Themes of Chinese painting and their evolution in the process of development of pictorial art

Yan' Bin' Postgraduate student, Department of Art History and Pedagogy of Art, A.I. Herzen Russian State Pedagogical University 191186, Russia, Saint Petersburg, nab. Sinks, 48, room 6, room 51 yanbin101@rambler.ru

The first important theme of Western painting is man. Before the era of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Chinese portrait painting was similar to Western, in the center of the painting was the image of a man. In the Song era (960-1279), the thematic vector of pictorial art shifted from man to landscape. In paintings, artists began to strive to describe more complex things. The landscape painting "shanshui" (mountains and waters), which has gained great popularity in society, has become a new theme, the most suitable for displaying the inner spiritual world. There is an opinion that portraiture is just a technical skill, and genuine art exists in landscape painting.

During the reign of the Song Dynasty, the imperial examination system "kejiuzhi" was improved. Gradually, this system of recruiting officials became public. Landscape painting was developed due to the appearance of the imperial examination system. The newly emerging privileged class was the one who supported its development. These people were high-ranking officials who had passed through the "keju" examination system, they had a high level of skill and led the culture of that time. Landscape paintings of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) ceased to depict meetings of sages, replacing them with images of ordinary people and travelers who have nothing in common with the caste of completely wise people ^[1].

Zhao Gan's painting (the exact years of his life are unknown, ca. X century) "On the river after the first snow" depicts a group of people walking on horseback. Fishermen sitting in small boats and on the pier are trying to take shelter from the wind. The rest of the numerous fishermen, having adopted a variety of poses, are engaged in fishing on the river. Whether it's a traveler on the shore or fishermen on the river – their figures are much larger than in later landscape paintings. In Zhao Gan's painting there are no images of mountains serving as a background, the boundless, boundless spaces are not described. Instead of enjoying the natural scenery, viewers will pay more attention to the physical labor and everyday life of fishermen. A cold wind blows in the face of travelers chilled by the cold, the fishermen behind them are fishing directly from the icy river, but there is some special charm in all this. In this sense, this painting is closer to portraiture. Subsequently, Chinese landscape painting continued to develop and improve, and the travelers and fishermen depicted on this canvas surpassed time, becoming one of the regularly recurring themes in landscape art. 

A fragment of the picture

A fragment of the picture

Author: Zhao Gan

Composition: "By the river after the first snow"

Time of creation: the era of the Five Dynasties (907 – 960)

Size: 25.9 x 376.5 cm

Location: Imperial Palace Museum, Taipei

History of creation: in the era of the Southern Tang Dynasty (937-975), those who studied martial arts occupied leading positions in the state and society, so the atmosphere of the era was very rude and artless. Subsequently, literary scientists began to determine the direction of the development of public culture. This was due to their remoteness from the central plain and the resulting lack of manners characteristic of the aristocratic nobility, as well as a more socially oriented spirit. The result of their attention to art and attraction to sophistication was that educated people in their desire for freedom and individuality often followed the dictates of their own temper. Among their representatives are the Chinese poet and the last emperor of the Southern Tang dynasty, Li Yu (937-978), the famous dignitary and scholar Han Xizai (902-970) and many others. If the people in power liked the ideas of literary scientists, they gained a lot of followers, so many government officials imitated this culture. All this is reflected in painting and calligraphy: the creation of new concepts, going beyond traditions, striving for individuality and reflecting real life. The scene depicting the conditions of fishing life in the painting "On the river after the first Snow" is a reflection of the traditions of folk art in painting of the Southern Tang era, which is the most characteristic feature of pictorial art for that time ^[2].

Travelers and fishermen in this work appear at the same time, in the same place, but do not intersect with each other. It seems that the heroes are not ordinary citizens, but people with a special status. They are depicted not alone, but accompanied by their families, it seems that they are hiding some secret that forced them to go on a long journey in the cold winter. Their trip is not of an entertainment nature. In the social conditions of that time, most travelers who went on long journeys with their families, as a rule, were officials. Together with their families, they went to serve in foreign lands, migrating across the vast expanses of China. Thousands of years ago, an ordinary walk with the family was an inaccessible pleasure for ordinary Chinese citizens. Only five hundred years later, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, idle walks for entertainment became permissible. This change was reflected in the painting. Obviously, the characters in the picture should be officials and their families. Their route seems very difficult and painful. Another important characters in the picture are fishermen. Travelers simply wander among these landscapes, and fishermen are permanent inhabitants of this territory, they are integrated with nature into a single whole.

