Li Gonglin (1049 – 1106 AD) has long been held up as the archetypal literati painter.
He was the Song dynasty’s greatest figure painter, and an excellent calligrapher and poet, too.
He lived during a time of intense fractional politics, yet managed to stay aloof from it all.
He was far more concerned with painting and calligraphy.
So concerned, in fact, that some fellow Buddhists warned him that if he kept painting horses, he might become one in another life.
So he stopped painting them.
Contents
Biography
Early life
Li Gonglin (李公麟) was born into a family of wealthy officials in Shuzhou (today’s Tongcheng, Anhui Province) in 1049. (Some sources indicate he was perhaps born around 1041.)
He was a descendant of the Southern Tang (937 – 975 AD) royal family.
His father, Xuyi, was an Assistant Minister in the Court of Judicial Review. He liked collecting models of calligraphy and famous paintings. A later biography noted:
公麟少阅视，即悟古人用笔意。
–Xuanhe Catalogue of Paintings (1120)
The young Gonglin liked viewing [his father’s calligraphy and art collection], it made him grasp the how ancient men used brushwork to create meaning.
Like his father, Li passed the imperial examination to achieve the jinshi degree. This was in 1070 – 20/21 was a very young age to pass it.
In an unusual move, he did not begin an official career for another 9 years.
Instead, he spent the intervening time in the Longmian (‘Sleeping Dragon’) mountains near his hometown, cultivating his family property.
Later, he would become known as a devout Buddhist. So, it’s could be that he had a religious motivation for this period.
There were also literary precedents.
The poet Tao Yuanming (365 – 427 AD), who Li greatly admired, was most famous for this (one of Li’s lost paintings was an illustration of Tao’s poem, ‘Returning Home’.)
And later, Tang poets such as Wang Wei’s (701 – 761 AD) (on his Wangchuan estate), Du Fu (712 – 770), and Bai Juyi (772 – 846) consciously emulated Tao.
By not being an official during the 1070s, Li also managed to avoid contact with the political controversies around the reforms that the emperor Shenzong (r. 1067 – 85) had initiated.
1079 – 85: Early career
In 1079, moved to the Song dynasty’s capital of Bianling (today’s Kaifeng, Henan Province). His first official position was as a reader of examination papers.
This was a relatively lowly position. However, the importance of examinations and their role in selecting future officials should not be underestimated.
Between 1083-5, he worked in worked in several positions in Jiangxi and Henan Provinces.
1085 – 97: Later career
In 1085, Li returned to the capital again, initially to work in the Secretariat Chancellery.
The emperor Shenzong had died the same year.
The administration under his successor, the 9-year-old Zhezong (r. 1085 – 1100), reversed the controversial reforms.
This reversal was largely controlled by his grandmother, the Grand Empress Dowager Gao (1032 – 93).
It brought anti-reformist officials back into power, the most well-known being the era’s literary giant, Su Shi (1137 – 1101).
In the spring of 1088, Su Shi, then the chief examiner, invited Li to be an assistant for the exams. The two spent time together during the weeks the exam took place, and wrote poems to one another, too.
Li himself appears to have been politically moderate. He befriended the leading reformist Wang Anshi (1021 – 86) and Su, a leading anti-reformist.
(It should be noted, that despite their political differences, Su and Wang were also on good personal terms.)
Throughout this period, Li was friends many leading artistic figures, including:
- The calligrapher Huang Tingjian (1045 – 1105)
- The artist Wang Shen (ca. 1048 – ca. 1103)
- Su’s brother, the essayist Su Zhe (1139 – 1112)
Li not only socialised with them. He often wrote exchanged and even collaborated on art with them.
For example, on one rock and bamboo painting by Su Shi, Li added an ox and herd boy.
Huang Tingjian then added a colophon to the piece, stating that he hoped the ox didn’t fight and damage the bamboo (i.e., he hoped Su – the bamboo, a sign of a gentleman – would be ok).
We gain a glimpse of Li’s life during this period from a biography written 30 years later:
仕宦居京师十年 […] 得休沐，遇佳时，则载酒出城，拉同志二三人访名园林，坐石临水，翛然终日。
–Xuanhe Catalogue of Paintings (1120)
He lived and worked in the capital for 10 years. On his days off, if the weather was good, he would take wine outside of the city, accompanied by others to visit famous gardens and forests. They sat on rocks by the water and passed the day in leisure.
