China's early paintings don't tell us much about a painting creation like this; Of course, we hope there are more. But the lack of this information does not mean that this situation is an exception-it is believed that the artist's choice of theme and style is usually irrelevant to the actual ideas and restrictions mentioned by Guo Si. When people in China talk about art, they usually don't discuss the economic and other driving forces behind the emergence of artistic works. They like to portray artists as free people and only pay attention to expressing their feelings. I believe that in the west, we can accept this without judgment. Until recently, the situation of most artists in China was more likely to be similar to that of Italian painters in15th century. As Michael barker Barker Baxandal pointed out, painting is really too important to be reserved for painters of their time. Bucksandel commented, "In our recent romantic situation, the painting transaction is very different. Artists draw what they think is the best and then look for buyers. " (2) 1 1 The rise of the amateur literati painting movement in China in the 20th century made some artists independent of the economic income obtained through artistic production to varying degrees. In this way, later authors dare to claim that these painters have the same independent status in art, at least for the artists they admire deliberately. In this way, there is a myth that artists are not bound by any restrictions. Artists have nothing to do with money and interests. The purpose of painting is only to entertain themselves or others, and so on.
Landscape is a favorite theme of amateur writers, and it is particularly easy to be idealized. Its function is usually just for pure meditation, and it has no special purpose. Mi Fei, an early literati amateur painter, said that "the master of landscape is proud"-that is to say, landscape painting is higher than animal painting, and the latter can be copied. (3) A large number of important China landscape paintings are indeed created for meditation, which are the objectification of the creator's inner world, or reveal the artist's understanding of a certain natural order. There is no more secular function. But landscape painting may be more than this, and it is designed to directly adapt to the various situations and requirements of the artist's society. This is what we care about in this chapter.
A few years ago, I held a seminar on this subject and told my classmates that in order to think about the problem, we can divide our relationship with painting into three parts. The first part is the painting itself, the material existence of painting, the style of painting and the theme of painting in a simple sense. The second part deals with the broadest sense of painting, and we usually have to go beyond painting itself for this purpose. The third part is its function-how it was drawn under what circumstances and what role it played in the social situation at that time. The example I used to illustrate this observation is the record of Guo's painting just quoted. The composition of the work and various elements-old people, rocks and pine trees-are the first part, that is, the painting itself; It expresses a wish that the descendants of the recipient are expected to be senior officials, which belongs to the second part, that is, the meaning of the work; This painting was made for Wen's birthday. This information tells us the third part, that is, the function of the work.
This division is not enough in some aspects. We can systematically expound the following types: in a certain painting, specific themes, specific forms and images, specific styles and features all provide potential possibilities for conveying specific thoughts and meanings to the viewer; In turn, these will make this painting play a role in a specific social context, meet some needs and convey some information. Obviously, Guo's case is an exception in a sense: we generally don't have enough information to construct such a clear text, so that this painting contains these three parts, and I shouldn't assume that there will always be a meaningful third part, that is, function. But I think its function can be identified in a large number of cases, more than we expected, regardless of whether I have evidence to determine what that function is.
Regarding China's landscape paintings, if we ask such questions, such as "What are their meanings?" "What are they for?" We may get an oversimplified answer: mountains and rivers reproduce natural scenery, and people like to look at pictures of various landscapes, so they draw them. This is not completely wrong, but it is only a partial fact and an insufficient answer. I don't think there is an answer that can completely answer all the questions of China's landscape painting. In order to understand the significance and function of China's landscape painting, we should regard it as several types rather than a single type or subject category. I want to make a preliminary overview here. Firstly, several simple functional painting cases; Followed by these categories, their meanings and functions are not so clear, but we can speculate.
As we know, China's paintings are usually created as entertainment works-that is, they are given to someone on a specific occasion or hung somewhere. If we ask, "What occasion is landscape painting suitable for?" We can cite some common examples.
