Essence of China
Traditional Chinese painting
B4
Nov 28 – Dec 4, 2013
www.TheEpochTimes.com/ChinaCulture
Conceptualisation and thought displayed through art.
BY XIAO YU
PUREINSIGHT.ORG
depicting the life of aristocrats and
paintings depicting people’s characteristics at that time. The emergence
of literati painting and later its further
development greatly enriched the creative concept of Chinese painting and
methods of depiction.
T
raditional Chinese painting,
also known as “Chinese painting”, reflects China’s national
consciousness, aesthetic disposition and inclination. It demonstrates the understandings of China’s
ancient people about nature, society
and associated social aspects, such as
politics, philosophy, religion, morality and art.
Traditional Chinese painting places
emphasis on “learning outwardly from
nature, gaining inwardly in the heart”,
harmonising the outer, or nature, with
the inner, or heart, to create artistic
conception.
According to this tradition: “The composition is already conceived before
one starts to paint and the fi nished
work depicts the precise aspiration of
the artist.” Its goal is to depict spiritual
character through physical form, having both form and spirit, as well as vivid
spiritual resonance.
Chinese painting has a long history.
As far back as the Warring States period
of over 2000 years ago, people painted
on silk, which is known as silk painting.
Before silk painting, there were also
primitive forms of rock painting and
pottery painting. These early paintings
laid a good foundation for the development of Chinese painting, which used
line as the primary means of composition.
By the Han and Wei dynasties, social
stability and unity took a dramatic turn
towards division. The impact of the
collision between extraterritorial culture and local culture and their eventual combination gave rise to religious
paintings, which constituted the main
type of painting at that time.
There were also paintings of histor-
Three categories of Chinese painting
PUREINSIGHT.ORG
‘Guan Yin's Compassionate Journey'
by Caixing. The writing in Chinese
reads: Great Compassionate Guan Yin
Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara.
ical figures, which drew on literary
works. Paintings of landscapes, flowers and birds also took shape during
this period of time.
The Sui and Tang dynasties experienced a period of highly prosperous
socio-economic and cultural development. Along with this, there also
occurred a prosperous period of development in painting. Landscape and
flower-bird styles of painting reached
their maturity.
Religious painting also reached its
peak at this time. There also appeared
a secular trend, with figure paintings
Chinese painting consists of three categories, namely, figure painting, landscape painting and flower-bird painting. On the surface, they are classified
by topic, while in fact they present a
form of conceptualisation and thought
through art.
The three categories include three
aspects of the universe and human life:
Figure painting depicts human society
and interpersonal relationships. Landscape painting expresses the relationship between man and nature, combining the two into one.
Flower-bird painting expresses the
varieties of natural life and their existence in harmony with man. The combination of the three constitutes the
whole multitude of things in universe,
each bringing out the best in the other
two and complementing one another.
Gu Kaizhi in the Eastern Jin period
specialised in figure painting. He was
the fi rst to put forward the idea of
“expressing the spirit through form”.
In his figure painting, he was committed to the vivid depiction of individual character and a lively resonance,
while giving ample consideration to
both form and spirit. Through this
method, individual character in his
figure painting was vividly expressed
through depiction of environment,
atmosphere, posture and motion.
Landscape painting is a special area
of study in art; it mainly depicts natural scenery. It developed during the
Wei, Jin and South-North periods. Flow-
er-bird painting became an independent category of painting during the
Tang Dynasty.
‘Heaven and man are one’
Chinese painting attaches importance
to conception and it is particular about
forming the concept first, before painting. It emphasises the subjective and
objective unity of the artistic image,
and does not pursue precise resemblance in form. Instead, it strives for
“the ingenious effect that lies between
resemblance and non-resemblance”
and “resemblance in non-resemblance”.
Chinese painting uses unique brush
and ink techniques to depict the object
and express feeling, and by means of
point, line and surface, depicts the
shape, framework, texture, light and
the bearing of the object in the painting. The brush and ink serve not only
as techniques to depict objects and to
convey feelings, but also serve as carriers of the object of painting. At the
same time, they are a form of connotation, displaying tasteful charm in Chinese calligraphy and possessing unique
aesthetic value.
Chinese painting emphasises the fact
that the painting and the calligraphy
are homologous. Moreover, it pays
attention to the character and accomplishment of the artist. In a particular
piece of work, attention is given to the
harmonic combination of poem, calligraphy, painting and seal.
Through writing the poem, preface
and postscript on a painting, the artist
expresses his understanding of society,
life and art. These not only enrich the
theme of the painting, but also form
part of the composition.
Chinese painting reflects the philosophical and aesthetic concepts of the
traditional Chinese in its observation,
image creation and expression. In its
observation of reality, it adopts the
method of seeing what is small from
what is big and seeing what is big from
what is small.
It observes reality in real life or even
directly becomes part of the reality,
instead of just observing as an outsider
or limiting itself to a particular point
of view. Even when painting pure natural objects, such as landscapes, flowers and birds, the artist may also link
them with people’s social consciousness and aesthetic interest, using the
scenes to express feelings or express
one’s aspirations through depicting a
particular object.
Traditional Chinese painting is not
only time-honoured, but also serves as
a mirror to reflect China’s traditional
arts, demonstrating the traditional
Chinese concept of “Heaven and man
are one”.
Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara
The highly respected Bodhisattva
Avalokitesvara is also known as the
“Goddess of Mercy” or “Guan Yin” in
Chinese. Guan Yin is the favourite goddess among the people of China, Japan,
Korea and Vietnam. This painting vividly portrays her great compassion.
Within people’s hearts, she will always
be the symbol of kindness and peace,
and the saviour of those in trouble.
There are many different images of
Guan Yin. The theme of the portrait
Guan Yin’s Compassionate Journey
is Guan Yin with a bottle of elixir. In
the portrait, Guan Yin stands upon a
lotus flower, holding a willow twig in
her right hand and a bottle of elixir in
the other. She uses the willow twig to
dig into the bottle and sprinkle drops
of elixir on the sentient beings. The artist painted Guan Yin with highly polished and simple brush strokes. The
choice of colours is elegant and natural, which promotes the elevated and
pure image of Guan Yin.
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