CHINESE PAINTING
Chinese painting originated over 5,000 years ago. Steeped in Chinese history, literature and philosophy, Chinese painting is different from that of the West in its motifs, form and technique.
One basic distinctive feature of Chinese painting is that ideas and motifs are mainly presented in inked lines and dots, rather than color, proportion and perspective.
Chinese paintings are created using brush pens made of a penholder and a pen head. The penholder is usually made of bamboo or wood, while the pen head is made of animal hair – typically wolf or sheep. The brush heads are soft and flexible, and match well with the style of Chinese paintings. Generally, only black ink is used in Chinese paintings and delicate silk and paper are used as the “canvas” in Chinese paintings.
Chinese paintings fall into three main categories: characters, landscapes and flowers and birds. Of the three traditions, character painting is the oldest, dominating the scene until the end of the Tang dynasty. Landscape paintings were generally of mountains and water, which comes from the Taoist tradition of seeking solitude within nature. Landscape became a favorite subject of artists and would become a dominant subject by the 11th century. Even today, when Chinese say a place is the ideal of natural beauty, they’ll say the place has “mountains and water.” During the 9th century, a separate genre of flower and bird paintings evolved with included detailed paintings of birds, fruits, insects and flowers. Some of these works are incredibly detailed and lively.
Ancient Chinese painters used paintings as an expression of their sentiments rather than merely reproducing the world on paper. From the 10th century onwards, many painters were also multi-talented poets and calligraphers, who etched poems or descriptive words onto their work. It would be natural that many of the great painters also excelled at calligraphy as it shared many of the brushstroke techniques with Chinese painting. Chinese calligraphy in itself is considered an art that requires years to master.
Chinese paintings are usually presented in scrolls and do not abide by-called “Golden Law” – the Western notion of the Law of Proportionality. This law states that two unequal parts of a whole must be in relationship to each other to create a balanced image to the eye. Instead of the “focus perspective” used in Western paintings, Chinese paintings use “spread-point perspective,” which offers a delicate sense of proportion. A good example of this can be found in the famous “the Riverside Scene in Pure Brightness” (qīngmíng shànghé tú 清明上河图) which measures 24.8cm by 528.7cm. This large scroll painting portrays various aspects of Kaifeng during the Song dynasty. Minutely detailed, the characters and scenes are proportional from any angle.
Another feature of Chinese paintings is that blank spaces are commonly used. The unmarked space is used to evoke the sky. Sometimes they represent water or fog and at other times the blank space is simply nothing – just a sensation of emptiness.
In 1714, an Italian painter Giuseppe Castiglione (Láng Shìníng 郎世宁) introduced the Western painting methods to China. He taught the artists in the imperial court Western styles and methods, and in turn studied Chinese art. This marked the first fusion of Chinese and Western paintings.
CHINESE SCULPTURE
In ancient China, sculptors were a lowly class who were very rarely mentioned in history books. Chinese sculptures were mainly associated with religion and were commonly found in temples and mausoleums.
Undoubtedly the most famous Chinese sculptures are the Qin dynasty Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an. A total of 8,000 terracotta warriors and horses were unearthed in the 2,200-year-old mausoleum of Qin Shihuang – the first Emperor of a united China. These terracotta figures of soldiers and horses are set to life-size dimensions. Standing tall, lifelike and mobilized for action, these warriors continue to faithfully guard their monarch, as they have done for over two millennia.
Chinese Buddha sculptures, reflecting Indian and Tibetan influences, initially looked imperious, mysterious and aloof. Gradually, the form evolved to reflect a more nativist Chinese style. Early examples from the 5th to 6th centuries are lean and elegant, and from the 7th to 8th centuries took a form that was plump, round and soft.
Compared with the West, there’s a greater emphasis on clothing for Chinese character sculptures. Well-preserved samples of Buddhist-inspired sculptures remain in many temples, especially in the cave carvings of Yungang, Dunhuang, Longmen and Dazu.
TRADITIONAL CHINESE MUSIC
Chinese music goes as far back as Chinese civilization and is highly distinctive from their western counterparts.
Chinese musical instruments can be divided into four basic categories based on the method by which they are played. The first category comprises of stringed instruments such as the huqin (hú qín 胡琴). These are made of wood with a piece of snakeskin stretched over the sound box. They have two strings and the bow is permanently lodged between the strings. The second category is plucked instruments, of which there are three types: dulcimers, lutes and harps. The harp is made of either wood or bamboo with steel strings. In the past, the strings were made of silk. The third category is the woodwind section. These are flutes, pipes and Chinese trumpets, which use double reeds like the oboe but sound like a trumpet. The final category is the percussion section. The main instruments include drums, timpani, gongs and cymbals. For certain melodies, bells, xylophones, tuned gongs and the triangle are used. In traditional Chinese opera, the percussion section is called wuchang (wǔchǎng 武场), or the martial scene.
