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Such a point of view illustrates the philosophy of Fu Baoshi, who created a new style of painting while at the same time, learned from the essence of his ancestors’ work. Fu Baoshi went on to become highly respected as one of the greatest 20th century Chinese artists.

Fu Baoshi was a great admirer of Shi Tao and, at the age of 18, changed his name to “Bao Shi”. He even wrote a chronicle of Shi Tao, recording his life experiences and social activities as well as his art creations. Fu Baoshi admitted that he was obsessed with the study of Shi Tao’s painting.

Shi Tao once wrote a letter to another famous painter of his time, named Ba Da Shan Ren, asking him to paint his studio “Thatched Cottage of Dadi”. The loss of this original painting prompted Fu Baoshi to paint “Thatched Cottage of Dadi” again, three hundred years later. Another great Chinese painter, Xu Beihong, praised the painting with his inscription: “The painting of ‘Thatched Cottage of Dadi’ by Ba Da Shan Ren may no longer exist, but we could not know it any better than by this painting by Fu Baoshi.” A famous painter and art educationist of the time, Xu Beihong once commented that the paintings by Fu Baoshi were as good as those by Ba Da Shan Ren.

As early as the beginning of the 5th century, Zong Bing of the Southern Dynasty (420-589) was quoted in one of his articles about landscape painting, as saying: “Painting is the internal reflection of what the painter sees. A good painting will enable the viewer to be personally in the scene and move them accordingly. If this is true, shouldn’t we agree that the painting is as beautiful as the real landscape?” Although we may often compare Fu Baoshi’s wonderful paintings with the real landscapes, to simply appreciate the art works in their own right is indeed a  more joyful experience.

（Source: chinaculture.org）