What is Chinese painting?
When did it start?
Where did it originate?
Who created it?
This mystery has puzzled us for thousands of years. Zhang Yanyuan of the Tang Dynasty, in his seminal book "Records of Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties", traced the origin of Chinese painting back to the age of legend, pointing out that hieroglyphs at that time were the unity of writing and painting.
He believes that the separation of graphics and text made painting a specialized art, and the work of exploring painting techniques began as late as the Qin and Han Dynasties, and the emergence of famous artists in the Wei and Jin dynasties marked the maturity of painting.
Chinese archaeology has gone through a century-long history, and modern archaeological excavations have unearthed a large number of physical objects of prehistoric and early historical painting images, which has increased our understanding of the art of early painting.
The history of Chinese painting can be traced back to the Neolithic age of primitive society, which has a history of at least 7,000 years. The original Chinese paintings, painted on pottery, the ground, and rock walls, gradually developed to be painted on walls, silk, and paper.
The basic tools used are brushes and ink, as well as natural mineral pigments. Under the continuous exploration and innovation efforts of countless painters, a distinct national style and national style have gradually formed, and have their own independent painting aesthetic system.
The list goes on and on. For example, the mermaid pattern faience pot, the dance pattern faience pot, and the circle cartouche faience pot have very rich patterns.
Mermaid-patterned clay pots
In Henan Linru Yan village site Yangshao culture late tomb unearthed as a burial pot, scholars called "stork (guàn) fish stone axe figure color pottery tank", the outer wall of the pottery jar is the famous stork stone axe map, is so far the earliest and largest area of a pottery painting found in China. According to the determination of carbon fourteen by experts, it is a product of the yangshao culture period of the primitive society, which has a history of about 6,000 years.
Stork (guàn) fish stone axe figure faience pottery jar
In a Neolithic settlement in Dadiwan, Qin'an, Gansu Province, a ground painting painted in black was found, with a height of 69 centimeters and a width of 90 centimeters. The floor is painted in the center of the rear of the room, that is, on the ground between the stove, the column hole and the middle section of the rear wall.
The upper layer of the ground painting is 3 figures side by side, painted in a boneless way, in the middle and below the left portrait, depicting 2 reptile images in uniform black thick lines, side-by-side in a rectangular box. In the lower right of this group of paintings, there are also faint ink marks, making the shape of upturned legs and feet. According to the determination of experts, the ground painting is about 5000 or 6000 years old, which is the earliest independent complete figure painting found in the mainland so far, and it is the indiscriminate pursuit of the mainland architectural murals.
Land Bay land painting
Chinese painting in the true sense, the latest produced in the Warring States period, the typical representative is the "Character Dragon and Phoenix Diagram" and "Character Royal Dragon Diagram" excavated from the Warring States Chu Tomb in Changsha, Hunan Province.
"Figure Dragon and Phoenix" is a silk pale color painting created by an anon. during the Warring States period, excavated from the Tomb of Chen Jia Dashan Chu in Changsha, Hunan Province, and is now in the Hunan Provincial Museum. The painting depicts the dragon and phoenix guiding the soul of the tomb owner to ascend to heaven, and is the oldest surviving painting in China.
"Figures of the Royal Dragon" is a silk ink and light color painting created by an anonymous person in the middle and late Warring States period, excavated in 1973 in Changsha Bullet Kuchu Tomb No. 1, when excavated flat between the rafter cover plate and the coffin, and is now in the Collection of Hunan Provincial Museum.
The painting depicts the scene of the tomb owner ascending to heaven by a dragon, which should be the inscription used to induce the ascension of the soul in the tomb of the Chu state in the Warring States period, which belongs to the non-clothing nature of the late Warring States painting.
"Character Royal Dragon Diagram"
Next, the author will introduce you to the types of Chinese paintings.
1, Portraits
Figure painting is a painting with the theme of human figures, which appeared earlier than landscape painting, flower and bird painting, etc. It can be roughly divided into Buddhist Painting, Lady Painting, Portrait Painting, Genre Painting, Historical Story Painting and so on. The expression techniques of figure painting can be roughly divided into three categories: white drawing method, heavy color painting method and freehand painting method.
Roselle Futu
Character painting strives to portray the personality of the characters realistically and vividly, with vivid charm and both form and spirit. In Chinese painting theory, it is also called figure painting as "conveying the gods". Famous figures of the past dynasties have painted the volume of Gu Kaizhi's "Luoshen Futu" of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the "Han Xizai Night Feast Map" in the Five Dynasties southern Tang Gu Hong, the "Wei Mo Jie Statue" of Li Gonglin of the Northern Song Dynasty, and the "Cewei Tu" of Li Tang of the Southern Song Dynasty.
