Jiangnan painting also began in the Three Kingdoms. Cao Buxing, a painter of Wu State, is listed as one of the "Eight Musts" of Wu State. He is good at drawing figures and can paint on plain silk 50 feet long. "He has a head, hands and feet, shoulders and shoulders, and there is no scale loss" (Vae's Health Record). He is also good at drawing dragons, and the painted Qinglong is lifelike. When they are put on the river, they immediately "store water into fog" Later generations revered him as the father of Jiangnan painters. Cao Buxing is also good at making Buddha statues, so he is also known as the "father of Buddha paintings". Unfortunately, his original works do not exist in the world.
Jiangnan, Gu Kaizhi and Zhang Sengyou were the two most famous painters in the Six Dynasties. Gu Kaizhi, a native of Wuxi in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, was called "genius, painter and idiot". He is especially good at figure painting, and he can draw flowing movements with lines like swimming lines. "His air is floating above the clouds" (Broken Painting). He is a master of realistic painting, and advocates that painting should "write the spirit with form" and "think of time wonderfully". Zhang Sengyou was from Suzhou in the Southern Dynasties. He created the style of painting and carving Buddha statues in China, and was good at portraits, mostly making religious murals in temples. His works are unique in style and large in scale, and he has made full preparations for the "six laws" (Suzhou historical stories). Legend has it that he drew a dragon without drawing it clearly, fearing to fly away. The idiom is that he drew a dragon to illustrate it. Zhang Sengyou changed the "sparse brushwork" of Gu Kaizhi and Lu Tanwei, and founded the "sparse brushwork". Zhang, Lu, Gu and Wu Daozi were called "the four ancestors of painters" in the Tang Dynasty.
In the Tang Dynasty, China's painting art became more and more perfect. The traditional art of figure carving and painting is complete. Suzhou painter Yang Huizhi and Wu Daozi classmate Zhang Monk Friends have their own strengths. "Taoist painting, Huizi carving, get a monk", internationally known as "painting saint" and "carving saint". The statues of Yang Huizhi are distributed in Jiangsu, Henan and Shaanxi provinces, which are lifelike.
The rise of landscape painting in Tang Dynasty made the painting subject matter more extensive and the style more diverse. The landscape paintings of Li Sixun and Li Zhaodao are one of its representatives. His paintings are exquisite, magnificent and elegant in color, and have the reputation of "stunning landscape", which has a great influence on future generations. During the Five Dynasties, Dong Yuan and Ju Ran were also good at depicting landscapes in the south of the Yangtze River, and they were internationally known as "Dong Ju", which became the main genre of landscape painting in the South of the Song Dynasty.
Song Chengjiang established the Hanlin Painting Academy in the imperial court according to the customs of Southwest Shu and Southern Tang Dynasty. The promotion of painting art by the ruling class promoted the prosperity and development of painting art in China, and also produced a group of court painters. There were not many painters in the south of the Yangtze River in the Northern Song Dynasty, but Yan Wengui in Zhejiang was probably more famous. He is good at landscapes and has his own style. His name is Yan Jiajing. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the Painting Academy moved to Hangzhou, and the number of court painters in the south of the Yangtze River increased sharply, resulting in the "Southern Song Dynasty Academy Painting School", whose painting method is famous for its neatness and strength. According to Li E's Painting Records of Southern Song Academy, among the 96 people who entered the academy, 29 were from Qiantang. Ma, Liu Songnian,,, Chen Qingbo, etc.
