Landscape painting is a kind of painting that expresses the beauty of mountains and rivers and can seek some spiritual sustenance for human beings. China's landscape painting originated very early. According to historical records, there were landscape paintings in the Qin and Han Dynasties, but the physical objects did not spread. The earliest landscape paintings we can see today are the background landscapes in Gu Kaizhi's A History of Women and A Luoshen. As we have mentioned in the section of figure painting, Gu Kaizhi's two paintings mainly show figures, and the landscape is only the background of the figures.
As a part of the background of the characters, mountains, animals, forests and birds are completely and truly combined. The rocks began to show different faces in line changes, different mountain changes in layers, and vertical and horizontal mountains and rivers in a downward view. The above is the basic expression of landscape painting. Although this kind of performance is still in its infancy, it has laid a solid foundation for the future development of China landscape painting. Therefore, Gu Kaizhi's name is not only associated with the historical development of figure painting in China, but also contributed to the development of landscape painting in China.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties after Gu Kaizhi, landscape painting rose rapidly, and a group of painters who could draw landscape painting and the first batch of papers devoted to landscape painting appeared. But so far, we haven't found a landscape painting handed down at that time. We can only understand the development level of landscape painting in China at that time according to the literature about landscape painting at that time. However, since then, the art of landscape painting has entered the China painting world with relatively complete expression and systematic theory.
China's landscape paintings developed greatly in Sui and Tang Dynasties. The works of painters represented by Zhan Ziqian in Sui Dynasty provide us with important materials for studying the landscape paintings of this period. Zhan Ziqian is a native of Shandong today. He was a doctor in the Northern Qi, Northern Zhou and Sui Dynasties. He is a generalist in painting. It is said that he is proficient in figures, landscapes, boundary paintings and horses and chariots. Known as the "ancestor of Tang painting" by the world. But his most outstanding contribution is landscape painting, and his only work that has been handed down to this day is You Chuntu, which is now kept in the Palace Museum.
You Chuntu is a green landscape painting depicting natural scenery, which shows people's outing in spring. With proper management, meticulous brushwork and gorgeous colors, the painter painted a beautiful spring scenery with green mountains and green waters, lush flowers and trees, beautiful mountains and clear waters, and gorgeous high-rise yachts rippling with the waves on the sparkling lake. The three women on board looked around, intoxicated by the beautiful lakes and mountains, and lingered. A few people by the lake are riding horses, strolling along mountain paths, or standing on the shore with their hands outstretched, full of interest. Through vivid descriptions of various natural scenery and people's activities, the painter successfully embodied the theme of spring outing, and the pious You Chuntu paved the way for the formation of the green landscape painting school in Tang Dynasty.
Father and son in Tang Dynasty directly inherited Zhan's landscape painting style. Li Sixun was an imperial clan in the Tang Dynasty and once served as "General Wuwei". He inherited Jing and developed Zhan Ziqian's painting method, with neat brushwork, firm and steady fish, magnificent picture patterns, magnificent momentum and strong decoration. He inherited his painting style in Li Zhaodao, and was called "the trend of changing his father, wonderful", creating seascapes and landscapes.
In this way, from Zhan Ziqian in Sui Dynasty to Li Sixun and his son in Tang Dynasty, China formed a distinctive school of green landscape painting. In the Tang dynasty, another source of landscape painting school was formed, that is, ink landscape painting.
The founder of ink and wash landscape painting is Wang Wei. It is said that he is good at poetry, calligraphy, painting and music, and he was also a senior minister. Wang Wei's paintings include snow scenes, Jiange, plank roads, hiking and fishing. His paintings are characterized by exquisite brushwork and delicate rendering, which are "heavy" and "deep". Another important feature of Wang Wei's landscape painting is the organic combination of poetry and painting. As we mentioned before, the history of painting generally regards him as the founder of the combination of poetry and painting. In the middle and late Tang Dynasty after Wang Wei, there appeared a "ink painting movement" in the development of landscape painting. In this way, China landscape painting developed into a free new world in the Tang Dynasty.
From the Five Dynasties to the Song Dynasty, landscape painters came forth in large numbers, and the schools of landscape painting overlapped. These painters inherited and developed the excellent traditions of landscape painters in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties, and pushed China's landscape painting to an unprecedented peak, forming the landscape paintings of the Northern School and the Southern School in the Five Dynasties, the Central Plains Painting School and the Courtyard Landscape Painting in the Northern Song Dynasty, the Midian Landscape and the Green Landscape in the Late Northern Song Dynasty, and the Courtyard Landscape Painting in the Southern Song Dynasty.
