What is traditional Chinese painting, and what are the classifications of Chinese painting?

Chinese Painting:

Also known as “Guohua” in Chinese, Chinese painting is a distinctive art form within the field of world art. It is created using brushes, ink, and Chinese painting pigments on specially-made Xuan paper or silk. Chinese painting can be categorized into various subjects, including figure painting, landscape painting, flower-and-bird painting, and animal painting. In terms of technique, it can be further divided into meticulous painting (gongbi) and freehand brushwork painting (xieyi), each with its own characteristics and styles.

Figure painting gradually matured from the late Zhou Dynasty to the Han, Wei, and Six Dynasties. Landscape painting, flower-and-bird painting, and other genres emerged as independent painting subjects around the Sui and Tang Dynasties. During the Five Dynasties, Northern Song, Southern Song periods, various schools of painting flourished, reaching a highly developed stage. Ink wash painting became popular during the Yuan Dynasty. In the Ming, Qing, and modern times, the overall style largely followed the previous conventions. Throughout different periods, there have been many innovative and creative painters.

In the field of world art, Chinese painting possesses a distinct national form and unique style. It actively utilizes lines and ink to depict form and texture, demonstrating a high degree of expressiveness. It is often combined with poetry, inscriptions, calligraphy, and seal carving, achieving a vivid and harmonious effect of “form and spirit in perfect unity.” Additionally, Chinese painting has its own unique mounting style, which serves to enhance the presentation of the artwork.

The following are roughly divided into 20 kinds of Chinese painting

Literati painting:

The term you are referring to is “Literati Painting,” also known as “Scholar-Painters’ Art.” It uses a scholarly style as a standard for evaluating paintings, emphasizing poetic and literary qualities. The subjects of these paintings often include landscapes, ancient trees, bamboo, rocks, flowers, and birds. The predominant techniques used are ink wash or light color with an emphasis on expressive brushwork. Representative figures of this style include Wang Wei from the Tang Dynasty, Ni Yunlin from the Yuan Dynasty, Dong Qichang from the Ming Dynasty, the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou and Shitao from the Qing Dynasty, and Wu Changshuo. They sought to integrate poetry into their paintings and vice versa. After completing a painting, they often inscribed poems within the artwork or created paintings inspired by poems, using the medium of painting to express poetic sentiments. This style is commonly referred to as “poetic sentiment in painting” or “the fusion of poetry and painting.”

Religious paintings:

Religious-themed paintings that draw inspiration from religious doctrines, stories, and legends, and serve religious propaganda purposes include portraits of immortals in Taoism and depictions of the life stories of Buddha in Buddhism. The tradition of depicting Taoist themes in Chinese painting can be traced back to the Wei and Jin dynasties, with specialized paintings depicting scenes from legends and the appearance of immortals. Buddhist painting flourished in ancient India and later spread to China along with the dissemination of Buddhism. Over time, it gradually took on distinct Chinese characteristics as Chinese artists incorporated it into the traditional Chinese painting style.

Courtyard painting:

In ancient China, during the Tang Dynasty, institutions such as Xu Zhao and Gong Feng were established. During the Five Dynasties period, painting academies were established in Western Shu and Southern Tang. In the Song Dynasty, the Hanlin Painting Academy was established to select outstanding painters to serve the imperial court. The landscapes, flowers and birds, and figures painted in the academies throughout the dynasties were mostly required to be executed with meticulous brushwork, exquisite details, grandeur, rigorous composition, vibrant colors, and some had strong decorative elements. This style of painting is known as “yuan ti hua” or “court-style painting.”

Folk painting:

In Chinese painting, there is a category of works created by street artists who make a living through painting and cater to popular customs. These artists are different from professional painters and literati painters, as their works tend to be vibrant, sweet, and delicate. Unlike professional painters and literati painters who emphasize poetic and cultural connotations in their works, street artists create paintings that are more appealing to the general public. These folk paintings, also known as artisan paintings, lack strict technical training compared to court-style painting and lack literary and theoretical cultivation compared to literati painting. However, they possess the virtues of simplicity and passion that are unique to them, and sometimes they are incorporated and absorbed by literati painting and court-style painting.

