The Chinese Eye: An Interpretation of Chinese Painting 9780367111830, 9781032234595, 9781032234724, 9781003277781

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ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: CHINESE LITERATURE AND ARTS

Volume 6

THE CHINESE EYE

THE CHINESE EYE An Interpretation of Chinese Painting

CHIANG YEE

First published in 1935 by Methuen & Co. Ltd. This edition first published in 2022 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 1935 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-0-367-11183-0 (Set) ISBN: 978-1-032-23459-5 (Volume 6) (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-23472-4 (Volume 6) (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-27778-1 (Volume 6) (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003277781 Publisher’s Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent. Disclaimer The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.

THE CHINESE EYE An Interpretation of Chinese Painting

by CHIANG YEE WITH A PREFACE BY S. I. H S I U N G

M E T H U E N & CO. LTD. L O N D O N 36 Essex Street W.C.2

First published in 1935

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN

TO

MY BROTHER

PORTRAIT OF CONFUCIUS

Ma Yuan (Sung)

PREFACE WHEN I went to see a production of my play in Dublin, I met a Professor who asked me whether I wrote poetry and whether it was true that nearly everybody in China could write poetry. I replied in the affirmative and he exclaimed what a great amount of rubbish we must have ! How true ! But here, very few people can write poetry, and the result is you have an even greater amount of rubbish than we have ! Had I known that he was a playwright and that I had shaken at least twenty dramatists by the hand that evening, and that about half the audience of that performance were authors either of the Abbey or the Gate, I would have made some remarks about the drama. In China, most of us can not only write poetry, but also paint pictures. An artist generally means both a poet and a painter, and yet a professional artist is not considered a true artist, he must earn his living in some more serious and solid capacity. So to be an artist in the East is obviously not a matter of training but of talent. Mr. Chiang, the author of this informative and entertaining book, has, therefore, more than one string to his bow. vii

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He is nominally a scientist and received, many years ago, his first degree in chemistry at the University of Nanking. But his activities show us he is more a statesman than a scientist, for the governing of various districts in the Yangtze valley has occupied most of his time for the past few years. And those who take him to be a statesman will think they are mistaken when they learn that he is now lecturing on Chinese at the School of Oriental Studies. To those who have seen his pictures at the " Men of the Trees " Exhibition last winter, and the Modern Chinese Painting Exhibition at the New Burlington Galleries this spring, and at other exhibitions on the Continent, he is definitely an artist. His more intimate friends who have read his recently published poems on English scenery will no doubt have another name for him. My friend Mr. Chiang, however, has one drawback: he cannot talk ! He sometimes signs his pictures with the pen-name of " The Silent Priest". I know he cannot preach, but he can be silent, and silent water runs deep. Whenever he shuts himself up for a certain period during which you hear nothing from him, he is sure to produce a series of exquisite paintings or a volume of lovely poems. Recently he has been unusually quiet, and naturally I was not in the least surprised when one

PREFACE

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day he handed me this interesting book, but surprisingly honoured when he asked me for a Preface. As a playwright, one thing I must protest against: dramatic criticism written by men who cannot even write two lines of blank verse ! And on the other hand, I would willingly pawn my gown to buy books of criticisms written by experienced dramatists. Lest you do not realise what this means, I must tell you that a Chinese scholar considers his gown so indispensable that he would rather part with his pants and trousers first. Now, need I tell you that The Chinese Eye is a book not only for the general public, but also for connoisseurs and artists themselves? It deals with many interesting angles of Chinese painting which very few of its predecessors have ever touched. Books on Chinese Art already existing were all written by Western critics whose conceptions, though valuable, would certainly give an interpretation quite different from that of Chinese artists, poor creatures ! who, I expect you will agree with me, ought to have their own say. The author of this book treats the history and principles and philosophy of painting so deftly and yet so simply that one cannot help being instructed and entertained at the same time. It is not a big book, and, thank Heavens, not an academic book ! If

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Mr. Chiang has achieved nothing else but has succeeded in writing about Chinese Art without being tiresomely academic, both the author and the reader ought to be highly congratulated. S. I. HSIUNG HAMPSTEAD, LONDON September, 1935

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I CORDIALLY thank Mr. Alan White, without whose encouragement this book would never have been written. To Miss Innes Jackson, whose help has placed me so much in her debt, it is impossible adequately to express my gratitude. She has rendered into lucid English my clumsy expressions, translated many quotations from Chinese poetry in the chapter on " Painting and Literature," and drawn my attention to parallels in European thought. My grateful thanks are also due to Mr. Hsiung, who besides generously contributing the Preface, has given me valuable help in reading through the whole MSS., and has permitted me to use his translation for most of the quotations, especially in the chapter on " Painting and Philosophy."

C. Y. LONDON September 1935

XI

CONTENTS CHAPTER

PACK

I. INTRODUCTION

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II. HISTORICAL SKETCH -

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15

III. PAINTING AND PHILOSOPHY -

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62

IV. PAINTING AND LITERATURE -

-

V. INSCRIPTIONS VI. PAINTING SUBJECTS -

-

i

- 8 7 -

109

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134

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175

VIII. THE INSTRUMENTS -

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192

IX. THE SPECIES OF PAINTING -

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- 213

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VII. THE ESSENTIALS

INDEX I

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INDEX II

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xiii

2 3 2 237

ILLUSTRATIONS FIGURES PLATE

FACING PAGE

I. PORTRAIT OF CONFUCIUS Frontispiece By Ma Yuan (Sung) II. LAO Tzu RIDING ON AN Ox 10 By Chao Pu-Chih (Sung) III. THE PHYSICIAN'S VISIT 22 By Li Tang (Sung) IV. " HORS DE COMBAT " - 30 By Ku Yiin-Cheng (Ming) V. A DRUNKARD 40 By Yi Ch'ang-Wu (Ming) VI. LADY WITH Two ATTENDANTS 46 By " Old Lotus " Ch'en (Ming) VII. RAINY NIGHT 56 By Fei Hsiao-Lu (Ch'ing) LANDSCAPES VIII. SNOW SCENE By Wang Wei (T'ang) IX. A CLOUD-CAPPED HILL ON A FINE MORNING By Emperor Hui Tsung (Sung) X. TRAVELLERS By Fang Kuan (Sung) XL PINE AND BOWER By Mi Fei (Sung) xv

