“Si Junzi” - The Four Gentlemen …………………..………5 The Painting Techniques ………………………………………8 The Composition of Chinese Painting

funny looks, or through delightful flowers, or unbending bamboos, etc al. while inviting the viewer to participate in their experience.

The landscape painting is a very important genre in Chinese painting, we will see through the history that most renowned painters and painting schools are related to this genre. Thus, it has a very sophisticated system of painting. I will explain a few things here. For readers who are interested in Chinese landscapes, I suggest that they get a text book to look into it. In order to accomplish the freehand brush landscape painting, one must first learn to paint some of the basic elements: trees, rocks, mountains, clouds and waters.

For trees, there are trunks, branches, and leaves. And some of the mostly painted trees include: pine, fir, cypress, sycamore, willow, cedar and maple. In addition, trees are painted differently in the foreground and in the background. For rocks, there is a very important technique called Cun, which should be grasped. Painters in Chinese history have developed quite different types of Cun methods. The mostly used ones are: Pima Cun(the linen- thread brush stroke), Jeisuo Cun(the ropelike brush stroke), the Juanyun Cun(the curled-cloud brush stroke), Niumao Cun(the bull-hair brush stroke), Zhedai Cun(the folded-band brush stroke), Fupi Cun(the axe-chopped brush stroke), and the Douban Cun(the bean-segment brush stroke), etc al. They are aimed to add texture to various types of rocks and give very different visual effects. For mountains, there are rounded mountains, sharp mountains, and composed mountains, etc al, for different purpose of painting. And for clouds and waters, they could be done through vacuum, or through ink lines, such as some of the cascades.

 Fine Brush Painting Fine brush painting, also Gongbi (in Chinese) Painting, uses very fine brushstrokes that depict the painting subject in great

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details and with careful application of colors. Bai Miao is the basic technique of Gongbi style, and through which the subjects are delineated by fine lines of ink in different density, strength, length and weight. Then transparent colors are applied on the painting one layer on another. It requires different skills and qualifications from a painter to accomplish such work, compared with freehand brush work.

The term jiehua, or "boundary painting" , is a type of fine brush painting, especially related to the accurate depiction of forms with aid of the ruler.

The fine brush style appeared approximately 2000 years ago during the Han dynasty, and became very popular during the Tang and Song dynasties when these refined painting works were endorsed and collected by the royal families and high officials of China.

There are usually three steps to accomplish a fine brush painting work. Step one: sketch the subject of painting on a draft paper with clear and firm lines; Step two: once the painting subject is precisely sketched out on the draft paper, it should be transferred to the Xuan Paper. By carefully placing the later over the sketch paper, one then trace on the contour of the image shown through the Xuan paper with a pencil, due to the transparency of the paper, and leave a print on the Xuan Paper. Then the painter use the proper brushes for fine brush painting to draw on the print of contour in black ink. Thus a Biao Miao painting work is completed. And the final step is to apply the proper colors according to the design of the work. The application of colors could be done for multiple times. For each application , you first apply the color with one brush, usually along the drawing lines; then, with the another brush wet only with water, you carefully spread the color out, to make a varied color shading effect, with the brighter color close to the lines and gradually color out off the lines. If the

results is not yet satisfactory, you should repeat the process, however, have to wait until the previous application dries up. If another color should be applied over it, just go through the same process. Since some Chinese colors are transparent, layers of different colors may produce unbelievable aesthetic effects. But be warned that some colors could react to each other and result into unexpected color effect, which should be avoided.

i. Fine brush painting for Figure painting

The fine brush figure painting represents the Chinese figure painting standards during the Jin, Tang and Song Dynasty. Though it lost its favor during and after Yuan Dynasty, many people still paint them, especially some court professionals who often painted images for the royal families with this technique. As for the other painters, one typical example is Tang Yin, the master from Ming Dynasty. They are aimed to paint the true image with exact likeness and possible precision, with exquisite details added and rich colors applied to enhance the charm of the subject. And there are numerous fine works of this type have been accomplished in the history of Chinese painting.

ii. Fine brush painting for Landscape Painting

It is a very time-consuming process to paint landscape fine brush painting. It is well known for its most popular style Blue and Green Landscape which followed the tradition of Li Sixun with his son from Tang Dynasty. The A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains section by Wang Ximeng from Song Dynasty is one of the greatest of this genre.

iii. Fine brush painting for Flower and Bird Painting

Flower and bird fine brush painting is the most popular genre

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for this technique, which has gained numerous followers. As it is generally less complicated to depict the flower and bird than the people and the landscape, while birds and flowers are such adorable things that when carefully painted on silk (or ripe Xuan Paper) to the most details, with beautiful coloring, all makes them one of most valuable things to be collected in the past. In addition, these subjects themselves, as a delight in people’s life, are always the favorite of Chinese people of all times. Meanwhile, there would be painters who take the opportunity to sell their skills, or as a way of self-cultivation.

The Composition of Chinese Painting

The term composition means how to put together all the elements of the painting work, Is also referred to the design, or layout of the art works.

Elements of design include: the lines, shapes, colors, texture, shade, form and space.

 Line and shape Lines are especially important in Chinese painting, in which all the subjects are consisted of lines, the course or fine ones, the strong or weak ones, the long or short ones, the straight or curved ones, the dark or light ones, and the clear or blurred ones. The fine lines are used to outline the subjects, a course

line is enough to suggest an area, the light one renders a sense of softness or tenderness, while the strong line gives a strong and steady feeling and the dark and straight one shows the decisiveness of the character with a strong feeling, blurred lines can create a sense of movement, such as the clouds. Thus, Chinese ink lines are very expressive. And the two-dimensional shapes are made of lines. The quality of shapes is mainly decided by the quality of the lines in Chinese painting.

