"Describing Objects As They Are" And "Describing Objects To Reflect Ego"

Song and Yuan are the most important periods that the ancient Chinese landscape developed boomingly, and also the special periods that the traditional Chinese painting style varied dramatically. The variety is not a quick and discontinuous evolution, but a gradual one. The proposition of "realism" was practiced consciously or unconsciously in the dynasties, but at different times the demands and focus of the practice varied. They both described the "material" and based on the similarity in form. But the purposes of painting are different, as the title indicates: "Describing objects as they are" and "describing objects to reflect ego". This article not only studies the realism of Song, Yuan traditional Chinese landscape in a general sense, but also researches the development of traditional Chinese painting and its potential trends, trying to provide new ideas and theoretical basis for Chinese paintings of development and innovation in the new period.In the past studies, most scholars focused on the comparison of the differences between the two dynasties, accustomed to generalize them as "realistic style" and "freehand brushwork style" and analyze them in the opposite position. According to the "realistic tradition", the author, basing on a large number of historical materials, tries to avoid the ideas before to investigate the changes of Chinese landscape in the two times. There are two aspects in the changes: the difference and the inheritance. The difference indicates: the artists of Song emphasized learning from the nature and the painting is a perfect combination of form and content with the objective realist tradition. The artists of Yuan emphasized Self-contained and the painting has elegant artistic conception with the purpose of returning to man's nature. It is a perfect combination of subject and object with the subjective realist tradition. The inheritance performs in that both of them pay attention to expressing the reality and the shape of drawing. In the painting of Yuan, the spirit of freehand brushwork style and objective landscape pattern are perfectly combined. It comes out of not only the realistic areas, but also characters of the realistic tradition of Chinese painting, and it is the very difference between the painting of Yuan and the painting of liberator in future generations. The reasons of the change in the two dynasties are various, including objective ones and subjective ones. The change alsoindicates the conversion of liberator's taste and values.In a word, the change of realistic tradition in Chinese landscape painting from Song to Yuan is gradual, and in different period it demands a different principle which will inevitably bring about the changes of aesthetic orientation, and will promote the development and prosperity of the Chinese landscape painting. The realistic tradition will not die out but will move forward with the times. Advocating and promoting the realistic tradition of Song and Yuan is to stress the importance of basic skills, and renew the sense of the fundamental values of Traditional Chinese painting. In the 21st century with the evolution of social modernization and the influence of Western culture, the development of Chinese painting is pluralistic and has to face more challenges and opportunities. Reopening the proposition of this tradition and research it can carry forward the pith of Song and Yuan painting, and reconstruct the objective criteria of art evaluation. It is also valuable for apperceiving the rule of Chinese landscape paintings to develop at diverse angles, and expecting its prospects.