| At the
turn from Ming Dynasty to Qing Dynasty, River South economy was prosperous
with the development of commodity economy. Zhejiang handcraft industry
flourished day by day. Though it had a large variety, all works bore a
fresh, delicate and magnificent feature that is unique of the watery
region in the River South. |
| In Qing
Dynasty, silk produced by Hangzhou enjoyed great popularity home and
abroad. The silk production included Hang-Luo, Hang-Duan, Hang-Fang and
Hang Luo. Some of Hang-Duan (satin produced in Hangzhou) were white and
plain, some were patterned with flowers, and some woven in gold threads to
make flowers, which looked really splendid. The world famous Ten Scenic
Spots Of West Lake showed the advanced skills of Hangzhou silk industry
workers in Qing Dynasty. The stone carving of Qingtian made good use of
the special local Yela stone. Based on the original shape and color of the
stone, the artists worked on it with great care to give full life to the
material. A typical traditional product was 'Grape Mountain' with great
amount of crystal-like grapes in leafy profusion. The woodcarving of
Dongyang mainly got its theme subject from history or folk stories. It was
distinctive as the composition was always fully patterned with flowers.
The red-gold wood carving of Ningbo was grounded with red paint and
appliqued with gold leaves, so it looked magnificent and dazzling. It
emphasized both carving and painting, its representative works were Qian
Gong Bed and Wan Gong Sedan-Chair. The latter is kept by Zhejiang Museum.
It is exquisitely carved with remarkable skills. There are more than 400
figures and uncountable flowers and birds. These together constitutes
auspicious scene of the blessed new born baby as well as the scenes in
operas like The Tale Of The Thornwood Hairpins and The Lost Jade Bracelet.
Complemented with glass and glass pictures, it is indeed of wonderful
workmanship excelling nature. In addition to these, Zhejiang's boxwood
carving, Hangzhou's embroidery, Ou-Su, Huangyan's Fan-Huang, Pujiang's
paper-cut, Yueqing's paper-cut, Shenxian's bamboo art ware and Hongxiang's
blue printed calico were all very famous. |
| At first
people all over the country emphasized only imitation of model
handwritings of ancient works. It was not until the mid-Qing Dynasty when
stele inscription sprang up was the calligraphy of Qing Dynasty rescued
from a desperate situation. Under the influence of Qianjia School's tenets
to restore ancient ways, many calligraphers began working on the seal
script, the official script and Bei-Bei (northern stele script) with all
concentration. |
| During
Kangxi's reign, Jiang Chenying was one of the 'Four Great Calligraphers'
of the time. Jiang (1628-1699) was born in Cixi. He was good at regular
script and running hand, but his masterwork was written in beautiful
cursive script and was like the ones of Dong Xiangguang. His regular
script in small characters was full of scholastic elegance and looked
better with each reading. Zhu Yizhun of Xiushui (the present Jiaxing)
excelled at both official script and landscape painting. He classified the
script into three kinds, namely, the square, the flowing and the
fancifully ancient. He tried to reach the second stage, said him, to be
both precise and naturally elegant. He rendered outstanding service in
creating the ethos of Qing Dynasty official script in his efforts to call
for stele studies. Jin Nong (1687-1763), one of the 'Yangzhou's Eight
Geniuses ', was local in Hangzhou. He was an expert of regular script and
cursive script, but accomplished most in official script. His heavy and
powerful strokes of the character felt like having the strength of metals
or stones. He also applied official script into his regular script, making
it so distinct and impressive that it was called 'lacquer writing' Another
one the 'Four Great Calligraphers in Qianjia's time' Liang Tongshu
(1723-1815) was a resident of Qiantang. He was good at regular script and
running hand, especially the big characters in grids. Even in his
nineties, he kept writing inscriptions for people, never looking tired.
