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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Chinese Painters + A Critical Study + +Author: Raphael Petrucci + +Commentator: Laurence Binyon + +Translator: Frances Seaver + +Release Date: August 9, 2007 [EBook #22288] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHINESE PAINTERS *** + + + + +Produced by Dave Morgan, Anne Storer and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<p>Transcriber’s Note: There is one instance each of: +Huang Yin-Piau and Huang Yin-Piao, and +Yün Shou-p’ing and Yün Chou-p’ing +so they have been left as printed.</p> + +<hr style='width: 95%;' /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 598px;"> +<img src="images/imgcover.jpg" width="598" height="450" alt="Cover" title="" /> +</div> + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 1]</span></p> +<h2>CHINESE PAINTERS</h2> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 3]</span></p> + +<h1>CHINESE PAINTERS</h1> +<h2>A CRITICAL STUDY</h2> + +<p> </p><p> </p> + +<p class="center"><strong>BY</strong></p> +<h2>RAPHAEL PETRUCCI</h2> + +<p> </p><p> </p> + +<p class="center">TRANSLATED BY</p> +<h2>FRANCES SEAVER</h2> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center">WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE BY</p> +<h2>LAURENCE BINYON</h2> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">of the british museum</span></p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><strong>AND WITH TWENTY-FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS IN DUOTONE</strong></p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> + +<p class="center"><strong>NEW YORK</strong></p> +<h2>BRENTANO’S</h2> +<p class="center"><strong>PUBLISHERS</strong></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 4]</span></p> + +<p class="center">COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY<br /> +BRENTANO’S<br /> +<em>All rights reserved</em></p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> + +<p class="center">THE · PLIMPTON · PRESS<br /> +NORWOOD · MASS · U·S·A</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>A translator can have but one aim—to present the thought of the author +faithfully. In this case an added responsibility is involved, since one +who had so much to give to the world has been taken in his prime. M. +Petrucci has written at length of art in the Far East in his exhaustive +work <em>La Philosophie de la Nature dans l’Art d’Extrême Orient</em> and +elsewhere, and has demonstrated the wide scope of his thought and +learning. The form and style in <em>Peintres Chinois</em> are the result of much +condensation of material and have thus presented problems in translation, +to which earnest thought has been given.</p> + +<p>In deference to the author’s wish the margin has not been overladen and +only a short tribute, by one able to speak of him from personal knowledge, +has been included, together with a few footnotes and a short bibliography +of works of reference indispensable to the student who will pursue this +absorbing study. The translator takes this opportunity to make grateful +acknowledgement of her debt to the authors named, who have made such +valuable information available, and to those friends who have read the +manuscript and made many helpful suggestions.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 22em;" class="smcap">Frances Seaver</span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> +<h2>BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE</h2> + + +<p>In Raphael Petrucci, who died early in 1917, the world has lost one of the +ablest and most devoted students and interpreters of the art of the Far +East. He was only forty-five years of age, in the prime of his powers, +brimming with energy and full of enterprises that promised richly. Though +he did not die in the field, he was none the less a victim of the war. He +had exhausted himself by his labours with the Belgian ambulances at La +Panne, for Belgium was his adopted country. He had a house in Brussels, +filled with a collection of Chinese and Japanese art, and a little cottage +near the coast just over the borders of Holland. He came of the great and +ancient Sienese family of the Petrucci, but his mother was French and he +spent much of his earlier life in Paris, before settling in Brussels and +marrying one of the daughters of the painter Verwée. He had also spent +some time in Russia. In Brussels he was attached to the Institut Solvay.</p> + +<p>He was a man of science, a student of and writer on sociology and biology. +He lectured on art and had a knowledge of the art of the world which few +men in Europe rivalled. He wrote a philosophic novel, <em>La Porte de l’Amour +et de la Mort</em>, which has run through<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 8]</span> +several editions. He published a book on Michelangelo’s poetry. At the same +time he was a scientific engineer. When war broke out Petrucci was on his way +home from Italy, where he had been engaged, I believe, on some large engineering +project and he only got out of Switzerland into France by the last train which +left Basle. He came to England for a time, looking after a number of +Belgian refugees, including some very distinguished artists. At the end of +1914 he was engaged by the India office to do some valuable work in London +on the collection of Chinese and Tibetan paintings brought back from +Tun-huang by Sir Aurel Stein. He then worked at La Panne for the Belgian +army hospital (he had had a medical training in his youth), went to +Provence for a rest, fell ill and died in Paris after an operation.</p> + +<p>Raphael Petrucci was a man who seemed to reincarnate the boundless +curiosity and the various ability of the men of the Italian Renaissance. +But for some years before his death he had concentrated his powers chiefly +on the study of Oriental art, of the Chinese language, and of Buddhist +iconography. His most important work in this line is <em>La Philosophie de la +Nature dans l’Art d’Extrême Orient</em>, a sumptuously printed folio published +by Laurens in Paris, with illustrations by the <em>Kokka</em> Company, and +written with as much charm as insight. Petrucci’s knowledge of Chinese +gave him an authority in interpreting Chinese art which writers on the +subject have rarely combined<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 9]</span> with so much +understanding of art in general, though as a connoisseur he was sometimes over-sanguine. +His translation from a classic of Chinese art-criticism, originally published +in a learned magazine, has lately appeared in book form. With his friend, +Professor Chavannes, whose death, also in the prime of life, we have had +to deplore still more recently, Petrucci edited the first volume of the +splendid series <em>Ars Asiatica</em>. The present work, intended for the general +reader and lover of art, illustrates his gift for luminous condensation +and the happy treatment of a large theme.</p> + +<p>A man of winning manners, a most generous and loyal friend, Petrucci wore +his manifold learning lightly; with immense energy and force of character, +he was simple and warm-hearted and interested in the small things as well +as the great things of life.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 22em;" class="smcap">Laurence Binyon</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">British Museum</span><br /> +October, 1919</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 11]</span></p> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="14" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr> <td class="tdp1"></td> <td align='right'></td> </tr> +<tr> <td align='left'></td> <td align='right'>PAGE</td> </tr> + +<tr> <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Preface by the Translator</span></td> + <td align='right'><a href="#Page_5">5</a></td> </tr> + +<tr> <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Biographical Note by Laurence Binyon</span></td> + <td align='right'><a href="#Page_7">7</a></td> </tr> + +<tr> <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Introduction</span></td> + <td align='right'><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td> </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<h3>PART ONE. TECHNIQUE</h3> + +<div class='center'> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="14" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr> <td align='right'></td> <td class="tdp"></td> <td align='right'></td> </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>I.</td> + <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Equipment of the Painter</span></td> + <td align='right'><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td> </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>II.</td> + <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Representation of Forms</span></td> + <td align='right'><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td> </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>III.</td> + <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Division of Subjects</span></td> + <td align='right'><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td> </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>IV.</td> + <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Inspiration</span></td> + <td align='right'><a href="#Page_38">38</a></td> </tr> +</table> +</div> + +<h3>PART TWO. THE EVOLUTION OF CHINESE PAINTING</h3> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="14" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr> <td align='right'></td> <td class="tdp"></td> <td align='right'></td> </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>I.</td> + <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Origins</span></td> + <td align='right'><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td> </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>II.</td> + <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Before the Intervention of Buddhism</span></td> + <td align='right'><a href="#Page_46">46</a></td> </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>III.</td> + <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Intervention of Buddhism</span></td> + <td align='right'><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td> </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>IV.</td> + <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The T’ang Period—7th to 10th Centuries</span></td> + <td align='right'><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td> </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>V.</td> + <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Sung Period—10th to 13th Centuries</span></td> + <td align='right'><a href="#Page_72">72</a></td> </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>VI.</td> + <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Yüan Period—13th and 14th Centuries</span></td> + <td align='right'><a href="#Page_92">92</a></td> </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>VII.</td> + <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Ming Period—14th to 17th Centuries</span></td> + <td align='right'><a href="#Page_114">114</a></td> </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>VIII.</td> + <td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Ch’ing Period—17th to 20th Centuries</span></td> + <td align='right'><a href="#Page_131">131</a></td> </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'></td> + <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Conclusion</span></td> + <td align='right'><a href="#Page_140">140</a></td> </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'></td> + <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span></td> + <td align='right'><a href="#Page_149">149</a></td> </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'></td> + <td align='left'><span class="smcap">Index of Painters and Periods</span></td> + <td align='right'><a href="#Page_151">151</a></td> </tr> +</table> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 13]</span></p> +<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="14" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr> <td align='right'></td> <td align='left'></td> <td align='right'>PAGE</td> </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>I.</td> + <td align='left'>Sculptured stones of the Han dynasty. Second to + third centuries.<br />Rubbings taken by the Chavannes expedition</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image23">23</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>II.</td> + <td align='left'>Portion of a scroll by Ku K’ai-chih.<br /> + British Museum, London</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image27">27</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>III.</td> + <td align='left'>Kwanyin. Eighth to tenth centuries. Painting brought from Tun-huang<br /> + by the Pelliot expedition. The Louvre, Paris</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image31">31</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>IV.</td> + <td align='left'>Palace of Kiu Cheng-kung by Li Chao-tao. T’ang period.<br /> + Collection of V. Goloubew</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image34">34</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>V.</td> + <td align='left'>Portrait of Lü Tung-ping by T’êng Ch’ang-yu. T’ang period.<br /> + Collection of August Jaccaci. Lent to the Metropolitan Museum, New York. + <a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image39">39</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>VI.</td> + <td align='left'>Painting by an unknown artist. T’ang period.<br /> + Collection of R. Petrucci</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image47">47</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>VII.</td> + <td align='left'>Geese. Sung period.<br /> + British Museum, London</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image51">51</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>VIII.</td> + <td align='left'>White Eagle. Sung period.<br /> + Collection of R. Petrucci</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image59">59</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>IX.</td> + <td align='left'>Horseman followed by two attendants. Sung period.<br /> + Collection of A. Stoclet</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image63">63</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>X.</td> + <td align='left'>Landscape in the style of Hsia Kuei. Sung period.<br /> + Collection of Martin White</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image67">67</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>XI.</td> + <td align='left'>Landscape by Ma Lin. Sung period.<br /> + Collection of R. Petrucci</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image73">73</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>XII.</td> + <td align='left'>Mongol horseman returning from the Hunt, by Chao + Mêng-fu. Yüan period.<br /> + Doucet collection</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image77">77</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>XIII.</td> + <td align='left'>Pigeons by Ch’ien Hsüan. Yüan period.<br /> + Collection of R. Petrucci</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image85">85</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>XIV.</td> + <td align='left'>Bamboos in monochrome by Wu Chên. Yüan period.<br /> + Musée Guimet</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image93">93</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>XV.</td> + <td align='left'>Paintings of the Yüan or early Ming period. Style + of the Northern School.<br /> + Collection of R. Petrucci</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image97">97</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>XVI.</td> + <td align='left'>Portrait of a priest. Yüan or early Ming period.<br /> + Collection of H. Rivière</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image101">101</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>XVII.</td> + <td align='left'>Horse. Painting by an unknown artist. Yüan or + early Ming period.<br /> + Doucet collection</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image105">105</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>XVIII.</td> + <td align='left'>Visit to the Emperor by the Immortals from on + high. Ming period.<br /> + British Museum, London</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image109">109</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>XIX.</td> + <td align='left'>Egrets by Lin Liang. Ming period.<br /> + Collection of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Junior</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image115">115</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>XX.</td> + <td align='left'>Flowers and Insects. Ming period.<br /> + Collection of R. Petrucci</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image119">119</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>XXI.</td> + <td align='left'>Landscape. Ming period.<br /> + Bouasse-Lebel collection</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image125">125</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>XXII.</td> + <td align='left'>Beauty inhaling the fragrance of a peony. Ming period.<br /> + Collection of V. Goloubew</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image133">133</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>XXIII.</td> + <td align='left'>Halt of the Imperial Hunt. Ming period. Sixteenth century.<br /> + Collection of R. Petrucci</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image137">137</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>XXIV.</td> + <td align='left'>Painting by Chang Cheng. Eighteenth century.<br /> + Collection of M. Worch</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image141">141</a></td> + </tr> + +<tr> <td align='right'>XXV.</td> + <td align='left'>Tiger in a Pine Forest. Eighteenth to nineteenth centuries.<br /> + Collection of V. Goloubew</td> + <td align='right'><a href="#image145">145</a></td> + </tr> +</table> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> +<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2> + + +<p>Whatever its outward expression, human thought remains essentially +unchanged and, throughout all of its manifestations, is fundamentally the +same. Varying phases are but accidents and underneath the divers wrappings +of historic periods or different civilizations, the heart as well as the +mind of man has been moved by the same desires.</p> + +<p>Art possesses a unity like that of nature. It is profound and stirring, +precisely because it blends and perpetuates feeling and intelligence by +means of outward expressions. Of all human achievements art is the most +vital, the one that is dowered with eternal youth, for it awakens in the +soul emotions which neither time nor civilization has ever radically +altered. Therefore, in commencing the study of an art of strange +appearance, what we must seek primarily is the exact nature of the +complexity of ideas and feelings upon which it is based. Such is the +task presented to us, and since the problem which we here approach is +the general study of Chinese<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 16]</span> painting, +we must prepare ourselves first to master the peculiarities of its appearance +and technique, in order to understand later on the motives which inspired it.