| During
Yuan Dynasty, the silk industry was the most thriving among all
handicrafts of Zhejiang. 'Dao Luo' made in Pujinag, Jinhua was listed
among articles of tribute. The transparent brocade made in Chongde,
Jiaxing was vivid in pattern design and delicate in weaving. The Yuan
government established a silk bureau in Hangzhou to expand the official
silk industry for more delicate tributes such as damask silk, gauze, Gesi
(K's-ssy) tapestry with cut designs and silk clothes with grains. It was
popular to weave gold thread into brocade in Yuan Dynasty, called 'Na Shi
Shi'. The Hangzhou silk bureau was famous for its artisans specializing in
the production of extremely fine'Na Shi Shi' and 'Qie Jin Li (velvet-cut
fabrics)'. Represented by Longquan (Dragon Spring) Kiln works, the celadon
industry of Zhejiang held a very important position in Yuan Dynasty.
Longquan was at the peak of its productivity with the kiln kept expanding.
The characteristics were that most of its works were tall, big and heavy.
Some of the vases were as tall as 1 meter, yet still normative in shape
and pure in glaze color due to its superb molding and baking skills. At
the time, ornaments such as applique, printing, stipple and Lu-Tai
(showing the roughcast) were in the vogue. Jiaxing became the important
base for lacquer production and renowned lacquerers came forth in large
numbers. For example, carved lacquerware artisans Zhang Cheng and Yang Mao
and gold-or-silver inlaid lacquerware artisan Peng Baojun were all born in
Xitang, Jiaxing. The carved lacquers made by Zhang Cheng and Yang Mao were
welcome articles for collection both home and abroad. |
| There
were five famous printing workshops in Hangzhou in Yuan Dynasty. The
Pictorial Biographies of Chaste Women (Da De version) was of high
appreciation value with neat and refined woodcut pictures. The picture in
the head page of Liang's Imperial Confess (in Xixia language) was engraved
by the celebrated carver of Hangzhou Yu Shengkan. The head page picture in
Miao Fa Lian Hua Jing (a Buddhism scripture) was done mainly by Gu
Fengxiang and was a lot more vivid than the one made in Southern Song
Dynasty. Xuanhe Ancient Learning Pictorials had large pictures with
delicate carvings. Judging from the print mark on it, it was engraved by
Chen Sheng, a famous carver at the turn of Song and Yuan Dynasty and
commuted between Suzhou and Hangzhou. As there are few woodcut prints left
of Yuan Dynasty, these are important materials for the country's print
history. |
| Architecture and garden design of Yuan
Dynasty gave birth to the following representative works: Zhang Yu's Jun
Ge (mushroom pavilion), Zhang Tianying's Mei Yin (plum retreat), Yang Yu's
Zhu Xi Shang Ju (hill-side house with bamboos), Xianyu Shu' Cottage on Mt.
Xiangu, and Longhuashan Villa on Guan Yun Shi. The Freeing Crane Pavilion
on the Solitary Hill by West Lake was first built in Yuan Dynasty. On the
Wu Hill was a pavilion called 'Such Beautiful Sceneries' The Phoenix
Temple located in Yangbatou on Zhongshan Road, Hangzhou, which was first
built in Tang Dynasty and rebuilt by A Laoding in Renzhong's Reign of Yuan
Dynasty, has a place of worship dated back to 1341 and was the oldest
temple of Hangzhou. It is a brick girder-less hall. On the dome, the
spires are the overlapping octagonal eaves with single-layered hexagonal
eaves beside them, which is a distinct feature of Chinese traditional
architectures combined with Islamic architectures. There are colored
pictures under the dome. The only ancient city gate on water left in
Hangzhou, Feng Shen Shui Men (Phoenix Hill water city gate) was built in
1359 when Zhang Shicheng occupied here. In the middle of every arch top is
carved the twining dragons guarding the stone lock.
