Landscape painting began in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties (220-58 1) and really developed into Sui and Tang Dynasties.
As the decadent shackles of Confucian classics were broken at the end of Han Dynasty, metaphysical thoughts rose, metaphysical people advertised seclusion, and the beautiful landscapes in the south of the Yangtze River gave people the enjoyment of natural beauty. Gu Kaizhi's Painting Yuntai Mountain records a complete painting idea. The article wrote: "There is a face on the mountain and a shadow behind it, which can make Qingyun spit the East to the West. In a clear sky, all the sky and water are empty and blue, so they are always reflected in the sun. Going west to the mountains, don't elaborate on its distance ... "; Zong Bing's Preface to Liu Song's Landscape Painting embodies his understanding of landscape painting. At the same time, Wang Wei's "Description of Painting" recorded his views. There are also many elements of landscape painting in Han and Wei paintings before Jin Dynasty. In Zhang Yanyuan's Notes on Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties, under the title of "Mrs. Zhao of the Prince of Wu", there is a saying that "Sun Quan tried to sigh that Wei and Shu were uneven, and painters painted mountains and rivers ...", but the scenery painted at that time was only military practical maps and the like. Therefore, the real landscape painting is a landscape painting that formally sprouted in the Jin Dynasty, rose in the Jin Dynasty and formed in Liu Song.
There are not many early landscape paintings in the world. Although some landscape paintings can also be seen in Dunhuang murals and other places, they do not represent the whole picture of landscape paintings at that time, which can be proved in the records of famous paintings in previous dynasties (most of the landscape paintings recorded in the paintings of two temples outside Beijing were made by the Tang Dynasty). Therefore, what we see in the early landscape paintings is generally "the trend of the peaks". "If the cymbals are decorated with rhinoceros combs, or the water can't be flooded, or the people are bigger than the mountains, they are all attached with trees and stones, coaxed to the ground, and cultivated in the ground, then if you stretch your fingers."
However, the literati who specialize in painting have a high literary accomplishment, and some landscape paintings still have a high standard. Judging from the written records of Gu Kaizhi's landscape painting composition draft, the landscape painting at that time had a certain depth, and there were arrangements from front to back, left to right and up to down. Trees, stones, roads and springs will never be "decorated with rhinoceros combs". This can also be confirmed from the stone reliefs in the Han Dynasty. However, the landscape paintings at that time, whether from folk or literati, had a common feature: bright colors, turquoise, and covered with silk or walls. There were complex animals in the paintings, which gradually decreased in the Sui Dynasty and basically disappeared in the early Tang Dynasty.
The emergence of landscape painting is related to the participation of elites and intellectuals. Many intellectuals engaged in painting in Wei and Jin Dynasties. Landscape soon became the main theme of their paintings, because after the literati entered the painting, they were divided into literati and craftsmen. Sheikh commented on Liu Shaozuyun in the book "Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties": "If you hurt your teacher, you will lack your body." You Yan Jing Yun: "Not close to the master, it's all academic." Zong Bing and Wang Wei's painting theory also reflected the thoughts and feelings of literati, and became the originator of literati painting in later generations.
The development of landscape painting is first manifested in the large-scale construction in Sui and early Tang dynasties, that is, a large number of palaces and pavilions. When designing a building, it is necessary to draw a lot of landscape backgrounds until the "Two Swallows" (Yan Liben and Yan Lide) and "Gradual Attachment" in the early Tang Dynasty, which shows that landscape painting is separated from the palace architectural drawings. "Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties" Volume I "Painting Landscape Trees and Stones" has a cloud: "In the second day of the country, Yan Shan made a beautiful craftsman, learned from Yang, exhibited, gathered in the palace, and gradually attached." However, the scenery, stones and trees painted by "Er Yan" were immature and were later inherited by "Li Er" (Li Sixun and Li Zhaodao).
Zhan Ziqian, who lived in the Northern Qi, Zhou and Sui Dynasties, is regarded as his masterpiece You Chuntu. It can be seen that there is no way to describe mountains and rivers and people with green filling colors, which reflects the ability to describe natural scenery simply and truly, indicating that landscape painting tends to be mature. Created the end of the green landscape. This style of painting was inherited by later palace paintings and folk religious paintings. Li Sixun (65 1-7 18) and Li Zhaodao in the early Tang Dynasty directly inherited and developed Zhan Ziqian's landscape painting art, which was praised by the Tang people as "the best landscape in the world", and his masterpiece was Sailing on the Pavilion on the River. Li Zhaodao is known as "General Xiao Li" in history, and "Lucky Map of Ming Taizu" may be his original work.