Chen Hongshou (1768-1822) was also born in Qiantang. He was accomplished
at running hand and ancient official script. Besides calligraphy, he was
noted for his landscape and plant paintings, too. He enjoyed equal fame
with Chen Yuzhong, and the two was always mentioned together as 'Er Chen
(two Chens)'. When he was the county magistrate of Liyang, he created 18
new models of Zi-Sha pot together with Yang Pengnian, and wrote
inscriptions on body of the pot in person. Such pots were called 'Man
Sheng Pot' at the time. Yu Yue of Deqing tried skills of seal script and
official script in his regular script, hence his unique style. All of his
common corresponds were written in official script. Zhao Zhiqian
(1829-1884) was born in Huiji. He transferred from his straightforward
regular script to the refined Bei-Bei, and later even carried on the
styles to cursive script to avoid stiffness. He was a positive agent who
helped to clear away the fawning and weak style of model handwriting
imitations and to boost stele studies. Wu Changshuo (1844-1927) of Anji,
Zhejiang grew from copying Yan Zhenqin's works and applied himself to the
research of stele inscriptions and Shi-Gu-Wen (inscriptions on drum-shaped
stone blocks of the Warring States Period) counter-drawings. The ancient,
simple but impressive Shi-Gu-Wen had great influence on Wu's calligraphy,
painting as well as seal cutting. All his four scripts were vigorous and
unique. Shen Zengzhi (1850-1922) of Jiaxing combined all ways of writing
together, and his theories found their ways into Collection Of Hairi Lou
and Postscript Of Hairi Lou. Mei Diaoding (1839-1906) of Cixi honored
ancient calligraphers and later harmonized their works into his own. He
emphasized smoothness at the turn and neatness of the
strokes. |
| During
Qianlong's reign of Qing Dynasty, Ding Jing was Qiantang was versatile. He
felt that the seal made since Ming Dynasty was too shallow and weak and he
wanted to have a change. He took in the cream of the seals of Qin and Han
Dynasty as well as Liao's seal script. He originated a new style that was
imposing and vigorous. As the first of Zhejiang School, his seals were
simple but abundant in change. After Ding Jing, there was Jiang Ren
(1743-1795) whose seals were admired for their ancient elegance; Huang Yi
(1744-1802) gave his seals vigor; Xigang (1746-1803) made his seals simple
but beautiful. Still later, there was Chen Yuzhong (1762-1802) whose seals
were well known for its refinement; Chen Hongshou was regarded as the
model of 'Zhejiang School' for his seals followed the style of Qin and Han
Dynasty with great flexibility and vigor. Zhao Zhichen (1781-1860), the
talented among the Zhejiang School, was fond of seals and excelled at jade
seal carving. Qian Song (1818-1860) was especially good at cutting
artistic seals and he wrote the book Collection Of My Seals. The above
mentioned eight people were collectively called 'Eight Masters of Xiling'.
Besides them, Hangzhou's Tu Zhuo, Xu Mao, Zhao Yi, Jiang Zhun, Haiyan's
Zhang Yanchang, Fuyang's Hu Zhen were all famous seal makers. The
influence of the upright Zhejiang seals with full internal power continued
for hundreds of years. In 1904, Hangzhou's Ding Ren, Wang Zhi, and
Shaoxing's Wuyin set up the Xiling Seal Society at the Solitary Hill by
the West Lake to preserve and study seal cultures. They invited the Wu
Changshuo, who was of noble character and high prestige, to be the
director of the society. The four founders contributed to many writings,
such as Wang Zhi's Interchangeability Of Seals and My Seal Collection and
Ye Ming's The Biography Of Guang's Seal Cutters and Brief Biography Of
Seal Masters. The seal world owes a lot to these books as makers and
admirers of today still refer to them from time to time.
|
| Zhao
Zhiqian, the calligrapher and the painter, was also good at seal cutting.
His seals, neat and beautiful, achieved high professional proficiency. His
intaglio character seals were a fine reproduction of Han Dynasty's ones
with emphasis put on spacing contrast in the composition. His red
character press seals were gentle under the influence of Deng Shiru. He
also made innovations upon the seals of Qin and Han Dynasty by taking in
the official script on ancient coins, metal mirror inscriptions and so on.
