Discuss ancient Chinese society and landscape painting. Essay topic on the history of Chinese art.

A brief analysis of Chinese ethical thought and ancient landscape painting patterns (reprinted)

The main body of ancient Chinese ethical thought is Confucian ethical thought, which emphasizes the order of superiority and inferiority and the importance of each person's place. bit of thought. The Confucian classic "Book of Changes" clearly states at the outset: "Heaven is superior to earth and earth is inferior, and the universe is determined. The inferior and the high are established, and the noble and the inferior are ranked." The natural way of "Heaven is superior and the earth is humble" is the basis for "the noble and the inferior are ranked" . "Xu Gua" says: "There is heaven and earth, and then all things are born, and there are only all things between heaven and earth. ... There are all things, and then there are men and women; there are men and women, then there are couples; there are couples, then there are fathers and sons; there are fathers and sons, and then there are There are monarchs and ministers, then there are up and down; there are up and down, and then there are rules for etiquette. "It believes that the social order of human life is derived from the order of heaven and earth, and the principles of human ethics are consistent with the laws of nature, and the principles of respect and inferiority are constant. The ethical moral order is the way of heaven. Everything in the entire human society and the objective world in which human beings live are produced in accordance with the way of heaven. This makes the moral system of general ethics such as the superiority of the king and the inferiority of his ministers, the superiority of the father and the inferiority of the son, the superiority of men to the inferiority of women, etc., become a matter of course.

The concept that the way of heaven and the way of humanity are interlinked, and that the unity of nature and man is part of the overall movement of the world, makes Confucians believe that human life and death, as well as various relationships and behaviors such as husband and wife, father and son, king and minister, benevolence, righteousness, and morality, are all inseparable. Corresponding to the laws of operation of all things in the world, it has attributes, functions and sequence relationships that can be compared with natural things. The social order of human life is derived from the order of the movement of heaven and earth. Human virtue is derived from heaven's virtue. Humanity and heaven are closely related. The Confucian life ideals of self-cultivation, family order, country governance, and world peace are all concerned with the metaphysical philosophical purpose: the pursuit of a perfect life structure and spiritual principles that are in harmony with and in harmony with the way of nature. And this kind of life pursuit leads to aesthetics, and social ethics and moral beauty are all endowed with moral will and emotional content. The natural connection between heaven and earth. Confucius said that "the wise are happy with water, and the benevolent are happy with mountains." The ethical pursuits of the human world are reflected in the aesthetics of landscapes, and natural landscapes are compared to people, and their personality spirits are entrusted through natural landscapes. These comparisons reflect the ethical thinking characteristics of Confucianism in treating and evaluating natural objects. This attitude and expression of imitating nature and being attached to it with ethical concepts has profoundly influenced the creative theory and practice of ancient landscape paintings. We can see this profound influence from a large number of ancient Chinese landscape painting theories and landscape painting works. There are countless discussions on this aspect:

“The viewer first looks at the weather, then distinguishes the clarity and turbidity, determines the bow of the guest and the host, and the majesty of the peaks;” (Tang Dynasty Wang Wei’s "Landscape Theory") .

"When painting landscapes: first establish the position of guest and host, then determine the shape of distance and near, then cut through the scenery and arrange the heights." ("Landscape Jue" by Li Cheng of the Northern Song Dynasty).

"The mountains are dignified and are the masters of the mountains, so they are distributed in hills, forests and valleys, and they are the masters of the great and the near. His aura is like that of a great king standing in the sun, and hundreds of people rush to court without any stiffness. But the power is also "(Northern Song Dynasty, Guo Xi's "Lin Quan Gaozhi").

"First look at the position of the king and his ministers. Maybe the mountain is the king and the tree is the assistant, or the tree is the king and the mountain is the assistant." (Ming Dynasty Shen Hao in his "Painting Seat·Position").

“The method of composition is based on the general trend of a painting. Regardless of the size of the painting, it must be divided into guest and host.” (Qing Dynasty and Zou Yigui’s "Xiaoshan Painting Book").

In the above theory of landscape painting, the discussion about the composition of composition, such as: relationship between size, superiority and inferiority, distance, priority, superiority and inferiority, echo (look and feel), etc., are all guided by the ideological concept of ethical order. . This concept is a principle that landscape painters consciously abide by. The reason why they abide by such a principle is precisely because they believe that such formal arrangements are in line with the order of nature and are therefore harmonious and beautiful. From the landscape paintings handed down from ancient times, we can see Li Cheng's "Picture of Xiaosi in Qingluan", Fan Kuan's "Picture of Snow Scenery and Cold Forest", Guo Xi's "Picture of Early Spring", Wang Ximeng's "Picture of Thousands of Miles of Rivers and Mountains", Li Tang's The composition of a large number of landscape paintings such as "Ten Thousand Valleys of Pines" all show a clear distinction between the guest and the host, with the mountains looming over the main peak. They all pay great attention to the position management of the host and guest of the mountain peaks, as well as the position of the guest and the host, as well as the mutual arching and affectionate expressions. picture image.

