What is the meaning of vertical and horizontal in Chinese painting composition?

The composition of China's traditional painting is not only composition, but also the arrangement and layout of the laws of image art and the painter's painting conception, which can also be called layout. Sheikh in the Southern Qi Dynasty called the painting "Six Laws" a "commercial position", and Gu Kaizhi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty called the composition "fixing the old and spreading the cloth". Chinese painting pays special attention to the way of "conception" and "image", and composition is an important link in "image". Therefore, influenced by its unique observation methods and national appreciation habits, the composition layout has formed special laws and methods. Composition is closely related to pen, ink color, color setting and perspective. At the same time, it shows great freehand brushwork and flexibility when expressing the "conception" of the picture. This freehand brushwork and flexibility are manifested in perspective, choice, priority, taking advantage of the situation, opening and closing, echo, blank space, density, interspersed, virtual and real, corner processing and edge removal processing. Adopting these flexible artistic techniques is conducive to breaking through the psychological and visual limitations brought by natural time and space, and is a more perfect expression of the theme of the picture. There will be many changes and ideas in the composition of Chinese paintings, which are described in detail below:

(A) the philosophy of landscape painting composition

Composition is the layout and composition of the picture, that is, when painting, you must make up your mind first and then put it in the right position. Meaning is strange, meaning is high, meaning is far, meaning is deep, meaning is ancient, mediocrity is mediocre, and vulgarity is vulgar. Painting has infinite meaning, and the ancients used different methods to convey meaning, and the methods were also different. In the composition of China's landscape paintings, he paid attention to the conception of the scenery, and demanded that "the distance should take its potential, and the proximity should take its quality".

According to the needs of the picture structure, the composition is arranged by using the laws of unity of opposites such as echo, guest and host, concealment, simplicity, truth and irregularity. This is similar to the composition rules of harmony, contrast, symmetry, balance, proportion, center of gravity, rhythm and rhythm in western plane composition theory.

In landscape painting, the blank of the picture is handled skillfully, and the China people's visual habit of "seeing everything carefully" and "seeing through" is adhered to. See the scenery not only from the foot of the mountain, but also from the back of the mountain outside. The traditional philosophy reflected in the layout and artistic conception of landscape painting reflects that man and nature are an organic whole of harmony between Yin and Yang. From Chinese people's unique way of observing everything in the universe to China people's ideological observation of the world's "Qi", it is found that the universe in China people's concept is not independent of people's understanding object, while China people's concept and spirit are interlinked with the universe, and human life can only be eternal if it is integrated with nature. The universe is not only a place for human beings to obtain the source of existence and meet their material needs, but also a spiritual home for China literati to express their feelings and find their own souls.

(B) Landscape painting composition of the "virtual and real" changes and humanistic spirit

What is pursued is the integration of yin and yang of all things: the integration of heaven and man, the integration of mind and things, and the integration of things and me. In China's traditional cultural consciousness, man is an inseparable part of nature, and the pursuit of the spiritual realm of harmony between man and nature, harmony between mind and things, and harmony between things and me constitutes a long and unique aesthetic consciousness of the Chinese nation. In the creation of China's landscape paintings, the painter pursues a process of mutual harmony between self and nature, and it is also a true presentation of the soul. Painters often leave a large area of blank on the screen, thus forming a unique structural form of China's landscape painting. The space in this structure is real and objective, just like the space used in western painting. And "truth" is what Laozi said, "just in a trance"

Space is the "wonderful door" of China's painting. Here, both the painter and the audience can be completely liberated, fully spread the wings of imagination and fly naturally in the infinite space. The soul leads to the infinite universe and nature through the blank in the picture, and people can get infinite spiritual comfort through the limited picture. Mr. Zong Baihua once pointed out; China's landscape painting is the antithesis of emptiness and reality. China's philosophy holds that "nothing" is more important than "being". Laozi said, "whether there is mutual existence or not", "if there is something, it will be beneficial, and if there is nothing, it will be abolished". "Everything in the world is born out of nothing, and life is born out of nothing", so landscape painting pays special attention to "beauty is everywhere", that is, "where there is no painting, everything becomes a beauty". China's landscape painting pursues infinite artistic conception through concrete expression, and the expression of artistic conception is mostly realized through the "image" in painting composition. A mountain and a valley, a grass and a tree, a cloud and a water in landscape painting are all many "images" of the painter's "conception of everything", and they are all manifestations of the painter's inner feelings of natural scenery through the subject, rather than the reproduction of ordinary natural mountains and rivers. It is these "images" that combine to form a complete, flowing, full of vitality and far-reaching artistic conception of landscape painting images. "Image management" is the purpose and significance of China's landscape painting.

China's landscape paintings restore nature without trace, successfully interpreting the harmonious and orderly relationship between man and nature. All these make the whole rich and colorful, the natural environment rich in cultural heritage, and the human landscape more natural. Art is the expression of people's spiritual world. The ultimate goal of landscape painting is to express people's true nature, with special emphasis on meticulous attention and emotion. The virtual and real space of landscape painting is constructed according to the painter's own consciousness and the harmony and perception between soul, universe and nature. It is the space of the universe and the free space of the soul.

