A piece by Tang Yin (1470-1524), who studied for years under a professional painter.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Origin

Zhang says that while the origin of literati painting can be traced to an earlier time, it was only during the Song Dynasty (960-1279), a pinnacle in Chinese art and literature, that more literary-minded people with an artistic bent began to experiment in broadening painting's languages and meanings.

And this movement, for want of a better word, found a forceful advocate in Zhaoji, or Emperor Huizong (1082-1135), the eighth ruler of the Song Dynasty, whose artistic achievements tower over some of the best-known artists in Chinese history.

Huizong perfectly fits the bill that Yang Danxia, Zhang's colleague at the Palace Museum, offers for a literati painter.

"A literati painter must be one who had a fairly good mastery of Chinese literature and calligraphy. Consequently, his works exude feelings befitting an enlightened, sensitive mind. Painting with a literary subtext－that's what they were aiming for."

These criteria changed what was depicted on paint scrolls, especially later on. Colors were giving way to black ink and a detail-obsessed style to a freer, less arduous one. However, this did not entail less thought, but the opposite.

Natural scenery was often preferred, partly because it required less training to paint mountains and rivers than it does for other genres, portraiture for example. The painting would often depict a world with an otherworldly beauty and serenity, distant, even desolate.

Theories concerning the application of ink and brush developed based on calligraphic principles. "To write or to paint, people in ancient China used the same brush," Tian says.

"And they eventually sought to judge paintings against criteria similar to those used in judging works of calligraphy, looking for the strength and smoothness of brushstrokes."