| During the half century from the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China, the painters nationwide crowded into Shanghai. Those who carried calligraphy and painting in publication amounted to more than 2000 people, while the painters who were engaged in the activities relevant to calligraphy and painting were beyond count. They made home in Shanghai and formed the last but a vast circle of painters in the modern times of China, which sprung up a great number of celebrities with artistic distinction, namely, the Shanghai School. They played a vital role in the history of fine arts from home and abroad, outstripping any local schools prior to their birth. In particular, merchants in Shanghai played a significant role in the establishment and development of the Shanghai School and the economic prosperity in Shanghai laid a solid foundation for the emerging of the merchants. When Shanghai opened its doors to trade at its earlier time, it was just a third-class county, but within several decades, Shanghai rose abruptly as the first metropolis in China as well as the Far East. Shanghai's sudden prosperity depended on the wealth accumulated from 14 provinces, accounting for nearly half of China, since the turmoil of war like the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. In the course of commercialization in Shanghai, the merchants not only rapidly amassed capital, but also penetrated into other cities to collect funds nationwide, thus becoming a group of people in possession of great assets in the business circle of China. Besides commercial pursuits and life expenditure, these wealthy merchants sponsored the culture and arts cause. Specifically, they initiated schools and hired scholars, intellectuals and painters with higher salaries in a variety of functions; collected books, inscriptions and albums of paintings, etc, so as to build libraries opened to the public; published a great quantity of exquisite books of culture and arts, hundreds of albums among which were published by the Commercial Press. Also, a lot of merchants actively joined in the culture and arts exchanges, some of whom established a dozen of associations relevant to painting and calligraphy. So, those who could promote the development of the arts cause are the great merchants with tremendous strength in economy as well as higher social status, while the ordinary rich could do nothing but maintain their well-being. These great merchants underwent quite a metamorphosis from the end to the essential part among scholars, farmers, artisans and merchants, who were greatly pleased by all walks of life, thus facilitating them to better develop the culture and arts cause that they show affection for.In light of the educational background of the Shanghai merchants, some were converted from bureaucrats or gentry and some were studied abroad, so their overall artistic appreciation was relatively higher, thus they could be aware of the importance to develop the culture and arts cause. Also, the Shanghai merchants mainly came from the Jiangsu and Zhejiang region and were profoundly cultivated in the traditional culture, so most of them were proficient in painting, calligraphy and poetry, some of whom were famous painters and collectors, too. Even those who returned from abroad also loved the traditional Chinese culture and made friends with painters, thus bringing up the situation that merchants need painters and vice versa. The merchants not only supported them economically, but also assisted them to get a foothold in Shanghai, but also those great merchants could open out the arts cause for the painters by means of their social status, people and appeal, so as to make the painting circle in Shanghai prosperous. Many painters endowed with talent won great reputation in Shanghai as well as the rest of China under the sponsor and help of the Shanghai merchants. Wu Changshuo is the leader of the post Shanghai School. He used to develop in Suzhou, and then came to Shanghai with the help of the Shanghai tycoon Wang Yiting. Under the introduction of Wang Yiting, Wu Changshuo got to know some important Japanese figures and learnt to do business, thus he was given publicity and had a stable life in Shanghai. So, Wang Yiting's help played an important role for his great achievements in the field of arts from home and abroad later. Other important Shanghai merchants who sponsored the Shanghai School are Sheng Xuanhuai, Pang Laichen, Yu Qiaqing,"Xiaogang Lijia"and Chen Xiaodie, etc. Since Shanghai's opening up, a flood of foreigners from more than 40 countries went into trade in Shanghai, many of whom were deeply attracted by the traditional Chinese culture, arts and morals, thus their lifestyle and cultural activities were gradually localized. They built the private garden of the Chinese style, so as to mimic the lifestyle of the traditional men of letters; established schools, so as to revive the Chinese classic culture; purchased and collected the works of painting and calligraphy and sponsored painters. Some of them showed even more enthusiasm than the Chinese. Among them, the Japanese merchants were most typical. They were more familiar with the Chinese culture than the European and American merchants, so they turned to be the earliest and the strongest purchasers in the markets of the Chinese painting and calligraphy.Although the Shanghai merchants were the main force as the non-governmental sponsors with abundant capital and higher social status, the purchasing capacity and collection for painting and calligraphy among the citizen stratum could not be ignored. The economic development in Shanghai stimulated the expansion of citizens who accumulated much spare cash. During the 17 years from 1910 to 1927, the population at that time doubled up to 2.46 million. A part of people who got involved in the commercial activities expanded the team of merchants. In 1914, the registered firms for