Chinese Painters: a Critical Study

Part Two. the Evolution of Chinese Painting

I. ORIGINS 45

II. BEFORE THE INTERVENTION OF BUDDHISM 46

III. THE INTERVENTION OF BUDDHISM 54

IV. THE T'ANG PERIOD--7TH TO 10TH CENTURIES 58

V. THE SUNG PERIOD--10TH TO 13TH CENTURIES 72

VI. THE YUeAN PERIOD--13TH AND 14TH CENTURIES 92

VII. THE MING PERIOD--14TH TO 17TH CENTURIES 114

VIII. THE CH'ING PERIOD--17TH TO 20TH CENTURIES 131

CONCLUSION 140

BIBLIOGRAPHY 149

INDEX OF PAINTERS AND PERIODS 151

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ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE

I. Sculptured stones of the Han dynasty. Second to third centuries. Rubbings taken by the Chavannes expedition 23

II. Portion of a scroll by Ku K'ai-chih. British Museum, London 27

III. Kwanyin. Eighth to tenth centuries. Painting brought from Tun-huang by the Pelliot expedition. The Louvre, Paris 31

IV. Palace of Kiu Cheng-kung by Li Chao-tao. T'ang period. Collection of V. Goloubew 34

V. Portrait of Lue Tung-ping by T'eng Ch'ang-yu. T'ang period. Collection of August Jaccaci. Lent to the Metropolitan Museum, New York. 39

VI. Painting by an unknown artist. T'ang period. Collection of R. Petrucci 47

VII. Geese. Sung period. British Museum, London 51

VIII. White Eagle. Sung period. Collection of R. Petrucci 59

IX. Horseman followed by two attendants. Sung period. Collection of A. Stoclet 63

X. Landscape in the style of Hsia Kuei. Sung period. Collection of Martin White 67

XI. Landscape by Ma Lin. Sung period. Collection of R. Petrucci 73

XII. Mongol horseman returning from the Hunt, by Chao Meng-fu. Yuean period. Doucet collection 77

XIII. Pigeons by Ch'ien Hsuean. Yuean period. Collection of R. Petrucci 85

XIV. Bamboos in monochrome by Wu Chen. Yuean period. Musee Guimet 93

XV. Paintings of the Yuean or early Ming period. Style of the Northern School. Collection of R. Petrucci 97

XVI. Portrait of a priest. Yuean or early Ming period. Collection of H. Riviere 101

XVII. Horse. Painting by an unknown artist. Yuean or early Ming period. Doucet collection 105

XVIII. Visit to the Emperor by the Immortals from on high. Ming period. British Museum, London 109

XIX. Egrets by Lin Liang. Ming period. Collection of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Junior 115

XX. Flowers and Insects. Ming period. Collection of R. Petrucci 119

XXI. Landscape. Ming period. Bouasse-Lebel collection 125

XXII. Beauty inhaling the fragrance of a peony. Ming period. Collection of V. Goloubew 133

XXIII. Halt of the Imperial Hunt. Ming period. Sixteenth century. Collection of R. Petrucci 137

XXIV. Painting by Chang Cheng. Eighteenth century. Collection of M. Worch 141

XXV. Tiger in a Pine Forest. Eighteenth to nineteenth centuries. Collection of V. Goloubew 145

Now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss.

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INTRODUCTION

Whatever its outward expression, human thought remains essentially unchanged and, throughout all of its manifestations, is fundamentally the same. Varying phases are but accidents and underneath the divers wrappings of historic periods or different civilizations, the heart as well as the mind of man has been moved by the same desires.

Art possesses a unity like that of nature. It is profound and stirring, precisely because it blends and perpetuates feeling and intelligence by means of outward expressions. Of all human achievements art is the most vital, the one that is dowered with eternal youth, for it awakens in the soul emotions which neither time nor civilization has ever radically altered. Therefore, in commencing the study of an art of strange appearance, what we must seek primarily is the exact nature of the complexity of ideas and feelings upon which it is based. Such is the task presented to us, and since the problem which we here approach is the general study of Chinese painting, we must prepare ourselves first to master the peculiarities of its appearance and technique, in order to understand later on the motives which inspired it.

