Looking at
Late Qing Painting with New Eyes
CHU-TSING LI

In the study of Chinese history and culture, the late Qing has been a
rather strange period. The Chinese do not like to mention it much
since the whole period marks a long series of humiliating military
defeats by Western powers andJapan. In literature and other aspects
of cultu re, this period is often regarded as one of decline, filled with
satirical novels and sentimental stories, but nothing spiritually uplifting. However, for scholars outside of China the late Qing marks a
new beginning in Chinese history when the Chinese, with their long
period of self-centered isolation broken, began to face the challenges
from the rest of the world. In the scholarship on Chinese history in
America, Europe, and Japan, perhaps more books and doctoral dissertations have been written on this period than any other. Yet, in art
history, this period has been almost a non-entity until recently. Most
scholars, in their teaching of Chinese art, usually stop in the eighteenth century. Museums as a rule seldom collect paintings of this
period. Even though there have been some dissertations on artists
from this period (one on Ren Yi and one on Zhao Zhiqian, for example)' they are regarded almost as anomalies.
But in the last several years things began to change. Chinese historians gradually came to see the late Qing as the period in which the
Chinese began to show signs of modern development, especially during the Taiping Rebellion and the reform movements. There has
been a new interest in literature of this period, especially in the variety and vitality of late Qing novels. Many of them have been rediscovered and recently published . In art, there has been a definite move
away from the strict literati point of view and a new look at the art of
the period, especially the Shanghai School. In the new attitude toward
art, many art works hitherto considered unimportant are receiving
greater attention, such asthe newly discovered paintings oftheTaiping
Heavenly Kingdom, thewoodcuts of theYangliuqing Studio inTianjin,
and the New Year's woodcuts.
18

LOOKING AT LATE QING PAINTING

Several interesting developments during the last twenty years
have also helped to create a greater interest in the art of the late
Qing period. A considerable number of paintings of the late Qing
began to come out of mainland China in the early 1970s due to special
circumstances during the Cultural Revolution. Collectors in Hong
Kong, Taiwan and abroad became interested in them.Then auction
houses, Sotheby 's and Christie 's, began to promote late Qing paintings. In the mid-198os, a collector-dealer gave a large collection of
later Chinese paintings to The Metropolitan Museum in New York.
At about the same time Jeannette Elliott Shambaugh of Tucson gave
a collection of modern Chinese paintings to the Phoenix Art Museum
which included a considerable number oflate Qingworks. The culmination of all these activities is this exhibition, Transcending Turmoil:
Painting at the Close of China's Empire, 1796-1911.2

Despite this new situation, it is necessary to fight against certain
prejudices that still exist, both in China and abroad, concerning late
Qing painting. First, among most of the traditional critics, it is still
regarded as a period of decline in art. According to this view, traditional literati painting in this period only repeated ideas and styles of
the Four Wangs and their followers down to the Qianlong period.
The court in Beijing was no longer interested in painting and did not
patronize artists. The major new school of painting, the Shanghai
School, was looked down upon by critics, somewhat like the Baroque
artists in Europe in the early days. Second, there seems to have been
no great artist in this period with a similar standing and extensive
influence as those great masters of the past, such as Dong Yuan and
Jing Hao of the Five Dynasties; Li Cheng, Fan Kuan, Ma Yuan, and Xia
Gui of theSong; Zhao Mengfu, Huang Gongwang, Ni Zan, and Wang
Meng of the Yuan; Shen Zhou,Wen Zhengm ing,Tang Yin, and Dong
Qichang of the Ming; the yimin masters such as Bada Shanren, Shitao,
and Gong Xian; and the Orthodox painters such as Wang Hui and
Wang Yuanqi of the early Qing.
As a result of all these circumstances, it is quite necessary for us
to take a good look at late Qing paintings, to reevaluate individual
painters as well as entire schools and the whole period, and to single
out achievements of certain painters and their significance in the history of Chinese painting. In addition, we have to look at these paintings in the light of the historical, social, and cultural developments
of the period.
I9

