Gong Kai (; 1222–1307) was a Chinese painter, poet, and politician during the last years of the Song dynasty. The latter part of the Song dynasty, in which Gong Kai lived, is known as the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279). After the fall of the Song dynasty to the Yuan dynasty, he became what was known as a scholar-amateur painter. The artists of the Song were mostly influenced by momentary and sporadic pleasures and beauty. However, there is no evidence that Gong Kai painted during this period. Instead, most paintings attributed to Gong Kai are from Yuan dynasty (1271–1368).
Life in the Southern Song dynasty
Gong Kai was born in Huaiyin in present-day Jiangsu Province in 1222. His courtesy name was Shengyu () and his pseudonym was Cuiyan (). As was traditional in the Song dynasty, Gong Kai received the standard classical education. As a boy, his teachers saw that he showed great potential in painting, poetry, and calligraphy. Unfortunately, Gong Kai failed to pass the examinations necessary to become a high-ranking government official. During the Song dynasty (960–1279), Gong Kai served the Song government as a minor official in the Board of Salt Revenues. To some extent, he also served as a general's secretary prior to the invasion of the Mongols.
Life under the Yuan dynasty
In 1271, Kublai Khan began assembling the oppressed Chinese people of the Song dynasty to rise up against the current government. Over several years, he successfully brought the Song dynasty to an end in 1279 with the Battle of Yamen. The Yuan dynasty offered government positions to some servants of the Song dynasty because they wanted to employ certain aspects of the previous government. However, it was unlikely that they would have asked Gong Kai. Even though he had previously served under the former government, Gong Kai, being from Southern China, was now at the bottom of the social hierarchy under the Yuan dynasty.
As a Song loyalist, Gong Kai could not work under the new government. He and many other Song loyalists became i-min. An i-min was literally a “left-over subject” who chose to live a life of exile. Without a productive method of protest, the i-min turned to forms of symbolic protest, such as their paintings. Quite frequently, they would meet and write poetry about their losses due to the fall of the Song dynasty. After the defeating of the Song, Gong Kai fled to Hangzhou on the Yangtze River where he would spend his time writing and painting. He used his paintings as a medium of expression for his thoughts of the new government. This is most reflected in the painting Jun Gu a Noble Horse. Without his government job, Gong Kai's family became extremely impoverished. The only sources of income to the family were the sale of Gong Kai's paintings and calligraphy and the occasional trade for essential goods. Some accounts even suggest that Gong Kai was not able to afford a table and instead laid the paper on his son's back to paint.
Paintings
Paintings from the Yuan dynasty were unlike any others produced in previous eras in China. Due to the Yuan conquest of the Song and the difficult economic state, the existence of many professional art schools and painters in China began to decline. Now, fewer artists were working for the imperial courts or other wealthy sponsors. This led to the rise of the preexisting class of scholar-amateur painters, like Gong Kai.
Since he was not a trained professional painter, Gong Kai's style of painting could be described as amateur in appearance and straightforward. Some scholars believe that reason for his style was due to his appearance. He was reported as being an "imposing figure," very tall and with a long beard. They feel that his rough looks caused his brushwork to be coarse and added the “oddness of the images in his paintings."
Jun Gu a Noble Horse
Jun Gu a Noble Horse is Gong Kai's most famous painting. This Yuan dynasty painting was created using ink on a paper hand scroll. Horses were considered a specialty of Gong Kai, specifically those drawn in the style of the Tang dynasty. In fact, Gong Kai's Jun Gu a Noble Horse very closely resembles the painting Night-Shining White by Han Gan in the Tang dynasty. Chou Mi, a Song dynasty scholar and acquaintance of Gong Kai, said that Gong's horses were "flying like the wind, with misty manes and warlike bones, muscles supple as orchid leaves – truly endowed with all he noble attributes".