Zhang Yan-yuan's Artistic Ideas and Theoretic Development

Notes on Famous Paintings in History by Zhang Yan-yuan is a very important work on painting in Chinese artistic history. Zhang put forward view that painting and calligraphy shared common features, when discussing origins of painting; on factors that contributed to development of painting, he expounded relation of painting to political situation on one hand, and stressed painter's heritage and development on other hand - his ideas on development of landscape painting are especially noteworthy; and as to functions of painting, while affirming moralistically-oriented idea that spectators could draw lessons from artistic works, he admitted that rising landscape could delight and enlighten viewers. He advocated Six Methods suggested by Xie He and his discussion, especially that on relation between representation of appearance and representation of spirit as well as relevant techniques, is highly original. He believed that the message of a painting does not lie in painting but can be obtained from it and that paintings made in a chaste, austere style are best among best. Those opinions, which embodies Zhuang Tzu's artistic spirit, contributed to mutually-complementing Confucianist-Taoist artistic theoretic system.