One is a birthday, or to celebrate someone's longevity. Just as paintings with auspicious themes such as pine trees and cranes can express the wish of longevity, some landscape paintings can also express the same wish for someone's birthday. You can know this from its inscription and postscript. Landscape paintings with auspicious themes, such as Tianbao Jiuru, Shoubi Nanshan and Penglai Mountain, can achieve this goal. The themes of such paintings are usually pine trees, rapids and dense fog. Ding made a big picture for an official's 50th birthday, and it was full of these patterns. The above poem contains political significance, and its metaphorical meaning is that this man's compassion for the people in his jurisdiction is like a dense cloud, which brings rain to farmers' cultivated land. ⑥
Functionally, the other is painting like farewell. Parting between friends; Farewell to relatives who have left home for their posts, and relatives and friends hold farewell parties for them; When the official left his post, people gathered to see him off. For all these occasions, farewell paintings are appropriate, and many existing Chinese paintings belong to this category. We printed a portrait of Wang Bao at the beginning of15th century and a portrait of Zhang Feng at 1648 here. The composition of these paintings gradually forms a form, which is determined by its meaning and purpose: that is, the composition of these paintings is to express the concepts of distance and separation. The foreground in the picture is usually a parting place, and it is clearly and carefully drawn. We can often see farewell parties in the grass pavilion, next to a boat. Then the picture moves the line of sight to the back, and the level is clear to the depth, which means that the character is about to enter the future. In these paintings, there are often poems written by farewell people, such as Elvis Presley's works. It is now known that there are many such works after the Song Dynasty; In the Ming Dynasty, farewell paintings were particularly popular. ⑦ When painting such a picture, the artist usually gives it as a gift to the person who is about to leave, and he is likely to follow the existing form to express a specific meaning. If we analyze the styles of these paintings without considering their functions, we will lose a lot of points.
Landscape painting (hermit map) which expresses the concept of seclusion constitutes another type. This kind of painting often depicts a person's seclusion, and is given to the hermit as a gift by the painter himself or people in commissioned works. It may also be that the hermit asked the painter to paint it, and then returned it in some way, either as a treat or as a gift. Here are two examples, both of which are paintings by Wang Meng, a great painter in the Yuan Dynasty. Thirdly, we can see that the structure of painting is determined by its meaning: there is an inward part in the picture composition, which is the hermit's residence and shows a kind of seclusion thought; There is also an outward part that expresses a yearning view of the outside world (when the characters are willing). This kind of painting should be regarded as functional, and its style should be understood as a response to the specific needs of this type, so it should follow the existing form, rather than simply being regarded as a series of inventions by the artist alone.
When we interpret the meaning of painting in this way, the method we adopt can be generally called semiotics: that is, using specific themes and composition styles as symbols to express meaning. Semiotics assumes a symbol system, that is, a code, which contemporary artists can understand without thinking or explanation. There was no code in the words of that era, but it was definitely not destroyed. Inscriptions and other texts will provide possible clues. With this help, this kind of code can definitely be found in the work itself.
Some of this type of works do not reproduce specific pavilions or seclusion, but they contain the general concept of seclusion: the works of Zhejiang painters in the Ming Dynasty are an example. The composition here still includes introverted recluse and extroverted fisherman, symbolizing the arrival of the outside world. Such a painting may show the seclusion of a government official, who is fixed in the city because of his busy business. (The special topics of Ming Dynasty Painting Academy and Zhejiang Iconology will be discussed later in this article. )
