The Impact Of Zen Thought On The Development Of Chinese Painting

The Buddhism,which was introduced into China in the Han Dynasties,passed through the period from the Han to the Northern and Southern Dynasties,and gave birth to Zen Buddhism,a local Chinese Buddhist sect.Zen Buddhism began its widespread dissemination in China in the period of the canonization of Hui Neng,the Sixth Patriarch of the Tang Dynasty in the Tang Dynasty.After integrating with Chinese culture,it reshaped Chinese culture.In the process of Zen’s molding Chinese culture,it exerted a direct influence on the development of Chinese ancient paintings and the painting concepts.This article starts from Zen thoughts and discusses the relationship between Zen thoughts and “changes of the ‘spirit of rhyme’ of Chinese paintings in the Tang Dynasty,the formation of the ‘Scholar’s Painting’ in the Song and Yuan Dynasties and the ‘Theory of southern and northern school’ of Chinese paintings proposed by Dong Qichang in the Ming Dynasty”.The article seeks to develop a clearer understanding of the underlying aspects of Chinese painting culture which relates to Zen.The words of “Qiyun Theory”,“Scholar’s Painting” and the “Theory of southern and northern school” are chosen as the core of the study.On the one hand,the relevance of the three philosophies to Zen ideology is considered.On the other hand,the timeline of the three were taken into account,which gives this research diachronic clues from the Tang Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty at the research object level,and a reflection on the longevity of the effects of Zen thoughts on Chinese painting.The study adopts a text-sorting approach in terms of research methods.It compares the Zen thoughts with Chinese ancient painting theories as a textual solution,assisting with the image style analysis.The author believes that adopting the text-based approach can not only avoid the subjectivity and contingency of the aesthetic analysis of general images,but explore the ancients’ painting ideas in a more direct way,which will make this research more persuasive.