China during the warring states period. Guanzhong ('Qin') is the southeast corner of the rectangle formed by the Yellow and Wei rivers.

Guanzhong (simplified Chinese: 关中; traditional Chinese: 關中; pinyin: guānzhōng, literally 'pass, center'), or Guanzhong Plain, is a historical region of China corresponding to the lower valley of the Wei River. It is called Guanzhong or 'within the passes' to distinguish it from 'Guandong' or 'east of the pass', that is, the North China Plain. The North China Plain is bordered on the west by mountains. The Yellow River cuts through the mountains at the Hangu Pass separating Guanzhong from Guandong. During the Warring States Period Guanzhong was the western edge of Chinese civilization and was controlled by the state of Qin. As Qin became more militaristic its enemies claimed that it had adopted barbarian customs and was not fully Chinese. It was said that 'Guanzhong produces generals and Guandong produces ministers'. The state of Qin united China and Guanzhong was the center of the Qin and several later dynasties.

The Passes that enclose Guanzhong are:

• Xiao Pass (萧关/蕭關) to the north,
• Hangu Pass (函谷关/函谷關) to the east (see also Tongguan County),
• Wu Pass (武关/武關) to the south, and
• Dasan Pass (大散关/大散關) to the west,

Historically the most important pass was the eastern one along the Yellow River which separates Guanzhong from the North China Plain. Guanzhong includes the central part of Shaanxi and the extreme west of modern Henan.

The average altitude of the Guanzhong Plain is around 500 metres. Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi, is the largest city in the Guanzhong plain, which also contains the cities of Tongchuan, Baoji, Xianyang and Weinan.

The plain was the central region of the Qin during the Warring States period. Having fertile soil and good irrigation systems, Qin rose from this region to gain preeminence among the Warring States, and eventually unified China. Since the Zhou Dynasty, the area was the capital region of China for a total of 12 dynasties including the Han Dynasty, Sui Dynasty, and Tang Dynasty. By the Tang Dynasty the economic center of China had shifted south to the Yangtze River basin and Guanzhong became increasingly dependent on imports via the Grand Canal. After the destruction of Chang'an in the last years of the Tang, Guanzhong became less significant politically as well as economically in later dynasties.

See also[link]

• Guanzhong Hua
• Maps : 1, 2

References[link]

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Wu Guanzhong
Born	(1919-08-29)August 29, 1919 Yixing, Jiangsu, China
Died	June 25, 2010(2010-06-25) (aged 90) Beijing, China
Nationality	Chinese
Field	Painter

Wu Guanzhong (simplified Chinese: 吴冠中; traditional Chinese: 吳冠中; August 29, 1919 – June 25, 2010)^[1] was a contemporary Chinese painter widely recognized as the father of modern Chinese painting.^[2] He is considered to be one of the greatest contemporary Chinese painters of all-time. Wu had painted various aspects of China, including much of its architecture, plants, animals, people, as well as many of its landscapes and waterscapes in a style reminiscent of the impressionist painters of the early 1900s. He was also a writer on contemporary Chinese art.^[3]

Life[link]

Wu was born in the farming village of Yixing, Jiangsu, in 1919. His family wanted him to become a teacher just like his father had been. In 1935, Wu passed the entrance exam and studied electrical engineering at Zhejiang Industrial School (浙江公立工业专门学校, a technical school of Zhejiang University) in Hangzhou.^[4] While in engineering school, Wu met an art student named Zhu Dequn who was studying at the National Hangzhou Academy of Art. During a trip to Zhu’s school, Wu got his first look at art and fell “madly in love with art”. ^[5] Against his father’s wishes, in 1936 he transferred to the National Arts Academy of Hangzhou, studying both Chinese and Western painting under Pan Tianshou (1897–1971) and Lin Fengmian (1900–1991). Wu went through many trials and challenges during his years in college before he could master his craft. In 1937 the Sino-Japanese War began and the campus had to pick up and relocate in order to get out of the way of the invading Japanese army. During the constant movement during the war, Wu was able to see many different locations. He considered the adventures as a necessary journey to becoming a man and building his character. Wu benefitted greatly from the many teachers who taught him to paint and the rough journey to becoming a man. In 1942 he graduated from National Arts Academy, Hangzhou and tried to find a job. During the war jobs were hard to find and Wu took a part-time job as a substitute teacher. He later found a job as a watercolor and drawing teacher in the Architecture Department of Chongqing University. After Wu graduated he continued to hone his craft and studied with some of his old colleagues from school like Zhu Dequn, Li Lincan and Zheng Wei. Each of these friends continued their art careers and left their mark on the art scene. ^[6] In 1946 Wu applied for one of the two art study abroad spots and was the best applicant who applied, this was in part to his French language studies. 1947 traveled to Paris to study at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts on the government scholarship. Even though France was still recovering from World War II, Wu was completely enthralled with the art. He visited all of the major museums within the first few days of his arrival. Wu was always a tremendous fan of French and European art. While in Europe, Wu realized the many cultural and religious differences between Europe and China. This was a difficult barrier for him to overcome to understand and appreciate some of the art. Wu found a great interest in the modern art of France despite his studying in European artistic traditions. He took a great liking to the Post-Impressionists like van Gogh, Gauguin and Cezanne. Wu loved van Gogh the most because of van Gogh’s passion for art and the internal torment he endured. Wu also felt the hardships that Gauguin felt when he left Paris for a South Pacific island in order to find his own personal ideal. Gauguin eventually died on the island. This trip helped Wu grasp the idea of form and the basic meaning of art. The study abroad trip also led to formalism becoming the basic underlying element of his art and studying in France helped him better understand formalism.^[7]

