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Why did Xia Gui’s style receive little attention during the Qing dynasty?

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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.

During the Qing dynasty (1644–1911/12), the style of Xia Gui received little attention and was rarely mentioned in literature because the prevailing artistic direction of the period did not align with his techniques.1

Qing dynasty painting was heavily influenced by the theories of the late Ming artist-critic Dong Qichang, who categorized painters into "Southern" and "Northern" schools. Dong associated Xia Gui with the "Northern school," which he and other literati critics viewed as pedantic and overly professional, contrasting it with the spontaneous, intuitive "literati painting" (wenrenhua) they championed.12

Furthermore, the Qing era favored a conservative, orthodox approach to landscape painting that emphasized specific calligraphic modes and compositional structures derived from the Yuan masters. Xia Gui’s style, which relied on subtle ink washes, atmospheric effects, and a sophisticated concern with space and distance, was incompatible with these rigid standards. Consequently, his work was largely excluded from the period's artistic discourse, and it was not until modern times that he was widely recognized as a leading master of Chinese landscape painting.1