2. Landscape painting
Landscape painting is a painting depicting the natural scenery of mountains and rivers as the main body, from the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Liu Dynasty period gradually developed, when mostly as the background of figure painting; to the Sui and Tang Dynasties there were many independent landscape paintings; the Five Dynasties, the Northern Song Dynasty period became more and more mature Authors, since then has become a major painting discipline of Chinese painting, mainly ink, green, golden, boneless, shallow and other forms.
Representative painters include Zhan Ziqian, Wang Wei, Fan Kuan, and Zhang Hong. Landscape painting is the essence of nature, the beauty of heaven and earth, so yin and yang, obscurity, rain and cold, dusk, day and night have endless fun.
3. Flower and bird painting
Flower and bird painting is a painting of animals and plants as the main depiction object. In Chinese painting, paintings depicting flowers, flowers, birds, fish and insects, etc., are called flower and bird paintings. His painting techniques can be divided into three types: brush painting of flowers and birds, freehand painting of flowers and birds, and part-time writing.
Xue Ji's crane
Generations of flower and bird painters have emerged, such as:
Tang Dynasty Xue Ji's crane, Bianluan's peacock, Diao Guangyin's flower bamboo;
The eagles of the five generations of Guo Qianhui, the flowers and birds of Huang Xiao and Xu Xi;
The flowers of Zhao Chang in the Northern Song Dynasty, the birds of Cui Bai, and the flowers and birds of Wu Yuanyu in the Southern Song Dynasty; the folded branches of Wu Bing, the flowers and fruits of Lin Chun, and the birds of Li Di in the Southern Song Dynasty;
Bamboo of Li Yan in the Yuan Dynasty, Mandarin duck in Zhang Shouzhong, plum of Wang Mian;
Birds of Lin Liang in the Ming Dynasty, ink flowers of Chen Chun and Xu Wei;
Fish of The Qing Dynasty, Yun Shouping's Lotus, and Hua Qiao's Bird;
In modern times, Wu Changshuo's flowers, Qi Baishi's flowers and fruits, Xu Beihong's horses, Pan Tianshou's Yandang mountain flowers, Zhu Xuanxian's plum blossoms, Li Kuchan's eagle, Li Kejian's cattle, and Chen Zhifo's heavy flowers.
4. Boundary painting
Boundary painting refers to the painting of buildings such as palaces, terraces, and buildings, and drawing lines with boundary brushes. In the "Thirteen Branches of Painters" contained in Tao Zongyi's "Record of Quitting Cultivation" in the Ming Dynasty, there is a section of jiehua loutai.
In the "Records of Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties", He commented on Zhan Ziqian's boundary paintings: "Touch things and be merciful, be wonderful, especially the Pavilion of Life"; comment on Dong Boren's boundary paintings, praising him as "a character born in the building, expansive of ancient and modern".
《Que Lou Tu》
The existing "Que Lou Tu" on the west wall of the tomb of Li Chongrun, the prince of Tang Yide, is the earliest large-scale boundary painting in China, and the famous boundary paintings of the Song Dynasty include "Yellow Crane Tower" and "Tengwang Pavilion Map".
5, Intaiga
Courtyard body painting generally refers to the paintings of the Hanlin Picture Academy of the Song Dynasty and its court painters. In order to meet the needs of the imperial court, most of these works are based on flowers, birds, landscapes or religious content, and most of them pay attention to law and style. Due to the fashion of the times and the different skills of painters, the painting style has its own characteristics.
"Han Hee-jae's Night Feast"
Courtyard painting was the most prosperous in the Song Dynasty, and the two Song painting academies can be called the era of the prosperity of the painting academy in history. The representative works of the courtyard painting mainly include: the Tang Dynasty's "Ming Emperor Xingshu Tu", "The Lady of the Hairpin Flower", "Lady Yu Chun Tu"; the "Han Xizai Night Feast Map" of the Five Dynasties Period; the Song Dynasty painter Zhang Zeduan's "Qingming River Map" and so on.
6. Literati painting
Literati painting refers to the painting of literati and scholars, in order to distinguish it from the painting of folk and court painting academies. Wang Wei of the Tang Dynasty was its founder. The authors of literati paintings generally avoid social reality, and mostly draw on landscapes, flowers, birds, and bamboo trees to express "sexual spirits" or dissatisfaction with politics. It pays attention to the interest of pen and ink, takes off the shape, emphasizes the charm, and attaches importance to literary accomplishment, which has a considerable influence on the expression of artistic conception in paintings and the development of techniques such as ink painting and freehand.
"Wind and Rain Return to Pastoral Map"
Literati paintings flaunt "morale" and "yipin", pay attention to the taste of pen and ink, take off the shape, emphasize the charm, and attach importance to calligraphy, literature and other cultivation and the expression of artistic conception in the painting. In modern times, Chen Hengke believes that "literati painting has four elements: character, learning, talent and thought. With these four, it can be perfected."
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