In 1093, the Empress Dowager died and the emperor Zhezong reverted back reformist policies.
This meant that many in Li’s circle, including Su Shi and the calligrapher Huang Tingjiang (1045 – 1105), were exiled.
Li, however, was not targeted by the new administration. He worked in the Song capital until 1197, when he took a position as a district officer in his native Anhui Province.
1100: Retirement & death
Li retired from office to the Longmian mountains in 1100.
从仕三十年，未尝一日忘山林
– Xuanhe Catalogue of Paintings
For the 30 years he served [as an official], he didn’t forget the mountains and forests for one day.
(The same year the art-loving emperor Huizong (r. 1100 – 1125) ascended to the throne.)
He developed rheumatism in his old age, and passed away in 1106.
Li the artist
The archetypal literati painter
During his lifetime, Li was seen by many only as the greatest figure painter of his age and an archetypal literati painter.
The latter came in part because from his wider learning and abilities (as a poet and calligrapher, in particular.) But he was also a collector of ancient paintings and other works.
It was also influenced by his disinterest in power and riches as an official.
当时富贵人欲得其笔迹者，往往执礼愿交，而公麟靳固不荅。至名人胜士，则虽昧平生，相与追逐不厌。乘兴落笔，了无难色。
–Xuanhe Catalogue of Paintings (1120)
In those days, the wealthy and noble who wanted to obtain his works often used influence and courtesies to establish a relationship, but Gonglin firmly refused. As for notable men and exemplary scholars. Even if they had passed their lives in obscurity, he never tired of interacting with them.
Li’s simple, monochromatic style is core to literati painting.
So too is his ‘calligraphising’ of painting strokes. Unlike professional painters, Li rarely used tools or made corrections to the outlines of his figures and objects.
He also relied on suggestion over direct representation. So, for example, a scholar’s rock indicates is enough to indicate a scene’s garden setting.
This technique drew inspiration from poetry, which often had the same sparse, allusive qualities.
Li himself once favourably compared Tao Yuanming’s poetry to ‘music of a stringless zither’.
Li’s painting’s influence on literati painting was most immediately seen during his lifetime in his interactions with many of the Northern Song’s greatest artistic figures.
During the Southern Song, his sparse, austere style flourished in landscape painting.
But his figure painting had the strongest influence. The Chinese art historian Wen Fong summed it up emphatically:
It is no exaggeration to say that after Li, few Chinese figure painters could pick up a brush or draw a line without thinking of him. So great was the felt presence of [Li Gonglin] that later Chinese figure painters became progressively less able to create new styles by relying on their own inspiration.
– Wen Fong, Beyond Representation (New York: Yale University Press, 1993), p.65
Literati vs professional painters
During Li’s lifetime, literati painters from the scholar-official class often emphasised their distinct difference from professional painters.
Professional painters were artisans. They worked were trained in the technical aspects of painting and worked on commission. Professional calligraphers were similar.
By contrast, scholar-officials who painted were educated in the classics. They were often also adept at painting’s sister arts: calligraphy and poetry (‘the three perfections’ as they later become known’).
Because of this, literati painters saw their art as a reflection of their inner cultivation and understanding of the nature of things. They saw professional painting as pre-occupied with basic representation.
Seeing beyond surface representations
The concept of literati painters going beyond ‘mere’ representation view is encapsulated in Su Shi’s famous statement:
论画以形似，见与儿童邻。
– Su Shi
If anyone discussed painting in terms of formal likeness,
His understanding is nearly that of a child.
This ability is accessible to them because of their literary background. Li, we are told had:
盖深得杜甫作诗体制而移于画。
– Xuanhe Catalogue of Paintings
a deep understanding of the fundamentals of Du Fu’s poetry, which he applied to painting.
Su Shi’s comments on Li’s painting Resting in Contemplation also explicitly linked his painting to poetry:
李侯有句不肯吐，淡墨写出无声诗。
– Su Shu
Master Li had a phrase he didn’t want to say aloud,
[so] with light ink he sketched a soundless poem.
One example of how he did this was in Yang Pass. This painting was an illustration of Wang Wei’s poem, ‘Weicheng Song’.
颜公麟作《阳闗图》，以离别惨恨为人之常情，而设钓者于水濵，忘形块坐，哀乐不闗其意。其它种种类此。唯览者得之。
– Xuanhe Catalogue of Paintings
When Gonglin painted Yang Pass, he considered the sadness of painting a commonplace emotion, so he placed fisherman on the bank sitting alone, forgetting the phenomenal world, unconcerned by feelings of sorrow or joy. His other works are [also] like this. The viewer relies on themselves to understand it.
