Lutai tihua gao 麓臺題畫稿

Lutai tihua gao 麓臺題畫稿 is the draft of a collection of colophons on paintings written during the early Qing period 清 (1644-1911) by Wang Yuanqi 王原祁 (1642-1715), who also wrote the book Yuchuang manbi 雨窗漫筆.

The Lutain tihua contains fifty-three inscriptions and writings by Wang Yuanqi, all originally inscribed on his own artworks. These paintings are imitations of ancient styles, mostly copies of works by famous Song 宋 (960-1279) and Yuan 元 (1279-1368) masters. Among them, there are as many as twenty-five pieces that imitate Huang Gongwang 黃公望 (1269-1354) alone, excluding paintings that imitate the collaboration between Ni Zan 倪瓚 (1301-1374) and Huang Gongwang. These inscriptions collectively reflect Wang Yuanqi's insights into painting practice, as well as his views on the styles, brushwork features, and artistic qualities of earlier renowned masters.

First of all, Huang Gongwang skillfully captured the essence of the brush techniques used by the ancient masters. By copying his works, one can learn the inherited methods. Yet, while continuously copying Huang's works, he also urged students to "deeply contemplate and understand on their own". Of course, imitating Huang is not the ultimate aim, but a means to learn the brush techniques of the Song masters. However, if one cannot directly understand the Song methods, one cannot grasp the subtlety of Huang Gongwang.

Huang Gongwang's painting style captures the true spirit of the Yuan masters and distills the essence of the Song. If one only seeks "formal resemblance", one will never understand its genuine core. Furthermore, Wang Yuanqi highly praised Huang Gongwang's sincere and unpretentious intentions, his vigorous yet elegant brushwork, his colour philosophy that prioritises spirit over mere hue, and the distinctive interaction of "ink within colour, colour within ink" (mo zhong you se, se zhong you mo 墨中有色、色中有墨). Wang Yuanqi claimed to be a genuine inheritor of the Southern School orthodox tradition (Nanzong zhengpai 南宗正派). He spent over a year copying the brush styles of the Four Masters of the late Yuan dynasty, combining them into a single painting to demonstrate the style and character of the orthodox Southern School. In his inscriptions, he often praised the Southern School or elaborated on its lineage of followers. He believed the most distinctive feature of the Southern School was the "vitality and expressive spirit" (quyun shengdong 氣韻生動) emphasised by Wang Wei 王維 (699-761). He also argued that the painting spirit of early Yuan painters Zhao Mengfu 趙孟頫 (1254-1322) and Gao Kegong 高克恭 (1248-1310) was directly descended from the Northern Song masters and thus became important heirs of the Southern School.

In the book, Wang Yuanqi also commends the other three of the Four Masters of the Yuan besides Huang Gongwang. He regards Wu Zhen's 吳鎮 (1280-1354) free and flowing splash-ink technique as vigorous yet graceful, embodying the profound spirit of Northern Song masters, and believes only he truly mastered it. Ni Zan is said to have eradicated old traces and uniquely achieved exquisite subtlety, ranking first among refined masterpieces. Wang Meng 王蒙 (1308-1385), tracing his lineage from Zhao Mengfu back to Wang Wei, mastered mysterious and extraordinary effects. In his later years, he dedicated himself to studying Dong Yuan 董源 (died c. 962) and Juran 巨然 (10th cent.), producing works full of unpredictable changes, rendering his brushwork unprecedented and unmatched among the Four Masters of the Yuan.

When discussing the brush and ink characteristics of various masters, Wang Yuanqi often employed comparative analysis rich in philosophical insight. For example, when talking about Mi Fu 米芾 (1051–1107) and his son Mi Youren 米友仁 (1074-1153), he compared them to their contemporaries and said that while Song and Yuan masters all sought vitality in the tangible, the Mis captured vitality in the intangible; yet within the intangible there is substance, breath, and mutual response. Similarly, when describing the ancient methods of coloring, he contrasted them with those of modern painters, saying that the ancients’ eyes were like light penetrating through paper, fully controlling the process, whereas modern painters merely apply colors to please the eye without concern for the structure and essence; hence their work is superficial and lacks substance.

The book is included in the series Zhaodai congshu 昭代叢書, Lunhua jiyao 論畫輯要 and Meishu congshu 美術叢書.