

220. Ding Yunpeng, Five Forms of the Bodhisattva Guanyin, handscroll, ink, color, and gold on paper, ca. 15 80. Nelson-Atkins Museum
of Art, Kansas City, Missouri. (Purchase: Nelson Trust.)

the South and Cui in the North.” Linking two names like
this is a customary way of expressing acclaim for out¬
standing individuals that in no way indicates similarity in
their artistic styles.
Cui Zizhong (d. 1644) was from Laiyang in Shandong
Province and lived in Beijing. He was once a county
scholar, but after repeatedly failing the civil service ex¬
aminations, he gave up the idea of entering officialdom
and devoted all his time and energy to painting. When
Dong Qichang was at court tending to imperial family af¬
fairs, Cui presented him with one of his own works in the
hopes of gaining Dong’s recognition. Because he was un¬
willing to sell his paintings for a living, Cui lived in dire
poverty. He was also unsociable by nature, seldom mix¬
ing with others, and when the Ming dynasty fell in 1644,
he shut himself up in a mud hut and starved himself
to death.
Judging from the few of Cui’s works that have sur¬
vived, most of his paintings were depictions of historical
or supernatural figures. Capturing Clouds (Palace Museum,
Beijing), painted in 1626 and based on an episode about
the Tang poet Li Bai, depicts Li Bai admiring the clouds.
Clearly the artist did not intend to tell the story of the
poet bottling the clouds but rather to celebrate the extra¬
ordinary nature of the poetic act. The mountains, rocks,
and trees in the background call to mind Song land¬
scapes. Entertaining a Guest in the Apricot Garden (fig. 224),
painted by Cui in 1638 for his friend Wang Yuzhong, is
one of his best. The image of two friends seemingly dis¬
cussing a poem or an essay in a garden with blossoming
apricot trees may be a portrait of the artist and Wang
Yuzhong, or it may simply depict two friends. One is re¬
minded of Tao Yuanming’s famous lines, “Together we
appreciate the unique work, exchanging and analyzing
our different views.” The painting is clearly about friend¬
ship, and the brightly colored background and figures
further accentuate the harmonious atmosphere.
221. Ding Yunpeng, Masters of the Three Religions, hanging scroll,
Cui Zizhong followed the traditions of professional
ink and color on paper, Ming dynasty. 115.7 X 5 5.8 cm. Palace
painters. The postures of the figures and the apricot trees
Museum, Beijing.

The Ming Dynasty 237

 222. Wu Bin, Five HundredArhats, section of a handscroll, ink and
light color on paper, Ming dynasty. (© Cleveland Museum of Art,
1997, John L. Severance Fund, 1971.16.)

223. Wu Bin, Portrait of the Buddha, hanging scroll, ink and color
on silk, Ming dynasty. 146.2 X 76.3 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.
in the latter painting recall Qiu Ying’s Evening Banquet in scholars as Liu Zongzhou and Huang Daozhou. In 1642,
the Peach and Plum Garden (Chionin, Kyoto), and the rocks he was admitted into the highest educational institution
greatly resemble those of Shi Rui, although there may be as a student. Later, he was enlisted by the imperial family
no direct link between Cui Zizhong and the earlier artists. to copy portraits of emperors of the various dynasties. As
Nevertheless, Cui pursued a classical form of expression, it was a time of political instability and he was not inter¬
and Qiu Ying was an expert at imitating past painters, ested in being a court painter, Chen left for home after a
whereas Shi Rui modeled his paintings on the landscapes year. In 1645, when Qing troops pushing south took
of Northern Song. Cui did not allow his technique to be Zhejiang Province, many of Chen’s teachers and friends
swept along by the raging tide of literati painting. sacrificed their lives to defend the Ming. Captured by
Cui Zizhong’s Xu Zhengyang Moving His Family (fig. 225) Qing troops himself, Chen narrowly escaped death. He
deals with a supernatural theme. The story goes that shaved his head and became a monk, adopting the
Xu Xun of the Eastern Jin, becoming imbued with the names of Huiseng (Repentant Monk), Huichi (Belated
Daoist spirit, soared into the sky, along with his family, Repentance), and Chiheshang (Late-Coming Monk). The
and was henceforth worshiped by Daoists as an immor¬ many extant works signed “Repentant Monk” or “Be¬
tal. There is another extant painting on the same theme lated Repentance” were all done by Chen after the fall of
by the same author (National Palace Museum, Taibei). the Ming.
According to Cui’s inscription, he had seen many ancient Chen Hongshou was a talented artist who matured

drafts (fenben) of paintings on the same theme before he early. It is said that when he was only four years old he
created his. He admits to imitating those works but never painted a portrait more than three meters high of Guan
let himself be bound by them. As none of these drafts is Yu, a noted general during the period of the Three King¬

available, there is no way of comparing them. However, doms. At fourteen, he was able to bring in some money

the painting does recall Wang Meng’s Ge Zhichuan Moving by selling his art works. At the age of nineteen he made a

His Dwelling (see fig. 163). Coincidentally, Wang also had series of woodblock prints to illustrate The Nine Songs by

two versions of this painting, one in the meticulous style, the ancient poet Qu Yuan of the state of Chu. The basic

from the early years of his life, and the other rough, from outline of his style in figure painting was already present.

his later years. Although the characters and episodes the Chen became well known as an illustrator of plays and

artists portrayed were quite different, their common aim other literary works, as well as a designer of pictures for

was to use the supernatural theme to convey the idea of playing cards. Still extant are his illustrations for the Ro¬

escaping from the turmoil of the human world. As Wang mance of the West Chamber and loose-leaf woodblock prints

Meng lived the majority of his life at the end of the Yuan of Outlaws of the Marsh and Antiquarian Playing Cards. Dur¬

dynasty and Cui Zizhong saw the decline of the Ming, the ing his childhood, Chen made many copies of the stone

two shared a discontent caused by political and social un¬ engravings of Confucius and his seventy-two disciples

rest, and it is not coincidental that they both dwelled on that are said to have been drawn by Li Gonglin. He also

the same theme. received instruction from Lan Ying that laid the ground¬

Cui Zizhong’s pursuit of classical expression contin¬ work for his figures and landscapes.

ued the traditional techniques passed down from profes¬ In Chen’s figure paintings, the faces are often exag¬

sional painters in the early Ming. This carryover and the gerated, the garments drawn at whim, disregarding the

ideas and sentiments he shared with men of letters person’s bone structure. Although many modern critics

merged to produce his own painting style. Wu Weiye, one classify these works as “distortions,” Chen Hongshou

of the noted artists of the time, linked Cui with the other himself saw this technique as the revival of an earlier

significant artist: “Whose works are immortal after these method. A good example is his Lady Xuan Wenjun Giving

forty years? Cui Qingyin [Cui Zizhong] in the north and Instructions on the Classics (fig. 226), painted in 1638, when

Chen Zhanghou [Chen Hongshou] in the south. he was forty-one, in the prime of life. The painting, a gift

A native of Zhuji in Zhejiang Province, Chen Hong¬ to his aunt on her sixtieth birthday, was meticulously exe¬

shou (1598-1652) was as much a failure as Cui in his cuted. Lady Xuan Wenjun was a scholar who educated her

attempt to enter officialdom through the civil service ex¬ sons so well that Emperor Fujian of Qianqin (350 — 394)

aminations. However, the two were totally different in set up a class in her home where she taught 120 pupils the

character. Chen liked liquor and women and led an unre¬ book Zhou guan, a classic on government administration

strained, dissolute life. He was socially well connected which almost no one else could comprehend. Chen s

and was at one time the student of such well-known aunt, a widow, must have been a very knowledgeable

The Ming Dynasty 239

2 24. Cui Zizhong, Entertaining a Guest in the Apricot Garden, hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, 1638. Nicholas Cahill Collection,
on extended loan to the University of California, Berkeley, Art Museum.
22 5. Cui Zizhong, Xu Zhengyang Moving His Family, hanging
scroll, ink and color on silk, Ming dynasty. 165.6 X 64.1 cm.
(© Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt
Fund, 1961.90.) above

226. Chen Hongshou, Lady Xuan Wenjun Giving Instructions on the

Classics, hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, 1638. (© Cleveland
Museum of Art, 1997, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund,
1961.89.) left
 woman, and he expressed his admiration for her in the ask for?” In Removing the Seal, Tao Yuanming removes the
painting of Lady Xuan Wenjun. Whether the comparison official seal and hands it to the servant boy while he
is appropriate or not, the work itself is a portrait of a his¬ stands, head held high in the wind, his determination
torical figure based on the artist’s imagination. To make it never to turn back etched on his face. Chen wrote these
as accurate as he could, Chen paid a lot of attention not words on the picture, “To make a living, I came; refusing
only to the design of the hall, the furnishings, and the ob¬ to bend my back, I leave — the way out of a tumultuous
jects on the table but also to the figures, garments, and world.” The segment entitied Returning Home shows Tao
decorations. The maids have delicate, agile figures, their Yuanming walking with a stick, his garment and belt
long, loose gowns reaching the ground. The men, with swept up by the wind; he appears impatient to return
their exaggerated faces and loose-sleeved robes, bear a home and live a secluded life. The accompanying couplet
definite resemblance to figures of the Six Dynasties pe¬ reads, “The pines yearn for me; how can I not return?”
riod. The figures could very well have been modeled on In this painting, Chen Hongshou portrays Tao Yuanming
those in Admonitions of the Court Instructress to Palace Ladies with an easy, casual demeanor. Chen embodied his admo¬
(see figs. 39, 40, 41) and Wise and Benevolent Women (see nition to Zhou Lianggong in both the poetic lines and the
fig. 38), reputedly the works of Gu Kaizhi. At that stage painting. It is not recorded how Zhou reacted to this
of development, figure drawing tended to be simple and painting, but he stayed in his post as a Qing government
childishly clumsy. It was Chen Hongshou’s expressed official and later barely escaped death at the hands of
wish to revive that style. Qing rulers. After being removed from office, he wrote a
Returning Home (fig. 227) was painted in 1650 for his biography of Chen Hongshou in which he deliberately
old friend Zhou Lianggong, a collector and connoisseur altered when Chen presented him with the painting to
of calligraphy and paintings. In his book Duhualu (Read¬ before the fall of the Ming dynasty. He may have re¬
ings on paintings), Zhou highly praised Chen Hongshou. gretted ignoring his friend’s admonition to return home
Their relations became estranged, however, following the earlier.
fall of the Ming because Zhou accepted an official post Chen Hongshou’s Shen An Wearing Flowers in His Hair
under the Qing administration. At first, Chen ignored (fig. 228), A Literary Gathering (Shanghai Museum), and
Zhou’s repeated requests for a painting. Finally, he pre¬ Life of a Recluse at Shiliuguan (National Palace Museum,
sented Zhou with this work, which is based on the Taibei) are among the finest examples of figure painting,
well-known essay of the same tide by Tao Yuanming. each imbued with a profound idea and executed accord¬
The theme had been a favorite one among painters since ing to a well thought out plan. While painting Literary
the Song and Yuan, but Chen Hongshou did not try to Gathering at Xiyuan (Palace Museum, Beijing), his last
interpret and depict the contents of the essay. Rather, work, Chen had to stop halfway owing to serious illness.
he reorganized the topics according to his own plan In 1725, seventy-three years after his death, the noted
to depict the integrity of Tao Yuanming and his likes painter Hua Yan of Yangzhou completed the painting.
and interests. Altogether he painted eleven segments, In landscape and bird-and-flower paintings, too, Chen
on the topics of picking chrysanthemums, concentrating Hongshou displayed great creativity. His daring in cutting
strength, planting sorghum, going home, lacking wine, out extraneous elements, his novelty in composition, the
removing the seal (giving up his post) and returning to rich decorative flavor, and the strong projection of char¬
his country home, borrowing wine, admiring a fan, re¬ acter are unique in Chinese painting and have left their
jecting gifts, begging, and straining wine. Each segment is imprint on Chinese painters to this day.
a painting by itself, with a tide and a short explanation, The skills and methods of portrait painting during the
each expressing an idea. Chen could have been inspired Ming, a viable way of earning a living that was supported
by painting illustrations for plays and cards. The figures by society, were usually passed down from father to son
and their garments are in a highly formalized style associ¬ and from master to apprentice. Painters and ordinary
ated with Six Dynasties painting, but the postures are re¬ craftsmen had a similar way of life and work except that
plete with emotion.
the former, being engaged in artistic labor, were granted
For example, in the segment Picking a Chrysanthemum, slighdy more respect and were addressed as “sir” or “mas¬
the man holds the chrysanthemum to his lips as though
ter painter.” Outstanding local specialist figure painters
kissing it, an expression of deep love. The accompanying
were often recruited for service in the palace. Yet neither
lines read, “With the yellow dower just beginning to
court nor professional portrait painters left their names
blossom and wine to quench my thirst, what else can I
on their works. One of the first Ming portrait painters to

242 The Ming Dynasty

227. Chen Hongshou, Returning Home, handscroll, ink and light color on silk, 1650. Honolulu Academy of Arts. (Purchase, 1954.)

be recorded in art history was Zeng Jing. In fact, highlighting a person’s character and aspira¬
Zeng Jing (1564—1647), a native of Putian in Fujian tions by surrounding the figure with empty space is the
Province, resided in Nanjing. A professional painter, his most characteristic feature of Zeng Jing’s portraits. His
portraits were so highly respected that scholars invited Portrait of ZhangQinggi (fig. 230), painted in 1622, is of a

him to their homes to paint for them. He painted por¬ famous doctor well versed in poetry and literature who

traits of such well-known individuals as Dong Qichang, was dubbed “a scholar in doctor’s garb.” In the painting,

Chen Jiru, Wang Shimin, Lou Jian (1567-1631), and Zhang is dressed in a light-colored robe and wears a pair

Huang Daozhou. Because portraiture required that the of red shoes. With one hand smoothing his beard, he is

painter be in the presence of the person portrayed, Zeng walking at ease. The figure occupies about one-third the

Jing constandy moved around, working in Nanjing, length of the scroll. No background is provided, but one

Hangzhou, Wuzhen, Ningbo, Songjiang, and other cities. gets the feeling that Zhang Qingzi is walking out in the

His income from painting was sufficient to provide him open. The kind and benevolent countenance of the man

with well-furnished living quarters wherever he went. His is that of a doctor who saves people’s lives. Moreover,

portraits were described as breathtakingly real, as though the large areas of empty space are associated with the ele¬

they were reflections of the sitter in the mirror. The facial gant manner of a scholar and recluse. Thus, even though

expressions were said to be exactly like those of the real the size of the figure is small, his character looms large.

person. Zeng Jing reached maturity in portraiture at Zeng Jing was an expert in the traditional method of

about the age of fifty and was at the height of his creativ¬ bringing the person’s character into sharp relief by por¬
traying him in action and by emphasizing his surround¬
ity at seventy.
Portrait of Wang Shimin (fig. 229), which he painted in ings and possessions. Portrait of Ge Yilong (fig. 231) shows

1616, is his earliest existing work. Wang was a scholar- the scholar wearing a black headcloth and a white frock

painter and the oldest of the Four Wangs of the Ortho¬ and seated leaning on a pile of books. Ge Yilong was

dox School of landscape under the Qing. At the time this known as a bookworm who spent enormous sums of

portrait was painted, Wang was only twenty-five. Wearing money on books and ended up bankrupt. To highlight his

a light-colored gown and a head cloth, he sits cross- craze for books, Zeng Jing shows no other possessions in

legged on a rush hassock, a horsetail duster in his hand. the picture. Yet Ge’s posture and clothes reveal his dis¬

He has a handsome face and delicate features, but looks dain for worldly concerns.

quite serious and serene, more mature than his age — as Many critics consider Zeng Jing’s portrait painting

might be expected of someone with his family back¬ significant because of his assimilation of the illusionistic

ground in civil service and his strict education. The paint¬ concave and convex method of Western oil painting.

ing also differs from portraits by local specialists in that, Actually, illusionism is an inherent part of the Chinese

rather than filling the entire space of the painting, the painting tradition. In his book The Principles of Painting

figure occupies only the lower central part of the space. Dong Qichang quoted the ancients as saying that every

The Ming Dynasty 243

228. Chen Hongshou, ShengHn Wearing
Flowers in His Hair, hanging scroll, ink
and color on silk, Ming dynasty. Palace
Museum, Beijing. 143.5 x 61.5 cm-
 229. Zengjing, Portrait of Wang
Shimin, hanging scroll, ink
and color on silk, 1616.
64 X 42.3 cm. Tianjin
Art Museum.

brushstroke stands out.” The difference between the (the brow, nose, and lips) stand out. Zengjing’s achieve¬

Western and Chinese traditions lies in the way the spatial ment in portrait painting is that, having inherited the

illusion is achieved. Zeng painted portraits which cap¬ legacy of Whng Yi of the Yuan dynasty and assimilated

tured each sitter’s reflection as in a mirror. He made no the methods and skills of local specialists, he raised the

optical adjustments, kept his viewpoint level, and painted aesthetic value of portraiture — a portrait became some¬

with lines and very few shadows, thereby preserving the thing to appreciate, not just a keepsake — and paid in¬

natural protrusions and sunken parts of his subject’s face. creased attention to the depiction of facial expressions.

What are known in painting as the “three white spots” A good observer, he was quick to capture human ges-

The Ming Dynasty 24 5

 tures and expressions, and was expert at using empty
space in his compositions to emphasize them.
Among Zengjing’s disciples and followers, known as
the Bochen School, Xie Bin (1601—1681) was the most
accomplished. Born in Shangyu, Zhejiang Province, he
inherited Zeng Jing’s techniques but was more scholarly
in his compositions. His Portrait of Zhu Kuishi (see fig.
250), done in 1653, was painted in black ink without any
color. Zhu Kuishi, wearing an official robe, sits on a
stone, his complexion clear and his face thin and smiling.
In the background are giant pine trees, green and pro¬
fuse, painted by Xiang Shengmo (1597—1658). Although
the painting is a collaboration between two artists, it
is still harmonious. It seems that the two artists fre¬
quently worked closely together. The four-character
tide, “Dense Pine Forest,” was written in seal script by
Xiang Shengmo. Xie Bin’s Carefree Immortal Among Waves
of Pines (Jilin Provincial Museum) is a portrait of Xiang
Shengmo. Similar in theme to the previous image, this
painting has a figure more casual in his posture and
clothing. The background pine trees were later painted by
Xiang himself.

Female Artists

In Chinese society, for several thousand years women’s

position was subordinate to men’s. Feudal rulers pro¬
moted Confucian doctrines known as the Three Obedi¬
ences and the Three Cardinal Guides as the ideological
basis for social stability. The Three Obediences were that
a woman was required to obey her father before mar¬
riage, her husband during married life, and her sons in
widowhood. The Three Cardinal Guides were that ruler
guides subject, father guides son, and husband guides
wife. From birth to death women had no independent 230. Zengjing, Portrait of Zhang Qingf, hanging scroll, ink
social status, their actions and the expression of their and color on silk, 1622. 111.4 X 36.2 cm. Zhejiang Provincial
Museum.
ideas was restricted, and their individual personalities and
talents were stifled. As a result, there are few female
artists in Chinese history. This began to change toward as preparation to be a concubine or prostitute.
the end of the Ming dynasty, when their number began Among the most noted female artists of the Ming dy¬
to increase. According to Tang Shuyu in Yutai huashi (The nasty was Wen Shu (1595—1634), who was a daughter of
jade platform history of painting), of the 216 known fe¬ Wen Congjian (1574—1648) and great-granddaughter of
male artists from ancient times to the reign of the Jiaqing Wen Zhengming. She married Zhao Jun, son of Zhao
emperor (r. 1796-1820) of the Qing dynasty, half lived Huanguang. Wen Shu’s father inherited the family tradi¬
during the Ming dynasty and four-fifths of these lived tion and was good at landscape painting. Her father-in-
during the late Ming.14 Despite women’s circumscribed law, a scholar, excelled in seal script calligraphy; her
role in society, female painters were able to work owing husband’s expertise was seal carving and he loved to col¬
to either a family tradition of painting or artistic training lect seals. Sometimes, after she completed a painting, her

246 The Ming Dynasty

2JI. Zengjing, Portrait of Ge Yilong, section of a handscroll, ink and color on paper, Ming dynasty. 30.6 X 78 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.

husband wrote the inscription. Wen Shu’s works featured (fig. 232), a rock is rendered in somewhat heavy but still
flowers, grass, and insects. Sketches of Flowers and Butterflies delicate brushstrokes. A daylily, with elongated green

(Shanghai Museum), painted in 1628, is typical of Wen leaves and yellow flowers, grows behind the rock. The

Shu’s work. Using color on paper, she painted three types color is pleasantly subdued and the composition simple.

of flowers, a stone, and three butterflies. The composi¬ Traditionally, a daylily expresses filial piety; this image

tion of the painting is spare, giving a sense of quietude might have been used to celebrate an elderly person’s

and void. The butterflies are meticulously executed and birthday because the rock, representing a mountain, is

true to life. The flowers, two or three blossoms of each a symbol of longevity. In addition, vermilion on a gold

type, rarely overlap one another. Her brushwork is moist background are the colors of jubilant occasions for the

and delicate. The colors are bright but not gaudy, and the Chinese.
flowers have an exquisite beauty. Wen Shu’s composition Women who were not born into artistic families had

of flowers is rather simple, somewhere between a sketch few outlets for creativity, but there was another entree

and a painting, which she may have borrowed from arti¬ into the world of painting. It was not uncommon for

sanal embroidery. At that time, every girl was supposed scholars and officials to take concubines or to frequent

to be good at needlework, and the four skills required prostitutes, who were expected to be accomplished in

of a woman included spinning, weaving, embroidery, the arts and often had received instruction in painting.

and sewing. It is only natural that Wen Shu sometimes A powerful and wealthy person might also own a large

adopted patterns characteristic of embroidery in her number of boys and girls who performed songs and
dances for him. The city of Yangzhou was a famous cen¬
paintings.
In a painting of 1630 on yellow paper, Day lily and Rock ter for training entertainers who came from poor fami-

The Ming Dynasty 247

 %
X* lies. After they were sold, the girls were trained to sing,
yG
o play musical instruments, play chess, and create paintings
A and calligraphy. Then they were sold again, this time at a
very high price, to a man as his concubine or to a brothel.
x^

If the woman was beautiful as well as artistically talented,

she was able to ask a high price from her clients. Prosti¬
v-

tutes who became artists include Ma Shouzhen, Xue

Susu, Kou Mei, Gu Mei (1619-1664), and Li Yin.
Ma Shouzhen (1548-1604) was a famous prostitute in
the Qinhuai area in Nanjing.15 She was particularly inti¬
mate with the scholar Wang Zhideng, who often wrote
poems on her paintings. Orchids (accompanied by bam¬
boo and rocks) are the subject matter for most of her
paintings. In Orchid and Bamboo (Jilin Provincial Mu¬
seum), she painted the orchid using the double outline
technique, with rocks in the back interwoven with bam¬
boo. The inscription reads, “An imitation painting pre¬
sented to the poet Yan Ping for his comments.” This is
the way a man would have put it at that time. No re¬
spectable woman would have dared to give her painting to
someone as a gift, but a highly cultured prostitute could.
Bamboo, Orchid, and Rocks (Palace Museum, Beijing),
painted in 1604, was Ma Shouzhen’s last work. She
painted several layers of orchids with the double outline
technique and monochrome ink method. The orchid’s
long leaves interweave with each other and dance in
the wind. The beautifully arranged rocks, bamboo, and
glossy ling^hi fungus set each other off, further enliven¬
ing the work. Her brushwork is that of an experienced
artist, and her style is similar to Wen Zhengming’s. She
was strongly influenced by the Wu School in painting the
orchid because Wang Zhideng was from Wu Prefecture
and was a great admirer of Wen Zhengming. Expressing
her appreciation for the lone orchid growing wild in na¬
ture, she wrote:

The low cattail and mugwort are not worth

cherishing;
The orchid and bamboo in the field are more lovely.
I forget their smell when I enter the room,
Realizing there is a secluded hermit in the ravine.

Xue Susu (ca. 1564-ca. 1637) was a famous prostitute

of Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province. It is said that when Dong
Qichang was a private school teacher in Jiaxing before he
became jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest impe¬
rial examination), he fell in love with Xue Susu the first

232. Wen Shu, Day lily and Rock, hanging scroll, ink and color
on paper, 1630. Palace Museum, Beijing.

248 The Ming Dynasty

time they met. The artist Li Rihua (1565—1635) wrote the and Flowers (Shanghai Museum), painted in 1634 in ink on
following comments on one of Xue Susu’s paintings, silk, depicts peony, magnolia, rose, lotus, hibiscus, pome¬
Bodhisattva Among Flowers: “Xue Susu was good at play¬ granate, hydrangea, chrysanthemum, and plum. Swal¬

ing the %heng [an ancient stringed musical instrument], lows, sparrows, and bluebirds frolic in their midst. The
spinning, embroidering, and adorning herself. She knew painting was an imitation of Chen Chun’s work, down to

all entertainments that made men happy. As she got the use of brush and ink. According to the comments on

older, she wanted to have a child of her own but failed. the painting written by Ge Zhengqi, she did the painting

Now she has done this painting to beg for the Goddess at his request when he served as a government official in

of Mercy’s blessing on behalf of all couples who want to Beijing. One wet autumn day, the rain-soaked flowers

have a child.”16 in his courtyard looked to him like a sickly beauty, so he

Xue Susu was proficient at writing poems and calligra¬ asked Li Yin to paint a picture of them. He admired the

phy and painting orchids, bamboo, and narcissus. Her scenes of rain and her painting. Flowers in Four Seasons

Orchid and Rocks (Shanghai Museum) was produced in (Honolulu Academy of Arts), executed fifteen years later,

1596. She was invited to a party of scholars by a person was also painted in ink on silk and has a similar content,

named Shu Qing, where seven people, including Wang but the composition and brushstrokes are much more

Wenfan, Fang Wenxiao, Zhu Yunqing, and Fang Ying, mature and skillful. New Season (fig. 233) suggests the sub¬

wrote poems on that painting. Two clumps of orchids ject matter and style of Li Yin’s paintings.

grow on the side of a cliff along with young bamboo. The During the troubled final years of the Ming dynasty,

image is painted in black ink in easy, smooth brush¬ gifted artists responded to and reinterpreted the great

strokes, the application of ink alternately thick and light, traditions of Chinese painting. Some followed in the

dry and wet. The poems on the painting hint that it was footsteps of the literati masters, putting into practice
Dong Qichang’s orthodox prescriptions or perpetuating
an impromptu work.
Li Yin (ca. 1616-1685) signed her paintings “Woman the academic modes of painting. Others pursued highly

of Learning from Haichang.” She was the concubine of individualistic, often eccentric adaptations of past styles.

Ge Zhengqi, who at one time served as the caterer for Drawn from China’s cultural heritage, Ming styles, atti¬

the imperial family. Li Yin liked to paint flowers on silk in tudes, traditions, and innovations became part of the

black ink. The composition of her paintings was compar¬ Chinese tradition that inspired the artists in the ensuing

atively simple, but they are not as delicate as Wen Shu’s. Qing dynasty.

Most are imitations of themes of literati paintings. Birds

The Ming Dynasty 249

 NIE CHONGZHENG

The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)

Hhe Qing, last of the feudal dynasties, was established by the Manchus, a

non-Han people who originally lived in the Songhua River valley in north¬

east China. They ruled China for 267 years, from the time the Manchu army

swept down the Central Plain to the abdication of the last Qing emperor,

Puyi. The Manchus’ overthrow of the Ming was violent, involving a great

deal of bloodshed and destruction. This ruthlessness, and the fact that the

Manchu, like the Yuan, emerged from one of the minority peoples, created

hostility among the literati. Many took part in the armed resistance to the

new dynasty that lasted until the 1680s; the less militant expressed their dis¬

satisfaction in writings and paintings. Even after the firm establishment of

the Qing regime, many people, mainly intellectuals, continued to advocate

restoration of the Ming. They were calledyimin—“leftover subjects,” loyal-

ists to the fallen dynasty—and their clash with the new regime reflected a

strong national consciousness that pervaded the early years of the dynasty.

The Manchus became enthusiastic patrons of Chinese art. The Kangxi

emperor (r. 1662-1722), among others, promoted regional schools of art

and employed a number of court painters who specialized in decorative,

colorful paintings, as well as in landscape compositions in the literati

fnanner. From early on, the Qing emperors were also influenced by Western

ideas and technology, especially by Western artistic traditions. Under the

Qianlong emperor (r. 1736—1795), China entered a period of political,

Details, figure 274 (opposite) and figure 249 (above)

<■
 economic, and cultural supremacy, in which the empire’s ing Buddhist monks. The longing for the fallen regime
borders were expanded. The emperor played an active had an important bearing not only on Chinese history
role in the arts, both painting and composing poetry him¬ but on the development of Chinese art. We see this in the
self and promoting court painters and sponsoring the landscape paintings, which became a way for artists to
publication of catalogues of the imperial collection. express their deep dissatisfaction with their new world.
Contact with the West, especially through Jesuit mis¬ By painting images that subtly evoked the fallen Ming
sionaries, increased, as did trade with European coun¬ nation, these artists could reveal their dissatisfaction
tries. Although Western trade was restricted in the with the Qing. By portraying dark and somber images of
mid-eighteenth century, Western engravings and oil and mountains and valleys, they could suggest a mood of
fresco painting techniques were known, and they had melancholy or regret. By depicting trees growing up¬
some influence on court and popular culture. As well, side down and cliffs suspended in the air, they could im¬
Western architectural styles influenced Chinese buildings. ply that they lived in a world that had been turned on
During the nineteenth century, China came under in¬ its head.
creasing pressure from Western powers, while rebellions
The Four Great Monk Painters
by secret societies sapped the imperial coffers. The dev¬
astating opium trade with the British led to the forcible The Four Great Monk Painters—Hongren, Kuncan,
opening of Nanjing in 1842. The Treaty of Nanjing, Bada Shanren, and Shitao — lived at roughly the same
which ceded Hong Kong to the British and imposed time; they all experienced the fall of the Ming. Kuncan,
fixed import and export tariffs, was a catalyst for the re¬ who had become a monk during the Ming, was deeply
volt of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and other di¬ loyal to the fallen dynasty. Hongren, Bada Shanren, and
rect attacks on Qing control from 1851 to 1864. Foreign Shitao were not very religious; they became monks to es¬
powers chipped away at the empire, demanding favorable cape the foreign Manchu rule.
trade, payment of indemnities, and other concessions, Hongren (1610-1664) was born in Shexian, Anhui
which were both costly and humiliating. Province. He turned away from the world, following the
Brief attempts to regroup and rebuild during the late priest Guhang and becoming a Buddhist monk himself in
nineteenth and early twentieth century proved futile. 1646, when he realized that there was no hope of restor¬
Natural disasters, including floods and epidemics, and ing the Ming dynasty. He lived in seclusion in the Qiyun
foreign debt caused the last dynasty of China to collapse, Mountains but often traveled between Mount Huang and
victim to the revolution of 1911. the Yandang Mountains, where he occupied himself with
Throughout the Qing, Chinese artists were forced his painting. The mountains and streams became his only
to become conscious of their cultural tradition; they companions, and his paintings convey his understanding
struggled to define it and to find the best way to preserve of them, his attempt to depict their true likeness. When
it. Following past masters, they embraced artistic tradi¬ he died, his friends and students buried him at the foot
tions while reinterpreting them in creative and individual¬ of Mount Huang’s Piyun Peak. Because he was fond of
istic ways. plum blossoms, they planted several dozen plum trees
around his grave. It was said that when these blossomed,
they were like bright stars in the sky.
The Early Qing Hongren’s landscapes, painted in sparing but highly
refined brushstrokes, show the stylistic influence of the
After defeating the rebel leader Li Zicheng’s peasant Yuan-dynasty painter Ni Zan. But Hongren differed
army, which had forced its way into Beijing, the Manchus from Ni Zan in his ability to impart life to his rocks and
marched swiftly southward, battling the remaining forces trees. Intriguingly, Ni Zan, who was not a monk, seemed
of the Ming dynasty. The defenders resisted stubbornly, to embody in his pictures the Chan Buddhist idea of de¬
prompting the Manchus to adopt brutal measures, tachment. The monk Hongren, on the other hand, re¬
sometimes slaughtering the entire population of a de¬ veals through his paintings his passionate engagement
feated city. with life. It seems fair to infer from this that Hongren’s
Even after the resistance movement ended, many Han monkhood was not a simple religious choice.
literati and others refused to cooperate with the new Most of Hongren’s paintings share the same highly con¬
regime and still looked upon themselves as subjects of structed landscape motifs, which, although they rely on
the Ming dynasty. Many sought refuge in religion, becom¬ past masters, have been distilled into a pristine, dreamlike

252 The Qing Dynasty

world divorced from reality— in this case, the turbulence to an established style or school but combined what was
of his present. The cleaned-up, almost sanitized world best in each. In addition to learning from the Four Great
can be seen as the ultimate statement of Hongren’s per¬ Masters of the Yuan dynasty, Kuncan was influenced by
sonality and his loyalty to the past: the peaceful rhythms Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, and Dong Qichang, who
and sensitive recollections of past masters recall a world were among the greatest of the Ming artists. The way
of solidity and steadfastness that evokes his loyalty to the Kuncan applied the ink shows the influence of the great
fallen dynasty. Song artist Mi Fu, with his mountains shrouded in
Pine Cliff and Clear Spring (fig. 234) is a detailed depic¬ clouds. This is especially evident in Origin of Immortals
tion of a sheer mountain peak standing on the edge of a (fig. 235). The painting, on a hanging paper scroll, shows
smooth lake. Sturdy pines grow at its base, almost hiding water cascading from the hills to a stream flowing by a
a summerhouse. Pines also grow on the rocky cliff, cling¬ few thatched houses at the bottom. On the slope far
ing stubbornly and sending roots into the crevices of the away is a small village. Even farther away, hidden in a
rocks. The lake at the foot of the mountain is as smooth deep valley, is a group of buildings with high roofs and
as a mirror. This quietude is broken only by a stream upturned eaves that resemble temples. A solitary angler
flowing down a gully between two mountains. In front of sits in a boat in the middle of the stream.
the bamboo grove stands what appears to be a Buddhist Kuncan liked to use calligraphy on his paintings. The

monastery. There are no human figures in the picture, inscription in the upper right-hand corner describes the

and the scene seems completely isolated from the outside artist’s joy in living in seclusion with only the natural
world. Using clean and elegant brushstrokes, and simpli¬ landscape for company:
fying and generalizing the natural scenery, Hongren pre¬
I still find joy in this secluded life,
sents an unspoiled ideal world through the natural charm Treading on the path, I find beautiful scenes as I
of the mountain and lake.
please.
Kuncan (1612-1673) was born in Wuling (today’s I play my musical instrument as I walk along the river,
Changde in Hunan Province), but he often stayed in Until I enter a fascinating place through the clouds.
Nanjing, where he became close friends with famous The water is deep and the land is open and flat,
literati who were still loyal to the Ming dynasty, including The mountains shine under the sunlight.
Gu Yanwu, Qian Qianyi, Zhou Lianggong, Gong Xian, The deafening sound of a spring covers other noises,
and Cheng Zhengkui. They used to gather at the Youqi The flat rocks look so clean as if they have been
Monastery on Ox Head Mountain, where Kuncan lived.
swept.
When the Manchu army marched south, he favored the I feel so happy I forget my fatigue,
resistance fighters, but they were soon overwhelmed. He The stream winds all the way up to the high
hid in the mountains, suffering a great deal, and later trav¬
mountain.
eled from monastery to monastery. Living as a recluse, he When I look ahead, the mountains look as if they
wrote poems and painted pictures. Even after he became
are cut,
a monk, he still cherished strong nationalist feelings, as And the irregular mountain caves are exquisite.
suggested by the following story. Kuncan had a friend I feel as if I am high in the sky,
named Xiong Kaiyuan, who was also a monk. One day My steps feel so light as I walk in the pine woods.
Xiong went on an excursion to Bell Mountain, outside Resting in the mountains, I forget about the material
the city of Nanjing. On Xiong’s return, Kuncan asked,
world,
“Did you pay homage at the Xiaoling Mausoleum [the The place is so quiet that even monks don’t come
tomb of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the
here.
Ming dynasty]?” “We are monks; we don’t have to pay I plan to live here for the rest of my life,
homage,” Xiong replied. At this, Kuncan flew into a rage Until I die in this mountain.
and bitterly scolded him. When his friend asked forgive¬ By Can Daoren (Old Daoist) of Shixi (Stone Stream),
ness, Kuncan retorted, “You don’t have to apologize to at Zutang, in the spring of the year oijiachen1
me. You should kowtow at the Xiaoling Mausoleum and
Bada Shanren (1626-1705) is the best known of the
repent!”
In contrast to Hongren’s elegant paintings, Kuncan’s Four Great Monk Painters and one of the most distin¬

landscapes are forceful and free. Although he drew ex¬ guished artists in the history of Chinese painting. His

tensively on traditional masters, he did not limit himself birth name, Zhu Da, tells us that he belonged to the Ming

The Qing Dynasty 253

2J4- Hongren, Pine Cliff and Clear
Spring, hanging scroll, ink on
paper, Qing dynasty. Guangdong
Provincial Museum.
23 5- Kuncan, Origin of Immortals, hanging scroll,
ink and color on paper, 1661. 84 X 42.8 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.
 imperial family; his status and background were therefore until he finally abandoned his home and joined a mon¬
quite different from those of Hongren and Kuncan.2 A astery in the Fengxin Mountains near Nanchang. For
descendant of the prince of Yiyang, from the northeast¬ the next twenty years, he cultivated Buddhist truths and
ern part of today’s Jiangxi Province, he was born in Nan- taught them to more than a hundred followers. After
chang. As a child and young man, he enjoyed wealth, long years of depression and repressing his feelings, he
adulation, and a leisurely life in a prince’s mansion. A began to behave as if he were insane. He would some¬
lively, cheerful young man, Bada Shanren loved to com¬ times lie prostrate and weep bitterly, sometimes raise his
ment on the world around him, often surprising people face to the sky and laugh uproariously, swinging his arms
with his wit. and legs in a dance; sometimes he would sing at the top
He was eighteen when the Ming dynasty was over¬ of his lungs. But his behavior may have been feigned: as
thrown, and the change brought the sudden destruction he wrote in a poem of 1682, “There is a guest at Yuzhang
of his aristocratic world. This catastrophe gradually [Nanchang] gate, / I pretend to be mad and talk to the
soured his cheerful disposition; one day he marked his flying swallows.”3
door with the character for dumb and thereafter refused As he grew older, Bada grew more peaceful, finding
to speak. When he was spoken to, he would simply nod diversion in calligraphy and painting. Although he gave
or shake his head to indicate agreement or disagreement, himself many names after he became a monk, he signed
and he greeted his guests with hand gestures, smiling most of his paintings and calligraphic works Bada Shan¬
wryly to show that he understood what his friends were ren (Dweller of the Eight Great Mountains). When he
saying. He continued this way for more than ten years. wrote the four characters for Bada Shanren, he often

256 The Qing Dynasty

linked them together, so that they resembled the two metaphors; yet they reveal as well his flashes of humor

characters for ku^hi (cry) and xiao^hi (laugh), thus ex¬ and love of verbal games. Although they are often diffi¬

pressing the contradictions of his nature; he could nei¬ cult to comprehend, they suggest his fond memories of

ther cry nor laugh. Bada Shanren lived the rest of his life the past. In a poem of the 1690s, he expresses his lost

with this inner conflict. hopes of a Ming restoration.

Bada developed remarkably innovative and idiosyn¬ Long rain falls, my boat has nowhere to go.
cratic techniques with which to paint flowers, birds, and Clouds move on, at my studio in the lotus.
landscapes. He painted his creatures with clean and spar¬ At this time, I exhaust my view of the south,
ing brushstrokes: fishes or birds, often strange and mock¬ It is already this picture of Bright Mountain.4
ing, sometimes appear with squarish upturned eyes that
Another poem, this on his Landscape Album (ca.
express dissatisfaction, anger, or longing. His flowers, lo¬
1693), reads:
tus, and grass create a lonely, desolate atmosphere, while
his trees, stunted and broken, are expressive of a bleak Master Guo [Xi]’s modeling strokes are like small

but intensely emotional world. His bamboo symbolizes clouds,

the virtues of loyalty as well as contemporary troubles. Old Dong [ Yuanj’s hemp-fiber shading is mostly on

Bada combined painting, poetry, and calligraphy in a his trees.

passionate and intricate manner, often employing alle¬ Try to imagine how people nowadays should under¬

gory in his poetic inscriptions to satirize the Qing or to stand the meaning of painting —

express his nostalgia for his former life. Often the poems Like Yifeng [Huang Gongwang], who still painted the

are full of references to obscure sources and elusive mountains and rivers of Song.5

The Qing Dynasty 257

 own eyes and comprehend in their own hearts so that
“the mountains and rivers would meet and merge with

Flowers by a River (fig. 236) is a long handscroll. Al¬ you in spirit.” Only in this way could the artist create

though the lotus leaves, flowers, and rocks are painted works that would “show the soul instead of just the ap¬

in dark ink, they nonetheless suggest a riot of colors. pearance of the object” and thus prove himself able to

Nowhere is his mastery of lotus painting more evident “look between likeness and unlikeness.”7

than in this remarkable work, whose emotional power is Most Spectacular Peaks (Palace Museum, Beijing), painted

reinforced by Bada’s poem evoking the life of Jiang when the artist was fifty, is a handscroll depicting various

Wanli, the Song-dynasty loyalist. According to the in¬ kinds and shapes of mountain peaks. In the inscription,

scription, the painting took four months to complete, yet Shitao wrote: “I have sought out all the exotic mountains

its criss-cross strokes and continuous brushwork make it and made them parts of my draft.” And he adds that too

look as though it was created in one breath. many artists are fond of imitating “So-and-so in brush

Shitao (1642—1718), another of the Four Great Monk work” or “such-and-such painting style.” This is like

Painters, came from a background similar to Bada’s. A putting an ugly woman in front of a blind man and asking
descendant of the Ming imperial family, Shitao was quite him to comment on her beauty. His principle is “neither
young when the Ming dynasty fell, so he did not feel the to set up nor to illuminate any method.” His words
sorrow of subjugation as deeply as Bada. Shitao was the “Search for all spectacular peaks before painting them”
son of Zhu Shouqian, prince of Jingjiang, who was killed embodied a motto that artists of later generations emu¬
in an internal power struggle in 1646. A household atten¬ lated: “Learn from nature and paint realistically.”
dant took him away from the prince’s mansion and saved Shitao painted Clear Autumn in Huaiyang (fig. 237) after
his life, and he succeeded in living anonymously for many he settled down in Yangzhou. This may be a picture of
years thereafter. the Huaiyang Plain in northern Jiangsu or an area in the
In 1662 he became a Chan monk under the name of northern outskirts of Yangzhou. Although the picture,
Yuanji. Among the names he gave himself were Leftover which depicts a wide, distant horizon, at first appears flat
Man of Jingjiang, Blind Buddhist, and Monk Bitter and unfinished, as if it were just a sketch, it is full of vital¬
Gourd, evocative of the grief he felt at the fall of the ity. A winding section of city wall separates the densely
Ming. As a monk, he wandered from place to place, mak¬ collected houses and sparse trees inside the city from the
ing a living by selling his paintings: he traveled to Mount reed-choked river and thick woods outside. In the dis¬
Lu and Mount Huang, stayed in Xuancheng (in what is tance we see only a small boat on the empty river with a
now Anhui Province) and Jiangning (just south of to¬ fisherman sitting leisurely and carefree in it, surrounded
day’s Nanjing). In 1692 he setded in Yangzhou, in the by the peacefulness of the natural beauty. The lengthy in¬
present-day Jiangsu Province. scription at the top of the painting expresses Shitao’s
In his later years, after the Qing dynasty had consoli¬ nostalgia for the old Yangzhou; it is a vivid description of
dated its power, Shitao’s nationalistic feelings became the changes that have taken place.
less pronounced. In fact, when the Kangxi emperor came Shitao also offered unusual and incisive observations
to Yangzhou during his tour of the south in 1684, Shitao on painting techniques. He wrote of ink-application tech¬
joined the local notables who proudly came out to wel¬ niques, as well as of the wonderful variations in ink
come the emperor. He even wrote a poem to commemo¬ shades. “There is a vast universe in the dark, dark clusters
rate the occasion. of ink,” he inscribed on one painting.8 In addition to his
Shitao was distinguished for his paintings of land¬ book Sayings on Painting from Monk Bitter Gourd, Shitao’s
scape, bamboo, and rocks. He was free in both style and views and theories can be found in the inscriptions and
brushwork and emphasized that the painting must reveal poems on his paintings. His achievements gained him
the unfolding of the painter’s personality. He explained: fame in Yangzhou art circles; his views had great in¬
“I am always myself, and must naturally be present in fluence on the conservative, dry painting style that was
whatever I do. The beards and eyebrows of the ancients typical of the early Qing. All of the Eight Eccentrics of
will not grow on my face, and the lungs and bowels of the Yangzhou in the mid-Qing were influenced by Shitao.
ancients cannot be put into my body.”6 He opposed the
blind copying of the old styles or imitation of paintings of
the past. Artists should go out and see things with their

258 The Qing Dynasty

 Masters belonged to the category of scholar-painters. In¬
stead of faithfully depicting mountains and rivers, they
used nature to express their feelings, beliefs, and emo¬
tions. In their works they wanted to show “the hills and
valleys in their minds.” And although the Six Masters em¬
phasized the importance of following traditions of literati
painters, they were actually trying to find a spiritual haven
in a tumultuous world.
The six are the principal figures in the Orthodox
School of landscape painting. This school grew out of the
late Ming, when Dong Qichang’s writings consolidated
the amateur literati styles of the Southern School into an
orthodox tradition. What were once private, expressive
painting styles were formalized, conventionalized, and
repetitively executed. Practitioners used Song and Yuan
styles and produced variations in their own manner,
putting Dong’s theories into practice.
The Four Wangs stressed technique, concentrating on
the techniques of brushwork and application of ink. With
their admiration for the drawing technique, style, and
compositional methods of past artists, they seldom went
outside to look at the countryside for themselves. In¬
stead, they created their landscapes in the studio, imitat¬
ing the works of their predecessors and pursuing the
beauty of artistic form in the likeness of their works to
those of the past. In praising Wang Hui’s paintings, Wang
Yuanqi once noted, “The charm and the composition are
so vivid that they look similar to those of the ancients. It
was really lucky for an old man like me to see paintings by
Wang Hui. But it is such a pity that Dong Qichang cannot
see them today.”9
The later paintings of the Four Wangs, however, were
more formalized. In explaining how his theory of paint¬
2 37- Shitao, Clear Autumn in Huaiyang, hanging scroll, ink and
color on paper, Qing dynasty. Nanjing Museum. ing developed, Wang Shujin, the descendant, five genera¬
tions later, of Wang Yuanqi, noted, “The method of
painting under heaven from the ancient times to this day
The Six Masters of the Early Qing was nothing but horizontal and vertical strokes. If rocks

The Six Masters of the Early Qing were Wang Shimin, are painted horizontally, then trees should be vertical; if

Wang Jian, Wang Hui, Wang Yuanqi, Wu Li, and Yun trees lie horizontal, rocks should stand vertical; with hor¬

Shouping (also known as the Four Wangs, Wu, and izontal branches, leaves should be vertical; horizontal

Yun). Five of the six were noted landscape painters, while clouds go with vertical peaks; horizontal slopes suit verti¬

Yun Shouping was skilled in painting flowers. They are cal mountains; and horizontal cliffs should have vertical

grouped together for several reasons: they were contem¬ cascades. Thatched houses should be painted under

poraries, whose lives covered a hundred-year span from dense woods; beside lying rocks, moss should be dotted.
This can be summed up as the major principle of paint¬
the end of the Ming to the beginning of the Qing dynasty;
they were closely related to one another, either by blood ing.”10 The ever-changing things of the earth become

or in a teacher-student relationship; they worked in close figures composed of horizontal and vertical strokes. This

proximity; and, most important, they followed the same rigid painting method was opposed by many artists.
Wang Shimin (1592-1680), the eldest of the Four
artistic traditions and shared artistic interests.
Wangs, was the son and grandson of Ming government
In their views on art and their artistic style, the Six

The Qing Dynasty 259

 officials and art collectors. Immersed in traditional cul¬ tage hung a misty landscape by the Ming painter Dong
ture and art at home, Wang Shimin began painting as a Qichang. When Wangjian awoke, these things were still
child. Later he served as a Ming official, but he soon re¬ fresh in his memory; he immediately picked up his brush
signed his post. After the Ming was replaced by the Qing and painted them. The landscape in Dreamland was
dynasty, he found solace in painting. He died in his executed in closely arranged and elegant brushstrokes
hometown at age eighty-eight. against a background painted in faint ink. The texture of
Wang Shimin learned much from the Four Great Mas¬ the rocky mountains was brought out with a dry brush.
ters of the Yuan dynasty: Wu Zhen, Wang Meng, Ni Zan, The tiny waves on the surface of the lake give a decora-
and, in particular, Huang Gongwang. His landscape
paintings draw on these artists without appearing to be
slavish imitations. He uses delicate brushstrokes to create
a style that is both elegant and vigorous. In Pavilions on the 238. Wang Shimin, Pavilions on the Mountains of Immortals,
section of a hanging scroll, ink and color on paper,
Mountains of Immortals (fig. 238), painted when he was over
ca. 1665. 133.2 X 63.3 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.
seventy, the rocks look hard and solid; they are executed
with a highly skilled dry-brush method, similar to that
used by Huang Gongwang in his rock paintings. The
dense trees resemble those of Wang Meng.
Wangjian (1598—1677), a native of Taicang in Jiangsu
Province, belonged to the same clan as Wang Shimin. Al¬
though Wang Shimin’s senior by a generation, he was six
years younger. The two were close friends and often dis¬
cussed art together. Wangjian was born into a scholar’s
family. His grandfather, Wang Shizhen, was a famous
man of letters during the Ming dynasty and a great art
collector. Wang Jian passed the imperial civil examina¬
tions at the provincial level toward the end of the Ming
dynasty and served as an official in Lianzhou (now Hepu,
in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region) for a few years.
But after he had resigned from his post and returned to
his hometown, he never again served as an official. He
died at the age of seventy-nine.
Like Wang Shimin, Wangjian grew up in a literary and
artistic atmosphere; he learned to paint by making copies
of masterpieces, absorbing what was best in the early
painters. Wang Jian borrowed much of his technique
from Wang Meng, skillfully using the brush in an upright
position. His pictures were painted in dark ink, which
gave the hills and valleys a deep, serene, and cohesive
appearance. The trees are luxuriant but orderly. All the
elements of the pictures are closely knit. Dreamland
(fig. 239), painted in 1656 when he was fifty-eight, dis¬
plays superb brushwork. The upper portion of the pic¬
ture carries a long inscription that explains how in the
sixth lunar month of that year, the painter went to Ban-
tang for the summer. One day, having nothing to do, he
dozed off after lunch and dreamed of a scenic place
where there was a thatched cottage, surrounded by a yard
that was sparsely planted with flowers and bamboo. In
front of the cottage was a clear lake on which a carefree
old man fished from a boat. On the wall inside the cot¬

260 The Qing Dynasty

tive effect. The cottage Wang Jian saw in his dream was
actually the Wangchuan Villa of Wang Wei, the founder
of the Southern School of painting during the Tang
dynasty, a style that was extolled by Dong Qichang as
well. Wangjian’s allusion suggests his admiration for this
school.
Wang Hui (1632—1717), who learned to paint from
Wang Shimin and Wang Jian, was born in Changshu,
Jiangsu Province. Wang Hui came from a family of art¬
ists: five previous generations contained professional
painters. In his youth he was deeply influenced by Huang
Gongwang because his first teacher, Zhang Ke, was a fol¬
lower of the Huang School. In fact, for a time, he earned
his living by making copies of Huang’s paintings. When
he met Wang Jian, in 1651, the latter introduced him to
his friend Wang Shimin. Under Wang Shimin’s guidance,
Wang Hui’s skills improved steadily. He later traveled
about the country, further perfecting his technique. After
the deaths of Wang Shimin and Wang Jian, Wang Hui
became the most prominent painter in the south, achiev¬
ing national fame. He was commissioned by the Kangxi
emperor to arrange the painting of the emperor’s tour of
the south. The Kangxi Emperor on His Southern Inspection
Tour (pig. 240) takes up twelve enormous scrolls. After the
emperor had inscribed the praise “clear and bright moun¬
tains and rivers” on one of the scrolls, Wang Hui began to
style himself Clear and Bright Old Man.
In his landscape paintings, Wang Hui drew various ele¬
ments from former painters, fusing them into his own
style. He sought to adopt the way the Yuan painters
wielded the brush, the Song painters depicted hills and
valleys, and the Tang painters created atmosphere. Al¬
though Wang Hui learned the most from the Four Great
Masters of the Yuan dynasty he was also interested in
the works of the painters of the Song dynasty’s Imperial
Painting Academy. Yet he could take the best of various
artists and was the most creative artist of the four.
Autumn Trees and Crows (fig. 241) is a painting from
Wang Hui’s late years (he was eighty). The picture shows
a dense growth of bamboo, a summerhouse sitting by the
water, and trees. The branches of the trees in the back¬
ground appear between the limbs of the foreground
239. Wang Jian, Dreamland, hanging scroll, ink and color
trees, thus giving the picture perspective, which was un¬ on paper, 1656. 162.8 X 68 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.
usual at this time. The empty stretches of water and the
mist give the picture a refreshing tone and breathing
space. The undulating hills in the background lead the
viewer’s eye to the distance. The poem inscribed on the
painting is by Tang Yin, an artist of the Ming dynasty, and
it conveys a feeling of melancholy similar to the spirit
evoked by the picture:

The Qing Dynasty 2 61

 240. Wang Hui and others, The Kangxi Emperor on His Southern Inspection Tour, section of a handscroll, ink and color on silk,
Qing dynasty. 67.8 X 2313.5 cm. Musee des Arts Asiatiques-Guimet, Paris. (© Photo RMN-Thierry Ollivier.)

The little house by the stream looks more beautiful in his spare time. His style greatly influenced landscape
at dusk, painting at court. For many years, he lived in Haidian on
The autumn tree around the eve gathers shadowy the northwestern outskirts of Beijing. He died in Beijing
crows. at the age of seventy-three.
I wonder when we can meet again, His landscapes show the strong influence of his grand¬
So together we can drink tea by the cold light. father Wang Shimin, as well as Wang Shimin’s model
Huang Gongwang. Wang Yuanqi saw himself as both
As is often said of Chinese paintings, “the poem contains learning from “Dachi” and passing on his legacy. (Dachi,
the picture and the picture contains the poem,” which is meaning “great fool,” was one of Huang Gongwang’s
perhaps the highest goal of Chinese artists in their poetry self-chosen names.) Wang Yuanqi was highly skilled in
and painting. his brushwork, often applying ink and color several times
Wang Yuanqi (1642-1715) was the last of the Four in a single painting to enhance the gradation of shades
Wangs. The grandson of Wang Shimin, he was two when and bring out the texture of the image. He emphasized
the Ming was superseded by the Qing dynasty. Although the key points in a picture with dark ink, while impercep¬
he studied the Classics and learned to paint as a child, he tibly merging color with the ink in his faintly colored
went into government service as an adult. He passed the landscapes, to create a unique style that has been de¬
examinations at the provincial level in 1669 and at the na¬ scribed thus: “There is color in the ink and ink in the
tional level a year later. After serving as a local and then color.”
as a central government official for a number of years, he Layers of Verdant Hills (fig. 242) was painted in Beijing
was appointed a court official in 1700, later becoming a for the emperor and kept in the palace. Executed in ink
member of the Imperial Secretariat and a trusted civil and color on paper, this picture of lofty mountains and
official of the Kangxi emperor. Wang Yuanqi remained a
successful government official throughout his life. Yet he
241. Wang Hui, Autumn Trees and Crows, hanging scroll, ink and
continued to paint, executing a large number of pictures color on paper, 1712. 118 X 74.7 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.

262 The Qing Dynasty

 deep valleys reveals the special attention the painter paid grass on the slopes of the shore and the tender buds of
to the depiction of rocks: the hard rocks of the moun¬ the trees fill the picture with a sense of new life. The
tains have been rendered with sparing brushstrokes that scene appears natural, something that can be seen any¬
are not clearly defined in outline. The clouds and mist in where in the Yangzi delta. Although the pictures Wu
the valleys and depressions, along with the widely scat¬ painted in later years display more skillful and mature
tered houses and pines at the foot of the mountains, give brushwork, they are no longer as lively as this picture,
life and vigor to the picture. Wang Yuanqi was particu¬ which appears to have been painted directly from nature.
larly good at using dry but elegant brushstrokes for Wu’s views on creativity and aesthetics were quite dif¬
mountains and rocks. The dry brushstrokes were applied ferent from those of the Four Wangs. “My paintings do
repeatedly so that the images appear solid and real. At not seek formal resemblance, and they do not fall into
first glance, his ink and brushwork seem monotonous ready-made styles. You could call them spirited and free.”
and colorless, but a closer examination reveals his mas¬ He did not simply imitate his predecessors. He “wouldn’t
terly brushstrokes in the luxuriant growth of grass and take the draft for a painting as the rule.” Yet, on the other
trees and the richness of the earth. hand, he did not belittle the ancients either. He insisted
Wu Li (1632—1718), another of the Six Masters of the that artists “get the gist of the painters of the past” and
Early Qing, learned to paint from Wang Shimin and asks that they “see the mountains and rivers for them¬
Wang Jian and discussed art with Wang Hui. Wu’s father selves and let the real thing inspire them.”12 Only when
died when Wu was a boy, and his family was reduced to an artist has deep feelings about his subject can he
poverty. From an early age, Wu supported himself and paint it.
his mother by selling his pictures. When he was thirty- Scenes of the sea and banyan trees from Wu’s travels
one, both his mother and his wife died. Deeply de¬ to Macao and Fuzhou often appear in his paintings. He
pressed, he sought solace in religion. He first studied employed shadow, perspective, and contrast—at that
Buddhism (one of his sobriquets was the Lay Buddhist of time, Western techniques. From choice of subject to style
Peach Stream) and later came into contact with Catholi¬ and technique, Wu’s paintings differ from those of the
cism. He was formally baptized and became a Catholic other Six Masters, yet they still retain many traditional
priest at the age of fifty-one. He planned a trip to Europe elements of Chinese paintings.
but he reached only Macao, which was then occupied by Yun Shouping (1633—1690) was primarily a painter of
the Portuguese. After returning to the Yangzi delta, he flowers, although he also painted landscapes. He was
devoted himself to missionary work for the last thirty born in Wujin (now Changzhou), in Jiangsu Province,
years of his life, painting few pictures. where many of his family had served as Ming govern¬
Like the work of the other Six Masters, Wu Li’s land¬ ment officials. When the Manchu army came down from
scapes evolved from the Four Great Masters of the Yuan the north, his father, Yun Richu, took the young Shou¬
dynasty. But the way Wu used his brush and ink is more ping and joined the resistance movement. Father and son
varied and more expressive of his personality; his tech¬ were separated in the confusion of war. Yun Shouping
nique won praise from Wang Yuanqi and Wang Hui, who was later found by Chen Jin, the Qing military governor
both enjoyed a high reputation in art circles at that time. of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and became his adopted son. He
In the colophon on one of Wu’s paintings, Wang Hui was reunited with his father five years later, when he vis¬
wrote: “The Mojing Daoist [Wu Li] and I were born in ited the Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou and met his father
the same year, came from the same place, and went to the there by accident. As Yun grew older, he learned to paint
same school. We haven’t seen each other for a long time, from Wang Shimin and Wang Jian. He began with land¬
since he went into seclusion and I became busy with my scapes, later specializing in flowers. Eking out a living by
own life. Yet whenever I see his works, which bear such selling his pictures, Yun remained poor all his life. Yun
striking similarities to those of the Song and Yuan dynas¬ was the shortest-lived of the Six Masters, dying when he
ties, they always inspire admiration in me.”11 was only fifty-seven.
Spring on the Lake (fig. 243), presents a peaceful scene in Yun Shouping made every effort to change what he
the Yangzi delta: a zig-zagging lake shore lined with wil¬ considered the vulgar and ornate style of the court paint¬
low trees and reeds. A narrow path winds its way along ings of the Ming dynasty. He continued the “boneless”
the embankment; the mountains in the background are method initiated by Xu Chongsi in the Northern Song
shrouded in mist. Ducks swim and feed on the lake as dynasty, a technique whereby flowers were painted with¬
small birds perch in the trees. Green predominates: the out a dark outline. After creating the shapes, he applied

264 The Qing Dynasty

242. Wang Yuanqi, Layers of Verdant Hills,
hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, Qing
dynasty. 139.5 X 61 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.
 (figs. 244 and 245) are lively and elegant, the landscapes
dreamy and poetic. All the pictures are gentle and quiet, a
style preferred by the literati of the time.

The Eight Masters of Jinling

At the beginning of the Qing dynasty another group of

artists flourished, who were known as the Eight Masters
of Jinling. The national capital in the early Ming dynasty,
and still the political, cultural, and economic center of
southeast China, Jinling (now Nanjing) was the city next
in importance to Beijing. After the founding of the Qing,
many loyalists congregated there. Most of the Eight Mas¬
ters of Jinling maintained their loyalty to the Ming, ex¬
pressing their feelings in their works. The eight — Gong
Xian, Fan Qi, Zou Zhe, Wu Hong, Hu Zao, Gao Cen, Ye
Xin, and Xie Sun — chiefly painted landscapes of the Jin¬
ling region.
Gong Xian (1618—1689) was the most influential and
accomplished of the Eight Masters of Jinling. A native of
Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, he had become dissatisfied
with the political darkness of the late Ming, when eu¬
nuchs had usurped the authority of the court. He associ¬
ated himself with the Fu She (Revival Society), a group of
intellectuals who wished to revive the glory of the early
Ming dynasty. After the dynasty fell, he became even
more dissatisfied with the new Manchu rulers. Retaining
his loyalty to the Ming, he lived in obscurity on Qingliang
(Pure, Cool) Hill in Jinling and earned his living by selling
his paintings and teaching.
Having spent most of his life in Jinling, every hill, river,
lake, glade, and tree there was dear to him. He frequently
painted famous local resorts like Qingliang Hill and
Mount Qixia. He generally used only ink; few of his paint¬
ings contain any color. To depict the hills and trees of the
moist and rainy south, he invented the “accumulating-
243- Wu Li, Spring on the Lake, hanging scroll, ink and color on
ink” method: he created a strong atmospheric effect by
paper, 1676. 123.8 X 62.5 cm. Shanghai Museum.
repeatedly applying a brush lightly inked with various
tonalities of ink to the same spot. This new method
evolved from the Mi family’s paintings from the Song dy¬
color on wet paper or diluted it with water to produce nasty of mountains wreathed in clouds. Some of Gong’s
a refreshing, elegant, natural, and lively image. The sub¬ scrolls, however, were painted with only a few brief
ject of a painting might be a single flower, plant, or brushstrokes, a style that was completely different from
rock, through which Yun created a world of beauty. His that of his other works. Pictures in the accumulating-ink
method of painting soon gained widespread popularity, method are known as the “dark Gong,” though the ad¬
and many artists acknowledged his influence. Wang Hui, jective refers to little more than Gong’s dark, shadowy
a good friend of Yun Shouping’s, aptly said that Yun’s style. The spare, linear style he also used, especially in his
flowers “emit fragrance and glow with lifelike color.” youth, is called the “light Gong.”
He wrote this encomium on Yun’s painting The Fragrance Gong Xian’s view of art was similar to that of Shitao.
of a Nation in Clearing Spring (1688; Wong Nan-p’ing Both were opposed to rigidly adhering to old rules of
Collection). The flowers in Landscape, Flowers, and Plants painting. Fine artists of the past took nature and life for

266 The Qing Dynasty

244 & 24 5 • Yun Shouping, Landscape, Flowers, and Plants,
album leaves, ink and color on paper, Qing dynasty.
22.8 X 34.6 cm each. Palace Museum, Beijing.

the source of their art rather than imitating their prede¬ rocks. Like Gao Cen, Wu Hong wrote poems as well as
cessors. Gong complained that whereas the calligraphy painted. His works, executed with free brushstrokes, are
and painting of the ancients stemmed from nature, art¬ realistic in style. His superb brushwork is particularly evi¬
ists of his time made drafts of paintings by the ancients dent in those of his ink works that contain no color.
their Bible and worshiped their words as scripture. Gong Wu’s Swallow Rock andMochou Lake (fig. 248) is divided
urged students of painting to go out and see the moun¬ into two sections, the second of which is pictured here.
tains and rivers for themselves, using the works of the an¬ The first depicts Swallow Rock, which stands on the edge
cients for reference only. of the Yangzi River on the northern outskirts of Jinling,
Qingliang Hill Scenery (fig. 246), painted in Gong’s dark not far from the Guanyin Gate. When the moon is
style, depicts the scenery of that hill in the north part of bright, the river becomes a wide white ribbon, and the
Jinling. Even though the hill and rocks that make up its rock, silhouetted against the sky, looks like a swallow
subject are unspectacular, the picture offers a profound about to take flight. The painting depicts a night scene;
and serene view of nature. The inkwashes, the variations the river is shrouded in mists and all is quiet. Ferries and
of light and shade, and the arrangement of solid and fishing boats are moored along the banks. The second
empty spaces are special features of Gong’s works that al¬ section shows Mochou Lake, to the west of Jinling. Pavil¬
low him to achieve a personal effect. ions and walkways surround the wide lake, as do willows.
We know less about the lives of the other Eight Mas¬ It is spring: red flowers, green trees, and crowds of
ters of Jinling, although many of their paintings have sur¬ tourists abound. The objects on the lake and along its
vived. Gao Cen (active ca. 1679), f°r example, was born shore are depicted in all their beauty. Perhaps the artist
in Jinling and learned to paint when he was a boy. He was was trying to suggest that even though the government
also a poet. Many of his landscapes, likeM Glimpse of Stone had changed, natural beauty remained.
City (fig. 247), depict the scenery around Jinling. Gao did Fan Qi (1616—after 1694) was a painter of landscapes
not use Gong Xian’s accumulating-ink method nor did as well as of flowers, birds, grass, and insects. Born in Jin¬
he follow Gong in his methods of creating shapes and ling, he lived to a mature age. He painted his Flowers and
applying color; rather, he made use of traditional linear Butterflies (fig. 249) when he was very old. The picture is
methods. He was skilled at outline drawing and rarely highly decorative, with ornamental rocks, flowers, and
employed the dry-brush method for shading. He also butterflies painted on paper flecked with gold. Butterflies

painted the more casual and playful album leaves. More¬ and rocks denote good luck, which suggests that the pic¬

over, unlike Gong’s, most of Gao’s pictures were painted ture might have been painted to celebrate a birthday.

in color on silk. It is possible that Zou Zhe (1636 —ca. 1708) painted

The dates of Wu Hong’s birth and death are unknown, flowers, but only his landscape paintings are extant. His

although he was active from about 1670 to 1680. A native compositions feature rows of stunted pine trees on

of Jinxi in Jiangxi Province, he lived for a long time in Jin¬ slopes or pines springing up from rocky bases. Some¬

ling and was a skilled painter of landscapes, bamboo, and times he includes low-lying buildings and human figures,

The Qing Dynasty 267

4 ■

146. Gong Xian, Qingliang Hill Scenery, handscroll, ink and color on paper, Qing dynasty. 30.2 X 144.2 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.

