Page 286 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

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Sino-Austrian Cultural AssociationJournal I (1949): 27 (trans. A Study of the Art of Shen Chou (Washington, D.C., 1962),
Ernst J. Schwartz). Chinese theorists distinguish three p. 40.
kinds of perspective in Chinese painting: kao yuan ("high 3. See Sir Percival David, Chinese Connoisseurship: The
distance") depicts the mountains as they would be seen by Essential Criteria of Antiquities (London, 1971), pp. 143-44.
someone who was looking upward from below; shen yuan
("deep distance") presents a bird's-«ye view over successive Chapter i i
ranges to a high and distant horizon; while p'ing yuan
1 . The catalogue of the Ch'ien-lung collection Shih-ch w
("level distance") involves a continuous recession to a
pao-chi, was compiled in three volumes between 1745 and
rather low horizon, such as we most often encounter in Eu-
1817. Buddhist and Taoist works were catalogued sepa-
ropean landscape painting.
rately. A survey made by the Palace Museum authorities in
3. Yoshikawa Kojiro, wans. Burton Watson, Introduction
1928-193 1 showed the vast scale of the collection: 9,000
to Sung Poetry (Cambridge. England, 1967). p. 37.
paintings, rubbings and specimens of calligraphy, 10,000
4. This passage has been slightly adapted from Naito
pieces of porcelain, over 1,200 bronze objects, and a large
Toichiro, The WaU-Paintings of Hdryuji, trans. William
quantity of textiles, jades, and minor arts. Some of the fin-
Acker and Benjamin Rowland (Baltimore, 1943), pp. 205-
est pieces had been sold or given away by the last Manchu
206. Although the temple in question was burned down at
emperor, P'u-yi, during the twenty years following the
the end of the Liang Dynasty, and the connection with
revolution in 1 91 1 . All but a fraction of the remainder were
Chang Seng-yu is legendary, there is little doubt that this
shipped to Taiwan by the Kuomintang in 1948.
technique was practised in sixth-century wall painting.
2. For a discussion of the European impact on Chinese
5. Osvald Siren. Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and
art, see my The Meeting of Eastern and Western Art (London
Principles, vol. I, p. 175.
and New York, 1973), and Cccile and Michel Bcurdeley,
6. K. Okakura, The Awakening ofJapan (iooj), p. 77.
Giuseppe Castiglione: A Jesuit Painter at the Court of the
Chinese Emperors, trans. Michael Bullock (Rutland, Ver-
Chaptei 9
mont, 1972).
1. Sec Sir Henry Yule, trans., The Travels of Marco Polo 3. Europe, at this time, felt much the same way about
(London, 1903). China. "In Painting," wrote Alvarez de Semedo in 1641.
2. For a discussion of what and why the Chinese write "they have more curiositic than perfection. They know not
how to make use of cither Oyles or Shadowing in the
on paintings, sec my Three Perfections: Chinese Painting, Po-
Art. . . . But at present there arc some of them, who have
etry and Calligraphy (New York, 1979).
been taught by us. that use Oyles. and are come to make
3. Chang Yen-yuan in the Li-tai ming-hua-chi mentions
three bamboo paintings executed before a d. 600, and perfect pictures." Sandrart, in his Teutsche Akademie(i67s),
bamboo can be seen in the murals in several of the Six Dy- expressed a similar view. Cf. my article, "Sandrart on
nasties caves at Tunhuang. Chinese Painting." Oriental Art I. 4 (Spring 1949): 159-61.
4. For a translation and commentary on this difficult
text, see Pierre Ryckmans, Les "Propos sur la Peinture" de
Chaptex 10
Shitao (Brusseb. 1970).
1. Yung-lo is not, properly speaking, the name of the 5. They were originally published in the Jesuit miscel-
emperor, but an auspicious title which he gave to his reign lany Lettres (difiantes et curieuses, vols. XII and XVI (1717
period as a whole, thus doing away with the old system of and 1724), reprinted in S. W. Bushel], Description of Chinese
choosing a new era name every few years. The custom con- Pottery and Porcelain: Being a Translation of the T'ao Shuo, and
tinued during the Ch'ing Dynasty. K'ang-hsi, for example, translated in part by him in his Oriental Ceramic Art (New
is the title of the reign period of the emperor Sheng-tsu, York, 1899). Some interesting passages arc quoted by
Ch'ien-lung that of Kao-tsung. But because these reign ti- SoameJenyns in his Later Chinese Porcelain ( London,
1 95 1 )
tles have become so well known in the West, chiefly pp. 6-14.
through their use as marks on Chinese porcelain, I shall 6. The various theories about the origin and meaning of
continue to use them in this book. the name are discussed by Soame Jenyns in Appendix I of
2. Adapted from Richard Edwards. The Field of Stones: \us Later Chinese Porcelain, pp. 87-95.
267
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