MA YUANThe most famous Song family of painters was the
Ma family, which began working for the Song dynasty during the
Northern Song period.Ma Yuan(ca. 1160–1225) painted On a
Mountain Path in Spring (FIG. 7-24), a silk album leaf, for Ningzong
in the early 13th century. In his composition, in striking contrast to
Fan Kuan’s much larger Travelers among Mountains and Streams
(FIG. 7-1), the landscape is reduced to a few elements and confined to
the foreground and left side of the page. A tall solitary figure gazes
out into the infinite distance. Framing him are the carefully placed
diagonals of willow branches. Near the upper right corner a bird flies
toward the couplet that Ningzong added in ink, demonstrating his
mastery of both poetry and calligraphy:
Brushed by his sleeves, wild flowers dance in the wind;
Fleeing from him, hidden birds cut short their songs.
Some scholars have suggested that the author of the two-line poem
is actually Empress Yang, but the inscription is in Ningzong’s hand.
In any case, landscape paintings such as this one are perfect embod-
iments of the Chinese ideals of peace and unity with nature.LIANG KAIReligious painting was also popular under the South-
ern Song emperors. Neo-Confucianism, a blend of traditional Chi-
nese thought and selected Buddhist concepts, became the leading
philosophy, but many painters still depicted Buddhist themes. ChanBuddhism (see “Chan Buddhism,” page 201), which stressed the quest
for personal enlightenment through meditation, flourished under
the Song dynasty.Liang Kai(active early 13th century) was a master
of an abbreviated, expressive style of ink painting that found great
favor among Chan monks in China, Korea, and Japan. He served in
the painting academy of the imperial court in Hangzhou, and his
early works include poetic landscapes typical of the Southern Song.
Later in life, he left the court and concentrated on figure painting, in-
cluding Chan subjects.
Surviving works attributed to Liang Kai include an ink painting
(FIG. 7-25) of the Sixth Chan Patriarch, Huineng, crouching as he
chops bamboo. In Chan thought, the performance of even such
mundane tasks had the potential to become a spiritual exercise. More
specifically, this scene represents the patriarch’s “Chan moment,”
when the sound of the blade striking the bamboo resonates within
his spiritually attuned mind to propel him through the final doorway
to enlightenment. The scruffy, caricature-like representation of the
revered figure suggests that worldly matters, such as physical appear-
ance or signs of social status, do not burden Huineng’s mind. Liang
Kai used a variety of brushstrokes in the execution of this deceptively
simple picture. Most are pale and wet, ranging from the fine lines of
Huineng’s beard to the broad texture strokes of the tree. A few darker
strokes, which define the vine growing around the tree and the patri-
arch’s clothing, offer visual accents in the painting. This kind of quick200 Chapter 7 CHINA AND KOREA TO 12797-24Ma Yuan,On a Mountain Path in Spring,Southern Song period, early 13th century. Album leaf, ink and colors on silk, 10–^34 17 .
National Palace Museum, Taibei.
Unlike Fan Kuan (FIG. 7-1), Ma Yuan reduced the landscape on this silk album leaf to a few elements and confined them to one part of the page.
A tall solitary figure gazes out into the infinite distance.1 in.7-24AXIAGUI,
Twelve Views
from a
Thatched Hut,
ca. 1200–1225.