ARTATTHE CLOSE OF CHINA'S EMPIRE

When we look at traditional Chinese painting, from the Song to
the early Qing period, we generally look for a number of characteristics. First is the relationship of the painting to what it depicts, whether
mountains, trees, flowers, figures, or animals. The closer this relationship is, the better. This means that the painter must have the technical facility necessary to capture his object in nature. Second is the
relationship of the painting to what it derives from, namely the works
of the masters of the past.The artist usuallydrawsfrom his own teacher
or the past masters but transforms them into something new.Third is
the relationship of the painting to how the painter feels. The deeper
he can express himself in his painting, the better.
In looking at the paintings of the late Qing, we of course still
have to follow these three basic approaches but perhaps with different weight. In their relationship to what they depict, these paintings
seem to have gone beyond the range of objects in the past to include
a wider group of things in nature. It seems that painters in this period
did not feel bound by all the traditional limits and felt free to explore
something new. In the same way, in their relationship to past masters'
works, late Qing painters seem to be less tied to the past than before.
In many ways they attempted to find models not in the classical ones
but in common and everyday life or in the folk tradition.There is also
a broader range of feelings and emotions that artists expressed. It is in
these differences that we can see late Qing painting with new eyes.
During the late Qingperiod, Chinese society went through many
great changes which are only beginning to be understood. Although
military defeats have been regarded as negative elements in Chinese
history, they did bring many positive changes. The most important
was the opening up of the treaty ports to foreign trade which radically changed the whole economic situation in China. Shanghai, which
had been only a small town up to the nineteenth century, suddenly
found itself the new economic and commercial center of the whole
country.The other ports, Guangzhou (Canton ), Xiamen (Amoy ), Fuzhou, and Ningbo, also became regional centers, especially Guangzhou. The establishment of foreign concessions with extraterritorial
rights was a great insult to thesovereignty of the Chinese but it enabled
extensive contacts between the Chinese and Westerners and, thus,
considerable cultural exchange. In addition , a new class of merchants
emerged in these treaty ports. Many of the merchants worked for

20

LO O KI NG AT LAT E Q I NG PA I NT I NG

foreign companies and thus came to live in the foreign settlements .
With their new wealth and their new status under foreign protection, they climbed the ladders of Chinese society and achieved a new
sense of power in their ports . In deed, many of them became new
patrons of paintings.
With the rapid development of the treaty ports there appeared a
gap between these wealthy, foreign-oriented cities and the relatively
poor, traditional towns and villages in the vast area of China. These
port cities, with the introduction of new industries from abro ad ,
began to attract the migration of peasants hoping to becomeworkers.
It did not take long for many of the regional artists to realize that, in
order to gain patronage for their art , they too must go to Shanghai to
make their livings. As a result, Shanghai became a melting pot for
Chinese from many different regions. In art, they introduced some
new styles which merged with the prevailing ones in Shanghai to
form ever new ones.
The new patronage in these port cities was very different from the
one before which was mainly made up of high officials and local gentry. They preferred the literati tradition , attempting to follow the
taste of the scholar-officials . But in the port cities the new merchants
did not have the educational background of the literati , although
some of them did aspire to the same taste as the officials. These merchants gradually developed a taste of their own, not so highbrow in
standard but more popular in subject matter, drawn directly from
real life or from legends and stories from the past, more appealing in
style, with exaggerated and showing ostentatious characteristics.
Colorful, decorative and dramatic, the style of Shanghai became a
new language in its own right.
The artists themselves also underw ent a considerable change .
Even during the reign of Emperor Qianlong, in the eighteenth century,
many of the artists working in Yangzhou were already selling their
works without qualms. No longer pretending to be pure literati , those
who went to Shanghai during the nineteenth century definitely sought
their fortunes as professional artists. Even some of the artists from
literati families were doing the same although they painted in the very
traditional literati style.Selling was important and Shanghai waswhere
merchants reigned.The prosperity of the city assured agood market for
artists tosell their art works. It attracted artists from allover the country.

