Landscape Painting of China and Japan. Hugo Münsterberg

no originals have been preserved, there is today a stone engraving of a copy of the Wang Ch'uan scroll mentioned above which may give some indication of his style (Plate 8). Here again the quality of the copy is so poor that, in a literal sense, it is probably fairly close to the original. The rubbings extant today are made from a stone engraving by the Ming artist Kuo Shi-yuan, who in turn based his version upon a Sung copy which had been executed by Kuo Chung-shu.²⁹ Tradition has it that the original was also in monochrome, although other paintings by Wang Wei referred to in the art literature are described as being in color.³⁰ Thus, it seems likely that this scroll too had originally been painted in brilliant colors and that later critics, in order to have the master conform to their preconceived notions of what a work by the founder of the Southern School should have looked like, pretended that the Wang Ch'uan scroll had been painted in black and white. Certainly the difference between Wang Wei and his contemporaries was less great than the critics of the Ming period made it appear. In fact, a careful examination of these rubbings would suggest that the artist employed the same meticulous and detailed manner which was used by Li Chao-tao. The main difference, as far as one can see, is that Wang Wei emphasized the natural setting more and the buildings and figures less, suggesting that he was somewhat more advanced in the evolution of the pure landscape. The winding course of the river in the foreground, the towering mountain peaks with their many wrinkles, the variety of trees with their foliage making a pattern against the mountains, the tiny people, and in the center the equally tiny animals are all rendered with precise detail, and yet at the same time the artist achieves a far greater sense of unity in the design as a whole. Even more significant is the motif itself, that of the scholar's retreat amidst the beauty and solitude of nature, which is so close in spirit to the landscape painting of the Sung period. It may well be that Wang Wei's great influence on later artists can be explained by his new conception of landscape painting, rather than by any technical innovation. Certainly there can be little doubt that the profound cleavage between the so-called Northern School, which followed the meticulous and colorful manner of Li Ssu-hsün, and the Southern School, with its freer style supposedly following the ink washes of Wang Wei, was very largely the creation of Ming scholars like Tung Ch'i-ch'ang, for neither in the painting nor the criticism of the T'ang period is there much sign of this difference.

      Another famous Wang Wei composition was entitled "Clearing after Snowfall in the Hills by the River," of which two copies have come down to us. One is in the collection of Mr. Lo Chên-yü in Tientsin, and the other is owned by Professor Ogawa in Kyoto.³¹ However, both of them are certainly no earlier than the Sung period, nor do they convey the spirit of the eighth century very convincingly. The subject is no doubt inspired by Wang Wei's celebrated painting and shows again what a great contribution the artist made towards the development of the landscape, for these are pure landscapes in which the figures no longer have an important place. At the same time, the execution cannot be faithful to the original, at least not if the scrolls were typical of Wang Wei, with the inspired brushwork traditionally associated with his name.

      Many other works are either attributed to Wang Wei or are supposed to reflect his style, but most of them are not only poor in quality but have little similarity to anything which we associate with the period. Among these, the most convincing is a winter landscape, painted on silk with slight color, which is in the collection of the Freer Gallery (Plate 9). It is certainly a late copy, probably no earlier than the Ming period, but it seems to preserve the T'ang spirit pretty faithfully, especially in the lofty mountains, the gnarled trees, and the white snow. In fact, according to tradition, Wang Wei was particularly famous for his painting of snow-covered mountain tops, and many scrolls of this subject are still ascribed to him today.