General East Asian Survey Materials

R. Eno

TRADITIONS OF CHINESE LITERATI PAINTING

Introduction

In addition to the traditional ideal that educated gentlemen aspiring to government service
should be poets of accomplishment, it was also true that literati would often show
accomplishment in the art of painting as well. By looking at the way that the members of
the governing elite approached the art of painting, we can gain some further insight into
the way in which they conceived and tried to live up to the literati ideal.
The key division that we will emphasize here is one between men who were
called “academic” painters, and those who were seen as painters in the literati
tradition. What’s the difference? Academic painters were highly skilled craftsmen, who
aimed to achieved marvelous effects through their use of colors, realistic or highly
conventional representations of people or things, spectacular detail, applications of shiny
gold leaf, and so forth. The Imperial court employed many such men, and others made
their way in the world by selling their paintings to wealthy patrons and
customers. “Academic painters” were professionals, both in their virtuoso skills, and in
the fact that they depended on permanent employment as painters, or on selling their
paintings to live. While many of these men were educated to some degree, few possessed
the literary background of a literatus, and none made their way in life fulfilling the
Confucian ideal of governmental service. “Literati painters,” on the other hand, were
amateurs – they painted as a means of self-expression, much the same way they wrote
poetry; both forms were inheritances from the Neo-Daoist era of the Six
Dynasties. While many fewer literati were accomplished painters than were poets (and
painting was never an aspect of the exams), in every major place in China there were
always many literati who either painted on the side, while playing the role of scholar-
officials, or who, through wealth, could afford to devote themselves fully to the art of
painting.
Literati painting was conceived as a mode through which the Confucian junzi
(noble person) expressed his ethical personality. It was much less concerned with
technical showiness. Literati painters specialized in plain ink paintings, sometimes with
minimal color. They lay great emphasis on the idea that the style with which a painter
controlled his brush conveyed the inner style of his character – brushstrokes were seen as
expressions of the spirit more than were matters of composition or skill in realistic
depiction.
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While literati poetry developed fully during the Tang Dynasty on the basis of
long Six Dynasties preparation, painting did not become central to literati until
later. Although we hear of famous poet-painters of the Tang, because their works have
not survived it is difficult to know to what degree their art differed from academic
painting. During the late Song, however – that is, after about 1200 – literati and
academic painting become two distinct streams. Interestingly, although academic
paintings were often far more skilled in technique, many felt – and still feel – that the
“amateur” ink paintings of the literati are the highest form of art in China.
On the pages linked through this page, we will take a look at some representative
works of literati painting, and many of these will be central to our Wednesday
class. We’ll briefly survey here the heights that academic painting reached before the
genre of literati painting became fully developed, and then focus on a limited number of
painters and paintings. The most important of the painters we will look at is a man
named Shen Zhou (1427-1509), who lived during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). We
will see in Shen Zhou’s approach to his art many key facets of the Confucian-Daoist
literati ideal, translated into an approach to painting.
Please bear in mind that this reading, which introduces only a few paintings, in no
way represents the spectacular range of Chinese painting of all types and eras that we
now possess. Chinese art history is one of the richest fields of cultural exploration, and
painting is one of its most complex and beautiful areas. This reading focuses almost
solely on landscape paintings, only one among dozens of genres.

Early Painting

The earliest forms of Chinese painting that we have date from the last centuries
B.C. During the period of fragmentation of the late Zhou (771-221 B.C.), the many
different feudal courts of China employed all sorts of artisans, and many rulers lavished
attention on court painters. Even during this early period, painting in China is very much
a “calligraphic” art. “Calligraphy” means the art of writing words, and in traditional
China, all writing was done with brushes, rather than with a “stylus” (pen-like
point). The paint lines of early Chinese paintings were made much the way that people
brushed the strokes of the characters they wrote in composing letters and other records.
Naturally, the fact that all literate people were accomplished in using an ink brush
contributed to widespread skills useful for painting. Although much of the earliest
painting we have is of human figures, the great skill of early artists in subtle application
of a “calligraphic” line of black ink is already visible.
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An example is a section of a wall painting, reproduced below, from the Han

Dynasty (206 B.C. - A.D. 220). The painting depicts two Confucian scholars, and the
detail at right shows the very fine brush control that allowed the artist to create lifelike
expressions with only a few quick strokes of ink.

