asty opened with a classical reaction against new ideas and
witnessed a return to Confucian philosophy, with its conception of the
State. But centuries of history had not rolled by without effect. In the
tenth and eleventh centuries the ancient writings were no longer
understood with their original meaning. A whole series of philosophers, of
whom the last is Chu Hsi (thirteenth century), had formulated a composite
doctrine resulting in what might be called an official philosophy, which
has dominated to the present day. Some bold spirits, however, opposed this
reactionary codification, struggling in vain to give a positive and firm
structure to the doomed empire. Their influence appears to have been
considerable. Just as the old heterodox philosophy was being stifled by
the dry and colorless metaphysics of the conservatives, it was awakened to
new life by the painters, who gave it a stirring interpretation in their
work.

The period of technical research was past. At first, with care and
patience, forms had been determined by drawing. Color had remained a thing
apart, regarded as a work of illumination and quite distinct from drawing.
Then study was extended still further. Color came to be viewed in the
light of shades and tones and became one of the means for the expression
of form; it became the very drawing itself,--that which reveals the basic
structure.

Wang Wei represents the moment when art, emancipating itself from problems
already solved, had conquered every medium of expression. Such is the
tradition which he bequeathed to the Sung artists, who were destined to
add thereto such supreme masterpieces.

The Sung painters were haunted by the old philosophical beliefs as to the
formation of the universe. Beyond the actual surroundings they dimly
perceived a magic world made up of perfect forms. Appearances were but the
visible covering of the two great principles whose combination engendered
life. They believed that, in painting, they did more than to reproduce the
external form of things. They labored with the conviction that they were
wresting the soul from objects, in order to transfer it to the painted
silk. Thus they created something new, an imaginary world more beautiful
than the real world, wherein the intimate relation of beings and things
was disclosed,--a world pervaded by pure spirit and one which was revealed
only to those whose thought was sufficiently enlightened, and whose
sympathies were sufficie