Wu returned to China in the summer of 1950 to the excitement that was brought by the new People’s Republic of China government. The government assigned jobs to all of the returning students who came back after the new government took control. Everyone felt anxious and excited to contribute to the building of a new nation. Wu introduced aspects of Western art to his students at the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing, where he taught from 1950 to 1953. He was excited to be the first Chinese artist to return from France with knowledge and theoretical framework for French modernism. While teaching, many peers criticized him because of jealousy over his job and because he was the only painter practicing formalism. The Academy was known to have been dominated by social realism and Wu was called "a fortress of bourgeois formalism". The issues became so bad he could no longer stay at the Central Academy and transferred. Between 1953 and 1964 he taught at Tsinghua University, Beijing and then Beijing Fine Arts Normal College. As a professor Wu was able to take many trips around the country and discover the expanse that was the new China. Wu was full of ambition and energy and travelled to many locations where his peers wouldn’t go. His life was going just how he wanted because he taught where his colleagues agreed on ideas, his students liked his approach and he could paint or sketch whenever he wanted. This is when Wu made a transition to landscape since he travelled all over the country. He was later appointed a Professor at the Central Institute of Arts and Crafts, Beijing in 1964.

In August 1966, at the outset of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution, Wu was prohibited from painting and writing about art^{[citation needed]}, and many of his early works were destroyed^{[citation needed]}. In 1970, at the age of 51, he and his wife were separated and assigned to almost 3 years of hard labor in the countryside as part of the Communist Party's vast re-education program.^[8] Wu stated, “Life was only planting rice, carrying coal, criticizing one another, and fighting one another…The only thing that no one was allowed to do was paint.” ^[9] Following that period, he was only allowed to paint on Sundays (his day off from the fields) or on holidays^{[citation needed]}. Wu didn’t suffer too much physical harm because he had destroyed many of his own paintings but this caused him much emotional harm. He heard of artists being persecuted and even killed so he knew he needed to burn the nude paintings since they would be severely criticized and frowned upon. Finally in 1972, he was allowed to return to Beijing to paint hotel murals and decorations. During the 1970s, Wu changed his style based on what others were doing at the time. Wu started painting with oil or watercolor in a Western style until he returned to Beijing and saw other artists using watercolor in the traditional Chinese style. In 1975 a Chinese art association in Japan wanted some paintings to exhibit but they wanted traditional Chinese ink paintings. Once again Wu changed his style to match the specifications and his work became a great hit. From here Wu moved on to another phase where he painted with oil and concentrated on the human body and the beauty of form. Wu also realized he could achieve the same beauty and form through landscape while using Chinese ink and color on paper. ^[10] It was not until after Mao's death in 1976 that Wu, like many of his peers, was able to return to his art-making. This opened up the door for artists to branch out international. Unfortunately for most of the artists, there was an immense gap in artistic ideas between China and the rest of the world. The only one who seemed able to bridge this artistic gap was Wu. With the newfound freedom, Wu was able to break away from the old constraints and get back to the formalism style he originally loved. Along with being able to paint again, he was able to be more of a public figure in the art scene without fear of retribution. He wrote an essay for a May 1979 issue of Meishu titled “The Beauty of Form in Painting”. He discussed his theory of formalism in the article as “A vast number of workers in art now hope for the opening of European modern painting to them, to discuss the scientific nature of the beauty of form. It is the microscope and surgical knife of formal art as a means to enrich and develop heritage. Oil painting must be nationalized; Chinese painting must be modernized. It seems that only after we have seen the Japanese painter Higashiyama Kai’s explorations have we come to have a clear understanding about the problems of uniting the East and West.” ^[11] Wu has written many other articles based on his version of form and how it applies to modernism. He considered himself as primarily a painter and not as a theorist. Wu had the approach of going out and looking at nature to find something that piqued his interest. Then he would start with a preliminary sketch of what it was that he saw. Next he spent a great deal of time in the studio trying to figure out the best way to show the power of the form of the object. He would then paint quickly and impulsively with whatever European of Chinese brush felt right. Wu would go on painting for hours until he was too emotionally drained to continue. ^[12] He had his first professional solo exhibition in 1979, and his career took off in the 1980s. He has been the solo exhibitionist in over 10 and been part of a joint exhibition in over 10 others.

