Traditional Chinese Painting (Part 1)
 
Traditional Chinese painting, also known as "Chinese painting," reflects China's national consciousness and her aesthetic disposition and inclination. It demonstrates the understandings of China's ancient people about nature, society, and other 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," harmonizing the outer/nature and inner/heart to create artistic conception. It requires that "the composition is already conceived before one starts to paint, and the finished 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. This is known as silk painting. Before then, 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 historical 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 depicting the life of aristocrats and paintings depicting people's characteristics at that time. The emergence of literati painting and its later further development greatly enriched the creative concept of Chinese painting and methods of depiction.
 
The Three Categories of Chinese Painting
 
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 conceptualization and thought through art. The so-called "three categories of painting" 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; and 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 each other and complementing each other.
 
Figure painting is a generic term for paintings with humans as the primary subject. Gu Kaizhi in the Eastern Jin period specialized in figure painting. He was the first 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. Therefore Chinese painting theory calls figure painting as “expression of the soul.” To excel in figure painting, besides succeeding in the traditional techniques, one must also research and understand basic human body forms, proportions, anatomy and the patterns of change in bodily motion. Mastering these together allows accurate depiction and expression of the subject’s form and spirit.

历史悠久的国画 (上)

国画，又称“中国画”，我国传统绘画，国画在内容和艺术创作上，反映了中华民族的民族意识和审美情趣，体现了古人对自然、社会及与之相关联的政治、哲学、宗教、道德、文艺等方面的认识。国画强调“外师造化，中得心源”，融化物我，创制意境，要求“意存笔先，画尽意在”，达到以形写神，形神兼备，气韵生动。
 
中国画历史悠久，远在2000多年前的战国时期就出现了画在丝织品上的绘画──帛画，这之前又有原始岩画和彩陶画。这些早期绘画奠定了后世中国画以线为主要造型手段的基础。两汉和魏晋南北朝时期，社会由稳定统一到分裂的急剧变化，域外文化的输入与本土文化所产生的撞击及融合，使这时的绘画形成以宗教绘画为主的局面，描绘本土历史人物、取材文学作品亦占一定比例，山水画、花鸟画亦在此时萌发。
 
隋唐时期社会经济、文化高度繁荣，绘画也随之呈现出全面繁荣的局面。山水画、花鸟画已发展成熟，宗教画达到了顶峰，人物画以表现贵族生活为主，并出现了具有时代特征的人物造型。而文人画的出现及其在后世的发展，极大地丰富了中国画的创作观念和表现方法。
 
画分三科
 
中国画有“画分三科”的说法，人物、山水、花鸟，表面上是以题材分类，其实是用艺术表现一种观念和思想。所谓“画分三科”，即概括了宇宙和人生的三个方面：人物画所表现的是人类社会，人与人的关系；山水画所表现的是人与自然的关系，将人与自然融为一体；花鸟画则是表现大自然的各种生命，与人和谐相处。三者之合构成了自然万物的整体，相得益彰。
 
人物画是以人物形像为主体的绘画之通称。东晋时的顾恺之专尚画人物画，在我国绘画史上第一个明确提出“以形写神”的主张。人物画力求人物个性刻画得逼真传神，气韵生动、形神兼备。其传神之法，常把对人物性格的表现，寓于环境、气氛、身段和动态的渲染之中。故中国画论上又称人物画为“传神”。历代著名人物画有东晋顾恺之的《洛神赋图》卷，唐代韩滉的《文苑图》，五代南唐顾闳中的《韩熙载夜宴图》。要画好人物画，除了继承传统外，还必须了解和研究人体的基本形体、比例、解剖结构，以及人体运动的变化规律，方能准确的塑造和表现人物的形和神。