Chinese Art

From the earliest Stone Age art to the Ming Dynasty in 1500 AD, Chinese artists took up the same
themes over and over again. They were interested in swirling lines. They were interested
in nature: animals, trees, flowers, rocks, water. Chinese artists wanted to express the relationship
between people and nature.

But there were also big changes in Chinese art, some caused by new ideas within China, and some
by new ideas coming from India, Central Asia, or West Asia. In the Stone Age, Chinese artists
experimented with pottery. They used swirling brushwork to decorate the pots - that continued
throughout Chinese art. Beginning in the Shang Dynasty, artists also cast bronze jars in molds with
designs of dragons, elephants, and other creatures. During the Zhou Dynasty, Chinese artists also
began to make all kinds of lacquered boxes.

But painting people and landscapes came very late to China, spreading slowly east across Asia; while
people were painting images in 30,000BC in Europe, and by 9000 BC in Egypt and Mesopotamia, and
by 500 BC in Iran, paintings of people and trees only reached India with the rise of the Silk
Road about 300 BC, and came to China about the same time, with the first Eastern Zhou paintings
on silk cloth.

When Chinese people learned about Buddhism, under the Han Dynasty, they also learned
about Buddhist art styles in India, and these new styles had a huge effect on Chinese art. Chinese
sculptors learned to make life-size stone statues. About the same time, traders on the Silk
Road began to bring Roman blown glass to China. Chinese potters, perhaps trying to imitate blown
glass, soon created porcelain. Around the same time, Chinese artists invented paper and began to
use it for painting on.

By the time of the Three Kingdoms, Chinese painting became much more important. Artists worked
with swirling brushstrokes to create striking line paintings. T'ang Dynasty paintings depict people,
horses, and elaborate landscapes colored with green and blue paints. Song Dynasty paintings,
influenced by Taoism and Confucianism, often show tiny people dwarfed by nature. Artists became
concerned with economy of line: one simple line makes us see the whole cliff, or flowers, or birds.
They began to draw just one flower, or one bird.The Mongol invasions brought a new energy and
enthusiasm to painting, but then under the Ming Dynasty artists began to explore still-life painting,
and to reconsider and revive the styles of the past.

Marvelous Ancient Chinese Art

Ancient Chinese arts is arguably one of oldest continuous tradition in the world. The
Chinese Art was dated back to 10,000 BC; Neolithic period, where the simple pottery and
sculptures were mostly common. The art had been evolving with time. Religions, political figures, and
philosophy played an important role in Ancient Chinese art.

Ancient Chinese perfected calligraphy, poetry, and paintings. The style of calligraphy, poetry and
paintings had its own uniqueness in different dynasty.

10. Neolithic pottery

The life was simple in the Neolithic period. People in Ancient china spent their life farming and animal
husbandry. The arts during the Neolithic period were classified into a mosaic of 22 regional cultures
by an archeologist. According to the archeological finding, arts began to take shape around 7,500 BC
in Ancient China. Ceramic arts was quite popular during that time. It involves the series of
four steps; Forming, firing, decorating, and refining. The first evidence of the user of
pottery was seen in 18,000 BCE.
The Pottery evolved with the time. Around 4,000 BC, the color ceramic arts started to appear in
Ancient China. Ancient Chinese practiced the pottery rigorously since its first appearance in 18,000
BCE which wasnt quite common in other ancient civilizations.

Early forms of art in China are found in the NeolithicYangshao culture, which dates back to the 6th
millennium BC. Archeological findings such as those at the Banpo have revealed that the Yangshao
made pottery

9. Jade culture

Jade was more than a stone in Ancient China. it was the symbol of perfection, immortality,
nobility, and constancy. They considered it to be the essence of heaven and earth. Thus,
every final polished piece of jade had the culture essence of heaven and earth. Heaven was
considered to be round, and earth was considered to be square in Ancient China. The hole in the
center, known as pie, of the jade ornament, was created to honor the gods of heaven. The
rectangular side called tsung was created to honor the earth

The evidence of the uses of Jade was found in Yangtze River Delta of China during
Liangzhu culture (34002250 BC). The large ritual jades such as BI discs, Yue axes, and Cong
cylinders were popular. The arts with a different animal such as turtles, birds, and fish were
extraordinary. The manufacturing of the jade began to rise during Shan Dynasty (1766 to 1122 BC).
Chinese had the technology to build the jade from every imaginary object. The craftsmen started use
efficient method create a masterpiece.

