Beijing

It is traditionally accepted to divide Chinese Landscape Painting into two main categories, namely, the Northern and Southern schools. Dong Yuan and three other artists of the late Tang and five dynasties period became the representatives of these major schools. Jing Hao and Guan Tong, also known as Jing-Guan, led the northern school while Dong Yuan and Ju Ran, also known as Dong-Ju, led the southern school. What are the exact criteria for this distinction between north and south has often been the topic of much debate. This distinction became especially bewildering after the great landscapist and theoretician of the Ming dynasty Dong Qichang classified different artists into these respective schools in a  somewhat bizarre and arbitrary manner.

However, in spite of the different opinions it seems like there are certain parameters according to which this classification is made, the most apparent one being the fact that the north and the south are geographically different, the north displaying dry and rocky landscapes with jagged, peaky and imposing mountains while the south is host to a more mild and lush terrain with rounded hills and abundance of water. This stark difference in terrain led different artists to develop different techniques to better express what they saw. Indeed sometimes the blurriness between the northern and southern schools is due to a difference in the artist’s temperament not necessarily a difference in the artist's geographical location.

The northern school frequently used a technique known as Fu Pi Cun, or “Ax Chopped strokes”, this technique is aggressive and forceful, leaving the surface of the paper or silk with grotesque marks. This technique adequately reflects the powerful and vigorous scenes of the north. The southern school preferred the so-called Pi Ma Cun, or “Hemp Fiber strokes” which were more suitable to depict the luxuriant vegetation and moist and gentle texture of the south.

Dong Yuan was a master of the southern Hemp Fibre technique, he combined it with another technique he was famous for called Dian Zi Cun, or “Dot technique”. The dot technique came to represented vegetation and helped to piece separate parts of the landscape into a whole. The southern school carried a more lyrical mood and to some extent more feminine than the monumental northern landscapes. The northern painters gave the viewer a grand perspective that could be captured at once, sometimes referred to as “full-view” landscape. The northern tendency to glorify the power and vastness of nature was opposed to the more subtle southern landscapes which usually brought the view closer to the audience to create a more intimate feeling.  

Dong Yuan applied dots of various sizes and shapes to depict the lush vegetation that surrounded him . In his famous The Xiao and Xiang Rivers, the very essence of the southern school style is brought forth, making this masterpiece an early representative of this style. “The Xiao and Xiang Rivers”, although belonging to the monochrome trend in Chinese landscape painting uses subtle colors on silk that measures 50.6x140.8 cm and is displayed at the Palace Museum in Beijing. This work can instantly evoke a tranquil and laid-back mood of a warm, hazy and calm afternoon. Glittering water, peaceful fisherman, smooth lush hills all combine to create a captivating image of an enjoyable afternoon in nature.  

Although Dong Yuan became to represent the subtleness of the the south and the monochrome style of landscape painting, he also painted in the early style known as Blue and Green Landscape Painting, done in the tradition of the famous Li Sixun. A representative work in this style is “A Temporary Respite Among Country People”.

Like Dong Yuan, Ju Ran was one of the forerunners in introducing and developing the different versions of the southern 'Hemp Fiber technique'. It is also worth mentioning that more than the 'Ax Chopped' strokes of the north the southern technique became the favorite of most painters of later generations, especially the literati school painters who dominated the landscape scene of the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties. Ju Ran's new approach introduces new possibilities and ways of using a Chinese brush, bringing it's potential to new heights. 

The great Landscapists of  the Five Dynasties period transformed landscape painting into a more mature and coherent form of art. They stressed the importance of pictorial continuity and tackled this problem by introducing new and more developed techniques that served as tools to give landscape painting a final touch that former generations lacked. The works of the Five Dynasties period have an organic, coherent and more consistent feeling that crated a spatial continuum that distinguished them as a more developed visual achievement. In a way these artists represent the last stage of development of landscape painting before its final stage of maturity during the Song Dynasty.                

   >Link Partners         >Contact Us      

- The World of Chinese Art (tm) -