Li Cheng (919-967), courtesy name Xianxi, was originally from Chang'an (present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi), and was descended from the Tang Dynasty, and his grandfather Li Ding moved to Yingqiu (present-day Changle, Shandong) during the Fifth Dynasty. Good at landscape and water, teacher Jinghao and Guan Tong. Its landscapes are mostly made of pingyuan cold forests, "meteorological sparse, smoke forest clear" scenery, showing the smoke and mist and the spirit of natural landscapes in the wind and rain. Together with Fan Kuan and Guan Tong, he has the reputation of "Three Dingzhi and Hundred Generations Of Standards", which has a great influence on the development of landscape painting in the Northern Song Dynasty.
Li Cheng is one of the most outstanding and controversial landscape painters in the history of landscape painting in China. The "Pictorial Insight and Literature" records: "Painting landscapes only Camp Hill Li Cheng, Chang'an Guan Tong, Huayuan Fan Kuan, wisdom into the gods, only higher than the class, three dingzhi, hundred generations of the standard." In the "Complete Collection of Pure Landscapes", it is said: "Li Gongjia's law, ink and fine writing, Yanlan light movement, such as the opposite thousand miles, beautiful and beautiful." In the Xuanhe Pictorial Notation, it is said: "To the present dynasty Li Chengyi, although he taught the Fa Jinghao, and the reputation of the blue, the method of counting children, was also swept away." These accounts gave Li Cheng a very high evaluation.
Until the Yuan Dynasty, there were still "Li (Cheng) Guo (Xi) School" painting styles emerging. However, due to various reasons, by the end of the Northern Song Dynasty (the era of Mi Fu's life), it was rare to see Li Cheng's original landscape paintings again, and there were many fakes. Even as a famous connoisseur, the authentic works of Li Cheng that Mi Fu has seen in his life are only a few, so that he sighs and laments and writes "No Li Theory".
Li Cheng's "Qingluan Xiao Temple Map" was once written in the "Xuanhe Painting Notation", but whether it is the "Qingluan Xiao Temple Map" collected by the Nelson Atkins Art Museum in Kansas City, USA, remains to be studied. However, from the perspective of painting characteristics, such as painting mountain pavilions and towers, etc., all look up at the cornices, "from the bottom to the top, such as the eaves of the people's flat lookout tower, see its syllables", the so-called "roof corner" refers to this, and the landscape objects are outlined in a fine and vigorous manner, with few rubbings and strong backbones, as well as the "crab claw shape" processed by the trees in the cold forest, which has the characteristics of Li Cheng's painting. This picture was completed in the early Northern Song Dynasty and has the characteristics of Li Cheng's painting, although it is not certain that it was written by Li Cheng himself, but at least it can be affirmed that this is the work of Li Cheng's school.
Map of Qingluan Xiao Temple
The close-up part of the "Qingluan Xiao Temple" is a waterfront teahouse, hut and water pavilion in the foothills. An old man on the left side of the painting is riding a donkey to hurry, and the two retinues in front of and behind are carrying their luggage forward, as if eager to cross the wooden bridge to the maodian to break. A wooden bridge is built on top of a stream, leading directly to the opposite side of the mountain road, and on the left side of the road at the foot of the opposite mountain, there are several water pavilions and thatched shops. A passenger with luggage is about to enter the store to rest, a person on the right side of the store is concentrating on eating with his head down, and the three guests in the main hall seem to be resting and chatting. One person in the Linshui Pavilion looked out over the railing, and the other two sat and talked. A small shop on the right side of the road is hidden under the abrupt rocks, surrounded by dry crab claw-like trees, followed by a stream of springs slowly flowing down from the mountain stream and merging into the clear pond bay, which seems to have the sound of water, highlighting the quiet and quiet atmosphere of the picture.
Map of Qingluan Xiao Temple (partial)
The middle scene is the theme of the painter's expression, behind the bushes of thatched shops on the front, a hill rises upwards, the left side of the hill is facing a deep pool, and the right side is a gentle slope, and the mountain path is hidden on the slope line of the hill. On the right side of the painting, a large hill rises against the trend, echoing the middle hill, and the opposite bank of the deep pool on the left side of the painting is also surrounded by a high hill, and the deep and dark mountain behind the spring waterfall is connected with the middle hill, becoming the most important part of the middle scene. In the center of the painting, among the mountains surrounded by trees and hidden, the temple towers and pavilions are lined up one after another, and the temple houses loom in the stubborn cold forest trees. Behind the temple, as the main building of the temple, it is also the focus of the whole width - a tall tower, towering and rising... Its majestic and majestic momentum brings a strong spiritual shock to the viewer. Trees grow on three or four hills under the temple and around the temple, and because they grow between the valleys and deep pools, they are swayed left and right by the cold wind, making people feel like the whistle of the cold forest. The mountain wind blows, but also let people feel that the cold water breath of the deep pool mountain stream seems to be coming, the wind and water gather, but also increase the cold and gloomy atmosphere of the picture in winter, and further present the Xiaoser mood of "Qingluan Xiao Temple". It can be said that this is the most wonderful place in the whole frame, the fineness of the boundary painting building and the temple, and the vividness of the picture atmosphere created, which is very worthy of careful viewing.
In the vista, the two peaks overlap and tower, extending as far as they can into the sky, covering the sky and towering above the picture. The deep ravines under it, the mountain streams and waterfalls cascade down, and the peaks stand left and right, which sets off the compelling momentum of the main peak. The majestic vista further adds to the majestic spatial atmosphere of the picture.
This work depicts the magnificent scenery of the monastery in the mountains under the sunny winter weather in the north, the water and stones are cold, the trees are sparse, and the mountains and rivers are majestic and beautiful, giving people a sense of depression and snub and full of vitality. The author very delicately grasps the magnificent and magnificent scenery of the northern mountains and rivers, highlighting the deep and profound artistic conception of the deep mountain winter mountain temple. The overall style of Li Cheng's paintings recorded in the "Pictorial Chronicle" is "meteorological sparse, the smoke forest is clear, the sharp edge is sharp, the ink method is subtle, and the system of the camp hill is also evident", which can also be seen in Yuzi.
(Source: China Painting and Calligraphy)