influence on later
periods and was strongly felt in Korea.

In addition to being a great painter, Mi Fei was a great calligraphist.
This is apparent however little one may have seen of work in his style. He
possesses in the highest degree what the Chinese describe as the "handling
of flowing ink." He used the technique of monochrome almost exclusively,
and so closely related tone values to the line, or rather to the
brush-stroke, that it is difficult to decide whether he paints rather than
draws, or draws rather than paints. Properly speaking, he does not employ
the line at all but works by masses, by broad, heavily inked touches,
without pausing to emphasize the deep warm blacks provided by Chinese ink.
His manner recalls certain drawings by Rembrandt, also produced by strong
inking, which evoke a strange and magical effect of light. Such was the
spirit in which Mi Fei treated landscape. This technique marks his style
and gives it an individuality that is indisputable. The vehemence with
which he attacks forms, the rapidity of his brush-stroke, the way in which
things spring from such energy, call to mind pictures by European
masters, painted in full color, and it may be said of the paintings of Mi
Fei that they are fairly _colored_ by their tremendous vitality, if the
quality of the materials he employed permits the use of such a term.
Therefore Mi Fei and his son are responsible for a new technique, a
strongly individual work, and the creation of a style which marks the
highest achievement in monochrome. The trend which impelled them was,
however, general. Carried to its extreme it led to the style of painting
called calligraphic, of which there has been occasion to speak several
times.

Calligraphic painting, or the _literary style_, has its origin in the
studies of Wang Wei when, renouncing the aid of colour, he strove by
harmony of shading and by tone values, to reproduce the vast reaches of
space and all the shifting subtlety of atmospheric perspective. The
exclusive use of Chinese ink necessitated special studies since thus
calligraphy was directly approached. The different styles of writing are
almost drawing in themselves. Each style of writing has its own rules for
dissecting the written character and making the stroke. Now, as is known,
the Chinese painters attached supreme importance to the line and to the
brush-stroke. This was due in part to their equipment and in part to the
fact that the amateurs of a