What is the essence of Chinese painting?

The word "painting" is a concept, one is an abstract understanding of consciousness, and the other is an understanding of concrete images. A specific art can be created, transformed or destroyed, such as China landscape painting, flower-and-bird painting, figure painting and so on. As an abstract artistic concept, it cannot be transformed or destroyed. The existence of art is permanent, and it belongs to the cultural layer. Laozi said: "The name of martial arts is so decadent that it is full of all things" and "invisible, like nothing". Laozi also said that these three things, Yi (colorless), Wei (invisible), can not be blamed, but actually exist. Concrete painting is a mental skill, which is "naturally made by foreign teachers, with the heart from China" and "wonderfully thought". The painter put pen to paper, but when he put pen to paper, it passed in an instant. From the perspective of "painting", success is not true, and death is not true. It has no gestalt and dies forever; It has no exact number, it will always be one. Out of nothing, out of nothing, painting without painting, and what the painter wants are all consciously produced and freely grasped by the painter. The painter wants what he wants, and the mind lets nature perform everything. The so-called "overlooking everything", "doing whatever you want" and "everything is made by your heart". Created by the mind, there is a process of material transformation, and it is also restricted by events, times, environment, cultural level and human personality, and both material and spiritual are improved. Chinese painting has always attached importance to pool, travel, learning and inheritance. Therefore, the importance of "walking Wan Li Road and studying thousands of books" can be said to be gone. History is changing, things are changing, knowledge is changing, people's thinking is changing, form and content are changing, and modern people are obviously different from the ancients. Painting has no fixed image, regardless of the times or specific painters, the style of painting is different. Although the result of this change can be imagined, it cannot be asserted separately. It is not based on will. Chinese painting has a beginning and an end. As long as the universe exists, the Tao that constitutes Chinese painting will always exist and will not disappear. Throughout the history of art, from Zhang monk's concave-convex painting and Cao Buxing's Buddha painting, there were not only exchanges, but also a group of well-known painters in that era. Ignatius Szicher Bart combined Chinese and Western painting methods, and Leng Mei, Tang Dai, Chen Mei, Luo Fuyu and others were all influenced. In his later years, Wu Li believed in Jesus. Some people say that his paintings use western methods, but he is against it. He also despises western painting. He said: "My paintings are not formal and unconventional, and they are called divine escape;" He always uses kung fu to oppose the pattern of yin and yang-using a pen is different. "Although Lang Shining tried to absorb Chinese painting freehand brushwork, China people are not adults. Foreigners say that they abandoned their origins and put them in a dilemma. At that time, Chinese and western paintings had not been integrated, and that kind of painting has not yet established traditional inheritance. This is a historical fact. Reflecting on the history of Chinese painting, it is true that the facts of Chinese painting are constantly changing, but this constant change revolves around a central axis, which is the national tradition. During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, politics was not unified, and various academic thoughts were correspondingly active. Due to the promotion of Buddhism, painting art has become a vibrant flower, and a number of outstanding painters have been produced, among which Gu Kaizhi is one of the greatest and most representative epoch-making figures. He not only has many works with landscape painting as the theme, but also the manuscript of Painting Yuntai Mountain has left a very precious inspiration to future generations. There are also "Luo Shen Fu Tu" and "Female History Proverbs Tu". Including Dunhuang murals, it is precisely because of numerous landscape creations that Zong Bing's theoretical works such as Preface to Painting Landscape and Painting Theory have been handed down to this day, and it is proposed that the perspective ratio should be "three inches vertically and as high as one thousand meters vertically; Horizontal ink several feet, back Wan Li ". It is too empty to use a pen with one tube. " At the same time, aesthetic ideas such as "free spirit" and "painting love" are put forward. These play an important role in the independent study of landscape painting. Sui is the transitional stage of landscape painting towards full maturity. The Tang Dynasty was the strongest and most prosperous era in the history of China, and the painting art was unprecedentedly prosperous. The wrinkle method of landscape painting has been developed, and the landscape painting of Li and his son is a master. Wu Daozi's and Wang Wei's ink and wash landscape painting methods have created a new development direction. In the later