The service class and dignitaries of the Song dynasty were statesmen, but at the same time expressed their feelings in landscapes, embodying in them unrealistic dreams of a life in solitude ^[1]. Nevertheless, for the literary scholars of Jiangnan during the Yuan Dynasty, hermitage was a reality. That is why the fishermen in this picture are not ordinary people, but the embodiment of hermits or even the author himself. 

Compared to the painting of the Song era in the paintings of the Yuan Dynasty, the characters have become larger and closer to the audience, their expression is more concrete, visual. The center of the paintings began to focus on the images of heroes, and the artists of the Yuan Dynasty began to depict themselves in landscapes (or their "counterparts").  

Literary scholars of the Yuan era devoted their paintings directly to the topic of hermitage, so many works were created with the names of specific places, the names of houses in which artists sought solitude, as well as cabinets. As an example, a painting by the Chinese artist Huang Gongwang (1269-1354) "Hermitage in the Fuchun Mountains" can be cited. Huang Gongwang lived far from the world in the Fuchun Mountains on the Qiantang River, where he wrote this work.

Author: Huang Gunwan

The work: "Hermit in the Fuchun Mountains"

Creation time: 1350

Size: 50 x 13 cm

Location: Zhejiang Provincial Museum

Under the Song Dynasty, the theme of hermitage was mainly embodied in the image of distant and desirable, but inaccessible mountains; under the Yuan, this theme became an integral part of everyday life: it was possible thanks to the country houses possessed by literary scientists. That is why the theme of solitude and seclusion has changed over time.  

Under the Ming Empire, there was a fashion for painting paintings dedicated to their own land or gardens owned by friends. The names of country estates and gardens were associated with the pseudonyms of the owners, so the paintings also received appropriate names. Scenes of friends visiting country houses became a specific feature of Ming Dynasty painting. The content of such paintings were not distant mountains and reservoirs: the artists depicted Jiangnan landscapes, which were not cut off from the world by plains, but were an ideal place for everyday life ^[3].

Image of a philosophizing sage

Why does the image of a fisherman appear in painting

In the Chinese literary and philosophical traditions, the fisherman has a special meaning. Back in the Zhanguo period (476/403–221 BC), the Chinese poet Qu Yuan (c. 340-278 BC) created a collection of poetic works "Chu ci" ("Chu stanzas"). In those distant times, the first minister of the kingdom of Chu was expelled from the country, and he, being at a crossroads, met an old fisherman. The fisherman asked the minister why he was so sad. After listening to the answer, the fisherman sang: "The water is clean here, so I can wash my hat; if the water is dirty here, then I can wash my feet with it," with these glories the old man left on his boat. So the fisherman began to be associated with a person who was not bound by the real world, not limited by any framework, i.e. he became a symbol of freedom. Ordinary people, peasants are connected with the land, they must be hardworking, and fishermen, in turn, are free and free. That is why artists began to use the image of a fisherman to convey their aspirations for hermithood: they wanted to retire to the riverbank or hide in the mountains and forests. The images of the angler and the logger began to be associated with a departure from the worldly bustle, independence and the absence of restrictions.       

The aspirations and aspirations of Chinese intellectuals as representatives of the bureaucracy could practically not be realized in real life in official circles, since their ideals did not coincide with government requirements ^[4]. Literary scientists have always hidden in their hearts dreams of detachment from the world and embodied in their paintings exactly the life they wanted to lead. So landscape painting became a place of freedom, allowing you to escape from reality. It was here that the masters could find peace of mind, this was the world they aspired to. Fishermen, hunters, loggers and hermits lived in this world of landscapes. The artists turned to the image of fishermen, because they belonged to rivers and lakes and had to live among natural landscapes.

During the Yuan Dynasty, the inhabitants of the ideal world of landscape painting were also symbols of solitude, while the fisherman once again remained a favorite image. Now fishermen have ceased to be hard workers who appeared in the landscapes of the Northern Song, but embodied the artists themselves. Heroes on small boats with fishing rods were executed in thin lines and were filled with a sense of joy. In China, there is a legend about a military adviser and general named Wang Liushang under Zhou Wu-wang (XII–XI centuries BC). Wang Liushang fished in the Weihe River and met Zhou Wenwang, the father of the first ruler of the Chinese Zhou dynasty (1122-249 BC) Wu–wang. Wang Liushang played a very significant role in the construction of this dynasty. Over time, the fisherman, as the original symbol of outstanding talent hidden in the people, became the personification of hermithood, as well as a symbol of untapped potential.  

