English with traditional meticulous skills

Chinese Painting —— Harmony of Mind and Emotion

"Painting is a poem that has gained form" is a sentence used by Guo, an ancient landscape painter in China, to describe Chinese painting. It can reflect the most subtle differences: a butterfly flapping its wings, the movement of sand in the desert, and the sound of the wind.

As an art form, Chinese painting has its unique tradition and history. People think that the origin of China's painting belongs to the period of Zhang Kuo (Warring States).

However, its basic canon was established long after the fifth to eighth centuries. In particular, this is the period when artists in China began to use ink.

This period witnessed the origin of different trends in painting: portrait genre, natural scenery, and pictures of animals and birds. All these are painted in ink or plant watercolor. China artists mainly paint on silk or special paper rolls, which can be vertical (decorative walls) or horizontal.

The core of Chinese painting is a linear model. This feature is directly related to China's traditional calligraphy, and calligraphy itself is also a visual art.

China's philosophy also had an influence on the visual arts. Therefore, the image of water symbolizes different gods, while the image of stone symbolizes the world of the soul. There is also a tradition of depicting plants and trees. Especially respected is bamboo, which is associated with Confucian and Taoist philosophy.

Chinese painting is very symbolic. Each element has a certain meaning, and the author puts it into it, but the main idea of the whole picture is the harmony between mind and senses, between man and nature.

Chinese painting is one of the oldest artistic traditions in the world.

Traditional style painting is called guó huà (traditional Chinese characters, simplified Chinese characters) in today's Chinese, which means "national" or "local painting", as opposed to the western art style popular in China in the 20th century. Traditional painting basically uses the same skills as calligraphy, using brushes dipped in black or colored ink to complete; Do not use oil. Like calligraphy, the most popular painting materials are paper and silk. The finished work can be mounted on a scroll, such as a hanging scroll or a hand scroll. Traditional painting can also be carried out in picture books, walls, lacquerware, screens and other media.

The two main techniques of Chinese painting are:

Meticulous brushwork, which means "meticulous", uses very meticulous brushstrokes and depicts details very accurately. It is usually brightly colored and usually depicts characters or narrative themes. Artists who work for the royal court or independent studios often do this kind of exercise.

Ink painting, in China, ink painting or (ink painting [1]) is also called watercolor painting or ink painting, and it is also called "literati painting" because it is one of the "four great arts" of China literati class. [2] In theory, this is an art practiced by gentlemen, and this distinction began in the works of art in the Song Dynasty, despite the fact that the profession of the main advocate may be beneficial. [3] This style is also called "freehand brushwork" or freehand brushwork style.

Landscape painting is considered to be the highest form of Chinese painting, and it is still the case in general. [4] The period from the Five Dynasties to the Northern Song Dynasty (907–1127) was called "the great era of China landscape painting". In the north, artists like, Li Cheng, Fan Kuan and Guo paint towering mountains and rough stones with strong black lines, ink and sharp dotted strokes. In the south, Dong Yuan, Ju Ran and other artists used soft brushwork to describe the ups and downs of mountains and rivers and quiet scenes in their hometown. These two scenes and techniques have become the classic styles of China's landscape painting.