(C) the "Yin and Yang" spirit and artistic aesthetics in landscape painting composition

The Book of Changes says, "One yin and one yang are the Tao." Blank and real dyeing in landscape painting constitute a flowing structural space with one void and one solid, one bright and one dark, one yin and one yang, and mutual transformation. This spatial artistic conception structure of "virtual" (yin) and "real" (yang) flows, which embodies the concept of "one yin and one yang is the Tao" to some extent. The blank space in China's landscape painting is an integral part of the image, which not only sets off the main body of the picture, but also expands the artistic conception of the picture, that is, the so-called continuation of the image. Therefore, paying attention to the combination of reality, density and shade, and emphasizing the concept of qi, we have the theory of creating momentum, taking advantage of the trend, taking over the trend and returning to the trend, and so do China's landscape paintings

"Counting white is black" is also an important composition rule, that is, the role of blank should be considered in the process of painting. Blank space is not useless. Although it is virtual, it sets off the truth of painting, which constitutes the relationship between the combination of reality and reality and the contrast of Yin and Yang, and integrates China's traditional dialectical thinking spirit of Yin and Yang into painting. A large number of blanks make the viewer feel calm and ethereal, thus highlighting the dignified and strong theme and making it produce a kind of contrast and harmony.

At the same time, the blank space in landscape painting composition reflects the spatial consciousness in a certain sense, which is not only a problem of spatial structure, but also a problem of artistic conception. There is no need to leave blank space in landscape painting, it always complements the real scene. "Blank" is not an omission, but a "creation" in which the painter consciously "conveys his mind with his hands". Therefore, Mr. Zong Baihua said: "Faced with this blank, China painters refused to let the shadow at the bottom of the object fill the' face' of the object and cancel the blank, just like western oil painting."

The most difficult thing to create in landscape painting is not trees and mountains, but a blank with far-reaching artistic conception and seemingly nothingness, "swimming in the air, dancing in the shadow, being virtual in reality". In the Qing Dynasty, Da Zhongguang thought: "It is difficult to draw empty pictures, and the real scene is empty; God can't draw, reason is forced, and God is born. The position is hostile, and most of the paintings are warts; Virtual reality and reality are born, and no painting is a wonderful place. "

Blank treatment in landscape painting is the expression of unique spatial artistic conception, which means "the intention cannot be achieved with a pen" and "the beauty of painting lies in the place where there is no pen". All the places without painting are painted, and the blank space of painting is the land of smart beauty. The beauty of blank lies in the uncertain factors in its connotation, which makes the space that constitutes blank artistic conception have infinite tension and extensibility, and gives people infinite intellectual space and imagination space of aesthetic space. The beauty of blank space is to create a real situation and realize the artistic conception of "not creating a word to be romantic".

Whether it is the "business position" in the traditional sense or the so-called "painting composition" after the integration of China and the West, they are all studying the composition of painting. China's landscape painting embodies an oriental spirit, which is an independent art form closely related to China's national culture but different from western painting. It is an important part of world painting art and embodies the aesthetic consciousness of orientals who account for a quarter of the world's population. Based on the differences between eastern and western national cultural traditions, the evolution of human art history and the differences of artistic spirit of various ethnic groups have been formed. Confucianism, Taoism and Zen, as the shapers of China's cultural character, put forward their respective programs of affinity and moderation in solving the relationship between man and nature and between people. This understanding and adherence to the doctrine of the mean not only nurtured the traditional painting art of China, but also created the composition of "the beauty of neutralization".

If China's landscape paintings want to go to the world, they must find a matching point between the characteristics of national masters and the characteristics of the times, thus opening a window to the world. There are inherent similarities and differences between China's landscape painting and western painting. For example, modern Chinese painting embodies and permeates the formal rules of western composition, and the principle of composition is fully applied and integrated into modern Chinese painting. Realize the complementarity of eastern and western painting arts. And this kind of complementarity, first of all, we should have a thorough and comprehensive understanding of the composition of traditional landscape painting in China and the composition system of western painting; Secondly, we should explore and practice hard in China's landscape painting creation, find their breakthrough point, and promote its perfect integration with modern consciousness and composition. In my humble opinion, no matter how China landscape painting evolves, so does composition. It has three characteristics that must be maintained: first, spirituality. Different from color painting, ink painting has both "phase" and "phase", which is the meaning of "no phase"-"no phase". The alternation of yin and yang in Confucianism is the fundamental law of the universe. Black is yin, white is yang, and the poles of ink conform to nature. In the process of modernization of Chinese painting, no matter how to learn from the colors of western painting, it is best to keep ink painting as the backbone of painting, so as to preserve its characteristics and value. Today's overseas experiments are worrying. Many so-called modern ink paintings have no ink at all, just like color paintings. Another feature is pen and ink. The value of pen and ink lies in that it is a language created according to the characteristics of Chinese painting materials. It has a long history and contains a set of aesthetic concepts in China culture. It is easy to distinguish it from western painting and painting language of other countries and nationalities. The writing skill in the operation of pen and ink is half the reason why Chinese painting has the function of health preservation. Change is the need to explore the composition of China's landscape paintings and China's landscape paintings, but everything changes at a critical point. If we cross it, it will mutate or become extinct, and so will Chinese painting. Spirituality, ink painting and pen and ink make China's landscape paintings always maintain oriental characteristics and always have an independent position in the world art forest.