Who were the Four “Kings” and Four Monks of the Qing? | Chinese Paintings Pt. 3 | Tea with Erping

Welcome to Tea with Erping. When we talk about Chinese art in the Qing dynasty, people will think of two things, the Four Ones and the Four Monks. Before we start the story, please subscribe to our channel and leave your comment after watching this video. What do you think of when I mention the Qing? You might know it was China's last dynasty of imperial rule. It began when the Manchus of northeast, who slowly invaded China from 1644 and ruled China until 1912. By 1800, at the peak of its power, the Qing had become a multi-ethnic empire which spanned across present-day Manchuria, Xinjiang, Mongolian, and Tibet. It was the fourth-largest empire in the world. Have you heard of the Q hairstyle? It is a visually obvious example of the dynastic change During the Ming dynasty, men would wear a topknot. So to legitimize the Qing, men shaved the front half of their heads and would wear long braids as per Manchurian tradition. In Chinese, this is called Bianzi. I don't think many folks outside China would know this backstory. But the Manchus wanted to adopt some of the Chinese traditions and culture. In particular, Emperor Kangxi and Emperor Qianlong were great patrons of traditional Chinese art, notably painting and calligraphy. The Manchus respected Confucian values and they wanted art to reflect the nature of their rule. Following the literati tradition, court painting or professional painting remained loyal to the classical styles of previous dynasties. That's where the four wangs came in. Wang Shimin was the elder and Wang Yuanqi was his grandson. Wang Shimin also taught Wang Hui in his early years. Today, Wang is still a major family name and actually ranked number one as the most used last name in mainland China according to the 2020 census. So the four wangs were not really kings as their name might suggest literally, but four of the great traditionalist painters. They created art for the empire. The most talented, in my opinion, is Wang Hui. He was an incredibly ambitious artist. Wang Shimin spotted Wang Hui as a 15-year-old. Immediately, he saw his potential and invited a child prodigy to come study the ancient masterpiece with him. Wang Shimin became a lifelong mentor. The four wangs revered the great styles of the past. But Wang Hui would have become known for his creative approach in which he merged different skills and techniques to create his own unique interpretation of landscape. In The Colors of Mount Taihang, Wang combined two schools of north, known for its portrayal of tall, powerful mountains, and south, known for gentle and sophisticated riverscapes. This was something never done before. These are the words of Wang Hui, I must use brush and ink of the Yuan dynasty to move the peaks and valleys of the Song dynasty and infuse them with the fresh resonance of the Tang dynasty. I will then have a work of the great synthesis. Wang Hui painted this album for Wang Shimin in 1674, looking through landscapes of the old masters. Wang Hui shows us how dynamic Chinese landscape can be. His teacher, Wang Shimin, was so impressed he even started to copy from Wang Hui's vibrant style, the greatest praise for a painter. The emperor Kangxi praised Wang Hui as the creator of landscapes clear and radiant. In 1698, Wang Hui was given the commission to record the emperor's journey to the Mount Tai, the sacred peak of the east, for Taoism. This is where all Chinese emperors would go to worship heaven and report to the divine on the state of the country. It would have been a major honor for Wang Hui. The Four Wengs created fantastic paintings. Yet, these official imperial court painters only tell part of the story of the Qing dynasty, while the traditionalists primarily painted for the court. The Four Monks didn't have any patrons to consider. So, who were the Four Monks? How and why did their paintings differ from the Four Wengs? Zhu Da, or Ba Da Shan Yuan, as he was also known, had an eccentric manner and famous for his monochrome flower and bird paintings. Shi Tao, the youngest of the four, had a majestic style and was known for his creative, bold use of colors and inks. Hong Ren came from Anhui province. His paintings feature highly restrained brushwork, as though he wanted to give a sense of purity and cleanliness. Kun Can found Buddhism as a young man well before the Qing dynasty and he lived most of his life in Nanjing. Painting landscapes was part of his spiritual journey to find self. His dance compositions are full of vitality. After Manchus invaded, this man experienced trauma, displacement, and it influenced their art in several ways. As a loyalist, disillusioned with the Qing dynasty and found refugee in the country. And as monks following a spiritual path, they didn't have to adopt a cute hairstyle. Two of these four monks lived through the full transition from the Ming to the Qing dynasty and they both had royal blood. Zhu Da descended from a Ming dynasty prince, Zhu Quan. He lived in Nancang, Jiangsu province, where he received a nobleman's education in the arts and was considered a child prodigy. But as a young man, he was forced to flee and live in hiding after the fall of the Ming dynasty. He developed a simple art style that is highly calligraphic, filled with playful, sometimes gloomy hidden meanings, and often complex compositions never seen before. It's said his fish looking up to heaven represented the spirit of Yi Min or leftover officials. In his earlier paintings especially, he used birds with angry expressions. He was also known to express his feelings, mainly of defiance towards the Qing dynasty. Throughout his life, he would go by many pseudonyms, the most well-known being Ba Da Shan Ren, which literally means Mountain Man of the Eight Greats. Interestingly, if you read these words written in his cursive style, it can be read as laugh and cry. Such was the spirit of Ba Da Shan Ren. He remained one of China's most enigmatic artists to this day. So, what about Shi Tao? Shi Tao was 15 years younger than Ba Da Shan Ren. Born Zhu Ruo Ji, he was a member of the Ming dynasty royal house and escaped persecution by becoming a Buddhist disciple in Anhui province. It was in the Chuankou temples that he taught himself how to paint. Zheng Xie, also known as Zheng Banqiao Shi Tao's methods of painting have a thousand transformations and ten thousand changes. He could be exceptionally strange and horribly ancient, and then delicately elegant and proper. Compared to Ba Da Shan Ren, he certainly went further. There was nothing he couldn't do. Shi Tao loved to study and paint bamboo, a symbol of integrity, modesty, and loyalty. Here's one of his works, from 1694, Bamboo in Wind and Rain. He's most famous for his landscape styles, from warm scenes of scholar friends gathering together to enjoy wine in drunk autumn woods, to the vigorous 36 peaks of Mount Hua recollected, which he drew from memory. It's easy to see why Shi Tao is one of China's most loved artists. He was particularly expressive in his brush strokes and use of color, which had no precedence under the past traditions. For the four monks, visually and spiritually, their art was essentially different from that of the traditionalists. Unconcerned with matters of the state, the individualists set about finding their own meaning through art. In their eyes, the orthodox painters at the court had become too occupied with theories and techniques of painting that they had lost the true spirit of literati's tradition to directly express one's inner landscape. Confucius said, I find this statement so interesting in light of the artists we have looked at today. They lived during the same time, yet each created art with a unique personal spirit. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if Wang Hui and Shi Tao became friends. For two princes, if we were to look at the arts from the Yin and Yang theory of Taoism, I feel Ba Da Shan Ren's art showed more Yin, Shi Tao's showed more Yang. According to Leonardo da Vinci, a beautiful body perishes, but a work of art dies not. He also said, Perhaps he already foresaw what would be happening through Chinese traditional painting when this Middle Kingdom was dissolved into a republic and later under the communist rule. We shall talk about this in our next episode. Henry David Thoreau said, Well, I now see my teacup right in front of me. Perhaps it's time for a tea break. Until next time, peace and tea be with you.