Han Dynasty wall painting (and detail, right)

The Calligraphic Influence

The “calligraphic” use of the brush became in China a separate art form, and one that
exerted great influence on literati painting. Beginning in the period of the Six Dynasties
(220-589), mastery of self-expression through well and distinctively written (actually,
“brushed”) characters was an important part of being a well bred member of the elite. A
number of men became famous for their fine calligraphy, and examples of their styles
were preserved through carvings, which traced their brushstrokes in stone. Over time,
men of literary learning tried to master one or more of these classical styles, and bring to
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them also a unique individuality. Thus the medium of writing – handwriting, so to

speak – became an important way of expressing one’s nature and of reading the character
of others. Here are some interesting examples of the art of calligraphy, dating from later
eras:

The refined and regular style of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty

The free style of the eccentric Ming [1368-1644] literatus Xu Wei (1521-1593)
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The aesthetic, uneven style of the Qing [1644-1911] calligrapher, Zheng Xie (1693-1765)

The Early Height of Academic Painting in the Song

After many centuries where decorative painting and painting of human and animal
figures were the most developed forms of visual art in China, landscape painting entered
a period of sudden development during the Tang and early Song Dynasties. While we
have almost no paintings from the Tang that remain, some of China’s most famous
paintings come from the early Song (the Northern Song period, 960-1127, before the
invasion of North China forced the Song rulers into the South). These are monumental
“hanging scrolls,” very large paintings on silk that are mounted to hang on walls. They
were composed by professional court artists, and the technique used in them departs from
the “calligraphic” skills common to all literate people, and attempts to use a very
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complex array of brush strokes to convey an effect of “verisimilitude” (that is, the
landscapes seem “real”).
Here are two examples. The first, directly below, is “Early Spring,” by Guo Xi
(1020-90). (If you wish to explore “Early Spring” more closely, the course website home
page has an image of it you can click on to link to a large size version.) The painting on
the next page is by Fan Kuan (990-1030), and is called “Travelers By Streams and
Mountains.” (You can just see the travelers and their ox-carts, dwarfed by the
landscape – almost dots on this web-derived of the painting – towards the bottom.)
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The Intimate Academic Style of the Southern Song (1127-1278)

During the latter part of the Song Dynasty, after North China had been conquered by non-
Chinese and the Chinese emperors had been forced to move their capital to the South and
give up efforts to control all China, academic painting took a new and different
turn. Professional painters began increasingly to explore smaller and more intimate
forms of painting, even when depicting broad landscapes. In reducing the scale of their
paintings, they also developed innovative ways to use abbreviated lines and ink washes to
represent effectively landscape features which the Northern Song masters had rendered
with intense detail. The less grandiose painting style of the Southern Song was, in effect,
an invitation to amateurs. Although the academic painters achieved simplicity through
enormous imagination and effort, the skills they employed were more accessible to
literati, who were, after all, masters of brushwork in the field of calligraphy.
The paintings on this page are by
perhaps the two most celebrated Southern Song
painters. The “album leaf” (small silk painted
page) at the right is by Ma Yuan (11545-1235),
and the “handscroll” below is by Xia Gui
(1195-1224). Handscrolls, unlike hanging
scrolls, were not meant for display. They were
stored rolled in wooden boxes, and were only
removed and viewed, section by section, when
the owner wished to enjoy the painting or to
share it with intimate guests.
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The Watershed of the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368)

In 1279, all of China was overrun by the armies of the Mongol empire. Although
Chinese literati ultimately learned how to live with Mongol rule and many members of
the educated class cooperated in continuing government along the “Confucian” lines of
the traditional Imperial state, many members of the elite were alienated from the
government, and sought ways to avoid service. In effect, this freed a substantial number
of educated men – many exam graduates from the late Song – from burdens of
government responsibilities. A certain number of these men turned for fulfillment to
artistic achievement, and it was the portion of these who devoted themselves to painting
who truly established a tradition of literati visual art. Lacking the type of technical
training that had characterized earlier academic painters, the Yuan literati applied their
control of brushwork, derived from calligraphy, to the development of a new perspective
on what art could achieve. Look, for example, at this handscroll and detail by the Yuan
artist Zhao Mengfu (1254-1322). Notice how the effort at “verisimilitude” (making things

look realistic) has completely

vanished. Mountains, trees, and grass
are now rendered very simplistically,
without any real care for relative
size. Even more, the sky is now covered
with writing (the red seals of ownership
were added later by collectors, including
some self-important emperors). The
interest has shifted from the landscape to
the painter – it’s his act of
reinterpretation of nature which is now
the focus.
This is a fundamental shift and it
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is central to literati painting. This enormous region of Chinese landscape art is not
devoted to Nature – it is devoted to man’s response to Nature. Nature – and painting –
has become a means for expressing the artist’s unique self and perspective. Although this
is a very Neo-Daoist idea, most literati artists “Confucianized” it by laying emphasis on
the notion that the aspect of the self that was expressed also reflected one’s moral self-
cultivation and stance towards society.