64 74 82 92

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PLATE

XII. A SECLUDED VILLA By Tung Pel-Yuan (Sung) XIII. FERRYING ON THE YANGTZE RIVER (A PART OF A VERY LONG ROLL)

XIV. XV. XVI. XVII.

By Hsia Kwei (Sung) SUMMER By Tung Ch'i-Chang (Ming) AFTER THE AUTUMN RAIN By Wang Shih-Ku (Ch'ing) SNOW SCENE By Shih Tao (Ch'ing) PEACE, PERFECT PEACE By Kung Hsien (Gh'ing)

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104 I2O

136 -

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144 154

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164

BIRDS, FLOWERS AND ANIMALS XVIII. BIRDS ON WILLOWS - 178 By Hsiao Ghao (Sung) XIX. HORSE FEEDING 186 By Chao M£ng-Fu (Yuan) X X . LOTUS _ . . - 194 By Ch'£n Tao-Fu (Ming) XXI. A N EAGLE . . . . . . 200 By Pa-Ta Shan-Jen (Gh'ing) XXII. WILD GEESE 208 By Pien Shou-Ming (Ch'ing) XXIII. BIRDS RETURNING THROUGH A SNOWY SKY 216 By Yen Tung-K'6 (Ch'ing) XXIV. BAMBOOS 224 By Lo P'in (Ch'ing)

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

LET me begin by explaining how it was that I came to write this book. Forty or fifty years ago reproductions of Western paintings began to filter into China. At the outset, for one reason or another, we Chinese found them very difficult to appreciate, or even to understand. Most of us were not very familiar with the religion and cultural bases of the West, and so the real significance of the subject-matter escaped us. About the same time, photographs of Western life and scenes were introduced into our country. Up till then our ideas on these things had been hazy and unsubstantial. Now, from a selection of photographs and works of art, we hoped to draw up a picture of life as it went on outside the borders of Asia. Naturally there were misconceptions. Since those days, communications have gradually opened up, and we ourselves have travelled into Europe and America to learn the theories, thought, literature, art, ideals of those great continents, and we have carried back our gleanings to China. Eventually, besides familiarising themselves with the artistic theories of the West, our painters i

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learnt themselves to paint in your way, adopting your instruments and methods. Nowadays it is not uncommon to see Exhibitions in our chief cities of what are termed " New School" and u Western" paintings, executed by our own artists. Before I came to England, I was interested myself in this adoption of Western ideas, but I was dissatisfied with basing my judgments upon reproductions. I desired to see the originals, to bring my own mind within reach of the creator's thought, to be able to analyse his processes and regulations. Only then could I seize the true value of the works. If one were to spend a week studying a reproduction of Constable's " Cornfield,55 how could one hope even then to understand it if one had never seen an English farm or an English elm tree ? The smallest object, the most insignificant human action, is characteristic of the country which fostered it. I made up my mind at that time to go abroad and observe them for myself. It is true that Chinese painting has been known in the West for a number of years, and that nearly every large museum or private collection contains some examples of Chinese art. At one time and another critical works have been written on the subject of Chinese painting. But to my mind, Western people have seldom tried to learn the true background

INTRODUCTION

3

of these pictures, and very rarely attempted to master their technique. Discriminating appreciators are correspondingly few. Perhaps your love of our forms and scenes in paint can never be as great as our own: our customs, our taste, our psychology, our whole life are very different, and it is just these elements which are the most formidable barriers to understanding. In this Introduction I cannot hope to show the whole Chinese mind in its relation to art, but I can erect a few signposts. When I first came to England, I was given the impression from books, newspapers, and conversation, that there were a great number of artists in the country. I was a little surprised at first, but later I learned that designers of posters and interior decorations were all known as artists. In Europe there are, of course, two ways of interpreting the word 66 artist " or " painter," but in China we do not allow the risk of confusion. Poster-painters and designers have their own skill and an individual technique, but their purpose is commercial; their concern is with earning a livelihood. They will readily sacrifice their personal taste to that of the public; they are, indeed, a type of public servant. Our name for this " painter " is " artisan " or " craftsman". Our " artists" are in possession of an absolute idea; unmoved by circumstances or

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the fashions of the times, they feed their work from a living stream of independent thought. No outside force can prevail upon them to alter a style based upon inner conviction. Chinese artists are not merely painters of pictures; they must be well-trained, fine personalities, thoughtful and imaginative, sensitive to the poetry of life. From the very beginning painting has never been a profession: the practisers of it have even been ashamed to sell their works for money. It has been their constant ambition to live a little above the mortal, to forget the body's needs, pouring out all their thought into creation, and finding their comfort in spiritual things. Public opinion has long supported this idea; the conventional European picture of the ragged artist starving in his garret is a thing unknown in China: the State and the wealthy citizens have had a proper reverence for their intrinsic value to society. Many of our most famous artists have held good official positions, while those whose minds were not attuned to the cares of government were nevertheless so respected for their character and culture that they seldom lacked generous patronage. Indeed, those who scorned the fruits of public service held the highest position of all in the minds of their fellow-countrymen. Painting in China was ever a Profession but a Life.

