What are the themes of Chinese painting? What are its manifestations?

The main types of traditional paintings in China. From the perspective of art history, Chinese paintings before the Republic of China were collectively called ancient paintings. In ancient times, Chinese painting did not have a clear name, and it was generally called Danqing, which mainly refers to scroll painting painted on silk, rice paper and silk and mounted. Known as Chinese painting in modern times, it is different from foreign paintings such as oil paintings (also known as western paintings) imported from the west. It is a painting created by China's unique pen and ink and pigments according to the long-term expression and artistic law. Chinese painting can be subdivided into ink painting, heavy color, light crimson, meticulous painting, freehand brushwork and line drawing according to its materials and expression methods. According to their themes, there are figure paintings, landscape paintings and flower-and-bird paintings. There are various forms of Chinese painting, such as long scrolls (also known as hand scrolls) and horizontal curtains, banners and nave, album pages and bucket squares, folding fans and round fans painted on fans. Chinese painting reflects the social consciousness and aesthetic taste of the Chinese nation in ideological content and artistic creation, and embodies China people's understanding of nature, society and politics, philosophy, religion, morality, literature and art related to it.

Ethnicity

Chinese painting has a long history. As early as 2000 years ago, silk paintings appeared in the Warring States period, before which there were primitive rock paintings and painted pottery paintings. These early paintings laid the foundation for later Chinese paintings to take lines as the main modeling means. During the Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the society changed rapidly from a stable unity to a split, and the impact and integration of foreign culture and local culture made painting mainly religious, while local historical figures and literary works took a certain proportion, and landscape painting and flower-and-bird painting also sprouted at this time. At the same time, consciously grasp painting in theory and put forward evaluation criteria. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, social economy and culture were highly prosperous, and painting also showed all-round prosperity. Landscape painting and flower-and-bird painting have matured, religious painting has reached its peak, and there has been a tendency of secularization; Portraits mainly show aristocratic life, with characters with characteristics of the times. By the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty, it was more mature and prosperous, figure painting had turned to depicting secular life, religious painting had gradually declined, and landscape painting and flower-and-bird painting had become the mainstream of painting. The appearance of literati painting and its development in later generations greatly enriched the creative concept and expression method of Chinese painting. During the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, ink and wash landscapes and freehand brushwork of flowers and birds got outstanding development, and literati painting became the mainstream of Chinese painting, but its last stream went to imitation, which was farther and farther away from the times and life. Since the end of 19, western artistic expressions and artistic ideas have been introduced into Chinese painting for a hundred years, and many schools, famous artists and constant reforms and innovations have emerged in the cultural environment that inherits the traditional Chinese painting.

/kloc-After the 9th century, a large number of painters gathered in Shanghai, Beijing (including Tianjin), Guangzhou and other central cities with developed politics and economy (especially commerce and culture), that is, Jiangsu and Zhejiang painters with Shanghai as the center, such as Ren Yi, Xu Gu, Wu Changshuo, Huang, Liu Haisu, Pan Tianshou, Zhu Zhan, Zhang Daqian, Fu Baoshi, Lu and so on. Northern painters with Beijing as the center, such as Qi Baishi, Jin Cheng, Jin Cheng,,, Jiang, and Li Keran. A group of Lingnan painters with Guangzhou as the center, such as Gao, Chen, He Xiangning,,, and so on. With the changes of the situation and times, painters in the above areas have also migrated. For example, during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression period, many painters came to the southwest. After 1949, many painters, such as Zhang Daqian, Huang Junbi and Zhao Shaoang, moved abroad and Hong Kong and Taiwan. Today, most provinces and cities in China have established painting academies. In addition to the three centers, many new centers have emerged, and the number of painters has expanded unprecedentedly.

Among the modern painters in China, many painters inherit and adhere to the basic pattern of traditional painting. They either follow the principle of imitating and inheriting the techniques and demeanor of the previous generation of painters, or try to change while inheriting the tradition and form their own style while preserving and developing the tradition. The former includes Jincheng and Gu, while the latter is represented by Qi Baishi, Huang and Pan Tianshou.

