The Ming Dynasty Page 1

Lofty Mt. Lu by Shen Zhou. Ming dynasty, 1467, Hanging scroll, 6' × 3'. National Palace Museum, Taipei

The Ming Dynasty Takes shape …

Of numerous local revolts against the Mongols, the one that succeeded in forming a new imperial line was led by a man of the people, Zhu Yuanzhang, who had become a monk. The great Yangtze River city of Nankin fell to his band in 1356.

The Mongols were driven from Peking in 1368 and later from their ancient seat of power at the Karakorum. Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, ruled from 1369 – 1398. He established his capital at Nanking, which remained until Emperor Zhu Di boldly moved to Peking to be nearer his threatened northern borders.

The different trends and crosscurrents of Ming Painting can best be appreciated in the light of the aims and ideals of the groups for whom and by whom the images were produced. Professional and amateur artists are terms that can be misleading when taken in the generally accepted Western sense.

There were two kinds of professional painters. The men who devoted their lives to painting and held official positions in an academy of painting or held other government titles conferred on them because of their abilities as artists might be considered professional painters.

There was also a large class of painters we would call skilled artisans. These operated regular shops or studios, where pictures in almost any style were supplied to those who could not afford the products of more gifted artists; these men also painted screens and pictures to be used decoratively. As professionals, these craftsmen should not be confused with official and academy painters in any way.

All artists not included in these two categories might be called amateurs. The amateur also may be considered of two kinds. First, men like She?n Zho¯u and Wen Zhengming cultivated great natural talents by devoting most of their energies to painting. At the other extreme were the countless officials from cabinet rank down to local magistrates who dabbled in painting because it was considered a cultivated man's proper pursuit.

The history of landscape painting during the Ming Dynasty can be organised without due distortion into:

1. A short period of about fifty years continuation of the Yuan literary style.
2. A simultaneous flourishing of a more conservative non-literary style.
3. A brief classical moment of controlled emotion and rationality in the art of She?n Zho¯u.
4. The elaboration of the literary tradition
5. And finally, the new impetus provided by the experiments of Do?ng Qi´cha¯ng and, the latter individuals of the seventeenth century.

Landscape with Calligraphy, by Dong Qichang, Tokyo National Museum, Japan

Brief Continuation of Yuan styles – Wa´ng Fu´ and Xia' Cha'ng

Ink Bamboo – Wang Fu – Palace Museum, 1401

An essential painter to carry the Yuan style into the Ming period was Wa´ng Fu´ . He was born in Wuxi , in Jiangsu, the home of several famous painters, including Ni Zan.

He was known for his poetry and calligraphy, served as a minor official in the Hanlin Academy and travelled extensively. Many of the personal elements of Wan Fu’s style are apparent in a bold and straightforward composition, ‘The Lone Tree’ painted in 1404. All background has been illuminated in this painting to emphasise the character of the tree and jagged rock; only a marshy shore, some tumbled stones, a thorny bush, and a few low bamboos suggest a wild and lonely setting.

The bamboo painting had become a favourite, specialised subject for it was a unique form, a final test of brushwork. The fame of Wang Fu as a painter of bamboo is widely acknowledged.

Chinese critics agree that Wang Fu’s most gifted pupil, Xia' Cha'ng , was the last of the painters of ink bamboo to stand in the first rank. His best work is probably seen in the long handscrolls in which bamboo is combined with a stream, bank's, rocks, water and cascades.

The artist takes his audience down the grasses, bamboo, and among rocks to show the luxurious, marshy growth at close range. Two details from his scroll, ‘Bamboo Covered Stream in Spring Rain’ , illustrate this perspective. Throughout the scroll, the bamboo stalks are cut off at both the top and bottom of the picture, so they are brought strongly into the foreground.

Further, the wet glazed washes of the rocks act as a slightly blurred out-of-focus foil to the sharply rendered grasses, bamboo, tree, and rocks in the foreground areas. The fully realised daring of this scroll marked Xia' Cha'ng as one of the first Ming masters with an original stamp.

Bamboo Covered Stream in Spring Rain – Xià Chàng

Brief flourishing of Conservative style Che School, Da'i Ji'n and Du Ji'n

Returning Late from a Spring Outing – Dài Jìn

Although many of the Ming rulers’ institutions aimed to recapture the spirit and organisation of native, pre-Mongol traditions, no Academy of painting was established along the same lines as that of the Southern Song Dynasty.

The Dynasty followed rather than the pre-Song system of special honours or official titles to painters favoured by the emperor. Painters were rewarded with positions like an officer in the imperial guard etc. Most artists who served at the court are little known today. It is significant of Imperial taste that, with but one or two exceptions, none of the greatest painters of the Dynasty were awarded official recognition.

Far and away, the most gifted of the men who answered the summons to court was, as might be expected, the least successful in winning imperial favour.

Da'i Ji'n soon found himself out of step with officialdom, probably because he refused to expend his energies on petty contentions. He retired to his native province of Chekiang, where he continued to paint with wholehearted devotion to his art from around 1430 until his death in the middle of the century. During his lifetime Da'i Ji'n was neither financially successful, he died in complete poverty, nor was he generally recognised as a great painter by his contemporaries.

Dai Jin, Employing Virtue

After his death, however, he gained in reputation. Because of numerous painters who followed his lead, Da'i Ji'n is historically considered the founder of the Che School, the name derived from the first character of his native province.

The style in which Da'i Ji'n became the leading master was the same as that of the more successful artists at court. For the most part, the courtly taste was conservative. The style that Da'i Ji'n and his contemporaries developed was based on Academy painters of the Southern Song, and in particular, there was close adherence to the Ma? Yua?n and Xia Gui traditions.

‘Returning Late from a Spring Outing’ , a painting on silk by Da'i Ji'n, follows this tradition closely. A man who has just dismounted from his horse is knocking at a garden gate. The late hour is suggested by a lantern in the hand of the servant who hurries to unbar the door. The composition with the twisted pines and distant temple, and tree-clad hills are all part of an established tradition. There is, however, a looseness in the organisation, a scattering of elements through the picture together with the completeness of description that is very different from the carefully constructed, evocative pictures of the thirteenth century.

‘The poet Lin Bu’ wandering in the moonlight’ by Du Ji'n was also painted under the influence of Southern Song, but with a straight-forward technique and composition that should place Du with Da'i Ji'n as one of the greatest painters of the conservative group.

The Poet Lin Bu Wandering in the Moonlight – Du Ji'n

The tree, violating the picture boundary, and the gaze of the sage beyond that frame are typically derived from Southern Song. Still, the rapid brushwork, with warm and cool tinted inks, is the virtuoso trademark of the Che painter.