What are the three categories of Chinese painting?

Chinese painting is divided into three categories: figure painting, flower-and-bird painting and landscape painting.

On the surface, it is classified by subject matter, but in fact, it uses art to express an idea and thought. The so-called "painting is divided into three branches" summarizes three aspects of cosmic life: figure painting shows the relationship between human society and people; Landscape painting shows the relationship between man and nature, the combination of man and nature; Flower-and-bird paintings show all kinds of life in nature and live in harmony with people. The combination of the three constitutes the whole universe and complements each other. This is the philosophical thinking of artistic sublimation and the essence of art as art.

1, figure painting

Figure painting, referred to as "figure" for short, is a major kind 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. Famous figure paintings in the past dynasties include Gu Kaizhi's Ode to Luoshen in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Han Xizai's Night Banquet by Gu in the Southern Tang Dynasty in the Five Dynasties, Li's Vimalakīrti in the Northern Song Dynasty and Picking Flowers from Wei in the Southern Song Dynasty.

2. Flower and bird painting

Flower and bird painting is a kind of Chinese painting, which depicts flowers, birds and insects. In Chinese painting, all paintings that describe flowers, flowers and birds, fish and insects are called flower-and-bird paintings. There are three painting methods of flower-and-bird painting: meticulous painting, freehand brushwork and concurrent painting.

Fine brushwork flower-and-bird painting is to outline the object with thick and light ink, and then color it layer by layer; Freehand flower-and-bird painting is to draw objects in a concise and general way; Between meticulous painting and freehand brushwork, it is called meticulous painting, and its form is realism.

3. Landscape painting

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.