Since the May 4th New Culture Movement, with the massive introduction of western art and the deepening of the anti-feudal struggle, the reform of Chinese painting has become a new trend of the times. Represented by Gao, Liu Haisu, Xu Beihong and Lin Fengmian, who studied in Japan and Europe and America, he advocated the integration of realism of western art and creative ideas of modern western art with traditional figure painting in China, which blazed a new trail for the reform and innovation of Chinese painting and made Chinese painting glow with new vitality. Among them, Gao and other Lingnan painters advocate compromise between China and foreign countries, integration of ancient and modern, and combine Japanese painting with traditional water-rushing, powder-bumping and boneless painting to create a new style with a strong sense of the times. Xu Beihong integrated the realistic techniques of western painting into traditional pen and ink, which enriched the expressive force of Chinese painting. Lin Fengmian harmonizes China and the West, absorbs the simplicity and vitality of folk art, and forms his own unique style with far-reaching artistic conception and novel form. In addition, Chen Zhifo integrated the colors of Chinese and foreign decorative arts into the creation of meticulous flower-and-bird painting, and Zhang Daqian borrowed some techniques of western abstract expressionism to create splash-ink painting; Inspired by western paintings, Li Keran directly sketched and created scenes. Wu Guanzhong used the tool materials of Chinese painting and the forms and concepts of western modern art to express the traditional poetry and realm of Chinese painting, and made important achievements.

With the changes of the times, Chinese painting has changed from the aristocratic art of literati and nobles to the "people's art", from the ivory tower in the past to a crossroads. Chinese painting has undergone profound changes in theme and content. Painters turned their attention to social reality and created a large number of outstanding works with the characteristics of the times.

In the 1920s and 1930s, painters argued endlessly about the innovation and development of China's paintings. For example, Kang Youwei put forward the idea of "restoring ancient ways as innovation" and "combining Chinese and western styles as a new era"; Xu Beihong advocated that "those who are good at ancient laws should keep them, those who reject them should continue them, those who are not good should change them, those who are insufficient should increase them, and those who can take western paintings should be integrated"; Liu Haisu proposed to "develop the fine arts inherent in the East and study the elites of western art"; Lin Fengmian advocated "reconciling Chinese and Western arts and creating art of the times"; Chen Shiceng actively analyzed and answered the characteristics and significance of literati painting. Lin Shu, on the other hand, opposed innovation and called on people to despise "new foreign learning" and only take "ancient meaning as the Sect"; Jincheng, on the other hand, strongly advocated: "We should not forget the method of spreading sage and knowledge, and inherit the old chapter." In the late 1940s and 1950s, there was a discussion about whether sketch could be used as the basis of Chinese painting modeling, and how to treat pen and ink skills and various new Chinese paintings. In the mid-1980s, in the rapidly changing social environment of reform, opening up and modernization, how to innovate Chinese painting to meet the aesthetic needs of the times was deeply discussed in theory and practice.