</p> + +<p>While the first part of this study will carry us far from our habitual +modes of thought, the second part will bring us back into a domain which +our own philosophies, sciences and arts have already made familiar. +Admittedly, Chinese painting is governed by distinctive ideas. Born of a +civilization vastly different from our own, it may at times appear in a +guise that seems incomprehensible. It would be astonishing, however, if +Western intelligence were unable to grasp an aesthetic code of a magnitude +which is too great to be ignored.</p> + +<p>The progress of history and of criticism has given us the opportunity to +reach a comprehension of the most peculiar formulas. Our culture is +sufficiently broad to allow us to perceive the beauty of an Egyptian +fresco or an Assyrian bas-relief as well as of a Byzantine mosaic or a +painting of the Renaissance. We have therefore no excuse for remaining +inaccessible to the art of the Far East and we have surely all the mental +vigor that is requisite in order to accustom ourselves to the foreign +nature of its presentation. It is in the realm of painting that this +foreign element is most noticeable. This is due partly to a special +technique and partly to the nature of the doctrines which serve as its +inspiration.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 17]</span>It behooves us then to acquaint +ourselves with these new aspects of the human soul. That is the justification +for this little book. It forms an introduction in which gaps are shown without +attempt at concealment and is presented in all modesty.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 19]</span></p> +<h2>PART ONE<br />TECHNIQUE</h2> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> +<h2>I. EQUIPMENT OF THE PAINTER</h2> + + +<p>Where our painters have chosen wood or canvas as a ground, the Chinese +have employed silk or paper. While our art recognizes that drawing itself, +quite apart from painting, is a sufficient objective, drawing and painting +have always been closely intermingled in the Far East. While the mediums +used in Europe for painting in color, distemper, tempera and oil, led to +an exact study of form, the colors employed by the Orientals—at times +brilliant, at times subdued with an almost studied restraint—preserved a +singular fluidity and lent themselves to undefined evanescences which gave +them a surprising charm.</p> + +<p>The early paintings were generally done on cotton, coarse silk or paper. +In the eighth century, under the T’ang dynasty, the use of finer silk +began. The dressing was removed with boiling water, the silk was then +sized and smoothed with a paddle. The use of silken fabric of the finest +weave, prepared with a thick sizing, became general during the Sung +dynasty. Papers were made of vegetable fibres, principally of bamboo. +Being prepared, as was the silk, with a sizing of alum, they became +practically <span class='pagenum'>[Pg 22]</span>indestructible. Upon these +silks and papers the painter worked with brush and Chinese ink, +<a name="FNanchor_1_2" id="FNanchor_1_2"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_1_2" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> color being introduced with more +or less freedom or restraint.</p> + +<p>The brushes are of different types. Each position of the brush conforms +to a specific quality of the line, either sharp and precise or broad and +quivering, the ink spreading in strong touches or thinning to delicate +shades.</p> + +<p>The colors are simple, of mineral or vegetable origin. Chinese painters +have always avoided mixing colors so far as possible. From malachite they +obtained several shades of green, from cinnabar or sulphide of mercury, a +number of reds. They knew also how to combine mercury, sulphur and potash +to produce vermilion. From peroxide of mercury they drew coloring powders +which furnished shades ranging from brick red to orange yellow. During the +T’ang dynasty coral was ground to secure a special red, while white was +extracted from burnt oyster shells. White lead was later substituted for +this lime white. Carmine lake they obtained from madder, yellows from +the sap of the rattan, blues from indigo. To these must<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 25]</span> +be added the different shades of Chinese ink and lastly, gold in leaf and in powder.</p> + +<p> <a name="image23" id="image23"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/img023.jpg"> +<img src="images/img023_th.jpg" width="400" height="274" alt="Plate I" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE I. SCULPTURED STONES OF THE HAN DYNASTY<br /> +Second to Third Centuries. Rubbings taken by the Chavannes Expedition.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>The brush-stroke in the painting of the Far East is of supreme importance. +We know that this could not be otherwise if we recall that the characters +in Chinese writing are ideographs, not actually <em>written</em>, but rather +<em>drawn</em>. The stroke is not a mere formal, lifeless sign. It is an +expression in which is reflected the beauty of the thought that inspired +it as well as the quality of the soul of him who gives it form. In +writing, as in painting, it reveals to us the character and the conception +of its author. Placed at the service of certain philosophical ideas, which +will be set forth later on, this technique was bound to lead to a special +code of Aesthetics. The painter seeks to suggest with an unbroken line the +fundamental character of a form. His endeavor, in this respect, is to +simplify the objective images of the world to the extreme, replacing them +with ideal images, which prolonged meditation shall have freed from every +non-essential. It may therefore be readily understood how the brush-stroke +becomes so personal a thing, that in itself it serves to reveal the hand +of the master. There is no Chinese book treating of painting which does +not discuss and lay stress upon the value of its aesthetic code.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p> +<h2>II. REPRESENTATION OF FORMS</h2> + + +<p>It has often been said that in Chinese painting, as in Japanese painting, +perspective is ignored. Nothing is further from the truth. This error +arises from the fact that we have confused one system of perspective with +perspective as a whole. There are as many systems of perspective as there +are conventional laws for the representation of space.</p> + +<p>The practice of drawing and painting offers the student the following +problem in descriptive geometry: <em>to represent the three dimensions of +space by means of a plane surface of two dimensions</em>. The Egyptians and +Assyrians solved this problem by throwing down vertical objects upon one +plane, which demands a great effort of abstraction on the part of the +observer. European perspective, built up in the fifteenth century upon +the remains of the geometric knowledge of the Greeks, is based on the +monocular theory used by the latter. In this system, it is assumed that +the picture is viewed with the eye fixed on a single point. Therefore +the conditions of foreshortening—or distorting the actual dimensions +according to the angle from which they are seen—are governed by placing +in harmony the distance of the eye from the scheme of the<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 29]</span> +picture, the height of the eye in relation to the objects to be depicted, and the +relative position of these objects with reference to the surface employed.</p> + +<p> <a name="image27" id="image27"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/img027.jpg"> +<img src="images/img027_th.jpg" width="400" height="260" alt="Plate II" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE II. PORTION OF A SCROLL BY KU K’AI-CHIH<br /> +British Museum, London.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>But, in assuming that the picture is viewed with the eye fixed on a single +point, we put ourselves in conditions which are not those of nature. The +European painter must therefore compromise with the exigencies of +binocular vision, modify the too abrupt fading of forms and, in fine, +evade over-exact principles. Thus he arrives at a <em>perspective de +sentiment</em>, which is the one used by our masters.</p> + +<p>Chinese perspective was formulated long before that of the Europeans and +its origins are therefore different. It was evolved in an age when the +method of superimposing different registers to indicate different planes +was still being practiced in bas-reliefs. The succession of planes, one +above the other, when codified, led to a system that was totally different +from our monocular perspective. It resulted in a perspective as seen from +a height. No account is taken of the habitual height of the eye in +relation to the picture. The line of the horizon is placed very high, +parallel lines, instead of joining at the horizon, remain parallel, and +the different planes range one above the other in such a way that the +glance embraces a vast space. Under these conditions, the picture becomes +either high and narrow—a hanging picture—to show the successive planes, +or broad in the form of a scroll, unrolling to reveal an endless<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 30]</span> +panorama. These are the two forms best known under their Japanese names +of <em>kakemono</em> and <em>makimono</em>. +<a name="FNanchor_2_3" id="FNanchor_2_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_3" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>But the Chinese painter must attenuate the forms where they are parallel, +give a natural appearance to their position on different levels and +consider the degree of their reduction demanded by the various planes. +Even he must compromise with binocular vision and arrive at a <em>perspective +de sentiment</em> which, like our own, while scientifically false, is +artistically true. To this linear perspective is added moreover an +atmospheric perspective.</p> + +<p>Having elected from a very early time to paint in monochrome, Chinese +painters were led by the nature of this medium to seek to express +atmospheric perspective by means of tone values and harmony of shading +instead of by color. Thus they were familiar with chiaroscuro before the +European painters. Wang Wei established the principles of atmospheric +perspective in the eighth century. He explains how tints are graded, how +the increasing thickness of layers of air deprives distant objects of +their true coloring, substituting a bluish tinge, and how forms become +indistinct in proportion as their distance from the observer increases. +His testimony in this respect is similar to that of Leonardo da Vinci in +his “Treatise on Painting.”</p> + +<p> <a name="image31" id="image31"></a><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 31]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 175px;"> +<a href="images/img031.jpg"> +<img src="images/img031_th.jpg" width="175" height="400" alt="Plate III" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE III. KWANYIN. EIGHTH TO TENTH CENTURIES<br /> +Painting brought from Tun-huang by the Pelliot Expedition. The Louvre, Paris.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> +<h2>III. DIVISION OF SUBJECTS</h2> + + +<p>The Chinese divide the subjects of painting into four principal classes, +as follows:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">Landscape.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">Man and Objects.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">Flowers and Birds.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">Plants and Insects.</span></p> + +<p>Nowhere do we see a predominant place assigned to the drawing or painting +of the human figure. This alone is sufficient to mark the wide difference +between Chinese and European painting.</p> + +<p>The exact name for <em>Landscape</em> is translated by the words <em>mountain and +water picture</em>. They recall the ancient conception of Creation on which +the Oriental system of the world is founded. The mountain exemplifies the +teeming life of the earth. It is threaded by veins wherein waters +continuously flow. Cascades, brooks and torrents are the outward evidence +of this inner travail. By its own superabundance of life, it brings forth +clouds and arrays itself in mists, thus being a manifestation of the two +principles which rule the life of the universe.</p> + +<p>The second class, <em>Man and Objects</em>, must be understood principally as +concerning man, his works, his<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 34]</span> belongings, +and, in a general sense, all things created by the hand of man, in combination +with landscape. This was the convention in early times when the first painters +whose artistic purpose can be formulated with certainty, portrayed the history of the +legendary beings of Taoism,—the genii and fairies dwelling amidst an +imaginary Nature. The records tell us, to be sure, that the early masters +painted portraits, but it was at a later period that <em>Man and Objects</em> +composed a class distinct from <em>Landscape</em>, a period responsible for those +ancestral portraits painted after death, which are almost always +attributable to ordinary artisans. Earlier they endeavored to apply to +figure painting the methods, technique and laws established for an +ensemble in which the thought of nature predominated. Special rules +bearing on this subject are sometimes found of a very early date but there +is no indication that they were collected into a definite system until the +end of the seventeenth century. Up to the present time our only knowledge +of their content is through a small treatise published at the beginning of +the nineteenth century.</p> + +<p>The third class, <em>Flowers and Birds</em>, deals with those paintings wherein +the Chinese gave rein to their fancy for painting the bird in conjunction +with the plant life associated with its home and habits. The bird is +treated with a full understanding of its life, and flowers are studied +with such a comprehension of their essential structure that a botanist +can readily<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 37]</span> detect the characteristics typical +of a species, despite the simplifications which an artist always imposes on the +complexity of forms.</p> + +<p> <a name="image34" id="image34"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 327px;"> +<a href="images/img034.jpg"> +<img src="images/img034_th.jpg" width="327" height="400" alt="Plate IV" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE IV. PALACE OF KIU CHENG-KUNG BY LI CHAO-TAO<br /> +T’ang Period. Collection of V. Goloubew.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>This general class is subdivided. The epidendrum, the iris, the orchis +and the chrysanthemum became special studies each of which had its own +masters, both from the standpoint of painting itself, and of the +application of the aesthetic rules which govern this art. The bamboo and +the plum tree are also allied to this class. Under the influence of +philosophic and symbolic ideas they furnished a special category of +subjects to the imagination of the painter and form a division apart which +has its own laws and methods, regarding which the Chinese treatises on +Aesthetics inform us fully.</p> + +<p>Finally, the fourth class, <em>Plants and Insects</em>, is based upon the same +conception as that of <em>Flowers and Birds</em>. The insect is represented with +the plant which is his habitat when in the stage of caterpillar and larva, +or flying above the flowers and plants upon which he subsists on reaching +the stage of butterfly and insect. Certain books add to this fourth class +a subdivision comprising fishes.</p> + +<p>Lastly we must note that in the Far East, as in Europe, there is a special +class to be taken into consideration, <em>Religious paintings</em>. In China, +this refers almost exclusively to Buddhist paintings.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p> +<h2>IV. INSPIRATION</h2> + + +<p>The aesthetic conceptions of the Far East have been deeply influenced by a +special philosophy of nature. The Chinese consider the relation of the two +principles, male and female, the <em>yang</em> and the <em>yin</em>, as the source of +the universe. Detached from the primordial unity, they give birth to the +forms of this world by ever varying degrees of combination. Heaven +corresponds to the male principle, earth to the female principle. +Everything upon the earth, beings, plants, animals or man is formed by the +mingling of <em>yang</em> and <em>yin</em>. While the mountain, enveloped in mists, +recalls the union of these two principles, the legend of forces thus +revealed by no means pauses here. Fabulous or real, the animals and plants +habitually seen in Chinese paintings express a like conception.</p> + +<p>The dragon is the ancestor of everything that bears feathers or scales. He +represents the element of water, the waters of the earth, the mists of the +air, the heavenly principle. He is seen breaking through the clouds like +some monstrous apparition, unveiling for an instant the greatness of a +mystery barely discerned. The tiger is the symbol of the earthly +<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 41]</span>principle, a personification of quadrupeds +as distinct from birds and reptiles. His ferocious form lurks in the tempest. +Defying the hurricane which bends the bamboos and uproots trees, he challenges +the furies of nature that are hostile to the expression of the universal soul. The +bamboo is the symbol of wisdom, the pine is the emblem of will-power and +life. The plum tree in flower is a harmonious combination of the two +principles. It symbolizes virginal purity.</p> + +<p> <a name="image39" id="image39"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 170px;"> +<a href="images/img039.jpg"> +<img src="images/img039_th.jpg" width="170" height="400" alt="Plate V" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE V. PORTRAIT OF LÜ TUNG-PING BY T’ÊNG CH’ANG-YU<br /> +T’ang Period. Collection of August Jaccaci. Lent to the Metropolitan Museum, New +York.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>Thus is built up a complete system of allusions similar to the allegories +of our own classics but superior in that they never degenerate into frozen +symbols, but on the contrary keep in close touch with nature, investing +her with a vibrant life, in which human consciousness vanishes making way +for the dawning consciousness of infinitude.</p> + +<p>Buddhism goes still further. It does not even believe in the reality of +the world. In this belief, forms are but transitory, the universe an +illusion forever flowing into an unending future. Outside of the supreme +repose, in the six worlds of desire,<a name="FNanchor_3_4" id="FNanchor_3_4"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_3_4" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> the things that are susceptible to +pain and death pursue their evolution. Souls travel this closed cycle +under the most diverse forms, from hell to the gods, advancing or +retreating, in accordance with the good deeds or errors<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 42]</span> +committed in previous existences. A stone, a plant, an insect, a demon, or a god are +only illusory forms, each encompassing an identical soul on its way to +deliverance, as it is caught at different stages of its long calvary and +imprisoned through original sin and the instinctive desire for life. +Whence we see emerging a new feeling of charity which embraces all beings. +Their moral character is felt to be the same as that of man, their goal is +the same, and in the vast world of illusion each seeks to fulfill the same +destiny.