|
| The art of
stone inscriptions and statues of Yuan Dynasty are mainly found around The
Flying Hill in Ling Yin Temple. Southeast to Li Gong Pagoda and on the
outer wall of Golden Light Cave, there are statues of Buddha Piluzhena,
Wenshu and Puxian with solemn looks. Beside Li gong Pagoda is a statue of
the Buddha's warrior attendant. He is stout with a big belly, and stands
with eyes wide open and feet separated. Surprisingly enough, his martial
appearance also carries a look of childishness. There are six stone
statues at the entrance of Dragon's Pond Cave, the most delicate ones
being the statue of Buddha and that of Kwan-yin. A stone pavilion is built
on Lying On Wave Bridge on the Lingyin Brook. Inside the pavilion carved
the image of the majestic-looking Duo Wen (multi-eared) God riding the
lion, fully armored. The statue of Da Li Ming Wang (the king of great
strength) on the polished vertical side of the hill opposite to He Lei
(great thunder) pavilion is a typical example of Mizong School of Buddhism
in Yuan Dynasty. The main statue wears a coronet on the head and jade on
the chest. The looks on his fully grown face are sedate and elegant. He is
naked in the upper part of the body but dressed down the waist. The
attendants on the sides are also graceful in their postures. The four
Buddha's warrior attendants look powerful and forceful. On the
mountainside of the Flying Hill is carved a statue of Miliwaba (Buddha'
guard). With Jin-Gang (a weapon of India) in the hand, he looks ferocious.
Calling Apes Cave has an image of Kwan-yin, who is in a male incarnation,
the only one among Hangzhou stone inscriptions. Baocheng Temple on Ziyang
Hill keeps a statue of Mahegela with tinge of Tibet Mizhong Buddist
School. It is the only one in the country which handed down from Yuan
Dynasty, so it is invaluable. |
| Calligraphy of Yuan Dynasty continued to
develop gradually upon inheritance. Following the calligraphy of Tang
Dynasty and later of Jin Dynasty, calligraphers of Yuan Dynasty preferred
elegant, vigorous and round styles in writing. Zhao Mengfu of early Yuan
Dynasty was generally recognized to be the chief of the time. |
| Zhao Mengfu (1254-1322, or Zi'ang or
Songxue) was native of Wuxing (the present Huzhou). He was the 11th
generation offspring of the founder of Song Dynasty Zhao Kuangying. A
faithful admirer of ancient works, he advocated people to imitate two
Wang' writings. As a result, the absolute influence of 'letter style's
(represented by Su, Huang , Mi and Cai) since Song Dynasty was weakened.
Instead, the sedate and modest style of Wang Xizhi was brought to a
revival. Zhao Mengfu excelled at regular script and running hand script,
smooth and elegant in the move of the character lines. He was one of the
'Four Regular Script Masters's the other three being Yan, Liu and Ou. His
masterpieces included Tablet of Danba Rabbi and Epitaph of Chou E, etc.
His regular scripts in small characters were vigorous and beautiful,
represented by such works as Dao De Jing of Laozi, To Goddes Luo and Ji'an
Zhuan. He achieved most with his running hand script that was natural and
unrestrained. The masterpieces were Gui Qi Lai Xi Ci, Thirteen Postscripts
of Orchid Pavilion and To The Red Cliff. He also left free and lofty
cursive script works like Yu Zhong Feng Ming Ben Shu and Correspondence
With Xianyu Shu. Wang Shizhen referred to Zhao Mengfu in his Yan Shan Tang
Notes as a major calligrapher that had opened a new era in the calligraphy
world. |
The
Red Clothed Arhat, by Zhao Mengfu |
| In
Mid-Yuan Dynasty, the famous calligrapher in Zhejiang was Ke Jiusi
(1290-1342,). He was local born in Xianju, Taizhou. He was good at
metallurgy, literature, painting as well as calligraphy. When the last was
concerned, he excelled at regular script, running hand script and also ba
fen . the clerical official script in Chinese calligraphy. He followed
Ouyang Xun's style, but well harmonized his forcefulness with tranquility
and made more distinctive the characteristic of calligraphy of Yuan
dynasty. |
| In the late Yuan Dynasty, scholars off
the court substituted those nobilities to be the fresh activists in the
calligraphy world. They were creative and expressive. Their works were
excellent matches to the paintings of the time. A fine representative was
Yang Weizhen (1296-1370) of Zhuji. At first, he imitated works of Tang
Dynasty, so that his early works were calm and straight. Later, he
developed a new style of his own to blend together regular script, running
hand script as well as cursive script, so the characters down his brush
became varied and unrestrained. His weird and unruly style rectified the
debonair ones to some extent. His famous works included Chorus In South Of
City, Tang's Tunes and Zhen Jing An Mu Yuan Shu, etc. |
| Zhejiang has unparalleled sceneries, a
large assemble of scholars and a rich heritage of Southern Song Dynasty
paintings. Upon these, the Yuan Dynasty witnessed greatest achievements
here as for the scholars' paintings. It was Zhao Mengfu of Huzhou who
brought the paintings into vogue at that time. |
| Zhao Mengfu's ideas about painting were
very influential. First, he urged the painters to return to the ancient
styles. According to him, it was valuable for a picture to have charm of
antique taste. He was determined to be free from the heavy and complicated
academic styles of Southern Song Dynasty and pursue a simple and natural
style. Second, Zhao Mengfu advocated painting on the basis of calligraphy.