Modeling characteristics and expression methods

Chinese painting embodies the traditional philosophy and aesthetics of the Chinese nation in terms of observation and understanding, image shaping and expression techniques. In observing and understanding objective things, we adopt the method of seeing the big from the small and seeing the big from the small, and observe and understand objective things in activities, and even directly participate in things, rather than appearing locally or being limited to a fixed point. It permeates people's social consciousness, thus making painting have the cognitive function of "learning to paint after a thousand years of solitude" and the educational function of "warning the world with evil and showing the future with good". Even the purely natural objective objects such as mountains, rivers, flowers and birds are consciously linked with people's social consciousness and aesthetic taste in their observation, understanding and performance, and they express their feelings by taking advantage of the scenery, which embodies the concept of "harmony between man and nature" of China people. Chinese painting pays attention to conception, conception writing and image thinking, and the unity of subjective and objective artistic images. Modeling is not limited to superficial similarity, but emphasizes "beauty lies between similarity and difference" and "difference". Its image-building aims to convey the expression and emotion of the object and the painter's subjective feelings. Therefore, we can abandon those parts that are not essential or have little connection with image characteristics, and those parts that can reflect the five senses can be portrayed through exaggeration or even deformation. In composition, Chinese painting emphasizes management. It is not based on fixed space or time, but breaks the limitation of time and space in a flexible way. According to the painter's subjective feelings and artistic creation rules, it recombines objects in different time and space to build a space-time realm in the painter's mind. Thus, rain and snow, four seasons, ancient and modern figures can all appear in the same painting. Therefore, in perspective, it is not limited to focus perspective, but adopts multi-point or scattered perspective, moving up and down or left and right, moving back and forth, viewing objects and framing, and managing composition, which has great freedom and flexibility. At the same time, in the composition of a painting, we should pay attention to the contrast between reality and reality, emphasizing "sparse and easy to move" and "airtight", with reality in the virtual and reality in the real. Chinese painting, with its unique pen and ink skills, depicts the shape, skeleton, texture, light and shade and modal charm of objects and images in the form of points, lines and surfaces. The pen and ink here is not only an object, a skill to express feelings, but also a carrier of objects. At the same time, it is a meaningful form, and its traces reflect the interest of China's calligraphy, which has independent aesthetic value. Because it is not very similar to the surface of an object, Chinese painting can use all-black ink, or it can use color or ink color combination to describe the object. Later, the greater the proportion of ink painting, and now some people even call Chinese painting ink painting. The ink used is divided into five colors to adjust the amount of water, the speed and length of strokes, which leads to the ever-changing pen and ink skills and the rich and varied shades. At the same time, ink can also be combined with color, but ink does not hinder color, and color does not hinder ink, forming the diversity of complementary ink and color. However, in Chinese painting with color as the main factor, the emphasis of "color matching with class" is the inherent color of the object, and the color of light source and environment is not important, so it is generally not considered. But for some special needs, sometimes we can boldly use some exaggerated or hypothetical colors. Chinese painting, especially literati painting, emphasizes the homology of painting and calligraphy in creation, and pays attention to the painter's personal character and cultivation. Emphasizing the organic combination of poetry, calligraphy, painting and printing in specific works, expressing the painter's understanding of society, life and art by writing poems and inscriptions on the screen not only plays a role in deepening the theme, but also is an organic part of the screen.

Chinese painting has its own system in the world art field. Can be roughly divided into; Figures, landscapes, boundary paintings, flowers, fruits, feathers, animals, insects, fish, etc. There are techniques such as meticulous brushwork, freehand brushwork, sketching, color setting and ink painting, and color setting can be divided into resplendent, turquoise, boneless, splash color, light color and light crimson. Mainly use the changes of lines and ink color to describe the image and business place with hook, dot, dye, thick, light, dry, wet, yin, yang, direction, back, virtual, real, sparse, dense and empty; View layout, wide field of vision, not limited to focus perspective. There are murals, screens, scrolls, picture albums, fans and other picture frames, supplemented by traditional mounting techniques. Figure painting gradually matured from the late Zhou Dynasty to the Han, Wei and Six Dynasties. Mountains and rivers, flowers, paintings of birds and animals, etc. It was not until the Sui and Tang Dynasties that an independent painting discipline was formed. In the Five Dynasties and the Song Dynasty, various schools of thought competed for each other, and ink painting became popular, and landscape painting became a major branch. Literati painting developed in the Song Dynasty, but reached its peak in the Yuan Dynasty, and the painting style tended to be freehand. Ming and Qing dynasties and modern times continued to develop, paying more and more attention to expressing ideas and smoothing the mind. Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Tang Dynasty and Ming and Qing Dynasties were successively influenced by Buddhist art and western painting art.. Traditional Chinese painting emphasizes "the nature of foreign teachers is the source of China's heart", requires "meaning to save the pen first, and draw as best as possible", and emphasizes the integration of things and the creation of artistic conception, so as to achieve the purpose of describing the spirit with form, having both form and spirit and vivid charm. Because calligraphy and painting are of the same origin, they are closely related to the operation of bone and line, so the seal cutting of calligraphy and painting affects each other and forms a remarkable artistic feature. The tool materials for painting are pens, ink, paper, inkstone and silk specially made in China. Modern Chinese painting has made a breakthrough and development in inheriting tradition and absorbing foreign techniques.

