e seventeenth
century was only dynastic. The evolution of Ming tendencies continued, and
despite the reorganization undertaken by Kang Hsi and maintained by his
two successors, the excessive requirements of the old system, which had
been formulated during the Sung epoch and definitely established in the
Yuean and Ming periods, were so exacting that irremediable decadence was
inevitable. Thenceforward no great changes in the realm of painting need
be expected. It only continued its logical evolution.

It is necessary, nevertheless, to lay stress on the value of Chinese
painting from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, for an opinion is
current that, while there might still be something of value under the Ming
dynasty, nothing good was produced under the Ch'ing. It is undeniable that
marked signs of decadence are seen in the latter period, but by the side
of some inferior works, others exist which maintain the vitality of the
past and the hope of a renaissance.

In refutation of such hasty and ill informed opinion, it is sufficient to
recall a number of paintings, signed and dated, of the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, which dealers or collectors calmly attribute to the
eleventh and twelfth.

Chinese painting at the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the
eighteenth century was still full of vitality. The taste for brilliant
color gradually diminished, and the composition became broader and more
noble at the hands of certain painters, in whom is seen the revival of the
vigorous race of yore. This was the time when Yuen Shou-p'ing, more
commonly known under the name of Nan-t'ien, painted landscape and flowers
with the restraint and power of the old style, and when Shen Nan-p'ing set
out for Japan to found a modern Chinese school which was to rival the
Ukioyoye in importance and activity. About them was grouped a large
following, foretelling fresh developments.

No support was given to this movement by the new government, which was
infatuated with the academic style of the earlier reigns and becoming more
and more ignorant as the last years of the nineteenth century approached.
In the eighteenth century a comparatively large number of Chinese painters
settled in Japan, where they continued the traditions of Ming art. The
observation of a Nan-t'ien or of a Shen Nan-p'ing was keen and
painstaking, but the objectivity and realism now coming to the fore, were
conspicuous in their works. No longer was it t