</p> + +<p>Behind the changes of the universe the Buddhist perceives the primal +substance that pervades all creation. There results from this an intimacy +with things which exists in no other creed. From inert matter to the most +highly organized being, all creation is thus endowed with a sense of +kinship that is destined to make a tender and stirring appeal in the +artist’s interpretation of nature.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 43]</span></p> +<h2>PART TWO<br /> +THE EVOLUTION OF CHINESE PAINTING</h2> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> +<h2>I. ORIGINS</h2> + + +<p>The origins of painting in China are mingled with the origins of writing. +Written characters are, in fact, derived from pictography or picture +writing, those in use at the present time being only developed and +conventionalized forms of primitive drawings. The early books and +dictionaries give us definite information regarding this evolution. But +while history bears witness to this ancient connection, we do not come +into contact with actual evidence until the third century of our era, +through the bas-reliefs of the Han dynasty, and in the fourth century +through the paintings of Ku K’ai-chih. Here we find by no means the origin +of an evolution but, on the contrary, the last traces of an expiring +tradition.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> +<h2>II. BEFORE THE INTERVENTION OF BUDDHISM</h2> + + +<p>The bas-reliefs of the Han dynasty are almost all comprised in the +sculptured stone slabs embellishing mortuary chambers and of these the +artistic merit is most unequal.<a name="FNanchor_4_5" id="FNanchor_4_5"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_4_5" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> Their technique is primitive. It +consists in making the contours of figures by cutting away the stone in +grooves with softened angles, leaving the figure in silhouette. Engraved +lines complete the drawing.</p> + +<p>The subjects are sometimes mythical and sometimes legendary. There are +representations of divinities, fabulous animals, scenes of war and of the +chase and processions of people bearing tribute. At times the great +compositions display imposing spectacles, a luxurious and refined array. +Now and then attempts at pictorial perspective are joined to some +unrelated scene.</p> + +<p>All this is in direct conflict with the technique of bas-reliefs and leads +to the surmise that the models<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 49]</span> were drawn +by painters and copied with more or less skill by makers of funeral monuments.</p> + +<p> <a name="image47" id="image47"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 194px;"> +<a href="images/img047.jpg"> +<img src="images/img047_th.jpg" width="194" height="400" alt="Plate VI" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE VI. PAINTING BY AN UNKNOWN ARTIST<br /> +T’ang Period. Collection of R. Petrucci.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>This impression is confirmed if certain carved slabs are compared with a +painting by Ku K’ai-chih, of which we can judge by means of a copy made in +the Sung period.<a name="FNanchor_5_6" id="FNanchor_5_6"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_5_6" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> One of the scenes of this long scroll +leaves no possible misapprehension as to the pictorial origin of the Han +bas-reliefs. Its subject, a river god on a chariot drawn by dragons, is +similar in composition to the models used by the artisans of the third +century.</p> + +<p>We have, however, better testimony than a copy made at a later period. The +British Museum, in London, is the owner of a painting attributed to Ku +K’ai-chih. The reasons impelling us to believe in its authenticity are +weighty, almost indisputable.<a name="FNanchor_6_7" id="FNanchor_6_7"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_6_7" class="fnanchor">[6]</a><a name="FNanchor_B_8" id="FNanchor_B_8"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_B_8" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> We therefore accept it here and will +endeavor to define the work of one of the greatest painters of China in +the fourth and the beginning of the fifth century.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 50]</span>The painted scenes are inspired by +a work of the third century containing admonitions addressed to the ladies +of the imperial palace. The striking characteristics of these compositions +are the lightness and delicacy of style, the poetry of the attitudes and the +supreme elegance of the forms. Heavy black tresses frame the ivory faces with +refined and subtle charm. The voluptuous caprice of garments in long floating +folds, the extreme perfection of the figures and the grace of gestures make this +painting a thing of unique beauty. Only through the cultivation of centuries could +such spiritual insight be attained.</p> + +<p>If the copy from the collection of Tuan Fang recalls the bas-reliefs of +the Han period, the painting in the British Museum is related to the +bas-reliefs of Long-men, which date from the seventh century and of which +M. Chavannes has published photographs. Therefore we may say that the +style of Ku K’ai-chih exemplifies the distinctive features of Chinese +painting at a period extending from the third to the seventh centuries. +<a name="FNanchor_7_9" id="FNanchor_7_9"></a> <a href="#Footnote_7_9" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>It should also be noted that toward the end of the fifth or the beginning +of the sixth century, the painter<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 53]</span> and critic +Hsieh Ho formulated the Six Canons<a name="FNanchor_8_10" id="FNanchor_8_10"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_8_10" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> upon which the far-eastern code +of Aesthetics is founded. These Canons introduce philosophical conceptions and +technical knowledge which also presuppose long cultivation, for it is only after +rules have been brought to reality in a work of art that they are formulated into a +code. Therefore when Buddhism appeared in China it found there a native +art whose value was proved beyond question by a long succession of +masterpieces. After having exhausted every manifestation of strength and +vigor, this art had arrived at expressions of extreme refinement and +profound and appealing charm, closely verging on the disquieting dreams of +decadence.</p> + +<p> <a name="image51" id="image51"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 177px;"> +<a href="images/img051.jpg"> +<img src="images/img051_th.jpg" width="177" height="400" alt="Plate VII" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE VII. GEESE<br />Sung Period. British Museum, London.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> +<h2>III. THE INTERVENTION OF BUDDHISM</h2> + + +<p>Chinese books state that between the fourth and the eighth centuries “the +art of painting <em>man and things</em> underwent a vital change.” By this they +alluded to the intervention of Buddhist art, which made its appearance in +China toward the fifth century in the form of the Graeco-Indian art of +Gandhara, already modified by its transit across Eastern Turkestan. This +by no means indicates that purely Indian origins might not be found for +it. At Sanchi, as well as in Central India and at Ajantâ such +characteristics are preserved. But the Greek dynasties which had settled +in northwestern India in the train of Alexander, had carried with them the +canons of Hellenistic art. The technique and methods of this art were +placed at the service of the new religion. They gave to Buddhist +art—which was just beginning to appear in the Gandharian provinces—its +outward form, its type of figures, its range of personages and the greater +part of its ornamentation.<a name="FNanchor_9_11" id="FNanchor_9_11"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_9_11" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 55]</span>Buddhism found the expiring Hellenistic +formula which had been swept beyond its borders, ready at hand at the very moment +the new religion was gathering itself together for that prodigious journey which, +traversing the entire Far East, was to lead it to the shores of the Pacific. Once +outside of India, it came into contact with Sassanian Persia and Bactria. +With Hellenistic influences were mingled confused elements springing from +the scattered civilizations which had reigned over the Near East. Thence +it spread to the byways of Eastern Turkestan.</p> + +<p>We know today, thanks to excavations of the German expeditions of +Grünwedel and von Lecoq, the two English expeditions of Sir Aurel Stein +and the French expedition of M. Pelliot, that in that long chain of oases +filled with busy cities, Buddhist art was gradually formed into the +likeness under which it was to appear as a finished product in the Far +East. Here it developed magnificently. The enormous frescoes of Murtuq +display imposing arrangements of those figures of Buddhas and Bôdhisatvas +which were to remain unchanged in the plastic formulas of China and Japan. +Meanwhile conflicting influences continued to be felt. Sometimes the +Indian types prevailed, as at Khotan, at others there were Semitic types +and elements originating in Asia Minor, such as were found at Miran, and +at length, as at Tun-huang, types that were almost entirely Chinese +appeared.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 56]</span>The paintings brought from Tun-huang +by the Stein and Pelliot expeditions enable us to realize the nature of the +characteristics which contact with China imposed upon Buddhist art. It had +no choice but to combine with the tendencies revealed in the painting of +Ku K’ai-chih. The painter trained in the school of Hellenistic technique drew +with the brush. He delighted in the rhythmic movement of the line and the display +of a transcendent harmony and elegance of proportion such as are seen in the +frescoes of Eastern Turkestan. Perhaps through contact with China—herself +searching for new expressions—but probably through a combination of the two +influences, Buddhist painting, at the opening of the T’ang dynasty, gives +us heavier types in which compact and powerful figures take on a new +character.</p> + +<p>From then on we perceive the nature of the great change to which the early +books refer. Chinese painting had already known the genii and fairies of +Taoism, the Rishi or wizards living in mountain solitudes, the Immortals +dwelling in distant isles beyond the sea. It now knew gods wrapped in the +ecstatic contemplation of Nirvana, with smiling mouth and half-closed +eyes, revealing mystic symbols in a broad and apostolic gesture. It had +more life-like figures, attendants, benign and malignant, terrifying +demons. Before these impassive gods, in a fervor of devotion it bent the +figures of donors, men and women, sometimes veritable portraits. With even +greater breadth<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 57]</span> it portrayed the disciples of +Sakyamuni, those anchorites and hermits who under the name of Lohan +<a name="FNanchor_10_12" id="FNanchor_10_12"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_10_12" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> have entered into Chinese +Buddhist legend. Indian priests with harsh, strongly marked features and +wrinkled faces, preachers of a foreign race, disfigured by scourging or +else the calm full visage of the ecstatic in contemplation,—such are the +types that appeared. Chinese painters took up the new subjects and treated +them with a freedom, an ease, and a vitality which at once added an +admirable chapter to the history of art.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> +<h2>IV. THE T’ANG PERIOD—SEVENTH TO TENTH CENTURIES</h2> + + +<p>The T’ang dynasty was the really vital period of Chinese Buddhism. Among +the painters who gave it its highest expression Wu Tao-tzŭ holds first +place. His memory dwells in history as that of one of the greatest masters +in China and legend has still further enhanced the might of his genius. It +is highly probable that his work is entirely destroyed, but by the aid of +copies, incised stones and wood engravings of the twelfth century, an idea +of the painter’s conception can be formed. He seems to have been the +creator of a Chinese type of Kwanyin, the Buddhist incarnation of mercy +and charity. Drapery covers the high drawn hair. She is attired in the +harmonious folds of a plain and ample garment and expresses supreme +authority, the sublimity of divine love.</p> + +<p>If to these fragments of an immense plastic production is added the +analysis furnished by the written records, we can define with some degree +of certitude the place occupied by Wu Tao-tzŭ in the history of Chinese +painting. The books state that the lines from his brush fairly vibrated; +all united in marvelling at the spirituality emanating from forms thus +<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 61]</span> defined. He adhered almost exclusively +to the use of powerful ink-lines and denied himself the use of any color, +whether scattered or prominent, which would have robbed his painting of the +austerity which was the source of its surpassing feeling. But in order to +appreciate the full value of the new ideas introduced by Wu into Chinese painting, +it is necessary to understand the exact nature of the technique that was in +practice up to the seventh and eighth centuries, at the opening of the T’ang dynasty.</p> + +<p> <a name="image59" id="image59"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 191px;"> +<a href="images/img059.jpg"> +<img src="images/img059_th.jpg" width="191" height="400" alt="Plate VIII" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE VIII. WHITE EAGLE. SUNG PERIOD<br /> +Collection of R. Petrucci.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>At that time there prevailed the analytic, painstaking, detailed and very +considered drawing that is common to all periods preceding great +constructive work. This technique admitted the use of two fundamental +methods: one called <em>double contour</em>, the other <em>contour</em> or <em>single +contour</em>. The method of <em>double contour</em> was applied chiefly to the +drawing of plant life in landscape. It consisted in outlining leaves or +branches by means of two lines of ink placed in apposition. The space thus +enclosed was filled with color. Any peculiarities of formation, knots in +wood and veins in leaves were added subsequently. The name of <em>single +contour</em> was applied to drawings wherein a single ink line outlined the +object, the space enclosed being then filled with color.</p> + +<p>If the application of these analytic methods was sometimes carried to the +extreme of delicacy it never became labored. Throughout its entire +evolution the art of the T’ang period is characterized by a +<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 62]</span> sense of the +magnificent. Once the study of forms was exhausted, this type of work was +bound to be superceded. Wu Tao-tzŭ profited by the work of his +predecessors. Combining in a single stroke of the brush, vigor and an +eclectic character of line, with values and fluidity of tone, he brought +to a supreme unity the two great principles by which things are made +manifest in all the magic of their essential structure. But it must be +understood that this patient investigation of forms was not limited to +preparing the way for a single master. The logical outcome was an +independent movement to which the origin of modern Chinese painting can be +traced.</p> + +<p>“Painting has two branches,” the books say, “that of the North and that of +the South; the separation occurred in the T’ang period.” These terms +<em>Northern School</em> and <em>Southern School</em> must not be taken literally. They +serve merely to characterize styles which, in the eighth century, +liberated themselves from methods demanding such close study and exact +definition of forms. The style of the Northern School is strong, vehement +and bold; the style of the Southern School is melancholy and dreamy. The +ideal of Northern China, impregnated with barbarian elements, is brought +into contrast with that of Southern China, heir to an already ancient +civilization, and under the spell of Taoist legends and the bewildered +dreams of its philosophers.<a name="FNanchor_11_13" id="FNanchor_11_13"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_11_13" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p> <a name="image63" id="image63"></a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 63]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/img063.jpg"> +<img src="images/img063_th.jpg" width="400" height="253" alt="Plate IX" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE IX. HORSEMAN FOLLOWED BY TWO ATTENDANTS<br /> +Sung Period. Collection of A. Stoclet.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 65]</span>Li Ssu-hsün and his son +Li Chao-tao (eighth century) are considered to be +the founders of the Northern School. The paintings attributed to them show +the character which the Northern style preserved up to the Ming period and +which was to be emphasized to the point of brutality at the hands of +certain masters in the Yüan period. At the outset, in its brilliancy and +precision, the Northern style held to a certain refinement of line; later +the line is drawn with a firm and powerful brush and strong colors are +applied almost pure.</p> + +<p>In direct contrast the Southern style is made up of half-tints, with a +feeling of reserve and intentional restraint, which gives it, with equal +power, at times a more appealing charm. The lines are pliant, immersed in +shading, color is suggested in a subtle fashion and, in contrast to the +almost brutal emphasis of the North, it finds expression in chiaroscuro +and concealed harmonies.</p> + +<p>The foundation of the Southern School is attributed to a great landscape +painter of the eighth century, Wang Wei. Nothing could better determine +his tendencies than monochrome<a name="FNanchor_12_14" id="FNanchor_12_14"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_12_14" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> painting in Chinese ink. +<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 66]</span>According to +the records, this was first practiced by him. It constitutes what in +China, as well as in Japan, is called the <em>literary man’s painting</em> and +is, in reality, quite closely related to calligraphy. The variety of +shadings and relative colors of objects depend entirely upon the tones of +ink washes. Wang Wei seems to have treated monochrome mainly from the +standpoint of chiaroscuro, in his search for an atmospheric perspective +which should be both fluid and ethereal. It appears that the accentuation +of lines according to rule that is seen later on, where forms are +synthetized—sometimes to an excessive degree—was only a derivation of +the work of Wang Wei and caused by the intrusion of calligraphic +virtuosity into the domain of painting.