◆ Ink painting

A Chinese painting. Refers to a painting made of pure ink and wash. There are three basic elements: simplicity, symbolism and nature. Legend has it that it began in the Tang Dynasty, became in the Five Dynasties, flourished in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and continued to develop in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and modern times. Give full play to the function of ink painting with brushwork as the leading factor. "Ink is color" means that the shade change of ink is a hierarchical change of color, and "ink is color" means that multi-level ink chromaticity can be used instead of colorful colors. In the Northern Song Dynasty, Shen Kuo's "Tu Song" said: "The south of the Yangtze River spread to Ju Ran, and the light ink and light blue became one." Which is ink painting. People in the Tang and Song Dynasties painted landscapes with wet strokes, which had the effect of "water fainting ink printing". People in the Yuan Dynasty began to use dry pen, and the ink color changed a lot, which had the artistic effect of "giving color at the same time". In the Tang Dynasty, Wang Wei put forward that "ink painting is the best", and later generations followed suit. Ink painting has always occupied an important position in the history of China painting.

◆ Courtyard painting

Referred to as "courtyard body" and "courtyard painting", it is a kind of Chinese painting. Generally speaking, it refers to the paintings of Hanlin Painting Academy in Song Dynasty and its later court painters. There are also works specifically referring to the Southern Song Dynasty Painting Academy, or generally referring to non-court painters who imitate the style of the Southern Song Dynasty Painting Academy. This kind of works mainly focus on flowers and birds, landscapes, court life and religious content to meet the needs of the court. They pay attention to statutes, have both form and spirit, and have a gorgeous and delicate style. Because different times and painters have different specialties, their painting styles are different and have their own characteristics. Mr. Lu Xun said: "It is advisable to give up the tender and gentle aspects of the courtyard paintings in Song Dynasty." Modern young and middle-aged painters represented by Zhang Quan, Jiang Hongwei, Jia Guangjian, Zhao Beixin and Hui Yu have made certain contributions to the development of modern college painting.

◆ Literati painting

Also known as "master painting". A Chinese painting. Generally refers to the paintings made by literati in China feudal society. Different from the paintings of folk painters and professional painters in the Palace Painting Academy, Su Shi put forward "literati painting" in the Northern Song Dynasty, and Dong Qichang advocated "literati painting" in the Ming Dynasty, with Wang Wei as the founder and the ancestor of Nanzong (see Nanbeizong). But in the old days, it was often used to raise the painting art of the literati class and despise folk painters and institutional painters. In the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Yanyuan once said in Notes on Famous Paintings of Past Dynasties: "Those who have been good at painting since ancient times are better than others without elegant clothes." This sentence has far-reaching influence. Modern Chen Hengke believes that "literati painting has four elements: personality, knowledge, talent and thought, and with these four elements, it can be perfected." Usually, "literati painting" takes landscape, flowers and birds, plum blossoms, bamboo, chrysanthemum, wood and stone as the theme. To express "spiritual spirit" or personal ambition, sometimes it also contains feelings of oppression to the nation or resentment against decadent politics. They admire "morale" and "one product", advocate algae interest, stress pen and ink interest, get rid of similarities, emphasize verve, and attach great importance to the cultivation of literature and calligraphy and the creation of artistic conception of painting. Mang Fu Yao's Preface to Scholars' Painting in China once had a high evaluation: "King Youcheng of the Tang Dynasty (Wei) helped poems to enter the painting, and then the pen became interesting, and the method changed at will. Needless to say, the palace merchants, the mountains and mountains are all rhyme, and the righteousness does not have to be more prosperous. " Literati paintings in past dynasties have a great influence on the aesthetic thought of Chinese painting and the development of ink painting, freehand brushwork and other techniques.

◆ Draw ten doors.

