CATALOGUE OF FREER COLLECTION 25 



The foUowmg are extracts from his writings: 



" Landscape is a big thing, and should be viewed from a distance in order 

 to grasp the scheme of hill and stream. The figures of men and women are 

 small matters, and may be spread out on the hand or on a table for examina- 

 tion, when they will be taken in at a glance. 



"Those who study flower painting take a single stalk and put it into a 

 deep hole, and then examine it from above, thus seeing it from all points of 

 view. Those who study bamboo painting take a stalk of bamboo, and on a 

 moonlight night project its shadow onto a piece of white silk on a wall ; the 

 true form of the bamboo is thus brought out. It is the same with landscape 

 painting. The artist must place himself in communication with his hills 

 and streams, and the secret of the scenery will be solved. 



"Hills have three distances. From the foot looking up to the summit is 

 called height-distance. From the front looking through to the back is called 

 depth-distance. From near hills looking away to far-off hills is called level- 

 distance. The colour for height-distance should be bright and clear; that for 

 depth-distance heavy and dark; and that for level-distance may be either 

 bright or dark. 



" Hills without clouds look bare; without water they are wanting in fasci- 

 nation; without paths they are wanting in life; without trees they are dead; 

 without depth-distance they are shallow; without level-distance they are 

 near; and without height-distance they are low. " 



The "Hsiian ho hua p'u" gives the titles of 30 of Kuo Hsi's pictures, 

 all landscapes, in the Imperial collection. 



Not long after Kuo's death a number of his pictiwes had a very narrow 

 escape. An official on whom a mansion had been bestowed, while watch- 

 ing the servants putting it into order, noticed that one of them was cleaning 

 the furniture with a piece of colored silk. Examining this closely, he found 

 it was a picture by Kuo Hsi; and on enquiring further he learnt that there 

 were many more pictures of the same kind in a lumber room. It appeared 

 that the Emperor Shen Tsung, Kuo's patron, had kept Kuo's works in this 

 building; but that the next Emperor had caused them to be put away, to 

 find room for works by the older masters, in which he was more interested. 

 Herbert A. Giles. 



WU TAO-TZO. T'ang Dynasty. 



Wu Tao-yuan, better known by his style as Wu Tao-tzii (Japanese Go 

 Doshi), stands by universal consent at the head of all Chinese painters, 

 ancient and modem. He was bom near the capital, which was then at 

 Lo-yang in Honan. "A poverty-stricken orphan, but endowed with a 

 divine nature, he had not assumed the cap of puberty ere he was already 

 a master artist, and had flooded Lo-yang with his works." The Emperor 

 soon heard of him, and gave him a post at court. About 720 he painted his 

 famous portrait of General P'ei, who did not sit to him, but danced a sword 

 dance before him, the result being that Wu turned out a picture in which 

 people said "he must have been helped by the gods." About 750 the 

 Emperor conceived a longing to see the scenery on the Chia-ling River 