Bronze Casting

The Bronze Age in China began with the Xia Dynasty. Examples from this period have been
recovered from ruins of the Erlitou culture, in Shanxi, and include complex but unadorned utilitarian
objects. The bronze vessels were receptacles for storing or serving various solids and
liquids used in the performance of sacred ceremonies.

In the following Shang Dynasty more elaborate objects, including many ritual vessels, were crafted.
The Shang are remembered for their bronze casting, noted for its clarity of detail. Shang
bronzesmiths usually worked in foundries outside the cities to make ritual vessels, and sometimes
weapons and chariot fittings as well. The bronze vessels were receptacles for storing or serving
various solids and liquids used in the performance of sacred ceremonies. Some forms such as
the ku and jue can be very graceful, but the most powerful pieces are the ding, sometimes described
as having an "air of ferocious majesty."
The function and appearance of bronzes changed gradually from the Shang to the Zhou. They shifted
from been used in religious rites to more practical purposes. By the Warring States period, bronze
vessels had become objects of aesthetic enjoyment. Some were decorated with social scenes, such
as from a banquet or hunt; whilst others displayed abstract patterns inlaid with gold, silver, or
precious and semiprecious stones.

Pottery

Porcelain is made from a hard paste made of the clay kaolin and a feldspar called petuntse, which
cements the vessel and seals any pores. Pottery is the oldest handicraft in China. China has
become synonymous with high-quality porcelain. Most china pots comes from the city
of Jingdezhen in China's Jiangxi province. Jingdezhen, under a variety of names, has been
central to porcelain production in China since at least the early Han Dynasty.
The most noticeable difference between porcelain and the other pottery clays is that it "wets" very
quickly (that is, added water has a noticeably greater effect on the plasticity for porcelain than other
clays), and that it tends to continue to "move" longer than other clays, requiring experience in
handling to attain optimum results. During medieval times in Europe, porcelain was very expensive
and in high demand for its beauty. TLV mirrors also date from the Han dynasty.

8. Han art

The Han Dynasty was known for Jade burial suits

During the Han Dynasty, ancient Chinese arts reached its peak level. It was also known as the
golden age for the Chinese arts. There was a great improvement in a visual art as well as music,
literature, and poetry. Han Dynasty also witnesses the development of Tomb art. Some of the tom
artifacts were exclusively for the funeral.

During the Han Dynasty, the bronze sculpture also had a massive growth. The archeology had
discovered the bronze horse in the 2nd century BCE Tombs at Kansu. The Miniature bronze statues of
social figures were common. The lamps glided bronzeware and decorated mirrors were another
milestone of Han Dynasty

- A jade burial suit (Chinese: ; pinyin: y y; literally: "jade suit") is a ceremonial suit made of
pieces of jade in which royal members in Han dynasty China were buried.

7. Gu Kaizhi paintings

Gu Kaizhi was the painter and the author of several paintings books. His art has been
flourishing today through the copies of silk handscroll paintings. He was known for his
embellishment quality to eyes in portrait painting. Later, his graphics techniques became the main
block of the traditional Chinese paintings. His books became the inspiration for the several Chinese
scholar and painters. Apart from paintings, he was also known for his poetry and calligraphy.
Most of his paintings were from the silk and the polychrome. Some of his artwork are Nymph of
the Luo River, Wise and Benevolent Women, and The Admonitions of the Instructress to
the Court Ladies

6. Buddhist architecture and sculpture

When the Buddhism spread in China in 67 AD during the Han Dynasty (206 BC -220 BC), it has a
significant effect on the development of arts and culture. Transition under the Sui Dynasty.
During this time, many Buddhist scriptures were built. During the Jin period (265-420 BC), the
Buddhist writing came out and the most Buddhist scriptures were translated.