Chinese painting terminology. Chinese painting is divided into six branches, namely, figures, houses, landscapes, pommel horses, ghosts and gods, flowers and birds, etc. Xuanhe Garden in the Northern Song Dynasty is divided into ten gates, namely, Taoist Gate, Zimen Gate, Gongmen Gate, Gate, Arowana Gate, Shanshui Gate, Animal Gate, Flower and Bird Gate, Zhu Mo Gate and Vegetable Gate. Deng Chun's Painting with the Southern Song Dynasty is divided into eight categories (doors), namely, immortals, buddhas, ghosts and gods, biographies of people, landscapes, forests and stones, flowers, bamboo feathers, animals, insects and fish, houses, trees, boats and cars, melons and fruits, vegetables and grasses, and small miscellaneous paintings. See Thirteen Schools.

◆ Thirteen families

Terminology of Chinese painting. Chinese painting is divided into six branches: Zhang Yanyuan's Record of Famous Paintings in Tang Dynasty; In the Northern Song Dynasty, Xuanhe Huapu was divided into ten branches. Deng Chun's painting in the Southern Song Dynasty is divided into eight categories. Dong Tang's Painting Guide in Yuan Dynasty said: "There are thirteen secular painters, starting with mountains and rivers and based on boundary painting." Thirteen subjects of painters in Tao's Record of Descending Agriculture in the Ming Dynasty are: Buddha and Bodhisattva, Taoist temple of the Jade Emperor, King Kong and ghosts, Lohan holy monks, Fengyun Dragon and Tiger, ancient people, the whole mountain forest, flowers and bamboo feathers, wild mules and animals, people's use, boundary painting terraces, exclusive respect for all things, agricultural weaving and carving inlaid with green.

◆ Figure painting

A painting. The general term for paintings with figures as the main body. China's figure painting, referred to as "figure" for short, is a major branch of Chinese painting, which appeared before landscape painting and flower-and-bird painting. Generally, it can be divided into Taoist painting, lady painting, portrait painting, genre painting and historical story painting. Figure painting strives to portray the character's personality vividly, with vivid charm and both form and spirit. His vivid techniques are often reflected in the environment, atmosphere, characters, and the performance of characters in dynamic rendering. Therefore, Chinese painting is also called "vivid" in theory. The famous figure paintings in the past dynasties include Gu Kaizhi's The Goddess of Luo in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Wen Yuan in the Tang Dynasty, Han Xizai's Banquet in the Southern Tang Dynasty, Wei Mo by Li in the Northern Song Dynasty, Wei Tu by Li Baixing in the Southern Song Dynasty, Yin Tu by Li Baixing and Yang Zhuxi by Liang Kai in the Yuan Dynasty. In modern times, it emphasized "imitating the law" and absorbed western techniques, and developed in modeling and color distribution.

◆ Landscape painting

Referred to as "landscape". A Chinese painting. Painting with natural scenery as the main body. The Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties gradually developed, but it was still attached to figure painting, which was mostly used as a background. Independence began in Sui and Tang Dynasties, such as Zhan Ziqian's colorful landscape, Li Sixun's Jinbi landscape, Wang Wei's ink landscape and Wang Qia's splash-ink landscape. During the Five Dynasties and the Northern Song Dynasty, many authors appeared in landscape painting, such as Hao Jing, Guan Tong, Li Cheng, Dong Yuan, Ju Ran, Fan Kuan, Xu Daoning, Yan Wengui, Song Di, Wang Shen, Mi Fei, Mi Youren, etc., and green landscape painting reached a peak. Since then, it has become a major painting theme of Chinese painting; Landscape painting in Yuan Dynasty tends to be freehand brushwork, taking virtual as reality, focusing on the charm of pen and ink, and creating a new style; Ming and Qing dynasties and modern times, continuous development, a new look. Pay attention to the professional position and artistic conception in the performance. The traditional methods are ink painting, turquoise, resplendent, boneless, light red, light color and so on.