Li Sixun's landscape painting only developed from Zhan Zi's piety, and the lines are still traditional "spring silkworm spinning" style, thin and even, lacking a certain momentum. And Li Zhaodao later "changed his father's inclination", and put pen to paper very thick, beautiful and powerful, with momentum. In the Ming Dynasty, Zhan Jingfeng's Preface to the Picture of Zhan Dong recorded: "Li Zhaodao's Peach Blossom Garden is large in silk, green and heavy in color, very thick and beautiful. The stone mountain is inked first, green, indigo, bitter and green, and the axe is chopped. The distant mountains are green and dripping, but they are covered with hemp. Spring water is lined with powder, and heavy powder is reused. Indigo flowers are used to divide the waterline on the powder. Spring is a small ridge, and the ridge is also lined with powder. Indigo flowers are used to divide water lines, such as spring streams, without powder. It opened a spring at the bottom of two cliffs, and then at the intersection of stone walls, there was a spring ditch in the middle, with Jiao Mo lining on both sides, which meant that the ink was white. It was at the end of the Tang Dynasty that there was no such avalanche. On the slope at the foot of the mountain, ochre is also commonly used, divided into two pieces of gold. Sketch tree, thick pen, not very thin. Ink is colored, and the color is also marked with bitter green. Generally speaking, Gauguin is not a skillful work. If you paint an axe and roll pods by Zhao Dao in Li See, the Peach Blossom Garden is the oldest, but unfortunately it is exquisite and natural, with rich and simple colors. It is definitely impossible for future generations to falsify. " So the change of landscape, from Wu to Xiao Li, is also obvious.
Li Zhaodao's landscape paintings are of high artistic value, magnificent and colorful, but their gorgeous atmosphere is still like that of Li Sixun. However, the appearance of ink landscape painting can be said to be completely exposed in Wu Daozi. In the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Wu Daozhi (about 690-758) painted mountains and rivers with bold brushwork, saying that "the change of mountains and rivers began in Wu". Its formation was influenced by Taoist thought. Therefore, the scholars in China claimed to participate in Zen, but in fact they were restrained by Taoism. Wang Wei (70 1-76 1) created "broken ink" landscape by painting, expressing the feelings of literati, which greatly developed the artistic conception of pen and ink in landscape painting. There are also Zhang Zao and Wang Mo in this school. On the other hand, Wang Qia created the "splash ink" method. At this time, Zhang Noisy's artistic concept of "nature from the outside, heart from the inside" shows the artist's pursuit and understanding of landscape painting creation from one side. They laid the foundation for the formation and development of literati painting. From Wang Wei's "Zen chanting is a thing" and "middle-aged morality is the only good way" to Dong Qichang's "painting Zen", they have never evaded Buddhism for a day and sought a painful life. They enjoyed all the wealth in the world. Although Wang Wei and Tao Yuanming have the same thoughts, he is very dissatisfied with Tao Yuanming's behavior of "begging after abandoning his official position". It is still very hard for Dong Qichang to go out in a sedan chair. They know the joy of life best. It is said that he is a Buddhist, but in fact, he is a Buddha. The so-called "rich mountains and forests have their own interests."
In artistic thought, it is interlinked with Taoist thought. Taoism's "forgetting" only forgets the vulgar entanglements in the world, personifies and artistically transforms everything in the universe from "materialization", and demands that it can "govern the world and everything" and "win things without hurting them". Because of this, in a quiet heart, there can be "mountains and valleys in the chest", which can flow into the pen and become a landscape painting. And the "extinction" and "all things are empty" of the Buddha; Zen Buddhism's "no mind is the religion" and "no essence", so it is impossible to "have a gap in the chest" and it is not allowed to produce artistic desire. Therefore, it is
After Wang Wei, the painters of ink and wash landscapes all have Taoist thoughts more or less. Therefore, the prosperous period of landscape painting after the drastic changes in the middle Tang Dynasty was the period when the Anshi Rebellion and the Tang Dynasty began to decline, and it was the time when Taoist thought came into play. Literati often paint landscapes not for fame, but for "entertainment and pleasure". Wei Wang "can't give up his spare time, I know it sometimes." You don't have to cater to secular tastes. Your taste lies in quiet and elegant conversation, which undoubtedly suits the taste of ink painting.
The landscape painting in the late Tang Dynasty is the "initial peak" of the first peak of China's landscape painting, that is, the starting point of the maturity of China's landscape painting. It was not until the Five Dynasties and the early Song Dynasty that landscape painting reached a high degree of maturity, ranking first in the painting world.
