Figure paintings, landscapes and flower-and-bird paintings

By Zhao Mengfu, Yuan Dynasty

Ample evidences can be found in fine-art archeology that paintings with people as the subject turned out to be the earliest one among all the categories of Chinese paintings and used to enjoy prosperous development. Dating back to the primitive age, ancestors drew pictures of human beings and animals on walls and rocks with white stalks, red bauxite, or charcoal.

However, figure paintings didn't get fully developed until 1,500 years ago, when Gu Dangzhi (348-409), the famous painter and art theorist, asserted that more attention should be paid not only to the external shapes of figures, but also the internal quality. Hereafter, this argument was accepted by artists and critics and taken as an established rule guiding the future production and comments of similar works.

As the most important and most influential category among Chinese paintings, the landscape paintings, which came into being much later and developed quickly in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), usually take images of natural scenery, such as mountains or rivers, as the subjects. Over the long history of paintings in ancient China, the largest portion of painters specialized in landscapes.

Landscape painting could reach its heyday and maintain its dominant role in Chinese paintings because of its deep root in Chinese traditional culture. Chinese philosophers in ancient times believed in the "unity of human beings and heaven," which means that human beings can feel nature and therefore should be in a harmonious relationship with it.   

All rights reserved. Reproduction of text for non-commercial purposes is permitted provided that both the source and author are acknowledged and a notifying email is sent to us.