Chinese Art

The origins of traditional Chinese painting reach far back into China's distant history. Generally speaking, works dating from before the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) are mainly line drawings of people engaged in various activities. This was the "golden age" of human figure drawing. By the mid Tang Dynasty, landscape and flower-and-bird paintings began their rise to prominence. Paintings of mountains, forests, fields and gardens have the ability to transport one away from the vexations of the material world into a peaceful, carefree realm. Because of this, landscape paintings have always been highly regarded by China's literati and officialdom. The flowers, grass, trees, stones, birds and other animals depicted in the lively and energetic flower-and-bird paintings are also widely admired. Thus, the landscape and flower-and-bird types of painting, together with the earlier human figure painting, comprise the three main categories of traditional Chinese painting.

The ruling and elite classes of the Tang and Song (960-1279 AD) Dynasties were major supporters of Chinese painting. The creative aim behind artistic works produced in this period was more serious and had political and educational significance. In style, the works tended to be elaborate and ornate. The Song Dynasty court established a fairly well systematized academy of painting. Song Emperor Hui Zong, a lover of fine art and painting and an accomplished artist in his own right, granted special patronage to the painters in this academy and sponsored the training of promising painters. The academy of painting reached the zenith of its activity in this period.

However, due to gradual social, economic, and cultural changes, more and more men of letters began to take up painting and literature came to exercise an ever-increasing influence on painting. By the time of the famous Song poet Su Shi (1036-1101 AD), better known as Su Dongpo), the school of "literati painting" had already emerged. By the Mongol Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368 AD), there was no longer a formal painting academy organization within the imperial palace so the court style of painting declined. At this point, the "literati" school of painting entered the mainstream and the leadership in Chinese paintingcircles fell into the hands of literati painters.

Whether Chinese painting is "realistic" is the object of frequent debate. Some may feel that it is not realistic but such an answer tells only part of the story. Realism in Chinese painting reached its climax in the painting of the Tang and Song Dynasties. However, the kind of "realism" sought in Chinese painting is not an objective reflection of the existence of an object as perceived through the sense of sight, but rather is an expression of a subjective kind of recognition or insight.

For example, no overt effort is made to represent the shadows cast by a particular type of lighting at a certain place and time in the clothing on people depicted in the Song Dynasty painting Che Kan Tu and for this reason, the painting does not have a clear three-dimensional effect. After the painter set the lines down on paper, he used watercolor wash techniques to achieve a chiaroscuro effect of light and dark, representing the forces of "yin" and "yang" to express his grasp of the eternal quintessential nature of his subject. A square planter painted according to the objective principles of perspective should in theory appear longer in front and be foreshortened in back, reflecting the perceived decrease in relative size of more distant objects. But the front and back edges of a real planter are equal in length and this knowledge of the physical world is incorporated into the image the painter of the Che K'an T'u created. The planter is represented as a flat surface with sides that are equal in length.

The fundamental component of Chinese painting is the line, as it is in Chinese calligraphy. Because of this shared feature, these two arts have had, beginning from a very early time, a close mutual relationship. By the time that "literati" painting had become popular in the Yuan Dynasty, men of letters who painted put even more conscious effort into reaffirming the link to Chinese calligraphy and actively led a trend to fuse calligraphy and painting.

The close relationship between poetry and painting was formed under the strong influence of literature on painting. Scholar-statesmen and literati led the melding of poetry and painting and this eventually spread to the academy of painting. The Song Emperor Hui Zong is known to have used poetry to test painters on their ability to express with ink and paper the enchanted world created in written verse.

Beginning in the Song Dynasty, a small number of artists began to write the names of the giver and recipient of the painting or to stamp their name chop, in an inconspicuous corner of the work. When "literati" painting was in vogue in the Yuan dynasty, men of letters began adding personal notes on the painting or related lines of poetry to display their prose and calligraphic skill. This writing was now given a more prominent place on the work. At this point there was a new union of signature, names of giver and receiver and notes on the painting or related verse with the painting itself. The stamping of name chops also became established at this time. The addition of name chop impressions, in itself an art, further enriched the artistic content of Chinese painting.

Calligraphy

Chinese calligraphy is like a rare, exotic flower in the history of civilization and is a unique gem of Oriental culture. Graphically, it is comparable to painting in its ability to evoke emotion through a rich variety of form and design. As abstract art, it displays the rhythmic and harmonious flow of music. And from a practical point of view, it is written language.

With the "four treasures of the study" (wen fang si bao), namely brush pens, ink sticks, paper, and ink slabs as tools and through the medium of lines, China's calligraphers, have over the centuries, developed uncounted different calligraphic styles.

This plethora of diverse styles can however, be grouped into five basic categories : Chuan Shu, Seal Script; Li Shu, Official Script; Kai Shu, Regular Script; Xing Shu, Running Script and Cao Shu which literally means "Grass" Script but is usually referred to as Cursive Script.

Chinese calligraphy is not only a practical tool of everyday living; it comprises, along with traditional Chinese painting, the mainstream of China's art history. All kinds of people, from emperors to peasants, have avidly collected works of fine calligraphy. Calligraphic works are not only for making into scrolls or framing and hanging in a room or study; they are to be found everywhere you look--on shop and government office building signs, on monuments and in stone inscriptions. All of these examples of Chinese calligraphy have supreme artistic value. Today, as in the past, calligraphers are often literati as well as artists. Their calligraphic works may include renderings of their own poems, lyrics, couplets or letters or those of famous masters.

Over the millennia, the benefits of personality tempering and intellectual expression afforded by the art of Chinese calligraphy have not been restricted to China's borders alone. The neighboring countries of Japan and Korea and several nations of Southeast Asia have all made Chinese calligraphy part of their own respective cultures and developed their own schools and styles. Since World War II, Westerners have also been influenced by Chinese calligraphy. Representative of the significant position occupied by Chinese calligraphy in international art was a "Cobra" painting exhibition held in Scandinavia in 1948. The works displayed at this exhibition were by a painter who drew inspiration from Chinese calligraphy as practiced in Japan.

Ingenious Chinese Knots

Chinese knots are a distinctive and traditional Chinese folk handicraft. Their main characteristic is that each knot it woven from one piece of thread and named according to its shape. Good wishes and praise may be expressed through combinations of knots that culminate in auspiciously designed ornaments, often Impressively elaborate, that have rich connotations, such as the Auspicious knot, the Happiness and Longevity knot, the Double Happiness knot, and the Bon Voyage Knot.

In ancient China, knots were commonly used to adorn daily life utensils, such as sedan chairs, curtains, lanterns, bed-curtain hooks, folding fans, belts, hairpins, flower baskets, necklace pendants, sachets, pouches, spectacles boxes, and long-stemmed pipes.

Chinese knots combine classical beauty, a strong folk flavor, and cultural connotations, and express earnest hopes, as well as good wishes.