Chinese landscape painting in the Northern Song Dynasty has reached a mature stage, "three landscapes" has become the first peak in the history of Chinese painting, and the Southern Song Dynasty landscape painting has obvious changes in terms of aesthetics, stylistic composition, or pen and ink techniques, from the northern Song Dynasty's magnificent panoramic landscape development to the Southern Song Dynasty's "one-corner" poetic painting-like smoke and rain Jiangnan landscape, creating a new painting format of the Southern Song Dynasty painting school.
A representative figure of landscape painting in the Southern and Northern Song Dynasties
I. Representative figures of landscape painting in the Southern Song Dynasty
The four families of the Southern Song Dynasty, namely the guide song court landscape painters Li Tang, Liu Songnian, Ma Yuan, and Xia Gui. The four are also collectively known as the "Four Greats of the Southern Song Dynasty" and also known as "Li Liu Maxia". The four paintings belong to the style of painting along the way. The "Four Houses of the Southern Song Dynasty" also marked the characteristics of the Southern Song Dynasty's phased style in the creation of three disciplines of landscape, flowers and birds and characters. While showing the style of the times, each painter also has its own facial characteristics. In the process of the formation of the Southern Song Dynasty painting style, Li Tang took the end, continued the tradition of the Northern Song Dynasty, and at the same time constructed the Southern Song Dynasty fashion; then Liu Songnian's marking made the appearance of the Southern Song Dynasty valued by the people at the time; to the Ma and Xia dynasties, the Southern Song Painting Style was fully established, so that the Southern Song Painting Style occupied a unique space in the history of art with the style of "courtyard body". The landscape paintings of the Southern Song Dynasty, represented by the "Four Houses of the Southern Song Dynasty", abandon the alpine torrent-style composition centered on the main peak since the Northern Song Dynasty, so that the center of the picture deviates from the center. The picture appears quite selective and rounded, arranging the position, and painstakingly lonely. The pursuit of poetic picture and the truth of details have enabled the further development of Chinese artistic conception. In addition, the "Four Houses of the Southern Song Dynasty" also influenced the Landscape Painting of the Zhejiang School in the Ming Dynasty, and even as far as Dongyang, which was respected by the Japanese painting world.
Li Tang
Li Tang (c. 1085–1165), courtesy name Xigu, was a native of Sancheng, Heyang (present-day Mengxian County, Henan). Initially selling paintings for a living, Emperor Huizong Zhao Yizheng and Zhongzhong (1114) participated in the examination of the painting academy, and was added to the painting academy with the title of "Painting Zhongkui". The "Jing kang rebellion" was taken captive to the northern country, and then risked his life to flee south, and met Xiao Zhao in the Taihang Mountains, who worshiped him as a teacher and went to Lin'an (present-day Hangzhou) to sell paintings to survive. In the twelfth year of Shaoxing (1142), on the recommendation of Emperor Gaozong of Song's uncle Wei Yuan, he was conferred the title of Zhonglang (忠郎), appointed to the Academy of Paintings, and given a golden belt. The landscapes, flowers and birds, figures, and cattle he painted were all exquisite, and his landscape achievements were the most outstanding, and he became the leader of the Southern Song Dynasty painting academy. The pen and ink he made were strong and imposing, and he went to complexity and simplicity, created the "big axe splitting" method, painted water to break the fish scale pattern program, and got the shape of turbulence. He inherited the ancients and surpassed the ancients, taught the law naturally and higher than nature, and was a great painter of good character and high painting quality, which shocked the realism of ancient and modern times, and had a great influence on future generations.
Wind map of Wanyuan Pine Li Tang
Liu Songnian
Liu Songnian (c. 1155-1218), a native of Qiantang (present-day Hangzhou, Zhejiang). Court painter of the three dynasties of The Southern Song Dynasty, Emperor Xiaozong, Guangzong and Emperor Ningzong. During the reign of Emperor Xiaozong of Song (1174-1189), he was admitted to the Imperial Academy of Painting, during the reign of Emperor Guangzong of Song (c. 1190-1194), he was appointed to the Academy, and Emperor Ningzong of Song (1195-1224) was rewarded with a golden belt for presenting the "Cultivation and Weaving Map". Because it lives in Qingbo Gate, it has the name of Liu Qingbo, and qingbo gate has another name "secret door", so it is nicknamed "secret door Liu". Good at painting figures and landscapes, he is known as a "masterpiece" among the people of the academy.
