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Source: Liberation Daily
Author: Shao Qi
The "Four Kings of the Early Qing Dynasty" refers to the four painters who were active in the landscape painting world of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties- Wang Shimin, Wang Jian, Wang Yi and Wang Yuanqi. Their influence on Chinese landscape painting has lasted for three hundred years, and it is the starting point of the artistic path of many landscape masters in later generations.
Qing Wang Shimin Jungle tune map
The largest genre in the history of painting
The "Four Kings" is one of the largest genres in the history of Chinese painting formed in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. The biggest thing here is not only its scale, but also its long-lasting and far-reaching impact.
The "Four Kings" refers to Wang Shimin, Wang Jian, Wang Yi, and Wang Yuanqi. The four painters included three generations who were united by teacher-student or kinship—Wang Shimin was Wang Yuanqi's grandfather, Wang Jian was Wang Shimin's close friend, and Wang Shimin and Wang Jian were both Wang Yi's teachers in painting.
They agreed with and adhered to Dong Qichang's understanding and judgment of the historical evolution of landscape painting in the late Ming Dynasty, and also agreed with Dong Qichang's planning and direction for the future development of landscape painting, and put it into practice. Their joint efforts have not only been praised by their peers in the field of landscape painting, but also favored by the authorities. Since the beginning of the 17th century, it has lasted for three hundred years.
The influence of the "Four Kings" on later generations is reflected in both the orderly transmission of their concubines and the continuation of private ladies; in addition, more importantly, these concubines and private ladies have constituted the historical subject of landscape painting in the past three hundred years.
Qing Wang Shimin Pine wind stacked mountain map
A list spanning four centuries
After the "Four Kings", in the history of painting, there are "Little Four Kings" and "Later Four Kings" passed down from generation to generation, and the teachers are inherited in an orderly manner. In the later studies, there are both royal nobles, literati and scholars, as well as Hanmen scholars, and according to the landscape painters collected in the Dictionary of Chinese Art alone, a list of more than thirty teachers from Wang Yu (1662-1748) to Xiao Yu (1883-1944) can be listed.
In addition to the four centuries of the transmission of a painting school, there are more private "four kings" and "little four kings" like the Eight Greats, Wang Jiao, Wang Wei, Feng Jinbo, Pan Gongshou, Gu Peng, Chao Xun, Lu Hui and other private Ladies who have become a generation of people.
Qing Wang Jian Landscape Map
By the late 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, due to social turmoil, the scattering of various public and private collections in the court and the people made a large number of classic works that were originally hidden, and landscape paintings based on the "Four Kings" also entered a new era. From the landscape paintings since the late 19th century and the self-descriptions of related painters, it can be seen that almost half of the artistic paths of more than half of the landscape masters start from the "Four Kings". Such as Qi Baishi, Huang Binhong, Zhao Ziyun, Feng Tao, Fan Shaoyun, He Tianjian, Hu Peiheng, Wu Huayuan, Zheng Chang, Wu Hufan, Lu Yushao, etc. This list of private ladies also spans four centuries.
Whether a painting school has influence on future generations, the first thing to see is whether there is a heritage. Judging from the above two lists, the influence of the "Four Kings" on future generations can be summed up in the word "long ago".
Qing Wang Jian White Cloud Map on the Ridge
The cradle of literati landscape painting
The "Four Kings" painting has been popular for more than three hundred years, in addition to its internal factors, there are two external boosters that cannot be ignored: one is the royal favor, and the other is the advent of the "Mustard Garden Painting Biography".
The "Four Kings" are guided by Dong Qichang's "Southern and Northern Sects" theory, and its development direction is the "literati painting" since the Song and Yuan dynasties. "Literati painting" was originally different from court painting and folk painting, but the Qing court incorporated the "four kings" into the court in order to win people's hearts, especially the literati. For example, Wang Shimin's grandson Wang Yuanqi was a zhongjinshi in the ninth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, and later entered the South Study, serving as the president of the "Peiwen Zhai Calligraphy and Painting Notation", and presided over the "Longevity Ceremony Map" drawn for Kangxi Zhushou. Wang Jian's student, Wang Yi, presided over the drawing of the "Kangxi Southern Tour Map" during the thirty years of Kangxi, and won the praise of "Landscape and Water Qinghui". The favor of the royal family or the "four kings" and their descendants into the court painting, objectively laid the foundation for their painting style is the status of "authentic painting world", so that the descendants of the "four kings" can call themselves "painting families".
In the eighteenth year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the first five volumes of the "Mustard Garden Painting Biography" were printed in chromatic chromatics, providing a classic textbook for the teaching of landscape painting. "Mustard Garden Painting Biography" is a basic landscape painting basic painting score funded by Li Yuweng's son-in-law and compiled and painted by Wang Shuo. As soon as this painting was published, it was sought after. Since then, it has been continuously reprinted and supplemented, and the circulation is widespread and the impact is great, unparalleled.
Although Wang Kuo is not a biography of the "Four Kings", and the classic schemas of the dynasties included in the "Mustard Garden Painting Biography" are not completely limited to the yang and suppression of the "Southern and Northern Sects", on the whole, Wang Kuo's view of painting history and the criteria for selection echo each other with Dong Qichang's advocacy, and Wang Kuo also has close exchanges with the "Four Kings".