period, Wang Qia's splashing ink gave full play to the performance of water. Cao Zhang made good use of bald pen, created a new rendering method, and put forward a far-reaching theory of "learning from nature and learning from heart", which laid a dialectical foundation for the subjective and objective relationship in Chinese painting creation. Landscape painting is mature and independent. The perspective proportion theory in Wang Wei's "landscape tactics" embodies the perfection of Chinese painting theory. Wang Wei created the artistic realm of poetry in painting and painting in poetry, which set a precedent for later literati painting. By the Tang dynasty, the techniques of using pen, ink, color and water, which constitute the essence of Chinese painting, were complete and mature. "The nature of foreign teachers, the heart of Genji", "Zhang Shan's ruler is a tree, which divides people into inches and horses. Far people are different, far trees have no branches, far mountains have no stones, faint eyebrows, far water without waves, and high and harmonious". This scientific and practical ideological theory and technique theory have contributed to the development of Chinese painting. The artistic realm of painting in poetry and painting in poetry has laid a lofty image and status for Chinese painting. Since the Tang Dynasty, it has been enjoying and utilizing rich and precious heritage for thousands of years, laying a deep and solid foundation, which made flower-and-bird painting rise and mature in the Song Dynasty. Due to the political division of the Five Dynasties, the style of Chinese painting was influenced. Hao Jing had a far-reaching influence in the north with his great power. He wrote a book, Calligraphy. Put forward "six essentials of qi, rhyme, thought, scenery and pen and ink" and developed "six methods" Guan is the successor and has a far-reaching influence on Jiangnan ink painting. Ju Ran inherited Dong Yuan's mantle. They have always influenced the later generations and even developed into the theory of northern and southern sects. Mr. Zheng Zhenduo said that the history of China's painting should be centered on the Song Dynasty, and the theme of Chinese painting in the Song Dynasty was complete and brilliant. Song Huizong opened the Painting Academy and established "Painting Studies"; It is the first national academy of fine arts in the world, and its school ideology and school painting style started. In the early Song Dynasty, Li Cheng, Guan Tong and Fan Kuan ruled the painting world, and China's comment on the history of painting was "three pillars stand in balance, and a hundred generations mark the course". In the mid-Northern Song Dynasty, literati painters sprang up, advocating freehand brushwork in ink and wash, which was opposite to academic painting. Representative tasks include Su Shi and Mi Fei. Su Shi put forward that "on the similarity of paintings, there are children in the neighborhood". It became an inscription to write the image painting of the gods' interest, which influenced the present. This viewpoint and painting method also provide a revolutionary slogan for the innovation of Chinese painting. Su and Mi's artistic thoughts have become the model and guide of literati painting. Due to the opposition and confusion between literati painting and academic painting, the painting styles of Li Tang, Liu Songnian, Ma Yuan and Xia Gui were formed in the Southern Song Dynasty, and Liang Kai's ink painting appeared. Su and Mi didn't study and summarize, but asked questions. The two theoretical works, Lin Zhi Ji and Pure Landscape Complete Works, were both completed by painters in the Academy of Painting. The most important figure in literati painting in Yuan Dynasty was Zhao Mengfu. He put forward "the same origin of painting and calligraphy" and put it into play, applying the skills of calligraphy to painting brush and ink, so that the legacy of painters and calligraphers can be spread in the field of painting and calligraphy. It is also said that books come from paintings, and paintings are in books. The Yuan Dynasty was another turning point, with a sudden change in painting style, and literati ink painting flourished like mushrooms after rain. At that time, although there were gorgeous institutional works in the field of green and heavy color meticulous painting, such as the exquisite Yongle Palace mural, it was close to old age. In the early Ming Dynasty, "Zhejiang School" was once active in painting circles, and was later replaced by Wumen painters. Dong Qichang's paintings have been in full swing for more than 200 years because of the theory of Southern and Northern Schools. Although there is a dispute between right and wrong, there is also a school that thinks his achievements are the main ones. Both Chen Chun and Xu Wei are epoch-making figures, especially Xu Wei, whose influence is both great and lasting. Zheng Banqiao and Qi Baishi also adore him. From the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, he could write and draw, write and draw, and combine poetry with calligraphy and painting. Epigraphy flourished, and poetry, calligraphy, painting and printing were integrated. This great and brilliant art of the Chinese nation is complete, magnificent, exquisite, literary