Painting

According to the records of history, the art of painting in China had its origin early in the Cla ical Period which opened five centuries before Christ, but no specimens from those early days have survived; in fact, the earliest authentic works in our po es i on may be said to date from about the sixth century of our era, although a scroll which is believed to be by Ku K'ai-chih of the 4th and 5th centuries is now in the British Museum, and works attributed to this great master occasionally appear, while the Golden Age of Chinese Pictorial Art, which reached its zenith during the Sung dynasty, (960-1280 A.D.) opened in his day. The division into what are known as the Northern and Southern schools of painting took place under the T'ang dynasty (618-960 a.d.) when men had begun to search for spiritual meanings beneath the outer semblance of their surroundings; the former being founded by Li Ssu-HsiiN, the latter by Wang Wei whose pictures were described as "poems," while his poems were called "pictures." The characteristic of the Northern school is a 'certain virile sternne ; that of the Southern, delicate refinement. Through the succeeding centuries the art of painting, in conjunction with those of musdc and poetry, rose high in favour, and became the acknowledged pastime of the literati and the officials of all ranks. We of the West cannot but be struck by the universality of the talents in those halcyon days, ere the art of leisure had been lost, and we find in the countle biographies of men long dead, a curious monotony in the recital of their accomplishments. To appreciate Chinese painting at its true worth the Occidental must adopt a point of view differing in many ways from that in which he has been educated. He must realize, firstly, that the outlook of the artist is that of a bird on the wing, and that the perspective in the apparently fantastic landscapes he is.studying seems so strange, because in the majority of cases, the painter has regarded his subject from above; he has walked among the mountains, or has remained seated by the window of his rustic dwelling, gazing down upon the scene before him until it has impre ed itself upon his very soul; then, and then only, has he in the privacy of his chamber transferred it to his silk. "I have it all in my heart," was the reply of the great Wu Tao-tzu to his Emperor who had despatched him to depict the beautiful scenery on the Chia-ling river in Ssuch'uan, and who was amazed when the painter returned empty-handed. Secondly, the distinctive attitude which the Oriental a umes towards Nature must be taken into consideration. Here indeed, lies the very crux of the matter: whereas, to the individualistic West, Man is the Centre and Lord of the Universe, he is on the contrary, to the more integral East, but one of the component parts of Creation. The philosophy which since the days of the I Ching (written by Duke Wen of Chou, before 1122 b.c.) has directed the evolution of the Chinese mind, considers "every being in the world, every manifestation of Nature, every genie, every god, as an active part of the great. whole, of that Reality which is behind and beyond the flux of phenomena." This philosophy it is which has given to the Oriental his marvellous comprehension of Nature in all her moods and works, be these of the most trivial. With a flower, a bird, a tree, he feels a sense of kinship which must, of nece ity, be denied to his more sophisticated brother of the West, and the Chinese artist strives to interpret the very soul of Nature, as our portrait painter strives to unveil the most intimate characteristics of those whose features he is delineating. Further it must never be forgotten that Chinese pictorial art is in no sense photographic or objective, in fact it is entirely suggestive and subjective, thus corresponding, in many respects, more to our music than to our painting. Thus the Shou chiian or long horizontal scrolls were intended to be taken up and slowly unrolled, to be slowly enjoyed bit by bit, to present one theme following upon another, completing and resolving that which had just pa ed. The following quotation is from the interesting article "Ink Remains, by An I-chou," by Dr. Ferguson in the Journal of the North China Branch Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xlv, for 1914. "The title of this book impre es a foreign reader as peculiar, but it has the most familiar sound in his own language to a native of China. Chinese speak of ink in phrases where we say pen. The 'power of the pen' would be written by Chinese as 'the power of ink.' Literary product is the product of ink — not of the pen. The title of An's book refers to the writings and paintings which came under his observation. These were the product of ink, the ink of literary men. The copy of the book owned by me is in four volumes, two of which are devoted to records of writing, 'shu,' and two 431 to painting, 'hua.' The a ociation of writing and painting is taken for granted in the cla ification of 'shu' and 'hua' as common products of ink. In this a ociation which is met with in all books on painting in the Chinese language we see at once that painting is linked with writing, i.e. calligraphy, and not, as in Europe, with sculpture or architecture. This distinction is fundamental in the study of the pictorial art of China. Only confusion and disappointment can come to one who approaches this study from the same view-point as he uses for the understanding of the productions of European artists. In China,.he must always remember that painting is the work of cultivated men of literary instincts, and not of men trained in schools of painting. A few good students never become expert