Preface to the Record of Ancient Paintings by Xie He

The quality of a husband’s paintings reflects the quality of all paintings. Those who draw the pictures are all aware of the admonitions, ups and downs, and thousands of years of loneliness, which can be learned from the pictures. Although there are six methods of painting, it is rare to be able to do it all, but from ancient times to the present, each one is good at one. What are the six laws? The first is the vividness of the rhyme, the second is the use of the brush in the bone method, the third is the pictogram of the object, the fourth is the color according to the category, the fifth is the management position, and the sixth is the transfer of the transfer model. But Lu Tanwei and Wei Xie were prepared for this. However, the traces are clumsy, and the skills are not ancient or modern. I will cut them into prefaces based on the distance and the taste. Therefore, the source of what is said here is not wide, but it comes from gods and immortals, so no one can hear or see it. Written by Xie He of Southern Qi.

[Note] Loneliness: "Laozi": Loneliness and loneliness. Wei Lian's Note: Quiet, silent; sparse, invisible. It should be comprehensive and include everything. What are the six laws? One, Qiyun means vividness: and the sentence is broken down as: Qiyun, vividness means it. The same applies to others.

(Zhang Chuanyou)

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[Appreciation] As the contemporary Western scholar Karl Jaspers put forward the Eastern and Western cultures With the "Axial Age" experienced by the development of philosophy - that is, from 800 BC to 200 BC, the spiritual foundation of mankind was laid simultaneously or independently. Hundreds of schools of thought in the East, led by Laozi and Confucius, not only kicked off the transformation of Chinese culture and philosophy from the era of ignorance and worship of "witchcraft" to the era of rationality of worship of "history", but also the transformation of Chinese music, painting, sculpture, etc. A period of explosion of artistic creation and exploration. (For example: the large number of rock paintings, floor paintings, murals, lacquer paintings, and silk paintings recently discovered by archeology. Their smart and changeable lines, mature and diverse techniques, and multiple explorations of realism and abstraction vividly show the active state of artistic creation at that time. ) Chinese painting has become a spectacle in its subordinate position. After this passion and impulse, there was a period of nearly five hundred years of immersion in which the creative concept changed from chaos to clarity, the painting materials from chaos to concentration, and the objects of expression from mysterious illusions to realistic concreteness. By the time of the "consciousness" of literature in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, preliminary "consciousness" had also appeared in the field of painting, and a large number of painters who were leading the world in the field of figure painting appeared. The "Records of Ancient Paintings" (also known as "Ancient and Modern Paintings", referred to as "Paintings") written by Sheikh of the Southern Qi Dynasty is the earliest critical work preserved to this day. It depicts the images of stars in the vast sky. Although it is difficult to find the traces of the first stars crossing the sky in Chinese painting today, we can still imagine the grace of the masters from his description.

The universal aesthetic concepts and tastes formed by the appreciation of characters in the Wei and Jin Dynasties gradually affected calligraphy, painting, sculpture and other fields by the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Character appraisal is to determine the quality of character, character, and integrity. "Painting quality" is a natural extension of character, which is what Xie He said is to evaluate "the quality of paintings." It is its main task. If we say that character appraisal mainly focuses on the substantial, strong, and upright "scholar" character contained in the Confucian moral spirit of the character being judged, and the emptiness, tranquility, and tranquility infused by the Taoist universe's true energy, With the elegant "fairy" demeanor, what the paintings do is mainly to judge the characters in the paintings rather than the painter himself. However, as the appreciation of characters has shifted from a Confucian emphasis on morality and ethics to inner spiritual detachment and outer liberation of life styles, the judgment of the quality of paintings still remains at the level of "clear warnings and ups and downs". However, what is often overlooked is that he did not only regard the evaluation of the quality of figure paintings as the only purpose of the paintings. When the paintings were difficult to preserve for a long time and the public's aesthetic tastes were biased, the painting The record of painters and their works can provide excellent works that have been buried in the dust of time and painters with unique personalities that are not appreciated by the world. It can provide opportunities for encountering future generations across the world, thereby realizing a dialogue between ancient and modern times.

Xie He's greatest contribution in the history of painting lies in his "Six Methods" theory. The six methods are: vivid charm, bone-based brushwork, pictograms according to objects, coloring according to categories, management of positions, and transfer and imitation. Some commentators believe that the "six methods" are the "six qualities", but we think that the "six methods" are the six aspects that determine the quality of a painting. Xie He himself also clearly pointed out in the article: "There are six methods of painting, and it is rare to be able to do everything you should." "Exercise all the skills" means that you can be good at all the beauties in the six aspects and strive to achieve all the wonderful things. It is impossible for a painter's works to be divided at the same time. It is a very simple truth to classify them into six different grades.

