17. The "Four Masters of the Yuan:" Voices of Dissent

 

Yuan dynasty 1279-1368

Concept: identity

Terms

literatus: a scholar, a man of letters, in Chinese wenren 文人 (wen meaning writing or literature, ren meaning person)

literati:  two or more scholars

Objects

The practice of grouping artists together is very common in the literature on Chinese painting.  The so-called “Four Great Masters of the Yuan” is one of the most renowned of these groupings in later critical literature.

Four Great Masters of the Yuan:

1.     Huang Gongwang 黃公望 (1269-1354). 

Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains.  1348-50.  Ink on paper, 12 7/8 x 20’9” (fig. 8-28)

2.     Ni Zan 倪瓚 (1301-1374).

Anonymous.  Portrait of Ni Zan. ca. 1340.  Handscroll, ink, colors, paper; 11 1/8 x 24” (fig. 8-29)

Rongxi Studio.  1372. Hanging scroll, ink, paper; 29 3/4 x 14” (fig. 8-30) Compare with Ma Yuan’s On a Mountain Path in Spring.  Southern Song.136 x 45

Wind Blowing Among Trees.  1363.  Hanging scroll, ink, paper; 23 1/2 x 12 1/2 in. (59 x 31 cm.)

Woods and Valleys of Yushan.  1372. Hanging scroll, ink, paper; 37 1/2 x 14 1/8 in. (94.3 x 35.9 cm.)

Ni’s friend the scholar Cheng Yuanyou wrote on the painting:  Master Ni paints as if he were carving a block of ice.  Rid of the sediments, his work achieves a sublime purity.  Cool streams, lean sandbars, nothing more.  Stripped rocks and textured trees are filled with expression.  Like a treasure of coral netted from the sea, an immortal's plant springs suddenly to life.  Like imbibing wine without getting drunk, through his painting one feels harmony with the universe.

3.     Wang Meng 王蒙 (c. 1308-1385).

Dwelling in Reclusion in the Qingbian Mountains.  1366. Hanging scroll, ink, paper; 29 3/4 x 14” (fig. 8-31) Compare with Guo Xi’s Early Spring

The Simple Retreat.  1370. Hanging scroll, ink, paper; 53 1/2 x 17 3/4 in. (136 x 45 cm.).

4.     Wu Zhen 吳鎮 (1280-1354).

Fisherman.  1342. Handscroll, ink on paper; 9 3/4 x 17 in. (24.8 x 43.2 cm).
Poetic Feeling in Thatched Pavilion.  1347. Handscroll, ink on paper.

By the side of the hamlet I build a thatched pavilion.  Balanced and squared, it is lofty in conception.  The woods being deep, the birds are happy; the dust being distant, bamboos and pines are clean.  Streams and rocks invite lingering enjoyment, lutes and books please my temperament. How should I bid farewell to the world of the ordinary and the familiar, and let my heart go its own way for the gratification of my life.