Chen Shizeng's Artistic Thoughts

The major works of modern art theorist Chen Shizeng include the two parts of "The History of Chinese Painting" and "The Value of Literati Painting",which is called "one history and one theory" by descendants.The former is one of the important works of modern Chinese fine arts history,and the latter is a milestone in the development of modern literati painting theory.His ideological theories and outstanding achievements are closely related to the background of the times in which he is at the intersection of Eastern and Western ideas.Chen Shizeng was influenced by traditional C hinese education in his early years,and later he went to Japan to absorb Western education in adulthood.There are many differences between the East and West cultures that he accepted.Therefore,his works not only contain the connotation of traditional Chinese culture,but also reflect the influence of Western ideas.This study contains two parts.The first part focused on the important value of "The Value of Literati Painting" in improving and developing the evaluation system of C hinese literati painting.Before the article “The Value of Literati Painting”,Chen Shizeng once wrote an article entitled “The Value of Literati Painting”.In this article,he first made a judgement on the value positio n of Chinese literati painting,and included it in the evaluation system of literati painting,made this article to become a blueprint of "The Value of Literati Painting".This part elaborated the evaluation of the literati paintings in “The Value of Literati Painting”,which was the development for the evaluation system of Chinese traditional literati painting;then after the revision,"The Value of Literati Painting" was described in classical Chinese,which reflected the profound knowledge of the traditio nal literati,it also gave an interpretation of the view of the evaluation value of the literati painting,reflected the deep influence of Western Aesthetics on his ideas.The key reason for this change came from his acquaintance with O mura seigai and the translation of “The Value of Literati Painting”.The second part was the study of the narrative methods and contents of "The History of Chinese Painting".C hen Shizeng had accepted Japanese art education during his studies in Japan,after returning to C hina,due to the preparation of art history courses,he was able to integrate C hinese and Japanese art education,and edited the history of C hinese art.As the Chinese art education at that time borrowed much from the Japanese art education,and when Japan had a work on the history of Chinese art,therefore,the history of C hinese art written by Chen Shizeng had implications for “The History of Paintings in Chini”.However,"The History of Chinese Painting" was not merely imitating "The history of the painting in C hini".Although there were many similarities in the contents of the two works,these contents were mostly derived from the work of Chinese painting theory.The second part of "The History of C hinese Painting" was mainly composed of three parts: the w orks of C hinese painting theory,“The History of Paintings in Chini”,and the commentary by Chen Shizeng.Therefore,we needed to re-evaluate the value of "The History of C hinese Painting"."One history one theory" reflect two important factors that affect the formation of C hen Shizeng's art theory,namely Eastern culture and Western culture.As a traditional C hinese literati,his concept is not only deeply influenced by C hinese culture,but also deeply influenced by western ideas;more importantly,he comb ines the two parts just rightly,and applies them to the study of the history of art and the theory of art.Because he can interpret China's traditional art from a new perspective,Therefore,his ideology and theory have great significance for later genera tions to carry out literati painting theory and the study of the Chinese fine arts history.This study takes the analysis of Chen Shizeng's works as the main line,combining the social background of the time and the influence of Eastern and Western ideas,to explain the development of C hen Shizeng's artistic thoughts.