Chapter 17 Chapter Seven Yuan Dynasty Paintings (AD 1271-1368)

Introducing calligraphy brushes into paintings and pursuing the fashion of brush and ink sentimental charm brought about a turning point in the appearance of Yuan Dynasty landscape paintings.Chinese landscape painting has entered a new stage.Zhao Mengfu in the early Yuan Dynasty played an important role in this change. Zhao Mengfu (AD 1254-1322) styled Ziang, nicknamed Songxue, was born in Wuxing, Jiangsu, and was the 11th grandson of Song Gaozu Zhao Kuangyin.After the death of Song Dynasty, he stayed at home and studied independently.Later, someone recommended him to Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the Yuan Dynasty, and he was highly valued, and he was a first-rank official.After Kublai Khan's death, he felt that Han officials were squeezed out, so he retired and returned to the south.During his tenure as an official, he put forward a series of suggestions to ease ethnic conflicts and develop Han ethnic culture.In art, he is a versatile calligrapher and painter, and he is proficient in landscapes, figures, pommel horses, flowers and bamboos and calligraphy.Under his influence, his wife Guan Guansheng was famous for painting bamboo, and his younger brother Meng Yu was very good at painting figures, flowers and birds.Zi Zhongmu, Zhong Guang, Sun Zhaofeng, Zhao Lin, and grandson Wang Meng are all famous painters.

In terms of painting theory, Zhao Mengfu advocated that "calligraphy and painting have the same origin".For example, in the postscript of "The Picture of Beautiful Stones and Sparse Forests": "Stones are like flying white woods are like 籀 [zhou mantra], writing bamboo is also in Bafatong; if there are people who can understand this, they will know that calligraphy and painting are originally the same." It means that painting stones Use Feibai brushwork and seal script to draw trees. To draw bamboo well, you need to be proficient in the eight basic strokes.If you can do this, you will understand that the principles of calligraphy brushes and painting brushes are the same.Therefore, it is actively advocated to integrate the methods of center forward and side forward in calligraphy into painting. "Calligraphy and painting have the same origin" also means that excellent calligraphy works reflect the inner qualities of the calligrapher, such as knowledge, cultivation, and character.Painting should not regard similarity as the only purpose, but more importantly, to express the painter's knowledge, character, thoughts and feelings through the charm of brush and ink.This theory urges literati painters to pursue the interest of brush and ink more consciously, which in turn enriches and develops the expressive methods of landscape painting, and contributes to the diversification of personal styles.Another proposition of Zhao Mengfu is that he advocates "preserving the ancient spirit" in painting.He opposed the style of Southern Song Dynasty courtyard painting with slender brushes, rich colors, and soft style, and demanded that his painting skills follow the legacy of Tang, Five Dynasties, and Northern Song Dynasties, and he practiced it in his creative practice.Dong Qichang of the Ming Dynasty commented on Zhao Mengfu's paintings: "There are those of the Tang Dynasty and the thinness, and the heroes of the Northern Song Dynasty and the roughness." His artistic ideas and painting style had a profound impact on the painting circles of the Yuan Dynasty and even the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Zhao Mengfu's works have two characteristics, one is neat and the other is loose.The representative work of the neat and meticulous painting style is "Drinking Horses in the Autumn Suburbs".This picture is 26.4 centimeters high and 100 centimeters wide, and it is now in the Palace Museum, Beijing.It depicts the scene of grazing horses in the autumn countryside.In the close-up, a clear lake is drawn, and a group of horses walks in the autumn forest on the bank.The middle ground is a vast field.In the distance, there are still sparse forest slopes faintly visible.The near, middle and distant scenes in the painting are clearly layered, and the proportions of trees, horses and figures are appropriate, giving a profound sense of space. "Drinking Horses in the Autumn Suburbs" inherits the painting traditions of Tang and Song Dynasties, using round and thin lines, but full of changes.The colors are beautiful and elegant, and the details are described in detail, but the overall effect is concise and quiet, with a simple and broad spirit.

