Page 12 - Art of the Ming and Qing Dynasty by Johnathan Hay

If this was the mainstream of Nanjing painting, other painters developed a different

aspect of Dai Jin's heritage. In the hands of such literati as "the Old Fool", Shi Zhong (1438-
ca.1517), the bold effects of brush and ink became self-referential, the lyrical expression of a
personal "craziness" that had its own deep roots in the Chinese intellectual tradition (488). It
represented a private rebellion against the state and its values, one which was not restricted to
the literati of Nanjing.

Suzhou. In contrast to Nanjing, which was largely a relay station and center of
consumption, Suzhou was at the same time a production center located in a rich farming area.
In the second half of the fifteenth century, Suzhou underwent an important social and cultural

transformation. The area's old-established landowning families had long been identified with
literati culture, but now there were newly successful commercial families who aspired to
participation in the same world. At the same time, the landowning families themselves were
expanding into commercial activities. This new, more fluid social situation had important
effects for painting and calligraphy in the literati mode. Like the rest of traditional literati

culture, these arts ceased to be the organic expression of one clearly defined social group,
and instead began to become available to whoever had the means to acquire them. As part of
the same process, we see artists becoming entrepreneurs, marketing their own literati identity

and culture.
This development in painting begins with Shen Zhou (1427-1509): landowner,
collector, poet and painter. Shen had a family relationship to Wang Meng, himself the
grandson of Zhao Mengfu, and the transmission of the Yuan literati tradition to Shen Zhou
passed through members of his own family. Shen's art completes a process visible as early as

Wang Fu, in which the styles of different Yuan masters were brought together and
synthesized. Walking with a Staff, painted around 1485, fuses Ni Zan's basic river
composition with Huang Gongwang's solid construction (489). But what makes it so

radically different from a Yuan painting is the accessibility of the scene, highlighted by the
path that leads in from the lower right corner and, of course, the prominent figure. Echoing
these more down-to-earth elements, the mountains beyond also conform to a more intimate
scale than Ni Zan would normally have permitted.
The art of Wang Fu (and Wang Li) also offers a precedent for Shen Zhou's parallel

interest in informally cropped close-up views, which introduce a surprising realism into the
otherwise faux-naif style. This is seen at its best in the album Twelve Views of Tiger Hill
which breaks down the experience of a visit to this famous Suzhou site into twelve moments

(488). Each one is a quiet affirmation of social harmony through the role of landmarks in the
community. In the leaf reproduced here, the scene seems at first so natural -- a servant has
just drawn water from the well in front of the temple gate, a monk has just come back from