247. Gao Cen ,A Glimpse of Stone City, section of a handscroll, ink and color on silk, Qing dynasty. 36.4 X 701.8 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.

248. Wu Hong, Swallow Rock andMochou Lake, section of a handscroll, ink on paper, Qing dynasty. 31 X 149.5 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.
249- Fan Qi, Flowers and Butterflies, section of a handscroll, ink and color on gold-leaf paper, Qing dynasty. 19.8 X 197 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.

which add to the rustic intimacy of his works. Litde is of other art: most portrait painters were unheralded.
known about Hu Zao (active ca. 1670-1720), Ye Xin Only the best of them acquired the status of scholar-
(fl. 1647-1679), and Xie Sun (late seventeenth century), painters. But they were becoming prolific; the great de¬
and their signed paintings are rare. mand for portraits to commemorate such occasions as a
scholar’s birthday or a memorial ceremony for one’s par¬
Portrait Painters ents led many artists to take up portrait painting.
Throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were In addition to delineating the facial features of the
fewer portrait painters than landscape and bird-and- sitter, traditional portrait painters paid attention to the
flower painters. But portraiture, which served a practical sitter’s clothes and surroundings in order to show his or
purpose, nonetheless made headway in the early Qing, her social status and interests. (See, for example, Zeng
and a number of painters became famous as portraitists. Jing’s Portrait of Wang Shimin [fig. 229] and Portrait of Zhang

Qing portrait painting was basically a continuation of Qingsf [fig. 230].) But many scholars chose to masquerade

the Bochen (Zeng Jing) School, which had achieved as farmers or fishermen when they sat for their portraits,

prominence toward the end of the Ming dynasty. Primar¬ as a sign that they aspired to live a peaceful, secluded life

ily undertaken by professional artists because it required on a farm or mountain.

special training, portrait painting did not have the status After Zeng Jing, portrait painting developed along two

The Qing Dynasty 269

 250. Xie Bin (scenery by
Xiang Shengmo), Portrait
of Zhu Kuishi, hanging scroll,
ink and light color on silk,
1653. 69.2 X 49.7 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.

lines. “One [group] emphasized ink work and applied trees and rocks in the background were painted by Xiang
color after the portrait had been completed in ink; the Shengmo (1597-1658); they are in complete harmony
other outlined the facial features only in faint ink and re¬ with the mood of the sitter.
lied on color to complete the portrait.”13 Among the Zhang Qi, another follower of Zengjing’s, painted the
most famous portrait painters of the early Qing are Xie abbot of Wanfu Monastery in Fuqing, Fujian Province.
Bin, Guo Gong, Xu Yi, Wang Yunjing, Liao Dashou, The painting, known as Portrait of Fei Yintong, now hangs
Zhang Qi, Gu Qi, Shen Shao, and Zhang Yuan. The in Japan’s Mampuku Monastery in Kyoto, an indication
sitter in Xie Bin’s Portrait of Zhu Kuishi (fig. 2 5 o) is a mem¬ that the Bochen School of portrait painting extended its
ber of a noble family; he looks serene and dignified. The influence overseas. Zengjing’s disciples Xie Bin (1601-

270 The Qing Dynasty

 learning and elegance. By including a wine pot along
with the chrysanthemums, Yu makes a visual allusion to
the fourth-century poet-recluse Tao Yuanming.
Xu Zhang (1694—1749) was another portraitist of
note, who flourished when the influence of the Bochen
School was nearing its end. A native of Louxian (now
Songjiang, near Shanghai), he learned to paint from Shen
Shao. Shen was a student of Zeng Jing’s, so Xu may be
considered an indirect follower of Zeng. Several early
histories of painting note that Xu had served as a
court official, but although he was active in the early
period of the Qianlong reign, he never received an
official appointment because he failed his civil service
examinations.
In Li Kai and a Solitary Tree (fig. 25 3), Xu Zhang uses
both dry and wet brushstrokes; this gives texture to the
face, creating a three-dimensional effect. Xu also painted
portraits for public figures in his hometown. These
portraits, many of which depict Ming loyalists, were col¬
lected in Xu’s album Men of Distinction in Songjiang (Nan¬
251. Gu Ming, Yunxi Teaching Buddhist Scripture, hanging scroll, jing Museum). Unlike Li Kai and a Solitary Tree, most of
ink and color on silk, Qing dynasty. 71.8 X 63 cm. Palace
these portraits were painted in black outline before ap¬
Museum, Beijing.
plying color.

Unaffiliated Painters of the Early Qing

1681) and Shen Shao (late seventeenth century) passed Quite a few artists of the early Qing did not belong to
on their art to Gu Ming (late seventeenth century), who a particular school of painting. Wang Wu (1632—1690)
in turn passed it on to another generation. Gu’s only ex¬ specialized in bird-and-flower paintings. A native of Su¬
tant work, the portrait of Yunxi and his family known zhou, Wang was an artist of the same caliber as Yun
as Yunxi Teaching Buddhist Scripture (fig. 251), depicts the Shouping. Such works as Flowers, Bamboo, and Resting Birds
twenty-first son of the Kangxi emperor with his fam¬ (fig. 254) are known for their fresh and elegant style and
ily. They are portrayed realistically, with lifelike, three- their liveliness.
dimensional detail. Xiao Yuncong and Mei Qing were important land¬
Another follower of the Bochen School was Yu Zhi- scape painters with distinctive personal styles. Xiao Yun¬
ding (1647—1716), a painter from Yangzhou who was cong (1596—1673) was born in Wuhu, Anhui Province.
active during the reign of the Kangxi emperor. After He remained loyal to the Ming dynasty all his life. His
achieving fame, he went to Beijing, where he stayed for landscape paintings, executed in a crisp, sober style, were
many years as a guest in the house of an official. There, influenced by Ni Zan of the Yuan dynasty. He frequently
he painted portraits of foreign envoys stationed in Bei¬ featured Mount Huang in his paintings, as in Reading in the
jing. Later he was appointed an official himself, in the Snowy Mountains (fig. 255). Here, a solitary scholar sits
Department of Rites, where he was commissioned to working in a small hut in his mountain hermitage. Only in
paint portraits for almost every notable in the capital. the areas of human refuge are there hints of bright color
His Wang Yuanqi Cultivating Chrysanthemums (fig. 252) is in this otherwise somber setting. The well-filled-out com¬
a superb portrait, executed in color on silk. Wang was not position was painted with fine, meticulous brushstrokes,
only a famous painter at the time (he was one of the Four the faint ink successfully reproducing the misty air on a
Wangs; see above) but also a trusted senior official, close snowy winter’s day.
to the Kangxi emperor. Here Wang appears dignified and Mei Qing (1623 — 1697) was born into a highly edu¬
proud of his success. Yu Zhiding conveys Wang’s status cated family in Xuancheng, Anhui Province. Most of his
and taste as both scholar and painter by arranging books landscapes were based on actual scenery, while in tech¬

and potted chrysanthemums around him, symbols of nique he borrowed from the Four Great Masters of the

The Qing Dynasty 271

 252. Yu Zhiding, Wang Yuanqi Cultivating Chrysanthemums, handscroll, ink and color on silk, Qing dynasty. 26.7 X 74 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.

2 5 3. Xu Zhang, Li Kai and a Solitary Tree, handscroll, ink and color on paper, 1750. 33.7 X 57 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.

Yuan dynasty and from the Ming painter Shen Zhou. A Because most of the famous painters and calligraphers
good friend of Shitao’s, Mei often discussed art with him, were southerners, when a northerner distinguished him¬
exerting considerable influence on Shitao’s early style. self, he attracted a great deal of attention. One such was
Painting in a free style similar to that of Mi Fu, Mei cre¬ Fu Shan (1606-1684), a native of Taiyuan in Shanxi
ated landscapes that accentuated the strangely shaped Province. After the fall of the Ming, Fu began wearing a
peaks, rocks, trees, and clouds of Mount Huang, whose red coat and adopted the name Red-Coated Daoist to
beauty inspired him to paint it many times. His hanging show his loyalty to the fallen dynasty. He lived in obscu¬
scroll Tiandu Peak of Mount Huang (fig. 256), although rity, practicing medicine, painting pictures, selling calli¬
based on a sketch taken from life, emphasizes the un¬ graphic works, and carving stone seals. Nonetheless, his
usual and strange shapes, as well as the danger of the works attracted the attention of the Qing authorities,
mountain, which gives the picture both a familiar and a who tried to enlist him into government service. He
novel look. steadfastly declined. His landscape paintings have an

272 The Qing Dynasty

 2 54- Wang Wu, Flowers, Bamboo, and
Resting Birds, hanging scroll, ink and
color on paper, 1657. 79.8 X 40.4 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing, left

255. Xiao Yuncong, Reading in the Snowy

Mountains, hanging scroll, ink and
color on paper, 1652. 124.8 X 47.7
cm. Palace Museum, Beijing, above

anachronistic awkwardness, as can be seen in his Album The Middle Qing

of Landscapes (figs. 257 and 258). He loved strange and
dramatic images, odd forms, and striking colors; his During the middle Qing, there was continued emphasis
paintings, like his poems and calligraphy, hint at hidden on diversity. As the Orthodox School of landscape paint¬
meanings. His calligraphic works, especially those done ings, the detailed and colorful bird-and-flower paintings,
in the cursive hand, are unruly and impressive, reflecting and the individualistic styles of the Eight Masters of Jin-
the violent emotions of his heart. He claimed: “I would ling were taking hold, another group of painters were be¬
rather [my calligraphy] was awkward and not dainty, ugly ginning to experiment in the city of Yangzhou.
and not charming. I would prefer deformities to slipperi¬ Yangzhou, a river port with good outside communica¬
ness, the spontaneous to the premeditated.”14 tions and abundant produce, is located at the junction of

The Qing Dynasty 273

2 57- Fu Shan, Landscape horn Album of Landscapes, album leaf,
ink and color on silk, Qing dynasty. 36.5 X 37 cm. Palace
Museum, Beijing.

the Yangzi River and the Grand Canal. The city suffered
enormous destruction at the beginning of the Qing, but
was restored to its former power during the successive
reigns of the Kangxi and Yongzheng emperors. As it be¬
gan to prosper economically, literati gathered there, turn¬
ing the city into a cultural and artistic center. When Cao
Yin (the grandfather of Cao Xueqin, author of the fa¬
mous novel Dream of the Red Chamber) served as Superin¬
tendent of Textiles in the south, he arranged for the
Complete Tang Poems to be printed in Yangzhou. When Lu
Jian was Superintendent of the Salt Trade in Yangzhou,
he supervised the compilation of a widely noted collec¬
tion of poems and essays known as the Rainbow Bridge
Collection. Wang Shizhen, a literary giant, also served as an
official in Yangzhou. It was said that he handled govern¬
ment affairs in the daytime and met with poets in the
evenings. Among the other well-known figures who lived
in Yangzhou were Ma Yuequan and his brother Ma
Yuelu, considered the country’s greatest book collectors
and the creators of a famous library in their home, Xiao-
linglong Mountain Villa. An Qi, a salt merchant and well-
known collector of books and art, also lived in Yangzhou

The Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou

According to Li Dou’s Record of the Flower Boats of

Yangzhou (Yangzhou huafang lu, 1795), a book that records
the famous painters of Yangzhou, more than a hundred
noted painters were active in Yangzhou during the reigns
of the Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong emperors.
Among them were the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou (Li

256. Mei Qing, Tiandu Peak op Mount Huang, hanging scroll, ink on
paper, Qing dynasty. 184.2 X 48.5 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.
 riod, his works and style, deeply influenced by Xu Wei of
the Ming dynasty, became free and natural. Pine and Wiste¬
ria (fig. 259) depicts an old pine tree with mottled bark
and dense foliage. The tree extends diagonally, while wis¬
teria winds upward around the trunk. The picture was
painted in ink with only a faint tint of color. Here, as in
most of his work, Li combined painting with calligraphy
and poetry, making each a part of the whole. The poem
on the upper right-hand side of the painting reads:

After all the exuberant flowers in spring have been

25 B. Fu Shan, Landscape horn Album of Landscapes, album leaf,
praised,
ink and color on silk, Qing dynasty. 36.5 X 37 cm. Palace
Museum, Beijing.
What in this quiet place can I find to sing about?
In my empty yard the sun has come out after the rain,
and the curtain has been rolled up,
Shan, Wang Shishen, Jin Nong, Huang Shen, Li Fang
The wisteria is in full bloom in the glow of the
ying, Zheng Xie, Gao Xiang, and Luo Pin), who intro¬
setting sun.
duced new ideas and methods in bird-and-flower, bam¬
boo, and rock paintings that allowed the artist full play in The artist contrasts the exuberant flowers of spring with
the expression of his individuality and that exerted a pro¬ the quiet place and the wisteria glowing in the setting sun
found influence on painters of later generations. Each of to create a mood of nostalgia and bitterness for what
these artists emphasized the perfection and expression of once was. Thus, through the poem’s characterization of
the individual personality, refusing to follow the estab¬ the flowers and trees, the poet-painter evokes his feelings
lished rules of any painter or school of painting. about his dismissal from office.
Li Shan (1688 —ca. 1757) was the oldest of the Eight Lotus in the Wind shows lotus flowers, leaves, and seed-
Eccentrics. Born into a wealthy family in Xinghua in to¬ pods swaying in the wind, while the poem completes the
day’s Jiangsu Province, he followed the typical path of meaning:
scholars, sitting for the civil service examinations and re¬
The lotus leaves were not blackened by the mud,
ceiving the degree of provincial graduate in 1711. He
They were painted that way by dark ink.
traveled to Gubeikou in present-day Hebei Province,
Last night the cloud was thick,
where he had an audience with the Kangxi emperor.
I painted in my thatched house in the midst of the
Favorably impressed, the emperor appointed him to a
storm.
position in the imperial study. Li later served as a local
government official in Linzi and Tengxian in Shandong Suffering setbacks, the artist refuses to conform. Like the
Province, until he was dismissed from his post in 1740, lotus, which emerges unstained from the mud, the artist
during the reign of the Qianlong emperor. After serving a retains his integrity in adverse circumstances.
few years as a local government official and witnessing Like Li, Jin Nong (1687—1764) was not a native of
the corruption and dishonesty of officialdom, Li retired Yangzhou. Born by the Qiantang River outside the Tide-
to live in Yangzhou, where he found pleasure in poetry, Waiting Gate of Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province, he was
painting, and books and made his living by selling his pic¬ a man of profound learning, who studied poetry and es¬
tures. In Yangzhou, he became close friends with two of say writing as a young man and later turned to the study
the other Eight Eccentrics, Zheng Xie and Li Fangying. of Buddhism. When he was thirty-five, he moved to
Li Shan’s poems and paintings indirectly expressed his Yangzhou to be with some of his literary friends. Later he
dissatisfaction with reality. He was best known for his journeyed to the north, staying in Shanxi for three or four
pictures of flowers, plants, bamboo, and rocks. When he years before traveling extensively in Hubei, where he
first learned to paint, he followed the style of Jiang Tingxi studied inscriptions on bronzes and stelae. In 1736, the
(1669-1732), a famous flower painter in the meticulous, first year of the Qianlong reign, he went to Beijing, after a
realistic manner. Guided as well by Gao Qipei (1660- local official recommended that he take an extraordinary

1734), a finger painter who helped establish and define a Hanlin Academy exam reserved for those considered un¬
technique for what had been practiced only sporadically, usually learned. Although he refused to take the exam, he

Li learned to paint in a free style. During his mature pe¬ made friends with many men of letters in the capital and

The Qing Dynasty 27 5

 returned to Yangzhou later that year. In later years, he of¬
ten traveled between Hangzhou and Yangzhou. He died
in a Buddhist temple in Yangzhou.
jin Nong was skilled in painting plum blossoms in the
classical style, but he also specialized in figures and other
subjects. In his Self-Portrait (fig. 260) we see a bald old
man with a beard and a small pigtail who looks like an
impish boy. Wearing a long robe, he is strolling along,
carrying a long bamboo stick in his right hand. The por¬
trait was drawn with simple lines, and the artist paid no
attention to the proportions of the various parts of the
body. Although it gives the impression of an impromptu
sketch, it possesses unusual qualities.
On the right-hand side of the portrait is a neatly writ¬
ten inscription that lists almost a dozen artists who
painted portraits for either celebrities, eunuch officials,
or friends. The inscription also tells why Jin painted the
self-portrait:

I . . . used the ink-monochrome plain-outline method

to myself depict the Portrait of the Old Commoner of
Three Dynasties in his Seventy-third Year \Self-Portrait\. For
the drapery patterns and face I used the one-stroke
method; patterning myself after Lu Tanwei. When the
picture was finished, I distandy entrusted it to my old
friend and fellow townsman Ding Chun [Ding Jing, a
renowned seal cutter and calligrapher], the Hermit
Ding. The Hermit hasn’t seen me for these last five
years. How could I not think of him? Some day in the
future when I return to Jiangshang I may walk, staff
and shoes side by side, with the Hermit. We will loftily
chant and grasp the scenery, and he can verify that my
decayed visage still hasn’t changed from the image of
the spirit of mountains and groves. In the twenty-
fourth year of the Qianlong era [1759], .. . Jin Nong
recorded this at the Guangling [Yangzhou] Monk’s
dormitory’s Ninth Festival Calamus Rest Hall.15

Gao Xiang (1688-ca. 1753) was born in Ganquan in

the prefecture of Yangzhou, of a poor family. He did not
make many friends, and he seems to have spent his whole
life in the vicinity of Yangzhou, without ever traveling.
He became good friends with the monk painter Shitao
259. Li Shan, Pine and Wisteria, hanging scroll, ink and color (who had setded in Yangzhou) when he was a young
on paper, 1730. 124 X 62.6 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.
man, and after Shitao died Gao would offer wine at his
grave on every anniversary of his death. Yet though close
to Shitao, Gao does not seem to have been influenced by
his paintings. More even than most of the Eight Ec¬
centrics, Gao emphasized individuality and originality in
his work.
Gao Xiang’s The lanfhi Pavilion (fig. 261) is based on an

276 The Qing Dynasty

 260. Jin Nong, Self-Portrait, hanging scroll,
ink on paper, 1759. 131.4 X 59 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.

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actual place in Yangzhou. The pavilion is an elegant dhist temple. This peaceful world is enclosed by a thin
monks’ dwelling that occupied a quiet comer near a noisy fence with a crude gate. In the yard stand a few tall trees,
marketplace in the western part of the famous Tianning their thick foliage providing pleasant shade. A two-
Temple. With clean, spare brushstrokes, Gao conjures up storied pavilion stands among plantains and trees, its
a complex that includes a dwelling, a garden, and a Bud¬ door and windows wide open. There is a long table in

The Qing Dynasty 27 7

 each of the rooms. In an upstairs room, an incense burner
rests on the table, and a picture of the Buddha hangs on
the wall. Two figures are chatting in the yard. Gao Xiang
delineated the trees, buildings, and figures with thin but
forceful lines and filled in the tree trunks and leaves with
diluted ink, thus enhancing both the texture and the depth
of the images. This minute, realistic detail, combined with
the emptiness of the landscape outside the fence, makes
the Tanzhi Pavilion and the other Buddhist structures
seem unreal; the painting has a feeling of otherworldliness.
Zheng Xie (1693—1766), the best known of the Eight
Eccentrics of Yangzhou, gained fame for both his paint¬
ing and his calligraphy. He was born into a scholar’s fam¬
ily in Xinghua, Jiangsu Province, and educated in the
scholar’s tradition in the hope that he would have a dis¬
tinguished career as a government official. He received
the degree of provincial graduate in 1732, when he was
thirty-nine. After passing the civil service examinations
and receiving the degree of jinshi (successful candidate in
the highest imperial examination) four years later, he be¬
gan his service as a government official. He often used a
personal stone seal carved with twelve characters that
meant “a licentiate of the Kangxi reign, a provincial grad¬
uate of the Yongzheng reign, and a jinshi of the Qianlong
reign” to record both his love of scholarship and his at¬
tainments. He served as a local government official for
twelve years, losing his job after offending his superiors.
After returning to Yangzhou, he sold his paintings for a
living. He compiled a list of the prices of his works:

A large hanging scroll costs six taels, medium-sized

one is four, a small scroll costs two. Couplet and
streamer are one tael a pair, while fan and album leaf
261. Gao Xiang, The Tanzhi Pavilion, hanging scroll, ink on paper,
are a half-tael each. Those who bring gifts and food Qing dynasty. 68.5 X 38 cm. Yangzhou Museum.
are certainly not as welcome as those who come with
silver, because what you give is not necessarily what I
desire. If you come with cash, my heart will be filled
with joy so the paintings and calligraphy will be excel¬
lent. Gifts cause nothing but trouble, not to mention
Such comments are just like the artist himself, good-
deferred payment. Furthermore, in my old age, I get
humored, frank, and straightforward.
easily tired. Therefore, please excuse me from accom¬
Yangzhou was the most prosperous city ruled by the
panying you gendemen in unprofitable conversations.
Qing, and not only did it appeal to merchants from all

He ended the list with a poem: parts of China, but scholars, poets, officials, musicians,
and dramatists were also drawn to its vibrant cultural life.
One earns more from painting bamboo than planting Many of the men who bought Zheng Xie’s paintings and
bamboo, calligraphic works were salt merchants doing business in
A painting six feet tall costs three thousand cash. Yangzhou. These were upwardly mobile men with some
However much he may talk about old friendship or cultural background, who sought to emulate the scholars
connections, by decorating their homes with works of art and cre-
It is like the autumn wind blowing past my ears.16 ating private gardens. Such merchants became patrons

278 The Qing Dynasty

of painters and calligraphers like Zheng Xie, creating a Li Fangying (1695—1755) was born in Nantong,
growing market for their work. Jiangsu Province. He studied diligently as a boy and re¬
While Zheng Xie was in government service in Beijing ceived the licentiate degree when he was quite young. He
and later in the provinces, he became a friend of Yunxi, was appointed a county magistrate in 1729. Later, while
the prince of Shen and the twenty-first son of the Kangxi distributing relief to the victims of a natural disaster, he
emperor. Their friendship lasted for more than twenty offended his superior and was thrown into prison on a
years, during which time they corresponded and ex¬ false charge. When he was released, he had lost his job; he
changed poems. traveled between Jinling, Yangzhou, and Nantong, selling
Zheng Xie was an outstanding painter of bamboo, or¬ his pictures and living a reclusive life. Although Li did not
chids, and rocks. It was said that he painted orchids that stay in Yangzhou long, he is regarded as one of the Eight
never wither, ever-green bamboo with one hundred sec¬ Eccentrics because his artistic interests were similar to
tions, rocks that never die, and people who never change. theirs.
His pictures of orchids, bamboo, and rocks, in other Li’s favorite subjects were bamboo (which he painted
words, symbolize people who are honest, faithful, and in ink), orchids, plum blossoms, pines, and rocks. His
unchanging. He loved the resilience of rocks and orchids, paintings are notable for their elegant, simple style. In his
and he painted them to comfort the hard-working Ancient Pine Trees (fig. 263), painted a year before his
people, not to please people of the leisure class. ■ death, two pines stand one in front of the other, their
His calligraphy combined the style of li> official script, branches interlocked, seemingly lost in thought; they may
and kai, regular script. In Bamboo and Rock (fig. 262), the be seen as a portrayal of the painter himself.
grove of bamboo appears natural, yet the bamboo leaves, The youngest of the Eight Eccentrics was Luo Pin
perfecdy arranged, give rhythm to the picture. Painted in (1733—1799), a native of Yangzhou. His parents died
ink without color, the contrast of black and white and the when he was young, and he studied painting under ardu¬
distinct style suggest the peace to be found in nature, ous circumstances in his early years. He later became a
apart from philistines and the unpleasant reality of deal¬ trusted disciple of Jin Nong, through whom he met many
ing with them. Zheng Xie used bamboo for many things: of the well-known painters and literati in Yangzhou.
to portray his spirit, to express his friendships, to mock Luo Pin’s works are more varied in subject matter
the injustice of society, and to voice the longings of the than those of his teacher, and many of his fine paintings
people. On a bamboo painting that he gave as a gift to of figures, landscapes, bamboo, rocks, and flowers sur¬
the governor of Shandong he wrote: vive. His Orchids in a Deep Dailey (fig. 264) shows a small
stream flowing down through the crevices of huge boul¬
Lying down at your house and listening to the rustling
ders, where orchids (which suggest a refined taste) grow
bamboo,
in abundance. With seemingly careless brushstrokes, Luo
You may suspect you have heard the complaint of the
gives the boulders, painted in faint ink, and the orchids,
people.
done in dark ink, an ethereal quality: they evoke a feel¬
Small county official though I may be,
ing of spiritual otherworldliness. Luo was probably in¬
Always be concerned with matters as small as a leaf.
fluenced by the Buddhist philosophy of his teacher Jin.
Zheng claimed that it took him forty years to achieve Luo also excelled in painting ghosts. His Ghosts depicts
the graceful, original, and expressive charm of his bam¬ strange and bizarre figures in a ghostly world; through
boo and to master the three stages of painting it: “Bam¬ them Luo mocked corrupt officials and societal injustices
boo in my eyes, bamboo in my heart, bamboo in my toward the end of the long Qianlong reign. The cultural
hand.” First observe and study the bamboo, he wrote, so elite appreciated Luo’s ghosts, which they understood as
that you may become familiar with its disposition and satirical comments on the corruptions and excesses of
characteristics before you compose the picture in your contemporary officials and other powerful members of
mind. Then paint that picture on paper or silk. Once the society. The works of Luo’s wife, Fang Wanyi (1732—
first two stages were completed, then the painting after 1779), and those of their two children, who were all
process was like what is called “lightning and thunder,” good at painting plum blossoms, were known as “Luo’s
and the plants looked as if they were “growing wild.” plums.”
Zheng usually wrote a long passage or a poem on the
painting, as well; the calligraphy, poem, and painting
combined were considered sanjue, “three perfections.”

The Qing Dynasty 279

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262. Zheng Xie, Bamboo and Rock,

hanging scroll, ink on paper, Qing
dynasty. 170 X 90 cm. Tianjin Art
Museum, left

263. Li Fangying, Ancient Pine Trees,

hanging scroll, ink on paper, 1754.
123 X 43.6 cm. Palace Museum,
Beijing, above
 264. Luo Pin, Orchids in a a fur hat and an overcoat, a sword hanging at his waist, he
Deep Valley, hanging scroll,
leads a camel. The heads of both the traveler and the
ink on paper, Qing dynasty,
camel are raised to the sky as a wild goose flies overhead.
no X 33.1 cm. Palace
Museum, Beijing. The solitary traveler, the camel, and the wild goose give
poignancy to the desolation of the scene. But the bleak¬
ness of gray sky, brown camel, and white snow are re¬
lieved by the overcoat of bright red. Like many poems
of the Tang dynasty that describe scenes outside the
Great Wall, the picture creates a lonely yet solemn and
stirring mood.

The Meticulous Style in the Mid-Qing

Li Yin, Xiao Chen, Yuan Jiang, and Yuan Yao were

famed for their paintings of buildings and landscapes
rendered in the meticulous style that featured fine
brushwork and close attention to detail. Unlike the Eight
Eccentrics of Yangzhou, who were favored by Anhui
merchants, painters who used this style were patronized
by merchants from the north, particularly Shanxi.
Li Yin (ca. 1616—1685), a native of Yangzhou, appears
never to have left the region. Only a small number of Li
Yin’s works survive. Loading the Carts (fig. 266) depicts the
everyday life of ordinary people. In both subject matter
and technique it follows Song academic traditions of fine,
realistic detail. It portrays a winter scene after a snowfall.
A small inn deep in the mountains busdes with activity:
after a night’s rest, merchants on a long journey are
preparing to go on their way. We get only a distant view
of the scene as we look down from an elevated view¬
point. Most of the picture is filled with landscape: a big
river in the background, mountains in the middle. The
inn and travelers are off to one side in the foreground.
We know very littie about Xiao Chen (active ca. 1680 —
1710), a contemporary of Li Yin’s, except that he was a
native of Yangzhou. His Herd Boy Returning Home Along
a Willow Embankment (fig. 267) depicts life on a farm.
After a day of hard work, an exhausted herd boy is trudg¬
Hua Yan —A Scholarly Professional Painter ing homeward in the evening, driving a water buffalo. A
Hua Yan (1682-1756), a native of Shanghang, Fujian crude bridge spans a narrow stream, and willows put
Province, grew up among local artists and painting spe¬ forth tender green leaves, which lend the picture a poetic
cialists. Born to a poor family, he painted murals for touch. On the picture is an inscription by Liang Qing-
family shrines as a child. He left home when he was still biao, an art connoisseur from the north and an admirer
young, traveling first to Hangzhou and then to Beijing. In of Xiao Chen’s. The artist had painted A Scholar’s House
his middle years, Hangzhou and Yangzhou became his Among Banana Trees (Palace Museum, Beijing) especially

homes. for Liang.

Hua Yan’s art appealed to both the literati and the or¬ Two painters who specialized in pictures of palaces set
dinary city dwellers and merchants. Snow on Mount Tian in landscapes were Yuan Jiang (active ca. 1680—1730)
(fig. 265), painted the year before his death, depicts an and Yuan Yao (active ca. 1739—1788). They flourished in

itinerant merchant trudging through ice and snow in the Yangzhou during the reigns of the Kangxi and Qianlong

northern wilderness on a long, arduous journey. Wearing emperors. Because they were professional painters rather

The Qing Dynasty 281

 than scholar-artists, they left behind no collections of
poems or essays, and no scholars wrote about them. As a
result, little is known of their lives.
Yuan Jiang’s early artistic activities were confined to
the area around his hometown of Yangzhou. When he
reached middle age, he was invited to live in Shanxi by a
salt merchant who had business in Yangzhou. There he
became famous for his exquisite paintings of buildings
and landscapes in the Song-dynasty style. Pavilion of Deep
Fragrance (fig. 268), one of Yuan’s early works, offers a
panoramic view of Zhanyuan in Nanjing, featuring the
residence of Xu Da (a famous general of the early Ming
dynasty), which became the seat of the Provincial Trea¬
sury during the Qing dynasty. There are many-storied
houses, pavilions, covered walks, and a garden. Yuan
Jiang’s picture gives a faithful and detailed portrayal of
the residence. Even the couplets decorating either side
of the doors are clearly legible. The lines of the painting
are straight and forceful, and the rockery in the garden
is meticulously rendered. His The Eastern Garden (1710;
Shanghai Museum) is a similar work.
Yuan Yao’s artistic career began roughly in 1739, the
fourth year of the Qianlong reign, and ended in 1788.
Yuan Yao reportedly spent many years painting in the
home of a Shanxi merchant. His paintings are similar to
those of Yuan Jiang. In fact, without looking at the signa¬
tures, it is hard to tell the difference. Generally speaking,
Yuan Yao’s works have tighter compositions than Yuan
Jiang’s. A. Famous View of Hanjiang (fig. 269), an enormous
handscroll dating from 1747, accurately depicts a spot on
the northwestern outskirts of Yangzhou: the city moat,
Zhenhuai Gate, Plum Blossom Hill, Lord Shi’s Shrine,
and Shugang Hill can be seen in the distance. The picture
was sketched from life, and its realistic effect is achieved
by the use of jiehua (traditional architectural drawing) as
well as by its detailed clarity: the foreground, middle
ground, and background are clearly defined.

Court Painting

Court painting flourished during the reigns of the

Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong emperors, when the
dynasty reached its zenith. Initially, court painters contin¬
ued the traditions established by the Ming court painters.
But following the arrival of the Italian missionary painter
Giuseppe Castiglione (1688-1768), who served at court
in the early years of the Kangxi reign, Qing court
paintings began to show a clear Western influence. Casti-

265. Hua Yan, Snow on Mount Tian, hanging scroll, ink and light
color on paper, 1755. 159.1 X 52.8 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.
 267. Xiao Chen, Herd Boy Returning Home Along a Willow
Embankment, hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, Qing
dynasty. 44 X 25.9 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.

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266. Li Yin, Loading the Carts, hanging scroll, ink and light color
on silk, Qing dynasty. 133.5 X 73.5 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.

glione was followed by other Europeans. These artists

significantly promoted the interchange between Chinese
and Western art and culture. Together, the Chinese and
European painters created a new school of painting that
combined Chinese and Western methods. The influence
of Western art on the Qing court paintings is particularly
evident in the emphasis on light, shade, and perspective,

The Qing Dynasty 283

 268. Yuan Jiang, Pavilion of Deep Fragrance,
hanging scroll, ink and color on silk,
Qing dynasty. 197.5 X 121.2 cm.
Tianjin Art Museum.

as well as in the priority given to recording contemporary marine power, were among the first to extend their reach
events. In addition, the missionary painters brought the to the mysterious, rich East. In this process of explo¬
techniques of oil painting and copperplate etching to ration, religion served as a useful tool, and for many years
China, two genres of art that first appeared in the Qing cultural and artistic exchange between East and West was
court. performed by the Jesuits.
These European missionary painters represented a The European painters not only produced many
new and unusual development in the history of Chinese works of their own, they also introduced the various
art. Following what the Europeans saw as their discovery techniques and genres of Western painting to Chinese
of the world, countries like Spain, Portugal, the Nether¬ court painters, who began to combine Chinese and West¬
lands, Italy, England, and France, which had considerable ern methods. The new Chinese works, however, were

284 The Qing Dynasty

criticized by the guardians of traditional Chinese art as furrow in a special plot of land. After the highest-ranking
being stiff, strained, and inharmonious. Zou Yigui (1686— ministers had plowed a few rows, the growing season
x772)> in writing about the three-dimensional effects would begin. The grandeur and importance of this ritual
produced by Western techniques, noted that “Western¬ is captured in the crowds of officials, ministers, and at¬
ers are skilled in geometry. They make precise measure¬ tendants who gather in formation in front of the altar.
ments of light and shade, foreground and background.... With the Europeans working as court artists, many
The images in the pictures are measured with a set of the court paintings showed clear European influence
square so that they are reduced in size according to dis¬ in style. Castiglione’s Auspicious Objects (fig. 271), for ex¬
tance. People almost want to walk into the houses and ample, was painted to celebrate the Yongzheng emperor’s
walls they have painted.” But, he complained, there is no birthday. The pine, eagle, and mushroomlike plant (ling
method in the brushstrokes. “Though meticulously exe¬ qhi) are symbols of blessing; they are traditional subjects
cuted, their works are those of craftsmen and cannot be of Chinese paintings. But the technique is Western. The
considered as paintings.”17 The emergence of paintings painter emphasized the direction of the light, the effect of
that combined Chinese and Western methods, however, shade, and the illusion of three-dimensionality. Zhang
was a highly significant phenomenon. It was both an on¬ Weibang’s hanging scroll The Glory of the New Year
slaught against and a complement to traditional Chinese (fig. 272) is not a masterpiece, but it reflects the effort
painting. made by Chinese court painters to incorporate European
European painters in China were, in turn, influenced techniques into their work. The picture has a traditional
by the Chinese. They drew on traditional Chinese paint¬ Chinese subject, but it gives the impression of a Euro¬
ing to enrich their own methods of expression. This can pean still-life.
be seen most clearly in portraiture. European portrait European influence is further evident in the work of
painters often lit the sitter from one side to achieve an il¬ Chinese painters who tried to add perspective to their
lusion of three-dimensionality. Chinese painters, on the pictures. In Xu Yang’s Spring in the Capital (fig. 273), the
other hand, almost invariably lit the sitter from the front, orientation of some of the buildings along varying reced¬
to depict the facial features clearly. The half-lit face was ing diagonals shows an attempt to add perspective, but
unacceptable to the Chinese. (The Qianlong emperor the lack of a single vanishing point and the more tra¬
thought that the shadows looked like dirt, and he didn’t ditional rendering of the landscape background are less
want to be portrayed with a dirty face.) When such Euro¬ successful. They conflict with what is being attempted
pean painters as Castiglione painted the emperor and his with the buildings.
consorts, they followed the Chinese method: in addition,
Shen Quan’s Bird-and-Flower Paintings
they reduced the intensity of the light so that there was
no shadow on the face, and the features were distinct. While painting flourished at the court and in the
The most popular, and most valuable, purpose of Yangzhou area in the mid-Qing period, a successful
court paintings in the Qing dynasty was to record events, painter of birds and flowers appeared in the south. Shen
surpassing in this respect court paintings of the Song and Quan (1682—1765), a native of Wuxingin Zhejiang Prov¬
Ming. These works offer some of the best data on the ince, was a professional painter who followed Lu Ji of the
history of that period. Some of the more important his¬ Ming dynasty in the use of the meticulous style and bright
torical paintings are The Kangxi Emperor on His Southern In¬ colors. All his works are filled with sumptuous color,
spection Tour (set fig. 240), consisting of twelve handscrolls symbolic of auspiciousness, good fortune, and longevity.
painted by Wang Hui and others; Yongzheng at Yong The In 1731 Shen traveled to Japan with two of his disciples,
Qianlong Emperor’s Southern Inspection Tour: An Equestrian Zheng Pei and Gao Jun. He stayed for two years in Na¬
Performance (a handscroll); Imperial Banquet in the Garden of gasaki, where he taught painting to the Japanese. His
Ten Thousand Trees (a handscroll); Kazaks Presenting Horses painting style became highly influential in Japan, and he
in Tribute; Mulan; and A Great Parade. The Yonggheng Em¬ was extolled as the first of the visiting painters. Pine, Plum,
peror Offering Sacrifices at the Altar of Agriculture (fig. 270), a and Cranes (fig. 274) shows the influence of Lu Ji, but
long handscroll, shows the Yongzheng emperor fulfilling Shen deviated from the style of Lii and the Imperial
his sacred duties as the Son of Heaven. As mediator be¬ Painting Academy in his depiction of the rocks; he used
tween heaven and earth, he performed the cosmologi- a dry brush to bring out the texture in a few force¬
cally significant sacrifice at the Altar of Agriculture in the ful strokes, a style closer to that of the Wu School of
springtime, symbolically holding a plow to cut the first painting.

The Qing Dynasty 28 5

270. Anonymous, The Yonggheng Emperor
Offering Sacrifices at the Altar of Agriculture,
section of a handscroll, ink and color
on silk, Qing dynasty. 61.8 X 467.8 cm.
Palace Museum, Beijing.

271. Giuseppe Castiglione, Auspicious Objects,

hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, 1724.
242.3 X 157.1 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.
 Shen often painted pines, cranes, bees, and monkeys,
for their names are homonyms of the words for good
luck and blessing. This suggests his close contact with the
art of the craftsmen. Because he used neat and meticu¬
lous brushstrokes and rich color, people often mistook
him for a court painter. But he was an itinerant profes¬
sional painter, and he never worked in the imperial court.
There was, however, no impassable chasm separating
the professional painters or artisans from the scholar-
painters. They influenced one another, although some¬
times they also discriminated against one another. When
the artistic style of the scholar-painters became popular,
it exerted its influence not only on the court painters but
also on many of the artisans. On the other hand, some of
the scholar-painters, as well as the more refined artisans,
consciously introduced the aesthetic interests, themes,
and methods of folk painting into' their works. Chen
Hongshou, a painter of the late Ming and early Qing pe¬
riod, for example, created many folk pictures for wood¬
block prints, as did the Anhui Province painter Xiao
Yuncong (1596 — 1673). Hua Yan, as we have seen, was a
craftsman who later became a famous painter.

The Late Qing

Late Qing painters continually found inspiration in the

tradition of landscape, bird-and-flower, and figure paint¬
ing. Increasing influence from the West, as well as from
regional artisans and local craftsmen, further encouraged
painters to develop personal styles, creative techniques,
and innovative and imaginative compositions. Portrait
painting drew upon the skills of artisans and craftsmen
painters. The techniques of the Bochen School of por¬
trait painters had been handed down among artisans, not
scholar-painters, and had become the means of liveli¬
hood of regional artisans. In the late Qing, these tech¬
niques reappeared in the Shanghai School.

The Jingjiang School

272. Zhang Weibang, The Glory of the New Year, hanging scroll,
ink and color on silk, Qing dynasty. 137.3 X 62.1 cm. Palace In the later Qianlong and Jiaqing periods, a group
Museum, Beijing. of artists, represented by Zhang Yin and Gu Heqing,
gathered in Zhenjiang, an important city that lies at the
junction of the Yangzi River and the Grand Canal. Since
Zhenjiang was also called Jingjiang, these artists became
known as the Jingjiang School. It consisted of a relatively
small, regional group of painters who continued the tra¬
dition initiated by the Eight Masters of Jinling of depict¬
ing actual scenes, painted from life. Zhang Yin and Gu
Heqing were noted, respectively, for their pictures of

The Qing Dynasty 289

 273. Xu Yang, Spring
in the Capital, hanging
scroll, ink and color on
paper, Qing dynasty.
255 X 233.8 cm. Palace
Museum, Beijing.

Mi#"-'

pines and their pictures of willows. People called them but in flowers and landscape. His Three Hills of Jingjiang
Zhang of the Pines and Gu of the Willows. (% 275) depicts the scenery of his hometown. The dis¬
Zhang Yin (1761-1829) was born in Zhenjiang to a tinctive regional characteristics make it clear that the
rich and cultured family. His father was a cloth merchant, painting was at least based on a sketch drawn at the spot.
who claimed as friends Pan Gongshou (1741-1794), a Gu Heqing (1766-after 1830) was a close friend of
noted landscape painter and poet, and Wang Wenzhi Zhang Yin’s. The brushwork of his landscapes was less
(1730-1802), a well-known calligrapher and poet. In restrained than Zhang’s. The idling willows he painted
his youth, Zhang Yin made friends with Deng Shiru are clearly done from life; they conjure up the local
(1739-1805), a famous calligrapher and seal carver. In scenery of the rivers and lakes of parts of the south.
middle age, his family fortunes declined, and he was
forced to sell his pictures for a living instead of painting Pictures of Beautiful Women
for amusement. He died in poverty. The late Qing was also a time in which a number of
Until the age of fifty, Zhang had concentrated on mak¬ painters appeared who specialized in paintings of beauti¬
ing copies of famous paintings. When he finally began ful women. Economic prosperity, the development of
to create original works, he specialized not only in pines commerce, a growing diversification in daily life, and

290 The Qing Dynasty

274-
Shen Quan,
Pine, Plum,
and Cranes,
hanging
scroll, ink
and color
on silk, 1759.
191 X 98.3 cm.
Palace
Museum,
Beijing.
 \

v
-
. i V SWl WMB Hi 1 l * . , "• ;. ^
27 5. Zhang Yin, Three Hills ofjingjiang, section of a handscroll, ink and color on paper, 1827. 29.5 X 194.2 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.

visits to brothels by the literati all contributed to this War in the nineteenth century, Shanghai was designated
vogue. The women in these paintings all had a delicate an open commercial port. As the city’s economy grew,
physique, oval face, shapely eyebrows, almond eyes, slop¬ merchants, bankrupt landowners, and peasants poured
ing shoulders, and a slender waist — the embodiment of in, drastically increasing its population. Torn between old
languid beauty. Two painters who made their reputation traditions and these new forces, the new art patrons
with this genre of painting were Gai Qi and Fei Danxu. helped influence the emerging style of painting.
Gai Qi (1773—1828), whose remote ancestors came The Shanghai School created works that catered to the
from the Western Regions, grew up in Songjiang, Shang¬ taste of the city dwellers. Although their backgrounds
hai, an area of flourishing art and culture during the Ming differed, these artists all faced the changed art market.
and Qing dynasties, where his grandfather served as a The leisurely and refined taste of the literati was vanish¬
local government official. The cultured atmosphere in ing, replaced by a demand for novelty and innovation.
which he lived strongly influenced the young Gai. When Subject matter might remain the same, but how it was
he grew up, he befriended the local literati and painters, treated was quite different. Most of the figure paintings
gradually gaining fame as a painter. His pictures were of the Shanghai School, for example, told stories of im¬
much sought after and favored by the nobles and high mortals and historical personalities familiar to the ordi¬
officials in Beijing. In addition to beautiful women, he nary people, rather than being based on allusions known
also painted human figures in general, as well as flowers largely to the literati. The school’s bird-and-flower paint¬
and bamboo. His Beauties Under Bamboo (fig. 276) exem¬ ings were executed in a style that combined the free
plifies the style of his paintings. sketch and the meticulous style. The colors were always
Fei Danxu (1802-1850) was a native of Wuxing in bright, the images lively. Among the better-known artists
Zhejiang Province. Born into a family of art lovers, Fei of the Shanghai School were Xugu, the Four Rens, Qian
learned to paint when he was a boy. When he grew up, he Hui’an, and Wu Jiayou.
became an itinerant painter, drifting to Hangzhou, Hai- Xugu (1824-1896) came from a most unusual back¬
ning, Shanghai, Suzhou, and Shaoxing, selling his pic¬ ground. Born in Shexian, Anhui Province, he served as a
tures. His paintings of beautiful women were stylistically colonel in the Qing army and fought against the peasant
similar to Gai Qi’s. Both emphasized a delicate, morbid, army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom until, sick of the
and wistful beauty that embodied the vogue of the time. brutal slaughter, he forsook the world and became a Bud¬
Yao Xie and His Wives (fig. 277) portrays a contemporary dhist monk.
of Fei’s sitting on a cushion surrounded by his wives like
Xugu was skilled in portraits and paintings of birds,
the moon encircled by stars.
flowers, vegetables, and fruit, as well as landscapes, and
he supported himself by his painting, traveling between

The Shanghai School Yangzhou, Suzhou, and Shanghai. In time, his pictures
became much sought after. In later years, he spent most
When the closed gates of the Qing dynasty were
of his time in Shanghai; he died in the Guandi Temple, in
forcibly opened by the Western powers after the Opium the western part of the city.

292 The Qing Dynasty

 Xugu’s works show several distinct ways of using the
brush. He favored the dry-brush method, but he also
tried broken brushstrokes, using the side of the brush,
and moving the brush against the direction of the bristles
(to create elegant pines and sheer cliffs). His Long-Living
Pine and Crane (fig. 278), an occasional painting made to
wish someone a long life, features a crane, a pine, and
chrysanthemums, all symbols of longevity. The bird, tree,
and flowers are outlined with broken and dry brush¬
strokes. These lines give the picture an unusual rhythm.
The shapes are simple, elegant, and slightly exaggerated.
The color is muted but never monotonous. This picture,
painted in the later years of his life, is one of Xugu’s best.
Also active in Shanghai were the Four Rens (Ren
Xiong, Ren Xun, Ren Yu, and Ren Bonian [Ren Yi]). The
first to become famous was Ren Xiong (1820-1857),
who was born to a poor peasant family in Xiaoshan, Zhe¬
jiang Province. His father died when he was young, and
his widowed mother raised the children under difficult
circumstances. To support himself, Ren Xiong studied
portraiture from a village schoolteacher, but he chose
not to follow the man’s rigid and outmoded methods.
Among the rules his teacher laid down were: officials
should be painted wearing a hat; they should sit straight
and look serious; they should be treated with respect.
Ren Xiong painted his officials hatless, sprawled in vari¬
ous positions (sometimes with one leg resting on the
other), and with blemishes on their faces (quite exagger¬
ated ones at times). Stung by his teacher’s criticism, he
left his hometown and roamed from place to place.
In 1846 he traveled to Hangzhou, the provincial capi¬
tal, where he became acquainted with the collector of
paintings Zhou Xian (1820—1875), living for three years
in his home, the Thatched Cottage of Fanhu. During that
time he practiced making copies of the paintings in
Zhou’s collection to develop his skills. He also became a
friend of the noted poet Yao Xie and devoted more than
two months to painting more than a hundred pictures
that illustrated lines of Yao’s poetry.
Ren Xiong’s works are diverse in subject matter, in¬
cluding figure paintings, landscapes, and bird-and-flower
paintings. In the late-Qing tradition of woodblock print¬
making, he created outline drawings of characters in the
novel Tales of Chivalrous Swordsmen for woodblock prints.

276. Gai Qi, Beauties Under Bamboo, hanging scroll, ink and color
on paper, Qing dynasty. Guangzhou Museum.

The Qing Dynasty 293

 277- Fei Danxu, Yao Xie and His Wives, handscroll, ink and color on paper, Qing dynasty. 31 X 128.9 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.

Among his many works, one of the most interesting is his dom. He later traveled to Shanghai and Suzhou and
Self-Portrait (fig. 279). The picture shows a towering fig¬ learned to paint from Ren Xun. He eventually settled in
ure, eyes focused directly in front of him, face serious. He Shanghai and supported himself by selling his pictures.
wears a long loose robe that falls open to leave his shoul¬ Ren Bonian was a highly accomplished painter of
ders and chest bare. It is the picture of an unbending and figures and portraits as well as of bird-and-flower paint¬
discontented man ready to fight like a chivalrous knight ings. His figure paintings tend to be narrative in manner,
against injustice. The folds of the robe are painted in based on historical and folk anecdotes. The vivid figures
harsh and rugged lines that press closely on his body, giv¬ in these paintings are executed with fluent lines. His
ing the figure a tragic air. Deep disillusionment underlies paintings of birds and flowers are noted for their beau¬
the inscription: tiful colors and exquisite shapes. His works generally
feature popular, accessible subject matter, lively and in¬
With the world in turmoil, what lies ahead of me? I
teresting form, and beautiful coloring. A favorite with
smile and bow and go around flattering people in hope
city dwellers, Ren Bonian became the best-selling artist
of making connections; but what do I know of affairs?
of the Shanghai School and left behind thousands of
In the great confusion, what is there to hold on to and
works.
rely on? How easy it is merely to chat about this! . . .
Portrait of a Down-and-Out Man (fig. 280) is a likeness of
When I calculate back to my youth, I didn’t start out
Ren Bonian’s contemporary, the famous flower painter
thinking this way; with a sense of purpose I portrayed
Wu Changshuo (1844-1927). Wu had been a low-
the ancients for display [as paragons]. But who are the
ranking government official with a meager salary before
ignorant ones, who are the sages? In the end, I have no
he took up painting, and the portrait shows the artist’s
idea. In the flash of a glance, all I can see is the bound¬
sympathy toward his friend’s plight. Fine lines bring out
less void. Composed by Ren Xiong, called Weichang,
the facial features while splashes of color are used for the
to the tune of “The Twelve Daily Records.”18
clothes, forming a contrast that makes the portrait a re¬
Born in XIaoshan, Zhejiang Province, Ren Xun markable likeness both in appearance and in spirit.
(1835-1893), who was Ren Xiong’s younger brother, did Pheasants and Dahlia (fig. 281) is representative of Ren
flower paintings and figure paintings; in the latter, he fol¬ Bonian’s bird-and-flower paintings. Employing a tech¬
lowed the style of the Ming-dynasty painter Chen Hong- nique in which color and ink are applied separately, Ren
shou. Ren Yu (1854-1901) was the son of Ren Xiong. was able to make the bird’s feathers and tail appear
Ren Bonian (1840-1895), also known as Ren Yi, was soft and thick. His use of the brush is natural and un¬
born in Shanyin, today’s Shaoxing, in Zhejiang Province. restrained.
His father was a portrait painter of some note. From an Zhao Zhiqian (1829—1884), another outstanding
early age Ren Bonian was distinguished by an exceptional painter of flowers, was a native of Kuaiji, today’s Shao¬
ability to remember faces. One day when he was ten, a xing in Zhejiang Province. A bright boy and a hard
friend came to visit his father, who was not home. When worker, Zhao mastered calligraphy and seal carving, and
his father returned, he asked the young Ren the visitor’s by the time he was twenty-one, he had received the licen¬
name. The child had forgotten to ask for it, so he drew a tiate degree after passing the civil service examinations at
picture, which his father recognized immediately. the county level. While continuing his studies, he traveled
As a young man, Ren Bonian served as a standard to Hangzhou and Shanghai to sell his calligraphic works
bearer in the peasant army of the Taiping Heavenly King¬ and paintings. After he passed the civil service examina-

294 The Qing Dynasty

 279. Ren Xiong, Self-Portrait, hanging scroll, ink and color on
paper, Qing dynasty. 177.5 X 78.8 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.

27 8. Xugu, Long-Living Pine and Crane, hanging scroll, ink and

color on paper, Qing dynasty. 185.5 x 98 cm- Suzhou Museum
 own. Since the mid-Qing, a number of scholars and cal¬
ligraphers had promoted the vigorous calligraphic style
of the inscriptions carved on stone tablets from the early
Northern Wei dynasty against the fragile and coquettish
style of calligraphy favored at the time. Influenced by
this tendency, Zhao Zhiqian imparted a forcefulness not
only to his calligraphic works but also to his paintings.
His flowers were painted with strong brushstrokes and
are full of vigor and grandeur. His Peonies (fig. 282) was
painted in rich ink, using a wide spectrum of colors; like
his other works, it shows a simple, unaffected style that
came to exert a strong influence on later painters.
The history of nineteenth-century Chinese painting is
much like the history of China itself in this period. The
time marked the end of effective Manchu rule and the
opening of China to the world, and it set the stage for
the revolution, the end of the old empire, and China’s
entry into the modern age. Painting, too, manifested
tensions between tradition and innovation, native and
foreign styles, that were likewise shaping a modern
China. Many of the painters who influenced art in the
twentieth century—Qi Baishi and Huang Binhong, for
example —were born in these years, and they embody in
their lives and art the profound social, economic, and cul¬
tural changes that began in the nineteenth century.

280. Ren Bonian, Portrait of a Down-and-Out Man, hanging scroll,

ink and color on paper, Qing dynasty. 164.2 X 77.6 cm. Zhejiang
Provincial Museum.

tions at the provincial level and obtained the degree of

provincial graduate, he was appointed a local government
official in Boyang, Fengxin, and then Nancheng (all in to¬ 281. Ren Bonian, Pheasants and Dahlia, hanging scroll, ink and
day’s Jiangxi Province), a job he held until his death. color on paper, Qing dynasty. 103.8 X 44.5 cm. Palace Museum,

In his flower paintings, Zhao Zhiqian drew on the Beijing, opposite, left

styles of Chen Chun and Xu Wei of the Ming dynasty,

282. Zhao Zhiqian, Peonies, hanging scroll, ink and color on
Bada Shanren of the early Qing, and the Eight Eccentrics
paper, Qing dynasty. 175.6 X 90.8 cm. Palace Museum, Beijing.
of Yang2hou of the middle Qing to create a style of his opposite, right

296 The Qing Dynasty

 LANG SHAOJUN

Traditional Chinese Painting

in the Twentieth Century

s the twentieth century began, China was an empire in turmoil. In 1911, the

Qing dynasty, which had ruled China since 1644, was overthrown, ending

two thousand years of monarchy. The May Fourth Movement of 1919

fiercely attacked the old feudal system and its culture and held high the

banners of democracy and science. The Chinese people endured years of

hardship and struggle through the War of Resistance Against Japanese Ag¬

gression (1937-1945) and the War of Liberation that followed. The found¬

ing of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 at last brought long-desired

peace. Yet the succession of campaigns launched by Mao Zedong to indus¬

trialize and modernize the new nation resulted, in some cases, in social, eco¬

nomic, and political turbulence. Political and cultural initiatives, such as the

Hundred Flowers Movement of 1957, were aimed at transforming Chinese

culture; the greatest of these, the Cultural Revolution, broke out in 1966 and

continued until 1976. These social and political campaigns greatly affected

the traditional culture of China.

The introduction of Western culture on a large scale was a central devel¬

opment in twentieth-century China. From the beginning of the century, Chi¬

nese painters posed and debated a number of questions: Should Western art

be accepted? If so, then how should it be incorporated? How should China’s

national tradition be changed?

Details, figure 302 (opposite) and figure 298 {above)

 Western influence meant an increase in the categories seals. In 1896, he was recommended to the post of
of painting. In addition to traditional paintings, there were county magistrate of Andong, Jiangsu Province, but he
oils, engravings, and paintings using different materials resigned a month later and continued to make his living
and serving varied purposes. People began to call tradi¬ by selling his paintings in Shanghai. In 1904, he became
tional Chinese painting simply “Chinese painting” to the first director of the Xiling Seal Society, an organiza¬
distinguish it from new trends that were emerging. The tion in Hangzhou dedicated to studying seal carving.
“Chinese paintings” discussed in this chapter are largely Wu Changshuo devoted much of his life to studying
traditional paintings done in monochrome inkwash, me¬ calligraphy and seal carving. He began practicing calligra¬
ticulously detailed and heavily colored, and other paint¬ phy in the kai (regular) script of the Tang dynasty, then
ings using water and ink as the main media. the // (official) script of the Han. Later, he mastered the
seal scripts known as tfouan and ghou and was able to
write the shiguwen (script carved on drum-shaped stones
about 200 b.c.). Through years of practice, he learned to
Painting During the Late Qing
apply the li and zhuan scripts to cao (cursive) writing, giv¬
and Early Republic, 1900—1927 ing it a bold but flowing character. Wu learned seal en¬
graving from the Zhe, Later Zhe, and Anhui Schools and
At the end of the Qing dynasty and the dawn of the Re¬
was influenced by the stone carving of the Qin and Han
public, the Chinese art world was a bleak scene. Such
periods some two thousand years earlier. Over time, he
noted painters as Xugu, Hu Yuan, and Ren Bonian (Ren
developed a unique style, later known as the “Wu style”;
Yi) of the Shanghai School were gone by the end of the
his seals were either extremely elegant or intrepidly bold.
nineteenth century. Pu Hua and Qian Hui’an lived to
Wu Changshuo did not learn to paint until after he was
the year of the 1911 Revolution. The only outstanding
thirty. Ren Bonian gready admired the newcomer’s heavy
painter still active was Wu Changshuo, and he was in his
and forceful brushstrokes and advised him to apply his
golden age of creation. Most painters in Beijing either
calligraphic skill to painting. The two gradually became
followed in the footsteps of the Four Wangs of the Qing
good friends. From Zhao Zhiqian, a celebrated seal en¬
(Wang Hui, Wang Shimin, Wang Jian, and Wang Yuanqi)
graver of the nineteenth century, Wu learned to apply the
or discreedy observed the old rules. Yet artists in various
style of epigraphy (antique inscriptions in metal and
other cities, influenced by the revolution and the West,
stone) to painting. Wu also studied the techniques of
began to experiment artistically. Launching a “revolution
such earlier painters as Jin Nong and Wu Wei, and he be¬
in art,” they reassessed ancient painting and initiated
came an accomplished artist in his later years. Wu main¬
a long-lasting debate between the innovators and the
tained that one should “paint the qi [the emotion and idea
conservatives.
of the object], not the xing [form].” A line from one of
his poems reads, “Use the force of carving in the script
Wu Changshuo and His School of Art
style of the stone drum inscriptions /And paint delicate
Wu Changshuo (1844-1927), sometimes called Wu orchids in a secluded valley.” His paintings of flowers,
Changshi, was born into a scholarly family in Anji County, landscapes, and human figures were favorites among
Zhejiang Province. As a boy of ten he began to write scholars, who appreciated the subde emotion and pro¬
poems and carve seals. When he was sixteen, his family found meaning that lay beneath the robust surface.
fled to the mountains to avoid war between the peasant Wu Changshuo had a preference for pure colors and
army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Qing im¬ sharp contrasts. He led in the use of yang hong (foreign
perial troops. Somehow, Wu was separated from his fam¬ red, a transparent color introduced from the West) in
ily, and he began to roam the countryside. He returned painting fruits and blossoms. His powerful brushwork
home five years later and immersed himself in studying successfully combined heavy and variable ink mono¬
poetry, literature, calligraphy, and seal carving. At age chrome with brilliant and attractive colors, creatine- an
thirty, he again left home to seek out masters of learning impression of both simplicity and radiance. Although his
and friends who might share his interest in art. He be¬ paintings catered to scholar-officials, they also have local
came acquainted with Wu Dazheng, the renowned art artistic flavor. Because of this broad appeal, Wu Chang¬
collector and connoisseur, and the painter Pu Hua. In
shuo was able to make his living by selling his paintings.
1880, he moved to Suzhou and later to Shanghai, where
Although he esteemed classical and refined artistic tradi¬
he made his living by selling his calligraphic works and
tions and deeply revered those literati artists in history

300 Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century

who ignored fame and material gains, he had to cater to The Chinese consider light-flavored teas to be a mark of
the interests of those who purchased and collected his refinement; drinking light tea is not only enjoyable but
work—former scholars and officials and cultured and implies a disdain for grander worldly pleasures. This ethos
uneducated merchants. Because he had to make his living matches Wu Changshuo’s philosophy of life: he chose to
in a commercial metropolis, Shanghai, at the turn of the be a calligrapher and an artist rather than a magistrate.
century, Wu Changshuo often chose bright colors and Wu preferred a simple, uncluttered life. As he said, “In
subjects that symbolized good luck and happiness. being a utensil, clean and of good quality, a clay jar ex¬
Wu Changshuo was especially good at painting plum ceeds one of gold and jade, and simple food and light tea
blossoms, which usually bloom in the bitterly cold weather surpass dainties.” He therefore called himself Lao Fo,
before spring arrives. For generations, scholars have cher¬ “Old Clay Jar.”
ished the quality of this beautiful flower that bravely defies Among Wu Changshuo’s many students and followers
the cold. Poets and painters have lauded the beauty of the were Wang Zhen (Yiting), Chen Shizeng, Zhao Yunhe,
plum blossom as a way of expressing admiration for the and Wang Geyi. His influence is also evident in the
independent spirit and character of their subject. Wu work of such celebrated painters as Qi Baishi and Pan
Changshuo’s paintings of this flower, however, differed Tianshou.
from those of his predecessors. By following the zhuan Wang Zhen (1867—1938), a native of Wuxing County,
and zhou seal scripts in handling his brushstrokes, his Zhejiang Province, was born in Shanghai. As a teenage
branches, whether in heavy ink or light, could be called apprentice at a mounting shop in Shanghai, he learned
“iron bones”— strong enough to cut metal or stone. Yet to mount and frame pictures on scrolls. In 1882, he be¬
the strokes were reserved, honest, and simple, revealing came a student of Xu Xiaolun, who in turn was a student
the moral qualities Wu admired. Under his brush, the of Ren Bonian. Through Xu Xiaolun, Ren Bonian met
broadly or finely executed blossoms exhibited strength Wang and advised him on painting techniques. Wang
behind gende, elegant lines. In bud or in full bloom, Wu’s Zhen eventually became a successful businessman. As
plum blossoms were delightful, sturdy, and filled with vi¬ the general agent of the Riqing Shipping Company, he
tality. Yang hong, “foreign red,” applied to the blossoms, was regarded as one of Shanghai’s top three agents for
looked intensely brilliant and “exceptionally charming,” foreign business before the fall of the Qing dynasty. By
according to the veteran painter Pan Tianshou. 1906, Wang Zhen had returned to his native county of
Plum Blossoms (fig. 283) is a good example of Wu Wuxing and made his home in Bailongshan, the “White
Changshuo’s skill in manipulating brush and ink. The Dragon Mountains.” He then began to use the assumed
trunk of the plum tree shoots upward, while the branches name Bailong Shanren, “Man of the White Dragon Moun¬
curve downward and to the right. Both trunk and tains.” In 19x1, he became a student of Wu Changshuo
branches are painted with force; none of the brush¬ and helped Wu sell his paintings in Shanghai. Gradually
strokes are weak, bloated, or exaggerated. To create the his style of painting began to take on Wu Changshuo’s
flowers he drew the outline of the petals and then tinted broad and simple character. As a philanthropic Buddhist,
the insides of the shapes with a transparent Chinese red, Wang Zhen was elected president of the Chinese Bud¬
yanghi. The vibrant flowers supported by dark branches dhists’ Association in 1922.
against the pure white background are unusually beautiful Wang Zhen was a skilled free sketch—style painter of
and delightful. The inscription reads, “This is done in human figures, the Buddha and bodhisattvas, landscapes,
splashed ink and is somehow similar to work by Huazhisi birds, and flowers. He also drew portraits of Wu Chang¬
Seng.” Wu is referring to “The Monk of the Flower shuo and the famous reformer Kang Youwei. After age
Temple,” another name of the Qing painter Luo Pin, who sixty, he painted in a style that merged Ren Bonian’s
was admired for his plum blossoms. As a rule, traditional gracefulness with Wu Changshuo’s bold style. Wang fa¬
Chinese painters highly esteemed the ancients; they liked vored such subjects as historical figures, folk legends, and
to compare their own or other artists’ paintings with images of nature featuring pines, plum, chrysanthemums,
paintings by an important predecessor, even when there and lotus flowers, and chickens, cranes, sparrows, and
may have been little similarity to the previous master’s other birds. He also created serial paintings (lianhua) on
work. folk customs and the lives of the poor. In poetry that he
Sampling Tea (fig. 284) depicts a coarse porcelain teapot wrote to accompany these images, Wang Zhen spread the
next to a branch of plum blossoms. The light yet impos¬ Buddhist ideals of doing good and avoiding evil. These
ing brushwork imparts a mood of relaxation and leisure. serial paintings have a distinctive style all their own.

Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century 301

 283. Wu Changshuo, Plum Blossoms, hanging scroll,
ink and color on paper, 1916. Shanghai Museum.

Chen Shizeng (1876-1923), sometimes called Cheng turn some seven years later, he taught in normal schools
Hengke, hailed from Xiushui County, Jiangxi Province. in Nantong and Hunan. In later years he worked as a
His grandfather Chen Baozhen (1831-1900) was a Qing compiler-editor in the Ministry of Education, as an in¬
court official in Hunan Province and a strong supporter structor at the Painting Research Institute of Beijing
of the reform movement. Chen Shizeng’s father, Chen University, and as a professor of the Beijing National
Sanli, was a famous poet during the transitional period Art College. While working in Nantong, Chen Shizeng
between the Qing dynasty and the Republic. His brother,
sought Wu Changshuo’s advice on painting and seal
Chen Yinke, was a well-known historian. Chen Shizeng
carving. He also took as his teachers such painters as
learned to paint and write poetry in his early years. In the
Shen Zhou, Shitao, Kuncan, and Gong Xian and broke
early 1900s, he left China to study in Japan. After his re¬
away from the popular style of rigid adherence to the

302 Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century

284. Wu Changshuo, Sampling Tea, hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, 1916. Shanghai Duoyunxuan Painting Store.

Four Wangs tradition. Chen Shizeng painted landscapes Around the time of the May Fourth Movement, a
(such as Landscape, fig. 285), flowers, and ancient and number of artists and thinkers called for a revolution in
modern people, and he had a fine free sketch style with art. They criticized the tradition of literati painting as
bold strokes. Although he adopted the Western way of “oversimplified and brusque” and “unable to portray the
coloring, his paintings bear no other obvious marks of nature of things in the universe,” and argued that it had
Western influence. Chen Shizeng also excelled in poetry, brought on a “decline” in Chinese painting. In 1921,
calligraphy, and seal carving. Chen Shizeng published his article “The Values of

Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century 303

 Literati Painting,” speaking out in favor of traditional
literati free sketch—style painting. Chen reviewed the
course of development of literati painting from the Six
Dynasties period to the Song and Yuan dynasties, point¬
ing out the relation between literati painting and the phi¬
losophy of Laozi and Zhuangzi. He contended that the
goal of the literati artist was to “break away from the
shackles of the material world and give free expression to
his emotions and feelings,” as well as “to convey his per¬
sonality and thoughts.” Literati artists, contended Chen,
combined painting, poetry, and calligraphy into one art
form to create the distinctive character of their painting.
Chen Shizeng also remarked that “literati painting was
very influential through the Song, Ming, and Qing dynas¬
ties.” This was natural, he wrote, since this kind of paint¬
ing required a mixture of various cultural qualities and
knowledge. The literati painters “do not focus on creat¬
ing the likeness of a form because they are after some¬
thing else when they paint. They are trying to express
their character and ideas. The unlikeness in form actually
reflects a kind of progress in painting.” Although paint¬
ing is nothing of great significance, Chen humbly con¬
cluded, “it requires, first of all, good moral quality;
second, knowledge; third, talent and emotion; and fourth,
skill in art.”1 In this article, Chen Shizeng, instead of op¬
posing the ideas for reform, spoke knowledgeably about
the essential qualities and merits of literati painting.

The Tingnan School and the Movement

to Reform Chinese Painting

At the time of the revolution led by Sun Yat-sen aimed

at ending the Qing dynasty, in Guangdong there emerged
the Lingnan School, which advocated the reform of tra¬
ditional painting. The leaders of this reform movement
were Gao Jianfu, Gao Qifeng, and Chen Shuren.
Gao Jianfu (1879—1951), was born in the town of
Panyu, Guangdong Province. Gao Qifeng (1889-1933)
was Gao Jianfu’s fifth brother. Gao Jianfu was orphaned
as a young boy and began work as an apprentice in a
drugstore. At age fourteen, he studied how to paint birds
and flowers under Ju Lian, a noted local bird-and-flower
painter. At seventeen, he entered the Ge Zhi Institute
(now Lingnan University) in Macao, where he studied
charcoal drawing under a French missionary. He left for
Japan in 1905 to continue his studies and, while there, was
deeply influenced by such Japanese painters as Takeuchi

285. Chen Shizeng, Landscape, hanging scroll, ink and color on

paper, 1915. 13 5.1 X 48.5 cm. China Fine Art Gallery, Beijing.
Seiho (1864—1942). He joined the White Horse Society Although they called for realism, the Gao brothers
and Pacific Painters Society, organizations of Japanese failed to master realistic painting. And although their
artists. On his return to China in 1906, Gao Jianfu took paintings were imbued with a sense of mission and con¬
part in revolutionary activities to overthrow the Qing dy¬ cern for the fate of the country, they underestimated
nasty and was made chairman of the Guangdong branch the complexity of the challenge of reforming artistic tra¬
of the Tongmenghui, United League of China, headed by dition. Even as Gao Jianfu recommended the new, he
Sun Yat-sen. During this period, he disseminated ideas remained fascinated by the old. In his later years, he de¬
for the reform of art with his brother Gao Qifeng and his scribed himself as “having retired to the woods,” which
schoolmate and friend Chen Shuren (1884-1948). The meant that he had withdrawn from worldly concerns.
three young artists published the reformist journals Shi Proud of his painting, Gao Jianfu called it “work of the
shi hua hao (Pictorial of current affairs) and Zhenxiang new literati painter.” In a piece of his writing found after
huahao (Pictorial of naked truth) in Guangdong and then his death, he wrote, “I love both the pen and the sword,
in Shanghai. They also started the Aesthetics Studio to both the old and the new, both traditional and Western
spread new ideas about art and create propaganda for a painting. I often tell myself that life is full of contradic¬
revolution in traditional painting. After the death of Sun tions.” This contradictory psychology and philosophy
Yat-sen in 1925, Gao Jianfu devoted all his time to art. He of life was common to many intellectuals and artists of
founded the Chun Shui (Spring Sleep) Art Institute to en¬ the era.
courage and explore new ways of Chinese painting. Dur¬ Bamboo and Moon (fig. 286), painted by Gao Jianfu in
ing the 1930s, he traveled abroad extensively—to South the mid-1940s, is a long, narrow composition of a thin
Asia, islands in the South Pacific, Europe, and North but sturdy bamboo shooting up against the sky. It is dusk.
America — studying the art of these cultures and orga¬ A full moon rises through the haze, and the withered
nizing exhibitions of Chinese paintings. Gao Jianfu also leaves of the bamboo rustle in the cold wind. The broken
founded Nan Zhong Art College and Guangzhou City brushwork betrays the painter’s melancholy. The back¬
College of Art and taught art at Zhongshan University ground is tinted with very light ink in a traditional tech¬
and the Central University. Among the many students he nique known as “painting by making tints.” Although
trained are such outstanding figures as Li Xiongcai, Fang some painters preferred to tint clouds in their paintings
Rending, Guan Shanyue, Yang Shanshen, and Huang with ink to feature the moon, in Bamboo and Moon, Gao
Dufeng. Jianfu wished to show the sky in the background. His
Like his brother, Gao Qifeng left China in 1907 to method reflects the influence of both Japanese and West¬
study in Japan and, also like Gao Jianfu, was active in the ern painting.
movement to overthrow the Qing dynasty. Gao Qifeng The Gao brothers were skilled painters of horses,
was a talented artist who liked to paint depictions of fierce lions, monkeys, eagles, flowers, and landscape. They also
birds and other animals, which imbued his work with a painted human figures. Most of their paintings were bold,
heroic spirit. Sun Yat-sen praised Gao Qifeng’s work as powerful, and somewhat realistic. Their friend and col¬
“carrying the beauty of the new age and representative of league Chen Shuren also developed an individual style;
the revolution.” Among his many students were such his paintings are imbued with a fresh, pleasant, and tran¬
artists as Huang Shaoqiang and Zhao Shao’ang. quil atmosphere.
From their teacher Ju Lian the Gao brothers learned The art of the two Gaos and Chen was highly influen¬
the technique known as boneless wash. To add color and tial. In 1929, the painter Huang Binhong remarked that
intensity while preserving a natural effect, they liked to they were “brilliant and capable . . . able to speak their
use the methods known as water-spatter and powder- minds and paint whatever they saw.” However, Huang
spatter. In the first method, water is added to a painting also noted that what the three had learned from Japan
that is already colored; conversely, in powder-spattering, was merely “to apply water and ink to paper or silk. They
powder (color) is added to a painting that is already did what they were not familiar with, hence their work,
soaked with water. In addition, both brothers used quick though not weak, tends to be too dull and obscure. De¬
brushstrokes to convey the impression of swift move¬ spite layer after layer of tints, the brushwork looks dry,
ment. Yet Western painting as they understood it was heavy, and uninteresting.”2 In another assessment, the
actually new Japanese painting. The Gao brothers’ mon¬ painter Pan Tianshou wrote in A Study of the Paintings In¬
keys, for example, were similar to those done by the troduced to China from Abroad (1936) that
Japanese painter Hashimoto Kansetsu (1883-1945).

Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century 305

 286. Gaojianfu, thus fail to give full play to the outstanding character¬
Bamboo and Moon, istics of traditional painting in their brushwork and
hanging scroll,
composition.
ink and color on
paper, ca. 1940.
118 X 32 cm. Huang Binhong and Pan Tianshou held similar views on
Private collection. the Lingnan School; they gave credit to the Gaos’ talent
and ability—their creativity—but criticized their un¬
interesting brushwork and unimaginative composition.
With these comments they highlighted the essential dif¬
ference between Chinese and Japanese aesthetic views
and methods of painting.
Meanwhile, other outstanding painters such as Xu Bei-
hong, Fu Baoshi, and Ni Yide gave full credit to the Ling-
nan School. Ni Yide, for instance, described Gao Jianfu’s
painting as “making use of his talent and breaking away
from all that was inherited from the past.” Fu Baoshi
said, “Gao Jianfu’s painting style, fostered in Lingnan,
has developed along the Pearl River to the banks of the
Yangzi River. The movement is neither casual nor insig¬
nificant. It has bearing on the times.” And Xu Beihong
concurred, saying, “Painter Gao Jianfu is broad-minded
and a truly admirable person.”
Traditionalists fiercely attacked the slogans of the
Lingnan School. In Guangzhou in 1923, fourteen painters
formed an organization called the Kui Hai Cooperative
(kui hai is the name of the year of the pig in the Chinese
lunar calendar), which in 1925 became the Society for the
Study of Chinese Painting. The society published several
issues of a publication named Guohua tekan (Special issues
on Chinese painting), sponsored exhibitions, and, in the
name of safeguarding the national character of art and
differentiating the concepts and methods of Chinese and
Western arts, criticized the works of the Lingnan School.
In an article called “Chinese Painting Has Its National
Character, the author, pen-named Nian Zhu, wrote that
the Chinese, Western, and Eastern [ Japanese] paintings
are different national arts and are beautiful each in their
own way. . . . Our country has its own land and nature,
Gao [Jianfu] had a basic training in Chinese painting;
people, national character, and popular customs. The
... he learned from the Japanese, made studies of
deep meaning underneath all these cannot be perceived
Western paintings, and formed a new style, to which
by any superficial literary man.” Nian Zhu condemned
he added what is traditional, thus making his work
those who “subordinated our Chinese to Western cul¬
meaningful. With his talent and skill, he achieved a
ture. They made our national character bow to the na¬
unique style. His style of painting was quite different
tional character of the West. They were spellbound by
from that of the Italian missionary artist Giuseppe
Western idols, and as a consequence, they tried to learn
Castiglione. In recent years, painters like Chen Shuren,
from others but forgot what they themselves already
He Xiangning, and Gao’s brother Gao Qifeng have
knew.”3 Another article, by Huang Banruo, stated, “The
belonged to this school. They like to paint on a kind of
new Chinese painting is but a plagiarizing of Japanese
processed paper or silk, often painting over the back¬
painting. It s not something created by one or two per¬
ground, leaving almost no blank space. It seems they
sons. ... A careful examination would prove that it is

306 Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century

merely a branch of Japanese painting.”4 When Zhao The debate in Guangdong was only part of the overall
Gonghai reviewed the work of the Society for the Study contention between the old and new schools of painting.
of Chinese Painting in 1947, he stated emphatically that In Beijing and Shanghai, important members of the cul¬
Chinese painting is a kind of traditional art. It is differ¬ tural elite took part in an equally sharp and heated dia¬
ent from the hybrid ‘new Chinese painting,’ which is logue. Some painters shifted sides in the debate. After the
copied from Japan and is therefore neither Chinese nor Revolution of 1911, for example, the leading reformer
Western. The aim of the Society is to justify the identity Kang Youwei became a loyalist and began to apply to
of Chinese painting, carry forward its tradition, distin¬ painting his principle of “reviving the old in order to
guish right from wrong, and differentiate between good evolve the new.” He decried the free sketch—style lite¬
and bad . . . and thereby establish an authentic style of rati painting of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties but
Chinese painting.”5 approved of the meticulously detailed academic style
The Gao brothers and their students responded to the that traces back to the Song dynasty. Kang Youwei ad¬
criticism. “Day after day,” wrote the artist Feng Rending, mired the Italian painter Giuseppe Castiglione, praised
“you gendemen curse the new painting. You are as stub¬ Raphael, and propounded the slogan “Integrate Chinese
born as the conservatives and the Northern warlords and Western to Develop a New Era of Painting.” His
who keep cursing the Guomindang. . . . Your doctrine is ideas influenced Xu Beihong and Liu Haisu; both artists
the doctrine of the Yan Luo, the ruler of Hell [hence tor¬ regarded Kang as their philosophical mentor.
turer of the dead]. The artistic heritage of our ancestors, On the reformist side, Chen Duxiu, later a Communist
whether good or bad, you regard as perfectly justified and leader, published an article entitled “On the Revolution
unalterable.”6 of Art” in 1917. In it, he severely criticized the free
Neither side seemed ready to yield to the other. sketch-style painting of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dy¬
However, in a powerful article, Gao Qifeng, one of the nasties, particularly the painting of Wang Hui and his ad¬
founders of the Lingnan School, argued: mirers in Beijing. “The literati painters looked down on
academic painting,” wrote Chen Duxiu. “They favored
I started by learning purely from ancient Chinese
free sketch style but neglected the likeness between a
paintings and worked painstakingly to imitate the
painting and the object being painted.” This perspective
works of the great masters of the Tang and Song dy¬
was initiated by Ni Zan and Huang Gongwang in the
nasties. Later, I found out that despite their merits,
Yuan dynasty. “It was then encouraged by Wen Zheng-
the paintings looked vague or ambiguous if the philos¬
ming and Shen Zhou of the Ming and was carried fur¬
ophy of our ancestors was followed. The more I stud¬
ther by the end of the Qing.” Chen Duxiu stressed that
ied, the more I realized that studying is like sailing
“painters must follow the tenets of realism.” In order
against the current; if you don’t move ahead, you
to achieve this aim, he stated, painters needed to topple
find yourself pushed backward. If we don’t assimilate
such “authentic personages of painting” as Ni Zan,
everything that is good, we’ll lack the strength to de¬
Huang Gongwang, Wen Zhengming, and Shen Zhou.8
velop. ... Therefore, I began to learn to paint from life
Other influential cultural figures who were calling for the
as the Western painters did, and I also studied their
introduction of Western realism as a means of rejuvenat¬
theories on geometry, the use of light and shadow, per¬
ing Chinese painting at this time were Cai Yuanpei, Lu
spective, and close-ups. Meanwhile, making use of my
Xun, and Xu Beihong.
experience, I tried to preserve everything that is artis¬
Painters of the old tradition, sensing the coming
tically good in traditional painting — the brushwork,
“threat,” reacted promptly. In 1918, such renowned Bei¬
the spirit, the ways of using water and ink, the color¬
jing painters as Jin Cheng (1878—1926), Zhou Zhaoxiang,
ing, the use of metaphors, the emotion expressed, the
and Chen Shizeng, with the backing of the warlord politi¬
philosophy, and the poetic meaning. With an open
cian who went by the title General President Xu Shi-
mind I took in all the accessible theories and paint¬
chang, set up the Research Society of Chinese Painting,
ing methods of the world, absorbed the merits of
which proclaimed “the preservation of national tra¬
both Chinese and Western paintings and carefully inte¬
dition” as its central aim. Jin Cheng regularly lectured
grated them. Basing myself on this experience while
young students on Chinese painting. “In painting there is
studying the beauty of nature, the spirit of the uni¬
no difference between the old and the new,” he argued.
verse, and my own feelings, I produce my work of art.7
“Without the old, there isn’t the new. The new evolves
from the old. The old, when evolved, becomes new. In

Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century 307

 sticking to the new, the new becomes old. If you bear in and loafing around like the duckweed floating in the
mind that there exist both the old and the new, you will water and driven by the wind. The sobriquet Sanbai
find it difficult to follow any rules when you paint.” He Shiyin Fuweng meant that he was the owner of three
admonished the young painters, “Don’t be reckless and hundred stone seals and was considered a wealthy person
forgetful; abide by the established rules.”9 both spiritually and morally. With the name Xingziwu
Noted writer and painter Lin Shu expressed the same Laomin, he described himself as an old farmer living in
view. During the May Fourth Movement, Lin Shu per¬ his native village, Xingziwu (Sunken Apricot Flowerbed).
sisted in using classical Chinese, opposing the use of the In middle age, Qi Baishi was still living in a rented house
vernacular and “the revolution of literature.” Slighdy in the mountains, so he gave himself the surname Jieshan-
more broad-minded was Chen Shizeng. In his “Values of weng (Old Man Borrowing the Mountains). In addition
Literati Painting,” Chen wrote positively of the nature to these names, he had a number of other sobriquets that
and merits of literati painting. Although he was not op¬ represented certain episodes in his life, his feelings, or his
posed to using Western painting as a reference, he ob¬ outlook on life.
served that “the main emphasis should be on the painting Unlike many of China’s renowned artists, born into
of one’s own country.” After Jin Cheng’s death in 1926, scholarly or wealthy families, Qi Baishi was the son of a
his son Jin Qianan and a number of his former students poor farmer who lived in a small mountain village in
organized the Hu She (Lake Society), declaring that they Xiangtan County, Hunan Province. His family was so
would persevere according to Jin Cheng’s line of “stricdy poor that after less than a year of education at the village
guarding the path of the ancients and promoting the school where his maternal grandfather taught, Qi Baishi
ideas of the ancients.” And so the Lake Society carried on had to leave to become a cowherd. He later became a car¬
the study and preservation of traditional painting. penter and traveled from village to village, making furni¬
The debate continued intermittently for several de¬ ture. He did not learn to paint until he was twenty-seven.
cades. In addition to art theorists, other painters of the His first paintings were folk pictures of gods, and then he
Western school and people outside art circles took part in began to paint portraits. Later he learned to paint land¬
the wide-ranging and often intense dialogue. More than scapes, birds, flowers, and human figures. Although he
the mere question of painting was involved: at stake was did not leave the Xiangtan area until he was forty, after
nothing less than the character and direction of Chinese that he toured the country six times and studied the
culture in the twentieth century. works of Xu Wei, Bada Shanren, Jin Nong, and other
Ming and Qing artists of the Yangzhou area. After the
collapse of the Qing dynasty, soldier-bandits were be¬
The Middle and Later Periods
coming an increasing problem in the countryside, and so
of the Republic, 1927-1949 in 1918, Qi Baishi took refuge from the bandits in Beijing
and made his permanent home there. In the city he was
By 1927, the war between the Republic, founded by Sun often ridiculed by cultured” people for his rustic ways.
Yat-sen, and the feudal warlords was nearing its end and His unaffected and graceful style of painting, learned in
the first united front of the Guomindang and the Com¬
part from Bada Shanren, was not favored by Beijing art
munists had been broken. A national government was es¬
connoisseurs. Nevertheless, the painter Chen Shizeng
tablished in Nanjing. In the same year, Wu Changshuo
appreciated Qi Baishi’s talent and advised him to de¬
died in Shanghai and Qi Baishi completed what he called
velop his own style of painting rather than imitate the an¬
his “transformation at an advanced age.” Chinese paint¬
cients. Thus encouraged, Qi Baishi began his program of
ing was entering a new stage of development.
“transformation” and withdrew from society. In 1927, af¬
Qi Baishi and the Beijing Painters ter ten years of concentrated effort, he achieved a unique
style. He called his program “carrying out reform at an
Qi Baishi (1864-1957), originally named Qi Huang, advanced age.”
was also known as Baishi Shanren (White Stone Moun¬
Qi Baishi was an intelligent, hard-working man. As a
tain Man) or Baishi (White Stone). Qi Baishi had many
boy, he enjoyed observing nature and drawing everyday
assumed names: when he called himself the “Wood¬
subjects. He had exceptionally sharp eyes and a good
man,” he was referring to the job he once had as a car¬
memory for people and rural life. His talents were en¬
penter; when calling himself “Reposing in Duckweed,”
hanced by his decades of experience as a carpenter-
he was describing himself as being far away from home
craftsman specializing in woodcarving and painting
308 Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century
portraits. He created thousands upon thousands of paint¬ imenting with different shades of ink and adding water to
ings from life, paintings in imitation of the ancients, and the painted surface, Qi Baishi was able to portray the
copies of paintings from memory. During his forty years transparency of water-dwelling animals in a fresh and
in Beijing, he showed no interest in political or social lively manner.
changes and cultural trends. Day after day he sat in his Lotus and Frogs (fig. 288), painted when Qi Baishi was
Chinese-style courtyard house bent over his long drawing ninety-four, is an autumn scene. The green lotus leaves of
table, reciting poems, carving seals, and painting. “In my summer have turned a brownish red, and some of the
three-room abode fenced in by iron spikes,” said Qi seedpods have ripened and seem to be releasing a sweet
Baishi, “I use my brush as busily as someone working aroma. Some lotus blossoms remain, pink and in full
with his farm tools.” bloom. Beneath the flowers, three frogs, two dark and
Qi Baishi’s bird-and-flower paintings became quite one gray, seem to be having a discussion. The little gray
popular. He could draw insects with extremely fine and frog wears a mischievous look and extends its leg back¬
meticulous brushwork, yet he was also accomplished at ward. The autumn sky is clear and splendid, and the frogs
simple, free sketch-style compositions. He successfully are lively and happy.
assimilated the meticulous and the freehand styles and In After the Rain (fig. 289), baby sparrows perch on a
created stunningly beautiful paintings of insects and palm frond. The foliage, created with ample water and
flowers. Most of his landscapes were based on scenes heavy ink, almost camouflages the sky. Although the
in his home village and the tourist sights of Guilin in painting is done in monochrome ink, it expresses a color¬
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Using heavy ink ful emotional world. The inscribed poem reads,
and vigorous strokes, he painted remote mountains dot¬
To choose a peaceful dwelling the flowers and grasses
ted with flowing rivers, riverbanks flanked with willow need to be consulted,
trees, sailboats, country houses, bamboo groves, and If they agree to move their roots to my low walls.
swimming ducks. These images of life in the countryside Everything seems peaceful when observed with a
were much admired. His most common human subjects calm mind.
were such historical or legendary persons as Zhong Kui The lush greenery of palms makes you feel cool and
and Li Tieguai. And his frequent depiction of the simple cozy after a good rain.
and innocent activities of children and rural folk lent
As the artist indicates in the first two lines, when he
many of his works an air of rustic humor.
wished to remove a plant, he asked its permission. In this,
Although he settled in Beijing, Qi Baishi maintained
he personified the palm tree. The last two lines are more
peasant ways of thinking and living. He loathed the so¬
philosophical: because his mind is at peace, he has
phisticated manners of citydwellers and yearned for the
formed a deeper perception of the world. Qi Baishi grew
peaceful and leisurely life of the countryside. In a paint¬
palm trees around his village house, and for this reason
ing created in his early years in Beijing, he expressed his
palms frequently appear in both his paintings and his
feelings of sadness and loss by drawing an oil lamp next
poems. In “Palms in the Rain,” for example, Qi wrote,
to an inkstand and inscribing these words: “Leading a va¬
grant life in the northern land, I sit before an inkstand un¬ Flowers wither as spring departs.

der a lonely light.” A line from his poem “The Kitchen I am still delighted at the green palms above the stairs.

Garden” reads, “Fed up with the experience of worldly Being bald, the old man has no hair to turn gray.

affairs, I love more than ever the savor of fresh vege¬ This doesn’t worry him as he listens to the night

tables.” Qi Baishi also often transcribed his feelings of rainfall.

nostalgia into his paintings. Bamboo, palm trees, ponds, And he wrote in “Inscription on Painting Palms”:
lotus blossoms, fish, shrimp (such as the delightful paint¬
The broken leaves linger outside the window.
ing Shrimp, fig. 287), insects, birds, buffalo, pigs, dogs,
The time is already late autumn.
chickens, ducks, cats, mice, boys collecting firewood, old
Cool rains kept falling last night.
houses in the mountains — these became his favorite
How many people’s hair has turned white?
subjects.
Fish, shrimp, crabs, and frogs were Qi Baishi’s most The sounds of wind and rain, the scenes of spring and au¬

common subjects. As a child, Qi Baishi loved to catch tumn, the constant changes of nature and the recollec¬

fish and shrimp in the local ponds, and painting these tions of life they bring — all these reveal the emotions

creatures brought back many happy memories. By exper¬ and thoughts of the artist.

Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century 309

 In Bodhi Leaves and Insects (fig. 290), Qi Baishi com¬
bined free sketch and meticulous styles of painting. The
bodhi tree (Ficus religiosei), called puti in Chinese, was the
tree under which the historical Buddha Shakyamuni was
believed to have achieved enlightenment. In this paint¬
ing, the setting is autumn, and the bodhi leaves have
turned from green to reddish brown and are beginning
to fall away. The leaves, having lost their moisture, bare
their network of veins — as fine and delicate as carefully
woven silk. Here above the sunny ground, a butterfly
and dragonfly flit by, while a cicada suns itself on a
branch and a grasshopper emerges from below. In an in¬
stant, in a single image, the artist grasps the serenity and
intensity of the autumn season. Although the bodhi leaves

290. Qi Baishi, Bodhi Leaves and Insects, hanging scroll, ink and
color on paper, ca. 1940. 90 X 41.2 cm. Rongbaozhai Studio,
Beijing.

289. Qi Baishi, After the Rain, hanging scroll, ink on paper, 1940.
137 X 61.5 cm. Tianjin Art Museum.

287. Qi Baishi, Shrimp, hanging scroll, ink on paper, 1949.

138 X 41.5 cm. China Fine Art Gallery, Beijing, opposite, left

288. Qi Baishi, Lotus and Frogs, hanging scroll, ink and color on
paper, 1954- Rongbaozhai Studio, Beijing, opposite, right
 and the insects are highly detailed, the tree branches are 291. Qi Baishi, Roly-Poly,

freely sketched in light ink. This pioneering work exem¬ hanging scroll, ink and
color on paper, 1953.
plifies Qi Baishi’s harmonious integration of two oppo¬
116 X 41.5 cm. China
site styles of painting.
Fine Art Gallery,
A roly-poly tumbler is a hollow clay toy painted to re¬ Beijing.
semble a plump child. Inside it is weighted at the bottom,
so that it wobbles when pushed but never tips over.
Many Chinese folk artists shape their tumblers in the im¬
age of clownish mandarins as they appear on stage; in this
way they mock the inefficiency and ineptitude of the bu¬
reaucrats. Making use of this folk tradition, Qi Baishi
painted his Roly-Poly (fig. 291) at age ninety-two. The
clownish magistrate wears his hat askew and holds a fan
in his hand. Dots of white (symbolic of stage clowns in
traditional operas) are painted on his eyelids. The paint¬
ing is inscribed:

He could be a child’s toy, this endearing old man;

When he topples, relax! — he quickly springs back.
The black gauze hat on his head tips over his brow;
Though hollow, he does have rank.

In this context, “hollow” also means heartless or lacking

in human kindness. So here is a creature who lacks hu¬
man feelings but holds a high official post — isn’t that
something to be despised and mocked? In tandem, the
painting and poem form a humorous and stingingly satir¬ to studying the famous paintings collected in the National
ical composition.
Palace Museum in Taibei. His landscapes, such as Pano¬
Qi Baishi devoted his life to praising nature, life, and rama of Lakes and Mountains (fig. 292), have the refined
peace and to awakening the human conscience. In 1955, and elaborate qualities characteristic of Dong Qichang’s
he was honored with the International Peace Award, and Southern School. But they also show the broad, sweep-
in 1962 he was named one of the Ten Cultural Giants of ing power usually found in the works of the Northern
the World.
School. Pu Xinyu incorporated painting with calligraphy
A number of other artists also worked in Beijing in the and poetry in the fashion of many Southern painters,
1930s and 1940s, including Chen Banding (1876-1970), which added a scholarly flavor to his art. He was equally
Hu Peiheng (1891-1962), Pu Xinyu (1896-1963), Qin
skilled in composition and draftsmanship, brush tech¬
Zhongwen (1896-1974), Xiao Sun (1883-1944), Xu Yan-
nique and coloring, as Northern painters usually were. In
sun (1899-1961), and Yu Fei’an (1889-1959). Of this
his later years, Pu Xinyu exercised a strong influence over
group, Pu Xinyu, also known as Pu Ru, is recognized to¬ painters in Taiwan.
day as the most accomplished artist. He was born in Bei¬
A Shandong native, Yu Fei’an became a well-known
jing into the family of a Manchu prince of the Qing
reporter in north China during the Republican period.
dynasty. As a young man he studied law, politics, and the
After 1949, he became a leader in the Chinese Painting
history of Western literature. Later he lived a secluded life
Academy and Chinese Painting Research Society. Peonies
in the Jietai Temple in the hills west of Beijing, where he
(fig. 293) reveals his characteristic treatment of bird-and-
studied calligraphy, painting, ancient classics, and history.
flower subjects in the highly refined, meticulously detailed
During the 1930s and 1940s, his fame was on a par with
Song-dynasty style. The luminous red and yellow blos¬
that of Zhang Daqian. When people spoke of accom¬
soms, silvery gray and green leaves, and carefully de¬
plished painters, they often referred to “Zhang in the
picted stalks are represented in fluid and refined outlines
south and Pu in the north.” After 1949, Pu Xinyu moved
with brilliant, colorful inkwashes. Yu Fei’an occasionally
to Taiwan, where he taught in the art department of the
painted landscapes and was also remembered for his fresh,
Tatbei Teachers University and devoted much of his time
simple depictions of orchids, bamboo, and narcissus.

312 Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century

 The Jiangnan area artists formed painting societies,
published journals, organized exhibitions, and were ac¬
tive in many other ways. Gathered in Shanghai were
painters of every kind —Western-style artists, painters
who advocated the merging of Western and Chinese
styles of painting, and artists who excelled in the tradi¬
tional style. Groups of painters of different styles were
also active in Nanjing and Hangzhou, cities long noted
for their culture and sites of renowned schools of higher
learning — the National Central University in Nanjing
and the College of Art in Hangzhou. It was in this flour¬
ishing art scene that such celebrated painters as Huang
Binhong, Pan Tianshou, and Fu Baoshi made their debut.
Huang Binhong (1865—195 5) named himself Binhong
in memory of Binhong Pavilion in his birthplace, the
village of Tandu (formerly Huizhou) in Shexian County,
Anhui Province, which was once a scenic and thriving
town. The area produced many famous painters during
the Ming and Qing dynasties, and Huang Binhong him¬
self was born into a family of scholars and painters. His
father, however, was a businessman who hoped his son
would pass the rigorous civil service entrance examina¬
tions and become a successful official. Accordingly, he
arranged for Huang Binhong to study the Classics, poetry,
and literature and found ways for him to learn to paint
and carve seals. In spite of this preparation, Huang Bin¬
hong failed the county-level examinations, so he began to
concentrate on epigraphy, calligraphy, and painting. In
1895, he wrote to the reform leaders Kang Youwei and
292. Pu Xinyu, Panorama of Lakes and Mountains, hanging scroll,
Liang Qichao expressing support for their ideas. He also
ink and color on paper. 107 X 47 cm. Gongwangfu, Beijing.
befriended Tan Sitong, another leading reformer.
In 1907, Huang Binhong was accused of being a revo¬
lutionary for participating in anti-Qing activities aimed at
Huang Binhong and the Painters
reviving the Ming dynasty. Forced to leave Tandu for
South of the Yanggi River Shanghai, he joined the Nanshe Society, an anti-Qing lit¬
Shanghai was the center of the Jiangnan painting erary organization, and the Society for the Preservation
movements, including artists in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and of National Culture. During the next three decades, he
Anhui. It was not until the 1930s and 1940s that the became an editor of Guocui xuehao (Journal of the quin¬
Jiangnan area unshackled itself from the Four Wangs, tessence of national culture), directed the art department
Wu Li, and Yun Shouping. Jiangnan painters studied out¬ of the Commercial Press, taught as an art professor at
standing artists of the Song and Yuan dynasties and be¬ Jinan University, Xinhua Art School, and the Beijing
gan to explore a new way of painting from nature. A National Art College, and in 1937 worked as a member
number of artists began to examine the Four Great Monk of the Appraisal Committee of Cultural Relics in the
Painters of the later Ming and early Qing dynasties, the Imperial Palace. Among his friends were Zhang Taiyan,
Yangzhou school of art during the reign of the Qianlong Huang Xing, Liu Shipei, Chen Duxiu, and other scholar-

emperor, the seal makers and painters famous during the revolutionaries.
reigns of the Jiaqing and Daoguang emperors of the During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Ag¬

Qing, and the Shanghai painters active in the years be¬ gression, Huang lived in Beijing and devoted himself to

tween the fall of the Qing dynasty and the founding of the writing and painting. He moved to Hangzhou in 1948
and became a professor of art at Hangzhou National
Republic.

Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century 313

[S55S5T331
Art College and the Art Institute of Zhejiang. He also cernible. The image is worked in heavy black ink with
worked as the director of the Chinese Painting Research rhythmic, unrestrained strokes. Huang Binhong first
Institute and the National Academy of Art. As he was dy¬ sketched in dots with light ink and then joined these dots
ing in 1955, he recited a line from his poetry: “Who is with very heavy ink to create mountains, rivers, and trees
pressing me so hard? It’s still midnight before the cock in forceful, undulating lines. His brushwork is so power¬
crows. During his lifetime, Huang Binhong wrote pro¬ ful and sweeping that it suggests the strength of the au¬
fusely. A Study of Ancient Painting is one of dozens of his tumn wind blowing away fallen leaves. Although the
published works. painting was inspired by the poet and calligrapher He
Huang Binhong was a dedicated landscape painter. Shaoji, it is an entirely original piece.
Through his fifties, he sought to learn from the works A Scene in Xiling (fig. 295), also painted when Huang
of ancient artists. In his sixties, he traveled extensively was eighty-nine, is inscribed: “People in ancient days re¬
throughout the country to see the great mountains and sorted to cao [cursive] and li [official] script calligraphy in
rivers of the Chinese landscape. Only after he was sev¬ painting. The trees under their brush were like bent iron,
enty did his unique style take shape. Instead of following while mountains were like lofty cones of smooth sand.”
the simple and bland manner of painting based on such In this painting, Huang Binhong used heavy ink but a
earlier artists as Hongren, Zha Shibiao, and Yun Dao- dry brush to paint the trees so that they look aged and
sheng (Yun Xiang, 15 86—165 5), Huang Binhong modeled sturdy. He manipulated strokes to paint the mountains so
his art on landscapes done during the Northern Song dy¬ they appear veiled and hazy. The “Xiling” of the tide
nasty. Later, in his eighties, he changed to painting with refers to the Xiling Seal Society on Gushan (Solitary Hill),
dark ink and heavy brushstrokes. Works painted in this
period became known as “dark Binhongs,” whereas his
294. Huang Binhong, Landscape in the Spirit of He Shaoji,
earlier works were called “white Binhongs.” hanging scroll, ink on paper, 1952. 93 X 45 cm. Zhejiang
Of all twentieth-century artists, Huang Binhong out¬ Provincial Museum.

shone others in his remarkable skill and strategic use of

brush and ink. He had a profound understanding of the
inner relation of these constantly changing factors and
the effects brush and ink produced, and he devoted his
life to studying their manipulation. To achieve the ef¬
fects he sought, he recommended the use of calligraphic
skill in brushwork, making flowing and steady strokes
that appeared both reserved and vigorous, delicate and
steady. The use of ink, he said, should be “vivid and not
cumbersome.”
In his eighties, Huang Binhong painted by applying
layer upon layer of ink, sometimes a dozen or even sev¬
eral dozen layers, attempting to create images of “mag¬
nificent mountains and rivers and luxuriant woods and
plants.” His strokes were free and bold but never impru¬
dent or rugged, elaborate but never feeble or weak. He
had successfully overcome the two major drawbacks of
contemporary landscape paintings, which were either too
tender or too coarse. In Landscape in the Spirit of Pie Shaoji
(fig. 294), painted when he was eighty-nine and almost
blind with cataracts, Huang Binhong relied on his skill,
rich experience, and “internal sight.” The scenery is a
blur; the trees, rocks, and background are barely dis-

293. Yu Fei’an, Peonies, hanging scroll, ink and color on paper.

128.5 X 79 cm. China Fine Art Museum, Beijing, opposite

Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century 315

 a small island connected to the shore of West Lake in art but avoided the important role of brushwork. It was
Hangzhou by a small bridge. Anyone who knows Gushan precisely Huang Binhong’s conservative but penetrating
would not identify the scene as Xiling. What Huang study that accelerated the modernization of traditional
painted was actually a majestic view he saw with his mind’s painting.
eye. Behind the brushstrokes was hidden Huang’s under¬ Other painters active in Shanghai and the southern
standing of nature and the cosmos. He once remarked provinces at this time included Feng Chaoran (1882 —
that “absolute likeness plus absolute unlikeness make a 1954), Feng Zikai (1898—1975), He Tianjian (1890 —
really good painting.” By “absolute likeness” he meant 1977), Liu Haisu (1896—1994), Lii Fengzi (1886—1959),
something internal, the conformity of mind and objec¬ Pan Tianshou (1898—1971), Wu Hufan (1894—1967), and
tive world. “Absolute unlikeness” is a kind of outward
and physical likeness entirely different from the likeness
advocated by realistic painters. This theory is similar in
certain aspects to that of Wassily Kandinsky, who main¬
tained that the essence of art lies not in its physical form
but in its rhythmic composition. Kandinsky stressed ab¬
stract composition as the condensation of spirit, whereas
Huang Binhong stressed the abstract nature of the brush-
work and the “internal beauty” it created. To many Chi¬
nese, Huang Binhong’s paintings seemed rather too aloof
and high-brow, and he was not appreciated in his time. In
a letter to a friend he once wrote, “Treading along all by
myself, I have felt lonely for so long.”10
Huang Binhong held unorthodox opinions on Ming
and Qing paintings. He admired the literati paintings of
the Northern Song and Yuan dynasties. Painters like Wu
Wei were “heretical,” and the “corrections” made by the
“four painters of the Wu School” on the weakness of the
Zhe School were “insufficient.” Works by such artists as
Dong Qichang, Huang Gongwang, Ni Zan, Zou Zhilin,
Yun Daosheng, Chengjiasui, and the artists from Xin’an
of the Anhui School of the late Ming were outstanding,
but the painters of the early Qing, such as Wang Shimin,
Wang Jian, and Wang Hui, were too “soft and fragile,”
and the Eight Masters of Jinling and Eight Eccentrics of
Yangzhou tended to be too “coarse.” “It was not until
the reigns of the Daoguang and Xianfeng emperors,”
wrote Huang Binhong, “that epigraphy flourished and
the study of paintings revived.”11 Thus Huang avoided
both the orthodox praise of the Four Wangs and the new
practice of criticizing the Four Wangs and praising Shi-
tao, Bada Shanren, and the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou.
Huang Binhong was the first Chinese artist to make an
overall study of brushwork — in theory as well as in prac¬
tice. He placed into five categories the various ways of
using both the brush—“flat, reserved, round, heavy, and
varied”—and ink—“heavy, light, splash, deposit, and
roasted.” He had no desire to counter the “aggression” of
foreign art as Jin Cheng and other traditionalist painters
understood it. Nor was he like the painters of the new
29 5. Huang Binhong, A Scene in Xiling, hanging scroll, ink and
school, who called for a merger of Chinese and Western
color on paper, 1954. 67 X 34 cm. Zhejiang Provincial Museum.

316 Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century

Zhang Daqian (1899-1983). Of these painters Liu Haisu paint in a realistic manner. On their return to China,
and Wu Hufan are particularly noteworthy. Wu Hufan many of these artists became educators, teaching sketch¬
was a skilled calligrapher, poet, and seal carver in addi¬ ing, perspective, and watercolor. Xu Beihong was the
tion to being a respected painter who followed Dong Qi- most influential of this group.
chongs theories in following Song and Yuan masters. Xu Beihong (1895—1953) was born into a painter’s
Five Old Mountains in the Southeast (fig. 296) represents the family in Yixing, Jiangsu Province. His father did sketches
blue-and-green style of landscape he was particularly locally. At nine, Xu began to copy human figures painted
known for. The heavy jewel-like mineral blues and greens by Wu Jiayou, an artist of the late Qing dynasty. He also
on the sheer cliffs and hills in the middle ground form a copied realistic Western-style animals that were printed
strong contrast with the misty gray mountain peaks in the on cigarette packs produced at foreign-run factories in
background. They further highlight the plunging water¬ Shanghai, laying the foundation for his love of realistic
fall and cascading river while evoking the exuberance of art. In 1915, at age twenty, Xu Beihong left his home for
nature on a spring day. Shanghai to look for a job and to learn painting. Kang
Liu Haisu, from Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, learned Youwei became his mentor. Xu admired Kang’s recom¬
Western painting in Shanghai at age fourteen and two mendation of Song-dynasty paintings as models and his
years later, with several friends, founded and became ideas for “an integration of Chinese and Western art to
principal of the privately run Shanghai Art School. He create a new era of painting.”13
enrolled a number of young talents and taught them both In May 1917, with financial help from a friend, Xu left
Chinese and Western painting. During the 1920s, he was for Japan to study Western painting. On his return, he be¬
on the wanted list of the warlord Sun Chuanfang for the came an instructor at the Society for the Study of Paint¬
crime of offering a class on the human body. Though ing Technique in Beijing University on Kang Youwei’s
conservatives cursed him as “a traitor of art,” he per¬ recommendation. At the same time, he came to the at¬
sisted and won support from Cai Yuanpei, Chen Duxiu, tention of the minister of education, Fu Zengxiang. In
and other influential cultural leaders. During the 1920s, 1919, the government sponsored his travel to France to
Liu Haisu made two trips to Japan and Europe to investi¬ study art. He enrolled in the Fleming Studio of Art in
gate their artistic traditions. He also organized overseas Paris and a year later became a student of Pascal Dagnan-
exhibitions of Chinese art. The raw colors and unre¬ Bouveret, a French academic painter. Although his lack
strained strokes of his oil painting show the influence of of funds was a constant hardship, Xu Beihong studied
the Fauves. His Chinese painting, while absorbing the diligently, drawing almost a thousand sketches. He fo¬
merits of Shitao, Shen Zhou, Pu Hua, and Wu Chang- cused especially on the classic realist tradition of the
shuo, boldly introduced sharp colors in broad strokes to West; on a study tour to Germany, for example, he did
monochrome works of art. As he later wrote, “In broad some paintings after Rembrandt.
strokes, loud red and tragic green, these striking colors In 1927, Xu Beihong returned to China, where he
soon were being used in all parts of the country following taught at the Nan Guo Art College, acted as director of
the growth of the art school. This greatly frightened the art department of the Central University, and contin¬
those who tried to restore the old order.”12 ued to develop his interest in realistic painting. After the
In his later years, Liu Haisu created many paintings of outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Ag¬
Mount Huang (fig. 297). He executed these works in dots, gression, he traveled throughout Southeast Asia, organiz¬
hooks, chops, and splashes of color. His lines — mineral ing fund-raising exhibitions and donating the proceeds to
blue and green, brilliant red — are strong and terse. The the resistance movement. In 1946, he became president
sharply contrasting colors highlight the powerful and of the Beijing National Art College, and in 1949, he was
sturdy character of his work. However, Liu Haisu’s paint¬ named president of the Central Institute of Fine Arts and
ing is often criticized for its lack of creativity in spiritual chairman of the Association of Chinese Art Workers.

expression. Xu believed that Ming and Qing painting declined be¬

cause artists neglected realism, just as modern Western
art deteriorated when it rejected the classical tradition.
Xu Beihong and His School of Art Xu admired masters of realistic art in both the East and

Influenced by the thinkers active at the turn of the the West and criticized those who strayed from realism,

century and those of the May Fourth Movement, many such as Dong Qichang and the Four Wangs, Paul

Chinese students of art who traveled to Europe chose to Cezanne and Henri Matisse. He called the Four Wangs

Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century 317

296. Wu Hufan, Five
Old Mountains in the
Southeast, hanging
scroll, ink and color
on paper, 1958.
125.8 X 64.1 cm.
China Fine Art
Museum, Beijing.
297• Liu Haisu, Mount
Huang, hanging scroll,
ink and color on paper,
1954. 135 X 65.6 cm.
China Fine Art Museum,
Beijing.
 “copyists” and regarded their paintings and those of emperor’s call but committed suicide on his way to the
Dong Qichang as cliches.14 capital. On hearing the sad news, his five hundred war¬
In his own painting, Xu Beihong successfully inte¬ riors killed themselves. In the picture, Tian Heng stands
grated line drawing and the use of light and shadow to at the right and bids farewell to his followers. He wears a
portray human bodies precisely and simply. He devel¬ red robe and carries a long sword; he appears bold and
oped a method for painting human figures, animals, birds determined to face death. In the crowd, some sigh and
and flowers, and landscapes using traditional brush and grieve, while others hold their swords resolutely and roll
ink while simultaneously exploring ways for realistic up their sleeves to fight. Still others stretch out their
painting in colors and ink. His integration of Chinese and arms, begging their leader not to go. Two women and a
Western styles greatiy influenced the Chinese art world of child crouch on the ground to the right. Clearly they are
the 1940s. Major works by Xu Beihong during this period Tian Heng’s family.
include such oil paintings as Tian Heng and His Five Hun¬ At a bright spot in the picture stands a fair-skinned,
dred Followers (see fig. 298) and Xi Wo Hou, along with serene-looking young man — the artist himself, dressed
such traditional paintings as The Foolish Old Man Who
in ancient costume. Why did Xu Beihong place himself in
Removed the Mountains (see fig. 299), Jiujang Gao, Sichuan
the picture? The act brings to mind the French artist Eu¬
Folks Drawing Waterfrom the River, and Galloping Horse (see
gene Delacroix, who placed himself in his July 28, 1830:
fig. 300).
Liberty Leading the People. But Delacroix painted an inci¬
Tian Heng and His Five Hundred Followers (fig. 298),
dent in which he took part, whereas Xu Beihong portrays
painted in 1930, is based on a tale from the Shiji (Histori¬
an incident that took place two thousand years before he
cal records), a classic work of the Han dynasty. The story
was born. By placing himself in the scene, Xu was proba¬
tells of a prince of the state of Qi named Tian Heng who
bly expressing his admiration of the heroism of old. More
fled to an island during the war between the Han and the
than once Xu remarked that he respected the Confucian
Qin. Emperor Gaozu of Han (Liu Bang) won the war
saying One must not be corrupted by wealth, must not
and called on Tian Heng to surrender, promising him a
yield integrity when poor, must not be subdued by force
fiefdom if he did so and threatening to send troops to
and might. He called this “the spirit of a real man,” and
conquer the island if he refused. Tian Heng answered the
Tian Heng and His Five Hundred Followers is an indirect but

320 Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century

forceful expression of that spirit.15 Few artists in China at In teaching his students, Xu Beihong emphasized
this time could present such a grand view with so many sketching technique. He also insisted that his pupils learn
characters in an oil painting.
to use Chinese materials and follow traditional Chinese
The Foolish Old Man lFho Removed the Mountains styles but that they produce “precise” images. Among his
(fig. 299), of 1940, tells a story from the classic work Liegi many students and followers were those who are now
about Beishan Yugong, the Foolish Old Man of the called the School of Xu Beihong: Ai Zhongxin, Li Hu,
Northern Mountains, who decided to remove the two Liu Boshu, Lii Sibai, Jiang Zhaohe, Sun Duoci, and Wu
mountains in front of his house. His determination was Zuoren. These painters have faithfully carried out Xu
ridiculed as folly by another old man. But Beishan Yu¬ Beihong’s ideas on education and painting and have de¬
gong said, “If my sons and grandsons continue to dig at veloped his ideas in various ways. Wu Zuoren (b. 1908)
the mountains, they will certainly be removed.” When is known for his images of desert creatures, goldfish,
God learned of Beishan Yugong’s determination, he was and pandas, and spent years wandering from Tibet to
so touched that he ordered the mountains moved. Xu the Gobi Desert of northwest China. Camel Herding
Beihong used this story as a metaphor to laud the (fig. 301) reveals the originality of the desert subjects in¬
courage of the Chinese in resisting Japanese aggression. spired by Wu’s journeys. Close observation of nature and
In the painting, Beishan Yugong is depicted as a thin old skillful blotting of ink on absorbent paper here imbue
man with snow-white hair and beard, leaning on a hoe traditional painting techniques with new life.
and talking to his daughter-in-law. His sons and grand¬ Jiang Zhaohe (1904—1986), who is regarded as the
sons occupy the most prominent section of this long, most remarkable painter of this school, hailed from
horizontal composition. Gigantic and naked, they raise Luzhou, Sichuan Province. At sixteen, he went to Shang¬
high their iron rakes and dig hard to move the mountains. hai, where he made a living by painting portraits and cre¬
By using naked bodies to depict characters in an ancient ating art for commercial advertising. In his free time he
Chinese legend, Xu Beihong boldly attempts to draw on sketched and sculpted. He met Xu Beihong in 1927 and
the Western artistic tradition. He painted this picture in became greatly influenced by his painting style and views
India during the war, and many of his Indian art students on art. After 1930, he traveled to Nanjing, Beijing, and
acted as his models, which explains the non-Chinese fea¬ Chongqing to teach art and create ink-and-wash paint¬
tures of some of the characters in the painting. Xu did ings. In 1940, Xu Beihong asked him to teach at the
create the painting in the traditional manner, however, Beijing National Art College, and later he became a pro¬
first drawing the outlines and then filling them in with ink fessor at the Central Institute of Fine Arts, a position he
and color. He highlights the diggers’ stature through his held until his death.
skillful use of light and shadow. With his convincing in¬ Jiang specialized in painting human figures; his model¬
tegration of Chinese monochrome ink technique with ing shows the strong influence of Xu Beihong. He was
freehand sketching, Xu Beihong was a leader in reform¬ also remarkable for his integration of line drawing and
ing traditional Chinese painting. strong composition with the light-and-shadow technique
Xu Beihong’s monochrome ink portraits, his fine commonly used in sketching, but he never worked under
horses and gallant lions, and his cats and sparrows were the constraint of the stylized rules strictly observed in
highly regarded in his lifetime. The inscription to Gallop¬ literati painting. Jiang Zhaohe’s monochrome ink figures
ing Horse (fig. 300), painted in 1941 in Singapore, reads: seem even bolder, freer, and more straightforward than
“The second battle was fought in Changsha on August Xu Beihong’s. And unlike Xu Beihong, who favored de¬
10 of the year Xinsi; my heart was burning with anxiety. pictions of historic and legendary heroes, Jiang Zhaohe
Probably the outcome of this battle would be the same as preferred to paint contemporary people of society’s low¬
the previous one. I am hopeful. — Beihong, during a visit est strata — the homeless, the ricksha-pullers, peddlers,
to Singapore.” In Singapore, he organized art exhibitions and blind beggars, the laborers and farmers forced to sell
and collected funds for his country, and his pictures make their children in order to survive. He once remarked, “It’s
his deep patriotic feelings plain. In Galloping Horse, he only through realistic art that we can expose the miser¬
compares the heroic spirit of China’s soldiers with quali¬ able fate and aching hearts of the laboring poor.” Jiang
ties of the horse. His precise depiction of the animal’s knew the life of poverty firsthand: as a boy he had lost his
physique, its hooves soaring high, is very true to life and own parents and had experienced years of hardship and
is representative of Xu Beihong’s horses. He painted this deprivation.
picture in one step, using ink splashed with ample water. Representative of Jiang Zhaohe’s painting is the long

Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century 321

 299. Xu Beihong, The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains, handscroll, ink and color on paper, 1940. 144 X 421 cm. Xu Beihong
Memorial Museum.

scroll Refugees (fig. 302), painted in 1943. The subject is greater attention to the elegance of his brushwork and
the life of Chinese refugees during the War of Resistance line drawing. But to Jiang Zhaohe, elegant brushwork
Against Japanese Aggression. To create this tableau, Jiang and lines were less important than how true to life and
made trips to Shanghai and Nanjing and hired refugees expressive a picture was. If Xu Beihong’s realistic art was
and wanderers of various types and ages to pose for him. tinted with the color of idealism, Jiang Zhaohe’s realism
Not all of these wanderers were originally from the labor¬ was deeply rooted in the reality of his time.
ing classes; some had belonged to the middle classes and
some were once scholars. Friends and students also acted
as his models. More than a hundred characters — peas¬ The Early Years of the People’s
ants, workers, the educated — appear in this scroll: old Republic of China, 1950s—1970s
men lie dying in the street, sick and starving children are
everywhere, and panicked women seek shelter from the A new era in China’s history began in 1949 with the for¬
bombing; the aged cover their ears to avoid the noise of
mation of the People’s Republic of China under the
airplanes, a university professor prepares to hang himself,
Communist leadership oi Mho Zedong. Because the
and bodies of the dead are all around. Refugees, so true to
West imposed a blockade on the new republic, however,
life and lacking any trace of idealism or stylization, stands
Chinese culture and art remained in relative isolation, its
today as a rare accomplishment in the history of Chinese only window open to the Soviet Union and Eastern Eu¬
painting.
rope. In the realm of art, Yan an’s revolutionary traditions
Jiang Zhaohe’s human forms were more substantial
(the political and organizational leadership of the Chinese
and unconstrained than those of Xu Beihong, who paid
Communist Party and the promotion of popular art

322 Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century

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forms), socialist realism from the Soviet Union, and the new art forms, or criticized irrational practices encoun¬
realism of the School of Xu Beihong blended to become tered repression and restriction. And in the late 1960s
the new mainstream. Free trade in art markets disap¬ into the 1970s, as nihilism swept across the country like
peared rapidly, private art schools and nongovernmental a plague during the Cultural Revolution, all artistic en¬
journals were closed, and artists were placed under gov¬ deavors, except those of a political propagandistic nature,
ernment sponsorship as civil servants. Following the suffered. Large numbers of veteran painters were perse¬
government’s stated principles of “serving the workers, cuted. Chinese culture generally and painting in particular
peasants, and soldiers,” “serving politics,” and “making suffered an unparalleled blow.
the past serve the present and foreign things serve
China,” painters traveled regularly to rural areas, facto¬
The Color-and-Ink Painting of Tin Fengmian
ries, and army camps to witness and share in the lives of
workers, peasants, and soldiers and to undergo ideologi¬ Lin Fengmian (1900—1991), a native of Meixian,
cal remolding. At the same time, there was a dramatic in¬ Guangdong Province, is one of twentieth-century China’s
crease in the number of art schools and colleges as well as most important artists. His grandfather was a stone-
art courses in teachers’ universities. Established painters carver, his father a local painter. Lin learned both trades
were reaching their artistic maturity and a number of during his childhood and in 1919 traveled to France for
young painters were emerging. Art forms, techniques, six years to study and work at Dijon Art College and the
and subject matter that enjoyed popular approval and Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In
were suitable for positive propaganda and education France, Lin studied European painting, especially works
gained authoritative recognition. Yet works that ex¬ by Matisse, Picasso, Georges Rouault, and Amedeo
pressed personal psychological experiences, explored Modigliani. In 1923, he traveled widely in Germany.

Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century 323

 birds, either perched on tree branches or flying over
water in autumn, mandarin ducks and cranes (see
fig. 304) among the reeds, and even owls, still regarded by
many Chinese as ill omens, in the morning, at sunset, or
in hazy moonlight.
Many of Lin’s paintings were closely associated with
his feelings of loneliness and isolation. In Still-Life
(fig. 303), Lin reflects his familiarity with Impressionist
painting techniques. Seeking to synthesize the spirit and
expression of both Western and traditional Chinese
painting, he uses heavy ink and colored washes on Chi¬
nese paper while representing a Western subject. He of¬
ten favored the use of gouache and watercolors in his
highly distinctive, personal visions. From the outset of
his career, he alienated himself from art circles “to culti¬
vate the land alone,” as the painter Wu Guanzhong said.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggres¬
sion, Lin Fengmian lived in a farmhouse in Chongqing.
After a brief stint as a teacher at the Hangzhou National
Art College, he retired from teaching and moved to
Shanghai. He was isolated, pressured, and officially criti¬
cized. In 1955, his French wife and his daughter left
China. Fearing persecution, Lin destroyed many of his
experimental works, yet even so, he was imprisoned for
more than four years during the Cultural Revolution. In
r977> after the fall of the Gang of Four, Lin was permit¬
ted to visit his family abroad, and in 1979, he setded in
3oo. Xu Beihong, Galloping Horse, hanging scroll, ink on paper, Hong Kong, where he lived out his life.
1941 • 13° X 76 cm. Xu Beihong Memorial Museum.
The long years of hardship and the feelings they
engendered found aesthetic expression in Lin’s land¬
Lin Fengmian began to experiment: with ink-and-color scape paintings. His style of “poetic loneliness” is unique
painting in the 1930s. He painted landscapes, still-lifes, in twentieth-century Chinese painting. Unlike Western
birds and flowers, female figures, and characters from painters, he did not paint landscapes directly from nature;
traditional operas. His work never focused on issues of rather, he created his landscapes in the traditional Chi¬
social reality or politics. In his painting Lin sought to
nese manner, according to memory and imagination. Yet
depict a serene yet forceful beauty with a specific form
Lin’s perspective and composition, as well as his methods
and charm. He enjoyed working with still-lifes on canvas,
of applying ink and using the brush, differ from tra¬
and he painted many compositions of potted flowers, cut
ditional Chinese landscape styles and more closely re¬
flowers in vases, fruits, and glassware in his studio, experi¬
semble those of Western painters. He discarded the long,
menting with the shapes and colors in different light¬
horizontal handscroll form for various types of composi¬
ing. He tried to integrate the Impressionists’ technique
tion and took color as his basic language for depicting
of working with outdoor lighting with ink-and-wash and
light and shadow and dealing with focus and perspective.
to blend Western principles of composition with figure
Lin painted lakes, farms, and narrow paths in the
sketches using Chinese color-and-ink. In style and color,
woods. A favorite subject was the area of West Lake in
his paintings look more like Western still-lifes and thus
Hangzhou, where he lived and worked at two points in
somewhat different from Chinese bird-and-flower paint¬
his career. Yet only after being away from West Lake for
ings. As a result of his ink colors and rhythmic and grace¬
fifty years was he prompted to paint the area. The lemon-
ful use of the Chinese brush, however, his paintings look
colored weeping willows, clear, bright lake, empty small
more like traditional Chinese works.
boats, and tile-roofed houses peeping from behind
Other favorite subjects of Lin Fengmian were little
patches of verdant green, the blue mountains in the dis-

3 24 Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century

301. Wu Zuoren, Camel Herding, handscroll, ink on paper, 1977. 68.5 X 92.5 cm. Private collection,

tance vying with the tender flowers and beautiful round brushstrokes. Against a background of monochrome ink-
leaves of the lotus — these charming images of West wash and line drawing, he deftly blended outdoor light
Lake came from the painter’s reminiscences. Lin Feng- with strong emotion, furnishing his painting with gor¬
mian painted women in ancient costume, in modern geous colors set in forceful motion. The resulting rhythm
fashion, or in the nude, depicting them in soft, flowing of clear yet changeable light and intense sentiment be¬
curves and pure colors. His women are distinctive and came known as the “Lin Fengmian style.”
have a visionary beauty that combines the loveliness of Egrets (fig. 304) was painted in 1974. Lin Fengmian
East and West, of reality and idealism, of discreet charm took a special liking to the egret and created a set of tech¬
and sensuality. niques to paint the bird. This painting depicts two egrets:
What was outstanding in Lin’s art was the way he cre¬ one looks for food, while the other prepares to take flight
ated a new kind of structure and style, one that differed into the cloudy sky above. A backdrop of vast stretches
from both traditional Chinese art and the Western tradi¬ of reeds forms a striking contrast to the radiant snow-
tion. Absorbing traditional Chinese art, he nevertheless white birds with their black-tipped wings and black legs.
circumvented the basic patterns of the Yuan, Ming, and With a few graceful yet forceful strokes of gray, Lin accu¬
Qing dynasties. While going back to the bird-and-rock rately renders the outlines of the egrets while expressing
paintings of the Han dynasty as well as to the porcelain their vitality. Such brushstrokes, without modulation or
drawings of the Song and Yuan, he integrated Matisse, pause, reflect the smooth quality and style of the painting
Picasso, and Rouault and the distortion and simplifica¬ and porcelain drawing of the Han dynasty. This style dif¬
tion of Chinese papercuts and shadow puppetry into a fers greatly from the methods of Ming and Qing literati;
new technique marked with rich colors and bold, rapid they stressed an inner restraint, and “one pressing-down

302. Jiang Zhaohe, Refugees, handscroll, ink on paper, 1943. 200 X 2700 cm. Private collection, overleaf
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 303. Lin Fengmian, Still-Life,
handscroll, ink and color on
paper. Shanghai Art Institute.

and three changes of the direction of the brush” (effect¬ sion of ideas over the skill with brush and ink demanded
ing delicacy and gracefulness) in drawing lines. Lin’s way by conventional bird-and-flower painting. And he paid
of painting endowed his works witli lucidity, vividness, more attention to structure and individuality in modeling.
and vigor. In Egrets, the special quality of monochrome
This technique was new to bird-and-flower paintings.
ink was also given full play in depicting the cloudy sky,
In a late work, Wu Song, the Opera Figure (fig. 306), Lin
grasses, and reeds. The result is a watery effect in which
Fengmian portrayed a heroic character from the famous
dry and wet intermingle, and light and heavy touches of
old Chinese novel Outlaws of the Marsh. Wu Song had
the brush in light blue and reddish brown display the
many daring exploits, including punching a fierce man-
soaked quality of the inkwash.
eating tiger to death. In this scene, Wu Song kills his
Spring (fig. 305) was painted as a gift for the poet Ai
adulterous sister-in-law and her lover. They have mur¬
Qing in 1977. Ai Qing had been a student of Lin’s at
dered her husband, and Wu Song must avenge his older
the Hangzhou National Art College and had maintained
brother’s death. To represent dramatic characters of eter¬
good relations with Lin over the decades. Both men had
nal value, Lin here experiments with the Cubist technique
been persecuted during the Cultural Revolution and were
of dissecting a form into many planes, and he integrates
grateful to have survived. This painting depicts a bird,
these geometric shapes with models based on Chinese
perhaps a mynah, perching on a slanting branch with soft
papercuts and shadow puppets. This style of character
and delicate greenish blossoms. The leaves have not yet
painting, however, lacks a mature painting vocabulary,
emerged. Here is a plum tree blooming in the cold spring,
nor are the abstract geometric forms in harmony with
sparkling with joy and hope by means of the master
Chinese folk art models.
painter’s brush. In these works he emphasized the expres¬

328 Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century

 304. Lin Fengmian, Egrets, ink and color
on paper, 1974. Shanghai Art Institute.

Pan Tianshou and the New Zhe School

The most creative traditional painter after Wu Chang-

shuo, Qi Baishi, and Huang Binhong is Pan Tianshou
(1898 — 1971). Born to a peasant family in Ninghai County,
Zhejiang Province, Pan Tianshou learned to paint as a
child from The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting, a
manual of famous styles, motifs, and earlier composi¬
tions, At nineteen, he entered Zhejiang No. 1 Normal
School, studying under such famous artists and men of
letters as Jing Hengyi and Li Shutong. After graduation,
he returned to Ninghai to teach. In 1923, he moved
to Shanghai, teaching Chinese painting and its history in
the Minguo Girls’ Technical School and then at Shanghai
Art College. In Shanghai, Pan visited the eighty-year-old
painter Wu Changshuo, showed him some of his paint¬
ings, and asked for his advice. Much impressed by Pan’s
talents, Wu wrote him a couplet in seal characters, “Sur¬
305. Lin Fengmian, Spring, ink and color on paper, 1977. prise to heaven and earth wherever the brush falls /Any
Private collection. talk of his own can find expression in poems,” as a gift.
Wu also wrote a long poem, “Reading Pan Tianshou’s
Landscape Screen,” in which, besides offering words of
encouragement, the master reminded Pan of the need to
avoid the pursuit of sensationalism in order to avoid
falling into “deep gorges.”

Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century 329

 306. Lin Fengmian,
Wu Song, the Opera Figure,
ink and color on paper,
ca. 1980. 34 X 34 cm.
Private collection.

Pan became a regular visitor to Wu’s studio, yet he What have I got after seventy years
sought to blaze his own trail. He studied calligraphy, Only now can I sing the praise of peace.
seal carving, and the history of painting and poetry.
In this poem, he expressed his deep confidence in his artis¬
After 1928, he taught at Hangzhou National Art College
and shutded between Shanghai and Hangzhou. During tic pursuits and his loyal support of the political regime.
Yet during the Cultural Revolution he was singled out for
the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he
passed through Hunan, Guizhou, and Sichuan with the attack by Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing. In spite of his strong,

Hangzhou National Art College in retreat from the upright, and unyielding resistance on just grounds, he was

Japanese. From 1944 to 1947, he served as president of ruthlessly persecuted both spiritually and physically. He

the college. After the People’s Republic of China was died in September 1971 uncleared of false charges.

founded, Pan Tianshou responded to Mao Zedong’s call Pan’s style of painting took shape in the 1940s and

to plunge into the thick of life by traveling through the gained maturity in the mid-1950s. His artistic influences

countryside and to great mountains and rivers to paint were wide and varied. In addition to Wu Changshuo, he

from nature, and he strove to endow bird-and-flower admired Bada Shanren, whose cool, leisurely, and unre¬

painting with political significance. In 1959, he became strained style was a strong influence. Pan’s style could be

president of the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts, and in traced back further to Shen Zhou and Dai Jin of the

i960, he was elected vice chairman of the Chinese Ming dynasty and Ma Yuan and Xia Gui of the Song.

Artists’ Association. In 1966, when he was sixty-eight, Since the mid-Qing dynasty, the art of painting had been

Pan wrote a poem for himself: gradually influenced by seal carving and calligraphy.
Then, in the late Qing and the early years of the Republic,
Bustling everyday with brush and inkstone
there appeared such master painters as Zhao Zhiqian,
Wandering destitute year after year
Wu Changshuo, and Qi Baishi who studied seal carving

330 Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century

 gested what appealed to him while discarding what he
disliked. In general, traditional Chinese literati painting
demanded the balance and harmony of hard and soft,
clumsy and clever, like and unlike, real and unreal, ratio¬
nal and irrational, plain and surprising. But Pan was just
the opposite. His goal was to delineate forms that could
evoke feelings of being in danger, of going to extremes,
of being surprised, of having power, and of thrilling at
the sight of something marvelous or even grotesque.
Pan Tianshou’s calligraphy and painting were very
similar in style and brushwork, especially the running
script he used to dedicate paintings and write his signa¬
ture. The usually squarish characters were arranged ir¬
regularly but looked surprisingly beautiful. He excelled
in bird-and-flower compositions, landscapes, and espe¬
cially paintings of birds of prey. Through long, powerful
strokes he created the underlying structure of his compo¬
sitions. His slow and steady brushwork emphasized the
inner strength of the “bones”; his square seal, with the
characters “strengthening its bones,” signified his search
for an appreciation of this unusual beauty.
A Short Rest (fig. 307), painted in 1954, depicts two vul¬
tures resting on a rock. One is black, the other gray; one
looks down as the other looks straight ahead. Pan painted
the black vulture by emptying a big bowl of ink onto
the paper and finishing the figure off with rapid dashes
and strokes. He drew the birds’ eyes — sharp, cold, and
threatening — with his fingernails. The vultures are oval
in shape, whereas the rock under their claws is square.
Their heads, too, are somewhat squarish, whereas the
moss that grows on the rock is executed in round dots.
The composition thus creates a sharp contrast and har¬
monious rhythm of squares and circles, large and small.
The vultures, painted in deep colors, stand out against the
307. Pan Tianshou, A Short Rest, finger painting on paper
background of lightly shaded rocks and peaks. It is a
224 X 105 cm.
scene of stillness, yet there is hidden movement inside
the large, powerful birds that rest quietly. The painting

and applied its aesthetics to their work but neither fol¬ conveys a feeling of immensity and loftiness. Vultures are

lowed the Four Wangs nor adopted the heaviness and birds of prey, big and grotesque, aggressive and powerful;

forcefulness of the Zhe School. Although Pan learned Pan preferred them to pretty little birds. A Short Rest re¬

the seal-carving brushwork represented by Wu Chang- veals why Pan’s finger paintings are the best of this genre

shuo and studied seal carving and copied inscriptions since the Qing painter Gao Qipei. Using his fingers to

from stone steles, he proclaimed that he would emulate render great momentum and power, he produced a paint¬

and develop the forceful style of the Zhe School. Two ing of impressive length, fully demonstrating his skill in

factors influenced his decision. One was a rational employing the unique quality of the Chinese ink to dis¬

choice_modern theoreticians advocated “the beauty of play the beauty and grandeur of nature.

strength”; the other was rooted in his personality—Pan An oblong, horizontal finger painting, The Stare (fig.

had a strong, stubborn, reserved, and singular character 308), depicts a cat staring from a huge rock. Most people

that found natural expression in his poems, paintings, like to paint their pet cats as lively and lovable creatures,

and calligraphy. In following ancient traditions, he di¬ showing off their lustrous hair, bright eyes, and nimble

Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century 3 31

 3°8- Pan Tianshou, The Stare, finger painting on paper. 141 X 167.5 cm.

poses and almost inviting viewers to caress and play with The completely empty background indicates the limidess
them. But Pan s cats are ugly, lazy, queer, and altogether sky. The painting showcases Pan’s unexpected style of
repulsive. Through his cats and other unconventional- structural composition, strong and dynamic brushwork,
looking animals Pan sought to transmit his experience of and lofty but simple artistic conception. He longed to
life, which was seldom easy and often wretched. However, study ancient Chinese painting further and felt the need
even though he suffered during the Cultural Revolution, of genuine friendship to soothe the loneliness of his artis¬
the progress of his life was fairly smooth and stable. tic pursuit.
In Pine and Rock (fig. 309), painted in i960, a rock oc¬ Pan felt strongly that because Chinese and Western
cupies the lower middle ground as an inverted pyramid arts had different values, it was better that they continue
slanting to the right, signifying its independence in the to go their separate ways. They should not be combined,
universe. The crooked trunk of the pine stretches right nor should one replace the other. Each artistic tradi¬
and left; a withered branch curls backward. Thickly inked
tion should maintain its own uniqueness and originality.
pine needles protrude from the top of the tree, and old
Throughout his career, he worked against the Western¬
vines cling to the trunk. Although Pan Tianshou painted ization of Chinese painting. As head of the Chinese
this picture from an elevated perspective, the viewer’s
painting department of the Zhejiang Academy of Fine
line of sight is directed to the lower half of the painting.
Arts, he saw that more attention was paid to Chinese tra-
332 Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century
 309. Pan Tianshou, Pine and Rock, light
color on paper, i960. 179.5 X 140.5 cm.

ditions there than at any other institution. In 1960, he im¬ The Nanjing Painters
plemented a system of teaching figure painting, landscape
In the 1960s, a group of traditional Chinese painters
composition, and bird-and-flower painting in separate
gathered in Nanjing. Among them were Lit Fengzi, Chen
courses and made calligraphy a required course for
Zhifo, Fu Baoshi, Qian Songyan, and such other artists as
students of traditional painting. He invited such master Song Wenzhi, Wei Zixi, and Ya Ming.
painters and calligraphers as Wu Fuzhi, Gu Kunbo, Lu Chen Zhifo (1896—1962), a native of Yuyao County,
Yanshao, Lu Weizhao, and Sha Menghai to join the fac¬ Zhejiang Province, graduated from the Zhejiang Indus¬
ulty. The academy also emphasized the study and copying trial School in 1916. In 1918, he traveled to Japan to study
of ancient paintings and earlier brushwork. As a result of industrial arts, becoming the first Chinese student at the
these initiatives, many distinguished traditional Chinese Tokyo Imperial Art School. After returning to China, he
painters emerged from the Zhejiang Academy of Fine taught at the Shanghai Art College, the Shanghai Oriental
Arts. Because their style differed from that of the School Art College, and then the Guangzhou Art College and
of Xu Beihong at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, they the Central University. In the 1920s, he studied industrial
became known as the New Zhe School. art, taught design and art history, and published a number
of books, including Designing ABC, Designing Teaching
Plans, and The Basics of Western Art. He also created cover

Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century 333

 designs for a number of magazines and began to be standing brushwork is not painting.” “Copy” meant to
known as “Master Designer Chen Zhifo.” As a teacher at study the works of the ancients with an emphasis not
the Central University in Nanjing in the early 1930s, he only on creating a likeness but on learning the spirit and
enjoyed access to some of the greatest art of the past brushwork of the ancient paintings so as to raise one’s
and became interested in meticulously detailed bird-and- cultural and artistic awareness. “Read” meant study of
flower paintings. Eventually he devoted his career to important books aside from paintings, which would
studying Song-dynasty academic paintings. To be able heighten cultural and artistic achievements. In fact, Chen’s
to observe his subjects and practice sketching from four-character norm sought to incorporate the qualities
life, he raised birds and cultivated flowers at home. In of literati painting into meticulously detailed painting in
i9345 Chen exhibited his bird-and-flower paintings in a order to raise the standards of the genre in taste, style,
group show. rhythm, and brushwork. With his excellent knowledge of
Chen Zhifo moved to Chongqing during the War of art and culture, Chen Zhifo gave this style of painting
Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and served as greater emotional depth, a fresh sense of the delineation
president of the National Art College there from 1942 to of form, a higher level of taste, and a more pronounced
1944, all the while continuing to create meticulously de¬ character. He was a master of design and color, had an in¬
tailed bird-and-flower paintings. After the war, he re¬ timate knowledge of Eastern and Western arts, and un¬
turned to Nanjing and his post at the Central University. derstood how to appreciate traditional painting. In short,
In later years, he was elected a council member of the Chen pushed modern Chinese meticulously detailed
Chinese Artists’ Association, made a member of the Chi¬ painting to a new level.
nese Committee of unesco, and appointed vice president Chen Zhifo’s finely lined bird-and-flower paintings
of Nanjing Art College and Jiangsu Provincial Painting impart an air of serenity and refinement. He was fond of
College. using thin contour lines and single applications of light
After the Song dynasty, painters did not expand the color washes. Another favorite method was the boneless
artistic boundaries of the meticulously detailed genre. wash technique (also called water-soaking technique), in
Literati painters generally favored freehand monochrome which he applied light and black ink running with water
ink compositions. Most painted for their own pleasure without having drawn contour lines beforehand and then
and in a playful manner. They lacked solid training in this added light green dots that were allowed to ooze on the
exacting style. In addition, they followed various aca¬ paper. As these broad washes of color spread, they gave
demic and “professional” traditions, which, if not man¬ a misty and mottled effect. Chen Zhifo often used this
aged properly, could result in paintings that appeared technique in painting tree trunks, leaves, the ground, and
dead or “craftsmanlike.” This did not accord with the feathers. Overall, Chen’s works express profound senti¬
freedom, artistic conceptions, and interest in brushwork ments of peace and inner beauty; rhythm and not force is
that the literati valued in their pursuit of art. Those artists the key to their success.
who made a career of creating finely detailed bird-and-
Purple Roses and a Pair of Pigeons (fig. 31 o), of 19 5 4, was
flower paintings were rarely from the literati class. Al¬
painted on light, warm-tinted paper. With thick blue and
though these painters were generally well trained and
green inks, Chen Zhifo depicted a green stone entwined
skilled, they lacked the learning and refinement needed to
by roses with graceful purple blossoms and greenish
create art that could be considered “literary” or thought-
leaves. On the stone, a pair of pigeons perch quiedy. The
provoking.
bird on the right cocks its head as if looking for something.
Cognizant of this history, Chen Zhifo set a four-
The pigeons are painted in tones subdy lighter than the
character norm for himself: “look,” “write,” “copy,” and
background. The fine gradations of pale colors demon¬
“read.” “Look” meant to observe the subjects — birds
strate the reserve and elegance of Chen’s technique; the
and flowers and paintings of this genre. In particular,
results are rhythmic, clear, and pleasing.
Chen demanded the observation of the differences and
Fu Baoshi (1904-1965) was born into a poor peasant
variations in the styles and tones of ancient paintings.
family in Xinyu, Jiangxi Province. Fu’s father was so poor
“Write” meant to sketch from life so as to deepen and en¬
that he could not make ends meet, and so the family
hance one’s observation of nature. Chen demanded that
moved to Nanchang, where he earned a living by repair¬
sketching from life should harmonize with brushwork; as
ing umbrellas. Fu was his parents’ seventh child but the
he said, “Sketching from life is valued for creating a like¬
only one who survived to maturity. Fu was eleven when
ness, and yet to seek a superficial likeness without under¬
his father died, and he was apprenticed to a chinaware

334 Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century

 In 1933, with help from the artist Xu Beihong, he trav¬
eled to Japan, where he studied the history of Asian art
♦
as well as crafts and carving at the Tokyo Imperial Art
School. He also collected Japanese-language reference
materials on Chinese art history. When he returned to
China two years later, he was appointed professor at the
Central University and at the Nanjing Teachers’ College.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggres¬
sion, Fu Baoshi lived in Sichuan Province. Beginning in
1957, he served as president of the Jiangsu Provincial
Painting College, vice chairman of the Chinese Artists’
Association, and director of the Xiling Seal Society.
As a young man, Fu Baoshi copied ancient landscape
paintings, especially the works of such Southern Song
and Yuan-dynasty painters as Mi Fu and Ni Zan. Fie
focused especially on the art of the Yuan-dynasty painter
Wang Meng. Among the masters of later periods, Fu
copied Cheng Sui, but Shitao and Kuncan of the early
Qing dynasty were his favorites; he considered their
works to be “full of life.” Fu entered his most prolific pe¬
riod during his years in Sichuan. The majestic mountains
and great rivers of Sichuan aroused in him emotions and
sentiments that the gender beauty of the southeastern
provinces could never inspire. In his eyes, a tree, a hill, a
gully, even a blade of grass could become the subject of a
painting. He summed up the unique features of Sichuan
landscapes in the following words: “Caged in by smoke,
locked up by fog, misty and surprising.” Fittingly, these
words also describe his style of painting in this period.
Among his representative works of these years are
Myriad Bamboo in the Misty Rain, Whistling Wind in the
Evening Rain, Listening to the Waterfall, and Cleansing the
Thatched Hut, all painted in 1945. Listening to the Waterfall
was also called Listening to the Spring, a subject he painted
several times in succeeding decades. In the version repro¬
duced here, painted later in a similar style (fig. 311),
spring water cascades down a mountain into rapids. At
the base of the falls, in a small pavilion, a man in white
stands by the rail, enjoying the gurgling sounds of the
31 o. Chen Zhifo, Purple Roses and a Pair of Pigeons, hanging scroll, leaping water. Though the image is painted with lively
ink and color on paper, 1954. Nanjing Museum. brushstrokes, the mood is leisurely, forming a striking
contrast to the imposing landscape. Fu Baoshi paid spe¬
shop. This job gave him the opportunity to see Chinese cial attention to the depiction of great distance: the closer
painting and seal engraving in nearby shops, and he be¬ to the foreground the boulders in the stream are, the big¬
gan to teach himself calligraphy, painting, and seal carv¬ ger they appear, while the mountains change in color

ing. Soon he was carving seals to earn money to help his from black to pale gray as they recede into the distance.

family. Eventually he was able to attend school to learn Fu once said,

calligraphy and painting, and after graduation, he taught
in primary and middle schools. His book, The Study of Chinese landscapes, whether horizontal or vertical, are

Copying Seal-Engraving, was published in 1930. usually sized according to a ratio of one to three. The

Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century 335

 must draw the ridges; for trees, it is better to show
brushy areas than a lot of branches, and then the appli¬
cation of thick, watery ink will give the outstanding ef¬
fect of a close-up view.

Fu used these techniques in painting Listening to the Spring.

Fu Baoshi was skilled in the use of the stiff-haired
brush. He pushed this hard brush, its bristles sticking out
on all sides, in every direction. He often used “adverse
strokes,” in which he pressed the stiff bristles full-length
against the paper and then swept the brush across the
picture in bold and forceful strokes. He developed this
technique, which became known as “Baoshi’s texture¬
shading brushstroke,” on the basis of ancient textural
shading brushstrokes coupled with his inspiration from
nature.
In Listeningto the Spring, Fu Baoshi exploited the rough¬
grained quality of tough Sichuan (or Guizhou) paper
made from the bast fiber of the mulberry tree, and he
used the stiff-haired brush to shade, rub, dot, and paint
the rocky mountain peaks and luxuriant trees, unifying all
the elements into a rhythmic, harmonious whole. His
method of depicting water was unique, too — rather than
simply leaving blank spaces in the picture and sketching
the contours or colors, he used a technique known as
“water shading,” in which he alternated parallel, horizon¬
tal brushstrokes with blank space. The lighdy shaded
strokes that result look like a shaded current rushing by,
while the blank spaces appear to be sparkling water flow¬
ing under sunlight.
In comparison with traditional methods of drawing
lines to show water ripples, Fu Baoshi’s technique im¬
parted a sense of liveliness and realism. He cleverly com¬
bined methods from watercolor and Japanese painting
without obvious reference to either source. Art theorists
311. Fu Baoshi, Listening to the Spring, hanging scroll, ink and color often attribute Fu Baoshi’s changing method to the in¬
on paper, 1963- 110.5 X 52.8 cm. Nanjing Fu Baoshi Memorial fluence of such Japanese painters as Hashimoto Kansetsu,
Museum.
Takeuchi Seiho, and Yokoyama Taikan (1868-1958). Un¬
der their influence, Fu gradually abandoned hook strokes
in favor of inksplash to create texture and shading and to
make other objects stand out.
perspective must be unified throughout the picture
Fu Baoshi’s landscape style continued to change in the
space. Generally, the lower part of the picture repre¬
1950s and 1960s, especially after he visited Romania and
sents objects that are close by, whereas the upper part
Czechoslovakia in 1957. In i960 and 1963, he wandered
depicts scenery that is farther away. The heart of the
along the Yellow River and climbed the Taihua Moun¬
painting lies at the center; that space, if relatively full,
tains, making sketches from life. But Fu’s painting de¬
will create a magnificent effect. In a vertical scroll, a
clined alter his return from Eastern Europe, losing some
scene that is nearby should be rendered by an over¬
of its past grandeur and imposing spirit. His brushwork
looking viewpoint to show its relation to objects far¬
acquired a heaviness and profundity that was less appeal¬
ther away. To depict a mountain, for instance, one
ing. Representative paintings of this period are Wild Geese

336 Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century

Descending to a Sandbar (1955), Land Like This Is So Charm¬ types. He took as his reference the women painted by
ing (with Guan Shanyue, 1959), Xiling Gorge (i960), and the late fourth-century painter Gu Kaizhi, as shown in
Let’s Paint the Mountains and Rivers in Detail (1961). Gu’s Admonitions of the Court Instructress to Palace Ladies (see
In figure painting, which he began in Tokyo, Fu figs. 39—41); women represented in Tang-dynasty paint¬
Baoshi also developed a unique style. In this, he was ings and pottery; and the women painted by the Ming
guided by two central motives: to study the “lines” of tra¬ artist Chen Hongshou. Gu Kaizhi presented his women
ditional Chinese painting and to satisfy his need to create with chubby cheeks and slender figures in long, sweeping
figures in landscape. A further impulse toward figure skirts. To portray the head, he often used a three-quarter
painting grew out of his admiration for ancient costume or rear view — he seldom depicted faces from the front.
and his respect for Chinese culture and literati giants. He His most distinctive characteristic was his way of draw¬
painted many historical figures, including Qu Yuan, the ing women’s eyes: painting the upper eyelids and eyeballs
Seven Scholars of the Wei and Jin dynasties, Xie An, first with light ink and then gradually layering the eyes
Wang Xizhi, Hui Yuan, Tao Yuanming, Huan Xuan, Lu with darker ink. Sometimes he repeated this process
Jingxiu, Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi, Su Shi, Huang Tingjian, more than ten times. He occasionally painted the pupils
Gong Xian, and Shitao — poets, Wei and Jin literati, later with a small, brittle, spreading brush, creating an effect of
scholars who upheld the Wei-Jin demeanor, and late depth and inferiority. Gu Kaizhi’s women were noble,
Ming and Qing artists. Himself a gifted scholar, bold and serene, and free of worldly cares. In making lines, he al¬
unconstrained, holding lofty sentiments, Fu Baoshi was ternated dark with light, yet without breaks or abrupt
an artist in the mold of Li Bai, loyally advocating the Wei- turns, in harmony with the women’s quiet expressions,
Jin demeanor. He maintained that a painter should de¬ like the continuous flow of silk from a silkworm. In Fu
vote time to studying historical figures so that he would Baoshi’s Playing the Ruan, one woman plays the ruan, an
come to understand them and learn their images by heart. ancient stringed instrument, as two others watch in si¬
Once he had accomplished this, their images would flow lence. The woman whose back is to the viewer but who
through the brush onto the painted surface. Fu’s prime glances backward resembles the woman sitting before her
motivation, then, was genuine respect for these ancient dressing table in Gu’s Admonitions of the Court Instructress to
artists and scholars; a second desire was to use figure Palace Ladies.
painting to impart political and social advice. Fu loved his wine and in later years could not paint
In his portrait of the hero Qu Yuan (1942), for ex¬ without drinking. As he wrote to a friend just two
ample, Fu Baoshi sought to portray the pent-up fury and months before he died in 1965: “During the War of Re¬
melancholy of Qu Yuan as he stood by the side of a tur¬ sistance Against Japanese Aggression, because of all sorts
bulent river and lamented the fate of his homeland. Fu’s of unhappiness, I began to seek consolation in drink¬
painting was prompted by an incident in Chongqing dur¬ ing. ... I had to drink whenever I was busy, excited, or
ing the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. nervous, and especially when I held a brush in my hand.
The renowned poet Guo Moruo had written a five-act Only when I had a glass in my left hand could my right
play entitled Qu Yuan, in which he expressed his firm sup¬ hand direct the brush to the paper.” In spite of his fame,
port for the war and his opposition to capitulation by he was plagued by a series of heart-rending events,
praising the ancient patriot and exposing the crimes of among them the persecution of his son, Xiao Shi, who
the traitors. When Qu Yuan was performed, it set off so was labeled a Rightist, and a serious illness that struck his
much controversy that the Chongqing authorities banned daughter. In addition, Fu had to be constantly alert for
the play. Guo and the performers protested strongly, and possible political assaults. Increasingly frustrated, he
Fu Baoshi painted Qu Yuan. turned to drink, and although his painting was stimu¬
Playing the Ruan (fig. 312), painted in 1945, shows Fu’s lated, his mind gradually became insensible to the world.
skills in painting beautiful women. In traditional painting In the end, the alcohol took its toll; Fu Baoshi was just
since the Ming and Qing dynasties, beautiful women sixty when he died.
were conventionally depicted with drooping shoulders
Li Reran, Shi Lu, and the School of Painting from Life
and eyebrows shaped like willow leaves; they appeared
delicate and graceful, yet fragile and weak. Modern paint¬ To promote painting from life and to overcome the
ings of beautiful women were beginning to incorporate tendency to copy ancient paintings have been goals for
Western techniques of realism to express women’s allur¬ some twentieth-century Chinese artists. Few of these art¬

ing qualities. Fu’s women, however, differed from both ists, however, have been able to practice this style of

Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century 337

 312. Fu Baoshi, Playing the Ruan,

rJ
hanging scroll, ink and color on
paper, 1945. 98.2 X 47.8 cm.

m
Nanjing Fu Baoshi Memorial
Museum.
M '#» ig. WarU as? UBL §g g§
painting with success. After the founding of the People’s teacher Andre Claoudit (1892—1982). He joined a leftist
Republic of China, the Ministry of Culture adopted the art organization, the Yiba Art Society, and was forced to
“reform of traditional Chinese painting” as a cultural pol¬ leave school and return to Xuzhou. After the outbreak of
icy. Yet nobody knew how to achieve this objective. In the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he
the early 1950s, the Central Academy of Fine Arts had no joined the art section of the political department of
department of traditional Chinese painting and offered the Military Commission of the National Government,
only one course on drawing the human form; it offered painting propagandistic works while traveling through
basic training in line drawing for the creation of New such provinces as Hubei, Hunan, Guangxi, and Sichuan.
Year s pictures and picture books. Li Kuchan, a professor In 1943, as a lecturer at the Beijing National Art College,
renowned for his freehand bird-and-flower painting, was he devoted himself to teaching and studying traditional
assigned to the reference library because there was noth¬ Chinese painting. His figure paintings in freehand brush-
ing else for him to do. When a traditional Chinese paint¬ work were highly regarded by Guo Moruo, Xu Beihong,
ing department finally was established in 1954, there were Shu Qingchun (Lao She), and Chen Zhifo, among others.
only a few students, and they came not of their own free At the request of Xu Beihong, he joined the faculty of the
will but on assignment. Beijing National Art College in 1946, where Qi Bai-
What the cultural administration demanded of artists shi and Huang Binhong became his mentors. After the
was “revolutionary realism,” “expressions of the new founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Beijing
times,” and “answering the call to go into the thick of National Art College merged with the Central Academy
life,” “to depict heroic images of workers, peasants, and of Fine Arts, and Li continued as the professor in charge
soldiers,” and “to paint the grandeur and beauty of the of teaching landscape painting. In 1979, he was elected
motherland.” Painters who had been trained in earlier vice chairman of the Chinese Artists’ Association, and
times were used to painting landscapes, birds and flowers, two years later he became president of the Research In¬
and human figures in ancient costume, and they found it stitute of Traditional Chinese Painting.
hard to adapt to these new tasks. Young painters, by con¬ Before he was forty, Li Keran studied both traditional
trast, generally selected oil painting, gouache, or water- Chinese and Western painting, acquiring solid training in
color for their major studies, because those who studied sketching and modeling. In learning Chinese painting, he
traditional Chinese painting had no prospects. As a re¬ began with the Four Wangs and before the 1940s mainly
sult, the older painters were restrained by years of fol¬ followed Shitao and Bada Shanren, specializing in free¬
lowing the set patterns of their predecessors, whereas hand human figures, inksplash landscapes, and images of
the young artists lacked training in the fundamentals of water buffalo. He painted his freehand figures — beauti¬
traditional painting. Not until the late 1950s and the early ful women, literati, and fishermen — in the traditional
1960s did influential painters emerge as practitioners methods of delineation by line drawing and the chang¬
of revolutionary realism. Of these artists, Li Keran and ing of forms by exaggeration, clumsy and humorous but
Shi Lu were the most successful. not ugly. He often used mellow, steady, rapidly executed
Li Keran (1907-1989) was a native of Xuzhou, Jiangsu strokes to depict the folds and creases of clothes and em¬
Province. His father was a cook and part-owner of a ployed watery ink-and-splash to render the backdrop for
restaurant, and his mother was a housewife. Both were the human figures.
illiterate. As a child, Li Keran became interested in tradi¬ Noon Nap (fig. 3x3) was painted in 1948. In the paint¬
tional opera and regional music. He began to learn land¬ ing, an old man with a bald head naps under a grape-
scape painting when he was thirteen from a local painter covered trellis. His leisurely and relaxed bearing was
named Qian Shizhi (1880-1922), who in turn had pat¬ probably a reflection of the relaxed and leisurely way of
terned his painting style after the early Qing-dynasty artist life that Li Keran associated with his rural background.
Wang Shimin, the oldest of six Orthodox landscape Shu Qingchun once wrote that all Li Keran’s characters
masters. At sixteen, Li entered the Shanghai Art College, come alive. No matter what expression their eyes had,

studying crafts and painting. By graduation, he had be¬ their innermost feelings were shown on their faces. In his

come the best student in imitating the refined landscape human figures, Li was expressing his own warmhearted,

of the Wang Hui tradition. He returned to Xuzhou to straightforward, and humorous nature.

teach in a local art school. By i929> was studying Water buffalo have played an important role in China

sketching and oil painting in the postgraduate class of for thousands of years and have been a favorite subject in

the Hangzhou National Art College under the French traditional painting since at least the Eastern Han dy-

Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century 339

 ing the chirping of a cricket, one is reminded of the whis¬
pering autumn wind.” It is fall, a time when one sighs for
days gone by. The picture shows a clear, bright autumn
sky. The two boys are executed in fine brushstrokes with
a light tinted wash, whereas the old water buffalo is
painted with splashed ink. The simplicity and light delin¬
eation of the young cowherds make a strong contrast
with the thick splashed ink, while the rope shows the inti¬
mate link between the animal and its keepers. Qi Baishi’s
inscription and Li’s painting form a flawless whole — a
harmony of lines and planes in black and white. And the
conjoining of poem and painting produces an interesting
artistic combination. Through Xu Beihong’s introduc¬
tion, Li Keran took Qi Baishi as his teacher in 1947. Al¬
though Herding Buffalo is undated, it was definitely created
after Qi accepted Li as his student. Li cherished and
revered his teacher, while for his part, Qi was fond of his
student and his paintings. The two had similar tempera¬
ments, and both loved the simple, honest life of the rural
peasant. Qi’s Willow and Buffalo, for instance, can be com¬
pared with Li’s HerdingBuffalo. Soon after Li took Qi as his
teacher, he took Huang Binhong as his tutor for landscape
painting and art theory. Under these two masters, Li
greatly improved his understanding and mastery of the sig¬
nificance and brushwork of traditional Chinese painting.
After the founding of the People’s Republic of China,
Li Keran answered the government’s call to carry out the
“reform of traditional Chinese painting” and “to find a
way to sketch from life.” From 1954 to the late 1960s, he
sketched landscapes from life. His footsteps took him to
a number of provinces in the southeast and southwest.
He even traveled to Eastern Europe, where he painted
many landscapes. He strove to create new techniques by
grasping the special features of his subjects, and he filled
his landscapes with his own distinctive layers of shading
and thickness of black ink.

313- Li Keran, Noon Nap, ink and color on paper, 1948. Meissen Cathedral (fig. 315) was painted on the spot,
71X35 cm. Private collection. without prior sketches, during Li’s trip to East Germany
in 1957- The use of blank space and the structural com¬
position are skillfully done. Watching the artist at work, a
German observed that it was almost unimaginable that Li
could render the Gothic cathedral in so lively a manner
nasty. In his depiction of this popular subject, however,
with only one small, soft brush. With his solid sketching
Li Keran both used an innovative technique and gave the
abilities and adept brushwork, Li Keran mastered the
water buffalo new significance. Herding Buffalo (fig. 3x4)
precise delineation of buildings through various uses of
dates from the late 1940s. It features two young cowherds
straight lines and differing intensities of ink. In this way
absorbed in watching crickets fight; they have tethered an
he expressed the tallness, straightness, and mysterious
old water buffalo to a small stake. On the painting, mas¬
qualities of the cathedral. The vividness of the composi¬
ter painter Qi Baishi inscribed the lines “Suddenly hear¬
tion results from the tremendous difference in size be-

340 Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century

314. Li Keran, Herding Buffalo, hanging scroll,
ink and light color on paper, 1947. 67 X 34 cm.
Private collection.

315. Li Keran, Meissen Cathedral, ink and color

on paper, 1957. 49 X 36 cm. Private collection.

tween the massive building and the small human figures, Guilin, and Mount Huang forged the distinctive features
as well as the blending of abstract and concrete formed of his landscapes: the luxuriant grass, lush foliage, and
by the juxtaposition of clear line drawing with blurred smoky, moist atmosphere. Landscapes of Guilin, a region
inksplash. When painting landscapes, Li insisted on fac¬ whose scenery was commonly described as “the best un¬

ing his subject directly. His goals in sketching from life der heaven,” became Li Keran’s favorite subject in later

were first “to get richness, richness, and richness” and years. Light Rain over the Li River (fig. 316) is typical of

then to achieve “simplicity, simplicity, and simplicity.” these late compositions. A rainy day on the Li River is

“To get richness” meant to avoid the simple emptiness of rendered in light ink and pale tints: over the mirrorlike

traditional Chinese landscape painting; by “simplicity,” water, the clouds drizzle mist and smoke; distant moun¬

he meant the attainment of unity and wholeness in a tains fade away in pale green, and dark trees clump to¬
gether in the foreground. Silence reigns over the scene
composition.
Li Keran had a special love for the mountains and save for the busde of small fishing boats in the mist. The

rivers of the south. The beautiful scenery of Sichuan, white houses amid the trees are painted with multiple

Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century 341

}i6. Li Keran, Light Rain over the Li River, ink on paper, 1977. 71 X 48 cm. Private collection.
layers of ink. This technique requires great skill; too many On the slopes, people in modern dress ride on horse¬
layers of ink can deaden the results. Li adopted Huang back; they seem to be searching for something. Zhao
Binhong s layered-ink technique, but with a difference. used largely traditional techniques in this painting: rocks
Huang used very lithe water; his largely gray paintings im¬ in the foreground are delineated mostly through textural
part a sensation of dryness and merely hint at moisture. shading and ax-cut brushstrokes with minimal color. The
Because Li used more water, his paintings appear much light coloring highlights the hardness of the rocks and
more moist, although even in Li’s art, a faint sense of dry¬ the intensity of the sunshine. The composition displays
ness is present. Each artist had his own emphasis and style. the power that can be achieved through the special de¬
During this same period, some painters in Xi’an were scriptive quality of sketching from life.
also advocating the reform of traditional landscape paint¬ The best known of Zhao Wangyun’s students is Huang
ing by sketching from life and exploring new styles. Zhou (b. 1925), originally named Dang Huangzhou.
Because they lived in Xi’an, they were known as the Huang is a native of Lixian County, Hebei Province.
Chang’an School. The most eminent artists of this Continuing Zhao Wangyun’s emphasis on sketching and
group were Zhao Wangyun and Shi Lu. Zhao Wangyun painting from life, he has created a number of works de¬
(i 906—1977), a native of Shulu, Hebei Province, was born picting the life of the Uygur and other minority national¬
into a peasant family that was also in the leather business. ities in the Xinjiang region. Other favorite subjects have
Zhao attended Beijing National Art College and from been human figures, animals, particularly donkeys, and
1932 to 1936 traveled to rural areas in southern Hebei birds and flowers. Huang Zhou introduced the sketching
and north of the Great Wall to paint as a reporter for the technique used in line drawing into the art of figure paint¬
daily paper Da gong bao (Impartial daily). His depictions of ing, and his modern figures became influential in the 1950s
the miseries of the peasants were well received both in and 1960s.
cultural circles and by the government. During the War Shi Lu (1919—1982), formerly named Feng Yayan,
of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, aside from came from Renshou County, Sichuan Province. Although
editing the Anti-Japanese War Pictorial, Zhao traveled to he studied traditional monochrome ink painting, during
rural Shaanxi, Gansu, and Xinjiang to paint from life. He the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression he
gained a reputation as the first pioneer in painting life in traveled to Yan’an to create propaganda for the war and
the countryside and border regions. After the People’s the revolution that followed. In these years, he also made
Republic of China was founded in 1949, he became the many woodcuts and New Year’s pictures. He resumed
first leader of the Shaanxi Artists’ Association. Yet in traditional CDnese painting in the 1960s.
1957, he was persecuted as a Rightist, and he suffered Shi Lu was skilled at depicting figures, landscapes, and
even more during the Cultural Revolution. birds and flowers. He was the first artist to use the mono¬
Zhao Wangyun’s early works were mainly sketches chrome ink-and-wash technique to paint scenes of the
done with a writing brush. Because he lacked formal vast and imposing plateau of the Yellow River, in one de¬
training in either Western or traditional Chinese painting, votedly portraying Mao Zedong as a commander at war.
these early sketches are not successful from a technical Favorite subjects were the fault planes and caves of the
standpoint. Yet these sketches of peasants and rural life Yellow River plateau, soldiers, and peasants. His painting
have a harmony and a simple and sincere style that many On the Way to Nanniivan (fig. 318) is a landscape of Dstori-
highly skilled artists could not attain. Zhao’s later works cal significance. During the War of Resistance Against
tend to be more strict in composition and more forceful Japanese Aggression, the base areas of northern Shaanxi
in expression through brushwork, but they maintain the were blockaded by enemies, cutting the troops off from
same sincere style. In the 1960s, Zhao led other artists in needed supplies. The 115th Division of the Eighth Route
taking northwest scenery as the basis for sketches from Army was therefore ordered to reclaim wasteland for

life, thus creating the Chang’an School. planting crops in order to tide the troops over during this
Zhao Wangyun painted Penetrating the Qilian Mountains time of economic hardship. This painting shows soldiers

(fig- 317) in 1972- The Qilian Mountains are a great moun¬ marching to the wilderness in Nanniwan. Unlike a tradi¬
tain chain in northwest China. Here the mountains span tional Chinese landscape, there are no pine woods, water¬
the composition, majestic and precipitous, with ancient falls, small bridges, thatched pavilions, or hermits with
pines and powerful waterfalls high on the slopes and long staffs. Likewise, there are no mists, smoky clouds, or
streams, a small bridge, and winding paths down below. stone steps — no evocations of serenity or depictions of

Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century 343

 3i7. Zhao Wangyun, Penetrating the Qilian Mountains, handscroll, ink and color on paper, 1972. 83X150 cm. Private collection.

beauty. Instead, the painting realistically depicts rough,

and were recognized as blazing’ the trail for landscape
desolate mountains and many kinds of trees.
painting. During the Cultural Revolution, however, Shi
If Zhao Wangyun was the founder of the Chang’an
Lu was cruelly persecuted because of his opposition to
School, then Shi Lu was its leader. After 1957, he was
the Gang of Four. His works were not only labeled as
elected chairman of the Shaanxi Artists’ Association, the
“black paintings that abuse the revolutionary leader” but
nucleus of the Xi’an painters. In the early 1960s, Shi Lu
were condemned as “actively counterrevolutionary.” He
and the Xi’an painters won wide acclaim in art circles
was sentenced to death. This artist, who had consistently

344 Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century

sung the praises of Mao Zedong and the Chinese revolu¬ alive with wild fruits and raw vegetables. Yet even under
tion, was transformed overnight into “an enemy of the these dire conditions, he continued to sketch on a small
revolution.” Criticized and denounced in mass meetings, pad he had brought with him. After he was allowed to re¬
ruthlessly tortured, for a time Shi Lu was driven mad. He turn to Xi’an, frail though he was, for a long time he sus¬
managed to escape from custody, and he wandered the tained himself on wine and chilis, using his painting to
Qinling Mountains, tattered and dirty, keeping himself express his feelings and emotions. Whenever paper and

Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century 345

 J

brush were available, he painted and did calligraphy. Yet sweeping the cosmos,” suggesting an unyielding attitude
in the works created in this period, there is no more and character.
devoted praise and there is no imposing loess plateau. In¬ This pioneering artist, who had long advocated the re¬
stead Shi Lu painted the Hua Mountains, plum blossoms, form of traditional Chinese painting, now took up literati
orchids, bamboo, chrysanthemums, lotus blossoms, and painting as a tool to express his feelings and opinions. He
rocks. All the mountains shoot upward to the sky; the executed these works largely in sharp, chaotic, cold, and
brushstrokes are pointed, sharp, and chaotic, the inks discontinued brushstrokes that are either as sharp as
thick and dull. These paintings often carry such inscrip¬ knife cuts or as entangling as wires. They evoke a strange,
tions as “high sky with cold moonlight” and “great wind surprising, and even crazed sense of excitement and dis-

346 Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century

quiet. In painting the Four Gentlemen (plum, orchid, painting, and he patterned his style after such French
bamboo, and chrysanthemum, symbols of moral integ- masters as Cezanne and Matisse. When he was about
rity), Shi Lu metaphorically expressed his state of mind. fifty, Zhu added ink painting to his repertoire, but he re¬
He inscribed a lotus painting with the lines “Though ally concentrated on Chinese painting only in his later
blooming in spring and summer / They would be given years. Among his favorite Chinese master painters were
away any time.” With these words Shi Lu directed his sar¬ Shitao, Wu Changshuo, and Qi Baishi, and he was es¬
casm to those who would sell their souls for profit. Plum pecially interested in Qi’s seal carving. By 1944, he had
Blossoms (fig. 319) depicts a branch of plum blooming in collected more than sixty seals carved by Qi; he called
the snow with the inscription “Jade dragon, white snow himself “the sixty-year-old millionaire in collecting seals
under the bright blue sky.” In traditional art theory, the engraved by Qi Baishi” and later published The Plum Blos¬
branch, crooked like a dragon, is called a dancing dragon. som Thatched Hall’s Collection of Baishi s Seals. Zhu’s spirit
Because this plum branch is dressed white with snow, Shi and character are well summarized in the words of Qi
Lu called it the “jade dragon.” The hidden meaning of Baishi in seals that Qi gave Zhu as presents: “Remained
this line is actually Shi Lu’s belief that he had a clean unperturbed,” “Take bamboo as teacher and plum as
personal record. The whole picture — the plum branch, friend,” “The house is a small boat,” and “The heart
the blossoms, the bright sky—form a sheet of snow- roams the wilderness.” All these describe how Zhu,
white purity. Suffering from persecution during the Cul¬ though living amid the bustle of the marketplace, in spirit
tural Revolution, Shi Lu had no other way to plead his was following the clouds and cranes to roam among great
innocence. mountains and along turbulent rivers, how he had little
care for fame and money, and how he became a great
artist after long years of hard work.
Zhu Qizhan was a skilled artist in both Chinese and
The New Period Western styles of painting. In his lengthy art career, he
painted oils as well as inks, and although he never con¬
With the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, China sciously merged the two media, they do merge in the
began to carry out a policy of reform and opening to the paintings themselves. The oils have the flavor of ink
outside world. In this period, some veteran painters who painting, whereas an oil style is visible in his ink composi¬
had matured over the years came to the fore, while some tions. His later works, whether in oil or in ink, whether
young artists and painters in their middle years began to landscape, flower, or figure painting, are done in a bold
change old ways of thinking and to ponder again such and flowing style, mature and yet childishly clumsy,
questions as tradition and modernism, East and West. By reflecting the presence of his strong personality. Orchid in
the mid-1980s, a group of young artists had initiated a the Fragrant Wind (fig. 321) reflects these qualities of bold¬
modern art campaign of considerable magnitude. ness and tenacity. The orchid, rendered in fluid brush¬
Some painters distinguished themselves rather late in strokes with only a hint of color in the tawny blossoms,
their career and were often referred to as “great vessels clings to the monumental overhanging boulder. A large
that took years to produce.” Wu Changshuo, Qi Baishi, gray rock slab below likewise reflects a virtuoso perfor¬
and Huang Binhong were not famous until, they were mance of ink design from a deeply spirited, gifted artist.
seventy years old, and this was largely true of Zhu Zhu generally preferred blunt, thick brushes to
Qizhan, Li Kuchan, and Lu Yanshao (b. 1909), a master smooth, sharp-tipped ones. His hard brushstrokes were
of traditional landscape painting modes. In Zhushachong often drawn with a blunt, dry-inked brush so that they
Sentry Post (fig. 320), Lu Yanshao portrays an area along contain white streaks; they seldom have overt beginnings
the Guangdong-Guangxi border in a monumental man¬ and ends, pauses and accentuations. In delineating forms,
ner, with tiny figures at the sentry post in the middle Zhu preferred clumsiness to ingenuity and heaviness to
of the composition nearly eclipsed by the steep, rocky lightness. His paintings have a rough and unsophisticated
mountains and mist-filled atmosphere of inkwashes. appearance. Gorgeous reds, yellows, blues, and greens
Zhu Qizhan (1892-1995) was a native of Taicang, impart a formidable strength to his work.
Jiangsu Province. After a brief stay in Japan in 1917, he Li Kuchan (1898-1983) was descended from a long
returned to China to teach in the Shanghai Art College, line of farmers in Gaotang County, Shandong Province.
Shanghai Xinhua Art College, and Shanghai Studio of In the early 1920s, he moved to Beijing to learn Chinese
Painting. His early interests lay chiefly in Western oil and Western painting, studying first at the Painting

Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century 347

319. Shi Lu, Plum Blossoms, hanging
scroll, ink and color on paper.
105 X 40.7 cm. China Fine Art
Gallery, Beijing.
 Technique Society affiliated with Beijing University and
. '
then at Beijing National Art College. He was poor and
had to support himself by pulling a ricksha to pay his tu¬
ition. Though he sometimes could afford only one meal a
day, his zeal for painting remained strong. In later years,
he studied under Qi Baishi, concentrating on freehand
bird-and-flower painting. His favorite subjects—birds of
prey, lotus flowers, pines, and rocks—were character¬
ized by magnificent, powerful, and steady brushstrokes.
Li gained great fame in his old age.
Eagle (fig. 322), painted in the autumn of 1979, depicts
a male eagle perched on a rock and ready to soar into the
sky. The feathers are executed with ink-and-wash coupled
with a few drawn lines, while the beak, claws, and eyes are
drawn with double lines. The delineation of forms and
&
■r, A
direction of brushstrokes take a squarish shape, showing
<|S .'8
the ferocity and strength of this bird of prey. When paint¬
ing eagles, Li’s teacher Qi Baishi stressed brushwork, ren¬
dering both likeness and spirit, whereas Li emphasized
4?
<0, ink technique, demanding a mood instead of a likeness.
As the artist Wang Senran said, “On viewing Li’s paint¬
ings, one feels as if one is savoring an olive, rinsing one’s
mouth with cold spring water, climbing a snowy moun¬
tain with sword in hand, or galloping on a horse over a
vast plain.”

320. Lu Yanshao, Zhushachong Sentry Post, hanging scroll, ink

and color on paper, 1979. 109 X 68 cm.

321. Zhu Qizhan, Orchid in the Fragrant Wind, handscroll,

ink and color on paper, 1982. 96 X 178 cm. China Fine Art
Gallery, Beijing.
 322. Li Kuchan, Eagle, hanging scroll,
ink on paper, 1979. 65 X 44 cm.
China Fine Art Gallery, Beijing.

Zhang Daqian (1899—1983) was a native of Neijiang

Zhang became recognized as the best and most
County, Sichuan Province. As a young man, he traveled
prolific imitator of ancient art. According to the artist Xie
with his older brother to Japan to learn dyeing and weav¬
Zhiliu, He can imitate any school of painting except the
ing. After he returned to China, he began to study tradi¬
Four Wangs to such a degree that you would take the
tional painting from the famous calligraphers Li Ruiqing
spurious for the genuine.” Zhang was distinguished in
and Zeng Xi. As he gained experience, Zhang began to
many artistic fields. He wrote poetry and was skilled
copy many renowned works of earlier masters, and he
at painting human figures, landscapes, and bird-and-
distinguished himself in this style in the 1930s. In the
flower paintings in both meticulous and freehand styles.
1940s, he took his students to the Dunhuang caves to
At about age seventy, however, he originated a large¬
copy the murals and study their origins. When the People’s
spaced, splashed-ink, and splashed-color technique on
Republic of China was founded in 1949, he left for Ar¬
the basis of traditional ink painting and Abstract Bxpres-
gentina, Brazil, and the United States, finally settling out¬
sionism. Zhang’s works of splashed ink and color con¬
side Taibei.
sisted of large areas without concrete form — only sheets

350
Zhang Daqian, Panorama of Mount Lu. National Palace Museum, Taibei,
 324. Wu Guanzhong, The Yellow River, 1993. 61 X 80 cm.

of color. Because some line-drawn objects did remain, produced a unique effect that embodied the best of his
however, the abstractness was transformed into con¬ many styles.
creteness. In the viewer’s eye, the splashed color could Wu Guanzhong (b. 1919), a native of Yixing County,
take the shape of green woods, rocks, or clouds. This was Zhejiang Province, graduated from the Beijing National
a breakthrough in traditional Chinese painting. It also Art College in 1942. After World War II ended, he went
changed Zhang Daqian’s image: the skilled imitator of to France, where he studied modern art from 1946 to
ancient paintings was now seen as someone who created 19 5 °, and when he returned to China, he began to teach
a modern style of Chinese painting. at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Qinghua University,
Panorama of Mount Lu (fig. 3 2 3) was Zhang Daqian’s Beijing National Art College, and the Central Academy
final masterpiece. He had traveled to many places and of Arts and Crafts. But from the 1950s through the
had seen many famous mountains and great rivers, but he I97os> because of the prevailing cultural climate, he had
had never seen Mount Lu. Having left mainland China no opportunity to express his modern views and ideas
for Taibei after the revolution, Zhang could not return to about art. Since the end of the Cultural Revolution, Wu
the homeland he sorely missed. This painting was a crys¬ has taken the lead in advocating such potentially contro¬
tallization of his nostalgia for his majestic and beautiful versial concepts as “form decides content” and “abstract
native land. But it was not a concrete description of beauty,” which have shocked the Chinese art establish¬
Mount Lu: in this vast composition, he used a variety of ment. Before the 1970s, Wu painted only in oils, but in
brush techniques, various shadings and textures, dotting recent decades he has done ink painting, landscapes, and
and dyeing, and splashed ink and splashed color. This occasional compositions of flowers and animals. As a

352 Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century

325. Wu Guanzhong, The Banyan Tree, handscroll, ink and color on paper, 1992. 68.5 X 138 cm.

student of Lin Fengmian, he has followed Lin in trying to banyan is known for its twisted roots and gnarled
integrate modern Western art into Chinese art. His oils branches luxuriant with foliage; it is a favorite subject for
are unique, refined in brushstroke, pure and unified in painting. Yet under Wu Guanzhong’s brush, the branches
color, and rich in their expression of emotion. of the banyan become an almost abstract structure.
The Yellow River (fig. 324), painted in 1993, is a depiction Though the general shape of the tree is recognizable, one
of the waterfalls of the Yellow River. In this picture, Wu cannot tell from the image alone what kind of tree this is.
Guanzhong has not followed convention in depicting the The dancing crisscross of thick and thin lines, the ab¬
roaring waves and billows of the falls but has stressed stract and concrete reflections painted in light and heavy
and exaggerated the river’s yellow color. The yellow looks inks, and the sprinkling of bright red, green, yellow, and
like earth and yet resembles brocade. Were it not for the purple dots of color create a rhythm and rhyme scheme
glittering spray executed with a few dashing strokes and flavored by poetry. This is what Wu has called “abstract
the two rocks that face each other at the lower corner, beauty”— the beauty of form. Although he has used tra¬
one would hardly imagine that this was the river de¬ ditional Chinese materials and tools, his concept, tech¬
scribed by the artist-poet as the surging and roaring nique, and composition are thoroughly modern.
Yellow River with “its water descending from heaven.” Wu has also cast off the tradition of introducing callig¬
Through his water-and-ink techniques, as evidenced in raphy into painting. He has maintained that painting is
The Yellow River, Wu sought profundity in serenity and pu¬ done by painting, not by writing. He has emphasized the
rity in subtlety. association between the finished work of art and tastes
Most of Wu Guanzhong’s landscape paintings are of of the contemporary audience, explaining that “a kite
intimate views south of the Yangzi River. White walls should not be cut off from the string.” With such thoughts
with black tiles, green willows, red flowers — these in mind, Wu has striven to make his works of art appeal
scenes evoke images familiar from lines of poetry, such as to and be understood by not only other Chinese but
“during autumn harvests, the air was heavy with the foreigners, who often find Chinese brush-and-ink paint¬
aroma of osmanthus, while lotus flowers bloomed over a ings difficult to understand. For these reasons, Wu Guan¬
stretch of five kilometers,” or “fish market in a village by zhong’s art has received both praise and criticism in
the waterside.” In The Banyan Tree (fig. 325), painted in contemporary art circles in China.
1992, Wu depicts a large tropical tree common to the The fusion of traditional Chinese and modern West¬
landscape of south China. In addition to its great size, the ern ideas has indeed become one of the central features

Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century 353

 of contemporary Chinese painting. Western art contin¬ echo the regional, specialized, and literati manners; bird-
ues to influence and inspire Chinese painters, who re¬ and-flower compositions that recall professional artisans
spond by culling from Western art that which is deemed and local craftsmen; and figure paintings and portraits
“best” in terms of themes, styles, and techniques without that are promising visions for a new Chinese style.
completely surrendering to its impact. In works that Essential to this new, exuberant painting tradition
dramatically convey feelings, memories, and current and are the familiar, longstanding reliance on past painting
past events, modern Chinese painters seek to resolve the traditions, the repertoire of time-honored styles and
tensions between East and West, native and foreign, in techniques, and familiarity with old masterpieces. Major
expressive works of great creativity, originality, and free¬ contributions still come from popular regional traditions
dom, thereby contributing to a new chapter in the history and local professional specialists. In addition, many Chi¬
of Chinese painting. nese painters outside China have begun to express them¬
At the heart of this movement, however, is the an¬ selves artistically, adding to a new vocabulary of Chinese
cient, rich, and varied Chinese artistic tradition. Modern painting styles and motifs. Now, in an international
Chinese painters are strongly reasserting their traditional context, China reemerges as one of the world’s greatest
cultural and artistic values, reinvigorating and reinventing cultures by virtue of a new, promising tradition of mod¬
the past in dramatic and individualistic ways. Bringing ern painting that is contemporary in feeling and global
new life to ancient practices, they paint distilled, reinter¬ in appeal, but still deeply, distincdy, and traditionally
preted, and freely expressive landscapes that distantly Chinese.

3 54 Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century

 NOTES

Approaches to Chinese Painting, Part I Fufeng, Shaanxi Province, in 1979, consists of continuous
diamond patterns on the four walls of the grave chamber.
1 Zhang Yanyuan, Lidai minghuaji (Record of famous paint¬ See Yang, “Han yiqian de bihua zhi faxian,” 43.
ings of successive dynasties) (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin 9 The excavation report is published in Wenwu 9 (1988): 1-14.
chubanshe, 1963), entry on Zhang Zao. Published research on the painted box includes papers by
2 Xie He, preface to Guhuapinlu (The ranking of ancient paint- Hu Yali, Chen Zhenyu, and Cui Renyi in ibid., 30 — 32, and
ings)> in Wangshi shuhua juan (Collection of calligraphy and in Jianghan kaogu 2 (1988): 72—79; 4 (1989): 54—63.
paintings by Wang Shizhen). 10 “Kaogong ji,” in Zhou li (Rites of Zhou).
3 Zhang, Lidai minghua ji. 11 Wu Hung, “From Temple to Tomb,” Early China 13 (1988):
4 Shen Kuo, Mengxi bitan (Mengxi jottings), vol. 17 (Beijing: 78-115.
Zhonghua shuju, 1963). 12 I reject the popular interpretation of the painting as an in¬
5 Xie, preface. strument to “summon the soul,” because according to an¬
6 Sikong Tu, Ershisi shipin (The twenty-four aspects of poetry), cient ritual texts, the rite of summoning the soul takes place
in Lidai shihua (Essays on poetry written in successive dynas¬ before funerary ceremonies, and no equipment used in this
ties) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1981). rite is buried with the deceased. See Wu Hung, “Art in Its
7 Quoted in Ouyang Xiu, Liuyi shihua (An essay on poetry Ritual Context: Rethinking Mawangdui,” Early China 17
written at the age of sixty-one), in Lidai shihua (Beijing: (1992): m-144.
Zhonghua shuju, 1981). 13 Ibid.
8 Xie, preface. 14 For textual evidence of Han murals, see Xing Yitian, “Han
dai bihua de fazhan he bihuamu” (The development of Han-
dynasty murals and painted tombs), Zhongyangyanjiuyuan lishi
The Origins of Chinese Painting yuyanyanjiusuo jikan (Bulletin of the Institute of History and
Philology, Academia Sinica), 57, no. 2 (1986): 139—160, espe¬
1 Zhang Yanyuan, Lidai minghua ji (Record of famous paintings cially 142—154.
of successive dynasties) (Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe, 15 Sima Qian, Shiji (Historical records) (Beijing: Zhonghua
1963), 4— 5. See William R. B. Acker, Some T’ang andPre-T’ang shuju, 1959), 1388. See Burton Watson, Records of the Grand
Texts on Chinese Painting, 2 vols. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1954, Historian of China, 2 vols. (New York: Columbia University
1974), vol. 1, p. hi (hereafter cited as Acker). Press, 1961), vol. 2, p. 42.
2 For a detailed report on this site, see Gai Shanlin, Yinshan 16 Paintings have been found on the walls of a second-century
yanhua (Petroglyphs in the Yin Mountains) (Beijing: Wenwu, B.c. tomb in the city of Guangzhou that belonged to a king
1986). of Southern Yue during the Western Han. But these paint¬
3 For a general introduction to Cangyuan paintings, see Wang ings are just decorative patterns and differ from the pictorial
Ningsheng, Yunnan Cangyuanyanhua defaxian heyanjiu (The compositions in tombs of the first century b.c. near
rock paintings of Cangyuan County, Yunnan Province: Their Luoyang. The excavation of the Bo Qianqiu tomb is re¬
discovery and research) (Beijing: Wenwu, 1985). ported in Wenwu (1977): 1—12. Discussions of the tomb
4 Meyer Schapiro, “On Some Problems in the Semiotics of murals include Chen Shaofeng and Gong Dazhong, “Luo¬
Visual Art: Field and Vehicle in Image-Signs,” Semiotica 3 yang Xi Han Bo Qianqiu mu bihua yishu” (The murals
(1969): 224. The earliest mural, dating from Neolithic times, in the Western Han tomb of Bo Qianqiu in Luoyang), Wenwu
was found in Dadiwan, Gansu Province, in 1982. For an 6 (1977): 13-16; Sun Zuoyun, “Luoyang Qian Han Bo
illustration, see Zhongguo meishu quanji (A comprehensive col¬ Qianqiu mu bihua kaoshi” (An interpretation of the murals
lection of Chinese art) (Beijing: Wenwu, 1985-), Painting, in Bo Qianqiu’s Western Han tomb in Luoyang), Wenwu 6
vol. 1, pi. 39 (hereafter cited as ZMQj). (i977): T7~22-
5 Guo Baojun and Lin Shoujin, “1952 nian qiuji Luoyang fajue 17 The excavation of Tomb 61 is reported in Kaogu xuebao 2
baogao” (A report of the excavation in Luoyang in fall (1964): 107-125. General introductions to the tomb include
1952), Kaogu xuebao 9 (19 5 5): 94, 97- Jonathan Chaves, “A Han Painted Tomb at Loyang,” Artibus
6 Wenwu 2 (1976); Kaogu xuebao 4 (1981); Wenwu 8 (1974); Hebei Asiae 30 (1968): 5 —27; Jan Fontein and Wu Tung, Han and
Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics, Gaocheng Taixi Shang T’ang Murals Discovered in Tombs in the People’s Republic of China
daiyisfi (The Shang site at Taixi in Gaocheng) (Beijing: and Copied by Contemporary Chinese Painters (Boston: Museum
Wenwu, 198 5). of Fine Arts, 1976), 22.
7 ZMO, Painting, vol. 1, pi. 39; Yang Jianfang, “Han yiqian 18 Discussions of this mural include Guo Muoruo, “Luoyang
de bihua zhi faxian” (The discovery of pre-Han murals), Han mu bihua shitan” (A tentative interpretation of the mu¬
Meishujia 29 (1982): 43-47. rals in a Han tomb in Luoyang), Kaogu xuebao 2 (1964): 1—6;
8 A surviving piece of a wall painting twenty-two centimeters Chaves, “Han Painted Tomb at Loyang”; Li Yu, Zhongguo
long and thirteen centimeters wide was found in Anyang in meishu shigang (An outline of Chinese art history) (Shenyang:
1975. The Zhou example, found in a tomb in Yangjiabao in Liaoning meishu chubanshe, 1984), vol. 1, p. 246.
 19 A tomb mural from Luoyang now in the Cleveland Art 34 Eastern Han painted tombs have been found in various sites
Museum depicts the same subject. near Liaoyang. For excavation reports, see Wenwu 6 (1985);
20 Xi’an Jiaotong Daxue Xi Han bihua mu (A painted Western Kaogu 1 (i960); 1 (1980); Wenwu cankao giliao 5 (195 5); Wilma
Han tomb in the Xi’an Transportation University) (Xi’an: Fairbank, “Han Mural Paintings in the Pei-yuan Tomb at
Xi’an Jiaotong Daxue chubanshe, 1991). Liao-yang, South Manchuria,” Artibus Asiae 17, nos. 3-4
21 Nine painted tombs belonging to this period have been (1954): 238-264. Reports of the stone tombs are in Wenwu
found. Only a tomb in Wuwei, Gansu Province, was not cankao giliao 5, 12 (1955); Wenwu~i (1959); 3 (1973); 6 (1984);
located in the metropolitan center. See ZMQ, Painting, vol. 8, Kaogu 10 (198 5).
pp. 2-4. For a report on the Wuwei tomb, see Renmin ribao 3 5 Li Dianfu has discussed Koguryo tombs found in China in
(People’s daily), February 3, 1987. ji’an, Jilin Province. “Ji’an Gaogouli mu yanjiu” (A study of
22 For a detailed report on this tomb, see “Luoyang Xin Mang Koguryo tombs in Ji’an), Kaogu xuebao 2 (1980): 163—186.
shiqi de bihua mu” (A painted tomb of the Xin-dynasty pe¬ Tomb murals found in Anak are reproduced in a beautifully
riod in Luoyang,” Wenwu cankao giliao 9 (1985): 163—173. printed book, Koguryu kobunpyokhwa (Murals of the Koguryo
23 Five painted tombs have been tentatively dated to the first tumulus) (Tokyo: Chosen gahosha, 1985).
half of the Eastern Han. Besides the Pinglu tomb, there are 36 Different theories have been proposed to explain the role
a tomb found in Yingchengzi, Liaoning Province, in 1931, a of Dong Shou. See Su Bai, “Chaoxian Anyue suo faxian
tomb discovered at Liangshan, Shandong Province, in 1953, de Dong Shou mu” (Dong Shou’s tomb found in Anak in
and two tombs excavated in Luoyang in 1981 and 1987. See North Korea), Wenwu 1 (1952): 101—104; Hong Qingyu,
ZMQ, Painting, vol. 8, p. 5. But this dating is not supported “Guanyu Dong Shou mu de faxian he yanjiu” (The discov¬
by convincing evidence; some of the tombs may have been ery and investigation of Dong Shou’s tomb), Kaogu 1 (1959):
constructed in the early second century, not the first. 27- 3 5; K. H. J. Gardiner, The Early History of Korea (Hono¬
24 Wilma Fairbank first proposed this theory in “A Structural lulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1969), 40—43; Audrey
Key to Han Mural Art,” HarvardJournal ojAsiatic Studies 7, Spiro, Contemplating the Ancients: Aesthetic and Social Issues in
no. 1 (1942): 52-88. Early Chinese Portraiture (Berkeley: University of California
2 5 Zhu Wei was a Han general who died around the middle Press, 1990), 38—44. The official North Korean view on the
of the first century a.d. From the style and technique of the dating of the tomb and the identity of its occupants is repre¬
engravings on the shrine, however, the shrine was most sented in discussions in Koguryu kobun pyokhwa.
likely constructed during the second half of the second cen¬ 37 Ten tombs, nine at Xincheng and one at Jiuquan, belong to
tury. See Martin Powers, Art and Political Expression in Early this group. For excavation reports, see Cultural Relics Team
China (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), 352-361. of Gansu Province.,Jiayu Guan bihuamu fajue baogao (An exca¬
26 More than twenty late Eastern Han painted tombs have been vation report on painted tombs at Jiayu Pass) (Beijing:
reported. They are located in different places in five prov¬ Wenwu, 1985); Wenwu 10 (1959); 6 (1979); 8 (1982).
inces. Except for two that have one chamber, they are all 3 8 The fourth-century examples include the Zhai Zongying
large multichambered tombs. See ZMQ, Painting, vol. 8, tomb at Dunhuang and a group of tombs at Turpan. Re¬
p. 6. The excavation of Tomb 2 at Mixian is reported in ports are in Kaogu tongxun 1 (1955); Wenwu 6 (1978). For a
Wemvu 4 (i960): 51-52; 10 (1972): 49-55. These tombs are detailed excavation report on the largest tomb, see Gansu
briefly introduced in ZMQ, Painting, vol. 8, pp. 6-8. Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics, Jiuquan Siliu
27 For a detailed report on this tomb, see Hebei Provincial In¬ Guo mu bihua (Murals in a Sixteen Kingdoms tomb in
stitute of Cultural Relics, Anping Dong Han bihua mu (A East¬ Jiuquan) (Beijing: Wenwu, 1989).
ern Han painted tomb in Anping) (Beijing: Wenwu, 1990). 39 Just outlining the development of Dunhuang art would take
On the inscription see p. 3 5. too much space here. For a comprehensive introduction, see
28 For a detailed report on this tomb, see Museum of History, Ning Qiang, Dunhuangjojiaoyishu (Dunhuang Buddhist art)
Wangdu Han mu bihua (Murals in a Han tomb in Wangdu) (Gaoxiong: Fuwen tushu chubanshe, 1992).
(Beijing: Zhongguo gudian yishu, 1955). 40 See ibid., 70.
29 For a discussion of the cataloguing style in Han pictorial art, 41 For a report on the tomb of Yuan Wei, see Wenwu 12
see Wu Hung, The Wu Liang Shrine: The Ideology oj Early Chi¬ (1974); the Ruru Princess, see Wenwu 4 (1984); Li Xian, see
nese Pictorial Art (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989), Wenwu 11 (1985); Lou Rui, see Wenwu 10 (1983); Dao Gui,
79-85.
see Wenwu 10 (1985); Gao Run, see Kaogu 3 (1979).
30 For a detailed report on this tomb, see HelingolHan mu bihua 42 See Su Bai, “Taiyuan Bei Qi Lou Rui mu canguan ji”
(Wall paintings in the Helingol tomb of the Han dynasty) (Notes on Lou Rui’s tomb of the Northern Qi in Taiyuan),
(Beijing: Wenwu, 1978). Wenwu 10 (1983): 26.
31 See Wu Hung, “Beyond the Great Boundary,” in John Hay,
43 See Jin Weinuo, “Gu diwangtu yu BeiQijiaoshu tu” (Portraits oj
ed., Boundaries in China (London: Reaktion Books, 1994),
Ancient Emperors and Scholars of the Northern Qi Collating Texts),
81—104. Meishuyanjiu 1 (1982).
32 See Wu Hung, “Buddhist Elements in Early Chinese Art,” 44 Perhaps the only exception is a tomb found in Dengxian,
ArtibusAsiae 47 (1986): 263 — 376.
Henan Province. But this tomb is decorated with tiles which
3 3 The exception is a multichambered tomb discovered in
are painted on the surface and have pictures in relief. See
Lingbao, Henan Province, in 195 5; see Yujianhua, Zhongguo
Cultural Relics Team of the Henan Provincial Culture Bu¬
huihua shi (History of Chinese painting) (Beijing: Zhongguo
reau, Dengxian caise huaxiang ghuan mu (A tomb in Dengxian
gudian yishu, 19 5 8), 77.
decorated with painted picture tiles) (Beijing: Wenwu, 1958).