According to the poem of the 4th century poet Tao Qian (Tao Yuanming), the Peach Blossom Garden is often painted in this way. The inward part is a hidden deep valley. Hundreds of years ago, people fled the tyrant's rule and lived a quiet life. The outward part refers to the fisherman's journey from the town across the stream. We can take a famous landscape painting found in the Liao tomb of Yemaotai as an example to determine a painting type about seclusion. This painting was created in the middle of the tenth century or later, and is now in the Liaoning Provincial Museum. People have done a lot of research on this painting, involving some aspects of age and style; They didn't discuss the theme of the work, but just called the painting "seclusion map" or "chess score in the mountains" However, it seems possible (I think it was first proposed by He Huijian). More accurately, this is the theme of Taoist seclusion or some kind of fairyland, and it is now a theme of "there is a cave in another world". If we tentatively confirm this theme, how can we confirm it? There is no inscription on the painting, and there is no related inscription. Some patterns seen on the screen can be confirmed to appear in Taoist scenes: the background is a green cliff; Pine trees; Several people are playing chess on the stage; Several houses that look like castles in fairyland; A door through which the foreground can pass; A man came up to him, accompanied by a waiter, and one of the boys was holding a big bottle of gourd wine. All these motifs have individual connections with Taoism, but the ideal way is to find these connections in the connection between motifs and Taoism and in the picture of Taoist fairyland. For example, there is a page named "Xianju Taige" in the block-printed "The Edge of the City and the Ink" (1604) in the late Ming Dynasty. Here, just like the painting found in Liao's tomb, it enters the picture from the bank slope and pine trees (symbolizing the transition from secular life to sacred heaven); We continue from here to a platform, where two people play chess and one person watches chess. Behind is the palace building, with mountains and mountains, which are clearly depicted. Obviously, these are very similar to the painting axis of Liao tomb: this is not only the same theme, but also the whole picture structure, that is, how the painter asked us to interpret this painting. We assume that the painting axis of Liao tomb is a Taoist wonderland, which is supported. After determining this type of composition, we can search for other examples that are partially consistent or very similar to this type. For example, a painting without money in the Ming Dynasty, we can see many of the same factors, and the composition is roughly the same. This style of composition remains unchanged for thousands of years, which seems strange, but it is not uncommon in China's paintings.
In this way, we usually consider those problem paintings and other works with more sufficient evidence without money, so as to determine their themes and significance; Moreover, once we understand its meaning, we can at least speculate on its purpose. Taoist fairyland paintings like those mentioned above are sometimes used to pray for people's longevity. The painting axis of the Liao tomb is hung on the tomb wall, and the purpose may even be to express the owner's wish to enter the fairyland. Once we have determined this style, we can look for other works to provide us with clues to solve these problems. To understand the significance and function of China's landscape painting, we can first queue and group the works according to their categories, and then try to determine the iconological significance of the works.
A large number of China landscape paintings have secluded places or grass pavilions, surrounded by various scenery. These are usually painted for the owner of the residence, and the same title as the owner's name is painted for his secluded place. This kind of painting was very popular in the Yuan Dynasty. In fact, they constitute an important part of landscape painting in Yuan Dynasty. Wang Meng's recluse paintings belong to this type. Ni Zan's most famous work, Rong Xi Zhai Tu, belongs to the same theme category, but its composition is completely different. It expresses the meaning of seclusion through unpretentious forms and brushstrokes rather than divided composition. These paintings are highly idealistic, not realistic, and their intention is not to show the actual face of this secluded place. In fact, the scenery that Ni Zan painted again and again seems to be more or less the same, so he marked it with different names and presented it to different people as a "photo" of a quiet place. The inscription on this painting shows that he painted it for one person, and then he wrote it for another person. Just repeating the title will turn this painting into a picture of that person's knee, and the painting itself has not changed at all.
This kind of painting was very common in the early Yuan Dynasty, such as "The Residence of Floating Jade Mountain" collected by Shanghai Museum, and 1302 "Water Town Map" collected by Zhao Meng of Beijing Palace Museum. ⑧ Qian Xuan's paintings reproduce his own seclusion, and are modeled after the patterns in Wangchuan Villa by Wang Wei or Long Mian by Li. Zhao Meng's painting looks like a general rather than a specific landscape, but from the inscription, it is a secluded place of one of his friends and was painted for him. Richard Nograd called such a painting a "wealth landscape painting". Pet-name ruby he argued that these secluded places are very in line with the interests of the owners (they often use land names as numbers or the names of wolves' nests), and painting a scene is equivalent to painting a character. To discuss this kind of painting, it is usually to study its style and the identity of the author or hermit. However, as a "wealth landscape painting", the reappearance of secluded places and how these factors affect the composition and style of the painting are often ignored.
