| In Ming
Dynasty, Zhejiang handicraft industry developed quickly based on the
achievements of Song and Yuan dynasties. Zhejiang was well known for its
dye and textile industry, Hangzhou embroidery, Ningbo style furniture,
Dongyang woodcarving and so on. |
| Zhejiang silk made many innovations in
particular techniques and got distinct flavor of the region. The tribute
list of Hangzhou included fully flowered Spring Silk (silk fabric with a
geometric design for spring wear), Fu Shou Mian (blessings and longevity)
Spring Silk, big petal Spring Silk and Su Xiang (plain scented) Spring
Silk, all of which were light, thin, supple and monochromatic jacquards.
The Imperial Palace still keeps the Hangzhou produced pale blue silk cloth
of flowers of four seasons and pink round flower patterned silk cloth.
Hangzhou textile featured massiness and smoothness. And Hangzhou gauze was
a welcome product for it wore comfortably. The Autumn Gauze (for autumn
wear) and the patterned gauze were both famous specialties of Hangzhou.
During Chongzhen's reign of Ming Dynasty, the white thin and tough silk
produced in Hangzhou stirred the whole River South and its fame even
reached the capital for its beautiful round flower patterns and its
paper-like weight. It was invented and produced by Jiang Kunchou, hence
the name Jiang's Silk. In Ming Dynasty, Hangzhou was also famous for its
embroidery. The works were generally woven in gold and silver threads, so
Hangzhou embroidery had another name 'Gold-and-Silver Embroidery'. The
embroidery industry was very prosperous as they worked on everything
including officer's wears, the phoenix coronet, Taoist priest's robe,
veiling, and long narrow flags. Embroidery workers were all males who
lived on their refined skills. At that time, even the imperial dragon robe
was made in Hangzhou silk bureau or in Suzhou. Zhejiang Jiaxing was noted
for its printing and dyeing Yao Ban Bu (cloth with drug speckles) or Jiao
Hua Bu. They made patterns on the cloth with alum and ash ooze. After the
cloth had been dyed, dried in the sun and cleaned off the ashes, the white
bright flowered patterns appeared. Longquan celadon was the only one
famous of Zhejiang pottery, and those produced from Shutian kiln in Damei
Town of Longquan was a fine representative of it. The early pea green
works and the later light green ones were all smooth, sparkling and
beautiful. The most characteristic shapes were big vases and big plates
with embossed double fish or twining twigged peonies. It was popular to
print a patterned auspicious Chinese character in the middle of the plate.
In Zhengtong Year, the works produced by Gu Shicheng were named after him.
The flowered patterned burner of Longquan Kiln, called Dou Lu in Ming
Dynasty, was carved with simple and clear-cut flowers. In early Ming
Dynasty, the royal court established 'Guo Yuan Chang' in Beijing to make
lacquers and called in Zhang Degang to be the head. Zhang was born in
Xitang of Jiaxing, Zhejiang and he was the son of the famous lacquerer
Zhang Cheng. He arrived at the capital on the imperial order, won the
emperor's recognition and was given an official rank right after the
interview. Bao Liang of Jiaxing was also a lacquer master who was called
in for royal service in Xuande Year. Due to these two people as the chief,
the lacquer wares of the time followed the styles of Song and Yuan Dynasty
to be round, smooth, and simple and emphasized on artistic carvings and
the sense of the quality of the paint. In the last years of Ming Dynasty,
Yang Ming of Xitang, Jiaxing (or Zhongqing) was good at lacquer. In 1625,
he annotated Light Brown Lacquer Wares sentence by sentence and made it
complete by adding a preface. It was a great contribution to the
perfection of ancient lacquer theories and techniques.
