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    The Art of Chinese Landscape Painting

        Professor Hsu, Dan

    The variety of styles and techniques created by ancient Chinese masters have made landscape painting an important segment of Chinese culture and an outstanding symbol of Eastern Art. During the Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, landscapes were primarily used to create perspective in figure painting. Eastern Jin, Northern, and Southern dynasties witnessed the development of landscapes into an independent art form with the capacity to capture movement of water and essence of greenery and mountains. Painting during the Jin dynasty was primarily a Buddhist art form, with frescoes decorating temple walls and pagodas.

    During its development, Chinese landscape painting underwent numerous changes. With the wealth and grandeur of the Tang period, came meticulous and intricate landscapes in gilded blues and greens. As the dynasty declined, blues and greens were replaced by water and ink. Reshuffling the central government system in the Northern Song era brought about a flowering of literature and art. At this time, emphasis in landscape painting focused on imitating nature while expressing the inner essence of an object. During the Song and Yuan dynasties, painters carried on traditions handed down from ancient masters, and new masters uniquely incorporated traditional spirit into landscapes without restrictions from ancient styles. Landscape painting grew in substance.

    The Ming dynasty was a period of imitation or status quo as schools taught and perpetuated techniques of ancient masters.Consolidation of traditions along with development of new schools and styles characterized the Qing period. After the collapse of the dynastic system, Chinese landscape painting assumed new dimensions exhibiting the spirit of past masters, but not necessarily their form. 

    Major Characteristics of Chinese Landscape Painting

    The pursuit of sublime resemblance - Chinese landscapes reach beyond reality via abstraction and condensation in order to embody the internal essence or character of an object. After observing a natural setting, artists return to their studios and paint from memory or rough sketches a resemblance of nature. In the Tang dynasty, Wu Dao-Zi was commissioned to paint 300 miles of Sichuan landscape. Having completed the work one day, he said to the Emperor, I don't have any draft. I remember the scenery in my heart. Through knowledge of and relating to one's subjects are prerequisites for depicting nature's features and inner essence.

    Emphasis on mood-in-composition - In order to savor what lies beyond a scene, it is essential for a painter to make the viewer sense scenery beyond scenery and emotions in scenery. Directly correlated to an artist's capability to observe, perceive, and understand nature is the ability to convey mood and sentiment. Mood-in-composition must be reserved and may be expressed without a brushstroke. Artist Dai Xi of the Ming dynasty said, A painting that shocks is not as good as one that delights. That which delights is not as good as one that fires the imagination.

    Another Ming master, Tang Zhi Qi, used the word hidden to critique landscape paintings. He believed the more hidden the scenery, the more expansive the scene, and the more exposed the scenery, the less content conveyed. To paint mountains and cliffs, Tang declared, one must have the roads, woods, and temples partly hidden and partly visible. Scenery partially exposed and partly hidden encourages imaginations to perceive objects in front, behind, and alongside each other. For example, behind one mountain is another, and behind that another. By veiling and uniting scenes, mists and clouds establish illusions of infinity. These time-honored techniques, passed down from revered master painters of the dynastic system, continue to influence modern Chinese landscape art.

    Flexibility of time and space - Chinese painters, adept in breaking through barriers of time and space, frequently rearrange objects and view scenes from more than one position. Within one painting, there may be upward, downward, and straight-on perspectives. This is known as three distances/perspectives: vertical distance/perspective, deep distance/perspective, and level distance/perspective. Vertical/distance perspective views the subject from below, deep distance/perspective from above, and level distance/perspective from straight on. In addition to conveying diverse perspectives, variations in distances between scenes may be established. For example, Touring in the Qing Ming Festival, painted by Zhang Zeduan of the Song dynasty, utilized the length of a long scroll and moving perspectives to convey variations in distance. This piece may be viewed one section at a time or by walking along its length to savor the progression. A Chinese landscape painting deviates from reality with variations in content, perspectives, times of day, seasons of the year, etc. Artistic impressions conveyed through this art form result from highly developed painting techniques unrestrained by limits of time and space.

    Poetry in painting - Chinese painting and literature are closely related. Within blank spaces, the artist may write inscriptions to enhance a painting's theme or add poetic feeling. Hence we say, There is painting in poetry and poetry in painting. Rich poetic feelings and musical rhythms akin to the posture of dancers characterize paintings of depth. Poetry, calligraphy, and seals combine within a painting to create a musical balance.

    Can Chinese landscape painting be perpetuated and further improved? By continually reassessing the philosophies, events, and outcomes of the last century, landscape painters aspire to revitalize traditional Chinese art. Changes in the social, ideological, cultural, and environmental realms should inspire conceptualization of each landscape painting and application of the brush.