Source: People's Daily - People's Daily
Figure (1): Part of Ni Zhan's "Six Gentlemen's Diagram".
Figure (2): Part of Guo Xi's (Northern Song Dynasty) "Valley Map".
Figure (3): Part of Wang Meng's (Yuan) "Qingbian Hermitage Map".
Figure (4): Dong Qichang (Ming) Part of the "Eight Views of Qiuxing Atlas".
Figure (5): Part of Sun Wei's (Tang) Gao Yitu.
Figure (6): Part of Tang Yin(Ming) "Autumn Wind Fan Diagram".
Figure (7): Wu Li (Qing) "Lake Sky Spring Color Map".
Images courtesy of Shanghai Museum
Chinese painting and calligraphy has a profound historical tradition and a unique national style, it is a plastic art with brush, ink and silk paper as the main tool, dot and line structure as the main means of expression, and is an important representative of oriental art in the history of world art.
There are many styles and genres of Chinese painting, and figure painting, landscape painting, flower and bird painting are important representatives.
As early as the Warring States period, figure painting has appeared. From the Warring States to the Qin and Han Dynasties, it was the growth period of painting. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, figure painting matured. In the Tang and Song dynasties, figure, landscape, flower and bird painting entered a period of comprehensive prosperity, and on the basis of realism, techniques such as brushwork, white painting, color setting, and ink painting were created, and many styles of paradigms were established. After the Song Dynasty, literati painting gradually became the mainstream of the painting world, advocating the expression of personal feelings, the integration of calligraphy and brushwork, and the pursuit of poetry. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, the two trends of imitation and innovation were intertwined, and different painters continued to expand in content, interest and technique, and many styles and genres emerged. At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, the painting world was splendid, and Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and others advocated it, setting off a wave of learning from Western techniques to improve Chinese painting.
Portraits
The portrayal of "secret body" is meticulous and the unrestrained sparseness of "loose body"
In Chinese painting, the earliest mature painting discipline is figure painting. From the Wei Jin Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the achievements of figure painting were brilliant. "Ancient paintings are all sketchy, and the Zhixi (Western Jin Dynasty Wei Association) is the beginning of the refinement." Compared with the informal painting style of the Han Dynasty, Wei Jin's figure paintings are more elaborate, ethereal and timeless, and attach importance to the transmission of emotions. In terms of technique, due to the different temperaments of the painters, it presents a variety of styles. In the Tang Dynasty, the figure paintings were mature, and the works passed down from generation to generation were all unforgettable.
"Dense body" and "sparse body" have a profound influence on the character painting of later generations, and the character painting method of future generations is often based on both.
The so-called "secret body" is a character painting style represented by Gu Kaizhi of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and Lu Tanwei of the Southern Dynasty, with both brush and meaning. Taking the line as the main modeling means, the depiction is delicate, the line drawing is precise, or "continuous", or "tight and continuous", such as Gu Kaizhi's "gossamer drawing", like spring silkworm spit silk, such as flowing clouds and flowing water. Among them, representatives such as Gu Kaizhi's "Female History Zhentu" (now in the British Museum) of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, And Tang Sunwei's "Gao Yitu" (now in the Shanghai Museum) and so on.
As opposed to the "secret body", the so-called "loose body" is another style of figure painting represented by Liang Zhang monks and Tang Wu Daozi, and the brush strokes are not thoughtful. The use of the pen is known for its unrestrained and loose, such as Zhang Shengxuan's painting "The pen is only one or two, like it has been done". The lines pay attention to the ups and downs, and are more dynamic, such as Wu Daozi's "lettuce strips" and "orchid leaf drawings". Representatives such as Tang Wu Daozi (chuan) "Sending Sons of Heavenly King Diagram" (now in osaka Municipal Museum of Art), Southern Song Dynasty Liang Kai "Eight High Monks Diagram" (now in Shanghai Museum) and so on.
Landscape painting
The "majestic" of the Northern School and the "plain and innocent" of the Southern School
Relatively speaking, the pace of development of landscape painting is relatively slow, the Eastern Jin Dynasty is still the background of character story painting, the shape is clumsy, simple, there are "peaks, if finely decorated rhinoceros, or water can not be flooded, or people are greater than the mountains" and other characteristics. In the late Southern and Northern Dynasties, landscape painting gradually matured. When it came to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, it was completely independent, but the landscape techniques of this period were still dominated by empty hooks, with green and green colors, and had not yet formed a fixed method.
Landscape painting from the green color to the formation and establishment of ink landscape is a long process. After hundreds of years of practice, the technical problems of landscape painting have been basically solved, such as perspective proportions and the use of pen and ink. In particular, the invention of "ink halo" (that is, the ink is dissolved in a large amount of water, and different levels and different shades of color patterns are blended on rice paper) is a new technique suitable for the expression of landscape painting, on this basis, the types of various lines are fixed successively. In the Five Dynasties and two Song Dynasties, landscape painting paid attention to the depiction of objective truth, so there was a distinction between the northern and southern schools.