3 56 Notes to Pages 29-43

45 Etienne Balazs, Chinese Civilisation and Bureaucracy: Variations 61 ZMQ, Painting, vol. 19, interpretation of fig. 5.
on a Theme, trans. H. M. Wright (New Haven: Yale University 62 LDMHJ, 1.17; Acker, vol. i,pp. 124-125.
Press, 1964), 226-254. 63 LDMHJ, 8.261; Acker, vol. i,pp. 173—174.
46 Ibid., 25 — 33. 64 For an inventory of these temple murals, see Yu Jianhua,
47 See Susan Bush and Hsio-yen Shih, comps, and eds., Early Zhongguo huihua shi (History of Chinese painting), 2 vols.
Chinese Texts on Painting (Cambridge: Harvard University (Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1959), vol. 1, p. 82.
Press, 1985), 29. 65 Sui shu (Sui history) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1973), vol. 68,
48 Gu Ivaizhi’s essays are “Essay on Painting the Cloud Terrace pp. I 594-D95; LDMHJ, 8.254-255.
Mountain ’ (“Hua Yuntai shan ji”), “A Discussion of the Sur¬ 66 Xuanhe huapu (The Xuanhe painting catalogue), in Yan Jialuo,
viving Paintings from the Wei and Jin Dynasties” (“Wei Jin ed., Yishu congshu (Taibei: Shijie shuju, 1962), series 1, vol. 9,
shengliu huazan”), and “On Painting” (“Lun hua”), all col¬ 1.54-55; Jiu Tang shu (The old Tang history) (Beijing: Zhong¬
lected in Zhang Yanyuan, Eidai minghua ji (Record of famous hua shuju, 1975), 77.2679—2680.
paintings of successive dynasties), in Yan Jialuo, ed., Yishu 67 Jiu Tangshu, 77.2680; LDMHJ, 9.269-273.
congshu (Collectanea of writings on arts) (Taibei: Shijie shuju, 68 Jin Weinuo, “Bunian tu yu Lingyan Gegongchen tu” (The Imperial
1962), series 1, vol. 8 (hereafter cited as LDMHJ). For En¬ Sedan Chair and Twenty-Four Meritorious Officials in the Lingyan
glish translations, see Bush and Shih, Early Chinese Texts on Palace), Wenwu 10 (1962): 16.
Painting, 24—39. Zong Bing’s two texts, entitled “Preface on 69 We know, for example, that parts of the painting were
Landscape Painting” (“Hua shanshui xu”) and “Preface on beyond repair as early as 1188, that a portion is probably
Painting” (“Xu hua”), have been discussed by many schol¬ missing, indicated by a conspicuous chronological gap sepa¬
ars. For English translations, see Bush and Shih, Early Chi¬ rating the first six and last seven emperors, and that the two
nese Texts on Painting, 36—39. groups, painted on two pieces of silk and in different styles,
49 Bush and Shih, Early Chinese Texts on Painting, 39 (quotation were perhaps by different hands. See Tomita Kojiro, “Por¬
from Wang Wei). Many interpretations and translations of traits of the Emperors: A Chinese Scroll-Painting Attributed
the Six Principles exist; for a concise review of different ap¬ to Yen Li-pen,” Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 59
proaches, see ibid., 10—17. For an English translation of (February 1932): 1-8. Jin Weinuo argues that the Boston
Yao’s text, see Acker, vol. 1, pp. 33 — 58. version is a Song copy of a painting created not by Yan
5 o Acker, vol. 1, pp. 115 —125. Liben but by another early Tang artist, Lang Yuling. Jin, “Gu
51 The excavation of the tomb is reported in Wenwu 3 (1986). diwang tu de shidai yu zuozhe” (The date and painter of Por¬
52 Spiro, Contemplating the Ancients, 91—121. traits of Past Emperors), in Jin, Zhongguo meishushi lunji (Papers
5 3 Copies of other paintings likely to be of ancient origin, in¬ on Chinese art history) (Beijing: Renmin meishu chubanshe,
cluding The Five Planets and Twenty-Eight Constellations, attrib¬ 1981), 141-148.
uted to Zhang Sengyou (active 500—550), and Tribute Bearers, 70 A series of emperors’ portraits engraved on the Wu Liang
attributed to Xiao Yi, Emperor Yuan of the Liang, follow a shrine date to 151 a.d. For a discussion of these images and
traditional cataloguing style and will be omitted from this their political significance, see Wu, Wu Liang Shrine, 156—167.
discussion. The tradition of portraying past rulers continued during
54 A New Account of Tales of the World by Liu I-ch’ing, trans. post-Han times and is mentioned in a text, “On Painting”
Richard D. Mather (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota (“Lun hua”), attributed to Gu Kaizhi; see Bush and Shih,
Press, 1976), xv. Early Chinese Texts on Painting 28-29.
5 5 Han depictions of chaste women, such as those on the fa¬ 71 Xuanhe huapu, 1.59. Ning Qiang made the Vimalakirti con¬
mous Wu Liang shrine, are also organized in a row with ex¬ nection in the seminar at Harvard University.
planatory and framing inscriptions. These pictorial stories 72 Sima Guang, Zighi tongjian (A mirror for the reflection of the
are based on Biographies of Exemplary Women, compiled by the government) (Taibei: Yiwen yinshuguan, 1962), 204.29a. See
Han imperial librarian Liu Xiang, who also had some famous Chuan-ying Yen, “The Sculpture from the Tower of Seven
historical ladies illustrated on a screen. Such a screen has Jewels: The Style, Patronage and Iconography of the Monu¬
been found in the tomb of Sima Jinlong, a relative of the ment” (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1986). The three
Northern Wei royalty, attesting to the continuation of the main audience halls of the Darning Palace, called Hanyuan,
Han tradition at least as late as the fifth century. Xuanzheng, and Ziehen, each consisted of a main building
56 For a more detailed discussion of the tradition of illustrating and flanking pavilions, much like an architectural complex
exemplary women, see Wu, Wu Liang Shrine, 175-176. depicted in a paradise scene. Linde Hall, the site of imperial
57 For a discussion of this convention and its influence on Han Buddhist rites and royal performances, showed even closer
pictorial art, see ibid., 213-217. similarities to a paradise structure in both architectural plan
5 8 Hsio-yen Shih, “Poetry Illustration and the Works of Ku and the uses to which the buildings were put.
K’ai-chih,” in J. Watson, ed., The Translation of Art: Essays on 7 3 Shi Weixiang, “ Dunhuang Mogaoku de Baoyu jing bian (An il¬
Chinese Painting and Poetry (Hong Kong: Chinese University lustration of the Sutra of Precious Rain in the Mogao Caves in
of Hong Kong, 1976), 6-29. Dunhuang), in 1983 nian quanguo Dunhuang xueshu taolunhui
5 9 Here I am indebted to Ning Qiang, who made this observa¬ wenji (Papers presented in the national conference on Dun¬
tion in a seminar at Harvard University in 1992. huang studies in 1983), 2 vols. (Lanzhou: Gansu renmin
60 See Wang Zhongying, WeiJin Nanbeichao shi (History of the chubanshe, 1985), vol. 1, pp. 61—83.
Wei, Jin, and Northern and Southern Dynasties) (Shanghai: 74 Fu Xinian believes that the painting is based on a late Tang
Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1980), vol. 2, pp. 541-5 51. original. Fu, “Guanyu Zhan Ziqian Youchun tu niandai de

Notes to Pages 43— 64 357

 tantao” (On the date of Zhan Ziqian’s Spring Outing), Wenwu 82 The painted tombs include fourteen early Tang tombs —
(1978). Kei Suzuki dates the original to the early Tang, in those of Li Shou (located in Sanyuan, dated 631), Princess
Suzuki, Chugoku kaiga shi (The history of Chinese painting), Changle (Liquan, 643), Zhishi Fengjie (Chang’an, 658),
2 vols. (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 1981). Here I follow Zheng Rentai (Liquan, 664), Su Dingfang (Xianyang, 667),
Kei Suzuki’s opinion. Li Shuang (Xi’an, 668), Mr. Su (Xianyang, 668—741), Li Feng
75 Jiu Tangshu, 60.2346; LDMHJ, 1.56; Acker, vol. 1, p. 156. (Fuping, 675), Ashi Nazhong (Liquan, 675), Li Chongrun
Officials like Wang Xiong, governor general of Tangzhou in (Qianxian, 706), Li Xianhui (Qianxian, 706), Li Xian (Qian-
the early eighth century, followed Li Sixun’s style. LDMHJ, xian, 706—711), Wei Jiong (Chang’an, 708), Master (Xianzhu)
10.309; Acker, vol. 2, part 1, pp. 269—270. of Wanquan (Xianyang, 710); eight High Tang tombs —
76 LDMHJ, 9.290-292; Acker, vol. 2, part 1, pp. 242—244. In those of Xue Mo (Xi’an, 728), Feng Fanzhou (Xi’an, 729),
addition to the short introduction to Li Linfu’s landscape Su Simao (Xi’an, 745), Mrs. Song (Xi’an, 745), Zhang Qushe
painting in LDMHJ (9.291), there is a poem by Sun Di en¬ (Xianyang, 747), Zhang Quyi (Xianyang, 748), Gao Yuangui
titled “An Answering Poem, Respectfully Offered, on a (Xi’an, 756), Mr. Flan (Xi’an, 765); and five middle and late
Landscape Painting by Li, Junior Premier and Director of Tang tombs — those of Princess Dachang (Xianyang, 787),
the Grand Imperial Secretariat [titles that Li Linfu held from Yao Cungu (Xi’an, 835), Liang Yuanhan (Xi’an, 844), Gao
736 on].” It begins with these sentences: “Since his palace Kecong (Xi’an, 847), Yang Xuanlue (Xi’an, 864). For sources
duties leave many days of leisure / Landscapes have become of excavation reports, see Wang Renbo et al., “Shaanxi Tang
his ruling passion. / Wishing to convey a sense of depth and mu bihua zhi yanjiu” (A study of the Tang tomb murals from
height / He has turned to the making of richly embellished Shaanxi Province), Wenbo 1 (1984): 39—52; 2 (1984): 44—55.
paintings.” Ouan Tang shi (A complete compilation of Tang For analyses of these tombs, see ibid.; Su Bai, “Xi’an diqu
poems) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, i960), 1195. See Alexan¬ Tang mu bihua de buju he neirong” (The composition and
der Soper, “A Ninth-Century Landscape Painting in the content of the Tang tomb murals in the Xi’an area), Kaogu
Japanese Imperial Palace and Some Chinese Parallels,” Arti- xuebao 2 (1982): 137—154.
busAsiae 29, no. 4 (1967): 335 — 350. Two excavated Sui tombs belonged to Xu Minxing
77 Fu, “Guanyu Zhan Ziqian Youchun tuT (Jiaxiang, Shandong Province, 584) and Shi Wuzhao
78 Wang Renbo, “Tang Yide Taizi mu bihua ticai de fenxi” (An (Guyuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, 610). Exca¬
analysis of the content of the murals in the tomb of Crown vated painted Tang tombs in provincial areas include the
Prince Yide of the Tang dynasty), Kaogu 6 (1973): 381; see tombs of Li Xin (Yunxian, Hubei Province, 725) and Zhang
also Fontein and Wu, Han and T’ang Painted Murals, 104—105. Jiuling (Shaoguan, Guangdong Province, 740), as well as
It is possible that Li Sixun made a political painting called those located in Jinshengcun (684-705) and Dongruzhuang
Picking Melons (Zhaigua tu) when he was in hiding. Illustrating (696) in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, and Astana in Turpan,
Prince Li Xian’s poem of the same title, this work, in Max Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (Tomb 216, High Tang;
Loehr’s words, “was done as a solemn warning, in pictorial Tomb 217, middle Tang; Tomb 38, High Tang-middle Tang).
forms, to the Imperial clan, a political manifestation tied to Two other excavated painted tombs, belonging to Wei
an historical moment, presumably between 675 and 680.” Jiong (d. 708) and a daughter of Princess Taiping (d. 710),
Loehr, The Great Painters of China (New York: Harper and were built around the same time as the three imperial
Row, 1980), 66—67. tombs.
79 Fontein and Wu, Han and T’ang Painted Murals, 104; LDMHJ, 83 The excavation of the two tombs is reported in Wenwu 1
9.294; Acker, vol. 2, part 1, p. 248. (1963) and 7 (1972). For brief English overviews, see R. C.
80 See Michael Sullivan, Chinese Landscape Painting in the Sui and Rudolph, “Newly Discovered Chinese Painted Tombs,” Ar¬
T’ang Dynasties (Berkeley: University of California Press, chaeology 18, no. 3 (autumn 1965): 1-8; Mary H. Fong, “Four
1980), 119—120.
Chinese Royal Tombs of the Early Eighth Century,” Artibus
81 Li Lincan believes that the scroll was a fabrication by a Song Asiae 3 5, no. 4 (1973): 307-334; Fontein and Wu, Han and
painter based on the painter’s understanding of the Tang T ang Painted Murals, 90—103, 121—123. The murals in Prin¬
blue-and-green landscape style. Li, “MinghuangxingShu tu de cess Yongtai’s tomb are severely damaged. The surviving
yanjiu” (A study of Emperor Minghuang’s Journey into Shu), in Li,
sections in the antechamber resemble those painted in the
Zhongguo minghuayanjiu (A study of some famous Chinese
same positions in Prince Yide’s tomb. According to the ex¬
paintings), vol. 1 (Taibei: Yiwen yinshuguan, 1973). Al¬
cavators, all the walls in Prince Zhanghuai’s tomb beyond
though the painting was traditionally associated with Li
the fourth air shaft were repainted in 711, when Prince
Zhaodao, this attribution can be ruled out because Li Zhao-
Zhanghuai was posthumously promoted to crown prince
dao died before the emperor’s journey. Max Loehr has sug¬
and when his consort, Lady Fang, was interred with him.
gested that the original work was created several decades
The paintings along the sloping passageway, therefore,
after Mmghuang’s journey, probably inspired by Bai Juyi’s fa¬ should still be dated to 706.
mous song “Everlasting Remorse” (“Changhen ge”), which 84 LDMHJ, 2.63; Acker, vol. 1, pp. 166-167.
was written around 800, at a time when it became “possible
8 5 For such cases recorded in Tang texts, see Wu Hung, “Re¬
to use the theme without giving offense to the Imperial fam¬
born in Paradise: A Case Study of Dunhuang Sutra Painting
ily.” Loehr, Great Painters of China, 69; see also Arthur Waley,
and Its Religious, Ritual and Artistic Context,” Orientations
The Life and Times of Po Chii-i (London: Allen and Unwin,
(May 1992): 59-60.
1948), 45.
86 For a more detailed discussion of these two murals, see ibid.

358 Notes to Pages 65—70

87 Zhu Jingxuan, Tang chao minghua lu (Records of famous 95 Some of these anecdotes follow the common structures of
painters during the Tang dynasty), in Yang Jialuo, ed., folktales and Buddhist stories. The contest between Wu
Yishu cohgbian (Taibei: Shijie shuju, 1962), series 1, vol. 8, Daozi and Li Sixun, for example, can be compared with
pp. 14-15 (hereafter cited as TCMHL)-, Alexander Soper, many competitions described in Buddhist literature and art,
“T’ang ch’ao ming hua lu,” Artibus Asiae 21, nos. 3—4 such as the contest between Raudraksa and Sariputra — an
(x95 8): 204—230, especially 209. See also Osvald Siren, extremely popular subject in Tang painting. See Wu Hung,
Chinese Painting, heading Masters and Principles, vol. 1 (New “What Is Bianxiang?— On the Relationship Between
York: Ronald Press, 1956), no. Dunhuang Art and Dunhuang Literature,” HarvardJournal
88 Zhang on styles: LDMHJ, 2.71; Acker, vol. 1, p. 184. Zhang ojAsiatic Studies 5 2, no. 1 (June 1992), m-192.
on Li Zhaodao: LDMHJ, 2.71; Acker, vol. 2, part 1, p. 243. 96 For a related discussion, see Denis Twitchett and Arthur
Zhu Jingxuan voiced a similar criticism when he described Wright, eds., Perspectives on the T’ang (New Haven: Yale Uni¬
Li Zhaodao’s paintings as “crowded and delicate.” TCMHL, versity Press, 1973), 1.
20. Zhang on Wu Daozi: LDMHJ, 2.71; Acker, vol. 1, p. 184. 97 TCMHL, 13; Soper, “T’ang ch’ao ming hua lu,” 207-208;
Zhu on Wu Daozi: TCMHL, 15—16; Soper, “T’ang ch’ao LDMHJ, 9.289, 292-293, 295, 298, 302; Acker, vol. 2, part 1,
ming hua lu,” 210, translation slighdy modified. pp. 241-242, 245-246, 250-251, 260.
89 Loehr, Great Painters ojChina, 44. 98 Zhang on Li Cou: LDMHJ, 9.292; Acker, vol. 2, part 1,
90 See Huang Miaozi, Wu DaosJ shiji (Events in the life of p. 244. The following discussion of tomb murals is based
Wu Daozi) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1991), 23 — 30. on Wang Renbo et. al, “Shaanxi Tang mu bihua zhi
91 LDMHJ, 9.285; Acker, vol. 2, part 1, p. 232. These duties are yanjiu.”
suggested by two of Wu’s tides, Professor of Interior In¬ 99 Zhang on Zhang Xuan: LDMHJ, 9.295—296; Acker, vol. 2,
struction (Neijiao boshi) and Companion of Prince Ning part 1, p. 248. Zhu on Zhang Xuan: TCMHL, 29; Soper,
(Ningwang you). See Arthur Waley, Introduction to the Study oj “T’ang ch’ao ming hua lu,” 222-223.
Chinese Painting (London, 1923), 112. In Zhu Jingxuan’s 100 There is another version of the painting besides Huizong’s
words, it was Wu’s “Heaven-endowed talent that enabled copy, this one in the National Palace Museum in Taibei. It
him to comprehend the secret of painting while still young.” bears the title The Beauties (Liren xing), adopted from one of
TCMHL, 14; Soper, “T’ang ch’ao ming hua lu,” 208. When Du Fu’s famous poems, which indicates that not only Lady
Zhang Yanyuan states that Wu “studied” under Zhang Guoguo but also the other Yang sisters are portrayed. No
Sengyou, Zhang Xiaoshi (seventh to eighth century), Zhang evidence supports the traditional opinion that this scroll was
Xu (active 714—742), and He Zhizhang (659—744) (LDMHJ, copied by Li Gonglin from Zhang Xuan’s original. Because it
2.63; Acker, vol. 1, p. 166, and vol. 2, part 1, p. 232), he was shows a close stylistic resemblance to Ladies Preparing Newly
emphasizing the stylistic heritage of Wu’s art, not necessarily Woven Silk in figural types, drawing technique, and color

his actual teachers. It is possible that Wu took part in creat¬ scheme, it is probably also a product of Huizong’s Academy
ing a political painting called The Gold Bridge (Jinqiao tu), of Painting in the early twelfth century.
which depicted Minghuang’s journey from Mount Tai to 101 Rudolf Arnheim, Art and Visual Perception (Berkeley: Univer¬
the capital, Chang’an. But the reliability of this record is sity of California Press, 1974), 129-130.
questionable, for neither Zhang Yanyuan nor Zhu Jingxuan 102 LDMHJ, 10.322-323; Acker, vol. 2, part 1, p. 290, transla¬
mentions this event, and all references have post-Tang dates. tion modified.
92 LDMHJ, 9.286; Acker, vol. 2, part 1, p. 237. A number of 103 TCMHL, 2x0—212.
such painters cited in LDMHJ (9.286—289; Acker, vol. 2, 104 The argument that this painting is not a later copy seems to
part 1, pp. 232-240) were Wu Daozi’s contemporaries or be clinched by the fact that the painting is formed by piecing
students. Zhang also identifies some other Tang painters together three smaller compositions into a scroll form.
as “famous artisans” (mingshou huagonj). LDMHJ, 9.297. These three compositions, each bearing two female images,
93 See Li Yu, Zhongguo meishu shigang (A concise history of Chi¬ may have been originally mounted on a screen. See Xu
nese art), 2 vols. (Shenyang: Liaoning meishu chubanshe, Shucheng, “Cong Wanshan shinii tu, Zanhua shinii tu luetan
1988), vol. 2, pp. 118-119. Except for one painting, all Tang ren shinii hua” (A discussion of Tang-dynasty female
ninety-three works by Wu Daozi listed in the Xuanhe huapu portraits based on Ladies with Silk Fans and Court Ladies Wear¬
depicted religious images. It is possible that some of them ing Flowered Headdresses), Wenwu~i (1980): 71—75. The original

were designs for larger murals. Existing versions of the Chao format may also explain the rather awkward ground level in
yuan xianghang tu— a depiction of Daoist celestial rulers and the present scroll. Regarding the date, both Xie Zhiliu and
their attendants in a long procession — are generally linked Ellen J. Laing have noted that the hairstyle of the painted
with Wu Daozi’s tradition. ladies is shared by female figurines discovered in the South¬
94 The anecdotes are carefully recorded in TCMHL, 16; Soper, ern Tang royal tombs. Laing further argues that the painting
“T’ang ch’ao ming hua lu,” 208-210. The quotations are depicts a traditional spring festival called Flower Morning.
from TCMHL, 15. It is significant that Zhang Yanyuan com¬ See Xie Zhiliu, “Dui Tang Zhou Fang Zanhua shinii tu de
pares Wu Daozi with two legendary figures in Zhuangzi’s shangque” (Some different opinions about Court Ladies Wear¬
writings — a carver who never had to change his knife and ing Flowered Headdresses attributed to Zhou Fang of the Tang

a carpenter who could slice a thin layer of white lime off dynasty), Wenwu cankao %iliao 6 (1958): 25—26; E. J. Laing,
someone’s nose with a heavy ax. LDMHJ 2.70; Acker, vol. 1, “Notes on Ladies Wearing Flowers in Their Hair,” Orientations

pp. 181—182. 21, no. 2 (1990): 32-39.

Notes to Pages 70—77 359

 105 Although some famous bird-and-flower painters, such as Three alternative Histories of Chinese Painting Franklin D. Mur¬
Xue Ji (649-713), appeared in the early Tang, birds and phy Lectures IX (Lawrence, Kan.: Spencer Museum of Art,
flowers did not become popular in tomb murals until the 1988), p. 81, fig. 57.
High Tang and mid-Tang. See Wang Renbo et al., “Shaanxi 5 The print is reproduced and discussed in G. Henderson and
Tang mu bihua zhi yanjiu.” L. Hurwitz, “The Buddha of Seiryoji f Artibus Asiae 19
106 Du Fu: Du shi xiangyhu (Du Fu’s poems with detailed anno¬ (1956): 5 — 5 5-
tations) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1979), 1147. Zhang: 6 Kiyohiko Munakata, Ching Hao’s Pifa-cloi: A Note on the Art
LDMHJ, 9.303; Acker, vol. 2, part 1, pp. 260-263. of Brush (Ascona, Switzerland: Artibus Asiae, 1974).
107 Zhang Yanyuan wrote that Wang painted a panorama of 7 Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting (Cleveland: Cleveland Mu¬
Wangchuan on the walls of Chingyuan Si, a part of his villa seum of Art, 1980), 12-13.
that he had converted into a Buddhist temple after his 8 Three important landscapes in the National Palace Museum
mother’s death. LDMHJ, 10.307. According to Zhu are the major monuments of Guan Tong’s style. They are re¬
Jingxuan, a screen with a painting of Wangchuan stood produced in Gugong shuhua tulu (Illustrated catalogue of
in the West Pagoda Precinct of Qianfu Si in Chang’an. painting and calligraphy in the National Palace Museum)
TCMHL, 25; Soper, “T’ang ch’ao minghua lu,” 218. (Taibei: National Palace Museum, 1989), 5 5—60.
108 TCMHL, 24—25; Soper, “T’ang ch’ao ming hua lu,” 218. 9 James Cahill, “Some Aspects of Tenth-Century Painting as
109 Jiu Tang shu, vol. 192, pp. 5119— 5121. Zhang on Lu: Seen in Three Recently Published Works,” Proceedings of the
LDMHJ, 9.300; Acker, vol. 2, part 1, pp. 257—258. Accord¬ International Conference on Sinology: Section on History of Art
ing to Dai Biaoyuan’s Zaiyuan wenji, “The original painting (Taibei: Academia Sinica, 1992).
was a single composition, now changed into [a work in] ten 10 Richard Barnhart, Marriage of the Lord of the River: A Lost
sections.” Cited in Chen Gaohua, Sui Tanghuajia shiliao (His¬ Landscape by Tung Yuan (Ascona, Switzerland: Artibus Asiae,
torical data about painters of the Sui and Tang dynasties) 197°).
(Beijing: Wenwu, 1987), 127. 11 In addition to the two reproduced here, a third landscape,
II o Zhuang Shen, “Tang Lu Hong Caotang shiyhi tujuan kao” tided Xiao Yi’s Theft of the Lanting Preface, is also regarded as
(A study of Ten Vieivs from a Thatched Lodge by Lu Hong of the work of Juran. Reproduced in Gugong shuhua tulu, vol. 1,
the Tang dynasty), in Zhongguo huashiyanjiu xuji (Studies p. 102.
of the history of Chinese painting, second series) (Taibei: 12 The four major histories of the period are the Wudai minghua
Zhengzhong shuju, 1972), 111—211; Sullivan, Chinese Land¬ buyi (Additions to famous painters of the Five Dynasties)
scape Painting in the Sui and T’ang Dynasties, 52 — 53. of Liu Daochun, Liu’s Shengchao minghua ping (Critique of fa¬
III LDMHJ, 9.301; Acker, vol. 2, part 1, p. 259. mous painters of our great dynasty), both written around
112 Notes on Brushmrk (Pifaji), an extant treatise traditionally as ¬ 1060, Guo Ruoxu’s Tuhua jianwen yhi (Record of my ex¬
cribed to Jing Hao, places a heavy emphasis on the value of periences in painting), ca. 1080, and Deng Chun’s Huaji
brush and ink in artistic expression. For a list of works at¬ (Records of painting) of 1167. The imperial catalogue of
tributed to Li Cheng, see James Cahill, An Index of Early painting, of 1121, Xuanhe huapu, also counts as a major con¬
Chinese Painters and Paintings: T’ang, Sung, and Yuan (Berkeley: tribution to the history of painting. See following note.
University of California Press, 1980), 42-44. 13 Three separate catalogues of the imperial collections were
113 TCMHL, 228; Sullivan, Chinese Landscape Painting in the Sui published in the early twelfth century: a catalogue of paint¬
and T’ang Dynasties, 73. ing, Xuanhe huapu; a catalogue of calligraphy, Xuanhe shupu;
114 Zhang on Zheng Qian: LDMHJ, 9.301. Zhu on Zhang and a catalogue of antiquities, Xuanhe bogu tulu.
Zao: TCMHL, 216. Fu Zai on Zhang Zao: Yu Anlan, ed., 14 Li Cheng’s biography is the subject of a study by Wai-kam
Zhongguo hualun leihian (Classified anthology of Chinese writ¬ Ho, “Li Ch’eng and the Mainstream of Northern Sung
ings on painting) (Beijing, 1956), vol. 1, pp. 20-21; Sullivan, Landscape Painting,” in Proceedings of the International Sympo¬
Chinese Landscape Painting in the Sui and T’ang Dynasties, transla¬ sium on Chinese Painting (Taibei: National Palace Museum,
tion slightly modified. For a discussion of Zhang Zao, see I972)> 251-283. See also Ho’s notes on Li Cheng and Juran
Sullivan, pp. 65 — 69. in Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting.
15 Guo Ruoxu is quoted in Susan Bush and Hsio-yen Shih, Early
Chinese Texts on Painting (Cambridge: Harvard University
The Five Dynasties and the Song Period Press, 1985), hi. The translation here is slightly modified.
16 Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting, no. 77.
1 For Guanxiu see Kobayashi Taishiro, Zengetsu daishi no shogai 17 Bush and Shih, Early Chinese Texts, 113.
togeijutsu (The life and art of Chanyue daishi) (Tokyo: Sogen- 18 Valerie Hansen, trans., from her new study of the scroll: The
sha, 1947); see also Wen C. Fong, “Archaism as a ‘Primitive’ Beijing tQingming Scroll and Its Significance for the Study of Chinese
Style,” in Artists and Traditions, ed. Christian F. Murck History (Albany: Journal of Sung-Yuan Studies, 1996), 3.
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976), 89-109. 19 As Valerie Hansen points out in the work cited in note 18,
2 Max Loehr, The Great Painters of China (Cambridge and Lon¬ the subject of this scroll is certainly not the Qingming festi¬
don: Harper and Row, 1980), 54—59.
val, since none of the activities of that holiday are depicted.
3 C. T. Loo, Chinese Frescoes of Northern Sung (New York: Hansen suggests a date closer to the time of Zhang Zhu’s
C. T. Loo, 1949).
colophon of 1186, through comparison with the murals at
4 However, a marvelous painting of bamboo in snow, in the the Yanshansi in Shanxi Province, dated 1167. This therefore
Shanghai Museum, is attributed to Xu Xi. See James Cahill, brackets the date of the scroll between 1060 or so and 1160.

360 Notes to Pages 78—105

 20 The connections between art and economic development Li Tang’s move to the south and the change in his style after
in the Song period are the subject of a doctoral dissertation the reestablishment of the Academy of Painting), part 1,
being written at Yale University by Heping Liu. For a general Kokka, no. 1047 (December 1981): 5—20; part 2, Kokka,
statement of the Song economy, see Laurence J. C. Ma, Com¬ no. 1053 (July 1982): 13—23.
mercial Development and Urban Change in Sung China (960—1299) 3 8 Robert A. Rorex and Wen C. Fong, Eighteen Songs of a Nomad
(Ann Arbor: Department of Geography, University of Flute (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974).
Michigan, 1971), 1-10. 39 Fong, Beyond Representation, 195—209.
21 Quotation adapted from Bush and Shih, Early Chinese Texts, 40 Julia K. Murray, “Ts’ao Hsiin and Two Southern Sung His¬
103. tory Scrolls,” Ars Orientalis 15:1—29.
22 For Zhao Yan, see Alexander Coburn Soper, trans., Kuo 41 For a variety of examples of such paintings and the poems
Jo-hsiis Experiences in Painting (Washington, D.C.: American often accompanying them, see Fong, Beyond Representation,
Council of Learned Societies, 1951), 27, 28, 86-87. 246-323.
23 For later portraiture in China, see Richard Vinograd, Bound¬ 42 Liang Kai’s paintings are reproduced in Osvald Siren, Chinese
aries of the Self Chinese Portraits, 1600-1900 (Cambridge: Cam¬ Painting: Leading Masters and Principles (New York: Ronald
bridge University Press, 1992). Press, 1956), vol. 3, plates 325 — 333. Two important recent
24 Soper, Kuo fo-hsii’s Experiences in Painting 47, 49, 51, 55 — 56, studies of the Southern Song period are Hui-shu Lee, “The
for example. Domain of Empress Yang (1162-1223): Art, Gender and
2 5 Wen C. Fong and James C. Y. Watt et al., Possessing the Past: Politics at the Late Southern Song Court” (Ph.D. diss., Yale
Treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei (New York: University, 1994); and James Cahill, The Lyric Journey: Poetic
Metropolitan Museum of Art; Taibei: National Pala.ce Mu¬ Painting in China andJapan (Cambridge: Harvard University
seum, 1996). Press, 1996).
26 Translation from Bush and Shih, Early Chinese Texts, 113.
27 See Richard M. Barnhart, with essays by Robert Harrist, Jr.,
and Hui-liangJ. Chu, Li Kung-lin’s Classic of Filial Piety (New The Yuan Dynasty
York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 199 3).
28 On rebuses in Chinese art generally, see Terese Tse 1 For the best-known surviving example, painted in 1306, see
Bartholomew, Myths and Rebuses in Chinese Art (San Fran¬ James Cahill, Hills Beyond a River. Chinese Painting of the Yuan
cisco: Asian Art Museum, 1988). Dynasty, 1299—1368 (New York and Tokyo: John Weatherhill,
29 Chen Rong (ca. 1200—1266), a Daoist scholar, is the most 1976), pi. 1.
important early master of the genre whose work is known 2 For a discussion of this theme in Yuan painting, see Wai-
today. His great Nine Dragons handscroll in the Museum kam Ho’s essay in Sherman E. Lee and Wai-kam Ho, eds.,
of Fine Arts, Boston, was painted in 1244; see Kojiro Chinese Art Under the Mongols: The Yuan Dynasty (1299—1368)
Tomita, ed., Por folio of Chinese Paintings in the Museum, vol. 1, (Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1968), 97—101.
Han to Sung Periods (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1961), 3 Cahill, Hills, pi. 2; Lee and Ho, Chinese Art, fig. 18.
127—129. See also Eight Dynasties, no. 62, for another work 4 See Shih Shou-chien’s study of this scroll in Wen C. Fong
by Chen. et al., Images of the Mind: Selections from the Edward L. Elliott
30 Hou-mei Sung, “Chinese Fish Painting and Its Symbolic Family and John B. Elliott Collections of Chinese Calligraphy and
Meanings: Sung and Yuan Fish Paintings,” National Palace Painting at the Art Museum, Princeton University (Princeton: The
Museum Bulletin 30, nos. 1, 2 (March-April, May-June 1995), Princeton University Art Museum, 1984), 237—254.
i^ the most complete study of the tradition of fish painting. 5 For a comprehensive study of the painting and its context
31 Guo Xi’s important essay on landscape painting, the Einquan and sources, see Chu-tsing Li, The Autumn Colors on the
gao^hiji (Lofty message of forests and streams) is translated Ch’iao and Hua Mountains: A Landscape by Chao Meng-fu,
in S. Sakanishi, An Essay on Landscape Painting (London: John Artibus Asiae Supplementum 21 (Ascona, Switzerland: Arti-
Murray, 1935). bus Asiae, 1965).
3 2 A broad selection of Huizong’s paintings is reproduced in 6 For the last, a famous painting in the Freer Gallery of Art,
Sung Painting Part 2 (“Five Thousand Years of Chinese Art” see Cahill, Hills, pi. 9, and Chu-tsing Li, “The Freer Sheep and
Series) (Taibei: Five Thousand Years of Chinese Art Editor¬ Goat and Chao Meng-fu’s Horse Paintings,” Artibus Asiae 30,
ial Committee, 1985), vol. 2, pp. 2-22. no. 4 (1962): 279—326.
3 3 For Huizong’s Auspicious Cranes, see Peter C. Sturman, 7 See Chu-tsing Li, “ Grooms and Horses by Three Members of
“Cranes Above Kaifeng: The Auspicious Image at the Court the Chao Family,” in Alfreda Murck and Wen C. Fong, eds..
of Huizong,” Ars Orientalis 20 (1990): 33-68. Words and Images: Chinese Poetry, Calligraphy, and Painting (New
34 Reproduced in SungPainting Part2, vol. 2, pp. 8-15. York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991), 199—220. Li
- j 5 See Barnhart, Li Kung-lin’s Classic of Filial Piety. quotes a number of inscriptions from Zhao’s extant or
36 For Gaozong’s propaganda campaign and his use of art, see recorded paintings that confirm the political readings of
Wen C. Fong, Beyond Representation (New Haven: Yale Uni¬ horse paintings. See also Jerome Silbergeld, “In Praise of
versity Press, 1992), 173-245; andjulia K. Murray, “The Government: Chao Yung’s Painting Noble Steeds and Late
Role of Art in the Southern Sung Dynastic Revival,” Bulletin Yuan Politics,” Artibus Asiae 46, no. 3 (1985): 159—198.
of Sung-Yuan Studies, no. 18 (1986): 41-58. 8 Quoted from the Xuanhe huapu entry on a Tang horse-
37 Suzuki Kei, “Rito no nanto fukuin to sono yoshiki hensen painter prince named Li Xu, in Li, “Freer Sheep and Goat,”
ni tsuite no ichi-shiron” (A tentative theory concerning 299.

Notes to Pages 105—148 361

 9 Adapted from Li’s translation in “Grooms and Horses,” 211— Press, 1956-58), vol. 6, pis. 86, 87. Wu’s inscription, written
212. Li notes that since the short inscription in which Zhao in 1352, states that the painting was done “more than ten
mentions having seen three works by Han Gan is written on years ago.”
separate silk, it could have been transferred from a different 2 8 Richard Barnhart, Wintry Forests, Old Trees: Some Landscape
horse painting. Themes in Chinese Painting (New York: China House Gallery,
10 Painting in the Yuan court has received a good deal of schol¬ 1973), M3-
arly attention in recent years; for a good short account, see 29 Undated; for a reproduction, see Zhongjguo meishu quanji (Bei¬
Marsha Smith Weidner, “Aspects of Painting and Patronage jing, 1989), Painting, vol. 5 (Yuan-dynasty painting), pi. 87.
at the Mongol Court, 1260—1368,” in Chu-tsing Li et al., 30 A large album leaf in the Palace Museum, Beijing, dated 1325
eds., Artists and Patrons: Some Social and Economic Aspects of Chi¬ (see Zhongguo meishu quanji, pi. 51); Two Pine Trees, dated 13 29,
nese Painting (Seatde: University of Washington Press, 1989), in the National Palace Museum, Taibei (see Cahill, Hills,
37—59- pi. 34); and a fan-shaped album leaf in the Princeton Art
11 Elizabeth Brotherton, in her study of this work, cites the Museum, undated but probably from this same period
inscriptions on a similar scroll from the same period in de¬ (see Lee and Ho, Chinese Art, no. 227).
scribing the process by which such a composite work was 31 Clearing After Snow on Mountain Peaks, National Palace
created. This is in her unpublished doctoral dissertation “Li Museum, Taibei; see Cahill, Hills, pi. 37.
Kung-lin and Long Handscroll Illustrations of T’ao Ch’ien’s 32 It is included in the miscellany Zhogeng lu by Tao Zongyi,
‘Returning Home’ ” (Princeton University, 1992), p. 221. published in 1366. A partial translation is in Cahill, Hills,
12 See Lee and Ho, Chinese Art, no. 201. 86—88; a full translation is in Susan Bush and Hsio-yen Shih,
13 Cahill, Hills, pi. 72. The painting is in the Palace Museum, eds., Early Chinese Texts on Painting (Cambridge: Harvard Uni¬
Beijing. versity Press, 1985), 262—266.
14 See Deborah Del Gais Muller, “Chang Wu: Study of a 3 3 A long study of this scroll by Xu Bangda is in his Gu shuhua
Fourteenth-Century Figure Painter,” ArtihusAsiae 47, no. 1 fei’e kaobian (Nanjing, 1984), vol. 3, pp. 76—79, and vol. 4,
(1986): 5 — 50. Two of the surviving scrolls were painted in pis. 19—21.
1346, the Jilin scroll in the sixth month and the Shanghai 34 See, for instance, the article by Du Zhesen, “Ni Yunlin ‘yiqi’
Museum scroll in the tenth. The well-known scroll in the shuo shixi” (A reconsideration of Ni Zan’s “untrammeled
Cleveland Museum was painted in 1361; see Lee and Ho, spirit”), Duoyun 4 (November 1982): 151-160.
Chinese Art, no. 187, and Cahill, Hills, pi. 70. 3 5 Rustic Thoughts in an Autumn Grove, Metropolitan Museum of
15 For these poems, see David Hawkes, Ch’u Tfu: The Songs of Art; see Cahill, Hills, pi. 47. A 13 5 5 painting, in the National
the South (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1959), 35 —44; Palace Museum, Taibei, follows more or less the same plan;
this poem is on pp. 38-39. see The Four Great Masters of the Yuan (Taibei, 1975), no. 301.
16 See David Sensabaugh, “Guests at Jade Mountain: Aspects 36 Richard Vinograd, “Family Properties: Personal Context and
of Patronage in Fourteenth-Century K’un-shan,” in Li et al., Cultural Pattern in Wang Meng’s Pien Mountains of 1366,”
Artists and Patrons, 9 3—100. Ars Orientalis 8 (1982): 1 — 29.
17 The paintings are in the Chionin, Kyoto, and represent the 37 The painting is in the Palace Museum, Taibei; see Cahill,
immortals Li Tieguai and Xiama; see Tokyo National Mu¬ Hills, pi. 58.
seum, Sogen no kaiga (Song and Yuan painting) (Kyoto, 1962), 3 8 For an excellent work by one of the Hangzhou-region mas¬
46, and Cahill, Hills, pi. 66 (Li Tieguai only). ters, Meng Yujian, see Cahill, Hills, colorplate 8.
18 See Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt, “Zhu Haogu Reconsidered: 39 Translation by Richard Barnhart, from Along the Border of
A New Date for the ROM Painting and the Southern Shanxi Heaven: Sung and Yuan Paintings from the C. C. Wang Family
Buddhist-Daoist Style,” ArtihusAsiae 48, nos. 1-2 (1987): Collection (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1983).
5-38.
40 From Wen Fong et al., Images of the Mind (Princeton, 1984),
19 For one of these, see Cahill, Hills, pi. 65. 104.
20 For a discussion of these, see Weidner, “Aspects,” 39-41. 41 See Bush and Shih, Early Chinese Texts on Painting 261. The
21 For the anonymous portrait of Ni Zan, painted in the 1330s word xie is there rendered as “sketching”; I have used “writ¬
or early 1340s, see Cahill, Hills, pis. 45 and 46. ing” to bring out the affinity with calligraphy.
22 Herbert Franke, “Two Yuan Treatises on the Technique of 42 Richard C. Rudolph, “Kuo Pi: A Yuan Artist and His
Portrait Painting,” Oriental Art 3, no. 1 (1950): 27-32. Diary,” Ars Orientalis 3 (1959): 175—188.
23 For a discussion of Zhao’s works in this style, and of their 43 Janies Cahill, Chinese Painting (Geneva: Skira, i960), 94. The
stylistic sources, see Richard Vinograd, “River Village — The painting is in the Fujii Yurinkan, Kyoto.
Pleasures of Fishing and Chao Meng-fu’s Li-Kuo Style Land¬
44 For a thorough study of the blossoming plum as a subject
scapes,” ArtihusAsiae 40, nos. 2—3 (1978): 124—142.
in painting and the literature associated with it, see Maggie
24 National Palace Museum, Taibei; see Cahill, Hills, pi. 19.
Bickford et al., Bones of Jade, Soul of Ice: The Flowering Plum in
2 5 Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Collections of the Nelson
Chinese Art (New Haven, 1985); and Bickford, Ink Plum: The
Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and the Cleveland Museum
Making of a Chinese Scholar-Painting Genre (New York: Cam¬
of Art (Cleveland, 1980), no. 24.
bridge University Press, 1996). One version of the Songcfai
26 In the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; see
meipu was included as no. 52b in the exhibition of which
Cahill, Hills, colorplate 3.
Bones of Jade was the catalogue, and is discussed there. The
27 See Osvald Siren, Chinese Painting Leading Masters and Prin¬
passage about Wang Mian from the writings of Song Lian,
ciples (London and New York: Lund Humphries and Ronald quoted below, is on p. 79.

362 Notes to Pages 148—192

 artists belonged to this category. Others painted only the
portraits of bodhisattvas or took up painting only as a pas¬
1 Huashi congshu (Series on the history of painting), ed. Yu An- time when young. The few who became famous artists were
lan (Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Fine Art Publishing House, all influenced by their families, having either a father or a
1963)5 p- 6. husband who was an artist. They include Dai Jin’s daughter,
2 Ibid., p. 20. Qiu Ying’s daughter Qiu Zhu (fl. ca. 1550), and Wen Cong-
3 Jinyiwei literally means “embroidered uniform guard” and jian’s daughter Wen Shu.
names a division of the Imperial Guards to which artists 15 “Because Ma Shouzhen was a famous prostitute, her paint¬
were often assigned. ings were not only treasured by romantics, they were also
4 Ming shi: Liu Jian ghuan (Biography of Liu Jian in the history famous overseas. Even the envoy from Siam bought her
of the Ming dynasty), ed. Zhang Tingyu (Beijing: Zhonghua painted fan to add to his collection.” From Shigutang shuhua
shuju, 1974), p. 4805. huikao (Collected textology of calligraphy and paintings),

5 Quoted in Huashi congshu, ed. Yu Anlan, p. 221. Xuanhe huapu ed. Bian Yongyu, privately printed by the Wang family in
(The Xuanhe painting catalogue) was originally published Jiangdu in 1921.
during the Song dynasty in 1120. 16 Instead of expressing sympathy for Xue Susu, Li Rihua’s ac¬
6 Mingdaiyuanti ghepai shiliao (Historical materials on the Zhe count is tinged with mockery. Scholars in the late Ming dy¬
School in the Ming dynasty), ed. Mu Yiqin (Shanghai: Shang¬ nasty often lauded chaste women and wrote biographies for

hai People’s Fine Art Publishing House, 1985), pp. 24-25. them, yet they also admired and flattered prostitutes in their

7 Ibid., quoting from the Duhua lu (Record of examining poems. This was not considered contradictory behavior at

paintings), p. 23. that time.

8 Liuru means “six likes”; that is to say, all things are like a
dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow, dew, and lightning.
9 In the Wen family line, there were Wen Zhengming’s sons,
Wen Peng (1498—1573) and Wen Jia (1501-1583), his The Qing Dynasty
nephew Wen Boren (1502—1575), grandsons Wen Yuanshan
(15 54—15 89) and Wen Congjian, great-grandsons Wen Zhen- 1 Zutang was the Zutang Temple in the suburbs of Nanjing,
meng (1574-1636) and Wen Zhenheng (1584-1645), great- where the artist lived in his last years. The landscape in the
great-grandsons Wen Nan (1596—1667) and Wen Dian painting might be of this area.
(1633—1704), and great-great-granddaughter Wen Shu. Wen 2 Opinions differ as to whether Bada Shanren’s courtesy name
Zhengming’s students and their students include Chen Chun, was Zhu Tonglin or Zhu Yichong. The majority of art histo¬
Lu Zhi (1496-1576), Wang Guxiang (1501-1568), Qian Gu rians agree that he belonged to the generation of the Zhu
(1508-after 1574), Peng Nian (1505-1566), Zhou Tianqiu family that shared the character Tong in their given names.
(1514-1595), Xie Shichen (1487-after 1 567),JuJie (d. 1585), 3 Wang Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart, Master of the Lotus
Sun Zhi (fl. ca. 1550-1580), and Chen Huan (early seven¬ Garden: The Life and Art of Bada Shanren (1626—iyoj), ed.

teenth century). Judith G. Smith (New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery
10 Dong Qichang, Huashi (The principles of painting), in and Yale University Press, 1990), 42.
Hualun congkan, ed. Yu Anlan (Beijing: Beijing People’s Fine 4 Ibid., 140.
Art Publishing House, 1989), vol. 1, pp. 70-105. 5 Ibid., 141.
11 Within the Huating School there are slight differences. For 6 Shitao, quoted in Zhongguo lidai huajia ghuanlue (Biographies of
instance, Zhao Zuo (active ca. 1610—1630) also claimed to Chinese painters of various dynasties), ed. Yan Shaoxian and
belong to the Suzhou-Songjiang School, and Shen Shichong Ran Xiangzheng (Beijing: China Zhanwang Publishing
(fl. ca. 1611-1640) to the Yunjian School, while Gu Zhengyi House, 1986), 184.
stuck to the Huating School. In fact, Zhao Zuo and Shen 7 Shitao, “Inscription on Most Spectacular Peaks,” Zhongguo hui¬
Shichong both ghost-painted in the name of Dong Qichang. hua shi tu lu (List of illustrations of the history of Chinese

It is very difficult for a layperson to distinguish their paint¬ painting) (Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Fine Art Publishing

ings from those of Dong. House, 1984), 774.

12 KangxiQiantangxian ghi (Records of Qiantang County during 8 Shitao, quoted in Sun Meilan, Suoyao ghe hun —Li Reran de
yishu shijie (Soul is what is needed —The world of art for
Kangxi’s reign), vol. 26.
13 Qin Zuyong, Tongyin lunhua (Discussing painting in the shade Li Keran) (Taibei: Taiwan Hongguan Cultural Undertakings,
of wutong trees), in Yishu congbian, ed. Yang Jialuo (Taibei: 1993)580.

9 Wang Yuanqi, quoted in Zhongguo lidai huajia ghuanlue, 188.

Shijie shuju, 1962).
14 Quoted in Zhongguo huihua shi (History of Chinese painting), I o Wang Shujin, quoted in Zhongguo lidai huajia ghuanlue, 191.
ed. Yu Jianhua (Shanghai: Shanghai shuju, 1984)^01. 2, II Wang Hui, Qing Hui hua ba (Notes by Qing Hui on painting),
p. 265. The Yutai huashi (The jade platform history of paint¬ cited in Zhongguo lidai huajia ghuanlue, 200.
ing) was compiled in the Qing to record female painters. It 12 Wu Li, MoJinghua ba (Mo Jing’s notes on painting), cited
divided female artists into four types: emperors’ concubines, in Zhongguo lidai huajia ghuanlue, 202.
famous ladies, officers’ concubines or servants, and prosti¬ x 3 Zhang Geng, Guochao huagheng lu (Notes on paintings pre¬

tutes. There are three female artists in the first category, all served in the palace), cited in Huashi congshu (Series on the

concubines of princes. “Lady” refers to an officer’s or a history of painting), ed. Yu Anlan (Shanghai: Shanghai
common person’s first wife or daughter; fifty-seven female People’s Fine Art Publishing House, 1963).

Notes to Pages 198—270 363

 14 IHu Shan, Shuanghongkan ji (Collected works of the Shuang- 4 Huang Banruo, “The Distinction Between the New School
hong Pagoda), 2 vols. (rpt.; Taiyuan: Shanxi People’s Publish¬ of Plagiarism and Creative Art,” in Huang and Wu, eds.,
ing House, 198 5). Trans. Qian-shen Bai, in The Jade Studio Guangdong huatan shi lu,\s. 16.
(New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery, 1994). 5 Zhao Gonghai, “The Development of the Society for the
15 Jin Nong, translated in Richard Vinograd, Boundaries of the Study of Chinese Painting,” Zhongshan ribao (Zhongshan
Self: Chinese Portraits, 1600-1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni¬ daily). Sept. 13, 1947-
versity Press, 1992), 116-117. 6 Feng Rending, quoted in Guomin xinwen (National news),
16 Zheng Xie, translated in Ginger Cheng-chi Hsu, “Zeng Xie’s June 26, 1927, in Huang and Wu, eds., Guangdong huatan shi
Price List: Painting as a Source of Income in Yangzhou,” lu, p. 48.
Chinese Painting Under the Qianlong Emperor. The Symposium 7 Gao Qifeng, quoted in “Painting Is Not a Dead Thing” and
Papers in Two Volumes, ed. Ju-Hsi Chou and Claudia Brown, “Glories and Laments of Mr. Gao Qifeng,” in Huang and
in Phoebus 6, 2 (1991): 261. See also Zhang Geng, Guochao Wu, eds., Guangdong huatan shi lu,\s. 111.
hua^heng lu. 8 Chen Duxiu, “On the Revolution of Art,” Xin qingnian (New
17 Zou Yigui, Shanshui huapu (Catalogue of landscape paintings), youth) 6, no. 1.
cited in Wang Bomin, Zhongguo huihua shi (History of Chinese 9 Jin Shaocheng, Huaxuejiangyi (Lectures on painting), quoted
painting) (Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Fine Art Publishing in Husheyuekan (Hushe monthly) (Tianjin Municipal Ancient
House, 1982), 5 52. Classics Bookstore) 1 (1992): 378.
18 Ren Xiong, translated in James Cahill, “Ren Xiong and 10 Huang Binhong, Binhong shujian (Correspondence of Huang
His Self-Portrait,” Ars Orientalis 25 (1995): 126, brackets in Binhong), ed. Wangjiwen (Shanghai: Shanghai People’s
original. Publishing House, 1588), p. 35.
11 Huang Binhong, “A Study of Painting” and “Interpretation
of the Study of Painting,” in Huang Binhong de huihua sixiang
Traditional Chinese Painting (Huang Binhong’s ideas on painting) (Taibei: Tianhua Pub¬
in the Twentieth Century lishing, 1979), pp. 170, 172.
12 Chen Xiaodie, “The Modern Chinese Painting as Observed
1 Chen Shizeng, “The Values of Literati Painting,” Huixue in an Art Exhibition,” in Mei^han huikan (Collected writings
ZaR,hi (Journal of painting) (Beijing: Painting Research Insti¬ of the art exhibition) (April 1929).
tute, Beijing University, 1920). 13 Xu Beihong, “Beihong’s Autobiography,” in Xu Beihongyishu
2 Huang Binhong, “On Chinese Painting at the Art Exhibi¬ wenji (Collected writings on art by Xu Beihong) (Taibei: Tai¬
tion, in Huang Xiaogeng and Wu Jin, eds., Guangdong huatan wan Artists Press, 1987), p. 1.
shi lu (Notes on painting circles in Guangdong) (Guangdong: 14 Xu Beihong, “Steps for the Development of the New Chi¬
Lingnan Fine Art Publishing House, 1990). nese Painting,” in ibid., p. 5 29.
3 Nian Zhu, “Chinese Painting Has Its National Character,” in 15 Xu Boyang and Jin Shan, eds., Xu Beihong nianpu (Chronicle
Guohua tekan (Special issues on Chinese painting) (Guang¬ of Xu Beihong) (Taibei: Taiwan Artists Press, 1991), p. 214.
dong: Guangdong Society for the Study of Chinese Paint¬
ing, 1926).

364 Notes to Pages 273 —321

glossary
BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY

academic style. Paindng in the style of the Imperial Painting Acad¬ bodhisattva. Enlightened being; a potential Buddha who has de¬
emy of the Song (960-1279) and Ming (1368-1644) dynasties nounced final rebirth into nirvana in order to bring salvation
featuring realistic, meticulously detailed bird-and-flower paint¬ to all suffering humankind.
ings* precise renderings of architecture, evocative illustrations “boneless” (meigu) method, “bone-immersing” (mogu) method.
of poems, and realistic and detailed figural and landscape paint¬ Painting in color and washes without black ink outlines or
ings with fine outlines and often colorful washes. structure (“bones”).
Academy of Painting. See Imperial Painting Academy. broken ink {porno). Plentiful application of ink or color in a bold
accumulating-ink method. A technique associated with Dong and uninhibited manner to create layers and tones of washes,
Qichang (1555—1636) and Gong Xian (1618—1689) in which together with the use of contours for rocks and other land¬
various tones of inkwash, from light to dark, are applied suc¬ scape forms to produce the illusion of modeling and depth.
cessively to the same area, creating a richly moist effect. Buddha. See Amitayus Buddha; Maitreya; Shakyamuni.
album leaf. Page from an album of painting or calligraphy. Al¬ ca. Rubbing with a brush squeezed dry after being loaded with
bums, or books of painting and calligraphy, were sometimes dark or light ink.
created programmatically by an artist or artists and were some¬ cao, caoshu. Grass or draft script. This running calligraphic style is
times compiled by later collectors. Small paintings and both cursive and informal.
folding and flat fans were usually preserved by mounting them Chan Buddhism. In Japanese, Zen Buddhism. This popular mystic
as album leaves. sect of Buddhism promotes the concept of salvation through
Amitayus Buddha. The Buddha of Boundless Splendor, who pre¬ meditation to discover the Buddha nature within. First intro¬
sides over the Western Paradise. duced into China by the Indian monk Bodhidharma in the sixth
Anhui School. A group of early Qing-dynasty artists centered century, Chan profoundly influenced culture and art—espe¬
in Anhui Province — the Huizhou or Xin’an District in par¬ cially painting in ink, which is done in fleeting moments of
ticular — including Xiao Yuncong, Hongren, Zha Shibiao, and Chan inspiration.
Mei Qing, whose works reflect highly individualized styles of Chang’an School. Modern painters centered in Xi’an, among
painting. Their favored subject matter was Mount Huang. Also them Zhao Wangyun, Shi Lu, and Huang Zhou, who have ad¬
called the Xin’an School. vocated reform of traditional landscape painting by sketching
apsara. Heavenly being or goddess. The term is usually applied from life and exploring new styles.
to celestial musicians and dancers surrounding Buddhas and civil service examinations. By passing a series of examinations
bodhisattvas. consisting of essays on the Confucian Classics a man of merit
architectural drawing or painting (jiehua). Meticulous representa¬ and education could advance in government service. The first-
tion of architecture drawn with fine lines and made using a degree examinations were held annually at the provincial level.
square and a ruler. Success there enabled a candidate to take part in the second-
arhats. Disciples of the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, who lived degree examinations conducted by the Grand Examiner once
ascetic lives in their single-minded devotion to the spirit of the every three years. A third, national examination was conducted
Buddha’s teachings. These enlightened worthies, also called at the capital once every three years. A scholar who succeeded
lohans, are arranged in groups of sixteen, eighteen, or five at this level gained government posts, ranks, salary, and honor.
hundred. Classics, Confucian Classics. In different periods of history differ¬
artisan. A local professional craftworker or regional specialist. See ent books have been treated as Confucian Classics. As many as
also literati painting; minjian huajia. thirteen have been included on the list. Not until the Song dy¬
ax-cut brushstroke, ax-cut texture stroke. Uncalligraphic down¬ nasty did most people accept that there were the standard Four
ward-sweeping stroke made with the side of the brush. The Books — The Great Teaming, Doctrine of the Mean, Analects of Con¬
stroke exhibits a strong, sharp edge and entry, with the effect fucius, and Works of Mencius—plus the Five Classics {jing),
of an ax chopping into wood, and is used to provide a rocky which are the Book of Changes, Book of History, Book of Rites, Book
texture to landscape motifs. Originated by Li Tang (ca. 1050- of Songs, and the Spring and Autumn Annals. In the Tang dynasty
after 1130). the sixth Classic was the Book of Music.
baimiao. Line drawing in plain black ink in the absence of color. cloudy mountain style. See Mi family manner of landscape
blue-and-green landscape style. A style of landscape painting be¬ painting.
lieved to have been invented by Li Sixun and his son Li Zhao- colophon. Poetry or prose annotation written by a friend of the
dao in the Tang dynasty (618-907) that relies on heavy mineral artist, a viewer, or a later collector that is attached to a painting
blues and greens and sometimes gold and silver. or piece of calligraphy. A colophon is physically separate from
Bochen School. Beginning in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) with the work — typically at the end of a handscroll or on the mount¬
Zeng Jing and his followers—Xie Bin among them — the ing of a hanging scroll. Poetic colophons are usually in praise
artists in this school were lauded for their realistic, illusionistic of or inspired by the painting.
portraits. Zeng Jing’s style was highly influential on portrait Confucian Classics. See Classics.
painters of the Qing dynasty and later. continuous pictorial narrative. Painting, generally in the form of a
 handscroll or frieze, in which the narrative unfolds from one Ming capital of Jinling (present-day Nanjing): Fan Qi, Gong
section to another without break. Often the same personage Xian, Zou Zhe, Ye Xin, Hu Zao, Wu Hong, Xie Sun, and Gao
reappears several times. Cen. They were chiefly landscape painters, and most were loyal
crab-claw branch (xieghao). Clusters of short, curving brushstrokes to the Ming.
that have a clutching appearance and resemble a crab’s claw. Esoteric Buddhism. Buddhism that is secret and spiritual — se¬
Typical of trees in the Li-Guo manner. cret in the sense that the Buddhist teachings are not revealed
craftworker, craftsman. Practitioner of a craft. The term is gener¬ to the uninitiated and also in that it suggests mysterious doc¬
ally used to describe local and regional artists. See also literati trines and magic spells and formulas, and spiritual in the sense
painting; minjian huajia. that the inner or spiritual meaning underlying all surface mean¬
cun. Texture stroke. See also cunfa. ings must be grasped by intuition and cannot be explained
cunfa. A method of shading and modeling with brushstrokes to re¬ except to those whose character allows them to grasp the
veal the texture of tree trunks, rocks, and mountains. truth.
curling cloud texture stroke. Brushstroke resembling rolling fan. Nonfolding and folding types existed. The most common
clouds, made with a long, curving sweep of the brush. motifs painted on fans are landscapes and flowers, but calligra¬
dian. Dotting in black ink or color for emphasis or for definition phy can also appear by itself. Fans are often painted to be given
of planes and contours. Dots are used along rocks and trees to as presents on particular occasions.
suggest moss. fenben. Preparatory draft or sketch.
directional symbols and animals. The Dark Warrior (a tortoise five elements. Wood, fire, earth, metal, and water.
with a snake coiled around its body) represents north and win¬ Five Sacred Mountains ('wuyue). Mount Tai in the east (Shandong
ter; the Green Dragon represents east and spring; the Scarlet Province), Mount Hua in the west (Shaanxi Province), Mount
Bird represents south and summer; and the White Tiger repre¬ Heng in the north (Shanxi Province), a different Mount Heng
sents west and autumn. in the south (Hunan Province), and Mount Song in the middle
documentation. The signature, seals, title inscription, attribution, (Henan Province).
and mounting material of a painting. Other forms of docu¬ Four Gendemen. Plum, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum —
mentation are contemporary and later writings and catalogue symbols of moral integrity.
records. Four Great Artists of Wu. Artists residing in Suzhou (formerly
Dong-Ju landscape tradition. Named for Dong Yuan and his fol¬ called Wu) in the Ming dynasty: Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming,
lower Juran of the Five Dynasties period (907-960), land¬ Tang Yin, and Qiu Ying.
scapes painted in this style resemble the scenery of south Four Great Masters of Yuan painting. The scholar-artists Huang
China. They typically have a misty atmosphere; long, soft, Gongwang, Wu Zhen, Ni Zan, and Wang Meng of the Yuan
“hemp-fiber” texture strokes; rounded “alum-head” boulders; dynasty (1271-1368).
and gently rounded hills. Four Great Monk Painters. Monks of the late Ming and early
dotting. See dian.
Qing dynasties who were also painters: Hongren, Kuncan,
double-outline technique. See goule or shuanggou manner. Bada Shanren, and Shitao.
dry-brush method. The application of fairly dry ink, giving an ef¬ Four Great Rivers. The Yangzi, Yellow, Huai, and Ji Rivers.
fect often similar to drawing in charcoal. See also wet-brush Four Masters of Xin’an. See Anhui School.
method.
Four Rens. Ren Xiong, Ren Bonian (Ren Yi), Ren Xun, and Ren
Dunhuang style. A brilliandy colored, dynamic painting style Yu — members of the Shanghai School of the late Qing dy¬
characteristic of the Mogao Caves, or the Caves of the Thou¬ nasty. See also Shanghai School.
sand Buddhas, located in northwest Gansu Province and cre¬ Four Wangs. The Qing-dynasty painters Wang Shimin, Wang Jian,
ated from about 366 to 1300. The style reflects the influence of Wang Hui, and Wang Yuanqi. See also Six Masters of the Early
central Asian and Indian Buddhist painting traditions.
Qing-
Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou. Group of eight famous artists
Four Wangs, Wu, and Yun. The Qing-dynasty painters Wang
active in the eighteenth century and centered in Yangzhou,
Shimin, Wang Jian, Wang Hui, Wang Yuanqi, Wu Li, and Yun
Jiangsu Province, who developed highly individualistic, idio¬ Shouping. See also Six Masters of the Early Qing.
syncratic painting styles. They include Huang Shen, Jin Nong, freehand sketch. See xieyi.
Gao Xiang, Li Shan, Zheng Xie, Li Fangying, Wang Shishen,
Fu She. Revival or Restoration Society of the late Ming dynasty; a
and Luo Pin.
group of intellectuals who wanted to restore the glory of the
Eight Immortals. Historical and legendary Daoist figures be¬ early Ming.
lieved to have achieved immortality: Li Tieguai, who carries
Fuxi. One of the three legendary rulers of ancient China, usually
a crutch and a gourd; Zhongli Quan, who holds a fan; Lan
represented with a human head and upper body and a snake¬
Caihe, a singer portrayed as a young boy; Zhang Guolao
like lower body. He is often associated with the goddess Niiwa.
(seventh-eighth centuries), who appears with a mule and car¬
gongbi. Meticulous, finely detailed style of painting, usually con¬
ries a bamboo drum with iron sticks; He Xiangu (the only fined to painting in color on silk.
woman), who appears with a lotus blossom or flower basket;
goule or shuanggou manner. Double-outline technique; the use of
Lii Dongbin (ca. 755-805), dressed as a scholar and shown
thin contour lines around an element in a painting. In bamboo
with a fly whisk or a magic sword; Han Xiangzi, shown with a
paintings, stalks and leaves are drawn in ink outline and then
flute; and Cao Guojiu, who holds wooden clappers or a jade filled in with color.
tablet.
Guanyin. Avalokitesvara, bodhisattva of loving-kindness and
Eight Masters of Jinling. Qing-dynasty artists based in the former
mercy, believed to have no gender specificity. In later Chinese

366 Glossary
 art Guanyin is often pictured as a woman with an ambrosia style have hard, high, sheer mountain peaks, narrow paths, and
bottle or lotus flower in her hand and the small figure of the difficult ascents.
Buddha in her crown or headdress. Jingjiang School. Qing-dynasty artists of the later Qianlong and
Han Chinese. Native or ethnic Chinese, as opposed to Chinese in Jiaqing periods, including Gu Heqing and Zhang Yin, who
border regions, in tribal groups, or of foreign origin, gathered in Zhenjiang, a city on the lower reaches of the
handscroll. Horizontal picture intended to be seen at arm’s length Yangzi River.
while being unrolled to reveal sections about half a meter long kai. Regular or model script. In this most formal of the modern
at a time. scripts of Chinese calligraphy, every stroke is written clearly
hanging scroll. A painting that can be unrolled and hung on a wall. and separately, and each character is organized within a square.
The picture, generally higher than it is wide, is meant to be Kai is the script usually used in printed books.
viewed from a distance and at length. King Father of the East (Dongwang fu). A deity who presides
Hanlin Academy. Founded by the Tang-dynasty emperor Ming- over the eastern realm of Heaven and who is the consort of the
huang in the eighth century, this imperial academy had schol¬ Queen Mother of the West.
ars and artists as members. It sponsored compilations and other Ivui Hai Cooperative. Group of fourteen modern painters in
scholarly endeavors patronized by the emperor and functioned Guangdong. The cooperative later became the Society for the
to maintain standards of scholarship, education, and artistry. Study of Chinese Painting.
bao. Pen name or sobriquet of an artist that is usually connected Later Zhe School. The professional artist Lan Ying and his stu¬
with a special place, event, interest, or function, dents— Liu Du among them — who painted in the late Ming
hemp-fiber texture stroke. Long and slightly wavy brushstroke period and were based in the city of Hangzhou, formerly called
like a split or spread-out hemp fiber. It is used to create the ef¬ Wulin. Also called the Wulin School.
fect of eroded slopes. See also Dong-Ju landscape tradition. It. Official or clerical script from which evolved the script used
Hinayana. The “Small Vehicle” doctrine of Buddhism, which is today.
closer to the original teachings of Shakyamuni, the historical Li-Guo School, Li-Guo manner, Li-Guo tradition. These terms
Buddha, than is Mahayana Buddhism. The emphasis is on doc¬ generally refer to paintings in the style of Li Cheng and Guo
trine rather than worship of the Buddha. Xi, two skillful and influential landscape painters of the Five
Huating School. See Songjiang School. Dynasties (907-960) and the Northern Song period (960-
Imperial Painting Academy, Academy of Painting. Court artists 1127). They are known for their expansive depictions of the
were associated with various forms of organization corre¬ sparsely vegetated river valleys of the north, with hills eroded
sponding to academies beginning in the Tang dynasty. During into strange shapes and clumps of bare or coniferous trees.
the Five Dynasties (907—960) the courts of Southern Tang Paintings in the Li-Guo manner convey a bleak grandeur and a
and Shu, among others, brought distinguished artists together sense of the struggle of living things for survival under harsh
at court in loosely organized association. An official Song- conditions.
dynasty academy was established in Bianliang (present-day Lingnan School. Led by Gao Jianfu and including Chen Shuren,
Kaifeng) in 984, and Emperor Huizong (r. 1101-1125) later di¬ Gao Qifeng, and He Xiangning, this group of modern artists
rected important reforms during his reign. The Southern Song centered in Guangdong advocated reform in painting. They
Academy in Hangzhou was vigorously reestablished by Em¬ followed the tenets of the New Japanese Style and introduced
peror Gaozong (r. 1127-1162). In the early Ming dynasty, espe¬ contemporary subjects into traditional Chinese painting, com¬
cially in the period 1403 -1435, a new academy was established, bining perspective, shading, and atmosphere with traditional
first in Nanjing and then in Beijing. The final Imperial Painting brushwork.
Academy was the one organized by the Manchu emperors in ling^hi. Sacred mushroom-shaped fungus, a symbol of longevity.

