Page 356 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

of the meditating arhat. By contrast, Qiu Ying's ideal still very much alive to many artists of rushes. Since I cannot bring myself to argue
landscapes in the same manner reveal their later periods. that it is truly bamboo, then what of the
basically Chinese origins. The connections of these "Wild and Hetero- onlookers ? I simply do not know what sort of
dox" painters were clearly with the professional thing [Yizhong] is seeing.
and conservative painters of middle Ming, Ni Zan (1301-1374), in colophon dated to
The "Wild and Heterodox'' however extreme their position within this 1368
Richard Barnhart's analysis of the "Wild and group. But the virulence of the attacks on them (Bush and Shih, 1985, 280.)
Heterodox" school cannot be improved upon. by the wen ren critics of late Ming surpasses the
These painters' deliberate rejection of social artists' own extremism. He Liangjun wrote (c. These two quotations and their visual counter-
amenities and wholehearted adoption of wild 1550), "As for the likes of [Jiang Song]... and parts clearly and neatly confirm the sharp con-
ways and crazy soubriquets may have seemed [Zhang Lu; cat. 305] of the North, I would be trast that generally obtains between Chinese
both anti-literati and antitraditional, but there ashamed to wipe my table with their paintings" paintings done before and after 1350. Although
were precedents for both their manners and (Barnhart 1983, 44). later Ming art critics and theorists purported to
their artistic styles. The art of Wu Daozi (act. If the "Wild and Heterodox" were anathema find numerous literati precursors among artists
c. 710-0. 760), greatest of all Tang masters, was to the late Ming literati, their descendants, as early as late Tang (ninth century), visual
described as unrestrained, free, and imbued however tainted and removed, were the individ- evidence overwhelmingly attests that Jing Hao's
with "untrammeled feelings," a term beloved in ualists of the early Qing dynasty, the most pro- rational realism was the norm of pre-Yuan
wen ren criticism. The earliest Chan painters of gressive and aesthetically curious of all the dynasty painting, whereas the literati (wen ren}
the tenth century, such as Shih-Ke, used stalks, artists of the seventeenth century. And, with style and aesthetic (expressed by Ni Zan) has
rags, or other exotic tools to manipulate ink in poetic justice, their conservative opposites were been the dominant mode from Yuan even to the
extraordinary and unpredictable ways. The late the orthodox followers of the radical wen ren present day.
Song dynasty Chan or Daoist painters did the formulations of Dong Qichang in the early part Perhaps the major components of earlier
same —terms such as "splashed ink" or "flung of that century. Chinese painting, its complex and patient tech-
ink" are often used in describing the more niques, its painterly observation and recording,
extreme works by Yu-Jian or attributed to Mu its rationality in organization and appearance,
Qi. The stylistic precedents for "Wild and Het- corresponds to the rise of "science and technol-
erodox" were all in place. So also were behav- SHEN ZHOU AND THE LITERATI ogy" in China, so thoroughly documented by
ioral precedents. "[Wu Daozi] loved wine (WEN RENj STYLE IN CHINA; Joseph Needham in his monumental survey of
to flourish his brush, he had to become intoxi- SESSHU AND HIS CHINESE STYLE IN the subject. It is probably equally significant
cated"; Wang Mo (d. c. 800) "... excelled in JAPAN that the triumph of wen ren painting in the
splattering ink to paint landscapes there was middle Ming dynasty accompanied a reversal of
a good deal of wildness in him... he would first interest in technology and exploration (see
drink, then after he was drunk, he would splat- ... the trees that formed a grove looked fresh Frederick Mote's essay in this catalogue), a
ter ink. Laughing or singing, he would kick at in spirit and were flourishing in their mutual turning inward of national interest, and a grow-
it with his feet or rub it with his hands, sweep sustenance. Those which could not form a ing stasis in government and bureaucracy in the
[with his brush] or scrub " (trans. Alexan- group crouched by themselves as if to keep period from 1450 to the end of the Empire.
der Soper, Artibus Asiae 31 [1958]: 204-230). their own creeds within themselves. Some Wen ren ideals utterly changed the appear-
Liang Kai, the southern Song academician, trees exposed their winding roots out of the ance of Chinese art. Paper, not silk, became the
turned to Daoist and Chan subject matter exe- ground; others lay directly across a wide preferred ground —as it had been from the
cuted in a wild and abbreviated manner and stream; others were suspended over the cliffs beginning for calligraphy. Ink, usually without
took the soubriquet Crazy Liang. More exam- and still others crouched in the middle of the color other than some pale washes, was de
ples could be cited. Though unusual, it was nev- ravine. Some grew tearing mosses and crack- rigueur. To express the artist's own spirit, rather
ertheless sanctioned practice to opt out of a ing rocks. I marveled at this curious sight and than the subject's outward form or inward
deteriorating or immoral society or situation by walked around admiring the scenery. nature, was the aim and theme of painting. The
embracing eremitism, as many scholar-painters demands of realism were set aside in favor of
did; it was likewise acceptable to "become mad," From the next day onwards I brought my self-expression through brushwork; for wen
brush to this place and sketched the trees.
to adopt extreme social behavior as a form of After sketching some ten thousand trees my ren, painting no less than writing "revealed the
protest or escape. So Shi Zhong (cat. 304) character of the man." Careful technique, built-
adopted the name "Crazy Old Man," Sun Long drawings came to look like the real trees. up washes, massed strokes were replaced by
(Kiyohiko Munakata, Ching Hao's
Pi-fa-chi:
(cat. 303) chose "Stupid in Everything," and "single stroke" calligraphic expression whose
Zhang Lu (cat. 305), who came from a good A Note on the Art of the Brush [Ascona, ideal qualities were informality and "blandness"
1974], p.
11.)
family and began a propitious career, was (ping dan), a quality of understatement, or
reputed to have turned away from his success [Zhang Yizhong ?] always likes my bamboo seeming artlessness, carried to the point of
and acted like a leopard hiding in the wilder- paintings. I do bamboo simply to express the seeming awkwardness. Pictures as windows on
ness, wearing straw sandals and coarse cotton. untrammeled spirit [yi ji] in my breast. Then the world and also as grand decoration for large
Many of these nicknames bear Daoist connota- how can I judge whether it is like something halls and offices gave way to "written pictures"
tions. The traditional intuitive, magical, and or not; whether its leaves are luxuriant or intended for close examination in the study or
animistic aspects of Daoism were particularly sparse, its branches slanting or straight? at in-group gatherings. Earlier painters looked
congenial to those choosing a way outside social Often when I have daubed and rubbed awhile, often to China's political and social history for
conventions. Untrammeled nature was an old others seeing this take it to be hemp or incidents and exemplars of high moral serious-

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