Horses are good at drawing figures, Buddha statues and landscapes. He imitated Wu Daozi's brushwork with Liu Yemiao, who was quietly elegant, and was called "Xiao Wusheng". The representative work is Liu Xi Chun Fang Tu. Liu Songnian is good at landscapes and meticulous figures. His farming and weaving map is praised as "masterpiece". Song Li is good at painting Taoist figures, especially long boundary paintings. His works are exquisite, and pavilions, temples and pavilions all have accurate compositions, including The Salesman's Map. Xia Jue painted figures, especially landscapes. He likes to draw landscapes with long scrolls, and his brushwork likes to use "slow painting" (that is, ink painting). Composition often takes up half a corner, which is called "Xia Banbian". Ma Yuan comes from a painter's family and is good at landscape painting. His landscape paintings are creative, hierarchical, artistic and concise. They often use a corner of the mountain or the precipice of water (or "residual water in the mountain", which symbolizes the local public security situation in the southern Tang Dynasty) to show a majestic and poetic panorama, which is called "corner of the horse" or "half of the horse". Representative works include Walking Map and so on. Ma Yuan pushed landscape painting to a new peak, which represented the highest achievement of institutional painting school. (Zhejiang ancient history)
In Yuan Dynasty, the style of landscape painting changed to some extent due to the opposition of Zhao Mengfu and other retro schools, the decline of institutional painting and the rise of "Yuan Sijia". In Yuan Sijia, Huang and Ni Zan are from Changshu and Wuxi respectively, while Wang Meng and Zhenwu are from Xing Wu and Jiashan respectively, both in Taihu Lake basin. Yuan Sijia's paintings show a lonely and quiet style. Huang is good at drawing water His painting was a beginner of Dong and Ju, and later he specialized in sketching. His masterpiece is Fuchun Shan Jutu. Zou, a painter in Qing Dynasty, called Huang the "right army in painting" and his Fuchun was the "Lanting of the Right Army". He has a book "Writing Landscape Tactics", which combines reason, interest and spirit in the painting, and is concise with a pen and far-reaching artistic conception. Ni Zan also learned from Dong Yuan. His ink and wash landscape paintings are simple and elegant, gentle and pale, caring but unintentional. If it is light and sparse, the painting style is quiet and dull, and there is a sense of escape (Zhang He's Wuyue culture). Wu Zhen is especially good at painting mountains and rivers and bamboo stones, and likes to make ink flowers and write poems on them, which is called "Ermiao". Wang Meng is Zhao's nephew. He is good at painting landscapes and has a good character. Wang Mengzhi's paintings are as unique as those of Zhao, Tang and Song Dynasties. Dong Qichang said, "The Yuan Dynasty should be the first to describe the works" (Painting the Zen Room Essays, Volume 2, Painting the Source).
Yuan Sijia Painting Style and Academy Painting School in Southern Song Dynasty had a far-reaching influence on Jiangnan Painting, which were interpreted as Zhejiang School and Wu Pai School respectively in Ming Dynasty.
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang set up a painting academy by imitating the Song Dynasty, opposed the painting style of Yuan Sijia, and consciously advocated the painting style in the academy. At that time, academies traveled all over the country, forming a "school". Because of its good foundation, Zhejiang took the lead and formed the Zhejiang School. Zhejiang sent a court style and used a powerful pen. Dai Jin, the originator of Qiantang, is good at landscapes, figures, flowers and birds, and feathers. His paintings mainly imitate the painters of the Southern Song Dynasty and are adjacent to the painters of the Northern Song Dynasty. His imitation of Ma and Xia's works can even be confused with the original works. He is the ancestor of Zhejiang School. His paintings were all the rage, and many Xi painters appeared. After Dai Jin, his disciple Wei Wu became famous. Wei Wu is from Changshu. His paintings give full play to the style of Ma and Xia, making his works bolder. When he was in Ming Xianzong, he was even named the "top painter", so the Zhejiang School was prominent for a while. Xu Wei's painting indulged in splashing ink, which influenced both Zheng Banqiao and Qi Baishi.