◆ Green landscape

A landscape painting. Landscape painting with mineral azurite and stone green as the main colors. There are big turquoise and small turquoise. The former has more hooks, fewer strokes, strong coloring and strong decoration; The latter is dominated by the light color of ink and wash. Zhang Geng in Qing Dynasty said: "Painting and painting have always been colorful." Dong Tang said in the Yuan Dynasty: "Li Sixun painted landscapes, reflecting them with golden jade, which is the family law." During the Southern Song Dynasty, there were two Zhao dynasties (Boju and Bojun), which were famous for their green landscapes. China's landscape painting is color painting first, followed by ink painting. In color-coded painting, there are heavy colors first, then light colors.

◆ Light crimson scenery

A landscape painting. On the basis of ink painting, a light-colored landscape painting with ochre as the main tone was laid. "Biography of Mustard Seed Garden" said: "Yellow is like a jade surface, and ochre is the best color. It is shallow and sometimes outlined with ochre pen. Wang Mengfu painted landscapes with ochre and gamboge, and his mountains were like pine grass paintings, and then he painted them with ochre, sometimes without coloring. He only used ochre to paint faces and pine skins in the landscape. " This coloring feature began in the Eastern Yuan Dynasty in the Five Dynasties and flourished in the Yellow Dynasty in the Yuan Dynasty, also known as "Wuzhuang" landscape.

◆ Jinbi

Clay gold, azurite and azurite in China's painting pigments. All landscape paintings with these three pigments as the main colors are called "golden blue landscape", which is more clay and gold than "green landscape". Clay gold is generally used to cross-dye mountain contours, stone patterns, slopes, sand mouths, rosy clouds, palaces, pavilions and other buildings. However, The Brief Discussion on Painting in the Ming Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty holds another view: "Those who cover gold and jade: the stone is green, that is, the green landscape is also green. Later generations don't pay attention to it, but mud gold is called golden pen landscape. It's ridiculous that the husband is in the name of gold and silver! "

◆ turquoise

Kyanite and turquoise in Chinese painting pigments. It also refers to the coloring method with these two pigments as the main colors. In the Qing Dynasty, Wang Yi said: "The color is green, the body should be serious, the gas should be light and clear, and the strength should be strong." It took you more than 30 years to realize the blue color method and it began to be wonderful. " The cloud also said: "turquoise is a heavy color, thick and easy, shallow and difficult, shallow and not deep, especially difficult to see thick." ..... Luck is empty, elegant and elegant, slim, and aura is faint. The lighter, the thicker. The so-called gorgeous or natural, one of the paintings has changed. "(Postscript of Ou Xiang Pavilion Painting) expounds the gist of cyan coloring. See "Green Landscape".

◆ Flower and bird painting

A Chinese painting. Xuan He Hua Pu in the Northern Song Dynasty. "On Flowers and Birds" said: "Poets have six meanings, and they know the names of birds, animals and herbs better, and they also remember the ups and downs of the four seasons, so the beauty of painting is more interesting here, which is different from poets." There are many flower-and-bird painters in the past dynasties, such as the crane in Snow Ji in the Tang Dynasty, the peacock in Bian Luan and the flower bamboo in Diao Guang Yin. The eagle of Guo in the Five Dynasties, the flower and bird in the grave; Flowers in Zhao Chang, birds in cypress and flowers and birds in Wu in the Northern Song Dynasty; Branches of Wu Bing in Southern Song Dynasty, flowers and fruits of Lin Chun, birds of Li Di; In Yuan Dynasty, Li Li's Bamboo, Zhang Shouzhong's Yuanyang and Wang Mian's Mei; Birds in Lin Liang in Ming Dynasty, ink flowers of Chen Chun and Xu Wei; Fish in Qing dynasty, lotus in clouds, birds in Hua Nie; Modern Wu Changshuo, Huadu and so on are all famous flowers of a generation. See "Four Gentlemen".

◆ New literati paintings

New literati paintings, or "New literati paintings of China", refers to a cultural phenomenon that appeared in China art circles in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

From 65438 to 0996, Beijing painter Bian Pingshan often met and chatted with Fuzhou painter Wang Heping and Hebei painter Bei Yu in Mr. Bian Pingshan's Pingshan Bookstore. Because there are many similarities in artistic opinions and pursuits, the idea of developing a joint exhibition of Chinese paintings has sprouted. Later, it was agreed with Nanjing painters Wang Mengqi and Jun Fang that Tianjin painter Huo Chunyang would hold this exhibition in the exhibition hall of Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts, which was the beginning of "New literati paintings".