</p> + +<p>When we arrive at Wang Wei, landscape is treated as a special subject and +with its own resources. It was he who discovered the principles which +govern the fading of colors and forms in the distance, and who formulated +the laws of atmospheric perspective. Paintings in his style are all +executed in a predominating color which the Chinese call <em>luo-ts’ing</em>, a +mineral color of varying shades ranging from a malachite green to a +lapis-lazuli blue. It will be seen why <em>luo-ts’ing</em> gave its name to the +style of Wang Wei.</p> + +<p>By means of bluish tints he painted the distant<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 69]</span> +expanse of landscape. Mountains forming screens in the backgrounds and masses of trees +lost in the distance, are all indicated by the azure tints which intervening +layers of air give to remote objects. But as the foreground is approached, +rightful colors begin to prevail and the azure tints are subtly graded, +passing into a fresh and brilliant green amongst wooded declivities, and +into the natural hue in the foliage of trees. Often heavy mists, spreading +at the foot of high mountains, veil the outlines and still further +emphasize the feeling of limitless space.<a name="FNanchor_13_15" id="FNanchor_13_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_15" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p> <a name="image67" id="image67"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 195px;"> +<a href="images/img067.jpg"> +<img src="images/img067_th.jpg" width="195" height="400" alt="Plate X" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE X. LANDSCAPE IN THE STYLE OF HSIA KUEI<br /> +Sung Period. Collection of Martin White.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>But when a master has carried his study of the fading of colors and of +their relative values thus far, he must have considered not only the +element of color itself, but also the collective tones which color is +capable of expressing. From this to monochrome painting in Chinese ink is +but a step; historical testimony shows that Wang Wei took this step. By +the simple opposition of black and white, and through tone values and +gradations of shades, he endeavored to create the same feeling of +atmosphere and space which he had been able to express with <em>luo-ts’ing</em>. +No original picture remains to inform us to what extent +<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 70]</span> he succeeded, but +by means of monochrome paintings of the Sung period which owe their +inspiration to him, the importance of the reform accomplished, and the +tendencies manifested in those lost works of art may be divined.</p> + +<p>Another master whose work can be defined with sufficient accuracy to cite +as an illustration of a different aspect of the history of painting during +the T’ang period, is Han Kan, who lived in the middle of the eighth +century and who is celebrated as a painter of horses.</p> + +<p>The sculptured stones of the Han dynasty, especially the admirable +bas-reliefs of the tomb of Chao-ling, representing the favorite coursers +of the emperor T’ai-tsung, show the manner in which artists, from the +third to the seventh centuries, were capable of studying and delineating +the postures of the horse. It is therefore not surprising to find a great +animal painter in the eighth century. Beyond question he was not the +first. The written records have preserved the names of several of his +predecessors and while the honor of having been the great founder of a +school was attributed to him, it is possible that this refers only to an +artistic movement bearing his name, of which he was not the sole +representative.</p> + +<p>But the work of Han Kan and the unknown artists grouped around him, +proclaims a powerful tradition, a well grounded school of animal painters +which had attained the highest eminence. It was +<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 71]</span> destined to exert a +strong influence upon painters of horses in the Yüan epoch and even when, +later on, this great tradition is seen disappearing, cloying and insipid, +amidst the mannerisms of the Ming period, it will still retain sufficient +power to carry thus far a reflection of the vigor and vitality attained in +the great periods.</p> + +<p>The painting of <em>Flowers and Birds</em>, and <em>Plants and Insects</em> appears to +have been already established at this time. The flowers and plants are +drawn according to the methods of <em>double contour</em> and <em>single contour</em>, +worked over and brought out with that intensity of analysis to which +allusion has been made. The bird is caught in its most subtle movement, +the insect studied in its essential structure.</p> + +<p>Thus we see that Chinese painting had extended its investigations in every +direction and had solved the problems found along its path. It had +absorbed foreign influences, altered its conception of the divine and +found a new type of figure. It had endowed landscape painting with all the +resources of atmospheric perspective and had established the two essential +styles of the North and the South. The painter was master of the visible; +his thought dominated form and was able to express itself with freedom.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p> +<h2>V. THE SUNG PERIOD—TENTH TO THIRTEENTH CENTURIES</h2> + + +<p>The T’ang period had been the golden age of Chinese poetry. It had +witnessed an extraordinary outburst of religious fervor, and the +overwhelming domination of Buddhism. It had, moreover, triumphantly +re-established the unity of the empire and to the pride of intellectual +activity it could add the pride of might and dominion. But the same cannot +be said for the Sung period. From a political standpoint its history is +one of cumulative disaster. Ancient China retreated by degrees before the +thrusts of the barbarians, until the great thunderbolt of Genghis Khan’s +conquest, reverberating with formidable echoes throughout all Asia, +announced the approaching downfall of culture in the red dawn of a new +era.</p> + +<p>The Sung culture, totally different from that of the T’ang period, was, +however, swept forward to its culmination. It would seem as if, under the +menace of the barbarians, the mind had set for its goal the development of +ideas embryonic in earlier work, formulating them in haste and arresting +them finally in perfect yet sad images, in which the heights attained were +haunted by the shadow of impending ruin.</p> + +<p> <a name="image73" id="image73"></a><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 73]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 196px;"> +<a href="images/img073.jpg"> +<img src="images/img073_th.jpg" width="196" height="400" alt="Plate XI" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE XI. LANDSCAPE BY MA LIN<br /> +Sung Period. Collection of R. Petrucci.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 75]</span>The dynasty opened with a classical +reaction against new ideas and witnessed a return to Confucian philosophy, +with its conception of the State. But centuries of history had not rolled +by without effect. In the tenth and eleventh centuries the ancient writings +were no longer understood with their original meaning. A whole series of +philosophers, of whom the last is Chu Hsi (thirteenth century), had formulated +a composite doctrine resulting in what might be called an official philosophy, +which has dominated to the present day. Some bold spirits, however, opposed this +reactionary codification, struggling in vain to give a positive and firm +structure to the doomed empire. Their influence appears to have been +considerable. Just as the old heterodox philosophy was being stifled by +the dry and colorless metaphysics of the conservatives, it was awakened to +new life by the painters, who gave it a stirring interpretation in their +work.</p> + +<p>The period of technical research was past. At first, with care and +patience, forms had been determined by drawing. Color had remained a thing +apart, regarded as a work of illumination and quite distinct from drawing. +Then study was extended still further. Color came to be viewed in the +light of shades and tones and became one of the means for the expression +of form; it became the very drawing itself,—that which reveals the basic +structure.</p> + +<p>Wang Wei represents the moment when art, emancipating itself from problems +already solved, had<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 76]</span> +conquered every medium of expression. Such is the +tradition which he bequeathed to the Sung artists, who were destined to +add thereto such supreme masterpieces.</p> + +<p>The Sung painters were haunted by the old philosophical beliefs as to the +formation of the universe. Beyond the actual surroundings they dimly +perceived a magic world made up of perfect forms. Appearances were but the +visible covering of the two great principles whose combination engendered +life. They believed that, in painting, they did more than to reproduce the +external form of things. They labored with the conviction that they were +wresting the soul from objects, in order to transfer it to the painted +silk. Thus they created something new, an imaginary world more beautiful +than the real world, wherein the intimate relation of beings and things +was disclosed,—a world pervaded by pure spirit and one which was revealed +only to those whose thought was sufficiently enlightened, and whose +sympathies were sufficiently broad, to understand and to be stirred.</p> + +<p>The painters of the line of Wang Wei during the Sung period, devoted +themselves chiefly to the development of painting in monochrome. They +pursued the study of relations of tones and values of shading up to the +limit of extreme delicacy, and if they mingled color at all with their +subtle evocations, it was with a feeling of unequalled restraint. They +dwelt for the most part in intimacy with Nature. +<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 79]</span>Fleeing from the cares +of court and city, they retired into mountain solitudes, meditating for +long periods before taking up the brush to paint. Thus they portrayed +those mountains enveloped in mists, wherein was revealed the harmony of +the two principles which control the universe. From the depths of valleys +misty vapors arose and cedars and gigantic pines reared their majestic +forms, while, on the threshold of a thatched cabin upon some rocky +plateau, a hermit deep in meditation contemplated the vast expanse of a +landscape of august grandeur.</p> + +<p> <a name="image77" id="image77"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 261px;"> +<a href="images/img077.jpg"> +<img src="images/img077_th.jpg" width="261" height="400" alt="Plate XII" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE XII. MONGOL HORSEMAN RETURNING FROM THE HUNT<br /> +By Chao Mêng-fu. Yüan Period. Doucet Collection.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>Sometimes, turning to plant forms, they painted the bamboo in black and +white. A single masterly stroke sufficed to draw the cylindrical stalk +from one joint to another, or the pointed leaves which are so quivering +with life that we seem to hear the plaintive voice of the wind “combed,” +as the Chinese writings express it, “by the reeds.” Or again, when a +flower was the subject, they suggested it with a simplicity that +presupposes a scientifically exact study of forms. It was by no means the +splendid image which they sought to grasp but the soul itself; at one time +the flower barely open in all its enchanting freshness, at another the +softened petals drooping in languid fashion, revealing a splendor still +present but soon to fade; at times the dew moistening the leaves, the snow +shrouding them with its purity, or the slow monotonous rain beneath which +they drip, motionless. These paintings are always instinct with deep +poetic feeling.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 80]</span>At the hands of the Sung painters the +school of landscape and monochrome technique attained a level which will never +be exceeded. The masters of this period are numerous and are frequently +represented by works of almost certain authenticity. It seems useless to assemble +here names which will convey no meaning to the European reader. It will suffice to +illustrate by a few great figures the three centuries of history during which Chinese +landscape painting reached its culminating point.</p> + +<p>Tung Yüan and Chü Jan are considered by the critics as having founded a +special school in the great tradition of Wang Wei. Their paintings were +quiet in coloring and were executed with broad strokes in an impressionist +style. These works must be viewed from a distance to see their apparent +violence merge into extreme elegance. They furnish a complete +demonstration of the laws of atmospheric perspective, with its feeling of +distance and infinite space, in which forms are immersed. Here we find +evidence that these painters were the first to attempt the arrangement of +lines according to rule, which led ultimately to calligraphic painting.</p> + +<p>Among the heads of schools cited in the Chinese writings Ma Yüan and Hsia +Kuei of the Sung dynasty must be placed in a class by themselves. Both of +these masters lived at the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the +thirteenth centuries. Their style can be described with accuracy since +original examples<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 81]</span> are extant—both by +themselves and by their disciples—in which their characteristics are fully revealed.</p> + +<p>Ma Yüan is classed with the Southern School by reason of his restraint in +the use of color, his greatness of conception and his technical treatment +of forms. But he brings to his work a virility in which the influence of +the Northern School is plainly discerned. He has a broad stroke and a +masterful manner which place his works in the front rank of all Chinese +painting. His mountainous backgrounds rear themselves with fierce energy. +His old pines, with branches wreathed in vines, would suffice alone to +define his style, so freely do they express the force of plant life and +the proud defiance of the aged tree. He loved the mountain solitudes to +which he gave a new imagery, so authoritative and so perfect that it +served to create a school.</p> + +<p>The influence of Ma Yüan was felt by his brother and by his son, Ma Lin. +Although the death of the latter occurred under the Mongolian dynasty, he +was an exponent of Sung art. The fierce energy of the old master gives way +to a somewhat more melancholy and gentle quality in his son. There is the +same restraint in the handling of the brush, the same reserve in the use +of color, but the landscape stretches out into deep and dreamy vistas that +are indescribably poetic. The melancholy of autumn, the sadness of flights +of birds that circle in the evening light, the<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 82]</span> +feeling of seclusion and silence, such are the things in which this poetic spirit +finds its joy, true heir of the master mind whose genius found expression in +the wild aspects of nature.</p> + +<p>The school of Ma dominated the entire subsequent period and his influence +extended as far as Korea, where traces of it were still to be found as +late as the fifteenth century. As the history of Korean painting becomes +better known, we shall be able to say with more accuracy what it owes to +other Chinese masters; but in so far as those mentioned are concerned, +their influence appears to have been sufficiently strong to impress a +certain type on fragmentary works from Korea which have become known to us +recently.</p> + +<p>We are far from being as well informed regarding Hsia Kuei, but we have +that which is worth more than written records, a few paintings preserved +in Japanese collections, which it seems legitimate to attribute to him +without reservation. It is readily seen why his name is always linked with +that of Ma Yüan. His work shows the same energy and power and discloses an +ideal which is similar to that of his confrère. He seems to have +penetrated even further than Ma Yüan along the path of daring +simplifications, and to have approached at times the calligraphic style. +He painted both landscape and figures and was skilled in obtaining strange +effects, as if of color, through his use of monochrome.</p> + +<p>Another painter whose name dominates the history<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 83]</span> +of this time and whose work serves to characterize a special aspect is Li Lung-mien. +It is naturally difficult to prove that all the works attributed to him are +authentic. However, collections in Japanese temples or privately owned, +possess paintings which passed as his at a very early date and in which at +least we can recognize his style. In reviewing the centuries of history, +it is interesting to note that the work of Li Lung-mien is not without +similarity, in certain of its elements, to the paintings of Ku K’ai-chih. +His line is delicate and flexible and he draws his outlines with the same +subtlety, the same grace and the same instinct for harmonious curves and +an extraordinary rhythm.</p> + +<p>The tradition which arose in a period antedating the T’ang epoch was +therefore still unbroken in the Sung period, and I am sure that proofs of +this will increase in number as our information becomes more accurate. New +evidence furnished by the paintings found at Tun-huang and certain +frescoes at Murtuq has recently shown that the type of Buddhist +hermit—the Lohan meditating in solitude—whose inception had, until these +discoveries, been attributed to Li Lung-mien, in reality dated much +further back and originated in the Buddhist art of Eastern Turkestan, +perhaps even in India. From those regions are derived the magnificent +subjects of which Li Lung-mien made use to express meditation. Sometimes +there are emaciated faces, withered bodies with protruding tendons that +outline deep hollows, and again rotund and peaceful +<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 84]</span> figures meditating in +tranquil seclusion. From the written records as well as in his works, +there is every evidence that he was one of those who revived Buddhist +painting. No matter what models he chose to follow, he always gave them a +stress and a peculiar distinction, while from the standpoint of pure art +he had the ability to portray them with finished elegance and majestic +dignity.