Chinese painting

Chinese painting (simplified Chinese: 中国画; traditional Chinese: 中國畫; pinyin: Zhōngguó huà) is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. Traditional painting is known today in Chinese as guó huà (国画; 國畫), which means "national painting" or "native painting." This name sets it apart from Western styles of art, which became popular in China in the 20th century. It is also called danqing (Chinese: 丹青; pinyin: dān qīng).

Traditional painting uses much of the same technique as calligraphy. Artists use a brush dipped in black ink or coloured pigments. Oils are not used. Paper and silk are the most popular materials. Finished works can be mounted on scrolls, such as hanging scrolls or handscrolls. Traditional painting can also be done on album sheets, walls, lacquerware, folding screens, and other surfaces.

The two main techniques in Chinese painting are Gongbi, which means "meticulous," and ink and wash painting. Gongbi uses very detailed brushstrokes and is often brightly coloured. Ink and wash painting, also called shuǐ-mò (水墨, "water and ink"), is also known as "literati painting." It was one of the "four arts" of the Chinese Scholar-official class. In theory, this was an art practised by gentlemen, an idea that began to appear in writings on art from the Song dynasty.

Landscape painting was regarded as the highest form of Chinese painting, and it generally still is. The period from the Five Dynasties to the Northern Song (907–1127) is known as the "Great Age of Chinese landscape." Artists in the north, such as Jing Hao, Li Cheng, Fan Kuan, and Guo Xi, painted towering mountains with strong black lines. In the south, Dong Yuan and Juran painted rolling hills and rivers in softer, peaceful scenes. These two styles became the classical styles of Chinese landscape painting.

Specifics and study

Chinese painting and calligraphy are different from many other arts. They focus on movement and change, and they show things that feel alive.

Students usually learn by copying. The master shows the "right way" to draw something, and the student copies it again and again until the movements feel natural. Today, some people debate how much copying should be part of art, especially in places where new ideas are common. Changing lifestyles, tools, and colors are also shaping a new generation of masters.

Views of Xiaoxiang by Dong Yuan (932–962). Dong is considered one of the first artists of landscape painting. These paintings often showed very large scenes, with small but detailed countryside views that showed how wide the land was. Look closely at the left side to see a group of men seine-haul fishing.

Early periods

The earliest paintings were patterns and designs, not pictures. Early pottery was decorated with spirals, zigzags, dots, or animals. Artists did not start showing the world around them until the Eastern Zhou period (770–256 BC). From the Eastern Jin dynasty onward, painting and calligraphy were among the most valued arts at court. Many amateurs, including aristocrats and scholar-officials, also practiced them. Artists used a brush pen made of animal hair and black inks made from pine soot and animal glue. At first, people wrote and painted on silk. After paper was invented in the 1st century AD, silk was slowly replaced by this cheaper material.

Artists from the Han to the Tang dynasties mainly painted people. Many early tomb paintings were meant to protect the dead or help their souls reach paradise. Others showed the teachings of Confucius or scenes of everyday life. During the Six Dynasties period, people began to enjoy painting for its own beauty. Individual artists, such as Gu Kaizhi, became well known.

Admonitions Scroll by Gu Kaizhi (348–405), British Museum. It was badly damaged after a British army officer took it during the Boxer Rebellion.

Six principles

Main article: Six principles of Chinese painting

The "Six principles of Chinese painting" were created by Xie He, an artist, art historian, and critic of the 5th century. They were written around 550 CE. The principles are six points for judging a painting:

• Spirit resonance: the flow of energy and life in a work
• Bone method: the use of the brush, linked to a person's handwriting and personality
• Correspondence to the object: showing shape and line
• Suitability to type: the use of colour
• Division and planning: arrangement and space
• Transmission by copying: copying models from life and from older works

Sui, Tang and Five dynasties (581–979)

Further information: Tang dynasty painting

During the Tang dynasty, painting of people became very popular at the royal court. Artists such as Zhou Fang, who lived about 730 to 800, painted scenes of court life, including emperors, palace ladies, and imperial horses. Yan Liben's Thirteen Emperors is an original work from the 7th century. Most Tang artists outlined figures with thin black lines and used bright colors and detail. The master Wu Daozi instead used only black ink and free brushstrokes, and crowds gathered to watch him paint. From his time on, ink paintings were seen as finished works of art, not just sketches. The painting The Night Revels of Han Xizai was first painted in the 10th century in Southern Tang and was copied again in the 12th century.

