Xiāo Yúncóng 萧云从 / 蕭雲從

Xiāo Yúncóng / Hsiao Yun-ts'ung 萧云从 / 蕭雲從

Courtesy name: Chimu 尺木

Art name: Wumen Daoren 无闷道人 / 無悶道人, Mosi 默思, Zhongshan Laoren 钟山老人 / 鐘山老人

Xiāo Yúncóng / Hsiao Yun-ts'ung 萧云从 / 蕭雲從 (1596—1673) was born into an aristocratic family from Wuhu in northern Anhui province. The night before his birth, his father is said to have dreamt that his child would be the reincarnation of a famous Tang dynasty painter, but most of Xiao's childhood and early adult years were spent studying for the civil service exams and trying to earn an official post. In 1638, Xiao, together with his brother Xiāo Yúnqiàn 蕭雲倩joined Fu She 複社 (“Revival Society”), a political-scholarly organization which aimed at reviving ancient literary studies as well as fighting against political corruption in late Ming Dynasty. Xiao attempted and failed the exams in 1636, 1639, and 1642. As a lifelong supporter of Ming Dynasty, he refused to serve Qing government and abandoned all hope of an official career as the Manchu conquered China in 1644. After spending several years on the run from the chaos of wars, Xiao returned to his hometown in 1647, rebuilt the family estate that had been destroyed during the invasion, and retired to a hermit's existence of arts. In addition to being an accomplished painter as well as a poet who often inscribed his images with verses of his own composition, Xiao was also known as a musician and woodblock-print designer. He was a major figure in the development of the Anhui school of painting, and his paintings and prints exerted considerable influence on later generations of artists in both China and Japan. In 1648, Xiao created Taiping Shanshui Tuhua 太平山水圖畫, the reproduced woodblock prints of which were later circulated widely among Nanga painters and known as Xiao Chimu Huapu 蕭尺木畫譜 in Japan in eighteenth century. Though not usually considered a member of the Orthodox School, he was friends with many artists who belonged to that movement and his works also reveal the influence of the Orthodox school in the numerous art-historical allusions to past masters. However, the fact that Xiao eclectically studied various previous masters’ styles without a particular preference of Northern or Southern school and that he did not steadily adhere to any of them led to the huge diversity of his brushworks as well as his highly individualized style that distinguished his oeuvre from paintings of the Orthodox school. Throughout his lifetime, Xiao had frequently visited Nanjing and Yangzhou where he met with other painters and literati. Regarded as the founder of Gushu school of painting 姑孰派, Xiao always painted from nature rather than imagination and was known for his choices of subject matters that vividly revealed his own travel experiences and local life. In 1660, Xiao was designated to paint four large-scale murals of Mount Tai, Mount Lu, Mount Emei and Mount Hua for the newly rebuilt Taibai Tower at Caishiji in Anhui province. He died in 1673 in Wuhu.

Zimeng Xiang

Sources:

Hu, Yi. “Xiao Yuncong Nianpu 萧云从年谱.” Meishu Yanjiu 美术研究, no. 01 (1960): 48–55. Accessed 2016. doi:10.13318/j.cnki.msyj.1960.01.011.

Szeto, Yuen-Kit. “Xiao Yuncong and his Landscape Paintings.” Master’s thesis, Hong Kong University, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/10722/33769