Later, painters from all over the country, such as Zhu Xinjian, Liu Ergang, Wang Yong, Xu Lele, Zhu Daoping, Chen Ping, Tian Liming and Jiang Hongwei, responded in succession and joined in, becoming a very influential cultural phenomenon in the country. "New literati paintings", "85 New Trends" and "Star Art Exhibition" became a brilliant page in the art history of China in 1980s and 1990s.

Chinese painting and western painting (Feng Zikai)

Eastern and western cultures are fundamentally different. So the performance of art is also different. Perhaps eastern art emphasizes subjectivity, while western art emphasizes objectivity. Oriental art is poetic, while western art is dramatic. Therefore, in painting, Chinese painting emphasizes charm, while western painting emphasizes shape. Compared with the two, there are five differences:

(1) Chinese paintings are full of lines, while western paintings are not obvious. Most lines are not original objects, but the realm used by painters to express two objects. For example, in Chinese painting, an egg-shaped line is drawn to represent a person's face. In fact, there are no such lines around people's faces. This line is the dividing line between face and background. Another example is to draw a ruler line to represent a person's nose. In fact, there is no such line on the nose. This line is the dividing line between nose and face. Another example is landscapes, flowers and so on. There are no lines in the object, but the painter uses lines. The lines in the landscape are specially named "Qiaofa (Qiaofa; A brief history of western painting). However, western paintings before post-impressionism are unremarkable.

(2) Chinese painting does not pay attention to perspective, while western painting pays attention to perspective. Perspective is the representation of three-dimensional objects on a plane. Western painting strives to be as simple as the real thing, so it pays great attention to perspective. Look at the streets, houses, furniture, utensils and so on in western paintings. The shapes are all right, but they are the same as the real thing. If you describe a corridor, you can show the distance of several feet in inches. If you draw the front of the railway (looking out from the middle of the railway), you can actually express the distance of miles in inches. Chinese painting, on the other hand, is not willing to draw things with obvious three-dimensional sense, such as streets, houses, furniture, utensils, etc., but is willing to write clouds, mountains, trees, waterfalls and so on that look like natural flat objects from a distance. Occasionally describing house objects, without paying attention to perspective, is arbitrary. For example, painting scenes deep in the courtyard, curved corridors and new houses, seems to be seen when flying in mid-air; And I haven't seen it for a while, but it's flying up and down. I've seen it several times. So the hand scroll of Chinese painting, the mountains and rivers stretch for dozens of feet, as if it were seen on the train. Chinese painting stands, mountains and rivers overlap, as if seen in a plane. Because painting and poetry are the same in China, you can paint wherever you want, and you can't be bound by perspective. So the perspective of Chinese painting is sometimes wrong. But it doesn't matter if it's a mistake. We can't use the rules of western painting to criticize Chinese painting.

(3) Oriental figure painting does not talk about anatomy, while western figure painting pays attention to anatomy. Anatomy is the study of the expression shape of human skeletal muscle. Westerners must learn anatomy before drawing characters. This anatomy is called art student anatomy, that is, art anatomy. So it's not like a physiological anatomist. Physiological anatomy focuses on the structure and function of various parts of the human body, while artistic anatomy focuses on the form of expression. However, remembering the names of bones and muscles and their various abnormal shapes is a difficult study. But western painters must learn. Because western painting pays attention to realism, it must be depicted like a real human body. But China figure painters never needed this knowledge. People in China paint figures only to show the characteristics of their bodies, but they don't talk about the size and proportion of each part of the figure. So the men in Chinese painting look strange, quaint and don't bark. Women are moths, eyebrows, lips and shoulders. These characters will look terrible if you take off their clothes. But this is not only harmless, but also the benefit of Chinese painting. Chinese painting has a strong impression of desire, so it expands the characteristics of the characters, makes men more majestic and women more beautiful, and fully shows the character of the characters. So don't be realistic, use symbolic methods. Do not seek similarity, but God's similarity.