 Color Colors in Chinese painting are not intended to picture the true nature of the subjects, but to add information to the image, which could be real or imaginary, express the feelings, show the emotions of the painter, enhance the aesthetical value to the art, and create a mood to counter-act upon the painter. Technically, it can also be used as tone, pattern, light, movement, symbol, form, and contrast.

 Texture Texture in painting refers to the optical texture, or how an object feels or looks like. It’s made once the illusion of physical texture is created. Paintings use visual texture to create a more realistic appearance.

 Shade Here it means the shade created by the Chinese ink. Chinese ink can create an arrangement of shades from light grey to silver black, which convey amazing variance of tonalities. Just like color, shade can be used to create a mood, while can also be used as tone, pattern, light, movement, symbol, form, and contrast. It deals with how we see the object. White is the lightest, while black is the darkest. Shade is a very important element in Chinese painting. It is also often used to create the illusion of light as a contrast, and Contrast is necessary to highlight the subject of interest.

 Form A form encloses volume, has length, width, and height, unlike a shape, which is only two-dimensional. Forms in Chinese painting can be regular and symmetrical such as the architectures and could also be asymmetrical and irregular such as the forms of flowers, rocks, trees, etc. al. Forms in Chinese painting convey the illusion of three dimensions through the pattern of lines, especially in fine brush painting, or through the shading effect, varied shades contrast with blank space, etc., notably in freehand brush painting.

 Space Space is the area around, above, and within an object. There are positive space, which is the subject of the image, and negative space, which is the empty spaces around or within. The element of negative space is especially emphasized in bird and flower painting, where a large empty space is left to the imagination of the viewers, as well as in the landscapes, especially in the literati’s paintings.

Compositional techniques

There are various compositional techniques to achieve a sense of unity within an painting work, depending on the goals of the artist. Generally, a balanced composition of painting work would be aesthetically pleasing to the eyes, while it may also be true that a composition disrupting traditional balance would challenge the viewer to think differently to that art works. Conventional Chinese composition can be achieved through a number of techniques:

 Rule of thirds The rule of thirds is thought to be a simplification of the golden ratio that divide the image of a painting into thirds horizontally and vertically and arrange the important features of the image on or near the horizontal and vertical lines, which would give a more pleasing visual effect. And it stops

the subjects of interest from bisecting the image by placing them near one of the lines.

 Rule of odds The rule of odds is based on the fact that even number of subjects produces symmetries in the image, which should be avoided in creation of painting art, while it is more comforting to the eye by framing the object of interest with an even number of other objects surrounding it. Hence, it would be a good idea to choose an arrangement of odd number of subjects in the painting works if you have more than one subject in your painting.

 Rule of space and Simplification By leaving white space in the direction the eyes of a portrayed person are looking toward, or when depicting a flying bird, add white space in front of it to indicate movement. And Many landscape paintings incorporate empty spaces to suggest light or clouds. Flowers may be designed to be surrounded by empty space to evoke the smell of fragrance.

If painters simplify the painting works by decreasing the unnecessary contents, the viewer is more likely to focus on the primary objects. Certain details might be rendered with great care to emphasize the subject matter, while others are left to the imagination. Bold strokes are often contrast with soft, barely washed areas.

 Rule of Triangle Triangles are pleasing shapes, in aesthetical implication, within an image. A very obvious fact is that the mouth and eyes of human face just fall within the corners of the area of an equilateral triangle, a format that creates a sense of stability and strength, and have been used quite often in the composition of the painting work.

 Creating movement Painters often strive to avoid creating compositions that cause a static or flat feeling. And it could be done by creating a sense of movement into the image, especially in landscape paintings, where the mountains are reasonably sized and laid on different grounds with one mountain behind another one. It causes the viewer’s eyes to move around the images in a more interesting way, which also gives a more natural feeling since objects are rarely the same size and evenly spaced in nature.

There are also some other techniques such as rules of diagonal which places the subject in one corner of the bisected areas by a diagonal line, rules of S shape, where the interesting subjects are placed around a line of S shape in the image to create a lively and dynamic atmosphere, etc al. And there one important technique that is to create “Qi” and “Shi” in Chinese painting, which should be mentioned here, and is to be addressed later.

Part Two Getting to Know More About Chinese painting The History of Chinese Painting

There are three main categories in Chinese painting: figures, landscapes, and birds and flowers. Figure painting became highly developed during the Tang Dynasty, and both landscape painting, and bird and flower painting reached the climax during the Song Dynasty. Then it was the dominance of Literati Painting. During the early Qing Dynasty, there were priests who came from Europe brought oiling painting style to the Chinese court. One notable example is Lang Shining from Italy, which didn’t gain much recognition among ordinary gentry class. The traditional Chinese painting began officially to take

in the elements of Western impressionism style and the single perspective method only it reached the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, when the Western painting art , together with Western literature, science, as well as technologies was introduced to China. As a very important genre of Chinese art , painting has significant influences upon the ritual bronzes, Buddhist sculptures, lacquer ware, porcelain, and cloisonné enamel, which all feature the flowing lines and linear motifs.

Before 221 BC

Chinese painting, as one of the oldest painting arts in the world, was originated around 4000 B.C..During its beginning state, Chinese painting was closely associated with other crafts such as pottery, carving, lacquer work, and bronze casting. The earliest paintings were simply consisted of patterns or designs. Pottery from stone age showed painting patterns with spirals, zigzags, dots. The early Chinese figure paintings, which have been discovered, come from ancient tombs, where paintings

Left: The Dragon, Phoenix and Lady Picture (in silk) during Warring State period. Right: Painting from the third century AD, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

An Eastern Han Dynasty lacquered wooden box (with 3-inch painted figures, second century AD) were found preserved on silk banners, lacquer works, and tomb walls.

