A Study of Kung Hsien’s Ink Painting Teaching－Emphasis on His Instructional manual

[[abstract]]There are lots of studies on Kung Hsien’s painting style in the existing relevant research. However, they all lack in-depth study and discussion as to Kung Hsien’s thoughts of art once written by himself in different versions of instructional manual through the explanation of simple words and the introduction of pictures. Therefore, this study has three purposes to explore: First, the formation of the background on Kung Hsien’s water ink teaching theory; second, the value of his instructional manual and third, the impact and inspiration. This research on its horizontal structure first discussed the relation among the Chinese traditional fine arts teaching, Kung Hsien and his related research on instructional manual. Then, it managed and classified the development of the seventeenth century painting background---the end of Min Dynasty and the beginning of the Chin Dynasty as the basis for the breadth of this study. In the longitudinal study, the research probed the development and content of Kung Hsien’s painting style and theory of water ink teaching, analyzed the form and content of his instructional manual and overviewed the comparison between past paintings and Kung Hsien’s instructional manual. The purposes are to obtain the intrinsic, important characteristic of Kung Hsien’s instructional manual and sum up the meaning and value of his. Finally, the results of this study were summarized as follows: 1. The cores of Kung Hsien’s water ink education are instruction of painting techniques, understanding of painting theories in the past, inspiration of self-style attitude towards artistic creation, and progress in art and cultivation of character, etc. 2. In Chinese history of fine arts teaching, it is Kung Hsien’s instructional manual that features in quantity and quality in the left same works. His instructional manual is characterized by scientific displays of paintings, meanwhile with the most important concept and philosophy of water ink painting brought into teaching, which is the greatest contribution made by Kung Hsien’s instructional manual in Chinese history of fine arts teaching. 3. The influences of Kung Hsien’s instructional manual include the effect on his students and paintings of future generations; the judgment and identification of Kung Hsien’s painting market in recent years, etc. This paper providing the analysis with Kung Hsien’s teaching perspective hopes to contribute to future water ink instructors and also expects there will be more and more people devoted to Kung Hsien’s instructional manual, which would benefit people to understand the wonders and essence of Kung Hsien’s art.