ntinue the traditions
of Sung art; their work alone demonstrated that tradition could be revived
and that ancient China, under the Mongolian dynasty, was still preserving
its creative spirit and advancing resolutely into fertile fields.

In Huang Kung-wang and Ni Tsan, we approach a different order of things.
Lines began to take on a classical character, to be divided into a
series of different types, which painters adopted according to their
temperament and requirements, and finally became impersonal and academic.
Both of these painters, nevertheless, were under the spell of early
influences extending back to the T'ang artists. Through study of these old
masters they returned to the use of a full and sometimes vivid color, but
kept a profound love of nature, and a fresh and original vision, by which
they still perpetuated the inspiration of Sung painting in a new form.
With these painters, however, new features appeared. Reds and purples
became dominant notes amidst rich greens which set them off and enhanced
their brilliancy. The vision of landscape itself is somewhat more
realistic and less subtle. In all of these essentials Ni Tsan, who died in
1374, brings us nearer to the Ming period.

[Illustration: PLATE XVIII. VISIT TO THE EMPEROR BY THE IMMORTALS FROM
ON HIGH Ming Period. British Museum, London.]

Simultaneously, though quite apart, marked tendencies of a different
character were evident. The old masters of the T'ang period had again
returned to favor. The vivid illumination and color distinct from drawing,
in these firm and vigorous works appealed to the untutored barbarian. On
the other hand, the studies of the Sung period had not been fruitless;
therefore when, under these influences, the use of color was resumed, the
painters profited by what the practice of monochrome had taught meanwhile.
In the Yuean period appear those paintings which are attacked directly with
a dripping brush without preliminary drawing, the forms being modeled in
the color itself. The Chinese called this painting "without bones," in
other words, deprived of the assistance of line. This procedure was first
used by a painter of the Sung period, but it did not take root definitely
until the time when the practice of using Chinese ink as a medium to
express tones had taught painters how to model forms in color itself,
making the structure depend upon color.

Seen as a whole, the Yuean period witnessed the assembling, the
concentr