The earliest surviving Chinese painting related to people is the Dragon, Phoenix, and Lady Picture, on silk, dated to the Warring States period (481 – 221 BC) from the Baoshan Tomb (fourth century BC).

Early Imperial China (221 BC –220 AD)

During the Han Dynasty, paper was invented and silk was gradually replaced by the new material for the reasons mentioned before. And beginning with the Eastern Jin Dynasty, painting and calligraphy became highly valued arts in court circles and were produced almost exclusively by amateur scholar-officials—who had sufficient leisure time to practice

the craft, and good education necessary for great artistic work. Good pieces of work were mounted on scrolls and hung on walls.

Human figures are the main painting subjects from the Han (202 BC) to the Tang (618-906 AD) Dynasty, which mostly include images of Taoism immortals, Buddhism figures, emperors, court ladies. Buddhism was introduced to China during the 1st century AD, and propelled the development of religious paintings. It mainly shows on the religion murals, which are the pictures on the walls of grottoes and temples.

Six Dynasties Period (420–589)

During the Six Dynasties period (220-589), formal theories about painting started to come out, with one example written by Gu Kaizhi, a very famous figure painter who wrote three books on painting theories: On Painting, Introduction of Famous Paintings of Wei and Jin Dynasties and Painting Yuntai Mountain. He thought that the clothes and appearance of figure paintings were not very important, but the eyes and inner spirit were the decisive factors. He painted on some themes of promulgating Confucian morals, such as how a court lady should behave in a appropriate way, a wife should behave to her husband or children to their parents according the Confucianism standards. Those paintings include: Admonition of the Instructress to the Palace Ladies, and the Wise and Benevolent Women.

During this period, another example of painting theories is the Six Principles written by Xie He, which has significant influence on the paintings of later dynasties. As an art historian and critic of the this period, Xie He suggested six principles on how to judge a painting.

Spirit Resonance, means the vitality, which is the basic one

of all six principles. Bone Method, means the proper implementing the brush for the desired brushstroke, for the connection between the lines and the personality of the character. Correspondence to the Object, means the correct depiction of forms by lines. Suitability to Type, means the correct application of color. Division and Planning, means layout and arrangement, corresponding to composition, space and depth. Transmission by Copying, means to practice painting through the copying of the nature, as well as through the works of antiquity.

The Sui And Tang Dynasties (581–960 AD)

People figure stayed as the major painting subject until the Sui dynasty (618–907 AD), and the landscape appeared only as background in figure paintings, in a monochromatic and sparse way. The first landscape painting we know is the Strolling

About In Spring painted by Zhan Ziqian, a painter during the Sui dynasty, which is the only painting extant attributed to him. It features an arranged mountains.

Tang Dynasty is a golden age in Chinese history, when the painting also reached its new heights. During this period, the painting inherited the tradition of previous dynasties, and made a great improvement to it.

The figure painting reached its climax at this stage, in which appeared several very famous painting masters, They include Yan Liben of early Tang period and Wu Daozhi of middle Tang period. Yan Liben served as a court professional painter during the Taizong’s reign, and was one of the most prolific painters of this period. He has a well-known art piece called the Thirteen Emperors Scroll which portrayed thirteen emperors

from previous dynasties, and has been used as a model for painting Chinese emperors. Wu Daozi was regarded as the “Sage of Painting” by Chinese people. His influential works include The Birth of Sakyamuni. Wu created a new technique of line drawing, named "Drawing of Willow Leaf" , or Liuye Miao, in Chinese. It means the lines drawn with this method looks like the willow leaves.

The landscape painting, or Shanshui Painting(in Chinese), literally meaning the paintings on mountains and streams, became a highly sophisticated painting genre, during the mid and late period of Tang Dynasty. Li Sixun and his son Li Zhaodao were very important painters of this period, who specialized in the fine brush landscape painting, and were known for their painting works in “blue and green landscape” style. While Wangwei, a famous poet and painter, was believed to originate the Literati’s Painting, a freehand brush painting style. The importance of calligraphy was more emphasized in this school of painting, while the theory of painting was also developed during this period.

Meanwhile, elements from Buddhism, Taoism, and traditional literature were incorporated into paintings, and murals paintings were very common in temples, caves, tombs, etc al. There were also paintings on ceilings of architectures. An example is the paintings in the”Mogao Caves”in Northwest of China, which represented the one of the greatest achievements of Chinese murals painters in the history.

Tang painting exerted great influence on East Asian painting and central Asia painting.

Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period(907-960 AD)

During this period, the landscape painting continue to progress. Dong Yuan, an painter in the Southern Tang Kingdom,

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was known for both figure and landscape paintings. He studied the existing styles of both Li Sixun and Wang We, and innovated a few techniques of his own, including the use of more sophisticated perspective, pointillism and crosshatching to build up vivid effect. He, together wth his pupil Ju Ran, played a very important role in the development of the landscape painting, whose painting style influenced landscape painters many centuries after them.

In the bird and flower painting, there appeared two important painters. They are Huang Quan and Xu Xi. Huang Quan represented the academic school of painting, which features careful depicting with great details and rich colors in Gongbi(fine brush) style, while Xu Xi represent the more individual style, he incorporated the freehand brush style into this flower and bird genre.

For the figure paintings, there appeared a well-known painting work, The Night Revels of Han Xizai, by the Southern Tang artist Gu Hongzhong. It is a large horizontal hand scroll showing men of the gentry class being entertained by musicians and dancers at the home of Han Xizai, an high-rank official of that time.

Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD)

Appreciation of art among the gentry class flourished during the Song dynasty, in which atmosphere, paintings became an art practiced by many scholar-gentries and officials. And there was painting academy formally established by the court. This dynasty was prominent in history for its achievement in art and literature, and its unprecedented emphasis upon the important part that the role of culture has played in the society. Quite some emperors themselves had involved in practicing painting, unlike the ones of previous dynasties, who mostly acted as the appreciators and collectors, and made it as

a fashionable cultural practice in that era.

Landscape painting became the main stream of art practice in this domain, which features the four great masters of Northern Landscape Style, and the Four Masters of Southern Song Dynasty, who were all well-known for their landscape paintings with their innovated skills, and new ways of thinking. During this period, a method of more subtle expression were created through the use of blurred outlines for mountain contours to make them disappear into the mist of the background, and numerous new techniques of “Cun” , a way to enhance the texture of rocks came out to give the mountains a more realist look, and also make their painting approach more expressive. Then came out a formula of painting, which is placing more detailed and realistic scenes in the foreground, with the background of misty mountains floating in vast and infinite space, showing mountain peaks rising out of high clouds, while streaming rivers run from far distance into the foreground, or cascade falls into mist. Those paintings are more focused on the spiritual qualities of the painting subjects and the desire of artists to reveal the inner harmony of man with nature, based on the prevailed concepts of Taoist and Buddhist of that time.

Taoism believers think that humans were merely tiny specks amongst the vast universe, while Neo-Confucianist (The theory of Cheng) appeared in this period, strived to discover the patterns and principles that caused all social and natural phenomena.

Supporters of Neo-Confucianism focused on reforming society from the bottom up, not the top down. That explains the existence of small private academies during the Southern Song, contrast to the large state-controlled academies in the Northern Song era.

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The ideas of different philosophies greatly impact the painting style of Northern Song (the earlier period of Song Dynasty) and Southern Song, The paintings of Northern Song influenced by the social ideals of bringing order to the world and working on the large issues of their society, often depicted grand and inspiring landscapes. While the paintings of Southern Song were influenced by the believe that it would have a better chance for social success by reforming the society from the bottom up from a smaller scale, feature the smaller-scaled mountains, more intimate scenes which are visually closer, with the background bereft of details. For example, the master Ma Yuan tended to place his subjects on one corner of the painting, while Xia Gui liked to move the subjects to one side of the painting, leaving a large space to blank. This similar composition of painting brought them together as “Ma-Xia’ which is known to many people.

Behind the great achievement of landscape painting during this dynasty, figure painting also developed to a new level. Liang Kai, called himself "Madman Liang" , who became a Zen monk after he retired from his official position, is credited with inventing the Zen school of Chinese art. He specialized in the Great Freehand Brush Style of figure painting, Da-Xieyi(in Chinese), which features using a technique of pouring or splattering the ink on paper to produce a surprising effect of spontaneity and simplicity. He gained very high reputation for one painting the Drunken Celestial, which is one of the earliest successful paintings found using this kind of style to paint human figure.

And during this period, one of greatest painting works in Chinese history, Along the River During Qingming Festival was created by Zhang Zeduan. It is a very large horizontal painting which contains scenes of landscape and groups of people. There also appeared some great figure painting masters who followed the tradition of Jin and Tang Dynasties, such as Wu

Zongyuan, with a religious master piece called Eighty seven celestial people, and Li Gonglin, renowned for his famous Buddhism painting work The preach of Vimalakirti. Both paintings are composed with pure flowing fine lines without applying colors, which style is called Baomiao. Originally, Baomiao is the basic technique for fine brush painting before the application of colors, which only contains outlines of the painting image in fine lines of black ink. But the painting of Eighty seven celestial people made Baomiao became a formal style of painting, many paintings of which style are accepted as finished work by many collectors.

In the flower and bird painting, the element of realism was more emphasized in the painting work, such as the work by Cui Bai and Zhao Chang. And there was a painter called Wen Tong needed to be mentioned, who could hold two brushes in one hand and paint two different bamboos in distance at the same time, was famous for ink paintings of bamboo.

During this period, it became a phenomenon that art collectors who were often scholar gentries or officials, would often meet in groups to discuss their own paintings, or to rate those of their colleagues and friends and have exchange of works. In the Southern Song, the popular small round paintings were often collected into albums, and poets would write poems along the side to match the theme of the painting. However, those collectors did not appreciate artworks found at shops or common marketplaces, and some of the scholars even criticized professional artists from renowned schools and academies. It was during the Song dynasty, that the style of literati’s painting was formally established.

Yuan Painting(1206-1368 AD)

With the establishment of the Yuan dynasty by the Mongol conquerors, many previous court and scholar-artists retreated

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from main-stream social life, and lived in a recluse life-style, either to demonstrate their patriotism to the previous court, or show their disagreement to the new reign of Mongolian emperors. Thus, landscape paintings became an effective media for expression of individualism.

Those recluse artists are represented by the Four Great Masters of Yuan Dynasty, amongst which, Wang Meng innovated a new brush style “rope brush style” and is famous for his work Ge Zhichuan Relocating, The Forest Grotto, etc al. Ni Zan is known for his distinctive painting style with key work Six Gentlemen, Wu Zhen followed the style of Dong Yuan with his important painting work such as The Central Mountain, and Huang Gongwang created one of greatest landscape painting works in Chinese history, Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountians.

In figure painting, there are painters such as Qian Xuan,Liu Guandao, etc al. Qian, who had served the Song court and turned to painting after the fall of Song Dynasty, was well known for his reviving the painting style of Tang Dynasty. And there is a painter called Zhao Mengfu, who was an offspring of the Song royal family, and still decided to serve the Mongolian ruler, was well-known for his horse paintings and innovated layout in landscapes. He was discredited by some Confucian scholars for his serving the Mongolians, however, his art still had great influence on the later painters.

Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 AD)

During the early period of Ming dynasty, Zhe School and the academic court painting style were the dominant painting styles, which mainly followed the tradition of the painting in Song Dynasty, especially of Southern Song. The main painters in those schools are Dai Jin and Qian Xuan(from Yuan Dynasty). When it gets to the mid Ming. Zhe School and academic court

painting declined, and the Scholar painting style(literati’s painting) began to become popular nationwide, which features the Wumen School, centered in Suzhou, established by the painter Shenzhou. Shenzhou taught lots of students, many of whom also became the member of this school. This school inherited the style of Southern Song and followed the individual expressionism tradition from Yuan masters. In addition, new techniques were created and added to their painting works. The brush strokes of calligraphy played more important role in painting. Tang Ying was known to have renovated the “Axe- Chopped” brush stroke in his paintings. Important painters in this school, beside Shenzhou, include Tang Yin, who painted both landscapes and figures, Wen Zhengming who is the student of Shenzhou, Qiu Ying who was from a peasant family and very talented in reproducing the works of ancient masters in Gongbi style. Qiu Ying was included in the Wumen School, but he was not a scholar, neither engaged in freehand style painting, probably because he lived around Suzhou area and was famous for his painting skills. Those painters may paint different subjects.

In bird and flower category, the painter Xu Wei further developed the freehand brush style to the greater freehand brush style, Da Xieyi（in Chinese）,which had great impact on the modern painting art of China.

In late Ming period, new schools such as Songjiang School and Huating School were born, which formed the rudiments of the Shanghai School of Qing Dynasty. And a painter named Dongqi Chang came out during this period, who was well-known for his theory of Southern School and Northern School of Painting by analyzing the painting styles of previous dynasties. The Southern School emphasized the individual expression traced back to the style of Wangwei(painter of Tang dynasty), while the Northern School followed the tradition of Li Sixun and his son(painters of Tang dynasty). Both styles influenced the

Chinese Painting –- A Showcase to Chinese Culture painters of later periods.

Qing Dynasty(1616-1911 AD)

The early Qing dynasty developed in two main strands: the Orthodox school, and the Individualist painters. The Four Wangs, the abbreviation of four painters, were the key players of the Orthodox school, and engaged in seeking inspiration from reproducing the works of ancient masters, while creating new brushstrokes to their own works. Among them, Wang Yuanqi was especially into the works of Huang Gongwang of Yuan Dynasty, while Wang Hui learned from ancient masters of both Song and Yuan Dynasties.

The Individualist painters of early Qin included the renowned Four Monks. Among them, Zhu Da and Shitao, who were more interested in transcending the tradition to achieve an original individualistic styles than copying the ancient masters, were best known for their impressive brush strokes and washes. They mainly painted flower and birds, and landscapes. Then appeared the eight eccentrics of Yangzhou School, who started by eight painters around the city of Yangzhou area. Each of those people was regarded to have eccentric personality.

During this period, came out a printed painting manual, Jieziyuan Huazhuan(Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden), which illustrated most of the painting elements and painting models for traditional Chinese painting, based on the summarization of all available paintings of ancient masters by that time. It was a five-volume work first published in 1679, has been in use as a technical textbook for artists and Chinese painting students ever since.

In addition, an important painting school, Shanghai School of painting was established at the end of Qing Dynasty. This school broke away from the scholar tradition of Chinese art,

and infused their thoughts about the society in the painting while still valued the traditional painting techniques. Some of them incorporated the elements of other genre of Chinese art into painting, with one example of applying seal carving element into bird and flower painting by Zhao Zhiqian. The works of this school were more diverse, and had focus more on the ordinary people’s life of the society.

New China (1912–1949 AD)

With the collapse of the last imperial dynasty in China, all aspects of Confucianism which has dominated the political and social domains for thousands of years, were defied by the New Culture Movement. The new cultural philosophers such as Xiao Youmei, Cai Yuanpei, Feng Zikai, etc al., wanted to modernize the New China through copying the western culture. There were some traditional painters who were confused for a while but still embraced the traditions, while some painters began to learn from western art. The latter went in two different directions, one of which was to incorporate the western painting theories and techniques into traditional Chinese painting to make a new style of Chinese art, the other is to completely use western painting style to paint Chinese subjects, may still on Xuan Paper.

Under this circumstance, Lingnan School of Painting was established by a painter, Gao Jianfu, who was trained in both Chinese painting and western painting, together with his brother Gao Qifeng and Chen Shuren. They took the direction of infusing western painting art into Chinese art, and made a complete new style of painting, which gained wide recognition among contemporary professionals. The school was originally created in Lingnan area, and only referred to painters from this area, but gradually it came to be regarded as distinct painting style which could include any artists painting in this style, for example, the later painter Xubei Hong who was from Jiangsu

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Province, was taken as the key person in this school as well. Gao Jianfu mainly painted landscapes, flower and birds, while Xu painted lots of figures, and was also specialized in painting horses using freehand brush style. They made great contribution in introducing the Western realism painting style to Chinese painting art in modern China.

While Beijing School, featured the painter Qi Baishi, is the school to continue with the tradition of Chinese painting. Qi, a great admirer of Xu Wei and Zhu Da from Qing Dynasty, inherited and developed the freehand brush style. He painted many subjects that almost include everything, most of which are small things, with his unique, simple and touching brush strokes, which made him very popular among all people.

Left : A mural painting of Li Xian's tomb at the Qianling Mausoleum dated 706 AD, Tang dynasty

Right : The Yongzheng Emperor Enjoying Himself During the 8th Lunar Month by anonymous court artists of Qing

Palace Museum, Beijing.