INTRODUCTION

5

I have only been in England about two years, and cannot claim at all to have learnt the ways of Western life, but from my limited observation I feel that there are not a few attitudes towards things upon which we differ. If I bring forward a few concrete examples, drawn from the simple events of our life, you may possibly be able to appreciate our point of view towards our own paintings better than through some theoretical dissertation. I have only just learned the correct time for taking tea in England; and I understand that one should add milk and sugar and eat some cakes with it as well. But our habit is not so: we have no regular time for tea; we drink it when we like, and not merely for refreshment: it is a form of sociability, a unifying element whenever friends may meet. Nor do we need any milk or sugar to flavour it; we think the natural flavour and scent of the leaves should reach our palate in their original purity, and so we sip it appreciatively, little by little instead of cup by cup. This habit of ours is not without its application in the world of art. We feel that a painting need call for no elaborate technique; it should speak simply from the power of its basic inspiration. That partly explains the Chinese preference for plain ink; we use few colours to help out the effect, just as we add no milk

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or sugar to improve the tea's flavour. If we are drawing a single flower or bird, we often leave a blank background; as I said, we take no cakes with our tea ! Nowadays, there are some of us who have learned indeed to take all these etceteras. I might add that I believe those Western people who drink black coffee can certainly appreciate our paintings—far more if they drink black coffee without sugar ! Like most people, we are fond of drinking wine; no artist or literary man can be without it, and we are more ready to appraise than censure a poet for toping. But we have no specified occasions for this indulgence; if we want to drink we take no note of anything, more especially time. Our glasses, too, are smaller than egg-cups, and like the tea, we sip it up slowly, gradually, taste by taste; not heartily as you gulp down beer. This is how we eye our paintings: convinced that a hasty glance can only bring a superficial satisfaction, we look at them at leisure with thought and open heart, until slowly the inner significance sinks into our minds and the imagination is fed to the full. Once when I was boating on the Thames, oblivious of everything but the gentle sound of the water as it splashed against the sides, I began to hear in the distance some Scottish bagpipes. Suddenly I realised where I was !

INTRODUCTION

7

In our Chinese taste we love to listen to a very soft, clear note from a lute, blown on the wind. We often play on the guitar or seven-stringed lute, sitting in the seclusion of a bamboo or pine-grove. That kind of quietism is really our paradise, and you will find its atmosphere over and over again in our paintings, in contrast with the scenes of dramatic movement which are the special achievements of European art. Our poets and painters, you will find, are very preoccupied with the moon in their creations. In their own lives they are also moon-lovers: often they will bring wine-pot and lute and sit solitary beside a pine to enjoy the moon on a quiet night. I have seldom met this taste in the West; perhaps because of the weather or because the moon in this part of the world shines for so short a time at night ! Snow also is beloved of our people, and you may often find a snowy landscape-painting, or a snow scene in poetry. I have not seen much snow during my two years of London life, but I have gathered from newspapers and films that Westerners too feel a friendship for it, though they have a different way of recording this. They go out in skiving parties; the children have snowball-fights; everyone laughs and shouts with pleasure at the sport it makes ! But we have a story about a poet called Meng

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Hao-Jan, who went out in the snow riding on a donkey and looking for plum-flowers. We also have a well-known phrase: " To walk slowly over the snow looking for poetic inspiration." I have a friend who lived beside a Swiss lake for three years. He wrote to me last winter about a day of heavy snowfall. It was beautiful, he said, to look over the endless white expanse—what we call " the Silver World." Most people preferred to huddle over their own fires indoors, but he could not repress his Eastern instinct. He went out towards the lake, walking very slowly here and there as his fancy pleased, gazing on all sides as far as his eye could reach, taking inexpressible joy in the scene. He told me that he felt human society was the ugliest thing in the world at that time. Human affairs seemed honest enough on the surface, yet in fact they concealed dark blots of cheating, pretence, and conflict. The only pure thing apparently was this huge snowdrift covering all the world; it might symbolise the original condition of man's thought. For this reason we should enjoy it; nowhere else could we find anything so pure and white. So he moralised in his letter to me. From this story you can see how our enjoyment of snow comes from a slightly different angle from yours. If you can understand the

INTRODUCTION

9

feeling of our great masters' snow pictures, then you will know how our people rejoice in it. We love Nature; we consider human beings as but one small part of all created things. We feel that the original good and simple character of man has been gradually lost in the progress of civilisation, and so we shift our affection toward other parts of the universe. Especially we love animals, birds, fish and flowers, and you find these more frequently than the human form as subjects of Chinese paintings. We love birds particularly; sometimes in China you will see a man carrying a cage, or with a bird perched on his shoulder, taking his pet for an airing, just as you take your dogs for a run. We take them for a slow stroll in the forest, we put them in a cage and hang it in the trees to let them sing with their companions of the forest, and answer them. We sit down and listen to their singing. We cannot pretend to run as fast as dogs, and so we find birds more companionable. As I have tried to show, we love natural truth; our philosophers have become convinced that human desire has grown monstrous; man in his eagerness to grasp it gives birth to much unnatural and untruthful behaviour. Man, we think, is no higher in the scale of things than any other kind of matter that comes into being; rather, he has tended to falsify his

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original nature, and for that reason we prefer those things that live by instinct or natural compulsion; they are at least true to the purpose for which they were created. We paint figures occasionally, but not so much as you do in the West. As for nude paintings, they are unknown in China. It is a matter of traditional thought: you in the West have sublimated the beauty of the human form, and have made it the basis of composition and draughtsmanship. But we hold the view that the human capacity for calculated action and behaviour has led to all kinds of evil conduct. The human body grows corrupt from the crooked thoughts it harbours, and so we do not care to paint it. There was one stage in the history of our art when figure-painting was popular enough for a time. The main object of these works of art seems to have been a display of prosperous and gorgeous-looking costumes and drapery. They had the effect of enticing people into extravagant modes of life, and of making the poor more aware of their privations. This fashion, however, was out of keeping with our traditional thought: our great thinkers have ever tried to train the people to rely upon spiritual comforts. We can enjoy natural scenery everywhere and at all times; we need not spend so much as a farthing on get-

LAO TZU RIDING ON AN OX

Chao ?u-Chih (Sung)