Landscape painting can best reflect Zhao Mengfu's painting level.For example, "Magpies and Flowers in Autumn Colors", "Water Villages", "Chongjiang Rivers and Peaks", etc.Among them, "Autumn Colors of Magpies and Blossoms" is a representative work of his sparse painting style.This picture is 28.4 cm high and 93.2 cm wide, and it is now in the National Palace Museum, Taipei.It depicts the autumn scenery of Queshan Mountain and Huabuzhu Mountain in Shandong today.Que Mountain rises slowly like a straw hat;Between the two mountains is a flat field.Scattered autumn forests hide a few huts, and there are fishermen with nets on the river beach.The scenery is calm and thin. Among them, the trees, rocks, reeds and grass on the slopes do not pursue similarity and texture like Song paintings, but are written with chic, loose, dry and wet brushes, which has a unique charm of tranquility and remoteness.

Although Zhao Mengfu strongly advocated the use of calligraphy and brushwork in painting and learning from ancient paintings, he did not forget to observe the objects and learn from nature.He once said: "I have known for a long time that pictures are not child's play, and clouds and mountains everywhere are my teachers." It is this spirit of careful observation and in-depth experience that made him achieve great achievements. Under the direct influence of Zhao Mengfu, in landscape painting, the patriarchal clan Dong and Ju merged with Li Cheng. The most accomplished Yuan Dynasty painters were Huang Gongwang, Wu Zhen, Ni Zan, and Wang Meng.They were called the "Four Masters of Yuan Dynasty" by later generations.

Huang Gongwang (1269-1354 A.D.) was born in Changshu, Jiangsu.His original surname is Lu, and his first name is Jian.Due to the early death of his parents, the old man of the Huang family was adopted as his adopted son.At that time, the Huang family was 90 years old, and the heirs of Chad were overjoyed. They named him Huang Gongwang, with the word Zijiu, which means "Huang Gongwang's son is long gone".Huang Gongwang was intelligent and diligent in learning since he was a child.As an adult, he worked as a civil servant in the procuratorate and a petty official who collected land and grain. Later, he was involved in corruption and fraud by "power tycoons" and was falsely imprisoned.After being released from prison, he changed his name to "Da Chi", and no longer wanted to make a name for himself, so he was released into the world. He concentrated on creating landscape paintings when he was around 50 years old, and continued to paint until he was over 90 years old, and finally formed his own style.His works include "Nine Peaks in Snow", "Scenery of Rivers and Mountains", "Sunshine in Quick Snow", "Fuchun Daling", "Fairy Mountains", "Endless Autumn Mountains" and so on.The most famous one is "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains".

"Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" is 33 centimeters high and 636.9 centimeters wide. It is a long scroll depicting the scenery along the Fuchun River in western Zhejiang.Looking around, there are hills, slopes, rocks, autumn waters and sparse forests, rolling ups and downs, with villages, pavilions, fishing boats, and small bridges in between.Feiquan goes straight down, streams trickle, shoals meander, and mountain roads bend.The river is vast and the Cangshan Mountain is remote.Facing the picture scroll, it is like sitting on a small boat up the Fuchun River, watching the green mountains and green waters while moving. Every view is different, which makes people overwhelmed.

How can a painter create such a beautiful artistic conception?It is said that Huang Gongwang loved the beautiful natural scenery of western Zhejiang in his later years. He once built a house on the hillside by the Fuchun River, calling himself "Xiaodongtian", and lived here for several years. "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" was completed during this period.According to the artist's own account, he began to create this picture when he was 79 years old, and "it has not been completed in three or four years."He often takes a pen and paper with him to go deep into the mountains and rivers to appreciate the mystery of nature. Sometimes he "just sits in the barren hills, rocks, bushes and trees [xiaoxiao] all day long, with a hasty mind and unexpected actions".In fact, he was appreciating the changes of the four seasons and the morning and evening of the mountains and rivers. Whenever he encountered a favorite scene, he would take out a pen and paper from his sleeve and draw on the paper.Therefore, Huang Gongwang's landscape paintings are "depressed and changing, almost competing with nature for magic".From the perspective of painting method, "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" is also unique.The ink and wash are mainly light crimson, and the dry and wet textures are used. There are many alum stones on the top of the mountain, which are elegant, ancient, warm and wild.Ni Zan, a painter of the same generation, wrote about Huang Gongwang's paintings and said: "The painting style of a big idiot is extraordinary, and the river is thousands of miles away." It is said that his "Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains" is free and easy and ethereal, just like Wang Xizhi's "Orchid Pavilion Preface"" Holy and divine."

