Su Shi was the first to comprehensively expound the theory of literati painting, which played a decisive role in the formation of literati painting system. First of all, he put forward the concept of "literati painting". "Looking at literati paintings is like reading the horses of the world and taking what they feel. But if you are a painter, you often just take a nap in the fur trough and look at your feet and get tired. Han Jie really painted. " Secondly, he improved the historical position of the painter Wang Wei, showing the desire to separate the literati painter from the professional painter (painter): "Although Wu Shengmiao, he still regards painting as a painter. Thank Long Fan like a fairy. (Eight Views on Wang Fengxiang Wei Wu Daozi's Painting) Thirdly, he advocated the poetic style of literati painting, and opposed the painter's complete pursuit of similar painting style. Look at the picture. There are poems in it.
From the perspective of painting practice, Su Shi's Dead Wood and Strange Stone can better show his aesthetic practice. In addition, Wen Tong's ink painting and Su Shi's * * * created the theme of "dead wood and bamboo stone" for literati painting. In figure painting, Li has high attainments in appreciation, calligraphy and antiquities, and creatively developed the "line drawing" in the Tang Dynasty into a simple drawing. This colorful line emphasizes calligraphy skills and abstract aesthetic taste, which is more in line with the aesthetic standards of literati. Yun Shan Mo and Mi Dian Tuan, created by Mi Fei and Mi Youren in the Southern Song Dynasty, marked the change of landscape painting from simple to dense, and were inherited and developed by Gao in the early Yuan Dynasty, which had a great influence on literati painting in Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. The literati in Yuan Dynasty were in a rather humble situation, and they abandoned their official career and neglected their personnel. In the Song Dynasty, literati painting, which was mainly the amateur cultural life of official literati, began to be transferred to the hands of opposition literati, becoming a kind voyage for them to transcend their depressed lives and return to nature. The scenery in the painter's mind embodies the painter's ideal of being far away from the world, blends into the painter's indifferent free state of mind, and also permeates helpless depression and indifference.
With the Yuan rulers absorbing the adherents of Song Dynasty to participate in the political power and cultural construction, Zhao Mengfu appeared in the artistic exchange between North and South, which influenced the painting atmosphere of the generation in transition. If Su Shi is an active advocate of literati painting, then Zhao Mengfu is the leader of literati painting in Yuan Dynasty. As an art theorist, Zhao Mengfu advocated "taking Yunshan as a teacher", "painting cherishes ancient meaning" and "painting and calligraphy are of the same origin" in Song Xuezhai Collection, which laid a theoretical foundation for the creation of literati painting. Dong Qichang explained: "Zhao (Zhao Mengfu) asked Qian Shunju (Qian Xuan) how can it be called morale? Qian said: "If you can separate the painting history from the painting body, you can fly without ink, otherwise you will go astray and go further and further." "It is also extended as:" Literati should draw pictures based on cursive script. Trees are like curved iron, mountains are like painted sand, and they must never take the road of sweetness and vulgarity. This is for morale. Everyone attaches importance to introducing the pen and ink interest of calligraphy into painting, and the sketch lines also have the elegant style of literati.
In the painting practice of Yuan Dynasty, Zhao Mengfu and Gao were the representatives of scholar-officials and painters in the early Yuan Dynasty. Advocating retro, returning to the tradition of Tang and Northern Song Dynasty, and advocating painting with calligraphy, therefore, the yuan painting atmosphere of attaching importance to charm, ignoring rhythm and paying attention to subjective lyricism was established. In the middle and late Yuan Dynasty, painters such as Huang, Wang Meng, Ni Zan, Zhen Wu and Zhu Derun carried forward the literati painting atmosphere, promoted the development of painting circles with the aim of relying on freehand brushwork, reflected passive and secluded landscapes, and were popular with themes such as plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum, pine and stone, symbolizing lofty and faithful personality spirit. Ni Yunlin, its representative figure, has a representative theory of literati painting: "I talk about writing about escaping from the chest, which is nothing more than his paradox, the leaves are numerous and sparse, and the branches are oblique and straight!" Or smeared for a long time, others regard hemp as reed, and servants can't argue bamboo. No one really looked. (Ni Zan: China Zhang Yi painted bamboo) The typical literati landscape painting style was thus formed. In the early Ming Dynasty, painters were divided into two schools: one was loyal to the tradition of literati painting in Song and Yuan Dynasties; The other school is the retro school, that is, Dai Jin, Wei Wu and others who inherited the tradition of Ma Xia's courtyard landscape painting in the Southern Song Dynasty in the Royal Painting Academy revived in the early Ming Dynasty. However, the literati painting in Ming Dynasty, represented by "wu school", swept away the "retro-style" college painting and pushed the literati ink painting style established by Yuan people to a higher stage. The main figures were Shen Zhou, Wen Zhiming, Tang Yin and Chou Ying. Most of the main members of the five schools of painters belong to the literati with three unique skills of poetry, painting and calligraphy. They are sensitive to sinister occupations or personal experiences, so they are indifferent to literati, traveling in the forest and entertaining themselves with poetry and calligraphy. They are still interested in painting, inheriting the tradition of "morale" and expressing their personality and feelings.