In the long years when objective conditions were restricted and could not directly face the original work, as a classic textbook for literati landscape painters to study, it was not an exaggeration to say that "Mustard Garden Painting Biography" was the cradle of literati landscape painting. Qi Baishi said to himself: "Guangxu is eight years old, and I am ten years old. In the home of a patron, I accidentally saw a "Mustard Garden Painting Biography" engraved during the Qianlong period... I looked at it carefully, and I realized that what I had drawn before was really unbelievable. "Since then, I have done the work of carving flowers and wood, using the "Mustard Garden Painting Biography" as a basis, and the pattern is not only innovative, not rigid and old, the painting is also in line with the specifications, and there is no problem of asymmetry."
For more than three hundred years, countless people have benefited from the "Mustard Garden Painting Biography", but there are not many painters like Qi Baishi, and Qi Gong once said: "There are many painters from "Mustard Garden", but after becoming famous, they are secretive. In fact, since the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, most of the landscape painters along the way of the literati landscape or "Nanzong" have identified with the "Four Kings" by the "Mustard Garden Painting Biography", and through the "Four Kings" they have chased the Song and Yuan families, opened their own faces, and finally achieved themselves. Therefore, it can be said that "The Legend of Mustard Garden Painting" has promoted the development of the "Four Kings" painting style from the level of landscape painting teaching.
Set its masterpiece, self-propelled shaft
The two lists are phenomena that illustrate both the number of people who have been passed on and the scope and duration of the inheritance; the two factors are external factors, which are also related to the painting itself, but are mainly social external causes. So, what are the internal factors that make the "Four Kings" stand out? To sum up, there are roughly the following aspects:
First, in terms of theoretical concepts, Dong Qichang's "Southern and Northern Sects" theory borrows the Buddhist way of thinking to sort out the historical genres of landscape painting, answering the long-plausible "what is literati painting", Dong Qichang believes that the function of literati painting is not humanistic indoctrination, but mental cultivation. In dealing with historical resources, it is necessary to open up the long-standing pattern of the southern sect and the northern sect being separated and independent: that is, taking the "southern sect" as the basis and absorbing the "northern sect" technique. Truly make painting the same way to reach the body and mind like poetry books. Dong Qichang's theory not only clarified the confusion about the understanding of painting since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, but also re-established the standard for examining history: the view of painting history.
Because Dong Qichang's calligraphy and paintings were deeply valued by the imperial court, his view of the history of calligraphy and painting was also rapidly popularized and gradually penetrated by the people's hearts by virtue of the power of the imperial court. And Chinese art, especially the artistic styles in which literati are involved, are often conceptual first. That is, understanding comes first, practice follows. With the prior unity of concepts, the hesitation and wandering in practice are also cleared.
Qing Wang Jian imitates Fan Kuanshan water map
Second, the practice of the "Four Kings" not only makes up for Dong Qichang's weaknesses in practice, but also relies on collective wisdom and techniques to comprehensively put Dong Qichang's ideals into reality. On the one hand, this makes the practice of the "Four Kings" have a theoretical basis, and on the other hand, it also makes the concept of painting advocated by Dong Qichang put into practice. The two complement each other.
Third, in the creation, the "Four Kings" are not stuck in Dong Qichang's landscape schema, but adhering to Dong Qichang's principle of "gathering its great achievements and self-propelled axes", rooted in history, and on the basis of comprehensively studying the classics of famous artists since the two Song Dynasties, Tao cast his own personality style. Therefore, although the "Four Kings" generally belong to the same genre, they still have their own characteristics, so much so that European and American scholars believe that Wang Yuanqi is the "Chinese Cézanne" - the master of structuralism. This may also reflect from one side that although the "Four Kings" claim to be antique, they actually do it themselves.
Qing Wang Yi Xian Shan Lou view
In other words, the copying of the "Four Kings" is a collection of classics and the realization of the goal of expressing my heart. Therefore, the copying of the "Four Kings" is fundamentally just a process and a means. As Thomas Kuhn argues in The Scientific Revolution, probation is simply to understand and master existing paradigms, which are the basis and premise of all creation and creation. On the contrary, it is inevitable to become a wood without roots and rumors. In fact, both science and art follow basic cultural laws: development and innovation are based on the historical context. The enduring nature of the "Four Kings" is in its "collection of its great achievements, self-emergence axis".
At the beginning of the 20th century, although the leaders of the New Culture Movement played the banner of "the life of the Painting of the King of Revolution", the influence of the "Four Kings" did not fade away, but on the contrary. For example, Wu Changshuo said, "I wish the scholar Zong Si Wang" and "for example, the drinker of alcohol." In fact, Qi Baishi, Huang Binhong, Wu Hufan, Zhang Dazhuang, Lu Yushao and other generations of people with distinct personalities and unique styles were also achieved during this period. The generosity of the "Four Kings" school of painting in historical circulation has made it a veritable doorway for scholars after landscape painting. Starting from the "Four Kings", you can learn the formula of landscape painting, and then through the works of the "Four Kings", you can pursue the Ming, Yuan, and Song Dynasties, and complete the sublimation of the self-propelled axis in the han swimming of historical classics.
Qing Wang Yi imitated dong beijing landscape map
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