Secondly, while retaining the frescoes, lacquer paintings, stone reliefs and brick reliefs of the previous generation, scroll paintings of paper and silk appeared, mostly made by literati and painters, which was very conducive to collection and circulation and became the most important form of counterfeiting later. It can be said that the identification of ancient paintings is the identification of paper silk paintings in the form of scrolls.
Thirdly, the royal and private collections in this period were not limited to simple collection and storage, but also carried out a series of activities such as identification, rating and recording, which opened the curtain of China's early collection history. Therefore, the study of ancient painting collection should start from Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.
The Six Dynasties period was the initial mature stage of China's painting art, and figure painting also reached the mature stage, and a group of famous artists with different styles appeared. Such as Gu Kaizhi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Lu Tanwei in Liu Song Dynasty, Zhang Sengyou in the Southern Qi Dynasty, Yang Zihua and Cao Zhongda in the Northern Qi Dynasty. The scope of the theme has been expanded. Besides serving politics and religion and promoting Buddhism, there are also popular story paintings and style paintings depicting real life. The expressive ability has been greatly improved, from simple to implicit, with accurate modeling and vivid attention, and there are even six preparation methods. Styles also tend to be diverse, and famous artists have their own personal characteristics. For example, "Huaiguan" commented: "If a person is beautiful, Zhang (a monk) gets his flesh, Lu (Lu Wei) gets his bones, and Gu (enlightening) gets his spirit." Since then, landscape painting has become an independent painting discipline, but it is not yet mature.
Mural "500 Stolen Buddhas" in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. There are 500 robbers in Quezalo state who have rebelled. They were captured by the king's army, tortured, their eyes gouged out and exiled to the mountains. The Buddha blew Xiangshan medicine with magical power to make 500 robbers see the light again. The robber converted to Buddhism, shaved his hair and became a monk, lived in seclusion in the mountains, meditated and finally became a Buddha. This picture shows the scene of officers and men fighting with robbers. The officers and men rode armored war horses, wore helmets and armour, and held long guns, fighting with robbers in Ma Xie who were pleated in underpants. The officers and men advanced on the robbers with excellent equipment and favorable terrain, which indicates that the robbers will fail. The picture is composed of traditional horizontal comics, which is a fierce battle scene from the beginning and fascinating. The picture structure is compact, the plot is coherent, the scenes blend, the characters are dynamic and vivid, and the faces are different. The upper part of the picture flies in contrast to the lower part of the picture. It not only has decorative beauty and artistic charm, but also implies that 500 robbers will eventually become the inevitable result of Buddhism, which meets the requirements of Buddhism.
. At this time, there have been landscape paintings that show the beauty of natural mountains and rivers alone, such as Gu Kaizhi's "Lushan Mountain Map" and Dai Kui's "Wu Zhongxi Mountain City Residence Map". However, it is still naive to show Chen's posture and modeling. As the saying goes, "people are bigger than mountains, but water can't be flooded", while mountains are "decorated with rhinoceros combs" and trees and stones are "stretched out with arms and fingers". The painting method only uses lines to outline the outline, and there are no techniques such as stippling and smudging. Flower-and-bird painting has not formed an independent painting branch, and it may be more decorative. This is the characteristics of the times presented by the paintings of the Six Dynasties.
There were no original paintings in the Six Dynasties, except those made out of thin air, and there were some ancient copies copied by later generations, which retained some characteristics of the original works and had certain reference value. Some of them are close to the Six Dynasties, loyal to the original works, and have a high level, which is called "first-class original works" and worth cherishing. Gu Kaizhi's A Picture of Women's History, Lienv's Benevolence, Luoshen's Fu, Liangyuan's Xiao Yiguan Gong, and Song's Teaching in Northern Qi, etc. However, these works have different conditions and different values, so they must be treated differently in appraisal. Some of them are difficult to draw conclusions because there is too little direct evidence to rely on.
Appreciation and collection of paintings and calligraphy in the Six Dynasties became a common practice. However, there are few monographs in this field, and there is no special book record. They are only scattered in the works of Tang Dynasty painting history at the same time, and we can only know a little about it.
A picture of Luoshen in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (partial) Gu Kaizhi colored silk book.
