Painting and Painter

This chapter moves beyond Xia Yong to conduct a detailed investigation of other Yuan jiehua masters, ranging from scholar-amateurs and professionals at the court to those working in regional areas and those who remained anonymous. It pays particular attention to Wang Zhenpeng’s lineage (e.g. Li Rongjin, Wei Jiuding, and Zhu Yu) and makes full use of each individual’s fragmentary evidence to better understand the Yuan jiehua painters as a group. The many examples of their works discussed in this chapter not only show the technical innovation in Yuan jiehua—what I refer to as the machine-like precision and plain drawing—but also reflect, to a degree, Yuan jiehua’s chronological and regional characterization. In particular, this chapter focuses on the influence of the Northern Song Li-Guo landscape traditions on jiehua in the mid-Yuan court, as well as that of the late Yuan literati painting styles on jiehua created by professional artists in Jiangnan.