| Enormous painters gathered in the region of Jiangnan in Suzhou, where many literati gathered in the middle of the Ming dynasty. According to Ming Painting Record by Xu Qin in Qing dynasty, the number of the painters of Suzhou at that time was almost 150, which was equal to one fifth of the total painters in Ming dynasty. The development at the peak of painting of Wu school lasted for nearly hundreds of years, that is from Chenghua to Jiajing in Ming Dynasty. The four branches of Wu school represented by Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, Tang Yin, Qiu Ying, and their students and numerous followers are the typical representatives, who had a far-reaching influence in the history of genre painting. Painting of Wu school was dated far back to many painters represented by Dong and Ju in Beisong dynasty and was dated near back to the four branches in Yuan dynasty. They created a new artistic realm in their art practice. They inherited traditional pen and ink from their predecessors and attached great importance to artistically spirits of their works. Based on their literary competence, they perfected the form of literati painting, which is the integration of poem, calligraphy and painting. In terms of ink layout, they were in pursuit of simplicity out of complexity and uniqueness out of something ordinary by way of subjective organization and arrangement of complicated natural objects. They emphasized high spirits in paintings and formed elegant refined flavor of pen and ink and their own style through their fine writing in the light ink, the combination of light color and bright color. Because of their skills of pen and ink throughout the history, the techniques of expression, the creation of artistic conception, the pursuit of aesthetic quality as well as the shape of characters’ personality, painting of Wu school’s influence across time and space lasted for nearly six hundred years, and even today is still one cultural phenomenon, worthy of being studied. |
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