An Appreciation of Green Landscape Painting, also known as Essay

Shanshui painting, is a kind of painting that expresses the beauty of mountains and rivers and can seek some kind of spiritual support for human beings. The origin of Chinese landscape painting is very early, according to historical records, the Qin and Han dynasties have been landscape painting, but the physical did not see the circulation. The earliest landscape paintings that we can see today are the background landscapes in the famous painter Gu Kaizhi's "Lady's History" and "Luoshen Fu" from the Eastern Jin Dynasty. As we have talked about in the section on figure painting, these two paintings of Gu Kaizhi's are based on the representation of the figure as the main body, and the landscape is just a backdrop for the figure's background.

However, the mountains, beasts, forests, and birds that are part of the background of the figures are combined in a complete and realistic way. The mountains and rocks began to rely on the change of lines to show different surfaces, on layers to show different changes in the mountains, and on the use of the overhead angle to show the vertical and horizontal mountains and rivers. These were the basic techniques of expression for later landscape painting, and although this expression remained at a relatively naive stage, it laid a solid foundation for the development of Chinese landscape painting in the future. Therefore, Gu Kaizhi's name is not only associated with the historical development of Chinese figure painting, but also contributed to the development of Chinese landscape painting.

During the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties after Gu Kaizhi, landscape painting flourished, and a number of artists capable of painting landscapes and the first treatises devoted to landscape painting appeared. But so far, we have not found a piece of landscape painting works handed down at that time, we can only according to the literature about landscape painting at that time, to recognize the development level of Chinese landscape painting in that era. Since then, however, the art of landscape painting has ascended to the Chinese painting scene with more complete expressive techniques and systematic theories.

Chinese landscape painting had a great development in the Sui and Tang dynasties. The works of the painters represented by Zhan Ziqi in the Sui Dynasty provide important materials for us to study the state of landscape painting in this period. Zhan Ziqi, a native of the present-day Shandong province, who served as a doctor in the Northern Qi, Northern Zhou, and Sui dynasties, was a versatile painter who was said to be skilled in figures, landscapes, boundary paintings, and horses and chariots. He was known as the "Ancestor of Tang Painting". However, his most outstanding contribution lies in landscape painting, and the only work of his that has survived is the "Spring Tour" now preserved in the National Palace Museum.

The Spring Excursion is a green landscape painting scroll depicting natural scenery, showing people's spring excursions. Painter in not big silk with proper management, fine brushwork and gorgeous colors, painted green hills, flowers and trees, sparkling spring scene, the picture of mountains and water, water and sky, in the rippling lake, a gorgeous high-top yacht rippling with the waves. Three women in the boat look around, intoxicated by the beautiful lake and mountains, forgetting to linger. Several people around the lake or horseback riding or strolling in the mountain trails, or sleeve hand Jen Li shore, full of interest. Painter through a variety of natural scenery and vivid depiction of the activities of the characters, successfully embodied the theme of "spring", the exhibition in the pious "spring" for the formation of the Tang dynasty green landscape painting school opened the beginning of the end.

At the time of the Tang Dynasty, Li Sixun and his son Li Daozhao directly inherited the landscape painting style of Zhan Yuqi's lineage. Li Sixun was a member of the Tang dynasty and served as a "general of Wuwei". He inherited and developed Zhan Ziqi's painting style, with a strict and neat brushwork, strong and calm fish, a grand and magnificent picture pattern, and strong decorative qualities. His a few Li Zhaodao and inherited his style of painting, when called "change the father of the situation, wonderful and over the", and the first seascape landscape.

In this way, from the Sui Dynasty, Zhan Ziqi, to the Tang Dynasty, Li Si Xun father and son, a lineage, the formation of China's landscape painting has a characteristic of the green landscape painting school. In the Tang Dynasty, another source of landscape painting school was also formed, that is, ink and wash landscape painting.

