Chapter 15 Section Two

Chinese landscape paintings were quite characteristic in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, but it is a pity that their traces are no longer visible.The Five Dynasties and the early Song Dynasty were the periods of great development of landscape painting, and produced many influential landscape painting masters.For example, Jing Hao and Guan Tong, based on their feelings about the real mountains and rivers in the north, adopted the expressive method of "taking the potential from far away, and choosing the quality from near", to paint majestic panoramic landscapes.For example, Jing Hao's "Kuang Lu Tu", Guan Tong's "Mountain Stream Waiting for Crossing", and "Guanshan Traveling Tu" are all like this.Dong Yuan and Ju Ran, who live in the south, specialize in painting the water and mountains in the south of the Yangtze River.

Dong Yuan, courtesy name Shuda, was born in Zhongling (now Nanchang, Jiangxi Province), and lived in the 10th century.Known as the founder of the Southern School of landscape painting by later generations.His works include "Summer Mountain Picture", "Xiajing Mountain Pass Waiting for Crossing", "Longsu Suburban People", "Xiaoxiang Picture", "Xishan Travel Picture" and so on.Among them, "Xiaoxiang Picture" can best represent his painting style. "Xiaoxiang Picture" is 50 centimeters high and 141 centimeters wide, and it is now in the Palace Museum, Beijing.The vast mountains are undulating, flat and deep.The tranquil river is next to the criss-crossing islands (zhuzhu), winding and stretching to the distance to connect with the sky.There are dense and dense jungles on the hillside, and there are pitched reeds between the shallow waters of the tidal flats.On the right bank of the river, several people are playing music and playing, as if they are welcoming the boats coming towards the bank.There were six people on board, and those in red clothes were sitting under the umbrella, probably the nobles who were being welcomed.On the other side of the river, many fishermen are casting nets, and on the other side there is a small boat in the water.Although the characters in the painting are as small as beans, when you look closely, they have their own postures.Looking at this picture, it seems that you are in the humid and rainy Jiangnan, which will make people have associations beyond the world.

This picture is colored in light ink and wash.The mountain rocks are covered with mochi, and the top of the mountain is mostly made of small dots and clusters of blue and white ink.It successfully shows the vast and vigorous characteristics of the Jiangnan landscape.The characters are painted with bright and heavy pink, white, green, cinnabar and other stippling. In the quiet and distant scenery of water, light and mountains, they are very eye-catching, but not overwhelming. Dong Yuan, Fan Kuan, and Li Cheng were called the three masters in the early Northern Song Dynasty in Tang Hou's "Hua Jian".Dong Yuan painted the scenery of the south of the Yangtze River with verdant vegetation and misty wind and rain, Li Cheng painted the scenery of Qilu, which is remote and sparse, and the misty forests are clear and vast, while Fan Kuan painted the mountains and rivers of Guanzhong, which are thick and powerful.The three styles of the three families all have the reputation of "the standard of EMI".It marks the peak period of Chinese landscape painting.

Li Cheng (AD 919-967), styled Xianxi, was a descendant of the Tang clan and a native of Chang'an. During the Five Dynasties, he lived in Yingqiu, Beihai (now Linzi, Shandong) to avoid turbulence, and was known as "Li Yingqiu".Jing Hao and Guan Tong, the first masters of landscape painting, later lived in seclusion in the mountains and learned from nature.The plain and cold forest he painted are the most chic and clear.The brushwork is free and easy, and the ink technique is subtle, forming a kind of Wenxiu style.Li Cheng's authentic works were rare in the Song Dynasty.At present, only the "Reading Stele and Stone Picture" in cooperation with Wang Xiao, which is currently in the Osaka Art Museum in Japan, is said to be written by Li Cheng (one said it was a copy from the Song Dynasty).