INTRODUCTION

II

ting a quiet, satisfied mood. Nor need we trouble to adorn our bodies with unnatural beautifiers to please the painter's eye; he can bring loveliness out of his imagination if he chooses ! Our idea of artistic beauty, however, lies more often in that which is natural and which has personality, than in the perfection of proportion, build and colouring, which was the Greek ideal. We have a saying that sounds somewhat paradoxical,—that a lady looks most beautiful when she is plainest—that is, when she is her simple, unaided, natural self. There was also a painter called " Old Lotus " Ch'en, afigure-painter,who lengthened the heads and shortened the bodies of his figures to an exaggerated degree. Many onlookers made such remarks as, " Not like a person" or "Hopelessly disproportionate!" but among our art critics his reputation is very high indeed; a fact which gives some indication of our taste in this branch of art. I remember once going to a flower show in England with a lady. The ticket was given me by someone who specially recommended the display of orchids. When I arrived, the place was so crowded that we could hardly obtain entrance. My first impression of the exhibits was of their brilliant colouring; puce, sharp green and bright yellow. Everywhere people were making exclamations of delight

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and astonishment: " Lovely !" " Gorgeous !" " Marvellous !" and so on. My head began to ache. Eventually we found the orchid tent, and what was my surprise to find that even these orchids had the same kind of colourings as the flowers we had just seen, only slightly less vivid ! Now, our Chinese orchids are quite different; immediately I realised how difficult it must be for Westerners to appreciate our paintings when even flowers of the same name were so different in appearance. We love orchids for their delicate pale yellowgreen colour, and faint elusive perfume. Their leaves are long and slender, very well suited to Chinese brush-work, so near as it is to calligraphy. I suppose it must be equally true that all the birds, trees and fishes we paint have unfamiliar forms to Westerners. Here is another point of difference to overcome. I have not seen many mountains in London to be sure, but I have often heard stories about the sea. All the trees which I have seen in the parks are well-planted and regular in shape, carefully trimmed and tended. Our typical scenery in China is mountainous and rocky; the sea coast attracts our imagination very little. Our trees, even in our own gardens, are left to twist themselves into any fanciful shape that pleases Nature; irregularity of planting and growth are accounted a beauty rather than

INTRODUCTION

13

otherwise. We often construct rocky piles to represent miniature mountains in these gardens of ours. The winter-plum and bamboo do not grow in Europe, yet they are among the most frequent subjects of Chinese painting. It cannot be easy for you to picture all these things, formations and products of the earth so unfamiliar to your eyes and imagination. Our love of Nature is based upon a desire to identify our minds with her and to enjoy her as she is. But the West tries to imitate, to control, and to master her. For example, you have learned to make artificial flowers whose unreality can hardly be detected—this is what I call your imitation of Nature; you have invented methods for keeping harsh wind and rain from harming trees and flowers—what I call your control of Nature; you can force flowers to bloom out of season—your mastery of Nature. Your careful nurturing of hothouse blooms must contrast with our appreciation of withering leaves—dying plants. Our poets and painters take a melancholy delight in faded glories and dying memories of the past, and so they often paint or describe the lotus after the time of its splendour, for the sake of its associations with these things. It is a temper of mind peculiar to the East, not in keeping with the Western mentality, charged as that is with adventurous aspirations. We can

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contemplate calmly the natural process of all things towards eclipse; we enjoy the twilight as much as the sparkling light of midday, but you prefer to look upon the most splendid blossoms that man's skill can rear, when they are at the zenith of their beauty, believing, I take it, that even on earth one may have glimpses of perfection. All these examples I have drawn are intended to indicate the differing environments of Eastern and Western art. None of my observations have been passed in any spirit of carping superiority, but since my book is upon " Chinese Painting " and not " World Painting," I have been obliged to take my stand upon Chinese ground, and to pass over such elements of Western life and thought as have no parallel in the East. It is my ambition, not that you should weigh one art or one life against another, for in such things there can be no scale of assessment, but that you should have some data for understanding and appreciating Chinese painting in both its triumphs and its shortcomings. Of course there are technical considerations, over and above the differences in mental outlook which I have tried to indicate in this chapter. In the course of the book I hope to make all these clear, and to give you a critical basis of appreciation by which you may applaud or condemn.

CHAPTER

II

HISTORICAL SKETCH

I INTEND to give only a brief outline of the history of Chinese painting, to provide the reader with a little solidity of background, against which I may throw, as on a screen, the ideas of the following chapters. I shall mention few names, being of the opinion that a name without a " life " attached is not only bewildering but pointless. Whenever an artist has inaugurated some new movement or style which has had an important bearing upon the subsequent development of our painting I have introduced him by name, and occasionally spoken of one or two distinguished followers, in order that the reader may be aware of their period and significance when he comes across them in other parts of the book. It is my purpose to clarify the flow of ideas and inner meanings, rather than to maintain historical sequence. PRIMITIVE TIMES Any enquiry into the nature of an art must have some dealings with its origins. The exact condition of the primitive stage, however, will be largely hypothetical,—all the more so in the case of a country like China, which has so 15

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ancient a civilisation, and where records of the earliest times are naturally rare. We shall have to make a beginning from our written characters, for we suppose these to be our earliest form of picture, and even their present form has not entirely lost the pictorial quality. Primitive man could use his brain a little, differing thus from animals: the ancient Chinese invented a method of knotting strings as a means of remembering actions past or to come. A little later, but still in the mists of a very distant past, a certain Emperor known as Fu Hsi (about the 28th cent. B.C.) drew up a system of linear combinations to represent all the observed phenomena of heaven and earth. It was originally derived from two signs corresponding to the positive and negative principles of the universe, " Yang " and "Yin" as they are called in Chinese. Yang

Yin

From these two signs he eventually evolved eight different groups of lines, representing Heaven, Earth, Wind, Thunder, Water, Fire, Mountains and Rivers. It is interesting to note that though rain, hail, and snow are all included in water, river is separated from it, and mountain separated from earth. Mountains and rivers hold a high place in our hearts.

