possibly very learned, but which was inartistic to the
last degree. An academician of the Ming period would have thought himself
disgraced if he had not proven by complicated compositions the extent of
his knowledge of things of this character. Art was no longer anything but
a kind of puzzle. Furthermore, the decadence of eye and hand followed that
of the mind, and there next appeared a taste for brilliant colors,
overladen compositions, and fine and meticulous lines, culminating in an
unbearable nicety. The work of the Academy is summed up in these words.

Let us turn aside from an art that is inert. It robbed things of the
creative spirit that animated them. We shall now see what was achieved by
those who followed in the steps of the old masters.

The fifteenth century in China witnessed a continuance of the style
prevalent during the Sung and Yuean periods. Chou Chih-mien, for example,
was true to that profound feeling for form, that delicacy of coloring,
and rhythm in composition which were the endowment of the greatest
masters. Shen Chou belonged entirely to the Yuean school, and to prove that
the old ideals were not dead, we have in the fifteenth century the
magnificent group of painters of the plum tree, with Lu Fu and Wang
Yuean-chang at their head.

As before stated, a special philosophy was associated with this tree and
its flowers. The white petals scattered on vigorous branches had long
typified an inner soul, whose purity was the very likeness of virtue and
of tenderness. Chung Jen, who in the eleventh century wrote a treatise on
the painting of the plum tree, explains in his chapter on "the derivation
of forms" that it is a symbol, a concentrated form, a likeness of the
universe. The great fundamental principles mingle harmoniously within it;
they express themselves in its shape and reveal themselves through its
beauty. Similar to this was the philosophy associated with the bamboo,
which endured up to the fifteenth century. The subtle monochromes of Lu Fu
show branches of flowering plum swaying in the breeze. In the great works
of Wang Yuean-chang trunks of old trees, still bearing hardy blossoms,
stand proudly in the magical radiance of the moon. Vibration and power,
grandeur and majesty, such are the qualities which were still sought
amidst the severe conditions imposed by the use of black and white. Here
we feel that the creative force is not yet spent. We find it equally
fresh and vigorous in the ink