The founding father of ink landscape painting was Wang Wei, who was said to be good at poetry, calligraphy, painting and music, and who also served as the right minister of the Shangshu. Wang Wei's paintings were characterized by snowy landscapes, sword pavilions, trestles, dawn walks, and fishing, etc. His paintings were characterized by exquisite ink and brushwork and rendering, and were "heavy" and "deep" in character. Another important feature of Wang Wei's landscape paintings is the organic combination of poetry and painting. As we have already mentioned, the history of painting generally regards him as the founder of the combination of poetry and painting. After Wang Wei, in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, there was an "ink movement" in the development of landscape painting, so that the development of Chinese landscape painting in the Tang Dynasty has entered a new world of freedom.

To the Five Dynasties and the two Song dynasties, is the landscape painters and landscape painting schools overlap the era, these painters inherited and developed the North and South Dynasties, Sui, Tang landscape painter's excellent tradition, the Chinese landscape painting to an unprecedented peak, the formation of the Five Dynasties period of the Northern School of landscape and the Southern School of landscape, the Northern Song Dynasty of the Central Plains School of Painting and the courtyard of the landscape painting, the Northern Song Dynasty of the late "rice point landscape" and the green green painting. landscape" and green landscape in the late Northern Song Dynasty, and the Southern Song courtyard landscape painting represented by the Four Great Masters of the Southern Song Dynasty.

During the Five Dynasties period, the northern school of landscape painting was represented by Jing Hao and his student Guan Tong. Jing Hao was a northerner who lived in the Taihang Mountains, so he was exposed to the majestic scenery of the north and the Taihang Mountains. Painted landscapes "on the sudden peaks, down overlooking the poor valley", more for the huge ravines, with the layout of the chapter for the center of the panoramic layout, and to the main peak as the center, with the cloud centipede Xia Xia's broken white, set off in the foreground of the global arrangement. The scene is vast, majestic, strong sense of space. It is rumored that "Kuanglu Drawing" is his masterpiece. His disciple Guan Tong is Chang'an people, teacher Jing Hao, but has the reputation of "green is better than blue", self-contained, like to make the autumn mountains and cold forests, villages and wild crossing of the Guan, Shaanxi area of the scenery. Its heirloom work for the "Guanshan travel map", painting on the giant peaks towering, deep chi; painted trees, there are branches without trunk, but give people a "chaotic but whole, simple but interesting" feeling.

Corresponding to the northern school of landscape painting represented by Jing Hao and Guan Tong, there is a southern school of painting represented by Dong Yuan and his disciple Ju Ran, also known as the "Southern School of Landscape Painting", which expresses the landscapes of the south of the Yangtze River. Dong Yuan and Ju Ran were both active painters in the south in the second half of the 10th century. They lived in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, which is a warm and humid region with gentle undulations and warm sunshine, unlike the silent, strong and cold north. They were aware of nature and depicted it in a unique artistic language. In Dong Yuan's works, it is very difficult to see the steep and strange peaks, and what you see is the gentle rolling hills with endless, forested streams, mountain villages and fishermen's houses, all of which are the moving scenery of the hilly rivers and lakes of Jiangnan. Dong Yuan's masterpieces are "Xiang Xiang Tu", a scroll depicting the landscape of the Xiaoxiang region, and "Xia Shan Tu", which depicts the landscape of Jiangnan in summer. Dong Yuan's disciple Ju Ran, who became the best successor of his painting style, is represented by the painting "Autumn Mountains and Questions". This painting shows three hermits talking about sutra and Taoism in a grass hut near a stream in a deep valley and jungle, surrounded by a high and refreshing autumn scenery, which can also reflect the identity and heart of the painter.

