Chapter 4 Paintings of the Sui and Tang Dynasties

The Sui Dynasty was an important period when landscape painting gradually matured. The "Spring Tour" by the famous painter Zhan Ziqian is the earliest existing pure landscape painting. The Tang and Song dynasties were the most prosperous periods of culture and art in the history of our country, and the creation of landscape paintings also reached an unprecedented peak. From the Northern Zhou Dynasty to the Sui Dynasty, there were two developments in landscape painting, one was the boundary paintings depicting palaces and pavilions, and the other was the emergence of golden and green landscapes.Zhan Ziqian's "You Chun Tu" is "the mountain is heavily green, and the foot of the mountain is made of mud gold" (Ming Zhan Jingfeng's language).

The masters of these two painting methods are the father and son of Li Sixun (General Li) and Li Zhaodao (General Li).Li Sixun's "Jiangfan Tower Pavilion", in the painting, the trees are dense, the river bank is winding, the water is rippling, and the light boats pass by. Although the painting is still filled with outlines and colors, there are already simple cracks. The performance of strong pen style".However, Li Zhaodao's "Spring Mountain Journey" and "Ming Emperor's Happiness in Shu" are more detailed and decorative.They inherited boundary paintings and green landscape paintings, with detailed outlines and bright colors, and are regarded as the ancestors of "Northern School" landscape paintings.

The blue and green mountains and rivers and the golden and green mountains and rivers are the expression of the traditional Chinese aesthetic taste of the rich colors of bright red and green and the aesthetic taste of the upper rulers who like grandeur.As a decoration, it contrasts with the red walls and green tiles, carved beams and painted buildings of palaces and temples. This situation is still preserved in folk art.However, this kind of aesthetic taste does not represent the highest level of aesthetics of the ancients. People gradually pursue a kind of elegant beauty in life and art.In literature, it is from "strewn strands of gold", "carvings are full of eyes" to "clear water comes out of hibiscus, and it is natural to carve"; The majesty and magnificence of Saixian Peak.In this aesthetic atmosphere, ink landscape paintings appeared in the early years of the Tang Dynasty.

In the long-term creative practice, painters have gradually realized the strong artistic effect produced by the change of ink's dry and wet shades, and proposed "ink is divided into five colors", "ink is transported with five colors" (Zhang Yanyuan's "Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties·On Painting Workers") Body with rubbings").This style of painting is especially loved by literati and people who are idle in the mountains.Its representative figure is Wang Wei, a great poet and painter in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. The literati painters represented by Wang Wei liked to use ink and light colors, less outlining but more rendering, and pursued a fresh, elegant and vigorous charm. Wang Wei was also revered as the ancestor of the "Southern School".

Among the painters of the Tang Dynasty, Wu Daozi, the "Painting Saint", needs special mention. Wu Daozi's greatest achievement is in figure painting, but his achievements in landscape painting are also very high.He was ordered by Tang Minghuang to go to Shu to sketch with Li Sixun. After returning, he painted the scenery of the Jialing River for more than three hundred miles on the wall of the same hall.It took Li Sixun three months to finish the painting, while Wu Daozi finished it in one day.After reading it, Tang Minghuang said: "Li Sixun's work of several months, and Wu Daozi's work of one day are all extremely wonderful." (Zhu Jingxuan's "Record of Famous Paintings of the Tang Dynasty") He painted walls in Buddhist temples. It can be touched and judged" ("Records of Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties·On Painting Landscapes, Trees and Stones").

Zhang Yu was a master of ink and landscape painting in the Tang Dynasty. It is said that he used a bald brush when painting, and even "touched the silk with his hands".His works were considered divine at the time. Also worth mentioning is Wang Mo, who pioneered splash-ink landscape painting. According to the records of "Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties", in addition to Wang Wei, Zhang Yu, and Wang Mo, the famous ink painters in the Tang Dynasty also included Zheng Qian, Liu Fangping, Wang Zai, Bi Hong, Yang Gongnan, Zhang Yu, Chen Tan, Liu Shang, Zhang Yan, etc. Zhihe, Wu Tian, ​​etc.Most of them are not very proud of their official careers, and most of them are poets and calligraphers. Some of them run farms, some enjoy traveling in the forest, their characters are wild and indifferent, or they chant Buddhist scriptures, or entertain themselves with poetry and wine. Therefore, they cannot I like the rich and colorful green or gold and green landscapes that symbolize wealth, but I like an elegant and elegant style. It can be said that I chose ink landscapes by coincidence.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, flower-and-bird painting has gradually matured. There are not only many painters, but also many great masters who will shine in future generations. Xue Ji in the early Tang Dynasty, together with Yu Shinan, Ouyang Xun, and Chu Suiliang, was called the four great calligraphers in the early Tang Dynasty. He made little achievements in calligraphy, but he was famous for his paintings, especially for painting cranes. He painted six crane-like screens , became a model at that time. Yin Zhongrong of Wu Zetian Dynasty was good at painting flowers and birds. "Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties" said that he was "good at using ink and color, like multicolored", and he was the earliest ink flower and bird painter recorded in the history of painting.

