Author: Qin Side

China's national history is a process of orderly evolution under the care of its own culture. The classics of the pre-Qin princes are the source of Chinese culture and aesthetic thought, and the development of Chinese painting is in the same vein as the pre-Qin aesthetics. Among the pre-Qin princes, the main influences on the Chinese painting tradition were Confucianism represented by Confucius and Mencius, Taoism represented by Lao Zhuang, and Buddhist scriptures and philosophies. "Zhou Yi", "Book of Songs", "Chu Ci" and so on are also imperceptibly integrated into it.

Confucius believed that the cultivation of individual personality can be divided into three stages: "to be happy in poetry, to stand in etiquette, and to be happy". "Flourishing in poetry" is the beginning of perceptual learning, and it is a kind of emotional release that stimulates personal emotions and the objective world; "Standing in courtesy" is a solemn, elegant, and lofty normative action, and it is a consensus standard for expressing the moral order in a specific form of etiquette; "Happiness in music" is the sublimation of the objective moral spirit in art. In Confucius's view, the purpose of art is to improve people's self-improvement, and the so-called "art for life's sake, not life for art's sake." He advocated that "it is always gorgeous", and proposed that "quality is better than literature, and literature is better than history". Polite, then gentlemanly. The spirit of the gentleman and the "scholar" of the Wei and Jin dynasties is the same standard.

Lao Zhuang advocates the beauty of nature, and "Tao" is the core of the origin of all things in the universe. Lao Tzu proposed "loud hope" and "elephant invisible". "Big sound" and "elephant" refer to the grand sound in the universe, the natural rhythm that shocks the universe, refers to the grand picture of the transformation of the universe, and is the dialectical movement between the universes. Lao Zhuang despises and denies man-made literature and art and advocates nature, Taoist aesthetics is the transcendence of artistic beauty, and it is also the objective practice of the core extension of Taoist philosophical thought. The concept of "respecting nature" is also drawn from this philosophical concept, which has had a profound impact on the development of Chinese landscape painting. Its spirit points to the cultural core, and among the literati and doctors composed of intellectuals and elites, the standards and consensus of the Jin Dynasty, the changes in the social environment and individual destiny, and the thinking of their own position and life value in this complex world from the framework of external teleology, this kind of thinking brings a deep sense of distress to intellectuals. This kind of gentleman's demeanor and integrity marks the establishment of the common personality ideal of Chinese intellectuals.

The interesting brushwork and poetic context are the core orientation of traditional literati painting, the basic characteristics of traditional Chinese painting art, and the fundamental quality of the inheritance and development of Chinese art. Since the Han Dynasty, there have been three categories of painters: folk painters, literati painters, and court painters. Painting, the "craft" of folk craftsmen, was brought to the upper echelons of bureaucracy and intellectuals very early. Throughout the history of Chinese painting, there is a characteristic that is different from the history of Western painting, that is, intellectuals participated in painting activities very early. It is precisely because intellectuals participated in painting activities at an early age that Chinese painting theory is particularly developed. If we count from Gu Kaizhi's painting theory, it is nearly a thousand years earlier than the European painting theory that was gradually formed during the Renaissance. There is no discussion of the organic combination of poetry and painting in the history of Western art, and the exquisite sculptures and paintings of Greece and Rome are also from the hands of craftsmen, which is the master-apprentice inheritance relationship of the workshop system. Early European painting only recorded empirical technical methods and lacked theory, and it was not until the Renaissance that a general history of painting theory was formed. The Italian painter Alberti (1435 years) wrote "On Painting", which advocated that art imitate nature, and specifically discussed perspective, color and composition. Tao Yuanming's idyllic poems and Xie Lingyun's landscape poems were also far earlier than the "lakeside poems" in Europe in the 19th century, and Chinese landscape paintings were also earlier than European landscape paintings. Western landscape painting is an enlarged still life, while Chinese landscape painting is a shrunken universe, creating a moving mountain, a moving water, and a moving universe. Western landscape painting is a kind of physical representation of vision, which is to copy nature; Chinese landscape painting is a form of life expression. Tasting Chinese landscape painting is actually a kind of walking and lying in the painting. The artistic conception of Tao Yuanming's idyllic poetry is the poetic context of a typical Chinese literati.