By the Northern Song Dynasty, the Central Plains School of Painting and the Courtyard Landscape Painting emerged. The Central Plains School of Painting was represented by Li Cheng and Fan Kuan. Li Cheng, who lived in Yingqiu, Shandong Province, often depicted the natural environment of the Qilu wilderness, and Fan Kuan, who had long resided in the Zhongnan Mountain and the Dahuashan Mountain, painted the sublime mountains, boulders, and lush forests in a majestic and imposing manner. Following Li Cheng, Fan Kuan, landscape painters rose one after another, under the influence of Li, Fan, there was a tendency of "Qilu Shi only copy Li Cheng, Guanshan soil only copy Fan Kuan".

After the unification of the Northern Song Dynasty, painters from Jiangnan went north one after another, and were treated with courtesy by the Northern Song Painting Academy, which impacted the landscape painting of the Northern Song Dynasty with the Central Plains School as the main stream, and the North and South Schools of Painting began to merge, which formed the courtyard landscape painting represented by Guo Xi.

The landscape painting of the Northern Song Dynasty, we also want to mention the school of painting is "rice point landscape" and green landscape. The founder of "Rice Dot Landscape" is Mi Fu, one of the four great calligraphers of the Northern Song Dynasty, who was originally from Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, and later moved to Xiangyang and Zhenjiang, where he was inspired by the misty and eddying clouds and mountains and smoky trees that could often be seen along the Yangtze River, and so he made new creations in landscape painting techniques, using ink and ink dabbing to paint landscapes to give full play to ink and water fountains. give full play to the fusion of ink and water. The effect formed by ink staining creates a subtle, empty eddy of divine interest.

Then there is the green landscape. We have already talked about, from the Sui Dynasty, Zhan Ziqi, to the Tang Dynasty, Li Si Xun father and son, this school of painting has been formed. But the five generations of the early Song Dynasty, this form for the scholarly painters do not Shang, is regarded as a professional painter of artisanal work, once in the Northern Song Dynasty decline. Northern Song dynasty, some painters, and re-committed to the green landscape, creating a suitable for the court to appreciate the interest of the green landscape painting of the canon. The green landscape painting into a mature period, its famous representative painters are Wang Ximeng, Zhao Boju and so on.

The invasion of the northern peoples led to the relocation of the Song dynasty southward, known as the Southern Song Dynasty, and the establishment of the Southern Song Painting Academy in the new capital city of Lin'an. Due to the political changes and painters living in the region from the north to the south, so that the art of painting in the Southern Song Dynasty from the content to the style of new changes, the emergence of Li Tang, Liu Songnian, Ma Yuan, Xia Gui, the "Four Greats of the Southern Song Dynasty" as the representative of the Southern Song Dynasty courtyard landscape painting.

Southern Song courtyard landscape painting and Northern Song courtyard landscape painting has been obviously different, they abandoned the main peak since the Northern Song Dynasty as the center of the mountain torrent type composition and fine and complex ink and brush, and innovation for the simple brush, simple form. Commonly used two diagonal near and far contrast method to form a diagonal composition, so that the center of gravity of the picture deviates from the center, located in the half of a corner. Known as the "corner of the half" type of art.

The Five Dynasties and the two Song dynasties were a time of many painters and schools of painting, but we must also talk about another style of painting - literati painting. Literati painting emerged in the early Northern Song Dynasty, Su Shi first mentioned the concept of "literati painting", literati painting means the distinction between the folk painters and court painters style of the literati, the scholar's painting, its main feature is the advocate of the subjective interest of the author for the purpose of expression; take flowers, birds, bamboo and stone, water and smoke, borrowing things to symbolize, avoiding the realities of the creative method is not bound by the formula, not to be a good example, but also a good example. creative method is not bound by the program, in the art form emphasizes the combination of poetry, calligraphy, painting and printing. The rise of literati painting promoted the development of Chinese landscape painting and bird and flower painting. In the field of landscape painting, this style of painting became dominant in the painting world after the Song Dynasty through the artistic pursuit and practice of the "Yuan Four Schools".

