by him, an idea of his style
and technique can be formed. Ancient paintings in _luo-ts'ing_ are
found in Japan as well as in China. The British Museum of London has a
scroll painted by Chao Meng-fu, in the manner of Wang Wei, dated 1309.

[Illustration: PLATE X. LANDSCAPE IN THE STYLE OF HSIA KUEI
Sung Period. Collection of Martin White.]

But when a master has carried his study of the fading of colors and of
their relative values thus far, he must have considered not only the
element of color itself, but also the collective tones which color is
capable of expressing. From this to monochrome painting in Chinese ink is
but a step; historical testimony shows that Wang Wei took this step. By
the simple opposition of black and white, and through tone values and
gradations of shades, he endeavored to create the same feeling of
atmosphere and space which he had been able to express with _luo-ts'ing_.
No original picture remains to inform us to what extent he succeeded, but
by means of monochrome paintings of the Sung period which owe their
inspiration to him, the importance of the reform accomplished, and the
tendencies manifested in those lost works of art may be divined.

Another master whose work can be defined with sufficient accuracy to cite
as an illustration of a different aspect of the history of painting during
the T'ang period, is Han Kan, who lived in the middle of the eighth
century and who is celebrated as a painter of horses.

The sculptured stones of the Han dynasty, especially the admirable
bas-reliefs of the tomb of Chao-ling, representing the favorite coursers
of the emperor T'ai-tsung, show the manner in which artists, from the
third to the seventh centuries, were capable of studying and delineating
the postures of the horse. It is therefore not surprising to find a great
animal painter in the eighth century. Beyond question he was not the
first. The written records have preserved the names of several of his
predecessors and while the honor of having been the great founder of a
school was attributed to him, it is possible that this refers only to an
artistic movement bearing his name, of which he was not the sole
representative.

But the work of Han Kan and the unknown artists grouped around him,
proclaims a powerful tradition, a well grounded school of animal painters
which had attained the highest eminence. It was destined to exert a
strong influence upon painters of horses in the Yuean epo