Mi Youren (1074–1151) was the eldest son of the celebrated Song painter and calligrapher Mi Fu, and he became the leading connoisseur of his era, frequently called on to authenticate ancient paintings for the emperor, eventually rising to the position of vice president of the Board of War. He inherited his father's technique of layered wet ink dots — later called "Mi-family dots" — and developed it into a simplified, blurry style of mountain painting that marked a decisive break from the detailed Northern Song landscape tradition, becoming the direct predecessor of the atmospheric ink-wash style of the later Southern Song. Scholar-artists of the period referred to this loose, expressive approach as "ink play," reflecting the idea that the painter's inner psychological state mattered more than technical polish, which helped raise painting to the same cultural status as poetry and calligraphy.
This particular handscroll, The Spectacular Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers, is ink on paper, measures 19.8 x 289.5 cm, dated 1135, and is held today at the Palace Museum in Beijing. Art historians compare it directly with Mi Youren's earlier scroll Cloudy Mountains (1130, now at the Cleveland Museum of Art), noting that by 1130 his father's stippling technique was still dominant in his mountains while the clouds were only rendered with tentative, vague contour lines; by 1135, however, Mi Youren had matured into his own fluid, calligraphic way of rendering mist, with winding, dry-brush bands that separate near and distant elements and make the mountains appear to breathe. This mature mist technique became one of the defining features of his late style, and scholars have traced its influence reaching as far as early Jin-dynasty court painters working in northern China in the decades following his death, likely transmitted through diplomatic gift exchanges between the Southern Song and Jin courts.
Looking at it all, I realized why this scroll immediately grabbed my attention — because of its quietness. For instance, while the mountains look like they are drawn, their outline isn’t too detailed, and they come up from the mist and go back into the mist again. Because of the way it’s painted, I couldn’t really concentrate on any particular part of this landscape painting.
To the left-hand side of this landscape painting, we have darker trees and some rocks along with what looks like a tiny house. But towards the right-hand side of the scroll, things start getting pale and empty-looking, and finally, you see the river going towards the faraway mountain ranges, but those are covered by thick mists (see image).
I don’t think that this painter wanted to depict how the real-life river valley would actually look like. Instead, he wanted to portray a specific atmosphere using blurry ink strokes and wavy bands for representing the mists around. And that aligns with everything I read about ‘ink play’ before, where an artist puts his feelings first, rather than focusing on details. Plus, considering how these two rivers — Xiao & Xiang — have always been linked with mist & rains in most of our ancient Chinese poems, the wistfulness comes through here subtly.
The piece itself is completed during 1135 AD, right after losing the northern areas of China to the Song Dynasty court. Even though I wouldn’t know it at the time, I caught subtle vibes of sorrow hidden underneath this beautiful landscape, conveying how nature can provide us peace, stability amidst deteriorated conditions around us. It made me slow down and relax.
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By: Diksha Mudgal
It is nearly impossible to measure the charms of traditional Chinese landscape paintings unless it is created by Mi Youren who lived during the time of the Southern Song dynasty. His painting is called “The Wonderful View of Xiao and Xiang Rivers.” It gives a perfect and calm picture of the world that has mountains and valleys covered with fog. The artist has mastered the painting style known as “Mi-dot” (Midian) that he has invented and learnt from his father Mi Fu. There is a variety of colors in the painting that come from the use of different pieces of ink. The variation of colors is achieved through light washes and horizontal strokes of ink.