He said in the poem on Elegant Stone in Sparse Wood that stones, trees as
well as bamboos all looked like characters in Chinese calligraphy so
painting and calligraphy were essentially the same. He emphasized on the
lasting appeal through applying ink, and promoted the development of
scholars' paintings. Just as Wang Shizhen of Ming Dynasty concluded:
Scholars' paintings originated from Su Dongpo, and flourished since Zhao
Mengfu. He was good at portraying horses, people, mountains, rivers,
bamboos as well as stones. There were two styles of his work. One was neat
and gorgeous, the other being unrestrained and simple. His pictures about
vaulting horses and their riders could be matched with those of Tang
Dynasty and Northern Song Dynasty for their vigor and colorfulness.
Masterpieces of this kind included Horses Drinking In Autumn Countryside,
Washing The Horses and The Red Clothed Arhat. He followed Wang Wei and
Dong Yuan in their landscape painting styles. His virid landscape Magpies
In Autumn was tinged slight crimson, and was impressive for its classic
elegance, its precise composition and its unadorned figures. His paintings
of trees, bamboos and stones stressed on implications rather on
reproduction of shapes and inherited a lot from calligraphy of Wen Tong
and Su Shi of Northern Song Dynasty. For example, his Elegant Stone in
Sparse Wood, Old Trees And Bamboos, Orchid And Stone, Inked Bamboo were
all ink-wash freehand brushwork characterized by vivid expression and bold
outline, the very style of scholars' paintings. |
| Qian
Xuan (1239-1301) was native in Wuxing. He was good at both poetry and
paintings. Together with Zhao Mengfu, he was among the 'Eight Talents of
Wuxing' His pictures of flower and bird was refined and delicate, quite a
relic of the academic style of Song Dynasty. For example, his Pear Blossom
was pure, clean and elegant on the paper. Qian Xuan was an influential
painter whose work changed from heavy color to light color. His White
Lotus drew three flowers and three leaves, all lightly rendered. His Bird
And Flower In Autumn was his magnum opus of ink-wash flower-and-bird
paintings. He also excelled at painting landscape and people. The existing
work Living In Mt. Floating Jade was a masterpiece of landscape paintings
with classic antique flavor as he used patterns to represent the
crisscross of hills, and gullies and trees in the picture were mostly
straight and neat in dense lines. |
| In Yuan Dynasty, figure paintings were
no longer the most important kind in the art circle. It was replaced by
landscape paintings. As the saying went, there were 13 different
categories of paintings, but the head was the landscape. However, Zhejiang
did not lack painters who were good at figure paintings. Besides Zhao
Mengfu, there were Wang Zhenpeng, Zhang Wo, Wang Yi, etc. Wang Zhenpeng
was born in Yongjia (the present Wenzhou, Zhejiang). His masterpieces were
Dragon Boat Competition In Jinming Pool, Gui Zi Mu Jie Bo and Bo Ya
Playing Qin, etc. Zhang Wo was native of Hangzhou. His works were Visiting
Dai On Snowy Night and Jiu Ge Tu. Wang Yi, a native of Muzhou (the present
Jiande) who lived in Hangzhou, excelled at portrait and left and famous
picture A Figurine of Yang Zhuxi and the book Secrets Of Portraits. |
| In Yuan Dynasty, the mainstream
scholars' paintings were represented by four people collectively called
'Four Masters of Yuan Dynasty'. They did ink-wash landscapes to show their
lofty thought, taste and charm. Except Ni Yunlin, the other three, Huang
Gongwang, Wang Meng and Wuzhen, all lived in Zhejiang. |
| Huang
Gongwang (1269-1354) was an orphan in his native place Changshu. His
clansmen had him adopted by a Huang's family in Yongjia (the present
Wenzhou) and he was given the new name Huang Gongwang. His landscape
paintings were of thorough southern styles with light ink applied to the
luxuriant forests and misty hilltops. After fifty, Huang Gongwang got
quiet and calm little by little. As a result, his works were mild, gentle
and elegant, with no aggressive manners. Landscape paintings changed a lot
in Yuan Dynasty. This change was started by Zhao Mengfu and completed by
Huang Gongwang. He reformed thoroughly the academic style of Southern Song
Dynasty. The existing masterpieces of him are Ning Peaks In The Snow, Snow
Topped Trees On The Red Cliff, Fairyland's Hills, and Stone Walls Of
Heaven Pond, etc. The most influential work of him is Living By Fuchun
River, which is about the beautiful early autumn views by Fuchun River.
