China's Top Arts 中國頂級藝術

Top Masterpieces: 7. Northern Song Dynasty, Wang Ximeng's "Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" 7. 頂級名畫: 北宋王希孟《千里江山图》

*Click on the painting to enlarge 點擊畫面放大

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Wang Ximeng, a Chinese painter from the Song Dynasty, was good at painting green landscapes. During the Zhenghe period of the Northern Song Dynasty, he entered the Library at the age of 18, which was the Palace Painting Academy at that time. He presented paintings several times but the level was not high. Song Huizong taught him his painting skills. Half a year later, Wang Ximeng presented a painting, which was given to Prime Minister Cai Jing by Song Huizong.

The green landscape "A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" is his only work handed down from generation to generation.

"Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" is now in the Palace Museum in Beijing. In the painting, the mountains and rivers far and near are open and majestic, including cottages, markets, fishing boats, bridges, waterwheels, and trees and birds. The brushwork and ink are meticulous and well-positioned. The green and green colors of the entire scroll express the beauty of the mountains and rivers. It is considered to be a shining masterpiece among the green landscape paintings of the Northern Song Dynasty. The scenery is virtual and real, far and near, and is more expressive than the green landscape paintings of the Tang Dynasty.

"A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" uses cyan and green pigments to paint an entire group of mountains, which is particularly bright and well-layered among ancient Chinese landscape paintings.

Liang Qingbiao in the Qing Dynasty was the discoverer of the painting and presented it to the Qing court. This painting does not have any nomination or signature, only two framed inscriptions and postscripts. Emperor Qianlong wrote a poem and stamped his seal on this painting. The first line of the poem is "The mountains and rivers are boundless as far as the eye can see", so later the painting was called the "Thousands of Miles of Rivers and Mountains Picture". After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, the last emperor Puyi took this painting out of the palace. After Puyi was held prisoner by the modern People's Republic of China, the painting was confiscated by the Palace Museum in Beijing and remains in its collection.