Beijing during the Qing dynasty, and was strongly influenced literati painting (mnrenhm). A term used to describe and distin¬
by European art. See also academic style, guish paintings by scholars and scholar-officials from those by
ink monochrome manner. Method of painting only in ink and professional painters. Literati painters aimed for free expres¬
without color. In painting bamboo, for example, brushstrokes sion of ideas, feelings, and emotions rather than accurate de¬
are done in varying ink tones to render the back and front of the piction of external phenomena. These scholar-amateurs, who
leaves and to distinguish nearer and farther planes of depth, thought paintings should reveal the artist’s personality, charac¬
ink-play. An informal type of painting by literati artists exploring ter, or mood, often lacked rigorous training. They favored
spontaneous brushwork and unusual ink effects, monochrome ink over color and used the same materials
inscription. Poem, comment, and other writing on the surface of for painting and calligraphy. They painted spontaneously, at
a painting or piece of calligraphy. whim, mostly for themselves and their friends, although some
Jataka Tales. Stories of previous lives of the Buddha when he was literati painters discreetly sold or traded their works to support
in either human or animal form. themselves.
Jiangnan-style painting. Misty landscape of the Yangzi delta region Longshan culture. Culture centered in Shandong Province and
(Jiangnan) painted with pale ink and washes. dating back to around 3000 — 1700 b.c. It is known for fine
Jiangxia School. Artists in Nanjing and, more broadly, Hunan monochromic pottery vessels with impressed or relief patterns.
Province who followed the style of the Ming artist Wu Wei by lotus leaf texture stroke. Brushstroke that resembles the vein of a
using swift, even brash brushwork and emphasizing emotional dried lotus leaf.
expression and bold effects. Ma family. Five generations of the famous Ma family, including
Jing-Guan style of landscape. Named after Jing Hao (ca. 855-915) Ma Yuan and Ma Lin, all associated with the Imperial Acad¬
and Guan Tong (early tenth century), landscapes painted in this emy of Painting at the Southern Song (1127—1279) court.

Glossary 367
 Ma style. The style of Ma Yuan (active before 1189—after 1225), chitectural features invite the viewer to participate visually in a
whose paintings are noted for their intimate landscape views, vast, ordered universe.
hazy or misty atmosphere, and carefully constructed composi¬ Orthodox School. Landscape painters of the Qing dynasty. The
tion. The focus is often one corner of the painting where a style of this school developed from painting in the late Ming
scholar and his attendant contemplate the landscape. Other dynasty, when Dong Qichang’s writings consolidated the
features are sharp, angular plum trees, tall, dramatic pine trees, literati-amateur styles of the Southern School into an orthodox
and distant mountaintops in pale silhouette. tradition. Practitioners used styles of the Four Great Masters
Ma-Xia style. The term combines the names of academy painters of the Yuan period and produced variations in their own man¬
Ma Yuan and Xia Gui, and the style represents the typical ner following Dong’s theories. Principal artists were Wang
achievement of the Imperial Painting Academy of the South¬ Shimin, Wang Jian, Wang Hui, Wang Yuanqi, and Wu Li.
ern Song. Characteristic are carefully constructed composi¬ Piling School. A regional school named for the city southeast of
tions, intimate views of nature, suggestive inkwashes, and Nanjing where they painted, Piling (present-day Changshu,
dramatic, angular pine and plum trees. Jiangsu Province). The artists —Yun Shouping among them —
Mahayana. The “Great Vehicle” doctrine of Buddhism, which specialized in decorative, colorful paintings of flowers, plants,
asserts the existence of many Buddhas at the same time. Be¬ birds, and insects.
lievers may gain salvation by praying to the Buddhas or bodhi- powder-spatter. The addition of colored powder to a painting that
sattvas and can accumulate merit to counter any evildoing in is already sprinkled with water, so that the water and powder
their prior lives by dedicating paintings or sculpture to the merge on the paper for enhanced color and intensity.
Buddhas or bodhisattvas. professional painter. Person who paints pictures to earn a living,
Maitreya. In traditional China, Mile fo, or Maitreya Buddha — the as opposed to a scholar-amateur. See also literati painting.
Buddha of the Future. Stricdy speaking, Maitreya is a bodhi- Queen Mother of the West (Xiwang mu). A goddess in Han pop¬
sattva, not a Buddha. ular religion, usually shown as a beautiful woman accompanied
meticulously detailed painting style. Scegongbi. by Jade Maidens carrying flowers and peaches, the Queen
Mi family manner of landscape painting. Mi style. This style of Mother of the West was believed to guard the peaches of im¬
painting, named for the Northern Song artist Mi Fu and his mortality. In Daoism she is the deity who presides over the
son, Mi Youren, is also called the cloudy mountain style be¬ western realm of Heaven and is the consort of the King Father
cause the landscapes include mountains in fog or hills before of the East.
rain. The artists characteristically employ large wet dots to de¬ round brushwork. The brushtip is centered within the brush¬
pict vegetation and softly modeled hills. stroke, and pressure is applied evenly.
minjian huajia. Local artist or regional painter. Often translated as scholar-artist, scholar-official, scholar-painter, scholar-amateur,
“craftsman” or “artisan.” literatus artist. See literati painting.
monochrome ink. Ink without added color. See also ink mono¬ seal script (^jpuan). Elaborate form of writing used from around
chrome manner. 800 b.c. to a.d. 200 including the “greater seal” script and the
Nanjing painters, Nanjing School. Painters centered in the city of “lesser seal” script, which developed from the former. Ex¬
Nanjing. In the early Qing dynasty: Fan Qi, Gong Xian, and amples of both can be found in inscriptions on bronze vessels.
others; also known as the Jinling School — see also Eight Masters The lesser and greater seal scripts are now used on public and
of Jinling. In the twentieth century: Chen Zhifo, Fu Baoshi, private seals.
and others.
seals. Small scarlet marks, generally square but occasionally round,
New Zhe School. Modern painters associated with the Zhejiang oval, or gourd-shaped, stamped on paintings and works of cal-
Academy of Fine Arts, including Pan Tianshou, Sha Menghai, ligraphy. A seal contains the name of an artist, a friend, or a
Wu Fuzhi, Lu Weizhao, Lu Yanshao, and Gu Kunbo. collector; the characters can also be an identifying phrase.
Northern and Southern Schools. In the Ming dynasty, Dong Qi- Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove. Educated men of the third
chang and Mo Shilong traced the development of Chinese century a.d. who rejected society and all its rules and con¬
painting back to the Tang dynasty and divided painters into ventions, finding personal freedom in self-expression, wine,
two schools that mirrored the split in Chan Buddhism around and unspoiled nature. It was believed that the seven men—Ji
the same time. The Southern School, promoted by Dong
Kang, Liu Ling, Ruan Qi, Ruan Xiao, Shan Tao, Wang Rong,
Qichang, favored the expression of emotion in painting in op¬
and Xiang Xiu — regularly met in a bamboo grove to drink
position to the meticulously detailed, colorful representation wine and discuss literature.
of real scenery, as in works produced by the Northern School.
Shakvamuni. The historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, who is
The Southern School generally included literati painters, like
perfectly enlightened and has entered nirvana. Mahayana Bud¬
Wang Wei, Zhang Zao, Jing Hao, Guan Tong, Dong Yuan,
dhism allows for many Buddhas to exist at one time; Hinayana
Juran, Guo Zhongshu, Mi Fu, Mi Youren, Huang Gongwang, Buddhism, only one Buddha at a time.
Wu Zhen, Ni Zan, and Wang Meng. The Northern School
Shanghai School. A group of artists of the late Qing dynasty
generally included professional and court painters, such as Li
whose works are characterized by free and spirited brushwork,
Sixun, Li Zhaodao, Zhao Gan, Zhao Boju, Zhao Bosu, Ma
exaggerati°n and distortion of shapes and images, patterniza-
Yuan, and Xia Gui.
tion, and archaism. These artists — including Hu Gongshou,
Northern Song monumental landscape painting. Paintings of this
Ren Xiong, Xugu, Zhao Zhiqian, Qian Hui’an, Ren Xun,
type are mountain compositions whose deep space, distant vis¬
Ren Bonian (Ren Yi), Ren Yu, Wu Youru, and Wu Jiayou —
tas, rhythmic structure, tiny human figures, and occasional ar¬ catered to the tastes of city dwellers.

368 Glossary
shiguwen. Script carved into drum-shaped stones about 200 b.c. Chinese scholar-official engaged with Buddhism at an intellec¬
shuanggou manner. Sze. goule or shuanggou manner. tual level.
Six Masters of the Early Qing. Principal figures in the Orthodox water-spatter. Sprinkling water on a painting that is already col¬
School of landscape painting, including Wang Shimin, Wang ored, so that the water merges with the pigment on the paper
Jian, Wang Hui, Wang Yuanqi, Wu Li, and Yun Shouping. See for enhanced color and intensity.
also Four Wangs, Wu, and Yun; Orthodox School. wet-brush method. The application of ink with a loaded brush so
Six Principles of Xie He. The principles of painting set forth by that individual strokes can be obliterated.
the art critic Xie He (active ca. 500?) concerning the “spirit White Tiger. See directional symbols and animals.
consonance” of painted forms, brushwork, shape, color, com¬ Wu School. Suzhou-based literati-painters of the Ming dynasty
position, and copying as a means of training. beginning with Shen Zhou and including Wen Zhengming,
Songjiang School. School of Dong Qichang (1555—1636) cen¬ Tang Yin, Qiu Ying, Wen Jia, Wen Boren, Wang Guxiang, Xie
tered in Huating (a part of Shanghai), now Songjiang. Some¬ Shichen, and others. Wu is the former name of Suzhou.
times called the Huating School. Included are such artists Wulin School. See Later Zhe School.
as Mo Shilong, Chen Jiru, Gu Zhengyi, Zhao Zuo, and Shen xieyi. Literally, “sketching the idea.” A spontaneous freehand
Shichong. sketch style of painting usually done by scholars in mono¬
splashed ink and splashed color. Painting technique originating in chrome ink but occasionally done in colors.
the Ming dynasty that features large areas of color without Xiling Seal Society. Academic society devoted to the study of seal
concrete forms. Zhang Daqian (1899—1983) also used the term carving. It was founded in 1904 on Gushan, a small hill on an
to refer to his painting technique based on Abstract Expres¬ island of the same name off the north shore of scenic West
sionism and traditional Chinese ink painting. Lake in Hangzhou.
split-hemp texture stroke. See hemp-fiber texture stroke. Xin’an School. See Anhui School.
sutra. Buddhist holy text usually attributed to the Buddha. xing. “Running” or “strolling” script; a semicursive calligraphic
Three Friends of the Cold Season. Pine, bamboo, and blossoming style.
plum — all symbols of longevity, winter, and the qualities of a Yangshao culture. Major Neolithic tradition, also called the
gentleman. Painted Pottery culture. The Yangshao culture developed in
three-tier ranking system. According to the Udai minghua ji (Rec¬ the Yellow River valley between the fifth and the third millen¬
ord of famous paintings of successive dynasties) by the Tang- nia B.c. Sites include Banpo, Shaanxi Province; Miaodigou,
dynasty art critic Zhang Yanyuan, all artists could be classified Henan Province, and Majiayao, Machang, and Banshan, all in
into three major categories: inspired {shen), excellent (miao), or Gansu Province.
capable (nen£). Later a category calledjipin, or “untrammeled,” jimin. “Leftover subjects,” loyalists to a fallen dynasty.
was added. Yunjian School. See Songjiang School.
Two Yuans. Artists of the Qing dynasty: Yuan Jiang and Yuan Zhe School. Named after Zhejiang Province, where it flourished,
Yao. the Zhe School of Ming-dynasty professional and court paint¬
“untrammeled” {jipin) style. Spontaneous and completely un¬ ers, including Dai Jin, continued the academic traditions of*
restrained painting, a style employed by many artists who figure and landscape painting originating in the Southern Song
were considered wild and eccentric. See also three-tier ranking Imperial Painting Academy.
system. Zhong Kui. Legendary demon-queller, usually portrayed as a
Vimalakirti. A lay disciple of Shakyamuni and a man of great large, ugly man wearing a scholar’s cap, robe, and large boots
learning with supernatural powers. When Vimalakirti was sick, with which he stomps on offensive demons.
Manjusri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, and other disciples of yhuan. See seal script.
the Buddha visited him. The event is known for a famous de¬
bate between Vimalakirti and Manjusri. Later considered al¬
most a lay saint, Vimalakirti became the archetype of the Prepared by Elizabeth M. Owen

Glossary 369
artists by period Artists are generally listed by their formal name and in the period in which they were born.
Alternative pronunciations of names are given in parentheses. In the Zi and Hao columns,
Wade-Giles transliterations are given in brackets.

Pinyin Wade-Giles Dates Characters Zi (style name) Hao (sobriquet) and Other Names

THREE KINGDOMS

Cao Buxing Ts’ao Pu-hsing 3d c.

JIN DYNASTY

Gu Kaizhi Ku K’ai-chih ca. 345—ca. 406 SlaiZ Changkang [Ch’ang-k’ang] AM Hutou [Hu-t’ou]
Wang Xizhi Wang I Isi-chih 307-ca. 365 Yishao [I-shao] JUT'
Wei Xie Wei Hsieh W. Jin, mid-3d— ZEtifr
mid~4th c.

SOUTHERN DYNASTIES

Lu Tanwei Lu T’an-wei active 460s— mum

early 6th c.
Wang Wei Wang Wei 415-443 Tit Jingxuan [Ching-hstian]
Xiao Yi Hsiao I 508-554 mm Shicheng [Shih-ch’eng] ii£M
[Emperor Yuan
of the Liang]
Zhang Sengyou Chang Seng-yu active 500-550

NORTHERN DYNASTIES

Yang Zihua Yang Tzu-hua No. Qi, active mid-

late 6 th c.

SUI DYNASTY

Dong Boren Tung Po-jen active mid—late 6th c.

Sun Shangzi Sun Shang-tzu late 6th—early 7th c. imm-
Tian Sengliang T’ien Seng-liang No. Zhou, late 6th c.
Weichi (Yuchi) Wei-ch’ih (Yii- 6 th—7 th c.
Bazhina ch’ih) Pa-
chih-na
Yan Bi Yen Pi 563-613 rsjHit

Yang Qidan Yang Ch’i-tan active last half of mmn

6th c.
Zhan Ziqian Chan Tzu-ch’ien mid-late 6th c.
Zheng Falun Cheng Fa-lun 6 th—7 th c.
Zheng Fashi Cheng Fa-shih 6th—early 7 th c.

TANG DYNASTY

Cao Ba Ts’ao Pa 8 th c.
Chen Hong Ch’en Hung 8 th c.
Dai Song Tai Sung 8th c.
I Ian Gan Han Kan ca. 720—780
Han Huang Han Huang 723-787 Taichong [T’ai-ch’ung]
He Zhizharig Ho Chih-chang 659-744 ism Jizhen [Chi-chen] SpJjt
Huaisu Huai-su 725-785 mm Cangzhen |Ts’ang-chen] j§
Lang Yuling Lang Yii-ling early Tang
Li Cou Li Ts’ou mid-8th c.
Li Linfu Li Lin-fu d. 752 Genu [Ke-no] -Pf®

Li Sixun Li Ssu-hsiin 651-716 TMI Jianjian [Chien-chien] HtJAl

Id Zhaodao Li Chao-tao ca. 675-741 mm

Lu Hong Lu Hung active early 8 th c. An Idaoran [Hao-jan] iPl$$ or '/
 Pinyin Wade-Giles Dates Characters Zi (style name) Hao (sobriquet) and Other Names

Wang Mo Wang Mo d. ca. 805 is*

[Ink Wang]
Wang Wei Wang Wei 699-759 £2® Moji [Mo-chi] Ipip
Wang Xiong Wang Hsiung active early 8 th c.
Wei Yan Wei Yen late 7th-early 8th c. ^ m
Weichi (Yuchi) Wei-ch’ih (Yu- 7th-8th c.
Yiseng eh’ih) I-seng
Wu Daozi Wu Tao-tzu active ca. 710-760 Mil?
Xue Ji 11such Chi 649-713 Sitong [Ssu-t’ung] HU 31
Yan Liben Yen Li-pen ca. 600—673
Yan Lide Yen Li-te d. 656 IHaz:^
Yan Zhenqing Yen Chen-ch’ing 709-785 mnm Qingchen [Ch’ing-ch’en] ?jf E
Yang Bian Yang Pien Tang
Zhang Xiaoshi Chang Hsiao-shih 7 th-8 th c.
Zhang Xu Chang Hsu acdve 714-742 Bogao [Po-kao] Jlzlift
Zhang Xuan Chang Hsiian active 714-742 M
Zhang Zao Chang Tsao mid—late 8 th c. Wentong [Wen-t’ung] ^ fl 3
Zheng Qian Cheng Ch’ien ca. 690—764 mm Ruoqi [Jo-ch’i] !y§ fy
Zhou Fang Chou Fang ca. 730—ca. 800 JU© Zhonglang [Chung-lang]
Jingxuan [Ching-hsiian]

FIVE DYNASTIES AND TEN KINGDOMS

Dong Yuan Tung Yuan d. 962 or Shuda [Shu-ta] JS3i Beiyuan [Pei-yiian]
MLJL
Gao Congyu Kao Ts’ung-yii ca. 10th c. S5M311
Gao Daoxing Kao Tao-hsing 9 th c. [So jMtn-
Gu Hongzhong Ku Hung-chung 10th c. 1
Guan Tong Kuan T’ung early 10th c. r;or
^[5j
Guanxiu Kuan-hsiu 8 3 2—912 mi* Deyin [Te-yin] Chanyue [Ch’an-yiieh]
Deyuan [Te-yuan]
Guo Zhongshu Kuo Chung-shu ca. 910—977 Shuxian [Shu-hsien]
Huang Jubao Fluang Chii-pao d. ca. 960 Ciyu [Tz’u-yii]
Huang Jucai Huang Chii-ts’ai 933-after 993 Boluan [Po-Iuan] J^lS;
Huang Quan Huang Ch’iian 903—965 Yaoshu [Yao-shu] ^7®
Jing Hao Ching Hao ca. 855-915 ^Itef Haoran [Hao-jan] Hongguzi [Hung-ku-tzu]
Juran Chii-jan active ca. 960-985
Li Cheng Li Ch’eng 919-967 Xianxi [Hsien-hsi]
Wei Xian Wei Hsien 1 oth c.
Xu Xi Hsu Hsi d. before 975 i&m
Zhang Xuan Chang Hsiian active ca. 890-930
Zhao Gan Chao Kan mid-ioth c. U=f-
Zhao Yan Chao Yen d. 922 Luzhan [Lu-chan] U-ttH, Original name Zhao Lin
Qiuyan [Ch’iu-yen] [Chao Lin] tXf|

SONG DYNASTY

Chen Rong Ch’en Jung ca. 1200-1266 Gongchu [Kung-ch’u] Suoweng [So-weng] pff f|
Sike [Ssu-k’o] ® nj
Cui Bai Ts’ui Pai active ca. 1050—1080 Zixi [Tzu-hsi]
Dong Yu Tung Yii active late 10th c. Zhongxiang [Chung-hsiang]
-Ft- i=£rs
Fan Kuan Fan K’uan active ca. 1023-1031 YBJaL Zhongli [Chung-li] JIaZI Original name Fan Zhongzheng
[Fan Chung-cheng]
Gao Kerning Kao K’o-ming active ca. 1008—1053 MUm
Gao Wenjin Kao Wen-chin 11 th c.
Guo Xi Kuo Hsi ca. 1001—ca. 1090 Chunfu [Ch’un-fu]
Huang Tingjian Huang T’ing-chien 1045-1105 Luzhi [Lu-chih] UllL Shangu [Shan-ku] lllS,
Fuweng [Fu-weng]
Huizong Hui-tsung 1082-1135;
Original name Zhao Ji [Chao Chi]
r. 1101-1125
ms
37 2 Artists by Period
Pinjin Wade-Giles Dates Characters Zi (style name) Hao (sobriquet) and Other Names

Li Congxun Li Ts’ung-hsiin active 12th c. 3AUJI!

Li Demao Li Te-mao acdve ca. 1241—1252
Li Di LiTi ca. 1100-after 1197 & Ml
Li Gonglin Li Kung-lin ca. 1041-1106 Boshi [Po-shih] fQfhj' Longmian Jushi [Lung-mien chii-
shih] AIK/ifA
Li Gongnian Li Kung-nien late 11 th-ear!y 12th c. ^AA
Li Song Li Sung acdve 1190—1230 mm
Li Tang Li T’ang ca. 1050—after 1130 mm Xigu [Hsi-ku]
Li Wei Li Wei acdve ca. 1050—ca. mn Gongzhao [Kung-chao] A Up
IO9O
Li Yongnian Li Yung-nien acdve ca. 1265-1274
Liang Kai Liang K’ai active 13 th c. Fengzi [Feng-tzu] ]Xl,-jp
Liu Cai Liu Ts’ai d. after 1123 Daoyuan [Tao-yuan]
I longdao [Hung-tao] AlS
Liu Songnian Liu Sung-nien ca. 1150—after 1225
Ma Ben (Fen) Ma Pen (Fen) early 12 th c.
Ma Gongxian Ma Kung-hsien 12th c. *3AS
Ma Lin Ma Lin acdve early-mid-
13 th c.
Ma Yuan Ma Yuan active before 1189— mze Qinshan [Ch’in-shan]
after 1225
Mi Fu Mi Fu 105I-IIO7 Am Yuanzhang [Yuan-chang] jclpi Nangong [Nan-kung] Lu¬
men Jushi [Lu-men chii-shih]
M n Hi i, Xiangyang Manshi
[Hsiang-yang man-shih]
Haiyue Waishi [Hai-yiieh
wai-shih]
Mi Youren Mi Yu-jen 1075—1151 AAA Yuanhui [Yiian-hui] jc tl?
Muqi (Muxi) Mu-ch’i (Mu-hsi) 13th c. Fachang [Fa-ch’ang]
Qi Xu Ch’i Hsu 10th c.
Qiao Zhongchang Ch’iao Chung- acdve early 12th c. ft #?£
ch’ang
Su Shi Su Shih 1036—1IOI mK Zizhan [Tzu-chan] Dongpo Jushi [Tung-p’o chii-
shih]
Sun Zhiwei Sun Chih-wei d. ca. 1020 Taigu [T’ai-ku] AlS
Wang Shen Wang Shen ca. 1048-ca. 1103 mm Jinqing [Chin-ch’ing] |fJ§P
Wang Tingyun Wang T’ing-yiin 1151-1202 mi Ziduan [Tzu-tuan] Huanghua Shanren [Huang-hua
shan-jen] i§fd£i|_L|A
Wang Ximeng Wang Hsi-meng 1096—1119
Wen Tong Wen T’ung 1019—1079 A(rJ Yuke [Yii-k’o] Lj nj Jinjiang Daoren [Chin-chiang
tao-jen] A, Xiaoxiao
Jushi [Hsiao-hsiao chii-shih]
i, Shishi XLiansheng
[Shih-shih hsien-sheng] mm

Xia Gui Hsia Kuei active early 13 th c. mm Yuyu [Yu-yii] S, -R

Xiao Zhao Hsiao Chao active ca. 1130—1160 ifflg
Xu Chongsi Hsu Ch’ung-ssu 11 th c. scroll
Xu Daoning Hsii Tao-ning ca. 970—1051 /1052
Yan Wengui Yen Wen-kuei acdve 980-1010
Yang Wujiu Yang Wu-chiu 1097—1171 Buzhi [Pu-chih] Taochan Laoren [Tao-ch’an lao-
jen]
Yi Yuanji I Yuan-chi 11 th c. Qingzhi [Ch’ing-chih]
Yujian Ruofen Yii-chien Jo-fen 13th c. Zhongshi [Chung-shih] Furong Shanzhu [Fu-jung shan-
chu] H^|_L| A, Yujian [Yii-
chien] 3£'i|i]
Zhang Zeduan Chang Tse-tuan active early 12th c. Zhengdao [Cheng-tao] lEiS,
Wenyou [Wen-yu]

Zhao Boju Chao Po-chii d. ca. 1162 Qianli [Ch’ien-li] AM

Artists by Period 373

 Pinjin Wade-Giles Dates Characters Zi (style name) Hao (sobriquet) and Other Names

Zhao Bosu Chao Po-su ii24—1182 MU Xiyuan [Hsi-ytian|

Zhao Chang Chao Ch’ang ca. 960— after 1016 Changzhi [Ch’ang-chih] HA
Zhao Lingrang Chao Ling-jang active c. 1070—1100 Danian |Ta-nien] A®
Zhao Mengjian Chao Meng-chien 1199—before 1267 Zigu [Tzu-ku] A® Yizhaijushi [I-chai chu-shih]

Zhao Shilei Chao Shih-lei Song Gongzhen [Kung-chen] AM

YUAN DYNASTY

Cao Zhibai Ts’ao Chih-pai 1271—13 5 5 Youxuan [Yu-hsiian] Yunxi [Yun-hsi] 5z7®
Zhensu [Chen-su] J(;|t
Chen Lin Ch’en Lin ca. 1260—1320 mm Zhongmei [Chung-mei] {A
Chen Ruyan Ch’en Ju-yen ca. 1331—before 1371 mtkrn Weiyun [Wei-yiin] '|f jt Qiushui [Ch’iu-shui] ItA
Fang Congyi Fang Ts’ung-i ca. 1301-after 1380 AMX Wuyu [Wu-yii] APj Fanghu [Fang-hu]
Gao Kegong Kao K’o-kung 1248—1310 Yanjing [Yen-ching] Original name Shi’an [Shih-an]
ih^t, Fangshan Laoren [Fang-
shan lao-jen] ^ li| ^ A
Gong Kai Kung K’ai 1222—1307 HJF Shengyu [Sheng-yij] 3^4^ Cuiyan [Ts’ui-yen]
Guan Daosheng Kuan Tao-sheng 1262—1319 1mn Zhongji [Chung-chi] J41®
Guo Bi Kuo Pi 1280-d. ca. 1335 Tianxi [T’ien-hsi] Alls Tuisi [T’ui-ssu] jS®
He Cheng Ho Ch’eng 1224-after 1315
Huang Gongwang Huang Kung-wang 1269-1354 M&n Zijiu [Tzu-chiu] AX Yifeng [I-feng] —|I|$, Dachi Dao-
ren [Ta-ch’ih tao-jen] A$tl it
A,Jingxi Laoren [Ching-hsi
lao-jen] A® AA
Ke Jiusi K’o Chiu-ssu 1290-1343 Jingzhong [Ching-chung] Danqiusheng [Tan-ch’iu sheng]

Li Kan Li K’an 1245—1320 Zhongbin [Chung-pin] If if? Xizhai Laoren [Hsi-chai lao-jen]
A
Li Sheng Li Sheng 14th c. Ziyun [Tzu-yiin] AS Ziyunsheng [Tzu-yiin-sheng]

Luo Zhichuan Lo Chih-ch’uan active ca. 1300—1330

Meng Yujian Meng Yii-chien active 14th c. iifl Jisheng [Chi-sheng] Meng Zhen [Meng Chen]
Tianze [T’ien-tse] A'/$
Ni Zan Ni Tsan I3OI_I374 um Yuanzhen [Yiian-chen] AJJ] Yunlin [Yiin-lin] A#, Jingming
Jushi [Ching-ming chu-shih]

Qian Xuan Ch’ien Plstian ca. 1235—before 1307 Shunju [Shun-chii] Yutan [Yii-t’an] 13 jijl
Ren Renfa Jen Jen-fa 1255-1328 ffCA Ziming [Tzu-ming] A® Yueshan Daoren [Yiie-shart tao-
jen] A if A
Sheng Mao Sheng Mao active 1320-1360 Zizhao [Tzu-chao] AH§
Tan Zhirui T’an Chih-jui active early Yuan
Tang Di T’ang Ti 1296—1364 it It Zihua [Tzu-hua] A^
Wang Meng Wang Meng ca. 1308—1385 Ali Shuming [Shu-ming] ^0^ Huanghe Shanqiao [Huang-ho
shan-ch’iao]
Huanghe Shanren [Huang-ho
shan-jen] ffH ill A, Xiang-
guang Jushi [Hsiang-kuang
chu-shih] ffXigj A
Wang Mian Wang Mien 1287—1359 AM Yuanzhang [Yuan-chang] jc Laocun [Lao-ts’un] Zhushi
Shannong [Chu-shih shan-
nung] jf;® |1| A
Wang Yi Wang I A*?
1333-d. after 1362 Sishan [Ssu-shan] ®f!| Chijue Sheng [Ch’ih-chiieh sheng]

Wang Yuan Wang Yuan ca. 1280-d. after 1349 Affl Roshui [Jo-shui] ^Ef7j< Danxuan [Tan-hsiian]
Wang Zhenpeng Wang Chen-p’eng fl. ca. 1280-ca. 1329 AIM it Pengmci [P’eng-mei] jjjjfg Guyun Chushi [Ku-yiin ch’u-
shih] MA&±
Wu Guan Wu Kuan active ca. 1368 Yingzhi [Ying-chih] HA
Wu Taisu Wu T’ai-su acdve mid-14th c. MA * Xiuzhang [Hsiu-chang] 5|t=l Songzhai [Sung-chai]

374 Artists by Period

Pinyin Wade-Giles Dates Characters Zi (style name) Hao (sobriquet) and Other Names

Wu Zhen Wu Chen 1280—13 54 Zhonggui [Chung-kuei] A Meihua Daoren [Mei-hua tao-jen]

Mlt'MA
Xianyu Shu Hsien-yu Shu ca. 1257-1302 Kunxuemin [K’un-hsiieh-min]
Boji [Po-chi]
Zhiji Laorcn [Chih-
chi lao-jen] A
Yan Flui Yen Hui active late 13 th— mm Qiuyue [Ch’iu-yiieh]
early 14th c,
Yang Weizhen Yang Wei-chen 1296—1370 mw Lianfu [Lien-fu] Jf|A Tieya [T’ieh-ya]
Zhang Wu Chang Wu fl. ca. 1 340—1 365 Shuhou [Shu-hou] Zhenxiansheng [Chen-hsien-
sheng] rg A A. Zhenqisheng
[Chen-ch’i-sheng]
Zhang Yu Chang Yu 1238-1350 Boyu [Po-yu] Juqu Waishi [Chu-ch’u wai-shih]
7rJ E& Tianyu [T’ien-yii]
Affi
Zhao Mengfu Chao Meng-fu 1254-1322 Zi’ang [Tzu-ang] •Songxue [Sung-hsueh] |2;!f,
Oubo [Ou-po] [X!§'/iS
Zhao Yong Chao Yung ca. 1289-ca. 1362 Zhongmu [Chung-mu] Jtjrfll
Zhao Yuan Chao Yuan d. after 1373 or Shanchang [Shan-ch’ang] Danlin [Tan-lin]

Zheng Sixiao Cheng Ssu-hsiao 1241—1318 Yiweng [I-weng] fZJfg,

Suonan [So-nan] pjfj^j
Zhou Mi Chou Mi 1232—1298 Gongjin [Kung-chin] A ill Caochuang [Ts’ao-ch’uang]
Zhu Derun Chu Te-jun 1294-1365 Zemin [Tse-min] 7$ A Suiyang Shanren [Sui-yang shan-
jen] Btffllll A
Zhu Haogu Chu Hao-ku acdve mid-14th c.
Zou Fulei Tsou Fu-lei active mid-14th c. umn

MING DYNASTY

Bian Jingzhao Pian Ching-chao active ca. 1426—1435 Wenjin [Wen-chin] A3S
Chen Chun Ch’en Ch’un 1483-1544 Daofu [Tao-fu] MM, Fufu Boyang Shanren [Po-yang shan-
[Fu-fu] Mil jen] fiPHUlA
Chen Hongshou Ch’en Hung-shou 1598-1652 Zhanghou [Chang-hou] Laolian [Lao-lien] Fuchi
[Fu-ch’ih] Yunmenseng
[Yun-meng-seng] A Hitt,
Huichi [Hui-chih] flgiR, Chi-
heshang [Chih-he-shang] JR
fF fnj, Huiseng [Hui-seng] f/Jff
Chen Huan Ch’en Huan early 17 th c. Ziwen [Tzu-wen] -pA Yaofeng [Yao-feng] ^lll$
Chen Hui Ch’en Hui early 15 th c. Zhongqian [Chung-ch’ien]
Chenjiru Ch’en Chi-ju 1558—1639 Zhongshun [Chung-shun] Jp®? Migong [Mi-kung] A, Mei-
gong [Mei-kung] /g A, Xue-
tang [Hsueh t’ang] if'g'.
Baishicjiao [Pai-shih-ch’iao]
as#.
Chen Kuan Ch’en K’uan Ming Mengxian [Meng-hsien] Xing’an [Hsing-an]
Chen Yuan Ch’en Yuan Ming W'M Zhongfu [Chung-fu] 41 M
Cheng Jiasui Ch’eng Chia-sui 1565—1643 nmm Mengyang [Meng-yang] JSfSB Songyuan [Sung-yiian] ^A [MI
Cui Zizhong Ts’ui Tzu-chung d. 1644 Daomu [Tao-mu] MM Bcihai [Pei-hai] ;|fc,$p, Qingyin
[Ch’ing-yin]
Dai Jin Tai Chin 1388-1462 nm Wenjin [Wen-chin] AJS Jing’an [Ching-an]
Ding Yunpeng Ting Yiin-p’eng 1547-1621 TAM Nanyu [Nan-yii] j^f^J Shenghua Jushi [Sheng-hua chu-
shih] Jl^/Srdr
Dong Qichang Tung Ch’i-ch’ang 1555-1636 IfMI! Xuanzai [Hsiian-tsai] Sibo [Ssu-po] ®Jz[
Du Mu Tu Mu 1459- 1 525 » Xuanjing [Hsiian-ching] A®
Du Qiong Tu Ch’iung 1396-1474 Yongjia [Yung-chia] Luguan Daoren [Lu-kuan tao-jen]
glxiJiA, Dongyuan Xian-
sheng |Tung-yiian hsien-sheng]

AM AA

Artists by Period 37 5
 Pinyin Wade-Giles Dates Characters Zi (style name) Hao (sobriquet) and Other Names

Gao Qi Kao Ch’i 1336-1374 r^j in Jidi [Chi-ti] =P34i

Gu Mei Ku Mei 1619—1664 mm Meisheng [Mei-sheng] M A Also called Xu Mei [Hsu Mei]
JH, Meizhuang [Mei-chuang]
||j±, Hengbo [Heng-po]
Zhizhu [Chih-chu]
Meisheng [Mei-sheng]
Gu Zhengyi Ku Cheng-i fl. ca. 1580 Hi it it Zhongfang [Chung-fang] ft A Tinglin [T’ing-linJ
Guo Chun Kuo Ch’un 1370-1444 fl^ Wentong [Wen-t’ung] ft 3M Pu’an [P’u-an]
Huang Daozhou Huang Tao-chou 1585-1646 nmm Youxuan [Yu-hsiian] Shizhai [Shih-chai] ftjft
Chiruo [Ch’ih-jo]
Jiang Song Chiang Sung fl. ca. 1500 MM Sansong [San-sung] —-ft
JuJie Chu Chieh d. 1585 Shizhen [Shih-chen] ztjjJ Shanggu [Shang-ku]
Kou Mei K’ou Mei Ming Baimen [Pai-men] Rf j'~]
Lan Ying Lan Ying 15 8 5—1664 Tianshu [T’ien-shu] Diesou [Tieh-sou] Shitou-
tuo [Shih-t’ou-t’o] ft A PS
Li Rihua Li Jih-hua 1565-1635 Junshi [Chiin-shih] 5E3A Jiuyi [Chiu-i] AI5, Zhulan [Chu-
lan]
Li Yin Li Yin ca. 1616-1685 mm Jinsheng [Chin-sheng] Aft Shi’an [Shih-an] Kanshan Yi-
shi [K’an-shan i-shih] ^ |J_| 3il ft
Li Zai Li Tsai active mid-15 th c. mm. Yizheng [I-cheng] ftiE£
Lin Liang Lin Liang active ca. 1488-1505 Yishan ]I-shan] ftH
Liu Jue Liu Chiieh 1410—1472 Tingmei [T’ing-mei] j[3:=§| Wanan [Wan-an]
Liu Jun Liu Chun active ca. 1500 Tingwei [T’ing-wei]
Lou Jian Lou Chien 1567-1631 m'M. Zirou |Tzu-jou] p-^
Lti Ji Lu Chi acdve ca. 1500 Tingzhen [T’ing-chen] $£3M Leyu [Lo-yii] ift# or ft]®
Lu Shidao Lu Shih-tao b. 1517 Zichuan [Tzu-ch’uan] ft ft Yuanzhou [Yiian-chou] JC^H
Lu Zhi Lu Chih 1496 -1576 Shuping [Shu-p’ing] Baoshan [Pao-shan] ft, |Jj
Ma Shouzhen Ma Shou-chen 1548-1604 Xianglan [Hsiang-lan] Yuejiao [Yiie-chiao]
Mo Shilong Mo Shih-lung active ca. 1567—1600 UtIA Yunqing [Yun-ch’ing] AHP, Qiushui [Ch’iu-shui] Zhen-
Tinghan [T’ing-han] yi Daoren [Chen-i tao-jen] A
—31A
Ni Duan Ni Tuan active early 15 th c. Zhongzheng [Chung-cheng]
ft IE
Peng Nian P’eng Nien 1505-1566 &¥ Kongjia [K’ung-chia] ?LJ| Longchi Shanqiao [Lung-ch’ih
shan-ch’iao] HI'/tk U-I ft,
Qian Gu Ch’ien Ku 1508—after 1574 mm Shubao [Shu-pao] Qingshizi [Ch’ing-shih tzu] @
M-p
Qiu Ying Ch’iu Ying early 16 th c. ii\M. Shifu [Shih-fu] Aft Shizhou [Shih-chou] ,
Qiu Zhu Ch’iu Chu fl. ca. 1550 im Duling Neishi [Tu-ling nei-shih]

Shang Xi Shang Hsi active ca. 1430-1440 Weiji [Wei-chi] ft ft

Shangguan Boda Shang-kuan Po-ta acdve ca. early 15 th c. ±M3i
Shen Can Shen Ts’an 13 79 14 5 3 Minwang [Min-wang] Jian’an [Chien-an] jiff Jig
Shen Cheng Shen Ch’eng 1376-1463 Mengyuan [Meng-yiian]

Shen Du Shen Tu
D57-I434 Minze [Min-tse] ftUlIJ Zile [Tzu-le] g fR
Shen Heng Shen Heng 1407-1477
Tongzhai |T’ung-chai] fnj^j
Shen Shichong Shen Shih-ch’ung fl. ca. 1611-1640 Ziju [Tzu-chii] ft^
Shen Xiyuan Shen Hsi-yuan 14th c. ift#3zc
Shen Zhen Shen Chen b. 1400 Zhenji [Chen-chi] ft ft Nanzhai [Nan-chai] jft^,Tao-
ran Daoren [T’ao-jan tao-jen]

Shen Zhou Shen Chou

M3IA
1427-'5°9 Qinan [Ch’i-nan] ft [ft Shitian [Shih-t’ien] ft E0, Baishi-
weng [Pai-shih-weng] gftft,
Yudanweng [Yu-t’ien weng]

Sheng Zhu ifctP ^

Sheng Chu active 2d half of (PkMi Shuzhang [Shu-chang]
14th c.
Shi Rui Shih Jui active early 15 th c. ft Yiming [I-ming] ft 0ft

376 A rtists bj Period

 Wade-Giles Dates Characters Zi (style name) Hao (sobriquet) and Other Names

SunKehong Sun K’o-hung 1532-1610 ?d'i£3Aor Yunzhi [Yiin-chih] Xueju [Hsiieh-chii] ||jg-

Sun Long Sun Lung 15 th c. im Congji [Ts’ung-chi] Mp Duchi |Tu-ch’ih]

Sun Wenzong Sun Wen-tsung active ca. 1360—1370 ?d' A A Zhongwen [Chung-wen] JcfA
Sun Zhi Sun Chih fl. ca. 1550-1580 im Shuda [Shu-ta] JjXjA Hualinjushi [Hua-Iin chii-shih]

mm±
Tang Yin T’ang Yin 1470-1523 Bohu [Po-hu] Liuru Jushi [Liu-ju chii-shih]
**
Ziwei |Tzu-wei] AH MAl® it, Taohua Anzhu
[T’ao-hua an-chu]
Wang Chong Wang Ch’ung 1494_15 33 m% Liiren [Lii-jen] M.\— Yayi Shanren [Ya-i shan-jen]

itsuiA
Wang E Wang E active ca. 1488-1501 Aif Tingzhi [T’ing-chih] $£ W
Wang Fu Wang Fu 1362-1416 A St Mengduan [Meng-tuan] jfciQ Youshisheng [Yu-shih sheng]
AE A, Jiulong Shanren [Chiu-
lung shan-jen] AAlijA,
Qingcheng Shanren [Ch’ing-
ch’eng shan-jen] WMU-lA
Wang Guxiang Wang Ku-hsiang 1501—1568 A## Luzhi [Lu-chih] J5A. Youshi [Yu-shih]
Wang Lii Wang Lii 14th c. A® Andao [An-tao] A A Qiweng [Ch’i-weng] Jisou
[Chi-sou]
Wang Yunjing Wang Yiin-ching late Ming—early Qing Hongqing [Hung-ch’ing] A®
Wang Zhao Wang Chao fl. ca. 1500 mm Dechu [Te-ch’u] 'iMffl Haiyun [Hai-yiin]
Wen Boren Wen Po-jen 1502-1575 Xi&C. Decheng [Te-ch’eng] Wufeng [Wu-feng] Elll$, Baosheng
[Pao-sheng] Sheshan
Laonong [She-shan lao-nung]

Wen Congjian Wen Ts’ung-chien 1574-1648 AM Mi' Yanke [Yen-k’o] J§: uj Zhenyan Laoren [Chen-yen lao-
jen] Jt'iS^A
XO

Wen Dian Wen Tien AA

r-TN
tn
T
r-
O

Yuye [Yii-yeh] A ill Nanyun Shanqiao [Nan-yiin shan-

ch’iao] j^jAll]ft
Wen Jia Wen Chia 1501—1583 AH Xiucheng [Hsiu-ch’eng] Wenshui [Wen-shui] A7K
Wen Nan Wen Nan 1596—1667 Affi Quyuan [Ch’ti-yiian] Kai’an [K’ai-an]
Wen Peng Wen P’eng 1498—1573 A0 Shoucheng [Shou-ch’eng] A;p; Sanqiao [San-ch’iao] EEffi
Wen Shu Wen Shu 1595-1634 Affi Duanrong [Tuan-jung]
Wen Yuanshan Wen Yiian-shan 1554-1589 Ain: ft Zichang [Tzu-ch’ang] A A Huqiu [Hu-ch’iu] Ft
Wen Zhenheng Wen Chen-heng 1585-1645 AM A Qimei [Ch’i-mei]
Wen Zhengming Wen Cheng-ming 1470-1559 a mm Zhengzhong [Cheng-chung] Hengshan Jushi [Heng-shan chii-
fiEW shih]fiUj^±
Wen Zhenmeng Wen Chen-meng 1574-1636 AMdS Wenqi [Wen-ch’i] AJ3 Zhanchi [Chan-chih]
Wu Bin Wu Pin active ca. 1573-1620 Wenzhong [Wen-chung] A A Zhi’an Faseng [Chih-an fa-seng]

Wu Wei Wu Wei 14 5 9 —1 5°9 Shiying [Shih-ying] ±|£, Lufu [Lu-fu] HA, Xiaoxian
Ciweng [Tz’u-weng] [Hsiao-hsien]
Xia Chang Hsia Ch’ang 1388-1470 Zhongzhao [Chung-chaol Zizai Jushi [Tzu-ts’ai chii-shih] §
it, Yufeng [Yii-feng] 3ill^

Xia Zhi Hsia Chih 15 th c. H i£ Tingfang [Ting-fang] ££77

Xiang Shengmo Hsiang Sheng-mo 1597-1658 JjJjJg-jJI Kongzhang [K’ung-chang] JLijP; Yi’an [I-an] Xushanqiao
[Hsii-shan-ch’iao] Jf|_L|$|
Xie Bin Hsieh Pin 1601-1681 Wenhou [Wen-hou] A{H Xianqu [Hsian-ch’u]
Xie Huan Hsieh Huan active 1426-1452 iltJf' Tingxun [T’ing-hsiin] iM’iM
Xie Jin Hsieh Chin fl. ca. 1560 iJJiJf Kuiqiu [K’uei-ch’iu] Fr
Xie Shichen Hsieh Shih-ch’en 1487—after 1567 iJdH'j’ES Sizhong [Ssu-chung] A, Chuxian [Ch’u-hsien]
Xu Ben Hsii Pen 1335-1380 Youwen [Yu-wen] iJjA Beiguosheng [Pei-kuo-sheng]

Xu Wei Hsti Wei 15 21-15 93 Wenqing [Wen-ch’ing] AlH, Tianchi [T’ien-ch’ih] AlUt
Wenchang [Wen-ch’ang] A A Qingteng [Ch’ing-t’eng] HU
Xue Susu Hsiieh Su-su ca. 1564—ca. 1637 Runqing [Jun-ch’ing] JjiJJJiP, Runniang [Jun-niang] Y|'aJ ^
Suqing [Su-ch’ing]
YangWencong Yang Wen-ts’ung 1597-1645 JJjA 5$ Longyou [Lung-yu] A A

Artists by Period 377

 Pinyin Wade-Giles Dates Characters Zi (style name) Hao (sobriquet) and Other Names

Yao Shou Yao Shou 142 3—149 5 mm Gong Shou [Kung shou] A^§ Gu’an [Ku-an] 4y/l§;, Yundong
Yishi [Yiin-tung i-shih] AT

Yun Daosheng Yun Tao-sheng 1586—165 5 if ilA Yun Xiang [Yun Hsiang] '|f ]p] Xiangshanweng [Hsiang-shan
weng] ff |1| m
Zengjing Tseng Ching 1564-1647 Bochen [Po-ch’en] /[£ A
Zhang Bi Chang Pi 1425-1487 M Ru Bi [Ju Pi] fyffi Donghai Weng [Tung-hai weng]

Zhang Lu Chang Lu ca. 1464—ca. 1538 M Tianchi |T’ien-ch’ih] Pingshan Jingju [P’ing-shan
ching-chii] Till# Hr
Zhang Yu Chang Yu 1 32 3 1 3 ^ 5 Laiyi [Lai-i] A1X
Zhao Tonglu Chao T’ung-lu 1423-1503 Yiizhe [Yu-che]
Zhao Zuo Chao Tso active ca. 1610-1630 Wendu [Wen-tu]
Zhou Chen Chou Ch’en active ca. 1472-1535 JW] [§ Shunqing [Shun-ch’ing] Dongcun [Tung-ts’un] THf
Zhou Quan Chou Ch’uan Ming dynasty m±
Zhou Tianqiu Chou T’ien-ch’iu 1514—1595 Gongxia (Kung-hsia] A3i! Huanhai [Huan-hai] Liu-
zhisheng [Liu-chih-sheng]

Zhou Wei Chou Wei active ca. 1368—1390 Xuansu [Hsiian-su] AH

Zhou Zhimian Chou Chih-mien fl. ca. 1580—1610 J1AM Fuqing ]Fu-ch’ing] WM Shaogu [Shao-ku] d
Zhu Duan Chu Tuan active ca. 1506-1521 A^ Kezheng |K’o-cheng] ATF Yiqiao [I-ch’iao| —•$£
Zhu Yunming Chu Yun-ming 1461-15 27 wtm Xizhe [Hsi-che] Zhishan [Chih-shan] ^|_L|
Zhu Zhanji Chu Chan-chi 1399—T435 AM Ming Xuanzong [Ming Hsiian-
tsung]
Zhuo Di Chuo Ti active early 15 th c. Minyi [Min-i] Qingyue [Ch’ing-yueh] 'pf Tl

QING DYNASTY

Bada Shanren Pa-ta shan-jen 1626—1705 A Alii A Ren’an [Jen-an] (JJ^ Zhu Tonglin [Chu T’ung-lin] A
, Zhu Da [Chu Ta] A2f,
Zhu Yichong [Chu I-ch’ong] A
AT, Xuege [Hsiieh-ko] fJT,
Shunian [Shu-nien] AT, Ge-
shan [Ko-shan] Till, Geshanlii
[Ko-shan-lii] T 1±| 54 , Chuan-
qing [Ch’uan ch’ing] AH, Ren-
\vu [Jen-wu] AM, Liiwulushu
[Lii-wu-lii-shu]
Castiglione, Lang Shih-ning 1688-1768
Giuseppe
[Lang Shining]
Cheng Sui Ch’eng Sui active ca. 1605-1691 mm Muqian [Mu-ch’ien] Jiangdong Buyi [Chiang-tung pu-i]
'/XT A A, Goudaoren [Kou-
tao-jen] A
Cheng Zhengkui Ch’eng Cheng-k’uei mid-lyth c.
mmm Duanbo [Tuan-po] JQ-fg Juling [Chu-ling]
Deng Shiru Teng Shih-ju i739-i8°5 Wanbai [Wan-pai] jfpj g Wanbai Shanren [Wan-pai shan-
jen] [Tfi U-1 A.Jiyou Daoren
[Chi-yu tao-jen] IOjAIA
Dingjing Ting Ching 1695-1765 Tit jingshen [Ching-shen] fS[itf Longhong Shanren [Lung-hung
shan-jen[ ASil-Ll A
Fan Qi Fan Ch’i 1616-after 1694 mif Huigong [Hui-kung] AA,
Qiagong [Ch’ia-kung] tp A
Fang Wanyi Fang Wan-i 1732-after 1779 AM Yizi [I-tzu] Bailian Jushi [Pai-lien chii-shih]
6 SI Ha ±
Fei Danxu Fei Tan-hsii 1802-1850 mnm Zitiao [Tzu-t’iao] AH Xiaolou [Hsiao-lou] Huan-
xisheng [Huan-hsi sheng]
MA
Fu Shan Fu Shan 1606-1684 WlU Qingzhu [Ch’ing-chu] A Zhenshan [Chen-shan] j||l|, Seiu
[Se-lu] bjI/A Gongzhita [Kung-
chih-t’a] A AT, Renzhong
378 A rtists by Period
Pinyin Wade-Giles Dates Characters Zi (style namej Hao (sobriquet) and Other Names

[Jen-chung] Afi, Liuchi [Liu-

ch’ih] AfA Suili [Sui-Ii] MUs
Gai Qi Kai Ch’i 1773-1828 im Boyun [Po-yiin] WfU Xiangbai [Hsiang-pai] |f f=|,
Qixiang [Ch’i-hsiang]
Yuhu Waishi [Yii-hu wai-shih]
{ElSAA, Yuhu Shanren [Yii-
hu shan-jen] 3£Se|!| A
Gao Cen Kao Ts’en active ca. 1679 M'Q Weisheng [Wei-sheng] lUT Shanchang [Shan-ch’ang]
Gao Jun Kao Chun late 17 th—early 18 th c. Jiting [Chi-t’ing]
Gao Qipci Kao Ch’i-p’ei 1660—1734 ® Aifl Weizhi [Wei-chih] AT Qieyuan [Ch’ieh-yuan] JeLHII,
Nancun [Nan-ts’un] j^jfT
Changbai Shanren [Chang-pai
shan-jen] A A ill A
Gao Xiang Kao Hsiang 688- ca. 1753 i^jPU Fenggang [Feng-kang] JA |X] Xitang [Hsi-t’ang] Jff, Shanlin
Waichen [Shan-lin wai-ch’en]

Gong Xian Kung Hsien 618-1689 Qixian [Ch’i-hsien] Banmu [Pan-mu] A E5, Banqian
[Pan-ch’ien] A A, Chaizhang-
ren [Ch’ai-chang-jen] ^AA,
Yeyi |Yeh-i] fjja
Gu Heqing Ku Ho-ch’ing 1766-after 1830 SftJA Ziyu [Tzu-yii] T A Tao’an |T’ao-an] Gu Yiliu
[Ku I-liu]
Gu Ming Ku Ming late 17th c. Zhongshu [Chung-shu] {if?
Gu Qi Ku Ch’i early Qing Zonghan [Tsung-han] A'K
Gu Yanwu Ku Yan-wu 1613—1682 Ningren [Ning-jen] t A Original name Jiang [Chiang]
Tinglin [T’ing-lin]
Guo Gong Kuo Kung Qing Wujiang [Wu-chiang] AiB
He Shaoji Ho Shao-chi I799—1873 mm Zizhen [Tzu-chcn] T J/J Dongzhou [Tung-chou] A /J|'|,
Yuansou [Yuan-sou]
Hongren Hung-jen 1610—1664 Jianjiang [Chicn-chiang] $JrtL Original name Jiang Tao [Chiang
T’ao] Meihua Laona
[Mei-hua lao-na] iST AW
Hu Yuan Hu Yuan 1823-1886 Gongshou |Kung-shou] A A Shouhe [Shou-ho] , I Ieng-
yun Shanmin [Heng-yiin shan-
min]
Hu Zao Hu Ts’ao acdve ca. 1670—1720 iWfiS Shigong [Shih-kungJ 5A

Idua Yan Hua Yen 1682-1756 Qiuyue [Ch’iu-yiieh] Xinluo Shanren [Hsin-lo shan-
jen] §r 3? ill A
Huang Shen Huang Shen 1687-after 1768 mm Gongmao [Kung-mao] fjSJfJ: Yingpiaozi [Ying-p’iao-tzu]

MT
Jiang Tingxi Chiang T’ing-hsi 1669—1732 Yangsun [Yang-sun] Xigu [Hsi-ku] jUflh, Nansha
Youjun |Yu-chiinj [Nan-sha]
Jin Nong Chin Nung 1687—1764 Shoumen [Shou-men] A (f Dongxin [Tung-hsin] A A',
Guquan [Ku-ch’iian] AM,
Laoding [Lao-ting] AT,
Sinong [Ssu-nung] iY|2x
Kuncan K’un-ts’an 1612—1673 Shixi [Shih-hsi] Original name Liu [Liu] AJ, Baitu
Jieqiu [Chieh-ch’iu] [Pai-t’u] Candaoren
[Ts’an-tao-jen] A)ill A
Li Fangying Li Fang-ying 1695-1755 TA/ff Qiuzhong [Ch’iu-chung] ^L/f43 Qingjiang [Ch’ing-chiang] tlf'/I,
Qiuchi [Ch’iu-ch’ih]
Li Shan Li Shan 1688— ca. 1757 Zongyang |Tsung-yang] %% Futang [Fu-t’ang] JOt?
Li Xian Li Hsien 1652—1687 mm Yiwu [I-wu|
Li Yin Li Yin active ca. 1700 mm Baiye [Pai-yeh] (fib,
Liao Dashou Liao Ta-shou early Qing ®AA Junkc [Chiin-k’o] IjlJFJ
Lu Erlong Lu Erh-lung Qing a-% Boxiang [Po-hsiang] f|f tjii Qian’an [Ch’ien-an]
Luo Pin (Ping) Lo P’in (P’ing) >733-1799 Dunfu |Tun-fu] MA Liangfeng [Liang-feng]
Huazhisi Seng [Hua-chih-ssu
seng] AAAfi

A rtists by Period 379

 Piny in Wade-Giles Dates Characters Zi (style name) Hao (sobriquet) and Other Names

Mei Qing Mei Ch’ing 1623—1697 f§?t Yuangong [Yiian-kung] A or Qushan [Ch’ii-shan] Xuelu

EEA [Hsiieh-lu] if#, Laoqu Fanfu

[Lao-ch’ti-fan-fu]
Pan Gongshou P’an Kung-shou 1741-1794 Shenfu [Shen-fu] jJlA Lianchao [Lien-ch’ao]
Pu Hua P’u Hua 1830—1911 Zuoying [Tso-ying] {AH
Qian Hui’an Ch’ien Hui-an 183 3-1911 Jisheng [Chi-sheng] Original name Guichang [Kuei-
ch’ang] iffll, Shuangguanlou
[Shuang-kuan-lou] JlXlt’flc,
Qingxi Qiaozi [Ch’ing-hsi
ch’iao-tzu]
Qian Qianyi Ch’ien Ch’ien-j I582—1664 Shouzhi [Shou-chih] Muzhai [Mu-chai] JAifiT, Muweng
[Mu-weng]
Ren Bonian Jen Po-nien 1840-1895 im¥ Xiaolou [Hsiao-lou] /JQJI Earlier name Ren Yi [Jen I] {IUj]
[Ren Yi]
Ren Xiong Jen Hsiung 1820-1857 am Weichang [Wei-ch’ang] '/ff JA
Ren Xun Jen Hsiin 1835-1893 am Fuchang [Fu-ch’ang] iflA
Ren Yu Jen Yii 1854-1901 am Lifan [Li-fan] ft N, Xiaoxiao’an Zhuren [Hsiao-hsiao-
an chu-jen] jft/t; AA
Shen Quan Shen Ch’iian 1682—176; Hengzhai [Heng-chai] Nanpin [Nan-p’in]

Shen Shao Shen Shao late 17th c. Erdiao [Erh-tiao] /J\ijn|

Shitao [Yuanji]
OO

Shih-t’ao
T
N

r-

Shitao [Shih-t’ao] Original name Zhu Ruoji [Chu

[Yuan-chi] Juo-chi] Buddhist
name Yuanji [Yuan-chi] JM'tfi,
Daoji [Tao-chi] it'/ft, Dadizi
[Ta-d-tzu] A'/A“P, Qingxiang
Laoren [Ch’ing-hsiang lao-jen]
A, Qingxiang Yiren
[Ch’ing-hsiang i-jen] Tfftgjg
A, Xiazunzhe [Hsia-tsun-che]
Kugua Heshang [K’u-
kua ho-shang] jnj
Wang Hui Wang Hui 1632-1717 Shigu [Shih-ku] A# Gengyan Sanren [Keng-yen san-
jen] $['J@i£A, Qinghui Zhu¬
ren [Ch’ing-hui chu-jen] Jjlf #
AA, Jianmen Qiaoke [Chien-
men ch’iao-k’o]
Niaomu Shanren [Niao-mu
shan-jen] g li| A, Quqiao
[Ch’ii-ch’iao]
Wangjian Wang Chien 1598-1677 0.'& Yuanzhao [Yuan-chao] jtWl Xiangbi [Hsiang-pi] Lian-
or HIM zhou [Lien-chou] fg'JH, Ran-
xiang Anzhu [Jan-hsiang an-chu]
ISI±
Wang Shimin Wang Shih-min 1592-1680 Xunzhi [Hstin-chih] 21'a'I Yanke [Yen-k’o] Xilu Lao¬
ren [Hsi-lu lao-jen] ]5#^A,
Xidan Zhuren [Hsi-t’ien chu-
jen] HE jFA, Guicun Lao-
nong [Kuei-ts’un lao-nung]