Fan Kuan, whose courtesy name is Zhongli, and whose name is Zhongzheng, was born in Huayuan (now Yaoxian County, Shaanxi Province). His birth and death are unknown, and he lived around the beginning of the 11th century.According to the "Xuanhe Painting Book", he "has an ancient style, walks and stops in the wild, is addicted to alcohol, and is downcast and unconstrained by the world".He began to learn Li Cheng's painting methods, and later he realized that painting should not simply imitate others, but should face nature and express the artist's subjective feelings and emotions.Therefore, he moved to Zhongnan and Taihua Mountains, deeply observed the changes of the four seasons scenery in the sun, moon, cloud, mist, rain and snow, and wrote them in his heart, finally creating his own unique style.

Fan Kuan's works handed down from generation to generation include "Traveling in Streams and Mountains", "Snow Mountain and Xiao Temple", "Snow Scenery and Cold Forest", and "Sit Alone by the Stream", etc. "Traveling in Streams and Mountains" is his representative work.Xu Beihong once said: "Of all the treasures in China, the Forbidden City has the second. The one I am most fascinated by is Fan Zhongli's "Traveling in Streams and Mountains". "Traveling in Streams and Mountains" is 206.3 cm high and 103.3 cm wide, and is now in the National Palace Museum, Taipei.In the front of the picture, there is a large mountain rising abruptly, majestic and majestic, and dense forests cover the peak, which adds to its sense of vastness and simplicity.The flying flow is like a line, and it goes straight down a thousand feet.The mountains and mist echo between the peaks and valleys, widening the distance between the main peak and the foreground.Looking closer, you can see that there are big stones knotted together, ancient trees are lush, and there are deep layers in the dark.The mountain stream is like a stream, gurgling out of the rocks.Pedestrians drive horses carrying goods on the undulating and winding mountain roads. Their appearance not only sets off the majesty of the mountains and rivers, but also adds a lively atmosphere to the picture.

There are three characteristics of "Traveling in Mountains and Streams".One is to adopt a panoramic close-up lens composition, so that the main peak stands upright, occupying 2/3 of the entire picture, resulting in a visually compelling trend.Second, the pen is solid and powerful.The mountains, rocks and trees are all painted with short strips and dot clusters, and grabbing the brush (a method of using the brush, from squatting and rushing up obliquely to grabbing).The brush strokes are rigorous, solid, and without exaggeration, successfully expressing the hardness of the mountain and rock texture, and truly reproducing the majestic and vigorous wind and spirit of the northern mountains and rivers.Thirdly, clever use of detailed descriptions, such as mountain streams, pack horses, pedestrians, etc., creates a scene that can be seen and visited, so that the viewer feels like hearing the sound and being in the scene.Wen Tong, a painter of the Song Dynasty, once saw Fan Kuan's paintings and described his feelings in this way: "The isolated peak reveals the bones, the sparse trees are towering and dry, and the high hall hangs empty walls, and the refreshing air is constantly coming."

In the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty, famous landscape painters also included Guo Xi, Wang Shen (shen Shen), Mi's father and son, and Wang Ximeng. Guo Xi (AD 1023-about 1085), styled Chunfu, was born in Wenxian County, Henan Province.When Shenzong of Song Dynasty entered the palace, he studied art in the Academy of Painting. Because of his outstanding painting skills, he was later promoted to the Imperial Academy to wait for the imperial edict.Painting landscapes is like Li Cheng's, and he can learn from others' strengths, which laid the foundation for his personal style.At the same time, Guo Xi paid great attention to observing the changes of the four seasons of natural mountains and rivers and the unique feeling of morning and evening scenery.He also attaches great importance to creating the artistic conception of the picture, so in his works, no matter it is a long-length masterpiece of high mountains and steep mountains, or a small scene of Pingyuan with trees and rocks, they are all beautiful "lands that can be visited and lived in", showing the beauty of life at that time. Literati yearn for forest springs and their ideological will to get in touch with nature.Guo Xi's style of painting was meticulous and beautiful in his early years, and tended to be majestic in his later years."Curly cloud" and "ghost face" are mostly used for painting mountains and rocks, and branches are drooping like crab claws, with vigorous strokes.Guo Xi is not only able to paint, but also deeply studies the theory of painting.His painting ideas and practical experience were compiled into a book by his son Guo Si, called "Lin Quan Gao Zhi Ji".The book is divided into six chapters: water training, painting environment, painting formulas, painting titles, painting frame collection, and painting notes. It is the most important theoretical work on landscape painting in China.It involves the relationship between man and nature, the cultivation of a painter's personality and how to create a vivid and beautiful artistic conception, the compositional structure of landscape painting, brush and ink skills and many other issues.For example, the theory of "three distances" of high, flat, and far-reaching, as well as wonderful expositions such as "the mountains in spring are light and smelt like smiles, the mountains in summer are green and like drops, the mountains in autumn are bright and clean like makeup, and the mountains in winter are bleak and like sleeping", have a great influence on the landscape paintings of later generations. big impact.