The Yuan Masters

The tradition begun by men like Zhao Mengfu, was enlarged through the rest of the Yuan
Dynasty, and a number of exemplary literati painters developed simple but distinctive
styles that were so admired that they came to be regarded as models for later painters
(much the way that ealier, exemplary calligraphers had been models for later men). Great
literati painters of the next 500 years would begin by adapting their calligraphic skills to
the styles of these Yuan models of visual art as they learned how to paint. Settling on
one or more as their primary models, they then would, if they were men of talent, develop
original ways to enlarge on or depart from those styles, in paintings that were essentially
new innovations, though always firmly within traditions of the past.
On the following are paintings by two of the most famous of Yuan period
painters. The upper scroll shows the spare ink style and empty landscape of Ni Zan
(1304-74) – perhaps the most austere of the Yuan masters. Ni Zan’s painting is in the
hanging scroll style, but note how dramatically reduced the ink and detail is compared to
the hanging scrolls of the Northern Song masters reproduced earlier. How little ink Ni
Zan uses to create a hauntingly chill landscape! Beneath Ni Zan’s work is a section from
a handscroll by Wu Zhen (1280-1354), a hermit-artist who often celebrated lone
fishermen in his work. Wu Zhen painted in several basic styles, using a dry brush
sometimes, one wet with ink other times, but always creating scenes that conveyed the
attraction of Nature, usually with only one or two isolated people lodged within it.
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Zen painting – an exceptional tradition

Although it is not along the main lines of our topic, it is important to note one other
contributor to the tradition of literati painting – Buddhism, and specifically Zen. During
the late Song, among the non-professionals who took to painting as a form of self-
expression (or, perhaps, no-self-expression) were Zen monks and lay practitioners. They
worked towards a highly reduced form of brush painting – just as Zen, the Buddhist
school which prized nothing but meditation itself, was the most stripped-down form of
Buddhism. The painting below, by a 13th century Song painter who went by the
pseudonym of Muqi, is celebrated as the ultimate in painterly simplicity. Six
persimmons are represented by ink lines and washes so elementary that it would seem
like a school kid could have done them (the same type of comment later made of Picasso
in the West) – yet the rendering and placement of the persimmons was an unprecedented
artistic innovation.
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The fruition of literati painting in the early Ming – Shen Zhou

By the time the Yuan emperors were driven from China in 1368, and a new dynasty
under Chinese rulers established – the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) – literati painting was
a firm tradition. Literati paintings were prized above academic paintings by most
educated people, who understood their goal of revealing the inner character of the painter
and communicating, through depictions of nature, man, or objects, virtues, strength of
purpose, and sensitivity towards the conditions of human life.
So important had painting become, that some literati chose to focus their entire
lives on mastery of the art, rather than pursuing government careers, even though their
rulers were no longer alien to China. In the increasingly urban and educated society of
Ming China, these men actually made considerable income from their work, either in the
form of cash “gifts” or of other goods “traded” for their art. Literati circles at the highest
levels often included among a group of close friends (who, acting as a mutual support
group, were often a force to be reckoned
with in local society and politics)
painters who would inspire group
activities the way that premier poets
did. In fact, poetry and painting began
increasingly to overlap. Often literati
painters would present paintings to
friends with the invitation to write on
them poetry and short essays. In this
way, paintings sometimes seem to
become more group expressions than
mere individual expressions of the
painter, capturing an essential Confucian
element of sociality.
One of the most famous of all
literati painters was Shen Zhou (1427-
1509; his portrait is at right), who lived
on China’s east coast, not far from the
modern Shanghai region. Over the next
few pages, we view some of Shen Zhou’s paintings, looking at them as a kind of
summation of many aspects of literati painting. We will then close by looking at one
work by a student of Shen Zhou’s.
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Shen Zhou & the Yuan Masters