2I

ART ATTHE CLOSE OF CHINA'S EMPIRE

The eighteenth century already saw the merging ofliterati and
professional tastes in Yang zhou. But the major artists there, especially
the so-called 'Eight Eccentrics' were mainly literati. Some of them
acquiredjinshi degrees and served as officials, some even at the court
in Beijing. Others came from literati families with good backgrounds
in poetry, calligraphy, and painting. A few may have come from lower
status,but they seemed to aspire to be literati painters.As a result, most
of their works tried to blend the 'three supremes ' of poetry, calligraphy ,
and painting together into one. In artistic expression, these works
were basically literati, although their artists wanted to sell them .
In contrast, the nineteenth century was very differe nt.Whereas
a few painters such as those represented in Transcending Turmoil Huang Yue (1750-184),1Huangjun (1775-1850), Yao Yuanzhi (1776-1852),
Tang Yifen (1778-1853), Dai Xi (1801-186)1, and others such as Zhang
Zhiwan (18n-1897) and WengTonghe (1830-1904) - still served as high
officials and painted in the typical literati style,' a majority of the
artists active in Shanghai did something quite different. Determined
to make a living with their works, they painted whatever was pleasing
to the public.Their subjects may have come from legends, folk tales,
novels, drama , history, Buddhist and Taoist deities and their stories,
famous personages and beauties from history and litera tu re, or from
people and events of everyday life.Sometimes these Shanghai artists
generated a way of their own between the literati and the professional.They would take up subjects from the literati , such as landscape
and flower-and-bird, but treat these subjects differe ntly,with only
their signatures and without any poems. In other words, they tended
to blend literati and professional elements in their own ways, in a
variety of manners.
Let us take a look at some of the paintings of this period with new
eyes. First , in strict literati tradition , a number of painters still followed the Four Wangs' manner while trying to incorporate some
innovations.A number of them , such as Huang Yue,Yao Yuanzhi,Tang
Yifen, Dai Xi (figu re 1), Zhang Zhiwan, and Weng Tonghe , mentioned abo ve, were well-educated , having passed several examinations and served at court or in the provinces. For them , naturally, the
great literati tradition was their basis and they aspired to continue it.
During the late Qing there were quite a few painters working in the
literati tradition, such as Wang Xuehao (1754-183),2Huang Jun, Tang
Yifen, Gu Yun (1835-1896),Wu Guxiang (1848-1903), Lu Hui (1851-192),0
22

LOOKING AT LATE QING PAINTING

Figure 1. Dai Xi, Landscape.
Hanging scroll, dated 1837. Collection of Roy and Marilyn Papp, Phoenix.
23

ART ATTHE CLOSE OF CH I NA'S E MPIR E

He Weipu (1844-1925), Gu Linshi (1865-1930), and some others.' Most
of them came from literati or well-to-do families but in this period
they found it necessary to go to Shanghai to make a living with their
paintings. As a whole, they aspired to be the equals of the great
painters of the past.They had a good command of brushwork and
basic techniques; they were acquainted with the manners of the past
masters; they tried to express the same ideal to be hermits in a secluded world of their own, away from the dusty world, as a way to come
to terms with nature and the universe. However, their world was no
longer the same as before. As a whole this group of painters continued a nostalgia for the literati ideal. Consequently, their works have
to be looked at with 'old eyes,' or traditional literati standards.
The strength of the literati tradition lies in its long and solid
achievements in technique, theory, and expression. Works of the masters of the past of many centuries are always great inspirations to
young aspirants. No matter what happens in Chinese art, this always
remains the ideal to be fulfilled. Typically, in the late Qing, as shown
inTranscending Turmoil, many works show that this tradition was still
alive and well.
But as the nineteenth century moved on, we can see a number
of departures from this orthodoxy. While this school as a whole is
known for its special interest in the pure beauty of brush and ink,
some of the nineteenth-century painters tried to exploit this further.
One of them is Ren Yu, the youngest of the so-called Four Rens and
the son of the oldest of the group, Ren Xiong. His landscapes seem
to bein a group of their own; he was very interested in patterns and formal quality and less dependent on ancient models.' The interesting
designs he developed in the depiction of mountains and rocks show
his boldness in this direction. Ren Yu has generally been regarded as
the least prominent of the Four Rens but his innovations should be
recognized as a major contribu tion.
Another innovator out of the literati tradition was Wu Qingyun
(died 1916), a native of Nanjing who spent most of his life in Shanghai .
He seems to have been in Japan for some time where he might have
come into contact with elements of Western painting . In his land scapes, he attempted to combine cloudy mountain scenes in the tradition of Mi Fu and Gao Kegong with the atmospheric effects and
strong light-dark contrasts found in Western watercolors.6 In order
to show more realism than in literati works, he also depicted houses,
24