Four Landscapes Liu Songnian
Ma Yuan
Ma Yuan (1190-1279), also known as Yao Father, was a famous painter of the Southern Song Dynasty. Originally from Hezhong (near present-day Yongji County, Shanxi), Qiao Yu Qiantang (present-day Hangzhou, Zhejiang). Southern Song Dynasty Guangzong, Ren Ningzong two dynasties painting academy to be edicted. As a descendant of generations of painters, the great-grandfather was a painting academy to be edicted when he was emperor of the Song Dynasty. Ma Yuan enjoyed a high reputation in the history of mainland painting, and at that time had the reputation of a unique painting academy, and together with Li Tang, Liu Songnian and Xia Gui, he was called the Four Houses of the Southern Song Dynasty. Li Tang's painting style has a particular impact on it, Ma Yuan paints plum trees in a multi-faceted form of dragging techniques, boldly choosing cuts in the chapter, depicting a corner of the mountain and a part of the end of the water, leaving a large blank space on the screen to highlight the landscape. At the time, his paintings were evaluated as "corner scenes". It is the same as Xia Gui, and is called "Ma Xia", also known as "Horse Corner, Summer Half".
Hanjiang solo fishing map Ma Yuan
Xia Gui
Xia Gui (born and died unknown), courtesy name Yuyu, was a painter of the Southern Song Dynasty of China and a native of Qiantang, Lin'an (present-day Hangzhou, Zhejiang). When Emperor Ningzong of Song was in charge of the painting academy, he was given a gold belt. During the reign of Emperor Rizong, he was a courtesan of the Painting Academy and trained WuLang. In his early years, he painted figures and later became famous for his landscape paintings. He is one of the representative figures of the Northern School of Landscape.
Xishan Qingyuan Tu Xia Gui
Ma and Xia Shanshui are called "Horse Corner" and "Summer Half Side" because of their bold tailoring, breaking through the panoramic program and painting the corners of the scene. Xia Jue's activities were at the same time as Ma Yuan and slightly later, and their style was roughly the same. The landscape arrangement method is the same as that of Ma Yuan, and the world is called "Ma Xia", which is equally famous in the world. Ma Yuan uses a pen to be clean and exposed, Xia Guixi uses a bald pen, with a pen that is old, the ink is dripping, the meaning is still ancient and simple, and the point scene characters are simple and complete, and the few strokes are very different. The compositional techniques of Ma Yuan and Xia Jue also had an impact on the figure paintings and flowers and birds of the late Southern Song Dynasty. The scenery of the corners of the two highlights the scenes with rich emotional colors, so that the picture scenes are blended and rich in poetry, and the traditional landscape painting is developed and enriched, which is a high degree of artistic refinement.
2. Representative figures of landscape painting in the Northern Song Dynasty
The Three Greats of the Northern Song Dynasty refer to the three major painters in the history of Chinese painting, Dong Yuan, Li Cheng, and Fan Kuan. They created a new style of painting that the Tang Dynasty did not develop, and more perfected the appearance of Chinese landscape painting. The Three Greats of the Northern Song Dynasty not only created great wealth for that time, but also praised by future generations, and established a new milestone for the literati paintings of more than 700 years in the future.
Dong Yuan
Dong Yuan (943 - c. 962), a painter of the Southern Tang Dynasty of the Fifth Dynasty, was the founder of the Southern School of landscape painting. Dong Yuan , also known as Dong Yuan ( ) , was a native of Zhongling , Jiangxi ( present-day Jinxian County , Jiangxi ) , and was known as the Three Greats of the Northern Song Dynasty in the history of Dong Yuan , Li Cheng , and Fan Kuan , and Li Jing , the lord of the Southern Tang Dynasty , was then the deputy envoy of Beiyuan , so he was also known as "Dong Beiyuan". He is good at painting landscapes, working on figures and animals. His landscape began with Jing Hao, his pen strength was heavy, and then he entered the painting with the real scenery of the real mountains in Jiangnan, which was not a strange and steep brush. Distant forests and distant trees, flat and deep, wrinkles are like hemp skin, and posterity is called "Phi Ma". The moss of the mountain head is fine, the water color is river and sky, the clouds and mist are obscure, the peaks are infested, the Tingzhu Creek Bridge, and the rate is more sincere. Mi Fu called his paintings "plain and innocent, and Tang did not have this product". Surviving works include "Xiajing Mountain Pass To Be Crossed", "Xiaoxiang Map", "Xiashan Map", "Creek Bank Map" and so on.