|
| In Ming
Dynasty, Hangzhou was one of the three engraving printing centers of the
country. In Wanli Year, Wuxing's printing industry suddenly rose as a new
force. The wood carving print achieved most in inset pictures for
literature works such as novels, opera scripts and poems. For instance,
the Hangzhou published Whorehouse Poems had illustrations drew by Zhang
Mengzheng of Renhe and carved by the masters of Anhui style Huang Guifang,
Huang Yibin and Huang Duanpu who resided in Hangzhou. The flowing lines
and beautiful designs of the illustration made it the fine representative
of the print of Ming Dynasty in full bloom. The most delicate work was the
illustrations in Collection Of Wu's Literary Writings of the White Snow
Workshop Edition designed by Zhang Shiling of Wulin. The carving was a
combined effort of Xiang Nanzhou of Wulin and Hong Guoliang and Wang
Chengpu of Anhui, and laid a solid foundation for the later Wulin style
with its gentle and tactful lines. In Chongzhen Year, the Hangzhou edition
Jin Ping Mei With Newly Embroidered Portrait And Reviews had 100 pictures
in it and was done by Liu Qixian, Liu Yingzu, Huang Ruyao, Huang Zili and
Hong Guoliang. In Wanli Year, the books published by Rongyu Workshop of
Wulin were all reviewed by Li Zhuowu and excellently illustrated by
masters, such as The Loyal And Righteous Heros In Marshes, The Tale Of
Pi-Pa, The Tale Of The Gold Seal, The Northern Version Of West Chamber,
The Tale Of Joint Jade Adornment, Sadness In Boudoir and The Tale Of The
Red Horsetail Whisk. The publisher of Changxing, Zang Maoxun, used to
revise Collection Of Yuan Dynasty Tunes, totaling 100 chapters. He added
one illustration to each chapter, with emphasis on the character's facial
expressions. The most distinctive of opera script illustrations were those
in Ancient Za Ju (Gu Quzhai's edition) carved by the clansmen of Huang's
family. Almost all of them were elaborate works among the best of Wulin
prints. The traditional Chinese print was a process of reproduction, that
is, the designer and the carver were different people while the designer
was the more important of the two. The artist Chen Hongshou produced many
excellent wood carving sketches in his life, such as the illustrations of
West Chamber ' The Original Edition and Crimson On Mandarin Duck Grave.
When he was only nineteen, he drew twelve illustrations for Jiu Ge, among
which the one Qu Yuan's Chanting was the most impressive. The layout of
the picture was simple and stable with flowing lines. The character, Qu
Yuan, bore both worries and anger as he had a look of fortitude on his
face. Chen Hongshou's illustrations for the West Chamber ' Northern
Private Edition were magnificent, too. For instance, in the picture
entitled Peeping Over The Letter, he portrayed vividly the subtle feelings
of the girl Cui Yingying in love and the boldness of the servant girl
Hongniang who sustained her master in the resistance of marital
arrangement from Cui Yingying's family. His illustrations for Hero Of The
Marshes and Learning The Ancient were all classic works of the country's
realistic figure painting and held important positions in the history of
print. The publication of sketch collections was a prominent feature of
Wulin print with influential works like A Collection Of Famous Works In
All Generations, A Collection Of Shiyu's Illustrations, Sketch Collection
Of Jiya Workshop, and Liu Xuhu's Plum Collection. Xuxing was another town
of print, which produced the well-known red-and-black printed books. Min
Qige and Ling Mengchu of Wuxing were the two who did a great number of
beautiful illustrations. |
Illustrations
in West Chamber, by Chen Hongshou |
| In
early Ming Dynasty, there was a calligraphy theorist Tao Zongyi in
Zhejiang. He was born in Huangyan of Taizhou. He was good at calligraphy,
especially official script (an ancient style of calligraphy current in the
Han Dynasty) and the simpler seal style. In the mean time, he wrote nine
chapters of the book A Survey Of Calligraphy History, and included the
biography as well as their theories from ancient times to Yuan Dynasty. It
was the first book of authority on calligraphy history in the country.
Also in early Ming Dynasty, the one who excelled at regular script and
cursive script was Song Sui of Pujiang. As a matter of fact, he could do
all the four scripts (viz. seal script, official script, regular script
and cursive script). His regular script was elegant, sedate, but vigorous
at the same time. His running hand was flowing and imposing. Furthermore
he took in the elements of seal script and official script, and made his
cursive script remarkably unique. He left behind works like Jing Fu Tie
and Answering Letters To Father-In-Law, etc. The statesman of Ming
Dynasty, Yu Qian, was also a calligrapher of Qiantang. His writing was
natural and smooth just as the one in his work Ti Zhong Ta Tu Zan. Feng
Fang of Yin County followed the styles of the two Wangs and was very
powerful in the strokes of the characters. His masterpiece was Poems In
Cursive Script and Secrets To Calligraphy was the article of his theory.
Xu Wei (1521-1593) of Shaoxing was both good at painting and calligraphy.