Starting in the Tang dynasty, many paintings were landscapes, often shanshui ("mountain water") paintings. Some were monochromatic and simple, in a style called shuimohua. The goal was not to copy nature exactly (realism), but to show a feeling or atmosphere. Much written information about Tang painting has survived, but very few of the best works have. A hidden cave in the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang, found by Sir Aurel Stein, held mostly Buddhist writings and some paintings on silk. Some Tang-style works also survive in Japan.

Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan dynasties (907–1368)

During the Song dynasty (960–1279), landscape painting became even more important. Artists showed great distances with blurry outlines and mountains fading into mist. The shan shui style became well known. In this style, "shan" means mountain and "shui" means river. Landscape was valued because of Chinese philosophy. Taoism taught that people are tiny compared to the vast universe. Neo-Confucianist writers looked for patterns that they believed explained nature and society. Portraits and small pictures of birds on branches were also admired, but landscapes were the most important. By the early Song, a special landscape style had developed. It had detailed scenes in the front and open, endless space behind them. In the Northern Song (960–1127), officials painted huge landscapes that showed the strength of the court. In the Southern Song (1127–1279), painters focused on smaller and more personal scenes. This reflected the Neo-Confucian idea of improving society from the bottom up.

Painting had been a refined art since the Southern and Northern dynasties (420–589). Educated people enjoyed it along with calligraphy and poetry. Art collectors in the Song often met to discuss and rate paintings. The poet and official Su Shi (1037–1101) and his friend Mi Fu (1051–1107) created a new style. They combined poetry, calligraphy, and painting, and this became known as the three perfections. Some scholars looked down on professional painters who sold their work. Court painters such as Zhang Zeduan (1085–1145) were highly respected by the royal family and emperors. He painted the famous scroll Along the River During the Qingming Festival. Emperor Gaozong of Song (1127–1162) ordered paintings for the Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute. These were based on the poet Cai Wenji of the earlier Han dynasty. Yi Yuanji painted animals very realistically, especially monkeys and gibbons. Later, during the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), painters often wrote poems on their pictures. Emperor Tugh Temur was also a skilled painter. The traveler Ibn Battuta admired how well Chinese artists painted portraits.

Late imperial China (1368–1895)

Starting in the 13th century, painters began to paint simple subjects, such as a branch with fruit, a few flowers, or one or two horses. Narrative painting, with more colors and busier scenes, was very popular during the Ming period (1368–1644). Early Qing artists kept the styles of Ming art. Some of their works showed a longing for the days when China was ruled by its own people, before the Manchu conquest. Around this time, the first books were illustrated with colored woodcuts. As color printing improved, painting manuals began to be published. Jieziyuan Huazhuan (Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden), a five-volume work first published in 1679, has been used as a technical textbook for artists and students ever since.

Some painters of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) continued the traditions of the Yuan scholar-painters. This group, known as the Wu School, was led by the artist Shen Zhou. Another group, the Zhe School, brought back and changed the styles of the Song court. During the early Qing dynasty (1644–1911), painters known as Individualists broke away from many traditional rules and expressed themselves more freely through their brushwork. In the 18th and 19th centuries, wealthy merchants in big trading cities such as Yangzhou and Shanghai encouraged artists to make bold new works. Many well-known artists came from established artistic families in the Jiangnan region, including Ma Quan, Jiang Tingxi, and Yun Zhu.

Chinese trade painters also appeared during this period. They made works in the Western style, mainly for British and other European traders in port cities such as Canton. These Chinese export paintings were popular throughout the Qing dynasty. In the late 19th and 20th centuries, Chinese painters were increasingly exposed to Western art. Some who studied in Europe turned away from Chinese painting, while others tried to combine the best of both traditions. Among the most loved modern painters was Qi Baishi, who started life as a poor farmer and became a great master, known for his flowers and small animals.

Modern painting

Starting with the New Culture Movement, Chinese artists began to learn Western painting methods. Some well-known artists who studied Western painting were Li Tiefu, Yan Wenliang, Xu Beihong, Lin Fengmian, Fang Ganmin and Liu Haisu. After the People's Republic of China was founded, the Communist Party's Propaganda Department set up groups of cultural workers, led by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles. Artists were encouraged to use socialist realism, and their paintings often showed big events that helped build the new nation. At first, traditional Chinese painting was criticized. It grew again after the Hundred Flowers Campaign of 1956–57, when Mao Zedong wanted China to follow its own path, apart from the relations between China and the Soviet Union. During the Great Leap Forward, a Peasant Painting Movement brought many new artists and paintings on village walls. The Cultural Revolution closed art schools and stopped big exhibitions. Many works of art were lost during the campaign against the Four Olds.