The painter Wu Changshuo was well known for his seal cutting art, too. He
achieved mastery through a comprehensive study of Zhejiang school, seals
made by Deng Shiru, Wu Rangzhi, Zhao Zhiqian and all scripts. Xu Sangeng
(1826-1890) of Shangyu kept onto his own style. No men other than him
could make the originally sober script so enchanting on the solid cube of
seal. His works enjoyed great popularity even in Japan. |
| In Qing
Dynasty, there were many genres while scholars' paintings dominated the
artistic world. Various views like 'returning to the ancient styles' and
'creating new ones' kept challenging the art circle. |
| In
early Qing Dynasty, Xiang Shengmo and Shen Quan were representatives of
famous painters of the time. Xiang Shengmo's (1597-1658) landscape
painting was bright and clear in color, and expressed the nostalgic
feelings of him. Shen Quan (1682-1760) was good at flower-and-bird
paintings. The king of Japan admired his work Hundred Horses so much that
he was invited to go to Japan in 1729. During his three year stay in
Japan, he enjoyed great popularity among the Japanese. His excising work
is The Golden Pheasant. |
| In mid-Qing
Dynasty, Jing Nong, known as the most important figure in 'Eight Geniuses
of Yangzhou' actually grew up in Qiantang. He was accomplished at painting
plum, bamboo, horse, figure of Buddha and landscape, especially the inked
plum. He always used light ink and dried brush to depict plum flowers and
bamboos in his works. His Self-Portrait was a vivid side figure in long
robe slowly walking with his hand stick. On the background lay about some
flowers, fruits, trees and water which added to the leisure and remoteness
of the figure. He argued against strict abidance by the traditional ways
and called out for unconstrained styles. His works were natural, charming
and full of spirits in face of the orthodox school. Dong Bangda
(1699-1769) , one of the 'Three Dongs' (the other two being Dong Yuan and
Dong Qichang) was tactful in using the dried up brushes when he was doing
the landscape paining. Qian Du (1763-1844) followed Yuan Dynasty's style
in his landscape painting and produced delicate but natural works. As a
matter of fact, he did equally well in flowers and figures, and his
existing works included Seeing-Off At Ao Pavilion, Fairy House In Zilang
and Moon Over Autumn Woods, etc. He also wrote such books as Secretes To
Paintings. Fei Danxu (1801-1850) was noted for his figure paintings of
female characters. The ladies in his picture were vivid and elegant in
light color. His masterpieces were Twelve Girls Of The Noble Family and
Chanting Poems In Eastern Chamber. Dai Xi (1801-1860) excelled at
landscape painting and his works include Paintings Of Xiku Zhai and
Paintings And Inscriptions. |
| In the
later years of Qing Dynasty, Zhejiang paintings rebounded again. There
were masters such as 'Four Rens of Shanghai (Ren Xiong, Ren Xun, Ren Yi
and Ren Yu)' Zhao Zhiqian and Wu Changshuo. With the frequent contact with
the western countries, Shanghai, as the international port, gathered many
professional painters. They sought to meet the needs of the newly rose
citizens, and were called the 'Shanghai School'. However, most members of
the school came from Zhejiang Province. |
| Zhao
Zhiqian was the pioneer of the Shanghai School. He was tactful in the use
of traditional brush and ink to produce both realistic and freehand
paintings. His landscape works done around his twenties were similar in
style with the Xin'an School. His figure paintings followed Luo
Lianggeng's style and were somewhat cartoon like. His freehand
flower-and-bird paintings were splendid and full of love of life with the
pure bright colors. Besides the traditional subjects, Zhao Zhiqian also
tried to reproduce some common vegetables and fruits, semi-tropical
flowers and trees, and fish of the East Sea in his works. His emphasis on
impressive colors and earthly creation set the main key for the Shanghai
school. |
| Ren
Xiong (1820-1864) was versatile painter who was good at portraying all
things in the world. His imposing and sober lines in the picture flowed as
they went. His figure paintings were remarkable and a good match to those
of Chen Hongshou's. He was one of the pioneers of Shanghai school with
rich elements absorbed form the folk paintings. His masterpieces were
Self-Portrait, The Two Xiangs and the woodcarving print Immortal's Wine,
The Man With The Sword, Ancestors Of Yuyue and Gaoshi. His landscape The
