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How did Dong Qichang assess Xia Gui’s painting style?

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Pure and Remote View of Streams and Mountains, detail of hand scroll in ink and paper by Xia Gui, early 13th century (Southern Song); in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan. — Xia Gui *Pure and Remote View of Streams and Mountains*, detail of hand scroll in ink and paper by Xia Gui, early 13th century (Southern Song); in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan.

Although Dong Qichang was generally critical of the professional-academy tradition in Chinese painting, he exempted Xia Gui from his sweeping condemnation, offering a nuanced assessment of his style.1

Dong Qichang noted that while Xia Gui followed the tradition of Li Tang, he introduced a sense of "simplicity" to his work, which Dong compared to "reduced modeling" used by clay-workers. He praised Xia for avoiding the "shortcuts" of imitativeness in his conceptions and intent.1

Furthermore, Dong Qichang credited Xia Gui with possessing the "ink-plays" of the two Mi’s (Mi Fei and Mi Youren) at his brush-tip. By associating Xia with these literati masters, Dong recognized in him a level of spontaneity and intuitive quality that was typically considered absent in academy artists. This assessment was based on Xia’s use of subtle ink washes to render atmosphere, his reduction of fine-drawn detail, and his technique of obscuring transitions with mist.1