Xiao Xiang figure Dong Yuan
Li
Li Cheng (919-967), painter of the early Song Dynasty. The word Ham Hee. Originally from Chang'an (present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi), his ancestors were from the Tang Dynasty, and his grandfather moved to His home Yingqiu (present-day Qingzhou, Shandong) during the Fifth Dynasty, so it was also known as Li Yingqiu. Good at painting landscapes, mastering Jinghao and Guan Tong, after the division of creation, became a family of its own. Paint more of the countryside and the vast landscape. Pingyuan Cold Forest, the painting method is concise, the weather is sparse, it is easy to use light ink, it is known as "cherishing ink like gold"; painting mountain stones is like rolling clouds, which is called "Cirrus Cloud"; painting HanLin creates the "crab claw" method. It had a major influence on the development of landscape painting in the Northern Song Dynasty, and was known as the "first in ancient and modern times" during the Northern Song Dynasty. Surviving works include "Reading stele stone map", "Hanlin Pingye map", "Qingluan Xiao Temple map", "Maolin Yuanxiu map" and so on.
Hanlin Pingye Figure Li Cheng
Fan Kuan
Fan Kuan (950-1032), painter of the Northern Song Dynasty. Also known as Zhongzheng, the word neutral. Han Chinese, a native of Huayuan, Shaanxi (present-day Yaozhou District, Tongchuan, Shaanxi). Sexual neglect, alcoholism. He is good at painting landscapes and is one of the three famous artists of landscape painting in the Northern Song Dynasty. After learning Li Cheng for the first time, he realized that "those who are not as good as teachers are created by the teachers", so they live in seclusion in Zhongnan and Taihua, and they make up their minds about the scenery, write about the true bones of the mountains, and become a family of their own. Its painting peaks are thick and dignified, imposing and majestic, which makes people feel majestic and dangerous. The pen is strong and powerful, with many raindrops, watercress, nails, the top of the mountain is good for dense forest, often placed large rocks at the water's edge, and the houses are dyed black. It's also wonderful to be a snow scene. Surviving works include "Xishan Travel Map", "Snow Mountain Xiao Temple Map", "Snow Scene Cold Forest Map" and so on.
Xishan Travel Map Fan Kuan
The author copied the "Xishan Travel Map"
Artistic features of landscape painting in the Southern and Northern Song Dynasties
The Song Dynasty was the peak of traditional landscape painting on the mainland. Song Taizu overthrew the war chaos of the five dynasties at the end of the Tang Dynasty, and won the world alone, in order to consolidate his ruling position, he cultivated the literature and innovated the tuzhi; when he arrived at Taizong and Zhenzong, he rewarded literature and art, and people rose up, so the Song Dynasty had three hundred years of prosperity and prosperity, and during this period, the palace art was in full bloom, the scale of the painting academy was complete, the famous artists appeared in an endless stream, and the masterpieces were fruitful. Landscape painting on the painting altar is the most prominent, the ink grid method is unprecedented development, various techniques are becoming more and more perfect, completely out of the Sui and Tang Dynasties since the "first hook and then fill in" method, there has been a technical formula that pays attention to the charm of pen and ink, landscape painting is recreated, emphasizing rationality, the courtyard physique law is prepared, and the aesthetic characteristics gradually shift from political and religious spirit to humanistic spirit.
After the unification of the Northern Song Dynasty, it adopted the measures of "lightly dispensing with thin endowments", extensively promoted agricultural production, vigorously reclaimed barren land, enhanced national strength, became rich and white, and created a foundation for cultural prosperity.