This "holy and divine" masterpiece has been collected and collected for hundreds of years, and has experienced extraordinary experiences. It was almost buried in a sea of ​​fire.It turned out that at the end of the Ming Dynasty, this painting was acquired by Wu Hongyu and cherished very much.Before Wu's death, he ordered it to be burned and buried.When this masterpiece handed down from ancient times was thrown into the brazier, Wu was about to die, and his nephew Wu Jingan rescued it from the flames.Since then, it has been truncated into two paragraphs.The latter part entered the Qing Palace in the eleventh year of Qianlong (AD 1746), and is now collected in the National Palace Museum in Taipei.The first part was exiled among the people and is now in the Zhejiang Provincial Museum.

Wu Zhen (1280-1354 A.D.) was born in Weitang Town, Jiaxing (now Jiashan, Zhejiang Province), with the style name Zhonggui and the nickname Meihua Taoist.He has read poetry and books, and is good at painting landscapes, bamboo and stone.He has a lonely and upright personality, lives in seclusion, and once planted plum trees around his residence.He was poor all his life, but he never followed others.Painting with plum blossoms is lyrical and rejuvenating.It is said that he once lived next to the painter Sheng Mao.At that time, Sheng Mao was quite famous, and there was an endless stream of people who went to Sheng's house to ask for paintings with gold and silk.But the Wu family was left in the cold.Wu's wife could not help complaining a few words.Wu Zhen was full of confidence in his own paintings, and said disapprovingly: "It will take 20 years to tell the difference." Later, Wu Zhen's reputation and influence far surpassed that of Sheng Mao.

