Chinese painting

The three traditions

Classical Chinese painting (国画, guó huà) divides into three major subject genres:

• Landscape painting (山水画, shān shuǐ huà) — 'mountain-water painting'. The most prestigious genre. Focused on mood, atmosphere, the relationship between humans and nature, often featuring small figures or pavilions in vast natural settings.
• Bird-and-flower painting (花鸟画, huā niǎo huà) — botanical and zoological subjects. Spans technical realism and expressive abstraction.
• Figure painting (人物画, rén wù huà) — portraiture, narrative scenes, court life, religious subjects.

Materials and technique

Same four treasures as calligraphy (brush, ink, ink stone, paper). Pigments are applied alongside ink; mineral pigments (cinnabar, malachite, azurite) for deeper colour, plant pigments for transparency. Two main technical approaches:

• Gongbi (工笔) — meticulous fine-line painting with detailed colouring.
• Xieyi (写意) — 'sketching ideas'; rapid, expressive, more brushwork-driven.

Major historical periods

• Tang dynasty (618–907) — court painters; figure painting peaks. Yan Liben, Wu Daozi.
• Song dynasty (960–1279) — landscape painting golden age. Fan Kuan's Travelers among Mountains and Streams, Guo Xi's Early Spring. Northern Song landscapes are famously monumental.
• Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) — Mongol rule; many Han literati retreated from official service and painted as amateurs. Huang Gongwang, Ni Zan.
• Ming dynasty (1368–1644) — Wu School and Zhe School. Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, Tang Yin.
• Qing dynasty (1644–1912) — the Four Wangs continued classical orthodoxy; the Individualists (Bada Shanren, Shitao) departed.
• 20th century — Qi Baishi, Xu Beihong, Zhang Daqian, Wu Guanzhong combined traditional Chinese technique with Western influences.

Where to see masterworks

• Palace Museum (Beijing) — comprehensive holdings; rotating exhibitions of classical painting.
• Shanghai Museum — strong painting gallery, particularly Song and Yuan.
• Liaoning Provincial Museum — major.
• National Palace Museum (Taipei) — holds the largest collection by far.
• Hong Kong Museum of Art — strong modern Chinese painting collection.

The most-celebrated single painting is Zhang Zeduan's Along the River During the Qingming Festival (清明上河图, ~1100 CE), a 5.3m handscroll depicting Northern Song urban life in Kaifeng. The original is at the Palace Museum in Beijing; high-quality reproductions widely available.

Modern Chinese painting

The 20th century produced both: - **Continuation of classical tradition** in ink-and-wash painting. - **Western-influenced oil painting** — Xu Beihong's hybrid synthesis being the famous example. - **Cultural Revolution-era propaganda art** — historically significant, much of it socialist-realist. - **Post-1978 contemporary art** — internationally recognised; centred on Beijing's 798 Art District, Shanghai's M50, Hong Kong's Central galleries.

Where to learn

• University courses at Chinese fine-arts academies (Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, China Academy of Art in Hangzhou).
• Private tutoring — ¥150–¥400 per hour for classical-style lessons in tier-1 cities.
• Online platforms — Bilibili and YouTube (with VPN) have substantial tutorials.

A practical visit

For a one-museum painting introduction: the Palace Museum's Wuying Hall (the dedicated calligraphy and painting gallery) and the Shanghai Museum's painting gallery are the strongest single visits.