Feng Shaozheng in Tang Xuanzong's period was a famous painter of eagles, falcons, chickens and pheasants. "History of Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties" said that his paintings "extremely form their shapes, and their eyes, feet, claws, hair and colors are all wonderful."Similar to it, there is Bai Min. In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, flower-and-bird paintings developed greatly, and the number of famous painters of flower-and-bird paintings increased significantly. According to records such as "Records of Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties" and "Records of Famous Paintings of Tang Dynasty", Wang Zhanran, the successor of Teng, was "good at painting flowers, birds, bees and butterflies", and Bian Luan "Good at painting flowers and birds", Yu Xi "good at painting flowers, birds and chickens", Qiang Ying "good at water birds", Liang Guang "good at painting flowers and birds, good at painting colors", Chen Shu "good at painting flowers and birds", Zhou Taisu "good at painting flowers and birds and Buddha statues" ", Xiao Yue "works the same color of bamboo and has elegance" (the above "Records of Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties"), Wei Xian "flowers, trees, bees, cicadas, birds and bamboos are considered the treasures of the ancient times". "Lu Bian's cat, Bai Min's eagle pigeon, and Xiao Yuezhu's are wonderful. Liang Guang, Cheng Miao, Dong Nuzi, Wei Qian, Chen Shu, and Liang Qia all took pictures of flowers, birds, pine and rocks" ("Tang Dynasty Famous Paintings" above) ).

Among these flower and bird painters, Bian Luan is the most famous. His painting method is probably a kind of fine brushwork. His paintings of flowers and birds with broken branches were known as the first at that time. Famous flower and bird painters in the late Tang Dynasty were Teng Changyou and Diao Guangyin.Teng Changyou is good at painting flowers, birds, cicadas and butterflies, broken branches of lettuce, and he is especially good at painting geese.Diao Guangyin is good at painting lake stones, flowers and bamboos, cats and rabbits, and birds.After entering Shu at the end of Tang Dynasty, the great painters Huang Quan and Kong Song all received his teachings.

There were many famous painters of animals and animals in the Tang Dynasty, especially those who painted horses and cattle. During the Kaiyuan period, Cao Ba, the general of Zuo Wuwei, was famous for his horse paintings. Du Fu praised the horses he painted in "Dan Qing Yin Presents to General Cao Ba", but his paintings have not been handed down. Han Gan, Cao Ba's disciple, is also a famous horse painter, and his paintings of "Photographing Night and White" and "Horse Herding" have been handed down to this day. Wei Yan is also a famous painter of horses. Li Gonglin of the Northern Song Dynasty copied his "Grazing Picture" and passed it down.This painting is a long scroll with thousands of horses in different shapes. Although it is a copy by later generations, it can be seen that Wei Yan's horse painting level is extremely high.

In addition to painting horses, Tang people also loved painting cattle.The most famous painter of cows is Han Huang, whose "Five Bulls Picture" has been handed down to this day. Dai Song, Wei Yan's disciple, is also a famous painter of cattle, especially buffalo. "Records of Famous Paintings of the Tang Dynasty" said that he "tasted to paint mountains and buffaloes, and he was poor in his wild muscles and bones". Figure painting achievements in the Sui and Tang Dynasties were also very high. Zheng Fashi and Yang Qidan in the Sui Dynasty were all famous figure painters. In the early Tang Dynasty, besides figure paintings of Taoism and Buddhism, the demand for portraits and portraits of ladies also increased. Yan Liben was a famous figure painter in this period. It is said that he painted it.His "Picture of Walking Chariot" and "Picture of Emperors of Past Dynasties" have been handed down to this day, and his artistic attainments are extremely high. The emergence of Wu Daozi in the prosperous Tang Dynasty pushed figure painting to a peak. In Wu Daozi's figure paintings, the lines no longer use the uniform and smooth "spring silkworm spinning" type since the Six Dynasties, but thicken and thicken the lines to form twists and turns, like a water shield, vividly depicting the curling and floating of the folds of clothes, Known as "Wu with the wind".His painting style is respected as "Wu's style".His coloring is also very distinctive, slightly dyed in the scorched ink, which naturally exceeds the plain, and has a three-dimensional effect, which is called "Wu Zhuang".His figure modeling is extremely accurate, and it is said that the "Song Zi Tian Wang Tu" painted for him fully shows the characteristics of his figure painting. Figure painting in the Tang Dynasty has a branch of Qiluo, that is, painting of ladies.Paintings of ladies in the Tang Dynasty are no longer didactic as in the previous dynasties, but instead describe the daily life of upper-class women and ordinary women, fully expressing the living conditions and aesthetic tastes of the Tang people. Zhang Xuan in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty was a famous painter of ladies' paintings. Today, there are "Mrs. Zhou Fang's paintings of ladies in the mid-Tang Dynasty have reached the realm of excellent form and spirit.He uses smooth and beautiful "qin silk drawing", combined with "iron line drawing" and "gossamer drawing", to express the face and hands with light ink, which has the feeling of delicate skin.His painting method is honored as "Zhou Jiayan".Today's "Picture of Lady with Hairpin Flowers", "Picture of Lady Swinging a Fan", "Picture of Tuning the Qin and Sipping Tea" are all masterpieces of ancient paintings of ladies.