Song and Yuan landscape painting brush and ink characteristics of the discussion

Song dynasty painting embodied an unprecedented richness, sophistication and realism, and during this period, painting was further divided into landscape, birds and flowers, figures, religious paintings and miscellaneous paintings. Because of the variety of painting styles and the many subjects, the techniques and theories of ink painting also quickly reached a peak with the development of landscape painting and bird and flower painting in the Five Dynasties and Two Songs. During this period, there were many famous artists: in landscape painting, the works of Jing Hao, Guan Tong, Dong Yuan, Ju Ran, Li Cheng, Fan Kuan, Ma Yuan, Xia Gui and other famous landscape painters had a profound influence on later generations. In terms of flower and bird painting, with the circulation of ink bamboo, ink plum (together with orchids at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty and chrysanthemums after the Ming Dynasty) and other specialized paintings by literati such as Wentong, Su Shi and Mi Fu, the "scholarly painting" that advocated subjective interest and formal interest in ink and brushwork began to emerge. The ink and bird paintings such as Fa Chang's "Old Pine and Bugs" opened a new way for the development of ink painting in the later generations. Xu Xi created the "wild and easy" style of ink painting and his grandson Xu Zongsi followed his ancestor to create the "boneless method" of ink painting and birds in the folk development. Of course, ink painting in the Song Dynasty figure painting also has a new development. For example, Liang Kai's "reduced brush" painting "splash ink Immortal Figure", "Li Bai Xingyin Figure" with a very simple few strokes out of the poet Li Bai's character traits, and became one of the most successful painting in the history of human figure painting.

The Yuan Dynasty brought about a variation in aesthetic consciousness, which inevitably had a profound impact on the development of Chinese painting. Ink painting largely followed the forward development of literati painting represented by Zhao Xuesong. The theory and practice of painting emphasized the subjective will, interest and expression of the painter's thoughts and feelings. Zhao Xuesong advocated the realism of painting, emphasized the consistency between painting ink and calligraphy, and boasted the interest of retro and calligraphy ink and brushwork. As the first of the Four Yuan Schools (Zhao Xuesong, Huang Gongwang, Wang Meng, Wu Zhen, and after Dong Qichang also replaced him with Ni Chub), he guided a new round of important changes in ink painting in the Yuan Dynasty, getting rid of the Song Dynasty style of courtyard painting, emphasizing subjective expression, and pursuing the artistic interest of simplicity, high elegance, and vastness and depth. They used dry brushes to chafe instead of wet brushes and gradually used paper instead of silk. Their artistic achievements reflect a creative development of Chinese painting, and played a decisive role in the theory and creation of Ming and Qing paintings.

The general development trend of Yuan Dynasty ink painting style is to emphasize the inheritance of ancient traditions, innovative ideas. The outstanding performance is that literati painting began to occupy a dominant position in the painting world. So suitable for the expression of the literati painter consciousness of landscape painting and dead wood, bamboo and stone, plum, orchid, and ink brush flowers and birds a large number of emergence, the figure of the relative reduction of the real painting. With the prosperity of literati painting, poetry, calligraphy and painting were further closely combined in paintings and became a common fashion. This strengthened the literary interest of Chinese painting and better reflected the national characteristics of Chinese painting.