Ch: zhezhihua. Lit. "cut-branch flowers." A type of highly idealized Chinese flower painting that focuses on a single spray of flowers or a blossoming tree branch, abstracting it from any natural context. The depiction is composed for maximum clarity, sacrificing absolute naturalism. Cut-branch flower paintings tend to be small, in contrast to the large-scale floral compositions of groups of trees, plants and flowers.
The cut-branch composition is said to have originated with the Five Dynasties painter Xu Xi (Jp: Jo Ki 徐煕, act. mid-10th century), but is best known in the work of the Song painters Zhao Chang (Jp: Chō Shō 趙昌, act. early 11th century) and Li Di (Jp: Ri Teki 李迪, act. late 12th century), whose Red and White Hibiscus, Fuyō-zu 芙蓉図 (Ch: Furongtu; 1197, Tokyo National Museum) is most famous. In Japan the type often was produced without the elaborate coloring of the Chinese versions. *Sumi 墨 ink sesshika paintings of plum branches were particularly popular in Japan.