The "Four Yuan Schools" refers to the four most renowned landscape painters of the Yuan Dynasty, Huang Gongwang, Wang Meng, Ni Zan, and Wu Zhen. The four families are good at poetry and calligraphy, poetry, calligraphy, painting and printing combined to become their **** with the art form, all emphasize the expression of personality, emphasize the entertainment of painting, emphasize the pen and ink fun. However, the four artists had different experiences, artistic preferences and aesthetic ideals, and each had its own distinctive personality. Huang Gongwang's paintings used only two specifications, light-red and ink. The brushwork is varied and smooth, light and thick, reducing stimulation and pursuing calmness and harmony.

Wang Meng's paintings, on the other hand, are rich in appearance, with some being strong in brushwork, some winning with ink, and some competing with color. The most obvious difference is that all three schools are simple, but only Wang Meng is complex. What about Ni Zan? His landscape painting is characterized by simplicity, dryness and lightness, i.e. composition, ink and brushwork, image simplicity, dry brushwork and light ink. Then there is Wu Zhen, whose most prominent feature is that while the other three schools are heavy on brushwork, Wu Zhen is heavy on ink and prefers to use wet brushwork. The effect of the image is somber and wet, but retains more of the legacy of the artist who came to us.

Finally, let's take a look at the landscape paintings of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

Ming and qing dynasty landscape painting, in addition to a few painters, most of the ancient for the ability to copy, highlighting the pen and ink interest, such as the early ming dynasty painting world to revere the southern song dynasty painting academy of the courtyard style, zhe faction is dominated. However, the paintings afterward were still a breakthrough. They mostly emphasized the subjective aesthetic feeling.

The integration of the strengths of each family, flexible and varied techniques, the composition no longer follow the traditional format from 揖讓, free arrangement, emphasizing the interest of life. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the four Wu family - Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, Tang Yin, Qiu Ying's landscape painting achievement is higher. Why are they called Wu Men? Because the four of them into the same Suzhou Province, Suzhou, also known as "Wumen", so the name.

Shen Zhou fused the previous generation of masters such as Dong Yuan, Ju Ran, Mi Fu, Wu Zhen, Wang Meng, etc., to create a variety of styles of landscape painting, some fine, some simple, some magnificent, some elegant. There are panoramic mountains and rivers, and there are also idyllic scenes. The technique is simple and simple, and very rich in life meaning. His landscape paintings of the heirloom works are "Lushan high map", "Cangzhou interesting map scroll" and so on. Wen Zhengming was Shen Zhou's student, of course, also for the same hometown. He studied under Shen Zhou, and was competent in poetry, calligraphy and painting. His landscape paintings have two specifications: brushwork and freehand, and freehand ink and watercolor landscapes, which are free and drenched with ink. The brushwork landscapes are meticulous, but not rigid, with a typical scholarly and "literati" flavor. Tang Yin's paintings were based on the works of Li Cheng, Fan Kuan, and the four Southern Song masters, as well as the methods of the Yuan masters, and he combined the strengths of all the masters to form his own style. The works are grand and rigorous, both somber and clear, both strange and craggy and beautiful, both thick and rich in charm characteristics. Qiu Ying originated from the painter, not "literati", but he was artistically influenced by both literati painters and folk painters, so his paintings to the integration of these two aspects, but also the appreciation of the literati, with a kind of elegance and vulgarity **** appreciation of the artistic interest.

After the four Wu family, the Ming dynasty landscape painting world also began to faction, like the two Song dynasty painting world as lively. The larger schools are the Huating school, Su Song school and the cloud school, of which the influence of the Huating school is the largest. These three schools belong to the same area (Songjiang), and aesthetic ideas and painting style is basically the same, people will also be three together called "Songjiang School".

The landscape painting world of the late Ming Dynasty was full of schools, and in the Qing Dynasty, it was also very distinctive. The so-called "orthodox school" and "innovative school" appeared, and has been around the whole Qing Dynasty painting style.

