| "After the past" was the prevailing fashion among literati of16th century China. Learning from the past was generally the only approach adopted for change and innovation by the intelligentsia, as explained by WANG Shizhen, the then dominant figure for two decades,"joint and separate, separate and joint, wherein insight comes along." Innovative "separation" was required to excel the past classics one modeled after. This approach was effectively extended to drawing art in the early Qing Dynasty by the "Four Wangs" who applied "memory-based copy" to their artistic pursuit of "after the past" in an attempt of self-cultivation and diversion without retiring from the real world, and attacking heresies while paying tribute to Confucian civilization on fine rice paper. Thus they came to be the grandmasters of landscape drawing and almost dominated the landscape drawing circle throughout the Qing Dynasty. The "Four Wangs", also known respectively as founders of "Loudong" and "Yushan" schools of drawing, had disciples across the land and were heartily followed by later-generation painters.The "Four Wangs" examined the past classics they modeled and identified the typical visual characteristics for repeated imitation and subsequent development and improvement. Hence there were far more in common among their works than between their works and the corresponding old classics modeled. Their way "after the past" was characterized by relentless effort to digest and reproduce the styles and techniques of the old models and vigorous attempt to reengineer and innovate based on that to develop their own unique artistic styles. Endeavoring to "pursue the ultimate tenet regardless of Song/Yuan grandmasters", they were able to go beyond simply "copying the past" and mastering the classic techniques, and gradually develop a new system of landscape drawing techniques encompassing reason, Qi and fun. In this way, they transformed the past paragons into their own paragons of drawing techniques featuring transition between thin and thick colors, line-pattern integration, and color-ink integration. Moreover, in their pursuit of "the extraordinary out of usualness, and regularity out of oddness", the "Four Wangs" were able to integrate the essence of "Nan Zong Style" and their individual personality into landscape drawing "after the past" to accomplish both "subtle charm" and "supermundane taste", and incarnate in one the dual identities of elite and scholar drawer. They borrowed from Confucian norm to further propose "to fully master Song/Yuan techniques one must be able to do what predecessors can’t, and not confined to what predecessors can".In this sense, the "Four Wangs" had transformed their original pursuit of "after the past" into a landscape drawing technique system that later generation of painters could follow. Nevertheless, in order to avoid the rigidity of an established system of techniques, they frequently stressed that "all the positioning and drawing techniques can he learned, but beyond those there is a solitary and boundless tone and style that can not be learned". The followers, however, deviated gradually from the smarter essence of "after the past" advocated by the "Four Wangs" and instead of inheriting the subtle accomplishment of"being neither joint nor separate","no fixed rule" and "vivid charm", they degraded into formalism and failed to ever transform the routines. The cause of such degradation shall be thoroughly analyzed. |