(4) Chinese painting does not emphasize the background, while western painting emphasizes the background. Traditional Chinese painting does not emphasize the background, such as writing plum blossoms, hanging in the air and surrounded by white paper. Write characters, hanging in the air alone, as if riding a cloud. Therefore, the paper of Chinese painting leaves a lot of blank space. A long piece of paper with a vegetable or a stone under it becomes a piece of paper. Western painting is not like this. Everything has a background. For example, it is a thing, and its background is a table. The background is people indoors or outdoors. So, all the drawings are filled in, leaving no blank. This difference between Chinese painting and western painting is also due to the difference between realism and vividness. Western painting emphasizes realism, so it is necessary to describe the background. Traditional Chinese painting emphasizes vividness, so Qiang Ming, whose subject matter is trivial and close-up, must be deleted to impress people.

(5) The theme of oriental painting is mainly nature, while the theme of western painting is mainly people. Before the Han Dynasty, Chinese painting also took characters as the main theme. But in the Tang Dynasty, landscape painting became independent. Until today, landscape is often the normal state of Chinese painting. Since the Greek era, man has been the main theme of the West. The religious paintings in the Middle Ages were mostly about the masses. For example, the final judgment, the victory of death, etc., there are countless people in a painting. It was not until19th century that there was an independent landscape painting. After the independence of landscape painting, figure painting did not give way, and nude painting is still the main theme of western painting.

The above five points are the differences between Chinese painting and western painting. It can be seen that Chinese painting is interesting and western painting is simple. Therefore, for art research, western painting is not as profound as Chinese painting. For people to appreciate, Chinese painting is not as common as western painting.

Appreciation of Chinese Painting —— Flower-and-bird Painting from Ancient to Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties

Before Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, flowers and birds, as the objects of China's art, always appeared on pottery and bronzes in the form of patterns and decorations. At that time, flowers and birds and some animals had mysterious meaning and complex social meaning. People describe it as an expression within the scope of art, but convey the belief of society and the will of the monarch through them. The form of art is only subordinate to the needs of content.

Early human attention to flowers and birds was a hotbed of flower-and-bird painting.

According to historical records, many independent flower-and-bird paintings appeared in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, such as Gu Kaizhi's Wild Goose, Shi Daoshuo's Goose, Lu Tanwei's Half Goose, Gu's Cicada, Qian Yuan's Cangwu, Ding Guang's Cicada, and Xiao Yi's Deer. Although we can't see these original works now, we can know from the background of other figure paintings that the flower-and-bird paintings at that time had a fairly high level, such as the birds in Gu Kaizhi's Ode to Luoshen.

The flower-and-bird paintings in this period are mostly about birds and beasts, because they are often related to myths, and some are even the protagonists in myths. For example, Jade Rabbit, the sun in the sun, the toad in the moon palace, as well as Qinglong, White Tiger, Suzaku and Xuanwu represent four directions.

In the Tang Dynasty, he became an independent discipline.

Generally speaking, flower-and-bird painting became an independent branch in the Tang Dynasty, and pommel horse, which belongs to the category of flowers and birds, made great artistic achievements in this period. Now, Han Gan's Zhao Yebai, Han Han's Wu Niu Tu and Half Niu Tu all show that this theme has a high artistic level.

The pommel horse painted by Cao Ba and Chen Hong, the eagle painted by Feng Shaozheng, the crane painted by Xue Ji, the dragon painted by Wei Yan, the flowers and birds painted by Bian Luan, Teng Changyou and Diao Guangyin, and the pine and bamboo painted by Sun Wei, not only have a strong lineup, but also have their own masterpieces. For example, Xue Ji painted cranes, and Du Fu wrote poems praising: "Eleven cranes in Gong Xue all wrote Qingtian Town. Painted for a long time, pale but still dusty. High-spirited and interested, frank and honest as a long person. "