The Northern School of Painting is represented by Jing Hao, Guan Tong, Li Cheng, and Fan Kuan, and the majestic mountains and mountains are the main body of the picture. The founders were Jing Hao and Guan Tong, who painted history and called "Jing Guan". Jing Hao created a new situation for landscape painting and put forward the theory of "six points", especially emphasizing the two points of pen and ink, believing that Wu Daozi's landscape paintings "have a pen but no ink", and Xiang Rong "has ink but no pen", so he said: "I should take the strength of the second son and become a family." That is to say, it requires pen and ink, so as to creatively complete the brush and ink technique of landscape painting, a subject of great historical significance of painting. He is good at painting the top of the mountain in the clouds, combining hooks and paintings, and applying blending, which has the effect of thickening on all sides. His works include Kuang Lu Tu (now in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, China).
The Southern School, also known as the "Jiangnan School", depicts the landscape and scenery of Jiangnan, with the plain and innocent Zhouzhu Peaks as the main body of the picture, light ink and light lan, and smoke clouds. Therefore, it is often used to express the "Phi Ma Cha" that is suitable for expressing the soil mountains. The founders Dong Yuan and Ju Ran were also master-apprentice relations, painting history and calling them "Dong Ju". Dong Yuan's landscape paintings mostly depict the bright scenery of Jiangnan in light ink, the so-called "plain and innocent" and "a piece of Jiangnan also". Created a short cloak of hemp, a large number of dense ideas, called "falling eggplant point". His works include "Xiaoxiang Tu" (now in the Palace Museum), "Xiashan Tu" (now in the Shanghai Museum) and so on.
Bird
The courtyard body's "heavy color" and the literati's "ink freehand"
Flower and bird painting originated even later, during the Wei, Jin, Sui and Tang dynasties, it had not yet formed an independent painting family, and often appeared as a background in figures and landscapes. However, it is the depiction of these backgrounds that has become the basis for the formation and development of flowers and birds in the future. For example, in Tang Sun's "Gao Yi Tu", the painting methods of trees, lake stones, and plantains have matured, and once they are separated from the background of the figure paintings, they are enough to become independent. Therefore, the vigorous development of flower and bird painting after five generations is a matter of course.
The painting of flowers and birds of the Five Dynasties and two Song Dynasties is a brilliant period in the history of Chinese art. With the Palace Painting Academy as the center, the courtyard has carried out the group creation of painters inside and outside the academy, and the painting style is mainly based on heavy colors, and has achieved unprecedented achievements, which are beyond the reach of future generations. Ink flower and bird freehand painting is mainly based on the participation of literati, common plum, orchid, bamboo, daffodils and other themes, which opened the precursor of literati freehand painting for future generations.
There were two major painting schools in the early period: one was the painting style of heavy brushwork, represented by Huang Quan's father and son; the other was the painting style of ink painting, with Xu Xi as the forerunner, and the history of painting was called "Xu Huang's different body".
As court painters, the father and son of Huang Quan of Western Shu painted rare flowers and rare birds with heavy colors, and had a rich atmosphere, so they were called "Huang Family Rich and Noble", and their surviving works included "Sketching Rare Birds" (now in the Palace Museum), which was inherited by Zhao Tuo, Zhao Mengfu, Lü Ji and others.
Southern Tang Xu Xi was a jianghu virgin, painting flowers and water birds in ink pastels, with the rhyme of Ye Yi, called "Xu Xi Ye Yi", and his works include "Snow Bamboo Diagram" (now in the Shanghai Museum), after which Wang Yuan, Zhang Zhong, Xu Wei, Zhu Yun, Qi Baishi and so on all belonged to this school.
(The author is the director of the calligraphy and painting research department of the Shanghai Museum, a research librarian, and the reporter of this newspaper, Cao Lingjuan, interviewed and sorted out)
Visiting tips
Treasures of the Vast Collection of the Upper Museum
The collection of ancient calligraphy and paintings in the Shanghai Museum is famous at home and abroad for its systematicness and representativeness, and has a collection of tens of thousands, including many representative works in the history of Chinese art.
Calligraphy such as the Eastern Jin Dynasty Wang Xianzhi "Duck Head Pill Thesis", Tang Huaisu's "Bitter Bamboo Shoot Thesis", the Northern Song Dynasty Su Shi's "Thank you minshi ti" and so on. Paintings such as Tang Sunwei's "Gao Yi Tu", Northern Song Dynasty Zhao Yi's "Liu Ya Lu Yan Tu", Guo Xi's "Valley Map", Yuan Qianxuan's "Floating Jade Mountain Jutu", Zhao Mengfu's "Wu Xing Qingyuan Map", Ni Zhan's "Six Gentlemen's Map", Wang Meng's "Qingbian Hermitage Map", Ming Tang Yin's "Autumn Wind Fan Map", Dong Qichang's "Eight Views of Autumn Xing", Qing BadaShanren's "Fish and Duck Map", Wu Li's "Lake Sky Spring Color Map" and so on.
The Shanghai Museum of Calligraphy and Painting of the Past Dynasties, which are supporting this, separate calligraphy and painting, systematically display the general history of ancient Chinese calligraphy and painting, usually change the exhibits every six months, and each time there are fine works.
Typography: Cai Huawei
People's Daily ( 07/10/2021)