Thus, the ethical pursuits of the world are reflected in the formal beauty of landscapes. In fact, order relationships such as size, dignity, distance, priority, up and down, and echo (look and feel) are exactly the same as the formal language of painting. Size contains contrast and changes, such as changes in length, thickness, etc. Area changes, etc. Far and near are related to front and back, blankness, space, strength and weakness, virtuality and reality, shades, and layers. Layers can form order. Up and down are related to opening and closing. Opening and closing not only have the concept of heaven and earth, but also the specific arrangement of composition. There is heaven above and earth below. The heaven and earth are divided into one up and one down, one opening and one closing, the upper and lower parts are one, there is a closing within the opening, and there is an opening within the closing. There are echoes and changes in movement and stillness in the opening and closing. The echoes make the opening and closing integrated and achieve unity and harmony in the changes. Heaven and earth are divided into superiority and inferiority, priority, yin and yang, and priority is related to order. The superposition of layers of order produces the beauty of space, rhythm and rhythm, etc. Therefore, the great beauty and formal beauty of the universe all originate from order.

In addition, starting from the "one corner and half side" style of landscape painting in the Southern Song Dynasty, the obvious ethical form has become increasingly diluted. The patterns of landscape painting have gradually become more diverse in the development and evolution, and the formal language has become richer. However, ethical factors are either implicit or explicit in the form of Chinese landscape painting, and they still exist to a greater or lesser extent.

The formation of ancient Chinese landscape painting theory and unique patterns is also related to Feng Shui theory. They are not only the origin of philosophical thoughts, but also the value standards and scenery composition patterns for selecting and constructing ideal environmental landscapes. They all have a lot in common. It also interacts with, learns from, and integrates with Feng Shui theory to enrich the aesthetic ideas of landscape painting, and also plays a positive role in the composition of landscape scenery and the development of landscape painting. Why are the concepts and forms of landscape composition related to the Feng Shui theory? This is because the origin and prevalence of the "landscape technique" of Feng Shui geography, which takes the natural landscape as the object of observation and chooses auspiciousness to manage the residential environment, is also related to Confucian ethical thought. related. Honoring parents is one of the principles that everyone in the world should follow. However, Confucianism attaches special importance to funeral rituals and considers a generous burial as filial piety. When a parent dies, a grand funeral must be held and mourning must be observed for three years. And I believe that the quality of the cemetery selection is related to the reproduction of future generations. Feng Shui was developed on this basis. The core content of Feng Shui is the knowledge of how people choose and deal with their living environment.

The essence of Confucian ethical thought is reflected in Feng Shui theory. The Three Cardinal Guidelines and Five Constant Rules of Confucianism are the moral norms between people advocated in the feudal era. The three cardinal principles are that the king guides his subjects, the father guides his son, and the husband guides his wife. The five constant elements are benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trust. Feng shui also pays attention to the three cardinal principles and five constant principles. The three cardinal principles in Feng Shui theory are Qi, Mingtang, and Shuikou. The five constant elements are dragon, cave, sand, water and direction.

Feng Shui pays attention to moderation. When building a house, it should be moderate in terms of space. Do not build your house high or low; do not build it in front of you or behind you; and do not build it against other people's houses. It is taboo not to have the corner of the house facing other people, nor to the corner of other people's houses facing your own door, nor to allow other people's houses to be too high or in front of your own house. These are all impartial and moderate concepts.

Feng Shui emphasizes the accumulation of virtue. If you want good Feng Shui, you should focus on accumulating virtue. Since the yin virtue is strong, there will be gods and ghosts to return to. If virtue is not cultivated, even if you find good Feng Shui, your descendants will not be blessed, but will suffer misfortune. Because good Feng Shui is reserved for the virtuous. If an unvirtuous person obtains a geomantic treasure land and does not use it, the auspicious land will turn into a bad land. Seeking good Feng Shui without cultivating virtue is like seeking harvest without cultivating. How can it be achieved?

Feng Shui pays attention to hierarchical order. "Qingnang Haijiao Sutra" says: "The dragon is the way of the king, and the sand is the way of the ministers. The king must be on top, and the ministers must be on the bottom. They bow their heads and prostrate themselves, and do not have a surly heart..." Therefore, Feng Shui The best location in my opinion is very similar to the ceremony where the emperor receives his ministers at the court. The emperor sat in the main hall, with attendants on both sides. The emperor faced south (the rule of the south), with a majestic barrier behind him. The ministers stood solemnly, their heads tilted slightly inward. There are several cases in front of the emperor and courtiers in the distance. The burial site should imitate this form, with mountains and rocks as metaphors for people, and the cave should be at a higher place in the middle. There is a table mountain facing the mountain in front, a dragon and tiger mountain on the left and right, and a barrier mountain behind, showing a crowding trend. Feng shui pays attention to the patriarchal concept.