LOOKING AT LAT E Q I N G PA I NT I NG

pagodas, boats, bridges, and peasants and fishermen in the countryside. Perhaps one can say that he brought the literati tradition to the
mundane world as a reflection of the new taste of Shanghai.
If Shanghai still continued the orthodox literati tradition that prevailed in the Jiangnan region before, Guangzhou, the southernmost
treaty port which had been opened to the West since the early sixteenth century, produced something quite different in regard to this
tradition. Artists in Guangzhou did not try to follow the Four Wangs
until well into the nineteenth cent ur y. Because of its distance from
Jiangnan, its artists had different outlooks. A case in point was the
influence of Shitao during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries. The influence of some other yimin painters was also strong
in this area, but most interesting were some of the innovations they
introduced as new literati expressions. The most creative was Su Renshan (1814-1850) whose works show a tremendous imagination and
ingenuity in both conception and expression.7 For someone whose
short and tragic life was confined mainly to the south, in Guangdong
and Guangxi, such an expression is the work of a genius . Unfortunately, because of his personal problems, there was no follower to
continue his creative achievements .
As a whole, landscape painting was no longer the dominant genre
in the late Qing; it was flower-and-bird painting that became the
major type of presentation of this period. In flower-and-bird paintings, the late Qing is a great period with many innovations. The standard type, usually done in fine lines, bright colors and elaborate
details, followed the tradition of court paintings. Quite a few painters
in the late Qing showed very strong technical skill and a sense for
the highly decorative. Zhang Xiong, Wang Li, Zhu Cheng, and some
others show that, even within this tradition, they made certain
departures from this court style.• In the work of the brothers Ren
Xiong and Ren Xun, the two oldest of the Four Rens, there was quite
an innovative spirit, although they started from some of Chen Hongshou'sideas of thelate Mingperiod.Their works tended to turnflowersand-birds into either some unusual patterns with very decorative colors
and interesting outlines, or into free and bold brushwork with imaginative composition and formal design.9
Perhaps one of the most important developments of flower-andbird painting in the art of the late Qing was a new merging together
of calligraphy and painting. There had been a long history of this in
25

ART AT THE CLOSE OF CH INA 'S EMPIRE

China, but the late Qing development had a character of its own.
During the Qianlong period, some painter-calligraphers, such as Jin
Nong and Zheng Xie, brought the two arts together into one to reach
a new height. At the same time, the exciting development in calligraphy based on carved inscriptions on ancient stelae led to new sealcarving and stele-style calligraphy. Both of these trends paved the
way for some important developments in the late Qing. Wu Xizai
(1799-1870) was the first to paint flowers-and-birds in a purely calligraphic manner. With ink only, he handled his subjects in a variety of
tonal qualities, fully showing the potential of calligraphic strokes in
painting.
Wu Xizai paved the way for the next calligrapher-painter, Zhao
Zhiqian (1829-1884), who was an expert in stele-style calligraphy and
a painter of flowers-and-birds. Again the two arts were combined
very well. Zhao used a considerable amount of color in his works,
but in his use oflines he combined them with colors into one expression. A third painter along this line, Wu Changshuo (1844-1927) continued Zhao's development and brought this blending of calligraphy
and painting to a new height.12 With flowers and plants as his main
subject matter, he achieved a greater sense of unity between calligraphy and painting by making the lines more calligraphic at the
expense of form.
These three painters were generally grouped together as the
Metal and Stone School (Jinshi Pai) since they followed scripts from
both stelae and seals in their calligraphy and also applied them to
their paintings.They are one branch of the literati school with their
own special characteristics. In true literati tradition, they were all
well educated in the classics, passed some government examinations, served as officials in some local areas, but decided to devote
their time and energy to the pursuit of the arts, including poetry,
calligraphy, and painting.
The combination of calligraphy and painting makes their works
more surface-conscious, two dimensional, and semi-abstract. Although
flowers, trees, plants, rocks, and other objects are quite recognizable,
their lines are filled with the energy and vitality typical of calligraphy.
The poems are often written in the same style as the flowers and
plants are painted. Together, calligraphy, painting, and poetry play
equal roles in the compositions of the paintings. This approach is
similar to that of seal-carvingsince all the characters, usually in stylized
10

