Southern and Northern Figures · Academic Exchange Exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Figure Painting Works Collection

Author: Wang Wen-Zhang / Guo Yi-Zhu (editors)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: From the perspective of social function, the overall form of Chinese painting maintains a dialectical value structure that is both "transcending reality" and "" ( does not need translation). The different value orientations embedded within it are like the two poles of the "Taiji diagram," complementing and interacting to regulate the social life of the Chinese people. One pole is "Daoist spirit," whose "transcendent" value orientation reflects humanistic care for the individual; the other is "Confucian spirit," which emphasizes "engagement with the world" and demonstrates a practical awareness of maintaining social hierarchy and discipline. Compared to the three major categories of Chinese painting—landscape, flower-and-bird, and figure painting—the value orientations of landscape and flower-and-bird paintings lean toward "transcendence," emphasizing aesthetic "transcendence" to help people detach from worldly constraints, find solace, and escape into an aesthetic realm. The value orientation of figure painting, on the other hand, emphasizes "engagement with the world," prioritizing aesthetic "realism" to convey moral principles, promote virtue, and encourage people to achieve success in real life without being misled by illusion. For a long time, the tension between these two value orientations has shaped the dialectical character of Chinese painting, each emphasizing its own value orientation to influence society. This dialectical nature of the overall value structure allows Chinese painting to seek a dynamic balance between "transcending reality" and "" ( does not need translation), avoiding extremes and thereby playing a positive role in social harmony and cultural ecology. As one of the three major categories of Chinese painting, figure painting's foundation for survival and development lies not only in its formal significance of depicting human figures but also in its functional value of revealing the meaning of life through artistic representation. The aesthetic "realism" of figure painting is not only reflected in its artistic "realistic" techniques for depicting and recording human affairs but also, more prominently, in its need to evaluate worldly events in line with social ideology and mainstream values. In a sense, figure painting can be seen as an artistic form of social evaluation or a means of integrating social consciousness and promoting social ideals. Therefore, compared to landscape and flower-and-bird paintings, figure painting places greater emphasis on its didactic and moral significance in meeting social needs, with both its content and form carrying a clear utilitarian tone. From the historical development of Chinese painting, this is evident. Records show that in the early Shang Dynasty, the prime minister Yi Yin used images of nine rulers to admonish King Cheng Tang; during the Zhou Dynasty, portraits were painted on the walls of the Mingtang to praise merits and warn against decline; in the Han Dynasty, portraits of heroes who fought against the Xiongnu were painted on the Qilin Pavilion to honor their achievements; the Tang Dynasty painter Yan Liben created works such as "The Eighteen Scholars of the Qin Mansion," "The at the Lingyan Pavilion," and "The Tribute envoys" to record history and serve as moral lessons; Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty ordered the imperial painting academy to create the "Guwen Jugu Tu" (Twelve Volumes of Observing Antiquity and Learning from the Past) to display the virtues and vices of past emperors, personally wrote prefaces for them, and hung them in the Xuzheng Pavilion, instructing courtiers to admire the rich historical materials. These examples demonstrate that "cultivating virtue and aiding social harmony" has always been a key value in Chinese figure painting. The ancients said: "When viewing paintings, one looks up in awe at the Three Emperors and Five Sovereigns; one feels sorrow at the tyrants of the Three Seasons; one grits one's teeth at traitors and illegitimate heirs; one forgets to eat at the sight of noble and virtuous scholars; one bows one's head in respect at the sight of loyal and self-sacrificing figures; one sighs at the sight of exiled officials and sons; one glares at and jealous wives; one admires the virtuous queens and obedient consorts." This shows that the ancients recognized and valued the social function of figure painting. Since the Song and Yuan dynasties, the dominant position of figure painting has gradually been replaced by landscape and flower-and-bird paintings, reflecting, to some extent, the close relationship between Chinese painting and social life, as well as its adaptation to social needs. However, it is important to emphasize that this decline does not mean that the value orientation and functional connotation of figure painting have fundamentally changed. In fact, the didactic tradition in art has been carried forward by figure painting throughout ancient society. As one pole of the overall value structure of Chinese painting, figure painting has always fulfilled the social function of recording historical events, serving as moral lessons, and highlighting exemplary figures. This function has maintained the integrity of Chinese painting's value form and its comprehensive regulatory power, ensuring that painting holds an important position in the social structure. It is undeniable that the artistic tradition of "cultivating virtue and aiding social harmony" has faced unprecedented challenges in the modernization process. Before the 1980s, the practical needs of state ideology led to the heightened importance and unprecedented development of figure painting. However, the extremism in value orientation was also particularly evident during the Cultural Revolution: the didactic significance of figure painting was distorted in its extremity, while the spiritual value of landscape and flower-and-bird paintings was completely excluded, making the value structure of artistic forms monolithic. As a result, the "transcendent" psychological needs in social life were suppressed, negatively affecting subsequent creative value orientations. Since the 1980s, the liberated psychological needs have given rise to a "decentered" trend in the art field, with figure painting generally in narrow formal play and self-expression, causing the value structure of artistic forms to tilt to the other extreme and greatly weakening the social function that art should fulfill. In today's rapidly changing social reality, the healthy development of contemporary art is closely linked to the macro goal of building a harmonious society. Maintaining the dialectical value structure that combines both "transcendent" and "engagement with the world" needs, as well as balancing the two value orientations of "transcending reality" and "" ( does not need translation), is a practical challenge for the healthy development of Chinese painting. For this reason, figure painting should not be limited to depicting ordinary human affairs but should also use such depictions to reveal the meaning of life and promote social ideals, contributing to the cultivation of social character under new historical conditions. This is a vast space for figure painting to excel.