Think that these are just the surface of things, not the essence. Instead, it pays attention to perceptual experience, universal laws, common sense, common shapes, and common phenomena; it attaches importance to the inherent structure of objects and the overall harmony, and uses ethical concepts, humanistic feelings and symbolic language to construct and organize pictures, "with The virtues that connect heaven and earth are similar to the emotions of all things”, making them conform to the way of heaven. In fact, in the entire traditional Chinese painting, regardless of figure painting, landscape painting, flower and bird painting, including calligraphy, from part to the whole, we always pay attention to the relationships such as size, dignity, distance, subject and object, up and down, welcome and give, echo (look and look). Song Zhongren (interpretation) discussed the painting method of trees like this in his "Huaguang Plum Blossoms": "There are differences between high and low plums, there are differences between big and small, there are images of density, density, and spacing. The branches are used for movement and stillness, the flowers are large and small, the monarchs and ministers are opposite, the stamens are different in length, and the yin and yang of the stamens are different. There is also a discussion in "The Painting Biography of the Mustard Seed Garden" that "there are two methods for painting two plants: one plant has two methods, one is enlarged to support the elderly, and one is enlarged to carry the young." In flower and bird paintings, when painting two flowers, one must be long and one short; one is the main one and the other is the auxiliary; the one in full bloom is the big one and the one in bud is the small one. We can indeed see the shapes and combinations of trees and flowers in the excellent traditional Chinese landscape paintings and flower-and-bird paintings. Most of them are graceful in posture, caring and affectionate, and are more beautiful than trees and flowers in nature. It is because of this ethical form and Humanistic feelings. Order is where great beauty lies. The characteristics of the formal language of Chinese painting are ethical, organic, and interconnected; it is symbolic, analogical, analogous, and humane. While emphasizing order and regularity, it also contains contrast and richness. change. It is different from Western formal languages ​​and emphasizes scientific and rational analysis; it emphasizes the golden section and the accuracy of numbers. For example, Gombrich said when discussing order, "The premise for the emergence of natural order is that physical laws must be able to work in an isolated system without mutual interference." "The creation of order must be based on geometric laws." It can be seen that the order of Western formal language is rational, isolated and mechanical. For example: when talking about size, its meaning is different in traditional Chinese and Western paintings. In traditional Chinese painting, it is ethics, which has nothing to do with the actual size of the object itself in vision, and has nothing to do with the near or far size in perspective. In traditional Western painting, it has nothing to do with the actual size of the object itself. However, it is the actual size of the object itself in vision, which is only related to the object itself or the near size and distance in perspective, and has nothing to do with ethics.

It can be seen from the above analysis that Chinese ethical thought has profoundly influenced the theory of Chinese landscape painting and the composition of landscape painting patterns. It has contributed to the formation of the language system of Chinese landscape painting; it has also contributed to the formation of the unique appearance of Chinese landscape painting.

For a long time, people have believed that ethical thought is feudal dross and cannot face up to the value of ethical thought, thus neglecting the study of the role and significance of ethical thought in painting language. Blindly following Western formal composition, especially superstitious Western modern formal composition, simply introducing the decorative principles of Western flat composition in painting creation, making the picture have strong flatness, simplification, exaggeration, stability, order and other characteristics, giving people With the so-called modern sense, it overemphasizes the rules and geometric order and other constituent factors, which will lead to the rigidity and dullness of the picture form. Because excessive carving will damage the inner beauty, and excessive artificial chisel modification will make the artistic image far away from the reality of life and lose the simplicity of natural beauty. It is impossible to create versatile and superb forms, and it is also impossible to create a soul-stirring aesthetic realm. This is why we often see some decorative paintings of landscapes and flowers and birds, which look like continuous floral cloths in all directions. Western plane composition is only a primary, mechanical, rational, and radical general formal law. Its simple concepts, symbolic language and formal laws lacking individuality cannot directly express the complexity and richness of the objective world. Modernity is not only a language that constitutes language, but also includes the intentions, emotions and tastes of modern people. Composition is the carrier of artistic thought and personality expression, not the ultimate goal of artistic creation. If the basic laws of composition are turned into rigid programs and dogma, it will violate the laws of art.

Today, we face the value of ethical thought, study and absorb its beneficial elements, study the order relationships such as size, superiority and inferiority, distance, priority, superiority and inferiority, and echo (look and feel); study the composition and composition of Chinese landscape paintings Form; studying and understanding the formal language and characteristics of Chinese painting is undoubtedly meaningful for inheriting and carrying forward the excellent tradition of Chinese painting and enhancing national self-confidence.