The Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers were popular, and represented the famous and beautiful scenery in China, since Song Di (ca.1015-ca.1080) in Northern Sung first painted them. The Paintings became quite popular because th...
The Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers were popular, and represented the famous and beautiful scenery in China, since Song Di (ca.1015-ca.1080) in Northern Sung first painted them. The Paintings became quite popular because they symbolized an East Asian utopia. East Asians have favored to paint the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers as the most beautiful scenery and a symbol of utopia, and also chanted them in poems.
In Korea, scholars and painters have also represented the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers in both poetry and painting, after they were first introduced in Goryeo Dynasty (918~1392). Nevertheless, we have found none of the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers painted in Goryeo Dynasty (918~1392).
In Joseon Dynasty (1392~1910), the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers became widely popular. Throughout the whole period of Joseon Dynasty, as my study demonstrates, the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers had been a favorite subject for painters. The Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers in Joseon Dynasty formed a distinct periodical style, and made an important contribution to a development of landscape painting as a whole in Korea.
During the early Joseon Dynasty, both An Gyeon (act. ca. 1400~1470) and Prince An Pyeong(1418~1453) actively explored the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers in the manner of the An Gyeon school. I believe that the scroll of poetry and painting of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers done by both An Gyeon and Prince An Pyeong played a decisive role in the formation of a new tradition of the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers in the early Joseon Dynasty. We may find this out from the existing Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers produced in the early Joseon Dynasty, as well as poetry of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers and poems often inscribed on the paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers.
I assume that the existing Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers in the early Joseon Dynasty were painted from the late 15th century to the mid 16th century. They were painted in the style of An Gyeon school without an exception because An Gyeon and Prince An Pyeong established the tradition of the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers in the early Joseon Dynasty, and it was followed by other painters and scholars. My assumption is also supported by the fact that a number of the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers of the period are attributed to An Gyeon.
Even though all the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers from the early Joseon Dynasty shared the An Gyeon school style, however, details of their styles are different. For this, there are several reasons. In addition to An Gyeon, contemporary painters like Kang Hui-an and Choi Gyeong might have also painted the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers, and their individual styles could have influenced later generations. But their painterly styles apparently followed not only the An Gyeon school style but also the Li-Guo painting style introduced in Goryeo Dynasty and popular in the current art world.
During the mid Joseon Dynasty, Yi Jing and other academic painters produced many Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers. I assume Yi Jing led the period. The largest number of the existing Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers belonged to Yi Jing, and appeared to have had great influences on the paintings of the same subject done by others at that time. In the mid Joseon, the production of the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers reflected new changes in style of the period, in which painters started to accept the Zhe school manner, along with the An Gyeon school style.
For instance, Yi Jing's Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers show a mixed style of the An Gyeon school and the Zhe school. Another group of the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers created by Yi Deok-ik and Jeon Chung-hyo revealed a similar mixed style, yet with a more focus on the Zhe school style, as the time went by. Kim Myeong-guk's Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers most clearly demonstrated the Zhe school style from the period.
In the mid Joseon Dynasty, moreover, various types of "Eight Views Painting" or "Ten Views Painting" certainly derived from the Chinese Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers were produced in great numbers. Common landscape paintings evidently accepted and generalized the specific styles and motifs of the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers.
During the late Joseon Dynasty, the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers revealed stylistic influences from the Southern school literati painting. Painter Jeong Seon led this new change in the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers. I think that Jeong Seon worked out the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers into his own style, after studying the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers from the period of Ming Dynasty and Hainei Giguan's Picture Album. It is of great significance that the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers in Jeong Seon's style based on the Southern school literati painting took the lead among various contemporary painterly styles.
During the late Joseon Dynasty, not only academic painters but also literati painters including Sim Sa-jeong, Choi Buk, Jeong Su-yeong, Kim Deuk-sin and Yi Jae-guan produced Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers. Literati painters expressed individualistic styles, along with Jeong Seon's style, in their Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers. At the same time, it became common for them to represent parts of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers, which was then widely used for the design motif for the white porcelain.
During the short period of the late Joseon Dynasty, a relatively small number of the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers were produced. But painters like Kim Su-cheol still produced in a creative style the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers. During this period, the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers became popularized to the extent that they were produced more from the genre of folk painting than from the area of literati or academic painting.
As discussed above, the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers painted throughout the period of Joseon Dynasty have great significances in the history of art in Korea. At first, it exemplified an active and intrinsic exchange of new styles of painting between Korea and China. The Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers clearly demonstrated that Korean painters reformulated, more often than not, the imported Chinese subjects and styles in painting, and developed creative styles to their own tastes.
My study reveals that the popularity of the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers in Korea had fundamental influences on other types of landscape painting. As early as the Goryeo Dynasty, Eight Views Painting, a copy of the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers, represented Korean landscapes, instead of Chinese ones. In Joseon Dynasty, the subjects and styles of the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers influenced significantly the path of landscape painting as a whole in Korea.
Despite the great importance of the Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers in the history of Korean painting, few scholarly articles and dissertations on this topic have been published. Art historians must make every effort to find hidden Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers produced in Korea. We also need further investigations about individual Paintings of the Eight Views of the Hsiao and Hsiang Rivers in Goryeo and Joseon Dynasty, and a comparative study of them produced in China and Japan.