Animal Painting.：

Animal painting is a form of art in Chinese painting that uses animal imagery as its artistic language to express human hopes, fantasies, and various emotions. It covers a wide range of subjects, with any animal being suitable for depiction, but the main focus is on commonly seen domestic animals, livestock, and animals found in zoos. Animal paintings do not require strict realism; they allow for exaggeration and distortion, but they should possess individuality and evoke resonance and associations with the beauty of life in the viewers.

Sector painting:

In the category of Chinese painting, calligraphers and painters of all dynasties like to paint or write on the fan surface to express lyricism, or collect for others or send poems to friends. Fans that store words and paintings are called fans if they remain the same, and they are mounted into the customary fan of album pages for easy collection. In terms of shape and system, there are round fans and folding fans

Light crimson landscape painting:

A colorless technique in Chinese landscape painting. That is, where the landscape painting is mainly rendered with light red and blue colors, it is collectively referred to as light crimson landscape. The method is to first outline the outline structure with the ink line of thick and light, dry and temperature changes, and then apply light ochre, (or less sand loss) to stain the structure of mountains and trees. Finish with light cyanine color rendering.

Green landscape painting (with golden landscape) :

It is mainly used in Chinese painting with heavy mineral pigments such as stone blue and stone green pigments, and it is named for the verdant appearance of mountains and trees. There are also gold stone on the outline of the green mountain stone, such landscape painting is also known as Jinbi landscape. The green landscape was originally created by Li Sixun of the Tang Dynasty, and the painting “A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains” by Wang Ximeng of the Northern Song Dynasty is also one of the representatives of the green landscape.

Painting without bones:

A traditional Chinese painting of flowers (flowers and birds). The leaves are painted directly with color or ink, without the “pen bones” – that is, the outline of the ink line. According to the Song Dynasty Guo Ruoxu “picture Experience” records, this painting method began in the five dynasties Xu Xi, Xu Chongsi grandsons. In fact, the beginning of Huang Quan, Xu Chongsi is only “the suburbs of the yellow grid”, “Xuanhe painting” description of Huang Quan “no bone flower branches” a piece; “Dongtian Qinglu Collection” says that Huangquan “really looks like a powder pile, but does not make a circle line”, (note: in ancient China powder is color), which is “no bone painting method.”

Meticulous painting:

One of the traditional painting methods of Chinese painting. The painting method is more neat and rigorous, to depict the accurate image of the painted object as the criterion. Relative to “freehand brushwork”. In terms of the general principle of describing the object being painted. In general, Gongbi painting uses neat and meticulous pen, layers of color rendering, details are just subtle to use very delicate brush strokes to describe the image, so it is called “Gongbi”.

Theme painting:

In Chinese painting, the painter shows a certain view or feeling of status, society and life to the viewer through certain plot characters, scenes and themes. Or some historical story events such as the image and scene image characterization and reproduction. Having a certain degree of reproducibility, authenticity, or disclosure. Generally, the meaning of each painting is more clear. Time, events, etc. are more clear.

Freehand painting:

One of the traditional painting methods of Chinese painting, compared with “Gongbi painting”, describes the form and spirit of the object with bold, concise and flowing brush and ink, and expresses the feelings of the author. Freehand brushwork in the expression of the object is the use of general, exaggerated techniques, rich association, the brushwork is simple but the artistic conception is profound, has a certain expression. It should have the ability to highly summarize, to have the implicit artistic conception of less than more, to write accurately, to handle the pen skillfully, to be able to handle the pen with the meaning.