calligraphists.... The poet and painter are men who, in addition to being students and calligraphists, have imagination and inspiration. They are not of a separate cla from other literary men, but have talents above their fellows. Th'j ink used for writing poems is the same as that for sketching the mist on the hill-tops, and is not diiTerent from that used in ordinary writing. Ink remains, therefore, are literary remains; only it must be kept in mind that the word 'literary' must be widened in its meaning so as to include calligraphy and painting." Thus in China the arts of poetry and painting and writing are closely allied, and the love of Nature — not only as a delight in pleasant aspects, but as a close sympathy which can identifj' itself with the life of things in nature and value nonhuman existence for its own sake — is inherent in the Oriental soul. HsiEH Ho, m IMG:p431_1.png:Chinese characters A.D. 475, gives the following Six Canons, of Chinese painting. 1. The conception should po e harmony and vitality. 2. The brush should be used to establish the external framework. 3. The outline should conform to the shape of the object. 4. Colouring should be suited to va,rio us forms. 5. Perspective should be correctly conceived. 6. Representation should be in conformity with style selected. In 1100 A.D. we find Paintings cla ified as shen IMG:p431_2.png:Chinese characters miao IMG:p431_3.png:Chinese characters and neng IMG:p431_4.png:Chinese characters 1. Shen, are pictures in which the heaven-inspired quality of vitality is found. 2. Miao, those in which brush work is of high order, colouring harmonious, and where there is grace or charm. 3. Neng, have strength without sacrifice of form. In regard to their size Paintings are divided into five cla es, 1. Ta Chung T'ang IMG:p431_5.png:Chinese characters; 2. Chung T'ang t\t IMG:p431_6.png:Chinese characters 3. Li Chou i. ffl: 4. P'ing T-iiU) IMG:p431_7.png:Chinese characters These are designed for wall decoration and are hung according to certain conventions. The Ta! Chung T'ang and Chung T'ang are hung upon ceremonial occasions, the former opposite the door in the central hall of a Chinese house, the latter, in pairs, on the side walls of this same hall. The place of the Chung T'ang may be taken, on ordinary occasions, by sets of scrolls upon which are written couplets, or quotations from the Cla ics.. The rule governing the hanging of pictures in the inner rooms of a house are le strict, and here we may find on the centre wall a Li Chou which is of a size smaller than the two preceding, while on the side walls may be hung P'ing T'iao — -the small pictures in sets of four — or Heng P'i, by which name are known the highly popular horizontal pictures. Shou chiian IMG:p431_8.png:Chinese characters and Tse yeh j59 H IMG:p431_9.png:Chinese characters the names by which are known respectively the hand scrolls, and the albums; the latter made of long strip?, of folded paper. The names of a number of artists are mentioned in the early periods of Chinese history, but the first artist of whose work we have an example is Ku K'ai-chih gf( ti IMG:p431_10.png:Chinese characters who lived in the 4th and 5th centuries of our era. Under the T'ang noted names, are: Li Ssu-hsiin $.® mi, VVu Tao-tzu IMG:p431_11.png:Chinese characters it:f, Wang Wei IMG:p431_12.png:Chinese characters Han Kan IMG:p431_13.png:Chinese characters Under the Sung noted names are: Fan Kuan, IMG:p431_14.png:Chinese characters %. Kuo Hsi in gg, Li Lung-mien $ IMG:p431_15.png:Chinese characters Mi Fei IMG:p431_16.png:Chinese characters Ma Yuan IMG:p431_17.png:Chinese characters Hsia Kuei S IMG:p431_18.png:Chinese characters Mu Ch'i IMG:p431_19.png:Chinese characters Under the Yiian, or Mongol dynasty noted names are: Chad Meng-fu IMG:p431_20.png:Chinese characters "g IKI. Yen Hui f§ IMG:p431_21.png:Chinese characters Under the Ming noted names are Lin Liang IMG:p431_22.png:Chinese characters T'ang IMG:p431_23.png:Chinese characters Ying ik IMG:p431_24.png:Chinese characters U Wkx Cheng-ming IMG:p431_25.png:Chinese characters Painting during the Ch'ing dynasty has not yet received, from Western amateurs, the attention which, perhaps, it deserves.; Chinese connoi eurs, however, value highly many modern works and pictures of much charm have been produced. Among the many painters of fame the Four Wangs are the best known. They were Wang Shih-min 3; BJ S5fborn at Soochow, 1592; Wang Shih-chien 3E RJ S, born near Soochow in 1598; Wang Hui IMG:p431_26.png:Chinese characters born near Soochow in 1632, a pupil of Wang Chin-chien and a left •handed worker; and Wang YiiAN-cn'i 3E IMG:p431_27.png:Chinese characters M Soochow, born 1670. The four were landscape painters. Besides there may be mentioned YiiN Shou-p'ing IMG:p431_28.png:Chinese characters Ch'ang chow in 1633 and lived at Hangchow. For the lives of the painters see; History of Chinese Pictorial Art, by H. A. Giles. Other works treating of the art in a general way are; Painting in the Far Fjunt, Guide to an Exhibition of Chinese, 432 and Japanese Paintings, The Flight of the Dragon, A Painting by Ku K'ai-chih, all by Binyon; La Philosophie de la Nature dans V Art de V Extreme Orient, Petrucci; Three E ays on Oriental Paint- *"i7, IMG:p432_1.png:Chinese characters Sei I-chi Taki; Chines is che Kunstgeschichte, by MiiNSTERBERG; Chinese Pictorial Art, by Strehlneek; Scraps from a Collector's Note-book, by Hirth; Epochs of Chinese and Japanese Art, by Fenollosa. Numerous publications in Japan give very beautiful and faithful reproductions of thd works of great Masters; such publications are i ued by the Shimbi Shoin Publishing Co., and also appear in the Kohka Magazine, etc. [F.A,]