WangHui-TheBeautyOfGreenMountainsAndRivers-ShanghaiMuseum-May27-08

''Shan shui'' (; pronounced ) refers to a style of traditional

Chinese painting Chinese painting () is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. Painting in the traditional style is known today in Chinese as , meaning "national painting" or "native painting", as opposed to Western styles of art which b ...

that involves or depicts scenery or natural

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...

s, using a brush and ink rather than more conventional paints. Mountains, rivers and waterfalls are common subjects of ''shan shui'' paintings.

History

''Shan shui'' painting first began to develop in the 5th century, in the

Liu Song dynasty Song, known as Liu Song (), Former Song (前宋) or Song of (the) Southern dynasties (南朝宋) in historiography, was an imperial dynasty of China and the first of the four Southern dynasties during the Northern and Southern dynasties peri ...

.''Textual Evidence for the Secular Arts of China in the Period from Liu Sung through Sui'' (1967) by Alexander Soper It was later characterized by a group of landscape painters such as

Zhang Zeduan Zhang Zeduan (; 1085–1145), courtesy name Zhengdao (), was a Chinese painter of the Song dynasty. He lived during the transitional period from the Northern Song to the Southern Song, and was instrumental in the early history of the Chinese la ...

, most of them already famous, who produced large-scale landscape paintings. These landscape paintings usually centered on mountains. Mountains had long been seen as sacred places in China, which were viewed as the homes of immortals and thus, close to the heavens. Philosophical interest in nature, or in mystical connotations of naturalism, could also have contributed to the rise of landscape painting. The art of ''shan shui'', like many other styles of Chinese painting has a strong reference to Taoism/Daoism imagery and motifs, as symbolisms of Taoism strongly influenced "Chinese landscape painting". Some authors have suggested that Daoist stress on how minor the human presence is in the vastness of the cosmos, or Neo-

Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius ...

interest in the patterns or principles that underlie all phenomena, natural and social lead to the highly structuralized nature of ''shan shui''.

Concepts

Most dictionaries and definitions of ''shan shui'' assume that the term includes all ancient Chinese paintings with mountain and water images. Contemporary Chinese painters, however, feel that only paintings with mountain and water images that follow specific conventions of form, style and function should be called "''shan shui'' painting". When Chinese painters work on ''shan shui'' painting, they do not try to present an image of what they have seen in the nature, but what they have thought about nature. No one cares whether the painted colors and shapes look like the real object or not. According to Ch'eng Hsi:

Shan shui painting is a kind of painting which goes against the common definition of what a painting is. ''Shan shui'' painting refutes color, light and shadow and personal brush work. Shan shui painting is not an open window for the viewer's eye, it is an object for the viewer's mind. ''Shan shui'' painting is more like a vehicle of philosophy.

Compositions

''Shan shui'' paintings involve a complicated and rigorous set of almost mystical requirementsWicks, Robert 1954 – "Being in the Dry Zen Landscape", The Journal of Aesthetic Education – Volume 38, Number 1, Spring 2004, pp. 112–122 for balance, composition, and form. All ''shan shui'' paintings should have 3 basic components: ''Paths'' – Pathways should never be straight. They should meander like a stream. This helps deepen the landscape by adding layers. The path can be the river, or a path along it, or the tracing of the sun through the sky over the shoulder of the mountain. The concept is to never create inorganic patterns, but instead to mimic the patterns that nature creates. ''The Threshold'' – The path should lead to a threshold. The threshold is there to embrace you and provide a special welcome. The threshold can be the mountain, or its shadow upon the ground, or its cut into the sky. The concept is always that a mountain or its boundary must be defined clearly. ''The Heart'' – The heart is the focal point of the painting and all elements should lead to it. The heart defines the meaning of the painting. The concept should imply that each painting has a single focal point, and that all the natural lines of the painting direct inwards to this point.

Elements and colors

While many landscape paintings in China uses only ink or uses color for aesthetic purposes, some ''Shan shui'' are painted and designed in accordance with Chinese elemental theory with five elements or phases representing various parts of the natural world, and thus has specific directions for colorations that should be used in 'directions' of the painting, as to which should dominate.Early Chinese Texts on Painting by Susan Bush, Hsio-yen Shih. Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews, Vol. 7, No. 1/2 (Jul., 1985), pp. 153–159 Positive interactions between the Elements are: *Wood produces Fire *Fire produces Earth *Earth produces Metal *Metal produces Water *Water produces Wood. Elements that react positively should be used together. For example, Water complements both Metal and Wood; therefore, a painter would combine blue and green or blue and white. There is a positive interaction between Earth and Fire, so a painter would mix Yellow and Red. Negative interactions between the Elements are: *Wood uproots Earth *Earth blocks Water *Water douses Fire *Fire melts Metal *Metal chops Wood Elements that interact negatively should never be used together. For example, Fire will not interact positively with Water or Metal so a painter would not choose to mix red and blue, or red and white.

Connection to poetry

A certain movement in

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

, influenced by the ''shan shui'' style, came to be known as '' Shanshui poetry''. Sometimes, the poems were designed to be viewed with a particular work of art, others were intended to be "textual art" that invoked an image inside a reader's mind.

Influence

Animation and film

The art form of ''shan shui'' has been popular to the point where a

Chinese animation Chinese animation refers to animation made in China. In Chinese, donghua ( zh, s=动画, t=動畫, p=dònghuà) describes all animated works, regardless of style or origin. However, outside of China and in English, ''donghua'' is colloquial for ...

from 1988 entitled '' Feeling from Mountain and Water'' uses the same art style and even the term for the film's title. Additionally, many recent

movies A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, since ...

and plays produced in China, specifically '' House of Flying Daggers'' and ''

Hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. The original hero type of classical epics did such thin ...

'', use elements of the style itself in the sets, as well as the elemental aspects in providing "balance".

Construction

The term ''shan shui'' is sometimes extended to include gardening and

landscape design Landscape design is an independent profession and a design and art tradition, practiced by landscape designers, combining nature and culture. In contemporary practice, landscape design bridges the space between landscape architecture and garde ...

, particularly within the context of ''

feng shui Feng shui ( or ), sometimes called Chinese geomancy, is a traditional form of geomancy that originated in ancient China and claims to use energy forces to harmonize individuals with their surrounding environment. The term ''feng shui'' mean ...

''.

Electronic Literature

The art form ''shan shui'' influenced the Electronic Literature work '' Shan Shui'' by Chen Qian Xun.

References

External links

Chinese Landscape Painting
at China Online Museum
Chinese Painters and Galleries
at China Online Museum {{Authority control Chinese painting Landscape painting