The Study Of Images Of Yuanming Tao

This article is trying to find the aesthetic value, value orientation and change of Chinese ancient aesthetics which are expressed in paintings and calligraphy created by artists living in various historical times. These paintings are all related to Yuanming Tao. The way to investigating this is using different methods, such as analysis of literature about Yuanming Tao, studies of his portraits, applying aesthetics of reception and employing both sides of practice and abstract.The first chapter is to connect the portrait of Yuanming Tao with theme's tradition of Chinese paintings. This way of statement can strength both the readers'recognition of theme's tradition and acknowledgement of portraits of Yuanming Tao. In the beginning, the article firstly states the effect of tradition on Chinese art history as well as two major traditions,"tradition of master"and"theme's tradition". In the following statement, as the theme's tradition with core value, the portrait of Yuanming Tao is analyzed by its origin and classification. The spirit of"come and go"is stated as the core and representative for Chinese traditional scholar, then the relation between the theme of Yuanming Tao and history of Chinese literature as well as painting is also studied. The conclusion is that the growth of Yuanming Tao theme is accordance with development of literature acceptance, painting and Chinese traditional interests. Finally, the relations between the theme of Yuanming Tao and calligraphy, literati painting, Implicitness of landscape painting and landscape garden were also analyzed.The second chapter states the historical development of Yuanming Tao's portraits, which is classified into five periods starting from dynasty of Tang and getting through the dynasties of Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing. In this chapter, author explains this development from the following aspects, such as of historic background of paintings, characteristics of paintings, representative paintings of different periods and typical painters. The theme of Yuanming Tao has its own instinct in various time periods. These characters have close relations to the development of literature, paintings and aesthetic value in different times. The spirit of Yuanming Tao starts to get attention since dynasty of Tang, and then becomes popular in Song dynasty."Tao yuan tu"and"gui qu lai tu"in Song dynasty are the favorite subjects for painters. The various original bases of Yuanming Tao's portrait start to be established in Song dynasty. A big name of painter as"Gonglin Li"who can be thought as a milestone of this development also step up at the same time. After Yuan dynasty, the portraits of Yuanming Tao become consensus and typical. Mengzhao Zhao and Xuan Qian are the representative painters of this period. Till Ming dynasty, the portraits of Yuanming Tao become more versatile and start to show more characters of individual painters. The creative ways of paintings get into more details. At the same time, paintings related with human subjects are decreasing while flowers and landscape become more popular. In Qing dynasty, the paintings related with Yuanming Tao's portrait can be titled as"a feast for the eyes". With the development of commodity-based economy and civilians'literature, the portraits of Yuanming Tao become more and more secular.The third chapter analyzes each sub-topics of Yuanming Tao's theme. Based on the research subjects, the Yuanming Tao's theme is classified into six categories. They are as the following: paintings of Yuanming Tao's portrait; paintings about"gui qu lai"(meaning come and go); paintings about"tao hua yuan"(meaning origin of peach flowers); painting about Yuanming Tao's poems; paintings about chrysanthemum; paintings about"hu xi san xiao"(meaning three laughs at tiger creek). This chapter reviews the social and literal background and recognition of painters'identities and analysis of representative paintings. Furthermore, it also states the developmental change and characters of every historical period and the emergence of each sub-topic. The paintings of Yuangming Tao's portrait are to express the"ideal ego"of scholars. The paintings of"gui qu lai"re-illustrate the life choice of Chinese ancient scholars. The paintings of"tao hua yuan"display the ideal social structure in their mind. The paintings of Yuanming Tao's poem reflect their poetic life style. Both the paintings about chrysanthemum and poem are the symbolic alphabet of Chinese scholars'spirit. The paintings of"hu xiao san xi"demonstrate the philosophy of Chinese ancient scholars, which are the combination of"confucianism","Taoism"and"Buddhism".We might draw a conclusion based on this present study:"tradition never changes", at same time,"tradition also moves forward with the development of time". The portrait of Yuanming Tao in the painting provides us the best expression of harmonies between Chinese culture and individual, individual and society, human kind and nature, respectively. At the same time, the tradition also goes forward with both hereditary and changing characters, and creatively makes new definitions about itself.