Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c11.s4.t3.37

v2.c11.s4.t3.37

settled in Beijing after 1919, and on the advice of the scholar & painter Chen Shizeng, he began a decade of “reform in the old age,” during which time he emphasised on personality, simplified form, integrated the freehand brushwork of *Xu Wei, Eight Painters in Mountains, Shi Tao, Wu Changshuo* in traditional Chinese painting and the plain interest of folk art, and uniquely initiated the great freehand painting technique of red flowers and ink leaves. He was skilled in the painting of flowers, grass, birds, and insects, and was especially good at painting shrimps and crabs. His landscapes and figures with cut of strokes were peculiar with unconventional fun, and his poems, calligraphy, and seal cutting were unique. His painting position is that “the subtlety lies between similarity and dissimilarity; too similar will go to vulgar, and too dissimilar is a deception,” which has a profound influence on Chinese painting creation. His representative works include traditional Chinese paintings *Volume of Mountains, Group of Shrimps, Ten Miles of Croaking Out of the Mountain Spring, Peony, Ode to Peace* (co-authored), etc. In 1953, China’s Ministry of Culture