The Luo God described by the author seems to come and go, wandering and pacing on the water, very elegant and vivid; Cao Zhi, who is in a state of indecision and trance, is far away from Luoshui, and his homesickness is out of reach, conveying infinite melancholy and sadness. The breeze blows gently, and the river flows, bringing it to the landscape from the sleeves, which is vivid and harmonious. Others, such as stunning Youlong, clouds reflecting the moon, exotic birds and animals, horse boats, etc., combine imagination with reality, integrate the world of God and man, and are full of romanticism and poetry. The depiction of rocks and trees in the picture is still in the immature stage of single-line drawing, uniformity and insufficient proportion, which reflects the general appearance of landscape painting in Wei and Jin Dynasties.
The art of painting developed to the Western Jin Dynasty, and it has reached the initial mature stage. Because of this, Gu Aizhi, Dai Wei, Zhang Sanghan and others appeared in the east and west, while Cao and Tian Sangliang appeared in the north. In fact, figure painting and animal painting at this time have reached a mature stage, while landscape flowers and birds are far from mature and need to be developed.
Gu Kaizhi (about 346-407) was born in Wuxi, Jiangsu. He is proficient in poetry, calligraphy and music, and is best at painting. He is the only painter in the Six Dynasties who has been handed down from generation to generation. His existing works include copies of Sui, Tang and Song Dynasties, such as The True Story of a Woman, The Goddess of Luo, and The Woman's Benevolence and Wisdom Tu Tu. The History of Women was first collected in the Qing Dynasty. 1860 was robbed when the British and French allied forces invaded Beijing, and now it is in the British Museum in London, England. There are three kinds of paintings of Gu Ai handed down from ancient times, which are collected in Liaoning Provincial Museum, Beijing Palace Museum and American Freer Art Museum. Among them, The Book of Liaoning was compiled and printed according to Shaoxing, and it is known that the book was written no later than the reign of Emperor Gaozong in the Southern Song Dynasty. According to Mr. Wang's analysis, the figure's clothing line is painted as "Orchid Leaf", which is similar to Wu Daozi in Tang Dynasty and Ma in Song Dynasty. The brushwork structure of each fu sentence is similar, which is undoubtedly a copy of Song Dynasty, or a painting for a horse, which is high in Song Dynasty.
This picture is still a picture of Gu Kaizhi's wife, which was copied in the Song Dynasty. Like a picture of a woman's history, the content expresses the Confucian moral thought and attacks the disorderly behavior of Queen Jia. The image of a lady is also similar to the picture of a woman's history. Its technique is simple, the pen and ink are exquisite, and the figures in the painting have different modality. Although the line drawing is full of color and feels a little thin, it seems to be a work based on the calligraphy of Wei and Jin Dynasties from the perspective of the dynamic characters, composition and performance style. The trace of plagiarism is quite obvious, but it is not shoddy. It's really a good copy, and Suzhou films are far behind. The illustrated version of Biography of Lienv in Song Dynasty was reprinted in Ruan Yuan in Qing Dynasty. The illustration at the top of each page is similar to this one, except that the background is added and labeled as Gu Kaizhi map. Compared with this picture scroll, this illustration can at least show some aspects of painting art in Wei and Jin Dynasties. Compared with Fu Tu by Luo Shen in the Palace Museum, this volume can better reflect Gu Kaizhi's artistic style, with unique style and quaint air. The strokes are smooth, and the sketches of faces, arms and other places can be very detailed, but slightly graceful. Gu Kaizhi's original work has been lost for a long time, so it is very rare to see a copy of the Song people who are loyal to the original work.
Zongshu, the Forbidden City in Beijing, contains pictures without fu. Zhao Mengfu in Yuan Dynasty and Yu Ji's Ode to Luoshen in Yuan Dynasty were both forgeries of Shen Du and Wu Kuan in Ming Dynasty. In the identification of Tibetan seal, the seals of "Ming Chang" and "Royal Treasure Painting" in Jin Dynasty were also forged. Mr Yang Ren Ai thinks that this painting may belong to the category of "Suzhou Film" in the Southern Song Dynasty. As for beautiful books, there is no prose, and the brushwork and imagery are close to the Forbidden City in Beijing, which is also the tomb of Song people.