Emperor Minghuang’s Refuge in Sichuan
3 min readPainter: Li Zhaodao
Painting Year: the Tang Dynasty
Material: silk scroll
Dimension: vertical length of 55.9 centimeters and horizontal length of 81 centimeters Collection Place: the National Palace Museum in Taipei Emperor Minghuanh s Refuge in Sichuan is a blue and green landscape painting giving priority to the landscape but containing fgures and stories. It depicts the scene that Emperor Minghuang of the Tang Dynasty(i.e. Emperor Xuanzong Li Longji) and his people took refuge in the lofty mountains and high ranges in the area of Shu(today s Sichuan). In the painting, the area of Shu was full of lofty and steep peaks which were surrounded by clouds. Green water few across these mountains and the roads were quite rugged. The brilliant and exotic scenes made people feel that the characters in the painting were taking a sightseeing tour instead of seeking refuge.
This artwork has typical painting styles of the Tang Dynasty. The peaks, clouds and fogs, trees and fowers, and streams are sketched out with thin lines, which are regular and delicate. The colors of the picture are beautiful and imposing and they give priority to the stone green and stone blue, which are brilliant but not meretricious. Instead, the whole picture looks very elegant. The fgures and horses vary in shapes, creating a vivid scene. The sizes of fgures are small but were drawn in an extremely careful way.
Showcase Window
The Blue and Green Landscape Painting
It is a kind of landscape painting. The main part of this kind of painting consists of the natural landscapes. Painters usually sketch out the contours and frames of the landscapes with ink lines, based on which they applied the heavy and brilliant stone blue and stone green. These paintings are featured with regular and delicate styles, brilliant colors and magnifcent circumstance.
A group of people and horses walked out the valley. The leader Emperor Xuanzong was riding a horse whose manes were cut into the shape of three flowers. His horse hesitated to step forward upon seeing the small bridge in front of it. The posture of the horse and Emperor Xuanzong was very vivid. Emperor Xuanzong was closely followed by a lot of servants and concubines. Some people just had half of their bodies shown out of the valley mouth, making people imagine that a lot of people were still progressing.
Li Zhaodao
Art Master
Li Zhaodao was a member of the royal family in the Tang Dynasty, who was famous for his paintings of landscape. His birth date and death date remain unknown. He succeeded and improved his father Li Sixun’s methods of blue and green landscape painting. People called his father and hin respectively”General Li Senior”and”General Li Junior.”The blue and green landscape paintings of these two people had great infuence upon the later generations.
An-Shi Rebellion
In the late period of his reign，Emperor Xuanzong doted on Consort Yang Yuhuan too much.He kept staying in the palace and indulged hinself in wine，dancing and singing without attending to the state affairs.This caused many people’s dissatisfaction and fnally led to the rebellion of An Lushan and Shi Siming.In 756 AD，An Lushan led his army and seized the capital city Chang’an（today’s Xi’an）.Emperor Xuanzong had to hurriedly fee out of the city with Consort Yang to avoid the war.When they walked past a place named Maweipo（in today’s west part of Xingping County，Shaanxi）.All the soldiers following Emperor Xuanzong stopped moving forward and collectively asked Emperor Xuanzong to kill Consort Yang and her cousin Yang Guozhong.In the extremely urgent situation，Emperor Xuanzong had no way but to painfully give orders of killing the twopeople.After that the soldiers continued to move forward.After a long and diffcult journey，they arrived inthe area of Shu which was full of mountains and streams.One year later，Guo Ziyi，a general serving the Tang Dynasty，put down the rebellion of An Lushan and took back the place An seized.After that Emperor Xuanzong could come back to Chang’an.