Important Painters and Painting Schools in

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Chinese History

Gu Kaizhi (344–406 AD) a celebrated painter of Jin Dynasty, wrote three books about painting theory: On painting, Introduction of Famous Paintings of Wei and Jin Dynasties, and Painting Yuntai Mountain. He wrote: "In figure paintings the clothes and the appearances were not very important. The eyes were the spirit and the decisive factor. " His important works include: The Admonitions of the Instructress to the Court Ladies, The Nymph of River Luo, and The Wise and Benevolent Woman.

Zhan Ziqian (mid to late 6th century) a famous painter and an official in Sui dynasty, painted a number of genres, especially noted for his paintings of pavilions, people and horses. The only painting by him that survives today is Strolling About in Spring, which is a free perspective arrangement of mountains and cited as the earliest surviving work of Chinese landscape painting. The technique of free perspective, also called "the angle of totality" , displaces the static eye of the viewer and highlights the differences between Chinese and Western models of spatial representation.

Left : Strolling About in Spring- Part by Zhan Ziqian Right: Man herding horses by Han Gan

Wang Wei a painter, poet, and a court official during the Tang

Dynasty. Wang Wei was famous for both his poetry and his paintings. He is well known for his poems in the Mountains and Streams genre. In his later years, Wang Wei became very involved in Chan(or Zen, a branch of Buddhism) practice after losing interest in politics, which was reflected on his poems and paintings, and was referred to as the “Poet Buddha” . He excelled in painting images of people, bamboo woods and scenery of mountains and rivers. He is considered to start the Wenren Hua(The Literati’s Painting) genre. His important works include: Picture of Wang River, Scenery of Snow and Creek, and Jinan’s Fusheng Portrait.

Yan Liben ( 600–673) a figure painter and court official of the early Tang Dynasty, was well known to have painted the Portraits at Lingyan Pavilion to commemorate the most important generals and officials served under Emperor Taizong of Tang. His most renowned work include: theThirteen Emperors Scroll which painted portraits of thirteen Chinese emperors from the Han Dynasty up until the Sui Dynasty period, and Emperor Taizong Receiving the Tibetan Envoy.

Emperor Taizong Receiving the Tibetan Envoy by Yan Liben Wu Daozi (680–760) an artist of the Tang Dynasty, was considered as one of "the masters of the seventh century" by

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some art critics. Wu traveled widely and created lots of murals in Buddhist and Daoist temples. He created a new method of line drawing called “Drawing of Willow Leaf” , also named as “Drawing of Water Shield” by some people. Besides portrait of people, Wu also drew mountains, rivers, flowers and birds. He has a famous painting of Confucius was preserved by having been copied in a stone engraving. And The Birth of Sakiyamuni is One of his most important work.

The Birth of Sakiyamuni by Wu Daozhi

Zhang Xuan (713–755) a painter in Tang Dynasty, well known for his figure painting, painted many pieces of art.

Spring Outing of the Tang Court by Zhang Xuan

Some of his best-known paintings include: Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk and Spring Outing of the Tang Court.

Zhou Fang (730–800) an influential painter during the midTang dynasty, has the influence of the pure and detailed style of Gu Kaizhi and Lu Tanwei from the Six dynasties, and was similar to that of Zhang Xuan’s style. His works include Court Ladies Adorning Their Hair with Flowers ,Court Lady With Servants, and Water Moon Goddess of Mercy.

Han Gan (706-783) a painter in Tang Dynasty, was widely remembered for his paintings of horses. He was reputed for not only portraying the physical body of the horse, but also its spirit. Important works of his include Man Herding Horses, NightShining White, etc al.

The Picture of Rare Birds by Huang Quan

Huang Quan an renowned bird and flower painter during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, was well known for his luxuriantly rich-colored, and very detailed court painting style.

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One og his most important works is The Picture of Rare Birds.

Xu Xi a painter during Southern Tang of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, who is well known for his flower and bird painting. His important painting work include Butterfly and Chinese Wisteria Flowers, Snowy Bamboo, etc al.

Left: Butterfly and Chinese Wisteria Flowers by Xu Xi Right: The Wild Ducks by the River Reeds by Xu Xi

Dong Yuan (10thcentury) a painter and an official in the Southern Tang Kingdom of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, mainly known for his landscape paintings, together with his pupil Ju Ran, who studied the existing styles of Li Sixun and Wang Wei and enhanced these masters techniques. Dong and his pupil mainly portrait the mountains from southeast region of China.

One of his best-known masterpieces is The Xiao and Xiang Rivers.

Ju Ran (10thcentury) Ju Ran(Buddhism name), a landscape painter from the late Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period to early Northern Song period, who studied from Dong Yuan.

He lived and worked at a Buddhist temple in Bianjing, but quickly rose to fame as landscape painter. His important works include: Storied Mountains and Dense Forests and Buddhist Monastery by Streams and Mountains.

Guan Tong (906-960) a painter of the Northern Landscape style from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period to Northern Song dynasty, who was a pupil of Jing Hao, made a great contribution in the development of this era's landscape painting. The distinctive style of his landscape paintings with strong peaks and densely compacted composition, gained him wide recognition.

Famous works of his include: Autumn Mountain Shadow, Passing Through Mountains, etc al.

Luxuriant Forest among Distant Peaks(part) by Li Cheng

Li Cheng (919-967) a famous landscape painter from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms to early Song Dynasty, was considered the best landscape painter of all time by some art critics. Li Cheng primarily portrayed Shandong area landscapes in his paintings, well-known for his "treating ink like gold" , with diluted ink brush work, giving the foggy appearance of distance settings. Artists of later generations, such as Guo Xi, modeled his painting style and methods. His works include Luxuriant Forest among Distant Peaks, Joy in Fishing, Cold crow etc al.