Author: Ma Yuan

The work: "A lonely fisherman on a cold river"

Time of creation: Song Dynasty

Size: 26.7 x 50.6 cm

Location: Tokyo National Museum

The image of a fisherman turns a landscape painting into a world of sophistication and education, he is a key link in painting a landscape. So the landscape ceases to be just an image of nature, but becomes an art world with a deep spirit. 

The form of expression of characters in painting

The earliest form of expression of characters in painting can be studied by the example of the painting "Seven Wise Men from a Bamboo Grove", in which the characters gathered together in the bosom of nature and play musical instruments. During the Tang era on many musical instruments – qin^[1], pipa^[2], etc. – images of saints who met in gardens full of beautiful opened flowers were executed. In the painting of the Tang era, images of saints often appeared, which helped to create an ideal artificial world, separated from the world of people.

Author: Sun Wei, Gao Yitu

The work: "Seven Wise Men from the Bamboo Grove"

Time of creation: Tang Dynasty

Size: 45.2 x 168.7 cm

Location: Shanghai Museum

During the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), adult characters accompanied by children began to appear in paintings – similar plots were often found later in court painting and landscapes by professional artists. During the Ming era, literary scientists also turned to children's images in their work: now people with children began to symbolize the authors themselves. The game of chess was gradually withdrawn from landscape creativity and ceased to be the focus of the landscape, giving way to human characters. At that time, artists consciously classified the themes of their works: the game of chess was recognized as refined, but included in the entertainment of only high society.  

Landscape paintings cannot depict an exclusively natural landscape that has no connection with the human world ^[5]. We can say that the characters are an integral part that forms the landscape world. This statement is especially vividly confirmed in the painting by the artist Guo Xi (1020-1090) "Early Spring".

Author: Guo Xi

The work: "Early Spring"

Time of creation: Northern Song Dynasty

Size: 158.3 x 108.1 cm

Location: Imperial Palace Museum, Taipei

"Early Spring" and politics:

A lot of characters are hidden in the complex landscape of "Early Spring". In the lower left corner of the picture, two travelers are depicted on a path by the river. Above, a man in a hat on horseback looks at them. Even higher – the mountain road becomes steep, and in the clouds and fog you can see a person climbing the mountain. All the heroes go in the same direction: to the tower above. The gallery narrows the space of the painting, demonstrating the high level of skill of the author – a professional artist. Two fishermen are depicted on the shore, and in the left part of the picture there is a woman, in addition, you can find a boy playing with a branch, and an elderly woman with a baby in her arms. 

The members of the fisherman's family are depicted differently than in the paintings considered: the artist did not transfer their work, but showed a scene of unity of three generations, joy and fun. These characters are not introduced by chance, but are specially distributed in the space of the picture.

As for the composition of the painting "Early Spring", it can be noted that the fisherman is depicted at the very bottom, the travelers are in the corner, just above the fisherman, and the educated husbands are even higher (this is a demonstration of social classes). A high and mighty mountain peak is a symbol of the emperor, slender and straight snow–covered pines are the embodiment of dignitaries – this is exactly what Guo Xi himself pointed out when talking about landscape painting (see "Linquan gaozhi" ("Collection of [notes on] the high essence of forests and streams")). In the lower part of the picture there is a fisherman's family representing the common people, and all the heroes belonging to the service class are depicted above. Guo Xi turned to the theme of wandering and the image of a fisherman to convey the stability and order of society under the rule of the emperor, as well as the embodiment of the joy and tranquility of a peaceful people. Such an image of early spring indicates that the cold winter and cruel times have receded, and a new life is coming with a wonderful social system led by the emperor. 

Summarizing the above, it should be concluded that the themes of Chinese painting have undergone changes during the change of epochs and the historical evolution of art. In different epochs, certain topics came to the fore, which was due to the processes of social development. Since the Song era, the vector of thematic development of painting has been indicated by the class of officials who passed the "keju" exams. An important place in the painting of literary scientists was occupied by the theme of hermitage, in which artists embodied their own aspirations, ideals and aspirations. The images of the fisherman and the traveler became the key semantic center of the landscape, giving it a deep philosophical content.