11

26

LO O KI NG AT LAT E Q I NG PAI NT I NG

form, must be placed in the square area of the seal in a beautiful and
innovativecomposition. Itissomething that attracted the attention of
many of their contemporaries.
The Shanghai School is a term applied to a large number of painters
living in Shanghai during this period. In Haishang Mo lin , a compilation of the painters of Shanghai by Yang Yi, printed in 1919, a total of
741 names is included .13 This is a very large number of painters for a
city such as Shanghai which did not gain importance as an urban
center until the nineteenth century. Although the book covers all the
painters and calligraphers who either lived or came as visitors in this
area from the Song until the early years of the Repub lic, a majority of
them , probably more than two thirds of the total, lived in the late
Qing period. This means that about five hundred artists were active
in Shanghai during the period of a little over a century. From this
point of view, Shanghai was a great flourishing center for painting
and calligraphy in the late Qing.
In this respect, we should examine the works of whom I consider
the greatest master of thelate Qing, Ren Yi or Ren Bonian (1840-1895)."
He was born the first year of the Opium War into the family of a rice
merchant, who had an education in the classics, though not enough
to pass examinations, and who was a self-trained painter, especially
in portraiture. Growing up in his native Shanyin , now Shaoxing, Ren
learned to paint from his father and was able to master portrait painting when still quite young . In 1861, when he was twenty-two, he was
forced to join the Taiping army when Shanyin was invaded by the
rebels. During the chaotic period of the Taiping invasion, Ren Yi's
father died. Soon he was able to leave the army, but due to the disruptions caused by the war he had to make a living by selling paintings in Shanyin and some of the nearby cities such as Ningbo, one of
the new treaty ports, Hangzhou, the largest city in the province of
Zhejiang, and Suzhou, on the north bank of Lake Tai. Finally in1868,
at the age of twenty-nine, he went to Shanghai to seek his fortune.
When he was fifteen, he probably met one of the painters in his
home district , Ren Xiong (1823-1857), who was in the same clan .
Eighteen years older than Ren Yi, he was well-established as a painter
when Ren Yi came of age. Indeed, he must have been an inspiration
since Ren Xiong was the one who developed a style from an earlier
painter in the same district, Chen Hongshou of the early Qing period.
From Chen' s manner of exaggeration and distortion from archaic
1

'

27

ART ATTHE CLOSE OF CH I NA'S E MPIR E

models, Ren Xiongperfected a manner that echoed Chen's approaches
on the one hand but turned to his own way of depicting figures on
the other. This style was continued by his brother, Ren Xun (18351893), who was twelve years younger , but five years older than Ren Yi.
Both ofthem became mentors of Ren Yi.Their styles became the basis
of his development.
In his early works, Ren Yi was indebted to the two senior Rens ,
who painted in the tradition of Chen Hongshou. Figures and objects
are archaicized by stylization oflines and shapes , patternization of
details, and exaggeration of features (figure 2). Archaism is the key to
this early period and he executed all the details of the paintings with
great care and facility. He was especially interested in the manipulation of lines, shapes and colors to show decorative and expressive
effects. Facial features, garments , chairs, objects on tables, trees, rocks
and other details are done in his arbitrary manner,very different from
their shapes generally known to us but full of archaic flavor.
In contrast to this, he developed another manner quite early in his
life, namely portrait paint ing. Perhaps as a result of some Western
influence , the late Qing was a period of portrait making.Very different from the official portraits of earlier periods, these informal paintings were of contemporary people, usually seated in garden settings,
with realistic depictions of facial features and somewhat free handling of draperies. The figures are quite alive and close to life, showing a trend toward realism in the late Qing.
However, the paintings that won him thegreatest acclaim inShanghai were the flower-and-bird type. Among all the paintings he painted
during hislifetime, no doubt the largest number fall into this category.
Still derivingfrom Chen Hongshou and the two older Rens, hedepicted
flowers , plants, trees , birds, and animals sometimes in archaic, expert
outlines and rich colors, including gold that he used quite often, and
sometimes in broad , free brushwork and interesting colors in the socalled ' boneless style' (figure 3). In these paintings, he shows the full
development of his own personal style that enjoyed great popularity
in Shanghai. Skillfully composed on the two dimensional surface, his
1
•