After the Cultural Revolution, art schools and professional groups were reopened, and Chinese artists began to try new subjects and techniques. The child prodigy Wang Yani, born in 1975, started painting at age 3 and has helped keep freehand painting alive. After China's economic reforms, more artists tried new styles. One of these is Heaven Style painting, which mixes traditional Chinese and Western techniques. It is linked with the artist Shaoqiang Chen. In 2008, Cai Jin, known for her bright psychedelic colors, created a set of paintings that showed influences from both Western and traditional Chinese art. Today, artists continue to combine traditional methods with Western styles. Liu Dan is known for his ink paintings.

Iconography in Chinese painting

As landscape painting became the most popular style in the Northern Song dynasty, artists moved away from jiehua painting, which shows buildings, boats, and vehicles. They turned instead to scenes of nature. Objects like water mills still had meaning, often as symbols of the emperor's court. Artists also hid meanings in their paintings. For example, gibbons and egrets were a clue that celebrated success in exams, and emperor Huizong painted birds that stood for faithful love. Donkey riders became a favorite subject, often showing famous poets like Meng Haoran and Du Fu. Painted walls and screens in government buildings suggested a calm, peaceful place. Their images were chosen to show the emperor's wisdom and power.

Female characters were almost left out of traditional Chinese painting because of the influence of Confucianism. Dong Zhongshu, a Confucian scholar in the Han dynasty, taught that women should be under men. So women in paintings were usually shown as obedient wives, daughters, or widows. During the Tang dynasty, artists began to admire the beauty of women, but women were still shown as quiet and submissive. In the Song dynasty, love stories were painted for male viewers.

Landscape painting

Main article: Shan shui

A timeline of Chinese landscape painting from early Tang to the present day

Religion helped shape Chinese landscape painting. Taoists loved nature and went into the mountains to feel close to spirits. Buddhists used mountains and landscape scenes to help people meditation and to think calmly, as in the mountain Lushan. In the Han dynasty, mountains were seen as links between earth and heaven, so they often appeared in art. In the Six Dynasties period, paintings started to include myths and poems. Early Han rulers liked portrait painting more, so landscape painting was less common at first.

Northern Song landscape painting focused on the outside world and was called "real landscape." Southern Song painters focused more on their own feelings, and many of their paintings showed northern scenes that reminded people of lands they had lost. Chinese landscape painting, called "shanshui hua," shows mountains and rivers together. Mountains stand for Yang and rivers stand for Yin, so the two are treated as one whole in a painting.

Art as cartography

Art and maps can be connected in four ways. Art can show up in maps, art can work as a map, maps can appear in art, and maps can be considered art. A map and a painting can be hard to tell apart, because both can have map-like features. Early Chinese mapmakers thought the earth's surface was flat, so they did not think about projection. They also did not use the idea of map scale. People in the Song dynasty called paintings, maps, and other pictures tu, so the name alone cannot show what kind of picture it is. Landscape artists care most about natural beauty, not exact accuracy. Maps, on the other hand, need to be precise. They focus on distances and important geographic features.

Two examples show this. The Changjiang Wan Li Tu has no clear date or artist. It is believed to be from the Song dynasty, based on the place names written on it. From its name alone, it is hard to know whether it is a landscape painting or a map. The Shu Chuan Shenggai was once thought to be the work of North Song artist Li Gonglin. Later evidence showed it was probably made at the end of the South Song, and its artist is still unknown. Both paintings aim to help viewers appreciate the beauty and grandeur of landscapes. They focus on light and convey a certain mood, so they are seen as masterpieces of art rather than maps.

Traditional Restoration Processes

Traditional Chinese painting restoration usually has four stages, called "Xi, Jie, Bu, and Quan" (洗，揭，补，全). They mean washing the painting, removing the old backing paper, mending the missing parts, and finishing the colors.

In the washing stage, the painting is soaked in water. Stains are removed with a brush and a towel. In the separating stage, small leftover bits of old paper or silk are carefully taken off the painting.

In the mending stage, a good repair paper is chosen, and its edges are thinned so the join fits well. For damaged silk works, a repair silk is attached with paste and trimmed so the join cannot be seen. In the final stage, the missing parts are painted. The painter matches the colors and the style of the original, using traditional Chinese mineral pigments. The colors are added one stroke at a time, sometimes in seven or eight layers, until the repaired areas look like the rest of the painting.