Guo Xi's existing works include "Early Spring", "Stones in Pingyuan", "Spring Snow in Guanshan", etc.The existing "Early Spring Picture" in the National Palace Museum in Taipei is 158 cm long and 108 cm wide. It was painted in 1072.Its grandeur can be compared with Fan Kuan's "Traveling in Streams and Mountains".The surging emotion in it is not found in Fan Kuan's works.It depicts an early morning mountain scene in early spring.The mist that has not yet dissipated gently floats among the mountains.The trees that have not yet sprouted stretch their branches, as if they are waiting for the warm sunshine.The rocks are illuminated by the mysterious light from nowhere, and in the flickering light and dark, there is a feeling of rising and moving.The mountain stream is trickling, the shallow water is gurgling, and there are people who are traveling and waiting to be crossed. In the delicate and moist, it shows the recovery of all things and a thriving scene.

The landscape paintings of Michael and his son are unique and full of literati taste.Mi Fu [fu Fu] (1051-1107 A.D.), character Zhang.His ancestral home was Taiyuan, and later moved to Xiangyang.During Song Huizong's time, he was a doctor of painting, and he was a member of the Ministry of Rites.His son Mi Youren (1074-1153 A.D.), styled Yuanhui, was a minister of the Ministry of Industry from the time of Emperor Gaozong, and a bachelor of Fuwenge.Mi's father and son painted landscapes according to Dong Yuan's patriarchal method, and based on his unique feelings about the landscapes in the south of the Yangtze River, he wrote with brushstrokes and did not seek meticulous workmanship.Use ink dots of different shades to express the misty and misty interest.They no longer take the realism of the image as the purpose of painting, as the saying goes, "When the painting reaches two meters, the painting method changes greatly, and the meaning is more than the shape."The loose, free and easy "rice dots" are not only a variation in the techniques of ink and wash landscape painting, but also create a new style of literati painting.Unfortunately, the authentic works of Mi Fu's landscape paintings no longer exist.Mi Youren's handed down works include "Xiaoxiang Wonders" (collected by the Palace Museum in Beijing) and "Clouds and Mountains" (collected by Osaka Art Museum, Japan).

