Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty carried on the system of the Song Dynasty and meanwile set up the imperial court painting academy.The court artists took the Southern Song style as their model,seeking trenchancy and right-angle turns of strokes.Dai Jin,an early-stage artist,and some others were considered as matchless ones at the time,but their successors persisted in seeking vigour and sheer showery without reser-vation.In addition to that,their inkings and strokes appeared slapdash and coares,for which later generations of painters had quite some veiled criticism showing disapproval.Another mainstream of the Ming-dynasty paintings ran outside the count academy.On the credit of the extending development through the Song and the Yuan years,scholar paintings became step by step a decisive force in the art circles.The Wumen School headed by Shen Zhou,Wen Zhengming,Tang Yin and Qiu Ying held sway in the painter' circles.After going through the baptism of the Yuan dynasty academic paintings,even those who had inherited the count academy style began to be particular about the makings of the scholars characterized by dilution and placidity.

Therefore,various styles of moderation,reservation,softness and gracefulness,and meticulousness were then flowing with lustre and brimming with splendour.The Ming dynasty art circles were known for the multiplicity of schools and sects,each boasting its own different style.There was the style of vigour and sternness typical of the Zhejiang School and the Academy,and so there was that of temperateness and refinedness belonging to the Wumen and the Songjiang Schools.There could be seen the scrupulous true-to-reality depictions of Lu Ji and Lin Liang,and likewise the free impressionist ink-splashes of Chen Chun and Xu Wei.As for figure paintings,it was known as the Southern Chen(Hongshou) and the Northern Cui(Zizhong),the two artists at the time.A figure painting specialist could also be found in the person of Zeng Jing.All of them succeeded in adding radiance to the Ming dynasty paintings with their distinct individualities and exquisite works