A Research Into The Comments On Zhao Meng-fu's Art Of Calligraphy And Painting

Zhao Meng-fu,a renown painter and calligrapher in Yuan Dynasty,occupied a important place in the Chinese history of painting and calligraphy.As to his works, however,different commments have been made over years,among which exist some undue criticism because he,as a descendant of the Song Emperor,continued to hold an office in Yuan Government.This thesis aims at analyzing,after first classifying,the various representative comments made during different historic periods on Zhao's works.It covers seven parts as follows:â… .An brief account of Zhao's life;â…¡.The comments made by people in Yuan Dynasty:1)The comments made by the emporers of Yuan Dynasty 2)The comments made by Zhao's pupils and his pupils' pupils 3)The comments made by Zhao's fellow artists in the fields of poem, calligraphy and painting.â…¢.The comments made by people in Ming Dynasty.1)The comments made by people in the early half of Ming Dynasty and their causes.2)The comments made by people in the later half of Ming Dynasty;â…£.The comments made by people in Qing Dynasty;â…¤.The comments made by people in modern times;â…¥.The analysis of the causes of all the commments made in different dynasties;â…¦.ConclusionsThrough the above-analysis,we can draw the follwiing conclusion.For their political needs the emporers spoke highlly of Zhao and so did the upper-class officials; Zhao's fellow artists made favourite comment on him as his works indeed represented the highest level of art in Yuan Dynasty;his pupils and followers also admired him for they were greatly influenced by him.The comments on Zhao's art made in Yuan Dynasty were therefore generally favourite with a few exceptions.Zhao's works were unduely ciritisized during Ming and Qing Dynasty for the reason that he,being a descendant of the Song Emperor,held life-long position in Yuan Dynasty.Some comments made during these periods were not impartial and objective.Not until modern times did the fair comments begin to appear again because the true value of Zhao's works could be clearly perceived when seen from afar.There existed undoubtedly some irrational comments made particularlly from personal viewpoints and some impartial comments made out of the historic perspective.It's natural that there has been some disagreement and controvercy in appraising Zhao's artistic works.The comments fell into four catogories:1)that are absolute affirmative;2)that are generally affirmtive with some criticism;3)that totally denying the value of Zhao's work asspcoated with his disloyalty of holding offices in Yuan Dynasty.4)criticisms focusing on the conventional,unrefined flavor of his works.While there existed indeed in Zhao's work that some are refined resulted from too speedy writing and the strokes' lacking of conversed trend,the rare trait should not be adopted to label all his works.Furthermore,the value of Zhao's accomplishment should not be denied,as perceived in the feudal emperors' morality,just because he sought to hold an office in Yuan Dynasty.The accomplishments of Zhao's calligrphies and paintings may be summarized as follows:1)In terms of calligraphy,he played a great role in bringing back to life the entire calligraphic world which had been lifeless and declining for one and half centuries in South Song Dynasty,as he restored the Two Wang's writing techniques,which were somehow abandoned,trverse the trend of seeking unusualness and broght the calligrphy art into a new era of development.Zhao's calligraphic works were aethetic and feminine,styled subtle and concise.His acheivements were all reflected in three aspects of Chinese calligraphy:regular,running and cursive scripts,of which his regular script calligraphy was known "Zhao's Style".Zhao was one of "the Four Great Masters of Calligraphy," the other three being Yan Zhen-qing,Liu Gong-quan and Ouyang xun.2)In terms of paintings,he advocated that painter should based on imitating the traditional paintings,make breakthoughs in painting ways,brought great changes to the art circle which remained inactive since the beginning of South Song Dynasty.3)In terms of painting development,he represneted the highest level of Tang and Song Dynasty,and was a chief pioneer of Yuan painting styles,who had great influence on "Four Painters of Yuan Dynasty".4)In terms of theoretical development,he inherited and passed on,with scholar-officals' flavor and the idea "painting and calligraphy share the same origin", the ideal of "spirit-freeing" initiated by Zong Bing and Xie He.5)Zhao was the great advocate and practicer of the idea "painting and calligraphy share the same origin and technique".Ever since then it is a set rule for scholar-painters to paint with writing techniques.