</p> + +<p>Li Lung-mien was not content to paint Buddhist figures only. He painted +landscape also, and in his youth he had painted horses. A great critic of +the Sung period said of him that “his soul entered into communion with all +things, his spirit penetrated the mysteries and the secrets of nature.” +This critic added that one day he saw Li Lung-mien painting a Buddhist +divinity. The words of the god fairly leapt from the lines; it seemed as +if the brush of the master summoned them one by one into being. Like all +the masters of his time, Li Lung-mien sought to free the spirit from its +outward semblance. Beyond the material, he perceived the immaterial force +which animates the world. As a landscape painter his conception of Nature +was broad and majestic. His graceful and harmonious line recalls the +happiest moments in the history of plastic art, and he challenges +comparison with a facile genius like Raphael. But he includes the whole +realm of nature in his subjects, and in his work we find traces, expressed +with greater breadth, but with quite as keen an insight, of an ancient +and noble art, such as was found almost extinct in the work of Ku +K’ai-chih.</p> + +<p> <a name="image85" id="image85"></a><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 85]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 193px;"> +<a href="images/img085.jpg"> +<img src="images/img085_th.jpg" width="193" height="400" alt="Plate XIII" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE XIII. PIGEONS BY CH’IEN HSÜAN<br /> +Yüan Period. Collection of R. Petrucci.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 87]</span>We cannot leave the Sung painters +without devoting some attention to Mi Fei and his son. The two Mi’s, indeed, +accomplished a far-reaching reform in Chinese technique; they enriched painting +with a new imagery and founded a school which, like that of Ma, exerted an influence +on later periods and was strongly felt in Korea.</p> + +<p>In addition to being a great painter, Mi Fei was a great calligraphist. +This is apparent however little one may have seen of work in his style. He +possesses in the highest degree what the Chinese describe as the “handling +of flowing ink.” He used the technique of monochrome almost exclusively, +and so closely related tone values to the line, or rather to the +brush-stroke, that it is difficult to decide whether he paints rather than +draws, or draws rather than paints. Properly speaking, he does not employ +the line at all but works by masses, by broad, heavily inked touches, +without pausing to emphasize the deep warm blacks provided by Chinese ink. +His manner recalls certain drawings by Rembrandt, also produced by strong +inking, which evoke a strange and magical effect of light. Such was the +spirit in which Mi Fei treated landscape. This technique marks his style +and gives it an individuality that is indisputable. The vehemence with +which he attacks forms, the rapidity of his brush-stroke, the way in which +things spring from<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 88]</span> such energy, call to +mind pictures by European masters, painted in full color, and it may be said +of the paintings of Mi Fei that they are fairly <em>colored</em> by their tremendous +vitality, if the quality of the materials he employed permits the use of such a term. +Therefore Mi Fei and his son are responsible for a new technique, a +strongly individual work, and the creation of a style which marks the +highest achievement in monochrome. The trend which impelled them was, +however, general. Carried to its extreme it led to the style of painting +called calligraphic, of which there has been occasion to speak several +times.</p> + +<p>Calligraphic painting, or the <em>literary style</em>, has its origin in the +studies of Wang Wei when, renouncing the aid of colour, he strove by +harmony of shading and by tone values, to reproduce the vast reaches of +space and all the shifting subtlety of atmospheric perspective. The +exclusive use of Chinese ink necessitated special studies since thus +calligraphy was directly approached. The different styles of writing are +almost drawing in themselves. Each style of writing has its own rules for +dissecting the written character and making the stroke. Now, as is known, +the Chinese painters attached supreme importance to the line and to the +brush-stroke. This was due in part to their equipment and in part to the +fact that the amateurs of art were prepared by their classical studies to +appreciate the strength or the delicacy of a line judged for itself, quite +independently of the forms represented.<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 89]</span> +We must also bear in mind that all of the Chinese painters were scholars, +belonging to the class of the literati.<a name="FNanchor_14_16" id="FNanchor_14_16"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_14_16" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> Writers, poets, statesmen, +soldiers, Buddhist or Taoist priests, and philosophers have all furnished the +greatest names in art. Under such conditions the technical relationship between +the line of the painter and that of the calligraphist was closer, since painter and +calligraphist were frequently united in one and the same person. Thence +came the early tendency to use monochrome and to represent forms in the +abstract, rendering them more and more as mere themes, thus reducing the +subject to a few simple calligraphic strokes.</p> + +<p>It is difficult for a European to follow the thought of the Chinese +painters in these daring simplifications. Sometimes they are carried to +such an extreme as to leave us with a feeling of perplexity. Often however +they give rise to mighty conceptions and<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 90]</span> +paintings whose essential character impresses us as a unique product of genius. +Calligraphic painting reached its highest level during the Sung and Yüan +periods. It was so closely allied to painting that the Emperor Hui Tsung, who ascended +the throne in 1100, founded the Imperial Academy of Calligraphy and +Painting in the first year of his reign. Hui Tsung was himself a painter. +The books credit him with especial mastery in the representation of birds +of prey, eagles, falcons and hawks, which seems to be sufficient reason +for deliberately attributing to him every painting of a bird of prey, even +when there is evidence that it was painted two or three centuries later +than his time. Perhaps before long we shall find authentic paintings by +Hui Tsung. A painting belonging to the Musée Guimet, which comes from the +collection of Tuan Fang, is the one which by its annotations bears the +greatest guaranty of authenticity, but it is a representation of a figure +painting of the T’ang dynasty and gives us no information as to the manner +in which Hui Tsung painted eagles. However, certain paintings from his +collections have come down to us. Whether or not by the imperial hand they +proclaim a virile art, an instinct for the grandiose and a majestic +character which are the qualities of which the eagle is a symbol.</p> + +<p>The foundation of the Academy of Calligraphy and Painting had results +quite other than those hoped for by its founder. It became imbued with the +evils of<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 91]</span> formalism. It was established +in the imperial capital in court surroundings, in other words, in an atmosphere +from which true artists depart with all possible speed. It suffered inevitably +through the influences of a taste, refined it is true, but which already inclined +toward mannerisms and preciosity. Conventions were established, subjects +became stereotyped, the taste for brilliant colors developed and, even +before the end of the Sung period, there was a marked division between +academic and national art. Pedantry and affectation began to take the +place of boldness and strength.</p> + +<p>Doubtless this tendency would have developed still further but for a +series of disasters and the menace of a new dynasty looming on the horizon +of Central Asia, which was already resounding with the clash of Mongol +arms.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> +<h2>VI. THE YÜAN PERIOD—THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES</h2> + + +<p>From the standpoint of civilization the Mongolian dynasty of Yüan brought +nothing to China. On the contrary, the foreign elements were absorbed by +the ancient culture for, in the final summing-up, the mind will always be +stronger than weapons. From the standpoint of painting, however, this +period has marked individuality.</p> + +<p>The Sung period had been distinctly dominated by the ideals of Southern +China. Philosophical inspiration had proven too strong to permit the style +of the Northern School to assert absolute sway. In this we must make an +exception of Buddhist painting, which,—save in the work of a few chance +painters of religious subjects—continues the traditions of the T’ang +period, preserving the original character of its coloring. It is true that +there were masterpieces to the credit of the Northern School but it had by +no means kept to the style of vivid illumination which marked its +inception.<a name="FNanchor_15_17" id="FNanchor_15_17"></a> +<a href="#Footnote_15_17" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> It had yielded to the influence +<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 95]</span> of the Southern style, +was simplified by this contact and took on the austerity and proportion of +the South. It would seem as if the painters hastened to add their +testimony before the philosophy of the ancient sages should disappear. +They strove to give the world perfect images in which the great principles +of the universe could be felt vibrating. The only suitable medium for such +expression was the technique of the Southern School which they followed +with more or less fidelity.</p> + +<p> <a name="image93" id="image93"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/img093.jpg"> +<img src="images/img093_th.jpg" width="400" height="279" alt="Plate XIV" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE XIV. BAMBOOS IN MONOCHROME BY WU CHÊN<br /> +Yüan Period. Musée Guimet.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>Southern China was at that time the scene of awakened faculties. Shaken to +its foundations by the mystic movement—both Taoist and Buddhist—of the +T’ang period, the Confucian doctrine had lost ground but had not yet +congealed into the rigid official code of a Chu Hsi. While heterodox +beliefs still prevailed, all were free to borrow their prophetic and +poetic meaning.</p> + +<p>When the Mongols came into power, they only carried to completion the work +of conservation begun by the Sung emperors. In their contact with China +they resembled timid pupils quite as much as conquerors. Once emperor of +China, the Mongol Kublai Khan could not but remember his purely Chinese +education. Moreover it was quite the Tartar custom to extend their +conquests to administrative organization, by establishing a hierarchy of +functionaries. The conception of a supreme and autocratic State, paternal +in its absolutism, intervening<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 96]</span> +even to the details of private life in order to assure the happiness +of the people,—this idea, dear to the literary conservators of +the Confucian School during the Sung period, was also too similar to the +Tartar ideal to be denied immediate adoption. Heterodox doctrines were formally +banished from schools. Rejected with scorn as being corrupt and dangerous, +there remained of these doctrines only such residuum as might be found in the +independent thought of artists, who were more difficult to control. +The magnificent movement of the Sung period began to abate; it produced its +last master pieces and gradually waned, until under Ming rule it was to die out +completely.</p> + +<p>The Yüan epoch, therefore, appears in the light of a transition period +connecting the fifteenth century of Ming with the thirteenth century of +Sung. From the point of view which interests us, it did nothing but +complete a work which had been carried on with energy and success by +adherents in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. It strove to reduce +China to a severely regulated State in which all great movements and +impulses should be under strict control. It succeeded. It succeeded so +well, indeed, that the Europeans who came to know China in the seventeenth +century and who rediscovered it so unnecessarily in the nineteenth +century, believed it to have been motionless for two thousand years. There +is no need to lay stress here upon the absurdity of this prevalent +opinion. It has been seen in the past and will be seen in modern +<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 99]</span> times, that the inner travail, the +evolution and the diversity are by no means arrested. Like the nations +of Europe, China has had its evolution; the causes were analagous, its +destiny the same. This is especially felt in the history of its painting. +When the potent inspiration of the Southern School began to wane, the style +of the North took the upper hand for obvious reasons.</p> + +<p> <a name="image97" id="image97"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 393px;"> +<a href="images/img097.jpg"> +<img src="images/img097_th.jpg" width="393" height="450" alt="Plate XV" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE XV. PAINTINGS OF THE YÜAN OR EARLY MING PERIOD<br /> +Style of the Northern School. Collection of R. Petrucci.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>Partially civilized barbarians occupied the highest places in the State. +They were the controlling party at the imperial court and had usurped the +place of the old society, refined, subtle and perhaps too studied, which +formed the environment of the last Sung emperors. Despite their naïve +efforts and good will, these barbarians could not fathom an art so +austere, enlightened and balanced. They were utterly ignorant of such a +masterly conception of nature as was evoked in Chinese painting. +Monochrome to them was dull. They could admire on trust, but they could +not understand. On the other hand, the Northern style with its bold +assurance, strong coloring and drawing positive almost to the point of +seeming sculptural, was more akin to their mental outlook. There at least +they found something which recalled those rugs on which they appear to +have exhausted their artistic resources. In a word, they were more +accustomed to the Northern style and had brought with them from the +Northern regions their own artists, both Chinese and barbarian.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 100]</span>The Northern temperament, reflective, +strong and positive, now began to assume mastery over the bewildered reveries +of the Southern nature. Things are seen to change. Even the masters who continue +the Sung tradition infuse a somewhat more robust quality into their works, but, +in so doing, they lose a certain stirring depth which gave the work of their +predecessors such an exceptional character. Caught between these two +tendencies, Yüan painting takes on new traits, which are perhaps more +accessible to European mentality because they are more simple and direct. +These observations apply to the general evolution of Chinese painting from +the end of the thirteenth to the end of the fourteenth centuries. We must +now consider it more in detail, citing by way of illustration a few of the +painters who expressed the spirit of the time.</p> + +<p>At its inception the Yüan dynasty had inherited the last masters of the +Sung period, among them two artists who are recognized as of the first +rank. Chao Mêng-fu—known also under the appellation of Tzuŭ-ang—was +born in 1254. He was a descendant of the first Sung emperor and held an +hereditary post which he resigned at the time the Yüan dynasty came into +power. He retired into private life until 1286, then when called back to +court as a high functionary, he became a supporter of the new dynasty. +Chao Mêng-fu painted landscape as well as figures, flowers and the bamboo, +but he is most celebrated for his horses. Numberless paintings of +horses are attributed to this master; needless to say the great majority +of these are not by his hand.</p> + +<p> <a name="image101" id="image101"></a><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 101]</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/img101.jpg"> +<img src="images/img101_th.jpg" width="400" height="339" alt="Plate XVI" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE XVI. PORTRAIT OF A PRIEST<br />Yüan or Early Ming Period. +Collection of H. Rivière.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 103]</span>As a landscape painter he seems to +have worked in the style of the Southern School, with a fine, simple line +in which may still be seen traces of the ancient tradition that extends back +to Ku K’ai-chih. This characteristic line is found in the paintings of men +and horses where the hand of Chao Mêng-fu is distinguishable. He bequeaths +it to the large school which he founded, and, through his pupils, it becomes the +inheritance of his imitators in the Ming period. It is more than probable +that almost all of the paintings by his pupils, bearing the signature +Tzŭ-ang, are attributed to the master, while his own paintings are +ascribed to Han Kan, painter of horses in the T’ang period. However, among +the numerous works attributed to Chao Mêng-fu, there are a few in which we +recognize the vibrant and flexible line which is seen in his landscapes. +These paintings bear the signature of Tzŭ-ang, in all probability a +false one, but the work of art itself will always be of greater value in +determining its authenticity than the most impressive of inscriptions. If +the technique and the quality of the line are sufficiently similar to +warrant attributing to the same hand the landscape in the British Museum, +and any particular painting of horses, this may be regarded as sufficient +evidence on which to base our own opinion as to his style.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 104]</span>Amongst his grooms and mounted soldiers, +Chao Mêng-fu painted the different races which the wave of Mongolian invasion +had swept into China: Chinese from the central provinces, Tartars, Mongols with fur +caps, Moslems of a Semitic type from Turkestan, with white turbans and heavy +earrings. Whether his subject was the little Tartar horse from the +Mongolian plains or the beautiful steeds of ancient Transoxiana, always +brought as tribute by way of Khotan to the Chinese court, he gave the life +of the horse a singular beauty, portraying him in an equally happy manner +whether in the act of racing or in the attitudes of repose. In his mind +still dwelt the vision of Sung ideals, which proclaimed the hidden soul of +things and valued spirituality and life in a painting. Although we see +marked evidence of the Southern style in his work, his paintings are more +strongly colored than are those of that school. The influence of the Yüan +period begins to make itself felt. It brings out values in colored +pigment, emphasizes its violence and paves the way for a new tradition.</p> + +<p>Chao Mêng-fu has been compared by Chinese critics to his great predecessor +Han Kan. The writings, however, are unanimous in stating that, +notwithstanding his undeniable mastery, he lacked something of the vigor +of the earlier master. When we attempt to compare the two styles through +the aid of paintings of the T’ang period, wherein a reflection of the +great animal painter may be sought, the writings appear +<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 107]</span> to be confirmed +in attributing a more positive and forceful character to the work of Han +Kan or the unknown group of painters around him. But Chao Mêng-fu seems to +have possessed in a higher degree the feeling of movement and life, and to +have been less hampered in his choice of poses. Centuries of study and of +observation had intervened between the great animal painter of the T’ang +epoch and his worthy rival of a later period.