1
'

w o rks show a very strong sense of form, a great awarenessof decora-

tive quality and a spirited vitality of brushwork.
Ren Yi was such a versatile artist that in subject matter, technique
and style he shows a tremendous range. In addition to archaic figures,
portraits, flowers-and-birds , he also painted animals, people from all
28

LOOKING AT LATE QING PAINTING

Figure 2. Ren Yi, Presenting Spring Felicities .
Hanging scroll, dated 1872. Source: Paintings by Ren Bonian, plate 1.

29

Figure 3. Ren Yi, Plantain
and Hydrangea. Hanging
scroll, dated 1882.
Source: Paintings by Ren
Bonian,plate 4.

LOOKING AT LATE QING PAINTING

walks of life, legendary and historical figures, stories from poems,
novels and dram a, and landscapes . In these works he is not only
noted for his brushwork, colors, compositions, and sense of form,
but also for his new taste, such as a sense of humor, especially in his
figures and animals.
The sense of humor is one of the most typical aspects of the
Shanghai School, made especially interesting and important by Ren
Yi. First it isfound in Ren's depictions of animals and birds. Indeed, as
shown mostly in their eyes, they seem to have taken on the characteristics of human beings.18 This , of course, is not new, for in the works of
Bada Shanren in the early Qing we can already find some of the birds
or fish or other creatures with quizzical expressions. Ren seems to
have broadened this not only in birds but also in horses and goats and
in human beings. Sometimes they appear to be very self-conscious;
sometimes they are rather naive; sometimes they show humorous
expressions. Again this sense of humor is typical of the new taste
developed in Shanghai.
Another typical type of painting in Shanghai was of figures, especially of Buddhists and Daoists, and ladies. Although this type can be
traced back to the middle Ming painter Qiu Ying, its popularity during the late Qing had something to do with the society in Shanghai.
Perhaps a parallel can be drawn from the ukiyo-e prints of actors and
courtesans inJapan, for both the Shanghai type of figure paintings and
the ukiyo-e were products of a new merchant class taste .The Shanghai
paintings ranged in subject from female beauties based on traditional
novels and drama inworks of such artists as Gai Qi(1777-1828)(figure 4),
Fei Danxu (1801-1850) and Wang Su (1794-1877) to legendary figuressuch
as Zhong Kui the demon queller,' the Eight Im m ort als, the Three
Gods of Luck, Fortune and Longevi ty, the Buddha, Guanyin,
luohan, and many others, in the works of Ren Yi and most typically
Qian Hui'an (1833-19n) (figure 5). In Guangzhou, both Su Renshan
and Su Liupen g21 developed their own ways of depicting historical
and legendary figures. Most of these figures had existed for centuries
in the folk tradition in China. But in the late Qing they became subjects of works for popular artists in connection with the wishes of
the newly rich society.
It is interesting to look at the painting development oflate Qing
with new eyes. Without the emperors and their courts as arbiters of
taste, literati painting, while generally regarded as the mainstream,
19

0

31

ART ATTHE CLOSE OF CHINA'S EMPIRE

,,

Figure 4. Gai Qi, Yuzhen's Conversion to Dao.
FromAlbum of FamousWomen.Collection of Roy and Marilyn Papp, Phoenix.

32

LOOKING

AT LATE

QING PAINTING

Figure 5. Qian Hui'an, Eight Immortals in Birthday Celebration.
Hanging scroll, dated 1908. Source: Guotai Meishu Guan Xuanji, I, plate 3.