Li painted Yang Pass as a gift for another scholar-official, who was departing for a post in Anhui.
Farewell poems had long been a tradition in Chinese poetry. Now, with Yang Pass, Li began a trend of farewell paintings that would continue for centuries.
Li’s technical strength
Despite being regarded so highly in the literati camp, Li was a highly skilled painter.
He did not use tools (such as rulers) as frequently as a professional painter would. And he often eschewed symmetry in paintings. But he was able to skilfully depict a range of figures, objects, and landscapes.
He is famous for his ‘white drawing’ (白描; sometimes translated as ‘plain drawing’) technique of using linear brush strokes without colour or shading to draw figures and objects.
His style was in part a revival of the style of ancient China’s most celebrated figure painter, Gu Kaizhi’s (c. 344 – 406 AD).
Subject matter
The Song dynasty is famous for its landscape painting, especially the Northern Song period that Li lived in.
Li did paint landscapes, too. But his was a sparse, faint landscape style that became mainstream after his lifetime, during the Southern Song period.
Li was the first scholar-official painter to make his main focus on figure painting. He is famous for figure painting – horses and humans in particular.
Many critics even regard him as the artist that switched the primary focus of Chinese art away from landscapes.
Horses had long been an important motif in Chinese painting. (And they continued to be for centuries afterwards, too).
To many, they symbolised great men in office. The great Tang dynasty writer Han Yu (768 – 824 AD), a progenitor of Song dynasty Neo-Confucianism touched on this in his writings:
策之不以其道，食之不能尽其材，鸣之而不能通其意，执策而临之，曰：“天下无马！”呜呼！其真无马邪？其真不知马也。
– Han Yu ‘On Thousand-li Horses’
A horse may not be excercised properly of fed enough to fully develop its capacity. Even its neighing might not be understood. Here is a man holding a whip over his horse and declaring, ‘There are no fine horses in the world!’ Alas, are there really no fine horses? The truth is that he does not know what fine horses are.
Late in his career, Li is said to have stopped painting horses despite his passion for them. He was told by Buddhist associates that if he continued to focus on them, he would likely be reincarnated as one.
As a devout Buddhist, Li complied and switched to other subject matter.
The Classic of Filial Piety (1085)
Today, Li’s most famous work is The Classic of Filial Piety.
It is an illustration of the key parts of the classic text of the same name (written between 350 – 200 AD) alongside calligraphy of the original text.
Li painted it when he was living in Kaifeng.
It is a highly elaborate work, with a structure made up of 19 essays:
- Introduction
- Son of Heaven (emperor)
- Princes
- Ministers
- Scholars
- Common people
- Three Cardinal Resources: Heaven, Earth, and Man
- Filial Rule
- Sage’s conduct
- Filial Conduct
- Five Punishments
- The Fundamental Way
- The Perfect Virtue
- Spreading Fame
- Remonstration
- Affecting Response
- Serving His Sovereign
- Mourning the Parent.
The last of these, Mourning the Parent, features a sparse, etherial landscape painting. Li’s friend Su marvelled at this:
至第十八章，人之所不忍者，独寄其仿佛。非有道君子不能为。
Su Shi
In the eighteenth chapter, the unbearable sorrow of man, is singularly represented. Only the loftiest of gentlemen aligned with the Way has the capability to create this.
Li’s calligraphy
Song dynasty calligraphy might not be quite as highly regarded as the Tang dynasty’s, but it’s not far behind.
And although he was not thew most prominent calligrapher of his era, Li was and is still admired in this field.
Calligraphy was an essential part of his art, which gives it even more significance.
His style is simple and loose. But it is built on a deep understanding of earlier calligraphers and calligraphy traditions.
He looked beyond Tang dynasty calligraphy models to earlier forms, such as the Wei dynasty.
Li excelled at small standard script, which he based heavily on the early standard script master, Zhong You (151 – 230 AD).
Like many other Song calligraphers, elements of running script are clear in his standard script. And a clear hint of clerical script, too.
His characters overall are squat and balanced, even though some strokes vary in thickness.
Though they aren’t ornate, their overall harmony creates an almost cumulative effect of ‘rustic’, honest charm.