</p> + +<p> <a name="image105" id="image105"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<a href="images/img105.jpg"> +<img src="images/img105_th.jpg" width="400" height="348" alt="Plate XVII" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE XVII. HORSE<br />Painting by an unknown artist. Yüan or +Early Ming Period. Doucet Collection.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>Like Chao Mêng-fu, Ch’ien Hsüan, or Ch’ien Shun-chü, retired from public +life at the downfall of the Sung dynasty. He was a member of a group of +the faithful over which Chao presided, but, more decided than the latter +in his opposition to the new dynasty, he was indignant at his confrère’s +defection and refused to follow his example. He lived in retirement, +devoting himself to painting and to poetry up to the time of his death. He +also continued the Sung tradition under the Yüan dynasty to which, as a +matter of fact, he belonged only during the second part of his life. He +painted figures, landscape, flowers and birds. His delicate line is not +lacking in strength, and he seems to have been especially endowed with a +sense of form which approached greatness in its simplicity. Whether the +subject is a young prince or a pigeon perched on the summit of a rock from +which chrysanthemums are springing, the same dignified and tranquil +nobility is asserted with ease. He still used the quiet and restrained +coloring of the Sung<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 108]</span> period and prolonged, +without impairing it, the great tradition that a century and a half could not +quite efface.</p> + +<p>Of Yen Hui we know almost nothing; the books state briefly that he painted +Buddhist figures, birds and flowers, and that he was past master in the +painting of demons. Nothing is known of the date of his birth or if, by +his age and training, he could be classed in the Sung period, but several +admirable paintings by him are extant which serve to show how Sung art was +still interpreted by exceptional masters in the Yüan period. His line is +strong, broader, fuller and more abrupt than that of Chao Mêng-fu or +Ch’ien Shun-chü. The quivering vitality that emanates from his pictures is +thrilling. Whether the subject is a peony heavy with dew, whose drooping +petals presage the approaching end, or a Buddhist monk patching his +mantle, the fleeting moment is seized with such intuitive power that +prolonged contemplation of the painting creates the impression that it is +suddenly about to come to life. There is something sturdier, more +startling, less dreamy in these great painters who continue the traditions +of Sung art; their work alone demonstrated that tradition could be revived +and that ancient China, under the Mongolian dynasty, was still preserving +its creative spirit and advancing resolutely into fertile fields.</p> + +<p>In Huang Kung-wang and Ni Tsan, we approach a different order of things. +Lines began to take on<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 111]</span> +a classical character, to be divided into a +series of different types, which painters adopted according to their +temperament and requirements, and finally became impersonal and academic. +Both of these painters, nevertheless, were under the spell of early +influences extending back to the T’ang artists. Through study of these old +masters they returned to the use of a full and sometimes vivid color, but +kept a profound love of nature, and a fresh and original vision, by which +they still perpetuated the inspiration of Sung painting in a new form. +With these painters, however, new features appeared. Reds and purples +became dominant notes amidst rich greens which set them off and enhanced +their brilliancy. The vision of landscape itself is somewhat more +realistic and less subtle. In all of these essentials Ni Tsan, who died in +1374, brings us nearer to the Ming period.</p> + +<p> <a name="image109" id="image109"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<a href="images/img109.jpg"> +<img src="images/img109_th.jpg" width="500" height="249" alt="Plate XVIII" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE XVIII. VISIT TO THE EMPEROR BY THE IMMORTALS FROM ON +HIGH<br />Ming Period. British Museum, London.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>Simultaneously, though quite apart, marked tendencies of a different +character were evident. The old masters of the T’ang period had again +returned to favor. The vivid illumination and color distinct from drawing, +in these firm and vigorous works appealed to the untutored barbarian. On +the other hand, the studies of the Sung period had not been fruitless; +therefore when, under these influences, the use of color was resumed, the +painters profited by what the practice of monochrome had taught meanwhile. +In the Yüan period appear those paintings which are attacked directly with +a dripping brush without <span class='pagenum'>[Pg 112]</span>preliminary drawing, +the forms being modeled in the color itself. The Chinese called this painting +“without bones,” in other words, deprived of the assistance of line. This +procedure was first used by a painter of the Sung period, but it did not take root +definitely until the time when the practice of using Chinese ink as a medium to +express tones had taught painters how to model forms in color itself, +making the structure depend upon color.</p> + +<p>Seen as a whole, the Yüan period witnessed the assembling, the +concentration, so to speak, of the ardent but scattered inspirations of +the great masters of the preceding school. It produced splendid +compositions in which the golden age of Chinese painting continued to be +manifest. Masters arose and if, in spite of all, they mark a reaction +toward the Northern style, seeking rich and vivid color, they give us a +vision of beauty that is equal to the work of their predecessors.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile grave signs of decadence were apparent. Composition became +overladen and complex and began to lose something of the noble simplicity, +greatness and supreme charm of the old masters. It was evident that the +Yüan painters were working under the eye of the barbarians. They yielded +to the taste of the latter for anecdote, for surmounting difficulties and +for sentimental detail. Thus far there were only scarcely perceptible +shadows and momentary weaknesses, warning signs of decadence; but when +such<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 113]</span> signs are evident, decadence +is at hand, and that which the virility of the barbarians had preserved +was to be lost through the creed-bound dignity of an academic China, which +was imprisoned in a rigid system of rules.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p> +<h2>VII. THE MING PERIOD—FOURTEENTH TO SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES</h2> + + +<p>The Ming dynasty came into power on the wings of national feeling. China +rallied her forces and expelled the foreign tyrants. Without doubt the +nation cherished the illusion of rebuilding itself upon the model of the +past, and the first emperors of the dynasty believed that the empire could +be re-established upon an unshakable foundation. But the Ming dynasty, in +reality, was but the heir and follower of Yüan. The latter itself had been +only a connecting link. It had changed nothing, but had tended rather to +absorb into the Chinese system the Northern barbarians, who up to that +time had been foreigners. It had unwittingly achieved unity for China, +despite itself and against its own inclination. In the administration of +the empire, it had finished the program of conservation which the Sung +dynasty, through impotence, had been unable to carry to completion.</p> + +<p>The Ming dynasty inherited the work of the Mongols and consolidated it. It +survived under their reign and under that of the Ch’ing rulers until the +final disintegration, of which we have but recently<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 117]</span> +seen the results. The peaceful ideals of the Ming dynasty, the marked predominance of +Confucianism as a code of ethics, with certain modifications by Chu Hsi, +combined to form an ensemble that was apparently perfect and which made it +possible to have faith in the excellence of the principles laid down by +the monarchy. Thus a school was formed which had its own philosophy, +manners and ideals, all of them cold, stiff and without spontaneity. It +was an over-perfect machine which went like clockwork. The world was +judged with a narrow and somewhat stupid self-confidence. The ideal dwelt +in the word of Confucian writings, divorced from their true meaning, and +so badly interpreted that they ceased to be understood aright. The +meticulous, bureaucratic and hieratic administration of the Tartars was a +perfect system of government. The machine was still new and worked well, +whence arose a false impression of permanence which added still further to +the complacency of the conservative mind. An art was necessary to this +China. She had it. It was academic painting.</p> + +<p> <a name="image115" id="image115"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 180px;"> +<a href="images/img115.jpg"> +<img src="images/img115_th.jpg" width="180" height="400" alt="Plate XIX" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE XIX. EGRETS BY LIN LIANG<br />Ming Period. Collection of +Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Junior.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>Side by side with this and yet apart, other influences were at work. +Notwithstanding the prohibition of books on heterodox philosophies in +schools, accompanied by the widespread decadence of Buddhism, and the +complete downfall of Taoism owing to gross practices in popular magic, and +despite the disdain of the official world, another element in China was +preserving<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 118]</span> the spirit of the past, the +restless spirit that craved novelty. In all probability its obscure workings +did not appear immediately upon the surface, concealed as they were by the strictly +prescribed screen of official China. They were sufficiently strong, +however, to give rise to an art which differed essentially from academic +art, and which numbered masters who were comparable with those of the +past. In spite of adverse circumstances and the weight under which these +movements were buried, they made themselves felt in violent upheavals. +First let us draw a picture of the decadence of an art and later we shall +return to activity and life.</p> + +<p>Official painting in the Ming period rapidly stiffened into convention. To +understand how it took shape, we must go back to the time of Hui Tsung and +observe the method of recruiting talent in the Academy which he founded.</p> + +<p>That painting was allied to philosophic and poetic thought is already +known. It was always a refined diversion of poets and painters to unite in +a quest for the beautiful. The poet wrote verses and the painter painted a +picture suggesting, sometimes remotely, the thought enshrined in the poem. +Such were the conditions upon which Hui Tsung instituted examinations, +following which the doors of the Academy were open to the victor. He gave, +for example, as subject for a competition a verse saying, “The bamboos +envelop the inn beyond the bridge,” which<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 121]</span> +suggested a landscape with flowing water, a rustic bridge thrown across the stream, +a cluster of bamboos on the bank, a “winehouse” half hidden in the verdure. All the +competitors, the records say, set to work drawing with minute care the inn +which they made the essential feature of the picture. Only one implied its +presence by showing, above a dense cluster of bamboos, the little banner +which in China denotes the presence of a “winehouse.” Two verses of +another poem in which allusion was made to the red flowers of spring were +interpreted by the representation of a beautiful young girl dressed in +red, leaning on a balustrade, for according to Chinese ideas, the thoughts +of young men in spring turn there, as elsewhere, toward thoughts of love.</p> + +<p> <a name="image119" id="image119"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 324px;"> +<a href="images/img119.jpg"> +<img src="images/img119_th.jpg" width="324" height="400" alt="Plate XX" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE XX. FLOWERS AND INSECTS<br /> +Ming Period. Collection of R. Petrucci.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>We have here an example of the subtle allusions, at times profoundly +poetic, with which Chinese painting abounds. But these things retain their +value and charm only in so far as they depend on a free play of mind or +upon personal, living sentiments. As accepted conventions regulated in an +academic competition, repeated with sustained effort and without +enthusiasm, their rigid monotony becomes intolerable. Such was the +ultimate fate of that ability to express by half meanings, to suggest +without directly stating, to which the Sung painters attached so great an +importance. The day it was understood that a little banner fluttering over +bamboos indicated the presence of a “winehouse” in a sylvan retreat, or +that<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 122]</span> a young girl dressed in red symbolized +the crimson blooming of a garden pink in springtime, banners and young girls +dressed in red were seen in paintings innumerable to the point of satiety.</p> + +<p>Thus were established those dry conventions of a somewhat stupid erudition +which were so much the fashion in the academic painting of the Ming and +the Ch’ing periods, and whose great success repressed the artistic +aspirations of a people. Under these influences was rapidly assembled a +complete arsenal of allegories, allusions and symbols that gave birth to +an art which was possibly very learned, but which was inartistic to the +last degree. An academician of the Ming period would have thought himself +disgraced if he had not proven by complicated compositions the extent of +his knowledge of things of this character. Art was no longer anything but +a kind of puzzle. Furthermore, the decadence of eye and hand followed that +of the mind, and there next appeared a taste for brilliant colors, +overladen compositions, and fine and meticulous lines, culminating in an +unbearable nicety. The work of the Academy is summed up in these words.</p> + +<p>Let us turn aside from an art that is inert. It robbed things of the +creative spirit that animated them. We shall now see what was achieved by +those who followed in the steps of the old masters.</p> + +<p>The fifteenth century in China witnessed a continuance of the style +prevalent during the Sung and Yüan periods. Chou Chih-mien, for example, +was true<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 123]</span> to that profound feeling for form, +that delicacy of coloring, and rhythm in composition which were the endowment of +the greatest masters. Shên Chou belonged entirely to the Yüan school, +and to prove that the old ideals were not dead, we have in the fifteenth century the +magnificent group of painters of the plum tree, with Lu Fu and Wang +Yüan-chang at their head.</p> + +<p>As before stated, a special philosophy was associated with this tree and +its flowers. The white petals scattered on vigorous branches had long +typified an inner soul, whose purity was the very likeness of virtue and +of tenderness. Chung Jen, who in the eleventh century wrote a treatise on +the painting of the plum tree, explains in his chapter on “the derivation +of forms” that it is a symbol, a concentrated form, a likeness of the +universe. The great fundamental principles mingle harmoniously within it; +they express themselves in its shape and reveal themselves through its +beauty. Similar to this was the philosophy associated with the bamboo, +which endured up to the fifteenth century. The subtle monochromes of Lu Fu +show branches of flowering plum swaying in the breeze. In the great works +of Wang Yüan-chang trunks of old trees, still bearing hardy blossoms, +stand proudly in the magical radiance of the moon. Vibration and power, +grandeur and majesty, such are the qualities which were still sought +amidst the severe conditions imposed by the use of black and white. Here +we feel<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 124]</span> that the creative force is not +yet spent. We find it equally fresh and vigorous in the ink bamboos of Wên +Chêng-ming in the sixteenth century.</p> + +<p>In landscape, however, new elements appear which mark a decline. I have +already laid stress on the overladen composition which developed in the +Yüan epoch. This was still more noticeable in the Ming period. When +pictorial art has had a long series of masters, a certain eclecticism is +infallibly produced. This leads to the rejection of the direct study of +nature, in favor of viewing it only through the eyes of the old masters. +This phenomenon appeared in China as well as in Europe. The landscape +painters of the Ming period studied the technique of the T’ang and the +Sung epochs and codified their system of lines, arranging them in series +according to types and schools; in short, they drew from these a +ready-made technique by which they were controlled. Turning from nature +they yielded to imagination. They delighted in painting fanciful +landscapes and were inclined toward images that were more external and +less inspired than in the past. Their works, however, were invested with +great charm, and the impossible disposition of their clustering peaks and +oddly cleft rocks cannot but appeal to the imagination.</p> + +<p>In these overladen compositions the unity of the picture is lost. We are +no longer in the presence of a simple and forceful idea, but behold a +thousand <span class='pagenum'>[Pg 127]</span>incidents, a thousand little +details, exquisite in themselves, but which require a search. It is a new +conception of landscape. We may possibly prefer the gripping formula of Sung +and Yüan art, but we are forced to acknowledge that this later work has +great charm and extreme refinement.</p> + +<p> <a name="image125" id="image125"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 234px;"> +<a href="images/img125.jpg"> +<img src="images/img125_th.jpg" width="234" height="400" alt="Plate XXI" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE XXI. LANDSCAPE<br />Ming Period. Bouasse-Lebel Collection.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>To this general trend was added a new taste in color, which became +brilliant and complex like the composition itself, harmonious and graceful +in the paintings of the masters and always charming in the work of +painters of the second rank; but this was the herald of a blatant and +vulgar manner which gradually gained ground until it came to be generally +adopted by the artisans of the Ch’ing period.