Page 231 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

all the great gentleman-painters were members of the Southern
School, beginning in the T'ang Dynasty with his hero Wang t* « * ft.
.1 * * M
Wei—for a genuine work from whose hand he spent a lifetime in
searching—and passing down through the great Northern Sung
masters Tung Yuan, Chu-jan, Li Ch'cng, and Fan K'uan, via Mi
• >»
Fu (another ideal Southern type) to the four great masters of
Yuan, ending in his own time with Shcn Chou and Wen Chcng-
ming. To the Northern School he relegated all academic and court
painters, beginning with Li Ssu-hsiin and his followers in the
green-and-blue style, including among them Li T'ang and Liu
Sung-nien, Ma Yuan and Hsia Kuci. He had some difficulty over
Chao Meng-fu. As a scholar, calligrapher, and landscapist Tung
admired him greatly, but he could never bring himself to include
Chao among the Southern painters, because Chao had compro-
mised himself in the eyes of the literati by taking office under the
Mongols.
This arbitrary scheme has dominated, and bedevilled, Chinese
art criticism for three centuries, while its obvious inconsistencies
have caused endless confusion. We may discount Tung Ch'i-
ch'ang's prejudices and refuse to accept his classification in indi-
vidual cases, but his division into Northern and Southern schools
does in fact represent a just division between two kinds of paint-
ing—the one in its purest manifestations academic, eclectic, pre-
cise, and decorative; the other free, calligraphic, personal, subjec-
tive. At the same time, the doctrine of the two schools is a
reflection of the feelings of the scholars themselves at this time.
The corrupt Ming Dynasty was approaching its downfall, and
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men of integrity were once again withdrawing from public ser-
vice into obscurity. Amateur painters found comfort and reassur-
ance in the belief that they were the elite, upholding the Confucian
virtues, while painters and scholars in the service of the emperor
were prostituting their talents. However vague or inaccurate it
might be as an interpretation of the history of Chinese painting,
253 Tung ChVch'ing (1555-1636),
Dwetling in Ike Ch'ing-pien Mountains.
Hinging scroll. Ink and colour on
piper Ming Dynasty.
254 Shao Mi (active 1 620- 1 640). Lear
from an album of landscapes dated
equivalent to 1638. Ink and colour on
paper. Ming Dynasty.
211