Read the stele stone diagram Li Cheng
Reign on "Wenzhi Flourishing," "Chongwen suppresses martial arts." The literati were respected, and Song Taizu said: "In the past, most of the names of the branches were taken by the family, and they personally came to the temple to test and do their best to eliminate their shortcomings." "The imperial examination system of the Song Dynasty gave many ordinary people the opportunity to enter the army and participate in politics, so many painters went out of the mountains and entered the imperial court. Although Li Cheng of the Northern Song Dynasty lived in seclusion in the Taihang Mountains, and Fan Kuan lived in the Zhongnan Mountains and the Taihua Mountains, their paintings were all high, and the "Commentary on the Famous Paintings of the Holy Dynasty" Yun "Song has the world, for the landscape, but Zhongzheng and Cheng (Li Cheng) are absolutely rejected, and there is still no one to reach." "Fan Kuan is famous for his landscape and is valued by the world." Therefore, the imperial court spent a lot of money to buy Li Cheng's paintings everywhere, and whenever Song Shenzong saw Li Cheng's own handwriting, he "must appreciate it," at that time, there were as many as one hundred and fifty-nine works of Li Cheng in the inner government, which showed the great influence of Li Cheng and Fan Kuan at that time, and also showed the great importance that the imperial court attached to painters. Guo Xi, who taught Li Cheng, "traveled outside the party", and later entered the imperial court, his depiction of natural mountains and stone forest springs and villages and rural dwellings is not an escape from reality, but a memory of a beautiful past life. As early as the Northern Song Dynasty, Li Tang, who was equally famous with Guo Xi and then dominated the southern Song Dynasty painting world, was also an example, and Li Tang was deeply "locked" and Huizong admired it very much. Therefore, the atmosphere of the times and the enlightenment of humanistic thought have made the literati doctor's thoughts active, the works more life-like, the genres of landscape paintings, more humanistic connotations, and the "strict law" gradually developing in the direction of "literati artistic characteristics".
Huzhuang Qingxia tu Zhao Lingyong
The emperors of the Song Dynasty and the dynasties all liked painting, politically heavy literature is not heavy on martial arts, foreign wars are always unsuccessful, the rulers look at weakness and incompetence, then "civil rule" makes the country stable and uneventful, which makes the social productive forces greatly developed, agriculture, handicrafts, industry and commerce, science and technology, etc. have developed tremendously, and material civilization is the fundamental guarantee for the development of painting art. Therefore, the prosperity of social material life, the mutual penetration of the literati and doctor culture, the painters go deep into life, smoke and clouds, or live in the mountains and forests, or travel to nature, integrate their own perception of nature into the creation of landscape painting, search for strange peaks and peaks, and create extremely poor creation: Li Cheng depicts his familiar Qilu scenery, Fan Kuan depicts his familiar Scenery of Guanshan, Dong Yuan depicts his familiar Jiangnan scenery, and Guo Xi is even more "full of travel" Due to the differences in living regions and life experiences, they all have very different artistic styles. The style of landscape painting moved closer to secular life, forming a style that conformed to the "national nature" of the Song Dynasty, and the expression, expression techniques and humanistic colors of landscape painting in the Courtyard of the Song Dynasty reached a peak, which played a role in promoting the development of Chinese landscape painting.
Reasons for the change in the aesthetic form of the composition of landscape paintings in the Southern and Northern Song Dynasties
1. Geographical reasons
During the Northern Song Dynasty, the capital of the state was in Beijing, and the Central Plains became a political and cultural center. The landscape painting of the Northern Song Dynasty mainly followed the northern painting school represented by Jing and Guan in the five generations, focusing on shaping the landscape image of the Guanluo area on both sides of the Yellow River. Northern Song Dynasty painters such as Li Cheng, Fan Kuan and most of their schools came into contact with the majestic and majestic natural landscape of the north and the smoke and mountains, so most of them adopted the vertical axis form, and they were all panoramic compositions, highlighting the subject. With the change of aesthetic consciousness and social needs, the landscape paintings of the late Northern Song Dynasty have many styles and moods, with the renovation of skills and the pursuit of beautiful artistic conceptions, in the middle and late Period of the Northern Song Dynasty, there have been landscape works that use banners or long scrolls to express natural landscapes, and use pingyuan method sets to reflect the continuous situation.
