Introduction
The "Che school" is a term that has been used since the seventeenth century to refer to a group of Ming dynasty (1368-1644) professional painters linked stylistically and centered in the Chekiang area. With Tai Chin and Wu Wei as its leading artists in the fifteenth century, this group mostly followed the styles of the Li Ch'eng and Kuo Hsi school from the Northern Sung (960-1127) and Ma Yüan and Hsia Kuei of the Southern Sung (1127-1279) imperial painting academy. Che school landscapes are often filled with an expressive energy, while figural and bird-and-flower themes mainly deal with easily understood or auspicious subjects frequently permeated by a bustling and vigorous folk manner. In the later years of the Che school, some artists developed increasingly carefree and unbridled forms of brush and ink as they pursued extroverted and dramatic visual effects. This group encompassed the most active of both local and court painters in the early Ming dynasty, the style eventually influencing even Japanese artists of the Muromachi period (1393-1573) and Korean ones in the Chosŏn dynasty (1392-1910). Thus, in many ways, the Che school was one of the most influential and international forces in Chinese painting history.
Che school artists, however, were not confined to the Chekiang area, because they also came from Fukien, Kwangtung, and other provinces. After the establishment of the Ming dynasty, painters were in great demand to decorate palaces, halls, temples, and shrines, so they were active both locally and in the central government. The easy-to-understand subjects of Che school works frequently are complemented by visually emphatic forms of expression, standing in marked contrast to the more introverted styles of brush and ink appreciated by literati. The rise of literati painting thus led these professional painters of similar stylistic and social background to be disparagingly labeled by scholar-critics starting from the late sixteenth century as "wild and heterodox.
In the history of collecting art in China, the original signatures and seals on many Che school paintings often were modified by dealers and collectors to command higher prices in the art market. Provided with the names of more revered masters from antiquity, the original identities of these works were relegated to obscurity and the recesses of history. This special two-part exhibition is thus a critical review of the Che school and a re-examination of related works in the National Palace Museum collection. Not only masterpieces of this school are on display, but so-called Sung (960-1279) and Yüan (1279-1368) paintings are also re-evaluated to retrieve their hidden true identities, helping to reconstruct the story of this once powerful painting school in Chinese art history.
In light of the National Palace Museum's rich holdings, this exhibition has been divided into two rotations of autumn and winter displays, each presented in four sections for "Traditions in Art," "Che School and Court Painting," "Peking and Nanking," and "Wild and Heterodox." As such, this exhibit allows both scholars and visitors alike to trace the origins of the Che school, the course of its spread from a regional to a central style, the rise of second-generation artists in the school, and how the style eventually faded in the prejudices of history.