Wang Shishen Wang Shih-shen acdve ca. 1730-1750 Jinren [Chin-jen] 2£A
Chaolin [Ch’ao-lin] Ift#, Xidong
Waishi [Hsi-tung wai-shih]

Wang Wenzhi Wang Wen-chih 1730-1802

MAAA
Yuqing [Yii-ch’ing] g|SP Menglou [Meng-lou]
Wang Wu Wang Wu 1632-1690
Qinzhong [Ch’in-chung] §/j 41 Wang’an [Wang-an]
Wang Yuanqi Wang Yiian-ch’i 1642-1715 imp Maojing [Mao-ching] A A Lutai [Lu-t’ai] J§|#, Xilu Hourcn
[Hsi-lu hou-jen]
Shishi Daoren [Shih-shih tao-
jen]

380 Artists by Period

 Pinjin Wade-Giles Dates Characters Zi (style name) Hao (sobriquet) and Other Names

Wu Hong Wu Hung active ca. 1670-1680 Yuandu [Yiian-tu] JzE£§! Zhushi [Chu-shih] f'f A
Wu Jiayou Wu Chia-yu d- 1893 MUM Youru [Yu-ju] A#P
Wu Li Wu Li 1632-1718 MR/ Yushan [Yii-shan] $&|JL| Mojing [Mo-ching] M A, Mojing
Daoren [Mo-ching tao-jen]
JHAit A, Taoxi Juren [T’ao-
hsi chu-jen] A
Wu Weiye Wu Wei-yeh 1609—1671 MM Jungong [Chiin-kung] A Meicun [Mei-ts’un] JSJtf
Xiao Chen Hsiao Ch’en active ca. 1680-1710 frit Lingxi [Ling-hsi] MU Zhongsu [Chung-su] AJft
Xiao Yuncong Hsiao Yiin-ts’ung 1596-1673 ffSM Chimu |Ch’ih-mu] RA Wumen Daoren [Wu-men tao-
jen] ApCjiHA, Zhongshan
Laoren [Chung-shan lao-jen]
teU-I^A
Xie Sun Hsieh Sun late 17 th c. Xiangyou [Hsiang-yu] iff] [If
Xu Yang Hsu Yang active ca. 1760 Yunting [Yiin-t’ing] A A
Xu Yi Hsu I early Qing Xiangjiu [Hsiang-chiu]
Xiangxian [Hsiang-hsien]

Xu Zhang Hsii Chang 1694-1749 mm Yaopu [Yao-p’u]

Xugu Hsii-ku 1824—1896 Xubai [Hsii-pai] ^ £3 Original name Zhu Huairen [Chu
Huai-jen] AfT'C, Ziyang
Shanmin [Tzu-yang shan-min]
mBUjm
YeXin Yeh Hsin fl. 1647—1679 R-f-jjx Rongmu [Jung-mu] AA
Yu Zhiding Yii Chih-ting 1647- 1716 Shangji [Shang-chi] h ^ or Shenchai [Shen-ch’ai] 'Un¬
Ini ef
Yuan Jiang Yiian Chiang active ca. 1680-1730 :§C7l Wentao [Wen-t’ao]
Yuan Yao Yuan Yao active ca. 1739-1788 A If Zhao Dao [Chao Tao] Bp iH
Yun Shouping Yun Shou-p’ing 1633- 1690 Zhengshu [Cheng-shu] TFf? original name Ge [Ke] Nan-
tian [Nan-t’ien] pefBE], Yunxi
Waishi [Yiin-hsi wai-shih] A
7j| A A, Baiyun Waishi [Pai-
yiin wai-shih] SAAA,
Dongyuan Caoyi [Tung-yuan
ts’ao-i] Ouxiang
Sanren [Ou-hsiang san-jen]
StMA
Zha Shibiao Cha Shih-piao 1615—1698 Site Erzhan [Erh-chan]_,|§( Meihe [Mei-ho]
Zhang Ke Chang K’o b. 163 5 Yuke [Yii-k’o] dt pT Meixue [Mei-hsueh] lljlf If or
$515, Bishan Xiaochi [Pi-shan
hsiao-chih] §|l|/jN^n
Zhang Qi Chang Ch’i early Qing M Yuqi [Yii-ch’i] AS
Zhang Weibang Chang Wei-pang mid-18th c.

mmm
Zhang Yin Chang Yin 1761—1829 3KS Baoya [Pao-ya] Xi’an [FIsi-an] SMS, Xidaoren
[Hsi-tao-jen] A ]jf A, Qicweng
[Ch’ieh-weng] _i_ft
Zhang Yuan Chang Yuan Qing $3 Ziyou [Tzu-yu]
Zhao Zhiqian Chao Chih-ch’ien 1829-1884 Yifu [I-fu] Huishu [Hui-shu]
Zheng Pei Cheng P’ei Qing mm Shanru [Shan-ju] LU $P Guting [Ku-t’ing]
Zheng Xie Cheng Flsieh 1693—1766 mm Kerou [K’o-jou] Jn£||| Banqiao [Pan-ch’iao]
Zhou Lianggong Chou Liang-kung 1612-1672 Yuanliang [Yuan-liang] Liyuan [Li-yiian] ^19

7GA
Zhou Xian Chou Hsien 1820—1875 M lA Cunbo [Ts’un-po] teffi Fanhu Jushi |Fan-hu chu-shih]

Zou Yigui Tsou I-kuei 1686—1772 m-m Yuanbao [Yiian-pao] Xiaoshan [Hsiao-shan] /Jn[JL|
Zou Zhe Tsou Che 1636-ca. 1708 Fanglu [Fang-lu] AH-
Zou Zhilin Tsou Chi-lin early 17th c. mmm Chenhu [Ch’en-hu] [5^ Yibai [I-pai] A A

Artists by Period 3 81
 Piny in Wade-Giles Dates Characters Zi (style name) Hao (sobriquet) and Other Names

REPUBLIC AND PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC

Ai Zhongxin Ai Chung-hsin 1915—

Chen Banding Ch’en Pan-t’ing 1876-1970 |i£®T Jingshan [Ching-shan] !§>ll| Chen Nian [Ch’en Nienj |AA,
Banding [Pan-ting] ® A,
Banchi [Pan-ch’ih]
Chen Shizeng Ch’en Shih-tseng 1876-1923 Shizeng [Shih-ts’eng] j tiiii
Xiudaoren [Hsiu-tao-jen] JdlltA,
[Chen Hengke 1 Chen Hengke [Ch’en Heng-k’o]
WMV\&, Huaitang [Huai-t’ang[
Ji[, Rancangshi [Jan-ts’ang-
shih] J£rldji[
Chen Shuren Ch’en Shu-jen 1884—1948 ISA Chen Shao [Ch’en Shao] |$p§§,
Jiawai Yuzi [Chia-wai yii-tzu]
ftAW
Chen Zhifo Ch’en Chih-fo 1896-1962 1 I^
Fang Rending Fang Jen-ting 1901-1975 AA^
Feng Chaoran Feng Ch’ao-jan 1882—1954 mmm Feng Jiong [Feng Chiong] JS/'Jfn],
Dike [Ti-k’o] ?^|b[, Songshan
Jushi [Sung-shan chii-shih] ^
ill® dr, Shende [Shen-te] fUf#
Feng Zikai Feng Tzu-k’ai 1898—197 5 ASta Ren [Jen] fZ, Yingxing [Ying-
hsing] f3fr
Fu Baoshi Fu Pao-shih 1904-1965 MS Baoshi [Pao-shihJ Changsheng [Ch’ang-sheng]
Ruilin [Jui-lin]
Gao Jianfu Kao Chien-fu 1879—1951 MMX Jueting [Chiieh-t’ing] JUJU, Gao Lun [Kao Lun] Jianfu
Quering [Ch’iieh-t’ing] HIj [Chien-fu] JylJ5£
Gao Qifeng Kao Ch’i-feng 1889-1933 Shanweng [Shan-weng] [JL| ft Gao Weng [Kao Weng] jtjlfg,
Qifeng [Ch’i-feng] Irf[1$
Gu Kunbo Ku K’un-po I9°5~I97° Jingfeng [Ching-feng] J53. P Yi [I] Zi, Erquan Jushi [Erh-
ch’iian chii-shi] ZL^^-dr
Guan Shanyue Kuan Shan-yiieh b. 1912 Mill] Guan Zepei [Kuan Tse-p’ei] A#
f?|, Ziyun [Tzu-yiin] AS
He Tianjian Ho T’ien-chien 1890-1977 MM®
ip1! A® Qianqian [Ch’ien-ch’ien] Renxiang Jushi [Jen-hsiang chii-
shih] dr, Jian Sou
[Chien Sou] [H]||
He Xiangning Ho Hsiang-ning ca. 1878-1972 imm
Hu Peiheng Hu P’ei-heng 1891-1962 SBfiMIr Xiquan [Hsi-ch’iian] Hu
Heng [Hu Heng] Lengan
[Leng-an]
Huang Binhong Huang Pin-hung 1865—195 5 Pucun [P’u-ts’un] Alp Huang Zhi [Huang Chih] MM,
Binhong [Pin-hung]
Yuxiang [Yii-hsiang ® Ipl
Huang Dufeng Huang Tu-feng b. 1913
Huang Shan Mil, Dufeng [Tu-
feng] £fc|l#
Huang Shaoqiang Huang Shao- 1901-1942 n&m. Huang Yishi [Huang I-shih]
ch’iang
Huang Zhou MU!, Xin’an [Hsin-an] ;L'/1
Huang Chou b. 1925 ms
Liang Huangzhou [Liang Huang-
chou]
Jiang Zhaohe Chiang Chao-ho 1904-1986
Jin Cheng Chin Ch’eng 1878-1926 Gongbo [Kung-po] Ijjfg, Jin Shaocheng [Chin Shao-ch’eng]
Gongbei [Kung-pei] JLJt dzSM, Beilou [Pei-lou]
Jing Hengyi Ching Heng-i Ouchao [Ou-ch’ao] |jg]§§
i875—1938 Ziyuan [Tzu-yiian] Yiyuan [I-yiian] Shichan

Ju Lian Chii Lien [Shih-ch’an] S#

1828—1904
Guquan [Ku-ch’iian] Azl Geshan Laoren [Ke-shan lao-jen]
Kang Youwei K’ang Yu-wei 1858-1927 PSlilda A
Gcngsheng [Keng-shcng] J3 ^ Zuyi [Tzu-i] jEip, Changsu
[Ch’ang-su] Afft, Xiqiao
Shanren [Hsi-ch’iao shan-jen]
SttllA
382 Artists bj Period
Pinyin Wade-Giles Dates Characters Zi (style name) Hao (sobriquet) and Other Names

Li Hu Li Hu 1919-1975 ^ m
Li Jingfu Li Ching-fu Modern Xinyu [Hsin-yii] EH?
Li Keran Li K’o-jan 1907—1989 *5pJ|£
Li Kuchan Li K’u-ch’an 1898-1983 Kuchan [K’u-ch’an] Li Ying Ligong [Li-kung]

J75 &
Li Ruiqing Li Jui-ch’ing 1867—1920 Zhonglin [Chung-lin] Qingdaoren [Ch’ing-tao-jen]

Li Shutong Li Shu-t’ung 1880-1942 mm FIongYi [Hung Yi]

Xishuang [Hsi-shuang]
Li Xiongcai Li Hsiung-ts’ai b. 1910 mmt
Lin Fengmian Lin Feng-mien 1900—1991 #jxlIK
Lin Shu Lin Shu ca. 1852—1924 m? Hui [Hui] j§[, Qinnan Qun Yu [Ch’iin Yii] fj=^3£, Weilu
[Ch’in-nan] [Wei-lu] Lcnghongsheng
[Leng-hung-sheng] A AC A
Liu Boshu Liu Boshu b. 1935 tmm
Liu Haisu Liu Hai-su 1896-1994 AiJ MM Haiwcng [Hai-weng]
Lii Fengzi Lii Feng-tzu 1886—1959 aw Rong |Jung] '/$, Fengchi [Feng-
ch’ih] jXll®
Lu Jingxiu Lu Ching-hsiu Modern mmm
Lii Sibai Lii Ssu-pai 1905-1973 a$?H
Lu Weizhao Lu Wei-chao Modern mm
Lu Yanshao Lu Yen-shao b. 1909 mr'y Wanruo [Wan-jo]

Ni Yide Ni I-te 1901—1970 msm

Pan Tianshou P’an T’ien-shou 1898—1971 mas? Tianshou [T’ien-shou] AS, Ashou [A-shou]
Dayi [Ta-i] AI®
Pu Xinyu P’u FIsin-yii 1896—1963 Xinyu [Hsin-yii] EH? Pu Ru [P’uju] Xishan
Yishi [Hsi-shan i-shih] llljill
dr, Xichuan Yishi [Hsi-ch’uan
i-shih] ffijll^rt, Hanyutang
Zhuren [Han-yii-t’ang chu-jen]

-§maa
Ch’i Pai-shih 1864-1957 Weiqing [Wei-ch’ing] '/f| pf Qi Huang [Ch’i Huang] Af i$,
Qi Baishi
Chunzhi [Ch’un-chih] Atidi,
Baishi [Pai-shih] £]E, Baishi
Shanren [Pai-shih shan-jen] fd
Elll A, Binsheng [Pin-sheng]
'Mdl, Kemu Laoren [I<’o-mu
lao.-jen] ^lj A^A, Muren
[Mu-jen] AA,Ji Ping [Chi
P’ing] Sanbai Shiyin Fu-
weng [San-pai shih-yin fu-weng]
HEEPPIli ll.Xjngziwu Lao-
min [Hsing-tzu-wu iao-min]
3a J*:, J ieshanweng
weng [Chieh-shan-weng] fg

Qian Shizhi Ch’ien Shih-chih 1880-1922

1899-1986 Song Yan [Sung Yen] $2^ Jilu Zhuren [Chi-lu chu-jen]
Qian Songyan Ch’ien Sung-yen
gJWA
Zhongwen [Chung-wen] Qin Yu [Ch’in Yii] Yurong
Qin Zhongwen Ch’in Chung-wen 1896-1974 Ufa*
[Yii-jung] Zhongfu
[Chung-fu] A A, Liuhu [Liu-
hu] $!$[]

Sha Meng-hai 1900-1992 Wen Ruo [Wen Juo]

Sha Menghai
FengShilu [FengShih-lu] PdE#
Shi Lu Shih Lu 1919-1982 E#
Feng Yaheng [Feng Ya-hcng]

Lao She [I^ao She] da 0=1 Shu Sheyu [Shu She-yu]

Shu Qingchun Shu Ch’ing-ch’un Modern §?ia#
Song Wenzhi Sung Wen-chih b. ca. 1918 AA'/n

Artists by Period 383

 Pinyin Characters Hao (.sobriquetj and Other Names
Wade-Giles Dates

Sun Duoci Sun To-tz’u 1912-1975

Wang Geyi Wang Ko-i 1897—1988 Qizhi [Ch’i-chihj Wang Xian [Wang Hsien] IE j/f

Geyi [Ko-i] AH'

Wang Senran Wang Sen-jan 1895—1984
Wang Zhen Wang Chen 1867-1938 Yiting [I-t’ing] —‘A Meihua Guanzhu [Mei-hua kuan-
chu] Bailong Shan-
ren [Pai-lung shan-jen] E3 A U-l
A,Jueqi [Chiieh-ch’i]
Wei Zixi Wei Tzu-hsi b. 1915
Wu Changshuo Wu Ch’ang-shuo 1844—1927 MUM Lao Fo [Lao fo] A A, Wu Junqing [Wu Chiin-ch’ing]
[Wu Changshi] Fo Lu [Fo lu] Cangshi [Ts’ang-shih]

Wu Fuzhi Wu Fu-chih 1900—1977 HffA Wu Xizi [Wu Hsi-tzu] AM A

Wu Guanzhong Wu Kuan-chung b. 1919 Tu [T’u] &
Wu Hufan Wu Hu-fan 1894—1967 Qian [Ch’ien] {if, Wan [Wan] 75,
Dong Chuang [Tung Chuang]
AjEL, Qian’an [Ch’ien-an] flf
Meijing Shuwu [Mei-ching
shu-wu] Chouyi
[Ch’ou-i]
Wu Zuoren Wu Tso-jen b. 1908 MfFA
Xiao Sun Hsiao Sun 1883-1944 W(t Xiao Qianzhong [Hsiao Ch’ien-
chung] |f A, Longqiao
[Lung-ch’iao] Dalong
Shanqiao [Ta-lung shan-ch’iao]
AAiiilt
Xie Zhiliu Hsieh Chih-liu b. 1910 \mw Xie Zhi [Hsieh Chih] ij
Xu Beihong Hsu Pei-hung 1895-1953 Shoukang [Shou-k’ang]
Xu Xiaolun Hsii Hsiao-lun Modern
Xu Yansun Hsu Yan-sun 1899-1961 Yansun [Yen-sun] Xu Cao [Hsu Ts’ao] {£]
Ya Ming Ya Ming b. 1924 mm also called Ye Yarning [Yeh Ya¬
rning] Pf3E0^
Yang Shanshen Yang Shan-shen b. 1913 Liuzhai [Liu-chai]
Yu Fei’an Yu Fei-an 1889—1959 Fei’an [Fei-an] AHh, Yu Zhao [Yu Chao] AM,
Fei’an [Fei-an] #F Xianren [Hsien-jen] fgJA
Zeng Xi Tseng Hsi 1861—1930 ** EE A
Nongran [Nung-jan] Ziqi [Tzu-ch’i] A SI, Siyuan [Ssu-
yiian] {^[ze|, Siyuan [Ssu-yiian]

Zhang Daqian Chang Ta-ch’ien 1899-1983 3KAA Jiyuan [Chi-yiian] Zhang Yuan [Chang Yuan] $;§t,
Daqian [Ta-ch’ien] A A,
Dafengtang [Ta-feng-t’ang]
AjX
Zhao Shao’ang Chao Shao-ang b. 1905 j&M Shuyi [Shu-i] fjtfX Zhao Yuan [Chao Yuan] JXJtH
Zhao Wangyun Chao Wang-yiin 1906-1977 MA
Zhao Yunhe Chao Yiin-ho ca. 1874-1956 &AM Ziyun [Tzu-ytin] AA Zhao Qi [Chao Ch’i] ^XilS,

Zhou Zhaoxiang Yunhe [Yiin-ho] AM

Chou Chao-hsiang ca. 1877-1954
mmn Yangan [Yang-an] Tuigu [T’ui-ku] 31 £
Zhu Qizhan Chu Ch’i-chan 1892-1995
Qizai [Ch’i-tsai] |2 Erzhan
Laomin [Erh-chan lao-min]

Prepared by Elizabeth M. Owen

384 A.rtists by Period

 FURTHER READINGS

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-. Sui Tang huajia shiliao PH Hf [EHJ ^ ft JSf (Historical mate¬
rials on painters of the Sui and Tang dynasties). Beijing: Wen¬
The Ming Dynasty (1368—1644)
wu chubanshe, 1987.
Fontein, Jan, and Wu Tung. Han and T’ang Painted Murals Discovered Barnhart, Richard M., with contributions by Mary Ann Rogers

in Tombs in the People’s Republic of China and Copied by Contempo¬ and Richard Stanley-Baker. Painters of the Great Ming: Thelmpeiial

rary Chinese Painters. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1976. Court and the Zhe School. Dallas: Dallas Museum of Art, 1993.

Powers, Martin. Art and Political Expression in Early China. New Cahill, James. The Distant Mountains: Chinese Painting of the Late

Haven: Yale University Press, 1991. Ming Dynasty, ijyo-1644. New York: John Weatherhill, 1982.

Spiro, Audrey. Contemplating the Ancients: Aesthetic and Social Issues -. Parting at the Shore: Chinese Painting of the Early and Middle

in Early Chinese Portraiture. Berkeley: University of California Ming Dynasty, 1368—1980. New York: John Weatherhill, 1978.

Press, 1990. -. The Restless Landscape: Chinese Painting of the Late Ming
Sullivan, Michael. The Birth of Landscape Painting in China. Berkeley: Period. Berkeley: University of California Art Museum, 1971.
University of California Press, 1961. Clapp, Anne de Courcey. The Paintings of T’ang Yin. Chicago:
-. Chinese Landscape Painting in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. University of Chicago Press, 1991.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980. -. Wen Cheng-ming: The Ming Artist and Antiquity. Ascona,
Whitfield, Roderick, and Anne Farrer, Caves of the Thousand Switzerland: Artibus Asiae, 1975.
Buddhas: Chinese Art from the Silk Route. New York: George Edwards, Richard. The Art of Wen Cheng-ming (1490—1399). Ann
Braziller, 1990. Arbor: University of Michigan, 1976.
Wu Flung. Monumentally in Early Chinese Art and Architecture. -. The Field of Stones: A Study of the Art of Shen Chou. Wash¬
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995. ington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1962.
-. The Wu Liang Shrine: The Ideology of Early Chinese Pictorial Ho, Wai-kam, ed. The Century of Tung Ch’i-ch’ang, 1993—1636. 2 vols.
Art. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989. Kansas City: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1992.
Liscomb, Kathlyn M. Darningfrom Mt. ILua: A Chinese Physician’s
Illustrated Travel Record and Painting Theory. Cambridge: Cam¬
The Five Dynasties and the Song Period (yoy—nyy)
bridge University Press, 1993.
Barnhart, Richard M. Marriage of the Lord of the River; A Lost Mu Yiqin 5^ jljj, ed. Mingdaiyuanti yhepai shiliao {ft |5ft -ft yjjp
Landscape by Tung Yuan. Ascona, Switzerland: Artibus Asiae, M ft ^ (Historical materials on the Zhe School in the Ming
1970. dynasty). Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Fine Art Publishing
Cahill, James. The Lyric Journey: Poetic Painting in China andJapan. House, 1985.

The Reischauer Lectures. Cambridge: Harvard University Weidner, Marsha, et al. Views from Jade Terrace: Chinese Women
Press, 1996. Artists, 1300—1412. Indianapolis: Indianapolis Museum of Art;
Chen Gaohua ft Ip. Song Liao Jin huajia shiliao 7(5 JJ iSj 5^ New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1988.
ft (Historical materials on painters of the Song, Liao, and
Jin dynasties). Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1984.
The Qing Dynasty (1644—1911)
Fong, Wen C. Beyond Representation. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1992. Anhui Provincial Cultural and Art Research Institute (ft M ft" ft
Fong, Wen C., and Marilyn Fu. Sung and Yuan Paintings. New York: it Zj ft (jjf ftj fp. Lun Huangshan yhu huapai wenji {ft ilf (Jj J|f
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980. ElMftft (Collection of essays on various painting schools
Murray, J ulia K. Ma Heyhi and the Illustration of the Book of Odes. of Mount Huang). Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Fine Art Pub¬
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. lishing House, 1987.

386 Further Readings

Beurdeley, Cecile, and Michel Beurdeley. Giuseppe Castiglione: A
Jesuit Painter at the Court of the Chinese Emperors. Rutland, Vt.:
Traditional Chinese Painting in the Twentieth Century
Charles Tutde, 1972.
Andrews, J ulia F. Painters and Politics in the People’s Republic of China,
Brown, Claudia, and Chouju-Hsi. The Elegant Brush: Chinese 1949—1979. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
Painting Under the Qtanlong Emperor, 1733-1793. Phoenix, Ariz.: Bao Limin Zhang Daqian deyishu 5^ z) 7fx
Phoenix Art Museum, 1992. (The art of Zhang Daqian). Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 1986.
. Transcending Turmoil: Painting at the Close of China's Empire, Chang, Arnold. Painting in the People's Republic of China: The Politics
1796—1911. Phoenix, Ariz.: Phoenix Art Museum, 1992. of Style. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1980.
Cahill, James. The Compelling Image: Nature and Style in Seventeenth- Fu, Shen. Challenging the Past: The Paintings of Chang Dai-chien.
Century Chinese Painting. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Trans. Jan Stuart. Washington, DC.: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery,
1982.
Smithsonian Institution; Seattle: University of Washington
Ding Xiyuan TUtU. Xuguyanjiu ]f § fijf % (Studies of Xugu). Press, 1991.
Tianjin: Tianjin People’s Fine Art Publishing House, 1987. Kandinsky, Wassily. Concerning the Spiritual in Art. New York:
Fong, Wen C. Returning Home: Tao-chi’s Album of Eandscapes and George Wittenhern, 1955. Chinese edition, Beijing: Chinese
Flowers. New York: George Braziller, 1976. Academy of Social Sciences Publishing Plouse, 1987.
Giacalone, Vito. The Eccentric Painters of Yangzhou. New York: Kao, Mayching, ed. Twentieth-Century Chinese Painting. Oxford:
China blouse Gallery, China Institute of America, 1992. Oxford University Press, 1988.
Liu Gangji >(1] ^[X] Gong Xian ^ (Gong Xian). Shanghai: Lang Shaojun ft. Lin Fengmian jvfc jXllS (Lin Fengmian).
Shanghai People’s Fine Art Publishing House, 1962. Taibei: Taiwan Jinxiu Cultural Publishing Co.; Beijing: Wen¬
Nie Chongzheng JjJ ^ JH- Qingdaigongting huihua Wi wu chubanshe, 1991.
lEJ (Palace paintings in the Qing dynasty). Beijing: Wenwu -. Lun xiandai Zhongguo meishu ili iHI ft ^ SH 7|t (On
chubanshe, 1992. the fine arts of modern China). Nanjing: Jiangsu Fine Art
-. Yuan Jiang he Yuan Yao ^ tE ffl M $5 (Yuan Jiang and Publishing Flouse, 1988.
Yuan Yao). Shanghai: Shanghai People’s Fine Art Publishing -. Qi Baishiyanjiu ^ d [Xu (Studies on.Qi Baishi).
Idouse, 1982. Tianjin: Tianjin Yangliuqing Painting Bookstore, 1996.
Pan Mao jff j^. Zheng Banqiao jly JJf (Zheng Banqiao). Shang¬ -. Xiandai Zhongguohua lunji JDl ■J3 HH [Hi it: Hi (Essays
hai: Shanghai People’s Fine Art Publishing House, 1980. on modern Chinese painting). Nanning: Guangxi Fine Art
Rogers, Howard, and Sherman E. Lee. Masterpieces of Ming and Publishing Llouse, 1995.
Qing Paintingfrom the Forbidden City. Lansdale, Pa.: Interna¬ Li, Chu-tsing. Trends in Modern Chinese Painting. Ascona, Switzer¬
tional Arts Council, 1988. land: Artibus Asiae, 1979.
Vinograd, Richard. Boundaries of the Self: Chinese Portraits, 1600—1900. Li Youguang ^ Jfc and Chen Xiufan ftti Chen Zhifo
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. yanjiu |$k xL f<$ lijf ^ (Study of Chen Zhifo). Nanjing: Jiangsu
Wang Fangyu and Richard M. Barnhart. Master of the Lotus Garden: Fine Art Publishing House, 1990.
The Life and Art of Bada Shanren (1626-1703). Ed. Judith G. Smith. Shui Tianzhong 7j<. Jk. ^. Dangdai huihuapingshu jij ^ jjlj if
New Haven: Yale University Art Gallery and Yale University (Comments on modern painting). Taiyuan: Shanxi
Press, 1990. People’s Publishing House, 1991.
Xie Zhiliu iU . Zhu Da 7^: Tf (Zhu Da [Bada Shanren]). Sullivan, Michael. Art and Artists of Twentieth-Century China. Berke¬
Shanghai; Shanghai People’s Fine Art Publishing House, ley: University of California Press, 1996.
1958. -. Chinese Art in the Twentieth Century. Berkeley: University
Xue Yongnian zK and Xue Feng Yangyhou baguaiyu of California Press, 1959.
Yangzhou shangye j'['| )\ ]'5 % $} 'i'll t^I fill (The Eight Eccen¬ -. The Meeting of Eastern and Western Art. Berkeley: Univer¬
trics of Yangzhou and commerce in Yangzhou). Beijing: sity of California Press, 1989.
People’s Fine Art Publishing House, 1991. Wang Jiquan dE ^ JX and Tong Weigang Ilf ^ f[Xj. Guo Moruo
Yang Boda ff] J[J jL. Qingdaiyuan hua fjf JS US] (Academic nianpu f |1 ^ ^ i|f (Chronology of Guo Moruo). Nanjing:
painting in the Qing dynasty). Beijing: Zijincheng (Forbidden Jiangsu Fine Art Publishing House, 1983.
City) Publishing Llouse, 1993. Wu Linxian jit. vfe. Fu Baoshi lun hua fl| IS 5 Tk) [SU (Fu
Yang Xin §lf • Yangzhou baguai % 'jjj )\ 'g (The Eight Eccen¬ Baoshi on painting). Taibei: Taiwan Artists Press, 1991.
trics of Yangzhou). Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe, 1981. Xu Boyang j[J P0 and J in Shan tS [lj. Xu Beihong nianpu
Zheng Zhuolu ftH jp. Shi Taoyanjiu Jy fijf (Studies on jS| ^ i|f (Chronology of Xu Beihong). Taibei: Taiwan Artists
Shi Tao). Beijing: People’s Fine Art Publishing House, 1963. Press, 1991.

Prepared by Elizabeth M. Owen

Further Readings 387

CONTRIBUTORS

Richard M. Barnhart is John M. Schiff Professor of History of Nie Chongzheng is a research fellow at the Palace Museum. His
Art at Yale University. His works include Master of the Lotus writings include YuanJianghe Yuan Yao (Yuan Jiang and Yuan
Garden: The Life and Art of Bada Shanren (1626—1705) (1990; with Yao, 1982),Qingdaigongtinghuihua (Palace paintings in the Qing
Wang Fangyu), Painters of the Great Ming. The Imperial Court and dynasty, 1992), and Gongtingyishu deguanghui (The brilliance of
the Zhe School (1993X and Mandate of Heaven: Emperors and Artists palace art, 1996). He lives in Beijing.
in China (1996; with Wen C. Fong and Maxwell K. Hearn). He Wu Hung is Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished Service Pro¬
lives in New Haven. fessor in Chinese Art History at the University of Chicago.
James Cahill is professor emeritus of the history of art at the His works include The Wu Liang Shrine: The Ideology of Early Chi¬
University of California, Berkeley. His many publications in¬ nese Pictorial Art (1989), Monumentally in Early Chinese Art and
clude The Compelling Image: Nature and Style in Seventeenth-Century Architecture (1995), and The Double Screen: Medium and Representa¬
Chinese Painting (1982), The Painter’s Practice: How Artists Lived tion in Chinese Painting (1996). He lives in Chicago.
and Worked in Traditional China (1994), and The Lyric Journey: Yang Xin is deputy director and research fellow at the Palace
Poetic Painting in China andJapan (1996). He lives in Berkeley Museum. His writings include Yangghou baguai (The Eight
and Beijing. Eccentrics of Yangzhou, 1981), Guobao huicui (A galaxy of
Lang Shaojun is director of the Fine Arts Research Laboratory stately treasures, 1992), and YangXin meishu lunwenji (A collec¬
at the Institute of Fine Arts, Chinese Academy of Arts. His tion of essays on the fine arts by Yang Xin, 1994). He lives in
works include Lun xiandai Zhongguo meishu (On the fine arts Beijing.
of modern China, 1988), XiandaiZhongguohua lunji (Essays on
modern Chinese painting, 1995), and Qi Baishiyanjiu (Studies
on Qi Baishi, 1996). He lives in Beijing.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Over the course of five years three editors at Foreign Lan-

A great many individuals and institutions participated in the mak¬
guages Press successfully coped with the plethora of details asso¬
ing of this book. In China, the Cultural Relics Administration,
ciated with editing the manuscript. Xiao Shiling, former deputy
particularly former Director Zhang Deqin and former Deputy
editor in chief, ably handled the initial arrangements for the book
Director Yan Zhentang, provided much-appreciated assistance.
and guided the discussions among the authors. Yan Qiubai, art
We are also indebted to the museums in the People s Republic of
book editor, helped shape and direct the work until her untimely
China that supplied high-quality glossies and transparencies of
death. Liao Ping, senior editor, worked with skill, dedication, and
paintings. The staff at the Palace Museum in Beijing provided the
good spirits to edit the Chinese manuscript, sort through innu¬
single greatest number of pictures and worked hard to meet our
merable questions dealing with the artwork, and coordinate the
many requests. To them and to the staff at the following museums
complicated task of shaping the text into a final manuscript.
we offer our thanks: the Shanghai Museum, the Museum of Chi¬
At Yale University Press another team was involved in making
nese History, the Chinese Fine Art Gallery, the Cultural Relics
the book. Judy Metro, acquisitions editor for art, was responsible
Publishing House in Beijing, the Nanjing Museum, the Zhejiang
for coordinating work on the book from beginning to end—a
Provincial Museum, the Shaanxi Provincial Museum, the Jilin
Provincial Museum, the Guangdong Provincial Museum, the Hu¬ task she handled with resourcefulness and expertise. Several fine

nan Provincial Museum, the Tianjin Municipal Museum, the manuscript editors improved the readability of the text and added

Tianjin Municipal Art Gallery, the Yangzhou Museum, the Su¬ polish: Laura Jones Dooley, Harry Haskell, Lawrence Kenney,

zhou Museum, the Guangzhou Museum, the Shanghai Academy Susan Laity, and Noreen O’Connor-Abel. A sixth manuscript edi¬

of Chinese Painting, the Fine Art Research Institute at the Chi¬ tor, Mary Pasti, also conscientiously and cheerfully coordinated

nese Academy of Arts, the Rong Bao Zhai Painting Studio in Bei¬ the work among her colleagues and the authors. The editors all

jing, Xi’an Jiaotong University, the Beijing Xu Beihong Memorial sought to preserve the voice of each author while weaving the

Museum, and the Nanjing Fu Baoshi Memorial Museum. In addi¬ contributions into a coherent book. Mary Mayer, the production
tion, we gratefully acknowledge the permission given by Zou controller, skillfully oversaw the complicated production and
Peizhu, Li Keran’s widow, and Xiao Qiong, Jiang Zhaohe’s printing process. Rich Hendel created the elegant jacket and the
widow, for the use of some of their husbands’ works. We are also overall design of the book.
indebted to a number of collectors and museums outside China Elizabeth M. Owen, consultant and researcher in Chinese art
that provided us with needed illustrations. history at Yale University, prepared the Glossary, List of Artists by
A large team of translators worked on the many versions of the Period, Further Readings, and captions. She also provided invalu¬
text. As manuscripts were rewritten by the authors, so were the able assistance with both Chinese and art-historical questions. For
translations from English to Chinese and Chinese to English, so her availability and expertise, we wish to express a particular
that a complete manuscript in both languages was always available thanks.
to scholars and editors alike. Those who translated the Chinese The Editorial Advisory Board for The Culture & Civilization
texts into English and, in some cases, offered advice on how to of China series has been an important and continuing source of
deal with the complex and thorny translation issues are Lin support and good advice. Stanley Katz, president of the American
Wusun, former president of the China International Publishing Council of Learned Societies, has offered wise counsel and assis¬
Group; Zhang Qingnan, former translator at Radio Beijing; Lin tance throughout.
Debin, former deputy editor in chief of China Today; Chen Xiu- Finally, let us thank Yang Zhengquan, president of the China
zheng, former editor in chief at New World Press; and Tang International Publishing Group, his able assistant Vice President
Bowen, former senior translator at Foreign Languages Press. Huang Youyi, and John G. Ryden, director of Yale University
Those who translated the English into Chinese are Wang Dian- Press, whose unstinting support and unswerving belief in the co¬
ming, research fellow at the Palace Museum; Zhang Shenyi, for¬ operative spirit of this project made all the difference.
mer professor at Beijing College of Education; Yang Yihua,
Li Zhenguo James Peck
associate research fellow at the Palace Museum; and Qian Zhijian,
editor at Fine Arts magazine. We thank them all for their painstak¬ Deputy Editor in Chief Executive Editor

ing work, often performed under a tight deadline. Foreign Languages Press The Culture & Civilization of China
Yale University Press
INDEX

References to illustrations are in boldface. Titles of paintings reproduced in the hook are given here in Chinese characters as well as English. For more information
on the artists, including the Chinese characters for their names, see Artists hj Period. For more information on art-histoncal terms and schools, see the Glossary.

abstraction, 6, 163, 168, 350—352 Autumn Trees and Crows ^X W 3p§ S3 Bodhi Leaves and Insects JJJ Bj" IE £& (Qi
Academy of Painting. ^Imperial Painting (Wang Hui), 261, 263 Baishi), 311, 311-312
Academy Autumn Wind in Gemstone Trees fB W tX M Bodhisattva Among Flowers (Xue Susu), 249
Admiring Flowers (Shi Rui), 203 S (Ni Zan), 192, 194 Branches of Blossoming Plum H IS S3 (Wang
Admonitions of the Court Instructress to Palace Mian), 193, 194
Ladies ft /f<i §3 (details; attributed to Bada Shanren, 232, 252, 25 3—258, 296, 308, Breaking the Balustrade f/f S3 (anonymous),
Gu Kaizhi), 47, 48-49, 51, 52, 56, 77, 3l6, 33°, 339 110, in

24L 3 37 Baijuyi, 85 Breath of Spring, A (Zou Fulei),

Adorning Oneself jfe |f| (detail of Admonitions baimiao. See line drawing J93—T95, *94
of the Court Instructress to Palace Ladies; Balsam Pear and Mouse ^ fed 311 S3 (Zhu bronzes, 17, 18, 19, 21, 27, 30, 76; vessel
attributed to Gu Kaizhi), 51 Zhanji [Emperor Xuanzong]), 205, 207 21

Aesthetics Studio, 305 Bamboo and Cranes jS§ S (Bian Jingzhao), brushwork, 5, 8, 146, 190, 316; ax-cut, 127,
After the Rain ffi/H (Qi Baishi), 309, 3x1 203—205, 206 132, 343; calligraphic, 3-4, 7, 69, 188—
Ai Qing, 328 Bamboo and Moon S3 (Gaojianfu), 305, 189, 195, 315; dense (mi), 71; dry vs. wet,
Ai Zhongxin, 321 306 9, 168, 191; loose (shu) style, 71, 95, 96,
Album of Flowers, Birds, Grass, and Insects (Sun Bamboo and Rock fefe S (Zheng Xie), 4, 168; round vs. pointed, 9, 160. See also

Long), 205 279, 280 calligraphy; techniques; individual painters

Along the River at First Snow LC fj J9J =f 51 Bamboo and Rocks fei S3 (Li Kan), 187 Buddha, The S (mural, Dunhuang
(Zhao Gan), 95 Bamboo Groves in Mist and Rain ;j@ M M Cave 249), 39
amateur painters. See literati S (Guan Daosheng), 190 Buddhism, 6, 35, 38-40, 42, 70, 91-92, 106;

Amitayurdhyana Sutra fj, Jfi (Dun- Bamboo, Orchid, and Rocks (Ma Shouzhen), arhats, 88, 93, 104, in, 236; beliefs, 95-

huang Cave 172), 70, 72 248 96, 112; bodhisattvas, 39, 63, 70, 89, 15 2,

An Lushan Rebellion (7/7-7$), 59, 84, 88 bamboo painting, 8, 187-192, 222, 278, 279; 236, 249, 301; cave temples, 38-39, 52,

An Qi, 274 symbolism of, 2, 8, 203, 257, 279 70, 236; Chan (Zen), 10, 133-137, 15 2>

Ancient Pine Trees S3 (Li Fangying), Banpo pottery, 17, 18 190, 222, 233, 252, 258; persecution of

279, 280 Banquet by Lantern Light fej ‘iff ® S3 (Ma adherents, 61,73, 88, 89; and portraiture,

Anhui School, 11, 169, 300, 316 Yuan), 1 30-1 31, 132 11 o—1 n, 211; Shakyamuni, 59, 88, 136,

animal painting, 2, 9, 15, 30, 331-332, 339- Banshan culture, 18 236, 311; social context, 35, 152; temples,

340; Eastern Zhou, 22; Han, 24, 33; Banyan Tree, 77^ (Wu Guanzhong), 43, 63, 73, 178, 179, i85, 19°, 277-278;

Northern Qi, 40, 42; Song, 112—114, 185; Vimalakirti, 61, 71, 73
353
Baopufe neibian (Daoist alchemical text), 177 Buddhist Retreat by Stream and Mountain ^ |_Ll
Tang, 7 5
Antiquarian Playing Cards (Chen Llongshou), Barnhart, Richard M., 161 M ^ S3 (Juran), 95, 96, 99, 100
Basics of Western Art, The (Chen Zhifo), 3 3 3 Bush, Susan, 10
239
archaeology, 15, 19, 27, 40, 141. See also Battle Charger, A Og H /\ ^ — (stone

funerary art carving, Emperor Taizong’s tomb), 60,78 Caijing, 123, 124

architectural painting, 2, 33, 63, 179, 340; Beauties Under Bamboo Yf fC @3 (Gai CaiYuanpei, 307, 317

jiehua (traditional), 32, 33, 149, 282; Song, Qi), 292, 293 calligraphy, 156, 197, 219, 296, 315, 333;
Beggars and Street Characters (Zhou Chen), 222 cursive (cad) style, 69, 300, 315; draft
100, 102—106
Beijing painters, 312 script (caoshu), 182; materials for, 9, 10;
Arhat Pindola, The 5? fed S3 (Guanxiu), 89
BianJingzhao, 203—205, 208 official script (li), 279, 300, 315; and
artisans. See professional painting
Bianliang (Kaifeng), 87, 104, 120 painting, 1, 3-4, 7, 8, 83, 163, 187-189,
Artists and Patrons (Chu-tsing Li), 7
Biographies of Exemplary Women (Lienii feouari), 190, 219, 330, 353; regular script (kai),
Ascending to Heaven El-ft X
47,48
279, 300; shiguwen script, 300; strolling
SI (mural, Dingjiazha Tomb 5), 38
bird-and-flower paindng, 2-3; development (xing) style, 69. See also brushwork; in¬
Askingfor the Ferry |5] S3 (Wu Wei), 214,
of, 78, 89-92; Ming, 197, 199, 203-208, scriptions; Three Perfections; individual
2x5
219, 227-232, 269; Qing, 269, 271, 273, painters and particular types
Auspicious Cranes Jjfi] |P§ S3 (Emperor Hui-
275, 285-289; Song, 89, 114-118, 123, Camel Herding fef S3 (Wu Zuoren) ,321,
zong), 86, 123-124
Auspicious Objects ^Sj M ^S (Castiglione), 185; Tang, 7 5; by women, 246-249; Yuan, 325
184-187 Camellia and Silver Pheasant (Lei Ji), 208
285, 288
Birds and Flowers (Li Yin), 249 Cao Ba, 112
Autumn Colors on the Qiao and Hua Mountains
Birds in Bushes '/H ife Ijl ^ §3 (Lin Liang), Cao Buxing, 44, 70, 92
b?1 fej fX ffe S3 (Zhao Mengfu), 144, 145,
205, 208-209 Cao Guojiu, 154
146,147,168
Blue-and-Creen Landscape (Guo Chun), 203 Cao Xueqin, 274
Autumn Colors over Streams and Mountains M
Bo Qianqui, 27-28 Cao Yin, 274
S3 (Zhao Boju), 129, 130-131
Bochen School, 198, 246, 269, 270—271, Cao Zhi, 49, 52
Autumn Mountains at Dusk ^X |_L| W& W-
289. See also Zengjing Cao Zhibai, 166-167, 232
(Guan Tong), 93, 94
 Daoism, 6, 35, 106-108, 137, 152, 184, 222;
Capturing Clouds (Cui Zizhong), 237 123, 190, 252;Japanese Imperial House
cosmology, 163, 179-182; deities and
Carefree. Immortal Among Waves of Pines (Xie hold, 88; of merchants, 198; and seals, 4,
7, 225. See also Huizong, Emperor; Japan; immortals, 37-38, 39-40, r52> !77, i84,
Bin), 246
239; and portraiture, no, 211; and taxa¬
cartouches, 33, 46. See also inscriptions Xuanhe huapu
tion, 169; temples, 73, 106-108, 153
Cassia, Chrysanthemums, and Mountain Birds colophons, 7, 11,60, 105, 124, 143, 144,
147, 149, 160, 222. See also inscriptions; Daoist Deity of Earth Reviewing His Realm
S 3fj LU ^ IS (Lii Ji), 208, 210
'gf |g (anonymous), 106, 108
Castiglione, Guiseppe [Lang Shining], 282— poetry; seals
color, 9, 220,317,324; Chinese red {yanfioi), dating, 17, 68
283, 285, 306, 307
301; in figure painting, 108-110; foreign Dayao Village (Mi family), 230
cave temples, 38—39, 52, 70, 236
red {yang hong), 300, 301; in landscape Day lily and Rock If 53 (Wen Shu), 247,
Celebrated Painters of the Tang Dynasty (Tang-
painting, 3, 66, 145, 236, 262; and literati 248
chao minghua lu; Zhu Jingxuan), 59
painting, 225; pigment, 8, 9, 17, 142; decoration, 17, 18, 19, 141, 150, 162
Celestial Sphere, The 51 (tomb mural),
symbolism, 247, 285. See also techniques; Delacroix, Eugene, 3 20
29
landscape painting: blue-and-green Deng Shiru, 290
ceramics. See pottery
commerce, 104, 105, 193, 290, 292 Deng Wenyuan, 15 5
Cezanne, Paul, 317, 347
Complete Tang Poems, 274 depth, 5-6, 20, 64, 85, 129. See also perspec¬
Chang’an (Xi’an), 59, 73-74, 75, 343
chariots, 20—21, 22, 32, 33, 36, 40, 49, 77 Confucianism, 6, 239, 320; and Buddhism tive
and Daoism, 137, 152; and bureaucracy, Designing/lBC (Chen Zhifo), 333
Chen Banding, 312
Chen Baozhen, 302 7,173,175,199, 222i Classics, 2, 7, 27, 42, Designing Teaching Plans (Chen Zhifo), 333

Chen Chun, 227—230, 249, 296 99; in funerary art, 29, 34, 36; influence Dingjing (Ding Chun), 276

Chen Duxiu, 307, 313, 317 of, 35, 197, 198; Neo-Confucianism, 88; DingYunping, 236

Chen dynasty, 45, 61 as theme, 8, 27, 140, 183; and women, Distant Mountain Forests HI hh M 53

Chen Guanyan, 224 48, 246 (J-uran), 95, 96, 98

Chen Hong, 79 Copy of Huang Gongwang!r Dwelling in the Fu- Distant Mountains, The (Cahill), 11

Chen Hongshou, 198, 221, 236—237, 239- chun Mountains (Shen Zhou), 218 Divine Mountains and Luminous Woods ^ J2r
242, 289, 294, 337 Copy of Xiao Zhao’s Illustration for Zhonxing ^53 (FangCongyi), 179-182, 182, 183
Chen Hui, 198 Ruiying (Qiu Ying), 226 Dong Boren, 59
Chen Jin, 264 Court Ladies ^ fc. 51 (Princess Yongtai’s Dong Qichang, 167, 168, 169, 232-235, 237,
Chenjiru, 232, 235, 243 tomb), 74 243, 25 3, 316; criticism by, 3,211, 215,
Chen Kuan, 217, 2x9 Court Ladies Wearing Flowered Headdresses U 225, 226, 261; orthodoxy of, 6, 11, 249,
Chen Lin, 15 5 Jfc fi ft 53 (attributed to Zhou Fang), 2.59, 317; paintings by, 8, 236, 260, 320;
Chen Ruyan, 184, 215 77, 80-81 portrait of, 243; and Southern School,
Chen Sanli, 302 court painting, 1, 2, 3, 7, 22, 27, 28, 75-79; 312; and Xue Susu, 248—249. See also
Chen Shizeng, 301—304, 307, 308 Five Dynasties, 88; and funerary art, 43; Orthodox School; Southern School
Chen Shui (Spring Sleep) Art Institute, 305 Ming, 197-208, 215, 233, 242, 249, 264; Dong Yu, 118
Chen Shuren, 304, 305, 306 and politics, 64—65; Qing, 251, 252, 262, Dong Yuan, 95-96, 145, 233, 234, 257;
Chen Yinke, 302 282—285; Song, 8, 129—1 33; Sui, 59—60; influence of, 100, 155, 163, 176, 218
Chen Yuan, 19 Tang, 59-60,75, 123; Yuan, 144-15°. Dong Zhuo, 230—232
Chen Zhifo, 333-334, 339 152, 154, 161. See also Imperial Painting Dragon Boat Festival Jf, jt}- Tf Jiip 51 (Wang
ChengJiasui, 316 Academy Zhenpeng), 150, 160
Cheng Sui, 3 3 5 criticism, 1-2, 3, 5,10-n, 44-45, 71; emer¬ Dragon Boat Regatta, 149—150
Cheng Zhengkui, 25 3 gence of, 35; and literati, 7, 9, 152, 215; dragons, 2, 22, 39, 40, 74, 198; Blue, 28, 66,
Chengdi, Emperor (Han dynasty), no Ming, 211, 215; Song, 89, 97; Yuan, 154 75
Chengdu, 88 Cubism, 328 Drawing Waterfrom a Well $$ 7j<. 51 (mural,
Chengzu, Emperor (Ming dynasty), 199, Cui Bai, 92, 114-116, 118, 119, 121, 208 Dong Shou’s tomb), 36
203, 215 Cui Fen, 5 8 Dream Journey [£[' 51 (Shen Zhou), 219
Chinese Artists’Association, 330, 334, 335, Cui Feng, 40 Dream of the Red Chamber (Cao Xueqin), 274
339 Cui Zizhong, 236—239 Dreaming in the Shade of a Tong Tree fls] jfjf Jff
Chinese Painting Style (Silbergeld), 9 Cultural Revolution {1966-1976'), 299, 323, 5? IS (Tang Yin), 223, 225
Chu culture, 19-20, 24, 30, 151 324, 328. 33°. 332> 343> 3441 period after, Dream-Journey on the Xiao and Xiang Rivers
Chunquan (Spring River) in Seclusion (Zhou 347-354 (“Mr. Li”), 166
Chen), 221—222
Dreamland 51 (Wangjian), 260, 261
Claoudit, Andre, 339 Dagnan-Bouveret, Pascal, 317 Drinking Party in the Shade of Pines [Jf
Classified Record of Ancient Painters (Xie He), 45 Dai, Lady: funerary banner portrait, 24, 26 % IS (Tang Di), 162
Cleansing the Thatched Hut (Fu Baoshi), 3 3 5 Dai Kui, 229 Du Fu, 3, 59, 79
Clear Autumn in Huaiyang IS Daijin, 11, 208—211, 330 Du Mu, 219
(Shitao), 258, 259 Dai Song, 112
Du Qiong, 217, 220
Clearing After Sudden Snow '[^ if Ekf 0jf 51 Daitokuji temple, 136
Duhualu (Readings on paintings; Zhou
(Huang Gongwang), 168-169, 172 Dancing Girl in Red ^ M iZ 15 (Zhishi Lianggong), 242
Clouds Encircling Luxuriant Peaks (Gao Fengjie’s tomb), 70
Dunhuang caves, 1, 35, 38-40, 39, 42, 61-
Kegong), 15 5 Dancing Horse % D, fgf gjr gg (deco¬
64, 7°, 7i
Cloudy Mountain (Mi family), 230 rated jar; Tang dynasty), 80
Dwelling in the Floating Jade Mountains '(J- 3E
collections: of artists, 169, 232; of elite, 35, Danto, Arthur, 6
293; Imperial, 45-46, 92, 97, 106, 118,
Ul H IS (Qian Xuan), 143, 144, 145,
Dao Gui, 40
147, 176

392 Index
Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains § $ ill jgj Famous View of Hanjiang, A f ffi jaL 5 Flowers and Butterflies 4® 5 (Fan Qi), 251,
5) (Huang Gongwang), 167, 168,170-171 (Yuan Yao), 282, 286—287 267, 269
Dwelling in the Qingbian Mountains W "I' Krl Hr Fan Kuan, 100-102, 105, 113, 127, 129, 144 Flowers by a River 'M_t 4b 5 (Bada Shanren),
5 (WangMeng), 176, 178, 179, 233-234 fan painting, 10, 129, 140, 278. See also 256-257
miniatures Flowers in Four Seasons (Li Yin), 249
Eagle j5 (Li Kuchan), 349, 350 Fan Qi, 266, 267 Flying Demon [_U 5 (attributed to Wu
Eagle and Wild Goose J3? M 5 (Lin Liang), Fang Congyi, 179-183, 234 Daozi), 73
205, 207 Fang Rending, 305 folk art, 29, 37, 289, 328
Early Chinese Texts on Paintinv (Bush and FangWanyi, 279 Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains,
Shih), 10 Fang Wenxiao, 249 The ® ^ |J_| (Xu Beihong), 3 20, 3 21,
Early Spring 5 (Guo Xi), 116, 117, Fang Ying, 249 322—323
119 Fangxiang, 28 Forest Grottoes at fuqu, 176
East Garden, The Iff EH 15 (Wen Zhengming), Fanyang, 3 3 forgery, 4, 7, 191
220, 221 Farewell at Lake Dianshan I_L[ 5 Four Great Artists of Wu, 215
Eastern Garden, The (Yuan Jiang), 282 (Li Sheng), 163-166, 164-165 Four Great Masters (Yuan), 3,167-180, 233,
Eastern Zhou dynasty, 18—21, 24 Fat and Lean Horses (Ren Renfa), 150 261; influence of, 195-196, 217, 218, 253,
Egret, Eagle, and Falling Lotus Flowers Jnj Fauves, 317 260, 261, 264, 271-272
I® U 5 (Lii Ji), 208, 209 Fazang Temple, 229 Four Great Monk Painters, 252-258, 313
Egrets it (Lin Fengmian), 324,325,328, 329 Fei Danxu, 292 Four Rens, 292, 293
Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou, 11, 232, FengChaoran, 316 Four Wangs, 168, 259-264, 302, 313, 331,
258, 274-281,296,316 Feng Rending, 307 339, 3 50; criticism of, 316, 317; portraits
Eight Gentlemen on a Spring Outing )\ § Feng Zikai, 316 of, 243, 271. See also Orthodox School
'$? §3 (Zhao Yan), 108—110, 109 figure painting, 2, 8, 22, 185; Ming, 211, 214, Fragrance of a Nation in Clearing Spring, The,
Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, The j\ -fill PI 221,223,225, 226—227, 236—246; Qing, 266
$5 5 (anonymous), 153, 154 276, 289, 292, 294; secular, 108-110; Song, Friedrich, Caspar David, 125
Eight Masters of Jinling, 11, 266—269, 273, 89, 91, 123; twentieth-century, 333, 337, Fu Baoshi, 306, 313, 333, 334-337
289, 316 343; Yuan, 150— 154. See also portraiture Fujian, Emperor, 239
Eight Scenes in Autumn %X fk j\ jS: 5 (Dong Figures in Landscape T S “Si tX M 5 Fu Shan, 272-273
Qichang), 234, 235 (Ning Mao’s shrine), 57 Fu She (Revival Society), 266
Eight Talents of Wuxing, 141 finger painting, 275, 331 Fu Zai, 85
Elegant Gathering at Ninping (Dai Jin), 211 fish, 2, 17, 11 8, 309 Fu Zengxiang, 317
Elegant Rocks and Sparse Trees ^ W 15 Fish Swimming (Li Fangying), 4 funerary art, 35; on banners, 22, 24, 26, 39,
(Zhao Mengfu), 187, 188-189, T95 Fish Swimming amid Falling Flowers U fb '$& 93; on coffins, 24, 25, 27, 28; Shaogou,
Emaciated Horses (Gong Kai), 140 M 5 (Liu Cai), 116, 118-119 28-29; stone carving, 30-31, 33, 52-56;
Emperor Minghuang’sJourney into Shu Bfl l|l ^ Fisherman '/M ffl (Wu Zhen), 159, 160 stone sarcophagus JE\ IflJ IS] (Luo-
Hj 5 (attributed to Li Zhaodao), 66, 68 Fisherman Hermit at Lotus Valley H '/M '/d Kit yang), 54—55. See also murals; tombs
Emperor Tai^u Calling on Zhao Pu on a Snony 5 (Qiu Ying), 226, 228 Fuxi, 28
Night If (Liu Jun), 199, 200 Fisherman on a Mountain Stream 5 (Xu
Emperor Xuangong and His Retinue (Shang Daoning), 119, 121 Gai Qi, 292
Xi), 202 Fisherman’s Delight in a Riverside Village (Shi Galloping Horse ^ Dj (Xu Beihong), 320,
Emperors and Attendants 'rtT zE 5 (from the Rui), 203 32I>324
1Yimalakirti Sutra; Dunhuang Cave 220), Fishermen 5 (Wu Zhen), 160, 161 Gang of Four, 324,344

61,63 Fishing Boats at Xishan (Wu Wei), 211 Ganquan Gong (Palace of Sweet Springs), 27

Emperors of the Successive Dynasties JJj ff) 'rt? Five Dynasties, 2, 3, 8, 87, 88—96, 108 Gao, Emperor (Southern Qi dynasty), 45

fE 15 (attributed to Yan Liben), 61, 62 Five Forms of the Bodhisattva Guanyin $1 -t! Gao Cen, 266, 267

Entertaining a Guest in the Apricot Garden 4^ (Ding Yunpeng), 236, 237 Gao Congyu, 91
(Cui Zizhong), 237, 240 Five Hundred Arhats S If 3? 'JJ 5 (Wu Gao Daoxing, 91

epigraphy, 300, 313, 316 Bin), 236, 238 Gaojianfu, 304—306

Episode in the History of Chinese Buddhism, An Five Old Mountains in the Southeast l^j S Gao Jun, 285

cjj g ^ 3$ Hi (Dunhuang Cave ig [1^ (Wu Flufan), 317, 318 Gao Kegong, 15 5, 167, 179, 232
Five Tribute Horses LL Dj 5 (Li Gonglin), Gao Kerning, 105
323)> 65
erotic painting, 77-78, 198 111, 112, 114 Gao Qi, 215

Ershisi shipin (The twenty-four aspects of Flight of the Tigers at HongnongJLhxx Duan), Gao Qifeng, 304, 305, 306-307

poetry; Sikong Tu), 3 201 Gao Qipei, 275

Evening Banquet in the Peach and Plum Garden Flour Mill Powered by a Waterwheel [?] □ Gao Run, 40

(Qiu Ying), 226, 239 If. 5 (formerly attributed to Wei Xian), Gao Wenjin, 91, 106

Evening Clouds on Autumn Mountains fX U-l 104, 105, 113, 179 Gao Xiang, 275, 276—278
flower painting, 15, 58, 106, 141, 190, 259, Gaozong, Emperor (Song dynasty), 124,
If 11 5 (Gao Kegong), 15 5, I56
“Examination of Craftsmanship” 264, 296. See also bird-and-flower paint¬ 126, 127, 129

(“Kaogong ji”), 21 ing; orchids; plum blossoms Gaozong, Emperor (Qianlong emperor;
Flowers and Grasses (Chen Chun), 229 Qing dynasty). See Qianlong reign
Flowers, Bamboo, and Resting Birds I7*!' ffi iif Gaozu, Emperor (Liu Bang; Han dynasty),
Fahai Temple, 202
Famous Paintings of Successive Dynasties (Zhang 5 (Wang Wu), 271, 273 320
Flowers, Birds, Grass, and Insects (Sun Long), 205 Garden for Solitary Pleasure (Qiu Ying), 226
Yanyuan), 66

Index 393
 Fluang Gongwang, 154, 166, 167-169, 232,
Gating at a Distant Viewfrom a Riverside Pavil¬ Guo Zhongshu, 81, 102, 105, 233
233, 258, 316; dry-brush drawing by, 147,
ion |'§] jZS 0 (Wang E), 203, 204 Guoguo, Lady, 76, 77
173; influence of, 173, 217, 234, 235, 236,
Ge Yilong, 243 Guohua tekan (Special issues on Chinese
260, 261, 262, 307; writings of, 144, 163,
Ge Zhengqi, 249 painting), 306
Guomindang, 307, 308 187
Ge Zhichuan Moving His Dwelling fUJ 11 ff
FluangJishui, 222
g 51 (Wang Meng), 176, 177, 178, 239
Huangjubao, 9
Gentleman Riding on a Dragon, A J\ ’fd] JJ, Han dynasty, 15, 22-34, 3 5, 38, 39> 1 IO> i831
Eastern, 30-33, 34, 36, 40; motifs, 44, 46, Fluangjucai, 89-91, 92., 115
51 (ink on silk, Changsha), 23
47, 183; portraits, 2, 61-63; Western, 1, Huang Quan, 89-91,92, 105, 123, 185, 203
Gentlemen in Landscape j3 ^ 0 (Cui Fen’s
21, 24-29, 30 Fluang Shaoqiang, 30
tomb), 58

I lan Fei, 1 Fluang Shen, 274-275

Ghosts (Luo Pin), 279
Han Gan, 59, 79, 112, 148 1 luang Tingjian, 4, 111, 125
Glimpse of Stone City, A ]Ej §£ 5 (Gao
Han Huang, 112 Fluang Xing, 313
Cen), 267, 268
handscrolls, 3, 7, 10, 21,47, 49, 61, 102; vs. Huang Zhou, 343
Glory of the New Year, The If? 5 (Zhang
scrolls, 168 Huating School, 198, 232, 235
Weibang), 285, 289

Hangzhou, 97, 126, 129, 313 Huineng, 233

Goddess and Lady of the Xiang River (Wen
Flanlin Academy, 100, 105, 121, 144, 198, Huizong, Emperor (Song dynasty), 3, 91,
Zhengming), 220, 224
97-99, 108, 119-126, 129, 140; Imperial
gods and goddesses, 20, 24, 27, 28, 39, 42, 27 5
Hashimoto Kansetsu, 305, 336 Painting Academy, 76, 105, 119-127;
226. See also Buddhism; Daoism
He Cheng, 148-149 painting collection of, 110, 148; patron¬
Gombrich, Ernest, 6
Gong Kai, 140—141, 211 Fie Shaoji, 315 age, 114, 119-126

Gong Xian, 253, 266—267, 302 He Tianjian, 316 Hunlun tu [Primordial Chaos] 0 (Zhu

Gongsunjie, 29 He Xiangning, 306 Derun), 163

gouache, 324, 339 Heavenly Beasts (Blue Dragon and Red Bird) Jif hunting, 16, 21, 36, 37, 39, 77

Grand Canal, 59, 104 % yfc li: (tomb mural, Luoyang), 30 Hurrying Home Before the Rain JX\ B ])B ft 0

Grapes J§ A0 Hj 5! (Xu Wei), 230, 231 Heavenly Sovereign (Tian Di), 27, 40 (Zhang Lu), 214, 216

Great Cloud Temple, 63 Herd Boy Returning Home Along a Willow Em¬
Great Wall, 34, 37, 60 bankment W ]/3 % 0 (Xiao Chen), illusion, 5-6, 70, 102, 110, 116, 119, 243, 285
Greeting the New Year ^ 51 (Shi Rui), 281, 283 imitation, 6, 11, 93; Ming, 211, 218, 224,
203, 204 Herding a Camel HE Ie! ill (mural detail, 234, 235> 239> 249;Song, ”2-”3> IJ9i
Gu Dehui, 151, 183—184 Tomb 6, Jiayu Pass), 37 twentieth-century, 308, 334, 335, 337,
Gu Heqing, 289—290 Herding Buffalo % 41 0 (Li Keran), 340, 350; Yuan, 143, 178
Gu Hongzhong, 2 341 immortality, 24, 27, 28, 34, 38, 46, 137
Gu Kaizhi, 44, 47,48, I44-M5, DL 23 5, History of Jin (Jin shu), 47 Imperial College, 220, 227
242, 337 Ho, Waikam, 99 Imperial Painting Academy, 7, 79, 285; of
Gu Kunbo, 333 Hollyhock, Rock, and Butterflies lR ll® 0 Emperor Huizong, 76, 105., 119—127;
Gu Mei, 248 (Dai Jin), 211, 214 Ming, 208; Song, 102, 114, 127, 129-13 3,
Gu Ming, 271 Hongren, 169, 252—253, 315 140, 141, 192, 261; Tang, 95
Gu Qi, 270 Hongwu emperor. See Zhu Yuanzhang Imperial Sedan Chair, The Ijt 0 (attributed
Gu Yanwu, 25 3 Hongzhi reign (Emperor Xiaozong; Ming to Yan Liben), 15, 60, 61
Gu Yezi, 29 dynasty), 198, 208, 211 impressionism, 95) 106, 227—232, 324
Gu Zhengyi, 232 Horse and Chariot Procession, A [Jj fy India, 38, 39, 321
Guan Daosheng, 190, 191, 192 0 (tomb mural), 34 Ink Bamboo for the Qingbige 'df (§J |'§J l§ Yf 0
Guan Shanyue, 305, 337 Horse-Drawn Chariot, A Pf Bj 0 (mural (Kejiusi), 190, 191
Guan Tong, 93, 99, 100, 108, 233 detail), 24 Ink Flowers (Xu Wei), 232
Guan Yu, 239 Horsemen 3/ fj 0 (mural, Lou Rui’s Ink Flowers and Fishing Boat JH JQ )’®f 0
Guan Yu Capturing His Enemy Pang De (f, 0 tomb), 41 (Chen Chun), 229
)[lf 53 (Shang Xi), 196, 202 horses, 22, 40, 42, 185; Republican period, ink-monochrome painting, 8, 9; Ming, 205,
Guandi Temple, 292 321; Song, 108, hi, 112-114; Tang, 73, 208, 220, 225, 227, 229, 233, 248; Qing,
Guanxiu, 88, 89, 93, 104, 106, 111 75,77.78-79; Yuan, 140, 147, 15° 266,276; Tang, 71,73,83; twentieth-
Guanyin (Ding Yunpeng), 236 Flu Peiheng, 312 century, 300, 309, 321, 325, 328, 334, 343;
Guards of Honor (Prince Yide’s Flu She (Lake Society), 308 Yuan, 140, 141, 169, 185-192
tomb), 67 Hu Weiyong, 175 inscriptions, 4, 6-7, 8; Five Dynasties, 88,
Guards of Honor (Princess Changle’s Hu Yuan, 300 9L 93;Jin, 47; Ming, 218, 219, 229, 235,
tomb), 69 Flu Zao, 266, 269 247; Qing, 253, 257, 258, 260, 276, 281,
Guo Bi, 191 Hua Yan, 242, 281, 289 294, 296; Song, 102, hi, 116, 123, 129,
Guo Chun, 203 Fluaisu, 59 130; Tang, 83; twentieth-century, 301,
Guo Gong, 270 Huaji buyi, 15 2 340, 346, 347; Yuan, 141, 148, 161, 163,
Guo Moruo, 337, 339 Huang Banruo, 306 173, 183, 192, 193. See also colophons;
Guo Ruoxu, 89, 93, 95,99, 102, 110, 111, Fluang Binhong, 296, 305, 313-316, 329, epigraphy; seals; poetry; calligraphy
116, 118 339, 340, 34L 347 insects, 75, 185
Guo Xi, 100, 116, 118, 121, 257; and Em¬ Fluang Daozhou, 239, 243 Inviting Pang Degong 0 (Ni Duan),
peror Shenzong, 114; influence of, 125, Fluang Dufeng, 305 201
149, 176, 203, 222. See also Li-Guo School I luang family, 114 Iron Flute, The (Wu Wei), 214