Autumn color of Jiangshan Zhao Boju
With the change of Jing Kang, the Song Dynasty crossed south and the south of the An river, the economy and culture of the northern region were greatly destroyed, a large number of literati and painters fled to the south, and the painting center turned to the south, thus entering another stage of development. With the passage of time, under the initiative of the emperor and the efforts of painters from the south and the native painters in the south, there were new changes in the artistic techniques and compositional aesthetic forms of landscape painting. At this time, the painters were more committed to shaping the beautiful jiangnan landscape image, and the painting style was transformed from the majesty of the Northern Song Dynasty to an ethereal and elegant show, and landscape painting also entered a new period of development. Compared with the mountains in the north, the natural scene in the southern region is more gentle hilly and mountainous. The painters' painting objects have also changed, and the way of observation has changed from overall grasp to in-depth details, from distant to nearsighted, creating a pattern of less winning more, ethereal and far-reaching. Li Tang, Liu Songnian, Ma Yuan, and Xia Gui, who are known as the four families of the Southern Song Dynasty, created a new world of landscape painting art with their clear and steep images and simple brush and ink chapters. At this time, it is not uncommon to reflect various customs, amusements and the best places in lakes and mountains, such as Li Song's "Moon Night Tide View Map", Ma Yuan's "Ta Ge Tu", etc., exquisite pavilions and pavilions, clear rocks, and willow forests shrouded in smoke on the far shore, which have become common themes in the landscape paintings of the Southern Song Dynasty.
2. Socio-historical reasons
The establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty ended the strife and war of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, and the society was in a relatively stable situation; the economy began to recover and prosper, and the rapid development of commerce, handicrafts, and the progress of science and technology have successively promoted the development of culture; the capital beijing painters are gathered, and many of them are skilled professional painters; there is also the demand for painting in the society at that time and the appreciation and collection of calligraphy and painting by scholars; in addition, the Northern Song Dynasty set up the Hanlin Picture Academy at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Many emperors of the Song Dynasty attached different degrees of importance to and supported painting for various reasons, which promoted the development and prosperity of landscape painting during the Northern Song Dynasty.
After the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, during the Southern Song Dynasty when the Capital was built in Lin'an, the contradictions with the Jin and other ethnic minorities were sharp, the social environment was not as stable and peaceful as in the Northern Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty coveted pleasures, and forgot about the northern Song Dynasty's loss of land and national shame and people's difficulties, at this time the mountains and rivers were broken, and the people did not have a good life. The painters of the Southern Song Dynasty were in a social environment and atmosphere with only half of the country, and most of the scenes they painted were "remnants of mountains and water", and there were more partial corner-style pictures. This change in composition more or less reflects the spiritual portrayal of the literati and inkers at that time, showing a certain social and historical content. Landscape painters in the tour, observation, depiction of natural scenes at the same time, poured their own emotional thoughts, they will be their own moral character and the feelings of worrying about the country and the people to the landscape, and then through painting to show them, so as to create works, can let people taste the "meaning outside the image, the sound outside the string". Under the action of social factors, the expression of artistic expression that is compatible with historical conditions is produced, which is also the inevitability of the development of art.
Stepping on the song map Ma Yuan
3. Personal feelings and thoughts
During the Northern Song Dynasty, landscape painting was in a mature stage, at this time the composition form of landscape painting was mostly panoramic composition, the picture was master and subordinate, respect and inferiority were orderly, and the political indoctrination and social etiquette were displayed in all aspects of landscape painting, and the Northern Song Dynasty literati were in a peaceful and prosperous world, the idea of loyalty and filial piety was profound, the Northern Song Dynasty emphasized "civil rule" in politics, Confucianism flourished, and Buddhism was advocated, and this social and political trend of thought inevitably also had a profound impact on the literature and art at that time. Guo Xi talked about the composition of the picture shiyun in the "Shanshui Xun" of the "Lin Quan Gao Zhi Collection": "The Great Mountain Hall is the lord of the mountains, so it is distributed in the Subgang Fulin Valley, which is the suzerainty of the size near and far; it is like the great prince who is proud of the sun, and the hundreds of people run to the court, and there is no way to turn their backs." The Changsong Pavilion is the table of many trees, so it is distributed in the sub-vines and roses, which is the master of zhenqi dependence; its momentum is like a gentleman's uproar, and the villains are served by many villains, and there is no state of frustration. Guo Xi said that through the description of the business position of landscape painting to reflect the monarchy, inferiority, and hierarchy in Confucian thought, and to symbolize the superiority of the imperial court order at the social level, and to give moral imagery to natural beauty. When Guo Xi manages the picture position, he is guided by Confucian moral thought, and every mountain, stone, water and tree has its own value orientation, and in this way, it corresponds to the natural trend of the operation of everything in the universe.
