The Ch'ing or Manchu dynasty, whose downfall we have recently witnessed,
brought no new vigor to China. Barbarians once again invaded the aged and
enfeebled empire usurping the methods, history and organization of the
preceding periods. The change in China at the end of the seventeenth
century was only dynastic. The evolution of Ming tendencies continued, and
despite the reorganization undertaken by Kang Hsi and maintained by his
two successors, the excessive requirements of the old system, which had
been formulated during the Sung epoch and definitely established in the
Yuean and Ming periods, were so exacting that irremediable decadence was
inevitable. Thenceforward no great changes in the realm of painting need
be expected. It only continued its logical evolution.
It is necessary, nevertheless, to lay stress on the value of Chinese
painting from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, for an opinion is
current that, while there might still be something of value under the Ming
dynasty, nothing good was produced under the Ch'ing. It is undeniable that
marked signs of decadence are seen in the latter period, but by the side
of some inferior works, others exist which maintain the vitality of the
past and the hope of a renaissance.
In refutation of such hasty and ill informed opinion, it is sufficient to
recall a number of paintings, signed and dated, of the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, which dealers or collectors calmly attribute to the
eleventh and twelfth.
Chinese painting at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the
eighteenth century was still full of vitality. The taste for brilliant
color gradually diminished, and the composition became broader and more
noble at the hands of certain painters, in whom is seen the revival of the
vigorous race of yore. This was the time when Yuen Shou-p'ing, more
commonly known under the name of Nan-t'ien, painted landscape and flowers
with the restraint and power of the old style, and when Shen Nan-p'ing set
out for Japan to found a modern Chinese school which was to rival the
Ukioyoye in importance and activity. About them was grouped a large
following, foretelling fresh developments.
No support was given to this movement by the new government, which was
infatuated with the academic style of the earlier reigns and becoming more
and more ignorant as the last years of the nineteenth century approached.
In the eighteenth century a comparatively large number of Chinese painters
settled in Japan, where they continued the traditions of Ming art. The
observation of a Nan-t'ien or of a Shen Nan-p'ing was keen and
painstaking, but the objectivity and realism now coming to the fore, were
conspicuous in their works. No longer was it the world of pure substance
and abstract principle that was sought, but the real, everyday world, the
world of objective forms studied for themselves, living their own life, on
the threshold of which the spirit halted, no longer guided by the old
philosophies.
[Illustration: PLATE XXII. BEAUTY INHALING THE FRAGRANCE OF A PEONY
Ming Period. Collection of V. Goloubew.]
This character was maintained up to the nineteenth century. It is seen in
the painting of flowers and landscape as well as in figure painting. These
traits are equally apparent in an iris by Nan t'ien and a personage by
Huang Yin-piao. The latter, working in the middle of the eighteenth
century, evoked the personages of Buddhist and Taoist legend with a
skillful brush, but his daring simplifications were more akin to
virtuosity than to that deep reflection and freedom from non-essentials
which were the glory of the early masters. Herein are discerned the
elements of decadence, which are wont to assume precisely this aspect of a
mastery over difficulties. For such ends genuine research and the true
grasp of form were gradually abandoned.
Calligraphy and the literary style were not overlooked, but they were
carried to a point of abstraction that is beyond the province of art. A
personage was represented by lines which formed characters in handwriting
and which, in drawing the figure, at the same time wrote a sentence.
Doubtless that is a proof of marvelous skill. I agree in assigning such
masterpieces to the realm of calligraphy but refuse to admit them to the
domain of painting.
This applies as well to the so-called _thumb nail painting_ held in high
repute under the last dynasty. In this the brush is abandoned and the line
is drawn by the finger dipped in ink or color. The painting is done on
modern paper of a special kind which partially absorbs the paint, in the
manner of blotting paper; this results in weak lines, and ink and color
schemes devoid of firmness, in short, in a lack of virility which places
such works, notwithstanding their virtuosity, in the category of artisan
achievements. These works are numerous in the modern period and constitute
what so many regard as Chinese painting. One cannot be too careful in
discarding them.
During every period decorative paintings, religious paintings and
ancestral paintings made after death, were executed in China by artisans,
ordinary workmen at the service of whosoever might engage them. Such work
should not be consulted in studying the styles of great periods or the
higher manifestations of an art. These paintings were the first to leave
China and find their way to Europe. There is no reason for analyzing them
here.
To sum up, Chinese painting of the last two centuries still numbers
masters of the first rank. This alone indicates that the sacred fire is by
no means extinct. Who shall say what future awaits it amidst the
profound changes of today? After a period of indecision which lasted for
twenty-five years, Japan has found herself anew and is seeking to revive
her artistic traditions. It is to be hoped that China will, at all costs,
avoid the same mistakes and that she will not be unmindful, as was her
neighbor, of the history of the old masters.
[Illustration: PLATE XXIII. HALT OF THE IMPERIAL HUNT
Ming Period. Sixteenth Century. Collection of R. Petrucci.]
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