Dr. Wen Yicheng's thesis is a study of Wang Meng's famous painting "Qingbian Seclusion", which was painted on 1366. He convincingly pointed out that this painting is the territory of the nearby Zhao family, and it may have been painted for the grandson (Wang Meng himself is his grandson). 1366, this place is in the midst of a war between the armies of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and his old enemy Zhang Shicheng. At that time, the calm and security that this kind of painting usually contained could not be expressed. Wang Meng endowed this theme with strong expressive force. He uses a composition type that usually expresses a certain meaning, and then changes or denies the meaning that this type usually expresses by changing the characteristics of the picture. There is a house deep on the left side of the picture, and the surrounding scenery is not peaceful at all. It is by no means a place where chaos can be avoided, but it is in a state of extreme turmoil. The image of natural scenery usually shows a stable and peaceful state, but here, nature is just the opposite, showing an unstable and restless state. This is a good example, where we can see how artists can transform existing painting types to meet their own purposes, not limited to its original meaning. But in order to understand this achievement of the artist, I must first understand the types of misuse or change and their usual meanings.
In the paintings of Wu Pai or Suzhou in the Ming Dynasty, it was very popular to draw other people's trades. Shen Zhou, Wen Zhiming and their followers drew many such paintings. For example, Shen Zhou painted a landscape painting on 1470, or according to 1366 Wang Meng's "The Picture of Clearing the Border and Living in Seclusion", but he moved the house deep in the background to the middle of the left half of the picture. If it weren't for the inscription, we might think that this is not a specific scene. "A Journey to Shenzhou" is painted in the style of Yuan Ren Huang, which has another meaning. Wen Zhiming painted many paintings of this type, and the "Building House" he painted for his friends at 1543 is a good example. His friend is going to retire and live upstairs, regardless of worldly troubles. Wen Zhiming expressed this idea with his paintings. He painted the buildings behind the water, trees and courtyard walls, high above them. Shen Zhou and Wen Zhiming are both gentlemen of high society. They draw such pictures to strengthen their social status and their friends, and express their living conditions in an idealized artistic form.
Those paintings that we thought were not specific landscapes proved to be "wealth landscape paintings" by research, depicting someone's own home. For example, a famous hand scroll painted by Lu Zhi, a contemporary of Wen Zhiming, was recently regarded as the private residence of the artist's friend named Yutian. Masters make a living by practicing medicine. Attending the original postscript on the painting may have been copied and sold as the original. On the other hand, the original has a painter's fake postscript, which has been passed down to this day. In addition, there is no literature to help identify, only "landscape" as the topic. The house figures in the painting are so inconspicuous that people will not immediately regard them as the real theme of the painting. The caves and waterfalls depicted in the painting may be consistent with the actual location of this place, but they may also be just auspicious images, which means that Geely's natural assets will ensure the health and wealth of its owners.
In Suzhou painting circles, it is also common to depict scenic spots in this area, such as the Tiger Mountain, famous temples and small bridges. Many artists in Suzhou paint these subjects. These are also the themes of culture, emphasizing humanity rather than just the landscape itself, because humanity is higher than the natural landscape. ( 1 1)
Let's briefly discuss a large category of landscape painting, that is, drawing topographic maps of actual locations, although this may be the theme of a book. Many of these paintings still exist, some of which are quite early. Here are two examples. One is Ju Ran's work, saying that it is a panoramic composition of the Yangtze River, but it is actually a painting without money at the end of the Song Dynasty; The other is a painting of the West Lake by Song Li, a painter of the Southern Song Dynasty. Ju Ran's hand scroll may be a work of art as a whole, but it has the characteristics of topographic map. Every place can be marked with place names, and every scene can be simplified into common symbols. The image is clear, but it is not interesting at all. In contrast, Song Li's paintings are treated with smoke, and the images are blurred. The whole picture is seldom like a map. As a painting, it is more touching. In another painting on the shore of the West Lake, we can see that the same scene may have been drawn into a topographic map. The author of this painting is anonymous. It may have been painted in14th century. The painting of a specific terrain may be a painting with real aesthetic characteristics, or it may be a diagram for a certain function, just like a map. Living here, we once again have a good understanding of the differences between different functions of painting, rather than the differences between the artist's personality and human nature. Song Li's hand scroll seems to be used for aesthetic care, showing the real experience of watching the beautiful scenery of the West Lake from the nearby peaks through the mist. Another picture is used to convey a lot of information. There are many buildings and various activities on the bank of the West Lake, such as illustrations in travel guides.