Early Spring Figure Guo Xi
In the Southern Song Dynasty, due to the partial corner of the Anjiang River, the development of the painter's aesthetic consciousness and the change of spatial environment and political factors, the composition of landscape painting gradually shifted from "looking at the small with the big" to "showing the big with the small", and the loss of half of the Song Dynasty made the literati doctors full of thoughts about the homeland but helpless, and the social life in the corner of the partial security naturally also sprouted the painter's preference for small scenes. Composition from a substantial panoramic composition to a corner-style composition, the aesthetic concept conveyed on the picture has also shifted from the attention to the overall moral thought of society to the embodiment of personal disposition and thought, painters often associate the creative intention of their paintings with the "half of the country" of the Southern Song Dynasty, which also reflects the southern Song Dynasty painters' ideological feelings full of cynical thoughts and emotions, but with the desire to transcend freedom. The painter expresses his own aesthetic emotions through the meticulous depiction of a corner and a corner, and his painting works have also changed from realistic and freehand to the pursuit of lyricism and poetry, creating a new style of landscape painting art.
The changes of all these factors have led to differences in the aesthetic forms of landscape painting composition and their thoughts and feelings in the Southern and Northern Song Dynasties, which are thus reflected in the paintings of painters in different periods for our study and discussion.
Xiaoxiang Wonders Mi Youren
Conclusion
The development of traditional Chinese landscape painting to the Song Dynasty has reached a fairly mature and perfect realm. Landscape paintings that express natural scenes have also become a carrier of a particularly important position in ancient Chinese painting. In the two Song Dynasties, The Chinese landscape painting, which flourished in development, underwent several fundamental changes in its compositional form, and the development and change of this composition was in line with the times. From the panoramic landscape of the Northern School to the "rice dots" of the father and son of Mi Fu, from the green landscape of "Erzhao" to the "corner and half of Ma Yuan and Xia Gui". The composition of landscape painting is influenced by the previous generation of painting schools and their aesthetic consciousness and changes and innovations on this basis, but the factors that make it develop and change are mainly the social environment in which it is located, including the regional environment, ideological trends, economic development, social stability, government support and the painter's personal aesthetic consciousness. Chinese landscape painting has a new living environment and development space, which will inevitably lead to its new changes and development. As an important part of landscape painting, the composition of Chinese landscape painting is bound to change accordingly.
Painting as an artistic expression that can present all sentient beings in the world one by one, whether it is the painter's response to the needs of the times, or the conscious concern for the people's livelihood in the world, it should be said that the aesthetic forms of landscape painting composition in different periods convey their different aesthetic ideas of painting, so that we can feel the aesthetic consciousness of painting from different periods from the composition of landscape painting from a macroscopic point of view, and feel the social ideology, cultural consciousness, economic development, social environment, regional differences in each period. Ethnic relations and many other factors have penetrated and integrated in Chinese landscape painting, as well as traditional Chinese culture presented by different artistic conceptions.
The difference in human temperament, cultivation, and aesthetic views has caused differences in understanding the same thing, and excellent landscape painting works are the sparks of the author's special emotions and real mountains and real waters. Only by going deep into life, in nature, and applying what we have learned, can we fully, flexibly, and completely apply these laws and methods. In the process of landscape painting creation, the interdependence of conception and composition, in-depth life and creative practice can create a more perfect work of art.
Chen Haifeng, from 1981 to 1993, worked as a senior art editor at Ma'anshan Daily, and published thousands of inscriptions, illustrations, mastheads, sketches and cartoons for more than a decade.
From 1994 to 2021, he was the chairman and secretary of Anhui Ocean Wind Culture Media Co., Ltd., a first-class advertising enterprise in China and a listed company on the New Third Board, the president of Ma'anshan Advertising Association, the vice president of Anhui Advertising Association, and the executive director of China Advertising Association.
He is currently studying in the Advanced Research Class of China Academy of Art.