Great landscape painters, such as Sun Wei, Hao Jing, Guan Tong, Li Cheng, Fan Kuan, Dong Yuan and Ju Ran. Born in the late Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties and the early Song Dynasty, they are all great painters who have never come before. There was no such great painter in the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty. Just as Guo's "Picturesque: On the Gains and Losses of Ancient and Modern Times" says: "Or what is the difference between modern art and the ancients? A: There are too many ancient places nearby, but there are also some. If you talk about Buddhist and Taoist figures, it is not as good as ancient times; If you talk about mountains and rivers, forest stones, lanterns, birds and fish, it is not as close as ancient times. " "For example, Li and Guan, Fan's trace, Xu's trace, no teacher before, no heel after, so that the generation of' Li Er' (referring to,) and' Three Kings' (referring to Wang Wei, Wang Zai) can be revived, and Bian Luan and Zhilun can be reborn. What will they do with it? Therefore, the past is not far away. "
Many northern landscape painters from the late Tang Dynasty to the early Song Dynasty were hermits, and their achievements in landscape painting were particularly high. For example, Guan Tong, a man in the early Five Dynasties, lived in seclusion in Taihang Mountain. Li Cheng lived mainly in the Five Dynasties, avoided chaos and lived in seclusion in Yingqiu Mountain, and died in the early Song Dynasty. Fan Kuan lived in seclusion in Guanshan and Zhongnan from the end of the Five Dynasties to the beginning of the Song Dynasty. Painters who live in seclusion in the mountains and forests naturally paint landscapes, so figure paintings and flower-and-bird paintings in the north are not prosperous, while landscape paintings are particularly prosperous. Its main features are as follows: (1) Drawing the Rocky Mountains in the north, majestic and heavy, and Shi Jian steep; (2) Highlight the outline of the rock, draw the convex and concave with lines, and then use hard "nails", "two points" and "short strips" (there are also "two points" and "short strips" in southern landscape paintings, but they are not hard, but very moist), which is the basis for the formation of axe splitting; (3) Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica and giant trees are dominant; (4) There are many mountains and springs, and the mountains are abrupt, so there is a sense of loftiness. But each school of northern painting has its own face. Guo said in "Three Books on Landscape" that Guan Tong's landscape paintings are solid, with many miscellaneous trees, quaint pavilions and leisurely characters. In addition, he drew konoha with subtle ink. Drawing pine leaves is called saving needles, and the pen is not stained, which has its own brilliance. And the smoke forest is far away, so we started our own mountain. Fan Kuan's paintings are rich and powerful, and the gun and pen are unified. People and houses are of the same quality, and trees are painted, or shaped like a lid. The painted houses are all of the same quality, dyed with ink cages, and the younger generations are all iron houses. Fan Kuan does not paint pines and cypresses. They all successfully described the characteristics of dense mountains and strong potential in the northern region, and were called the northern painting school.
In fact, the achievements of southern landscape painting in the Five Dynasties and the early Song Dynasty were not low. Great landscape painters Dong Yuan, Wei Xian and Zhao Gan made great achievements in the Southern Tang Dynasty. Because the ministers of the Southern Tang Dynasty are all experts in literature and art, the paintings of flowers and birds, figures and landscapes in the Southern Tang Dynasty have made great achievements. In sharp contrast with northern landscape painting, its characteristics are as follows: (1) painting the earth mountains in the south of the Yangtze River is simple and naive, with light smoke and light mountains and warm climate; (2) The outline of the rock is not prominent, and the bones of the rock are hidden. Dense, long or short, elastic lines and moist ideas are used to express the convexity and concavity of rocks, which is the basis of long and short weaving and lotus leaf weaving; (3) There are a lot of miscellaneous trees and shrubs at the top of the forest; (4) How short the hills are, how flat and shallow the sand is, and how secluded Zhou Ting is.
In the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty, painting had spread to ordinary literati. A group of artists represented by Su Shi, Huang Tingjian and Mi Fei made unremitting efforts to promote the development of literati painting. They advocate that "there is a poem in the painting, and there is a picture in the poem", and "not seeking similarity, but seeking expression." There is a saying in "Painting with": "Painters are very literary, so people in ancient and modern times have many intentions ... Wenzhong, Ou Gong, three Su fathers and sons, two Chao brothers, Gu, Houshan, Wanqiu, Huaihai, Moon Rock, and even literati, Long Mian, have excellent taste or superb dyeing, ... He is also very ignorant. Almost all the literati in the Northern Song Dynasty knew painting, and even dyed it in person, bringing their own aesthetics into painting. Mi Fei's landscape paintings; Simple and naive ","painting without drawing shapes ",and there is no strong feeling of" competing for beauty and repeating far and near ",which is very simple. This is in line with the spirit of the ancient prose movement at that time.
Ma Yuan, Xia Gui and Liu Songnian are also known as the "Four Great Masters of Southern Song Dynasty". Ma Yuan made a bold choice in composition, highlighting a large number of blank and far-reaching landscapes with local close-ups of a corner of a mountain and a cliff of water, giving people imaginative space and rich poetry, which is called "the corner of a horse". Xia Gui's composition is often half-sided, with a strong sense of space, abrupt close-up view, light prospect and unique style, so it is called "Xia Banbian". Both of them cut with a big axe, the pen holder is far-reaching, and the appearance is taken for granted. This corner composition provides a broader space for the development of traditional landscape painting.