HISTORICAL

SKETCH

IJ

Under the eight headings shown below Fu Hsi proceeded to classify the other objects of creation.

Heaven

Earth

Water

Fire

River

Mountain

Wind

Thunder

Pa-Kua

For instance, the first sign represented heaven, emperor, father, gold, head, horse, and so on, and the second sign represented earth, mother, cloth, breast, cow and so on. The items under each head will be seen to have some quality in common: those in the first list share an element of strength and hardness ; those in the second, weakness and softness. Thus these eight line combinations (in Chinese Pa-Kua) were the origin of the characters and the seed from which painting sprang. At the time of the Yellow Emperor (26972596 B.C.) there was an Imperial Recorder by name Tsang Ch'ieh. This Recorder devised a kind of tally system to simplify agreements between certain parties. On his sticks he engraved a very primitive image of some natural

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object; a development of the knotted strings, and a decided movement towards a distinct art. Picture-writing evolved in China from this point: on a few archaeological remains Elephant

#&, j^oW f »

Deer

Tiger

Dog

Fish

Boat

f A.

# ft jf % fc * ff

*n- J ft*,

f

W

4 A ^ I ? ^

1

*

5

a fish. People began to collect them as they would valuable pictures; quartz and jade were called into use to make pieces more exquisite still. The ink-stones of the Emperor Ch'ien Lung of this dynasty have never been surpassed for elegance, taste, and splendour of workmanship. Collectors love this " Treasure " from different points of view,—some for the colour of the stone itself, some for its design, some for the interest of the inscriptions; others will treat the stones as antiques and value them archaeologically, while there are many more who will take a practical pleasure in them and appreciate those which grind their ink the best. A man should care for his ink-stone as an object capable of feeling and response; he should wash it clean from day to day after use, for stale ink has no true colour. Sometimes, however, we need to paint with stale ink, to get some effect unattainable with freshly-made liquid, but in this event one should add water continually to keep the ink from drying on the stone and staining the surface. In very cold weather we put away our best ink-stones, for they are brittle and sensitive, liable to break if the atmosphere is frosty. From the artist's own point of view, it is best always to make fresh ink, immediately before use; if it is left on the stone, especially during

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our hot Chinese spring and summer, the gum will be affected, and the ink flow harshly and unevenly over the paper. 4. Paper.—The characteristic Chinese paper is coarse in weave and more porous than that with which you are familiar in the West; specially suited to our manner of handling the brush,— rapid and lively, with balanced alternation of light and dark strokes. The composition of any Chinese Character will illustrate my meaning. But before the modern type of paper came into use, many and strange varieties of material were drawn into the artist's service. A kind of silk appears to have preceded any sort of paper, and then a bamboo tablet. Eventually, under the Han, in the reign of the Emperor Ho, an official of high rank, Ts'ai Lun, made a paper of treebark and hemp. His invention brought him within sight of posterity, for it received the name of " The Duke of Ts'ai's Paper ", and was immediately popular in the place of older materials. Rapidly other variations sprang up; there were already a red paper, a yellowish paper and a hemp paper before the dynasty came to a close. In Chin days the imaginations and inventiveness of paper manufacturers were unbounded; Chang Hua made one variety from water fungus; a second gentleman made a yellow coloured paper like fish-eggs, another like silk-

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INSTRUMENTS

207

worms, and yet another produced a kind known as " cloth-paper " from the cloth-like appearance of its surface. In the " Six Dynasties " period, the Emperor Kao of Ch'i appointed a special " Paper Official" to superintend paper manufacture. At this time it often had a shining, glazed surface. Under the T'ang, paper makers had to keep pace with the enormous output and variety of art; some sheets were as much as six feet in length, and three or four feet wide. The more ordinary kinds were the " Black Hemp" and "White Hemp 5 ', but there were others of poetic name and dreamlike substance. " Blue-Cloud " paper had a colour like a blue sky in mist, while the " White-Jade " had a surface as elegantly smooth as its name denotes. Some of the poets invented their own varieties and perpetuated them under their own names. The famous lady poet, Hsieh T'ao, was one of these. During the " Five Dynasties" period the Emperor Li Hou-Chu of the Southern T'ang Household commanded a special paper to be produced for the use of great writers and painters only. It was yellowish like the older " fish egg " variety, but as strong and purecoloured as if it were a sheet of jade, very thin and exquisitely smooth. It had the name of " Purify Heart Hall" paper, after the Hall of the

2O8

THE

CHINESE

EYE

Palace where the literary men used to congregate. It was admired and wondered at by all: the people of Sung treasured it up like a precious thing. The Sung emperors also superintended the making of a special paper; it was longer than ever,—about twenty by ten feet, rather thick and strong, with a good painting surface. At the same time there were some more delicately designed makes with a shining surface, woven rather like cloth material, and with a faint tracing of flower, tree, insect or fish upon them. In Fukien province they would wash the paper in a solution of gum and then press it, to make a fine, close texture. In Hopeh they used the bark of the mulberry tree, and in the Southern reaches of the Yangtze, where bamboo grows plentifully, bamboo paper was manufactured in quantities. The painters Su Tung P'o and Mi Fei admired this kind particularly. A little later, in the Yuan dynasty, they made a very lovely paper in Kiangsi which was named " Goddess of Mercy.55 In Ming they had yet another variety—" Weaver-of-bamboo-blind 55 paper. By the Ch5ing times men were familiar with every possible material for paper-making, and it only remained to perfect the processes. The materials chosen in the different districts were really dependent upon the provisions of Nature:

WIL D GEES E

Pien Shou-Min g (Ch'ing )

