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The Harmony
of Song:
Song Paintings Unveiled

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Framing the
Invisible

The Artistry
of Life

The Life Between
Brushstrokes

A Contemporary
Way of Life

A New Form
of Beauty

Artistic Pursuits
in a Refined Era

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Framing the
Invisible

The practice of liubai, or intentionally leaving white space in Song Dynasty paintings, not only reflects the aesthetics of that era, but also provides insight into a way of life that remains relevant to people even today.

One of the key discernible characteristics of a classical Chinese painting is in its concise style and composition, particularly with much of the canvas intentionally left blank—an element also known as liubai. While Western art similarly possesses the concept of negative space, which deals mainly with spatial hierarchy, this intended blankness in Chinese paintings was a way for artists to express their philosophical and aesthetic beliefs, and to explore the relationship between their inner world and the natural environment.

During the Song, ink and white paper became increasingly important artistic mediums. “As both mediums became more widely used, the relationship between black and white, and blankness and solidness, also became more prominent,” explains Professor Huang Xiaofeng from the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

“Liubai is not only a way to express emptiness, but also an expression of reality.”

Professor Huang Xiaofeng, Central Academy of Fine Arts

With liubai, artists were able to convey their intentions beyond ink applied to paper, and beyond the sum of the painting’s parts. It was through leaving space—using less to achieve more—that they could craft dramatic perspectives, movement, and balance.

Beauty in restraint

As artists’ techniques matured throughout the Southern Song, they manipulated blank spaces to convey the key elements of a landscape, such as the seemingly endless sky or a body of water.

The emergence of the ‘one-corner’ or ‘half-side’ composition style helped to capture the viewer’s imagination. An Angler Going Home is representative of this style, with the rocky precipice and a tree occupying the top right corner of the painting. Directly beyond the tree, a fisherman walks along the coast in the distance, whilst the bottom left corner is left blank to imply the expansive ocean and emphasize the scene’s tranquility.

An Angler Going Home Painting selected with permission from the Shanghai Museum.
Pine Tree and Cottage

Featuring a similar asymmetrical composition, Pine Tree and Cottage by Southern Song court-appointed artist Yan Ciping uses a precise ‘axe-cut’ technique to breathe life and texture into a field of solids, framing the villa and trees as the painting’s main subject. Depicted alongside an expansive void conveying water and sky, the feeling conveyed is one of scale and tremendous distance, implied to stretch beyond the frame of the fan painting.

A MOVING PERSPECTIVE

Song artists used liubai to instill a dynamic experience of a first-person journey, allowing the viewer to ‘travel’ through landscape paintings.

This is especially the case in handscrolls such as Misty River and Layered Peaks, representative, as Professor Huang explains, of how intangible elements in nature such as vapor or water surfaces were expressed using liubai by Song artists.

When unrolling the scroll, a small riverbank gives way to a large blank space—using the invisible to coax the viewer into imagining an expanse of water—before two small fishing boats are revealed. After another long expanse of space, viewers finally reach the shoreline once again, where, through the misty clouds, glimpses of mountains appear. “The painting's ingenuity lies in its representation of clouds and water surfaces,” says Professor Huang.

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Misty River and Layered Peaks Painting selected with permission from the Shanghai Museum.

“Most of the space in the picture is filled with water and sky, which, combined with the viewing experience, expresses an emotional sense of seclusion and wonder.”

Professor Huang Xiaofeng, Central Academy of Fine Arts

Techniques developed by Southern Song artists furthered the first-hand experience of travel through landscape paintings, culminating, as purported by late art historian James Cahill, in Southern Song painter Xia Gui’s seminal Pure and Remote View of Streams and Mountains. The experience of viewing a landscape scroll section by section pinpoints what Cahill described as a “lyric journey”.

In certain sections, the landscape is replete with texture, tonality, and details of foliage and rocky mountainscapes, while in others, a whole section disappears into a misty distance through the use of intentional space—thus creating a rich and varied space for imagination. By contrasting small concentrated areas of fine detail with large masses of space, explains Cahill, the viewer is guided effortlessly through scattered focal points to fully immerse in a visual feast.

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Pure and Remote View of Streams and Mountains

THE PERSONIFICATION OF NATURE

More than creating interesting spatial hierarchy, depth, and movement, liubai allowed Song artists to express their thoughts and feelings, framing an invisible space for imagination through the illustration of landscapes.

“In Song paintings, liubai is a method to illustrate the relationship between the image’s various elements, as well as to capture elements that are often intangible or shapeless.”

Professor Huang Xiaofeng, Central Academy of Fine Arts

Of the masterpieces attributed to legendary Southern Song artist Ma Yuan, the icy starkness of Solitary Angler on a Wintry River is especially notable given the vast field of blankness dominating the picture. This emphasizes the isolation of the lone fisherman who is still fishing in the river despite the cold. Yet, his unaffected demeanor suggests that he is calmly persisting and enjoying the moment—symbolizing the cultural virtues of peaceful stillness.

One of Liang Kai’s later works, Poet Strolling by a Marshy Bank was painted in the early 13th century. Once a painter in attendance at the imperial painting academy in Hangzhou, the Southern Song artist relinquished his courtly duties in search of spiritual illumination; this later work coincided with his turn towards Chan Buddhism and is representative of the monochromatic style inspired by the meditative school of Buddhism.

Similar to other Southern Song landscapes, this painting draws on minimalist flourishes and the use of liubai to depict fog, making the cliffs above appear even taller and further away. The painting’s protagonist ruminates on the epic scene before him, seemingly suggesting he sees the illusory nature of the world.
Poet Strolling by a Marshy Bank
Snowy Landscape

In Southern Song painter Liang Kai’s arresting wintery scene, Snowy Landscape, thick snowfall and towering snowy mountains above the lone traveler are portrayed using liubai to emphasize the dramatic scale of the scene. A large portion of the painting is dominated by this harsh landscape, juxtaposing the vast, multilayered space against the tiny scale of the protagonist. Despite the contrast, or indeed because of it, this traveler’s stature appears even more prominent, with his strong-willed expression in the face of the bitter cold, sharply indicating the character’s importance.

A celebrated example of the integration of poetry and painting, Scholar Reclining and Watching Rising Clouds, painted by Ma Yuan’s son Ma Lin, is a direct illustration of a renowned poem by literati Wang Wei which includes the lines: “I walk unto where the waters end… and sit down to watch when clouds arise.” Exemplifying the use of landscapes to illustrate emotions, much of the painting is left blank to depict a barely visible mountain in the distance, with the resulting calm reflecting the poem’s message of hope and virtuousness. An imperial gift featuring the emperor’s calligraphy, this painting serves as a reminder on how to keep a clear heart that is detached from gains and losses—a message relevant to us even today.

Scholar Reclining and Watching Rising Clouds

“The concept of liubai continues to be reinterpreted today, seen in many aspects of life, art, and philosophy specific to Eastern aesthetics.”

Professor Huang Xiaofeng, Central Academy of Fine Arts

“It can help us better appreciate and understand ancient paintings, and in turn, add to our understanding of the world today.”

From tracing vernacular stories to documenting key moments in court life; daily whimsies to the most sublime of philosophical thoughts, the breadth of Song-era paintings in today’s collections reveal much about this early sophisticated Chinese society’s wealth of appreciation for the natural world around them. Explore more cultural facets in detail in the art series: The Song, Painted.

The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed are solely their own.

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