The ups and downs of boundary painting

In the 6th century-14th century, Jiehua was a magnificent art palace, but in the past 600 years, it almost became a ruin. Different from other types of Chinese painting, the traditional boundary painting in China is mainly about architecture, so it is generally necessary to draw pens with a ruler to make the lines drawn horizontal and vertical. This is why boundary painting is called "boundary painting".

Song Huizong Evonne, who likes to sing praises for himself and whitewash the peace, painted a picture of Ruihe: in the blue sky of the capital city of Bianliang, 20 white cranes with different postures hovered over Xuande Gate surrounded by colorful clouds, as if the air really echoed with the sweet and sweet voices of cranes singing together. In this painting, not only the white crane is vividly painted, but also the majestic Xuande Gate is described in detail by boundary painting, which can almost make people see the neat arrangement of gray tiles on the ridge of the temple, the beast shape on the cornice and the compact structure of the barrel arch under the eaves. In Evonne's view, who has always attached importance to sketch, it is so important to accurately describe the boundary painting of artistic objects that during his administration, boundary painting was not only an examination subject in imperial academy, but also the position of boundary painter was even higher than that of other painters, and he was one of the six people who could become the highest position in imperial academy. This was more than 800 years ago.

Today, I'm afraid few people outside the China art world know what boundary painting is. For example, even in the "Encyclopedia of China Art Volume" published by China Encyclopedia Publishing House in the early 1990s/kloc-0, there were no words about boundary paintings. No wonder, because in the 300 years from18th century, there were only three accomplished world painters in China: Yuan Jiang, uncle of Yao Yuan in Qing Dynasty, and Huang Qiuyuan, a painter from Jiangxi who died in 1979. In other words, in the second half of18th century, the whole19th century and the beginning of 20th century, the art field of boundary painting was a desolate ruin.