The historical tradition of Chinese landscape painting, which has evolved since 800 CE, holds one of the highest values in Chinese art. Under different powerful ruling dynasties over the centuries, the physical methods of painting combine with conceptual ideas to bring forth a culture of highly prolific scholarly output and splendid artistic depictions of Chinese lands.

The period from the Five Dynasties (907-960 CE) to the Song dynasty (967-1127 CE), is regarded as culturally the most remarkable and distinct of all imperial eras, where paintings visualised landscapes showing immense distances and symbolised an orderly state. One of the foremost painters from the Song period was Kuo Hsi (Guo Xi in Mandarin Chinese) whose works offered a visually powerful vision of nature. Hsi’s hanging scrolls made with ink on silk, including ‘Early Spring And Autumn In The River Valley’ (circa 1072), are superb illustrations that portray atmospheric perspective, visual detail, and depth from this era.

Many notable scholars from the Song dynasty also established the ‘Literati Painting’ in the 11th century that was influenced by the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius. Literati Painting continued to evolve in the subsequent dynasties, especially affecting artists and scholars of Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.

Painting under the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368 CE), that was established by the war-driven Mongols in the 13th century, underwent further additions that exemplify the creative mind of the artist and the portrayal of physical matter such as landscapes. During this time, many educated Chinese officials were barred from government service, because of which many of these individuals held private gatherings and merged the styles from the preceding Song dynasty with their own ideas.

Traditional Chinese paintings cover a rich history of the depiction of nature and its perception in the artist’s philosophical mindscapes

Gardens and studios of artists often represented an extension of themselves; hence many paintings that depicted nature and select styles from traditional masters of the previous years were believed to be “mind landscapes”, that is, the personal ideas and values of the painters. In addition, four great masters of the Yuan dynasty, namely Ni Zan, Huang Gongwang, Wu Zhen and Wang Meng perfected brush techniques that earned significant esteem in the succeeding years.

For instance, Ni Zan gained admiration for hanging silk scrolls that visualised landscapes made with the dry brush technique — a method in which the brush is almost running out of ink, thus, allowing the paper to quickly soak up any paint that falls upon the surface. Zan painted the ‘The Rongxi Studio’ (circa 1372) at the age of 71. The painting, created with dry brush and ink, shows a few mountains in the background and plants in the foreground. The painting also represents Zan’s simple and philosophically grounded life, which was often spent with minimum possessions in the wilderness.

Literati painting from the earlier years achieved a high status during the Ming (1368-1644 CE) dynasty. Poet, calligrapher and painter Shen Zhou, from the Ming period, drew upon the literati ideals that drew from the expressive mind of the artist, without having a connection with anything the artist felt or thought about the represented object. Zhou’s ‘Poet On A Mountaintop’ (circa 1500) is informally styled and is believed to reflect his personality. On the left side of the painting, Zhou wrote a poem that praised nature.

Despite the fact that an intellectually stimulating and a visually moving tradition of Chinese painting, illustrating how artists went beyond typically painting natural scenes, has bloomed in the East, an emphasis upon the vast history of Chinese art has been lacking within the global art consciousness, until now. In addition to the over-popularity of Western art as the ‘only’ major thread of art, the housing of Chinese art collections in East Asian countries including China, South Korea and Taiwan, with little access or knowledge of their whereabouts, a limited literature on Chinese painting, and a dearth of good quality colour reproductions has often attributed to the undervaluation of traditional Chinese art. Through research and numerous art exhibitions on Chinese paintings, that have been conducted globally in recent years, spectators can now see how Chinese painting has represented various forms of nature through modified historical techniques and the creative imaginations of its intellectually vibrant and imaginative artists.

Published in Dawn, EOS, September 27th, 2020