What are the features of the literati painting of the Yuan Dynasty？

In 1279，the Yuan Dynasty unified China under Mongol rule.Chinese literati ultimately learned how to live with Mongol rule，and many members of the educated class cooperated in continuing the management of government along the Confucian lines of the traditional imperial state.Nonetheless，many members of the elite did not want to involve themselves with the ruling Mongols and they sought ways to avoid service.A certain number of these men devoted themselves to painting and established a tradition of literati visual art.The Yuan literati applied theircontrol of brushwork to the development of a new perspective on what art could achieve.The efforts at making things look realistic completely vanishes.Mountains，trees，and grass are depicted with extreme simplicity，not care for relative size；the sky is covered with writing.The interest has shifted from the landscape to the painter，and painting became an act of reinterpreting nature，which is simply the focus for the painters’self-expression.

This has amounted to a fundamental shift，and it is central to literati painting.Actually Chinese landscape becomes art not devoted to Nature itself.It is devoted to man’s response to Nature.

Now it clearly becomes a means for expressing the artist’s unique self and perspective，reflecting one’s moral self-cultivation and stance towards society. In addition，the use of name stamp became established at this time.The addition of stamped name impressions，in itself an art，further enriched the artistic content of Chinese painting.

hancheng

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