He claimed to do best in calligraphy, second best in poem, third best in
verses and then the painting. His proud cursive script looked unrestrained
and magnificent, and he was recognized as the calligraphy master by Yuan
Hongdao. He got his masterpiece Song Of The Blue Sky done without any
letup, lines flowing like twining dragons full of spirits. Calligraphy in
the later years of Ming Dynasty did not continue to follow the plain and
natural styles of Dong Qichang. Instead, it became unconstrained and
vigorous, represented in Zhejiang by Ni Yuanlu. A Shangyu native, Ni
Yuanlu was good at running hand and cursive script. His works were
remarkable in the movements of the brush, the characters and the general
layout, and were impressive in its force, its underlying suggestion and
charm. It was him who sparked the calligraphy world of late Ming Dynasty.
|
| The
characteristic of Ming Dynasty painting was that it was divided into many
distinct schools. In early Ming Dynasty, it was dominated by the academic
style and the Zhejiang style combined together. The founder of Zhejiang
style was Dai Jin (1388-1462) of Qiantang. In Xuande Year, he was the head
of the fine art institute. He was called the 'best of the academic school'
with skills learnt from many famous artists. However, he left the
institute as he was plotted against and retreated in Zhusi Temple by the
West Lake in his late years. He was an all-rounded painter who could do
landscape, figure as well as flower-and-bird. His works were recognized as
'the unparalleled art' as he not only inherited the artistic traditions of
'Ma and Xia', but also reformed the style of Southern Song Dynasty into
the forceful ones. His Boat Returning In Winds And Rains was lightly
tinged and ink wash was tactfully applied. His immortal works also
included Greenness Of The Spring Hills, Traveling In Snow-Capped Mountains
and The Collection Of Nanpingya, etc. His landscape was magnificent for
the straight and powerful lines. One representative of 'Zhejiang School'
painter was Wang E of Fenghua who was especially good at landscape and
figure. Emperor of Xiaozong referred to him as 'the current Ma Yuan'. The
last influential painter of Zhejiang was Lan Ying (1585-about 1670) of
Qiantang who was good at portraying figures, flower-and-bird, Lanhua and
bamboos. His early works were subtle and delicate but later he chose to be
more bold and forceful after his mid years. Ink wash was the mainstream of
early Zhejiang School paintings but Lan Ying usually applied colors in his
works. The ground in his Clouds And Mountains was brownish red and stood
out against the white snow on the mountains. His Pines In Autumn looked
magnificent in layout and the brave use of ink. Lan Ying, together with
his offspring Lan Meng, Lan Shen and Lan Tao, belonged to Wulin School.
Zhejiang painters were all adept at doing realistic works such as
landscape and figure. They distinguished themselves from others of Ming
Dynasty with their powerful and unconstrained style. The excellent
flower-and-bird painter Lv Ji (1477-?) of Yin County (the present Ningbo)
was the court artist so he was extremely good at drawing phoenix, crane,
peacock or mandarin duck. Added in the flowers and bushes, the birds were
vivid with dazzling colors. He was also skillful at doing ink-wash, but
still had the trace of the realistic flower-and-bird paintings in his
ink-wash works. His Lotus In Autumn was a fine case in point. On the
paper, the withered leaves of lotus and reeds waved in cold wind and the
eagles dived down with great force. His masterpieces also included
Osmanthus, Chrysanthemum and Poultry, The Eagle And Sparrows, Poultry
Under Bamboo Fences and Birds In The Snow, etc. |
| After
mid-Ming Dynasty, the society was expecting great changes. At the time,
there was a new tendency in the fine art world. A great number of painters
began to express themselves more freely with their brushes. This tendency
was best manifested on Xu Wei. Xu Wei, in spite of his many ups and turns
throughout his life, was quite rebellious with his unconstrained
temperament. He called out to be natural and unadorned when drawing
flowers, landscapes and figures and put into them his own strong emotions.
Thus he opened a new school of abstract flower-and-bird paintings called
'The Green Vine School' and had a great impact on Shi Tao, Ba Da and 'The
Eight Geniis of Yangzhou' of Qing Dynasty. His immortal works included
Inked Grapes in which he compared the wild grapes to pearls unnoticed and
expressed his depression through the angry lines. His famous work The
Crabs vividly depicted the crawling crabs and withering autumn lotus.
Another one Miscellaneous Flowers showed that he had achieved surprisingly
high ink-wash skills. |
|
Another celebrated painter of late Ming Dynasty
was Chen Hongshou (1598-1652) of Zhuji, Zhejiang. He was the first to
combine scholars' paintings with fine art among folks. He was noted for
his figure portrait and flower-and-bird paintings. The characters in his
picture were exaggerated and weird but were filled with ancient flavor and
charm. His early figure paintings were endowed with strong and confident
lines whereas the later works became delicate and tender. Fairies and
Enclosed Goose were examples of them respectively. His flower-and-bird
paintings, especially those about bees, butterflies, were lively and
beautiful. Masterpieces included Collection Of Ya Ji, Hermit In Shiliu
Guan and Gui Qu Lai Xi and so on. 'The Three Rens' of Xiaoshan in late
Qing Dynasty (Ren Xiong, Ren Xun and Ren Yu) as well as Ren Yi (viz. Ren
Bonian) were heavily influenced by Chen Hongshou.
Inked Grapes, by Xu Wei - > |
 | |
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