Translation for Wikipedia: Li Cheng

2007 Sep 12 in Translations | Comments (1)

The following is a translation I have just done, from the Chinese Wikipedia, for the English Wikipedia. Until I submitted this, there was no English article about Li Cheng, one of the greatest Chinese landscape painters. My translation is better than nothing, right?

Since the Chinese Wikipedia is still blocked within China, and I would like to encourage friends and wandering passersby from China to give feedback on my translations, I reproduce the original here in full:

李成(919年-约967年),字咸熙,中国五代宋初画家,青州(今属山东潍坊)人。唐宗室,山水画家,在北宋时期和范宽、关仝并称为“三家鼎峙”,他多作淡墨山水,所谓“惜墨如金”,如在梦雾之中。当时评价他“凡称山水者必以成为古今第一。”,将他的山水和吴道玄的人物相提并论。他主要描绘齐鲁一带山水。后代郭熙等人都是师法他的山水画法。

作品有《盘车图》、《渔乐图》、《寒鸦图》、《山水图》等。宣和御府所藏有一百九十五卷,真伪难辨。只有翟院深的摹本可以乱真,但缺少神气。现存的宋画中有他和王晓合作的《读碑窠石图》。

And here is my version, mostly translation, though borrowing some elements from the pages about Guo Xi and Fan Kuan. You can also visit the current version at Wikipedia.

Li Cheng (Traditional Chinese: 李成; Simplified Chinese: 李成; Hanyu Pinyin: Lǐ Chéng; Wade-Giles: Li Ch’eng) (919–967), style name 咸熙 (Pinyin:Xián Xī), Chinese painter of the Northern Song period, from Qingzhou (now part of Weifang County, Shandong). He came from the Tang imperial family. Li Cheng, Fan Kuan, and Guan Tong together became known as the “three great rival artists”. He did many landscape paintings with diluted ink, known as “treating ink like gold”, which gives the appearance of being in a foggy dream. At that time, he was considered the best landscape painter of all time. He carried on a dialog with Wu Daoxuan through their paintings. He primarily portrayed Shandong area landscape. Later generations, such as Guo Xi, modeled their teaching on his painting methods.

His works include “Jigger”(?), “Joy in Fishing”, “Cold crow”, and “Landscape”. His prefecture maintains that it has archived 195 scrolls, but it is impossible to distinguish genuine ones from copies. Only “Pheasant Courtyard” copybook looks genuine, but lacks expression. One extant painting, “Reading Stele Nest Stone”(?), was a collaboration between him and Wang Xiao.

If you notice points of misunderstanding, or if you can help me understand what 盘车 or 读碑窠石 mean, I would much appreciate your comments.

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  1. Comment by Kellen — 2009 Jun 25 @ 04:20

    I’ve done a couple of these myself, most recently for Lü Simian, a local historian. “Better than nothing” was certainly my mantra during the process. I ended up taking most the content from a brochure from his home, now a rarely frequented tourist spot in my town.

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