Page 408 - Chinese Art, Vol II By Stephen W. Bushell

142 CHINESE ART.

there is no space here and one must hurry on. The genius and
glory of the T'ang have been succeeded by the refinement and
technical perfection of the Sung and Yuan, and we pass on now to
the Ming dynasty (a.d. 1368-1643), which had a long list of painters,
of which over 1200 are noticed in the P'ei Wen Chai encyclopaedia.
They worked more or less in the lines of the old masters and carried
on their traditions with careful industry and studied brushwork, but
creative power was the one point lacking, and towards the close of the
d3masty decadence was already setting in. A native critic, after describ-
ing how writing had been developed from pictures of ideas and things,
says of pictorial art, which he holds to be one and the same with
the art of writing, that the earliest painters illustrated the Odes or
some other of the sacred classics, and that from the Han to the
Liang dynasty (sixth century), the best artists furthered the lofty
moral tone of Confucian doctrines by providing pictures for books
on ceremonial rites, distinguished ministers, and virtuous women.
Their successors gradually lowered their standard when they painted
street scenes in the capital, imperial processions of chariots and
horsemen, soldiers in armour, and beautiful women. The next
p'aced their ideals on a yet lower level when they devoted their
powers to birds and fishes, insects and flowers, and gave full play
to their emotions in fanciful representations of mountain and forest,
streams and rocks, until the old conception of art was altogether
lost. As examples of the first period he cites Ku K'ai-chih and
Lu T'an-wei ; of the second Yen Li-pen and Wu Tao-tzu ; and of the
third Kuan T'ung, Li Ch'eng, and Fan K'uan.
The Ming artists might not satisfy the high classical aspirations
of the above literary critic, but their qualities appeal to the ordinary
mind, although they devote their main attention to the amenities
of social life and the beauties of nature. Their best work is remark-
able for its technical finish and for soft harmonious colouring. If
the style, M. Paleologue observes, be not distinguished by marked
originality of inspiration, it is characterised at least by other