During the Five Dynasties, Hao Jing and his student Guan Tong were representatives of northern landscape painting. Hao Jing, a northerner, once lived in seclusion in Taihang Mountain and was exposed to the magnificent scenery of the mountains in the north and Taihang Mountain. The painted landscape "starts from the peak and overlooks the poor valley" is mostly a huge valley with a panoramic layout centered on the regular layout, while the main peak is the center and the white clouds are used to set off the overall layout of the middle and foreground. The scene is grand, magnificent and has a strong sense of space. It is said that Kuang Lu Tu is his masterpiece. His disciple Guan Tong is from Chang 'an, who studied under Hao Jing, but he has the reputation of "taking care of you" and is a family of his own. He likes the scenery around Guanhe Shaanxi, where the autumn mountains are cold and the villages are desolate. His masterpiece "Travel Map of Guanshan" has been handed down from generation to generation, with towering peaks and far-reaching charm. The painted trees are flourishing and idle, giving people the impression that they are "messy and whole, simple and interesting".
Corresponding to the Northern Landscape Painting School represented by Hao Jing and Guan Tong, there is the Jiangnan Painting School represented by Dong Yuan and his disciple Ju Ran in the south, also known as the "Southern Landscape Painting School". Dong Yuan and Ju Ran were both painters who were active in the south in the second half of the 20th century. They live in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, different from the lonely, rich and cold north, but in a mild, sunny, warm and humid area. They observe nature and describe it with unique artistic language. In Dong Yuan's works, it is difficult to see steep peaks. What he saw were gentle and continuous mountains, endless streams at the foot of trees, fishing houses in mountain villages, and moving scenery in the mountains and rivers of the south of the Yangtze River. Dong Yuan's representative works include Xiaoxiang Map, which depicts the scenery of Xiaoxiang area, and Summer Mountain Map, which depicts the scenery of Jiangnan in summer. Ju Ran, a disciple of Dong Yuan, became the best successor of his painting style, and his masterpiece is Tween in Autumn Mountain. In this painting, three hermits are talking about Buddhist scriptures in a hut beside a stream in a deep valley jungle, surrounded by autumn scenery in Gao Shuang, which can also reflect the identity and intention of the painter.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, the Central Plains Painting School and Academy Landscape Painting appeared. The Central Plains Painting School is represented by Li Cheng and Fan Kuan. Li Chuangshi lives in Yingqiu County, Shandong Province, so he often describes the natural environment of Qilu and Yuan Ye. Fan Kuan has lived in Zhong Nanshan and Dahuashan for a long time. His paintings are rich in mountains, abrupt in stones and lush in trees. After Li Cheng and Fan Kuan, landscape painters followed. Under the influence of Li and Fan, there is a tendency that "the people of Qilu only imitate Li Cheng, and the land of Guanshan only imitates Fan Kuan".
After the unification of the Northern Song Dynasty, painters from the south of the Yangtze River went north one after another and were treated by the Northern Song Dynasty Painting Academy, which impacted the Northern Song Dynasty landscape painting with the Central Plains painting school as the mainstream, and the northern and southern painting schools began to merge, forming a courtyard landscape painting represented by Guo.
In the landscape painting of the Northern Song Dynasty, we should also mention the "Midian Landscape" and the green landscape. The founder of Midian Landscape is Mifei. He is one of the four great calligraphers in the Northern Song Dynasty. Originally from Taiyuan, Shanxi, he moved to Xiangyang, Zhenjiang and other places. Inspired by the misty rain scene of Yunshan smoke trees that can often be seen along the Yangtze River, he made a new creation in landscape painting techniques, and used ink to draw landscapes, giving full play to the integration of ink and wash. The effect of ink smudge has formed a subtle and ethereal charm.
Then there are green mountains and green waters. As mentioned above, this school of painting has been formed from Zhan Ziqian in Sui Dynasty to Li Sixun and his son in Tang Dynasty. However, in the Five Dynasties and the early Song Dynasty, this form was not popular among literati and painters, and was regarded as the work of professional painters, which was once suppressed in the Northern Song Dynasty. In the mid-Northern Song Dynasty, some painters pushed their way through the crowd and plunged into the green landscape again, creating exquisite green landscape paintings suitable for the court to enjoy. Turquoise landscape painting has entered a mature stage, and famous representative painters include Wang Ximeng and Zhao Boju.
The northern nationalities invaded and the Song Dynasty moved south, which was called the Southern Song Dynasty. Southern Song Dynasty Painting Academy was established in the new capital Lin 'an. Due to the political changes and the northward movement of the painter's living area, the painting art in the Southern Song Dynasty has undergone new changes in content and style, and the garden landscape paintings in the Southern Song Dynasty, represented by Li Tang, Liu Songnian, Ma Yuan and Xia Gui, have appeared.