Construction And Deconstruction, Of The Ming And Qing Literati Painting Art Field

Literati paintings is the main art form of Chinese classical painting , the comprehensive embodiment of Chinese ancient civilization in painting. Concerning the definition of literati paintings, there has been a lot of controversy in which the interpretation of Mr. Chen Shizeng is the most representative. In his"The value of literati paintings"he described:"What is literati paintings? Namely the paintings with the nature of literati, the taste of literati , not to study the painstaking on fine art work, but to observe the thought of literati. And this is the so-called literati paintings. To put it another way, literati lack skills in art and deliberately complicate it to make up by things off the painting. They don't know that painting as an object is not mechanical and simple but spiritual, thoughtful and flexible... ... The key elements of painting are character, knowledge, talent and thought which comes one after another one's work is consummated only with the all four ."From this definition we can presume that the literati paintings has a close relationship with the specific status of the literati.Mr. Xu Jianrong in his"Ten Theory of Paintings in Yuan Ming and Qing Dynasty"divided the development of literati painting into three stages: the Wei, Jin, Sui and Tang as the pre-era of literati paintings, the Five Dynasties and the Song and Yuan as the literati paintings era, the Ming and Qing as the post era. This essay is the analysis of the post era. Ming and Qing dynasties were the end of Chinese feudal society and the beginning of burgeoning capitalist economy. Society of this period was malleable and erratic in economy, politics,ideology and culture in comparison with the one before. These factors had a direct or indirect influence over the rise and fall, passing and changing of the development of the painting in that period. The development of this period showed an unprecedented scene of vast painters, various school and innovative brushwork. In addition, Ming and Qing is the summary period of Chinese classical painting, the transition between the classical to the modern one, a connecting link between the preceding and the following which played a crucial role in history. Therefore, the artistic field's construction and deconstruction of the Ming and Qing literati paintings is a topic worthy of study. And referring to the deconstruction history, we can have a reflection of the modern one. According to the Bourdieu's theory, this essay analyze the process of artistic field of construction and deconstruction. Bourdieu is one of the most famous French ideologists whose theoretical works involve sociology, anthropology ,linguistics, history, aesthetics, literature and art ."Field"theory is one of the core . The study of construction and deconstruction of the Ming and Qing paintings on the"field"theory differs from the one simply on history of art or the indivisual cases .This essay is divided into three chapters. The first is the artistic field's construction of the Ming and Qing literati paintings,discussing the development ,maturity and era characteristics. There are three argumentations.First is the artistic field delineation of the Ming and Qing paintings extraterritorial extension . Second is the construction of the Ming and Qing paintings "self-expression" theory . Third is "orthodox" of the artistic field .The second chapter is the deconstruction of the Ming and Qing literati paintings, mainly discussing the inner struggle and separation of the artistic field of Ming and Qing literati paintings and the process of it. It is divided into four parts: complacent conservatives, isolated inheritors, secular subversion and encircle and surpress outside the system.The third chapter is the analysis of the significance of enlightenment of the artistic field's deconstruction of Ming and Qing literati paintings to the modern one and the future of the modern literati paintings.