Literati 文人
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[edit] When
Sources vary on the date of the tradition's origin. The general consensus holds that Literati poetry began as early as the 10th century (during the Song Dynasty), with the painting tradition establishing itself a few centuries later under the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).[1]
[edit] Where
Throughout Southern China.[2]
[edit] What
The key to appreciating the Literati tradition is to take into consideration the historical division between men who were called "academic" painters, and those who were seen as painters in the Literati tradition. Academic painters were highly skilled craftsmen, who aimed to achieve marvelous effects through their use of colors, realistic or highly conventional representations of people or things, spectacular detail, applications of shiny gold leaf, and so forth. The Imperial court employed many such men, and others made their way in the world by selling their paintings to wealthy patrons and customers. "Academic painters" were professionals, both in their virtuoso skills, and in the fact that they depended on permanent employment as painters, or on selling their paintings to live. While many of these men were educated to some degree, few possessed the literary background of a literatus, and none made their way in life fulfilling the Confucian ideal of governmental service. "Literati painters," on the other hand, were amateurs -- they painted as a means of self-expression, much the same way they wrote poetry; both forms were inheritances from the Neo-Daoist era of the Six Dynasties. While many fewer literati were accomplished painters than were poets (and painting was never an aspect of the exams), in every major place in China there were always many literati who either painted on the side, while playing the role of scholar-officials, or who, through wealth, could afford to devote themselves fully to the art of painting.[3]
Literati painting was conceived as a mode through which the Confucian junzi (noble person) expressed his ethical personality. It was much less concerned with technical showiness. Literati painters specialized in plain ink paintings, sometimes with minimal color. They lay great emphasis on the idea that the style with which a painter controlled his brush conveyed the inner style of his character -- brushstrokes were seen as expressions of the spirit more than were matters of composition or skill in realistic depiction.[3]
While Literati poetry developed fully during the Tang Dynasty on the basis of long Six Dynasties preparation, painting did not become central to Literati until later. Although we hear of famous poet-painters of the Tang, because their works have not survived, it is difficult to know to what degree their art differed from academic painting. During the late Song, however -- that is, after about 1200 -- Literati and academic painting become two distinct streams. Interestingly, although academic paintings were often far more skilled in technique, many felt -- and still feel -- that the "amateur" ink paintings of the literati are the highest form of art in China.[3]
[edit] Modern Relevance
This division between Literati painters, who were traditionally associated with the South, and the academic painters, who were often referred to as the Northern School, remains relevant today. In the 1980s, the Northern Artists Group and the Southwest Artists Group both emerged as leading modern styles, yet between them there still existed the disparity between realism and controlled virtuoso on the one hand, and self-expression and painterliness on the other. Still today, Chinese artists and critics will generally distinguish for a foreigner the art of Beijing and Shanghai as political versus introspective, figural versus abstract, objective versus romantic.
