A Study Of The Aesthetics Thought Of Zhao Meng-fu

Zhao Meng-fu (1254-1322), the leader of Yuan Dynasty calligraphy and painting art, is an outstanding poet and writers, also a great artists and distinguished scholars which dominated for several centuries of the history of Chinese art. He left a lot of excellent calligraphy, paintings, poetry and articles, including an important aesthetic thought.The formation of Zhao Meng-fu's aesthetic ideas, can not be separated from the social and historical environment at that time. He is a royal descent of Nansong Dynasty, he had been subjected to a good education from childhood. After the demise of the Song Dynasty, he did the Yuan Dynasty official, and"favored by the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty". His rank to "from a chemicals", this gave him the protection of engaging in artistic activities. In the practice of arts, he learned the calligraphy of Wei Dynasty and Jin Dynasty, the painting of Tang Dynasty and its previous, seal of Han Dynasty and Wei Dynasty, poetry and articles of Tang Dynasty. In these respects, he has achieved excellent results, particularly in the areas of calligraphy and painting, he has achieved better results. These is the basis for the formation of his aesthetic ideas. In the theoretical field, he inherited the thought of Su Shi, Mi Fu, She He, Jing Hao and others, and put forward a number of far-reaching aesthetic point of view.The aesthetics ideas of Zhao Meng-fu consisting of four main components: (1) The theory of"GuYi"; (2)The idea of learning from nature; (3) The idea of applied Calligraphy techniques to the painting; (4) The aesthetic ideal of integrated the poetry, calligraphy, and seal as one.The theory of"GuYi", originated from Su Shi. In the aesthetic thought of his,"GuYi"has the following characteristics: first is the beauty of"Zhong-He"; and the second is the beauty of"Gu-Ya"; the third is the beauty of natural. It has the following properties: (a) Transcendent.As the aesthetic ideal, "GuYi" has the nature of beyond the immediate reality. (b) The nature of retro. "GuYi" with the ideas of retro, it is an idea which both have positive and negative impacts. (c) Dialectical. Between the "retro" and "innovation", have a dialectical relationship.At the same time in advocated to learning the ancients, he raised the point of view of learning from the nature. In the painting, he stressed the importance of sketching from nature, and proposed the point of view that"Deeply aware of drawing is not child's play, ubiquitous clouds and mountains are my teacher". At the same time, he also set an example, created a number of paintings with nature of Sketch.The greatest contribution of Zhao Meng-Fu to painting, is the thinking and practice of applied Calligraphy techniques to the painting. This is the key of " Literati painting" instead of "Painters painting" occupy the mainstream of art history after the Yuan Dynasty. It is precisely because with such a thought and practice, only the fact of the landscape painting reached its peak during the Yuan Dynasty facts.In addition, Zhao Mengfu also consciously inherited and developed the tradition of integrated the poetry, calligraphy, and seal as one which there has been a art direction since the Song Dynasty. He had been pushed the way forward in several dimensions.In general, Zhao Mengfu is a maestro which connect the art history before and after the Yuan Dynasty. His aesthetic ideas and artistic practice is a key of the development of Chinese art history since the Yuan Dynasty, his theoretical contributions and practical results worthy of study and discussion repeated.