</p> + +<p>While landscape under the Ming painters was assuming a different guise, +and, forgetful of the observances of the past, was beguiling the mind by +its charm and delicacy, a new type of figure was also developing. Here we +must pause for a moment.</p> + +<p>We have seen that figures were treated before landscape by the painters of +periods preceding the T’ang dynasty. This early tradition had submitted to +the influence of Buddhist art and, while certain of its elements were +revived in the work of a few masters, there is no doubt that figure +painting from the seventh and eighth centuries on, was absolutely +revolutionized. The inevitable result was a new type in the sixteenth +century. Painters studied the line for itself, determined its proportions, +and analyzed features<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 128]</span> and drapery. +As far as our present knowledge extends, their observations were not collected +and codified until the end of the nineteenth century, but the assembled writings +testify that the result of their studies was expressed along the lines indicated +from the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries. Their +ideal was totally different from that of the old masters. The figure +treated for itself with but few accessories became the sole aim of the +painter. He endeavored to show the charm of a woman’s face, the dainty and +elegant gestures, the supple and voluptuous gait, and he grasped the +characteristics and peculiarities of a man’s figure by means of an +intensified drawing. At times, the influence of analysis was so objective +that it resulted in a painting closely approaching European standards. The +taste expressed in landscape was likewise evident in figures. There were +brilliant and harmonious colors, a charm which became exquisite in the +coquettish and vivacious faces of women with ivory skin and brilliant +eyes, of graceful movements, and with long, slender, delicate hands, +incarnations of the fairies of ancient legend or historic beauties whose +memory still lived.</p> + +<p>In a word, the philosophical inspiration to which the Sung dynasty owed +its glory was discarded to make way for the painting of everyday life, a +realistic representation of the world and its activities, which in Japan +gave rise to the Ukioyoyé school, and in China +<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 129]</span> recruited a series of +painters of the first rank outside the limits of academic tradition.</p> + +<p>It would be interesting to study the influence of this movement of the +China of the time of Ming upon the originators of the Ukioyoyé in Japan. +It is certain that the movement on the continent preceded similar +manifestations in the island empire by a century, and it is also certain +that the Japanese empire was directly influenced by the China of the Ming +period. Chinese painters were established in Japan as early as the +fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. There is one of whose family name we +are ignorant and who is known only under the appellation of Ju-sue,—in +Japanese Josetsu. He left China, where the domination of official art +stood in the way of an independent career, carried the traditions of Sung +and Yüan art to Japan, gathered pupils about him there, and had the glory +of being the founder of that magnificent school of which Sesshiu is the +leading exponent. There is only one small painting which can be attributed +to Ju-sue with certainty. This is preserved in a Japanese temple. +Unfortunately it is a work of small importance which, notwithstanding its +intrinsic value, by no means furnishes sufficient information to enable us +to pronounce on the authenticity of several other works which are said to +be by his hand. We find in the latter an extremely individual art, in +accordance with early traditions, but with the addition of something +fanciful and unexpected which gives this painter +<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 130]</span> marked distinction. +Having worked outside of China, however, his influence was not felt in the +evolution of Chinese painting.</p> + +<p>In the seventeenth century Ming art came in contact with the art of the +Europeans. The methods and rules of the Italian ateliers of the end of the +Renaissance were brought to China by missionary painters whose talent was +of a secondary order. The system of monocular perspective and modeling, +strongly accentuated by the opposition of light and shade, made a forcible +impression on the Chinese mind. Indications of this are found in the +Chinese books on art. But the technical methods were too different and the +systems too much at variance to meet on any common ground. Notwithstanding +its effect upon certain painters, the influence of European painting was +on the whole negligible. Father Matteo Ricci worked at the end of the Ming +period under the Chinese name of Li Ma-tu and Father Castiglione, at the +beginning of the Ch’ing dynasty, used the name of Lang Chü-ning, but, +although the former continued to use European methods, while the latter +adopted the Chinese procedure, these were only isolated efforts submerged +in the great wave of Asiatic evolution.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> +<h2>VIII. THE CH’ING PERIOD—SEVENTEENTH TO TWENTIETH CENTURIES</h2> + + +<p>The Ch’ing or Manchu dynasty, whose downfall we have recently witnessed, +brought no new vigor to China. Barbarians once again invaded the aged and +enfeebled empire usurping the methods, history and organization of the +preceding periods. The change in China at the end of the seventeenth +century was only dynastic. The evolution of Ming tendencies continued, and +despite the reorganization undertaken by Kang Hsi and maintained by his +two successors, the excessive requirements of the old system, which had +been formulated during the Sung epoch and definitely established in the +Yüan and Ming periods, were so exacting that irremediable decadence was +inevitable. Thenceforward no great changes in the realm of painting need +be expected. It only continued its logical evolution.</p> + +<p>It is necessary, nevertheless, to lay stress on the value of Chinese +painting from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, for an opinion is +current that, while there might still be something of value under the Ming +dynasty, nothing good was produced under the Ch’ing. It is undeniable that +marked signs of<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 132]</span> decadence are seen in +the latter period, but by the side of some inferior works, others exist +which maintain the vitality of the past and the hope of a renaissance.</p> + +<p>In refutation of such hasty and ill informed opinion, it is sufficient to +recall a number of paintings, signed and dated, of the eighteenth and +nineteenth centuries, which dealers or collectors calmly attribute to the +eleventh and twelfth.</p> + +<p>Chinese painting at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the +eighteenth century was still full of vitality. The taste for brilliant +color gradually diminished, and the composition became broader and more +noble at the hands of certain painters, in whom is seen the revival of the +vigorous race of yore. This was the time when Yün Shou-p’ing, more +commonly known under the name of Nan-t’ien, painted landscape and flowers +with the restraint and power of the old style, and when Shen Nan-p’ing set +out for Japan to found a modern Chinese school which was to rival the +Ukioyoyé in importance and activity. About them was grouped a large +following, foretelling fresh developments.</p> + +<p>No support was given to this movement by the new government, which was +infatuated with the academic style of the earlier reigns and becoming more +and more ignorant as the last years of the nineteenth century approached. +In the eighteenth century a comparatively large number of Chinese painters +settled in Japan, where they continued the traditions of Ming +<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 135]</span> art. The +observation of a Nan-t’ien or of a Shen Nan-p’ing was keen and +painstaking, but the objectivity and realism now coming to the fore, were +conspicuous in their works. No longer was it the world of pure substance +and abstract principle that was sought, but the real, everyday world, the +world of objective forms studied for themselves, living their own life, on +the threshold of which the spirit halted, no longer guided by the old +philosophies.</p> + +<p> <a name="image133" id="image133"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 338px;"> +<a href="images/img133.jpg"> +<img src="images/img133_th.jpg" width="338" height="400" alt="Plate XXII" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE XXII. BEAUTY INHALING THE FRAGRANCE OF A PEONY<br /> +Ming Period. Collection of V. Goloubew.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>This character was maintained up to the nineteenth century. It is seen in +the painting of flowers and landscape as well as in figure painting. These +traits are equally apparent in an iris by Nan t’ien and a personage by +Huang Yin-piao. The latter, working in the middle of the eighteenth +century, evoked the personages of Buddhist and Taoist legend with a +skillful brush, but his daring simplifications were more akin to +virtuosity than to that deep reflection and freedom from non-essentials +which were the glory of the early masters. Herein are discerned the +elements of decadence, which are wont to assume precisely this aspect of a +mastery over difficulties. For such ends genuine research and the true +grasp of form were gradually abandoned.</p> + +<p>Calligraphy and the literary style were not overlooked, but they were +carried to a point of abstraction that is beyond the province of art. A +personage was represented by lines which formed characters in handwriting +and which, in drawing the figure, at the same +<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 136]</span> time wrote a sentence. +Doubtless that is a proof of marvelous skill. I agree in assigning such +masterpieces to the realm of calligraphy but refuse to admit them to the +domain of painting.</p> + +<p>This applies as well to the so-called <em>thumb nail painting</em> held in high +repute under the last dynasty. In this the brush is abandoned and the line +is drawn by the finger dipped in ink or color. The painting is done on +modern paper of a special kind which partially absorbs the paint, in the +manner of blotting paper; this results in weak lines, and ink and color +schemes devoid of firmness, in short, in a lack of virility which places +such works, notwithstanding their virtuosity, in the category of artisan +achievements. These works are numerous in the modern period and constitute +what so many regard as Chinese painting. One cannot be too careful in +discarding them.</p> + +<p>During every period decorative paintings, religious paintings and +ancestral paintings made after death, were executed in China by artisans, +ordinary workmen at the service of whosoever might engage them. Such work +should not be consulted in studying the styles of great periods or the +higher manifestations of an art. These paintings were the first to leave +China and find their way to Europe. There is no reason for analyzing them +here.</p> + +<p>To sum up, Chinese painting of the last two centuries still numbers +masters of the first rank. This alone indicates that the sacred fire is by +no means<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 139]</span> extinct. Who shall say what +future awaits it amidst the profound changes of today? After a period of +indecision which lasted for twenty-five years, Japan has found herself anew +and is seeking to revive her artistic traditions. It is to be hoped that China +will, at all costs, avoid the same mistakes and that she will not be unmindful, +as was her neighbor, of the history of the old masters.</p> + +<p> <a name="image137" id="image137"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 390px;"> +<a href="images/img137.jpg"> +<img src="images/img137_th.jpg" width="390" height="400" alt="Plate XXIII" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE XXIII. HALT OF THE IMPERIAL HUNT<br /> +Ming Period. Sixteenth Century. Collection of R. Petrucci.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p> +<h2>CONCLUSION</h2> + + +<p>This brief survey has shown how the distinctive features of China’s +artistic activity were distributed. Though subjected to varying +influences, this evolution possesses a unity which is quite as complete as +is that of our Western art. In the beginning there were studies, of which +we know only through written records. But the relationship existing +between writing and painting from the dawn of historic time, permits us to +carry our studies of primitive periods very far back, even earlier than +the times of the sculptured works. We thus witness the gradual development +of that philosophical ideal which has dominated the entire history of +Chinese painting, forcing it to search for abstract form, and which +averted for so long the advent of triviality and decadence.</p> + +<p>The goal sought by Chinese thought had already been reached in painting +when, in the third and fourth centuries, we are vouchsafed a glimpse of +it. It is a vision of a high order, in which the subtle intellectuality +corresponds to a society of refinement whose desires have already assumed +extreme proportions. Like Byzantium, heir to Hellenistic art, the China +<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 143]</span> +of the Han dynasty and of Ku K’ai-chih was already progressing toward bold +conventions and soft harmonies, in which could be felt both the pride of +an intelligence which imposed its will upon Nature, and the weariness +following its sustained effort.</p> + +<p> <a name="image141" id="image141"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 225px;"> +<a href="images/img141.jpg"> +<img src="images/img141_th.jpg" width="225" height="400" alt="Plate XXIV" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE XXIV. PAINTING BY CHANG CHENG<br /> +Eighteenth Century. Collection of M. Worch.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>This refinement, arising from the exhaustion of a world which even thus +retained a certain primitive ruggedness, was succeeded by a stupendous +movement which followed in the wake of the preaching of Buddhism. With the +new gods we see the first appearance of definite and long-continued +foreign influences. Civilization was transformed and took on new life. +Then, as in the days of the great forerunners of the Florentine +Renaissance, there appeared a whole group of artists, prepared by the art, +at once crude and refined, of an earlier people. This group set resolutely +to work at the close study of forms, ascertaining the laws of their +structure and the conditions of the environment which produced them. The +period in which the work of Li Ssŭ-hsün, Li Chao-tao and Wang Wei was +produced may be likened to the fifteenth century in Florence with +Pisanello, Verocchio, Ghirlandajo and Masaccio. Similar conditions gave +birth to a movement that is directly comparable with the Italian movement +for, no matter how varied the outward appearances due to differences of +race and civilization, the fundamentals of art are the same everywhere and +pertain to the same mental attitudes.</p> + +<p>The great leaders in periods preceding the T’ang +<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 144]</span> dynasty paved the way to +the culmination which took place in the Sung period, and thus the fruit of +that prolonged activity is seen ripening between the tenth and the +thirteenth centuries. Through the gropings of the primitive period, the +heterodox philosophies and the mystic stirrings of Buddhism, Eastern +thought had arrived at an unquestionably noble comprehension of existence. +The impersonal mystery of the universe, its mighty principle, its manifold +manifestations and the secret which unveils itself in the innermost soul +of things are the conceptions which form the inspiration of Chinese +painting. These lofty thoughts are the source of that spirituality which +declares itself therein with such nobility. The religion to which they are +due will seem perhaps, to certain people, to be broader and less trammeled +than our own. There is no doubt that the entire Far East was under the +spell of its grandeur.</p> + +<p>Up to this point art had sounded every depth and attained the highest +summits of human achievement. Thenceforward it concerned itself with +varying manifestations which were only the different modes of a formula +that was still flexible, until the time when—the great inspirations of +the past forgotten—there appear signs of a spirit on the quest for +realism, emerging from the ancient tradition. This is the distinctive note +in the evolution of Chinese painting under the last two dynasties. It +would seem as if, even in this guise, a universal need of the mind is +being satisfied,<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 147]</span> a need which we, too, +have known after experiencing a chilling academicism, and when modern culture +had overthrown the ancient idols. Chinese painters have thus completed a round +analogous to that traveled by our own artists.</p> + +<p> <a name="image145" id="image145"></a></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 230px;"> +<a href="images/img145.jpg"> +<img src="images/img145_th.jpg" width="230" height="400" alt="Plate XXV" title="" /></a> +</div> +<p class="caption">PLATE XXV. TIGER IN A PINE FOREST<br /> +Eighteenth to Nineteenth Centuries. Collection of V. Goloubew.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>For the Far East as for Europe, the problem now presented is that of a +revival. Bent beneath the weight of the prestige of the past, too learned +in the last word of culture, modern art is seeking to find itself, groping +blindly, full of promising but unfinished works. The time has come when +there are signs throughout the world of a desire for a universal +civilization, by the reconciling of ancient divergencies. Europe and the +Far East bring into contrast the most vigorous traditions in history. +Henceforward there is interest for both civilizations in studying and in +coming to understand a foreign ideal. Though incomplete, these pages will +perhaps help to show that such a mutual comprehension is not impossible +and that, if egotistic prejudices are overcome, apparent dissimilarities +will be resolved into a profound identity. Thus will arise the elements of +a new culture. In coming to understand a mood which so fully reflects an +unknown world, the European mind will discover principles which will make +it rise superior to itself. May this broad comprehension of human thought +lead Europe to estimate with greater justice a civilization numbering its +years by thousands, and to refrain from thwarting the fulfillment of its +destiny.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p> +<h2>BIBLIOGRAPHY</h2> + + +<p style="margin-left: 22%; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 20%;"> +An Introduction to the Study of Chinese Pictorial Art. Herbert A. +Giles, M.A., LL.D., Professor of Chinese in the University of +Cambridge. Second Edition, revised and enlarged. London, Bernard +Quaritch. 1918.