Left: Snow Over Rivers and Mountains by Wang Shimin (a copy of Wang Wei’s work) Middle: Storied Mountains and Dense Forests by Ju Ran Right: Passing Through Mountains by Guan Tong

Left: The Cold Woods in Snow Scene by Fan Kuan Right: Wind in the Pines Among a Myriad Valleys by Li Tang

Fan Kuan (960- 1030) a famous landscape painter of the Song Dynasty,one of the four landscape painting masters in Northern Song Dynasty, studied painting from Jin Hao and Guan Tong at first, then turned to study on nature which he took as the best teacher of painting and developed his own painting style. He was known to first use the “Bean Segment” brush- stroke” , Dou Ban Cun, which gives a more real look on the rocky mountains. He mainly paint subjects on the mountains of Huashan and Zhongnanshan(mountains in northwest region of China).

His best-known work is Travelers among Mountains and Streams, a large hanging scroll, a monumental work in landscape painting, other ones include: The Cold Woods in Snow Scene, etc al.

Guo Xi(1020–1090) a landscape painter and a court professional during the Northern Song dynasty, who developed an detailed system of his own brushstrokes and created the perspective methods of landscape(Three Distance), namely Pingyuan,Gaoyuan,and Shenyuan, which became important for later painters. And he suggested that the mountains in painting should be light and seductive seeming smiling in spring, with a blue-green color seeming to be spread over them in summer; bright and tidy seeming freshly painted in autumn and sad and tranquil seeming sleeping in winter.

Important works of his include: The Lofty Message of Forest and Streams and Early Spring.

The Northern Style of Landscape Painting: there are four key painters whose works represent the Northern Style. They are: Guan Tong, Li Cheng, Wan Kuan and Guo Xi, who were most active in their career during the early Song Dynasty. Among them, Guo Xi was the pupil of Li Cheng, and both Li Cheng and Wan Kuan had learned techniques from Guan Tong. Their

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works features highly detailed painting subjects and a complex composition, with a realistic approach on the subjects. The paintings of Northern Song officials were influenced by their political ideals of bringing order to the world and tackling the largest issues affecting the whole of their society, hence their paintings often depicted grand and sublime landscapes.

Left: Early Spring by Guo Xi Right: An untitled album leaf by Xia Gui

Wang Ximeng a landscape painter during the Song Dynasty, created one of the largest art piece in China when he was only 18 years old in year 1113, which is also his only surviving work, an 11.9 metres (39 ft) long hand scroll(should be read from right to left.) titled A Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains.

A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains by Wang Ximeng coror on silk.

Cui Bai(1050–1080) a prominent Chinese painter of the Northern Song Dynasty, was best known for paintings of animals and plants, and became a renowned artist of Emperor Shenzong's court, but had a bad reputation for his eccentric behavior.

His important works include Magpies and Hare, and sparrows.

Li Gonglin (1049–1106) a painter, civil officer in the Northern Song Dynasty, famous for his paintings of horses, also involved in Buddhism and Taoism religious painting, as well as portrait and landscape painting, was influenced by both Gu Kaizhi and Wu Daozi in his painting style. He was also an contributor in antiquarian. The preach of Vimalakirti is one of his most important works.

Li Tang(1050–1130) a landscape painter and court professional during the Song dynasty, among the most influential landscape painting artists at his time, who forms a link between earlier painters such as Guo Xi, Fan Kuan and Li Cheng and later artists such as Xia Gui and Ma Yuan. He is well known for his successful use of "axe chopped" brush strokes.

His important works include: Wind in Pines Among a Myriad Valleys (Whispering Pines in the Mountains), Intimate Scenery of River and Mountains, Sitting on Rocks Gazing at the Mist, etc al.

Zhang Zeduan (1085–1145) a painter of the Song Dynasty, who lived during the transitional period from the Northern Song to the Southern Song, and was a very important figure in Chinese landscape painting.

Zhang's most renowned painting is Along the River During the Qingming Festival.

Left: Three Sages Appreciating Antique by Liu Songnian

Liu Songnian (1174–1224) a painter during the early Southern Song Dynasty, who studied and worked at the Imperial Academy of Painting in Hangzhou, capital of the Southern Song dynasty, followed the tradition of Li Tang. His style then influenced the work of Ma Yuan and Xia Gui. Liu mainly painted landscape, but has also done some figure paintings.

Ma Yuan (1160?–1225) a painter of the Song dynasty, was born into a family of painters, and inspired by Li Tang, which led to develop his personal style, with a characteristic feature of many landscape paintings in the so-called "one-corner" composition, in which the actual subjects of the painting are pushed to a corner, leaving the other part of the painting more or less empty. He and Xia Gui were called Ma-Xia, whose works are considered among the finest from the period, have inspired both Chinese artists of the Zhe School, and Japanese painters Shūbun and Sesshū.

Important works of his include: Dancing and Singing (Peasants Returning from Work), Walking on a Mountain Path in Spring, The Four Sages of Shangshan, and Angler on a Wintry Lake (considered by some people as the first to depict a fishing reel

in artwork).

Walking on a Mountain Path in Spring by Ma Yuan

Xia Gui (1195–1224), a landscape painter of the Song dynasty, served as a court professional, who, like Ma Yuan, continued the tradition of Li Tang, further simplifying the earlier Song style to achieve a more immediate and striking effect by a formidable ink technique, and with a feature of balanced side composition, in which the void and the solid mass play equally important roles. The painting style of Japanese painter Sesshū Tōyō was especially influenced by his works in the 15th century.

Important works of his include: Pure and Remote View of Streams and Mountains, Ten Thousand Miles of the Yangzi River, Twelve Views from a Thatched Hut, Sailboat in Rainstorm, Rapids in a Mountain Valley(A Misty Gorge) and Autumn Moonlight on Dongting Lake.

