Phrases
Here are some phrases I have used and included in my analysis that may be not commonly known:
Courtesy names; also known as a style name
A name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one’s given name. A practice that is discontinued in modern China
Sobriquet
A nickname, often given based on familiarity can often be interpreted immediately
Pseudonyms
A pseudonym or alias is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name.
Imperial/Court Painter
An artist (often hired by the Emperor) who painted for the members of the royal family.
The Four Gentlemen; also known as Four Noble Ones
In Chinese art, a collective term refers to the four plants the plum blossom, the orchid, the bamboo and the chrysanthemum. These plants are also mainly used to represent the four seasons in Chinese paintings. The plants are also used to symbolise ‘to live a good life’.
Southern Song Style
Southern Song society was characterized by the pursuit of a highly aestheticized way of life, and paintings of the period often focus on evanescent pleasures and the transience of beauty. Images evoke poetic ideas that appeal to the senses or capture the fleeting qualities of a moment in time.
Ma-Xia Style
Ma-Xia School refers to a group of Chinese landscape artists that used a style of painting named after Ma Yuan (馬遠, ca. 1160–1225) and Xia Gui (夏珪, fl. 1180–1230), two great painters of the Southern Song academy. The aim of their landscapes was to create a feeling of limitless space, a vast atmospheric void out of which a few elements, such as mountain peaks and twisted trees, emerge with subdued drama. Ma and Xia are credited with the fullest expression of this tendency in Chinese painting.
Four Masters of Ming Painting
The Four Masters of the Ming dynasty are a traditional grouping in Chinese art history of four famous Chinese painters of the Ming dynasty. The group are Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, both of the Wu School, Tang Yin, and Qiu Ying.
Amongst the four masters, 3 of them were known for their use of poetry in their works to create painter-poet traditions. The use of poetry in cohesiveness to art.
Shen Zhou and Wen Zhengming were the starters of the Wu School
Tang Yin and Qiu Ying were the early 16th-century professionals of Suzhou (a city west of Shanghai, China) masters.
Literati Art
The use of literature and painting, illustration as an artistic expression. An example would be the use of poems with paintings.
Yuanti Literati Style
In this style, artists used paintings along with poems. The artistic style primarily reveal their cultivation and express their personal feelings rather than demonstrate professional skill
Shan Shui
Concept of Shan Sui paintings:
Most dictionaries and definitions of shan Shui assume that the term includes all ancient Chinese paintings with mountain and water images. Contemporary Chinese painters, however, feel that only paintings with mountain and water images that follow specific conventions of form, style and function should be called "Shan Shui painting".When Chinese painters work on shan Shui painting, they do not try to present an image of what they have seen in nature, but what they have thought about nature. No one cares whether the painted colours and shapes look like the real object or not.
Involves a complicated set of almost mystical requirements, balance, composition, form
With this also came its connection to poetry. Sometimes poems were written to be viewed with certain pieces of art and others were intended to help viewers visualise textual art imagery.