he world of pure substance
and abstract principle that was sought, but the real, everyday world, the
world of objective forms studied for themselves, living their own life, on
the threshold of which the spirit halted, no longer guided by the old
philosophies.

[Illustration: PLATE XXII. BEAUTY INHALING THE FRAGRANCE OF A PEONY
Ming Period. Collection of V. Goloubew.]

This character was maintained up to the nineteenth century. It is seen in
the painting of flowers and landscape as well as in figure painting. These
traits are equally apparent in an iris by Nan t'ien and a personage by
Huang Yin-piao. The latter, working in the middle of the eighteenth
century, evoked the personages of Buddhist and Taoist legend with a
skillful brush, but his daring simplifications were more akin to
virtuosity than to that deep reflection and freedom from non-essentials
which were the glory of the early masters. Herein are discerned the
elements of decadence, which are wont to assume precisely this aspect of a
mastery over difficulties. For such ends genuine research and the true
grasp of form were gradually abandoned.

Calligraphy and the literary style were not overlooked, but they were
carried to a point of abstraction that is beyond the province of art. A
personage was represented by lines which formed characters in handwriting
and which, in drawing the figure, at the same time wrote a sentence.
Doubtless that is a proof of marvelous skill. I agree in assigning such
masterpieces to the realm of calligraphy but refuse to admit them to the
domain of painting.

This applies as well to the so-called _thumb nail painting_ held in high
repute under the last dynasty. In this the brush is abandoned and the line
is drawn by the finger dipped in ink or color. The painting is done on
modern paper of a special kind which partially absorbs the paint, in the
manner of blotting paper; this results in weak lines, and ink and color
schemes devoid of firmness, in short, in a lack of virility which places
such works, notwithstanding their virtuosity, in the category of artisan
achievements. These works are numerous in the modern period and constitute
what so many regard as Chinese painting. One cannot be too careful in
discarding them.

During every period decorative paintings, religious paintings and
ancestral paintings made after death, were executed in China by artisans,
ordinary workmen at the service of whosoever might engage them. Such wo