Xishan Qingyuan--The Historical and Aesthetic Transformation of Landscape Painting During the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties: The Historical and Aesthetic Transformation of Landscape Painting During the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties

Author: Lü Peng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-03-01
Features: The basic descriptive structure of this book is that landscape painting did not truly take shape before the Five Dynasties. The perfect explanation of nature was confined to the mind and words—it was a long period of "spiritual landscape." During the Five Dynasties and the early Northern Song Dynasty, painters adopted methods as close as possible to visual reality in their representation of nature, believing that both nature and its spiritual essence could be depicted. The extraordinary abilities of the painters led to the emergence of "truthful representation" in "realistic landscape." However, the concept of "truthful representation" of nature lacked methodological support. The traditional materials and the knowledge system behind them could not guide painters to observe the physical appearance of nature. Instead, painters regarded the ancient perspectives and expressions of nature as binding dogmas. Meanwhile, the entire era's knowledge system shifted inward, with no intellectual influence encouraging painters to gain experiential understanding of the physical world. As a result, they gradually developed formalistic techniques for expressing nature, especially those living in imperial or noble environments whose views of nature were influenced by power and the system. Praise and beautification also led to a dogmatic view of nature, giving rise to "formulaic landscape." On the other hand, the inseparable fusion of Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist thought, under political pressure, continuously drew painters' thoughts and feelings inward. The cultivation of character and the pursuit of the highest spiritual realm required abandoning the material appearance of "form." Whether painting expressed "meaning" beyond "form" became a criterion for taste, status, and education. Scholar-officials, having controlled the interpretation of classical thought, confidently regarded themselves as authorities in evaluating painting quality. The practice and concept of "expressive landscape" gradually emerged and formed the standard Chinese painting style as painters faced nature. This deeply influenced the history of landscape painting for generations to come—after which traditional Chinese landscape painting evolved based on the spiritual content, style, and brushwork forms established by the painters of the Song Dynasty, until the perfection and eventual decline of these brushwork forms. This is precisely the prerequisite that any reader must understand before reading Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasty landscape paintings, and it is undoubtedly also the key feature that researchers point to in distinguishing Chinese landscape painting from Western landscape painting.