The Aesthetic Study Of ShiTao’s Painting Art

As an firmly innovative painting master with a distinct personality in early Qing dynasty, ShiTao’s outstanding achievements and theory in painting exert immense effect on painting world after mid-Qing dynasty, especially in modern China, with which probably any painter in Chinese history can not be compared. Mainland academic circle generally believe that modern studies about Shitao start in the1930’s when master FuBaoshi published a series of research articles on Shitao’s birth and life. Later, with the development of over eighty years, studies on Shitao has made considerable achievements on many respects. Besides, new materials continually discovered and research perspectives transferred, the study concerning all aspects also gradually goes in a deeper direction.The topic of this article is "the aesthetic study of Shitao’painting art", which contains two respects. On the one hand, on the point of the painting world in early Qing dynasty, the article explored its essential aesthetic trend in late Ming and early Qing dynasties, On the other hand, chronologically, seeing from the whole painting history, the article discussed the reconstruction of Shitao’ image over the passed three hundred years, and the modernity of Shitao’ painting theory. Hence, through interweaving points with lines, the article gradually drew the basic image of Shitao, making it clearly understood on the surface.Four respects were analyzed in the present article. Firstly, the aesthetic mainstream of Shitao’s dynasty, which mainly refers to DongQichang’s "restoration" theory and the restoration idea of "Siwang". Secondly, Shitao’s basic aesthetic ideal in painting art, which consists of the aesthetic principles of "Yihua" theory, the creation method of "realism", the aesthetic mind of "free from vulgarity" and the artistic personality of "I think, therefore I exist". Thirdly, based on Shitao’s experiences and his remaining works, the article probed the essential artistic spirit, Last, the reflection of Shitao’s painting art and modernity, discussed respectively from the "stagnation" and "marginalization" in mid-Qing dynasty, and the "rediscovery" and "modernity" in the Republican period.