Qinglü shanshui
Description
Blue-green shan shui (simplified Chinese: 青绿山水; traditional Chinese: 青綠山水; pinyin: qīnglǜ shānshuǐ; literally 'blue-green mountain-water') is a variety of shan shui, a style of Chinese painting that primarily depicts scenery. It tends to refer to an "ancient style" rather than modern ones. The main colours of the paintings are blues and greens, and in the early period it was painted using mineral dyes. This style was first formulated by Li Sixun (simplified Chinese: 李思训; traditional Chinese: 李思訓; pinyin: Lǐ Sī-Xùn), a general, politician, and famous painter in the Tang dynasty. Read more ↗
Key Artists
Zhan Ziqian
Sui dynasty painter whose work 'Strolling About in Spring' is widely recognized as China's earliest surviving autonomous landscape painting and the progenitor of the blue-green style.
Li Sixun
Tang dynasty aristocratic general and painter who formalized the opulent 'blue-and-green' landscape style using azurite, malachite, and gold outlines.
Li Zhaodao
Tang dynasty court painter and son of Li Sixun ('Little General Li') who enriched blue-green compositions with narrative imperial journeys and intricate detail.
Wang Ximeng
Northern Song prodigy who painted the immortal eleven-meter-long handscroll 'A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains' at age eighteen under Emperor Huizong's tutelage.
Zhao Boju
Southern Song imperial prince and painter who revived Tang blue-green mineral palettes with refined, lyrical compositions for the court academy.
Qiu Ying
Ming dynasty professional master of the Wu school who brought unprecedented technical precision and brilliant mineral coloration to classical blue-green landscape revivals.
Famous Artworks
Fun Facts
The vibrant blue and green colors of 'Qinglü shanshui' are derived from crushed mineral semi-precious stones - azurite for deep blues and malachite for vivid greens - which do not fade over centuries like plant-based dyes.
↗ Source: en.wikipedia.org
Wang Ximeng completed his monumental 11.9-meter masterpiece 'A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains' when he was only eighteen years old, after receiving direct personal training in painting from the Song Emperor Huizong himself.
↗ Source: en.wikipedia.org