After the Five Dynasties, the flower hooks painted on Shu Huangquan were thinner, and almost no handwriting was visible after coloring, so they were known as "boneless flower branches". The boneless painting method was founded by Xu Chongsi in the Northern Song Dynasty. He only used color painting without outline, which was called "boneless flower". Volume 11 of "Xiangzu Notes" written by Wang Shizhen of the Qing Dynasty: "My late friend Wang Duowen gave Wu cultural points and poems: 'Daoyun of the Jun family was good at talent and loved to write about Xu Xi's boneless flowers.'" "The Scholars" Chapter 1: "Can this Mr. Wang know how to draw boneless flowers?"
Baiyang Shitao often uses this method, and lotus flowers are quite suitable for boneless paintings. First use light\red to form the flower shape, then use bright yellow to draw the lotus pods inside the petals, and then add lotus leaves and dried lotus leaves. The leaves are first brushed out with a large brush dipped in light flower blue, and after the color dries, add a layer of juice green. For layer rendering, a line of watery green should be left in the space of the tendons. The lotus stems are the most important in the painting, which are equivalent to the beams and columns of Fang Yu. They are painted from top to bottom, as if writing large seal script. It should be sudden and powerful, and have a graceful and elegant style. If the painting is large and the ink is too long to be drawn in one stroke, then the lower section is rushed from bottom to top, and the dry and wet ink coincides with each other, leaving no trace. When making dots on the stem, the up and down should be staggered, the left and right sides should be bowed, and when the pen is down, kick it slightly upward. Use darker rouge for the petals, render them once or twice, and then draw thin lines, straight and straight, with alternating patterns; the whiskers can be made of pink, yellow or ocher. This is where the focus of looking at the painting lies. Add a few strokes of aquatic plants, just as the calligraphy says, "The wide areas are full of horses, and the dense areas are not ventilated."
The "Xuanhe Painting Book" records a piece of Huang Quan's "Boneless Flowers and Branches"; "Dongtian Qinglu Collection" says that Huang Quan "really looks like a pile of powder without any circles" (Note: In China In ancient times (pink is color), this is the "boneless painting method." According to legend, it was created by Zhang Sengyou of Liang Dynasty in the Southern Dynasties, and Yang Sheng of the Tang Dynasty was good at this painting method.