Xiè Hè 謝赫
Southern-Qí (479-502) painter and painting-critic; flourished in the late 5th and early 6th centuries. Birth and death years not securely recorded.
The author of the Gǔhuà pǐnlù 古畫品錄 (KR3h0001), the foundational text of Chinese painting-criticism. Through this work Xiè Hè established the canonical Liùfǎ 六法 (Six Methods/Laws) of Chinese painting, which would shape Chinese painting-aesthetic-theory for the subsequent fourteen centuries:
- Qìyùn shēngdòng 氣韻生動 (Vital-pneuma rhythmic-movement) — the supreme aesthetic-quality
- Gǔfǎ yòngbǐ 骨法用筆 (Bone-method brushwork)
- Yìngwù xiàngxíng 應物象形 (Conform-to-things image-shape)
- Suílèi fùcǎi 隨類賦彩 (Follow-categories assign-color)
- Jīngyíng wèizhì 經營位置 (Plan-and-arrange position)
- Chuánmó yíxiě 傳模移寫 (Transmission through copying)
Per the Sìkù 提要 of KR3h0001: “broadly speaking, painting has the Six Laws — [the painter who] has both is rare; from Lù Tànwēi 陸探微 onward [Xiè Hè] sequenced them in grades, each providing introductory framing; his intent is rather cautious-and-considered. He obtained 27 painters [in his survey]. Although Yáo Zuì of the Chén [dynasty] criticized [Xiè Hè] as not entirely fair (e.g., placing WèiCháng Kāng [顧愷之 Gù Kǎizhī] in the lower category, despite his being unique in skill), nevertheless what [Xiè Hè] said about the Six Methods, painting-houses have honored as their lineage to the present day — truly something a thousand years cannot easily change”.