-

x •—
J 94> i9 8 » 226 Chou Li-Yuan, 200 Chao, 194, 195 Chiian-sheng, 148, 189 Chao Meng-Fu, 52, 130, 172 Chuang-Tzu, 31, 63, 77, 78, Chao Po-Chu, 156 Chao Pu-Chih, 138 79> J39 Chekiang, 209, 230 Chu-Ko, 195 Chu-Yung, 230 Ch'en, 29 Cloudy-Terrace Mountain, Ch'en Chung-Ch'un, 127 Ch'en Hsien, 60 3 J > 97 Confucius, 19, 47, 56, 63, 66, Ch'en Man-Sheng, 199 Ch'en Tao-Fu, 179 67,7>'71,73>136>I37>149> Cheng Chan, 43 185, i93> J 94> 2°* Cheng Ch'i-Pei, 126 Dry firewood, 150 Cheng Kwan-Wen, 195 Ch'i, 29, 32, 207 Emperor Chieh, 216 Ch'i Pei-Shih, 60 Emperor Ch'ou, 216 Chia-Lin River, 38 Emperor Ho, 206 Chia Ping-Chen, 57 Chien Lung, 57, 127, 133, Emperor Kao of Ch'i, 207 Emperor Shun, 19, 20, 63, i55> i99> 200 > 205,229 209, 216 Chien Shun-Chu, 172 Emperor Tang, 21 Ch'ih Yu, 19 Ch'in, 23, 24, 25, 27, 151, Emperor Yang, 35 Emperor Yao, 19, 63, 69, 70, Ch'in Shih-Huang-Ti, 23, 26 209,216 ANHUI, 195, 20 1, 204 Axe-cut , 46, 154

232

INDEX I Fan Kuan, 156, 157 Fan Tao-Sheng, 60 Fei Hsiao-Lu, 121 Fei-Pei, 52 Folded-belt, 154 Former Han, 25, 219 Fu-Chun Mountain, 127 Fu Feng, 199 Fu Hsi, 16, 134, 137 Fukien, 220 Fung-Hwa, 230 Hall of Unicorn, 26 Han, 24, 25, 29, 36, 49, 66, 68, 136, 137, 194, 198, 199, 202, 206, 210, 213, 216, 225, 226 Han Hsien-Ti, 26 Han Kan, 41, 130, 172 Han-Ku Pass, 138 HanW6n-Ti,26 Han Wu-Ti, 26 Hemp-fibre, 154 Hopeh, 208 Hsia, 18, 20, 21 Hsia Kuei, 46,49,57,156, 160 Hsiao Ghao, 166 Hsiao -Tzu-Yun, 195 Hsieh-Chen, 148 Hsieh Ho, 32, 33, 84, 105, 176, 186, 189 Hsieh-Sheng, 189 Hsieh T'ao, 207 Hsien-Ch'eng, 195 Hsien Tsung, 53 Hsing-You, 126 Hsuan Tsung, 37, 38, 39, 144, 172, 203 Hsu Hsi, 43 Hsu Tsung-Ssu, 43, 166 Huang Ghien, 43, 166 Huang-Fu Tang, 106 Huang Hsiao-Sung, 199

233

Huang Kung-Wan, 51, 127 Huang Shang-Ku, 107, 144, 195 Hu Kai-Wen, 201 Hui Tsung, 44, 89, 155, 225 Hung Wu, 53 Hupeh, 127, 204 Hwa-Chan Hall, 127 I-Che*, 150 I-Jan, 55 Infinite Happiness 204 Iron-string, 150 I-Yun, 21

Palace,

Ju P£on, 60 Kan-Hsi, 229 Kansu, 26 Kao Fan-Shan, 223 Kao K'e-Kung, 51 Kao Tso, 25 Kao Tsung, 21 Kao-Yuan, 164 Kiangsu, 209, 230 Ko Shou, 19 Kuan Tung, 43, 159 Kuan-Wu, 227 Ku Kai-Chih, 30, 31, 43, 97, H5> I5i Kukiang, 199 Kung Ch'ang-Lin, 98 Kung Hsien, 184 Kuo Hsi, 187 Kuo You-Chih, 130 Ku Yun-Gheng, 145, 147 Kwantung, 203, 220 Lao Tzu, 25, 30, 31, 37, 63, 73, 75, 76, 78, 136, 138, 139, J49

234

THE

CHINESE

Later Han, 25, 26, 227 Li Ghao-Tao, 156 Li Cheng, 156 Li Hou-Chu, 207 Li Lin, 49 Li Mei-An, 60, 128 Li Po, 78, 95, 107, 122, 143, 203 Li Shao-Wei, 204 Li Ssu-shun, 38,39, 153, 154, 156 Li T'ang, 143 Li Ting-Kuei, 199 Lin Liang, 54 Ling-Kuan Palace, 216 Liu Hai-Su, 60, 128 Liu Kung-Chuan, 195, 203 Liu Sung-Lien, 90, 156 Liu Tang-Wei, 171 Liu Yin, 189 Liu Yu, 28 Lotus-Veins, 154 Lu, 216 Lu Shan, 199 Lung M£ng, 33 Mao Jen-Shou, 26 Mao Ta-K'o, 123 Ma Yuan, 46, 49, 57, 149, 156, 160 Mencius, 63, 67, 70 Meng Hao-Jan, 7, 95, 144 Meng T'ien, 193 Mi-dots, 154 Mi Fei, 113, 156, 157, 208, 223 Ming, 52, 53, 54, 55, 145, 223, 224, 226 Ming-Shen Lake, 223 Ming-Ti, 27, 28 Mo Ku, 43 Mo Tzu, 65 Mr. Pi, 210

