Auspicious Cranes: The Song Dynasty

A lucent crescent of the moon is seen on the top right hand corner of the painting where dramatic contours and fluidity of the brushworks are seen due to the Japonisme influences. Moreover, the eleven stars and the rolling hills are depicted moving to the momentum of the swirling sky.

Entry# 1: Good day journal, I have ventured further into my research on the Song Dynasty, I have learned very much about the landscape, geographical features, and much more like some major epochs of their time and even some quotes directly from some of the people living there. To start the song dynasty lasted from 960 to 1279 A.D. they lasted 319 years “Their climate had a very diverse range, ranges from tropical in south and subtropical in the north. The terrain is mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in the west, plains, deltas, and hills in the east.”(Embry 4). This is what I observed and mentally noted while I was touring the Song Dynasty. “Emperor Taizu began reigning in the year 960. His capital was in Kaifeng. During his 16 years of rule, he instituted successful policies and won his wars of expansion” (Wu 7). This was something that a local had told me about emperor Taizu. He further on explained to me about his resilience and how he expanded his land with intelligent war tactics.The Song dynasty was an era of Chinese history that began in 960 and continued until 1279. It succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, and was followed by the Yuan dynasty (Benn 0).

It is a painting using the swirling turmoil of line to make up the piece. You can tell this is a painting by the different styles of line and color.

There were many Chinese dynasties that rose and fell throughout China’s history. The history of China, in a way, is a history of battles and wars. These wars were so important that they changed the structure of Chinese culture both then and now. Three dynasties that rose and fell during ancient China were the Han, the Tang, and the Song. The rise and fall of these great dynasties form a link that runs through Chinese history.

During the Song Dynasty China was the most successful because it made life easier for China.

From 960 to 1279, The Song Dynasty shaped the way China was perceived. Emperor Taizu of Song founded and ruled the Song Dynasty. His personal name is Zhao Kuangyin and he lived from March 21st 927 to November 14th 976. The Song Dynasty succeeded the Later Zhao, ending the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Emperor Taizu of Song, also named Song Taizu, became emperor through the Mandate of Heaven. The Mandate of Heaven states that there could only be one ruler of China at a time, and they had to be approved by the gods. This was created under the rule of the Zhou Dynasty. Before his reign, Song Taizu was Grand Commander and a Military Governor of the Later Zhao. Because of his military strength and strong appearance, he easily overthrew the current ruler, Emperor Gong. Emperor Gong succeeded his father Emperor Chai Rong once he died. He was seven years old and the people wanted a more capable ruler. Once Song Taizu took the Mandate on February 960, he reunited China by replacing the Zhou Dynasty with the Song Dynasty. Was Emperor Taizu a great ruler compared to the past rulers? Song Taizu was a great ruler compared to the previous emperors because he was smarter then his successors.

The painting compared to other paintings close by, looks monumental. This painting

Yang Jian was one of the many emperors in China that enjoyed power and influenced many great accomplishments

Not long after she became a member of the harem where she was given the rank “Cairen” which meant talented in chinese, the fifth rank on the list inner officials. Any lady that the emperor or empress decides to recruit will be given a rank out of eight at the time being. Wu Zhao was immediately noticed by Emperor Taizong due to her beauty but most importantly because of her understanding of the chinese literature. Therefore, she would be placed to work in the imperial study. To others this may not be such a valuable experience, but to Wu Zhao it was a valuable educational experience which later would become an undeniable tool for her successful reign of one of the largest empire at the time of history. After spending twelve years working but mostly studying at the Imperial Study, Wu was more educated than before she was recruited to the palace and comparing to other inner officials. But most importantly, she learned the finer essence of the official documents, policy and foreign affairs. As being one of Emperor Taizong’s favorite concubine at the time, he granted her a new name “Wu Meiniang”, the charming

The first of the three is Emperor Wen, whose personal name was Yang Jian and was also known as the Kai Huang Emperor. He reigned between 581 and 604 AD. Emperor Wen was the father-in-law of the previous emperor of Northern Zhou. Upon his death, Emperor Wen seized the throne and established the Sui Dynasty. Emperor Wen was born in 541 AD, and died in 604 AD. He is known for reunifying and reorganizing China after 300 years of instability. He conquered southern China, which was divided into numerous small kingdoms. In addition, he broke the power of the Turks in the northern part of the country.

Zhao Mengfu, a main calligrapher of his time, set the course of researcher painting by solidly building up its two essential precepts: restoration through the investigation of antiquated models and the use of calligraphic standards to painting. In Twin Pines, Level Distance the scene figure of speech of the Northern Song experts Li Cheng and Guo Xi has turned into a calligraphic style. Instead of essentially portray nature as it gives off an impression of being, Zhao tried to catch its quintessential rhythms. The attributes of rocks and trees, felt by the craftsman and carried on through his calligraphic brushwork, are saturated with an increased feeling of life vitality that goes past insignificant representation.

Before the Song Dynasty became the most powerful dynasty in China, there was an upstart military commander that dethrone the last Tang emperor in 907. China divided itself into divisions once again. North China had Five Dynasties while the South separated in ten regimes. Zhao Kuangyin was the leader of the Song Dynasty before it became one. He lead an army north against a rumored Kitan invasion. is officers entered his residence on the second morning of the march and hailed him as emperor. Once Zhao Kuangyin was emperor, he changed his name to Emperor Taizu. He was the emperor of the Song from 960-976 CE. Emperor Taizu wanted to clearly separate military command from civilian administration. To do this, he hosted a banquet in his palace for

Emperor Kangxi died in 1722, leaving Yongzheng to become the fourth emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. The Kangxi emperor had fourteen sons and it was Yongzheng who ascended to the throne, some accused Yongzheng of using nefarious tactics to achieve his position. “Yongzheng's language abilities in Manchu and Chinese as well as his cultivation in traditional classics and poetry all met with his father's approval, but it was his sincerity in performing filial piety that especially won Kangxi's praise.” Being chosen as Emperor caused his brothers great unhappiness, because of their jealousy much of Yongzheng’s early years on the throne were spent defending his rule through political maneuvering and consolidating his power of his Empire.

While Qiu’s work depicts the prosperity of Suzhou in the middle era of the Ming dynasty, Zhang’s painting shows the daily life of people in Kaifeng during the Song dynasty. Qiu Ying’s buildings are more structured and grand, even the shops appear more spacious. The scenes in this painting represent an important page in Chinese history by combining the history and reality of a genre painting. So many landmark buildings in Suzhou are clearly recognizable which show the developed economy and traditions of the Ming dynasty and the artist’s own style. Qiu Ying uses the traditional blue-and-green style in this painting, leading to a beautiful picture which is filled with bright green mountains and clear blue

The Classic of Filial Piety is a highly influencial piece of art from acient China that many use, along other acient Chinese arts, to portray how art in China was effected by the beliefs and events surrounding the artist. However, not many mention on how it was a major factor in influencing China to accept painters and paintings as arts that could be used for artists to express themselves, thus being both affected by the current events and being the event that affected other arts. The Classic of Filial Piety was painted by Li Gonglin and is different than modern art, mixing both pictures and text. The art was painted in the Northern Song Dynasty, which lasted from 960 to 1279. China was in the later half of the Dynasty, as the painting