In 1991 Wu was made an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.

Early in his career Guanzhong adopted the pen name Tu, which he used to sign his work.

Wu died at the age of 90 on June 25, 2010 during night time in Beijing.

Exhibitions[link]

Unfortunately most of Wu’s early work was destroyed in order to avoid some of the persecution during the Cultural Revolution. It is difficult to track down works from his younger days. Wu had an exhibit in 1942 when he was in school and it was hosted by the Sha Ping Youth’s Palace. ^[13]

Wu Guangzhong has had solo exhibitions in major art galleries and museums around the world, including China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Taipei, Korea, England and the USA.^{[citation needed]} His paintings were exhibited at the British Museum in 1992; Wu was the first living Chinese artist to have an exhibition there. One of his paintings, Seascape at Beidaihe (1977), was shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of an exhibition of paintings from the collection of art dealer Robert H. Ellsworth [1]. His work may also be seen in the collection of the Hong Kong Museum of Art.^[14]

In 2008, Wu donated 113 works to the Singapore Art Museum (SAM). This donation is the largest Wu Guanzhong donation to a public museum. In 2010, Wu donated works to the Hong Kong Art Museum.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Wu Guanzhong

• Wu Guanzhong and his Painting Gallery at China Online Museum
• Wu Guanzhong on artnet
• David Barbosa, Once denounced, painter has China's eye, The New York Times, October 6, 2005.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2010)

This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.

Guǎn Zhòng (Chinese: 管仲; Wade–Giles: Kuan Chung) (c. 720-645 BC) was a chancellor and reformer of the State of Qi during the Spring and Autumn Period of Chinese history.^[1] His given name was Yíwú (夷吾). Zhong was his courtesy name. Recommended by Bao Shuya, he was appointed Prime Minister by Duke Huan of Qi in 685 BC.

Achievements[link]

Guan Zhong started multiple reforms in the State of Qi. Politically, he centralized power and divided the state into different villages, each carrying out a specific trade. Instead of relying on the traditional aristocracy for manpower, he applied levies to the village units directly. He also developed a better method for choosing talent to be governors. Under Guan Zhong, Qi shifted administrative responsibility from hereditary aristocrats to professional bureaucrats. He is also credited for creating the first official government sponsored brothel known as "女市" which funded the government treasury.

Under Guan's guidance several important economic reforms were introduced . He created a uniform tax code and also used state power to encourage the production of Salt and Iron. Historians usually credit Guan Zhong for introducing state monopolies controlling salt and iron.

During his term of office, the state of Qi became much stronger. The Zuo Zhuan records that in 660 BC, Guan Zhong urged Duke Huan of Qi to attack the small neighboring State of Xing which was under attack from Dog Rong nomads. Later, in 652 BC he advised the duke not to ally with a vassal ruler's son who wished to depose his father. Duke Huan often listened to Guan Zhong's sound advice such that his status amongst other Zhou vassal states rose. As a result the duke came to be recognized as the first Hegemon or leader of the vassal alliance.^[1]

He is listed as the author of the Guanzi encyclopedia, actually a much later (of the late Warring States Period) compilation of works from the scholars of the Jixia Academy.

Guan Zhong advised the Duke of Qi to aid the small neighbouring state of Xing, which was under attack by non-Chinese Rong tribes.^[2]

In recognition of Guan Zhong's service, Duke Huan gave him the honorary title of "Uncle" 仲父. Same title was later given to Lü Buwei by Prince Zheng, the future Qin Shi Huang.

In popular culture[link]

Guan Zhong is one of 32 historical personages featured in the Koei game Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI, where he is referred to as Guan Yiwu.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Works by Guan Zhong at Project Gutenberg (in Chinese)
• "Master Guan". http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Diverse/guanzi.html. Retrieved October 10, 2010.