Tung Ch'i-ch'ang And The Kung-an School

As a public servant in Peking(1589-1599), Tung Ch'i-ch'ang participated in thegatherings of the Kung-an School because of intellectual congeniality in philosophy, religionand literature. Just like Tung's relationship with the members of the Tung-lin (东林) andFu-she (复社), Tung was really not a number of the Kung-an School.Championing popular literature with its more spontaneous emotions that came directlyfrom the heart, the Kung-an School promoted Chü(趣),Yun(韵). Their popular taste (su俗)was just the contrary to the scholarly taste(ya雅) of the theory of the Southern and NorthernSchool of painting. Compared with Xu Wei(徐渭)who might be a very represent of theKung-an School, Tung Ch'i-ch'ang was obviously a surface participant.As the Ch'ing poet Yuan Mei (袁枚)pointed out, "the sectarian tradition in each eraalways begins with state affairs and ends up with poetry and literature", the sectarianism oflate Ming art was the proof. Song-jiang School (松江画派)competed with the opposing oneslike Che School (浙派) and Wu School (吴门画派) for supremacy.Defined from its imintate connection with poetry and calligraphy, brush and inkgradually became the subject of literati painting. Tung Ch'i-ch'ang's painting is abstract andanalytical.By devising a systematic history and theory of Chinese painting and by inventing a newmode of picture making, the theory of Southern and Northern School of painting ensured thefuture dominance of the literati tradition. Now this theory is still one of the most controversial,complex theories in the history of Chinese art.