The Qing Dynasty was an important period in the history of Chinese art, with new changes in artistic thought, creative attitude and artistic style within the literati system, which also followed the changes in political thought and culture at that time. As the rulers of the Qing Dynasty practiced closed-door and cultural authoritarian policies, tried hard to consolidate the small peasant economy and suppressed commodity production, so that the capitalist factors that had been growing since the middle of the Ming Dynasty and the emancipatory thinking that had broken through the traditions in the arts lost the soil for breeding and development, and full-scale retrofuturism and asceticism prevailed for a while.

In this context, retrogression and mutation also began to appear in the field of painting. This is represented by the "early Qing dynasty six", they emphasize the art of "copying day and night", "just like the ancients", detached from reality, obsessed with the former line of ink and brush skills. Mimicry of ancient became a major tendency of their landscape painting. This kind of artistic ideas and artistic style can cater to the Qing dynasty's ideological policy of ideological restraint and the aesthetic taste of the scholar, very much supported and appreciated by the powers that be, is regarded as the so-called "orthodox school".

The six great masters of the early Qing Dynasty were led by Wang Shimin, and the rest were Wang Jian, Wang Album, Wang Yuanqi, Wu Li and Yun Shouping, who seemed to be related to Yu Shimin, Wang Album, Wu Li and Yun Shouping were all students of Wang Shimin, while Wang Jian was his fellow countryman and relative, and Wang Yuanqi was his grandson. At the same time, Wang Shimin and Wang Jian, Wang Album, Wang Yuanqi in the painting world is also known as the "four kings". All of them advocated copying ancient paintings, and they mostly used the results of copying to create their works, with extraordinary brushwork and profound skills, which made landscape painting a big step forward in terms of technical skills. However, Yun Shouping later gave up landscape painting and took a different approach, specializing in flowers, which was also unique and famous for a while.

While the "orthodox school" represented by the Six Great Masters was going down the road of retroism, a group of Han intellectual painters with a strong sense of nationalism and a spirit of creativity began to take up the emancipating trend of breaking away from the tradition that emerged after the middle of the Ming Dynasty and dared to break away from the tradition, emphasized the emancipation of individuality, and advocated the "borrowing from the past to open up the present". In art, they dared to break and establish, emphasized individuality and emancipation, advocated "borrowing from the past to open up the present", opposed to the mud of the past, and utilized and transformed the traditional forms of painting to express their true feelings of life. In the history of painting, these people are generally known as the "innovation school", the representative of this school is the famous early Qing dynasty "four famous monks" and "Jinling eight".

The "Four Famous Monks" refer to Shi Tao (Yuanji), Shi Xi (Kunrui), Hongren and Bada Shanren. All four of them are characterized by hatred of the Manchu rule and cut hair as a monk, to painting to avoid the belly of the mountains and forests, express anger and relieve worry. They are opposed to copying the ancient, advocating natural creation. Exude true feelings. But their paintings, and each has its own characteristics: Shi Tao's paintings, strange and unrestrained; Shixi's paintings, Cang Gu Chunya; Hongren's paintings, high and simple and sparse; Bada Shanren's paintings, is brief and concise. Their painting style had a great influence on the "Eight Monsters of Yangzhou", who later specialized in bird and flower painting.

The "Eight Families of Jinling" included Gong Xian, Fan Qi, Gao Cen, Zou Zhe, Wu Hong, Ye Xin, Hu Huang, and Xie Sun. Because they all grew up in Nanjing and named. They are characterized by not being influenced by the style of imitating the ancient, to get inspiration from the actual life experience and nature, works of realism is stronger. Most of them lived in seclusion and traveled between Jiangsu and Huaihuai, selling paintings for a living. At the same time, they often got together, sang songs and sang poems and paintings. The painting style of the "Four Famous Monks" and the "Eight Families of Jinling" had a profound influence on the development of Chinese landscape painting.