Classifcation of Chinese Paintings


Classification of Chinese Paintings 　 Landscape Painting “Landscape” for short, paintings that mainly depict natural sceneries such as mountains and waters. Landscape Painting was gradually developed during the Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties, but was an auxiliary to Figure Painting, mostly as background; became an independent genre in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, such as the colored Landscape by Zhan Ziqian, the gold-and-green Landscape by Li Sixun, the ink-and-wash Landscape by Wang Wei, and the slashed-ink Landscape by Wang Qia, etc.; flourished in the Five Dynasties and Song Dynasty, when so many painters mushroomed: the ink-and-wash Landscape school had Jing Hao, Guan Tong, Li Cheng, Dong
Yuan, Ju Ran, Fan Kuan, Xu Daoning, Yan Wengui, Song Di, Wang Shen, Mi Fu, and Mi Youren, and the blue-and-green Landscape school had Wang Ximeng, Zhao boju, and Zhao Bosu, south and north vied each other for refulgence, thereby reached its peak and became an important genre of Chinese Paintings ever since; came to the Yuan Dynasty, the trend went to freehand style, let abstraction guide representation, emphasized on the verve of ink and brush, inaugurated a new style; further developed and innovated in the Ming and Qing Dynasties and modern times, the landscape painting in the time was particular about composition and expression of mood. The traditional classification includes forms such as ink-and-wash, blue-and-green, gold-and-green, boneless, pale-crimson, and light-color, etc.
Figure Painting An appellative for paintings that illustrate human figures, “Figure” in short, is a major genre in the Chinese Paintings, the appearance of Figure Painting was earlier than Landscape and Flower-and bird; it’s generally divided into Taoist-and-Buddhist Painting, Female Images, Portrait, Genre Painting, and History-story painting, etc. Figure Painting strives for precise and lifelike depiction of the character’s personality, both outlook and spirit. The representative famous Figure Painting works of all times include <Nimph of the Luo River> Scroll by Gu Kaizhi from the
	East Jin Dynasty, <the Literary Arena> by Han Huang from the Tang Dynasty, Gu Hongzhong’s <Han Xizai Gives a Banquet> in the Southern Tang of Five Dynasties, Li Gonglin’s <Portrait of Vimaiakirti> in the Northern Song Dynasty, Li Tang’s <Pick the Osmund> and Liang Kai’s <Li Bai Strolling> in the Southern Song Dynasty, <Row Female> by Qiu Ying from the Ming Dynasty, Luo Pin’s <Ghosts>, Min Zhen’s <Female In Banana Leaf Shade>, and Su Liupeng’s <Drunken Li Bai> from the Qing Dynasty, as well as modern painter Ren Xiong’s <Drinking Cards>. In the contemporary age, Figure Painting stresses more on “learn from the nature”, and assimilates the western techniques, has made progresses in both modeling and coloring.
Flower-and-bird Painting Flower-and-bird Painting mainly depicts animals and plants, can be categorized according to subjects as flower, feather, vegetable and fruit, grass and worm, animal and beast, squama and shell, etc. It is considered the representative of the uniqueness of the Chinese traditional painting in the world, fully expresses the character and state of mind of the Chinese people. Numerous artists of this genre emerged in the past dynasties, such as cranes by Xue Ji, peacocks by Bian Luan, and flowers and bamboos by Diao Guangding in the Tang Dynasty; eagles by Guo Qianhui, flowers and birds by Huang Quan and Xu Xi in the Five Dynasties; flowers by Zhao Chang, sparrows by Cui Bai, and flowers and birds by Wu Yuanyu in the Northern Song Dynasty; broken branches by Wu Bing, fruits by Lin Chun, and
poultries by Li Di in the Southern Song Dynasty; bamboos by Li Kan, mandarin ducks by Zhang Shouzhong, and plums by Wang Mian of the Yuan Dynasty; poultries by Lin Liang, ink flowers by Chen chun and Xu Wei of the Ming Dynasty; fishes by Zhu Da, lotuses by Yun Shouping, and birds by hua Yan of the Qing Dynasty, as well as flowers by Wu Changshuo and worms and fishes by Qi Baishi of the modern times, were all masters of their times, emerged in an endless stream.