Tang Zhi Painting Thought Research

Tang Zhiqi was an artist and theoretician of traditional Chinese Painting in the latter partof Ming Dynasty. His theories written in Hui shi wei yan had great originalities. He separatelyexplained the concept of “Qi-Yun-Sheng-Dong” which was put forward by Xie He who hadbeen living during Southern Dynasties. He also associated the word of “Leisure” with otherwords, which enriched the connotation of “Leisure”. Moreover, he put forward the theory of“Artistic prospect” for the first time in traditional Chinese Art. These theories were allcreative and enlightened painters at that time, and played important roles in the appreciationof traditional Chinese Painting even contemporary art.0n the other hand, he brought up someunique definitions. For example,“Artists need not to learn techniques coming frompredecessors but ideas”;“Artists must observe the natural scenes before creating”; and“Artists need do a lot of reading and know the principle of art” etc. There was a tendency ofplagiarize in the latter part of Ming Dynasty, Tang Zhiqi criticized some painters’ errors andoffered salutary advices with his theories. The aim of this dissertation is to systematicallyarrange, summarize and analyse Tang Zhiqi’s theories. Based on that above, the authorconcludes the far-reaching historical influence and current significance of Tang Zhiqi’stheories with comparing to the similar ones in ancient as well as contemporary Chinesepainting.