Tall and low ridges, misty hill and trees, mirroring water, leisurely
fisher boats and cottages'¦all are vivid in Huang's picture. He attained to
perfection of his skills and fully brought into play the excellent
combination of paper and ink-wash effects. 'The mountains are there, and
the plants are there to grow.' Huang Gongwang also wrote a book entitled
Secretes To Landscape Paintings, which urged painters to get rid of 'the
evil, the sweet, the common and the lazy.' |
| Wu Zhen (1280-1354) was born in Weitang
Town of Jiaxing (the present Jiashan). He lived in seclusion all his life
with no intention to get any scholarly honor or official rank. He used to
put his motto on his picture The Elderly Fisherman: 'Evening breeze gently
blows, and the boat is berthed at lakeside. With light straw coat and an
equally light heart, he angles only weever but not the fame.� Wu Zhen
loved plum flower always, and planted hundreds of plum trees around his
house called 'plum hut'. Plum flowers found their way into his Inked Plum
Flowers. His landscape paintings were mostly ink-wash. Seldom using
colors, he liked to paint stones with light ink and dotted mosses with
dense ink, thus producing a kind of plain and natural spirit. His
masterpieces handed down included Two Junipers To The Far, The Elderly
Fisherman, The Pine And The Spring, Reed Catkins And The Wild Goose In
Late Autumn, Pines And Stones, Straw Hut By The Brook, The Fisher Hermit
On Autumn River and Fishing Boat On Reed Shoal, etc. He claimed to have
portrayed bamboo for fifty years and left behind works like Inked Bamboo,
Inked Bamboo And Stone On Slope and Plum And Bamboo. He also put forward
theories of liberty in art, that is, calligraphy and painting were to
cultivate the artist's temperament and they were not deliberate attempts.
Only impulsion and inspiration could produce automatic and excellent
works. These views had a great impact on the later Chinese paintings
especially scholars' paintings. |
| Wang
Meng (1308-1385) of Wuxing was the grandson of Zhao Mengfu. Polished by
his grandfather since very young, he was also good at painting landscapes.
The mountains looked magnificent in his picture, but never too imposing.
His later works were as impressive as the seal characters. His masterpiece
Retreat In Qingbian showed the lush and pretty scenes around Wuxing with
neat composition. Dong Qichang used to review this painting as the best in
the country. His another work Transferring To Ge Zhi Chuan reversed
completely his usual unrestrained style to the one with plain and
implicative flavors. His famous Reading In Spring Hills was all clear
scenes with high mountains in the top and houses surrounded by pine trees
in the lower part of the picture. As there were no clouds or mists, the
scenes turned out even more magnificent, profound and charming. His Hut In
The Woods was endowed with a unique sense of movement. The painting of
Wang Meng developed a school of his own in Yuan Dynasty. |
|
Wang Mian (1310-1359) was born in Zhuji. He
used to paint a picture of plum flowers and inscribed on it: 'each ice
flower is as round as jade, but it does not necessarily come out at the
call of bamboo flute' That showed his determination not to associate with
the rulers. He was famous for his painting about plum flowers, especially
the inked ones. In his Inked Plum Flower, the branches were straight and
forceful and the plum buds were full of vigor. Wang Mian liked to paint
dense plum flowers. Numerous charming petals and leaves huddled together
but not in disorder. He used thin and long lines to outline the tips and
stronger lines to depict petals. Such was shown again in his Thousand Jade
Flowers and the flowers in the picture were too beautiful to be absorbed
all at once. Wang Mian was good at engraving seals and started the use of
Hua-Ru Stones as the basic material.
Inked Plum Flower, by Wang Mian - >
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