EYE

Nailhead-and-mousetail, 150 Ni Tsan, 51 Ni Yun-Lin, 51 " Old Lotus " Ch'en, 11, 128, H7 Orchid leaves, 150 Ou-Yang Hsio, 106 Ou-YangTung, 195 Pa-Kua, 16, 137 Pa-Ta Shan-Jen, 58, 59, 60, 157, 162 Peng Yii-Ling, 215 Pien Luan, 41, 166 Pien Shou-Ming, 120 P'ing-Yuan, 164 Po Chu-Yi, 102 San-T'ai Cave, 214 Shan, 18, 21 Shan-Shui, 134, 135 Shangtung, 203, 214, 216 Sheng Shih-Tien, 224 Sheng T'ou, 19 Sheng-T'ou Pan, 219 Shen Nan-Fin, 60, 168 Shen Tzu-shao, 54 Shen-Yuan, 164 Shih Tao, 58, 59, 60, 157, 162 Shuang-Kou, 43 Shu Yu, 70 "Sleeping-Dragon" Li, 45, 142, 172 Soochow, 127 Southern T'ang, 42, 207 Ssu-Ch'uan, 195, 204, 209 Sui, 34, 35, 36, 72, 217, 229 Sung, 43, 46, 48, 49, 50, 56, 91, 112, 113, 142, 166, 208, 210, 2l8, 221, 225,

Sung Nien, 130

229

INDEX I

Su Tung-P'o, 45, 92, 95, 103, 108, 112, 123, 144, 195, 208, 215, 229 Su Tzu-Yu, 45 Ta-Li-Fu, 230 Tai Tsung, 37 Tai Wen-Ching, 53 Tang P£ng, 231 Tang, 31, 36, 37, 41, 42, 46, 49>55> 56, 87, 91, 93, 112, 122,142,166, 195,203,210, 214, 217, 2l8,

225, 227

220,

221,

Tang Tien-Chih, 231 Tao-Te-Ching, 63, 75, 78, 139 Ta Peng, 60 The Two-Mysterious-Terrace, 35 Tiao Kuang-Yin, 41, 166 Tien-Chi, 126 Tien-Tsan Mountain, 230 TiPing-Tzu, 128, 147 Tsai Lun, 206 Tsai Yin, 27 Tsai Yung, 28, 210 Tsang Ch'ieh, 17 Tsao Fu, 70 Tsao Pu-Hsin, 30, 130 Tsao Ts'ao, 203 Tseng Sun, 94 Tsung Ping, 32, 74, 153 Tuan-Hsi, 203 TuFu, 93, 177 Tun-Huang, 210, 217, 221 Tung Ch'i-Ghang, 126, 127, 155, 160, 161 Tung Pei-Yuan, 156, 158, 159 Wang Ghien, 56 WangChu-T'o, 127

235

Wang Hsi-Chih, 225 Wang Shih-Ku, 56, 168 Wang Shih-Ming, 56 Wang Wei, 39, 47, 79, 81, 84, 141, 183 Wang Yuan-Chi, 56 Warring Kingdoms, 22, 24, 65, 198 Wei, 29, 36, 68, 203, 214 Wei Chen, 128 Wei Hsieh, 30 Wen Chen-Ming, 161 Wen-Jen-Hua, 40, 50 Western Queen Mother, 139, 146 Western Shu, 42 Willow-leaves, 150 Wo-Fan-Kung, 23 Wu, 30, 42 Wu Chang-Shih, 60 Wu Chi-Chih, 201 Wu Ghun-Chieh, 127 Wu Chung-Kuei, 223 Wu-Liang Temple, 214 WuTao-Tzu,38,39, 141,153, 159, 210,214,218 Yang, 16 Yang Chow, 35 Yang Chung-Mu, 127 Yang Kuei-Fei, 145 Yang Lien-Chung, 127 Yang Tzu, 65 Yeh Ch'ing-Ch'en, 196 Yellow Emperor, 16, 19, 20, 209, 218 Yen Li-Pen, 37, 141 Yen Li-T£, 37, 141 Yen Tung-K£, 182 Yi Chang-Wu, 122, 123 Yin, 16 Yuan, 49, 51, 56, 107, 172, 208, 210, 223

236

THE

Yuan Chi, 60 Yuan Ti, 26 Yuan Wei-Chih, 229 Yuan Yuan, 231 Yueh, 42 Yu Li, 19 Yun-Kan, 33

CHINESE

EYE

Yun-Nan, 230, 231 Yun Nan-Tien, 167, 168 Yii the great, 21 Zen (Chan), 39, 47, 79, 81, 84, 141

INDEX II ACADEMY, the, 44, 50, 54, 226

album paintings, 223-225 " Alice in Wonderland", 53, 222

"Analects", 67, 71, 72, *37 animal painting, 41, 50, 134, 142, I7i-i73 5 217, 227 animals, 9, 105 architecture, Chinese, 24, 35, 103 art dealers, 131, 211 Aioka, King, 27 bamboo painting, 37, 41, 42, 52, 113, 114, 118-119, 169, 192,215, 223 banners, 22, 26, 30, 193, 198, 220-221 Bayeux tapestry, 228 bird painting, 41, 43, 44, 47, 50, 75> 76> 84, 104, 115, 118, 134, 165-166, 181-182, 189, 210, 217, 218, 226, 227 birds, 9, 85, 105, 106, 107, 117-118, 165 Botticelli, 179 bronzes, 19, 20, 21 brush, Chinese, 57, 114, 158, 181, 192-197, 198, 202, 206, 209, 212, 230

brush-work, 30, 37, 46, 88, no, 124, 135, 150, 153, i54ff, 176-178, 219

Buddhism, 26-29, 30, 37, 39, 47, 61, 65, 72, 73, 79-86, 217, 220-221 Buddhist art, 27-28, 30, 33-34, 37, 38, i38, i4°-J42, '73, 214 calligraphy, 35, 37, 49, 52, 88, 109-112, 127, 129, 131, 176, 194-196, 199, 204, 209, 210, 225 caricature, 123, 183 Cezanne, 161, 179, 180, 181 characters, Chinese, 16-19, 88, 112, 183, 194 Classics, Chinese, 45, 81, 137, 181 Colour, 88, 101-103 Composition, 46, no, 124, 160, 189-191 Confucianism, 19, 47, 63-72, 79, 83, 85, 86, 135 connoisseur, 57, 109 Constable, 2 " co-operated " painting, 45 costumes, 137, 143 "dotting", 158, 159 dragon, 132, 133, 137, 146, 173, 216 dyes, Chinese, 19, 20, 198 Elizabethan age, 99, 142 embroidery, 227-229 engravings, 18, 121, 136, 192, 204