Straw House By Lake Fan and Ten Thousand were the representative of his
later works. |
| Ren Xun
(1835-1893) was the younger brother of Ren Xiong and was accomplished
equally well at figures, flowers, birds and landscape. His figure painting
was unique, especially some giant vertical pictures as Zhang Xu Doing The
Cursive Script, Dring In Flowers, Immortal On The Trip, Su Wu, The Great
Sherperd, and Fairies Sprinkling Flowers. These works broke through all
restrictions and were interesting to look. |
| Ren Yi
(1840-1895) was good at figure painting and flower-and-bird. In his early
years, he followed the style of Song Dynasty to apply heavy color and
outline the figure. His works of the time were silimar to those of Chen
Laolian's. After he attained fame in his mid years, he came to appreciate
and learn the style of Ba Da Shan Ren and Xin Luo Shan Ren. From then on,
his works became bright and tender. Ren Yi was the most outstanding of the
'Four Rens of Shanghai' He rooted his art in the folks, and blended
together the excellent Chinese painting traditions with the fresh skills
and ideas of the western painting. His subject themes of figure painting
ranged from historical stories, mysteries, folk legends, to some realistic
ones. Living with the lower class of the society, Ren Yi witnessed the
imperialistic trample upon China and the colonization of Shanghai. He
could only place his feelings on his paintings, hence such meaningful
works as Su Wu, The Great Sherperd, Zhong Kui, Bleak And Chilly On Guan
River, and Goddess Nvwa Tries To Mend The Sky. Among so many famous
artists of Shanghai school, Renyi was the worldliest one. All his
characters under his brush were branded with feature of the times. He made
a large screen with the picture Immortals On The Birthday Party on it. The
many characters differed from one another in their lively posture and
wonderful composition. He could catch man's instant expression and
movement within seconds. He showed his mastery remarkably when he
portrayed for Wu Changshuo. The portrait The Poor Official was
unparalleled because he understood deeply Wu's self mockery as an official
of low rank. |
Bleak
And Chilly On Guan River, by Ren Yi |
Among
the Shanghai School painters, Wu Changshuo and Pu Hua were the two who
retained much traditional features of the ancient scholars' paintings. In
their intercourse for as many as 40 years, they developed similar styles
that were both delicate and majestic. Pu Hua (1832-1911), or Zuoying, was
born in Xiushui (the present Jiaxing) of Zhejiang. He excelled at doing
landscape and plants, especially bamboo, orchid, lotus, pine and loquat.
In his early years, he admired Xu Wei and Chen Chun's flower paintings
very much. But he became bent on Wentong's works and concentrated on
portraying bamboos later. One can feel the breeze through the straight
trunks and bold leaves in his unique bamboo pictures. Pu Hua often
inscribed some poems into his favorite large sized pictures. His
calligraphy and his painting became one integrated mass for their vigor.
Such vigor could be matched by no other than Wu Changshuo in his works. Wu
began to learn to draw in his mid thirties, the latest of all painters. He
took great pride in his calligraphic way of painting flowers. He applied
the official script to plum branches and orchid leaves, and the highly
cursive script to wisteria, grape and calabash. As a result, his works
were made simple, bold and unsophisticated. Wu embodied his cynical
feelings against the society in his plum pictures and expressed his
exclusiveness through the orchid flowers. When he was doing light inked
bamboos, he would add into the picture pines, plums or stones to make the
'lofty gang' on which placed his sentiment. In his later years, he drew a
lot of peony flowers filled with vital force. Wu was bold enough to apply
bright red and green to his works, which was almost
a taboo to common
painters. He was also the first one to use occidental red in traditional
Chinese painting. Pu Hua highly praised his pictures as the elegant out of
vulgar colors. Wu attached great importance to the inscriptions and seals,
and the integration of poem, calligraphy, painting and seal was one of the
main feature of his works. The existing works of him ' Red Plum, Narcissus
and Camellia, Lichee, Inked Lotus Flowers, Golden Autumn, Yan Lai Hong,
Calabash, Balsamine, and Coral Beads ' are all great ones with
extraordinary ingenuity.
|
Lotus And Mandarin Duck, by Wu
Cangshuo -> |
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