Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c11.s4.t3.2

v2.c11.s4.t3.2

Gu Kaizhi (about 346 - 407 CE) was a Chinese painter of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Styled ‘*Changkang*’, he came from Wuxi, Jinling. Born with noble blood, he served as staff officer and riding attendant in the army. He was versatile, good at poetry, calligraphy, and especially paintings. He was an expert in painting portraits, historical stories, Buddhism and Taoism subjects, flowers and birds, and landscapes. He once painted the Buddhist mural ‘*Vimalakīrti*’ at Waguan Temple in Jiankang (now Nanjing). This portrait of ‘*Vimalakīiti*’ is described as “the eyes tend to see, eyebrows seem to suddenly raise, the mouth is not talking but seems to speak, and the temples are not moving but suspected to be moving,” in ‘*Tablet Inscription of Vimalakīiti Portrait in Waguan Temple*’, and presents “clear and weak complexion showing disease, hiding the words that are almost forgotten,” (‘*Notes on Paintings of Various Dynasties*’), which is similar to the image of Wei and Jin Dynasties’ celebrities with “comely bones and clear-cut faces.” He emphasised on depicting the eyes of the figures in his paintings, and believed that “the beauty of the limbs is not related to the best of it, the vivid portrayal lies in this,” where “this” refers to the eyes, (‘*A New Account of the Tales of the World*’). The strokes in his paintings are well-planned, tight and with strength, like spinning silkworms, giving the maximum play of “remote ancient gossamer stroke.” He and Lu Tanwei, painter of the Southern Dynasty are commonly called by future generations as representatives of “compact-style” painting techniques. Legend has it that his representative painting works include, ‘*Admonitions Scroll*’ (Tang transcription), ‘*Painting of Nymph of the Luo River*’ (Song transcription), ‘*Wise and Benevolent Women*’ (Song transcription), etc. His writings include ‘*On Painting*’, ‘*Introduction of Famous Paintings of Wei and Jin Dynasties*’, ‘*Painting Yuntai Mountain*’, etc. He put forward the points of view such as “imagination change and perfect creation” and “the shape as spirit”, which have profound influence on the later Chinese paintings.