TRADITIONAL CHINESE OPERA
Chinese opera has a history dating some 2,000 years. There are 317 types of opera, of which Peking opera is the most important and well-known.
The practitioner of Peking opera is a master athlete – he must be in top physical shape to accommodate the rigors of this performance art. Most performers begin their training from childhood. A well-known example is kung fu star Jacky Chan, who started training in Peking opera as a child.
Performers wear extensive makeup; their whole faces are painted in bright colors. Colorful masks, inspired from ancient ceremonies and religious symbols, are done by the actors. The color of each character’s face is significant as it represents the character’s personality and fate. Understanding the colors will greatly enhance your enjoyment of the opera as it is an intricate part of the story. Red faces represent righteousness; black denotes gallantry and heroism; blue and green signify brawn (not necessarily with brains!) or those held in high regard by commoners; yellow and white are negative colors, often meaning cunning or a tendency to be suspicious; gold denotes deities and silver is reserved for demons or bad spirits. The make-up style indicates if a character is good or evil.
CHINESE POTTERY & PORCELAIN
Pottery and porcelain have over 8,000 years of development in China. Both colored and black pottery were common in ancient times. Terracotta was at its best in the Qing dynasty, and tri-coloured pottery (táng sāncǎi 唐三彩) reached its zenith at the time of the Tang dynasty. During this period, the glazed porcelains came alive with yellow, green, blue, brown, black and white colours.
Chinese porcelain began flourishing some 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty and is one of China’s greatest cultural treasures. During the Han dynasty, black and celadon porcelain were mainly produced. Celadon, a type of glaze that resembles the color of jade, saw continued development throughout the dynasties. By the Tang dynasty, celadon porcelain had developed to a high technical standard.
The porcelain wares of the Song dynasty are considered classics. By the Song era, artisans had reached a high level of sophistication in design, firing and glazing. As a result, pieces from this time strike a perfect balance of shape, glaze and artistry.
The capital of porcelain is undoubtedly Jingdezhen, which is located in Jiangxi Province. With over 1,700 years of porcelain production, it continues its seminal role in Chinese porcelain arts and industry.
BRONZE VESSELS
About 5,000 years ago the Chinese began casting bronzeware. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, aristocrats used bronze vessels for ancestral rituals and for the more mundane tasks of daily life. Ancestral worship was a central belief of this era and bronze vessels played an important role in the ritual offerings. As befitting their important role in society of the time, they were kept in places of honor, such as in ancestral halls and were used during banquets and celebrations.
Common bronze vessels were used for utilitarian purposes such as cooking or to heat millet wine, but large ornate vessels would become symbols of power and status. A ding (dǐng 鼎), which is a cauldron with three or four legs, was originally used both for cooking and ceremony – but came to symbolize power. Dings also had their surfaces etched with details of important political events and memorials to the deceased. These items of intricate and beautiful detail are now important historic markers detailing political alliances and tributes and the lives of those who lived thousands of years ago. Eventually dings came to symbol power and prestige as they required considerable wealth to commission.
Bronze work in China developed much faster than in other parts of the world because of extensive use. Technically, Chinese bronzes were unmatched during this period. Early bronzes vessels such as jue (jué 角) and zhi (zhì 觯) wine goblets, zun (zūn 樽) wine beakers and hu (hú 斛) wine goblet beakers were highly sophisticated.
In 1976, archaeologists uncovered a Shang tomb in Anyang in north Henan Province, the former capital of the Shang dynasty. The tomb was the burial chamber of Fuhao, who was Emperor Wuding’s consort as well as a top general. The tomb, located at the Yin Palace Ruins Ancestral Worship Temple, remains the only Shang imperial tomb found intact and revealed a rich find of artifacts. Many bronze vessels were found within; some were probably used by Fuhao, while others were funerary objects.
Several famous Shang bronze vessels currently displayed around the world belong to the legacy of Fuhao’s tomb. Most Shang ritual vessels take the form of animals and are decorated with highly stylized animal designs and motifs. One example is the ancient Chinese totem known as the taotie (tāotiè 饕餮) monster mask – a mythical beast with piercing eyes that is used to express fierceness and strength. This mythical beast is commonly seen in Shang bronzes, as it played a central role in Shang spiritual beliefs. Offerings put into this animal- shaped vessel was symbolically consumed by the taotie and transported to the spirit realm. Later, this motif became an artistic motif in itself, signifying the mysticism and artistry of China’s Bronze Age.