Wu Zhen’s landscape painters, like Dong Yuan and Ju Ran, have vigorous brushwork and are good at using ink. They often use wet ink to render, forming a vast, thick and gloomy painting style.Yun Nantian, a painter of the Qing Dynasty, said in the "Ouxiangguan Painting Postscript": "The master of Meihua Temple and the old man Yifeng (Huang Gongwang) are classmates Dong and Ju, but Wu Shang is depressed, Huang Gui and Xiao are scattered. Fantastic." Wu Zhen's landscape paintings include "Dongting Yuyin Picture", "Fisherman Picture", "Songquan Picture", "Shuangcypress Pingyuan Picture", "Qingjiang Spring Dawn Picture", "Jiahe Eight Scenery Picture" and so on.In addition to landscape painting, Wu Zhen is also good at painting ink and bamboo. His painting style is simple and vivid, and he is in a class of his own. In "Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty", Ni Zan is a painter who loves cleanliness and becomes obsessed.It is said that he has to change the water dozens of times for washing (guanguan) every day, and rinse his clothes more than ten times every day.Once, he stayed at home with a guest, and heard the guest coughing at night. Early the next morning, he ordered someone to search carefully for any traces of sputum in the room.The servant couldn't find any trace of phlegm, so he said perfunctorily that the guest had spit on the plane tree leaves outside the window. Ni Zan hurriedly ordered someone to cut off the leaves and throw them far away from home.This shows that Ni Zan is a character with a strong personality.As the saying goes, a painting is like a person, and his landscape paintings are famous all over the world for their unique style of desolation and clearness. "Autumn Festival in Yuzhuang" is one of the masterpieces. "Autumn Festival in Yuzhuang" is 96 cm high and 47 cm wide, and it is now in the Shanghai Museum.In the foreground of this picture, there is a small lake in the middle of the lake, and a few fallen leaves and miscellaneous trees stand desolately on the slope rocks.Crossing the quiet and open lake, the tidal flats and hills meander away, forming a clear and desolate, desolate and desolate realm after the autumn rain.It's called "Yuzhuang Autumn", but there is no fishing village in the picture, but through the lake, mountains, rocks, trees and slopes, after the autumn rain, when the sky turns sunny, it reminds people of the thatched cottages and fishing villages by the lake. people boat.This picture was drawn by the author when he was 55 years old. Eighteen years later, he wrote a poem inscription on this picture.The poem goes: "The wind and rain rest in Jiangcheng, and the late life of writing and research is cool. The Nang Chu (Zhu Zhu) is not buried, and the tragic song is so generous. The autumn mountains are green, and the lake is full of jade. Cherish Zhang Gaoshi, and lie on the bed opposite the leisurely slope." We can further understand this " The poetic and picturesque scene of wind, rain, depression and evening coolness.Writing poems and inscriptions on the screen probably originated in the late Tang and Five Dynasties, but until the Song Dynasty, it was not common to write poems directly on the screen.In the Yuan Dynasty, literati painters began to inscribe large passages of poems and postscripts, and use them to accompany paintings to express their feelings and rejoice.This practice was appreciated by later generations, especially literati in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and gradually developed, becoming a major feature of traditional Chinese painting.In this "Autumn Festival in Yuzhuang", Ni Zan's graceful and elegant fonts are in harmony with Xiao Shu's tranquil painting environment, making the picture more bookish.Ni Zan's landscape paintings have a unique composition, simple scenery, calm and remote, sparse and quiet.In terms of painting method, there is no rendering, and very little coloring, mostly with light ink and dry brush, and gently rubbed.It is the first to create "folded and cracked", which has a sense of moistness in the dry and loose.In terms of artistic thought, Ni Zan regards the expression of subjective interest as the only requirement of painting, and puts forward that "the so-called painters of servants are only careless brushstrokes, not seeking similarity in shape, just for self-entertainment." Ni Zan (1301-1374 A.D.) was born in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, with the character Yuanzhen and the name Yunlin.The Ni family is rich and powerful in the south of the Yangtze River.The family built pavilions such as "Qingmen (bibi) Pavilion" and "Yunlin Hall", and collected a lot of calligraphy and paintings.Ni Zan has been reading classics and history since childhood, is good at poetry and prose, is good at calligraphy and painting, and is familiar with rhythm.He has a lonely personality and will never be an official in his life. Before the age of 40, he lived a wealthy and elegant celebrity life.At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, peasant uprisings were raging like clouds and clouds. He sold his land, scattered his family's wealth, and abandoned his family to hide in Taihu Lake.For more than 20 years in the second half of his life, he wandered around Yixing, Changzhou, Wujiang, Huzhou, Jiaxing, and Songjiang, living in farm