Chinese society is often viewed in terms of the three main religions of China: Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, and although different in ideological influence, each has had a powerful effect on Chinese art. During the reign of the Han Dynasty from 206 BCE to 220 CE, Confucianism became the dominant political ideology. Confucianism has been viewed, however, as an ethical code rather than religion. Confucianism is the set of beliefs and practices that are based on the old Chinese religious texts, upon which the philosopher Confucius (who lived from 551 to 479 BCE) developed his model for social behavior to be observed in everyday life. Confucian teachings did not contradict with the spiritual world, deeply rooted in ancient Chinese culture, but rather held logical thought, propriety and the mutual duties of each individual within the social order in the highest esteem over superstition and the afterlife. Confucianism also placed great emphasis on filial piety, that is, obedience to an elder or respect towards the ancestors. As a result, the Chinese did not strive in their writing and painting for new forms of expression and, instead, turned to conventional forms and imitated previous examples.
It is necessary to mention that the majority of Chinese population was illiterate, and civil servants, not aristocracy, ruled the country. The only way to power was through education, which centered on the readings of Confucius, and the Confucian doctrine was rigorously followed and constantly reinforced by the government officials. The educational program greatly influenced developments in the arts, as the Confucian ideal was not a soldier but a scholar who indulged in poetry, calligraphy and painting. This concept of the scholar-artist or “literati” was highly cultivated during the Northern Song Dynasty from 960 to 1127 CE, and landscape became the prevalent genre in painting. “Landscape Painting in Chinese Art” by Department of Asian Art at the Metropolitan Museum in New York points out, “These men [literati] extolled the virtues of self-cultivation—often in response to political setbacks or career disappointments—and asserted their identity as literati through poetry, calligraphy and a new style of painting that employed calligraphic brushwork for self-expressive ends. The monochrome images of old trees, bamboo, rocks, and retirement retreats created by these scholar-artists became emblems of their character and spirit.”
The circle of the scholar-poet Su Shi was the first in formulating the literati ideas of painting as a way of conveying personal feelings rather than exact motifs, while deliberately avoiding the advanced techniques of professional masters. Short of artistic mastery, the literati paintings thus often appear to be spontaneous, naive, and weakly rendered, as the scholar-artists turned to and imitated the great examples of the past, especially when rendering distance and creating spatial illusion. Su Shi’a circle also initiated the tradition of synthesizing poetry, calligraphy and painting in a single work of art, and this was explored later in the artistic and scholarly circles during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties.
In his “Analects,” Confucius wrote, “the virtuous find pleasure in mountains,” and the theme often manifests itself in Chinese landscape painting. The earliest surviving work by the artist in Su Shi circle is “Cloudy Mountains” by Mi Youren, ca. 1130, in which the artist himself inscribed the poem at the upper left. Often incorporated into landscape were bamboo, pine tree, and blossoming plum, symbolizing survivors through bad political times, and these motifs carried encouraging messages between literati in troubled periods. The great scholar-painter Zhao Mengfu often turned to the image of bamboo, depicting the bamboo stalks as some proudly standing while others in dignified submission, thus evoking the Confucian principles of integrity and flexibility even in psychological tension. In his handscroll “Bamboo, Rocks, and Lonely Orchids,” Zhao Mengfu wrote this famous poem:
Rocks must be painted in the flying-white mode, trees done by brush strokes as in archaic writing.
To paint bamboo, one must harbour a full range of brushwork.
To those who can understand this,
The art of painting and calligraphy are but one and the same.
There is no doubt that the Taoism and Buddhist influences were also important to the development of Chinese landscape painting, but the literati arts demonstrate how Chinese scholar-artists emphasized their privileged background and reinforced the Confucian principles through distinctive subject matter, technique and style.—Diana Guber