From Wang Wei To Fan Kuan

Mountains-and-waters painting, a distinctive artistic expressive form in Chinese painting, evolved into two different styles, the south and the north, in the period of Tang Dynasty and Song dynasty. Mt. Zhongnan served as the source nurturing the two schools based on the two styles and laid the historical foundation for the evolution of style and connotation of mountains-and-waters painting.With the above idea as the subject, this thesis, by finding a foothold in the field survey of the natural landforms of Mt. Zhongnan, referring to historical documents, poetry, prose, history and chorography, expanding from contemporary research fruits, and illustrating with paintings handed down from that period, attempts to discuss the initiation and evolution of mountains-and-waters painting from Wang Wei to Fan Kuan, and foreseeingly explores the evolutionary connection between Mt. Zhongnan and mountains-and-waters painting of Tang Dynasty and Song dynasty.It was in the period of Tang Dynasty that the historic status of Mt. Zhongnan was the most prominent, and its landscape was commended comprehensively in all kinds of literary and artistic works. Based on the landscape of Wangchuan in Mt. Zhongnan, Wang Wei's poems and paintings, represented the turning of Tang people's esthetic flavor about landscape. The initiation and innovation of his mountains-and-waters poems and paintings, especially the style of his inkwash painting, almost influenced the whole history of the development of mountains-and-waters painting after his passing, and decided the development orientation and evolution process of the mountains-and-waters painting in ancient China.After Tang Dynasty, the city of Chang'an lost the status of capital, but the influence of Mt. Zhongnan as the source of art still prevailed. The unification of the whole country by North Song Dynasty enabled the literary and artistic tradition of Mt. Zhongnan to be recovered on a certain scale. Guan Tong, Fan Kuan and so on lived in seclusion here, further ameliorated and explored the expression of the panoramic mountains-and-waters painting, which enabled the inkwash painting to replace the mainstream status of green mountains and waters, and the spirit of mountains-and-waters art of China has since found the most appropriate artistic expressive form.The description of the landscape of Mt. Zhongnan evoked people's association of history and poetry; therefore, mountains-and-waters painting surpassed the level of merely reproducing the local landscape, and abounded in meaning. Painters expressed animation of landscape physically, and its flawless taste spiritually.