A Cultural Exploration Of Chan Sect And The Art Of Chan Paintings In Song Dynasty

At the beginning of 960 A D, the Emperor's Army of Later Zhou of the Five Dynasties, led by its leader Zhao Kuang yin, launched a rebellion in Chen Bridge ,which was later known as Chen Bridge Rebellion. The rebellion ended the political chaos and built up a new dynasty called Song. From its foundation, the founders of Song Dynasty began to carry out new policies to recover its economy. The liberal policies recovered the culture of Middle China, leading to unprecedented prosperity. With the rise of economy, the painting and pragmatic design were also promoted.Due to the influence of Tang Dynasty ,Song's painting circle used to be dominated by the idea that "Without the knowledge of Buddhism , one is not qualified to comment on paintings." So until Song Dynasty the Buddhist idea had penetrated ,as an inseparable part ,through the knowledge structure of the scholars.Besides, until Song Dynasty, the Buddhism, which originated from a foreign country, had evaluated and been customized in China .The religion's influence upon the scholars is not only found in their ceremonies but also more importantly, in their daily lives and spirit-pursuit. There used to be a combination of Confucianism and Buddhism in people's idea---People didn't believe in the theories of Buddhism ,but they liked to live in the temples and talk with the Buddhist monks. This can rival with the metaphysical spirit of the Southern Dynasty. Under this climate the Chan paintings of Song Dynasty rose and lasted for several dynasties.This thesis begins with the relation between Chan paintings and Chan culture. The author' also explores Buddhism's evolution and the evolution of Chan paintings under social backgrounds, tries to explain their relation in the different social backgrounds and meanwhile displays for the readers the connotation of relation between art and culture and the aesthetic thoughts.Nowadays, it is an important issue for us to explore the traditionalculture and spread them among the mass in a plain way. So the research of Chan paintings of Song Dynasty is of key importance under the current context.Up till now there is only limited study on the cultural characteristics of Buddhism art and Chan paintings of Song Dynasty. At present, the study about this issue can approximately divided into two kinds. One is the introduction and description of Chan paintings and the other is the study of Buddhism of Song Dynasty by some famous experts. But a systematic research on the general information and topic of the Chan paintings is scarcely found by now. So the author of this thesis tries to explore the Chan paintings and their connotation, with the paintings and from the sociological, historical, cultural and artistic perspectives.The thesis is made up of eight parts. The first part introduces the general information on the study of Chan sect and Chan paintings in China and abroad. The second to the seventh part constitute the essence of the thesis. They include the factors shaping Chan sect, Chan paintings in Song Dynasty and the social factors which affect them;the representative painters and their paintings;the relations among Chan sect. Chan paintings, painting academy and scholar paintings;Chan paintings and Buddhist wall paintings;the typical images in Chan paintings and Buddhism and Chan paintings' influence upon the paintings of the following years. In this part, the author, from different perspectives, attempts to discover the artistic and cultural connotation of Chan and Chan paintings of Song Dynasty with the historical data. In the conclusion, with the research accomplishments, the author points out the enlightenment for the fine arts majors' research and also for the renaissance of Chinese traditional art.