and mysterious, which is beyond the reach of other paintings in the world. Historically, the development to the Qing Dynasty continued on the road of literati painting. Although it developed according to the road of literati painting at this time, it was an era of great achievements. At that time, the internal and external relations of society changed, and the painter's life, world outlook, artistic concept, techniques and academics left us with precious and realistic artistic treasures and rich experience, with different schools and art competitions. There are countless famous artists, such as Ming Sijia, Four Kings, Four Monks, Eight Eccentrics, Jinling School of Painting, Huangshan School of Painting, Yangzhou School of Painting, the first to mention the height of ink painting, and so on. They are all devotees and creators of our national culture, as well as individual victims and martyrs. When did Chinese painting stop changing and developing in history? Things are constantly changing and developing, moving and carrying forward the past, but new things contain many factors of the old things. Zhuangzi said: "The score is also successful; Its success has also been destroyed. "Tradition has always played a positive role in the development of Chinese painting. Without traditional things, there is no basis for research and development. In the process of development, Excellence and essence are inherited and the other part is eliminated. " Its success has also been destroyed. "Natural laws exist, and people can understand and apply these laws in the process of change. Wang Wei, Li and his son, Kai Liang, Xu Wei, etc. all provided the basis for Chinese painting to become today's great splash of ink. This is concrete and independent of human will. -"its points are also, yes. "As a practice, painting is tangible and vivid; As a concept, it is invisible. Tangible and intangible, intangible and tangible, are transformed in the process of movement, and painters can freely grasp it, "wonderfully creating nature." "The result of the movement, unexpectedly, is intangible and independent of the painter's will. The bamboo in my heart is not the bamboo in my hand, the bamboo in my hand is not the bamboo on paper, and the bamboo on paper is not the original bamboo in my heart. Today's Chinese painting is such an abstract image, with unrestrained splashing ink and unrestrained interest. Besides, since ancient times, spirit and matter have been owned by individuals, and today they have truly become social culture and human civilization. Which of the ancients or predecessors expected it? Now, some people are copying Han portrait bricks, some people are copying Dunhuang murals, some people are copying folk art, and some people are copying children's paintings, all of which are reflecting on history in different ways. Others shouted "anti-tradition", "the end of the road" and "integration into one". Chinese painting is close to western painting to have a future. Others shouted "anti-tradition" and secretly attacked tradition. Chinese painting, like other traditional cultures, was denied and revalued in a certain period. Buried and destroyed at one time and resurrected at another. The same is true of western paintings. Impressionism was strongly attacked by the academic school. Impressionism has been radically under the banner of anti-tradition, and later became a tradition. Degas, one of the impressionist painters, said: "It is meaningless to study nature, because painting is a traditional art, and it is much more meaningful to learn painting like holbein. "Fauvism, expressionism, cubism, futurism, Dadaism and surrealism were influenced by Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh and Seurat and absorbed their experience. China's literati painting is a reaction to the academy painting in Song Dynasty. It is natural that the traditional literati painting is now the object of some people's revolution. Laozi said: "Tao is Tao, but it is also Tao." "Name, name, very name." Tao gives birth to one, two, three and everything. Things are always opposite, complementary, unified and contradictory. Gauguin said: "The painter in front of the easel is neither a slave in the past nor a slave now;" He is neither a slave of nature nor a slave of his neighbor. He is himself, always himself, always himself. " (History of Impressionist Painting) Zong Baihua said: "China's painting methods are not all about depicting concrete objects, but tend to express individual artistic conception with abstract pen and ink. Chinese painting is a kind of architectural beauty, musical rhyme and dancing posture. Its elements are not mechanical realism, such as the exquisite degree of flower-and-bird painting, which ranks first in the world. "Chinese painting is not a western painting. Look for a theme first, and then look for a model to follow the painting. There is always a bound object. Although the limitation of heaven and earth is both tangible and spiritual, meaning is not enough. Chinese painting is an image in which a painter appreciates everything in his life experience, "goes deep into the core of life rhythm" and expresses the painter's deepest interest in a free and harmonious form. Shi Tao thinks that his paintings