Overview

This classic work, first published in 1971, explores the transition in painting styles from the late Sung period to the art of Yuan dynasty literati. Building on the pioneering work of Oswald Siren and James Cahill, Susan Bush's investigations of painting done under the Chin dynasty confirmed the dominance of scholar-artists in the north and their gradual development of scholarly painting traditions, and a related study of Northern Sung writings showed that their theory was shaped as much by the views of their social class as by their artistic aims. Bush's perspective on Sung scholars' art and theory helps explain the emergence of literati painting as the main artistic tradition in Yuan times. Social history thus served to supplement an understanding of the evolution of artistic styles.

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Bush's book has served as the primary source on the topic of Chinese theories on the art of painting during the era that began with the development of scholar's styles of brush painting. It holds a revered place in the canon of modern Western literature on the subject, and it occupies a reserved place on the shelf of every serious scholar in the field who has managed to secure a copy before it became virtually unavailable about one decade ago. Working often with fragmentary writings and occasional jottings, she has woven these into a coherent account of the development of the Chinese scholars' rationale for painting, in the same way that they had for many centuries before this produced poetry and calligraphy as an outlet for emotional expression and a means of moral self-cultivation. --Jerome Silbergeld, Princeton University

Bush's book has served as the primary source on the topic of Chinese theories on the art of painting during the era that began with the development of scholar's styles of brush painting. It holds a revered place in the canon of modern Western literature on the subject, and it occupies a reserved place on the shelf of every serious scholar in the field who has managed to secure a copy before it became virtually unavailable about one decade ago. Working often with fragmentary writings and occasional jottings, she has woven these into a coherent account of the development of the Chinese scholars' rationale for painting, in the same way that they had for many centuries before this produced poetry and calligraphy as an outlet for emotional expression and a means of moral self-cultivation. -- Jerome Silbergeld, Princeton University

Author Information

Susan Bush is a research associate at the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Harvard University.

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