33

ART AT THE CLOSE OF CH I NA' S EM PI RE

served as an ideal but failed to attract the main body of young artists.
The domination of the Four Wangs and their descendants was over.
The new artists were not seeking approval or acceptance from the
court or the cultural elite but from the newly prosperous of the port
cities. While some members of this group did aspire to be patrons of
the literati tradition, a majority followed their own tastes .These
merchants were mostly self-made people who came from families
of artisans and peasants. When young, they began as apprentices in
certain trades or foreign companies. By hard work and luck they rose
through the ranks to become entrepreneurs or compradors. Most of
them got ahead in connection with foreign trade and in time some
of them became extremely rich in Shanghai , Guangzhou , and other
ports. With their wealth they became patrons of the arts .Their taste
was then a combination of highbrow and middlebrow.
With this development newapproaches and aesthetics were needed
to define their tastes. Again , like the Baroque in the West, what was
once looked down upon as vulgar and bizarre, late Qing painting,
when studied in its proper light, could become just as interesting and
exciting as the Renaissance and other periods. The taste in Shanghai
and Guangzhou and other treaty ports was looked down upon by the
elite in similar fashion. Luckily, there has been gradual appreciation
of this for some time. First, the people who got their early training in
Western art, some inJapan and some later in Europe, began to appreciate artists such as Ren Yi and the whole group of Shanghai painters.
Then came the Communist artists and critics, who showed great
respect for these artists because of their plebian backgrounds and
their interest in the folk tradition. Now with Chinese art seen in a
whole range of traditions and potentials, the art of thelate Qingis also
regarded as one of the most interesting in the history of Chinese art .
Indeed , if we take the twentieth century point of view to look at
the art of the late Qing we can find some fascinating materials which
had not been accepted as fine arts before. There were book illustra tions, some done by well-known painters, that are quite elegant and
exquisite. 22 There were New Year's woodcuts, colorful and attractive,
which, aside from depicting guardian deities, show a whole variety of
subjects from everyday life, with humor and drama." There was also
some pictorial journ alism, probably used as propaganda. Others show
the impact from abroad in oil painting depicting scenes in Hong Kong

34

LOOKING AT LAT E QI NG PAINTING

and Guangzhou .•2 One of the most interesting types of painting was a
kind of Chinese trompe l'reil, in the depiction of a number of pages
from books.2' They give us a sense of vision in late Qing China.
The new aesthetic in late Qing was basically formed by a variety
of artists from many parts of China who went to Shanghai with the
overt purpose of selling their paintings as a way of making a living.
Because of the new cosmopolitan society dominated by foreign-oriented merchants and entrepreneurs, the patronage of art also underwent a considerable change.While literati ideals still prevailed, these
artists tried to bring in many different elements to enrich this tradition. Some introduced techniques and practices of ancient scripts
from stone stelae; others took some ideas from Western watercolors
and oil paintings; still others found interesting ideas from folk art;
some depicted people and animals from everyday life.What they did
was to transform all these elements from the mundane to the level
ofliterati expression without vulgarizing or debasing the quality of
art . From this point of view, the art of the late Qing, instead of imitating and repeating the ideas of the early and middle Qing, took on
new life to become an art in its own right.

35

ART ATTHE CLOSE OF CH I NA'S EMPIRE

Notes
Soong, 'A Visual Experience in 19th-Century China: Jen Po-nie(184095) and the Shanghai School of Painting' (PhD dissertation: Stan- ford
University, 1978), and Elizabeth Benn ett , 'Chao Chih-ch'ien (18291884), A Late Nineteenth Century Chinese Artist: His Life, Calligraphy
and Painting' (PhD Dissertation: Yale University, 1984).
2. This exhibition traveled to the Denver Art Museum, the Honolulu Academy of Art, and the Hong Kong Art Museum after it had opened at the
Phoenix Art Museum in August, 1992. Claudia Brown and Ju-hsi Chou
cocurated the exhibition and coauthored the accompanying catalog
(Phoenix, 1992).
3. See Brown and Chou,Transcending Turmoil, respectively numbers I, 4, 12,
13-16, and 17-18. For works by major officials, Zhang Zhiwan (18n-1897)
and Wen Tonghe (1830-190)4, see Robert Ellsworth, Later Chinese Painting
and Calligraphy (New York, 1986), II, Po31.01, Album of Landscapes, and
Po44.01, Landscape, respectively.
4. For Wang Xuehao's work, see Transcending Turmoil, numbers 9-n. For
Wu Guxiang's, see number 58. For Lu Hui's, see numbers 79-80. For the
works of Gu Yun and He Weipo, see Ellsworth , Later Chinese Painting, II,
Po33.01, Huaisu in the Banana Grove and Po62.01, Albu mof Landscapes,
respectively. For an example of Gu Lingshi's painting, see Po68.01,A
I. James

Ting-tzu near a Stream .