the main trades in Shanghai reached nearly 2000, while the unregistered firms were even more. These tycoons, capitalists, shopkeepers of various firms and stores, owners, compradors, middlemen, wholesalers, retailers and brokers, etc formed a stratum of merchants in a large quantity; in addition, the newly-developed stratum of intellectuals, such as teachers, editors, reporters, doctors or freelancers appeared. With the steady development of economy in Shanghai, their income as well as purchasing capacity was steadily rising. The Chinese always valued the cultivation in terms of culture and arts when they have enough clothes and food, so these people with enough spare cash were in want of painting and calligraphy to show their pretentious artistic style. The more people joined in, the larger demand on the painting and calligraphy would be. Furthermore, in order to satisfy their physical consumption, such recreational places as stores, teahouses, restaurants, tobacco shops, brothels and parks emerged in large numbers, especially the public amusement places. In 1919, there were 164 famous teahouses in Shanghai. These amusement places were mainly opened to the strata with enough spare cash, and therefore the works of painting and calligraphy were necessary to decorate the environment, so as to create the cultural atmosphere, thus the painters nationwide from the aged to the youths at 16 years old sprung up in Shanghai. Such paintings came from professional painters, literatis, painters, old and young adherents of the Qing Dynasty who were good at painting and calligraphy as well as celebrities in the political circles. As long as the painters desired to make a good living or developed their arts cause, Shanghai was their only hope.The citizen stratum's demand for the arts manifested in three respects: firstly, the commercial art. In order to solicit customers and succeed in business competition, the shopkeepers would make good use of the forms of art that could be accepted by the citizen stratum. Shanghai was a commercial metropolis full of factories and stores from home and abroad, thus there were numerous commodities that demanded painters to draw posters, propaganda, stage settings and patterns, especially the calendars, which enjoyed greater demand and higher recompense. A painter's monthly wage at that time was even able to buy a car. Secondly, the popular culture. The citizens were in want of cultures, but they had lower educational level, so the periodicals full of pictures were prevailing. Also, the technology of photograph at that time had not been popularized, so the newspaper and magazine agencies would hire painters to draw pictures. Shanghai, as the publishing center in China, launched 70% of the books in China, so you could image how many painters were on demand to draw pictures. Thirdly, the founding of art colleges. Art colleges came with the tide of great demand on painters. Zhou Xiang founded the earliest college of fine arts in China. Since then, at least 7 colleges of fine arts were founded in Shanghai from 1909 to 1922, such as Shanghai Fine Art School as well as the other 10 distinguished private fine arts schools or so. Such fine arts schools not only cultivated the students to expand the team of painters, but attracted many well-known artists in Shanghai to hold posts, some of whom set up their own studios. The great masters of artistic distinction in the modern times, such as Huang Binhong, Xu Beihong, Pan Tianshou and Lin Fengmian, etc, sprung up in Shanghai.Although the economic development and the non-governmental sponsors promoted the growth of art, the restrictions thereof were imposed, namely in two respects. Firstly, the ideology of painters was influenced. The painting and calligraphy in the eyes of the painters in Shanghai were commodities. They would take advantage of the media to trade in their works publicly, so in order to obtain larger shares in the selling market, the painters were the manufacturer as well as the seller through painting on someone's behalf or introducing business mutually. Besides this, they also did business, ran teahouses or culture companies, etc, mainly influenced by the profit-seeking atmosphere in Shanghai. Secondly, the art works in terms of contents, form, techniques and painting style were influenced by the citizen stratum. For instance, Wu Changshuo, the representative of the Epigraphical school, displayed heroic and dynamic quality against the traditional advocacy on simplicity, tranquility and serenity, but full of impatience and impetuousness. It best portrays the mentality of the Shanghai merchants and citizens at that time, but the traditional cultural foundations of the citizen stratum and the change on painters'ideology were the key to the prosperity of the Shanghai School as well.During the later part of 30s, the economy in Shanghai lagged behind due to a plurality of external factors, such as wars, so the painters in Shanghai could not enjoy the brilliant past any more. Although the commercial activities within the concession were still undergoing, the breakout of Pacific War in 1941 concluded the times of the isolated Shanghai, thus many painters had to leave Shanghai and the post Shanghai School faded gradually. The metropolis as well as the painting circle still existed in Shanghai, but the grand occasion as well as the absolute illustrious status during the period from the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China had gone with the wind. In conclusion, economic prosperity is the foundation to the bloom of the painting circle. Without the generous support from the merchants in Shanghai as well as the huge demand on the painting and calligraphy in the citizen stratum, the Shanghai School could not have entered the flourishing occasion during the period from the late Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China.
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