Bifaji 筆法記

Bifaji 筆法記, also called Shanshui shoubi fa 山水受筆法 or Shanshuilu 山水錄, is a book on the "methods of using the brush", i.e. on painting, mainly of landscapes. It was written by Jing Hao 荊誥 (fl. 920), who lived in the state of Liang, one of the Five Dynasties.

The brief book is written as a dialogue with Master Stone Drum (Shigu Laoren 石鼓老人), who allegedly lived in Taihang Mountain Range 太行山. The dialogue expounds traditional methods and characteristics of painting, and thus reveals the rich experience of the author in this field of art. He stresses the need to search for "authenticity" (zhen 真), but not in the sense of reproducing the appearance of landscapes. Instead, the painter had to reflect the spiritual nature of his object, and had to balance out what was the innate authenticity of nature. Elements of this authenticity were "air", "energy" or "spirit" (qi 氣), "rhyme", or "mood and atmosphere" (yun 韻), thought (si 思), and scene (jing 景), while brush (bi 筆) and ink (mo 墨) had to deliver them on paper. Apart from these six requirements (liuyao 六要), a painter had to use "spirit" (shen 神), "subtlety" (miao 妙), "peculiarity" (qi 奇), and technical skills (qiao 巧), according to which his artwork would be rated. The brush itself was steered by the "four powers" (sishi 四勢), namely muscles (jin 筋), flesh (rou 肉), bones (gu 骨), and energy (qi 氣). In its overall impression, an artwork should reflect the correct dimension to have "shape" (you xing 有形), nor be "without shape" (wu xing 無形).

A similar imbalance occurred when water and ink were not applied in the right combination, for instance, in the paintings of Wu Daozi 吳道子 (685-758), who "used the brush, but not the ink", or Xiang Rong 項容 (early 8th cent.), who "used ink, but not the brush". Jing Hao called this "the halo of water and the patterns of ink" (shui yun mo zhang 水暈墨章). He used the example of pine trees to demonstrate that they were neither withered nor lush, but just pine trees. At the end of his book, the author assumes that only men of moral principles and of good education would be able to use the brush correctly.

The text is included in the series Wangshi shuhua yuan 王氏書畫苑, Peiwenzhai shuhua pu 佩文齋書畫譜 and Siku quanshu 四庫全書.