LI KUNG-LIN

born 1049, Shu-ch'eng, Anhwei province, China died 1106 Pinyin Li Gonglin, also called Li Lung-mien one of the most lavishly praised Chinese connoisseurs and painters in a circle of scholar-officials during the Northern Sung period. Li Kung-lin was born into a scholarly home, received the chin-shih (advanced scholar) degree in 1070, and followed the common career of going to the capital in K'ai-feng to serve as an official. There he became acquainted with many of the literary lights of the day. Li Kung-lin developed high standards of critical taste by collecting and copying old masters, and in his own painting he rejected pure description and obvious dexterity for a greater emphasis upon scholarly knowledge of the antique and self-expression within those modesthe ideal of literati painting (wen-jen-hua). No completely reliable paintings of Li Kung-lin are still in existence, and many styles and attitudes of painting are associated with him. Generally he is known as a painter of horses, Buddhist subjects, landscapes, and figures. In spite of a conventional association with a rather sketchy style appropriate to his literary tastes, he is also linked with a very refined, elegant, and skillful outline painting of figures and architecture without further colour added.