Why does Chinese painting not focus on color, but on black and white?

Chinese painting is also known as pictorial painting, the pigments of Chinese painting are all natural pigments, the traditional pigments of Chinese painting are generally divided into two categories: mineral pigments and vegetable pigments, from the history of the use of the mineral should be the first, and then the vegetable, just like the use of ink with the first pine smoke, and then the oil smoke. The bright color left on the rock paintings in ancient times, according to the laboratory, it is found that mineral pigment (such as cinnabar) is used, and the remarkable characteristic of mineral pigment is that it is not easy to fade, and the color is bright, most of those who have seen Zhang Daqian's late splash of color paintings have this impression, and the large area of stone green, stone green, and cinnabar can make people's spirit be invigorated! Plant pigments are mainly extracted from trees and flowers.

I. Mineral pigments

1, Cinnabar

2, Cinnabar (extracted from the cinnabar, the top layer)

3, silver Zhu

4, Shi Huang

5, andrographis (also known as andrographolite)

6, Shi Qing (divided into the head, two, three, four green)

7, Shi Green (divided into the head, two, three, (four green)

8, ochre (divided into dark ochre, light ochre)

9, clam powder (shell grinding, although not a mineral, but classified in this category)

10, lead powder (easy to turn black, commonly used in lieu of titanium dioxide)

11, clay gold

12, clay silver

13, too white (zinc titanium dioxide, a mixture of zinc and titanium dioxide mill)

Two, plant pigments

1, flower green

2, garcinia cambogia (poisonous)

3, cochineal

4, magenta (imported, cochineal bugs in the extraction, although not plants but under this category)

Unlike gouache pigments are industrial pigments, can be mass-produced.

I think this is the cause of the creation of Chinese painting authors cherish color, so more ink to express, focusing on black and white, more prominent mood.