Page 175 - China, 5000 years : innovation and transformation in the arts

by Bada Shanren (Zhu Da), who was a descendant allusiveness made possible by that concept, the
of the Ming imperial family. He used the splashed- freedom from the need to depict literally and
completely. In Snowy Landscape, for example, only
ink method to draw the lotus blossoms, and hooked the mountaintops are shown, while the bases are

brush strokes to depict the rocks in the pond, with left to our imaginations, lending the landscape far
just the slightest use of pale ink to limn the rocks. greater monumentality than if the mountains had

The Qing painter Zheng Xie (1693-1765) inscribed been shown in their entirety. The Chinese use of
on this painting, "Few ink drops, many teardrops," monochrome ink alone is a prime example of the

alluding both to the drawing and to the artist's grief penchant for allusion. Third is the creative leeway
and anger over the loss of his country and family. given to subjectivity and expressiveness without
ever abandoning description in favor of abstraction;
Distinct regional schools in abundance arose during this fusion of expression and objective description

the Qing. Gong Xian (cat. 209), Zou Zhe is summed up in Bada Shanren's Ducks and Lotuses.
(cat. 212), Gao Cen (cat. 214), and others who were
active around the Nanjing area were known as the Even calligraphy, which is wholly abstract, involves
Jinling school, while Gao Xiang (cat. 215), Yuan a complex process of "encompassing a million
particularities and abstracting them into a single
Jiang (cat. 213), and others were active in the image." The theory that calligraphy and painting
Yangzhou area. Even artists working in the same
region and grouped into the same school show had a common divine origin, and that the two arts
have "different names but a common form," dates
distinctive characteristics. The style and method of
painting of Yuan Jiang's Garden for Gazing clearly at least from the ninth century and has never been
differ from Gao Xiang's Finger-snap Pavilion.Tbis questioned since. That same theory has given rise to

wealth of expressiveness, the artistic hallmark of the —"the three perfections" works in which poetry,
period, reflected the variety of artistic traditions
calligraphy, and painting are integrated into one
available to painters during the Qing dynasty. totality, in which each form alludes to and

Elevating the writing of words into an art form was — —completes the others. Fourth is the insistence on
an inspired development. The five pieces of
calligraphy exhibited here exemplify four principal inner refinement "freedom from vulgarity" of
the artists and of their works, for the simple reason
calligraphic scripts, namely, clerical, standard, that only a person of great understanding and
cultivation could comprehend the preceding three
cursive, and wild cursive. Perhaps no other art form characteristics. Last is the honor paid to the
is as condensed and abbreviated as calligraphy, or as creation and even the collecting of paintings and
expressive of the artist. For instance, the Ming calligraphy, activities generally considered to denote
persons of understanding, delicacy of perception,
calligrapher Zhu Yunming, known as a free spirit and moral fastidiousness.

and unbridled personality, was a master of all scripts These ancient works of Chinese painting and
but with a particular affinity for the wild cursive calligraphy are material embodiments of the
script. In The Terrace of Ode to the Wind (cat. 179) his Chinese civilization. They touch our hearts,
stimulate our minds, and nurture our continuing
—brush moves with abandon a display of the growth.
—writer's naturally uninhibited character yet the
Translated, from the Chinese, by June Mei.
writing shows a firm and steady hand. Zhang
Zhao's scroll of the poem "Seventh Month" from
the Odes of Bin (cat. 182) uses a dignified and
poised standard script that shows the influence of
the calligrapher Yan Zhenqing (709—785) of the
Tang, while also reflecting, in its poise and

elegance, Zhang's long tenure at court. In contrast,

Deng Shiru, who never held any official post, took

as his models the inscriptions on stone tablets of
the Han and Wei dynasties, and these helped shape

the dense, archaic style seen in his Couplet in seven-

character lines, written in clerical script (cat. 183).

Taken together, the works in this exhibition

—disclose the distinctive characteristics the
—leitmotifs of Chinese painting and calligraphy.

First is the central role of people as subjects. Even
unpeopled landscapes embody the adage attributed
to Confucius, "The virtuous delight in mountains,
and the wise delight in waters," an association

deeply rooted in the ancient philosophic concept

that "Heaven and man are one." Second is the

CALLIGRAPHY AND PAINTING — THE ESSENCE OF A CIVILIZATION 173