Five Dynasties, Song And Yuan Dynasties From Pen And Fine Brushwork Bird Origin And Research

Before The Five-Dynasties (907-979 A. D), it is the gestation period of Chinese Traditional Realistic Painting of Flowers and Birds. Although the Flowers and Birds painting has already emerged since the ancient time, the genuine Flowers and Birds Painting appeared in the Wei-Jin period (265-420 A. D). The soul of The Traditional Chinese Realistic Painting of Flowers and birds is "form and spirit" , which has been established in the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420 - 589 A. D). The topic I want to discuss here is "Ink-Colour" . It became visible before the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 A. D) in the form of ancient pottery painting and Han, Wei-Jin cave painting, and get further development in Tang Dynasty.It is the booming period for Chinese Traditional Ink-colour Realistic Painting during the Five Dynasties and Song Dynasty (907-1279 A. D), which been dominated by Huang Quan (黄筌) style and Xu Xi (徐熙) style. Huang Quan represented the "figurer" , which is about the painting technique. Xu. Xi represented the "soul" , which emphasise more on beauty and presentation of the painting. Ink has been used as colour to produce not just the traditional effect, but something special. This is also well represented in Zhao Ji (赵佶)' s works. In Song Dynasty, the "Ink Flower, Ink Bird" style opened up a new era for traditional Ink painting. Compare with the Ink painting, it is a combination of Huang Quan style and Xu Xi style.In Yuan Dynasty (1279 -1368 A. D), literatistyle became popular. The overall impression is loose, simple and desolate. Although the practice of the Bird Painting is followed from Five-Dynasties and Song Dynasty, but more ink effect has been introduced to the simplified background, which formed a distinct contrast with bird painting. Wang Yuan (王渊) led the trend, which different from Song style, at that time, when Chinese Traditional ink-colour Realistic Painting shifts from yuanti to literatistyle. This trend also opened the curtain of ink painting for the Ming (1368 - 1644 A. D) and Qing (1644 - 1911 A.D) Dynasties.