Is China's landscape painting divided into freehand brushwork and meticulous painting?

Meticulous brushwork refers to the meticulous brushwork in Chinese painting, and it is possible to depict objects with neat and meticulous brushwork. For example, The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival by Zhang Zeduan in Song Dynasty is a meticulous painting. Describe objects in a neat, meticulous and meticulous way. Fine brushwork is divided into two categories: fine brushwork and fine brushwork. Meticulous brushwork is a complete description of objects with ink lines, without coloring. Sketch was originally used for painting, but Li, a painter in Song Dynasty, developed it into an independent painting. His sketches, like flowing water, are endless and expressive. His "Five Horses Map" is a first-class sketch in ancient times. Figures and horses are drawn with single lines, with accurate proportions, clear musculoskeletal structure, and even the luster of horse coat is shown in detail. Heavy color meticulous painting means that meticulous painting is neat, fine and lays a heavy color. In the early days of China's painting, meticulous painting played a major role. The silk paintings found in Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha, Hunan Province are full of genuine meticulous colors, especially the T-shaped "non-clothing" in Fei Fei's tomb, with ingenious composition, fine line drawing and gorgeous colors, which shows that the meticulous colors reached a high level at that time. Heavy-colored pigments such as cinnabar and turquoise are widely used in ancient paintings, so paintings are called "Danqing", which shows the important position of meticulous heavy colors in ancient paintings.

Freehand brushwork is a painting method relative to meticulous painting. It needs extensive and concise pen and ink to describe the shape and spirit of the object to express the author's artistic conception. It is said that in the Tang Dynasty, Xuanzong ordered painters Li Sixun and Wu Daozi to paint the scenery of Jialing River together in Datong Hall. Li Sixun is good at meticulous painting. It took him several months to finish this mural. Wu Daozi painted three mountains and rivers in Jialing, Vandory in one day. It is conceivable that he can't paint with meticulous and colorful techniques. It must be broad and concise. This shows that there was a difference between meticulous painting and freehand brushwork. In Song Dynasty, Su Shi put forward "literati painting", arguing that painting "does not seek similarity", but expresses the author's subjective thoughts and feelings through writing feelings. The only painting he left behind was a dead tree and a stubborn stone, with one or two bamboos exposed behind the stone and several fine grasses under the tree. This painting expresses his thoughts and feelings that he is not satisfied with politically, but the great calligrapher speaks highly of him, saying that the branches are "bent without a clue" and the stones are "grotesque, like a hollow chest". After the Yuan Dynasty, freehand brushwork prevailed with simple brushwork, vivid modeling and hearty and interesting style.

In this way, freehand brushwork and meticulous brushwork, which abide by tradition and law, have formed two schools with different styles, and they are competing to shine in the painting world and handed down from generation to generation.