Literati painting is a prominent phenomenon in the history of Chinese painting. The participation of Chinese upper-class intellectuals in painting has created the inner depth and spiritual breadth of Chinese painting. The combination of poetry and painting is a blend of the same root and homogeneity in the traditional Chinese cultural genes. The integration of poetry and painting transcends the practical significance of painting itself, vertically improves the "craftsmanship" of craftsmen and the expression of painting connotation, makes the simple way of skill enter a complete cultural system, and changes the original status and value of painting. The connection between poetry and painting in Chinese painting is also clearly pointed out by Su Shi, who has "the poem of Vimalaya, there is a painting in the poem; Looking at the painting, there is poetry in the painting". Wang Wei is a poet and painter, and his idyllic poems and landscapes are known for their charm, and their internal connection is very close. Gao Juhan pointed out that "when poetic painting first appeared in China, it was more to be recognized and experienced. In particular, the circle of Su Yuan (Dongpo) can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty, when the poets were led by Du Fu and the painters were led by Wang Wei. "The Song Dynasty scholar literati painting advocating ink freehand all the way, began with Wang Wei, the style of poetic ink drama is also by Su Shi Mi Fu and others to the scholar literati painting high standard, so that since Gu Kaizhi there have been scholars and literati to participate in the tradition of painting to be greatly demonstrated. Su Shi's theories enabled the scholars and literati involved in painting to gain a superior psychological position, making them think that painting, especially poetic ink painting, had become a kind of elegance, and thus a way to finally vent their emotions in line with their cultural identity. The expression of the objective image in the language of ink and wash not only has the implication of supporting things and aspirations, but also is different from the style of professional painters, with graceful and elegant, bold and sloppy freehand feelings.

The freehand quality of Chinese painting originated from the expression of interest of Chinese literati, who used freehand painting as a means, did not seek to resemble the form, and advocated morale. However, excellent literati painting is still based on realism, advocating "depicting gods in form" and flaunting "morale". The so-called "morale" refers to the moral personality and cultural literacy of Chinese literati and doctors, as well as the national feelings of worrying about the country and the people. As for reading to cultivate qi, hearing more about the Tao to inspire the aura and traveling more to broaden the mind are the inevitable requirements of the character cultivation of traditional literati, and it is also the practice of Chinese cultural connotation. Cultivate the skill of appreciating the ancients, the insight of aesthetics, and the open-mindedness of the people; Imitate the ancient and comprehend nature, so as to cultivate the method of doing; The result of the enlightenment, swaying at will, coming easily, eclectic, no traces, and the flow of water is the soul of classical Chinese freehand painting. Therefore, art begins with realism and ends with expressiveness.

The center of Western classical aesthetics is the study of beauty, the pursuit of aesthetic and precise expression. In Chinese aesthetics, beauty is not the most important category, Chinese aesthetics has its own unique expression system. The expression is beautiful, and it advocates simplicity and simplicity, childishness and simplicity. The traction of philosophical thought on aesthetics has had a subtle influence. Culture and art are different from science in that they are not horizontal transcendence, but vertical infinite extension.

Every ethnic group has the maternal birthmark of its own cultural system and irreplaceable inheritance genes. Although traditional freehand painting is not the mainstream of today's college teaching system, it is the source and foundation of traditional skills and traditional aesthetics. How to integrate the expression of Chinese culture and poetic context into the expression of modern ink painting, and bring the national identity of the freehand spirit of Chinese painting into the diversified visual construction of the current world. In this way, the unique national attributes and aesthetic concepts of Chinese painting are still indispensable and important factors in the current context of ink painting.

(The author is a professor at Capital Normal University)

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Source: Guangming Net-Literature and Art Criticism Channel