Li Tang, a native of Sancheng, Heyang (present-day Mengxian County, Henan Province), lived during the transition period between the Two Song Dynasties, and his work from the Northern Song Painting Academy to the Southern Song Painting Academy made his works show clear transitional characteristics, and his landscape paintings took "Nandu" as the dividing point, and there were two different styles. In the early stage, Cang Jin was majestic, continuing the painting style of Li Cheng, Fan Kuan and others, showing the majestic and thick feeling of the northern mountains, and the later painting style combined the characteristics of the beautiful scenery of the mountains and clear waters in Jiangnan after the southern crossing, opening up a new situation in landscape painting.
Overview of Li Tang (Image source: Baidu Encyclopedia)
Li Tang created a large axe splitting, the pen opened widely, the brush with ink and water made a stroke down the thick and light, in terms of composition, different from the panoramic landscape of the mountain, Li Tang was good at intercepting part of the mountain, selecting a small range of scenery, the Southern Song Dynasty "one corner and half" landscape painting style began to form, and then, led by Li Tang, the "Four Houses of the Southern Song Dynasty" gradually developed different styles, and the new appearance of the Southern Song Landscape Painting gradually unfolded.
According to the style, "Qingxi Fishing Hidden Map" is Li Tang's late work, the painting to a certain extent represents Li Tang's landscape style after the southern crossing, according to this, you can glimpse the changes of landscape painting in the early Southern Song Dynasty, in the dripping ink color, the sense of Jiangnan replaced the northern mountains, and gradually became the mainstream style of landscape painting.
(Southern Song Dynasty) Li Tang's "Hidden Map of Qingxi Fishing" (Source: National Palace Museum, Taipei)
From the perspective of composition, "Qingxi Fishing Hidden Map" changes the panoramic composition of the past, only intercepting a small section of the scene to lay out the depiction.
On the left side of the picture, the mountain stones and trees are only partially appeared, there is no complete whole tree and a whole stone, leaving the viewer's imagination with a huge space, so that the picture shows a limited and infinite artistic conception, at the same time, it is precisely because it does not show the full picture of the trees and stones, so that the smoke and rain in the Qiantang Jiangshan area after the rain and the sense of fresh nature are overwhelming.
The close-up perspective adopted by Li Tang allows the viewer to clearly perceive an area, not only to overlook and appreciate, but to seem to be able to enter the picture environment. The stream flows into the field of vision from a distance in the undulating, flowing directly to the viewer outside the painting, allowing the viewer to intuitively feel the sparkling stream, and the subtle distance formed between them is enough to bring the viewer into the picture itself.
(Southern Song Dynasty) Li Tang's "Hidden Map of Qingxi Fishing" (partial) (Source: National Palace Museum, Taipei)
The right half of the river is slowly drifting to the calm and long distance, Li Tang's treatment of the distant stream is more concise, the river, the river embankment and the sky gradually integrated, which is related to the weather characteristics of heavy humidity and fog in Jiangnan, in the geographical space that is not far enough, due to the fog, and the feeling of diffuseness, the landscape gradually fades.
Therefore, the viewer's eyes stay at the riverside water mill, because the mechanization of water conservancy in the Song Dynasty is very large, mechanical water mill is not uncommon in paintings, water mill appears in landscape paintings and custom paintings, from which the improvement of agricultural productivity can be seen, the emergence of water mills in "Qingxi Fishing Hidden Map" is to reflect agricultural activities, peasant life, and the characteristics of activities outside the city, and to build a hidden space that Li Tang wants to express.
At the right end of the scroll, a fisherman is calmly fishing in a boat with sparse reeds on the side of the boat. The expression method of placing the characters in the corner of the mountain stone more appropriately reflects the "hidden" character of "Qingxi Fishing Hidden Map", making the picture very poetic and spiritual, coupled with the inner hidden meaning of the "Fisher Father" image itself and the image connotation of peace with the encounter, the Fisher Father has become a representative of the expression of the hidden thought, so the appearance of the Fisher Father in the "Qingxi Fishing Hidden Map" has added a very rich cultural connotation to the picture.
Unlike the accurate and vivid customs of the Northern Song Dynasty landscape paintings, the image of the fisherman here is extremely simplified, except for one person and one pole, there is no other fishing or boating equipment on the canoe, not even a black canopy for sheltering the wind and rain, but a few strokes can still see the body movements and clothing styles of the characters. This kind of simplicity in pen and ink puts the subject in an emotional atmosphere, showing a harmonious picture of smoke and rain, clear stream fishing, and the hidden atmosphere jumps on the paper.
On the far right of the work, several stones emerge from the river, and the clear river flows slowly, a detail that depicts the clarity of the stream, blending the fresh breath of Jiangnan with the leisurely nature of the fisherman.
"Qingxi Fishing Hidden Map" depicts the scenery of Jiangnan, the overall feeling is mainly fresh, with the hills of Maolin and bamboo and the fishing boats fishing alone in Qingxi, as well as the close combination of splashing ink and wet pens, creating a solemn and fresh Jiangnan smoke and rain map, revealing a certain kind of spiritual detachment, removing the hustle and bustle of the world, and achieving a painting mood that overcomes all worldly constraints.
The fisherman father on the fishing boat is undoubtedly the externalized image of the author's inner freedom and seclusion, and the fisherman father who appears in "Zhuangzi" is the embodiment of Taoist thought, advocating the way of nature, and also living in the way of nature, "carefully cultivating the body, carefully keeping its truth, and also using things and people", the emotions that Li Tang wants to express are probably also related to this.
When we face "Qingxi Fishing Hidden Map", we always have an inexplicable sense of blandness and comfort and fresh nature in our hearts, which comes from the painter's deep and clear state of mind, he integrates infinite nature with infinite emotions to form a realm of unity between heaven and man.
In his early years, Li Tang, as a patriot, expressed a moving and exciting momentum in works such as "Ten Thousand Pine Wind Maps", and in his later years, the quiet and open artistic conception was injected into the painting, and the impassioned pride has been diluted, which is the evolution of the state of mind and the refraction of the spirit of the times.
bibliography:
[1] Zhuangzi Jishi (Part 2)[M].Written by Guo Qingfan; Wang Xiaoyu Dian School. Beijing: Zhonghua Bookstore, July 1961 edition (reprinted january 2010).
Zhu Beibei. Li Tang's Study on "Qingxi Fishing Hidden Map"[D].East China Normal University,2013.
Cao Dingzhi. Li Tang's Study on "Qingxi Fishing Hidden Map"[D].Nanjing University of the Arts, 2019.
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