Southern School
Encyclopedia
Brief
The Southern School (南宗画, pinyinPinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
: nanzhonghua) of Chinese painting
Chinese painting
Chinese painting is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. The earliest paintings were not representational but ornamental; they consisted of patterns or designs rather than pictures. Early pottery was painted with spirals, zigzags, dots, or animals...
, often called "literati painting" (文人画, wenrenhua), is a term used to denote art and artists which stand in opposition to the formal Northern School of painting. Where professional, formal painters were classified as Northern School, scholar-bureaucrats
Scholar-bureaucrats
Scholar-officials or Scholar-bureaucrats were civil servants appointed by the emperor of China to perform day-to-day governance from the Sui Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty in 1912, China's last imperial dynasty. These officials mostly came from the well-educated men known as the...
who had either retired from the professional world or who were never a part of it constituted the Southern School.
Never a formal school of art in the sense of artists training under a single master in a single studio, the Southern School is more of an umbrella term spanning a great breadth across both geography and chronology. The literati
Literati
Literati may refer to:*Intellectuals or those who read and comment on literature*The scholar-bureaucrats or literati of imperial China**Literati painting, also known as the Southern School of painting, developed by Chinese literati...
lifestyle and attitude, and the associated style of painting, can be said to go back quite far to early periods of Chinese history. However, classification of the "Southern School" as such, that is, the coining of the term, is said to have been made by the scholar-artist Dong Qichang
Dong Qichang
Dong Qichang , courtesy name Xuanzai , was a Chinese painter, scholar, calligrapher, and art theorist of the later period of the Ming Dynasty.-Painter:...
(1555-1636), who borrowed the concept from Ch'an (Zen
Zen
Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...
) Buddhism, which also has Northern and Southern Schools.
Generally, Southern School painters worked in monochrome ink, and focused on expressive brushstrokes and a somewhat more impressionistic approach than the Northern School's formal attention to detail and use of color and highly refined traditional modes and methods. The stereotypical literati painter lived in retirement in the mountains or other rural areas, not entirely isolated, but immersed in natural beauty and far from mundane concerns. They were also lovers of culture, hypothetically enjoying and taking part in all Four Arts of the Chinese Scholar
Four Arts of the Chinese Scholar
The Four Arts of the Chinese Scholar, otherwise known as siyi , is a term used to describe four main accomplishments required of the Chinese scholar gentleman...
as touted by Confucianism
Confucianism
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...
, that is, painting, calligraphy, music
Guqin
The guqin is the modern name for a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument of the zither family...
, and games
Go (board game)
Go , is an ancient board game for two players that originated in China more than 2,000 years ago...
of skill and strategy. They would often combine these elements into their work, and would gather with one another to share their interests.
Literati paintings are most commonly of landscapes, and feature men in retirement, or travelers, admiring and enjoying the scenery, or immersed in culture. Figures are often depicted carrying or playing guqin (zithers), and residing in quite isolated mountain hermitages. Calligraphic inscriptions, either of classical poems or ones composed by a contemporary literati (the painter, or a friend), are also quite common. However, while this sort of landscape, with certain features and elements, is the standard stereotypical Southern School painting, the genre actually varied quite widely, as the literati painters themselves, in rejecting the formal strictures of the Northern School, sought the freedom to experiment with subjects and styles.
History
Beginning in the 18th century, the attitudes of the Chinese literati (the scholar-bureaucrat in retirement who devotes himself entirely to a love of culture) began to be taken up by Japanese artists. As the Japanese literati (文人, J: bunjin) were forbidden to leave Japan, and had little access to original Chinese works (or to meeting the literati themselves), the lifestyle, attitude, and art changed considerably in Japan. Outside of native Japanese inspirations, these bunjin gained Chinese influence only through woodblock-printedWoodblock printing in Japan
Woodblock printing in Japan is a technique best known for its use in the ukiyo-e artistic genre; however, it was also used very widely for printing books in the same period. Woodblock printing had been used in China for centuries to print books, long before the advent of movable type, but was only...
art books which attempted to reproduce and communicate the Southern School ideals and methods. The Southern School (C: nanzhonghua, J: nanshūga) came to be known as nanga in Japan.
Literati
The scholars, scholarly civil servants, or literati of Imperial China, where all schooled in Confucianism known as the School of Literati. In early China the term refers to the class of people that went through traditional Chinese education. There were sets of Chinese civil service examinations, including Chinese literature and philosophy. Passing the exam was a requirement for many government positions. These individuals were the mandarins, and referred to those who held government positions.Selected artists of note
- Wang WeiWang WeiWang Wei , was a Tang Dynasty Chinese poet, musician, painter, and statesman. He was one of the most famous men of arts and letters of his time. Many of his poems are preserved, and twenty-nine were included in the highly influential 18th century anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems.-Name...
(王維 699-759) - Dong YuanDong YuanDong Yuan was a Chinese painter.He was born in Zhongling . Dong Yuan was active in the Southern Tang Kingdom of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period...
(董源, mid 10th century) - Huang GongwangHuang GongwangHuáng Gōngwàng was a painter born during the late Song Dynasty in Changshu, Jiangsu. He is the oldest of the "four great masters of the Yuan." After serving as an official he acted as a Taoist priest. He spent his last years in the Fu-ch'un mountains near Hangzhou devoting himself to Taoism. It...
(黄公望, 1269-1354) - Ni ZanNi ZanNi Zan was a Chinese painter during the Yuan Dynasty. Along with Huang Gongwang, Wu Zhen, and Wang Meng, he is considered to be one of the four "Late Yuan" masters....
(倪贊, 1301-74) - Wu ZhenWu ZhenWu Zhen was a painter during the Yuan dynasty of China. He followed the Dong Yuan school of painting. Following along with trends of the time, Wu's works tended less toward naturalism and more toward abstraction, focusing on dynamic balance of elements, and personifying nature...
(呉鎮, 1280-1354) - Wang MengWang Meng (artist)Wang Meng was a Chinese painter during the Yuan Dynasty. He was born in Huzhou , now known as Wuxing , Zhejiang....
(王蒙, 1308-85) - Shen ZhouShen ZhouShen Zhou , courtesy name Qinan , was a Chinese painter in the Ming dynasty.-Life:Shen Zhou was born into a wealthy family in Xiangcheng, near the thriving city of Suzhou, in the Jiangsu province, China...
(沈周, 1427-1509) - Wen ZhengmingWen ZhengmingWen Zhengming was a leading Ming Dynasty painter, calligrapher, and scholar.Born in present-day Suzhou, he claimed to be a descendant of the Song Dynasty prime minister and patriot Wen Tianxiang. Wen’s family was originally from Hengyang, Hunan, where his family had established itself shortly...
(文徵明, 1470–1559)
See also
- Chinese paintingChinese paintingChinese painting is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. The earliest paintings were not representational but ornamental; they consisted of patterns or designs rather than pictures. Early pottery was painted with spirals, zigzags, dots, or animals...
- Wu SchoolWu SchoolWu or Wumen School is the term applied to a group of painters of the Southern School during the Ming period of Chinese history. It was not an academy or educational institution, but rather a group united largely by the artistic theories of its members...
- a group within the Southern School - Zhe School - a group within the Southern School