Study On The Painting Of Muxi Apes

Under the influence of politics,economy and culture in the Southern Song Dynasty,his painting has also achieved unprecedented development,whether in landscape painting,figure painting or flower and bird painting.Politically,the Song Dynasty implemented the policy of "emphasizing literature and neglecting martial arts",which played an important role in promoting the development of art.Economically,the emergence of paper money has greatly promoted economic development,and the rich material and economic life has created preconditions for people’s spiritual and cultural needs.Culturally,the Song Dynasty established the official status of Confucianism.The royal family and literati and officials loved calligraphy and painting art,and set up Xuanhe painting academy to recruit talents all over the country,which is also one of the important factors for the unprecedented development of painting techniques in the Song Dynasty.With the high development of painting techniques,the expression of ideological artistic conception is different.The main reason is that Han Yu and Li Ao have opposed Buddhism since the end of the Tang Dynasty.Hu Yuan and Sun Fu in the early Song Dynasty also said that they were anti Buddhism.So are the literati in the Song Dynasty.In the art of painting,a distinction between literati painting and Zen painting has been formed in addition to courtyard painting.The literati paid attention to the interest and sentiment,rejected and belittled the expression of Zen in Zen painting,and the status of solid Zen painting was not high in the Song Dynasty.But at the same time,Zen still has a certain development,and the spirit of Zen continues to penetrate into the field of art.As a painting theme,apes first appeared in Buddhist murals.The shape of monkey head and human body was found in Buddhist murals in the late Tang and Five Dynasties.In the early Buddhist murals,apes as the image theme mostly appeared in the stories of Buddha Bensheng.For example,in Kizil Grottoes in Xinjiang,apes are common.In the Xixia murals in Yulin Grottoes in Anxi,Gansu Province,there are monkey walkers who salute the Bodhisattva.At the same time,the rise of flower and bird painting in Song Dynasty also promoted the further development of ape theme painting.Artists expressed their interests and thoughts with the help of the expression form of ape theme.Muxi is one of the representatives.The ape theme painting painted by Muxi has profound aesthetic meaning both in artistic conception and overall layout.As a Zen monk painter,although his painting artistic style did not meet the aesthetic standards of literati and officials at that time and was excluded from the category of literati aesthetic evaluation as "sincere rather than elegant",his works have been affirmed in Japan and have influenced so far.When we re-examine the paintings created by Muxi,the pen and ink language used in his painting and the transmission of ideological spirit will give us a deeper understanding of Chinese painting,so as to improve the expression of our thoughts in artistic creation.