5. For a fine treatment oflandscape motif, see his Meditation in a Cave, published in Ellsworth, Later Chinese Painting, II, Po41.02.
6. For paintings byWu Qingyun, see Transcending Turmoi l , numbers 81-82.
7. For works by Su Renshan, see Transcending Turmoil, numbers 98-ro2. For
in-depth studies of this artist, see Pierre Ryckmans,The Lifeand Work of Su
Renshan: Rebel, Painter and Madman, 1814-1849? (Paris and Hong Kong ,
1970), two volumes; and Guangzhou Art Gallery and the Art Gallery,
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The Art of Su Liupeng and Su
Renshan (Hong Kong, 1990).
8. See Transcending Turmoil , numbers 51 (Zhang Xiong ), 52 (Zhu Cheng ),
and 77 (Wang Li).
9. Examples of their flower painting can be seen in Masterworks of Shanghai
School Painters from Shanghai Museum Collect ion (Hong Kong, 1991),
figure 15 (Ren Xio ng) and figure 44 (Ren Xu n). Also see Transcending
Turmoil, number 63, for a bolder attempt by Ren Xun.
10.
For Wu Xizai's painting, see Transcending Turmoi l , number 87.

LOOKING AT LATE QI NG PA I NTI NG

11. For Zhao Zhiqian, see Transcending Turmoil, numbers 89-93. Also see the
PhD dissertation by Elizabeth Bennett, cited in note r above.
12. For the art ofWu Changshuo, see Transcending Turmoil, numbers 94-96.
13. A reprint of Haishang Molin (Taipei , 1975) isknown to contain 691 entries.
Someof theseentries also mention related artists. In thisversion, anindex
is appended for easy reference.
14. For a comprehensive study of Ren Yi's biography, see Ding Xiyuan, Ren
Bonian (Shanghai , 1989). Also see Hans van der Meyden , 'The Life and
Works of Ren Bonian (1840-1896),' Oriental Art, new series, XXXV1II, number r (Spring1992), 27-40.
15. For Ren Xiong's art , see Transcending Turmoil,numbers 59-61, displaying
an impressive range of themes and styles.
16. For an example of Ren Xiong's linkage with Chen Hongshou, see Transcending Turmoil ,number 59, Enchanting Vignettesfrom the Past.This album
was published under the title of Yao Meibo Ti Ren Weichang Renwu Shi'er
Zheng (Shanghai , 1919).
17. For an example of Ren Xun's figure style, see Mast erworks of Shanghai
School ,figure 45. See also Vinograd's paper in this volume.
18. For an example, seeTranscending Turmoil, number 68.
19. For Gai Qi's work, see also Transcending Turmoil, numbers 29-31. For Fei
Danxu's figure paintings, see number 35. For Wang Su, see numbeq8.
20. For an example of Zhong Kui, see Huang Shanshou's rendition in the
collection of the Phoenix Art Museum. It is published in Transcending
Turmoil, number 38.
21. See Transcending Turmoil, numbers 97 (Su Liupeng ) and 100-101 (Su
Renshan ).
22. SeeJonathan Hay's article in this volume.
23. For examples of popular prints and New Year's woodcuts, see an exhibition catalog of folk art in the Fung Ping Shan Museum, University of
Hong Kong, Chinese Folk Art (Hong Kong , 1995). Seeju-hsi Chou's introduction , n -21.
24. See Hong Kong Museum of Art, Late Qing China Trade Paintings (Hong
Kong, 1982), with an essay by Joseph S. P. T ing.
25. See Nancy Berliner,'The "Eight Brokens :" Chinese Trompe-L'ceil Painting,' Orientations (February 1992), XXIII, number 2, 6rff.

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