Scholars in the Song Dynasty advocated "depression and indifference" and "forgetting me", and literati painting developed unprecedentedly in the Yuan Dynasty. Painting in the Yuan Dynasty is used to entrust temperament, which is caused by the leisurely, depressed, sad and frustrated mental state of the literati in the Yuan Dynasty. Scholars give up their sense of responsibility for the country and the nation, and seclusion forms a common phenomenon in society. They are bored and have nowhere to display their talents, which leads to a sense of detachment from secular life and develops into a social spiritual movement that separates individuals from society as a whole. Huang, Wang Meng, Zhenwu and Ni Zan. Appeared in the middle and late period and was called "Yuan Sijia". They learn from Dong and Ju, but they no longer cling to the truth and rhythm of nature, but express their own temperament. The highest achievement is to draw a small landscape of a mountain village and even a small landscape of mountains and rivers.
The landscape painting in the early Ming Dynasty is basically a continuation of the landscape painting in the late Yuan Dynasty. Most painters can directly express themselves, express themselves, show a cold atmosphere, and are good at court painting. The Zhejiang School, represented by Wang E and Dai Jin, represents the times in the middle and early Ming Dynasty, and its tributary is the Jiangxia School headed by Wei Wu. But by the end of the Ming Dynasty, Zhejiang painting could not maintain its advantages, and declined like court painting. Dai Jin, a Zhejiang painter, was excellent. The paintings of Zhejiang School in the later period were really "crazy". They used bold brushwork and broad pen and ink to force heroism, and the lines were very presumptuous, which was obvious in Wei Wu's later works. During Zheng De's period, Suzhou was the center, and Shen Zhou, Wen Zhiming, Tang Yin and Chou Ying were the representatives, which were collectively called "the Four Houses of Wumen", also known as "Ming Sijia". Among the four schools, Shen and Wen inherited the new style of painting; Chou Ying is famous for its meticulous and colorful style; Although Tang Yin studied under the Academy of Southern Song Dynasty, he was completely different from Zhejiang School. He used some methods of the academy, but added the interest of literati, turning rigidity into softness.
In the late Ming Dynasty, Wumen Sect began to decline and Songjiang Sect rose. Many of them are great literati and painters, so their paintings are more interesting than those of Wu Menzong, quaint and Wen Xiu. They are Susong School represented by Zhao Zuo, School represented by Shen and School represented by Gu Zhengyi. The three schools are always called Songjiang School. Dong Qichang, a representative of Songjiang School, divided different schools of predecessors by "Northern and Southern Song Dynasty" and advocated learning from the past in artistic thought. In addition, there are Wulin School headed by Lan Ying, Rigorous School headed by Xiang Shengmo, Transcendental School headed by Shou Ren, Keke School represented by Wu Bin and Chen Hongshou, and so on.
Basically the same as the spirit of the times, landscape painting, which declined sharply in the Ming Dynasty, was revived in the early Qing Dynasty. The adherents represented by Jian Jiang and Xi Shi and the self-styled landscape paintings represented by Mei Qing and Shi Tao can rival and even surpass the Song and Yuan Dynasties. Unfortunately, it failed to become the mainstream of painting, and was soon covered up by the "Four Kings" of Antique School (Wang Shimin, Wang Jian, Wang Yun and Wang). The so-called "authenticity" and the mainstream were brought into the ancient track that appeared in the late Ming Dynasty, and the painting world appeared in the same state as society.
"A generation of true talents is thin, and Wang Qianji sets Ruan Tingshi." The paintings of "Four Kings" are regarded as "original works", and later generations are more dissatisfied with their meager talents than Ruan Ting's poems. Instead of the authentic "Four Monks" (Badashanren, Shi Tao, Kun Can and Hong Ren) and the paintings derided as "bad habits" and "eight eccentrics", they are loved by tourists. The reason why the paintings of "Four Kings" are "authentic" has been popular in China for a long time is: (1) Wang Shimin, the leader of "Four Kings", got the original Dong Qichang; (2) Wang Shimin and Wang Jianben were great officials of the Ming Dynasty and had political influence in society; (3) The paintings of adherents have nothing to do with the imperial court.
The paintings of "Four Monks", "Eight Eccentrics in Yangzhou" and "Eight Families in Jinling" were ridiculed as "bad habits" and attacked. The reason is that they are "reformists", who resist the rule of the Qing government politically, publicize their individuality in art and emphasize their emotions.
China's landscape painting declined sharply in Qing Dynasty. In short, Ming Sijia is not as far away as Yuan Sijia and the Four Kings of Qing Dynasty.