are not like the ancients or the present. " I think I'm drawing, and I'm there. "To say that there are thousands of Chinese paintings, there is no change. We should contact horizontally and learn western painting. Maybe it's not deep but it's not accurate. China painters understand the world, observe everything, describe the escape in their chests and seek a kind of spiritual liberation with the cosmology of "observing Tao with an open mind". The realm of western painting is different from the abstract concrete structure of Chinese painting. Even impressionist painters can see and describe this object very accurately. Van Gogh and Matisse attached importance to the role of lines in painting. They said, "My inspiration often comes from oriental art", and they also said, "My style is formed by Cezanne and the influence of the East." Oriental line drawing shows a vast space, and it is a real space, which helps me out of the category of sketch painting. " History of Impressionist Painting. Matisse and Picasso themselves said that they were influenced by Chinese painting. "Throughout the world, first, only China people have art; Second, the Japanese, whose art also originated in China; So for black Africans, "(Preface to Picasso's Late Creation Exhibition) Their use of lines is always inferior to that of Chinese paintings, with varied meanings and rich connotations. The lines of Chinese painting not only express the form, but also express the movement of spirit and life, and its content has a broad philosophy of time and space. Chinese and western painters have their own world outlook and established two independent systems. The predecessors in modern times put forward the idea of "combining the two systems into one", which is also the slogan of the revolution. They not only shouted slogans, but also engaged in revolutionary practice and painstaking management. Another interesting fact is that so far, a tradition has not been successfully established as a model of learning, nor has it been vigorously inherited. Ren Bonian first studied western painting. Ocean, a famous French painter, praised Ren Bonian's works as "what a vivid secret, there is no subtle harmony in these watercolor paintings, in these thick colors". The older generation of Cantonese painters, such as Hang Zhiying and Jin Meisheng, all studied watercolor painting, and Zhang Yuguang was the most active person to promote watercolor painting. Lv Fengzi, Chen Qiucao, Pan Sitong, Fang Yun, Li Shutong and Zhang Daqian all started from western painting, and their reputation as Chinese painting is immortal. Characteristics: Compared with western painting, Chinese painting has its own obvious characteristics. Chinese painting does not pay attention to perspective, does not emphasize the change of light and color of objects in nature, does not stick to the appearance of objects, but emphasizes the expression of the author's subjective interest. Chinese painting emphasizes "vivid with form" and pursues a feeling that "beauty lies between similarity and dissimilarity": what about western painting? It emphasizes "writing form with form", and of course, it also pays attention to the expression of "God" in the process of creation. But it pays great attention to the integrity and generality of the picture. Some people say that western painting is an art of "reappearance" and Chinese painting is an art of "expression", which makes sense. Compared with western painting, Chinese painting has its own unique characteristics, which are also manifested in its artistic techniques, artistic division, composition, pen and ink and color application. Chinese painting can be divided into three forms according to artistic techniques: meticulous brushwork, freehand brushwork and concurrent brushwork. Meticulous brushwork is a neat and meticulous painting with a pen, with clear and meticulous details and extremely delicate brushstrokes, so it is called "meticulous brushwork". And freehand brushwork? Compared with meticulous brushwork, vigorous and concise brushwork is used to describe the shape and spirit of objects and express the author's feelings. You should have high generalization ability, implicit artistic conception with twice the result with half the effort, accurate writing, skillful writing and handy writing. The form of part-time writing is the comprehensive application of meticulous brushwork and freehand brushwork. From the branch of art, Chinese painting can be divided into three branches: figures, landscapes and flowers and birds, which are mainly divided according to the different objects depicted. Animals, pommel horses, insects, fruits and vegetables in Chinese painting can be classified into these three categories respectively. Chinese painting also has its own characteristics in composition, pen, ink and color. Generally speaking, the composition of Chinese painting does not follow the Huang Jinlv of western painting, and it is either a long scroll or a vertical axis, and the ratio of length to width is "unbalanced". But it can well express the special artistic conception and the painter's subjective interest. At the same time, Chinese painting and western painting are different in perspective. Perspective is the term of painting, that is, when