Otherwise, it would be difficult to understand the following "Only Lu Tanwei and Wei Xie are ready to do this"; secondly, as far as the six methods themselves are concerned, "since ancient times and now, each has been good at one thing", it is not that an outstanding painter is just a certain person. A "quality" that is unique depends on his personal painting skills, skills, personal mastery of painting language, understanding of objective objects, etc., and will depend on the individual's living environment, life experience, personal cultivation, knowledge, etc. Differences in reserves and other aspects led to unevenness in his attainments in the "Six Dharma". His deep understanding of a certain method does not exclude the profound skills he may have in other methods.

If before Xie He, the creation and appreciation of Chinese figure paintings was mainly a hazy and conscious behavior. After Xie He’s "Six Methods" were proposed, Chinese figure paintings, of course, also Including the flower-and-bird painting and landscape painting that later became popular, it entered a period of self-consciousness in terms of learning methods, creative exploration, and appreciation criteria. Xie He's Six Dharma Theory observes the life rhythm and external body shape of the object of expression that are in contact with the painter's spirit, from the backbone of the brushstrokes contained in the surging of the abundant life energy to the specific design of the brushstrokes. Color, composition, layout, and even description have established a complete set of theories for Chinese painting theory. This theory roughly determines the aesthetic concepts, aesthetic standards and development direction of Chinese painting for more than two thousand years. No wonder Guo Ruoxu of the Song Dynasty spoke highly of "the essence of the Six Dharma Theory, which will last forever." The Six Dharmas Theory not only created a precedent in the field of painting to rank painters based on their merits, but also put forward a set of effective evaluation standards.

Although Xie He proposed the six methods in parallel, judging from the actual situation, "vivid charm" is actually the general outline and the highest standard of the six methods. The proposal of "vivid charm" is, on the one hand, the inheritance and expansion of Gu Kaizhi's theory of "expressiveness", which combines the inner spiritual temperament of the characters with the explicit life mood, so as to be more in line with the artistic characteristics and inherent laws of the painting itself; on the other hand, On the one hand, it is an extension of the popular style of figures and objects in the Wei and Jin Dynasties to the field of painting. Appreciating paintings and appraising figures both strive to evaluate the inner spiritual temperament of the object. This phenomenon is similar to the spiritual temperament of the calligrapher displayed by the life-rich pointillism lines in the calligraphy aesthetics of the Wei and Jin Dynasties. The charm is vivid, and what is shown to the viewer is not only the lifelike objective images, but also the subjective mood, aesthetic taste, spiritual sustenance, etc. that the painter realized by "encountering with spirit rather than with eyesight" Once the viewer realizes the profound connotation behind the appearance of the work, he can achieve an emotional resonance with the painter that transcends time and space. This "qi" is mainly a kind of "essence" that enriches life. This kind of life gas appears in paintings. It not only refers to the vivid life Qi of the objects represented in figure paintings, but also includes the things related to this life Qi. It seems that the air of heaven and earth is indistinguishable. This "rhyme" is mainly a kind of emotional charm of pen and ink, that is, the different images formed by the different rhythms and speed of the brush, and the changes in the color of the ink, and the various vivid and vivid emotions formed in the minds of the viewer and the painter between different scenes. Meaningful associations. The Chinese painting that requires vividness of spirit and charm goes beyond "physical resemblance" to "spiritual resemblance", which is based on a large number of copying and description for the purpose of "form resemblance". It has been regarded as the ideal of Chinese art and aesthetic pursuit for thousands of years. This kind of criticism was mainly for the portrait paintings that were dominant at that time, and later gradually expanded to the fields of landscape, flower and bird paintings. Its connotation also expanded from the charm of the characters expressed in the painting to the inner charm of the painter himself, and became a Chinese An important aesthetic category of aesthetics.

"Bi Fu Brush" refers to the sense of life of the characters shown through the language of painting, as well as the rhythm and rhythm of this life showing the sad, fresh and elegant era of the Wei and Jin Dynasties. fashion. The vividness of the charm is from the spiritual and transcendent level; the bone method is from the tool and technique level; "Yingwu Xiangtang" is the description of the external characteristics of the object. There is no conflict between the vividness of the spirit and the accurate and rigorous capture of the external characteristics of the object. "Spiritual resemblance" must be based on "physical resemblance". "Applying color according to the category" refers to accurately applying colors according to the colors of different objects, and the color changes of the same object in different light and shadow, and in different states; "Operating position" refers to the composition and layout of the entire painting, as well as the relationship between different objects in the painting. "Transfer imitation" is an effective way to learn and improve Chinese painting, while imitation writing is an effective method to learn and improve the level of Chinese painting and expression skills, and to enhance the painter's aesthetic ability and spiritual realm.