The appearance of Zhang Hong in the late Ming Dynasty expanded the new realm of literati landscape painting. At this point, literati painting has matured both in practice and theory, and Zhang Hong summarized and innovated it, thus making the traditional landscape painting in China, which is characterized by literati painting, fully mature. Zhang Hongzhi's greatest influence on painting is that he attaches importance to inheriting the ancient tradition of pen and ink, and regards the pursuit of style as an important purpose of art, and he is also creative because of his profound cultural accomplishment and his own aesthetic pursuit. Zhang Hong's pen and ink skills and techniques of expression had a great influence on later painting circles. A number of outstanding painters have emerged who learn from nature and attach importance to sketching.
From Wanli to Chongzhen (1628 ~ 1644), there has been a new turning point in the field of painting. Xu Wei further improved the freehand brushwork of flower-and-bird painting. Chen Hongshou, Cui Zizhong, Ding et al. Created a method of drawing deformed graphics. Suzhou painters, represented by Zhang Hong, found a new way in literati landscape painting and created works full of life flavor. They innovate on the basis of inheriting Wu Pai's painting style and characteristics, return to nature, sketch in Shan Ye, learn from nature, and understand the true meaning of painting. Reflect the transcendental spiritual realm in the painting, and make the landscape painting come alive.
Zhang Hong's sketching theory and natural painting practice gave birth to a large number of landscape painters in Ming and Qing Dynasties, among which the outstanding innovators were Shi Tao, Badashanren, Yangzhou Eight Eccentrics, and Four Kings and Wu Yun. Although there are differences between Wang Si's paintings and those of Shi Tao and Badashanren, they are all designed to express their pen and ink interest and unique personality. Therefore, Wang Si and Shi Tao are both internal ways of literati painting. First, summarize and refine their creative practice, so that China's painting will move towards the road of stylization; The other way is to continue the artistic experiment and bold innovation of pen and ink in order to further develop. Both of them have remarkable historical achievements, reflecting the dialectical relationship between change and inheritance. Momo Danqing has been called "elegance" since ancient times, and the scale of "elegance" is style. This is related to the painter's personality, but not all. What is more important is the education and environment that the painter receives. The appreciation of style has a great relationship with the taste of the connoisseur, that is, as the saying goes, "a good painting needs to be seen by the knower."
Literati painting is a comprehensive art, which integrates literature, calligraphy, painting and seal cutting. It is a concentrated expression of various cultural qualities of painters, especially in calligraphy. The combination of dots, lines and strokes in calligraphy is not only the basic element of artistic image, but also an important appreciation object with independent aesthetic value. The unique rhythm and rhythm formed by the weight of brush strokes and the density of dotted lines should reflect the painter's unique mentality, temperament and personality in the creative process, and organically combine these with the form and spirit of the things expressed, so that the heart and hand correspond, the strength is consistent, the traces are broken and even, and the pen is not thoughtful.
In color and ink painting, literati painting pays more attention to the use of ink painting and pays attention to the five colors of ink. The most important reason why Wang Wei was highly praised by Su Shi and Dong Qichang is that he created ink painting in his later creation. The reason why literati painters pay more attention to ink painting than color is directly related to the artistic concept and aesthetic concept of China's traditional painting, that is, traditional painting never takes the real representation of things as its creative purpose, but takes revealing the inner charm of things as its highest artistic pursuit. Based on this purpose, the unique aesthetic thought of this nation has been formed, that is, abandoning gaudiness, taking simplicity, paying attention to painting afterwards, returning to simplicity and simplicity, and so on, which has become the conscious pursuit of literati painters in art.
The formation of the characteristics and system of literati painting is also related to the fact that literati regard painting as a means of spiritual adjustment. For these painters, creation only plays a connecting role. In this way, the simplest tools (pen, ink and paper) and the most general language (black, white and gray) convey the deepest feelings and become creative, instead of serving things and being bound by law.