Boundary Painting:

Chinese painting is a distinctive category. Use boundary rule lead when painting, hence the name: boundary painting. Originated very early, Jin Dynasty already. Gu Kaizhi has “terrace a foot organ ear, difficult into easy good, do not want to move wonderful also” words. By the Sui Dynasty, the boundary paintings were already quite well drawn. In the book of Paintings in the past Dynasties, the commentary on Exhibition Zhiqian’s boundary paintings said: “Touch the object of mercy, prepare all wonderful, especially hang sheng pavilion”; Commenting on Tung Boren’s boundary paintings, he praised him as “a person who lived in the building, leaving out the ancient and modern”. Li Sixun’s “90% Palace Fan-fan Picture”, “Palace Garden Picture”, etc., is also very high achievement, to the late Tang Dynasty out of Yin Jizhao, the five dynasties have Wei Xian Zhao Deyi, Zhao Zhongyi and others, the early Song Dynasty has Guo Zhongshu, the Yuan Dynasty has Wang Zhenpeng, Li Rongjin, Ming Dynasty has Qiu Ying, Qing Dynasty has Yuan Jiang, Yuan Yao and so on. The existing “Tower Tower Map” on the west wall of Tang Yide Prince Li Zhongrun’s tomb road is the earliest large-scale boundary painting in China. The famous boundary paintings in Song Dynasty include “Yellow Crane Tower” and “Tengwang Pavilion Map”.

Point Drawing:

A special painting method in traditional Chinese painting. That is, using the painter’s finger instead of the brush in the traditional tool to dip the ink painting, there is a special interest and skill. So it’s called finger painting. In history, the Qing Dynasty was very close to Pan Tiantao, and Hong Shiqing’s finger-painting works had a great influence.

Landscape painting:

It is a special kind of Chinese painting. In the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, it gradually separated from the figure painting and formed an independent painting material, which was fully mature in the Tang Dynasty. Landscape painting is the essence of love nature, the beauty of heaven and earth, so Yin and Yang, dark, sunny rain, cold and summer, dusk, day and night have endless fun. From the Six dynasties to Tangshan water painters although many, but their brushwork, the position is very primitive. To Li Sixun, Wang Wei, Zhang, etc., they have perfected the painting theory, painting method, composition (composition), and gradually formed the face of Chinese landscape painting. Five generations of Jinghao, Guantong more new innovation, first-class old habits. A new situation has arisen. In the Song Dynasty, Fan Kuan, Li Cheng three families established, unprecedented. Landscape painting has reached an almost perfect state.

Flower and Bird Painting (flower painting) :

It is a special kind of painting in the Chinese painting category. To depict flowers, bamboo stones, birds and insects as the main body of the painting. In China four to five thousand years ago, there were simple patterns of birds and fish on the pottery, which can be regarded as the earliest flower and bird painting in China. According to Zhang Yanyuan’s Famous Paintings of the Past Dynasties, flower-and-bird paintings painted on silk in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty have gradually formed independent painting materials. By the Tang Dynasty, it had become mature, and there appeared the beautiful border Luan with fine brush and the colorful Yin Zhongrong with ink instead of color. In the five dynasties, there were two kinds of development, namely “Xu and Huang two bodies”. One is Xu Xi, the other Huang Jian. Ming Shen Qinan, Sun Xueju and so on. Dabbling in the pen and dyeing, also chasing Xu Xi. Xu Qingteng’s flowers, beyond the Qi, through the Qing Shi Tao to “Yangzhou eight strange” flowers, more perfect the formation of poetry, book, painting three wonders.

Sketch:

Chinese painters are more free lyrical works, random works, often in the artistic level to reach a higher realm. The reason is probably because there is not too much constraint in the mind, and it is definitely caused by random play.

Ink painting:

In Chinese painting, ink is one of the unique materials of Chinese painting, and how much water is used as the main raw material, which is cited as thick ink, light ink, dry ink, wet ink, coke ink, etc., to draw different shades (black, white, gray) levels. Do not have a charm, called “ink rhyme”. And formed a kind of painting form based on ink painting.

Color ink Painting:

In Chinese painting, based on the “ink painting”, the color is applied and the color is added to make the picture richer, brighter and brighter than the ink painting.