The Study Of The Seclusion Figure In Shi Tao's The Poetic Paintings Of Tao Yuanming

This paper is aimed to find artist Shi Tao's life's opportunities,friends,travel adventures and sequence of his creation thoughts behind his works-the Poetic Paintings of Tao Yuanming-through the analysis of the landscape as well as the figure of Tao Yuanming,a well-known hermit poet in the Eastern Jin Dynasty(317-402),and the poems written by the famous hermit poet.By analyzing the life resonance between Shi Tao and Tao Yuanming,and studying Shi Tao's composition characteristics which combines poets,calligraphy,and paintings into one,this paper offers a deeper understanding and interpretation of the techniques,artistic style and the philosophy of his works presenting in the Poetic aintings of Tao Yuanming.Tao Yuanming's poem is known for its' plain,simple,natural,noble and unsullied words.His poems depict the ordinary pastoral life,however,a carefree and content feeling could be tasted from the bland landscape depicts between the lines.After the Seclusion Culture was born,"Seclusion"(as in Chinese "Yin")has become another way out for the ancient scholars in China.As a descendant of Ming Dynasty,Shi Tao has multiple identities in his life such as scholar,artist,monk,Taoist priest and so on.After all,all his identities point to his hermit spirit.Due to the various figures and different techniques applied in Shi Tao's landscape painting,the effect of each workpiece is also different.Those workpieces bears the special inner world and emotional pursuit of the artist.the Poetic Paintings of Tao Yuanming is the representation of his seclusion works as well as his masterpiece in his twilight years.In those pictures,the feature the hermit's figure is very prominent.Picking the Chrysanthemum,shouldering hoe,memorizing the ancient time,drinking alcohol and features like that all vividly unveil the painting's theme.The boundless and primitive simplicity of the brush stroke of his paintings indicates the seclusion thoughts of both Tao Yuanming and Shi Tao.Shi combines Tao's lyric experience into his works when presenting the images and stories to make it full of affection,thereby generating a poetic recall with emotion.The feelings presented by the hermit figure in Shi Tao's painting is also related to the Taoism which is rooted in his unusual experience and surrounding political background.Instead of immersing in his complicated life experiences,Shi is searching for the liberation of his thoughts.And his search is gradually transferring into a profound self-examination which finally surpassed all the constraint of formalism.We could find countless ties between the life experience of Shi Tao and Seclusion.Shi Tao integrates his life experience into his works and create a spiritual state that forgets both human beings and the landscape due to his rich life experience.The continuing change of identities,accommodations,and beliefs never changes his unaltered "true" heart.It seems like he understands that all the forms and symbols are appearance and all the seclusion is temporary,so he puts his works to a constant state,which is the state that forgets both human beings and landscapes.