Wu Pai is mainly composed of painters from Suzhou and Wuxi. They mainly learn the styles of the four Yuan families. At the beginning, the momentum was not great. By the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the "Four Schools of Wumen" appeared, and Wu Pai rose, which was likely to replace the Academic School and the Zhejiang School. The four families of Wumen refer to Shen Zhou, Wen Zhiming, Tang Yin and Chou Ying. Shen Zhou is best at landscape painting. His paintings are far away from Ju Ran and close to the four schools of Zongyuan, taking the advantages of Song and Yuan Dynasties and having their own style. He has two styles, learning from Wang Meng's "Thin God", such as "Mount Lushan's High Map Axis", and seeing the dark trend in the dark; Thanks to Zhenwu, the giant Dong is called "Rough", such as "Happy Fishing Boat Axis", which is vigorous, calm and powerful. Shen Zhou is good at flowers and freehand brushwork figures. When he is old, he sums it up with a pen and is full of vigor. His paintings were very famous at that time, and he was promoted to be a leader in painting. He has many disciples, the most famous of which are Wen Zhiming and Tang Yin. Wen Zhiming has the best scenery and is famous for its exquisite craftsmanship. Its fine brushwork is graceful and soft; Its heavy brushwork is vigorous and gorgeous. Quiet and leisure are the unique characteristics of literature and painting. Tang Yin's paintings are exquisite in brushwork and delicate in brushwork, which changes the trace of description, is innovative when taking pictures and is full of charm in beauty. Tang Yin's paintings have a wide range of themes, and his brushwork is elegant and elegant, which is recognized as the most famous of the "Ming Sijia". "Tang painting", like the word "Wang" in calligraphy, became a standard and was taught by later painters. Chen Zhou, an old colleague of Chou Ying and Tang Yin, is best at copying, and the details of the fashions he draws are fine, exquisite and elegant. Copy famous paintings of Tang and Song Dynasties. Ming Sijia has some differences in artistic treatment and expression techniques because of his different academic background and personality. For example, Shen and Wen focus on interest, while Tang and autumn focus on theme and structure. Generally speaking, artistic styles are intrinsically linked, that is, they can learn from each other according to their own feelings. Ming Sijia's greatest artistic achievement was that he was not limited by the formalism of landscape painting at that time, and devoted himself to catching up with famous artists in Tang and Song Dynasties, taking their essence and finding another way. This is a change and synthesis of painting art since Tang and Song Dynasties. "Three hundred-year-old landscape painting in Qing Dynasty belongs to this school" (in Pan Tianshou). Ming thinkers had a great influence at that time, because most of them were Jiangnan talents who were "three unique" in painting, poetry and book.
Zhejiang School and Wu Pai gradually declined in Wanli era. Instead, it was the Songjiang School in Dong Qichang. Dong Shi is also a man with three unique skills and a cabinet minister, so his influence is very great. Dong Shi's paintings are simple and elegant, elegant and lush. Songjiang painting school has created a new world of Jiangnan landscape painting.
In the Qing Dynasty, Jiangnan painting became more prosperous. In Nanjing, there are eight schools of Jinling (Changgong, Fan Yin, Gao Cen, Zou Zhe, Wu Hong, Ye Xin, Hu Yi and Xie Xun); In Suzhou, there are four kings (Wang Shimin, Wang Jian, Wang Yuanqi and Wang Yi); In Yangzhou, there are famous "Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou" (Zheng Xie, Huang Shen, Li, Wang and Gao Xiang). The four kings in Suzhou copied ancient paintings, and the works of eight artists in Jinling were realistic. The eight eccentrics in Yangzhou were not bound by literati paintings and dared to innovate boldly, which inspired the vitality of China's painting development. Since the Qing Dynasty, the most famous painters in Jiangnan are Chen Hongshou, Ren Bonian, Wu Changshuo, Huang, Xu Beihong and Pan Tianshou.
Since the Three Kingdoms, Jiangnan painting industry is particularly developed, especially landscape painting. According to the history of painting in Wumen, there are 1222 painters in Suzhou alone. It can be seen that there are many painters in Jiangnan.