Among the six methods, "vividness of charm" is the center. Only when the other "five methods" are fully embodied in "vividness of charm" can they realize themselves and gain meaning. The realization of vividness of charm can only be achieved when This is possible only if all the “Five Dharmas” have been perfectly achieved. Zhang Yanyuan of the Tang Dynasty said in "Records of Famous Paintings of the Past Dynasties" that "if the painting is based on the spirit and charm, then the shape will be in it." Wang Keyu in the Ming Dynasty also expressed this point of view. He said: "Xie He had six methods in painting, and the first one is noble and vivid; the brush method of covering bones is not only the charm but not effective; the pictorial form of the object is not the charm, but the charm is not clear; the color is given according to the category, If it is not the charm, it will not be wonderful; if it is not the charm, it will not be true; if it is transferred and copied, it will not be the charm." It can be seen that the vivid artistic effect of the charm is also the best test standard for the other five methods to realize themselves.

Xie He applied the "Six Methods" evaluation criteria to the works of known famous painters and classified twenty-seven ancient and modern painters into six categories. However, his six-grade classification method of criticism is not as simple and popular as the three-grade and fourth-grade classification methods in calligraphy. When it comes to Liu Daochun, his "Criticism of Famous Paintings of the Song Dynasty" directly divides calligraphy into three grades: divine, wonderful and capable. The method was borrowed into the field of painting. Zhu Jingxuan of the Tang Dynasty added a "Yi" grade to the three grades, which was gradually accepted by everyone and became the basic criterion for evaluating the grade of Chinese paintings.

At the same time, Xie He was also the most talented and influential court painter in the Qi and Liang Dynasties. Although Yao Zui did not fully agree with his painting standards, he still admired Xie He's personal painting skills. In his "Record of Continued Paintings", he praised Xie He as the first person in the field of figure painting "since the ZTE". He "doesn't need to look at each other when describing characters. He only needs to take a look and write." Xie He has keen and accurate judgment in grasping the essential characteristics of characters, such as character and temperament. In terms of expressing the inner temperament, external physical characteristics and even physiological details of characters, Xie He has superb and skillful painting skills. He "spotted and studied carefully, and the shapes were similar in mind, and nothing was lost in the eyes." At the same time, Xie He was also the chief painter of the earliest painting academy in the history of Chinese painting. He and a group of disciples headed by Shen Biao, who was "exquisite in nature", and Jiao Baoyuan, who was "seeing Shangchunfang", formed a full-time painter surrounding the court. Of course, their painting style is the same as the literary world at that time, full of gaudy, charming and gorgeous colors. Sheikh was also an expert in catering to the palace's tastes, following fashions and trends. "Goddess", "beautiful woman" and even the charming "harlot" are the main characters in their paintings, showing their bodies, clothing, dancing postures, sleeping states, and various expressions of drunken eroticism. The people in the painting not only have the same "beautiful clothes and makeup" and "straight eyebrows and curved temples" as the women in the palace, but their clothing "changes at any time" and their beauty treatment is "unparalleled in the world." In addition, "applying vermilion with a touch of red" can dye a woman's charm through the texture changes and color contrast of skin and clothing.

Nonetheless, in Yao Zui's view, although Xie He himself advocated the six methods of painting, the court painters centered on him still fell far behind the requirements of the six methods. He valued "vivid charm", and his creations were "extremely vivid". He paid attention to "bone-based brushwork", but his "brushwork was delicate and not elegant and majestic". He expressed the "lively and energetic" characters. The rhythm of the inner life is not sufficient and agile enough, and the pen and ink techniques used to show the character's "bone-hard and sorrowful" temperament are more flexible than rigid. In addition, due to the limitations of the times, when evaluating the quality of paintings, Xie He often focused on portraits and paid little attention to landscapes, flowers and birds. This point brought many limitations to his criticism, and was criticized by Yao Zui, Li Sizhen and others.

However, when Xie He evaluated the quality of a painter, he only looked at the "clumsiness" of the painting, regardless of the painter's "ancient and modern". This artistic "consciousness" centered on the painting itself enabled him to He transcended the mediocre vision of his time, was not troubled by factors such as power, politics, and status, and co-authored a "gorgeous" aesthetic rhythm. He proposed the "Six Methods" that have been adopted by painters and are "unchangeable for thousands of years", thereby establishing himself. He is the founder of aesthetic standards in the history of painting and aesthetics. As the "conscious" recorders of painting and literature between the Jin and Tang Dynasties, Xie He and Xiao Tong have equally lofty status in the history of art.

Xie He's "Ancient Paintings" had a great influence on later painting theory. After that, Yao Zu of the Chen Dynasty had "Continued Paintings", Li Sizhen of the Tang Dynasty had "Post Paintings", Seng Yantai had "Post Paintings", and Zhang Yanyuan's "Records of Famous Paintings of the Past Dynasties" appeared in the Tang Dynasty, all of which were borrowed from The evaluation criteria of the "Six Methods" of "Ancient Paintings".

Although all the paintings up to Xiehe's time had been wiped out, his "Ancient Paintings List", as the earliest preserved painting appraisal work, still exerts an immeasurable influence.