Traces Of Human Presence In Mountains

This thesis deals with 'Landscape with People' of the Ming Dynasty in a view of observation to discuss the structure and objective of the Ming's landscape painting. The 'landscape painting ambit' in this thesis means the landscape in a broad sense that includes not only the 'landscape painting' in the traditional painting objectives but also those art works with landscape painting meaning composed with mountains, waters and people.In the introduction of the thesis the writer reviews the differences between 'landscape painting' and 'landscape painting with people', as well as the study point identified in the thesis. The first chapter classified the people in the landscape painting in the Ming Dynasty by three categories as immortals, oracles and civilian. He analyses the expression of those people by the painters with different identities or professions and how it forms the difference composed with the painting ambit. The people in these categories become the two requirements of the painters' taste and lifelike spirit in the goal to join in the landscape painting structure. The second chapter deals reviews the description of the landscape painting by the scholars in each historic periods in the Ming Dynasty. Scholars in the landscape painting reflects the features that their body and appearance become similar. Their identity is copied time and again to insert into the landscape painting environment.The third chapter reviews and analyses the narrative structure and evolvement of 'Scholars Gathering Picture', and discusses the interior relations between 'Scholars Gathering Picture' in the Ming Dynasty and the scholars forming the tongs then.The fourth chapter, composed with the units as traveling, farewell, tea-drinking and simple living, reviews lots of related landscape painting to exploit the role of people in these objective painting, its media and symbolizing significance as well as the ability in social activities. The fifth chapter, taking the art works of Ni Zhang and Dong Qichang as example, discusses the reason of the absence of people in their works. It partly reveals the related point of view of 'landscape painting' and 'landscape painting with people' put forward in the introduction. This chapter also exploits principally the existing significance of realistic figures and landscape in the late Ming Dynasty, as well as the reflection of the social atmospheres of the day in these art works.This thesis pays attention to the matching relation between 'people' and 'landscape' for the sake of observation and discussion of the traditional landscape painting in some new angles.