The legacy of Buddhism in china made it one of the most artistic collection of Buddhists arts in the
world. There are some of the famous sculptural sites such as the Mogao caves, the Longmen, and
Bingling Temple.

The Mogao Caves, also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes 'Caves of the Thousand
Buddhas' a system of 492 temples 25 km (16 mi) southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis
strategically located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu province, China.
The caves may also be known as the Dunhuang Caves, however, this term is also used as a
collective term to include other Buddhist cave sites in the Dunhuang area, such as the Western
Thousand Buddha Caves, and the Yulin Caves farther away. The caves contain some of the finest
examples of Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years.[1] The first caves were dug out in 366 AD
as places of Buddhist meditation and worship.[1][2] The Mogao Caves are the best known of
the Chinese Buddhist grottoes and, along with Longmen Grottoes and Yungang Grottoes, are one of
the three famous ancient Buddhist sculptural sites of China.

The Longmen Grottoes or Longmen Caves are one of the finest examples of Chinese Buddhist art.
Housing tens of thousands of statues of Buddha and his disciples, they are located 12 kilometres
(7.5 mi) south of present-day Luyng in Hnn province, China.

The Bingling Temple is a series of grottoes filled with Buddhist sculpture carved into natural caves
and caverns in a canyon along the Yellow River. It lies just north of where the Yellow River empties
into the Liujiaxia Reservoir.
4. Landscape Paintings

China has witnessed one of the finest landscape paintings from the Five Dynasties period to the
Northern Song period (907-1127). This period is also known as the Great age of Chinese
landscape.

There were two separate techniques that were popular in Ancient china. In the north, the painting
of towering mountains was famous. It was painted with ink wash, back lines, and sharp, dotted
brushstrokes by the popular artists Guo xi, Fan Kuan, and Jing Hao . In the south, the paintings of
the rivers and hills were popular. Artists like Dong Yuan, Ju ran, and others try to illustrate their
native countryside with rubbed brushwork.

The beginning of the Tang Dynasty often was an era of Shanshui (mountain water) paintings. Most
of these landscape paintings in the Tang Dynasty were monochromatic and sparse which is known as
Shuimohua. The intention was to depict an emotion or surrounding

The techniques known as mind landscape was started to evolve during the Yuan dynasty. It was a
technique that contains calligraphic brushwork which represents the inner spirit of the artist.

Dong Yuan was an active painter in the Southern Tang Kingdom. He was known for both figure and
landscape paintings, and exemplified the elegant style which would become the standard for brush
painting in China over the next 900 years

Zhan Ziqian was a painter during the Sui Dynasty. His only painting in existence is Strolling About
In Spring arranged mountains perspectively. Because the first pure scenery paintings of Europe
emerged after the 17th century, Strolling About In Spring may well be the first scenery painting of
the world.

3. Poetry

Poetry in Ancient china was an expression of both public and private deep emotions. The readers can
abstract the insight of the inner life of the writer by reading his/her poem. Classical Chinese poetry
includes the 3 basic elements known as shi, ci, and qu.

During the Han dynasty, yuefu, a folk style of poetry became popular. During the Six Dynasties
(220CE -589CE), there was a gradual development in the poetry. There are only few evidence of the
poetry left from the Ancient china because of the cruel historical event, such as the burning of books
and burying of scholars by Qin Shihuang,

Some of the major surviving piece of poetry in the Ancient China are the Midnight Songs poetry of
the four seasons, Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, the great fields and garden, and the Orchid
Pavilion Gathering

1. Thoughts in the Silent Night Li Bai

Thoughts in the Silent Night

By Li Bai
Translated by Yang Xianyi & Dai Naidie
Beside my bed a pool of light
Is it hoarfrost on the ground?
I lift my eyes and see the moon,
I bend my head and think of home.
Thoughts in the Silent Night is one of the most well-known Chinese poems written by Li Bai. This
short poem uses only a few words and is quite concise in wordage, but it is endowed with the passion
that stimulates the bottom of ones heart and arouses an intense feeling of nostalgia very naturally.

On The Mountain Holiday Thinking of My Brothers In Shandong by Wang Wei

On The Mountain Holiday Thinking of My Brothers In Shandong

By Wang Wei
All alone in a foreign land,
I am twice as homesick on this day
When brothers carry dogwood up the mountain,
Each of them a branch-and my branch missing.

