Kuo Hsi 郭煕 and his"Early Spring"早春圖

Sofukawa Hiroshi

doi:10.14989/153644

Kuo Hsi (active about 1054-1087), who is well known as a landscape painter of the Li Ch'eng 李成 school and the author of the essay on landscape painting, "Lin-ch'uan kao-chih" 林泉高致, was a representative painter from the painting academy of the Shen-tsung 神宗 Emperor of the Northern Sung 北宋. Shen-tsung (1068-1085) particularly liked his work and had all the screens and walls in the palace hall decorated with his calligraphy from the Chou-li 周禮 and his paintings. Shen-tsung was, Of course, the same progressive emperor who put into effect the Hsin-fa 新法 of Wang An-shih 王安石. So it has naturally been thought that the work of Kuo Hsi as a court painter reflected the policies of Shen-tsung and had the same political function as his Chou-li calligraphy in the court. "Early Spring "is the only extant original work of Kuo Hsi. This work coincides well with the theory of "Lin-ch'uan kao-chih", and has that all-embracing sense typical of landscape painting in the Five Dynsties 五代 and Northern Sung, as well as later. For example, we can see the three distances 三遠, three divisions 三分割 and breath-force 氣勢 composition. We can also see the character of painting for literati 士大夫 in its dry-tree 寒林 and flat distance 平遠 composition which he inherited from Li Ch'eng. However, it is much more remarkable that this work has an official academic character to it. The appearance of the main mountain 主山 is like that of an emperor majestically enthroned among mountains ； the tall pine 長松 is like a gentleman 君子 superior to the trees around him. A strict order rules over the whole picture. In this official academic style 官畫 we can see the policy of Shen-tsung's academy of painting.

Kuo Hsi 郭煕 and his"Early Spring"早春圖

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