Early Research Landscape Images

Chinese landscape painting can embody the spirit of Chinese cultural most. It is a distinctive way to transmit culture by landscape painting, which reflects the relationship between human and nature in itself. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, the development of landscape painting had formed a unique complete system, the early landscape image served as a solid foundation for the development of landscape painting later. It is not very accurate that academics position the source of landscape painting in the Wei and Jin dynasties. From the origin, the emergence of the landscape painting was not appeared overnight, but experienced the process from accumulation slowly to appear and change gradually in a long range of time and space. This paper will analyze the evolution process of landscape image, trying to clarify the development of landscape image from Neolithic times to the period of Wei, Jin, South and North dynasties. The landscape painting was still in the stage of former ideology during Western Han and Eastern Han Dynasties. Due to regime changed frequently in Wei, Jin, South and North dynasties, national integration leaded to the development of the national economy, the communication of culture, the collision of thought, all these factors made the landscape image improved more. At the same time, due to the Confucian withdrawal, the rise of metaphysics, the development of the popularity of Buddhism, Taoism, the landscape image in external form and internal spirit had changed enormously, thus promoted the fast-developing of art. This paper focus research on the period of Wei, Jin, South and North dynasties, to analyze and arrange the landscapes' image and shape in the grottoes murals, tomb fresco, stone, brick, sarcophagus, stone tablets, and silk scroll paintings at that time one by one. This paper will organize the evolution shapes of the landscape image which was painted before the Wei, Jin, South and North dynasties, and sorting out the skeleton in the shaping of landscape image. Hope this paper provides a certain reference value for the painting history study.