This poem is one of the masterpieces of the Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei. It describes the an
intense feeling of homesickness of a distant wanderer. In the first two lines, the poet shows how
lonely he is in a foreign land, especially on festive occasions he thinks of his family far away more
than ever. Then he shifts his focus to his hometown, thinking that when his brothers at home step to
high places and collect the dogwood, they will miss him too.

2. Chinese Music

The ancient Chinese people brought their music from Africa to China. They clapped hand, sang songs
with the hand bone pipes and drums. During the Zhou Dynasty, a man named Ling lung invented
their first musical instrument known as bamboo pies. It produced the sound of birds.

During Qin Dynasty (221-07 BC), the first imperial Music Bureau was established. It was later
expanded during the reign of Han Wu Di (140-87 BC). The oldest written music of Ancient china is
Youlan, mostly known as Solitary Orchid by Coufucius. Despite the popularity of music, the musicians
rank lower than the painters. LIng lun is considered as the founder of Chinese music. He invented the
foundation tone from a cut of bamboo pipe that produced the correct sound.

1. Chinese Silk

Silk was more than art. It is one of the greatest inventions of Ancient China.
Silk fabric was first developed in ancient China. it was used as wrapping for the body of a child
from a Yangshao site in Qingtaicun at Xingyang, Henan It was used in the variety of sectors such as
fishing, writing, musical instruments, clothing. Silkworm can only produce 1000 meters of silk in its
lifespan of 28 days. Thus, Silk had a high value in China and around the world. Silk was exported
from china using the Silk Road. The overland route became so popular that it is known as the Silk
Road.
The artwork of the silks artist can be seen on Mawangdui Han Tomb. The silk produced excavated
from the Tomb are some of the unmeasurable skill of the Silk Artist.

Shadow Puppetry is the general name for shadow play and the theatrical property used
in the play. All of the vivid shadow puppets, including the figures and the scenes, are plane and
made from leather. The shadows of these puppets are projected on to a white screen; meanwhile
artists operate the puppets behind the screen to finish this traditional form of play. As a bright pearl
of the Chinese folk art, shadow puppetry has a history of more than 2,000 years. Now it is still very
popular. The delicate puppets are favored by tourists as souvenirs.

Chinese art, like Chinese history, is typically classified by the succession of

ruling dynasties of Chinese emperors, most of which lasted several hundred years.
Calligraphy

The history of Chinese calligraphy is as long as that of China itself. Calligraphy is one of the
highest forms of Chinese art. In studying Chinese calligraphy one must learn something of the
origins of Chinese language and of how they were originally written. However, except for those
brought up in the artistic traditions of the country, its aesthetic significance seems to be very difficult
to grasp.

Chinese calligraphy serves the purpose of conveying thought but also shows the 'abstract'
beauty of the line. Rhythm, line, and structure are more perfectly embodied in calligraphy than in
painting or sculpture.

Young Fa (1696 - 1750)

Calligraphy in Cursive Script, horizontal scrolled ink on paper, 20 1/4 x 73 3/8 inches
Yang Fa was boarn in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province of the Qing Dynasty. He was well versed in seal
style calligraphy and was very good at seal cutting. Yang Fa was the calligrapher who wrote the
famous inscription of Huangyuan. In 1745, he made 19 volumes of ancient poetry in official style.

Wang Duo (1592-1652)

Calligraphy in Cursive Script Ink on Silk, 74 x 20 1/2 inches

Wang Duo was born in Mengjin, Henan Province. He is also known by his literary names of Shiqiao,
ChiAn, etc. He was reconized during the Ming Dynasty and was appointed as the Scholar of the court
in the Qing Dynasty. He was famous of his style to add importance to expressing emotion in his
calligraphy.

Artistic Characters and rules:

Every Chinese character is built up in its own square with variety of structure and composition.
There are drawing of only three basic forms: the circle, the triangle, and the square.
For each character there is a definite number of strokes and appointed positions for them in relation
to the whole. No stroke may be added or deleted for decorative effect.