Shen Zhou was noted for the extremely broad range of styles he commanded. He
devoted himself to painting as the sole focus of his life -- he was an accomplished poet,
but undertook no government responsibilities or other arduous employment. His
exceptional skills gained him many kinds of financial support from family, friends, and
patrons, and he taught many students as well.
The styles Shen Zhou mastered first were those of the various Yuan masters, and
their influence is clearly visible throughout his life. Shen Zhou painted many works that
could easily have been mistaken for original Yuan paintings, but they were never
regarded as plagiarized imitations or “mere” copies. The high valuation of tradition made
it acceptable for painters to go so far
as to produce precise replicas of
“classical” models – it was as if,
having absorbed through practice
the techniques of these older masters,
the later imitator had in fact
“embodied” the model, and the
replica was as much a form of his
own self-expression as the original
had been of the master’s.
Compare the two paintings
on this page. The one at right is an
unusually bold wet brush
experiment by the Yuan master Wu
Zhen, discussed earlier (though there is some doubt whether Wu Zhen himself painted
it). The one below is by Shen Zhou.
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Note how both the brush technique (actually adapted from an even earlier Song period
artist named Mi Fei), the general rendering of nature, and the theme of the solitary
traveler, armed with an umbrella, braced against the forces of nature are common to
both. Is Shen’s painting a “Neo-Daoist-style” expression of his unique genius, or
“Confucian” self-shaping through imitation?

Shen Zhou’s “Poet on a Mountaintop”

Shen Zhou exemplified literati painting in another way – his blending of poetry and
painting, the arts of words and images. Many of Shen Zhou’s paintings include poems of
his own – many also include poems composed by friends.
The painting below is one of Shen Zhou’s most famous. The scholar alone in
nature seems to be looking out not over a chasm of rocks and clouds, but directly at the
poem that Shen has placed before him.

The poem reads as follows:

White clouds sash-like

wrap mountain waists,
The rock terrace flies in space,
distant, a narrow path.
Leaning on a bramble staff,
far and free I gaze,
To the warble of valley brook
I reply with the cry of my flute.
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Shen Zhou, “Listening to the Cicadas”

“The Poet on the Mountaintop” celebrates the lone man in the midst of nature, remote
from society. But Shen Zhou’s paintings, like many literati paintings, also celebrate
friendship and the bonding between members of the literati class. The painting below
shows a literatus asleep in his countryside retreat, surrounded by the vibrations of locust
calls, being visited by a
friend. The intermingling of
natural patterns (such as the
vibrating leaves) and human
patters (such as the bamboo
fencing) is a characteristic of
much of Shen Zhou’s
work. Again, there is a poem by
Shen Zhou – but this time, we
see another tradition of literati
painting, as it’s a poem added by
another literatus hundreds of
years later. Paintings, as
tangible objects inscribing a
person’s character, were viewed
as vehicles for communication
long after the death of the painter,
and owners of paintings
frequently shared their responses
to the painting by joining their
work to the painter’s on the silk
or paper itself, or by inviting an
admired poet or calligrapher to
do so (thus increasing the
monetary value of the
painting!). In this case, the latter
day poet has employed the
rhyme scheme of Shen Zhou’s
original poem to write his response, thus preserving in new form the Six Dynasties
tradition of poetic interplay.
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Shen Zhou’s legacy – Wen Zhengming’s “Old Trees . . .”

Shen Zhou was only one of tens of thousands of literati painters, but the wide variety of
works he produced in his long life and his universally acknowledged sensitivity and
gentleness of spirit gave his work added influence. So also did the fact that he numbered
among his pupils outstanding artists who established a regional “school” of painting to
carry forward and develop in different ways the inspiration of Shen Zhou – both his
absorption of prior tradition and his many innovations and original ideas. One of Shen
Zhou’s most prolific and celebrated pupils, Wen Zhengming (1470-1559), painted the
work pictured here. It exemplifies in a striking way principles of literati painting.
The painting, “Old Trees By a Wintry Brook,”
appears at first to be a depiction of nature – but it is
clearly not. Tree branches end abruptly, with no
apparent reason; the brook flows uphill; the landscape
to the left trails into what seems to be mist, but on the
right, there is nothing behind the rocks but empty
paper.
Wen Zhengming’s work is an idea about nature
and about ink and paper. The painting makes no effort
to fool us into thinking we are looking into a world
beyond the paper – it makes a strong statement that it is
nothing but ink, paper, and the artist’s hand and
mind. By renouncing any attempt at focusing on the
objects of the painting, and instead foregrounding the
medium and the technique, Wen Zhengming has
produced a work that is remarkably “modern,” even as
in its brushwork and the motifs of nature it selects it
seems to fit easily into established literati tradition.
Wen’s work expresses perfectly the central
theme of thousands of literati paintings – painting was
a medium that, in Confucian manner, borrowed
tradition in order to perfect self-expression and
communication. And the vehicle for self-expression, in
Daoist manner, was most often images of nature and
the theme of the solitary man, or group of friends, alone
in the vastness of the natural Way.