237

238

THE

CHINESE

fans, 224, 225-226 figure painting, 10-11, 34,37, 50,68,84,91, 100, 115-117, 128, 134, 136-151, 189,216, 227 fire painting, 231 fish, 9, 173 fish painting, 85, 173-174 " five pure things ", 167-168 flower painting, 41, 43, 44, 75, 76, 84, 104, 106, 118, 120, 134, 165-169, 189,210, 216, 217, 218, 223, 226 flowers, 9, 11-14, 34, 47, 85, 100, 105-107, 115, 117-118, 163, 165 folk-ballads, 69, 73, 91 Form, 48, 50, 84, 88, 99, 100101, 176 " four gentlemen " paintings, 47, 223 French Impressionists, 59, 159, l8 2 fresco, 30, 43, 140, 193, 214, 2I6-2I9, 221, 227

Fry, Roger, 179

Gaugin, 179, 180 hermits, 32, 70 Hogarth, 68 Holbein, 149 horse painting, 41, 77, 90, 130, 171-172 imitation of Old Masters, 36, 42,51,56, 124, 154 India, 24, 26-28, 30, 34, 36, 48, 65, 79, 218 ink, Chinese, 5, 57, 114, 132, 155, 192, 193, 197-201, 202,

205-206, 230

ink rubbings, 215-216

EYE

ink-stone, 193, 198, 201-206, 212 inscriptions, logff, 140, 147, 169, 203, 205, 218, 225 insect painting, 41, 50, 76, 77, 85, i?i» 218, Italian paintings, 57, 179 Japan, 48, 49, 55, 60, 61 Korea, 48, 49 lacquer painting, 219-220, 227 ladies, paintings of, 26, 91, 99-103, 121, 122, 144-146, 227 landscape painting, 30-31, 34,38,40,43,44,46,50-51, 74, 84, 88, 91-99, i n , 115, 134, J35, J36, 142, H8, 151-165, 197, 209, 216, 218, 220, 227 " Lantern Festival ", 147 Lear, Edward, 185 Lilliput, 94 Line, 175-176, 178-180, 191 Literature, Chinese, 36, 41, 44, 86ff, 113, 134 Marquez, 179 Matisse, 58, 59, 179-180 Middle ages, 112, 217 Mongolia, 142 Mongols, 49-50 moon, 7, 38, 100, 107-108, in, 163 mountains, 39, 46, 59, 74, 75, 79, 84, 88, 89, 92, 96, 104, 105, 134, J 35,'52,153, '58, 159, l63> l64» l85> l89, '99, 215, 231 music, Chinese, 7, 19, 87, 227

INDEX National Museum, 220 natural stone painting, 229231 Nature, attitude to, 9, 13, 72, 73, 74, 77-79, 85, 91, 9699, 105-108, 115, 164, 167, 180, 182, 187, 191, 218 Northern School of landscape, 38, 46, 48, 49, 154, 156, 160 novels, 117

II

239 religious painting, 27, 30-31, 43,44, 214 " rhythmic vitality ", 41, 51, 84, 105, 108, 155, 176, 186-189, 191, 223, 228 ritual, 20, 22, 29, 62, 66, 136 rock shrines, 33, 220

Sakyamuni, 27, 70, 80, 138 scholar-painters, 28, 40, 47, 50

screen painting, 226-227 paper, Chinese, no, 155, 193, scrolls, no, 112, 218, 221-223, 224, 226, 229 2O6-2II, 221, 225 " pastime painting ", 47, 50, sculpture, Chinese, 33, 214 seals, 128, 132-133 56 Shakespeare, 64, 189, 106 Persia, 24, 48 perspective, Chinese, 93-98, silk, Chinese, no, 158, 193, 206, 209-211, 218, 221, 225, 101, 152, 222 225, 226, 228 philosophy, Chinese, 9, 22-23, 62ff, 92, 113, 115, 117, simplification of Form, 182185, 191 134, 167 " six principles of painting ", photography, i, 215 32,33 picture-writing, 17, 89, 176, snow, 7-9, 126-127, 157 183, 213 poet, the Chinese, 6, 9iff, social customs painting, 54, 137, 142, 143 109, in, 112, 116, 122-123, Southern School of landscape, 128, 143-144, 161, 190, 207 39, 48, 56, 87, 89, 98, poetry, Chinese, 6, 37, 44, 154-157, 159, 160 45, 74, 81, 85, Sgff, 109, in, 112, 113, 117, 123,126, Spenser, 140 127, I31, 132, 164, 165, still-life, 180 stone carving, 213-216 203, 229 streams, 39, 46, 84, 90, 134, porcelain painting, 229 164, 177,224, 231 portfolio paintings, 223-224 portraits, 19, 21, 26, 28, 32, symbolism, 100, 107, 118-119, 121, 144, 163, 167-169, 192 54,66,68,91, 136,140,14715°, 215 Taoism, 25, 30, 31, 32, 37, 63, pottery, 57 64, 72-79, 81, 84, 85, 86, Pre-Rafaelites, 211 217 Taoist art, 30, 31, 32, 34, 37, " quietism ", 7, 30, 56, 64 38,42, 138-140

240

THE

CHINESE

Tibet, 142 Touch, 124, 176, 187 tree painting, no, 163, 169170, 184, 189 trees, 12, 77, 213, 231, 232 Turkestan, 34, 142 Van Dongen, 179 Van Gogh, 179 varnish, Chinese, 193 verisimilitude, 114, 152

EYE

"wash", 179, Western art, 14, 46, 60, 85, 99, 109, 112, 113, 119, 156, 175, 180, 182, 186,217,229 wild geese, 120, 121, 124, 182 willow painting, 91, 92, 101, 110, 115, 169, 171, 180, 192 Wordsworth, 85 " wrinkles", 158, 201 Zoo, London, 173

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