Genetic Study Of Literati Painting Concepts

Generally considered that literati paintings came into being in Sung Dynasty,and the scholar's paintings called by Su Shih as a sign meant that this type of painting began to exist.But on the view of examining the real painting situation in Sung Dynasty,it is more suitable to call literati painting a concept rather than regard it as a painting style of form.It is because that,among the currently existing Sung Dynasty paintings,there is no one painting confirmed as the Sung Dynasty painting could be recognized as literati painting according to the painting standards of later generations.Therefore,when we take the Sung Dynasty as the important timeline of studying the problems of literati paintings,it means that there are some important concepts came form the paintings and esthetics thought during this period which facilitate the generation of literati paintings.To study the literati paintings of Sung Dynasty as a concept,it firstly experienced the process from scratch.In a broad sense,it was known as "literati's painting" as the literati were engaged in painting very early,however,in a narrow sense,literati painting is considered to be formally formed from the Yuan Dynasty in academic circles.In fact,before the Yuan Dynasty,the Sung Dynasty has brewed the theoretical soil for generation of literati paintings,in other words,in the knowledge structure of Sung Dynasty,literati painting,as a new concept,began to appear and gradually became qualitative,and finally,in the theoretical sense,it instructed the style of the literati painting in Yuan Dynasty.Simply speaking,the occurrence of literati painting in Sung Dynasty has two basic expressions:the first one is that the concept connotation and theoretical status of some important terminology have changed;the second one is that some new terminology have begun to come into existence.The former indicates that the painting investigators in Sung Dynasty are pregnant with changes in the inheritance of predecessors' ideas.The later means that it must create new terminology to explain this phenomenon for the new occurring requirements.From the external social conditions,the creative group and content of Sung Dynasty paintings have cheanged.Among the three main painting types of ancient Chinese paintings,which are potter pictures,court paintings and literati paintings,the later two are the main object of discussion of painting theory.Viewing from the status of creator,the social status of painters in Sung Dynasty has been improved a lot and laid the social foundation for scholar-officials to be engaged in painting.This article discusses from the beginning of court paintings to changes in Sung Dynasty in the first chapter.The second and third chapter are the important points of this article.The second chapter discusses the changes of painting assessment system from Sung Dynasty,which means the standard of evaluating a painting has been changed and this change can reflect the aesthetic points of society at that time.The third chapter further analyzes the detailed terminology.Through examining the detailed terminology,we can see that people try to endow old concepts with new connotations and deal with new challenges with new concepts.These realistically reflect the turbulent flow of painting concepts in Sung Dynasty while the emergence of the two has opened the way for the formal appearance of later literati painting.After examining the painting assessment system and specialized terminology in Sung Dynasty,the forth chapter conducted examination of painting ecology in Sung Dynasty from pen and ink.The former discussion is for exploring the guiding theory and thought of painting,the discussion on pen and ink is implemented on the concrete realization of painting.On the use of pen,Sung Dynasty paintings require the integration of the Book and Painting;On the use of ink,it pursues depression and indifference,these concepts finally make the foreshadowing for the creation of literati painting.