Chinese painting, one of the major art forms produced in China over the centuries.
The other arts of China are treated in separate articles. These include Chinese calligraphy, which in China is closely associated with painting; interior design; tapestry; floral decoration; Chinese pottery; metalwork; enamelwork; and lacquerwork; as well as Chinese jade; silk; and Chinese architecture.
The present political boundaries of China, which include Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and the northeastern provinces formerly called Manchuria, embrace a far larger area of East Asia than will be discussed here. “China proper,” as it has been called, consists of 18 historical provinces bounded by the Plateau of Tibet on the west, the Gobi to the north, and Myanmar (Burma), Laos, and Vietnam to the southwest, and it is primarily painting as it developed in China proper that will be treated here. (See also Central Asian arts; and Southeast Asian arts.)
The first communities that can be identified culturally as Chinese were settled chiefly in the basin of the Huang He (Yellow River). Gradually they spread out, influencing other tribal cultures, until, by the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce), most of China proper was dominated by the culture that had been formed in the cradle of northern Chinese civilization. Over this area there slowly spread a common written language, a common belief in the power of heaven and the ancestral spirits to influence the living, and a common emphasis on the importance of ceremony and sacrifice to achieve harmony among heaven, nature, and humankind. These beliefs were to have a great influence on the character of Chinese painting, and indeed all the arts of China.
Chinese civilization is by no means the oldest in the world: those of Mesopotamia and Egypt are far older. But, while the early Western cultures died, became stagnant, or were transformed to the point of breaking all continuity, that of China has grown continuously from prehistoric settlements into the great civilization of today.
The Chinese themselves were among the most historically conscious of all the major civilizations and were intensely aware of the strength and continuity of their cultural tradition. They viewed history as a cycle of decline and renewal associated with the succession of ruling dynasties. Both the political fragmentation and social and economic chaos of decline and the vigour of dynastic rejuvenation could stimulate and colour important artistic developments. Thus, it is quite legitimate to think of the history of Chinese painting primarily in terms of the styles of successive dynasties, as the Chinese themselves do.
General characteristics
Aesthetic characteristics and artistic traditions
Art as a reflection of Chinese class structure
One of the outstanding characteristics of Chinese art is the extent to which it reflects the class structure that has existed at different times in Chinese history. Up to the Warring States period (475–221 bce), the arts were produced by anonymous craftsmen for the royal and feudal courts. During the Warring States period and the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce), the growth of a landowning and merchant class brought new patrons. After the Han there began to emerge the concept of “fine art” as the product of the leisure of the educated gentry, many of whom were amateur practitioners of the arts of poetry, music, calligraphy, and, eventually, painting. At this time a distinction began to arise between the lower-class professional and the elite amateur artist; this distinction would have a great influence on the character of Chinese art in later times. Gradually one tradition became identified with the artists and craftsmen who worked for the court or sold their work for profit. The scholarly amateurs looked upon such people with some contempt, and the art of the literati became a separate tradition that was increasingly refined and rarefied to the point that, from the Song dynasty (960–1279) onward, an assumed awkwardness in technique was admired as a mark of the amateur and gentleman. One effect of the revolutions of the 20th century was the breaking down of the class barriers between amateur and professional and even, during the Cultural Revolution of 1966–76, an emphasis on anonymous, proletarian-made art like that of the Tang dynasty (618–907) and earlier.