The Yuan Dynasty is the first feudal society set up by minorities. The central government of the Yuan Dynasty divided the people into four classes, among which people inSouth Chinawere the lowest. In order to express their inner anger, men of letters painted a great number of pictures. Meanwhile, due to the unification of the whole country, and further cultural exchanges between ethnic groups, many minority painters reveling in traditional paintings of the Central Plains emerged, represented by Zhao Mengfu and Gao Kegong, who advocated the painting style of the ancestors'. The Four Great Painters of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), namely Huang Gongwang, Ni Zan, Wu Zhen and Wang Meng, were all excellent painters of mountains and water scenes. Their works are generally referred to as the Scholar Painting. The well-known scholar painters of the time, Nan Zhao (Zhao Mengfu from the south) and Bei Gao (Gao Kegong from the north) were the most distinguished. In history, this period was calledNan(south)Zhao Bei(north)Gao.
Zhao Mengfu (1254-1322) was a descendent of the Song imperial family and received good education as a young man. Since for some time he served the Mongol-established Yuan Empire, which had conquered his family's dynasty, the Song, numerous Han-Chinese scholars of the time did not have nice words for him. In subject, his works covered human figures, landscape, flowers and birds, bamboo and rockery. And his work fall within two major categories: bright-coloredGong Bi Hua(paintings done with fine delicate stokes), and Xie Yi(free-style) ink and wash paintings. His well-known works in the first category includeSelf-Portrait(zi hua xiang, kept at thePalaceMuseuminBeijing),Landscape at Wuxing(wu xing qing yuan tu, kept at theShanghaiMuseum) andBathing Horses(yu ma tu, kept at thePalaceMuseuminBeijing).
Zhao was also an accomplished calligrapher. In the process of creating paintings and calligraphic works, he realized that the two branches of art shared many things in common. Advocating the use of calligraphic brushwork for the creation of pictures was one of Zhao Mengfu's important views on art, and this view of his exerted an extremely strong influence on the development of "Scholar Paintings" after him.
During the same period, another painter from the north enjoyed the same fame as Zhao Mengfu and the two actually become good friends after they came together to serve the court. This man was called Gao Kegong, a minority. Influenced by Zhao Mengfu, Gao began to show great interest in painting and eventually achieved a lot. He was especially excellent at painting bamboo as well as mountains and water.
In the cultural integration period of the Yuan Dyansty, Gao Kegong and Zhao Mengfu's accomplishment on painting was of high appreciation.
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