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The Four Masters of Southern Song: Li Tang, Liu Songnian, Ma Yuan, and Xia Gui are considered as the four great masters of Southern Song. Most of their works followed the style of Li Tang, a key painter of the Academy art of the Southern Song, simplified the Northern Song style by innovating its strokes and thus achieved a more immediate effect. Li Tang, who was also known to have created the “great axe chopped” brushstrokes, Da Fu Pi Cun, to depict the angular rocky forms of the northern mountains, gained numerous followers. However, academy art of the Southern Song was not appreciated during later periods, during the Ming dynasty and later periods, they were completely forgotten. It was not until the 20th century that their art was rediscovered.

Southern Song officials were more interested in reforming society from the bottom up and on a much smaller scale, a method they believed had a better chance for eventual success. Hence , their paintings often focused on smaller, visually closer, and more intimate scenes, while the background was often depicted as bereft of detail as a realm without substance in the view.

Liang Kai a painter and court professional during the Southern Song Dynasty, also known as Madman Liang, who served as Painter-in-Attendance at the court of Jia Tai period, left his position at court to practice Chan Buddhism later. He was best known for painting figures, also in landscapes and other minor subjects, and was most famous for originating or developing the Da Xie Yi (The Great Freehand Painting) in figure painting, which requires a profound mastery of painting technique and perfect concentration, while giving the opportunity for the beauty of accidental effects.

His painting works include the Poet Li Bai Strolling, the Drunken Celestial, The Sixth Patriarch Cutting Bamboo, and a painting series called the Eight Eminent Monks which is in a

more academic style.

Left: The Birth of Sakiyamuni by Wu Daozhi Tang Right: Drunken Celestial by Liang Kai Song

Gong Kai a painter, a poet and a government official during the Southern Song Dynasty, who left politics after the fall of the Song, and became an-amateur of scholar painter in Yuan Dynasty. His brushwork tends to be coarse and added the “oddness of the images in his paintings. " , probably because he was very tall and with a long beard and rough looks.

His painting works include The Emaciated Horse, Zhong Kui Traveling with his Sister, Searching for Plum Blossoms by Boat, etc al.

Zhao Mengfu(1254–1322) a painter and calligrapher and an official during the Yuan Dynasty, a direct descendant of the Song Dynasty's royal family who favored the cruder style instead of the refined, gentle brushwork of his era, is considered by some art critics to have brought about a revolution that has impacted on the modern Chinese landscape painting. He was known for his paintings of horses, and unique layout of his landscape painting, with various heights laying in middle grounds to create a better sense of

depth. His important works include: Old Tree and Horses, Autumn colors on the Qiao and Hua mountains, Ten Chrysanthemums, etc al.

Autumn colours on the Qiao and Hua mountains by Zhao Mengfu

Ni Zan (1301–1374) a Chinese painter from late Yuan to early Ming periods, along with Huang Gongwang, Wu Zhen, and Wang Meng, is considered to be one of the Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty. He developed his distinctive style, with inkmonochrome paintings in minimal compositions, which features a few trees, low mountains across a lake or river, occasionally an empty hut, and no human figures. The paintings hardly represent the reality and defy many traditional concepts of Chinese painting, instead, become a medium of self-expression. And this style was greatly valued by later artists, who took Ni and the other literati painters of the Yuan dynasty as models to emulate.

His important works include: Six Gentlemen, Empty Pavilion in a Pine Grove, Wind among the Trees on the Riverbank, The Rongxi Studio.

Huang Gongwang a landscape painting master during the Yuan Dynasty, who started to paint in the late years of his career and accomplished one of the greatest masterpieces in Chinese landscape painting titled as the Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains.

Wu Zhen (1280-1354.) a painter during the Yuan dynasty of China, followed Dong Yuan’s style. Along with trends of the time, Wu's works tended less toward painting exactly what the eye sees but more toward abstraction, through dynamic balance of different elements, and personification of nature. Some of Wu's works feature in smooth, curved and flowing lines, which brings abstract style to landscape. The Central Mountain, Fisherman is an important work of his.

Left: Fisherman by Wu Zhen Yuan Middle: Ge Zhichuan Relocating by Wang Meng Yuan Right: Through Mountain Passes by Dai Jin Ming

Wang Meng a painter active during Yuan dynasty, a maternal grandson of Zhao Mengfu, is considered to be one of the Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty.In contrast to the relatively spare style of other painters, his “ropy brushstrokes” , Jiesuo Cun, piled one on the other to produce masses of texture combined in dense patterns. Though he is not as famous as other masters of the Four, his style influenced many people centuries after his death, such as Dong Qichang of late Ming.

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Important works of his include: Ge Zhichuan Relocating, Forest Grotto at Juqu, Dwelling in the Qingbian Mountains, and The Simple Retreat. Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty: Ni Zan,Huang Gongwang, Wu Zhen, and Wang Meng. are considered as the the Four Masters of the Yuan Dynasty, who are famous for refusing to serve the Mongolian rulers of their country. These artists mostly worked on paper instead of silk as many painters did in previous history, highlighting the beauty of the calligraphic touch of the brush on paper. They exclusively painted landscapes, as the visible key to the invisible feelings. They restricted their social life among the like-minded literati painters or scholars.

Left: Dwelling in Fuchun Mountains by Huang Gongwang of Yuan Dynasty Right: Fisherman and Fisherwoman by Huang Shen of Qing Dynasty

Dai Jin (1388-1462) an artist of early Ming dynasty, was best known as the founder of the Zhe School of painting. Due to the failure to make a career in the capital, he returned to Zhejiang province to resume his study of painting and finally gained his reputation among the artists and became the key