3 94 Index
Jackdaws in Old Trees § Jyjt jpt 5 (Luo lacquerwork, 19-21, 24, 27,46; duck-shaped Laozi, 29, 304. See also Daoism
Zhichuan), i6i, 162 lacquer box (Leigutun Later Zhe School, 235, 300
Jade Cave Fairyland -R j'lW} f|l| g| (Qiu Tomb 1), 20; fragments of a painted lac¬ Layers of Verdant Hills ifjf UU 4 Sji 5 (Wang
5
Ying), 22 . 227 quer vessel m m a tj n m m ® n jt Yuanqi), 262, 265
Japan, 10, 178, 270, 305-307, 336; Chinese (Zhu Ran’s tomb), 46; lacquer box fj Let’s Paint the Mountains and Rivers in Detail
artists in, 285, 304, 305,333,335; Chinese ffl 1>f (Baoshan Tomb 2), 20; painted (Fu Baoshi), 3 37
paintings in, 88, 152, 154, 161, 185, 190, black lacquer coffin (Mawang- Li, Chu-tsing, 7
192, 226, 239, 270 dui Tomb 1), 25; painted red lacquer cof¬ Li Bai, 59, 93, 237, 337
Jataka Tales, 38 fin jjtj JfJ (Mawangdui Tomb 1), 25; Li Cheng, 2, 83, 99—100, 102, 108, 114, 222;
Jiajing reign (Emperor Shizong; Ming The Story of Ban Zhao ftk A §3- influence of, 123, 124, 127, 129, 133
dynasty), 199 Ifi ff (lacquer screen; Sima Jinlong’s Li Congxun, 129
Jiang Qing, 330 tomb), 53; Tiger 0 §3 (lacquer paint¬ Li Cou, 75
Jiang Song, 214 ing; Tomb 1001, Anyang), 19 Li Demao, 129
Jiang Tingxi, 275 Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk mmm Li Di, 129
Jiang Zhaohe, 321—322 (Emperor Huizong), 14, 76—77, 78—79 Li Dou, 274
Jiangnan, 87,93-96, 169, 313 Lady Guoguo's Spring Outing ^ HU A A Li Duanduan Requesting a Poem (Tang Yin),
Jiangxia School, 198, 215 15 (Emperor Huizong), ii—iii, 77 223
Jiaqing Emperor (Qing dynasty), 246, 289 Lady of the Xiang River A S3-'(jfi if: Li family, 9 5
jiehua (traditional architectural drawing). See A (Zhang Wu), 151 Li Fangying, 4, 275, 279
architectural paindng Lady Xuan Wenjun Giving Instructions on the Li Gonglin, in, 112-113, 122, 126, 239;
Jietai Temple, 312 Classics 1 ix S3 (Chen influence of, 123, 136, 140, 149, 151
Jin, state of, 1 29 1 Iongshou), 239—242, 241 Li Gongnian, 100
Jin Cheng, 307, 316 Lake Society (Hu She), 308 Li Hu, 321
Jin dynasty {26j—420), 15; Eastern, 36, 46; Lan Ying, 215, 23 5-236, 239 Li Jue, 99
Western, 3 5, 44 Land Like This Is So Charming (Fu Baoshi), 3 37 Li Kai and a Solitary Tree ft W 5 (Xu

Jin dynasty (////—123 f), 102, 140, 153, 160, Landscape J- ^ 5 (tomb mural), 31 Zhang), 271, 272

187, 3 37. See also Tartar Jin people Landscape LU zK (Wang Meng), Li Kan, 187, 189, 190
Jin Nong, 275-276, 279, 300, 308 179,182 Li Keran, 337-343
Jin Qianan, 308 Landscape |JL| tK (Chen Shizeng), 302, 304 Li Kuchan, 339, 347-3 5°
Jing Hao, 83, 93, 99, 100, 108, 160, 233 Landscape After Yan Wengui (Dai Jin), 211 Li Linfu, 65

Jing Hengyi, 329 Landscape Album (Bada Shanren), 257 Li Rihua, 248—249

Jingjiang School, 289—290 Landscape, Flowers, and Plants jJL| ZK 4b A S3 Li Ruiqing, 3 5 o

Jinling (Nanjing), 87, 93, 266 J(j} A —• (album leaves; Yun Shouping), Li School, 66

Jinxia School, 208 266, 267 Li Shan, 275

Jiufang Gao (Xu Beihong), 320 Landscape in the Manner of Dong andJu, 21 8 Li Sheng, 163—166
Landscape in the Manner of Huang Gongwang Li Shimin. dee Taizong, Emperor (Tang
Ju Lian, 304, 305
July 28, 1830: Liberty Leading the People (Lan Ying), 235, 236 dynasty)
Landscape in the Manner of Li Tang (Lan Ying), Li Shutong, 329
(Delacroix), 320
Li Sixun, 64-66, 70, 73-74, 81, 127, 129,
Juran, 95—96, 100, 133, 182, 218, 233 2 3 5 —2 3 ^
Landscape in the Manner of Ni Zan {fj BB 233
A Z.K 53 (Shen Zhou), 218 Li Song, 129
Kaibao Temple, 100
Landscape in the Mi Family Cloudy Mountain Li Tang, 127-129, 133, 149, 202, 211, 221,
Kandinsky, Wassily, 316
Style {ft A A IS U-J S3 (Wen Zhengming), 222, 226
Kang Youwei, 301, 307, 313, 317
197,220 Li Tieguai, 152, 154, 309
Kangli family, 150
Landscape in the Spirit of He Shaoji JK ‘fa S Li Tieguai ZjS {|i| 5 (Yan Flui), 152
Kangxi Emperor on His Southern Inspection
jjj; (Huang Binong), 315 Li Wei, 121, 122
Tour, The M ^ It M ffl-H K #
landscape painting, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 30, 49, 5 5; Li Xiongcai, 305
(Wang Hui and others), 261, 262, 285
blue-and-green, 64, 6 5, 66, 7 5, 81, 124- Li Yin, 248, 249
Kangxi emperor (Qing dynasty), 251, 258,
125, 127, 143, 154, 203, 225, 233, 317; in Li Yingzhen, 219
261, 262,271,274, 27 5>279>28l> 28z_
Dunhuang Caves, 63, 64; Five Dynasties, Li Yongnian, 129
283,285
89, 9L 93-96. 1 1 3. ^77; Ming, 197, 199, Li Yu, 95, 100, 110
Kaogong ji, 21
203, 218, 223, 225, 226, 229, 233, 234, Li Zai, 203, 209
Kejiusi, 190-191
236, 269; Northern Song, 118-119, 123- Li Zhaodao, 64, 71, 127
Keeper of Records, The Ji JB A S3 (mural,
126, 157, 168, 176, 177; Qing, 252, 258, Li Zicheng, 2 5 2
WangduTomb 1), 33, 34
259,260,261,264, 266-269, 271-272, Liang dynasty, 45, 108
“Kitchen Garden, The” (Qi Baishi), 309
273, 281, 289, 290; Southern Song, 99- Liang Kai, 133, 136, 205
Koguryo kingdom, 36, 58
102, 105, 127-129, 137; Tang, 68, 73, 79, Liang Qichao, 31 3
Kou Mei, 248
83, 85, 92.-93; twentieth-century, 333, Liang Qingbiao, 281
Kublai Khan, 141, 144, J47
341, 353; Yuan,144,154-180, 185, 190 lianhua (serial paintings), 301
Kui Hai Cooperative (Society for the Study
Landscape with Musicians on an Elephant fp Liao Dashou, 270
of Chinese Painting), 306
51 (H IS -h W if) (painting on a Liaoning Provincial Museum, 211
Kuizhangge (Pavilion of the Star of litera¬
biwa), 69 Lidai minghuaji (Record of famous paintings
ture), 149, 190
Landscapes QL| zjc 5 (leaves from Album of of successive dynasties), 2, 123
Kuncan, 252, 253, 302, 335
Landscapes; Fu Shan), 273, 274, 275 Liegi, 321

Index 395
 local schools in, 11, 208—227, 232 235;
Life of a Recluse at Shiliuguan (Chen Hong- Loujian, 243
murals in, 202; poetry in, 197, 235; por¬
shou), 242 loyalists (yimin), 140-144, 197, 251, 266,
traiture in, 152, 198, 199-203, 211, 236-
Light Rain over the Li River Fit Ll (Li 27L 272> 3°7
246, 269; professional painting in, 217,
Keran), 341, 342 Lu Dongbin, 153, 154
239, 242, 243; women artists in, 198,
Light Snow over a Fishing Village '/ft ^ /jN U Lii Fengzi, 316, 333
Lu Hong, 79, 81-83 246-249
5 (Wang Shen), 124—125
Minghuang, Emperor (Tang dynasty), 59,
Li-Guo School, 119, 155, 160—161, 162, LiiJi, 203, 205, 208, 285
163, 166, 167 Lu Jian, 274 70, 73-74,7 5, 78, 83, 88, 140
miniatures, 88,129. See also fan painting
Lin Fengmian, 323—328, 353 Lii Sibai, 321
Lu Tanwei, 276 missionary artists, 282-285, 304, 306. See
Lin Liang, 203, 205, 208, 219, 227
Lin Shu,307—308 Lu Weizhao, 333 also Western art

Lin Yin, 281 Lu Xun, 307 Mo Shilong, 232, 233

Lu Yanshao, 333,347 Mongols. See Yuan dynasty

line drawing (baimiao), 2, 4, 9, 16, 40, 47,
Luo Pin, 275, 279, 301 monkeys, 116-118, 137, 222, 285, 305
73-74, 105, 136, 149, 151, 152
Ling, Emperor (Han dynasty), 31 Luo Zhichuan, 161, 162 Monkeys in a Loquat Tree Xie S

Lingnan School, 304—308 (anonymous), 116—118, 120

Lingyin Temple (Hangzhou), 264 Ma Ben, 130 morality: Buddhist, 38; Confucian, 2-3, 27,

Linquan gaosfii (The lofty power of forests Ma family, 129—13 3 29, 48, 55; of emperors, 61, no, 114;

and streams), 119 Ma Gongxian, 130 female, 48; in funerary art, 33, 34, 36;

Listening to the Qin H/f 2^ IS (Emperor Ma Lin, 130, 133, 192 Ming, 198, 223

Huizong), 122, 123 Ma Shouzhen, 248 Most Spectacular Peaks (Shitao), 2 5 8

Listening to the Qin Beneath the Willow (Qiu Ma Yuan, 130, 192, 202, 203, 208, 211, 221, Mount Hua If. |Jj 5 (Wang Lii), 208, 212

Ying), 227 Mount Huang ff [1| (Liu Haisu), 317,319

2 3 3, 33°
Listening to the Spring Uff ^ 51 (Fu Baoshi), Ma Yuelu, 274 Mount Kuanglu @[ jp 5 (Jirag Hao), 93, 94
Ma Yuequan, 274 Mountain Passes Clearing After Snow (Dong
335,336
Literary Gathering, A (Chen hongshou), 242 Machang culture, 18 Qichang), 233
Literary Gathering at Shiyuan (Chen Flong- Magnificent Huyun Mountain, The (Dong mountains, 8, 64,179, 222, 258, 343; in fune¬
shou), 242 Qichang), 234 rary art, 28, 30, 39, 40, 46, 5 5; in Song
Literary Gathering in the Apricot Garden (Xie Magpies and Hare XX L? IS (Cui Bai), 92, painting, 99, 1 3 3; in Tang painting, 66,
Huan), 202—203 114—115, n6, 208 68, 89, 93. See also landscape painting
literati (wenren), 1, 3—4, 6-8, 9, 11, 43, 79- Mahasatta, Prince, 38 Mounted Official A IS (Zhao Mengfu), 148
85; Ming, 197-198, 199, 203, 205, 215- Majiayao culture, 18 Muqi, 106, 136-137, 205
217, 2I9, 220, 221—222, 225, 233, 235, Manchus, 251, 252, 264, 266, 296. See also murals, 10, 17, 19, 24, 202, 211; at Dun-

236, 239> 249i Qing, 25 1, 252> 25 3, 269, Qing dynasty huang, 35, 64; in palaces, 22, 185, 198;
274, 279, 281, 289, 290, 292; Song, hi, Mandate of Heaven, 88 Tang, 68, 73—75, 88—89; temples, 43,
119—126, 1 3 3,1 37; twentieth-century, 300, Mao Zedong, 299, 322, 330, 343, 344 63, 106, 15 2—154; in tombs, 27—30, 36—
303-304, 307, 308, 316, 331, 334, 346; Master Dongxin Noon-Napping Under a Ba¬ 38, 40, 52, 58, 59, 65,66, 68, 71
Yuan, 140-144, Hi-152, I54-G6, 157, nana Tree (Luo Pin), 223 music, 36, 38, 40, 99
169, 175, 183-184, 185-187, 191-195 Masters of the Three Religions EL S (Ding musical instruments, 19, 20, 47, 123, 156,
Liu Biao, 201 Yunpeng), 236, 237 253, 337; decoration on, 22, 68
Liu Boshu, 321 Matisse, Henri, 317, 325, 347 musicians, 20, 39, 46, 75, 157; women as,
Liu Cai, 114, 116, 118, 121 May Fourth Movement {1919), 299, 303— 248, 249
Liu Daochun, 99, 106 3°8, 3D Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting, The, 329
Liu Haisu, 307, 316, 317 Mei Qing, 271—272 Myriad Bamboo in the Misty Rain (Fu Baoshi),
Liujian, 199 Mei Yaochen, 3 335
Liujue, 217, 220 Meissen Cathedral ft ^ Ig* (Li Keran),
Liu Kun, 201 340, 341 Nanjing School: Qing, 11; twentieth-century,
Liu Shipei, 313 Men of Distinction in Songjiang (Xu Zhang), 271 333-337
Liu Songnian, 211, 226 Mi family, 191, 211, 220, 229-230, 266 narrative painting, 8, 10, 20-21,49, 89, 156-
Liu Yiqing, 47 Mi Family Style Landscape jSj 5 (Chen D7. 178
Liu Zongzhou, 239 Chun), 229-230 naturalism, 1, 11, 55, 143, 147, 156, 162, 185
Lizong, Emperor (Song dynasty), 133 Mi Fu, 122, 140, 155, 179, 218; influence of, Neolithic period, 1, 15—19
Loading the Carts S IS (Li Yin), 281, 283 233> 234, 25 3, 272> 335 New Account of Tales of the World (Liu Yiqing),
Loehr, Max, 73,88 Mi Youren, 155,218, 229, 233 47
Lofty Mount Lu fJL| ffej 5 (Shen Zhou), Miaodigou pottery, 17, 18 New Season 5 (Li Yin), 249
217—218, 220 military (wu), 40, 60, 100, 102, 139-196 New Zhe School, 3 29, 333
Lonely Bamboo and Bare Tree \if\ fL Al [Yi Mind Landscape of Xie Youyu, The Hi Fr Ni Duan, 201, 209
(Guo Bi), 191, 192 M S (Zhao Mengfu), 144, 145 Ni Yide, 306
Long-Living Pine and Crane jS| M ^ IS Ming, Emperor (Flan dynasty), 27 Ni Zan, 3, 8, 166, 167, 169-175, 215, 232,
(Xugu), 293, 295 Ming dynasty, 3, 4, 6, 8, 197-249; court 316; associates of, 183, 184, 190; brush-
Loo, C. T., 88 painting in, 197-208, 264; fall of, 239, work of, 168, 173, 175, 176; influence of,
Lotus and Frogs fpj (Qi Baishi), 13,309, 310 251, 252; founding of, 173, 175, 195; 217, 252, 260, 271, 307, 335; influences
Lotus in the Wind (Li Shan), 27 5 landscape painting in, 49, 197, 199, 203, on, 147. 1 54, 233; late work of, 179, 192
Lotuses fzj Hi 5 (Qian Xuan), 142 269; literati in, 183, 195, 199, 215, 249; Nian Zhu, 306

396 Index
Night Excursion of Zhong Kui, The £ji jg ^ Panorama of Lakes and Mountains $0 [_L| Playing Polo—Landscape Sj Ffc 53 (Prince
$hF §3 (Dai Jin), 211, 213 (Pu Xinyu), 312, 313 Zhanghuai’s tomb), 71
Night Revels of Han Xrfai, The EH g Panorama of Mount Lu fL| j§r (Zhang Playing Polo—Trees Dj Fft 53 (Prince Zhang¬
5 (Gu Hongzhong), 2, 87, 1 io, 111, Daqian), 351, 352 huai’s tomb), 71
112-113 paper, 9, 10 Playing the Ruan [A 53 (Fu Baoshi), 337>33®
nihilism, 43, 44, 323 Pasturing Horses l|® A fK 'ft 53 (Li Gong- Pleasant Summer in a Mountain Retreat (Sheng
Nine Songs, The (Qu Yuan), 239 lin), 112-113, 1x5 Mao), 157
Ning Mao, 56, 58 Pasturing Water Buffalo tit [_L| % 53 (Qi Plum Blossom Thatched Hall's Collection of
Ningzong, Emperor (Song dynasty), 131 Xu), 113, 115 Baishi’s Seals, The (Zhu Qizhan), 347
Noon Nap 'A H 53 (Li Keran), 339, 340 patronage, 7; in Five Dynasties, 88, 95; in plum blossoms, 184—187, 189, 190, 192—
Northern and Southern Dynasties, 34-58 Han, 29, 30; in Ming, 211; in Northern 196,301, 346-347
Northern Dynasties, 34—43, 59 and Southern Dynasties, 35, 43, 46; in Plum Blossoms fti 5 (Wu Changshuo),
Northern School, 233, 312 Qing, 278, 292; in Song, 114, 119—126, 301,302
Northern Sea, The (Zhou Chen), 222 129; in Tang, 59, 64; in twentieth century, Plum Blossoms (Shi Lu), 347, 348
Northern Wei Emperor Worshipping the Buddha 323;in Yuan,183 poetry, 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 35; Five Dynasties, 88;
M SL {$5 5J (relief, Binyang cave, Pavilion of Deep Fragrance '{ff flf 5 (Yuan Ming, 197, 203, 217, 219, 222, 223-224,
Longmen), 54 Jiang), 281—282, 284 235, 237, 242, 249; Qing, 230, 232, 257,
Northern Yue Temple (Quyang), 71 Pavilions and Mansions by the River tit JJl| f|c 261-262, 275, 278, 279, 293, 294; Song,
Northern Zhou dynasty, 40, 60 M 5 (Yan Wengui), 102, 104 122, 123, 124, 125, 129, 130, 133; Tang,
nudes, 325 Pavilions on the Mountains of Immortals ft |Jj 79-81, 83, 132, 235, 281; twentieth-
Njmph of the Luo River, The K 53 (Gu He 5 5 (Wang Shimin), 260 century, 304, 309, 312, 315, 329, 340;
Kaizhi), 47,49-52, 54-55, 58, 145, 151 Peace Reigns over the River '/ft 5 _t M 5 Yuan, 140, 141, 148, 149, 151, 159, 160.
(Zhang Zeduan), 104, 105, 106—107, 150 See also inscriptions
Official $lj H $ 51 (mural, Lou Rui’s Peach Blossom Spring (Qiu Ying), 225 political art: Ming, 199, 201, 215; Qing, 251,
tomb), 42 Peacock King, The JL lit tE 5 (anony¬ 252, 257, 279; Tang, 64, 75; twentieth-
oil painting, 300, 317, 320, 339, 347, 353 mous), 106, 107 century, 323,330,337,343; Yuan, 140,141
Old Trees by a Cold Waterfall A A if? j§<. §3 Penetrating the Qilian Mountains 'Iff. AJ Pomegranate (Xu Wei), 230
(Wen Zhengming), 220, 221 LU (Zhao Wangyun), 343, 344-345 Portrait of a Buddhist Monk A A
“On the Revolution of Art” (Chen Duxiu), Peonies \t 5 (Zhao Zhiqian), 296, 297 (anonymous), 111, 114

3°7 Peonies ft pp (Yu Fei’an), 312, 314 Portrait of a Down-and-Out Man @3? US Hf Hi
On the Way to Nanniwan A (Shi People’s Republic of China, 299, 322-354 (Ren Bonian), 294, 296

Lu), 343, 346 perspective, use of, 5, 24, 31, 33, 56, 324, Portrait of Fei Yintong (Mampuku Monastery,
One Hundred Birds (Yi Yuanji), 203 335—336; Western influence on, 264, 284, Kyoto), 270
Opium War (1839—1842), 252, 292 307, 317. See also depth Portrait of Ge Yilong JU —• A H?. (Zeng Jing),
Orchid and Bamboo (Ma Shouzhen), 248 petroglyphs {yan hud), 15—17, 279, 282, 285; 243>247
Orchid and Rocks (Xue Susu), 249 dancing, herding, and war fft. rK Portrait of the Buddha He 5 (Wu Bin),

Orchid in the Fragrant Wind ^ JZG A 5 (Cangyuan), 17; god of the sun 236,238
(Zhu Qizhan), 347, 349 and a sun-priest A PH 53 (Cang¬ Portrait of the Deceased jlfc A (tomb mural,

orchids, 8, 140, 189, 190, 248, 249, 279. See yuan), 16; plants with human faces fJ! ^ Anping), 32

also flower painting # 5 (Lianyungang), 16 Portrait of Wang Shimin tE Wl A N W- (Zeng

Orchids in a Deep Halley -§• 1^1 A 5 (Luo Pheasant and Small Birds by a Jujube Shrub |_L| Jing), 243, 245, 269

Pin), 279, 281 $$ li 5 (Huang Jucai), 91, 92, 115 Portrait of Yang Zhuxi [Yang Qian] [7j] ff

Origin of Immortals {ill ® 53 (Kuncan), 253, Pheasants and Dahlia A — £§• 5 (Ren /Jn (Wang Yi and Ni Zan), 155
Bonian), 294, 297 Portrait of Zhang Qinggi |BP tp tilN Hi
255
Orthodox School, 169, 243, 259, 273. See Pheasants and Small Bird with Peach and Bam¬ (Zengjing), 243, 246, 249

also Four Wangs; Dong Qichang boo « ft M 5 (Wang Yuan), 185, Portrait of Zhu Kuishi A iH 5 Hi (Xie Bin;

Outlaws of the Marsh (Chen Hongshou), 239, 186,187 scenery by Xiang Shengmo), 246, 270
philosophy, 1,44-45, 84, 229. See also Bud¬ portraiture, 2, 42, 75, 154; Han, 33, 36;
328
outline-and-color method, 9, 146 dhism; Confucianism; Daoism Ming, 152, 198, 199-203, 211, 236—246,
phoenixes, 22, 28, 40 269; Qing, 269, 289, 290-292, 293, 294;

pai (school). See schools of painting Picasso, Pablo, 325 self-portraits, 83, 276, 294; Song, 91,
pictographs, 3,15. See also calligraphy 110-111; Western, 285; of women, 48,
Painteris Practice, The (James Cahill), 7
Palace Lady \± tC (detail of Admonitions of the Picture of the Elegant Gathering at Jade Moun¬ 77, 290—292. See also figure painting

Court Instructress to Palace Ladies; attributed tain (Zhang Wu), 151 pottery, 15, 17-18, 19, 27, 129; Banpo basin

to Gu Kaizhi), 52 Piling School, 185 A ffi M x2L 18; Miaodigou basin £|

Palace Lady with Flowers in Her Hand Jvf Jff ft Pine and Cypress Trees ffi ft 5! (Buddhist A P§l f$l, 18; vat with images of stork,

iZ. 5 (sarcophagus of Princess Yongtai), banner), 84 fish, and ax fp| J& fq 7^ 5, 18

Pine and Rock fq (Pan Tianshou), 332, 333 powder-spatter, 305

78, 80
Palace of Sweet Springs (Ganquan gong), 27 Pine and Wisteria g§ 53 (Li Shan), 275, 276 Principles of Painting, The {Huajhi; Dong
Pine Cliff and Clear Spring fe 11 ?|f A 5 Qichang), 232, 243
Paleolithic period, 15-17
(Hongren), 253, 254 professional painting, 3, 6—9, 129, 211;
“Palms in the Rain” (Qi Baishi), 309
Pine, Plum, and Cranes JJ ^ 5 (Shen Ming, 197—199, zo8> 215> 2I7> 222> 233>
Pan Gongshou, 290
Quan), 250, 285, 291 236, 239, 242, 243; Qing, 261, 269, 281—
Pan Tianshou, 301, 305—306, 313, 316, 329—
pingyuan (level-distance) plan, 145, 147 82, 289. See also court painting
333

Index 397
 prostitutes, 246—248, 290 Red Cliff, agIKB (Qiao Zongchang),
Scenery of Cangvfiou 'j'l'l ® S3 (Shen
Zhou), 218, 219
Pu I Iua, 300, 317 126, 127
Schapiro, Meyer, 17
Pu Xinyu, 31 2 Red Turbans revolt, 169, 175
Scholar's House Among Banana Trees, A (Xiao
Pure and Remote Views of Streams and Mountains Refugees Qiang Zhaohe), 298, 321-
Chen), 281
M UU if S 51 (Xia Gui), 133, 134 322, 326-327
Scholars of the Northern Qi Collating Texts fC
Purple Roses and a Pair of Pigeons pa 3® JfL c?l relief. See sculpture
(Chen Zhifo), 334, 335 religion, 16, 27, 28, 59, 84. See also particular 3$ 45 S3 (attributed to Yang Zihua),

religions 42, 44-45

Puyi, Emperor (Qing dynasty), 155, 251
schools of painting, 11,70,71,75,93. See
religious art, 2, 22, 43, 106, 15 2-154; Ming,
236; Tang, 63, 75, 79. See also Dunhuang also individual schools
Qi Baishi, 4, 296, 308-312, 329, 340, 347;
caves; temples screen painting, 10, 88
influences on, 232,301, 330—3 31; students
Rembrandt, 317 Screen with Ladies Under Trees T tt IF. IS
of, 3 39, 349
Reminiscing with Xigbou (Tang Yin), 223 (silk painting, Japan), 76
Qi dynasty, 46; Northern, 40, 42, 5 8; South¬
Remote Stream and Cold Pines ® ?|s] ^ S3 scrolls, 3, 7, 9, io- See also handscrolls
ern, 1,45
sculpture, 35,38; relief, 7, 18, 60, 76. See also
Qi kingdom, 29 (Ni Zan), 173, 174
Ren Bonian, 293, 294, 300, 301 stone carving
Qi Xu, 105
Ren Renfa, 148, 150, 185, 232 seal scripts, 7, 88, 93, 183, 246, 300
Qian Hui’an, 292, 300
Ren Xiong, 293—294 seals, 4, 6, 7, 91, 203, 211, 278; carving of,
Qian Qianyi, 2 5 3
Ren Xun, 293, 294 1, 246, 300, 347; influence on painting
Qian Shizhi, 339
Ren Yu, 293 of, 330, 331. See also inscriptions; colo¬
Qian Songyan, 333
Renzong, Emperor (Yuan dynasty), 105, phons
Qian Xuan, 4, 141-144, M5, M7, Bh Vb
149, 161 “Secrets of Landscape Painting” (Huang
influence of, 154, 185, 221, 233
Qian Yunzhi, 227 Republican period, 300-322 Gongwang), 167—168

Qianlong reign (Emperor Gaozong; Qing Research Society of Chinese painting, 307 Seeking the Dao at Dongtian (Dai Jin), 211

dynasty), 93, 251-252, 271, 274-275, 279, Returning Home j/EJ fx SI (Chen Hong- Self-Portrait git (Jin Nong), 276, 277

281—282, 285,289 shou), 242, 243 Self-Portrait § 10 Of (Ren Xiong), 294, 295

Qiao Zongchang, 126 Returning Home by Boat (Dai Jin), 209 Sengge, Princess, 149, 160

Qin dynasty, 2, 15, 19, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27 Returning Kindness with Fame (Shen Zhou), serial paintings, 301

Qin Zhongwen, 31 2 217, 218 Sericulture and Agriculture (Qiu Ying), 226

Qin Zuyong, 236 Revival Society (Fu She), 266 Serried Hills over a Misty Raver jQ tT ft ll$ S3
Qing dynasty, 3,4, 11,197,251; early, 2 5 2- Revolution of ipn, 252, 307 (Wang Shen), 125, 126
273; middle, 273—289; late, 289—296, 299, Ricci, Matteo, 236 Serving Tea (Tang Yin), 222, 223

300—308 ritual, 16, 21, 22, 24, 3 5, 220. See also reli- Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove, 43,

Qingao Riding a Carp (Li Zai), 203 gion 46, 47, 84

Qingbian Mountains, The J=f |J_i §3 (Dong Ritual Gathering, A 1L \% S3 (Mawangdui Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove and Rong
Qichang), 233-234 Tomb 3), 24, 27 Qiqi, The Pf # "t $0 S3 (brick
Qingliang Hill Scenery fff Tf- ip. §3 (Gong River Temple in the Long Summer jf; JJ relief, Nanjing tomb), 48-49, 55,58
Xian), 267, 268—269 S (Li Tang), 127-129, 130 Sha Menghai, 333
Qiu Ying,217, 221, 224-227, 233, 239 “Road to Shu Is Hard, The” (Li Bai), 93 Shaanxi Artists’ Association, 343
Qu Yuan, 20, 151, 239, 337 rock painting. See petroglyphs shading, 5, 9, 39, 40, 66, 89, 234, 340
Qu Yuan (Fu Baoshi), 337 Roly-Poly fy {|!j f| (Qi Baishi), 312 Shakyamuni Emergingfrom the Mountains
Qu Yuan (Guo Moruo), 337 Romance of the West Chamber (Chen Hong- ill # $E S3 (Liang Kai), 135, 136
shou), 239 shamanism, 16, 151, 152
Rainbow Bridge Collection, 274 Rong Qiqi, 46 Shang dynasty, 17, 18—19
Raphael, 307 Rongxi Studio, The ^ @3 (Ni Zan), 173, Shang Xi, 199, 202
Reading in the Shade of the Willow Tree (Wu I75 Shangguan Boda, 198
Wei), 214 rough-brush style, 10, 140 Shanghai, 292, 313, 316
Reading in the Snowy Mountains If -§■ ill 45 S3 Rowing by Mt. Wuyi 3^ fip. 3^ S3 (Fang Shanghai School, 289, 292—296, 300
(Xiao Yuncong), 271, 273 Congyi), 182, 183 Shen Can, 232
realism, 1, 3, 7, 40; in Ming painting, 199, Rowing Home on a Snowy River (Emperor Shen Cheng, 217
203, 222; in Qing painting, 267, 271, 275, Huizong), 124 Shen Du, 232
281; revolutionary, 3 39; in Song painting, Shen Heng, 217
91, 105, 106, 110, 11 3, 115, 122, 129; in Sacrificial Ceremony at Lanting (Wen Zheng- Shen Kuo, 2
twentieth-century painting, 305, 317, ming), 220 Shen Quan, 285—289
321, 322, 336, 343; in Western painting, Sailing Boats and a Riverside Mansion ijj'j, JH Shen Shao, 270, 271

3°7>337 jlj IS (attributed to Li Sixun), 65, 66 Shen Xiyuan, 198

Realms of Immortals {ill Qj 0 (Chen Ruyan), Sampling Tea np §3 (Wu Changshuo), Shen Zhen, 217
184, 185 301, 303 Shen Zhou, 198, 217-219, 224, 233, 236,
Record of Famous Paintings of Successive Dynas¬ sarcophagus, stone, at Luoyang JEj ^ %\\ 307; influence of, 222, 227, 229, 253, 272,
ties (Lidai minghua ji; Zhang Yanyuan), 5 9 Hi, 54-56 302, 317, 330; influences on, 4, 159, 178,
“Record of My Experiences in Painting” Sayings on Paintingfrom Monk Bitter Gourd 230
(Tuhuajianwen ghi; Guo Ruoxu), 89, 95 (Shitao), 258 ShengAn Wearing Flowers in His Hair J-}- ^
Record of the Flower Boats of YangQ>ou(L\ Scene in Xiling, A @ /J\ jp; (Huang Wit SI (Chen Hongshou), 242, 244

Dou), 274 Binong), 315, 316 ShengMao, 15 5-157, 172, 177, 199, 203

398 Index
Sheng Zhu, 198 119—126, 129; poetry in, 122, 123, 124, Sun Quan, 46
Shenxiu, 233 125, 129, 130, 133; portraiture in, 91, Sun Shangzi, 5 9
Shenzong, Emperor (Song dynasty), 114, 11 o—111; professional painting in, 7; Sun Wenzong, 198
118-119, 12LI25 realism in, 91, 105, 106, no, 113, 115, Sun Xingzu, 205
Shijing (Book of songs), 218 122, 129; Southern, 8, 97, 124, 126-137, Sun Yat-sen, 304, 305, 308
Shi Lu, 337, 339, 343-347 192, 199 Sun Zhiwei, 106
Shi Rui, 203, 209, 239 Song kingdom, 21, 22 Sunset and Lonely Ducks (Tang Yin), 222

Shih, Hsio-yen, 10 Song Lian, 193 Sunset Landscape fd [S0 LU zK B3 (Ma Lin),

Shiji (Historical records), 3 20 SongWenzhi, 333 132,133

Shining Light of Night H§ Qi §3 (attrib¬ Songs of the South {Chu ci; Qu Yuan), 20 Sutra of Precious Rain S ffi 35 (Dun-

uted to Han Gan), 79, 81 Songsfai meipu (plum treatise; Wu Taisu), huang Cave 321), 63, 64

Shitao, 235, 252, 258, 266, 272, 276, 316; 192 Suzhou,11, 224, 227, 232

influence of, 302, 317, 335, 339, 347 Southern Dynasties, 34, 43-58 Suzhou (Wu) School, 197, 198, 215, 217,

Short Rest, A /Jn (Pan Tianshou), 331 Southern School, 233, 259, 261, 312. See also 219, 221, 248, 289, 316

Shrike on a Winter Tree 'B M ^ ^ 53 (Li Di), Dong Qichang Suziki Kei, 127
129,131 Southern Tang kingdom, 87, 93, 95, 11°, Swallow Rock and Mochou Lake 3P 5JI H
Shrimp jKf (Qi Baishi), 310 121 M $9 ® (Wu Hong), 267, 268
Shu dynasty, 121 space, use of, 2, 31,47, 64, 70, 145 Swimming Goose by Flowers and Rocks -ft 35 '/5f

Shu kingdom, 46, 87, 88, 91 Sparse Pines and Secluded Cliffs gj (Sun Long), 205, 207

(Cao Zhibai), 166—167 symbolism, 8, 40, 48, 140, 185,187; animal,

Shu Qing, 249
Spiro, Audrey, 46 30, 112, 137, 150, 161, 201; of bamboo,
Shu Qingchun, 339
Spring (Lin Fengmian), 328, 329 2, 8, 203, 257, 279; of color, 24, 285; in
Shundi, Emperor (Yuan dynasty), 197
Spring at Wu Lin (Wu Wei), 214 funerary art, 34, 42, 58; for integrity, 2—3,
Sibi, King, 3 8
Spring in the Capital TO 3c JIf itf M 53 154, 203, 347; for longevity, 184, 247,
Sichuan Folks Drawing Waterfrom the River
(Xu Yang), 285, 290 267, 293; religious, 106, 163
(Xu Beihong), 320
SikongTu, 3 Spring Mountains Cloaked in Green (Dai Jin),
211 Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, 252, 292, 294,
Silbergeld, Jerome, 9
silk, 9, 10, 19, 22, 24, 33, 75, 92; preparation Spring on the Lake $$ {E § "fe 51 (Wu Li), 300

264, 266 Taizong, Emperor (Song dynasty), 122

of, 8-9, 106; production of, 76-77
Spring Outing # 51 (attributed to Zhan Taizong, Emperor (Tang dynasty), 4, 59, 60,
Silk Fan in the Autumn Breeze fA 51 m 53
Ziqian), 64, 65 65,78
(Tang Yin), 223, 224
Stalks of Bamboo by a Rock Kf 35 5 (Wu Taizu, Emperor (Zhao Kuangyin; Song
Silk Road, 38
Zhen), 191—192, 193 dynasty), 122, 199, 215
Sima Jinlong screen, 47, 48
Stare, The (Pan Tianshou), 331, 332 Taizu, Emperor (Ming dynasty). See Zhu
Six Dynasties, 183, 220, 242
Still-Life (Lin Fengmian), 324, 328 Yuanzhang
Six Gentlemen ~f\ H 53 (Ni Zan), 172, 173
stone carving, 27, 29, 30-31, 33, 52-55, Takeuchi Seiho, 304, 336
Six Masters of the Early Qing, 259-266
106. See also sculpture Tales of Chivalrous Swordsmen, 293
Six Patriarchs of Chan (Dai Jin), 211
Six Principles of painting {Hufa; Xie He), 4, Stone Cliff at the Pond of Heaven fk '/til 5 It Tan Sitong, 31 3
® (Huang Gongwang), 138, 167, 168 Tan Zhirui, 190
45
Story of Ban Zhao, The Jjf tlf (detail of Tang Di, 161—162, 163, 185
Sketches from Lfe (Shen Zhou), 229
Admonitions of the Court Instructress to Tang dynasty, 2, 3, 4, 9, 35, 59_85, 26L
Sketches of Birds and Insects T3 fF 5^ tSi 53
Palace Ladies; attributed to Gu Kaizhi), Buddhism in, 92, 233; court painting in,
(Huang Quan), 91
1,75, 123; criticism in, 45, 47; fall of, 84,
Sketches of Flowers and Butterflies (Wen Shu), 51
Story of Ban Zhao, The JAJ jQfij jifJ 5!- 87; funerary art in, 40, 68,75; influence
2 47 of, 88, 89, 99, 141, 148; landscape paint¬
0f (lacquer screen; Sima Jinlong’s
Small View of the Yellow Thatched Hut (Tang
tomb), 53 ing in, 66, 68, 79, 89, 93; murals in, 68,
Yin), 223
Story of Wang Lin, The ^5 M @1- 73-75, 88-89; patronage in, 59, 64;
Snow on Mount Tian 7^ Ui |R If 51 (Hua
(detail, stone sarcophagus, poetry in, 79-81, 83, 132, 235, 274, 281;
Yan), 281, 282
Luoyang), 56 political art in, 64, 75; religious art in, 63,
Society for the Study of Chinese Painting
Stubbs, George, 112 75, 79
(Kui Hai Cooperative), 306
Study of Ancient Painting, A, 315 Tang Hou, 188—189
Soldiers Blowing Bugles )% IS (mural>
Study of Copying Seal-Engraving, 77>tf(FuBao- Tang Shuyu, 246
Lou Rui’s tomb), 41
Tang Yin, 193, 217, 219, 220, 221, 222-224,
Solitary Temple amid Clearing Peaks, A fcfft' (S) shi), 335
Study of the Paintings Introduced to China from 227, 261
ff#® (Li Cheng), 100, 101
Abroad, A (Pan Tianshou), 305-306 TanyhiPavilion, The 5$ f|§ ® 5! (Gao Xiang),
Son of Heaven, 100, 111-112, 285
Su Shi, 3, in, 122, 125, 126, 140, 187, 191, HI, 278
Song dynasty: academic style of, 91, 199;
Tao Gu Presents a Poem fy T-U 53 (Tang
bird-and-flower painting in, 92, court 233
Sui dynasty, 35, 59-60, 63 Yin), 223, 225
painting in, 1; fall of, 208, 236, figure
Summer MountainsM [ll ® (Dong Yuan), Tao Yuanming, 148, 149, 237, 242, 271
painting in, 89, 91, 123; Imperial Paint¬
Tao Yuanmingfs Homecoming Ode J± 51 (He
ing Academy in, 129-133, 261; influ¬ 95,96
Sun Chuanfang, 317 Cheng), 139, 149
ence of, 197, 261; landscape painting in,
Sun Duoci, 321 Taoism. See Daoism
8, 49, 93, 99-102, 118-119, D7. i^K D6,
Sun Kehong, 232, 235 Tartar Jin people, 88, 96, 97, 121, 126
177, 203; Northern, 2, 3, 4, 8, 87» 96-
Tea Party at Huishan (Wen Zhengming), 220
Sun Long, 205, 219
126, 153, 1 87, 208; patronage in, 114,

Index

fUsTON PUBLIC LIBRARi

 Dingjiazha Tomb 5, 37, 38, 39, 40; of WangSenran, 349
techniques in painting, 6, 7, 89; accumulating-

36; Eastern Zhou, 19-20; of Wang Shen, 100, 108, 111, ii 4> I2I> i22>
ink, 266, 267; bone-immersing ( mogu), Dong Shou,

205, 236; boneless ( meigu), 22, 64, 264; Emperor Taizong, 60; Han, 22—34; I 25> 129
Wang Shimin, 243, 259—260, 261, 262, 264,
boneless wash, 305, 334; colorwash Helingol, 33—34, 36; Jiayu Pass, Tomb 6

(ran), 230; dotting (diari), 179, 183, 192, H ill P *3 H, 37; Li Chongrun (Prince 3l6, 339
Yide), 65; of Li Xian, 40, 77; of Lou Rui, Wang Shishen, 27 5
195, 211, 230; double outline, 248; dry¬
Wang Shizhen, 260, 274
brush, 260; fine-line, 141; freehand 40, 41, 42, 43; Luoyang, 19, 27, 28, 30,
WangTingyun, 140, 191
sketch-style, 205, 208, 220, 227, 229, 292, 40, 56, 59, 63, 73; Mawangdui, 22-24, 25,

301, 302, 311, 321 \ gaoguyousi miao (float¬ 26, 27, 28, 39; Northern Dynasties, 3 5- Wang Wei, 45, 59. 79> 1 33. 23 3> 261

WangWenfan, 249
ing silk threads from antiquity), zz\goule 38, 40-43, 51-53, 57-58; Southern Dy¬

WangWenzhi, 290
(shuanggou), 1 87; ink-line, 64, 111; ink- nasties, 43, 46; Tang, 65, 66, 68-70, 71,

1). See also Wang Wu, 271

wash, 47, 81. See also brushwork; line funerary art

Tongyin lunhua (Qin Zuyong), 236 Wang Ximeng, 1 24, 1 29

drawing; perspective

Temple at Ml. Taibai fp S ill 51 (Wang Travelers by Streams and Mountains M Ul fT Wang Xizhi, 44, 169

Meng), 177—178, 179, 180—181 M 15 (Fan Kuan), 100-102, 103 WangXi^hi Writing on a Fan (Qiu Ying), 227

Travelers Through Mountain Passes Ul fT M Wang Yi, 154, 187, 245

temples, 22; Buddhist, 43, 63, 73, 178, 179,

185, 190, 277—278; murals in, 43, 63, 106, 5 (Dai Jin), 211, 212 Wang Yuan, 1 8 5

152—154. See also Buddhism; Daoism; Traveling on the River in Clearing Snow §f ^ WangYuanqi, 259, 262—264

individual temples LCfT S 3 (Guo Zhongshu), 102, 104 Wang Yuanqi Cultivating Chrysanthemums fE

Ten Thousand Li of the Yangcf River JE SC Jl Twelve Landscape Views Ul “S —• JR 5 JKl? Zllt S 3 (Yu Zhiding), 271, 272

Wang Yunjing, 270

M S 3 (Wu Wei), 214, 215 (Xia Gui), 133, 134

Ten Views from a Thatched Lodge 1$- 'fg' ~f* ic7 Twenty-Eight Constellations ZL J\ 5 Wang Yuzhong, 237

51 (Lu Hong), 83 (mural, Lou Rui’s tomb), 43 Wang Zhao, 214

texture strokes (cun), 9, 230 Twenty-Four Meritorious Off dais in the Lingyan Wang Zhen, 301

Thatched Hall at Hexi, A Ft MMt 'g' 5 Palace, The ffl 5 Xf) g 5 (Yan Liben), Wang Zhenpeng, 149-150, 160

(Zhao Yuan), 183, 184 60, 62 Wang Zhideng, 224, 248

Thatched Houses in the Peach Blossom Village Two Bodhisattvas Preparing Incense ^ jp 5 Wangchuan Villa Jl| 5 (Wang Wei), 82

tyl M*- (Hi S3 (Qiu Ying), 225, 226 (mural; Wenxian), 90 Wangdu, 33

Thick Forests and Distant Peaks 34- 3ZG W Two Peaches Kill Three Knights-Errant__ JJli Wangdu Tomb 1, 34

5 (Li Cheng), 100, 102 7JS i 5 (Tomb 61, Luoyang), 28, 29 War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggres¬

Thousand Buddhas and the Heavenly Realms sion (1937-194}), 299, 317, 32i-322, 33°,

Tk (murals, Dunhuang Cave 249), 39 “Values of Literati Painting, The” (Chen 337, 339- 343
Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains; A M. Shizeng), 303, 308 Warring States. See Zhou dynasty

tClUS (Wang Ximeng), xiv, 124 Villa by the Water tK f'f 5 (Zhao Mengfu), Water and Bamboo Dwelling 7R 'Ef ® S3 (Ni
Three Egrets (Dai Jin), 211 147,159, 168 Zan), 172

Three Friends and One Plundred Birds (Bian Villa in the Mountains |J_I J± 5 (Sheng Mao), watercolor, 317, 324, 336, 339

Jingzhao), 203 156-157, 158, 159, 177 water-spatter, 305

Three Friends of the Cold Season f? Hi — Fz 5 Vimalakirti Jif! Jp (Dunhuang Cave Wei dynasty, 15,337; Eastern, 40, 5 8; North¬

(Zhao Mengjian), 140, 141 3

io ). 7L73 ern, 38, 39, 40, 52, 58, 63; Western, 38, 40

Three Hills of Jingjiang JT |3L| 5 (Zhang Wei Xian, 179

Yin), 290, 292 Waiting for the Ferry in Autumn (Qiu Ying), Wei Xie (the Sage Painter of the Western

Three Kingdoms (Sanguo), 34, 44, 201 226 Jin), 44

Three Perfections (sanjue), 6, 81, 123, 279, Waitingfor the Ferry on an Autumn River JT Wei Yan, 112

304. See also calligraphy; poetry f€: iS S 3 (Sheng Mao), 156, 157 Wei Zixi, 333

Three Portraits of NingMao X ffii H? (?) Walled Compound with a Watchtower, A Weichi Bazhina, 59

(Ning Mao’s shrine), 58 U 5 (tomb mural, Anping), 33 Wen, Duke, 129

Three Yangs, 202 Wang Anshi, 125 Wen Congjian, 246

Tian Heng and His Five Hundred Followers [3 Wang Bo, 222 Wen Fong, 111

£ W it (Xu Beihong), 299, 320 Wang Chong, 193 Wenjia, 222

Tian Kaijiang, 29 Wang E, 203 Wen Lin, 219

Tian Sengliang, 5 9 Wang Fu, 217 wen (literature and arts), 60, 100, 102

Tiandu Peak of Mount Huang jif [Ij £ |f|i |I|$ Wang Geyi, 301 Wen Shu, 246-247, 249

5 (Mei Qing), 272, 274 Wang Hui, 259, 261-262, 264, 266, 307, Wen Tong, 140, 187, 191 —192

Tianjie Temple, 198 3l6,339 Wen Zhengming, 4, 198, 219-221, 226, 232,

Tianning Temple, 277 Wang I luizhi, 229 233, 236, 246; associates of, 222, 224; in¬

Tianshun reign (Emperor Yingzong; Ming Wangjian, 259, 260-261, 264, 316 fluence of, 227, 229, 248, 253, 307; influ¬

dynasty), 205 Wang Lin, 56 ences on,217, 230

Tiantong Si Temple, 178 Wang Mang, 30 Wencheng, Princess, 60

Tibet, 152, 199 Wang Meng, 154, 163, 167, 175-179, 215, Wendi, Emperor (Sui dynasty), 59

Tiger fit 5 (lacquer painting), 19 232, 233, 239; associates of, 183, 184; wenren. See literati

tigers, 28, 38, 66, 75, 201 death of, 198; influence of, 217, 234, 260, Wenxuan, Emperor (Northern Qi dynasty),

tombs: Anak, 36, 58; Anping, 31, 32, 33, 36; 335 42
Anyang, 19; Baoshan Tomb 2, 20; Bin- Wang Mian, 192—193
Wenzong, Elmperor (Yuan dynasty), 149,

yang cave, 52; Changtaiguan Tomb 1, 20; Wang Mo, 84-8 5 190

400 Index
Western art: vs. Chinese art, 5-6, 10; Chi¬ Wu Song, the Opera Figure iff (fifa ^ A Xu Yi, 270

nese influence on, 285; influence of, 236, ’\fj) (Lin Fengmian), 328, 330 Xu Zhang, 271

251,252, 264, 282-285, 289, 302-303, Wu Taisu, 187, 192 Xu Zhengyang Moving His Family if Iff A

306-307, 332; integration of, 307, 313, Wu Wei, 15 2, 208, 211-215, 300, 316 fr g (Cui Zizhong), 239, 241

317, 320, 324, 35 2-3 5 4; introduction of, Wu Weiye, 239 Xu Zonghao, 225

into China, 299—300; isolation of China Wu Zetian (Empress Wu), 63, 64, 65, 68 Xuan Wenjun, Lady, 239-242

from, 322 Wu Zhen, 159—160, 167, 191—192, 193, 199, Xuande reign (Emperor Xuanzong; Ming

Western Jin dynasty, 35,44 217, 233; influence of, 21 8, 260 dynasty), 197, 198, 205, 209

Western Zhou dynasty, 17, 18, 19, 22 Wu Zuoren, 321 Xuanhe huapu (The Xuanhe paindng cata¬

Whispering Pines on a Mountain Path UL| {?§• fe Willing School. See Later Zhe School logue), 2, 4, 102, 111, 118,123, 148, 203

^ EB (Tang Yin), 222, 223 Wuxing, 141

Xuanwu, Emperor (Northern Wei dynasty), 5 2

Whistling Wind in the Evening Rain (Fu Wuzong, Emperor (Ming dynasty), 211 Xuanzong, Emperor (Zhu Zhanji; Ming

Baoshi), 335 dynasty), 198, 203, 205. See also Xuande

White Clouds and Red Trees (Lan Ying), 236 Xi Wo Hou (Xu Beihong), 320 reign

White-Robed Guanyin, Crane, and Gibbons 7JS, Xia Chang, 217 Xue Susu, 248-249

Ta EB, S3, H 5! (Muqi), 136-137 Xia Gui, 133, 143, 208, 233, 330 Xugu, 292-293, 300

Wild Geese Descending to a Sandbar (Fu Xia Wenyan, 179, 192

Baoshi), 336—337 Xia Zhi, 209 Ya Ming, 333

Willow and Buffalo (Qi Baishi), 340 Xi’an. See Ch’ang-an Yan Bi, 59, 60

Wind Through the Pine Valleys 75 M 51 S3 Xiang Shengmo, 246, 270 yan hua. See petroglyphs

(Li Tang), 127, 128, 129, 222 Xiang Tuo, 29 Yan Hui, 152, 15 3, 154

wine,43,46,47, 84, 100, 104, 211,242; drink¬ Xiang Yu, 29 Yan Liben, 60-61,64,75, 12 3

ing while paindng, 84-85, 119, 337 Xiang Yuanbian, 224, 225 Yan Lide, 60

Wintry Groves and Layered Banks Jvk S’ '/T Xiang Yuanqi, 225 Yan Luo, 307

EB (Dong Yuan), 95,97 Xiangji Monastery, 74 Yan Ping, 248

Yan Wengui, 100, 102, 105, 11 3, 203, 211

Wise and Benevolent Women ^(J ft \L §3 Xianyu Shu, 191

Xianzong, Emperor (Ming dynasty), 198, 211 Yan Ying, 29

(attributed to Gu Kaizhi), 47, 48, 50, 52,

Xiao Chen, 281 Yan Zhenqing, 59

242

Yang, Empress (Song), 131

Woman, a Phoenix, and a Dragon, A 7b M ft Xiao Shi, 337

Yang Bian, 66
ft ^ (ink on silk, Changsha), 22 Xiao Sun, 312

Yang Guifei, 75, 76

Woman Playing a Game of Chess, A {i ft Xiao Yuncong, 271, 289

Xiao Zhao, 127, 226 Yang Qian, 154

JJi (Astana Tomb 1 87), 76

Xiaoling Mausoleum, 253 Yang Qidan, 59

women, 52, 247; as painters, 190, 198, 246-

Xiaowen, Emperor (Northern Wei dynasty), Yang Shanshen, 305

249, 279, 333; portraits of, 47, 48, 75-78,
Yang Weizhen, 151, 214, 232
290-292, 324, 325, 337; prostitutes, 246- 52> 56
Xiaozong, Emperor (Hongzhi reign; Ming Yang Wencong, 23 5
248, 290

dynasty), 198, 199, 203, 208 Yang Wujiu, 192

woodblock prints, 92, 106, 215, 239, 289,

Xie Bin, 236, 246, 270, 271 Yang Zihua, 42, 59

293
Yangdi, Emperor (Sui dynasty), 59, 60
writing, 3,15. See also calligraphy; inscrip¬ Xie He, 1, 2, 4, 45, 49, 233
Yangshao culture, 17, 18, 19
Xie Iduan,202-203, 209
tions
Yangzhou,247, 273-274, 278, 285
Xie Jin, 217, 220
wu (military forces), 60, 100, 102
Yangzhou school, 313
Wu, Emperor (Flan dynasty), 27 Xie Kun, 144

Yao Shou, 144, 217

Wu, Emperor (Northern Zhou dynasty), Xie Sun, 266, 269

Yao Xie, 293

Xie Youyu, 144
60, 61

Xie Zhiliu, 350

Yao Xie and His Wives M IT" 51 (Fei
Wu, Empress (Wu Zedan; Tang dynasty),

Xiling Gorge (Fu Baoshi), 337 Danxu), 292, 294

63, 64, 65, 68
Xiling Seal Society, 3 00,315, 3 3 5 .See also seals Yao Zui, 45
Wu Bin, 198, 236
Ye Xin, 266, 269
Xin dynasty, 30
Wu Changshuo, 4, 294, 308, 317, 329, 330,

Xiong Kaiyuan, 2 5 3
Yellow Armor jif Ep EB (Xu Wei), 230, 231
331, 347; school of, 300-304
Xizong, Emperor (Ming dynasty), 199 Yellow River, The H M (Wu Guanzhong),
Wu Daozi, 3, 59, 70-74, 77, 8l> 89> 92> D6,
Xu Beihong, 306, 307, 317-322, 335, 339, 352> 353
140
340; School of, 321, 322, 333 Yi, Marquis, of Zeng, 19—20
Wu Dazheng, 300
Yi Yuanji, 116-118, 203
Xu Ben, 215
Wu dynasty, 46
Xu Chongsi, 205, 264
Yi-an, The (Tang Yin), 223
Wu Fuzhi, 333
Xu Da, 282
yimin. See loyalists
Wu Guan, 160
yin and yang, 10, 28, 40
Xu Daoning, 100, 118, 119
Wu Guanzhong, 324, 35 2-3 5 3
Yokoyama Taikan, 336
Xu Shen, 220
Wu Hong, 266, 267
Yongle Gong temple, 15 3
Xu Sun, 177
Wu Hufan, 316
Xu Wei, 198, 230-232, 275, 296, 308 Yongle Palace, 202
Wujiayou,. 292, 317
Yongfioeng Emperor Offering Sacrifices at the
Xu Xi, 89-91, 114, 125
Wu kingdom, 44
Xu Xiaolun, 301
Altar of Agriculture, The IE 'r^f IP? A A
Wu Li, 259, 264, 313
if [§J-_h (anonymous), 285,288
Xu Xun, 2 3 9
Wu (Suzhou) School, 11, 197, J 98> 215, 2I7>
Yongzheng reign (Emperor Shizong; Qing
Xu Yang, 285
219,221,248,289,316
dynasty), 274, 282, 285
Xu Yansun, 312
Wu Song, 328

Index 401
 history by, 15,45-46, 59, 66, 123; on Li Zhishi Fengjie’s tomb, 68
Yu Fei’an, 3 1 2
Zhong Kui, 106, 140— 141, an, 309
Yu Zhiding, 271 Sixun, 64-65, 71; on Wu Daozi, 73
Zhong Kui Traveling # j® W S3 (Gong
Yuan dynasty, 3, 4, 8, 88, 93, 1 39—196; fall Zhang Yin, 289-290
Zhang Yu, 144, 215, 235 Kai), 140, 142, 211
t>f» J73> I75> J95» 197; literati in, 7, 198,
Zhongfeng Mingben, 154, 190
199; and Song, 97, 125, 133, 137. Lw Zhang Yuan, 76-77, 270
Zhongli Quan, 15 4
Four Great Masters Zhang Zao, 1, 85, 233
Zhou Chen, 217, 221-222, 224
Yuanjiang, 281—282 Zhang Zeduan, 104-105
Zhou dynasty: Eastern, 1, 18—21, 24; West¬
Yuan Wei, 40 Zhang Zhu, 105
Zhangzong, Emperor (Jin dynasty), 102 ern, 17, 18, 19, 22
Yuan Yao, 281—282
Zhao Boju, 129, 225, 226, 233 Zhou Fang, 70, 75-76, 77-78, I23
Yuan Zhen, 85
Zhao Bosu, 233 Zhouguan, 242
Yujian Ruofen, 136
Zhou Lianggong, 221, 242, 253
Yun Daosheng, 315, 316 Zhao Chang, 105
Zhao Gan, 95, 233, 234 Zhou Mi, 145
Yun Richu, 264
Zhao Gonghai, 306 Zhou Quan, 199
Yun Shouping, 259, 264—266, 271, 313
Zhao Huanguang, 246 Zhou Wei, 198
Yunxi (son of Kangxi emperor), 271, 279
Zhaojun, 246 Zhou Xian, 293
Yunxi Teaching Buddhist Scripture itW: Ull
Zhao Kuangyin, 96, 114 Zhou Zhaoxiang, 307
S3 (Gu Ming), 271

Zhao Lingrang, 122, 155 Zhou Zhimian, 232

Yutai huashi (The jade platform history of
Zhao Mengfu, 140, 144—151, 157, 159, 161, Zhu Derun, 162-163, 215
painting; Tang Shuyu), 246
169, 190, 195, 233; on calligraphy, 4, 187- Zhu Duan, 201, 203

Zeng, Marquis Yi of, 19—20 189; influence of, 124, 154—156,162,166— Zhu 1 Iaogu, 15 3

Zengjing, 236, 243-246, 269, 270, 271 .See 168, 173, 175, 184, 185, 220, 221; influ¬ Zhu Jingxuan, 70, 71, 74, 79, 84, 85

also Bochen School ences on,141, 160 Zhu Jinxiang, 76

Zeng Xi, 3 50 Zhao Mengjian, 140, 141, 144 Zhu Kuishi, 246

Zha Shibiao, 169, 315 Zhao Pu, 199 Zhu Qizhan, 347

Zhan Ziqian, 59, 64 Zhao Shao’ang, 305 Zhu Ran’s tomb, 46

Zhang Bi, 232 Zhao Shilei, 122 Zhu Shouqian, 258

Zhang Boya, 31 Zhao Tonglu, 217 Zhu Wei shrine, 30

Zhang Daqian, 312, 316, 35 0—3 5 2 Zhao Wangyun, 343 Zhu Yi, 211

Zhang Fengyi, 222 Zhao Yan, 108, no, hi Zhu Yuanzhang (Emperor Taizu, Hongwu

Zhang Guo, 152 Zhao Yong, 144, 190 emperor; Ming dynasty), 129, 175, 176,

Zhang Guo Having an Audience with Emperor Zhao Yuan, 183-184, 198, 215 183, 195. 197.i98.!99> 253
Minghuang 5cK M ^3 M S3 (Ren Ren fa), Zhao Yunhe, 301 Zhu Yunming, 193, 219

150-151 Zhao Zhiqian, 4, 294-296, 300, 330 Zhu Yunqing, 249

Zhang I Iua, 48 Zhao Zhong, 31 Zhuangzi, 21, 118, 304
Zhang Ke, 261 Zhe School, 11, 152, 198, 208, 211, 215, Zhuge Liang Living as a Hermit in Seclusion
Zhang Lu, 214 233, 3°°> 331 (Emperor Xuanzong), 205
Zhang Qi,r270 Zhen School, 316 Zhuo Di, 198
Zhang Qingzi, 243 Zheng Falun, 5 9 Zhupu (Treatise on bamboo; Li Kan), 187
Zhang Sengyou, 70, 74, 236 Zheng Fashi, 59 Zhushachong Sentry Post ^ ^ hj3 P (Lu
Zhang Shicheng, 169, 175, 176, 183, 184 Zheng Pei, 285 Yanshao), 347, 349

Zhang Taiyan, 313 Zheng Qian, 83, 85 Zong Bing, 45

Zhang Weibang, 285 Zheng Sixiao, 140 Zou Fulei, 193—195
Zhang Wu, 151, 152, 154 Zheng Xie, 4, 275, 278-279 Zou Yigui, 285
Zhang Xu, 59 Zhengxiang huabao (Pictorial of naked truth), Zou Zhe, 266, 267—269
Zhang Xuan, 59,75—76, 123 305 Zou Zhilin, 316
Zhang Yanyuan, 1-2, 75, 76, 77, 79, 83, 85; Zhenjiang. See Jingjiang School

402 Index
 ■

: • . . . r»'
Continued from front flap

on such topics as the development of classical

and narrative painting, the origins

of the literati tradition, the flowering of
landscape painting, and the ways the tradi¬
tions of Chinese painting have been carried

into the present day.

The book, which concludes with a glossary

of techniques and terms and a list of artists
by dynasty, is an essential resource for all
lovers of, or newcomers to, Chinese painting.

Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting is

the inaugural volume in a new series, The
Culture & Civilization of China, a joint
publishing venture of Yale University Press
and the American Council of Learned Socie¬
ties with the China International Publishing
Group in Beijing. The undertaking will
ultimately result in the publication of more
than seventy-five volumes on the visual arts,
classical literature, language, and philosophy,
as well as several comprehensive reference

volumes.

RICHARD M. BARNHART is John M.

Schiff Professor of History of Art at Yale
University. JAMES CAHILL is professor
emeritus of the history of art at the Univer¬
sity of California, Berkeley. WU HUNG is
Harrie A. Vanderstappen Distinguished
Service Professor in Chinese Art History
at the University of Chicago. YANG XIN
is deputy director and research fellow at
the Palace Museum, Beijing. NIE
CHONGZHENG is research fellow at
the Palace Museum, Beijing. LANG
SHAOJUN is director of the Fine Arts
Research Laboratory at the Institute of Fine
Arts, Chinese Academy of Arts, Beijing.

Jacket illustration: Zhao Mengfu, Mounted Official,

handscroll, ink and color on paper, 1296. Palace Museum,

Beijing.
“This is the most comprehensive and
up-to-date single-volume account of
Chinese painting from prehistoric times
to the present. For some time to come, it
will be an indispensable work for students
and for the general reader who wishes to
gain an in-depth knowledge of Chinese
painting. Not least among the merits of
the book are the numerous illustrations
and discussions of important paintings in
Chinese museums hitherto little known
outside China.”
— JAMES C. Y. WATT

Brooke Russell Astor Senior Curator

of Asian Art, The Metropolitan
Museum of Art

Foreign Languages Press

Beijing '
Yale University Press
New Haven & London
ISBN 0-300-07013-6

Printed in Hong Kong

78 0 32