In the Song Dynasty, Wang Ximeng's "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" was the most outstanding work that inherited Li Sixun's style of green landscape painting.This picture is 51.5 cm long and 1191.5 cm wide.Is located in Beijing Palace Museum.In the painting, there are undulating mountains and mighty rivers, and the vastness and magnificence of thousands of miles of mountains and rivers are displayed on the nearly 12-meter-long scroll.Among the mountains and rivers, there are village houses, bridges and pavilions, fishing boats and passenger boats, flying birds, chariots and horses, and pedestrians and fishermen. The content is rich and interesting.The painter arranges these scenes with appropriate heights, distances and nears, the virtual and the real, and the appropriate shades.Although it is dyed with bright azurite green, it is dignified but not gaudy.Generally speaking, the green mountains and green waters are open and vast, with extraordinary momentum. Partially, the landscapes, trees, stones, characters and horses are portrayed very meticulously.In particular, the sparkling river water is depicted with a sense of light, as if everything is bathed in the warm spring breeze and bright sunshine. This picture was originally without the author's seal. From an inscription and postscript of Cai Jing, the prime minister at the time, on Geshui on the back paper, we can know that this painting was given to Cai Jing by the emperor on April 8, the third year of Zhenghe (AD 1113).The author is Wang Ximeng, a student of the Academy of Painting.It is recorded in the title: "Ximeng was eighteen years old. He used to be a student in the painting school. He was called into the forbidden Chinese library. He counted the paintings and offered them, but he didn't do much work. The superior (referring to Song Huizong) knew that his nature could be taught, so he instructed him. , personally taught the method, not more than half a year old, but based on this picture, it is advanced and praised, because it is bestowed on the ministers, and it is said that the world is doing it." It is said that Wang Ximeng died of illness shortly after completing this picture, and this is the only one. This giant masterpiece has been handed down to the world. Landscape painting developed to the Southern Song Dynasty and made new achievements.The history of painting calls "Liu, Li, Ma, and Xia changed again", which refers to the breakthrough and variation of landscape painting by four Southern Song painters, Liu Songnian, Li Tang, Ma Yuan, and Xia Gui.Ma Yuan's "Tage Tu" can be regarded as a representative work of this new style. "Tage Map" is a landscape painting with figures and plots, 191.8 cm high and 104.5 cm wide, and it is now in the Palace Museum, Beijing.The upper part of this picture shows several steep peaks, uneven ancient trees, and the capital gate is far away, covered by clouds and smoke.In the nearby mountain bay, the huge rocks are hard, the vegetation is just growing, the willow branches are tall and straight, the new Huanghuang is swaying, the stream is gurgling, and the path is winding.Beside the Tianlongxi Bridge, several farmers happily stepped to the beat, singing as they walked.They seemed to be a little drunk, and the one in front of them, with a gray beard and hair, turned his head with a short stick in his hand, and seemed to be singing with the farmer on the bridge who raised his right leg and beat his hands to beat.The latter two also sang together.In front of Tianlong, two village boys looked back at them, laughing mischievously.For such and such happiness, should you go to the festival or return home with wine and singing?On the top of this picture is the inscription "Su Yuqing Jidian, Chaoyang Lidijing. People in good years enjoy their work, singing and walking on the ridge".It is said that it was written by "Sister Yang", the queen of Song Ningzong.This is obviously used by the emperors to flaunt the prosperity and peace of the southern Song Dynasty, and the picture is filled with joyful atmosphere of singing and dancing. "Tage Tu" is very distinctive in conception, composition, brushwork and ink technique.First of all, unlike other landscape paintings, the characters are painted very small, and they are only used for embellishment. In terms of processing and depicting the characters, it has a profound skill.The brush and ink are concise, but the dynamic expression is concrete and vivid, and it echoes with the strange peaks and scenery, creating a joyful and harmonious sentimental environment, which skillfully combines the description of mountains and rivers with the expression of world customs and customs.In terms of composition, the panoramic composition method of mountains and rivers in the Northern Song Dynasty was changed, and the most beautiful corner of nature was selected, refined and generalized, carefully arranged, deliberately depicted, and paid great attention to the processing of space.The foreground in the painting is simple and clear, while the middle and foreground are solid and dignified. The contrast is strong, showing the image of infinite space.In terms of using brush and ink, it also changed the "short sliver" and "snatching brush" methods commonly used in landscape paintings in the Northern Song Dynasty. "End" cracked painting of mountains and rocks, with equal emphasis on lines and surfaces, distinct layers, seems to have a sense of light, successfully expresses the characteristics of steep and hard rocks in southwestern Zhejiang, and gives the viewer a sense of vividness, refreshing, vigor and vigor. Ma Yuan, courtesy name Yaofu, nicknamed Qinshan.His ancestral home was in Hezhong (now Yongji County, Shanxi Province), and he grew up in Qiantang (now Hangzhou).His grandfather, uncle, father, and brother are all painters in the painting academy.Inheriting his family education, Ma Yuan excelled in landscapes, figures, flowers and birds.His outstanding achievement is that he can learn from the strengths of other schools, combine his own observation of nature and life experience, and create a new vocabulary and new pattern of landscape painting.His style of painting had a profound influence on later generations, especially the Zhejiang School in the Ming Dynasty.Ma Yuan's handed down works also include "Water Picture", "Snow Picture", "Night Fishing Picture on the Tower", "Fishing Alone on the Cold River", "Exploring the Plum Picture" and so on.