Page 142 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts

commentators on the subject of Zheng Fashi, Sun
Shangzi, and theYan brothers purportedly studying
with Zhang Sengyou:

[About] Zheng Fashi ... the monk Zong 28 said:
"He learned Zhang's methods, and could paint
anything .... Li [Sizhen] said, "He studied the

school of Zhang, and was considered his

disciple" (vol. 8).

Li said: "Sun [Shangzi] and Zheng [Fashi] both
studied with Zhang. Zheng was incomparable
at drawing people and buildings, whereas Sun
was supernatural in the way his spirit infused
his work" (vol. 8).

Pel Xiaoyuan] said: " Yan [Lide and Liben]

[

studied with Mr. Zhang and surpassed their

teacher. They mastered all the subtleties of

drawing people, garments, horses, chariots, and

buildings" (vol. a). 29

Moreover, according to Zhang Yanyuan, Li Ya, Fan

Changshou, and He Changshou also had studied

with Zhang:

LiYa [of the Sui] studied with Zhang Sengyou Fig. 15. Portrait of Sun Quan. Song dynasty (g6o—i2yg)
copy from early Tang (6iS—goy) Portraits of Emperors
(vol.2). through the Ages (Lidai dihuang tu). Handscroll, ink
and light color on silk. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
[At the beginning of the dynasty] Fan
Changshou studied with Zhang Sengyou. . . . Zhang Huaiguan also remarked:

He Changshou had the same teacher as Fan, Wu Daoxuan probed all the subtleties of

but was slightly less skillful than Fan. Fan and painting, and he was probably a student of
He's Drunken Dcwist Priest is extant. People say Zhang Sengyou ("Huaduan," cited in vol. 751
this was done by Sengyou, but that is untrue of Taiping yulan). 1 '

(vol.9). He also notes:

We can see what a profound influence Sengyou's The brushwork in Wu's paintings has a soul.
He is a reincarnation of Zhang Sengyou (Lidai
quality of "getting the flesh right" had on the artists
minghua ji, introduction to vol. 9).
of the central plains from the Northern Qi and
Thus, Sengyou's influence lasted through the reign
Zhou on. Many extant images continue to follow
of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang.
—the tradition of fuller figures for instance, the
IV.
Zhou and Sui paintings and reliefs from the
Painting and sculpture have long been closely
Maijishan caves ofTianshui in Gansu Province, the linked, and as Chinese sculptures were always
colored, those engaged in sculpting had to have a
Mogao grottoes of Dunhuang, and Mt. Sumeru at solid foundation in painting. In his Wudai minghua
buyi ("A Supplement to Famous Paintings of the
Guyuan in Ningxia; stone carvings from various Five Dynasties"), Liu Daochun of the Northern

pre-High Tang tombs north of the Wei River in Song noted that among those -who studied

Shaanxi Province; funerary murals and incised Wualongside Daozi under Zhang Sengyou was

carvings trom the Qianling, the mausoleum of Tang Yang Huizhi, who was famous for his sculptures:

WuGaozong and Zetian; and extant Song copies of

early Tang Portraits of Emperors through the Ages

Wu(fig. i5). 3 °The great artist Daozi of the High

Tang era drew people in relaxed poses that,

according to the Lidai minghua //', can also be traced

back to Sengyou:

Wu Daoxuan [Daozi] studied under Zhang

Sengyou (vol. 2).

ORIGINS AND TRENDS IN THE DEPICTION Of HUMAN FIGURES 140