While the first part of this study will carry us far from our habitual modes of thought, the second part will bring us back into a domain which our own philosophies, sciences and arts have already made familiar. Admittedly, Chinese painting is governed by distinctive ideas. Born of a civilization vastly different from our own, it may at times appear in a guise that seems incomprehensible. It would be astonishing, however, if Western intelligence were unable to grasp an aesthetic code of a magnitude which is too great to be ignored.

The progress of history and of criticism has given us the opportunity to reach a comprehension of the most peculiar formulas. Our culture is sufficiently broad to allow us to perceive the beauty of an Egyptian fresco or an Assyrian bas-relief as well as of a Byzantine mosaic or a painting of the Renaissance. We have therefore no excuse for remaining inaccessible to the art of the Far East and we have surely all the mental vigor that is requisite in order to accustom ourselves to the foreign nature of its presentation. It is in the realm of painting that this foreign element is most noticeable. This is due partly to a special technique and partly to the nature of the doctrines which serve as its inspiration.

It behooves us then to acquaint ourselves with these new aspects of the human soul. That is the justification for this little book. It forms an introduction in which gaps are shown without attempt at concealment and is presented in all modesty.

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Part One

TECHNIQUE

I. EQUIPMENT OF THE PAINTER

Where our painters have chosen wood or canvas as a ground, the Chinese have employed silk or paper. While our art recognizes that drawing itself, quite apart from painting, is a sufficient objective, drawing and painting have always been closely intermingled in the Far East. While the mediums used in Europe for painting in color, distemper, tempera and oil, led to an exact study of form, the colors employed by the Orientals--at times brilliant, at times subdued with an almost studied restraint--preserved a singular fluidity and lent themselves to undefined evanescences which gave them a surprising charm.

The early paintings were generally done on cotton, coarse silk or paper. In the eighth century, under the T'ang dynasty, the use of finer silk began. The dressing was removed with boiling water, the silk was then sized and smoothed with a paddle. The use of silken fabric of the finest weave, prepared with a thick sizing, became general during the Sung dynasty. Papers were made of vegetable fibres, principally of bamboo. Being prepared, as was the silk, with a sizing of alum, they became practically indestructible. Upon these silks and papers the painter worked with brush and Chinese ink, color being introduced with more or less freedom or restraint.

The brushes are of different types. Each position of the brush conforms to a specific quality of the line, either sharp and precise or broad and quivering, the ink spreading in strong touches or thinning to delicate shades.

The colors are simple, of mineral or vegetable origin. Chinese painters have always avoided mixing colors so far as possible. From malachite they obtained several shades of green, from cinnabar or sulphide of mercury, a number of reds. They knew also how to combine mercury, sulphur and potash to produce vermilion. From peroxide of mercury they drew coloring powders which furnished shades ranging from brick red to orange yellow. During the T'ang dynasty coral was ground to secure a special red, while white was extracted from burnt oyster shells. White lead was later substituted for this lime white. Carmine lake they obtained from madder, yellows from the sap of the rattan, blues from indigo. To these must be added the different shades of Chinese ink and lastly, gold in leaf and in powder.

Chinese ink is a very different composition from the ink of Western countries. It is a solid made of soot obtained by burning certain plants, which is then combined with glue or oil and moulded into a cake and dried. Other ingredients may be added to produce sheen or a dead finish. It improves with age if properly kept. The cake is moistened and rubbed on a slab, and the ink thus obtained must be used in a special way and with special care to produce the full effect.--TRANSLATOR.

The brush-stroke in the painting of the Far East is of supreme importance. We know that this could not be otherwise if we recall that the characters in Chinese writing are ideographs, not actually written, but rather drawn. The stroke is not a mere formal, lifeless sign. It is an expression in which is reflected the beauty of the thought that inspired it as well as the quality of the soul of him who gives it form. In writing, as in painting, it reveals to us the character and the conception of its author. Placed at the service of certain philosophical ideas, which will be set forth later on, this technique was bound to lead to a special code of Aesthetics. The painter seeks to suggest with an unbroken line the fundamental character of a form. His endeavor, in this respect, is to simplify the objective images of the world to the extreme, replacing them with ideal images, which prolonged meditation shall have freed from every non-essential. It may therefore be readily understood how the brush-stroke becomes so personal a thing, that in itself it serves to reveal the hand of the master. There is no Chinese book treating of painting which does not discuss and lay stress upon the value of its aesthetic code.

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