P'O-MO

Pinyin Pomo, either of two different phrases (two different Chinese characters are pronounced p'o) that describe two kinds of textured surface given to Chinese paintings (see ts'un). The more common interpretation of p'o-mo is broken ink, which, though it is now difficult to identify, was supposedly an innovation of the 8th-century painter Wang Wei. The brush was used to render and build up a series of dense ink washes (diluted ink applied in broad sweeps) to give a sense of the solid surface of landforms first defined by line. The other interpretation of p'o-mo, splashed ink, was probably similar in effect but with forms unconfined by an outline and rendered by more freely and actively maneuvering the ink over the surface. Splashed ink is associated with the art of the eccentrics of the later T'ang dynasty and with some Ch'an artists of the 13th century.