ends of his hermit
followers proved a fruitful field for artistic motives of a kind which
Buddhism was still more to enrich and multiply. Early classifications
rank Buddhist and Taoist subjects together as one class.

With the 2nd century A.D. we come to individual names of artists and to
the beginnings of landscape. Ku K'ai-chih (4th century) ranks as one of
the greatest names of Chinese art. A painting by him now in the British
Museum (Plate I. fig. 1) shows a maturity which has nothing tentative
about it. The dignified and elegant types are rendered with a mastery of
sensitive brush-line which is not surpassed in later art. Ku K'ai-chih
painted all kinds of subjects, but excelled in portraiture. During the
next century the criticism of painting was formulated in six canons by
Hsieh Ho. Rhythm, organic or structural beauty, is the supreme quality
insisted on.

T'ang dynasty (A.D. 618-907).

During the T'ang dynasty the empire expanded to its utmost limits,
stretching as far as the Persian Gulf. India was invaded; Buddhism,
taught by numbers of Indian missionaries, became firmly established, and
controlled the ideals and imaginations of the time. The vigorous style
of a great era was impressed upon the T'ang art, which culminated in Wu
Taotzue, universally acknowledged as the greatest of all Chinese
painters. It is doubtful if any of his work remains. The picture
reproduced (Plate I. fig. 2) was long attributed to him, but is now
thought to be of later date, like the two landscapes well known under
his name in Japan. Wu Taotzue seems to have given supreme expression to
the central subject of Buddhist art, the Nirvana of Buddha, who lies
serenely asleep, with all creation, from saints and kings to birds and
beasts, passionately bewailing him. The composition is known from
Japanese copies; and it is in fact from the early religious schools of
Japan that we can best conjecture the grandeur of the T'ang style. Wu
Taotzue excelled in all subjects: other masters are best known for some
particular one. Han Kan was famous for his horses, the models for
succeeding generations of painters, both Chinese and Japanese. A
specimen of his brush is in the British Museum; and in the same
collection is a long roll which gives a glimpse of the landscape of this
age. It is a copy by a great master of the Yuen dynasty, Chao Meng-fu,
from a famous painting by Wang Wei, representing scenes on the Wang
Ch'uan, the latter's home (Plate