houses, Buddhist temples, or taking boats as his home, wandering with the water.But he is still diligent in calligraphy and painting to express his feelings.It is this ups and downs (dangdang) ups and downs, wandering life and his depressed and desolate state of mind that enable him to break through the established methods of his predecessors, create a new style, and establish his own style in the history of Chinese painting.Many of Ni Zan's works have been preserved, such as "Six Gentlemen", "Pine Forest Pavilion", "Yushan Forest and Hell", "Your Stream and Han Pine" and so on. If it is said that among the "Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty", Ni Zan's landscape paintings are sparse in style, and he is good at Xiaoshu, then Wang Meng's landscape paintings can be called dense style, which wins in dense style. "Picture of Migration of Gezhichuan" is one of the masterpieces of this dense style. "Picture of Ge Zhichuan Migration" is 139 cm high and 58 cm wide, and is now in the National Palace Museum, Taipei.Ge Zhichuan, whose first name is Hong and whose courtesy name is Zhichuan, was a famous Taoist priest in the Jin Dynasty.Danyang Jurong (now Jiangsu Province) people.Born in a Taoist family, he has been fond of the method of guiding and raising immortals since he was young, and learned alchemy.Author of "Baopuzi" and other works.Ge Hong heard that Jiaozhi was rich in ores that could be used for alchemy, so he took his family south to Guangzhou and went to Luofu Mountain to live in seclusion for alchemy.The Luofu Mountains are located in Zengcheng, Boluo, Heyuan and other counties of Guangdong Province, with beautiful mountains and rivers and pleasant scenery. There are still remains of Ge Hong's alchemy.Wang Meng's "Relocation Map of Ge Zhichuan" depicts the scene of Ge Zhichuan moving to Luofu Mountain with his family for Xundansha.The picture is dominated by landscapes, with characters placed in between.There are many mountains and mountains, rising continuously, waterfalls and springs, flowing down the stream, lush trees, and rocks beside the stream.The mountain road is curved, twists and turns, disappears and appears from time to time, leading to the deep mountain.On the screen, several members of Ge Zhichuan's family are walking on the mountain road at the bottom of the valley.Walking to Ge Zhichuan on the wooden bridge, wearing a Taoist crown and a Taoist robe, holding a feather fan in his left hand and a sika deer carrying books in his right hand, he is looking back, as if greeting the people behind. "Picture of Migration in Ge Zhichuan" is dense and full in composition, from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain, there are layers upon layers, with almost no gaps, but every hill and valley, every stone and tree, are placed in a proper position, making people feel full but not blocked, complicated but not chaotic. See business in the gloomy.The pen is meticulous, complicated and has a sense of rhythm.Painting mountains and rocks is mainly done with dry brush and light ink, using fine brushes and small axes to break.The miscellaneous trees among the rocks are finely drawn, and the leaves are all painted with double hooks in bright colors such as azurite, vermilion, ocher red, etc. Compared with the uncolored rocks and the trunks, bridges, figures, and houses that are only slightly dyed ocher , appearing extraordinarily bright and lively.Ni Zan once praised Wang Meng's pen and ink skills with the poem "The pen power of a prince can carry a tripod, and there has been no such king for five hundred years". Wang Meng (1308-1385 A.D.), named Shuming and named Huanghe Shanqiao, was born in Huzhou (Wuxing), Zhejiang.His grandfather Zhao Mengfu, grandmother Dao Sheng, and uncle Zhao Yong were all famous calligraphers and painters in the Yuan Dynasty.Influenced by his family, Wang Meng is good at poetry and prose, likes calligraphy and painting, and is best at painting landscapes.At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, he was a small official, and later abandoned his official position and lived in seclusion in Huanghe Mountain (now in Yuhang County, Zhejiang Province).After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Wang Meng became the magistrate of Tai'an in the early years of Hongwu.Later, he was implicated in the Hu Weiyong case and died in prison.In addition to "Picture of Ge Zhichuan's Relocation", Wang Meng also has works such as "Picture of Hermitage in Qingbian Mountain", "Picture of Xiao Temple in Layers and Mountains", "Picture of Forest House in Juqu", "Picture of Reading in Spring Mountain" and other works handed down to the world. In addition to the above four landscape painters in the Yuan Dynasty, there are Gao Kegong and Fang Congyi who inherited the tradition of Mi Yuanzhang and his son, also adopted Dong Yuan's painting method, and mostly rendered in ink and wash, painting misty and rainy scenes; inherited the paintings of Ma Yuan and Xia Gui Sun Junze, Lu Shidao, Chen Junzuo, Zhang Yuan, etc. with vigorous and unrestrained styles; Zhu Derun, Tang Di, Shang Qi, Liu Boxi, etc. who inherited Li Cheng and Guo Xi's all the way, with solid and beautiful painting style; there are also special painting circles Wang Zhenpeng, Zhu Yu, Li Rongjin, Xia Yong, etc. who have made great achievements in painting.