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 22%; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 20%;"> +Painting in the Far East. Laurence Binyon. Second Edition, revised. +London, Edward Arnold. 1913.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 22%; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 20%;"> +The Flight of the Dragon. Laurence Binyon. Wisdom of the East Series. +London, John Murray. 1911.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 22%; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 20%;"> +Epochs of Chinese and Japanese Art. Ernest F. Fenollosa. 2 volumes. F. +A. Stokes and Co., New York. 1912.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 22%; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 20%;"> +Scraps from a Collector’s Note Book. F. Hirth. Leiden, New York. 1905.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 22%; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 20%;"> +Chinese Art. Stephen W. Bushell, C.M.G., B.Sc., M.D. Victoria and +Albert Museum Handbook. 2 volumes. London. 1910.</p> + +<p style="margin-left: 22%; text-indent: -2em; margin-right: 20%;"> +Chinese Painting. Mrs. Francis Ayscough. The <em>Mentor</em> of Dec. 2, 1918, +Serial No. 168. New York.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p> +<h2>INDEX OF PAINTERS AND PERIODS</h2> + + +<p style="margin-left: 19%; margin-right: 20%;"> +The following summary furnishes additional information regarding the +painters to whom reference has been made. Those to whom the subject is not +familiar will find this of assistance in placing in their proper +historical order the different trends which have been indicated elsewhere. +They will also find dates useful in comparing, if so desired, the artistic +evolution of China with that of Europe. This, however, is only an outline. +The names of some great masters are omitted, for I have no wish to +overload the margin of a statement which should be kept clear and +convenient of access. I trust nevertheless that these few notes in concise +form will be of use in connection with the preceding text.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><strong>I. BEFORE THE INTERVENTION OF BUDDHISM</strong></p> + +<p class="index"> +The <em>Bas-reliefs</em> of the second Han dynasty belong to the second and +third centuries of the Christian era.</p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Ku K’ai-chih</em>, also called <em>Chang-k’ang</em> and <em>Hu-tou</em>, was born in +Wu-hsi in the province of Kiang-su. He lived at the end of the +fourth and beginning of the fifth century. His style, resembling +that of the Han period, informs us as to the character of painting +from the second to the fifth century. It is such as to indicate a +long antecedent period of cultivation and development.</p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Hsieh Ho</em> (479-502), painter of the figure. He wrote a small book +setting forth the Six Canons or Requirements of painting. This work +informs us regarding the philosophy of art in China of the fifth +century.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 152]</span></p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><strong>II. THE INTERVENTION OF BUDDHISM</strong></p> + +<p style="margin-left: 19%; margin-right: 20%;"> +It is difficult to set an exact date for the first contact of Buddhist +with Chinese art. It may be assumed that the influence of Buddhist art +began to be felt noticeably in China in the fifth century. In the seventh +and eighth centuries it was so widespread as to be definitely established.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><strong>III. THE T’ANG DYNASTY<br /> +<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 618-905</strong></p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Wu Tao-tzŭ</em>, also called <em>Wu Tao-yüan</em>. Born in Honan toward the +end of the eighth century. His influence was felt in Japanese art +as well as in that of China. He painted landscape, figures and +Buddhist subjects.</p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Li Ssŭ-hsün</em> (651-715 or 720) is considered as the founder of the +Northern School. He appears to have felt the influence which +Buddhist art brought in its train.</p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Li Chao-tao</em>, son of Li Ssŭ-hsün, lived at the end of the seventh +and beginning of the eighth centuries. He is said to have varied +from his father’s style and even surpassed it.</p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Wang Wei</em>, also called <em>Wang Mo-k’i</em> (699-759), poet, painter and +critic. The great reformer of Chinese landscape painting. +Considered as the founder of the Southern School and the originator +of monochrome painting in Chinese ink.</p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Han Kan</em>, renowned in the period <em>t’ien-pao</em> (742-759). According to +tradition he was a pupil of Wang Wei. His school possessed in the +highest degree knowledge of the form, characteristics and movements +of the horse.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><strong>IV. THE SUNG DYNASTY<br /> +<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 960-1260</strong></p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Tung Yüan.</em> Tenth century. Landscape painter. He worked in both the +Northern and Southern styles.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 153]</span></p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Chü Jan</em>, Buddhist monk. Tenth century. He was at first influenced by +the work of Tung Yüan, but later created an individual style.</p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Ma Yüan.</em> End of the twelfth and beginning of the thirteenth century. +Member of the Academy of Painting. He was the author of a strong +and vigorous style which characterized the school founded by him.</p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Hsia Kuei</em> served in the college at Han-Lin in the reign of the +Emperor Ning Tsung (1195-1224). He was considered a master of +chiaroscuro and atmospheric perspective.</p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Ma Lin</em>, son of Ma Yüan. Thirteenth century. His work shows that he +painted even more in the tradition of the Southern School than his +father and uncle.</p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Li Lung-mien</em> or <em>Li Kung-lin</em>. Born at Chou in Ngan-huei. He held +public offices, which he resigned in 1100 to retire to the mountain +of Lung-mien, where he died in 1106. Noted for his calligraphy as +well as for his painting. At one time in his life, under religious +influences, he painted a great number of Buddhist figures.</p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Mi Fei</em> or <em>Mi Yüan-chang</em> or <em>Mi Nan-kung</em> (1051-1107). +Calligraphist, painter and critic. He used strong inking in a style +in which the simplification of monochrome is carried to the +extreme. He had a son, <em>Mi Yu-Jen</em>, who painted in his father’s +style and lived to an advanced age.</p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Hui Tsung</em>, emperor, poet, painter and calligraphist. Born in 1082, +ascended the throne in 1100, lost his throne in 1125 and died in +captivity in 1135. In the first year of his reign he founded the +Academy of Calligraphy and Painting. He made a large collection of +valuable paintings and rare objects of art which was scattered at +the plundering of his capital by the Tartars in 1225.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'>[Pg 154]</span></p> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><strong>V. YÜAN DYNASTY<br /> +<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1260-1368</strong></p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Chao Mêng-fu</em>, also called <em>Tsŭ-ang</em>. Born in 1254. Man of +letters, painter and calligraphist. He was a great landscape +painter and in the first rank as a painter of horses.</p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Ch’ien Hsüan</em>, also called <em>Ch’ien Shun-chü</em>, lived at the end +of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth century. He painted +figures, landscape, flowers and birds. He employed the style and +methods of the Sung dynasty.</p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Yen Hui</em> lived in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. His +paintings were numerous and indicate a master of the first order. +He painted many Buddhist and Taoist subjects.</p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Huang Kung-wang.</em> Fourteenth century. At first influenced by the style +of Tung Yüan and Chü Jan, he later acquired an individual style and +was one of the great founders of schools in the Yüan period.</p> + + +<p class="index"> +<em>Ni Tsan</em>, also called Yün-lin (1301-1374). Man of letters, +calligraphist, collector of books and paintings. He is considered +to be one of the greatest painters of his time.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><strong>VI. THE MING DYNASTY<br /> +<span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1368-1644</strong></p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Chou Chih-mien</em> lived in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. His +subjects were principally birds and flowers.</p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Shên Chou</em>, also called <em>Shên Ki-nan</em> or +<em>Shên K’i</em> (1427-1507). Landscape painter. His composition is +at times overladen, as is often seen in Ming art.</p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Lu Fu</em> lived in the fifteenth century. He made a special study of the +plum tree in monochrome. He is comparable to the great Sung +masters.</p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Wang Yüan-chang.</em> Died in 1407 at the age of 73. He painted the bamboo +and plum tree in monochrome. He carried on<span class='pagenum'>[Pg 155]</span> +the Sung tradition, with which he was directly connected, and was the founder of a +school.</p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Wên Chêng-ming</em> (1480-1559), painter, poet and calligraphist. He is +often compared with Chao Mêng-fu.</p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Ju-sue.</em> Known only under this appellation. He lived in the fifteenth +century and went to Japan, where his influence was marked. +(Japanese <em>Josetsu</em>.)</p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><strong>VII. THE CH’ING DYNASTY<br /> +1644-1912</strong></p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Yün Chou-p’ing</em>, appellation <em>Nan-t’ien</em>, true name <em>Yün Ko</em> +(1633-1690). He studied at first under the influence of Wang +Shu-ming and Siu Hi. He painted figures, flowers and landscape.</p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Shen Nan-p’ing</em> lived in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He +was called to Japan in 1720 and founded there the school of +Ming-Ch’ing or the modern Chinese school.</p> + +<p class="index"> +<em>Huang Yin-piau</em> or <em>Huang-shên</em>. At the height of his career between +1727 and 1746. He painted landscape and, toward the end of his +life, legendary figures of Buddhism and Taoism with a technique +that was skillful but often precise and somewhat weak.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> +Now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_2" id="Footnote_1_2"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_1_2"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> +Chinese ink is a very different composition from the ink of +Western countries. It is a solid made of soot obtained by burning certain +plants, which is then combined with glue or oil and moulded into a cake +and dried. Other ingredients may be added to produce sheen or a dead +finish. It improves with age if properly kept. The cake is moistened and +rubbed on a slab, and the ink thus obtained must be used in a special way +and with special care to produce the full effect.— +<span class="smcap">Translator</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_3" id="Footnote_2_3"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_2_3"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The Chinese terms are +<em>Li Chou</em> for a vertical painting and <em>Hêng P’i</em> for a horizontal +painting.—<span class="smcap">Translator</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_4" id="Footnote_3_4"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_3_4"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> These are: the worlds +of animals, of man, of gods or <em>dêvas</em>, of giants or <em>asuras</em>, of +<em>prêtas</em> or wandering spirits, and of hells. Freedom from perpetual +transmigration in these six worlds is attained only through the extinction of desire.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_5" id="Footnote_4_5"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_4_5"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> These bas-reliefs have +been studied by M. Chavannes in “La sculpture sur pierre en Chine au temps des deux +dynasties Han,” Paris, 1893; also in “Mission archéologique en Chine,” Paris, +1910. Rubbings taken from the sculptured slabs are reproduced here in full.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_6" id="Footnote_5_6"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_5_6"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> This painting formed part +of the collection of the ex-viceroy Tuan Fang, killed in 1911, during the revolution. +It was published in 1911 by the Japanese archeologist, Mr. Taki.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_7" id="Footnote_6_7"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_6_7"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> These reasons are set forth +in a work which Mr. Laurence Binyon is preparing, to accompany a reproduction engraved +by Japanese artists for the British Museum.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_8" id="Footnote_B_8"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_B_8"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> The preceding footnote +refers to a work published in 1913 by the Trustees of the British Museum, containing +a reproduction of the painting in its entirety and giving a full description.— +<span class="smcap">Translator</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_9" id="Footnote_7_9"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_7_9"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> A copy of an engraving on +stone of the year 1095, representing “Confucius sitting amidst his disciples” and +another representing “Confucius walking, followed by one of his disciples,” dated +1118, have been published by M. de Chavannes (“Mission archéologique en +Chine,” Nos. 869 and 871). The latter is considered as having been +undoubtedly executed after a painting by Ku K’ai-chih.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_10" id="Footnote_8_10"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_8_10"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Interpretations of the +Six Canons by five authorities are accessible in a very convenient form for comparison +in Mr. Laurence Binyon’s “Flight of the Dragon,” p. 12.— +<span class="smcap">Translator</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_11" id="Footnote_9_11"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_9_11"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> See Foucher, +“L’Art gréco-bouddique du Gandhara.” Paris, Leroux.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_12" id="Footnote_10_12"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_10_12"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Indian <em>Arhat</em>; +Japanese <em>Rakan</em>.—<span class="smcap">Translator</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_13" id="Footnote_11_13"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_11_13"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> These divisions of +Northern and Southern Schools do not correspond, as might be imagined, to geographical +limitations. Painters of the South worked in the style of the North and painters of +the North likewise used the Southern style. Moreover the same master was able to +employ one or the other according to the inspiration of the moment. These +works were produced for a receptive people capable of understanding both +styles.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_14" id="Footnote_12_14"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_12_14"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> “Monochrome is a starved +and lifeless term to express the marvellous range and subtlety of tones of which the +preparation of black soot known as Chinese ink is capable.” Laurence Binyon in “The +Flight of the Dragon.”—<span class="smcap">Translator</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_15" id="Footnote_13_15"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_13_15"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> I have not seen nor do +I know of any paintings which can be said with certainty to be from the hand of Wang +Wei. But from the records as well as from works directly inspired by him, an idea of +his style and technique can be formed. Ancient paintings in <em>luo-ts’ing</em> are found +in Japan as well as in China. The British Museum of London has a scroll +painted by Chao Mêng-fu, in the manner of Wang Wei, dated 1309.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_16" id="Footnote_14_16"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_14_16"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> The literati, +or lettered class, were the aristocracy in what was the most democratic of +absolute monarchies. No matter how humble his origin, anyone of the male sex +was eligible to compete in the examinations which were based upon literary +knowledge and memory of the classics. Proficiency in handwriting was a natural +result. The successful candidate might aspire to any post in the empire, as +official positions were bestowed through literary merit. During three days and +two nights at the time of examination the candidate was not allowed to leave his +tiny box-like cell, lacking even space to lie down. Cases of death during the +examinations were not infrequent. The examination halls in Peking are now +destroyed and those in Nanking with 20,000 cells are crumbling +away.—<span class="smcap">Translator</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_17" id="Footnote_15_17"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_15_17"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> It should be borne +in mind that the author uses the term illumination in the sense of color applied +within a distinct and limiting outline. This is illustrated in the definitions of +single and double contour.—<span class="smcap">Translator</span>.</p></div> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Chinese Painters, by Raphael Petrucci + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHINESE PAINTERS *** + +***** This file should be named 22288-h.htm or 22288-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/2/8/22288/ + +Produced by Dave Morgan, Anne Storer and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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