painting, all objects are correctly represented on the plane, so that it has a sense of space and three-dimensional sense. This method is called perspective. Because the phenomenon of perspective is that the near is big and the far is small, it is often called the "near-far method". Western paintings generally use focus perspective, just like taking pictures. It is fixed on a foothold. Due to the limitation of space, everything taken into the lens will be taken truthfully, otherwise it will not be taken. Chinese painting is not necessarily fixed on a foothold, nor is it limited by a fixed horizon. It can move its foothold to paint according to the painter's feelings and needs, and absorb all visible and invisible scenes into its own picture. This perspective is called scatter perspective or multipoint perspective. As we all know, the famous paintings in the Northern Song Dynasty and Zhang Zeduan's The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival all adopt scattered perspective. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival reflects the rich, complex and colorful scenes inside and outside Bianliang, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. It takes Bianhe as the center, from distant Chinese painting to lively "Hongqiao"; The audience can see the city and the countryside; You can see both pedestrians on the bridge and ships under it. You can see not only the balcony trees nearby, but also the streets and river ports in the distance. Moreover, no matter where you stand, the proportion of scenery is similar. If you draw according to the method of focusing on machines in western painting, many places can't be drawn at all. This is a unique perspective method created by ancient Chinese painters according to the needs of content and artistic expression. Pen and ink is an important part of Chinese painting modeling. Use a pen to emphasize thickness, slowness, depression, rotation, Fiona Fang and other changes to express the texture of an object. Generally speaking, when starting and stopping the pen, you should use force, your wrist should be stiff, the air in the middle should not be broken, and you should not pick the pen lightly. When using the pen, the force is light, floating, heavy, slippery, slow, thin, and the board is being used. It's all a matter of using a pen to bend like a bow and straight like a ruler. Eighteen strokes of crochet summarized by the ancients can be said to be a summary of the experience of using pens in Chinese painting. As for the use of ink, it emphasizes the interaction of rubbing, rubbing, light and dyeing, and the rational allocation of dry, wet, thick and light to shape the body and set off the atmosphere. Generally speaking, the beauty of ink in Chinese painting lies in the matching of shades. There is no spirit in all shades, there must be shades, the shades should be wonderful but not stagnant, and the shades should be graceful but not gloomy. Using ink is the same as using color. In ancient times, there was the experience of dividing ink into colors, and there was also the painting style of cherishing ink as gold. When using ink, there should be a strong combination of life and harmony, so that there is light in the thick and strong in the light; There are strong and second strong, and there are light and light, which are all flexible ways to use pens in Chinese painting. Because China's calligraphy and painting have many similarities in tools and brush strokes, they have forged an indissoluble bond. The ancients have long said that "calligraphy and painting are of the same origin. "However, there are also differences between the two. Calligraphy is changeable, especially cursive script, which is better than painting, and the ink used in painting is rich and colorful, surpassing calligraphy. The word pen and ink is considered as the general term of Chinese painting techniques. It is not only a means to shape the image, but also has independent aesthetic value. Chinese painting also has its own emphasis on coloring. The pigments used are mostly natural minerals or powder in animal shells, which are wind-resistant and sun-resistant, and will last for a long time. The coloring method is mostly flat painting, which pursues the effect of the inherent color of the object and rarely changes the light and shadow. The characteristics of Chinese painting mentioned above mainly refer to Chinese painting. But these characteristics, with the progress of the times. The content and form of art are also updated and constantly changing. Especially after the May 4th Movement, a large number of western paintings poured in, and Chinese painting absorbed many techniques of western art with its broad mind, enriching the expressive force of Chinese painting. However, no matter how it changes, the basic characteristics of Chinese painting, a traditional nation, can't be lost. The fine tradition of Chinese painting should be maintained and carried forward, because Chinese painting has its own unique system in the world art field and shines alone in the art garden where the world art is full of flowers and mountains. Chinese painting is the crystallization of our nation's high wisdom, outstanding talent and hard work, and it is our nation's precious wealth.